Fall '12 reading list

After a busy summer of refinishing furniture (3 Alvar Aalto bookcases, 1 McCobb dresser, 1 McCobb 2-drawer cabinet, plus just-the-tops of another McCobb cabinet and a no-name wheely coffee table case piece) I got busy with my day job early Autumn.

I love to read in the Fall, as I turn back to my beloved depressing classics. But I needed some light fare to balance my heavy work load.

Hence, I finally finished reading Cherry Ames Department Store Nurse, which Rich and I had started reading together some time ago. Cherry toggles between patients at the department store, trying to pick up the floor manager (they finally hook up, but on xmas eve—what a time for a first date!), and solving the mystery of the stolen vase. Yes.

Then, I started in reading my beautiful clothbound HC edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, recommended to me as the best of all the Bronte sister novels. Well, I LOVED it.

The structure of the novel was a little cumbersome (in theory, this dude is writing to a friend of his, talking about the mysterious Mrs. Graham for the first third of the book, which culminates in her throwing her diary at him; then, he either shares the diary in its entirety or re-writes it in its entirety to his friend for the next third of the book; then finished telling his tale), but with a little suspension of belief, it works fine.

I later read that the moment Mrs.Graham left her husband was one of the earliest feminist moments in literature.

Unlike Jane Austen or Dickens, Anne Bronte's syntax and sentence structure made it a very easy read. I flew through almost half on 10/29, which we had off from work due to Hurricane Sandy. Best hurricane ever! 

Spring '12 reading list

After Aggie became dead, I plunged into socializing and novel-reading to fill my time between wailing sessions.

Thinking it would be lighter fare, I read the novel Topper by Thorne Smith, from which derives another favorite film of mine from 1937 featuring Cary Grant. I loved the novel, though it was a much darker depiction of the banker’s mid-life crisis. Still a fun ghost story. Here, I’ve drawn George and Marion Kirby with the banker, Cosmo Topper. Technical note: I can't get my Wacom tablet to work with my laptop properly, so the half-toning which I embarked on is a little rough—I had to carry it out using the laptop "mouse-pad" (I don't know what you call that spot where you use your finger to mouse around the screen). It was challenging to do even what I did above! Sorry!

At long last, I read Piotr’s favorite book and most repeated recommendation, Master and Margarita. I had bought my vintage hardcover copy because (1) I prefer vintage hardcover copies over new or used paperbacks and (2) I liked the jacket design. However, on arrival I saw the jacket was the later-designed awful jacket. But, for $1 on Abebooks.com I won’t complain too loudly. I enjoyed it, it was creepy and fun. I’m sure some of the symbolism is lost on me. It was a bit clunky, and Piotr says it’s because the version I read was an inferior translation from Russian.

I turned back to dangerous territory, novels which favorite films are based, to read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In many ways, I prefer the film; the novel reveals too much ridiculousness of Jean Brodie, whereas the film portrays her as far more shrewd. 

Tess of the d’Urbervilles was one of two literary references in the Downton Abbey Christmas Special, so I decided to give it a go since it was already in my bookshelf. I could not put it down! The language was very accessible for a novel that old. I hated the ending, so I re-wrote it in my head. Still ends sadly, but not so outrageously.

Last up in the marathon was Turn of the Screw. I was eager to read another period ghost story. I read that this story was the original modern ghost story. A short but gripping read.

Winter '12 reading list

Still not into drawing in the cold early months of 2012, I delved into book-reading!

Sadly, Rich and I have a tradition in recent years, of reading a Nancy Drew (or similar) book together when he visits from L.A. So my read-a-thon began with Nancy’s Mysterious Letter and Cherry Ames at Hilton Hospital. They are thin reads of course, but written for 10 year old girls, so let’s not over-analyze it. I was surprised however, in the Cherry Ames novel, at how in-depth the cut-aways were in describing nursing and hospitals of the 1950s. Cherry solved the puzzle of the amnesia patient, but sadly didn’t get the guy in this book, who was the young married doctor she was assisting.

As I am a fan of the film, I nervously entered the original book Auntie Mame. The book is very different from the film, but in a way that you can love both for different reasons. Still unnecessarily blue, I decided to re-read Catcher in the Rye, which I hadn’t read in 20 years. There was a time that I was reading the novel on continuous loop, but on this reading, I found it cringe-inducing.  I guess I don’t have as much angst as I did 20 years ago. 

