Y Me

It’s not that I’ve been busy this time. It’s that I have been in a month-long battle with some nasty cold-like crud that hit me around Christmas and was hanging onto me like a drunk coworker at an office party. (All better now, thank you very much.) Plus, I’ve got several new distracting obsessions. (Including writing THE HAND ME DOWN HORROR. I’m halfway through the script for issue two and having a ball.)

Suzanne’s gotten me turned on to an iPhone app called “Words With Friends” which is a Scrabble like, turn-based crossword game. I’d noticed her spending a lot of time with her iPhone lately and, as always, I had to horn in on her action. We’ve been obsessively playing for about four days now. I even stopped halfway through my lunchtime workout yesterday to sit down and take my turn.

We’ve both also been reading Brian Vaughn and Pia Guerra’s Y: THE LAST MAN. I started buying the trades while the series was still going but never read them. I was buying the trades at conventions as cheaply as I could and holding on to them. I didn’t want to get into it until I was sure I could locate them all. This past weekend, I found myself with some time to read and didn’t want to commit to Stephen King’s UNDER THE DOME just yet. So I started in on Y. And couldn’t stop. I burned through all 10 trades in four days. It was a real page-turner. While I was impressed with the solid characterization and the intricate world Vaughn created, I really have to take my hat off to Pia Guerra. Her art isn’t flashy and highly stylized like the youngsters like these days, but she’s consistent, tells a great story and you never, ever have to wonder who’s who. In a book with hundreds of characters, nearly all female, she manages to make sure each and every one of them is distinct and recognizable. And there’s something very attractive and comforting about her style. I really fell in love with her work here. Anybody know what she’s working on now?

(By the way, please don’t spoil the ending in the comments. Suze reads them and hasn’t finished the series yet.)

Christian’s also got me hooked on a bit of a guilty pleasure. I’ve started reading THE BOYS. I’m a big fan of Garth Ennis’ PREACHER and HITMAN but most of his other stuff has left me cold. I couldn’t get past the gratuitous violence and sex and the cursing and overall sleaziness of almost everything he does. And don’t get me wrong, THE BOYS has all that in spades. But underneath all of that is a really good story and some great characters and the thing that is often missing from his work. Heart. I’m really glad I decided to start reading it. If I hadn’t been reading CROSSED (admittedly, for all the reasons I claim to not like Ennis’ work...hypocrite!) I probably wouldn’t have taken the chance on THE BOYS. If you haven’t been reading it, give it a shot.