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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Josh Simmons

Josh Simmons is an odd person, but I think he’d be happy to hear me describe him as such. His first series, Happy, was a deranged collection of short stories, many of which could best be described as having the intensity cranked up to 11. He also did comics about a sideshow carnival called Know Nothing Zirkus, a group that infuses its performance with sexuality and gross-out tactics.

He recently shifted into a different genre of comic; his graphic novel House was a silent journey into horror and claustrophobia. He also has the first volume of a new book called Jessica Farm coming out later this year, one where he’s drawing one page a month for the next 50 years. Which sums up Simmons in a heartbeat, really.

It’s hard to describe meeting Simmons in person, but there’s a combination of intensity and playfulness and insanity wrapped up into one.

This drawing, like Simmons himself, makes me laugh.

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Renée French

Renée French is a real treasure. Her books are a combination of sweet and creepy, some titles meant for older readers like The Ticking, others more squarely at children like The Soap Lady. She has a soft, gentle art that feels at times like if I blow on the page it will just float away.

Her compilation of short stories, Marbles in My Underpants, is out of print and fetches really high prices on the secondhand market, but I can’t bear to part with my copy. It’s such a great combination of amusing and strange and bizarre that I don’t think I’d ever be able to find again.

This cute little drawing from French at MoCCA just makes me smile. There’s something about a faceless stuffed toy walking around with a glass of wine that just seems right.

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Five Things That Make Me Happy (part 7)

“Why Not Smile” by R.E.M.
I’ve always loved this song from R.E.M.’s much-maligned album Up; the first sans drummer Bill Berry, there’s a much quieter, almost etherial nature to the album in general. There’s such a sense of hope about this song that it gets me every time—for a song that starts with the quiet lyric “the concrete broke your fall” it’s surprising how upbeat this song ultimately is. (There’s a not-very-good fan video of the song on YouTube that at least lets you hear the song itself.)

TrioThe Cactus Fairy
Laura came into my office today with both hands full of tiny little pots, each with their own little cactus. She’d been replanting some of the cacti from a large number that she’d raised from little dots, and by the time she left, three cacti were sitting on my bookshelf next to the window. They’re wee little things and adorable. Hopefully I won’t over-water them (as some other co-workers have accidentally done).

Han Ah Reum’s Wasabi Green Peas
I used to think that all wasabi green peas were the same. You know, crunchy, tasting of slight spice and heat. That sort of thing. When I work at Big Planet Comics on a Sunday (about once every six weeks or so), I’ll stop at Han Ah Reum (also known as H Mart) and do a little shopping. It’s a Korean chain of grocery stores that has a location near the store, and it’s always a journey into excitement. I wouldn’t have expected my best purchase from the last trip, though, to have been some wasabi green peas that I threw into the basket as an afterthought. They’ve got an amazing level of spice to them; not just in terms of heat, but rather in flavor. I ate the last handful this evening and it took all the control in the world to not have devoured them all sooner.

The Wire Series Finale
This actually made me both happy and sad. I started watching The Wire on June 2nd, 2002. The show began that night, and a combination of a love for HBO’s shows at the time as well as recognizing cast members from Oz and, well, I decided I should give it a try. To be honest, I wasn’t terribly sure at first if I was going to stick around. The first season began very slowly, but I decided to hang in there and I was definitely rewarded for doing so. Sunday’s episode closed out its fifth and final season, and it makes me so happy that I’ve been able to enjoy 60 fantastic episodes. I’d stood up to get something across the room about ten minutes from the end, and ended up standing in place, staring at the screen through its finale. That felt right, somehow. Standing at attention, some sort of show of respect, to what I came to feel was one of the best shows on television. It never got high viewership numbers, but the amount of critical praise continually heaped on the show probably kept it alive. I’ll miss this a great deal, but I’m so glad I got to enjoy as much of it as I did.

Driving Home In Daylight
Now don’t get me wrong, I hate the fact that when I wake up for work it’s still dark out. But being able to leave work while it’s still light is a huge thing for me. It gives me more incentive to exercise, to do things, to have the chance to do more than just go home and eat dinner and prepare for bed. I went out and ran after work yesterday, and it was lovely. I can’t wait for it to be a month from now, by which time it will be a little warmer and lighter even later. Hurrah!

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A First for Everything

This will sound strange to many people, I’m sure, but amidst runs to the grocery store and other errands (oh, the excitement) I ended up doing something that I’d never done before—I met one of my neighbors.

I’m not entirely sure why I haven’t ever met any of my neighbors before. At Peachtree (1996-2001), I honestly didn’t even see the three neighbors on my floor for a couple of months, and then I just felt silly introducing myself at that point. I know, I should’ve said something, but… well, there we go. Then at Archstone (2001-2005), I only had one neighbor on my floor because the ground floor was built into a hill and so two of the four areas were equipment storage. There I’d occasionally smile and nod at the person who lived across the way, but neither of us ever talked to the other person. So there you go.

Now that I’m in Woodbury Park (2005+), I had once or twice held the door for the older woman on my floor, but she never seemed really ready to talk. (And she’s since moved out, and while I think there might be someone else there now, I have yet to see any real evidence of him or her, just that flyers on the doorstep vanish.) The people on either side I also hadn’t ever seen for months, and I am never even entirely sure at any given moment if there’s anyone in apartment on my left.

