Watchmen!

Just finished Watchmen today.
I should have probably read it before going to see the preview and cast panel at WonderCon yesterday - preview would have been way more fun!
Here is an annotated Watchmen site...

I will be really flabbergasted if they manage to convey all of this in the graphic novel onto the screen. Terry Gilliam (and Alan Moore, the writer) had said that it seemed almost impossible to fully do this in a theatrical movie release. Terry Gilliam apparently had been pushing for a miniseries.

The opening of the graphic novel was mystifying me for a long time, until I got to where Dr. Manhattan tells us more about his origin. That and Rorshach's past filled in a lot of the question marks in my head.

Anyway, great book - can't believe I hadn't read it this whole time. Dave had bought it back when working at Barnes and Noble because there's a big "20% off" sticker on it.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón

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A summary from the Amazon site below. This book has the clearest timeline I've ever seen of the events on 9/11, and an easy to understand view of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission's report.
It's interesting in light of Rumsfeld's quote that so few understand the war in Iraq. Perhaps Jacobson and Colón should bring out a second book directly about Iraq, too.

"On December 5, 2005, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report card on the government’s fulfillment of the recommendations issued in July 2004: one A, twelve Bs, nine Cs, twelve Ds, three Fs, and four incompletes. Here is stunning evidence that Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, with more than sixty years of experience in the comic-book industry between them, were right: far, far too few Americans have read, grasped, and demanded action on the Commission's investigation into the events of that tragic day and the lessons America must learn." - Amazon review excerpt

Pedro and Me by Judd Winick

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This is a very moving graphic novel by Judd Winick, Pedro Zamora's roommate in the infamous Real World San Francisco house and good friend. Some parts were a little hard to read, thinking of Mom especially in the hospital scenes around Pedro's bed (They were all there when he passed away, friends, family, everybody). I read it really quickly a few weeks ago but it hit me pretty hard at the time. Dave read it also and no longer disses Judd anymore.

Blankets by Craig Thompson

I've been wanting to read this for a while and just saw it in the graphic novel section of the San Mateo Public Library (hidden away upstairs in the teen/YA section there are DVDs, manga, graphic novels, plus a coffee stand!) - Sidebar, it feels completely sinful to wander around in a !library! with a steaming cup of hot coffee. But no signs against it!

I read the entire book one night while my partner was at a sleep center study. It was awesome. Set in Wisconsin, mostly in the winter, it begins with Craig and his brother as little boys, they share a bed, fight, and draw on large pieces of computer paper (this is pictured in the acknowledgements to thank their dad's friend who gave it to them. It was dot matrix computer paper, connected together with the holes on the edges, which I remember my dad bringing home from work when I was little).
They also challenge each other to walk on top of the crusty frozen snow without falling in, I remember this vividly from growing up in ND.

Craig eventually meets Raina, at a Christian summer camp and falls in love - she gives him a handmade quilt (more blankets!).
She is beautiful and hangs out with both the geeks and the popular people - unbellievable to Craig.

On BART the other day I was looking in the reflection of the window at the cell phone screen that an older gentleman ahead of me was looking at. I realized how common this practice probably is (the voyeuristic looking at people in reflections) but how awkward it is to describe.
An example of the kind of detail in this book is that Craig and Raina are shown looking at each other through the reflections in the windows of her dad's car when her dad is driving them home.
Look at all the words to show that but in the book it was one panel and it said it all. (Craig was in the back seat of the family minivan and so this was the best way for him to see her).
Buy on Amazon!

Y The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

This is a really great graphic novel series - recommended by a friend at work who used to work in a comic book store.

I've read the first 4 softcover collections from the list below, we are probably going to be getting issues 5 and 6 this weekend.

The question is, what would happen if some unexplained phenomenon caused all the men and male mammals in the world to die at the same time, except for one twenty-something guy and his male monkey?

Yorick Brown is the guy in question here, and has been so far, very faithful to his girlfriend in Australia, even though he has no idea whether or not she is still alive. The book is beautifully drawn and the story just sucks you in completely, with all kinds of secrets, missing characters (Yorick's sister, the similarly Shakespearean named Hero, for example).

Reading comics for me is like watching a movie or a TV show, or having a dream. I just inhale them, especially when they are good. And I have such an unending supply of them available from my boyfriend's collection.

1. Unmanned: Issues #1-5 - bought and read together with #2
   
2. Cycles: Issues #6-10 - see above
   
3. One Small Step: Issues #11-17 - bought and read last weekend with #4
   
4. Safeword: Issues #18-23 - see above
   
5. Ring Of Truth: Issues #24-31
6. Girl on Girl: Issues #32-36
7. Paper Dolls: Issues #37-42 (Outs May/17/06)