Blink by Malcolm Gladwell from Back Bay Books: An interesting read dealing with (as the cover states) “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”. Some of the chapters are boring, but the book is worth reading for the chapter on the musician Kenna and the lameness of Top-4o radio alone.

Horns by Joe Hill from William Morrow: I liked Heart Shaped Box, and I LOVED 20th Century Ghosts, but Horns left me disappointed. I just couldn’t come  to care for ANY of the characters, and some of their motivations seemed either thin or nonexistent. Big bummer for me, as I was looking forward to reading Horns for some time.

The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 & The Walking Dead Book 5 by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard from Image Comics: First off, Adlard is a Hell of an Artist; and as the chapters progress he simply gets better and better. As for the story, Kirkman has real guts. He proves quickly that NO ONE is safe in this book and does things to his lead characters that you would never expect from an ongoing series. My only complaint would be the use of splash or double-page spreads for scenes that would work better broken down into smaller panels.

Rock Bottom by Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard from AiT/PlanetLar: Well, look here— Charlie Adlard again! Adlard uses a ligne claire style for this story of a man turning to stone and it works perfectly. Casey’s story however falls flat from the number of cliches involved.

Paris by Andi Watson & Simon Gane from SLG Publishing: This one has a number of cliches in it as well, and they prevent this graphic novel from really shining. It’s shame, because Watson is REALLY good and Gane’s art is ridiculously fun to pore over. I’m interested to see if these two work together again and what the result will be.

A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi from Drawn & Quarterly: Tatsumi is an absolute MASTER of storytelling, but….A Drifting Life…well, it drifts. Basically an autobiographical work examining Tatsumi’s early years of creating Manga, the book spends more time focused on the shifting sands of post-war Japan’s Manga industry than it does on the intricacies of Tatsumi’s homelife and transition into adulthood that informed his mastery of the art form.

I’m currently reading Steinbeck’s The Moon is Down and The Comics Journal Library Vol. 7: Harvey Kurtzman.

And as promised last week, here’s my interview with Matt Bors regarding his new Graphic Novel WAR IS BORING —out today!

1. How did you hook up with David Axe to work on War is Boring? Is this your first graphic novel? Or at least the first time working with a writer?

I first hooked up with David at a comic convention where we were both seated at the NBM table. I was familiar with his book War Fix and he was looking for an artists to do the sequel, his previous artist having fell through. Though he had only seen my political cartoons, which are drawn in a more cartoony style, I was able to convince him to give me a shot at the book. That book fell through and we developed War Is Boring, which, after an incarnation as a weekly web comic, was developed into a graphic novel and shopped around to publishers.

2. What about the subject matter attracted you to the project?

As someone who writes his own comics, I don’t want to give away my time to another project unless I feel strongly about it. While this is David’s life we are telling, he happens to have an interesting one. There is something immediate and important about the places he visits and the stories he tells. I’m very interested in politics and world affairs in the most impoverished, war-torn areas of Earth. I don’t get to go to these places, but this way I do get to help tell the stories.

3. What was your working process like? Had David written a graphic novel before? Or did you have to break down a regular book script into the graphic novel format?

David has published War Fix and has a few other graphic novels in the works. He writes scripts with a very specific panel breakdown and what’s happening in each scene. As we grew more familiar with each other’s approach, I felt comfortable suggesting changes where I didn’t think things worked and he was very good about giving me artistic license to rework certain scenes – either condensing them or drawing them out over more panels.

4. Did you design the overall look of the book? I’m thinking specifically of the Chapter pages.

I did design the chapter pages and the overall look of the book. The only thing I didn’t do was the type design on the cover, which was handled by Penguin.

5. Did you find doing this type of hard after creating so many political cartoons that haven’t focused on sequential art as much? Having read the book, I immediately wondered if you found any of the chapters harder to bring to life than any of the others (due to specifics of the story or tone in those chapters)?

I’ve been wanting to do some long form comics forever so I was clamoring for a chance. The entire time I was alternating between this book and my editorial cartoons so I had to start thinking differently for each one. I can’t think of any particular chapter that was hard, but getting the look right for each country took a lot of photo references for clothing, architecture and military hardware. Thankfully David brought a camera on his trips.

One area of the book where the tone completely changes is a surreal fever dream David has in East Timor that features talking animals. That is really uncharacteristic of the rest of the book so I did small things like use different panel border to signify to the readers we weren’t in reality anymore.

6. Word on your Twitter account says you’re headed of to Afghanistan. When, where and why? Are you at all nervous?

On August 9th I’m leaving with two other cartoonists, Ted Rall and Steven Cloud, for a month long trip through Afghanistan. Were are traveling to Taloqan, Herat and remote regions in the Southwest near the Iranian border to see how Afghans are coping with nine years of American occupation and war. We won’t be with the military, an NGO group or any other media outlets–just completely on our own. Ted and I are both filing comics form the ground to our syndicates. Ted is doing a daily cartoon blog for the LA Times and I will be posting sketches, comics and such to my website as well as lining up some longer work when I get back.

