Cute graphic novella set in a city.... of monsters! The humor is familiar from Farazmand's webcomic. The city setting reminds me a bit of Los Angeles, except no one is driving, suggesting to me that LA's walkability could be boosted by more supernatural monsters moving to LA.

Anthology of three comics series by Spain Rodriguez, & two essays about Spain Rodriguez & his milieu. It’s easy to see Spain was a huge influence on Derf.
The Trashman comics can be read as an underground history of the USA from the late 60s- the 80s told through the medium of a post-apocalyptic socialist superhero comic. Also lots of ultraviolence & enough sex to keep the readers coming back for more. While Trashman maintains a 70s revolutionary vibe throughout the 60s-80s, many of the cultural references reflected their time. The early comics had communes and black revolutionaries, while the last ones, in the 80s featured christian cultists & even a battle over Reagan's corpse. Must have been an influence on the whole 70s & 80s futuristic-post-apocalyptic genre. The Trashman stuff is my favorite in the anthology.
The Road Vultures comics are pretty much all ultraviolence & weird sex stuff. Less ideological and more sociological than the Trashman or Manning comics.
The noir/police procedural Manning comics are a great send-up of the genre & copaganda in general. I especially liked the one with the evil cult & the Puerto Rican kids and how it was based on the actual apartment that Spain & his friend (and fellow cartoonist) Kim Deitch lived in.
The two Rosenkranz essays were illuminating. I especially liked “Arm the Vagrants”, which gave a run down of Spain’s days in the New York Underground Comix scene, & gave insights into some of the jokes in the Manning Comics.

Generally humorous history of crewed space flight & its effects on the mind & body. Chock full of interesting, odd, & obscure factoids from the history & study (& studies) of humans in space. Writing style reminds me of the Day After World War III, probably because of the journalistic writing style, combined with a sense of humor about the subject matter.

Tour of some of the United States's internal "colonies": Pine Ridge reservation, West Virginia, Immokalee FL, & Camden NJ, with a coda provided by Occupy Wall Street. Vivid illustration of what it's like to live in a place that is being stripped & sold for parts (both figuratively, & also very literally!). Includes actual vivid illustrations & serious comic sections by Joe Sacco. Days of Destruction Days of Revolt came out 9 years ago, but its warning to us all is just as important now as it was back then. The dystopia portrayed in this book is the reality for millions of Americans, & even now it will become the reality for pretty much everyone if we don't change what we're doing real fast!

The title is very accurate; Mexican Gothic is very gothic, & is set in Mexico. The book is full of trope inversions: The maiden arrives to rescue the prince held prisoner in the tower; the witch is good; a modern Mexican discovers an enclave of ancient British evil (not sure if that one counts). Don’t recommend this book for anyone living in a house with a mold problem. The English bringing earth from their country with them to Mexico might be a Bram Stoker Dracula reference. There are many other references to haunted mansion classics. I was surprised at how easy & engrossing Mexican Gothic is. Far surpasses Gods of Jade & Shadow (although to be fair, Gods of Jade & Shadow was trying to do something very different than Mexican Gothic, & was still pretty good).

