Venneh

Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, Paul Krueger: No relation. Starts as a pretty standard urban fantasy trying to be a multimedia property with Statements to Make. The tag line of Harry Potter with booze is pretty accurate. The last third or so of the book turns it around and makes the first two thirds worth it. It's got some good lines, it's a quick read, if you find it remaindered, I'd say get it. (Also, author clearly grew up in the burbs of Chicago, and not the city proper.)

As I get ready to purchase this, this is super helpful.

Peplum: Best described as "that's a French comic alright". Blutch's ink work is gorgeous, story is pretty hallucinatory, definitely an experience to read. The One That I Love: Collection of short early CLAMP vignettes. Light, fluffy read. Shadowman vols 1-2: First volume had pretty solid story setup and art. The second volume just absolutely misses the mark; the story can't seem to figure out where it wants to go, and has a random pointless Dr. Mirage tittytastic cameo for three issues, who then suddenly disappears. The artists are constantly rotating; getting De La Torre for the other side art is a good mark, but he's only sporadic at best. Maybe vol 3 will get back on track? 4001: Bloodshot: Odd oneshot about the Bloodshot nanites looking for Ray's dead body in the future. Possibly ties into the new Bloodshot arc? Not sure. Odd, but a fun enough read. Bombshells 45: Ahem. RENEE MONTOYA RENEE MONTOYA RENEE MONTOYA RENEE FUCKING MONTOYA IN A CONTEXT THAT MAKES SENSE GIVEN THE AU AND WITH QUEERNESS INTACT HALLEFUCKINGLUJAH Single Issues: 241TPBs/Collections: 71Digital First Issues: 11

Mike - re: Mighty Thor, definitely go for it. It's fucking gorgeous. The last two issues are a fill in by another artist and pretty skippable though. Also - glad to hear the Faith mini is picking up new readers! All Star Western 34 (or whatever the last issue is from the Palmiotti run): Cooke gets to do a fairly rote Western by Palmiotti. Some real good panels here, gorgeous. 4001 2: Pretty solid fight issue, Clayton Crain continues to kick all the ass, and pieces are moving nicely in the background. Not as knock out stunning as issue one, but still fun and good. And it's only 4 issues, so we don't have to worry about this shit dragging on forever and a damn day. Survivors Club 9: Maaaaaaaybe this will make more sense on a single readthrough as a trade?? IDK, I completely lost the thread of this tbh. Deadly Class 21: Hoooooooooooooly fuckshit. Gorgeous art by Wes Craig, and the climax to this was not where I was expecting this to go. I'm pretty sure @Dread is still reading this - let me know what you think? Probably the best thing that I read this week - and in a week where it released with the last issue of Hellboy and Casanova, that's saying something. Casanova Acedia 5: Okay! That is some properly fucking weird Matt Fraction. Feels like he's starting to get back on track with this story which, after almost a half year (possibly nine month?) break, feels right. Casanova - maybe it'll actually be out on a consistent basis someday! The twins are as gorgeous as ever, and the Metanauts backup with Chabon is starting to converge with the main story. Hellboy in Hell 10: Leaves things in the perfect place for Mignola to come back and pick them up when he wants to, and makes enough sense as a single and final issue. Hats off to you, Mignola. We'll be glad to have you back when you're ready. Joyride 1: A friend on the Twitters was super into this. Ehhhh? Feels super rote to me, not that impressed by it. The To art is good, though. Single Issues: 240TPBs/Collections: 67Digital First Issues: 10

Give me a trashy fan servicey as shit Namor movie plz.

At London MCM this weekend: One long-winded question [about Watchmen and the DC Rebirth] was cut off sharply by Dave Gibbons who said “I wouldn’t make the question too long as all I’ve going to say is no comment.” But answering a follow up asking if they even dropped him an e-mail, he said “No they didn’t. And that’s all I’m going to say.”

