Two out of three ain't bad, in fact two out of three are really great

I have a confession to make. I didn't used to be crazy about Sherlock Holmes. I grew up watching those Basil Rathbone Holmes movies when I was a kid and they bored me to death. I never read the books either. I never got into the Jeremy Brett incarnation of Holmes on PBS and I have yet to see the Guy Ritchie version of Holmes.

Keeping all that in mind, I decided to give the new PBS version of Sherlock a try and hot damn I'm ever so glad I did.
It's freakin' brilliant. This version brings Holmes and Watson into the 21st century with spectacular results. The story, at least this first one, A Study In Pink, was a whip smart blazing fast tale that introduced all the principals and set the stage for the next episodes. And it didn't hurt that it had two of my favorite British actors, Martin Freeman and Philip Davis, in it.


I read the first three Fables collections back to back to back and I got kind of burnt out on them as a result. But after a year of being off Fables, I read the fourth collection and damn, it blew my socks off. It's full of great story telling, great dialogue, and great art. In this collection we meet new characters and we find out a little more of the back story of the lives of some of the current and newish fable characters. This collection is brilliant. It made me want to read more of these collections and since my library has them, I'll do just that in the next few weeks.

The art in this adaption of Kidnapped is really good and I'm sure the adaption of the novel itself is good, my problem with it is that novel itself. I found the story to be meh, boring, hackneyed, done to death. I'm not a huge Robert Louis Stevenson fan and I gave this one a try but in the end, I didn't care for the story. I should have given this one a miss.

Put up or shut up

Here's a page from the second installment of my graphic novel Hip Deep, Mountain High:
I really really really like this page, the dialogue, the layout, the part of the story it's telling, everything. I think I really hit my stride with the look and layout of the project in this twenty five page installment.

If you liked the first installment, which I let you read for free, and if you like this and the other page I put up a week or so ago, then please, by all means I encourage you to read the second installment. One little thing though, if you're not in it, you'll have to make a minimum $15 donation to my PayPal account to do so. And if you don't like PayPal, I'll be glad to take your personal check or a money order for that same minimum donation amount.

"Hey," I'm sure some of you are saying, "what's up with that Dr. Monkey? Why you charging to read it? Why can't I read it for free?" The thing is I do a lot of stuff for free. This blog is free, as are most of my other blogs. I do Facebook for free. So, that's a shitload of content, political insight and rants, comedy, pop culture commentary, and other stuff for free.

I've incurred expenses doing this graphic novel, and truth be told I incur expenses for some of the stuff I give you for free on the blogs of Dr. Monkey, and the folks who have been kind enough to be in my graphic novel project incurred expenses in being in it, so I'm out to make those expenses back and to eventually pay the folks who are in my project for their time and willingness to help. So that's why I'm offering my graphic novel to you on a donation basis. And truth be told, it's that time of year again, city and county taxes are due on Monkey Central and the holidays are coming up, so I could use some extra cash and that's why I decided to charge for this project as well. If you're in it, then you get a free invite to the invitation only blog where it's residing now, if you're not in it, then you got to make that minimum donation to my Pal Pal account or send me a check or money order for $15. I'd also add if you're in it and you want to make the donation so one of your friends or family can read the graphic novel, because you're cool like that, then that's awesome.

If you think you're going to get an invitation to read it because we've been long time blog buds, then you're wrong. I love all my long time blog buds, but they've got to pony up that minimum donation like everybody else. If we know one another in real life and you are banking on me inviting you for free, don't. Don't bank on it. I'm standing firm on this. See, you think nothing about dropping $20 on movies, books, or CD's that were written by people you don't know and will never know, so why not drop $15 on my graphic novel? It's written by someone you do know, or at least feel like you know, and after PayPal takes their tiny cut, I and the cast get the rest.

The donation is a one time only thing, you don't have to keep making over and over again, unless you want to that is. And I promise you, if you make that donation and you jump aboard the ride that is Hip Deep, Mountain High, then you'll be getting one of the most surreal, funny, original crime genre graphic novels the world has ever seen.

And so it begins...

I put the first twenty five pages of my graphic novel Hip Deep, Mountain High up on the interwebs. If you click on the title to the project in the previous sentence then it will take you to the free sample blog where I posted it.

