Oh, forgot to mention this in my last post, that was all of ten minutes ago. Probably. Not feeling the math.

Anyway, yeah, I'm going to talk about comics, so like one person (Jason) cares, but I'm going to fill it with information so everybody can play along at home.

I finished reading From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell today. Other people think it's a masterpiece. I was reminded a lot of Brian Bendis' Torso. Which really isn't fair to either, but seriously: A lot of similarities. From Hell is probably better. But since you read Torso already, you'd probably have the same problems I did. I haven't made it through the appendixes yet. From Hell is "good." There's nothing wrong with it, unless you've seen similar shit before. It's kind of like when I was watching L.A. Confidential and realized I've seen too fucking many neo-noir movies, and nothing can surprise me. Only Torso and From Hell are two things. Two graphic novels in an under-represented genre. To my knowledge, these are the only English-language, exhaustively researched, comics about serial killers. And there's a lot of overlap.

On the good side: I guess my copy of Torso got kind of fucked up by rainwater, so it's like I replaced it with From Hell, which is better.

Be A Man by Jeffrey Brown is a pretty fun little humor comic. I can't think of anything that really reminds me of it a lot. I'm going to talk about that, as it was the best comic I've read for awhile. Unlike From Hell, it's not "good." But it's funny. So that really lets me neglect a lot. Because that's how it fucking should be: If something is trying to be funny, and it is, that's really all that matters.

Jeffrey Brown did some comics. They are all autobiographical, they are all very sensitive, because Jeffrey Brown is a sensitive guy. Two are in print from Top Shelf. One's called Unlikely, and it's about him losing his virginity. I ordered it from Amazon after reading Be A Man, even though, as I will get into soon, it's completely different. His other comic's called Clumsy, and it's about a long-distance relationship falling apart. Both feature lots of crying, or so I'm told.

Be A Man is a scene-specific parody of Clumsy, replacing the sensitive boy bits of what really happened with over-the-top male chauvinism that didn't. And it's funny, because male chauvinism is funny to me (When it's fictional. Maybe I needed that caveat, but probably not). Totally obnoxious and tongue-in-cheek, some might say in bad taste, but fuck those people, I don't know those people. Weirdly enough: I didn't read Clumsy. I didn't even know it was so scene-specific until a second reading. Because I wasn't familar, I just saw that obnoxiousness, and I laughed at it. If I had read Clumsy, it might've been funnier. But it was pretty damn funny as is.

There's also the chance that I could read Clumsy and hate it, and then end up hating Be A Man by extension. I don't know. I just know what I think is funny, and Be A Man has some shit in it that I thought was funny.

Anyway, I'm probably going to read Clumsy at some point. And I'm going to be reading Unlikely in the near future, as soon as I receive it, from that dude I bought it off of used from Amazon. I'm thinking this Jeffrey Brown fellow has the talent.

Also, speaking of Amazon: Ordered stuff from them for the first time last week. Used stuff, which probably wasn't the best idea, but whatever. In addition to Unlikely, I ordered Hissing Prigs In Static Couture by Brainiac. All I've heard from Brainiac is the Electro-Shock For President EP, which is pretty cool. Due to the wonders of music criticism, I'm excited about Brainiac. I can't think of any other band whose music I'm excited to hear. This is what I like about music criticism, the contagious enthusiasm aspect. I'm psyched on Brainiac partly because Enon are really good, and partly due to their placement on certain individual Pitchfork writers' top 100 records of the 1990s lists. And other stuff I've heard elsewhere. About them, not by them. Like The Dismemberment Plan apparently totally ripped off Brainiac. All of these things are encouraging.

I'm excited to hear it, which seems like it disproves what I wrote in the last entry. But no: being excited anticipating something which could disappoint and being excited about something once it happens and is awesome are two different things. The former keeps you going in anticipation, the latter invigorates you until the next great thing comes along.

I write "I hope that made sense" a lot in this, but that last thing I know made sense. Maybe you didn't get it, but that is your fault instead of mine. Retard.