And a Couple of Comic Books…

It’s always nice when you build up a little backlog of books read as it generally means that you have something to post about while you tackle the longer books that are propping up the TBR pile. Well, that’s the idea… What I tend to find is that I get all undecided about what book to read next, while I work through the backlog, and then I’m right back where I started. Note to self: Must stick with ‘The God is Not Willing’, keep reading…

Oh well, however it eventually pans out, here’s a quick post about a couple of comic books that I’ve been reading recently…

 

‘Y: The Last Man – Unmanned’ Vaughan, Guerra, Marzan Jr. (Vertigo)

In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome – with the apparent exception of one young man and his male pet. This ‘gendercide’ instantaneously exterminated 48% of the global population, or approximately 2.9 billion men.

Now, aided by the mysterious Agent 355, the last human male Yorick Brown must contend with dangerous extremists, a hoped-for reunion with a girlfriend on the other side of the globe, and the search for exactly why he’s the only man to survive…

I found this book in a charity shop and planned to read it while the TV show played out. As is par for the course with me… In the time that it took for me to get round to it, the TV series made it to a Season and was then promptly cancelled. Oh well, I read the book anyway and I can see myself picking up the rest of the series in the near future. I wasn’t that bothered by the art but really enjoyed the way that a couple of mysteries are set up and left to play out here. Anything could have caused the ‘event’ and we’re left to ponder that for ourselves. And it’s not just that, we also get to see how the post-apocalypse works without men getting involved and the answer is… Well, people do what they can (and what they must) to get things back on track; it’s just that this time round, all of them are women apart from Yorick and Ampersand. There’s still room for a ‘crazy post-apocalypse cult’ though and that is what keeps things ticking over here in terms of the plot moving forwards. Yorick looks like he will be an interesting character to follow and I think that’s just what I’ll be doing with this series. I have a feeling that this could be a better series, for me, than ‘The Walking Dead’. 


‘The Goon: The Deformed of Body and the Devious of Mind’ – Eric Powell (Dark Horse)

Enter a carnival of devastatin’ delights as the Goon and Franky take on the evils of the entertainment industry and the tyranny of the 1 percent. But when a bodacious burlesque dancer steals Franky’s heart, can the Goon nail her before she makes off with… the knickknack…?

It’s been ages since I read this book last. I used to have a copy but it ended up being involved in the larger part of my comic book collection having to be sold. I saw ‘The Deformed of Body…’ going cheap on Amazon and had to grab it while the going was good, despite this being my month not to buy books (although the rule actually was ‘don’t buy books that you’re not going to read straight away’, I read this one straight away).

The ‘Labrazio’ storyline has long finished by this point and what we’re given here are some ‘one off’ stories that bridge the gap between that arc and ‘Occasion of Revenge’, all accompanied by Powell’s gorgeously weird art stylings. It’s a good mix of weird humour (anything featuring the ‘Little Unholy Bastards’, the Hobos etc) and straight up horror (the fire at the Girdle Factory) and Powell doesn’t spring any surprises here, just keeps doing what he does very well; making you laugh and wince in equal measure.

I’d still recommend starting at the beginning, with ‘Rough Stuff’, and working your way through the series, it’s well worth it. ‘The Deformed of Body…’ can be read out of order though and is no worse for it.

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