The first 25 pages are free, the rest of it will cost you a minimum donation of $15 to me directly or to my PayPal account. That's a one time donation and if you donate now you will not only get an invite to the invitation only blog where the rest will appear when it get it done, and that will probably be in late spring or early summer of next year if all goes well, you will get the chance to buy at a reduced rate the CD version of the project which will contains numerous extras.

As of right now I have no publisher so it will not be available in a 'book' format, so there will be no signed copies for anyone. I may, at a later date, go the self published route if no publisher is interested.

The story is a twisted criminal tale about a fictional county in the mountain south that's run by a crime lord and his henchmen. A young man finds himself unwillingly thrust into Jones County and along the way he crosses paths with a dirty sheriff, an unscrupulous televangelist, members of the Willis crime family, and some TV personalities who like to make his life even more crazy.

This project has been a huge collaborative effort between myself and my friends and their families who have served as models for the photos. So far photos from three countries and two states have been used in this project and there many more photos to be taken.

This project is stretching me creatively, which is what I wanted, and it's consuming a lot of my time. I hope you like what I've done as much as I like what I've come up with, and if you don't then that's fine too.

Another sample page from my upcoming graphic novel

Click to enlarge the sample page and then click it once more to really enlarge it.

The gal playing Candy Helbert is as nice as she is beautiful.

Four reviews with a view

Erin Boheme is a very good jazz vocalist and this CD of hers is very good. She's got a jazzy/smoky voice that is at home covering jazz and pop standards as well as her own original compositions. If you like the sultry blondes who sing the jazz, then you'll like this CD. Me, I really like it.
Let me say upfront that before I read this novel by TC Boyle I liked the previous novel of his that I read and I have liked all the short stories of his that I read as well. And I like the first two thirds of this novel, Talk Talk. But the last third, boy what the hell happened? It stank. It was like Mr. Boyle ran out of steam but he kept going anyway. By the time he had set up the final showdowns I wanted to strangle all his characters and then do the same to Mr. Boyle for ruining his novel. I'm glad I bought this book off the remainders table for a buck, at least I didn't waste much money on it. Not recommended.
One of the best things about the Vertigo series of comics from DC is that they take minor characters from DC's past and give them new life in grown up stories in the graphic novel format. This second graphic novel with the heretofore minor DC character Madam Xanadu, Exodus Noir, really rocks. It's two stories in one book, it tells a tale of Madam Xanadu's past along with a tale of her investigation into a series of murders in 1940's era NYC. The writing is crisp, the art is great, and the colors are eye popping. I devoured this graphic novel in two nights. I highly recommend it. (I'm reading the first one now and I like it a lot less than this one.)

This little noir thriller is claustrophobic and just when you think you have all the angles figured out, they zig when you think they're going to zag. I quite liked the whole thing, except for Forest Whitaker's horrendous accent and the fact that it takes place in some hellish looking high plains/prairie location, all that flatness gave me the willies. I liked all the machinations between Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner's characters, I liked how they showed the big insurance company to be just as despicable as the people who are trying to con it, and I like all the close ups of Ms. Stiles, but for my money, there's never enough close ups of Julia Stiles. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like noir and con men films.

Quick Reviews

This graphic novel transports some of the Greek myths and legends to modern day London. On many levels this book is a success, the art is incredible, the lettering and the inks are divine, but...in the end the writing fails to live up to the promise and the premise. I was all in for about two thirds of the work then in the last third they lost me when the story telling ran out of steam. I wish the last third was as good as the first two thirds. This one gets a tepid recommendation.

I don't usually read supernatural/horror based graphic novels but I picked this one up at my local library the other day and boy is it ever good. It's bloody and scary but the story is well told, the art is good, and it all works well together. I devoured the first one and I'm already on the second one. Highly recommended.

Both Sparky and I missed this series when it first aired in the late 1970's on PBS, I can't say what she was up to but I was too busy smoking pot like it was going out of style and drinking Boone's Farm because it was there. So with all that going down, it's no wonder I missed a series about a woman in Edwardian England who becomes a cook and who ends up owning a hotel that caters to the rich and snobby. This series has it problems, poor sound quality (which is guess is endemic to all BBC made shows of this era), cheesy accents, hard to understand accents (especially the one put forth by the Welsh maid character), but overall it's very entertaining. The Edwardian period of history is not at all my favorite, in fact I find the rampant sexism, the imperialism, the naked greed and outlaw capitalism of that era to be repellent, but I can stomach all that for the sake of watching this series. I quite like young Gemma Jones and many of the others in this show and I always love spotting actors who went on to do other things. We're about halfway through series one and have series 2 to see after that. I recommend this one to fans of BBC costume dramas and those who like period pieces in general.

