Reviewing the Mail: Week of 4/26

Last week saw very little activity in my mailbox, and the weekend saw me intensely busy and mostly away from home. Which adds up to a short post that's also late -- so I hope the three people who enjoy this didn't mind waiting...

The one thing I received for review last week that I haven't already mentioned was Kat Richardson's Underground, the third novel in her "Greywalker" contemporary fantasy series. I believe I've only met Ms. Richardson online -- and this is one of the series that I haven't gotten time to read so far -- so I have nothing flashy to say about it. But Underground will be published by Roc on August 5th in hardcover, which is a bump up from trade paperback for this series and a good sign.

Also in the mail last week: Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, Vol. 1, which I reviewed for ComicMix before the week was over (Comics publishers! That could be you! Write to the e-mail to your left for my address!); and a finished copy of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, which I'd just finished reading, and which I'm still struggling with a review for (look for it this week, I hope).

So I don't bug out of here that quickly, here's what I special-ordered from the library last week -- all things I expect to review here or for ComicMix in the near future:

• Penny Arcade, Vol. 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots -- the first two years of the popular webcomic by "Tycho" and "Gabe," as published on paper by Dark Horse in 2005. Sure, the full Penny Arcade archives are available online, but it's just easier and more pleasant to read them in a book than to click "forward" every twelve seconds.
• Rex Libris: I, Librarian by James Turner was only available from one library in my whole county, which shows that too many librarians either aren't paying attention or just aren't self-indulgent enough. Darn librarians with their self-abnegation. It's a comic book about a two-fisted librarian -- how can you go wrong? Slave Labor published this in 2007.
• Megan Kelso's The Squirrel Mother is a collection of short comics stories that Fantagraphics published in 2006. Kelso's art looks very familiar to me, but I can't quite place where I've seen her stuff before. I hope reading it will help me remember -- looks like good stuff.
• And last was Get a Life by Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, which Drawn & Quarterly published in 2006. This book collects their earliest "Mr. Jean" stories, about the life of a French literary man (somewhat like themselves, though it appears Jean is a novelist, not a cartoonist). A quick glance at the introduction shows that they started the series of stories in 1989, though this book is only copyright 2006. (Once again I have to mention that, when I rule the world, full and detailed previous publication information will be required for all books.)