Cosey Fanni Tutti’s large memoir. The COUM and (2) Throbbing Gristle eras take up the bulk of the book. Art Sex Music could have used an index; it would be nice to be able to look up the bands, artists, & books she mentioned. It seems the all of the pictures of TG where Sleazy, Chris, & Cosey are smiling next to a Genesis P-Orridge who it looks has just been told to behave, and is now sullenly going through the motions of doing so accurately capture the band dynamic (e.g. the cover of 20 Jazz Funk Greats). I’ve always really liked TG & their sound, but I didn’t really know much about the band itself or the members before reading this book. I was kind of surprised at how much of a normal rock n roll band they were, apart from that the music they were making consisted of soundscapes punctuated by industrial jammers. I was particularly surprised that they sat down and actually wrote & planned out as many of the songs and tracks that they did. I kind of had the idea that the forlorn lyrics to tracks such as “Weeping” & “Adrenaline” were ironic send ups of pop music, instead of heartfelt songs about how Cosey left Genesis P-O & they’re sad now. Of course, I was most surprised by how shitty Genesis P-Orridge was to Cosey, and how messed-up their relationship was until TG broke up.
Genesis P-O has their own account of their relationships with Cosey & with COUM, & TG, but I would tend to believe a Cosey or a Chris over the front guy for Psychic TV, which has made some great music, but had kind of an ‘infinite monkeys with typewriters’ (or in this case, synthesizers) feel to it.
Art Sex Music made the life of an avant-garde noise/performance artist in 70s England seem decidedly not fun. Maybe it is because I’m old and tired. I wonder how much of that is Cosey’s perspective looking back & how much is how she felt at the time. Meanwhile, Cosey’s depicts her life now with Chris as the square Avant-Gardes dream, making art out of tampons, doing some soundscapes, and coming home for a spot of tea in a lovely garden with lots of cats.
Art Sex Music also makes me wonder how many more great American bands there would be if more Americans had the option of going on the dole.
I think most bios & memoirs that cover someone’s life should follow Boswell’s lead and have as a header on each page the year & year of the subject’s life (‘Aetat’) covered by that page, but I guess this is more of a comment for the publishing industry. I also think there should have been a picture section for Chris & Cosey’s cats. Much like this review, Art Sex Music could have been better organized, had some disjointed parts, and maybe could have included more, but overall, it was a great read. I’ll have to check out Factory Floor, & the collab album with Coil & Robert Wyatt.

Kind of a report on the state of Black culture at the beginning of 2020, and also kind of a museum in book form of the avant-garde of Black artists, activists, authors, philosophers, &c. Black Futures is full of essays, photos, art, interviews, text message exchanges, among other exhibits. Many of the ideas in here are not for white people; if you are white (like me) please do not attempt to use the black emojis, tag along with GirlTrek hikers, try to “hold space” for yourself, or wear the “I Will Protect Black People” button without first filling out and signing the legally binding “I Will Protect Black People” contract. What anyone can use this book for is to learn about Black artists & activists to learn more about elsewhere. For instance, I will definitely look out for books by Rahawa Haile, Renee Gladman, & Donovan X Ramsey, and I will look up the Appolition people, and try to find music by MHYSA & SHYBOI.

The 3rd of Bechdel’s nesting memoirs. The Secret to Superhuman Strength is sort a of memoir of her relationship with herself and her constant quest for self-improvement, partly told through the medium of her exercise habits. Full of many small and large asides. Bechdel also puts her self-improvement & fitness habits in context, chronicles the development of America’s current self-improvement movements & exercise fads, & drawing comparisons to the English Romantic poets with their “rambling” movement (see Solnit’s Wanderlust), to the New England Transcendentalists, & to the Beat Poets, especially Kerouac & Snyder. The Kerouac & Snyder parts also connected to Bechdel’s discussions of Buddhism. Sometimes The Secret to Superhuman Strength reminded me of Derf’s Trashed, which also used a personal story (his garbage collector career) as a vehicle to tell about a topic (garbage & landfills). All of that more than makes up for the book making me feel bad for not taking up running like I keep telling myself I mean to do. Secret to Superhuman Strength seemed like the most timely & of the moment of Bechdel’s memoirs; maybe it’s just because I’m reading it right as it’s come out, or maybe it reflects something about the present moment it’s of.

Incredible graphic novel about daily life, class relationships, religion, and homophobia in Nigeria. I really liked the art, especially the characters & their facial expressions. While many people on the titular Ajayi Crowther Street have their scenes, the focus is mostly on the Son & one of the Daughters of megapastor Akpoborie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, etc. A great read picked up at random on my first visit to the library (inside) in probably 16 months!

Darkly humorous book of webcomic essays. The stories about Brosh’s childhood adventures & adult depression experiences are pretty disturbing, especially when they’re relatable or familiar. The character art is beyond primitive (except for the dogs), but backgrounds and objects are usually at least somewhat realistic. I used to find the character art incredibly off-putting & disturbing, but now I think I understand it… & it’s still kind of disturbing. Hyperbole & a half does a great job of depicting the experience of depression. Can’t wait to read her new book!