This film came out in 1985 and I'm not sure why or how I managed to miss seeing it until this past weekend. I had always heard good things about it and I'm a huge Albert Brooks fan, and I'm fond of Julie Hagerty too, so it's mystery to me how I had escaped seeing it for so many years. I'm glad I finally did catch it because it's hilarious. After not getting his big promotion and quitting his job because he failed to get it, Brooks convinces Hagerty to quit her job and sell off everything they own so that they can buy a motor home and travel across America. His plan works fine until she loses all their money in one night of gambling in Vegas. It's painfully funny how they try to pick up the pieces of their dream and go on. Albert Brooks is the master of uncomfortable comedy, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Steve Coogan all owe a debt of gratitude to him for blazing the trail of uncomfortable comedy in TV and film. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

This is the second modern day 'white person trek across Africa' book I've read in the past few years. It's an eye opening account of travel and life in Africa. Ms. Jones is a good, sometimes terribly witty writer, but as was the case in Dark Star by Paul Theroux, I found her tone and some of her observations about Africa and Africans to be paternalistic and a tad condescending. I suppose westerners can't help but sound self righteous when writing about Africa, we either feel guilt for how we've fucked them over or we feel like what we've done to them was justified because it brought them into the ranks of modern day civilization. I recommend this one in spite of my observations because anything that will teach people about the harsh reality of Africa is a good thing.

A trio of reviews

Wow. I can't believe it took me this long to see The Prestige. In my defense there are a shitload of movies out there to be seen and I'm not the biggest Hugh Jackman fan in the world, although after seeing another great film directed by Christopher Nolan, I'm now a huge Christopher Nolan fan.

This film is spectacular. It's a got a great story that keeps you guessing, although I nearly had it figured out by the time they got to the pay off, it's got great performances, and it's well made all the way around. It can be a little slow and ponderous at times, but trust me, you'll be glad you stuck it out if you stay with it.

Michael Caine, Christian Bale, and Scarlett Johansson are all really good. Hugh Jackman, I'm still not sold on but he was adequate.

I highly recommend this one.

I have never read the book this movie was based on so I wasn't burdened by any expectations of what I thought the film was going to be like before I saw it. I went into it knowing nothing about this project, well nothing aside from the fact that it had Michael Cera in it and that I really like Michael Cera. And you know what? I fucking loved this film. It's funny, it's inventive, and it's a story I could relate to.

Cera, as usual, stands out, as does the beautiful Ms. Portia Doubleday. I also loved Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, Emmet Walsh, and Zach Galifianakis.

I recommend this one too.
This is one of the most heartfelt graphic novels I have ever read. I have no idea what it's like to be a smart ass young girl who is into things like D&D, giants, and who has to deal with the loss of a parent at a young age. But because I was one, I have a pretty good idea what it's like to be a young smart ass boy who was into geeky things like comic books, obscure baseball facts, and who had to deal with loss of a parent at a young age. I know exactly where this little girl was coming from and I knew exactly what she was dealing with. Our circumstances were very different but they were the same, and that's why I loved this graphic novel.

So long Harvey

Harvey Pekar has passed away. With his passing we lost one of the most miraculous people ever. But if he heard me say that he'd laugh in my face. And maybe punch me as well. But it's true and here's why:

• In a time when comic books were not held in high esteem, when only a few companies published comic books and they tightly controlled who could write, draw, and colorize them Harvey managed to get a comic book about his seemingly mundane life not only published but distributed as well.
• The stories he told in his comics were not the type of stories that would ever have been put out by Marvel or DC.
  
• After managing to get his comic books published, he parlayed that into many TV appearances on the old David Letterman show on NBC, that was waaaay back when Dave was edgy, super funny, and cutting edge.
• Then finally pop culture caught up with Harvey and showed him the love and attention he deserved. There was the great film about his life American Splendor and more of his work was published both in serial and graphic novel form.

