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- Tits, ass and real estate (1)
- an autobiographical road trip through the other America
- By Eve Gilbert
- Finished on May 22, 2011
  
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Tits, ass and real estate

I bought this for 1p from my Amazon wishlist. I heard about it when I went through Fantagraphics website and basically added all comics written or drawn by women when I realised how I was only reading male authors and wanted a change. This collection is simply one of the most amazing things I've eve ... (continue)

I bought this for 1p from my Amazon wishlist. I heard about it when I went through Fantagraphics website and basically added all comics written or drawn by women when I realised how I was only reading male authors and wanted a change. This collection is simply one of the most amazing things I've ever read. Half way through I posted to facebook about how I've never read better comics about crack whores and it's true. This book is totally beat. Travelling across America, hanging out with junkies, ex-cons, prostitutes, but not in a strange or glamourising way, but rather done in a very real way. It was very underground and very much like pho bang comic book style. I wish Eve would write and draw more as everything here was incredible. Mental health, drug addiction, abusive relationships, were all covered in a very surreal and yet honest way.
The art was great, it was not a realistic style at all. It's hard to explain but it just suited the subject matter so well and perfectly conveyed what was going on and so much of the futility and depression, while still maintaining a degree of humour and irony. This was easily the best graphic novel I've read all year.

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— May 24, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Ich, der Drache 01- Das Ende der Schöpfung (2)
- By Juan Gimenez
- Finished on May 12, 2011
  
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Ich, der Drache 01- Das Ende der Schöpfung

This graphic novel is in German but was origianlly written in French. It was a lovely dark medieval fantasty. Set in a Europe with dragons, but not really magic just magical beasts it focuses on a castle that is being besiged by an army led by a fierce woman warrior. For a book that is mostly about ... (continue)

This graphic novel is in German but was origianlly written in French. It was a lovely dark medieval fantasty. Set in a Europe with dragons, but not really magic just magical beasts it focuses on a castle that is being besiged by an army led by a fierce woman warrior. For a book that is mostly about a battle, there are an awful lot of scenes that are characters talking and plotting, which is a good thing. There are some great strong women characters (some of which that are related to dragons). There is palace intrigue, and a creepy bishop. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, though I'll definitely go for the French as it's much easier for me to read.

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— May 17, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Im Bann der Hexer (2)
- Eine indianische Sage
- By Alexander Berger, Florian Biege
- Finished on May 11, 2011
  
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Im Bann der Hexer

In Germany it seemed that most of the comic books were either translated from English or French but we did manage to find a couple that were originaly German. This one was just gorgeous. The art work had an amazing style that was very striking. (The title page on amazon is here to give you an idea h ... (continue)

In Germany it seemed that most of the comic books were either translated from English or French but we did manage to find a couple that were originaly German. This one was just gorgeous. The art work had an amazing style that was very striking. (The title page on amazon is here to give you an idea http://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Bann-Hexer-Eine-indianische/dp/3770434862/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305563570&sr=1-1) Unlike a lot of graphic novels that have interesting covers and then cartoon-y art this one looked like that the whole way through. The story was a wonderful dark claustrophobic and spooky tale about an Indian Mowhawk tribe that had been cursed. They were not prospering and it turned out that witches were involved. The main character's brother was dying and he did a deal with the witches to save him. There was wonderful magic and people transforming into animals and an ending that was both happy and sad. It was a wondefully self contained story. Of course as it was in German I had to have Bill help me lots with reading it. But if you can read German and like spooky stories I'd definitely recommend this one.

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— May 17, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Beyond Palomar (7)
- A Love and Rockets Book
- By Gilbert Hernandez
- Finished on May 1, 2011
  
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Beyond Palomar

This was definitely my favourite of the Gilbert stories I’ve read so far. I think it was because while there was still quite a large cast of characters focusing in on one story, or individual, made the stories more moving. I enjoyed the Pre-Paloma Luba. I felt sorry for her as a young kid, getting m ... (continue)

This was definitely my favourite of the Gilbert stories I’ve read so far. I think it was because while there was still quite a large cast of characters focusing in on one story, or individual, made the stories more moving. I enjoyed the Pre-Paloma Luba. I felt sorry for her as a young kid, getting married leaving home. I did like how even when married to the gangster for years she maintained her innocence. It was interesting, and despite the violence it felt quite real. The 2nd story though was my favourite. I loved the taking the piss out of Love and Rockets, the band, for stealing the name. I loved the lesbians and the inter-cultural storylines. I liked the way he handled body dysmorphia which resulted in quite possibly the three best panels I’ve ever seen in a graphic novel.
Overall I definitely still prefer Jamie’s work. But I definitely have an appreciation for Gilbert now, he also creates interesting and diverse characters that feel real, even when placed in the strangest circumstances. I think he focuses more on families and kids (which Jamie seemed to do more as he got older – telling the stories of when his characters were kids in the neighbourhood). Probably one of the reasons I liked this graphic novel more than the first two was there was less emphasis on this. Even though a lot of the characters were in the mid to late teens, they still felt like adults. Definitely one I’d recommend.

