There's a bunch of other stuff this month I wanted to pick up, but I've been delaying going so I could get everything at once. So now I'm just.... "I don't think I can wait till the weekend. Maybe I'll swing by the shop after work. Or... could I leave work early? I came in late, though. Er, so I might as well leave early, because I'm all screwed up anyway. Yeah, that sounds convincing. Ooo, maybe I could go RIGHT NOW. ...except I have a meeting at 1. Damn it."

I want my stories. Wah.

I got my stories.

And I didn't even get everything I was looking for, and spent $40. Oh well, it had been a while. But I picked up a copy of Angel: Masks because... well, because it had the most adorable picture of the Angel-puppet holding a jack-o-lantern on the cover. And the art looked unusually good for an Angel comic. It turns out to be 4 short stories. Capsule reviews:

The first one features puppet-Angel, and probably overdoes the "stupid ___" joke, but I understand why it's hard to resist. The art's quite good.

The second one features Illyria, and is okay, I guess. Eh.

The third one is set in season 1, and features Cordy, and is freaking gorgeous. Clearly using a lot of photo reference (there's one panel that is recognizably a still from the show) but the inking and colors are lovely in their own right.

The fourth one tells you how Lindsey met Eve. And is actually rather funny. This is the only one I wished was longer, because the premise was brilliant. Naturally, the art is... well, it's fine, really, as long as you don't mind the fact that Lindsey and Eve look nothing at all like Lindsey and Eve.

It's 48 pages, and $7.50, and I won't exactly recommend it because, honestly, the stories are all meh, but it is definitely pretty.

As for Planetary: [no real spoilers, but just to avoid taunting them what don't wanna be taunted]: Fun! It was a little anti-climactic, but mostly in a "Oh, so it's --- of course!" way. And that actually is addressed directly in something Snow says at the end, which I'm sure is Ellis speaking to the fanboys. I think all the delays kind of helped and hurt equally. And I kinda love the implications of the ending.

Hmmm, this could just as easily go in the literary thread.

I read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel / memoir Fun Home yesterday and it's amazing. She credits Howard Cruse (and his growing up gay graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby), but really it's more like whackaloon memoirs of growing up in the seventies with overeducated, fucked up parents like The Squid and the Whale or Running With Scissors or The Ice Storm.

Also, it has a strong dose of Six Feet Under since the Fun Home in question is the Bechdel Funeral Home, and the style owes a great deal to Chas. Addams cartoons (which she cites specifically in the text).

It's not just the typical gay coming out story, since it's all tied in with her father coming out to her after she came out (while in college) and his death (probably, though not certainly, suicide) shortly thereafter. Plus lots of literature (their mutual bond).

It's beautiful and skewed and melancholy. Not much like her Dykes to Watch Out For strip. (Which I also enjoy, but this is just very different.)

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, Hec -- I've been meaning to read Fun Home and then not getting to it for ages now.

I read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel / memoir Fun Home yesterday and it's amazing.

FAQWife read that a couple of months ago and loved it! Like amych, I've been meaning to check it out, but keep forgetting.

Thanks for the heads-up -- that sounds very interesting.

Strega and Hec, thanks for the head's ups/revviews.

Also, I need to get some DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR collections and I keep forgetting.

Also, I need to get some DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR collections and I keep forgetting.

Yes, you do. And everyone needs to get Diane Dimassa and my friend Daphne Gottlieb's new graphic novel, "Jokes and the Unconscious."

Yes, you do.

I'm still pissed that when the Boston Phoenix did away with their "1 In 10" gay lifestyle section and never brought DYKES... over to the regular paper.

Hec, I think you'd really like House of Sugar. It was published in the local weekly and is soon coming out in book form. The author is often talks about music and 40s movies: [link]

[link]

Everybody'd probably like it, but it often made me think of Hec.