Hiatus yields varying results; Return of the Dapper Men saves the day

Happy New Year!

My last post was about all the comic book anthologies that I was eagerly awaiting from the library. They arrived, although I'm not sure how I feel about the anthology title, The Best American Comics. They may have been better named "The Best Independent American Comics."

Or "A Collection of Independent Comics", because I think that "best" might be pushing it.

Perhaps "So Fringe that they Mostly Seem Dumb."

Or how about "What Have R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, and Chris Ware Been Up to this Year?" Because seriously, every single book, each year, features each of these artists.

I became convinced to go check these out because Neil Gaiman edited the 2010 edition, which the library does not have. I went to look at the edition that he edited at a bookstore, and found it much more interesting than the previous 4 editions.

When checking all of these books out, I also checked out one anthology that was not a part of this series: The Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics, & Manga. This anthology came out one year only, in 2005, and featured some truly entertaining stuff, including Scott Pilgrim. The 2010 edition of the Best American series of anthologies was the first to feature Scott Pilgrim - and thanks guest editor Neil Gaiman for that, but what a pity that this series only paid attention to that excellent book after the movie was released. The Year's Best anthology featured a few more comics I really like (specifically Fables, and an honorable mention to Courtney Crumrin although it was not excerpted in the book) and gave me a few ideas for some new stuff to check out. It's too bad that this anthology only came out that one year.

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Seeking out the edition that Neil Gaiman edited did pay off in one major way - while looking for it at the local Barnes and Noble, I found a graphic novel that outshone all the rest - Return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann, illustrated by Janet Lee. I was drawn to it originally because of the steampunk imagery, and figured it might be fun to page through while wasting a little time in the bookstore. My first surprise was that Tim Gunn wrote the introduction to this book - yes, that Tim Gunn. I felt as if the book couldn't surprise me more after the revelation that Tim Gunn likes comics.

I was wrong. It's a gorgeous book.

So to cut to the chase, I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas and went back and bought that book. No regrets.

The book actually has a trailer - watch the video to get a taste of it.

Songs about Dune

I've been checking out the podcast The Sword and Laser. I became aware of these guys some time ago when Veronica Belmont was on This Week in Tech, and I decided to check them out and see what things were like elsewhere in the online sci fi/fantasy reading neighborhood.

I feel compelled to call this the online sci fi/fantasy book club neighborhood, but I don't really constitute a book club, being only one person. However, if any of you want to start reading whatever book I'm working on and discuss it with me, then please feel free to do so. I would gladly turn this into the 149 novels book club.

On Sword and Laser they read Dune a few months ago, and are still talking about it a bit in the podcasts I listened to. I suppose I could go back and listen to the podcast where they discussed Dune, but it did not automatically load onto iTunes when I added their podcast, and the iPod is generally my main vehicle of podcast listening. Anyway, they are still talking about it, and also talking about music that is inspired by sci fi and fantasy. Among the many songs mentioned is a parody tune called "I'm the Kwisatz Haderach" by Abner Senires. Give it a listen - pretty funny stuff.

Also discussed in the same podcast is the song "To Tame a Land" by Iron Maiden which is also about Dune, and some history on that song. Check it out, it also has a lot of information (and spoilers) about George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones: S&L #021. The internet is abuzz with George R. R. Martin these days, who in case you didn't know, is not your bitch. As someone blogging about fantasy novels, it is mandatory that I mention this.

Unfortunately, he is not on the list. One day, I may have to take a hiatus from the list to read his stuff. People seem to like it quite a lot. The interesting thing about doing this blog is that I've learned about all these other things I want to read, but many of them are not on the list. This makes me think about the direction this will go in the future. I'm bound to finish all these books eventually, and when I do I may keep this blog going and just talk about the stories I was inspired to read by these stories.