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— May 3, 2011 | Add your feedback
- La Perdida (15)
- By Jessica Abel
- Finished on Apr 27, 2011
  
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La Perdida

I did enjoy this book to start with, though it felt a little unfair on the beats. A young woman moves to Mexico City to find herself. She quickly gets fed up with the expat community and despite doing all the tourist things herself, wants to experience Mexican culture first hand. It is interesting t ... (continue)

I did enjoy this book to start with, though it felt a little unfair on the beats. A young woman moves to Mexico City to find herself. She quickly gets fed up with the expat community and despite doing all the tourist things herself, wants to experience Mexican culture first hand. It is interesting to see how she repeatedly fails to fit in. How she's so judgemental and how her brother is able to effortlessly move into Mexican culture and is able to find the cool hangouts and fun things to do.
What's really odd about the book though is the move from "exploring cultural identity" to kidnapping and murder. While it was an intense read, claustrophobic and quite gripping in retrospect it seemed quite odd. It really was the "pot is the gateway drug" story that all the anti-drug propaganda war warned us about. It seemed that because she was hanging out with "communists" who smoked pot, it was inevitable that she would get mixed up in the murder and kidnapping, because she had poor choice in friends. Whereas the white people who only hung out with ex-pats were fine. It seemed to be a very odd message. Particularly as it ended up with the main character never able to return to Mexico. It seemed to focus on the negative whithout giving much positive insight into the culture.
The art style was ok, not exactly my thing, the lines were quite heavy. I must admit while I did find this quite interesting I am not that keen on getting any more works by this author.

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— Apr 28, 2011 | Add your feedback

- Bizenghast 1 (10)
- (Bizenghast)
- By M. Alice Legrow, M. Alice, LeGrow
- Finished on Apr 18, 2011
  
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Bizenghast 1

I picked this up because it was super cheap on Amazon. I'm not generally one for anime style comics, or anime syle ones written by Americans, but this sounded interesting enough I thought I'd give it a try. The ideas for it were kinda neat, a young girl who lives next to a graveyard and has to free ... (continue)

I picked this up because it was super cheap on Amazon. I'm not generally one for anime style comics, or anime syle ones written by Americans, but this sounded interesting enough I thought I'd give it a try. The ideas for it were kinda neat, a young girl who lives next to a graveyard and has to free the trapped souls, it was supposed to be a nice spooky adventure but the individual plots and the dialogue were really weak. It had a lot of potential but there was just no characterisation at all. The girl was weak and pointless (which should have been appropriate for a gothic novel but somehow didn't come across). There were lots of interesting ideas but the execution was just a bit poor. What was really nice about this though was the art. The Anime style was a bit dull, but in parts where that was abandonded in favour of more traditional detailed drawings the book was very beautiful indeed. The pictures, particularly of the old mansions, were stunning. The title pages at the begining of each piece were also gorgeous. I'm a little torn on whether to get the next one or not. It's also very cheap on amazon so I probably will eventually. Hopefully the story will develop further as it goes along, though the last issue really did make it seem like a video game and not a story at all!

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— Apr 19, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits Volume 1 TP (2)
- By Jen Van Meter
- Finished on Apr 17, 2011
  
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Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits Volume 1 TP

Omni have just published a complete collection of four of the Hopless Savages books and yesterday I sat down and read the whole thing cover to cover. It was really great!!! I think that if there were one comic book world I'd like to live in this would be it. While the ageing punk parents didn't seem ... (continue)

Omni have just published a complete collection of four of the Hopless Savages books and yesterday I sat down and read the whole thing cover to cover. It was really great!!! I think that if there were one comic book world I'd like to live in this would be it. While the ageing punk parents didn't seem to be utilised enough the happy punk family was great. There was a goth daughter who loved kung fu a cute gay mod, and the youngest daughter, who despite a blonde pony tail, was the most punk. The stories were cute and light hearted. The first adventure saw the kids' parents being kidnapped and then they had to go rescue them. The 2nd saw the youngest daughter falling in love with a boy at school and the third story was set in Hong Kong and featured cops and bad guys trying to get a device smuggled into the country. The last part of the comic was a collection of short stories, and contained some of the nicest parts.
My only complaint about the book was the inconsistency of the art. The collection spanned 10 years and there were a LOT of different writers with a lot of different styles, some of which I think worked better than others. Having different styles for the flashbacks worked well but when it changed so dramatically between issues at the end of the third book it was very confusing. While I liked the art in the 2nd book least the story was the best and I ended up crying loads at the end. Definitely one I'd recommend.

