What's going on, and a May book binge ...

First, a bit of housekeeping: I’m sorry that the chapter didn’t go up last Wednesday as scheduled. It will go up tonight, but I’m taking next week off to catch up with the art chores. So expect to see some new paintings cropping up on the Facebook page … we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog entry.

It’s May. That means books.

I’m a big believer in positive incentives. I prefer the carrot to the stick, whether I’m the one dishing it out or the one taking it. I like to dangle little rewards for good behavior, whether I’m motivating students to finish their essays or motivating myself to get the dishes done. There’s a piece of chocolate with my name on it for when I finish the rewrites on Teh Novel. Yes, chocolate. Tasty, tasty chocolate …

Ahem.

Anyway, I long ago got into the habit of arranging a book binge for myself in late spring. When I was a kid, my parents would buy me a new book every June as a reward for getting straight A’s in school. (Yes, one new book for an entire report card of nothing but A’s … my folks drove a hard bargain, and they knew exactly where my levers were.) It was an event up there with Christmas and my birthday, and conveniently came in the middle of the long lull between those two events. I won’t say I got good grades specifically because it meant I got a new book out of the deal—my ego was way too tied up in my academic performance for that to be true—but it gave me something to look forward to and a reason not to slack off at the end of the school year.

Later on, when I got into middle school and high school and had some kind of standardized test just about every year in May or June, I started buying myself a new book or two, or a small stack of comics, as a reward for putting up with all that answer-bubbling monotony. I would always finish my tests early, and the book acted as a nice incentive to finish the tests well—if I did a good job, I could read my shiny new book while I waited for everyone else to finish. (On those rare tests that banned outside reading material in the testing room, I generally wrote scenes on scratch paper and then read them.) So I continued the tradition of book-bingeing in those years.

When I got to college, I used the book binge as a reward for getting through finals. Those tests actually were difficult for me, and they required a lot of studying and a lot of stress. I don’t handle stress well when I register it—if I don’t manage to ignore it entirely, I tend to weigh the benefits of whatever I’m doing against the cost of the stress, and the stress typically wins by just a little bit and I give up. So the carrot was necessary to tip the scales—maybe the classes themselves weren’t worth the stress of finals, but the classes and a new book or two were worth quite a bit more. I continued the custom in grad school.

Then, my first year out of grad, May rolled around and I felt vaguely bereft. I had no particular deadlines in that month, no onerous task that required a carrot to make me complete it. But I missed the warm pleasure of stretching out under a tree—or in the backseat of my car, or in a comfy chair by an open window—and reading my way through a stack of new stories in the late-spring sunshine. And I thought: Where is it written that grown-ups don’t need carrots? Is there some rule that says I can’t buy a couple of books just because it’s May?

So this week I’m putting together a used-book order. It’s mostly graphic novels this year, with perhaps a prose novel or two into the bargain. I’m filling in gaps in my Winter Soldier collection and catching up with PS238. I’m exploring the Kid Loki arc Marvel Comics has put together in the last few years, because I recently got a nifty story idea involving Norse mythology and I want to make sure my Loki doesn’t overlap too much with theirs. (So far I’m not overlapping at all, except for elements of the original myth, which is nice.) And I have a line on some Peter S. Beagle stuff too.

Someday soon I’ll have to find myself a new shade tree …

Comic books you should be gifting

It’s the most wonderful tiiiiiiime of the shopping year, and I’ll bet you’ve run out of easy gift ideas. Well, when you’ve come back from your frantic run to the craft store to buy supplies for making your own Pocket Coyote (the pattern goes up this week!), take a gander at this year’s list of comics that make great gifts—even for the people on your list who don’t read comics.

The Big Two comic companies have been mostly a wash this year. Don’t get me wrong, I still loves me some old-school superhero slugfests, but everyone’s been so wrapped up in the mega-crossover storyline of the moment (as they have been for the past five or ten years, really) that it hasn’t been a good year for new fans to try to get to know the medium. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of goodness out there, though—you just have to know where to look. Here are ten excellent starting points.

1. The Walking Dead. Whether you’re a fan of the AMC TV series or you just like a little brain-gobbling action in your literary life, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead has a lot going for it. I’m not a great fan of the zombies myself, but this comic stopped me in my tracks with the power of its writing. Months after I first read the story, I would still catch myself thinking in my off moments about the doctor on the isolated farm who caught zombies and kept them in his barn as he worked to find a cure for zombieism … because his son was in the barn. You’ll believe a zombie can make you cry. Start with Volume 1, “Days Gone Bye.” Rated R for blood, gore, and ruthless yanking on the old heartstrings. Perfect for: horror fans, gorehounds, zombie aficionados, and anyone with a taste for a good story and a willingness to go beyond the usual.

