I’m at a loss of what to read next.  There’s so many on my list, I think I’ve narrowed it down to five – will you help me choose?

Detroit Metal City (DMC) – This strange little manga is about a heavy metal rocker who dreams of boyband success.  Very weird but lots of people are saying it’s really good.

Ember Fury – The child of celebrity parents deals with her stress by setting stuff on fire.  The artwork looks neat and I’m a sucker for angry teenagers.

MariaHolic – a yuri obsessed teenager joins an all girls school in hopes of finding her love.  But the perfect woman turns out to be a cross-dressing pyscho-man.

Cigarette Kisses – a yaoi about two men who almost get together when one decides to marry a woman.  Years later they meet while smoking and um, I’m assuming things get hot!

Umbrella Academy: Dallas – I loved loved loved the first volume.  Seriously, loved it.  Enough to give Gerard Way’s band another try but no, the band still sucked.

So, which would you read?  Have you read any of them and think maybe I can skip it?

It looks ok, a lot like the Dark Tower in terms of artwork.  Pretty but it’s not blowing me away.  The color is really nice though.  I’m not really familiar with The Talisman but the preview is intriguing.

What do you think?  What Stephen King book would you like to see adapted?  I think The Stand or *shudder* It would be awesome.

The missions are exciting and nerve racking.  This isn’t a Lara Croft video game, there’s no guarantee that any of the minders (including Chace) will make it out alive.  While the minders take care of the dirty work, politics are the game back home.  It makes for a compelling look at espionage.  Rucka manages to avoid melodrama or cheesy action cliches.  His spies are real shells of people, hollowed out and hungry for a job that will eventually, inevitably kill them – even if they physically live to retirement.

Yes, it’s depressing.  Yet, it’s hard to stop reading.  Much of the “boring” parts, the sitting around waiting for the five minutes of terror, are actually the most interesting.  It’s in these down times that the reader gets to see the relationships between Tara and the other characters.

The missions do get a bit redundant.  That is probably the point but it makes it hard to read for long.  I found myself getting annoyed at yet another mission with yet another round of worry, anger, acceptance and fallout.  It’s nice to have the series collected in volumes but a break between missions is needed and probably worked great when they came out individually.  The different artists offer different takes on the cast and each one reveals something new about the character, whether drawn as a sexual creature for her attempt at love or drawn in hard lines, with small eyes, when she’s taking on the job of a killer.

I’m onto volume 2 (well, after I finish my latest volume of Monster) with some trepidation.  If volume 1 is any indication, things will only get tougher.

Incidentally, Rucka’s comic Whiteout is now a movie!

This comic from Three Panel Soul reminds me of that story.

Young Bill Young here. Sadie is in slow wireless land, so she’s asked me to do another post. I happily oblige! Here goes. . .

The 2009 Hugo Awards have been announced, and the winning graphic story is “Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones” by Kaja & Phil Foglio.

The set-up: Agatha Clay is a student at Transylvania Polygnostic University and a total klutz.( You know there’s fun in store!)

Writer Kaja has a message regarding the honor on the Girl Genius website. Plus, you can follow Girl Genius online, beginning with the very first story. Congrats to the Girl Genius creators.

Young Bill Young here. My friends have basically two reactions to my recent rediscovery of comic books and graphic works. They either think it’s cool, or kinda odd. The ones who think it’s odd may have trouble envisioning a satisfactory reading experience from those glossy, colorful covers that stare out of the shelves at comic book shops and bookstores. The ones who think it’s cool may also not appreciate all the rewards that can come from the genre. But graphic works can be every bit as rewarding as traditional literature. Yes, I said “literature.”

Case in point: Garth Ennis’s Dear Billy, the second three-issue arc of his WWII Battlefields series of comics. Dear Billy is like reading an exquisite, life-changing short story. You know, the kind where you put the book down and take a deep breath, amazed at the talent of the author, perhaps startled by something you’ve learned about the human condition, and then composing yourself so you can get on with life.

Like all good literature, it weaves the big themes into the lives of protagonists we come to care about—in this case, a nurse who suffers rape and attempted execution by the Japanese in Singapore, and the wounded flying ace named Billy who she comes to love.

It ends as it must end, even though we’re surprised, even though we should have seen it coming. And like all good literature, it demands a discussion of its themes and characters. Dear Billy. Please read this. Then we’ll talk.

