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Time to catch up on a few graphic novel titles I’ve read recently: :: Water Baby by Ross Campbell is a different kind of story, certainly. I didn’t much enjoy it, but it’s OK. A female surfer named Brody loses half of her leg to a shark attack while surfing, which leads to some kind of existential crisis involving her ex-boyfriend who shows up after an absence, her best friend who seems to have some homosexual tendencies. The three fall in together, alternating between getting along and not getting along, and then they embark on a road trip. The bookDown the rabbit hole….

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UPDATE: Welcome, readers of Boneville, and thanks to Jeff Smith for the link. I’ve read a few graphic novels lately that I’ve procrastinated posting about, so here goes. I’ve seen Jeff Smith‘s name mentioned a lot in comics circles as being a highly-admired artist and writer, but I hadn’t read him much at all except for his recent Shazam! miniseries (which I reviewed for GMR back when). Smith’s most famous work to date is his gigantic opus Bone, which I’d held off reading for a while. The first time I heard of Bone was in the comics essay in oneDown the rabbit hole….

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I wrote once before on the initial graphic novel set in the Firefly universe, Those Left Behind. Now there are two such graphic novels; Those Left Behind has been joined by Better Days. While I’ll pretty much jump at nearly any chance to revisit this universe, neither of these two graphic novels is completely satisfying, which is oddly disappointing considering my belief that comics is the ideal medium for the Firefly universe to live on, if live on it does. The problem with each one boils down simply to the fact that they are too short. It took me aboutDown the rabbit hole….

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Want a foolproof way to get some good graphic novels to read? Grab any edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror – the ones edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow (at least until a couple of years ago, when Windling stepped down and was succeeded by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant), look in the introductory essays for the one on the year’s best graphic novels, and make a reading list from that essay’s recommendations. You won’t go wrong, and you’ll find a lot of amazing stuff across all genres. (And now you’ll have plenty of time toDown the rabbit hole….

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OK, so for some reason, I was thinking about Galactus. He’s the Marvel Comics supervillain who basically flies around the Universe eating planets, because that’s what he eats: planets. So I was thinking, does he get in the mood for certain kinds of planets? I mean, is Galactus ever kicking back and thinking, “Hmmm, I could go for a nice frozen rock of a planet right now, kind of like that one they call ‘Pluto’ in that one system I’m not supposed to eat?” Are there any planets that are a guilty pleasure for Galactus, in the way that, say,Down the rabbit hole….

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This panel from a recent installment of Pearls Before Swine made me laugh uproariously: The storyline here was amusing — the trio of stupid crocodiles adopting superpowers, each relating to obscure office skills like doorstopping, stapling, and removing paper jams from printers — but what got me was “Curse you Hoolit Packurd!” Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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It’s been a while since I bitched about For Better or For Worse, and since the strip is apparently “ending” sometime soon (next month, I believe), I won’t have too many more opportunities. So! One of the annoying tics of this strip (one of oh so many) is the way Lynn Johnston so often seems to find it funny to close out a strip with a really lame pun, like so: And when these lame puns take place, everyone involved in that strip ends up standing there, grinning like idiots at the lame wordplay. It took me a while toDown the rabbit hole….

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I don’t remember where I first saw The Rule of Death linked, so thanks to whomever, but I’m hooked. It’s a web-comic that’s a Western about a man named Pete who, having died, decides that he’d just as soon not be dead after all. It’s got a wonderfully creepy tone to it, along with acerbic dialogue that reminds me of the kind of thing Joss Whedon writes (such as when the town Doc, meeting Pete after Pete’s returned from the dead, says, “You may not realize this, Pete, but yes, accurate identification of life or death is still considered aDown the rabbit hole….

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I have a couple of new reviews up at Green Man Review. First I look at Jeff Smith’s recent graphic novel treatment of Captain Marvel, SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil, which I liked a lot, and Kevin J. Anderson’s recent prose-novel treatment of the last days of Superman’s home planet of Krypton, titled appropriately enough, The Last Days of Krypton. This one I didn’t like as much, although I’m not sure it’s totally Anderson’s fault as he probably did the best he could with the task at hand. Anyway, check out the reviews. Or don’t. Hey, it’s your mouse.Down the rabbit hole….

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I used to actually enjoy For Better or For Worse, but like everybody else, I read it daily now out of the same compulsion that impels me to crane my neck for a better glimpse when I drive by a particularly nasty car wreck. It started going south in a big way when Lynn Johnston decided that Elizabeth needed to ditch her teaching job in that Inuit town in the wild northern Canadian country and return home so she could re-shack up with Anthony, a character so bland that if you distilled his essence to that of a food item,Down the rabbit hole….