:: planetoïd ::

THANKS MISTER FREDGRI.

FredGri, some up and coming artist (and good kebab eater pal) from Dijon, lended me a few comics a while ago.

- "Autobiographix" is a collection of short stories about, guess what, personnal stuff, offered by a top roster : Sergio Aragones, Gabriel Ba, Eddie Campbell, Paul Chadwick, Farel Dalrymple, Richard Doutt, Will Eisner, Paul Hornschemeier, Jason Lutes, Linda Medley, Metaphrog, Frank Miller, Fabio Moon, Bill Morrison, Arnold Pander, Diana Schutz, Stan Sakai, William Stout and Matt Wagner.
some pages were really great, while others missed my attention. my faves :
Jason Lutes, who tells a intimate story where he shows his skills about narrative creation and smart emotionnal use, a beautiful little short piece called "rules to live by".
Bill Morrison, in "my life as a bat", went for a funny tale of childhood and, hum, batman, in a very charming way.
in "comic bok chef", Matt Wagner offers us a nice chicken dish cooking recipe, thanks to him even if this badass use crushed tomatoes in cans, instead of real fresh ones (and i'm sure he do the same thing for basilic and spices...) ; i think i'll offer him lessons exchanges... Matt ! if you read me, you must know that ! doing huge and cultissim comics won't excuse your way of cooking !
Eddie Campbell, with "i have lost my sense of humour", considers how debate with your own curious evolution, and about how life affect him and his ways of working, on this cynical, caustic mode he know how to use so well.
Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon tell a story ("qu'est-ce que c'est ?") who happened to them while visiting Paris, where violence falled on them ; it remembered me a strange feeling i had a few years ago : i took the subway a couple of times, for walking through some not so quiet suburbs around NY, alone, and nothing happened to me, even in the middle of bad boys twice my weight, gangsta rap attitude and gold chains, while i was agressed by suckers (with knives, hotdammit !) in my native (and so really quiet) town.
Still in "France", Stan Sakai counts one of his trip to Angouleme comics festival, coinciding with his 25th wedding anniversary, and is the witness of a "death by chocolate".
"Autobiographix" is a Dark Horse book, isbn 1593070381.

- "HERO : powers and abilities", written by Will Pfeifer with art by Kano, is the first HERO tradepaperback, which we could resume by : "what if you gain the powers of super-heroes", on a quite realistic look at this idea. i liked it, cool read. too many friends told me it was a really huge book, so i think i was a little bit confused and disapointed about it, as it's a real nice book, but... well, you got the point. for sure, at least, a brilliant turn on the classic super heroes theme. a DC book, ISBN 1401201687.

- "Scarlet Traces" from Ian Edginton and great art from D'Israeli, another Dark Horse book, and "Lovecraft", and adaptation from Keith Giffen of the screenplay wrote by Hans Rodionoff, with art from Enrique Breccia, courtesy of DC/Vertigo, are the 2 books i still have to read. yeah, quickly, FredGri. 8)