reading notes

Collected Stories & Drawings
by Brian Andreas
ISBN: 0964266008

We have one of Brian Andreas’s Story People sculptures on our living room wall. We picked it up last summer from a funky little gallery in Rockport, when we were on vacation. The whimsical appearance and thoughtful message spoke to me:

Wish for your
deepest desires, she said
& when I asked if they’d
come true, she said
they always do,

so you might as well
get them out in the open
while you’re still young
enough to correct any
serious mistakes.

For one thing, I like to believe I am still young enough. I like to believe everybody is, which is to say I hope I’m never not young enough. It’s a happy — but not irritatingly cheerful — thing to see every day. It resonates with me.

This book is a lot like the sculpture, in that it is whimsical and wise (but not as literally colorful). It’s also a lot like a volume of poetry in size and shape, which I’m sure is intentional. It’s filled with vibrant sketches — line drawings, really, that look not quite childlike, but have an urgency and playfulness about them. Half the pages have sketches and hand-written stories, and the other half have printed stories in a rough, slightly oversized serif font. The overall effect is charming, but not smarmy. I love the stories:

There was a single blue
line of crayon drawn across
every wall in the house.
What does it mean? I asked.
A pirate needs the site of
the sea, he said & then he
pulled his eye patch down
& turned & sailed away.

If you (or anyone you know) is in need of inspiration, a sense of play, or something to kindle the imagination I highly recommend Collected Stories & Drawings.

by Mark Waid and Alex Ross with Todd Klein
ISBN: 1563893177

Superheroes — the traditional ones, with capes, such as Superman — usually aren’t my thing. All bulging muscles and unstoppable powers and moral superiority, they tend not to appeal to me, as story line or as visual art. I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to read it, but a coworker who has recommended other books to me (The Long Run) left it for me on my desk, so I figured I’d better give it a try.

It’s different. The art — while it still has requisite bulging muscles — is done as painting, and is on the less extreme side of comic book hero art. Not that you can quite call it subtle, but fair to say it is subtle in comparison. The story is quite dark: apocalypse is upon us, for Superman and his generation have gone off and left the world to the rebellious, difficult, more violent super-powered next generations. Kids these days.

It is a bit of kick to see Superman middle-aged and gray at the temples. Batman is pretty much an old man. Wonder Woman is aging better than they are. There’s the human point of view character, epic battle, sweeping good vs evil with, let’s face it, pretty much the ending you’d expect. I can’t really speak to how true comics fans would feel about the whole legion of heroes showing up for this (pretty much the whole universe appears), as I didn’t grow up following the comics. I’d say it’s a pretty good introduction if you haven’t been following the story of any one hero carefully as it’s enough to know whether or not you want to explore the genre further. The story makes sense without all the background information, but is no doubt deeper for those that know it.

I was happily surprised at the darkness, but I could have done with less fire and brimstone and deeper flaws and… well, less godlike superheroes, I guess. Which is usually my problem. Well, that and freakish bodies in spandex.