Daily Thoughts, The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics-- Edited by Paul Gravett

Daily Thoughts

I am working this Saturday. I spent a bunch of time ordering. My visit to the bookstore for computer books allowed me to quickly compile an order list for computer books. Also, my visit to Midtown comics allowed me to finish the small amount of money left for ordering graphic novels. I am finally caught up for ordering through December for the most part. This will give me time to focus on other things like weeding.

I also spent a little bit of time qualifying a contact list of agencies that help the disadvantaged with names of people that worked in the agencies. Calling a social service agency without the name of someone who works there often doesn't work too well.

I did a bit more weeding this weekend. I think I'll get a chance during the next week to focus on programming and other activities like rearranging furniture, and evaluating electronic databases. Lexis Nexis has a new product for public libraries called Lexis Nexis Library Express. It sounds quite interesting. I received a sales call while I was out yesterday. http://academic.lexisnexis.com/online-services/library-express-overview.aspx

Several books came in for me to read today, The Mammoth Book of Crime Comics, Edited by Paul Gravett, Writing The Mind Alive, The Propioceptive Method of Finding Yout Authentic Voice by Linda Trichter Metcalf, Ph.D. and Tobias Simon, Ph.D., Hitler's Private Library The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy W. Ryback, and Mary Gentle, A Secret History The Book of Ash #1, and Carthage Ascendant, The Book of Ash #2.

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics Edited by Paul Gravett

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics has some really interesting comics in it. These include Ms. Tree by: Maternity Leave by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty. There is also Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond. Dashiell Hammett wrote the Maltese Falcon.

There is the famous comic that was featured in Frank Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent drawn by Jack Cole creator of plastic man. The story is titled Murder, Morphine, and Me. It was one of the comics which instigated the comics code authority. There is the classic picture of a syringe next to an eye among many other striking images.

The book also features a complete newspaper strip story arc from Mike Hammer: Dark City by Mickey Spillane and Ed Robbins. If you want one of the best old fashioned comic book heros, there is a story from The Spirit by Will Eisner.

This is a really excellent black and white collection. Because it is not focused on superheros and includes newspaper strips and sunday funnies, it is probably much more accessible to the average readers than many comics collections.

There are also a few foreign strips. I thought, Commissario Spada : Strada (Street) was quite entertaining about a young man who steals a purse full of money that was for payroll in a small business. Also, Alack Sinner: Talkin' With Joe by Carlos Sampayo and Jose Munoz is interesting.

For the more modern reader, there are two stories written by Alan Moore, Old Gangsters Never Die and I Keep Coming Back. There is even a story by Neil Gaiman, The Court which I read originally as a short story. The translation from short story to comic is excellent.

The collection is all black and white comics. It is 480 pages long and costs $17.95 which is quite affordable for a trade paperback. Each story in the collection has a short introduction written before the comic starts. Paul Gravett, the editor also has a four page introduction to the collection, Every Shade of Noire. These comics for the most part are all crime noire comics.

The only disappointment with this collection I have is that Frank Miller is not included. Also, there is no biographical summary of the artists and writers at the end of the book. Other than that, it is a really excellent comic collection. I would not call it a graphic novel collection, because of the newspaper strips.