Phil Drabble. A Weasel in my Meatsafe.
Jody Gehrman. Tart.
Naduki Koujima. Great Place High School.
Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Death Note, issues 1-6.
V.S. Ramachandran. A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness.
Osamu Tezuka. Buddha, vol 8.

( Books bought and borrowed )

It's called Hyoutan-Tsugi and is based on a drawing Tezuka's kid sister made of a particular kind of mushroom. It's all over Buddha. In fact, it plays a pivotal role towards the end, making all the previous appearances actually kind of creepy.

Here's one of its random appearances:


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I tracked down two more comix from my adolescence: Kamandi 57 and Ghost Rider 74.


( Read more... )

But before there was yaoi, there was Osamu Tezuka, inventor of useful things like Astroboy and Kimba. I've been reading his eight-volume life of the Buddha, which is positively Old Testament in its blood, guts, and nipples (one character loses hers mysteriously on becoming a nun). I had no idea I could enjoy a manga this much. It's a mixture of ( Read more... )

Christine Pevitt Algrant. Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France.
Pierre Bayard. How to talk about books you haven't read.
Kate Fox. Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour.
Kiriko Nananan. Blue.
Francine Patterson and Eugene Linden. The Education of Koko.
Osamu Tezuka. Buddha, volumes 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Diane Yapko. ( Read more... )

Damien Keown. Buddhist Ethics: a Very Short Introduction.
Elizabeth Moon. Speed of Dark.
Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood.
Osamu Tezuka. Buddha, volumes 1 and 2.

( Books borrowed and bought )

irritant01 just asked me how many feminist superheroes there were, and I realised I haven't the foggiest. Can anybody name some genuine, self-identified feminist superheroes?

You should see what the_uther_show has done to the new Doctor Who comic. (Be sure to enjoy the comments.)

( 43. PH34R MY INT3LL3CT )

First some great news from the AP: Saudi king pardons rape victim: Abdullah reportedly spares woman in sex-assault case from jail and lashes. (But what about the man, who was also raped, and whose sentence was also increased? The article doesn't tell us.)

Still a long way to go for Saudi Arabia, with alleged rape victims denied forensic exams and ( Read more... )