Lastly, I read A Tale of Two Cities. I’m not so wild about Dickens, but this is Robert’s favorite, so I read it for that plus the famous lines. Rich warned me that the second half is much better than the first. Boy was he right. The first half was a struggle, but the second half was really engaging. My old Modern Library edition’s jacket was lousy, and the binding was from the 60s (not my preference) so I made this dust jacket for it, using the color scheme of my apartment: red-orange, cream, aqua, black.

Fall '11 reading list

Non-ironic unicorn

I finally drew a non-ironic unicorn! The original was given away as a gift and I forgot to scan it, so this is a reproduction.  You may wonder, “why on earth did you—Tim Fish—draw a unicorn? It’s not like you’re Adam Leveille or anything.”

I read The Last Unicorn, is why! I shied away from the girly film as a boy, but the book by Peter Beagle published in 1968 has some really beautiful passages in it. Beagle had been at New York Comic Con signing copies of the DVD. One thing lead to another, and bam!—unicorn drawing.

Also perfect for autumn reading was Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.  Being a rabid fan of Wuthering Heights was not exactly encouragement to delve into its better-regarded sister work. But Robert insisted Jane was a heroine worthy of my reading. I must admit I enjoyed reading it, once it really got creepy. But it’s still quite a ways down the list for recs.

Lastly, I finally read The Great Gatsby. I think I had too many ideas about what I wanted from a novel when I read Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. Perhaps shockingly hedonistic in its day, I found the plot, characterizations, and language all rather flat. I may need to re-read it to gain a better understanding of its place in the annals of American lit.

Speaking of unicorns...you may recall Adam and I have sketchbook duels. We'll each sneak drawings into the others' sketchbooks, and sign the others' names to them. Most often, they are dirty drawings, or drawings of super-girly things Adam's a fan of, such as unicorns. Check out Adam’s artblog, Simple City Boy!

Summer '11 reading list

It's the last day of summer, and before work I finished reading my last summer book and inked a little sketch I did, inspired by the reading.

After I finished writing and drawing my short adaptation of Wuthering Heights, I took a little breather with some light summer reading.

First up, Nancy Drew in The Hidden Staircase, followed by also-penned-by-"Carolyn Keene" Dana Girls in By The Light of the Study Lamp. While I enjoy the Nancy Drew genre, let's just say reading two back-to-back exposes the formula unflatteringly. And, shhh—the mystery can be solved basically by the titles.

Next, I turned to some classics. Good-bye, Mr. Chips was a bit delightful and a bit disappointing and a bit sad...seeing someone's life scroll so quickly by.

Little Women was a surprising joy. As a boy, I'd avoided "girl books" but this novel (like many "children's classics") was actually written for an adult audience. The first part was a bit preachy, but I enjoyed how the girls applied their childhood lessons as adults in the second part. Alcott's description of Laurie's loss and artist malaise after Jo turned him down hit home. In general, the novel made me appreciate the lessons my folks taught me over the years. On the subject of "girl books," I also read Anne of Green Gables. Sweet, but a rare example of how a filmed version surpasses the novel. Read the book then watch the '80s mini series to see what I mean.

Lastly, I turned back to "boys classics" with Penrod and Sam. Oddly, the second and most famous in a trilogy of books featuring Penrod Schofield. This one is supposed to focus more on his friendship with Sam, but really just jumps around from vignette to vignette about Penrod, ending with a set up for the last in the series. Written in 1913-ish, it's another example of horrific racism of the day. The racism in Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were written out in the '60s revamps; the racism in a novel like Huck Finn can still be seen as literature. But Penrod and Sam doesn't deliver anything lofty alongside its depictions of Penrod's alley-pals Herman and Verman. Aside from the curiosity of "how it was" and "how far we've come," I could do without it and the whole novel, I guess. A disappointing end to my read-a-thon.

But still, here's a sketch of Penrod and Sam. It was fun to draw the boys in knickers and newsboy caps. Otherwise, all I could think of was Little Women in Space. Maybe I'll still do that one.

Bookends

In addition to all the meaningful moments in temples, shrines, mosques, and tombs, the particular timing of the trip produced meaningful reflections, and I further actively pondered life.

The trip had a very "bookend"ing feel for me.

Three years ago, November 2007, I journeyed to Ireland as a symbolic way to purge a lot of negative feelings and bad memories out of my system. They were fading on their own, to be sure, but the escape and placing myself in new surrounds was very cathartic.

On that trip, I began reading Vanity Fair. The novel had nothing to do with anything I was going through, it was simply a novel I wanted to read. While I made good progress during the Irish Escapade, I put the book down when I returned home. I picked it up here and there, amidst working on Love is the Reason and Trust/Truth, etc.