However! The apartment on my right which went vacant about two months ago now has a new inhabitant. He had the door propped open while I was heading out, so I said hello and gave him my name (and vice versa). That was painless.

But… I dunno… for some reason I’ve never felt like really introducing myself. Like doing so would be saying, “You’re going to be living there forever, time to know the locals.” Is this just me when it comes to a rented apartment?

(That said, I do quite love my neighborhood. If I could afford to buy in it, I would!)

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Kris Dresen

It’s no secret that I love Kris Dresen‘s comics. Her collaborations with writer Jen Benka on Manya are beautifully drawn, and echo Benka’s thoughful, introspective scripts. Dresen’s also a great writer herself, though, with her humor strip Max & Lily forever making me chuckle, and I adore her current project Grace that she’s serializing online.

She gets a lot of bonus points here for being the first person to not only go for the wine/whine pun, but also still tying it into wine. And as an added bonus, it’s Lily! He’s my favorite of her characters, probably because he’s utterly out of control. In a good way. Honest.

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Scott Mills

Going through these sketches lately, I’m starting to feel like this stretch of art was almost a curse—draw in my book, stop producing comics!

Scott Mills used to be super-prolific, turning out graphic novels on a regular basis like Big Clay Pot, Trenches, and My Own Little Empire. These days, we haven’t seen much from him, although his website does say that he’s working on a new book. I, for one, can’t wait to see it.

This sketch is great because it’s got a nice combination of whimsy and seriousness about it, to me.  In short, what I’d always liked about his comics. And who hasn’t felt like the character here during a night out on the town? Here’s to more Mills soon!

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Getting Old(er)

Talking to Kris earlier today, I was sharing recent ailments (stomach issues, my shoulder still not being back to 100%, that sort of thing) and then ended it with, “Boy, getting older sure is fun.” And I was mostly joking… but I really would be happier if I was slightly more resilient like I was in my youth. All these little creaking joints and such are getting old. (I think I’d be ok with it all, right now, if the right shoulder was completely better. But alas, not the case. Still a bit sore, but nothing as bad as this time last week where turning my head hurt.)

And of course, it’s now a month until this year’s birthday and just like last year I haven’t the slightest idea what to do. (Quick summary: current apartment is too small to really host more than a couple of people comfortably, dinners beyond a very small handful of people usually result in not being able to really talk to anyone (which stinks), casual hang-out at a bar can work well but you need to pick a location carefully that can situation everyone but isn’t too crowded and/or crazy.)

Meanwhile, Mister I-Don’t-Do-Anything-For-My-Own-Birthday is all excited about the thought of doing something for my birthday. (Isn’t that the way things always go?) So I need to start thinking and planning. I might just do the bar thing again but with a slightly smaller crowd. It seemed to work well enough, but slightly less people could be a good thing, right? (I think the numbers topped out a little over 40 last year in terms of invitations. The hazards of having a lot of friends.) So it would stink to have to cut it back, but it would also be a lot more manageable.

Of course, looking at last year’s invitation, I also promised that because it’s the big 35 this year that things would be “more exciting.” Hmmmmmm. (How does that line go? “I lied. I do that sometimes.”)

Donations towards a new, non-tight shoulder muscle are happily accepted, by the way.

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: Rachel Hartman

Rachel Hartman‘s sketch was the first one to grace my book at the MoCCA Arts Festival in the summer of 2002. Her book Amy Unbounded was a blast, the story of a young girl in a fantasy world who’s starting to learn that life can be a little more complicated than she thought.

I really miss her comics; they were funny and smart and just full of energy. Her sketch here shows that humor on display, perfectly.

(Rachel! We need more comic books! Please!)

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Wine-Book Wednesdays: J.G. Jones

J.G. Jones is the kind of comic artist who is hitting it big and absolutely deserves it. Wanted, the comic he drew for writer Mark Millar, is hitting movie screens later this year and stars James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman. He’s also drawing Final Crisis, DC Comics’s huge 2008 comic book event.

When he drew this funny Incredible Hulk sketch for me, he was on tour to promote Wonder Woman: The Hikatea, written by the always-clever Greg Rucka. A great sketch from a great artist on a book tour for a great book.

What can I say? Great all around. (But who’s going to collect the juice after the grapes are stomped?)

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Here’s To My Own Bed

It doesn’t matter how much I enjoy travelling to oher places and seeing new things or old friends, there is a lot to be said for sleeping in my own bed.

Between February 6th and 18th, I was actually at home for a whopping three evenings. What does this mean? Well, first, a mountain of laundry that which I will continue to chip away at (and hopefully finish up tonight). Second, it means that I’ve gone from two and a half weeks of banked reviews for Read About Comics to none at all, although I have one-and-a-half written in a notebook and in need of transcription and completion tonight. (At least the Wine-Book Wednesdays are already queued up through next week.) Third, there were a whopping 1200+ e-mails in my work account, with all but four being spam. (Yikes!)

And fourth and finally, my shoulders and neck are killing me. I’m hoping a soak in the tub tonight will loosen them up. But they’re painful enough that as soon as I finish one last task, I’m going home. Ugh. There’s a lot to be said for a good mattress and pillow that work well with your own body, and that’s something I’ve been truly missing.

Now if there was just a way for me to bring my own bed with me on trips, I think I would be set.

And for no reason whatsoever other than I think it’s really awesome (and let’s face it, Dolly Parton and Star Trek do go hand-in-hand):