Hopefully it’s okay that I bump this thread, but I finally read all the stuff I ordered. Maybe nobody really cares, but I did say I’d tell what I thought about them all.
Palomar
My parents let me read this shortly after my last post here. Anyway, it was really good, but I preferred Locas. Palomar kept skipping ahead too much. I think I also prefer Jaime’s characters. The characters I really like in Gilbert’s stories are the music teacher guy (I don’t remember his name. Hector?) and Guadalupe. I also found Vincenzo interesting because I wanted to go more into his head, and see how his physical deformity effected his life.
The library here at college had Luba in America. I started reading it (I didn’t have time because homework caught up to me) but that one I didn’t like so much. It seemed like it was all about everyone having sex, and I didn’t really like the characters.
Sleepwalk and Summer Blonde
I liked Sleepwalk a lot, it had cool little stories and the artwork was interesting. But by the time I finished Summer Blonde it started to wear thin. His characters start to feel almost like throwaways to hang stories on. Maybe his formula just doesn’t work for a lot of stories. I’ve tried writing lots of short character-focused stories before, and I kind of know how it gets to be; the characters really aren’t fleshed out well. You see only one side and they appear deeper than they are. I’d like to see him actually write a series of stories and hang on to the characters.
Still, I don’t regret buying them.
Blankets
The best part about this was definitely the artwork. It was amazing and it reminded me of some of Vincent Gan Gogh’s stuff. As far as the story, it was okay, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. The style of storytelling is not one I’m used to with comics, most comics would have a lot of short stories about their experiences which would tell the larger story. I might have liked that better, but this is what it is. It’s more like a traditional novel. I guess this isn’t my kind of love story or something. Maybe that’s just what happens when you condense life into one large story. Still, I liked it enough.
Astro City
I haven’t read the second volume yet, but I really liked the first one. The first story or two didn’t really grab me, but after that I started liking it a lot. The Bouncing Beatnik is a great concept for a superhero.
Box Office Poison
I LOVED this one. Man, it was great. My favorite character was possibly Dorothy. I shed some tears when a certain tragic event happened somewhere like halfway through the book. I also liked Stephen and Jane a lot. Eduardo’s story didn’t interest me quite as much, but that’s largely because I would have liked it if he were more connected to the other characters. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending, because I generally don’t like endings like that. Also, there were some grammatical errors. After I read it, I got BOP! and Tricked.
Tricked
Another one that I really loved. In some ways I like this more than Box Office Poison because the storytelling is tighter. I even liked the way this one ended.
Usagi Yojimbo
I read the first volume. To be honest, I wasn’t impressed at first, because Usagi seemed like a generic tough guy, but as I went on it really grew on me. I like the way he draws the outdoor backgrounds, but I don’t like the parts where there’s a lot of people fighting in one panel, it’s not easy on my eyes to keep track of stuff.
