Last Weekend for September 14-September 16: Nuptials & Comics
This weekend was nicely balanced, activity wise. For starters, I finished one comic on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Friday I knocked another Harvey Pekar book Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story. Harvey's work has been a minor focus for 2018, with this being the third such book. As an autobiography of a minor media figure of the first 30 or so years of the life of Michael Malice, it does a good job of describing his life (Malice says it does). It doesn't make Malice look like someone most of us would particularly enjoy talking to, but it does a good job of taking an unvarnished look at someone whose mindset Harvey doesn't necessarily agree with. It's probably for Pekar completists only, but I did find it compelling.
Saturday's read was my first time returning to the Hellboy universe since I read through most of Hellboy and B.P.R.D. in 2014 and 2015. Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955 happened to be on the "recommended" shelf at the library when I was there, so I snagged it and read it all. I haven't read most of the "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D" series, but it doesn't matter as the overall story line moves slowly and like most prequels, doesn't particularly change much from the main line. As usual, it was enjoyable but somewhat disposable, but it did remind me that I would like to pick these back up again - I stalled out when the library didn't have the next ones I needed, but in the intervening three years that probably has changed.
Lastly, on Sunday I read The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, which is the follow up to the classic The Dark Knight Returns and the very solid The Dark Knight Strikes Again. New cowriter Brian Azzarello tempers some of Frank Miller worst tendencies to create an interesting story. It's not nearly as good as the prior two installments, and a few of the one shots between the main issues that Miller drew himself made me want to pull out my hair, but on balance it is worth reading.
As for the non-comics part of the weekend, Friday M and I went to the Cleveland Print Room for the "Embargo" opening. I did enjoy the art, but seeing my friends Shari, Helen and Jeff (this time) is actually more of a motivator to go. Afterwards we went to Number 1 Pho, followed by a drink at Red Rose.
Saturday was more of the usual errands followed by a wedding down at Hale Farm. M's former coworker Kris and her fiance Sarah were wed in front of an enthusiastic crowd in the old timey church, followed by drinks and dinner at a nearby three sided pavilion. The brides entered to a standing ovation (never seen that before!) and the minister referenced Obergefell v. Hodges, which makes this the first wedding I've been to that had multiple quotes from Anthony Kennedy. Anyway, the weather was perfect and many of M's old coworkers were present for a very pleasant evening. M had actually been invited to two weddings that day, but chose to only hit the later one, which did save us a bunch of running around.
Sunday I did some cooking in the morning and knocked out a pretty darn good radio show in the afternoon. My parents turned on that evening to pick up more of their stuff from my basement. We had tacos from the crock pot and then went to Ice Cream Joy for dessert.
Friday I knocked another Harvey Pekar book Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story. Harvey's work has been a minor focus for 2018, with this being the third such book. As an autobiography of a minor media figure of the first 30 or so years of the life of Michael Malice, it does a good job of describing his life (Malice says it does). It doesn't make Malice look like someone most of us would particularly enjoy talking to, but it does a good job of taking an unvarnished look at someone whose mindset Harvey doesn't necessarily agree with. It's probably for Pekar completists only, but I did find it compelling.
Saturday's read was my first time returning to the Hellboy universe since I read through most of Hellboy and B.P.R.D. in 2014 and 2015. Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955 happened to be on the "recommended" shelf at the library when I was there, so I snagged it and read it all. I haven't read most of the "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D" series, but it doesn't matter as the overall story line moves slowly and like most prequels, doesn't particularly change much from the main line. As usual, it was enjoyable but somewhat disposable, but it did remind me that I would like to pick these back up again - I stalled out when the library didn't have the next ones I needed, but in the intervening three years that probably has changed.
Lastly, on Sunday I read The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, which is the follow up to the classic The Dark Knight Returns and the very solid The Dark Knight Strikes Again. New cowriter Brian Azzarello tempers some of Frank Miller worst tendencies to create an interesting story. It's not nearly as good as the prior two installments, and a few of the one shots between the main issues that Miller drew himself made me want to pull out my hair, but on balance it is worth reading.
As for the non-comics part of the weekend, Friday M and I went to the Cleveland Print Room for the "Embargo" opening. I did enjoy the art, but seeing my friends Shari, Helen and Jeff (this time) is actually more of a motivator to go. Afterwards we went to Number 1 Pho, followed by a drink at Red Rose.
Saturday was more of the usual errands followed by a wedding down at Hale Farm. M's former coworker Kris and her fiance Sarah were wed in front of an enthusiastic crowd in the old timey church, followed by drinks and dinner at a nearby three sided pavilion. The brides entered to a standing ovation (never seen that before!) and the minister referenced Obergefell v. Hodges, which makes this the first wedding I've been to that had multiple quotes from Anthony Kennedy. Anyway, the weather was perfect and many of M's old coworkers were present for a very pleasant evening. M had actually been invited to two weddings that day, but chose to only hit the later one, which did save us a bunch of running around.
Sunday I did some cooking in the morning and knocked out a pretty darn good radio show in the afternoon. My parents turned on that evening to pick up more of their stuff from my basement. We had tacos from the crock pot and then went to Ice Cream Joy for dessert.