2. The Unwritten. I’ve hyped this series before, but it still deserves it. A massive headrush of a comic about the secret goings-on behind our most enduring stories (and, consequently, our reality), The Unwritten has consistently delivered top-notch mystery, action, character, and big ideas. It begins when Tom Taylor, the namesake of a Harry Potter-esque boy wizard and the son of the missing author who created the character, discovers that his identity may be a forgery and that he may have more in common with the fictional Tommy Taylor than he thought. Guest appearances by Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Herman Melville, and other literary giants—but do watch out for Beatrix Potter, because she’s downright scary. Start with Volume 1, “Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity.” R for violence, language, and mind-blowing twists. Perfect for: voracious readers, pop-culture junkies, Harry Potter fans with a taste for the dark, and anyone who’s ever suspected their English teacher wasn’t telling the whole story.

3. The Saga of Rex. This is the all-ages offering this time around—a heartbreakingly beautiful, almost wordless comic about a little fox named Rex who gets kidnapped by a spaceship and befriends an alien shapeshifter named Aven. Neither Rex nor Aven speaks; there’s only a little narration to explain that Rex has found himself in the midst of some kind of enigmatic trial, and that Aven somehow needs him to win through. Rex’s boundless curiosity and indomitable spirit—and artist Michel Gagné’s breathtaking visuals—carry the story from there. (Gagné is perhaps best-known for his work in movies, including The Iron Giant and Ratatouille.) There are some scary moments when Rex is pitted against a giant bug-monster and some outright weird moments when he gets transformed into an alien unicorn-fox, but The Saga of Rex never runs out of wonders to share. Available in one volume. Rated G, but watch out for the bug-monster if the recipient is very young. Perfect for: kids who love fantasy and sci-fi, anyone who loves animal heroes, anyone who loves cute stuff, anyone who loves whimsical artwork.

4. PS238. Oh, PS238, how do I love thee! One of the best comics out there right now, and I’m not just saying that because creator Aaron Williams has commented on this blog. PS238 is a comic about a school for superpowered kids—who, unlike most children in fiction, act like real kids. In between figuring out their first team-ups and how to save the world from alien invasions and grade-school mad science, they struggle mightily with things like parental divorce and sibling rivalry—in this case, made all the more complicated because the sibling is a newly created clone who’s everything your parents always wanted in a son. And the thing that never fails to surprise me about PS238 is that a comic with this much heart and this much brain can also make me laugh until milk squirts out my nose. Just take poor Tyler Marlocke, the one un-super kid in the school, who’s forced to take hero lessons from a mere-mortal vigilante, the Revenant, who says things like, “Ah, you lucky kid. When I was your age, I could only dream of going a hundred and thirty-five miles per hour on city streets!” Start with Volume One, “With Liberty and Recess For All”, or jump right into the recently released Volume 8, “When Worlds Go Splat!” Rated PG for mild violence, a few grown-up concepts, and nerdy pop-culture references including Zork. Perfect for: superhero fans of all ages and anyone who enjoys a good laugh.

5. Buffy Season 8. I’m of two minds of this one, honestly, but decided to include it on points. Joss Whedon’s snarky opus remains a watershed in the history of fantasy and sci-fi television (to say nothing of its importance in the development of a certain snarky girl mask), and Dark Horse Comics’ continuation of the adventures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has most of the old magic intact. Written mostly by Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy Season 8 updates some of the classic plotlines and addresses more recent twists like our culture’s growing fascination with sexy vampires (the Slayer and her friends are justifiably creeped out by this, even though Buffy’s romance with the vampire Angel set the standard in many ways). Throw in the interesting complexity of a villain named Twilight created before Stephenie Meyer’s book series hit it big, blend with plenty of Joss Whedon snark, and you’ve got a nice little ride. Start with Volume 1, “The Long Way Home.” Rated PG-13 for sex, violence, and classic Buffy angst. Perfect for: the superhero, vampire, and Joss Whedon fans in your life—you know you have them.