Nearly 3 years to the day, I finished reading the novel during my Indian Escapade. As Fish-philes know, I've been on an emotional journey the past months. This journey inevitably was leading me to improvement to the point that I knew going in, the trip to India would be as cathartic for me now, as the Ireland trip was in 2007. As circumstances begin to be accepted and hearts reclaimed, the symbolism of this trip and the conclusion of the book mirrors the Irish experience in a meaningful (to me) way as a bookend.

Further, the India trip followed—by days—New York Comic Con. My recent association of the heart essentially began at NYCC 2009 and ended NYCC 2010, adding to the bookend feeling of my time in India.

That night (or morning) I dreamed of Matthew. In reality, he was working at an out-of-town event toward the end of my own trip. In my dream, he was in Boston on my return, though would not own it was due to me. In the dream, his hair was shorter than when we first met but shaggier than when I last saw him; and he wore the outfit depicted in my sketch. He offered to pay for our cab, but only had fake money with faces of drag queens on the bills. I asked, "what is this money?" and he replied, "oh—it's the event I am running." Confused, I inquired as to what sort of event was it?—but then woke up.

The drawing of Miss Becky Sharp is a Tim Fish-ified rendition of the paperback edition's cover. I'd never be able to draw a mirror shot like that on my own...

From the gayest corners of the globe—DOC SAVAGE

Greg just passed along DC's DOC SAVAGE trade paperback collection of the comics which appeared in magazine format in the early '70s.

The talent roster was pretty impressive, but the stories...well, hrm, uh, anyway...

Doc Savage was a popular pulp serial from the '30s, and can be regarded as the "first superhero." He is immensely strong from his 2-hour daily workout regimen since childhood, extremely intelligent, and billed as "The Man of Bronze" un-naturally tan.

But best of all, he's shirtless—all the time. Tight riding pants, tall boots, and a skimpy vest is his preferred get-up. Par for the course for the Castro in the '70s but out of place for the '30s. But still pretty sexy. Even when he travels to the extreme north of Canada, he's still shirtless—though he swaps out his skimpy leather vest for a skimpy fur vest. Yes, you read that accurately.

It's not just Doc that's pretty gay. His band of 6 helper men are pretty gay too. They really only develop two of them as characters for the comic, and they have a very old-married-couple or at least Bert and Ernie shtick. Of course, one of them is a fashion plate and carries a sword inside his cane. Ok!

And, from the get-go, his villains look gay too. Enter a band of South American Indians, dressed in some sort of tight snake-skin body suits...covering head to toe. No, I take that back, their entire midriffs are exposed so they can showcase their abs. I'm not joking, buy the book if you don't believe me.

Overall, an amusing read.

Summer '09 reading list

Fish-philes know I don't read many new comics; but lately, due to friends' recommendations and Comic Con, I have been reading a nice handful:

Godland (Casey/Scioli) which is fun but may veer more toward "Kirby knock-off" than "Kirby inspired."

Charlatan Ball (Casey/Suriano) is also fun and the art is amazing!

X-Men First Class (various) to catch up on work from my comics pal Colleen Coover.

Rex Mundi (Arvid Nelson et al) which has an intricate, well thought through plot...a little tough to follow here and there, but a good read.

The sketchbook image to the left are the two doctors from Rex Mundi. I like the image overall, but I really F'd up the Eiffel Tower. It looked ok in blue pencil, but when I inked it, the perspective went all wrong. Oh well.

I'll keep you posted...there's a lot on my to-read pile.

Dana Girls

A while back, I nabbed from my parents' yard sale pile some of my sister's childhood books. Among them was a Dana Girls mystery, Secret of the Minstrel's Guitar, by Carolyn Keene. Like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, the Dana Girls were written by several different authors in formulaic adventures. The Dana Girls were fairly independent, with their sea captain uncle as their guardian. In this book, they get mixed up with Gypseys en route to Portugal. I'm a bad judge of children's literature, so take my remarks with a grain of salt. Unlike Nancy Drew, I find the Dana Girls to be pretty flat. At least, in this novel, neither girl had a distinct personality or role. I did like the interludes of history/cultural lessons of Portugal. I understand from some Portuguese friends, the information is accurate, so you get a nice little taste of Portugal in addition to a mystery that made little sense. The girls ended up in my sketchbook with an early '70s flair. I started to use blue pencil, but then finished with my new favorite sketch pencil, which is super dark and super soft and flow-y.