His was a long shot life. I'm not about to get into his personal neuroses or his illnesses, be they real or imaginary, it's his professional and pop culture legacy that interests me. For a working class stiff of a guy who toiled in obscurity but who kept plugging away at his dream to have finally 'made it' to where he did in his life is amazing to me. His life shows that if you keep trying, sometimes you can succeed.

And his life and example have also inspired me to try my hand at producing a graphic novel. The project I'm working on now owes a huge debt to Harvey because in the back of my mind for a few years now I've thought that if someone like Harvey can get his stories out there in comic book form, then a guy with a fertile imagination like me should be able to as well. It's taken me a bit longer to get off my monkey ass to get started but now that I have I look at Harvey as a pioneer and as a hero in the field of comic books and graphic novels.

One of my comic book aficionado blog buds posted that Harvey was 'gone.' I disagreed with him because with the pop culture legacy he left behind, Harvey will never ever be gone from our collective consciousness.

The reviews are in

We saw this film the other night:
It's a very sweet movie about how a shy man breaks out of his shell and finds love. It really is a perfectly sweet film with good performances all around, especially Gosling's. I really related to the lead character and his shyness. I wasn't as bad off as he is in this film but I used to be pretty darn shy around women, so I know where he was coming from. Even though you can see things coming a mile away in the movie, they telegraph stuff like crazy, it's still a good film. I recommend it.

My friend Keith got me a signed copy of this graphic novel:
It's called Afrodisiac and it's a send of blaxploitation films from the early '70's, except it's in comic book form. And it not only parodies blaxploitation films, it also parodies comic books and comic book styles of art and writing as well. Having grown up with comic books and blaxploitation films, this graphic novel is a hoot. It's laugh out loud funny and it's right on the money with it's send ups of and inside jokes and references to pop culture. This one is highly recommended.

I read most of this recently:
It's a series written by an Italian writer about a private detective who specializes in cases dealing with the paranormal. The stories are very intricate and well plotted but for me the best thing about this series and character is the art. It's all in black and white and it's highly reminiscent of some of the best art that used to grace the pages of Heavy Metal magazine in the late '70's, which makes sense because most of the art in those old issues of Heavy Metal was done by European artists. The art is spare at times, but it always furthers the story and all the stories are chock full of stellar wordless panels that say so much without any dialogue.

I recommend this one as well. And it's available at my local library.

Graphic novel round up

I read this recently:
Wow. Great well written, well drawn, action packed graphic novel. It's a Viking tale that's believable and very atmospheric. The battle sequences are graphic and bloody but not gratuitously so, same goes for the sex scenes. I've really hated the way Vikings were portrayed in most comics, and films and TV shows for that matter, so I was very happy to see that someone in an entertainment medium finally did them justice.

My only quibble with this graphic novel is the language. They use modern words that would never have come from the lips of Vikings. I could forgive them the use of the word 'fuck' because it's one of those words that just fits but for one of the characters to say that another is a 'dictator' was just too much to believe. Seeing it used in this graphic novel was like seeing a jet plane in a western, it just didn't fit.

I just finished this graphic novel:

I'm someone who absolutely hates superhero comic books and graphic novels. I didn't used to be that way, after reading them for years and then not reading them for years it's just hard for me to go back to enjoying them when on the odd occasion when I do pick up a superhero title. They've been done to death and all the established superhero characters are dull as dust to me. But, having said that, I really liked this superhero graphic novel.

The superheros are a group of kids who were born mysteriously to women who didn't know they were pregnant. The kids who were lucky enough to survive these miraculous births are gathered together by an eccentric mad scientist and his chimpanzee sidekick who is actually a highly intelligent physician who just happens to be a chimp and they are melded into an unlikely superhero squadron. They all have wildly diverse personalities and powers and they don't always mesh and get along with one another and that's what makes the story so good.

The story telling is superb and the funky chunky art is swell as well. It reminded me of the comic book art of Bill Sienkiewicz. Evidently the guy who wrote this series is in the band My Chemical Romance. But I had no idea who he was since I'm not an angst ridden emo teen who wears pounds of black eyeliner and who feels things waaaaaaay too deeply. However don't let the fact that the writer is in some crappy band that the kids love so much stop you from reading this series, he's actually a pretty good comic book writer.

I recommend both these graphic novels highly.