Young Bill Young here. Sadie’s out of town this week, so I’m helming the blog. Let’s get started…

Girl meets boy. It’s love! Girl loses boy. Girl gets on plane to the left coast. While girl is in the air, the warring factions of Earth’s superpowers have a final battle, destroying themselves and devastating civilization. Girl calls boy on her cell phone to profess love and forgiveness right before all communications go down. Girl is visited by a spectral figure called “The Word” who gives girl a powerful sword to avenge the innocents against the cruelty (cannibalism!) that is emerging in the wake of the apocalypse. Girl strikes a deal: she’ll become this avenging angel if it means she can be reunited with boy. But girl will have to do a lot of slaying to get her man back. Total kewlness.

And that’s just the first issue of Dark Horse Comics’ new series Rapture. Dark Horse calls the story the “worst break-up ever.” Ya think?

Honestly, issue two was a let down after the superb set-up, but I’m not giving up hope… yet.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that boy plays guitar and writes songs. Follow Rapture on MySpace and hear boy sing a song! Total kewlness.

And don’t confuse our heroine with this different Rapture. Plus, if you’re intrigued by sword-weilding females, check out the Luna Brothers’ The Sword.

Young Bill Young here. David P. Welsh at Precocious Curmudgeon wants to know if anyone is teaching introductory Manga courses at the college level. He’s not looking for those how-to-create-Manga classes, but rather a survey course that would provide an overview and history of the art form.

And in case you’re contemplating such a course, Welsh thinks he has the perfect textbook: Paul Gravett’s Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. Commenters on his site have their own ideas for reading materials in such a course, ranging from Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics to samples of classic and groundbreaking titles.

All of this is exciting to me because I’m such a newbie to Manga. Sadie’s influence has inspired me to check out Gantz and MW, and I think I’m ready to move on to some other titles. Astro Boy and Pluto sound like the ticket right now. But I’ll definitely have to check out one of these overview titles to learn more.

So fans, what titles would be on your reading list for a Manga survey class?

Young Bill Young here. Well, the world welcomed Leo Bruce Maddox last night at 9:45 p.m. Congrats to Sadie and family.

This special event deserves a special post—a baby post! So I go to Google and type in Baby NEAR ‘Graphic Novel” and I get a link to this cool online GN on NBC’s Heroes site. Now, this is meant to be, because Sadie is the only person I know who has continued to watch Heroes. (Hello! Jumped the Shark, anyone?)

Anyway, the online Heroes GN 130 “Baby Power” is described on the Heroes Wiki thusly:

Hiro and Ando receive a message from the mysterious REBEL to “Save Matt Parkman.” But when they arrive at the address all they find is a baby. They soon discover that the baby has a power and is, unbeknownst to Matt, Matt Parkman’s son. After saving Baby Matt from being abducted by agents, Hiro and Ando suddenly become the sole protectors of the child. They set out on a cross-country mission to unite father and son but quickly learn that traveling with young children is never easy. And then there’s the issue of diapers…

At least the story features Hiro and Ando, characters I still like.

You can celebrate the arrival of the new Mattox and satisfy your graphic novel jones all at the same time. Just download and enjoy this pdf file of Baby Power!

Young Bill Young here. I’m holding down the blog for several days while Sadie and family prepare for the arrival of little Leo.

First up: Groom Lake. What if all of those Hollywood aliens really existed? You know, the ETs, the little grey men with goggle eyes, the insatiable blob, and that scary robot from “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Well, in Chris Ryall’s and Ben Templesmith’s new IDW comic title, they do! They all reside in a secret base located under a dry Nevada lake bed known as Groom Lake. (It’s real by the way. Uh… the topographical feature, I mean, not necessarily the secret base. Although the real Groom Lake is located right next to Area 51, and, well, you know how people talk about “that” place!)

Seems the government makes sure there are Hollywood movies about these real aliens for public consumption. That way, when people start describing real alien encounters they just come off as crazy. (You bin watchin’ too many o’ them sci-fi picture shows!)

Two issues have been released, and the story is quite a wild ride. It’s funny and warped as all get out. And there’s a mystery: are the government officials and aliens working together for the good of the planet, or for the destruction of life as we know it?

The best character has to be Archibald, the little grey alien that crash landed in Roswell in 1947. He’s practically immortal, doesn’t need to eat or sleep, can’t have sex because he doesn’t have the parts; and yet he is obsessed with smoking, partying and all things carnal.

There’s more to read on the web (duh!) if you’re interested. . .

Ryall & Templesmith Want to Believe in Groom Lake from Cup o’ Joe

Going to Groom Lake with IDW’s Ryall and Templesmith from Newsarama

Go forth! The truth is out, er, under there!