Item Number 34: Graphic Novels, Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim #1-3

Time in possession: Volume 3, about 6 months. Volume 1 and 2 less than 1.

Description: 3 digest-sized graphic novels in excellent condition. The art and size mimics the typical manga style, but the story and content is an awesome mix of Twenty-something angst, video game culture and Canadiana. It's like somebody made a comic based on a mad lib taken from random shit floating around my brain. Too awesome for words. (Except, obviously, the words I've already committed and will commit in the future to describing it. So, uh, I guess I didn't need to say that.)

Cost: The total set came to around $36. WORTH EVERY PENNY.

Story: Working at the library is good for several reasons, but one of the best ones is that I get exposed to all sorts of reading that I would otherwise pass by without notice. Now, granted, this has left me with a stack of books at all times that call out to be read that, in all honesty, I will probably never finish off, but that's really not the worst problem in the world.

Uh, but my point. Right.

Graphic Novels actually work out quite well for me at the library since they don't take nearly as long to read. As such, they make great break reading and are actually the perfect length for my bus trip home on evening shifts. Therefore, I read a whole lot of them- In fact, I have on several occasions read every available graphic novel from my library. Now I've been a little negligent for a few months are there a several that I'm not really interested in, so that had ended that streak. Still, for a while...

ANYWAY, Scott Pilgrim was a pleasant surprise. In fact, when I first picked it up I wasn't really interested at all in it, but I had decided to give it a try. Well, was I ever glad that I did. Oni Press has put out some great books in the past (Geisha, My Faith In Frankie) but Scott Pilgrim is, like, custom made to rock my face. After reading volume 2 I ordered volume 3 off of Amazon (a rare thing for me) and personally hunted down the library's only copy of volume 1. When I spotted Volume 1 and 2 in New York (along with O'Malley's Lost at Sea) I was suddenly 30$ poorer.

I really don't have too much more to say about the series except READ THE DAMN THINGS. I will lend them to you! The library has them! Volume 4 is coming out soon and I couldn't be more pumped! Exclamation!

(Endnotes: Blogger's spell check apparently does not recognize either Canadiana or manga as words. Americana though? Yeah. For shame blogger, for shame. Speaking of shame, this is late. Apologies. The worst part is that I had this post 3/4 finished for days now and I just didn't get around to finishing it off last night. Boo-urns on me.)

Item Number 25: Books, The Essential Wolverine Vol 1-3

Time in possession: Less then a month

Description: 3 softcover collections of the comic book Wolverine, issues #1-69. In the neighborhood of 1500 pages. Some minor tearing on all volumes, and sticky remnants of price tags. Eh, they were cheap

Cost: All three volumes came to 12$ American (Woot!) which works out in the current exchange as $13.90 Canadian. Still a steal!

Story: Wolverine is pretty much every Canadians favorite comic character at one point or another. I mean, tons of Americans love him: He's a great anti-hero with a (formerly) mysterious past and a bas-ass take no prisoners attitude. He's the little guy with a lot of fight that most people want to be. Cool customer when need be, and other times raging animal that can't be defeated. Plus, he fought Cyclops. And nobody likes Cyclops.

The problem with Wolverine these days is that he's a little too popular: He's a member of the X-Men, the New Avengers, and 2 of his own comics. He's over-exposed and, some feel, more then a little played out. Sure, still a cool character, but it's time to let other people take some spotlight, right?

Personally, I always liked Wolverine. He's a Canadian super hero and far and away the best of all those available. Plus he was always tons of fun to draw with his neat costume and ever present claws. While I never had a lot of comics as a kid, some of my favorite ones were those featuring the hairy, short little Canuck, and whenever I would got to a bookstore I would find the time to thumb through his latest adventures.

So, when I stumble across the first three volumes of his solo book for such a low price on my trip to New York last month, how am I to say no? Well... I almost did. Sure, a bunch of cheap comics, great! But old comics, from the start of what many people now call the "Dark Ages", where Anti-Heroes, splattering blood, huge splash pages and weak storylines are the order of the day. The comics I read now are intellectual, clever and complex. Could I bring myself to read these old comics?

Well, it turns out that I could. After thinking it over some more I decided that I might as well give them a try: Worst comes to wost I'm only out $14 which is nothing for three trade paperbacks. So I buy them all and begin reading them on the subway to pass the time. And while at first the going is a little rough, soon I'm surprised by the quality of many of the stories I'm reading. Maybe Wolverine's book isn't so bad at all!

This isn't to say that the books on the whole don't come across as dated: They do, and many of the conventions they employ that have now fallen by the wayside - thought bubbles, incredibly exposition filled dialog, etc. - are certainly not missed, but there is certainly plenty of fun to be had reading them. In particular, a run on the book by current X-Factor scribe Peter David is well worth reading, and my favorite non-David written story (which I actually owned in it's original 24 page comic form!) was from one of his concepts. Go figure. While it does get a little tiring, having Wolverine remind himself and the readers again that "I've got a skeleton laced with Ademantium, which means a tap from me should send this guy flying!" and the like, over all the whole set is worth a check out.

Also, during my trip to New York, Volume 2 was used as a weapon onstage in the hilarious show "G-Men Defectives". Matt Domville attacked his opponent with it by reading it aloud. It was awesome. "Snikt!" indeed!

Item Number 9: Book, Watchmen

Time in possession: 2 years? Maybe less. I should probably research this a bit more when I do these things.

Description: Yellow paperback graphic novel, excellent condition despite several readings. Under a black light it radiates pure awesome. I forgot to take note of how many pages it is, but suffice to say that I does indeed have a good number of them. Pages that is. I don't know what else you could have thought I meant, but best to be clear. (Edit: There are 416)

Cost: Free, as it was a present from Rufus. Birthday or Christmas, I can't quite remember. The cover price is 26.99$

Story: When I was young, like most boys, I greatly enjoyed comic books. Now, I never had many, but I certainly did enjoy watching various vigilantes in tights beating the crap out of the bad guys. Then, like most kids, as I grew older and my attention was taken by other things, I slowly fell away from comics. Now I continued to draw, and much of my drawing was still influenced by my initial exposure to Jim Lee and Jack Kirby, although that soon became overcome by the influence of various manga: In the end, my exposure to North American comics was totally negated.

Then, years later I would meet people who were my age but had continued to read comics. And rather then being what one might typically consider a "comics nerd", these people were well adjusted members of society and highly literate- And they liked comics. This seemed strange to me, as while I hadn't totally tossed them out of my life, comics certainly were no longer an active pursuit. I decided that I must be missing something: And I was. Because there was a lot of great comics out there, good enough to equal if not better any book or movie or play I'd ever seen. Soon I was reading what is now easily identified as a core list of modern comic masterpieces: Preacher, Sandman, Dark Knight Returns, Supreme, and so on.

Alan Moore is an awesome writer and possibly the best comics writer in the business. For anyone else, Watchmen, which was his signature book due to its long duration and high profile, as well as the various ground that it broke creatively, Watchmen would be the pinnacle of their career. For Moore, it is merely another stepping stone, if a prominent one. I read it during my initial run through Moore's major works and owning it now adds to my substantial Moore collection. He's just amazing, he really is.

Plus it has tons of pretty pictures with guys in tights kicking the crap out of the bad guys.