So, What Are You Reading These Days? (besides comics)

[Alan M.]

Just bringing this discussion over to ning...

What books are you reading right now that don't have a narrative driven by images as well as words?

[George]

Finally read "Secrets in the Shadows," a 2005 bio of my favorite comic book artist: Gene Colan. The parts about Colan's decline (first under Shooter at Marvel, then under Giordano at DC) make for sad reading. It's clear that Colan needed a sympathetic writer-editor like Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman or Steve Gerber, who understood his unique style of art. A lot of people didn't.

The parts about Colan's life with his late wife, Adrienne, are heartbreaking, if you know about the unhappiness Colan has been through over the last year.

[The Baron]

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, by Nagaru Tanigawa

[ClarkKent_DC]

George said:

Finally read "Secrets in the Shadows," a 2005 bio of my favorite comic book artist: Gene Colan. The parts about Colan's decline (first under Shooter at Marvel, then under Giordano at DC) make for sad reading. It's clear that Colan needed a sympathetic writer-editor like Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman or Steve Gerber, who understood his unique style of art. A lot of people didn't.

The parts about Colan's life with his late wife, Adrienne, are heartbreaking, if you know about the unhappiness Colan has been through over the last year.

I'm well aware of Gene Colan's difficulties with Jim Shooter, but I did not know of any problems with Dick Giordano at DC. What happened?

[George]

"I'm well aware of Gene Colan's difficulties with Jim Shooter, but I did not know of any problems with Dick Giordano at DC. What happened?"

Colan said Giordano took him to lunch in the mid-'80s for what Gene assumed was a reward for good work. Instead, Dick told Gene his comics were not selling as well as other DC artists (such as Keith Giffen) and that DC might not renew his contract unless sales improved. (And it was not renewed.) Colan said he was stunned. In the past, he said, an editor would never blame an artist for low sales. He would blame the writer for not coming up with interesting stories.

Then Gene had some sort of run-in with Giordano's top assistant, Pat Bastienne, which resulted in Giordano banning Colan from the DC offices. His assignments dribbled away although DC wouldn't let him out of his contract.

Colan said he found DC to be a cold and unfriendly place, just as it had been in the '50s when he was drawing westerns and war comics for Kanigher. It wasn't the warm and friendly place that Marvel was (until Shooter took over). DC had always been run more like a corporation, Marvel like a informal gathering of buddies.

Colan also said he felt DC really didn't want him in the '80s. He felt he was there because Marv Wolfman wanted him -- and DC wanted to keep Marv (then their hottest writer) happy. When Colan's DC contract expired, he was actually happier drawing for Archie.

At least that's Colan's side of the story.

[The Baron]

Harmony, by Keikaku "Project" Itoh

[doc photo]

A Gift From Earth, an early Larry Niven novel. I'm a big fan of Nivens, having read most of his solo novels along with many of his collaborative efforts, but for some reason this book slipped past me.

[George]

Will Bunch's "The Backlash," a book about the rise of the Tea Party, Oath Keepers, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the right-wing paranoia directed against Obama.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

doc photo said:

A Gift From Earth, an early Larry Niven novel. I'm a big fan of Nivens, having read most of his solo novels along with many of his collaborative efforts, but for some reason this book slipped past me.

I kind of envy you. I love early Niven, all of the Known Space stories. For years now he's been writing everything in collaboration with other writers, and it's just not the same. I've enjoyed the Kzin stories written by other people--it's too good a concept to be left unexplored---but I think I lost track of those awhile back.

[The Baron]

The Next Continent, by Issui Ogawa

[doc photo]

The Man Kzin series was very entertaining, but I stopped reading them around volume #9 or 10. I believe there have been a few additional books published since.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I finished Rucka's Shooting At Midnight, which I really enjoyed. Very well paced, with a couple of little mysteries solved right at the end. Rucka always plays fair with his clues. I enjoyed the first Locke & Key GN, so I started on Joe Hill's novel Heart-Shaped Box. I like it lots so far, and it certainly is gripping. I got almost 70 pages in at my first sitting before I could make myself stop (it helps that it reads pretty fast, too).

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Travis Herrick said:

Stalinism As A Way Of Life by Lewis Siegelbaum & Andrei Sokolov. A collection of all kinds of documents from Russia mainly from the 1930s. Siegelbaum said they tried to get a very eclectic range of documents as far as their demeanor and what they were talking about.

Well that book sure was depressing.

Now I am reading Life by Keith Richards and James Fox. It was one of those "How can I not...?" As in: how can I not read Keith Richards' autobiography?