In the city that boasts its own comic book month, Portland’s annual Stumptown Comics Fest offers an array of comics books, graphic novels, and art books made by local and national artists. One of recent years’ standout titles is the graphic novel, Bookhunter by Jason Shiga, a book written with a wink and nod to all book and library lovers. Set in 1972, the book begins with Special Agent Bay and his Library Police/SWAT team on an undercover mission to find the culprits behind the theft of several rare books. It is not long before we find the extremes Agent Bay is willing to go to recover a stolen book – risking even his own life to ensure books are returned to their rightful owners. The book is a sepia-toned gem, written with librarians in mind. Cataloguers will appreciate Shiga’s use of Dewey digits and cutters, and terms such as incunabula, bone folder, hinge strips, and Caxton will make rare book enthusiasts, archivists, and book binders giddy with joy.

Fans of Bookhunter’s creative action scenes, including high-speed book cart chases and battle sequences involving card catalogues and books as weapons may also enjoy Hideyuki Kurata’s Read or Die. This popular manga tells the story of Yomiko Readman, a superhuman library agent who has the ability to control and shape paper into weapons and other objects. Both books are fast-paced reads that will have readers looking at libraries in a thrilling new light!

Nonfiction: The Lost City of Z by David Grann

In 1925, acclaimed British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett led a highly publicized expedition into the Brazilian Amazon in search of the remnants of a lost city simply known as Z, said to have held riches on par with the kingdom of El Dorado. Along with him he took his 22 year old son Jack and Jack’s long time friend Raleigh Rimmell. After a month of traveling Fawcett sent word back to his wife that he was about to enter into unexplored territory. It was to be the last communication ever sent by Fawcett who, along with Jack and Raleigh, was never heard from again.

David Grann’s The Lost City of Z gives a riveting account of Fawcett the fearless explorer, his rivals, and those who set out to discover the mystery behind his disappearance, including author Grann himself. Filled with mystery and mysticism, danger and international intrigue (really!), it is no wonder that Fawcett’s South American exploits have been the inspiration for the setting of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World as well as the popular Indiana Jones character. For further exploration on Percy Fawcett and the Lost City of Z see PBS’s Secrets of the Dead: Lost in the Amazon. Or for another harrowing tale of real-life adventure set in the Antarctic be sure check out Alfred Lansing’s Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.

As for what Aria is about well, it is a slice-of-life/sci-fi-ish anime about a bunch of lady gondoliers [aka Undines] in training, exploring their city, meeting new folks. It is probably one of the most beautiful anime shows I have seen. The illustration is lovely, the music involves a lot of mandolins and dreamy chants [theme song not included], and overall is just a beautiful, serene, and at times mysterious, anime. Each episode focuses on the appreciation of the small things in life, friendship, doing your best, etc – it is amazing how positive the show is without going over the top or becoming preachy and boring. Aria sort of just makes you feel good about life. If it hadn’t been for this anime I don’t know if I would have made it through this past winter. Whoah, shiz just got DARK. But really, the weather was AWFUL. Aria really saved the day. Here are a few screenshots of some choice scenes:

Prison for Bitches – a Lady Gaga fanzine.

Prison for Bitches is a collaborative piece by the dudes from Haus von Electric Ant and a bunch of awesome artists such as Hellen Jo, Johhny Ryan, and Lisa Hanawalt. The content is great my only complaint is that I wish it were less of an art zine and more of a comics [meaning more strips] and text-based zine. The Fruits-like scene report on Lady Gaga Cosplay in Kobe is a great section too that I wish would have been expanded. The artwork is excellent – really nothing disappoints.

My favorite piece is the single page by Michael Kupperman. On it, Gaga’s disembodied head floats above two primates while her heavily shadowed eyes stare out at the viewer – her mouth is open slightly, her hair is tousled around her head in a way that calls to mind Beethoven or Mark Twain’s signature locks. She does not look like a pop star, instead she resembles some sort of ominous ape deity. I’m into it. And something about it makes me think of Lawnmower Man…wild hair, apes, god-like presence…

Check out a preview of Prison for Bitches HERE!

