Oh my god. How did this happen?

Matt Fraction has been carefully selecting and arranging Drake-era Doom Patrol panels and uncovering the lessons within. This is really great - thanks Matt!

• Everything I needed to Learn About Comics I Learned from Arnold Drake - Part 1
• Everything I needed to Learn About Comics I Learned from Arnold Drake - Part 2
• Everything I needed to Learn About Comics I Learned from Arnold Drake - Part 3
• Everything I needed to Learn About Comics I Learned from Arnold Drake - Part 4

Jess and I just got back from a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I like tropical beach vacations because I get to relax and catch up on my reading. Here are some half ass reviews of the books that I read this time (yes, I spent much of the vacation sitting in a beach chair). I know that a few of you people have been looking for something new for your bedside table.

Low Life

by Luc Sante

Low Life is a dense, fiercely researched history of 1840-1920 Manhattan. Sante should be proud of the facts and mythology that he has collected in this volume.

I've became interested in city life during the 1800s after I read The Alienist (a long time ago) and I finally got around to picking this up. I didn't enjoy all sections equally, but I'm glad that I read it.

Recommended to anyone with an interest in history or New York City. Don't miss the author's afterword.

Fragile Things

by Neil Gaiman

I'm always excited when some new Neil Gaiman shit comes out. This collection of short stories didn't disappoint.

Favorite bits: the American Gods novella, Other People, Bitter Grounds, a Study in Emerald...

Recommended to all!

PS - read the author's notes about each story as you complete them. You'll be glad you did.

The Areas of my Expertise

by John Hodgman

(you know, the Daily Show commentator and "PC guy" in the Apple commercials)

Very silly. Fun at times, but I don't think that I'd recommend it. Although the hobo names did mix well with all the colorfully named characters in Low Life :)

Lunar Park

by Bret Easton Ellis

I hadn't read any Ellis before and I probably should have read "American Psycho" first. (It's not a sequel, it's a novel starring the author. Yeah.) For some reason, I feel guilty admitting that I liked this :)

Shitty cover.

Recommended. Try it if you like vodka.

Kingdom of Fear

by Hunter S. Thompson

Where would we be without tenacious bastards like the late Dr. Thompson? Somebody needs to keep a weird and semi-deranged eye on the cops and the president.

Watch "Where the Buffalo Roam" or "Fear and Loathing" first so that your mind's voice will have the proper stumble/mumble gait.

Try it if you like Hunter!

Altered Carbon

by Richard Morgan

Fun, action-packed cyber sci-fi. Terrible fucking cover. Terrible title too. Like an action movie - fast paced, story over writing, mild cliches. I'd read the next in the series.

A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia

by Victor Pelevin

I loved some of the stories and barely made it through others. It probably doesn't help that I'm ignorant of all things Russian. Much like Buddha's Little Finger, I think that thoughts and parts of stories will stick with me (a good thing).

Try Buddha's Little Finger first. It's good.

Shuck Unmasked

by Rick Smith, Tania Menesse

Funny, cute, clever but not my cup o tea.

Sandman (book 1)

by Neil Gaiman

Really - I hadn't read it yet. No joke.

I liked it, of course, but I have a feeling that the best issues are still out there in one of the other million volumes.

I just noticed Amazon's new aStore thingy. aStore lets you create your own mini bookstore of things which sell through Amazon and earn you a commission.

This seems like a *really* cool thing for creators. Kelly Sue and Fraction have one set up and stocked with their books and comics. I'd like to see more artists, writers, and musicians with mini-stores on their websites. If you know that you are interested in a particular creator then a little well organized store is much easier to browse than Amazon's Big Tangle. And of course, it's good to send that little cut of of the proceeds back to its Mom or Dad.

I doubt that there will ever be a Monkey Island movie, but The Pirates of the Caribbean series is the next best thing. Jess and I went to see the sequel today and I was wiggling a little in my seat a little as the crew rowed into Tia Dalma's swamp.

Dr. Marvin: You think he's gone? He's not gone. That's the whole point! He's never gone!

Bob: Is this some radical new therapy?

also.... I preordered 24seven from Amazon and now it's saying that it ships in 2-5 weeks. godammit I can't wait that long. Some Boston area shop must have it in stock.

A conversation that Jess claims she had with me while I was asleep.
Sometime in 2000 or 2001 :

Jess : Who loves you?
sleeping Casey : You guys.
Jess : Who??
Casey : (indignant) You guys!
Jess : You guys? Me and who else?
Casey : (scoffs loudly, as if it's obvious) You and X-Factor!

I recently went through all of my comics and reboxed and sorted them. Well, I sorted *some* of them. That quickly got tiring. Anyway, after picking through all of my old comics and seeing lots of my favorite childhood characters in X-Men 3, I wished that I hadn't foolishly sold off some good books when I was in Junior High. I'm missing lots of great 80's issues Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor and Excalibur. I'm trying to resist the urge to go out and blow a whole bunch of money on back issues when I can pick up the "Essential" trade paperbacks for 11 bucks a pop.

Quick update, sort of related: neat page over at Wikipedia that shows the whole X3 cast with links to articles. I had no idea that the tattooed girl was supposed to be Callisto.

I'm loving the little Logitech surround sound system that I bought for our new place. I'm no home theater freak and I'm sure that pros would scoff at this setup, but for just over $250 I got everything I needed to get great sound out of my cable, DVD, Airport Express, and future Nintendo Wii ;) Well, almost everything - all the fancy wires are pretty expensive but I was able to find some good ones at Target...

The Good

• Bang for buck. Don't take my word for it, read the Amazon (and other) reviews
• The rear speakers are wireless! I didn't have to mess up my room or walls with speaker wire. No setup, no detectable interference or delay.
• Dolby Digital and DTS, THX certified, and all that. Star Wars sounds good.
• Lots of inputs - 3 stereo, 2 (digital) optical, 1 (digital) coaxial

The Bad

• The remote is small and crappy - not really a problem if you have a learning remote that you can train.
• The IR codes for some features were actually the same as my Polaroid TV (Sort of annoying because some controls on the remote make the TV go haywire. Luckily volume and power don't bother it.)

I just got back from seeing "Half Nelson" - the Boston Indie film fest opener. It was a great movie about yin and yang, friendship, and trying to make a difference in life.

Mostly, it was about people doing what they do. My head was clear for the whole 20 minute commute home. Sigh.

An (mostly) unrelated note : is anyone marching with the zombies next week?