Black Hole

Listed in "500 Essential Graphic Novels" as: Horror (Best of the Rest)
Contains: Black Hole #1-12
Year: 1995-2004
Publisher: Kitchen Sink/Fantagraphics Books, Collected Edition: Pantheon Books
Writer: Charles Burns
Artist: Charles Burns

Hello, readers...

Sorry it's been a few days.  I probably could have finished Black Hole sooner, but I wanted to wait until I had a good opportunity to finish it, have it still fresh in my mind, and be able to sit down and tell you all about it.  It's listed in the "Horror" section of the book and I know the spooky stuff always goes down good for me in the month of October, so let's get right to it, shall we?

Let's start by taking a look at that label that's been slapped on this one. Horror...  I really don't know if I'd call this one horror.  It's got a bunch freaky looking kids running around and some parts of it are pretty eerie...  It's even been said that creator Charles Burns wanted to evoke 1970s horror films with the whole feel of the book...  But for me, it's still maybe a bit of a stretch to call this one out-and-out horror.

The setting is Seattle, the 1970s and I guess it kind of does open like a horror film.  We've got a couple of kids in a biology class, some freaky images of a girl shedding her skin, some other kids smoking dope in the woods.

The premise of the story, I guess, is to examine the lives of high schoolers.  They have their parties, go to their classes, gain and lose loves on a weekly basis, but there's one rub.  There's some sort of sexually transmitted disease going around.  It doesn't seem to be very debilitating and the kids aren't dying from it, they're just getting pretty disturbing-looking mutations and disfigurements.

The strange alterations of appearance are different for every kid.  One has a tiny second mouth on his throat, you can see the girl above with the tail, they can be as mild as some bumps on the skin of the chest or as severe as total facial disfigurement.

As I said, I think I'd file this one under more of a general fiction label.  There aren't any rampant killings, no monsters chasing people around, just a focus on three or four of the high schoolers as they try to get through their late formative years, but now they've got the issue of worrying about getting this disease that might turn them into a freak every time they choose a lover.

Burns examines and makes us care for his characters.  He doesn't kill them off one-by-one like expendable archetypes.

This was another one of those books that I was dying to read.  I'd seen it in bookstores for the last five or so years, heard acclaim heaped by the shovel-fulls, and really, it just looked intriguing.  I thought this would be nothing short of an absolutely stellar five-star read.

Though Burns' art is absolutely stunning, after reading about these kids for a while, it becomes just a bit redundant.

They lament the woes of their teenage lives, party, screw, lament, get high, run away from home, screw, lament, and so on and so forth.  Some moments were really unforgettable, memory-provoking (especially if you weren't the most popular kid at high school), and beautiful.  Maybe the further you get from high school, the harder it is to relate but while liking this book, it wasn't one that I was itching to get back to time-and-again as I made my way through the 300+ pages.

Bottom line, I guess: This book is visually stunning and unforgettable, but one (this reader at least) can only take so much high school drama, awkward sex, and drug trips before it becomes unexciting.

Mr. Kannenberg's rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 3 out of 5
18 down, 482 to go

Join me next time as I get back to yet another Vertigo comic in David Lapham's Silverfish. We'll then move on to our next Top 10 pick in Gene Kannenberg Jr.'s 500 Essential Graphic Novels with The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.

I'm then going to to another set of five books in the same format I have been, with four Best of the Rest picks from Mr. Kannenberg's book building up to a Top 10 pick.  After that, I'm kicking around the idea of doing five or six horror books in a row to celebrate Halloween.  I love reading spooky stuff all during the month of October and I figured that'd be a good way to share some more of my own tastes and habits with you guys.

So anyway...  Come on back if you like what's on the horizon there and take good care of yourselves in the meantime.

I Love Led Zeppelin

Listed in "500 Essential Graphic Novels" as: Non-Fiction (Best of the Rest)
Contains: Various comics from Ellen Forney's career
Year: 1994-1996, 2004 (This volume published 2006)
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Writer: Ellen Forney (w/ various others)
Artist: Ellen Forney

Hello, readers.  I've actually gone back to check and this actually makes three nights in a row, not last night (for those of you keeping score or who care).

