(no subject)

I read the Drop Dead Monstrous anthology last Autumn after picking it up at the MCM expo, from by Sweatdrop Studio's stall (A UK small press Manga publisher). Richard Bruton's reviewed it if you're interested.

I his review he writes that it, like many anthologies is:

patchy, all the strips are punchy, truncated things and it has the feel of the artists just throwing their odd little rejected stories onto the anthology pile. Okay, maybe a little harsh, but you know what I mean.

I like comics anthologies. I'd guess I've probably picked up about 3 or 4 small press anthologies a year for the past few years. More often than not I do enjoy the stuff in them. They all have something that's not my favourite, but that's sort of why I like them. It's a chance to see stuff I'd normally reject on quick glance when deciding what to buy. Even if I don't like a story, or art style, I've not spent that long on it anyway.

Which segues into this weeks reading list:

*) The DFC
Thinking about the DFC as an anthology, it would be a clear favourite. But that's probably not fair because most stories run over multiple weeks so do have a chance to say more.

I mean I've even grow to like most of the stuff I didn't get at first after reading Richard's interview with Molly, his young daughter.

Richard: I just didn’t see any story in it, just friends standing around chatting.
Molly: I like the way it’s about a group of friends hanging around and talking about stuff. Maybe it’s just meant to be for kids Dad?

This was the issue where they announce the closure :(

The Weird Wild West wrapped up it's first run. The Bad Guy got away, setting up for a second season that won't happen :(
With inking, I normally prefer a fat line that changes width, but I really love the sketchy quality of the lines in this epsiode in particular.

13) Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet.
This is the autobiography of a high-functioning autistic savant.

It's a pretty moving story following his life from his birth, through to the release of a documentary about his ability to absorb languages (he gave a live televised interview in Iceland, less than a week after starting to learn the language). His synaesthesia and love of numbers run strongly through the book.

While much of the book is about the difficulty of his life, the chapters where he breaks out the comfortable rhythms and moves overseas for a year, or first meets his partner Neil, are really uplifting.

At one point he writes that he finds it very difficult to understand phrases such as "Jack isn't tall, he's a giant!" Since he can't mentally go back and change it to "Not only is Jack tall, he's a giant!" As such the book has a curious precision to it's prose, that is interesting in itself.

Weight for it!

I realised the other day that despite never keeping a diary, or weighing myself more than once every few months, I can remember my weight at various times. So graph time!



I knew I'd got into the healthy weight bit of the graph, but hadn't realised I was within a year of weighing less than I did when I started uni (if I keep losing weight at the same rate).

How odd. I'm really not focusing on anything particularly to do it.

{ETA: Any Banana Wing fans out there there's a discussion on Imposter Syndrome on radio now.}