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14. Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito - I think that as much as I like Junji Ito for his body horror, I believe that a lot of the attraction is the way he depicts the horrible and evil as beautiful. According to the acknowledgments, several of Ito's editors and friends (as well as his cat) died when he was making this book. He offers that up as an apology for taking eight years, but it ultimately makes a deeper book where the metaphysical horror can be an afterthought to the sorrow that pervades these characters. The first story is about a man who sinks into his futon and doesn't get out of it. There's a whole stinger about him being all doped up and seeing fairies and his body fusing with the house, but really the power comes from how many people have this condition and how their loved ones can do nothing for them. Other stories include a woman who mates with a house (that one is a little silly) and one where the nanny charged with helping a young girl becomes stuck on her and eventually her ghost just hangs out on her. Other ones like the one where a woman wants to be dissected fall a little flat (her insides are Cthulu monster stuff), but Ito is a master and you can excuse some missteps.
15. Shutter vol 1 Wanderlost by Joe Keatinge & Leila del Duca - I was originally going to put this one and the Ito one together as one entry that went "what the hell was that?" but I read a bunch of stuff this weekend and I didn't want to make three separate entries. Also, where Junji Ito is body horror creepy and esoteric in a beautiful way, Shutter is more like an adventure story that doesn't quite want to tell you what is going on. It's about a woman who was an adventure heroine with her dad when she was a kid (they went to the moon) and a target of assassins now. There are cat people and family secrets and a secret brother who was born way too long after her dad died to be his son, but everyone agrees that he's her brother on her dad's side (so clone?) There's also a robot cat that looks like the classic Felix, but also might be a clock. Anyhow I didn't hate it. The art is good and the characters are interesting but the plot is a confusing jumble of stuff that might pay off in later volumes.
16.Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Hidden Staircase by "Carolyn Keene" - I think there was a mystery to this, but it was so obvious that the evil land speculator was behind the plots that I didn't mind just going along with the drift of privileged white girl and her aunts hanging out and looking for all the hidden passages. This is the 1959 version of the book and apparently between 1930 and 1959, they decided to turn the villain from a thief to a real estate speculator who hides the last land owner who sold his share of a development in order to drive up the price. Meanwhile he's also trying to buy a couple of old revolutionary era mansions in order to make a condo or luxury apartment. I know I'm just outright giving away the ending here, but the book just has them find the guy that is being hidden who then tells them everything. And somewhere in there Nancy's dad gets kidnapped, but everyone who is a witness just talks to Nancy as soon as the police let her interrogate the suspects.
I mentioned that this is about a privileged white teenager. She gets along with the local police. Her family friends or aunts own mansions. Her dad is trying to help with a land deal and the main problem is that the land owners are trying to hold out on him. When there are suspects, the cops let her talk to the suspects and the suspects just give her the information. Apparently she was turned more proper for 1950s audiences (as Betty Frieden argued, the 1950s was a major backlash in women's rights enforced by popular culture).
And I don't have a problem with telling the ending because the main way that the real estate guy is trying to get the houses is to scare them with noises in the walls as if a ghost. So it's a plot that Scooby Doo stole and just kept going.
The one plot point I loved was the fact that Nancy gets knocked out by the ceiling falling on her. This isn't because of an evil plot or a purposeful attempt on her life but just because the damn house is so old. She's fine.
17. Adventure Time: Masked Mayhem by Kate Leth and Bridget Underwood - This is one of those mysteries that you don't exactly appreciate when you are reading it because there's a lot of misdirection that all turns out to be just a series of coincidences, but since it's so committed to the noir detective genre where there are conspiracies and hidden daggers everywhere it's easier to appreciate after you think about it. It's like the Big Lebowski that way (and no way else). Finn isn't even in this one for long. Instead it's a crazy BMO story and crazy BMO is the best BMO. The mystery of who hit Marceline with a pie and who TP'd Lumpy Space Princess's party are pretty low stakes but the seriousness that BMO treats them is great. Of course, this isn't a new joke, but it usually makes me happy.
18. Saga vol one by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples - How did Image become such a great company. Last I paid attention, it was a bit of a joke, more of a vanity project for Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld than an actual company. Yes, I know that the main philosophy was about creator's rights and ownership of copyright material (so no one gets screwed like Kirby) but the execution was so lacking at the beginning and the rights fight over Miracleman just seemed to make everything unfortunate. But now it's putting out some of my favorite titles. These are passion projects and they show just how much fun writers can have when they don't have to stick to a continuity or company standard.