Salient major points atm: -Michael Davis posted a response to Abhay's response to his Leave Dan Didio Alone post that can best be described as severely unhinged (highlights include: "Like the emperor, the little bitch has no clothes. The industry is eating up what is the comic book equivalent of weapons of mass destruction. Just like Bush you picked a target to attack because it was convenient and you made a convincing case by writing smoke and mirrored attack on me." http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06/01/dan-didio-dorothy-the-case-for-kool-aid-dr-michael-davis-from-the-edge/) -A bunch of pros posted that shittily argued "Fandom is Broken" piece by Devin Faraci and a lot of fights ensued between critics and creators (including at least one between the Chew author Layman, Declan Shalvey, Ray Fawkes, and JA Micheline that I saw) -Dan Slott tweeted a photo of a death threat (name blurred) and a critical comment from Andrew Wheeler about Hydra Cap (unblurred) that basically conflated the two, Nick Spencer retweeted it, and people piled on Wheeler for sending death threats. Slott and Spencer later deleted it. There's at least two other things going on right now but honestly it's just kind of insane? Or at least more so than normal low level trash fire.

So over the past twenty four hours comics twitter has devolved into even more of a dumpster fire than normal

Finished Persona 4, it was pretty freaking great, especially if you put in the effort to go for the true end (which you do by pretty much telling everyone to calm the fuck down already). Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, however, feels like someone's Persona 3 and Persona 4 crossover sequel fanfic got made into a visual novel, and they decided to tack on a fighting game as an afterthought. Got this free on PS+, and played through the Persona 3 and 4 story modes; its mostly clicking through the story and pretty minimal fights in between. Might try the fighting part on its own. Persona 3 FES is finally clicking for me, though - I hadn't managed to get very far the last two times I tried it, but I started playing it with Jim on Friday night and the only time we stopped was to come back to my place. We're at July, and will be picking it up there when we get back. (Having Mitsuru in the party now helps lots.)

I'm not comfortable with the "lying bisexual golddigger" angle I've seen most of the media take.

Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen; Alison Weir: ARC that I picked up at our bookstore's anniversary sale for free. Comes out this Tuesday, I believe. 600 page historical novel about the first of Henry's wives. This novel can't tell if it wants to be a popular history biography of Katherine, or a historical novel, and by God the writing sure as hell can't decide which it wants to be, either. The novel switches between passages that seem more suited to a biography, and attempts at writing a really basic historical novel, and they don't meld well together. This feels like it badly needs an editor. Weir's supposedly written three historical novels, but you couldn't tell from what's written here. She has, however, written a shitton of popular history about the Tudors, and the style seems far more suited to that. Weir is supposedly contracted to one of these a year for each of Henry VIII's wives. Here's hoping she finds a better editor and balance for the next one. Silvina Ocampo, selected/translated by Jason Weis: a short book of translated poems by Silvina Ocampo. Some absolutely gorgeous imagery and stabbing lines here; I typically don't go in for poetry lots, but I went through this in a half hour's time, and half or more of it is gonna stick with me. Read it if you get the chance.

Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino: Pitched as a detective story, actually more of a character study. Focuses on a malicious older sister, the beautiful younger sister who becomes a whore, a high school classmate who becomes a whore, and the Chinese immigrant who murders the younger sister and high school classmate. The older sister's narration bridges the first hand accounts, and it's an interesting look at these women's reactions to the men in their lives and how it shapes them, and how they all become monsters in their own way. Kind of hard to believe it's written and translated by a woman for how negative it is towards its female characters/how often the downtrodden whore stereotype is bought up. Still not sure how the hell this ended (it's implied that the narrator also became a whore and may be sleeping with the man who murdered the other two), but it's a hell of a ride. Also interesting because apparently it was censored upon US release (a section about underage male prostitution was removed, but we regularly hear about the younger sister being an escort in middle/high school). Bought this remaindered, worth a read if you can find it similarly cheap.

DC Rebirth: More on this later in a podcast. TLDR, don't fuck this up Single Issues: 233TPBs/Collections: 67Digital First Issues: 10

National treasure and performance artist Chuck Tingle. I was worried for a bit there, but he so thoroughly turned it on them that it's just become this beautiful blossoming work of joy.

