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230.Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell - I don't think I've ever read this one. I'm rather confused by that fact because I was certain that I had read every Sandman related title, but this story didn't strike me as familiar. Maybe it was because it was a long version of a single issue story that made up the collections between the major stories. In fact, Gaiman even lied and said that he based it on an old folktale and while it's not based on any folktale, it does seem to share some aspects of other stories of the kind. A fox and a weasel try to drive a monk away from a monastery. The monk falls for none of their tricks, but by the time it's over the Fox has fallen in love with the monk.
Then there's a murder plot and this murder plot is in dreams. So the rest of the book is the Fox trying to rescue the monk but the monk giving his life for the fox. It's rather sweet and by the end of it, there's really not much to talk about except "well I guess that was sad." Also revenge.
Maybe I did read it before. It's very likely that I will read it again and forget that I've read it.
231.Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine - Adrian Tomine writes in the depressive slice of life style that was kind of what to expect out of independent black & white comics in the 1990s. While there were a lot of independent publishers and self-published comic books at the time, the sad bastards having sad bastard lives was a particular brand of writing that really made comics. Yummy Fur and Eight Ball and the like - many of these were about the sad lives of characters who had nothing going for them.
But sometimes there's a bit of a grace note to these stories. I put a bunch of Tomine books on hold after Shortcomings which was a movie that was all about a guy who was a jerk and had a best friend who was just as much of a jerk and I only saw the second half after he dated a white woman and went to see where his girlfriend was and found out she was dating a white guy (and his hypocrisy and white supremacy was obvious even to him) and he's get a bit of a "ok, I'm cool with this" moment where he stops grousing about things.
There's a lot to love in this one and a lot to ponder. The story about the couple that starts when the old guy chases the girl out of the AA meaning and tells her that she doesn't have to believe everything but it does help goes into some unexpected places, especially when the old guy turns out to be a liar (claiming to be 36) and a weed dealer and not terribly committed to sobriety. It's quietly devastating but also kind of funny in how he gets arrested in a sting operation that is straight out of an Al Pacino cop movie.
The title story is about a teenage girl who tries standup comedy while her mother is dying. Her parents fight over it and every time you see the mother, she's getting weaker and sadder as she dies of cancer. The daughter is not a natural comedian. Her first show is for a class and all the jokes were written for her. Her dad thinks that she's terrible and would love to support her but he also doesn't see how she can do it. The story ends with him sneaking into one of her shows and watching her bomb. But when she gets home she says it went well. So is she going to keep doing it? Is he wrong to be embarrassed for her? Who knows? However, there's a certain courage that she has that might keep her going as she works through the rough years.
Like fuck, I'm a writer and I wrote a lot of crap but thankfully I rarely had it out in the open like that. Stand up comedians got to grow up in public with all their rough material out there for the world to see and boo.
Then there's a murder plot and this murder plot is in dreams. So the rest of the book is the Fox trying to rescue the monk but the monk giving his life for the fox. It's rather sweet and by the end of it, there's really not much to talk about except "well I guess that was sad." Also revenge.
Maybe I did read it before. It's very likely that I will read it again and forget that I've read it.
231.Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine - Adrian Tomine writes in the depressive slice of life style that was kind of what to expect out of independent black & white comics in the 1990s. While there were a lot of independent publishers and self-published comic books at the time, the sad bastards having sad bastard lives was a particular brand of writing that really made comics. Yummy Fur and Eight Ball and the like - many of these were about the sad lives of characters who had nothing going for them.
But sometimes there's a bit of a grace note to these stories. I put a bunch of Tomine books on hold after Shortcomings which was a movie that was all about a guy who was a jerk and had a best friend who was just as much of a jerk and I only saw the second half after he dated a white woman and went to see where his girlfriend was and found out she was dating a white guy (and his hypocrisy and white supremacy was obvious even to him) and he's get a bit of a "ok, I'm cool with this" moment where he stops grousing about things.
There's a lot to love in this one and a lot to ponder. The story about the couple that starts when the old guy chases the girl out of the AA meaning and tells her that she doesn't have to believe everything but it does help goes into some unexpected places, especially when the old guy turns out to be a liar (claiming to be 36) and a weed dealer and not terribly committed to sobriety. It's quietly devastating but also kind of funny in how he gets arrested in a sting operation that is straight out of an Al Pacino cop movie.
The title story is about a teenage girl who tries standup comedy while her mother is dying. Her parents fight over it and every time you see the mother, she's getting weaker and sadder as she dies of cancer. The daughter is not a natural comedian. Her first show is for a class and all the jokes were written for her. Her dad thinks that she's terrible and would love to support her but he also doesn't see how she can do it. The story ends with him sneaking into one of her shows and watching her bomb. But when she gets home she says it went well. So is she going to keep doing it? Is he wrong to be embarrassed for her? Who knows? However, there's a certain courage that she has that might keep her going as she works through the rough years.
Like fuck, I'm a writer and I wrote a lot of crap but thankfully I rarely had it out in the open like that. Stand up comedians got to grow up in public with all their rough material out there for the world to see and boo.