1.) Hosted many Interlibrary Lushes, then…didn’t.
One of the biggest changes was the passing of the Interlibrary Lush torch. I began Interlibrary Lush, the monthly meetup for librarians and information professionals, in September 2008, and one year later I decided to move on to have time for other projects, and let someone else take over. So that is done. Besides the occasional, ‘How do I start a librarian happy hour in my town?’, I have little part in the group but the new organizers continue to host meetups each month. For more information on ILL check out the MySpace page, as well as the Facebook group.

2.) Learned to accept that I work in an archive, not a library
Having worked in libraries since 2001, this was difficult for me. For a long while I wanted to return to the library environment, the one I felt most comfortable in, and found it frustrating to live in a city with such a competitive job market – particularly for librarians. Two years ago, I found work in a departmental archive, and did not like it. I felt like I was settling, but over time this changed. It took a lot of work but now the archive is something of my own creation. I have a ’system’ in place – it is efficient and it works, and I am pretty happy about that.

3.) Completed many Rad Ref related projects
Which I have mentioned here and here and here.

4.) Wrote a fanzine about Margot Ruth Kidder
The fanzine is called Margot Ruth Kidder: Queen of the Margotnauts and is about all things related to Ms. Kidder. For those of you not familiar with her work…well, guess what? You actually ARE familiar with her work! Maybe from Sisters or Amityville Horror but most likely from the Superman movies where she played Lois Lane. Issue #2 is in the works but its completion date, at this point, is unknown.

5.) Read one million comics books
Yes, one million comics books, which need to be reviewed, so I will, here, and soon!

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley – It has been awhile since I have been able to relate to a comic book character and their story so much. Granted, I have never dated anyone that required I battle all their exes Mega Man-style in order to continue dating them but then who hasn’t been involved with someone whose past relationships keep infiltrating their own? On occasion the the story seems a bit disjointed – I passed on SP to a friend and he agreed, “Is the beginning of book two actually the beginning of book two?” – but not to a bothersome degree. The look of SP is a manga-western comics hybrid that I love and am seeing more and more. For example with…

…Aqua Leung by Mark Andrew Smith and Paul Maybury – The story of a young prince on a quest to take back the throne and unite kingdoms – UNDER THE SEA. Good heavens, this comic is sweet, sweet eye candy.

Kamandi: At Earth’s End – Originally created in the 1970s by Jack Kirby, we see it resurrected in 1993 by some clueless jackasses at DC. They’ve managed to make him both crass and a mama’s boy. Kamandi has always been ridiculous, which is one of the reasons I love it but this reincarnation is just unacceptable. Bad story telling, boring characters, and Kamandi looks like some haggard Edgar Winter/WWF mutant . Although I admit I was happy to see Kamandi in the post-post apocalyptic Library of Congress. Of course, in At Earth’s End he’s not much for reading but his chaps-wearing gal pal, Saphira, sure is!

MEATBALL ATTACKS!

The Cat Eyed Boy stories have been compiled into two volumes, roughly 500 pages each. All the tails [har har har] are moralistic, and Cat Eyed Boy believes it is his duty to expose the avarice, cruelty, greed, selfishness in both humans and demons, and to punish them by allowing demons to harm and disfigure them [making them as unattractive on the outside as they are inside]. So for the most part Umezu portrays Cat Eyed Boy as a do-gooder, albeit a snotty, na-na-na-na-told-you-you-were-evil one. Oh, and does he really need to piss on everything? I admit the random urination scenes made me laugh but they don’t help enough for me to actually recommend these volumes to anyone. I will say that the final stories in volume two seem to translate better than the others. But again, unless, you are a huge Umezu fan, I would pick these books up at your local library rather than spending $25 for each.

Ms. Farmer – Hollywood and then not.

It’s sort of ridiculous to hear me giving a book report as a fake librarian. My voice is a bit hoarse and at times I stumble over my words, but I like it just the same. “I hope this talk has been an illuminating one, and I look forward to discussing this and more books with you in the future.” Well, it’s the truth. Without further ado…

Farmer, Frances Elena. Will there really be a morning? : an autobiography. New York : Putnam, c1972.

Booktalk by Renee C. Bartley, July 7th, 2005. [4:08]