Book-A-Day #73 (9/28): It's a Bird... by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen

If I wanted to be rude, I'd call this an exceptionally pretentious Superman comic book. It's a hardcover graphic novel, 124 pages, about a writer named Steve (pause to note the name of the writer of this book, Steven T. Seagle), who has been offered the job of writing a Superman comic and obsesses about it, and his life, for a week or so. (Please also note that Steven T. Seagle wrote Superman for issues #190-200, according to Wikipedia.)

It's not bad, but it is at least somewhat pretentious. It's not actually a Superman story, though it does have some interpolated Superman vignettes, but I never got a sense of Seagle's conception of the character -- of course, he does spend the entire book insisting that he doesn't have any ideas for Superman, so I should have expected that.

If you really really like long-underwear comics but are looking for a half-step into the world of funnybooks with a bit more depth and real life to them, It's a Bird... might be right up your alley. If you're already reading comics about real people doing real things, and you're not obsessed with whether Superman can beat up the entire JLA by himself, give this a miss.