Monday, April 17, 2006

Cool news

Peter David has reported that his prose character Sir Apropos of Nothing will be returning in the form of a novelette titled "Sir Apropos of Nothing and the Adventure of the Receding Heir." It will be published in an anthology titled Heroes in Training, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines. No release date yet.

As much as I've enjoyed a lot of PAD's comics, with the exception of a lot of his stuff on The Incredible Hulk, there isn't much of his funnybook work that I've enjoyed as much as his first two Sir Apropos of Nothing novels. I've never managed to get my hands on a copy of the third book, Tong Lashing, and apparently the publisher closed shop.

Friday, April 07, 2006

I miss comic books

Let me start off by saying that I'm aware this blog has been absent of any comic book commentary lately, and there won't be any in this post either. Sorry. All I can say is that the name of the blog is "Superheroes, etc." and consider the blog - at least until this semester ends - firmly lodged in "etc."

That said, I really miss comic books. Even if I could afford to buy any new graphic novels, I don't have the time to read them. I'm in the middle of Small World by David Lodge (for the same course that subjected me to The Waste Land, and it's a surprising and welcome change from the course material so far - surprising because, even though it's a very funny and engaging read, in a lot of ways it's based on The Waste Land) and the previously mentioned Northrop Frye theoretical text The Secular Scripture, and have a paper due on both the Monday after next. Following hard on Spring Break (officially starting next Monday, but starting Friday for me since I don't have any Friday classes) will be Possession: A Romance by A.S. Bryant. For another course, I've just finished Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and will probably have to re-read it for a paper later this month. My final research paper for the class will likely be on Rudyard Kipling's Kim, and that will probably necessitate another re-reading.

I wanted to do the research paper on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and thought I might be able to pull it off because of all the post-colonial stuff we've been covering in that course, but unfortunately I don't think it's an option. My professor has specified that he wants our work in our final research paper to focus on reading criticism about a specific text and trying to highlight what isn't mentioned in that criticism, and so far I haven't been able to find any academic, peer-reviewed stuff on The League. If I remember correctly, the only stuff I've found on Alan Moore at all covered either Watchmen, From Hell, or both. Oh, and apparently a previous English honors student at my school did their thesis on Promethea. I should read that (the thesis, not the series, though I should read the rest of that, too - I've got the first two books).

I miss Lone Wolf and Cub and Tom Strong and ElfQuest and Seven Soldiers. I've tried cracking open the Absolute edition of Watchmen my girlfriend gave me for Christmas and haven't yet had the time to get past the first chapter. I hate going to comic book news sites, review sites, and blogs; and reading about an endless stream of new books and old books I haven't gotten a chance to pick up, and not having the time or money to check any of them out. I hate driving past my local comic shop every night and not having the time or money to stop in and pick something up, even if it wasn't always closed by the time I zoom past it.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Finally free of The Waste Land

I am officially free of (and those kind enough to read this blog are free of me bitching about) The Waste Land, which I ranted about two weeks ago.

Remember how I wrote that I was going to get it done by the following Monday. Well, heh heh, that didn't pan out. I was already spending all my time working on a paper for another class. I talked to my professor about it last week and his response was "get it to me when you can." I was hoping to get it done next week during our break, but as of this Monday "when you can" became "Wednesday."

I'm honestly a little impressed with myself. I pounded it out in 4 hours, and it's not half-bad. I think I was able to do it so quickly because of the professor's instructions (that everyone else apparently ignored) to "narrow your focus ruthlessly." And boy, did I narrow. I got 4-plus pages out of a single stanza.

And in the words that readers of The Waste Land should recognize:

Well now that's done, and I'm glad it's over.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Short story available for mass consumption

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a short story I wrote was being published by The Culture Star Reader. The story, "All the Samurai I Know are Dead," is available online. You can read it here.

Enjoy.