Incoming Books: Oh, The Last Two or Three Weeks, I Think

I haven't been posting much here, but I have been reading books, and I have even been buying books. I got a bunch of graphic novels, for example, from a couple of sources recently, and have so far neglected to mention them here. So, now I'm mentioning.

Trashed is the new GM from the guy who now bills himself as Derf Backderf -- I believe his real first name is John, but he's been the single-named cartoonist Derf for most of his career. It's inspired by his own life, since he did work as a garbageman in his youth, but this particular story is fictional.

There was a Black Kiss II some years back -- from Howard Chaykin, if you don't know -- and I got a copy, out of mostly prurient interest. But I didn't have a copy of the first one after my flood (and I think what I had were those tiny floppies from back in the dawn ages, anyway -- not the most useful format.) So I finally got a copy of the somewhat recent edition of Black Kiss, and may someday read the whole sordid saga together.

Rules for Dating My Daughter is a new collection of comics from Mike Dawson, a fellow New Jerseyite. (And so clearly a superior person because of that.) I think of him as a journeyman cartoonist -- he's done some interesting books like Freddie & Me (and others I haven't read), but no single book that really broke out or clearly identified him as that guy, Maybe this will be the book; the title essay was moderately viral sometime recently -- last year, maybe? -- when it appeared online.

Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky are back with Sex Criminals, Vol. 3, which is still about a couple who have sex, stop time, and burgle banks. This time out, I think both the "have sex" and the "stop time" bits are causing them trouble.

Marvel must be thrilled to get to Miracleman: The Golden Age, so they can finally credit a writer. This is the point at which Original Crank Alan Moore handed over the keys of Utopia to Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham (the latter on art, in case that wasn't clear). After this one, I guess there will finally be a Silver Age book, collecting stories written or half-written twenty years ago. I have no idea if there will be further ages, but publishing companies exist to publish things, so I wouldn't bet against it.

(By the way, the book I have looks mostly like this, but not exactly. Since Marvel has to have multiple covers for everything, finding the actual book cover you have in your hand online can be nearly impossible, so I used the single-issue version of the same art.)

Dylan Horrocks has some Incomplete Works, and I now own them. He's the author of Hicksville and Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen and some soul-destroying (his soul) mainstream comics in between. But I understand he's better now.

Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen's current SF series is back in Descender, Vol. 2. I have very low expectations for SF in comics form -- if it's not too egregiously stupidly space-operatic, I'm OK with it -- but Lemire seems to be setting the bar somewhat higher here.

Then there's Hellboy in Mexico, one of the odds-and-sods Hellboy collections, mostly filled with Richard Corben art and stories that don't have a whole lot to do with the central Hellboy plotline. And, you know, I'm fine with that: I used to dislike Corben's art (back in the Heavy Metal days), but it works for the kind of Hellboy stories he does.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples brought me (well, not personally, you know) Saga, Vol. 6, which I hope does not suck. (I have the sense that Vaughan is much better at beginnings than endings, and this has been running long enough that it's no longer a beginning.)

Last is Andi Watson's Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula, his GN-for-kids that came out last year. While searching this blog to see if I reviewed it then (I did), I found that I claimed to have bought it soon after I reviewed it, which surprises me: I didn't think I had a copy. (And, if I do: where is it?) So, anyway, I may now have two of these.