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— Apr 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Vögelein (1)
- clockwork faerie
- By Jane Irwin
- Finished on Apr 17, 2011
  
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Vögelein

This was a nice little independent comic book, it contained the first five issues about a clockwork fairy whose keeper had died and she had to find someone else to wind her up so she wouldn't die. It was an interesting and sweet story. It was part fairy tale and part modern day, with flashbacks to t ... (continue)

This was a nice little independent comic book, it contained the first five issues about a clockwork fairy whose keeper had died and she had to find someone else to wind her up so she wouldn't die. It was an interesting and sweet story. It was part fairy tale and part modern day, with flashbacks to the 17th century when the fairy had been made. I bought it because it was very cheap, but I ended up liking it much more than I thought I would. I must admit I didn't think the art was that great, except for the evil fairy who looked quite cool. But I definitely enjoyed it enough to get the secound volume in the series.

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— Apr 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- A Disease of Language (7)
- By Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell
- Finished on Apr 16, 2011
  
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A Disease of Language

From Hell is one of my favourite books and I was pleased to see Eddie teaming up with Alan again for this book. It was gorgeous and spooky and wonderful and everything that the Cthuthlu story and Promeathea were trying to do but done perfectly. The book features two illustrationed stories by Campbel ... (continue)

From Hell is one of my favourite books and I was pleased to see Eddie teaming up with Alan again for this book. It was gorgeous and spooky and wonderful and everything that the Cthuthlu story and Promeathea were trying to do but done perfectly. The book features two illustrationed stories by Campbell to two performances done by Alan Moore. The first The Birth Caul seemed to be about the futility of life and the search for meaning with time running backwards in a really interesting way. It was interesting and quite depressing. The second story, Snakes and Ladders was my favourite thing I've read in quite awhile. It was just a beautiful example of what Alan Moore calls psychogeography, delving into the history of a place and looking for odd connections. In this case it was all about science, pre-raphelites, art and really wonderful. It felt like much more of an actualised version of what they were trying to do with the last issue of promethea. That was magic 101 this was magic for grown ups. (or something) But I found the art work stunning and the whole piece just very moving.
The last part of the book was an interview between Eddie and Alan that was also quite interesting. I never know how seriously I should take Alan Moore but while I don't agree with everything he says a lot of his ideas are very interesting. I liked that one of his pieces was about Holloway road, it thankfully seems to be the only recording that is readily availble and I will have to get there as I think it would be neat to listent to as that's where I live. Of course the reality of Alan's accent might be a bit distracting. In the interview he did mention the tarot part as a "history of the world" and I wanted to slap him again and say, "NO that was the history of Europe" but it was interesting to see what they were doing and why. It also made me want to track down more books that Eddie Campbell has illustrated as this reminded me once again how much I love his work. I wish there were more books like this.

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— Apr 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Heartbreak Soup (13)
- A Love and Rockets Book
- By Gilbert Hernandez
- Finished on Apr 14, 2011
  
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Heartbreak Soup

So I decided that I should give Gilbert's Love and Rockets stories another try. Last time I looked was right after I'd finished Jamie's and was still far too in love with Maggie and Hopey to be able to cope with what seemed very odd and ordinary Mexican village life. But it's been several months now ... (continue)

So I decided that I should give Gilbert's Love and Rockets stories another try. Last time I looked was right after I'd finished Jamie's and was still far too in love with Maggie and Hopey to be able to cope with what seemed very odd and ordinary Mexican village life. But it's been several months now and decided I should try reading them properly.
I have to say I did like this volume quite a lot, while not quite the same love as Jamie's work it was still very very good. The characters were really well developed and there was quite a bit of tragedy and real life despite the little bits of strangeness. Actually the stories in here were much more normal that the later stories that I've read. It was lots of relationships and children, but somehow that didn't get monotonous. Sometimes it was a little hard to remember who all the minor characters were but it seemed like a nicely fleshed out society. (And the guest appearences of the characters from the other comics was very cute! Particularly when Hopey said she'd never sleep again!) I'm definitely going to want to read the rest now.