6. Nightschool. This manga series from Yen Press recently published its fourth and last (for a while, anyway) volume, and the story and art held up the whole way through. Although it started out being mostly about a teenage witch searching for her missing sister in a public school for supernatural creatures, it grew into more of a braided narrative with a rich cast of characters on all sides of the main conflict (the snarky, dangerous Hunters are particularly intriguing) and a whopping supernatural threat to fight for the grand finale. Writer-artist Svetlana Chmakova (best known for the romantic-comedy manga Dramacon) keeps up her characteristic raucous humor the whole way through, and her moody, elegant art is a real treat. Start with Volume 1. Rated PG-13 for violence and that bit with the mermaid. Perfect for: manga fans, urban-fantasy and YA fantasy junkies, and anyone who likes to laugh while they’re shrieking.

7. Green Hornet: Year One. Okay, I admit, this one made the list only because I really wanted to include The Green Hornet Strikes! and the first collection won’t be out in time for Christmas. But it’s a close second in the race for best Green Hornet title to come out of this year’s relaunch of the character, and it’s an amazing read all by itself. For those of you not up on the premise of the Green Hornet, he’s a newspaper publisher in a trenchcoat and mask who pretends to be a gangster so he can take out all the other local hoods, protecting his city under the guise of a turf war. He’s assisted in this by Kato, originally Asian Sidekick Type 2A (sometimes Korean, sometimes Filipino, sometimes Japanese, and memorably played on television by Bruce Lee) and now more of a mentor and confidante. Green Hornet: Year One follows Britt’s globetrotting odyssey as he starts to get the idea to become the Hornet, paralleling Kato’s training as a ninja and his opposition to the Japanese government’s expansionist policies in the 1930s (he takes on his fellow soldiers during the Nanking Massacre). What follows is an intriguing mix of period adventure, gangster movie, and character-driven epic as Britt and Kato, bound by mutual obligation and fascination, learn to work together and figure out just what their goals as heroes will be. Rated PG-13 for violence and some language. Start with Volume One, "The Sting of Justice." Perfect for: fans of 1930s adventure, pulp fanatics, and anyone who wants to see ninjas done right.

8. The Lone Ranger. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—Brett Matthews’ Lone Ranger series may have a spotty publishing schedule, but it’s worth the wait, every time. It offers a richly drawn period adventure, packed with heartstopping action and drama, without losing the key elements that made the original property great. The Lone Ranger, for those of you living under rocks, is the story of John Reid, a Texas Ranger mortally wounded in the ambush that kills his Ranger father and brother. He survives his wounds thanks to the timely intervention of Tonto, an exiled member of a local native tribe, and goes on to become a masked vigilante. As the best-known cowboy superhero, the Ranger is a tricky character to write—not least because of the frankly racist portrayals of Tonto in previous incarnations—but Matthews walks the tightrope beautifully, giving both characters powerful but complex inner lives and pitting them against a genuinely frightening psychopath of a villain. The most familiar moments—the first meeting with the horse Silver, the digging of the six graves, John’s awkward first contact with his brother’s son—have the power of myth. Rated PG-13 for gunplay and, in a later volume, an attempted sexual assault. Start with Volume One, “Now and Forever.” Perfect for: Western fans, pulp-adventure buffs, and anyone who listens for the hoofbeats of a fiery horse with the speed of light.

9. Mouse Guard. How to explain Mouse Guard? It’s a lavish historical adventure … that just happens to star a bunch of mice. David Petersen’s Eisner-Award-winning saga of a colony of intelligent medieval-era mice departs from the typical talking-animal story by taking its furry characters as seriously as any human. The mice don’t live thinly disguised parallels of human history, secreted in the baseboards of some palace—they have their own cities deep in the woods, and fight desperate battles with weasels, owls, and other creatures. As the title suggests, the series follows the adventures of the Mouse Guard, a combination military and expeditionary force, as they go about their duties—fighting dangerous beasts, escorting travelers, scouting, and acting as guides and guardians to common mice. The characters are richly complex, the art is breathtakingly beautiful, and the ongoing storyline about a fallen hero called the Black Axe will intrigue anyone who likes a good sword-swinging adventure. Rated PG-13 for violence. Perfect for: Tolkien buffs, anyone who enjoys historical fiction, fans of Brian Jacques’ Redwall, and anyone who looks at the cover and says “Ooh!”

