Friday, 25 March 2005

Two Short Things

Thing #1: I think I'm finished with JMS's Amazing Spider-Man. It wasn't the "Sins Past" story that did it to me, but rather the just completed "Skin Deep," which was boring boring boring. I think he's run out of things to say about Spidey. I had already planned on stopping the floppies and moving to trades, so I haven't pre-ordered any further issues, but if I continue at all at this point it'll be because the public library gets a copy of the trade.

Thing #2: Speaking of the public library, I returned the massive tome of American Elf: James Kochalka's Collected Sketchbook Diaries this morning, after having read about 10% of it. On the one hand it's a pretty amazing achievement: five years of daily journal entries in comic strip form. On the other, that's something like 1800 comics about Kochalka's mostly mundane life. I think I got the jist of it from the amount that I read. I can see why many others would like this so much, but it's not for me, and I've got huge stacks of other comics stuff to read.

Prof. Gloeckner Goes to Angoulême

The new issue of Indy Magazine is now available, and among other things it features Phoebe Gloeckner's photocomic-journal/travel report for the trip she took to the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France (with Annette, our art & design librarian, in tow). It makes for a good, quick read, and includes Robert Crumb's feet.