Punch a dolphin, feed the cat

hang out with Wonder Woman and/or Green Day

.

071) Sensational Wonder Woman, finished June 22

I found this book on the library website because they didn't have the Colleen Doran book I did want. And while she only penned one of the stories in this anthology, I grabbed it and now I've read it and it was . . . fine. Some are better than others, but it was kind of fun to read a bunch of one-offs instead of some building, "important," superhero story.

one sitting


072) Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, finished June 27

About as much text as a picture book but over three hundred pages long. As is mentioned in the note at the end, this lets the art be more than illustration.

It's a tale of a kid at home in 2020 as his parents watch the news—from separate rooms (dad is sick, presumably covid). The five people in his family are in covid-era quarantine and the art and words explore the isolation and loss and confusion or all the horrors 2020 presented us, yet rarely by making them explicit. Which means this book is either futureproof or will age terrrribly.

I'm surprised my library put this in the adult nonfiction because, in my mind, it's YA fiction like most of Reynolds's books. But what do I know?

two days
 

073) 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides) by The Oatmeal, finished June 29

I really recommend reading The Oatmeal at The Oatmeal rather than a book. They were originally formatted for online (and even the posters flow better than the books) and you get to pick the ones that are interesting rather than turning the page and bumping into one of his overly ugly early pieces designed to be churned quickly rather than be great.

gosh i dunno like five years maybe
 

074) Socks by Beverly Cleary, finished June 29

This book was a handmedown from an older cousin and one I loved as a kid and read many times. It's been in my kids room for ages but maaaybe none of the boys ever read it? So inbetween Tiffanys I read it to the 5yrold. She liked it; I liked it.

As a piece of writing, I found aspects of it pretty impressive. For instance, Socks is the primary point-of-view character yet most of the action involves people—people talking and doing all sorts of people things—and yet there are no pov violations. Socks navigates whats around him with a cat's understanding. This results in a lot of dramatic irony and all without any cheating!

I'm not sure I've read any Beverly Cleary since I was a kid. This kinda made me want to move to Ramona or something next.

And: the Darwin illustrations are great. I love their just-ink vibrancy.

under two weeks
 

075) The Ultimates Volume 1: Super-Human by Millar/Hitch/Currie, finished June 30

This dates back to 2002 but I checked the copyright page multiple times because I thought Nick Fury didn't turn into Samuel L. Jackson until after 2008 and the release of a cinematic Iron Man. Not so.

Although you can't help but to wonder if Marvel didn't see this book as a pitch. In one scene where the characters are imagining themselves in a movie, Fury casts Jackson as himself. And although the argument for Tony Stark to be played by Johnny Depp is pushed pretty hard, Robert Downey Jr. does get a shoutout elsewhere in the story.

So the whole thing's a bit surreal—another MCU from another corner of the multiverse, where Hank Pym is an abusive husband, Captain America is rude, Hulk is horny and Freddy Prinze Jr. is a major movie star.

Not quite how things turned out.

one day


076) In China with Green Day by Aaron Cometbus, finished July 4 

I really do like Cometbus's voice. I bought a few more of his works and I tried to pick ones that seemed similar to the first I read and here I succeeded. He's an excellent essayist if you think Montaigne nailed it the first time out. Personable, first-person, a tad narcissistic but utterly engaged by and with the world around him.

Cometbus was friends with the guys in Green Day well before they were famous and they invited him to join him for several stops in Asia on a world tour. He went because he wanted to visit China (bad luck: the China shows were cancelled and Hong Kong, at least in 2011, still felt different).

Cometbus totally cops to his own biases and failures of sight, but the Green Day guys come off great, over all, and the opening act, in brief appearances, like total dicks. He tends to spend part of their time in each sitting wandering off, walking, getting lost, seeing things no one else will ever see. And since the Green Day machine is taking care of him, he doesn't have to worry about what comes next. He just needs to get in the bus on time.

Anyway, it's a great view of a corner of reality most of us will never view. And we have a gregarious (and grumpy) host to guide us.

Cometbus
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