10. Fables. A perennial favorite at the Eisner Awards, this series about fairytale characters living secretly in the modern world has become an unparalleled hit (around 100 issues, 15 volumes, and no signs of stopping). Reinterpreted characters such as Snow White (divorced from Prince Charming, effectively running the community in exile), the Big Bad Wolf (grudgingly turned human, acting as Fabletown’s sheriff and secretly in love with Snow White), and Little Boy Blue (jazz trumpeter, office assistant, and occasional sword-swinging hero) live out their adventures after fleeing their respective fairy-tale lands just ahead of the grim, world-conquering Adversary (another fabled character whose identity I won’t spoil here). Fables runs the gamut, genre-wise, from the murder mystery in its first volume to later detours through areas including romance stories, war epics, and a truly hair-raising take on George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The series has become writer-creator Bill Willingham’s calling card, and with good reason—no matter who’s providing its lush interior art, Fables delivers the surprising storytelling goods. Rated R for sex, violence, and occasional heartbreak. Start with Volume One, “Legends in Exile,” although I’m personally quite partial to Volume Four, “Storybook Love” and Volume Six, “Homelands.” Perfect for: fairytale fanatics, folklore and mythology buffs, and anyone who likes a little subversion in their bedtime stories.

Comic books you should be reading

I started writing Rae Masterson and her friends all those years ago because I wanted to get people who don’t read comic books to start reading comic books. Now I have lots and lots of readers … most of them people who don’t read comic books. Step one is accomplished. So since it’s raining cats out there today (yes, it does happen!), I’ve decided to put together a little list of comics you’ll probably enjoy if you like Masks. Or, in fact, if you don’t. No matter what you’re into, here are some good places to start, with content ratings for the queasy.

1. If you like teenage superhero adventures, you will probably enjoy … Brian K. Vaughn’s Runaways series, which began in 2003. Start from the beginning—you’ll find some of the best stuff there. The first volume, Pride and Joy, chronicles the adventures of a pack of seemingly semi-normal California teenagers who discover that their parents are actually supervillains—crime lords, evil wizards, time-traveling despots, mad scientists, mind-controlling mutants, and aliens bent on world domination. The parents have formed a criminal syndicate called the Pride that’s plotting to destroy the world, and all that stands between them and success is six kids who’ve inherited their parents’ powers and a telepathic dinosaur named Old Lace. PG-13, for rollicking violence and Sister Grimm kissing everyone on the team.

You will probably also enjoy … Young Avengers, at least the early run by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. Set during a period of Marvel Comics continuity where the longstanding Avengers team had been dissolved, the comic follows six superpowered teenagers who try to step into some very big shoes, with mixed results. They face active opposition from former Avengers Iron Man and Captain America even as they deal with time-hopping tyrants, an alien invasion, and getting grounded for fighting evil too late on a school night. My favorite line: “This is NOT superhero behavior!” The first collection, Sidekicks, is a great place to start. PG-13, for lots of violence and that thing with Billy and Teddy.

2. If you like snarky superhero adventure, you will probably enjoy … the recent hit “season eight” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Dark Horse Comics. Joss Whedon’s pioneering TV series pretty much made it okay for girls to slay monsters and for everyone to be snarky about everything, and the comic continues the cancelled series with a blockbuster budget and some excellent writing, so I encourage everyone who hasn’t yet to pick up the trades, starting with The Long Way Home. Please note: Buffy had a villain named Twilight before the book series had enslaved the masses, which makes what’s going on in the later volumes even funnier … PG-13 again, for Slayers kicking monster butt and the thing with the cinnamon lip gloss.

3. If you like superhero team-ups, you will probably enjoy … Geoff Johns’ triumphant return to the team he made awesome in Justice Society of America. Start with the first trade of the recent reboot, The Next Age. While the JSA has always been something of a magnet for superhero nostalgia buffs—it features the adventures of a superteam that’s been around since World War II, mostly made up of original, very senior members or of modern successors to those who have died—it’s also extremely well-written under Johns. Anybody can write about a kid getting the call to join a big-name team, but only Johns could come up with someone like Maxine Hunkel, a teenage wind witch, JSA fangirl and blue-streak chatterbox whose response to the invitation is … memorable. And how can you not love a comic whose first issue ends with a dead superhero falling through the skylight onto the conference room table? PG-13 again, mostly for the dead guy.

4. If you like cowboys, you will probably enjoy … Dynamite Entertainment’s bestselling Lone Ranger series, beginning with the first volume. It’s hard to do a good Western these days without trying to graft in steampunk or modern politics, but writer Brett Matthews has done it, with a surprising take on the Ranger’s origin story and the best Tonto I’ve seen in years. (Hint: You find out why he’s really running around with this idiot white boy …) Starting with the classic character as the shellshocked survivor of his big brother’s murder puts a promising spin on the hero-sidekick dynamic, and it’s good that someone finally gave black-hat Butch Cavendish a villainous personality worth watching. PG-13, for the pretty graphic results of six-gun action and, eventually, what happens between Linda Reid and ... well, I won't spoil it for you.

