[61-74] Extremely Short Reading Digest

[not_cynical]

[61/75] Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom by Mike Mignola: Heh. The film really took some liberties with this one... Unless there's another issue dealing with the demonic arm of doom that they snatched the plot from! SO. The art is... Not something I really remember well enough to comment on, but I remember going "Oooh, shiny flat colours" and then moving on to the stories, so it can't have been that bad. The stories, as I recall, were... Hm. Well. I think the two-page short at the start was probably the funniest, cutest and best, followed by the one based on a fairy tale. The one with a plot that was... Probably supposed to be original? The one with the demon summoning and the Right Hand of Doom? ... Yeah, not so much. I don't remember why it didn't ping with me as much as the others, but I remember that it couldn't compare to demons wailing "Noooooooo, he ate the pancakes!" or the fairytale where the good aren't really dead the bad get justly punished...

[62-63/75] Y: The Last Man Volumes 4-5 (Safeword, The Ring of Truth) by Brian K. Vaughan et al: I have this talent, usually based on my complete inability to pick up a series from the beginning, for starting a series with the volume/episode that appears to contain the weirdest things in the series. Okay, so maybe not THAT weird, but considering this volume had spies get dressed up in AWESOME+TERRIFYING OUTFITS and counselling the main character into being reasonably well-adjusted and not-deathwishy through MENTAL TORTURE AND CONVINCING HIM TO COMMIT SUICIDE SO HE FINDS A REASON TO LIVE AND ALSO FLASHBACKS TO EXPLAIN PAST TRAUMAS, well. CHRIST HOW ARE THEY GOING TO TOP THAT?! I DO like this series - I like Yorrick and the women and the world that's been set up - crazy, fucked-up, sort of pulling together and sort of breaking apart at the seams at the same time. PLUS it has 711 in THAT DRESS, and an actual sense of humour! Most of it related to Yorrick being an idiot. (The scene where Alison says "She reminds me of one of my exes," and Yorrick is SERIOUSLY CONFUSED is ALL KINDS OF PRICELESS.) As is the scene with the scientist-lady and the army-lady after they've been captured, and - and the MECHANIC! Oh god, I heart her with the fire of a thousand suns and the fact that she has NO INTEREST in Yorrick AT ALL warms my heart. ♥ Ditto for Hero, actually, Yorrick's crazy-in-every-sense-of-the-word sister. Whether she's being a paramedic or a crazy or trying to do the right thing, she's AWESOME.

BASICALLY, I love Brain K. Vaughan. He seems to write series that have LOTS OF WOMEN KICKING ASS in, and not all in the physical sense. They all kick ass in DIFFERENT WAYS, seriously, like Doctor Alison and the 355 with their code and their being an AWESOME TEAM and the scene in the tent between Alison and 355, and the CRAZY NINJA PEOPLE, and Yorrick + Ampersand, and everything with Ampersand (lfiaushdg;sldjgsldkjgh STUPID LIBRARY GET VOLUME 6 IN!) and the last scene with 711, and Hero! And how yes, their lives revolve around Yorrick, but it's not because he's a stud (Augh, harem manga making my eyes bleed...) or particularly special in and of himself, it's because he's THERE, existing when all the other men don't. So their lives revolve not so much around HIM, but around his EXISTENCE and this sentence made much more sense in my head. PLUS there are crazy people calling themselves the Daughters of Amazons which makes my classics-loving heart happy.

... SERIOUSLY I WANT THE BOOKS AFTER THIS. And also before actually, because WHY IS THERE A PREGNANT ASTRONAUT GUYS?!

[64/75] ttfn by Lauren Myracle: I remember the first book in this series! Well, I remember it EXISTS - although I mainly remember it as snack reading, interesting in it's own way and pretty good for a book written as AIM convos. That pretty much describes the second book as well! Although with the added bonus of me headdesking and going yes, I've had some of these conversations... It's snack reading with the added bonus of having MESSAGES like DRUGS ARE BAD AND IF YOU DO THEM YOU'LL GET NO SYMPATHY FROM YOUR FRIENDS WHEN THE POLIC COME ROUND and FRIENDS ARE AWESOME TO HAVE and IF ALL ELSE FAILS, THERE'S ALWAYS THE GREYHOUND! :D Not a bad book, but not something likely to hold my attention for more than a few hours...