Books/Comics
Finished the Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel - A lovely somewhat dark story. Her prose is just so seductive and leads so well to the next page the next idea and on and on and on.
Finished the Court of Owls TPB by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullpo and Jonathan Glapion. A good Batman tale that adds to the mythos of Gotham nicely. I’m not the biggest fan of Greg Capullo’s art, but he is a solid artist. He sometimes seems to have difficulty drawing different looking people and relies on highly characterized versions of others.
Finished Give Me Liberty TPB by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. This kicked off the Martha Washington series published by Dark Horse Comics. I had actually read Martha Washington Goes to War as a kid, but never followed up to find the rest of the series. I do remember at the time being struck by seeing a main character that was black AND a woman on the front cover of a comic. It just wasn’t something that you saw back then. This was probably around the early 1990’s. This story is great and I highly recommend it. Some story elements are a bit trite and there are some things that happen just to move the story along, but it’s a great read with fantastic art.
Music
Discovered Beach House recently and have been loving their 2018 album 7. I also like Bloom, their album from 2012.
Also, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys is a very good album. I had given it a brief listen in the past and disliked it, but in returning to it now I appreciate it much more. I gave AM another listen too and this along with Tranquility Base has reminded me of why I loved this band so much when they first came out. Their sound has grown and changed, but still remains identifiable as them. A great band that is getting better with age.
Movies/TV
Nocturnal Animals - Beautifully filmed and dark with noirish touches. It’s a simple story with a yearning to be something more. Michael Shannon’s performance really stuck out for me. He’s a supporting actor, but really brings a wonderfully odd touch to the movie.
Finished Succession S2. The season ended with glorious mad dash off a cliff. That is a good thing as all the characters were rushing towards said cliff and it was enthralling to see them all cutting each other down even though they were all doomed.
The Outsider is still dark and creepy. Can’t wait till the end.
Started watching Counterpart on Amazon. A detective sci-fi story with J.K. Simmons in the lead role. He is his usual great self and moves the series along with his expressive and sometimes depressive face. It’s shot with a wonderful muted color pallet that helps define the nature of the story and the world it exists in. Not quite done with it yet, as it’s a bit slow moving and doesn’t really lead me to binge watch it. This could be a good thing in actuality as I do sit down and savor it when I watch it.
Video Games
Besides a few Mario Kart races not too much was spent playing games this month.
Work
Finished two huge 5’x3’ portraits I’ve been working on and off on for the past several months. Still need to build the frames for them, but I’m happy to see them done and ready to get them out the door soon.
Been working on my Los Demonios series more.
Also, nearly done with a zine on hand emojis that I’ll put out in the next week or so.
Weather
It’s been fucking cold. I’m over it.