Boozy Book Club No. 6

Since last installment of this irregular feature, Mondays have become Library Day for the Viper household. These shorter days have brought on longer reading nights. But sadly, not much in the way of the Civil War list. I have about 12 books left in this cycle, and I've decided to carry over this list to next year. Instead, I've been tearing through the Akron-Summit County Library's vast collection of graphic novels.

Civil War Reading List
Taking a bit of a break from this list, even though I started yet another book. I've nibbled away at a few more pages of the regulars you've come to know and love.

Battle Cry of Freedom
Author: James McPherson
Genre: History
Status: 510 pages in
Notes: My Don Quixote? Nitmos says yes.

Battle-Pieces
Author: Herman Melville
Genre: Poetry
Status: 93 pages in
Notes: Still reading on Google Books. Next up is "The Armies of the Wilderness."

Gone With the Wind
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Genre: Fiction
Status: 20 pages in
Notes: Just started this one. The edition Mrs. Viper has owned for many years has the smallest type in the world.

Comic Book Pull List
It's been a month since the last update, so I'm not going to bother with every single comic read. Instead, here are some highlights.

Death of the Family

Image: DC Comics

November marked the second month of the big Joker storyline in the Batman books. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have made Batman a consistent hit, so just for kicks I decided to broaden my scope and buy all the other titles in this crossover, which also encompasses Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans.

As expected, Batman has been solid, but I'm starting to wonder if I made a mistake with these others. So far, I've gotten Batgirl, Catwoman, and Suicide Squad. Batgirl was OK, but the other two are terrible. The art in Catwoman is either confusing or salacious and sometimes both. And is Suicide Squad meant to be the final push someone needs to finally tie a noose?

Mind MGMT

Image: Dark Horse
Comics

My new obsession is this mind-bender by Matt Kindt about telepathic government agents. I jumped in at Issue 5, and immediately had to pick up 1-4. I'm almost caught up, and I'm looking forward to what comes next. The art is all in water colors and looks a bit cartoonish, but it's laid out almost like a field journal and has super-textual elements that will have you turning the book sideways to keep everything straight. And even then you might be happily confused.

The sci-fi themed website i09 recently began running a daily comic strip that will act as a supplement to the monthly book and help new readers catch up to the action, as the seventh issue is due out in January.

Grant Morrison's Batman Epic

Image: DC Comics

Ever since getting back into comics this year, Batman has been a favorite. I've been trying to catch up on almost 20 years of back story. Last I remembered, Bane had broken Batman's back, and there were all these other Batmen running around. I lost interest and eventually stopped reading comics a couple years later.

Grant Morrison has always been a bit of a strange one. He writes some weird stories that you'd expect to find in independent comics, but he's worked on a bunch mainstream characters. He's currently finishing up his Superman run in Action Comics, as well as the conclusion to the second volume of his Batman Inc. The latter title's end will also mark the finale of an epic story Morrison began in 2006.

While I'm picking up Batman Inc. in single issues, I've spent the last month catching up in trade paperbacks from the library. In fact, I have the next four installments waiting at my local branch right now. It begins with the realization that Bruce Wayne is a father, and right now Batman is dead ... or so everyone thinks. Instead, he's been sent back in time after killing an intergalactic bad guy who had killed a god (see "Final Crisis").

The original Robin, Dick Grayson, has taken on the mantle of the Batman and Bruce Wayne's homicidal son, Damian, is his sidekick. Meanwhile, Bruce must find his way back the present. Got all that?

Now, it's your turn. What have you been reading?