5. If you like mythology-infused adventure, you will probably enjoy … J. Michael Straczynski’s multi-award-winning run on Amazing Spider-Man. Beginning with the first volume in the run, Coming Home, and now collected in several hardcovers that are mostly worth the cover price, Straczynski takes Spidey to new and surprising places. Most notably, the JMS run deals with what happens when Peter Parker’s “sweet old Aunt May” finds out, after all these years, that he’s Spider-Man—“I knew you had something in the closet. Could’ve been chiffon. Who knew it was a costume?”—and Spidey’s encounter with the mysterious Ezekiel, a powerful and enigmatic figure who seems to have all of Spidey’s abilities but also a lot more connections to the supernatural than Spidey himself ever thought he had. Watch for appearances by Dr. Strange and Loki, Norse god of the hotfoot. Especially watch for what happens when Loki eats a New York hotdog.PG-13 for wholesale property destruction and paralyzingly funny dialogue.

You will probably also enjoy … Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, now being collected for the billionth time in yet another commemorative edition. This groundbreaking story, which ran for 10 volumes from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, went to startling and fantastic places with the idea of a god of dreams being forced to change. It’s studied in college literature courses, and not just in a “ha ha, I get to read comic books for credit” way. Honestly, I can’t describe this one and do it justice. Just go read it. This one gets an R rating for grown-up stuff.

6. If you like intrigue and high-octane shoot-em-ups, you will probably enjoy … Ed Brubaker’s bazillion-selling run on Captain America. Brubaker took a somewhat dorky patriotic superhero and revamped his comic as a compelling thrill ride of international espionage, with unexpected emotional twists. While the run is now best-known for including the assassination of Captain America in early 2006 and the four years of terrific storytelling it’s pulled off in the absence of the title character, it’s worth your time to go back to the beginning and pick up volumes one and two of the Winter Soldier storyline, which starts with the murder of Cap’s longtime enemy, the Red Skull, and concludes with a reality-warping knock-down, drag-out fight between Cap and the most memorable opponent he’s faced in years—his back-from-the-dead sidekick from World War II.PG-13 for sex, violence, and angst.

7. If you like all-ages superhero fun, you will probably enjoy … Aaron William’s delightful PS238. Billed as “the school for metaprodigy children,” PS238 is a secret elementary school for the children of superheroes and supervillains, a concept so good that Disney has stolen it twice and failed both times to express Williams’ genius. Told mostly from the point of view of Tyler Marlocke, the normal child of two superheroes who so badly want him to develop superpowers that they’re sending him to school with werewolves, aliens, and freaks of science in the hope something will rub off, PS238 combines the schoolyard adventures of Harry Potter with high-flying superhero action and hefty doses of some of the best social and literary criticism you’ll ever read from people in tights. But don’t worry, parents—there’s stuff in there for you, too. G for most issues, PG for the alien invasion and frank talk about a superhero divorce.

8. If you enjoy genre-bending superhero drama, you will probably enjoy … Kurt Busiek’s Astro City, a loving look at “what else happens” in superhero stories. Infrequently published over the last few years, it’s generally worth the wait to read stories about things like life in the section of town populated by vampires and werewolves, or what happens when an enterprising lawyer uses the “evil twin” defense on the case of a non-superpowered client. While the first volume, Life in the Big City, is a masterpiece of vignette storytelling, for my money the best work yet is the second volume, Confession, a coming-of-age narrative about a boy who comes to the city to be a superhero and gets more than he bargained for, on several levels. I have lent my copy of Confession to comics skeptics so many times that the cover’s falling off, and none of them have returned it unimpressed. But some were crying. PG for some violence and a lot of grown-up thinking.

You will probably also enjoy … Warren Ellis’ recently completed Planetary series. Start with the first volume, All Over the World and Other Stories, and get hooked. Planetary’s team of squabbling “mystery archaeologists” travel the world in search of bizarre real-world relics of pop-culture zeitgeist, from the island where all the Godzilla monsters went to die to the rocket that brought a certain alien baby to earth … watch for a conversation beginning, “Did you really kick a rhino over the Grand Canyon?” R rating for violence, nudity, language, and other goodies. You've been warned.

That’s all for this week, class. Do the reading, and next time we’ll discuss the literary significance of wearing your underwear on the outside … Freudians, please stay home.