Graphic novel round up

I like the main Fables series of graphic novels but I freakin' love this series featuring Jack:
In the main series characters tend to get lost or obscured due to having to have so many in the story. In this series that mainly features Jack, the stories are sooooo much more fleshed out and the writers are able to delve into the characters more without having to worry about whether one or another is getting enough page time or not. These are clever tales told well. The art and inking in them is also top notch. I'm devouring them like a fat kid devours chocolate dipped eclairs. Mmmmmmmmmm, chocolate dipped eclairs.

All too often you hear a ton of hype about a comic book series and more often than not the series never lives up to the hype. I'm happy to report this is not the case with Y: The Last Man. It's well written, well drawn, well inked, and well, I love it. This series tells the story of what happens when all the males of earth, human and other animal, get wiped off the planet. All except for one man and his monkey. It's chilling and thought provoking. It's got great compelling characters and lots of action and intrigue. I read the first in the series in one night and I practically ran back to my local library to check all the rest out so I could read them as quickly as possible. I'm almost through the second one and I'm looking forward to finishing the next three I've got checked out as soon as I can. I highly recommend this series.

Unlike the previous two graphic novels in this post Stitches is not part of a series, it's a stand alone true life tale of a young boy who grew up in Detroit with a cold distant money hungry mother, an aloof father, and a brother who left as soon as he could. Young David is shunted aside and he's ignored for reasons that are made clear only late in the book. He develops a tumor on his neck at a very young age and his folks decide not to tell him that it's cancer because they think he might not survive the operation, and when he does his life becomes even more bizarre than it already was.

This book touched me deeply. I identified it with it greatly, having grown up in a house with a cold money hungry dominant female figure, my crazy aunt, who used affection like a weapon. Even though our situations were very different, I felt like I knew just what Mr. Small went through in this book, having to deal with such powerfully crazy family members at such a young age, his maternal grandmother, a committed Christian, was a nut bag who should have been committed to a mental hospital early in life but somehow managed to avoid one until the day in her old age when she locked her husband in her house and tried to burn it down.

The art and choice of colors in this book are stunning. It's a muted palette Mr. Small uses and his story is also almost mute, for reasons you'll see if you read this book, so most of the book is a series of wordless panels that say more than words ever could. It's a story that is by turns sad, provocative, thought provoking, and mind blowing. I highly recommend it. I haven't read anything that touched me as deeply as this book did since I read Toast.

And once again I must give a shout out to my local library for stocking these and many other great graphic novels on it's shelves. Yay Johnson City Public Library!

A Two Fisted Monkey Book Report

The 'Criminal' graphic novel series remains one of the best on the market. And this edition is as good as the other two I've read. This one is about a heist that goes wrong (Is there any other kind of heist?) and it's aftermath. There's no goody two shoes cops or hookers with hearts of gold or any other cloying stereotypes in this book. All the characters are dirty, some more than others. If you like gritty, violent, ultra realistic crime stories then this graphic novel and this whole series of graphic novels is for you.
If someone ever derisively says to me, "Aren't graphic novels just comic books?" and I have this graphic novel close by I'll use it to smack them upside their head in an effort to rid them of some of their cultural snobbery. A work like this is a comic book about like Guernica is just some shapes painted on a canvass.

Two, sometimes three or more, stories are being told in this bizarre graphic novel. The novel starts out being about the life of Asterios Polyp after his apartment burns down, then it also tells the story of his marriage, and his twin brother who was born dead. It also delves into philosophy, art theory, architecture, astrology, myths, legends, and a shit load more. Personally, I think it could have used some editing, there is such a thing as throwing too much at a reader.

The art is simple, spare, and stunning at times. And as usual, I appreciated that the author told so much of the story in wordless panels. If you're into the esoteric academic thing, then this graphic novel is up your alley. I liked parts of it but some of it left me cold.

A tale of two comics

When I was a little kid I loved the superhero comics. They appealed to my sense of right and wrong and the world in them was pretty much black and white. Only the bad guys got hurt and that was fine by me.

Then as I went into my teens and early 20's I liked the superhero comics that showed a little more realistic side to their stories. I liked the comic book titles that had characters that had internal conflicts that affected their external world.

