Hello and welcome to an all-new (almost) all-book edition of Five Cool Things, the biweekly article where I talk about all the interesting, fabulous, and yes, cool things I’ve discovered since the last time.
I love to read, but I’m terrible at letting other things – movies, TV shows, social media, etc. – distract me from it. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be more principled about my reading. Instead of staying up until midnight staring at one screen or another, I’m turning them off around ten and picking up a book. It has been working pretty well.
I celebrated my 50th birthday last month, and I received a lot of comic-book collections as presents. As you’ll soon find out, I read a few of them (and I still have more to go) and thought they were very cool. So this turned into a mostly book edition of Five Cool Things. I hope you enjoy.
X-Men Epic Collection: Lifedeath
I didn’t grow up reading comics. Outside of one Spider-Man story (which we’ll probably talk about next time), I’d never even read a comic until my friend gave me a copy of Sandman in college. I loved those stories, but it was many years later before I read anything else.
Buy X-Men Epic Collection: LifedeathAbout 15 years ago, I started to really become a comics reader, but I have to admit they still intimidate me. There are just so many comics out there. Marvel and DC Comics have been producing comics featuring Batman, Superman, Captain America, Spider-Man, and a whole host of other popular superheroes for well over half a century. They’ve gone through numerous writers and iterations. And that’s not to mention all the comics created by other publishing companies like Dark Horse and Image Comics. There are hundreds of universes to explore, and I’ve only scratched the surface.
At this point, I feel like I’ve read most of the major stories by the characters that I love, but there are still loads of other stories to dive into. Which is why I was excited to learn that several years ago Marvel started releasing what they call their Epic Collections.
These are big, fat books that collect multiple stories from a single character within a certain chronological period. This book covers several X-Men stories from 1983 to 1985. This was right at the heart of Chris Claremont’s epic run as the writer of X-Men, and this collection features some great stories for Rogue and Storm.
I’ve already written too much for this one cool thing, so let me just say if you like the X-Men and don’t have these stories, this is a must-buy.
DC Compact Comics: Superman/Batman
These DC collections gather a couple of stories inside relatively small books. That makes it easy on the pocketbook (I got this one for less than ten dollars) but harder on the eyes. Comics are a visual medium, and I’m afraid this squashes some of the art a bit too much. It is still very much readable, and for the price it is well worth buying.
Buy DC Compact Comics: Superman/BatmanI’ve never been a huge Superman fan. He’s too powerful, too indestructible, and too darn good. I like my heroes a little darker. I like Batman. So a team-up between those two heroes sounded like a fun read.
The first story, “Public Enemies,” involves a meteor headed to Earth. President Lex Luthor declares this Earth-shattering event is the fault of Superman, and he sends a collection of superpowered people after him. Batman joins Superman in trying to figure out what’s really caused the meteor and how to stop it.
The second story, “Supergirl,” naturally involves the super lady. This is again where I admit I get intimidated by these things. This is certainly not the first time Supergirl has appeared in the comics, but for this story she’s never existed before. Superman is thrilled to have someone from Krypton to talk to, but Batman is skeptical. And Darkseid may ruin everything.
Kingdom Come
Periodically, DC Comics produces a set of non-canonical stories that allows for alternate versions of their popular characters, or it sets them into separate timelines. These stories are called Elseworlds. Kingdom Come is one of those stories.
Buy Kingdom ComeAfter losing his parents and Lois Lane, Superman decides to retire. For various reasons, the rest of the Justice League decide to call it quits as well. Ten years pass, and a new crop of meta-powered folks rises up, except this group of heroes has fewer scruples and has no problem violating the traditional superhero code of no killing.
A major event brings Superman and the rest of the old heroes back into battle with these new guys. Lex Luthor decides he doesn’t like any superpowered people and gets Batman to help him get rid of them all. It is a big, grand, layered story with lots of interesting threads. All of which is highlighted by Alex Ross’ excellent artwork.
Borkmann’s Point by Håkan Nesser
This is the second book in the Inspector Van Veeteren series. I’ve not read the first one, but I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. Van Veeteren is a grizzled old Detective Chief Inspector. In this book, he is sent to a sleepy coastal town to help the police catch a killer who has been hacking people to death with an axe.
Buy Borkmann’s PointVan Veeteren is the kind of detective who uses his brains more than his brawn. He’ll spend more time drinking wine and playing chess with the town’s chief than actually hunting down clues. There’s a weird lack of urgency to the story. Even when one of the other inspectors is kidnapped by the killer, Van Veeteren will take a walk and go to bed early. The ultimate resolution is a bit silly, but Nesser is a fine writer (and translator Laurie Thompson does a nice job with it). His ponderous prose fits well with the sleepy nature of the story.
It is the type of book that would make for a good cozy TV series, and in fact nine of the eleven books have been made into miniseries. I’ll definitely be looking for the other books, but I probably won’t be in a rush to read them.
Bill Frisell Covers Dylan in Tulsa
Part of our birthday celebrations was getting to see Bill Frisell perform the songs of Bob Dylan. One of the super cool things about living close to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa is that they regularly program concerts that celebrate the man.
Frisell was joined by Luke Bergman on bass and Tim Angulo on drums. They played at the beautiful Philbrook Museum in Tulsa. It was a very small auditorium with only 250 seats, so it was an incredibly intimate setting. They played songs from throughout Dylan’s career plus some songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Frisell is a jazz guitarist, and he doesn’t sing, but he’s a mesmerizing player. It would always take me a moment to recognize each song, but they were played beautifully with amazing arrangements. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.
Mother Mary
Anne Hathaway stars in this David Lowery-directed drama about a pop singer’s psychosexual affair with a fashion designer. The trailer doesn’t give us much information, but it sure looks cool.
