Blankets

Blankets was just a beautiful book. I have no other way to describe it. I sat down to read some of it before I went to bed one night and I couldn't put it down. I was completely drawn in by his style of drawing right from the beginning. The stories of him and his little brother sharing a bed were both funny and intensely telling of his life. I found that the glimpses he gave us into his childhood were crucial for the entire book. The way the story unfolded seemed completely organic; there was nothing that seemed forced or unnecessary. I think that half the story was also told through the characters' body language. For instance, the conversation between Craig and Raina the first time he sleeps with her in her bed is filled with body language. You can see the way he pulls away from her that he doesn't want to at first and the way she leans forward tells us that she wants him to. I am always impressed when the pictures convey deeper meanings than the words above them. I think perhaps my favorite were the last few pages with the images all morphing into each other. The entire story really resonated with me as I struggle to discover my own beliefs and my own faith. I never had religion pushed on me like Craig did in the book, but I think that this is an almost universal battle that people go through. The way in which Thompson presented it was smooth, effortless and beautiful. I can see myself rereading this several times in the near future.

Preacher 2: Until the End of the World

I enjoyed this volume a lot more than the first. The story was crazy. It laid out the back stories of both Jesse and Tulip. You find out how they met and all about Jesse's horrific family. The characters in his family were quite scary. The grandmother was far and away the ugliest/creepiest character I have seen in a comic so far. I thought she sort of looked like the Other Mother in Coraline towards the end of the movie. I found myself sympathizing more with Jesse and understanding his actions more. I was also glad that Cassidy made an appearance in this book. I liked when he changed his accent to pretend to be Cassidy. (p.) I appreciated that there was a bit less killing and bloody scenes in this volume. It made it a little easier to read, I wasn't as grossed out. My favorite picture in this volume was on page 105 right after Jesse killed T.C. I thought it does a really good job of showing Jesse's new perspective and character. Even his clothes screamed "Bad Ass." I am excited to see how the story plays out in the next volumes.

The Preacher

I just finished the first volume of Preacher: Gone to Texas. Wow. I have never been so viscerally affected by a book (maybe with the exception of the scene in Crime and Punishment where they beat the horse to death). Preacher was so intense. There was nothing about it that was sugar coated; from the language to the pictures. I don't know if I liked it. I know it is good because of how I am reacting to it, but I can't say that I particularly enjoyed reading it. There was so much blood. I don't have a strong stomach for that kind of thing. So I will try to focus more on the story and the characters. The premise of the book is interesting. Preacher Jesse Custer combining with Genesis, the child of an angel and a demon, then deciding he has to find god, who quit a long time ago. To top it all off, he partners with a vampire, Cassidy, and his ex girlfriend, Tulip. Even the cops are crazy! Everyone in the book is crazy! The cops in Texas are crazy racists, but they all end up getting killed by the saint of killing and the cops in New York seem to be pathetic, closet homosexuals. Then there is Si Coltrane, the deranged serial killer/reporter. He is the quintessential bad guy who thinks it is all a joke, but his crimes are sick, far sicker than any other comic I have read. Of all the characters, Cassidy was my favorite because I thought he was funny and interesting. He believes that all humanity is messed up, but only kills those who are already dying or "deserve it." What a bizarre dichotomy, especially for a two thousand year old vampire. I also liked that you could tell he had an accent just from the way his speech is written. That must be a very hard thing to convey. I don't know if I will be able to read the whole series. I don't know if my stomach can handle it.

Y The Last Man cont.

Y The Last Man keeps getting better and better. I have read through volume 4 and plan on finishing 5 tonight. The pace of story stays exciting and interesting throughout it all and it rarely ever drags. I find that the dialogue also is easy to read and sounds natural. I like all the jokes that Yorick makes (even though most of them are pretty dumb). Vaughn does a good job developing all of his characters, even the small ones. For instance, when Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann were in Marrisville even the nameless faces of the women in the crowds had characters. The old lady in particular was well done; she was tough, but also empathetic. I think that Pia Guerra does an especially good job on the faces of the characters. Their faces always convey a lot of emotion and it makes the story more dynamic. A good example of some of the faces is on page 79 of the second volume.

In the third volume, One Small Step, the author reveals the reason behind the title of the story. It comes from a Mary Shelly novel called The Last Man, a story in which a plague where everyone dies except for Lionel the main character. In Y The Last Man a traveling group of actresses put on a play that they wrote about the last man on earth. The writer for the play was inspired by the appearance of the monkey Ampersand in their lives. Yorick ridicules the play and is distressed to find out that in the end of the play the last man kills himself.

