Brief snippets of opinion and a too-long list. This month’s themes? Sex and writing, apparently.
106. Overqualified, by Joey Comeau
(ECW Press, 2009)
A novel told in cover letters, which shouldn’t work, but it does. As always, Comeau’s work is touching and disturbing in almost equal measures.
107. tether, by Jill Stengel
(above/ground press, 2013)
108. Mnemotechnics, by Jessica Smith
(above/ground press, 2013)
109. punchlines 1.0, by Aaron Tucker
(above/ground press, 2013)
It’s summer. Traditionally a time for beach reading, fluff reading, right? This is how I’m justifying all the comics and manga to myself, anyway. Judge ye not, etc.
87. Spike: Asylum, by Brian Lynch
(IDW Publishing, 2007)
Brian Lynch has a terrible habit of over-explaining things both within the comics themselves, and then going over every obvious plot point and allusion yet again in the back pages of the graphic novel. I don’t know why he does this, and I really wish he’d stop. Somehow he missed the “show, don’t tell” lesson of story showing 101.
Anyway, Spike falls for an obvious deception and makes friends in an asylum claiming to cure supernatural beings. It’s all very silly, and not in the fun way that Shadow Puppets almost manages to pull off.
Another month, another eclectic mix.
74. In Search of Duende, by Federico García Lorca
(New Directions, 2010)
A combination of poetry, and essays which felt a bit over my head. This probably shouldn’t have been my first introduction to Lorca.
75. Gwendolyn MacEwan, Vol 2, by Gwendolyn MacEwan
(Exile Editions, 2001)
This series of short, reasonably priced books serve as an introduction to MacEwan’s work, with poetry, prose poems, and novel excerpts.
The introductory essays to each book are also great, very helpful in situating those unfamiliar with her work on MacEwan’s place in the Canadian poetry scene.
TCAF was in May, and I came out of it with a few comics, and a desire to read lots more.
61. Spike: The Complete Series, by Brian Lynch
(IDW Publishing, 2012)
While Spike was my favourite character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the television series), he’s lost something in the comic. Lynch seems intent on making him a male fantasy of a sex symbol, rather than exploring the complex background depicted in the later seasons of Buffy and Angel. It’s a shame. Even so, it was…interesting to see how Spike came to be king of a steampunk spaceship piloted by giant cockroaches.
62. Testament, by Dennis Lee
(House of Anansi Press, 2012)