Unity vol 4: Some shit's gone down in between 2 and 4 (I think 3 was a Armor Hunters tie in? Haven't gotten our hands on it), and this arc is Faith coming on board the team for a try out. It goes about as well as you would expect. Will talk about this more on an upcoming podcast ep. Savage Sword of Criminal: The magazine edition. Good one shot, and the letters section in back is pretty priceless. Single Issues: 232TPBs/Collections: 67Digital First Issues: 10

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, Allie Brosh: A collected book of some of Allie's best stuff from Hyperbole and a Half (including the depression entries), and at least 30 - 40% new material, all of which is pretty great. Makes me miss her updating Hyperbole and a Half regularly, but apparently she's got a new collection coming out in October? Binti, Nnendi Okorafor: The novella that won this year's Nebula (and may be up for a Hugo? Not sure). Feels like it's a proof of concept for something larger - I do hope she continues in this universe, because the bits we got here are very intriguing. The novella itself has a good arc, as does our main, and went a direction that I wasn't expecting, but kept everything going very well. The author mentions her eleven year old helping her through some writers block moments, and you can tell a bit with how suddenly some of the plot bits happen. But overall, great world building, and a wonderful, quick read.

So, because Bleeding Cool broke embargo, the spoiler reviews of DC Rebirth have gone up. Major spoilers follow. ]

All the ReedPop ones have scalping problems, except maybe C2E2. ECCC scalpels were selling single day passes for $90 outside the con center

Summary of the last 24ish hours: -Go on two interviews: one with another staffing agency, and another with a startup whose owner has no clue what he wants in an EA, or what he's thinking for salary even -Get home, spend a few quiet hours with Jim -Mom calls around 6:30. I spend the next hour and a half finding out the following: that my father has suddenly moved to Green Lake to move in with his newest girlfriend; that my father attempted to use my autistic sister to get into subsidized housing so that he could retain an address within the school district that he was just elected to; that he didn't tell my sisters about the fact that he was moving, at all; that my austistic sister's work schedule has now been screwed with because of this, and just as mom has started a new job; that my father may have given a bunch of my sisters' possessions to goodwill without telling them; that my father may also be in hock to one of his exes for 10,000 that she idiotically just gave him; that he hasn't been paying the cell bill so my sisters have been without cell service; that she found out about all of this by the ex calling her asking where he was; that he went down to Mexico the other week with the girlfriend because he'd booked a greatly reduced price trip the last time he was there with my little sister. And also generally about her new boyfriend (who I haven't met yet but does sound generally amazing). But how also we need to forgive our dad for all of this and try to have a relationship with him because he still loves us, and lots of other guilt trips about visiting her and staying in contact with my sisters. -Proceed to consume two beers and a bit of orange vodka while Jim and I listen to all of this, and spend the next few hours after curled up and reading comics/cuddling while Jim makes sure that I eat and drink water and generally is an amazing human while I break down -During all this I text with my little sister. The last I hear from her is 8:50 last night. -Sleep finally -Go and deal with the tire fire that is work and my boss blaming me for having to stay till 9 at night (when no, she was the one who worked from home yesterday, that's on her) (and also she's going to be working from home today but oh fucking well we get to do this dance tomorrow) -Find out that my sister has in fact been reported missing; later find out shortly after sharing a post that she has been found, she's with my parents, and has been requested to be placed into the local mental inpatient facility -Confirm a three hour interview block for tomorrow, submit associated paperwork, call a phone interview and end up rescheduling to this evening bc he doesn't answer either time I attempt to call over lunch -Also confirm that I do not in fact owe what Wisconsin thinks I owe it, and figure out how to submit an appeal and an amended return so that I get all the money I am owed back Can I not be a human for a while now?

