Troy’s Book Club: overdue part 2

Morrrrrre books and comicbooks from 2025 that I read and didn’t get around to posting about! 🙂

I can’t believe I didn’t post about this, but I FINISHED READING HELLBLAZER. HELLBLAZER was a DC/Vertigo comicbook that ran for 300 issues, between 1998-2013. This comic was written and drawn by many folks over the years, but one core “rule” that was supposed to be followed, was that it was always supposed to be written by a British writer, a rule that was followed for most of the character’s run. 🙂 Anyway, this 300 issues were compiled in 25 volumes, and they are all on HOOPLA, and I read them allllll…I’ve been an on-and-off fan of the character for pretty much as long as he’s been around. You might not wanna read all the series, but if you wanna try it, the Garth Ennis- and Brian Azzarello-written volumes were my faves.

And here’s a few more comicbooks I read…

ROUGHNECK by Jeff Lemire. Lemire is a talented writer/artist whose work isn’t generally to my taste, but I gave it a shot because this book is a darn nice production. THE WRONG EARTH: DEAD RINGERS by Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle is a good superhero comic with a neat premise…what happens when two “identical” superheroes from VERY different universes get swapped into each other’s universe? CAPTAIN SWING… by Warren Ellis and Raulo Caceres is a fun, steampunky, alternate-history book and was pretty good. ROCK BOTTOM by Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard isn’t the best work I’ve ever read by these two creators, but was another neat idea with some beautiful line-art from Adlard, who has long been one of my fave artists.

Final two entries here for good for different reasons…TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY by John Steinbeck was a fun read, as it’s been too long since I’ve read any Steinbeck. I think of his writing fondly, and have read a handful of his books, but it was years ago. It was nice to revisit his stylings, in a more personal book, as he drove across the United States, with his dog, trying to that classic “get a real view” of America journey. Suffice to say, America is and isn’t different than it was in 1960 when John took his drive-around.

And then there’s SIN CITY: THE HARD GOODBYE (1991) and BATMAN: YEAR ONE (1987) (contrast that with THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS from 1986), all written by Frank Miller, and SC/TDKR drawn by Frank, and Year One drawn by David Mazzucchelli. I re-read these as part of Naomi’s and my “two-person book club”, where she and I take turns choosing books for us to read simultaneously. I thought it would be fun to read these two stories, as they are both written by a creator I admire a lot, and were two times that Frank CHANGED the comicbook industry with his work. There has been plenty written about both of these works – I don’t need to add to that. Suffice to sat that they are still both masterpieces (and it blows my mind that there are only 5 years between TDKR and SIN CITY).

SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARIES AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE.

SUPPORT WRITERS AND ARTISTS WHEREVER, HOWEVER YOU CAN.

Troy’s Book Club: overdue part 1

Here’s a few books I read this year, earlier this year, but never got around to posting about, but they seem important…

First off, there’s THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates, celebrated essayist, with a short-ish book, with a few thoughtful essays, most notably about the Palestine-Gaza/Israel conflict. Coates is a dang good writer and you should try giving this book a read…

JERUSALEM: CHRONICLES FROM THE HOLY CITY by Guy Delisle, is a neat graphic-novel/memoir about the time Guy spent living in Jerusalem, and what he learned about the Palestine-Gaza/Israel culture/conflict while living there with his family. Again, very much worth your time to read this, and learn more about his culture/conflict.

THE DRAGON CAN’T DANCE, by Early Lovelace, took me some time to get into, but I did in time, and got invested in the multiple characters this book follows. Reading this was a good reminder that we SHOULD read more books about other cultures (Caribbean, this time) and see how they use language and be reminded that they too have their own cultures and histories that shape their cultures and futures.

DAREDEVIL: FALL FROM GRACE, by DG Chichester, Scott McDaniel, and others is a DD trade paperback that puts together one of DG’s more famous Daredevil arcs. I read this as part of my “research” for this conversation I got to have with DG earlier this year. 🙂

As ever, please read more – it’s good for your brain and heart, and that makes YOU better for the WORLD.

Support your local LIBRARY, and support all the creative people you can.