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— Apr 15, 2011 | Add your feedback

- Promethea
- Book 2
- By Alan Moore, J.H. Williams
- Finished on Apr 10, 2011
  
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Promethea

Promethea book 2 was a bit of an odd mixture. It is definitely a collection of comics more than a graphic novel, as each issue had it's one theme. The frist was definitely my favourite as the gay guy promethea talked about his life and the meeting of the physical world and reality. Then there was ad ... (continue)

Promethea book 2 was a bit of an odd mixture. It is definitely a collection of comics more than a graphic novel, as each issue had it's one theme. The frist was definitely my favourite as the gay guy promethea talked about his life and the meeting of the physical world and reality. Then there was adventure in the hospital and Alan Moore's guide to sex and magic, which while quite good, I must admit felt a bit heavy handed. The last issue contained what to me is the biggest and most unforgivable mistake an author can make - giving the history of Europe as a history of the universe/planet at large. It was quite clever the way he linked the history to the Tarot, but the "oh suddenly in the 60s people start using the I Ching, Buddhism and Zen" (yes he did list them seperately) pissed me off a bit, no people had been using them for THOUSANDS of years! *sigh* I expected better of Mr. Moore. Overall it did have some interesting ideas about the links between imagination and magic (and makes me wonder how come Alan gets invited to loads of science festivals!) but I just couldn't get past the Western bias. Overall I did enjoy it though and it was nice to sit and read all in one go on a sunday morning.

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— Apr 11, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Ghost of Hoppers (3)
- (A Love & Rockets Book)
- By Jaime Hernandez
- Finished on Apr 9, 2011
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- The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones (16)
- (2000 Ad)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Apr 5, 2011
  
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The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones

I really enjoyed this. It was a bit silly in places but seemed to mature as it went along. Three different stories about a young woman in the future. The first story sees her in a crowded furturistic slum, parts of which were quite silly, parts were quite good. Eventually she succeeds in leaving the ... (continue)

I really enjoyed this. It was a bit silly in places but seemed to mature as it went along. Three different stories about a young woman in the future. The first story sees her in a crowded furturistic slum, parts of which were quite silly, parts were quite good. Eventually she succeeds in leaving the place far behind to become a hostess on a cruise ship. Part 2 is on the cruise ship, and possibly the weakest of the 3. There isn't much going on in the middle section except Halo being rather bored and disillusioned with her life. Part 3 rejoins her 10 years later, after she's been out of work for a couple years, living in poverty and she ends up joining the army with her friend from the cruise ship, where things get really really bad for her. It's an interesting story, I liked Halo, she was very determined. I've not read any 2000AD before and I was quite surprised with how American the stories seemed considering it was such a British comic. But I think I will read the other Alan Moore stories from 2000AD

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— Apr 6, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Alan Moore's The Courtyard (16)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Apr 1, 2011
  
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Alan Moore's The Courtyard

I must admit I did not love this as much as I was expecting. I think that is because while I love Lovecraftian things I'm not so fond of serial killer stories. Here an FBI man was investigating a case of serial killings that made no sense and he was trying to find out a connection between them. Moor ... (continue)

I must admit I did not love this as much as I was expecting. I think that is because while I love Lovecraftian things I'm not so fond of serial killer stories. Here an FBI man was investigating a case of serial killings that made no sense and he was trying to find out a connection between them. Moore was looking at some interesting ideas here - the power of language and it's potential for madness and cultism (is cultism a real word? I don't know but hopefully it gets across the point). Language as a drug that will make you mad and worship elder gods. Religion past down through words without faith being necessary. The art was great but there was just something missing, maybe the story of drugs and clubs and serial killers just seemed a little too mundane. But then maybe that was the point. Still it was an interesting short story, and definitely glad to have read it and added it to the collection. Definitely preferable to super heros!

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— Apr 1, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Promethea (99)
- (Book 1)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Mar 23, 2011
  
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Promethea

This was recommended to me by a friend and was one I'd been meaning to start reading so I put it on my wishlist on Monday and my mom bought it for me on Tuesday! I really liked this series. It was kinda Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, but done for post-pubescent girls! Any graphic novel that starts w ... (continue)

This was recommended to me by a friend and was one I'd been meaning to start reading so I put it on my wishlist on Monday and my mom bought it for me on Tuesday! I really liked this series. It was kinda Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, but done for post-pubescent girls! Any graphic novel that starts with a fake literary history of a made up folklore character is going to be great in my mind! I liked the futuristic present day, I loved the sad Gorilla comics, the city was beautiful, I loved all the old Prometheas and the way the myth was built up. I even enjoyed Moore's rambling about the nature of reality (or perhaps I should say espeically rather than even). I loved that nearly all the characters were women. I will definitely be reading the rest of these!

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— Mar 25, 2011 | Add your feedback