Jim Ottaviani's Blog, page 17

Something(s) to read, 2010: Graphic Novels

Up here above the 42nd parallel the weather is such that I'm staying inside and reading more, and you might also plan to spend extra time indoors in the next few weeks. Or months. So as a public service, here are the best graphic novels I've read (so far) in 2010, complete with my brief notes to myself about them. They're in no particular order; they're all good and some are even better than that. I hope you find something here that you like!

General

Chew
Layman, John; Guillory, Rob
Almost completely fresh in its feel, great big-footy art, and some snappy dialogue and writing.

Criminal: Bad Night
Brubaker, Ed; Phillips, Sean
Fine, fine noir.

Afrodisiac
Rugg, Jim; Maruca, Brian
Terrific parody of all sorts of things, with no redeeming social value. Wonderful.

Moving Pictures
Immonen, Kathryn; Immonen, Stuart
Strong and moody, with a particularly solid middle section (where many books, including mine...I think, sometimes, maybe...sag). The art is terrific, displaying Stuart I's versatility and composition. I'd be curious to see the script for this as well, since there's a lot of subtlety in staging and pacing here.

Mysterius the Unfathomable
Parker, Jeff; Fowler, Tom
A lot of fun, and the art is terrific. I want this to be a series.

Trickster: Native American Tales
Dembicki, Matt (ed.)
Mixed, as with all anthologies, but most of the stories are very good.

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
O'Malley, Bryan Lee
How about that -- a satisfying ending. Hard to do with a series like this, but done and done well! I re-read the whole thing before getting to the last volume, and had a ball. (p.s. The movie was good too, but not as good.)

George Sprott
Seth
Melancholy and regret as beauty. Wonderfully put together and presented.

The Outfit
Cooke, Darwyn
Better than The Hunter, and more inventive as well. The style is full of, well, style and the art and editing are a great match Stark's/Westlake's prose.

Superhero

All-Star Superman
Morrison, Grant; Quitely, Frank
Re-read, for book club: Wonderful, as in full of wonder.
 
Young Adult
 
Smile
Telgemeier, Raina
Charming, and spot on for its demographic. And for me as well, it turns out.
 
Prime Baby


Yang, Gene


Slender and hilarious. Very sharp humor.

Mercury
Larson, Hope
Very strong and evocative. The cartooning and storytelling are so strong that they carried me through some parts that seemed predictable. (Here again, I'm not the book's demographic, so that predictability is probably just fine in context.)

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook
Davis, Eleanor
Excellent, densely packed, and funny.

Manga
 
Twin Spica
Yaginuma, Kou
Surprising! I liked this a lot; a nifty little fantasy about a girl who aspires to space travel, presented with more depth and promise than I expected. I look forward to the next volumes.

Comic strips
 
Cul de Sac Golden Treasury: A Keepsake Garland of Classics
Thompson, Richard
The title is tongue-in-cheek and also true. The best daily strip out there.

DIY Tippe Top

A few years back, and as a promotion for Suspended in Language, I had some tippe tops made. They were so popular that I broke my own (unwritten) rules and made an extra batch after the first one ran out. But as the saying goes, "fool me once...". So, they really are all gone now.

But! Don't despair. You can make your own:







The video is courtesy of The Automata/Automation Blog, which you should visit because it is quite nifty.

And the signed copy of Apollo 13 goes to...

Brian A. -- who improved his odds by purchasing a couple copies of T-Minus -- had his number come up in the drawing, so he gets the book. Congratulations Brian, and thanks to all who entered. As I knew would happen, almost everybody had something interesting to say beyond just "sign me up," so I enjoyed hearing from you all!

[In case you missed my comment at the close of the drawing, here's how I picked: I listed out the entries as they came in and assigned numbers to each one. For example, if
Buzz Aldrin had been the first to respond, with just a comment or email, and
Sally Ride was second and she reminded me she bought three books last
year, and Alexei Leonov responded third and showed me he had purchased
a copy of T-Minus that day, and then I got another entry via the blog,
the list would have looked like this:

1 Buzz Aldrin

2-4 Sally Ride

5-17 Alexei Leonov

18 Alan Bean

and so on. Then I went to www.random.org and put in the total
number of entries (18 in the example above) and it spit back a
number at me (11 for this test case, so congratulations to Alexei
Leonov), and then I contacted the person who got the book!]

Again, thanks to everyone who entered. When I find something else cool to give away, I'll do this again.

Win a signed copy of Jim Lovell's Apollo 13

My last post was about Mary Roach's terrific Packing for Mars, and in it I promised to give away a book signed by an Apollo astronaut. Today's a good day to do that. So...



Somehow I ended up with two copies of Jim Lovell's book Apollo 13, written with Jeffrey Kluger (formerly titled Lost Moon). And somehow they're both signed by Jim Lovell, the Gemini VII, Gemini XII, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13 astronaut.

(OK, those "somehow"s are disingenuous. I found a used copy years ago and without knowing it was signed I bought it immediately. Thrilling! And then just a couple of weeks ago I found another, and it too was signed, and I couldn't resist buying it again. But I don't need two as much as one of you needs one...)



If you've seen the movie, you know a lot of the story, and if you're reading this blog, you probably want to know even more. And would probably like a signed copy, too. So here you go.