Y the Last Man

Y the Last Man was a very interesting comic. While I only have read the first book so far, I am intrigued to see what happens. So far I like the characters and the plot. I especially like agent 355. I like the fact that she doesn't have a name. I also enjoyed the structure of the book. Each chapter starts out in the now, then goes back a certain amount of time and works forward again to the present. It makes for an interesting and captivating read. I think that the strongest pages were pages 31 to 33 when all of the men die and you see one panel pictures from all over the world. It was a very good way to convey the fact that this tragedy was happening everywhere and it was also a good way to introduce characters. I also think the art work is amazing! I think the splash page on 59 is my favorite. It is a painting of Yorick jumping out of the white house in front of the American flag with his mother and some other women holding guns below him. It is very dramatic and aesthetically interesting. Since the style of that page is so different from the others, the page really sticks out and makes an impression. I cannot wait to read the other books.

Character Description

Bean:

Bean is a young girl throughout most of the novel, but she gets older as the story goes on. Bean's universe is very similar to ours, the only real difference being what the people look like. There are boys and girls, men and women, even though at times it is hard to distinguish between the two. Everyone wears cloaks that covers their entire body except for their faces. In Bean's part of the world, known as Timaginoan, spoken words are rarely used as usually the people's faces convey what they are thinking. People in Timaginoan have stopped thinking for themselves and conformity is rewarded. Children are meant to learn the rules and a trade, but nothing else. Bean's problem is her insatiable curiosity. It is the reason she cannot sleep at night. She knows there is more to learn than what she is taught and there is more to see than what is around her. The books at the school full fill Bean's thirst for knowledge for the time being, but when she leaves she gets that nagging to find something new again. Bean's restlessness only increases with the knowledge that there is something beyond her small part of the world. She has a good sense of adventure and can tell stories at the drop of a hat.
The people of Timaginoan eat very bland foods pureed together into a sort of mush. (It is called moosh). It is a blend of cabbages and potatoes, on special occasions carrots are used. Bean discovers other foods while on her travels, some as exotic as pomegranates and avocados.

Dark Knight Strikes Again

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is Frank Miller's sequel to the Dark Knight Returns. It has all the same super heroes a long with some new ones like Wonder Woman and Dick Grayson. The story begins with Batman and Catgirl (formerly Robin) training a group of batboys to fight against Lex Luthor's control on the city. The batboys release many other super heroes from government buildings, where they were being forced to work for the evils that be. Superman, who is also under control of Luther, is told to stop Batman, but is defeated in the Batcave. Batman finds himself and his 'soldiers' to be pop culture superstars and start making public appearances preaching rebellion against the government. The Question, sort of a similar character to the Watchmen's Rorscharch in that he writes down his thoughts and observations in a notebook and tends to work alone, spies on Luther. The Question tries to get Martian Manhunter to kill Superman because he is too much of a powerful weapon for Luther to have in his power. However, while they are planning they are attacked by someone who looks like the Joker. The Question is rescued by the Green Arrow, but the mysterious bad guy gets away. Brainiac releases a monster on the city, which Batman ignores because he sees that it is an attempt to get him out of hiding. However, Brainiac makes sure that his monster defeats Superman and the other super heroes under his and Luther's control to make people stop believing in the power of super heroes. Superman does not die though because he is saved by his daughter Lara, who is also the daughter of Wonder Woman. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Lara run away from Luther to join Batman. But they also trick Brainiac into thinking they are going to give him Lara and by doing this they get the Atom to get into the bottle, where he lets out the Kandorians. This starts the revolution. Batman then lets himself be captured by Luther to distract him while the Green Lantern destroys his satellites that were going to kill most of the world's population. Luther is then killed by the son of Hawkman. Then Catgirl sends a message to Batman telling him that she is being attacked by Dick Grayson, who it turns out was the villain who looked like the joker, but he heals extremely fast and has the mind of the criminally insane. (Dick Grayson was Batman's first Robin). Batman throws himself and Grayson into a fiery pit of lava, but he is saved by Superman and Carrie.
Whew, summarizing is a lot of work for these books. I thought a lot of the same about this Batman book as I did about The Dark Knight Returns. I thought it was cool and fun, but not my favorite. I did like in this one how Miller explored a darker side of Batman by making it so he is willing to sacrifice the lives of innocents because the risk is too great. I also thought that Lara was an interesting character, showing traits of a villain even despite the fact that her parents were Superman and Wonder Woman. The art, again, was great; entertaining and lively. I also thought the pace of this book made it an easier read than the Dark Knight returns. All considered I liked this one better than the first.