Healy's Journal

Currently I'm reading What is Your Quest? From Adventure Games to Interactive Books by Anastasia Salter. It's a rough history of the adventure game genre from its early roots in the 70s to 80s to its resurgence in the internet/tablet era. It focuses more on the graphical adventure side of things, which I found pretty interesting as an IFer; it gives me an idea of how the other half lives, I guess. Anyway, if you're an adventure aficionado, you'll probably won't get as much from it as a beginner to these weird games with all these puzzles and no action bits, but it still comes highly recommended.

But wait, there's more! Book number 2 is Will Eisner's auto-bio graphic novel To the Heart of the Storm. When I checked this out of the library, I was expecting something that focused on Eisner's years in the war, but instead it's presented as a flashback to the tensions brewing before the war. I was a little disappointed in this, frankly, because it's a subject that I think was better handled in his A Life Force. Still, I did think it was a pretty good book. Recommended, but get A Life Force soon after.

Finally, book numero tres is Oishinbo A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine (story by Tetsu Kariya and art by Akira Hanasaki), which is a themed volume of standalone stories from the long running manga series Oishinbo. I didn't like the previous volume of Oishinbo I checked out from the library (Pub Food, I think?), but for some reason this volume just clicked. The main plot's not much: some dope named Yamaoka Shirou has to put together an Ultimate Menu of some kind for the newspaper he works, and his dad Kaibara Yuzaan, a hardass jerk, runs some kind of Supreme Menu for a rival paper. It doesn't really matter anyway, as it's mostly just an excuse to go on food-themed adventures. The author is a really big fan of simplicity in cooking, at least (especially?) when it comes to Japanese cuisine.

My favorite of the whole volume is the one where Yamaoka and friends accompany a businessman to a meeting with a tea ceremony master. Yamaoka doesn't think much of the old master, a boastful man who likes to talk about the famous people he teaches and showing off his expensive tea-ware, but it isn't until he serves the group strawberries covered in condensed milk that Yamaoka's suspicions about him are confirmed. What do the strawberries have to do with anything? You'll have to read the story to find out! Anyway, I think the stories in this volume are all pretty great like that, and it comes with an essay by the author that explains a bit of what he thinks about Japaneses cuisine. Highly recommended, especially if you like reading stories about food.

Currently I am reading Comic Book Rebels, by Stanley Wiater and Stephen R. Bissette. It's a series of interviews with some of the biggest names in comics in the nineties, including Alan Moore, Scott McCloud, Todd McFarlene, Harvey Pekar, etc. It's got a wide variety of artists and authors, from former artists from the underground "comix" scene in the 60s to 70s to then-new blood like Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Only three women, though: Lee Marrs, Harvey Pekar's wife Joyce Brabner, and Colleen Doran. (Also, besides Moebius, all the artists and authors in their "International Ambassadors" section are British.) It's actually a pretty interesting snapshot of the comics industry before the speculation crash. There's a hopefulness about the relatively new direct market that's about to go away soon, when the market crashes and Diamond rules as monopoly supreme. Anyway, despite a few gripes here and there it's a pretty informative book, and a good resource for those who want to find out more about comics history.

Next Time, on Currently Reading Not-Always-a-Wednesday: I'm not sure! I might just cheat again and pick another video game.

Currently I am reading Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel by Stephen Weiner. It is the thinnest book on comic book history I have ever read, about 64 pages including the backmatter. Some of the early chapters (I am thinking of the first in particular) read like grade school history reports, if grade school taught the history of comic books. Later on it starts discussing just one or two comic books-- I'm sorry, graphic novels, per chapter. I think I detect a hint of bias in this book. It also ends just as it gets to manga boom; on the one hand, what do you expect from a book written in 2003, but on the other, wow, way to miss the second biggest zeitgeist of the coming decade (first being the web, natch). Also, for some reason it starts every chapter with a different quote, and while they're sometimes clever, most of the time it comes off as too twee, like the quote for the Sandman chapter: "Death was a friend, and sleep was Death's brother." --John Steinbeck. Also also, it cites no sources. Overall I'd say while it may be of use to a total comics newbie, you'd probably be better off with Demanding Respect instead.

Next time, on Currently Reading Wednesdays Somedays: Well, I really wanna get into some text adventures, but seeing as I've said that every week and I've gone with some comics related book each time, I'm guessing that's a no sale. With any luck Ryan Veeder will release his magnum opus IF about a struggling comic book author in the 30's, and this impasse will come to an end.

(Welcome to what I hope will continue to be a regular feature of this blog, Currently Reading Wednesdays. I'll talk a bit about what I'm reading, and also a little bit about what I'm planning to read next.)

Currently I am reading Demanding Respect by Paul Lopes. It's another book about comics history, this time a summary of the major events of Twentieth Century to Early 21st century American comic book publishing. It's kind of incredible, to me today, to see what lengths people would go to demonize comics back in the early 50's. They seduce the youths into a life of crime! Their crummy art will rot kids' eyes! They're turning our children into fascists, and also they're backed by the communists. It'd be pretty laughable if the anti-comics crusade weren't so successful. Anyway, I don't think I like this book quite as much as I liked Haunt of Fears, but it's got a broader scope, covering everything from the start of Superman to the 60's alt-comix scene to about 6 years ago, which is when the book was published. So, I'm gonna say that if you're in need of a general lowdown of the American comic book industry, check it out! There are probably worse books on the subject you could read.

Next time, on Currently Reading Wednesdays: I think I might like to check out Akira next. Or maybe something by Pauline Kael? And I still haven't gotten to those text adventures. Who knows?