To enter, do one or more of the following things:



Leave a comment on this blog post (you only need to do that once -- duplicates won't count -- and if you see this via Facebook, please head over to the blog proper).

Buy one of my books through the G. T. Labs (as many as you like, and duplicates do count).

Send me an message or postcard or letter (contact information is available from the G.T. Labs site, at the "About" link on the upper right of the blog, or you can get in touch via Facebook too) that convinces me that you bought one of my books elsewhere. The evidence could be a copy of a receipt, a plausible and entertaining story, the 16th word on the 11th page, ... use your imagination!


I'll enter your name once for each comment and/or once for each dollar you spend and/or once for each book you bought elsewhere (or elsewhen), and on December 1st I'll pick a winner at random from the entries and send a bit of history to someone. Good luck!

Recommended: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Image via Wikipedia

I just finished reading Mary Roach's book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and if you like books about space, you'll love this one. She does good research, has fun with it, and she brings all that fun to life on the page. And if you think NASA's vision and people have become boring and staid and that we've lost our ability to dream big, she'll set you straight.

Best of all, her closing lines answer the question "Why do this?" as well as any I've ever read. I'm tempted to quote them, but then you might be tempted to not read the book yourself. So I won't...so you will.

p.s. On a space-related note, if you've ever hankered after a book signed by an Apollo astronaut who's flown to the moon, I'll be giving one away in a few days, so stay tuned!

A year at the races

I've just run the last timed race I plan to in 2010 -- my feet and hip and ankles hope so, anyway -- so here's a recap. Because you care.


Dexter-Ann Arbor Half Marathon: Too warm and humid, but beautiful -- how have I not run this race before?; 1 EotT [1]
Sylvania (Sprint) Triathlon: See previous entry, if you're interested in details -- I didn't drown, I didn't crash, I didn't cramp; 0 EotT, but lots of...The Doors. Really? I mean, sure, they do things differently in Ohio. I know that. But still, The Doors?
Running the Rails 10K: Very hot and humid (racing in August? What was I thinking?), no music, and a slow time with a bonus serving of humility [2]
Dances with Dirt 100K relay: Cool and rainy, which mixed well with the pre-existing muck; this year's legs were Butt Kicker, Stripper Pole, and Where's the F'N Bridge...they left me bloody, bruised, and happy

Detroit Half Marathon: Cool, beautiful on both sides of the U.S./Canada border, an ankle roll at the start, and a personal best for this distance; 2 EotT (one via a marching band, for special torture)I was lucky to enjoy decent health (with a couple rounds of physical therapy, natch) throughout, so it was a year with many enjoyable events, made even better because Kat ran versions of all but Dirt. Way to go, Kat!

Now to rest my feet and hip and ankles. And maybe see the physical therapist again.



[1] EotT = Eye of the Tiger by whoever wrote and/or sang the miserable thing with the express purpose of inspiring everyone in the world but me to put forth maximum effort. (All I do is grit my teeth.) It's the song Mephistopheles has on repeat over the PA system during interval training in Dante's 10th circle.

[2] Around the second mile I heard some quick stepping behind and then beside me, and it was a younger runner (maybe not even in his teens) stomping past me. Noisily, it seemed to me. Smug older runner that I am, I think to myself, "I've seen this before many times. And in another two miles I'll see you again, this time with a fist buried in your side to try and relieve a cramp. I will say something sympathetic and inspiring, get a tepid response, and then will leave you far, far behind." So...that didn't happen. I didn't speed up and if he slowed down you couldn't prove it by me. Well done, kid, and thanks for the life lesson!

Every article about science you've ever read in the popular press

Here it is, for your convenience, enjoyment, and dismay, courtesy of The Guardian's Martin Roberts.

David Byrne on the Motor City sans motor

Apparently the amazing David Byrne took part in Tour de Troit this past weekend; his first, our fourth. When we started riding it in 2006 there were 300 other people cruising the ruined splendor of Motown on bikes. Now the event is capped at ~3000 and a Talking Head, and it remains an amazing ride (the course changes every year) through a once grand and still impressive city. 

Byrne's diary entry called "Don't Forget the Motor City" touches on the Tour and much more, so I'll stop here so you can go read it. As our pal Phil said, if his photos of the Michigan Theater doesn't break your heart, nothing will. 
(Credits: Our pal Kris took the picture to the right last year. We weren't sure she and Phil enjoyed it, since it seemed more crowded and slow in 2009 and they're real cyclists, but they came out again this year!)

Interview up at Newvine Growing

If I've sounded good on the radio, it's because of advice Colleen Newvine gave me. And the corollary is also true -- when I don't keep her advice in mind, I end up sounding like, well, me. 

Colleen is one of the Legion of Very Smart Friends who have made my
life better. Last week she asked me a bunch of questions, and I answered them. So please head over to her blog, Newvine Growing, and read the answers, see my ideal workspace, and then read her other posts too. 

ComixTALK interview on T-Minus and other things...

Last year I talked to Alexander Danner about T-Minus and other things, and the interview is now available at ComixTALK. He asked excellent questions, and even though I'm a year older (and presumably a year smarter) I don't disagree with Jim2009 on any major points. 

We talked about space tourism, judging books by their covers, upcoming books, and other things too. I hope you enjoy it.

p.s. One bit of prediction was wrong, though. Feynman will now come out next year, not this fall.