The volunteer I talked to about it was getting paid, but I don't know if that applied to all volunteers. The suit is also specifically naming 14 and 15 apparently, and 15 was when it was still mostly Jim running it, and not ReedPop. Also, re: fan verification: ...I'm not sure how I feel about this? Like, ostensibly this is going to stop scalpers, but if you're trying to gatekeep, that seems slightly shitty? Also they kinda suck at tech implementation.

I can't ignore the similarities, and if it is, man, that's even more beautiful.

Vision 7: A flashback issue that ends up circling slowly and inexorably back to the present. Neat issue to break Michael Walsh in on (his style here is a lot more sketchy than it was on Secret Avengers, but I think that might be partially Jordie's colors (not sure if the inker changed too). The dread continues to grow, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this all blows up, shortly. Ultimates 7: Branded as a Civil War tie-in, and I can see why. Al's definitely laying out the building blocks for whatever's going to go down in the main title, and we've definitely got the team's first big moral quandary here. Let's see how this plays out. Gotham Academy 18: Last of the Yearbook storyline; feels like it's starting to run on fumes, so thank god this is the last one. Good contributors, though. Apparently we get the Annual next, and then the relaunch in September or so. The Fix 2: And oh my god does this keep up the momentum. I love that Josh keeps showing up to build the fear of him (and is that fucking Brevoort he's strangling in that one sequence??), and seeing the frankly idiotic lengths our idiot mains are going to to make this happen. Lieber does great on the art, and god bless the way they introduce that dog. So here for this. Single Issues: 231TPBs/Collections: 66Digital First Issues: 10

Woes of the True Policeman, Roberto Bolaño: This novel is apparently the result of two separate manuscripts that were found among Bolaño's things on his death, of a work in progress that he'd been working on since the 80s. There's kind of a coherent narrative if you squint, but don't go in expecting a nice clean resolution to this. Focuses on a father, his daughter, both characters from one of his other novels, their lives, and some odd adjacent literary topics that comprise about a third of the book. It's an interesting read, especially as my third or so Bolaño.

Parker: The Score and Slayground: Jim picked these up from the IDW booth at BEA the other day. Gorgeous crime adaptations. I'm a bigger fan of some of the art tricks in Score, but Slayground is the better read, by far. Pick them up if you find them, they're worth a page through at the least. Twilight Children 1-4: As near as I can tell, the last thing Cooke worked on - and at least it was something kind of creator owned. Switches between a small town drama and sci-fi; the two don't entirely merge effectively story wise, and you never quite figure out what's going on, but by god it's fucking gorgeous. Single Issues: 227TPBs/Collections: 66Digital First Issues: 10

Absolute New Frontier: Still fucking gorgeous, and Cooke does a great job of taking the universe and planting them in the realities of the time. The John Henry Steel bit got me a lot more this time around. And the last page made me bawl. Batman: Ego and Other Tails: Ego is a great one shot, as is Date Knight, but honestly, I came for Selina's Big Score. Just a great mini and a wonderful ride. The Spirit: The Cooke reimagining from back in '07. Still just a great ride, and pretty to boot. The Spirit/Batman crossover using a convention setup is also just great, too. Faith: Hollywood and Vine: Valiant was giving out rebound copies of the mini at BEA, and Jim picked one up for me. (Aside: this actually strikes me as a good publicity move and an easy cheap way to use up all those singles that publishers likely have lying around?) The full mini does really well on the full story arc, and I'm really glad this got the ongoing. A bit more of a fan of the fantasy sequence art than I am the main artist, but they're changing for the ongoing, apparently. Rai 13: ASTRO BOY RAI ASTRO BOY RAI ASTRO BOY FUCKING RAI. Start of a flashback arc to all the previous Rais while the main story goes on over in 4001. We get a sense of the early days of New Japan, and how Father begins tailoring his response to all the challenges. (Also, of course the kid is named Osamu. There's also some interesting visual references that I wouldn't put past Kindt to be Japanese creation myth references.) Cafu steps in nicely on the art, and Mack does a gorgeous cover. Single Issues: 223TPBs/Collections: 64Digital First Issues: 10