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Book Report
Sep. 26th, 2012 06:49 pmPossibly my last pre-baby book report?
No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall - Is it possible to love an anthology while firmly believing that at least half of its contributions were somewhere between crap and mediocre? As you can tell from the subtitle, this is an anthology of queer comics, and a big one at that. Despite its length, I devoured the book in a few days and really enjoyed doing so. There were a few gems in there; I’d heard of Howard Cruse for a while and really enjoyed his pieces. And yet, most of the time I was thinking about how I now have a new appreciation for Alison Bechdel and how good her work is compared to these other queer cartoonists. I can’t decide if the editor was insane for picking so many iffy selections, or if the LGBT world is just so broad that a piece that makes no sense and packs no punch to me may be considered brilliant by another LGBT reader. I mean, there were a few comics in here that were drawn so badly that I couldn’t tell what was going on. Many others, I finished reading and asked, ‘Um….is this really the best sample from this writer/artist?? I’d hate to see what the rest of their work is like!’ But like I said, I devoured the book and loved the concept even though it is not the first anthology of queer comics. Grade: A (I guess?)
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D Herson – Two friends get a great idea. They go on a road trip and politely correct typos on signs, on menus, and anywhere else they see them. You know what I’m talking about. The misuse apostrophes, misspellings, grammatical errors. Probably the most common ones were unnecessary apostrophes (I see these all the time too!), such as “We sell panini’s and gyro’s”, and getting “its/it’s” and “your/you’re” and “who’s/whose” wrong. Along the way, they get in a bit of trouble for correcting a sign on a historical landmark. But I loved their mission! Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
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No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall - Is it possible to love an anthology while firmly believing that at least half of its contributions were somewhere between crap and mediocre? As you can tell from the subtitle, this is an anthology of queer comics, and a big one at that. Despite its length, I devoured the book in a few days and really enjoyed doing so. There were a few gems in there; I’d heard of Howard Cruse for a while and really enjoyed his pieces. And yet, most of the time I was thinking about how I now have a new appreciation for Alison Bechdel and how good her work is compared to these other queer cartoonists. I can’t decide if the editor was insane for picking so many iffy selections, or if the LGBT world is just so broad that a piece that makes no sense and packs no punch to me may be considered brilliant by another LGBT reader. I mean, there were a few comics in here that were drawn so badly that I couldn’t tell what was going on. Many others, I finished reading and asked, ‘Um….is this really the best sample from this writer/artist?? I’d hate to see what the rest of their work is like!’ But like I said, I devoured the book and loved the concept even though it is not the first anthology of queer comics. Grade: A (I guess?)
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D Herson – Two friends get a great idea. They go on a road trip and politely correct typos on signs, on menus, and anywhere else they see them. You know what I’m talking about. The misuse apostrophes, misspellings, grammatical errors. Probably the most common ones were unnecessary apostrophes (I see these all the time too!), such as “We sell panini’s and gyro’s”, and getting “its/it’s” and “your/you’re” and “who’s/whose” wrong. Along the way, they get in a bit of trouble for correcting a sign on a historical landmark. But I loved their mission! Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
( Read more... )