Anyway, let's not waste any time and we'll get right into I Love Led Zeppelin.

As I suspected (and as I mentioned last night), this book really had little to do with the band Led Zeppelin at all.  Sorry if you've come here wanting to read about them, but maybe stick around anyway, huh?  It'll be fun...

Actually, the only mention writer Ellen Forney makes to the band is in a hilarious strip called The Final Soundtrack, in which she discusses what would be the coolest music to have playing in your cracked up, bad-ass muscle car as you die after running it into a tree.  She also fears having certain other music play...  Really good.

However there are multitude other things in this slim, yet text filled volume.

The whole thing starts out with a series of "how-tos" on seemingly random subjects.  They actually look to be factually accurate and meticulously researched, though.  "How D'ya Sew an Amputated Finger Back On??", "Old Glory: How to Fold the Flag and Present it to the Next of Kin", and "How to Fuck a Woman with Your Hands!!" (not kidding) are all fact- and hilarity-laden, offering concrete safety, tact, and procedural tips.

These are followed by short, mostly one-page strips chronicling some of Ms. Forney's travels and experiences, various sex tips, and even a list of Seattle's erotic landmarks!

At the end, we see some of Forney's earlier, more lengthy strips as she collaborates with some folks and focuses on the artwork side of things.  There are stories of odd meetings that were supposed to be dates but never happened, various parties and sexual escapades of all sorts, and even lengthy discussions about the importance of your hairdo and the state of Courtney Love.

If you hadn't put it together already, this book focuses a lot on sex.  Sexual identity and orientation, gender roles, first times, erotic (and hilarious) photo shoots, forays funny and factual.  Forney takes an unabashed look at all things sex and many other things besides.  One or two of them are her own experiences left bare for all the world to see.  Some are collaborations with others and we get to see how sexy, triumphant, or awkward they felt.  Above all, this book is a celebration of all of the things you might come upon in life and emerging being yourself (no matter who likes it or doesn't) and being happy with that and proud of it.

Forney touches upon sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, survivalism, ettiquette, cooking, travel, humanities, dating, art, pop culture, parents... with truthfulness and, above all, fun.  These comics may be filled with facts about a wide variety of things and stories of real peoples' joys and longings, but Forney makes them hilarious and fun to read along most of the way.

Mr. Kannenberg had this volume categorized under the "Non-Fiction" category, and the strips are just enough like the real world experiences we've all had to be believably true, but I think this one would have worked under the "Humor" category just as well, having been easily the most laugh-getting book I've read in all my efforts here thus far.

Funny, sexy, smart (all words that introduction writer Sherman Alexie didn't wanna use when doing the intro, but why shy from cliche when it's true?), these comics are all that.  They feel real and you can easily discern that Forney and the other writers have experienced these things and come out to be awesome folks on the other side.  The book screams, "This is who we are, this is what we've seen, here's what we love." and we've got no choice but to become empowered, let our freak flags fly, and love life right along with them.

Mr. Kannenberg's rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 3 out of 5
14 down, 486 to go

Be here next time as we move on to our third "Top 10" pick thus far: Leave it to Chance, Book One: Shaman's Rain. 

I hope you'll all be back and be well until then.

Sshhhh!

Listed in "500 Essential Graphic Novels" as: General Fiction (Best of the Rest)
Contains: Sshhhh! (Orignal Graphic Novel)
Year: 2002
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Writer: Jason
Artist: Jason

Whoa!  Here we are back here again, faithful readers!  Is this the third day in a row?!  No, I really don't know...  Is it? 

Anyway, I wanna try and keep the blog going on a daily basis because I wanna try and do a sort of summarization of all the books we've looked at in September come the end of the week or this weekend.  If I get two more done this week, we'll have a sort of three set thing going on.  And by that I mean three groups of five that all ended with a Top 10 pick from the 500 Essential Graphic Novels book by Gene Kannenberg (click the link on the top right of the blog to buy) that I'm working my way through.

