What are you reading in April 2010

Didn't see this thread for this month yet, so I figured I'd get it started.

Just finished reading Timothy and the Transgalactic Towel - a humorous book for young readers (marketed for ages 9-12). It's a fantasy/science fiction book that satirizes some aspects of those genres. My particular favorite is Mortimer the adjunct droid who appears to be based on Marvin the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

catching up on The Walking Dead and I just got through Neil Gaiman's Black Orchid

What did you think of Black Orchid? That's a Gaiman I haven't read.

I finished Plain Janes, which was good but didn't quite live up to the accolades. Up next is Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.

I actually liked it a bit. It's aged fairly well, and though not his best work, I enjoyed the story and Dave McKean's artwork.

Thanks - hard to beat that Gaiman/McKean combination!

I started with The Cartoon History of the Modern World, Part I yesterday. So far I'm not a huge fan because I tend to like more sophisticated illustrations that the cartoonish figures used here. But I do like the idea of making history fun for people who aren't necessarily history buffs.

I like that idea, too, sweetiegherkin. To me, his Cartoon History of the Universe books are better than the more recent Cartoon History of the Modern World.

Read Boogeyman by Aragones and Evanier, which didn't live up to my expectations. It was okay but nothing special. I love Groo the Wanderer, maybe their humour and style is better suited to a long-running character.

Just finished Robot Dreams by Sara Varon, which was charming. Now hunting for a new one.

Recently finished Gothic Classics: Volume 14 and Stitches. The Gothic Classics book immediately appealed to me because I saw it had an adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, though I'm not sure how much that appeals to a broad audience :)
Stitches, which I think has been mentioned in this group before, was hauntingly beautiful and sad.

Now I'm on to Truer than True Romance, a spoof of old-fashioned romance comics.

I'm part of that narrower audience for Gothics Classics, sweetiegherkin, which is new to me. Thanks for mentioning it. I'm going to check it out.

No problem! I read one of the Gothic Classics before - it was devoted entirely to E.A. Poe. There are a bunch of others in the series devoted to various classic writers such as R.L. Stevenson, H.P. Lovecraft, A.C. Doyle, etc. The interesting thing is that each work within a title is adapted and illustrated by a different person so there's a wide range of tastes covered. For instance, the E.A. Poe started with a very cartoonish addition, which is a style I don't particularly like very much. However, some of the later stories/poems had more sophisticated illustrations, which appeals to me more.

I ended up agreeing with the consensus from last month's thread that Persepolis is an excellent piece of work. It took me a little while to get into the child voice she writes the first part of the memoir in, but once I did I found it very effective. I think I preferred the first volume for that reason. Strongly recommended for fans of comics, modern history, or character centered stories.

Now that I felt all cultured, I switched gears to some Batman comics this month. I was planning to try and read stuff from various eras, but the intersection of what people recommended and what my library has limited me to the more modern grim and serious Batman era.

I read Batman: Hush which was published in the early 2000s and was a only a mediocre story with good art. It does appear to serve as a good introduction to the what's going on in the Batman universe recently - with numerous enemies and allies all making an appearance. I do find the concept of the "bat family" - as I've heard fans refer to the range of Batman's friends and allies - interesting but I've always been a sucker for stories of non-traditional families.

The rest of what I've got is from the 80's. I read Moore's The Killing Joke and am unsure what I thought of it. There's some very intriguing ideas in it but overall I don't think I can say it lived up to the hype. Up next are Batman: Year One and Arkham Asylum.

Glad you liked Persepolis, lucien. I preferred the first volume, too, and I'm not sure why.

I recently read Neil Gaiman's Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, which you might get a kick out of.

While waiting for the Gothic Classics: Volume 14 to come in, I've started Runaways: Volume 1.

I went to C2E2 in Chicago yesterday and picked up a few new* things:

DEMO
American Vampire
Victorian Undead
Sparta U.S.A.
daytripper
Rasl

*New to me. I don't live near a comic shop so I tend to find out about new titles months, or even years after they've debuted.

"I read Batman: Hush which was published in the early 2000s and was a only a mediocre story with good art."

I find I'm having more and more of a problem with Jim Lee's artwork. I loved his work on 'X-Men' in the early 90s but his more current work on the Batman titles is just little more than soft porn. I actually believe that pornography has its place in the modern world but it really makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable seeing this ridiculous portrayal of women in a Batman comic. Maybe I just managed to miss this aspect of his work when I was younger and more naive. Either way I wouldn't touch anything that had Jim Lee's name on it these days. If I want to see women in high heels, lingerie and with huge breasts I'll buy a copy of Playboy!

Anyway, getting back on topic, I just finished reading Messiah War, the X-Force/Cable crossover TPB and I was really imporessed with it. Amazing artwork from Olivetti and from Crain and a story that really rattles along at pace with tons of action. I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered volume 1 of X-Force! :-)

Runaways is good! I dove right into Vol. 2.

I love the Runaways!

fleela - you picked some good stuff! I love Daytripper, Demo and Rasl have been on my to buy list for a while and I'm very curious about Sparta U.S.A.

As for me I've been reading some JSA, mostly the Geoff Johns stuff. I've been in the mood for the Super-Hero stuff.

I read Brave and the Bold #33 today. The characters focused on this month were Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Batgirl. J. Michael Straczynski sucks, is all I will say beyond, "It is a fabulous, powerful read".

I've decided to dive into Preacher and Sweet Tooth too. Having an iPad is the best thing that ever happened to me and my comic book addiction.

I started Black Hole this afternoon and made it to the halfway point. It was pain to have to set it aside and, ya know, do stuff.

Just read the Essential Amazing Spider-Man volume 4 in the garden in the sun yesterday, a big slab of late silver age, early bronze age Stan Lee superhero goofiness. The constant repeating of "Gwen doesn't love me/Yah she does/Oh noes I can never tell her my secrets" got a bit weary at times, but the action flowed well. Ended on a cliffhanger and me without the next volume!

There's nothing wrong with occasionally revisiting Stan The Man! :-)

I finished Batman: Year One and Arkham Asylum. I really enjoyed Year One. The tightly plotted story is a good introduction to the modern character. (Although I'd have scrapped the Selina Kyle storyline) There are some very effective single panels and I liked the comparison between Batman and Gordon (who is at least the co-main character) and the start of their relationship. Not a literary masterpiece but a solid piece of work.

Arkham Asylum was easily the most ambitious of the Batman works I tried this month. Written in the late 80s Grant Morrison moves away from the grittier "street level" stories of things like Year One and into a more dream like piece with mystical elements. While it has a lot of merit, I thought the plot a little thin even for the simple archetypal story Morrison was going for. Part of this was Dave McKean's art style, which takes a long time to say anything. (I much prefer his art when he's a bit more traditional such as in Black Orchid). Anyway, parts of it have stayed with me and I'd recommend it as a short one time read, but came away disappointed.

>14 jnwelch: jnwelch, thanks for the Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader rec. I'm a bit burned out on Batman for now, but it looks interesting and I've made note to give a try sometime.

I know what you mean, lucien. When you're ready, it has clever allusions to the earlier Batman stories like the ones you just read.