But pretty quickly I got tired of all superhero comic books because of shit like this:
When independent comic book companies finally broke the grip of DC and Marvel in the independent comic book shops across the country some gave us really interesting titles. But most gave us variations on the same shit that Marvel and DC had been doing to death for years, such as the title above for instance. The premise of that title is that the chick in the skimpy outfit is an immortal being who just happens to decide to go to work for the US Government and in the course of that work she runs afoul of evil people in the government who want to use her for their nefarious purposes.

I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Wow, really? That premise sounds like shit." And you're right. Basically this comic book series was a masturbatory fantasy. I'm a straight guy who likes to look at women in skimpy clothes but come the hell on, what's up with this:
It's just gratuitous. And the story sucked too. And yet, shit like this rules the comic book world.

Thankfully however since the rise of the independents there have been some good titles and stories out there. And this is one of them:
I know what you're saying, "That chick is in skimpy clothes too. That's just as gratuitous as as the other one." Nope. In this case the story is a noir tale full of twists, turns, betrayals, and a femme fatale. All the characters in this graphic novel are grounded in reality and are variations on criminal archetypes.

I don't buy comics much anymore, except for bargain stuff, but I do still read some graphic novels that I get from my local library. It's a good to see that even though the shelves of the comic book shop are still filled with shitty titles, there are still some good books being made. I highly recommend the A Criminal series of graphic novels. They tell grown up stories that are engaging and interesting.

A Byrd in the hand is worth two in the bush

I just read, no actually it was more like devoured, this graphic novel:
It takes place in Hawaii in 1953 and it tells the tale of a down on his luck private eye, were there any other kind back in the 1950's?, his war buddy who became a tough cop, a pair of beautiful sisters, gangsters, and some seriously creepy goings on.

Everything from the art, to the writing, to the lettering, to the coloring in this graphic novel is knock out great. It's a modern classic in my opinion and it's the kind of story that Marvel and DC would never ever have told in comic book form. It's one of those noir stories where you can see things coming from a mile away but it's still enthralling. I recommend it highly and I just saw where Johnny Knoxville may be starring in the film adaption of this work, so I suggest you read the graphic novel(s), there are more in the series, before they let Johnny Knoxville ruin it for everyone.

On a side note, I found this graphic novel at my local library and once again I must say how nice it is to have a library and a head librarian who appreciates this type of reading material. I'm hoping that my local library will buy more of this series and more of the Walking Dead series of graphic novels, hint, hint.

The reviews are in!

I tried out this series the other day:
I love this period in English history. I love all the back room maneuvering, the Byzantine backstabbing and jockeying, and the betrayals and betrothals that took place back then. But I didn't care for this series. My problems with it are as follows:

• All the actors and too clean and shiny. Bathing back in those days was not something people did that often.
  
• All the actors have bright clean perfectly perfect sets of teeth. Which of course is bullshit. Dental hygiene was unheard of back then and most certainly all of the people portrayed would have, when they reached the ages portrayed in this series, had yellow, or more likely, brown stained teeth. And some of then would be missing teeth as well.
• There not enough facial hair. Shaving back then was pretty hit or miss and most of the men in this show look too clean shaven.
  
• There's way too much cleavage, which don't get me wrong, I really liked seeing it but it just wasn't believable to me. Women back then were much more modest and the would not have been running around with their boobs half hanging out.
  

The show is well written and for the most part it's well acted but it's far too steeped in our modern day romantic notions of what we think it must have been like back then for it to be enjoyable to me. I was distracted by all the boobs, the clean shaven dudes, the pretty white teeth, and the lack of grunge.

I'll give the rest of it a pass.

Step Brothers is very funny and although it's also formulaic, it's also very enjoyable. It's a different kind of funny than Talladega Nights and that's a good thing.

As usual Ferrell and Reilly are very funny and so are all of the supporting cast. Mary Steenburgen as Will Ferrell's mom is really great, I love her in most everything I've ever seen her in. As good as those actors are, the movie is stolen by Kathryn Hahn who plays Will Ferrell's put upon and unloved sister in law who enters into an affair with Reilly's character. The scene where she declares her love for him and tells him she wants to roll him up in a tiny ball and keep him in her warm vagina forever is priceless, as is the scene where they get it on during Christmas dinner.

The special features on this one are fun as well. The 'making of' featurette is funny, as are the gag reel and the line-o-rama. I highly recommend this silly comedy.

