Someone picked this book from a free pile last week and today it is already loved into a pretty rough shape. But the kids love it, young and old, delighted to read some Calvin and Hobbes strips they had not before read (let alone dozens of times).
I finally got my hands on it. As I assumed from the collection's title, this takes us into the final stretch of Calvin and Hobbes, ending with the final strip. But there are hints throughout that Watterson is done. Take this from the final week:
But this isn't to suggest that he was coasting. Not at all. The art is still spectacular, the writing still clever and wise.
It's a generous close to his decade-long run and I hope we're all still grateful.
Some where (can't find it now) Matt wrote about feeling a bit sheepish he was shortlisted for the AML Award for comics with the first volume of this series. And really, just sheepish with how much buzz and talk as comicsthat book received. So resolved to make volume two include more comics.
Which made me glad as, frankly, I felt rather the same. And I am very pleased to say that this book is everything—as comics—that the first book was merely almost.
This book engages more deeply with the capabilities of graphic storytelling. Plus, it's just more interesting! The explanation of Triple Combination's past is nothing I've ever seen before and I'm excited to see where Matt goes next.
The noncomics bits (eg, the advertisements for the Future Day Saints vhs tapes) are as delightful as ever and take up the appropriate amount of space, imho. The bad guys got more interesting and the rules of this world were muddied—not in a Matt-doesn't-know-what-the-heck-he's-doing sort of way, but in a there's-a-lot-here-yet-to-be-explored sort of way.
Volume two came out much much faster than I anticipated. Here's to hoping volume three has just as speedy an arrival!
one day
072)Dutch House by Ann Patchett, finished on August 5
Lady Steed and I read and loved Bel Canto simultaneously. Since then, she has read several more of Patchett's books. I have not until now, with The Dutch House.
I read an article over Lady Steed's shoulder—an interview with Patchett about the novel and about its painting and about the audiobook narrated by her friend Tom Hanks. Lady Steed had already read the book and was almost finished with the audiobook, but we had a long drive ahead of us and she was happy to start over. So I listened to the first fifty pages via Tom Hanks's (excellent) narration (and, later, another twenty or thirty pages in the middle) while reading the rest myself.
Anyway, so it's about this house. Not really, obviously, but also, it is. It's about unique miseries and unique privileges and, specifically, the people these things happen to. The characters never stay one-dimensional, even when other characters try to make them so. The plot unfolds almost invisibly even though this is a novel that provides surprise after surprise.
In the end, it is another work of beauty and honesty. And it makes you wonder why we all haven't read more Ann Patchett.
Anyway, as I type, I realize I'm loathe to give anything away even though I think nothing I might give away could negatively impact your experience.
Your potential experience is simply to wonderful for me to put my grubby little hands upon.
I wish I liked this book more than I did. Visually, it seemed to be taking some (less exagerrated cues) from Jeff Lemire. It's trying to tie into a curious mix of Norse and Christian mythologies. It mixes realism and fantasy. It's fun monochrome. It's a lot of stuff I like!
But . . . I never quite understood what it was all about. And I'm not convinced the creators do either.I could (and would if this were a paid review) reread it a couple times and see if it comes together. But I'm not going to. I have three more library comics to read!
over midnight
Weirdly, however, these next two comics from the library, are NOT among the three I mentioned. It's fun to have long lunches across the street from a library!
074) House of Women by Sophie Goldstein, finished on August 10
The black-and-while style ranges from modern European comics to old medieval European art to art nouveau to, most deliberately, Japanese woodcuts.
It's a story in the far future. A group of colonialist nuns are sent by the Empire to see if the native population of this island can be civilized. What follows is a wealth of yonic images and an exploration of sex, violence, and cultural collision. It's a fascinating book.
Plus, props for one of the finest author bios I've seen.
I had read one of the stories from this anthology before—online, I believe—but can't remember where. I remember how great it was, however. And every one of the little horror stories in the collection is at least good and some are much more than that. The library has it in the YA schedule and I guess so. I'm checking it out to share with my 12yrold. But oooooooo, be careful.
(This image is from the story I had previously read, but I found it somewhere else. Click it to get your second witness!)
