For the sunny month of August, I'll be BAD MOBILE LIBRARIAN! And, as I wend my merry way through the B-roads of scenic Northern Ireland, I'll be needing plenty of reading matter to make all that scenery bearable.
And today I started by buying the latest issue of the 2000AD/Judge Dredd MEGAZINE (ish #235). I wanted to point this out because of the great art job on the lead story by fellow Ulsterman Paul Holden, who grows in stature with every assignment Tharg throws his way.
I also brought along Mike Moorcock's latest (and alleged last ever Eternal Champion novel) THE WHITE WOLF'S SON, but didn't make much headway, due to co-workers and customers an' stuff getting in the way. Inconsiderate fuck*rs! Bearing in mind how great his last two in this series were, I'm expecting great things. So far, much of the narrative has been from the first person perspective of a posh, plummy voiced little girl. This has reminded me of both of the two fine (and both Irish) children's fantasy authors C.S. Lewis and Edith Nesbit. Nesbit has been namechecked twice so far in the first few chapters, so it's an influence the book is wearing on its sleeve.
Got home and Mr Amazon had delivered ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR vol. 4. Famously, the love was leaving the Lee/Kirby marriage rapidly at this stage, Jack wasn't donating as many new characters and concepts, and the books were now recycling the golden years: the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer, the Black Panther all re-occur. But for a guy maybe not giving his all in the storytelling dept., Kirby's pencils are among his finest ever. This is The King at the height of his mature period, and Joe Sinnott's inking means his work never looked slicker. Plus, it features Kirby's greatest ever montage, from FF annual #6.
Kirby and some guy with a big nose, last week.
Other crap I've read or seen recently: watched the Kevin Smith documentary THE SNOWBALL EFFECT the other night. Reminded me why I loved the guy in the first place, and (more importantly) made me want to watch CLERKS again. Read IT'S A BIRD by Steven Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. Very good. Eisneresque (and, let's face it - in comic book terms, can there be higher praise?).