Comics not Food

After living on wood-shavings since surrendering myself fully to the welfare system almost six months ago I was ecstatic to receive my tax return (to the value of $442.00) last week. However, poverty seems to have stripped me of all financial sensibility, because in the last 24 hours I have spent almost half of my windfall on books (mostly of a comic nature).

Sshhh! by Jason: This is a book of comics in pantomime (without words) by a french comic artist whom I have been wanting to see outside of a Fantagraphics catalogue for a long time.

20th Century Eightball by Daniel Clowes: A collection of Dan Clowes' earliest works.

Mome Summer 2005 comic anthology: The first of a new series of comic anthologies. I have the second issue and it's a neat little package of beautiful works.

The Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware: A hardcover collection of material from Chris Ware's comic series, featuring bits from his upcoming graphic novel which I have been hanging out for since reading Jimmy Corrigan - undoubtedly the greatest graphic novel ever.

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen: Not a comic, although it does apparently feature some of his line drawings. I read Beautiful Losers on a 15 hour train trip and have no recollection of it other than how profoundly confusing it was. I have loved his music (pre drum-machine) for many years though.

Kramer's Ergot 5 comic anthology: Another recent comic anthology. It is an enormous book with a fair spread of contemporary comic artists. I have seen this in shops here for $80. God knows why comics appreciate in value so much when imported.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes: I bought this from Borders today. It has some marks on the back of it - Borders books are always damaged from use by the crowds of people who hang out in there all day, reading in the big comfy chairs. I would normally advise not to shop there, but it's usually a tad cheaper than the nearby specialist book stores that line Elizabeth Street (although McGill's does have a great graphic novel section, last time I checked). But then, they were probably forced to up their prices when the big Borders monster-store set up next door to siphon all of their business.

Fair game

An Israeli missile attack killed 54 people cowering in a basement in Lebanon, including 37 children. I rarely draw cartoons from current events, but this is fucking revolting, and given my lack of political sway and proximity to the warzone, it's all I can do.