After nine years of sitting behind my drawing table, I feel I should put a little on the line to see what’s happening with my own eyes.

7. How hard was it getting War is Boring to the masses? What was/is your relationship like with your agent and publishers? How long did you have to work on the finished book?

This is New American Library’s first graphic novel and they were great about giving us editorial freedom and promoting the book. We hooked up with our agent, Bernadette Baker, fairly quickly and she was great in placing the book with NAL. As for the time frame, it took me about a year and a half to draw. It’s only 130 pages, which is on the short side of graphic novels, but drawing it in that time frame and still meeting my weekly deadlines for the political cartoons was pretty grueling.

8. Will you be doing any signings for War is Boring? Any kind of book tour?

There won’t be a book tour, but David and I are doing various appearances. I’ll be at Wordstock Book Festival in Portland in October. David and I will also be tabling at APE in San Francisco.

Thanks to Matt for taking the time to answer my questions. For an earlier interview with Matt, head here. And don’t forget—go buy WAR IS BORING.

The Boston Bibliophile is running an interview I did concerning my graphic novel/web-comic GO HOME PADDY. Head over and read it if you’re interested; the interview contains questions and answers regarding the genesis of the project, the use of the Victorian visual stereotype of the Irish and why I think the story of immigrants coming to America is still so timely.

Next Tuesday I’ll have an interview with Graphic Novelist/Political Cartoonist Matt Bors regarding his book War Is Boring (out on 8/3) as well as a new GO HOME PADDY page posted.

See you then!

Two – Three Sentence Book Reviews!

Super Spy by Matt Kindt from Top Shelf Productions: A very cool collection of inter-connecting short stories dealing with World War II spies. Kindt is a great storyteller and his artwork perfectly suits the tales he tells. More to do with Kindt below…

In the Flesh: Stories by Koren Shadmi from Villard: Described as “Israel’s enfant terrible”, Shadmi is a real talent. This collection of short stories is weird, funky and beautifully done. An excellent draftsman and storyteller; I would love to see Shadmi work on an expanded graphic novel.

Aya: The Secrets Come Out: Volume Three by Marguerite Abouet  and Clement Oubrerie from Drawn and Quarterly: Having read the first two volumes of the Aya books, I was very happy to see Volume Three at the library. My review for Volume Two can be found here, and my feelings for this new book are the same: GREAT story and art, and the overall tone of the book is uplifting and funny.

Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein from W. W. Norton & Company: This one was a REAL disappointment for me. The book is very academic and so it reads slowly and dryly. A better book for research than for engaging reading.

I’m currently reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by the renowned Malcolm Gladwell.

There’s a superb interview with author Carla Jablonski about her Graphic Novel Resistance over at The Boston Bibliophile blog. Seriously, it’s a good little interview that will make you really want to read the book! And what a cover!

The Book of Lost Things: A Novel by John Connolly from Washington Square Press: I was really disappointed with this one. Too much hype? The novel borrowed heavily from Neil Gaiman, but never took of in the end.

Nocturnes by John Connolly from Washington Square Press: This on the other hand I liked! Short and creepy stories that made me feel 12 years old again. And the last story (a novella actually) is a crime thriller that had me glued to the book.

In the Woods by Tana French from Penguin: Again, a book with A LOT OF HYPE. Parts of this novel were beyond excellent, while there were other sections that I was practically skipping over. Still, I recommend In the Woods for anyone who likes murder mysteries with an extremely cruel tinge to them.

Currently I’m reading Morris Dickstein’s Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression.

That Salty Air by Tim Sievert from Top Shelf Productions: This being Sievert’s first graphic novel, he comes out swinging with a first-rate tale of a struggle between man and the Sea. Really well done! I think Sievert is going to produce some great work in the future.

Silverfish by David Lapham from Vertigo: I was a HUGE fan of Lapham’s Stray Bullets, but this one just didn’t gel for me. And in my opinion, the ending came up terribly short. I really wish Lapham would return to Stray Bullets and finish that story.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers / The Beautiful and the Damned / Tales of the Jazz Age from the Library of America: This Side of Paradise didn’t do too much for me; in fact, it seemed pretty damned pretentious. I guess that I just can’t relate to tales of snooty rich kids coming of age and that I had best just stick with O’Hara. Included in this collection is the short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button“ and it’s a really entertaining tale.

The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier from Fantagraphics Books: A graphic novel memoir that succeeds due to using stylistic change-ups for different sections of the book. Hornschemeier is good, but I don’t think that this is his best.

James Sturm’s America: God, Gold and Golems from Drawn & Quarterly: A collection of three different stories, this graphic novel is EXCELLENT! Sturm is a master of the form and seems to be spreading it like the Gospel with his Center for Cartoon Studies up in Vermont. This collection features revivals, miners and mystical Hebrew baseball players; sounds nuts, but the stories are fantastic.

Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle from Drawn & Quarterly: Continuing in the tradition of his other Graphic Novels Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea & Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, Delisle documents his time in Burma with his wife and child. As always, an entertaining read, but not as interesting as his other two travelogues. But all the same — I’ll read anything by this guy!

Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine from Drawn & Quarterly: A collection of four short stories, some better than others. Worth checking out, but a little too full of people with “personality quirks” (slackers) for me.

West Coast Blues by Jean-Patrick Manchette & Jacques Tardi from Fantagraphics: French noir as a graphic novel. Pure pulp, and simply enjoyable. The stark black & white art is a huge plus too.

Patient Zero & The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry from St. Martin’s Griffin: I’m not sure how I ended up reading these. Patient Zero is better than The Dragon Factory, but both books share the same positives and negatives: GREAT action scenes, inventive takes on cliched ideas, DOPEY romantic content, and dialogue that was at parts just terrible. But….I would probably read another book in the series! HA!

Low Moon by Jason from Fantagraphics Books: I’m really not a big fan of talking animals. That said, this was pretty damn good and pretty ironically dark. I haven’t read anything by Jason before, but I intend to seek out his other work. If only more creators wrote stories with talking animals like this!

The Birthday Riots by Nabiel Kanan from NBM Comics Lit: When I finished this one, I just shrugged my shoulders. Interesting ending, but overall not for me.

Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet from NBM Comics Lit: The type of story that the French & the Canadiens seem to excel at creating. A graphic novel about death, maturity, love and life. A good story.

The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. by Dash Shaw from Fantagraphics Books: Uh…yeah, this one also wasn’t for me. I loved his Bottomless Belly Button, but this book isn’t a full graphic novel as much as a collection of stories, sketches and animation drawings. I will however seek out his other books, ’cause this dude is good!

Inside the Painter’s Studio by Joe Fig from Princeton Architectural Press: Joe Fig created a set list of questions that he asked artists concerning their actual studio spaces. Very interesting to discover how these people work (and for some live) in relation to their spaces. For anyone interested in process, I highly recommend this book.

And right now I’m reading F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers / The Beautiful and the Damned / Tales of the Jazz Age  from the Library of America. I’m also reading Through the Turf Smoke: Love, Lore and Laughter of Old Ireland from 1901! Both are from the Boston Athenaeum (which I recently joined).

The Strain: Book One of The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan from William Morrow: This one is a REAL page turner; not Literature, but DAMN good. I truly hope that Del Toro (Director of Pan’s Labyrinth & The Devil’s Backbone) makes a movie out this tale of NYC infected with a Vampire virus. Sections of this book were good enough to remind me of Matheson.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill from Harper Paperbacks: This was fun, but not as enjoyable for me as Hill’s collection of short stories 20th Century Ghosts. Joe Hill has made a fan out of me, and I’m looking forward to his next novel. You can follow Hill on Twitter HERE.

The Dylan Dog Case Files by Tizlano Sclavi & assorted Illustrators from Dark Horse: Um…not quite what I expected here…maybe I was fooled by the cover by Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame? The six stories of Paranormal Investigator Dylan Dog collected here seem somewhat scattershot, and the revolving door of artists certainly doesn’t help. But, I guess this stuff is HUGE in Europe…so what do I know?

The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, & Frederic Lemercier from First Second: A smart and experimental mix of photos and illustrations that tell the true life tale of a Photographer that travels to Afghanistan to document the work of Doctor’s Without Borders. Guibert is without a doubt one THE BEST working in the Graphic Novel medium at the moment.

The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio from Doubleday Religion: Now this was different. Not an all-out insane demonic tell all, as much as an insider’s look into the training and daily lives of Catholic Exorcists. Worth the short time it took to read.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck from Penguin Classics: I can see why this one is often a subject of debate among Steinbeck fans as this novel is nothing like his work from the 30’s & 40’s. Focusing on the downward spiral of American morality in the 1960’s, The Winter of Our Discontent is an excellent read due to the novel being full of Steinbeck’s searing insight into human nature.

City of Thieves: A Novel by David Beniof from Plume: A very fun read full of humor, action and introspection. It’s the tale of two young Russian men searching for a chicken in a ravaged and starving St. Petersburg under siege by the Nazis. Isn’t that description enough to make you want to read this one?

BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara from Modern Library: Now this is some good stuff! I read somewhere online that “O’Hara wrote like we wish Fitzgerald did“! A tough story of loose women, lapsed Irish-Catholics, rich, spoiled WASPS, and the underbelly of NYC in the 1920’s. An excellent novella.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman from HarperCollins: The story of a living boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard (think The Jungle Book). An entertaining read that seems to lose steam by the end. Parts of the book are incredibly imaginative though and Gaiman has no peer when it comes to presenting old cliched ideas in new and very strange ways. Added bonus: the copy I read was full of beautiful, offbeat Dave McKean illustrations!