Anyhow, I am trying to read this from the beginning and I am still confused. Enjoyably confused but confused. The cynicism about war, the strange politics, the royalty with televisions for heads - this is all so wild. I thought that the spider woman with the six eyes and six arms was around in later books but she gets killed here. I was not nearly as impressed with Y the Last Man as I am with this one.
15. Shutter vol 1 Wanderlost by Joe Keatinge & Leila del Duca - I was originally going to put this one and the Ito one together as one entry that went "what the hell was that?" but I read a bunch of stuff this weekend and I didn't want to make three separate entries. Also, where Junji Ito is body horror creepy and esoteric in a beautiful way, Shutter is more like an adventure story that doesn't quite want to tell you what is going on. It's about a woman who was an adventure heroine with her dad when she was a kid (they went to the moon) and a target of assassins now. There are cat people and family secrets and a secret brother who was born way too long after her dad died to be his son, but everyone agrees that he's her brother on her dad's side (so clone?) There's also a robot cat that looks like the classic Felix, but also might be a clock. Anyhow I didn't hate it. The art is good and the characters are interesting but the plot is a confusing jumble of stuff that might pay off in later volumes.
16.Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Hidden Staircase by "Carolyn Keene" - I think there was a mystery to this, but it was so obvious that the evil land speculator was behind the plots that I didn't mind just going along with the drift of privileged white girl and her aunts hanging out and looking for all the hidden passages. This is the 1959 version of the book and apparently between 1930 and 1959, they decided to turn the villain from a thief to a real estate speculator who hides the last land owner who sold his share of a development in order to drive up the price. Meanwhile he's also trying to buy a couple of old revolutionary era mansions in order to make a condo or luxury apartment. I know I'm just outright giving away the ending here, but the book just has them find the guy that is being hidden who then tells them everything. And somewhere in there Nancy's dad gets kidnapped, but everyone who is a witness just talks to Nancy as soon as the police let her interrogate the suspects.
I mentioned that this is about a privileged white teenager. She gets along with the local police. Her family friends or aunts own mansions. Her dad is trying to help with a land deal and the main problem is that the land owners are trying to hold out on him. When there are suspects, the cops let her talk to the suspects and the suspects just give her the information. Apparently she was turned more proper for 1950s audiences (as Betty Frieden argued, the 1950s was a major backlash in women's rights enforced by popular culture).
And I don't have a problem with telling the ending because the main way that the real estate guy is trying to get the houses is to scare them with noises in the walls as if a ghost. So it's a plot that Scooby Doo stole and just kept going.
The one plot point I loved was the fact that Nancy gets knocked out by the ceiling falling on her. This isn't because of an evil plot or a purposeful attempt on her life but just because the damn house is so old. She's fine.
17. Adventure Time: Masked Mayhem by Kate Leth and Bridget Underwood - This is one of those mysteries that you don't exactly appreciate when you are reading it because there's a lot of misdirection that all turns out to be just a series of coincidences, but since it's so committed to the noir detective genre where there are conspiracies and hidden daggers everywhere it's easier to appreciate after you think about it. It's like the Big Lebowski that way (and no way else). Finn isn't even in this one for long. Instead it's a crazy BMO story and crazy BMO is the best BMO. The mystery of who hit Marceline with a pie and who TP'd Lumpy Space Princess's party are pretty low stakes but the seriousness that BMO treats them is great. Of course, this isn't a new joke, but it usually makes me happy.
18. Saga vol one by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples - How did Image become such a great company. Last I paid attention, it was a bit of a joke, more of a vanity project for Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld than an actual company. Yes, I know that the main philosophy was about creator's rights and ownership of copyright material (so no one gets screwed like Kirby) but the execution was so lacking at the beginning and the rights fight over Miracleman just seemed to make everything unfortunate. But now it's putting out some of my favorite titles. These are passion projects and they show just how much fun writers can have when they don't have to stick to a continuity or company standard.
Anyhow, I am trying to read this from the beginning and I am still confused. Enjoyably confused but confused. The cynicism about war, the strange politics, the royalty with televisions for heads - this is all so wild. I thought that the spider woman with the six eyes and six arms was around in later books but she gets killed here. I was not nearly as impressed with Y the Last Man as I am with this one.