One of the benefits of living so close to my local library is that I can go there pretty much anytime I want, except on Sundays during the summer because it's closed then. Another benefit is the head of my local library is a comic book geek who is also a friend and having a comic book aficionado at the helm of my library means that our local library is full of great graphic novels like the one pictured above.

I was unfamiliar with the character of The Goon so I had no expectations going in when I checked out this graphic novel. After reading it and soaking it in, I can tell you it's a fantastic story and the art is really great. It takes place during the Depression era so it makes sense that the vast majority of the art is done in a various sepia tones. The author, Eric Powell, gives you just enough dialogue to keep the story going but he relies heavily on wordless panels to get even more of the story across and those wordless panels often say more then a panel with words in it ever could.

I can't recommend this graphic novel more highly. It's really really good. And if you never read a graphic novel or think you might like to try one, then you really can't go wrong with this one.

Reviews you can use

I've been having a hard time finding a book to read that I liked lately. I tried a couple of novels from the Hard Case Crime series but the best thing about them were the covers, note to writers of Hard Case Crime books: write faster paced more exciting novels, the ones I tried were deadly dull. I tried reading Cold Comfort Farm but by page 60 I gave up because I didn't like it, call me a Philistine but I liked the film much better. But in the midst of my literature dilemma my friend, who just happens to be the head honcho at my local library, recommended this graphic novel to me:
And all I can say is, holy shit, it's really good.

It's about a USA where something has gone horribly wrong and most everyone has been turned into zombies. And of course the zombies do what they do best, they shamble to and fro and they try to eat the remaining humans so that they turn into zombies as well. But as is often the case there's a small band of humans who survive the zombie-pocalypse and they try to soldier on and make their way in the world.

The thing I like about this series is that, at least in the first book anyway, they don't try to come up with an explanation for why the dead became alive once again and turned into flesh eating zombies. You just have to take it on faith that something happened and you go from there.

All the characters are well written and thought out. They're actually like people you might know and they do things and say things that you might really do and say in a world where zombies not only roam the earth but they out number humans by a wide margin as well. It's very engaging and well worth your time. I recommend it highly. I hope I can get the rest of the books at my library because I'm now hooked on them.


Next up the world of television. Specifically the world of NBC sitcoms. More specifically the awful show Kath and Kim:
This is a re imagining of the Aussie sitcom of the same name. I tried watching the original when it aired on Sundance or IFC but I didn't like it. But I was willing to give the NBC remake a shot. I tried to like it, really I did. I watched all the episodes they ran but by the end I not only did not like it, I've decided that I hate Selma Blair more than the thought of having a lit cigar shoved up my ass.

The show is unfunny, condescending, poorly written, and poorly acted. It's not Molly Shannon's fault, she and the guy who plays her boyfriend try very hard to make this show work but despite their best efforts, it's a no go. The show is being dragged down by Selma Blair. She's awful in it. Her character is whiny, self absorbed, and unlikeable. There is not a single redeeming thing about her character. One tries to like her, or to at least find a reason to not hate her as much as one hates Adolf Hitler or Rush Limbo, but it's impossible. Blair's character singlehandedly ruins this show. But to be fair the guy who plays her husband gives her a run for her money in the 'Oh my fucking gawd I hate these people' department. I hope NBC cancels this show faster than a speeding bullet.

I also tried to like the ABC remake of Life on Mars. And in fact I did like the first few episodes. But when they announced that Fred Thompson was joining the cast I dropped out. And it looks like the rest of the country did as well because the series hasn't been picked up. Oh well, after his stinging defeat in the Republican primaries last year and the cancellation of this show this year, it looks like poor ol' sleepy head Fred can't find a gig he can succeed at anymore. I guess he'll have to stay home and let his bubbleheaded trophy wife change his diapers while he sits in his Lazy-Boy and watches his old movies. Fred Thompson, he's not President but he did play one on TV and nobody gave a shit.

And finally there are a couple of mid season replacements that will be cancelled within weeks of their premiere. And they are both one ABC, one is the new show with that guy from Firefly and the other is that show about the kooky cops that they keep advertising during Lost. ABC, you do have one bright spot in your midseason line up replacement shows, Better Off Ted looks to be a decent show, I caught the last five minutes of it last night and it not only made me laugh out loud, it looked like it was well written and well cast.

That's all for now.

