Thmazing's Thutopia: Covid Comics Continued (with other books)

2020-03-29

Covid Comics Continued (with other books)

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023) Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive by an Allred-led team, finished March 20

I purchased this books months and months before it was even released...and then it's sat unread on my shelf since then.

But why?

The team is a mix of people I admire and/or count as a friend (and Rich Tommaso, who seems great, but is new to me), but they're doing DIck Tracy, who I've never managed to care about. I read him in newspapers daily for years and never managed to care. The movie came out when I was at an age to love it and I still haven't bothered to watch it. I just...don't care about Dick Tracy.

But now! thanks to the Covid Comics Extravaganza! I have read Dead or Alive and I can tell you: it is an absolute blast. One of the most fun comics I've read in a while. It's a mash of 30s sense and style with bits of modernity and it's terrific.

That said, it also dives right into everything that's problematic about American policing. Tracy's a hero, sure, but he's also a remorseless monster. And in this candy-colored world of deformed villains, okay. But some recent reading in this household leaves us disquieted.

But we wouldn't want our comics to be simple, now would we?

one day for story, one day for backmatter

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024) Homespun and Angel Feathers by Darlene Young, finished March 25

I had a copy of this collection to give my mother for Christmas, but I forgot to bring it to her. So instead, I just bought a new copy and had it shipped straight to her for covid reading material. I don't know if she'll read it (my dad is loving his covid book), but I hope she will. No one has captured the reality of modern, lived Mormon experience as well or as honestly as Darlene. It's a book that rewards rereading---although my rereading rewarded a little bit less, because covid-reading in the Thteed household is loud and chaotic and comprehension is not quite so high as one might wish....

maybe half a week

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025) Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe, finished March 28

I bought this on Jake Parker's recommendation over eight years ago and it's been sitting on the shelf next to my bed since then.

Which is EXACTLY why a covid comics extravaganza is necessary.

(I don't know what's wrong with me.)

The book is beautifully drawn and wonderful-strange. It even dips into the metafictional at one point for reasons I cannot fathom. Most of the words and SFX are in hangul, but the roman alphabet also makes appearances, the reasons for which I am unsure of. Characters change shape and age and---I'm not sure I ever realized that fairy tales about metamorphosis might be metaphors for again.

It's a solid and mysterious book, makes great use of traditional Korean images---it's a true both-side-of-the-Pacific hybrid---and I really loved it. Worthy the wait. I mean. I guess? I don't even know what that means....

morning

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026) Lost Dogs by AUTHOR, finished March 28

Lost Dogs came out the same year I bought Jinchalo (or, rather, this rerelease did), but I really don't remember when or where I picked it up. Why is much easier: it's Jeff Lemire. And it's after I read Essex County.

(Incidentally, it's great that Jeff Lemire is doing lots of good writing for DC, but I personally would prefer more written-and-drawn-by-Lemire comics, myself.)

Lost Dogs was the first comic Lemire finished and his style is already mature and individual. The story's a bit half-done, but the pathos of the art makes that matter much much less than it might have out of another's inkwell. It is a tale of a giant forced into unwanted violence, which is not exactly original, but this giant ties into other traditions (note the occasional efforts to make him echo Frankenstein's creature) and the simplicity slowly lends itself to something that tastes a bit more like allegory.

Lemire does get better, but he should never be ashamed of the book that came first. It's still good.

morning

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027) The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture by Terryl Givens with Brian M. Hauglid, finished March 29

I picked this up at first to read the second on Joseph Smith—History for a project I'm working on. But that was so great, I kept reading through the end of the book, then back to the beginning to read about Moses and Abraham. The Abraham part was looooong and took what at least felt like the bulk of the time spent reading, but it was still insightful and scholarly and insightful.

I wish I'd read this book before recording Face in Hat's translation episode.

In short, this book comes from me highly recommended if you like engaging with the Church in an intellectual way. I guarantee you will bump into points and arguments that are new to you. It's a bounty, to be sure.

coupla months

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books from the recent and distant past

books one through five

001) Titiana in Yellow by Dayna Patterson, finished January 1
002) The Tree at the Center by Kathryn Knight Sonntag, finished January 5
003) After Earth by Michael Lavers, finished January 12
004) Monstress, Volume One: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, finished January 15
005) The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford, finished January 17

books six through eleven

006) The Marriage of the Moon and the Field by Sunni Brown Wilkinson, finished January 25
007) My Parents Married on a Dare by Carlfred Broderick, finished January 26
008) The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl (volume one) by Scott Hales, finished January 26
009) The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl (volume two) by Scott Hales, finished January 27
010) Solid State by Coulton / Fraction / Monteys, finished February 9
011) Into the Sun: Poems Revised, Rearranged, and New by Colin B. Douglas, finished February 16

books thirteen through sixteen

012) Wag the Dog: A Study on Film and Reality in the Digital Age by Eleftheria Thanouli, finished February 17
013) Flaming Carrot Omnibus: Volume 1 by Bob Burden, finished February 17
014) The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag, finished February 22
015) The October Faction Vol. 2 by Steve Niles and Damien Worm, finished February 24
016) Minus by Lisa Naffziger, finished February 26

books seventeen through twenty-two

017) Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, finished February 29
018) Calexit by Matteo Pizzolo | Amancay Nahuelpan | Tyler Boss, finished March 7
019) Emma by Jane Austen, finished March 8
020) Animal Man by Grant Morrison, Book One, by Morrison and team, finished March 14
021) The Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala, finished March 16
022) Gloriana by Kevin Huizenga, finished March 18