Now then, before I get started...  I've doled out thanks in the past and it occurs to me that I've forgotten one very special one.  I'd like to thank the Bridgeville Public Library and the Allegheny County Library Association for running smoothly enough that I can get books to review on here so easily.  If I were to want to do something like this and didn't have them, it'd be a LOT slower-going and I'd have to spend countless dollars on the books (something that I'm already probably going to do in finding things that I love from this list I'm going through). 

So anyway, a big thanks to all who make the Bridgeville Public Library and the Allegheny County Library Association do what it does.  You all have been courteous, timely, and just fantastic.

Let's get into Sshhhh!, shall we?

I'm going to try and get as long a review out of this one as I can.  There's really not much to talk about.

Let me start by saying that this is the only book in our little efforts here that I've read twice so far.  I did so because it only takes about twenty minutes to get through the book's some 120 pages.

But let's break it down for you like I usually do...

The book opens with the main character, an anthropomorphic cartoon crow character (in fact, I think ALL the characters in the book are anthropomorphic animals), sitting on the street playing a recorder-type-instrument and panhandling for money.  He gets a coin thrown into his hat, buys a hot dog, and soon retires to his nest to go to sleep.

This troubled character awakes the next day, walking the streets and feeling sorry for himself, seeing other upright-walking animal characters who have all found and are spending time with dear romantic loves.  He walks and walks, gazing at his feet, down and depressed, until he comes to a bridge where he decides to throw a rock into a stream underneath.  When he looks up, there is a lady crow staring into his eyes...

And we pretty much go from there, folks.  We go with this central crow character through all sorts of things.  He finds his love, loses her, is followed around by a skeleton character, meets more lovers, has a son, and so on and so forth...

You might be saying to yourself right about now, "Hey, pal! I thought you read this book twice! What's with the "central crow character" and "lady crow" and "skeleton character" bit?  What are their names?"

And, dear readers, I haven't the foggiest...

You see this entire book has not one word in it.  It's all pictures.  As I say that, I see the "DRRRRR" of the electric razor in the above panel, but aside from that (that's a sound effect anyway, smarties)...  There's not one bit of dialogue between the characters.  When they do speak...  For instance, the crow is at a cafe and he wants a cup of coffee.  There is a word bubble with a cup of coffee drawn in it, signifying that he's asking for a cup.  No "I'll take a cup of coffee please, sir."  No dialogue.

This is really a very interesting book being that it's in that format and for so many other reasons.  It kind of reminds me of Pop Gun War (which I reviewed on this very blog not too long ago), but it's nowhere near as obtuse in terms of plot.  The plot's there.  You can discern for the most part what's going on, but I don't think that means that this one isn't up for a bit of interpretation.

Could all these tales of our little crow be a metaphor for the life a human man and all the things he experiences, fears, goes through, endures, and thinks?  Could they be the dreams of the crow character after he climbs into his nest to sleep in the very first sequence?

I couldn't definitively tell you, friends, but what I will impart is this:  I had to go back and read this book a second time.  I had to experience all those things with the crow character again, especially since it was only going to take me another twenty minutes.  Those of you who know me know that I love to puzzle strange stories and films out and this one is definitely ripe for that.  And it compels you to want to do so.

Also, I couldn't stop thinking about the life and times of this little crow all day today as I went about my business.  There were events in these pages that were truly sad and touching, events that deserve pondering, events that will stay with you, even though there are only little cartoon animals in this book.

Could the plot be a little more overt? Sure, but then again, that may take a little bit away from this artistically.  And speaking of art, the artwork here is perfect for such a tale.  At once cute, strange, unique...  It fits.

Mr. Kannenberg says in his book as he reviews this work that it "leaves a deep impression".  Whether you love or hate this thing, I don't think it can be said any finer.  You're going to ponder this one for a while...

Mr. Kannenberg's rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
13 down, 487 to go

Next time: "I Love Led Zeppelin" which, I expect, has little to do with loving Led Zeppelin.

Have a good one until then, guys...