Meanwhile

My graphic novel feeding frenzy continues: today I picked up (fresh from the Depository) the first five volumes of the critically acclaimed Love and Rockets and--via the magic of Interlibrary Loan--the seventh installment of Brian Bendis' Powers series, which inverts the classic superhero comic by viewing it from the perspective of a police procedural drama. Fantastic stuff. All of this after devouring all eleven volumes of Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis' cult classic detailing the ongoing crusade of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem as he searches for the Truth in a futuristic New York City gone mad. Some fault Ellis for his over-the-top style, but I have to admit that the relentlessly dark satire grew on me as I read my way deeper and deeper into the series. And who can fault a hero whose favorite line is: "A paranoid is simply someone in possession of all the facts"?

I despair of the day when I've exhausted Widener's supply of comics, but I think I've a ways to go before that happens. Every few weeks I'll stumble across another hidden vein of graphic novel goodness secreted away at the Depository. Take for instance the DC Comics Archive editions--collections of many classic titles stretching back to the 1940's, including a series of madcap Batman/Superman team-ups that are nothing like the dark antagonism envisioned by latter-day writers.