Graphic Novel Reviews

Fables: Animal Farm is the second volume in the graphic novel series that tells the story of what happened to all the fairy tale characters after they got run out of their kingdoms by the mysterious 'Other.'

In this edition of the ongoing Fables saga we find out that the animals from all the famous fairy tales now live on a magically protected farm in upstate New York. But all is not well on that farm. Some of the animals resent having to be cooped up forever on a farm never to interact with humans out side it's borders ever again, because after all if talking animals were discovered then it might blow it for all the other fairy tale people who do live among humans. So the disaffected animals decide to revolt and they stage a revolution.

Into this this atmosphere step the feuding sisters Snow White and Rose Red. One of the sisters chooses to help the animals and the other chooses to try and stop them. One wins, the other doesn't. You'll have to read the novel to find out which one wins and which sister loses.

This edition of the Fables saga is just as good as the first one. It's a story well told with top notch art. If your local library doesn't carry this title like mine does then go buy it at your local comic book store, it's well worth the price you'll pay for it.

Some of you will be familiar with Ghost World from it cinematic adaption.

For those of you who aren't the bottom line on this graphic novel is that is tells the story of a couple of teen age girls on the cusp of graduating high school. That's it. I know, it sounds boring but honestly it's not. It's an amazing 'slice of life graphic novel.' It's even more amazing that a story about the lives of two teenage girls was written and drawn by a man, Daniel Clowes.

Clowes delves deep into their lives and he shows some funny bits, some futile bits, some fumbling bits, and at times the most disconcerting bits of these two girls lives. His graphic novel is very different from the film they made of it, which is actually a good thing. It's good because if they had made a film version of this novel with out changing anything then the film would have been a huge downer that nobody would have seen. They took the best bit out of the book and they expanded some others to get the movie version and in this case I liked the movie version a little better than the book.

I recommend both highly though.

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I got both of these at my local library and I want to give a special shout out to the folks at the Johnson City Public Library, especially the new head of that august institution. I know he's been instrumental in bringing more and more graphic novels to our library and for that he deserves a high amount of praise. And I'd say that even if he wasn't a friend.

"And what have you been reading over the past few months Monkey?"

I'm glad you asked. Here's what I've been reading over the past few months:


Blog buddy Jess Wundrun let me borrow this book and it's a very good read. It goes in depth into the wasteful ways coal is mined in this country and it also gives some of the history of mining. Overall it's very good but towards the end Mr. Goodell gets a too technical for me and I skimmed it. I do recommend this book though, especially to anyone who wants to pursue solar or other types of ways to power their home or business.


I saw this on Captain Karen's blog side bar and it looked interesting so I checked it out of my local library. I've read books about maritime stuff from this time period and they were always very good and this book was no exception. As a historian and writer Mr. Bown does himself proud with this fine history of how scurvy was beaten. It's a sometimes harrowing book, especially when you find out that hundreds of thousands died needlessly because the British government at that time did not want to spend the money needed to procure citrus fruit for it's ships. During the two weeks it took me to finish this book my vitamin C intake increased dramatically. I highly recommend this book.


Thunderbolt Kid is a funny fast read. Bryson was born about ten years before me so what was new and novel to him was old hat to me, i.e. TV, processed foods, other modern amenities. But despite that there was enough shared experience in his book to hook me. I may not have grown up in Iowa where he did but I went through a lot of what he writes about and I recognized places I lived when I was his age in this book. It's a very funny entertaining read.

The main things I learned form this book is that Mario Batali is a huge douchebag and that the author is a glutton for punishment. This one did not live up to it's hype at all and I say give it a pass if you are tempted to read it.

I was blown away by this graphic novel that was recommended to me by my buddy at the library, and not to brag or anything but my buddy is the big cheese at our local library, and by big cheese I mean he's the library director. So when a graphic novel lovin' dude like him recommends something to me, I jumped all over it. This graphic novel is a bout what happened to all those fairy tale characters you read about as a little kid. In this imaginative tale they've all been run out of their former kingdoms and dwellings and they've taken up residence in NYC. I'm not going to delve too much into the plot because to do so would spoil it for you but trust me when I say it's a good read. What I liked most about it is how the writer and artists brought the stale old fairy tale characters to not only life, but to a new and decidedly unfairy tale like life. There's more in this series and I may just have to look them up someday soon. I highly recommend this fine piece of literature.