Monthly Archives: March 2011
Comic SuspenStories
I’ve been meaning to get to David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America for some time, and I finally took the time to read it. (Of course, it hasn’t hurt that I’ve recently … Continue reading
Clip Joint
I just got through the “Another Night” chapter of Ellis’s American Psycho, and boy, what a traumatic experience. I’m not sure which is more challenging: trying to get through the gory, violent passages of this novel, or forcing myself to … Continue reading
No False Start
I just recently started reading Myla Goldberg’s latest novel, The False Friend, and so far I like it. This book didn’t immediately capture my attention as did her debut novel, The Bee Season, but instead grew on me gradually. I’m … Continue reading
Colorful Reading
In addition to the Mazzucchelli and Marchetto I’ve been looking at, I’ve also been reading several other comics over the past couple of weeks. On the recommendation of a friend, I picked up the Iron Man collection, Demon in a … Continue reading
Italian Fun
Last week I read a couple of works by Italian American comics artists, exploring a topic that I hope to develop into my larger work on ethnic American comics. David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp and Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen are … Continue reading
Black Russian
The other day I finished Anya Ulinich’s debut novel, Petropolis, another in what seems to be an avalanche of Jewish Russian émigré texts. This is one of the most engaging novels I’ve read recently. If Gary Shteyngart has any competition in … Continue reading
Status Shmatus
Listening this morning to more of Ellis’s American Psycho…and the name brands just keep coming. To say that Ellis resists subtlety in making his point is an understatement. In this novel it appears that he never ignores an opportunity to … Continue reading
Not Psyched
Having recently finished listening to Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero and not being too impressed, I thought I’d give him another audio try with a novel for which he’s gained more critical acclaim, and critical infamy, American Psycho. I … Continue reading
Honkin’ Down the Highway
Recently I finished two graphic novels (although I really don’t like that term). One was the last in the Spider-Man: Complete Clone Saga Epic series, volume 5. As with the other books in the Clone Saga Epic, this one was … Continue reading
Zeroing in on Ellis
I just finished listening to Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero in audio form, and my take on the novel is a little more positive than it was last week when I first mentioned it. The book still leaves me discomforted, and … Continue reading