Comics I Bought: February 21, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 3 new comics plus a trade paperback collection:

Grendel Behold The Devil 4 (of 8)

Rex Mundi vol 2 - 10

Ex Machina 34

"Antoine Sharpe is The Atheist Incarnate" (TPB)

And now for a review of something I've read this week.

"Get a Life" by Dupuy and Berberian

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. It's up my alley. It's a collection of short slice of life stories about a single man in his late twenties. He is a moderately successful writer who hasn't quite found his way in life yet. He lives in a flat by himself and has some friends but no love of his life or children yet.

They artwork is beautiful. Both Dupuy and Berberian draw it and I don't know how they split up the work but it's seamless and very well drawn. The coloring and lettering are also beautiful too. All in all just flipping through it is a very pleasant experience as it is a well made hardcover.

So why did it leave me cold? I'm not sure. I like slice of life stories but I didn't seem to relate to these ones. I didn't find much insight or interesting observations in them. I don't know if that's me or the book though because, damn, it's nice to look at.

I found the lead character a bit annoying and couldn't quite figure out why anyone would be friends with him let alone why I should want to read stories about him. He is quite hum drum and ordinary. Ordinary in a dull way. Maybe my friends and I are big weirdos (eh, we mostly are) but I found all of his friends dull. This book is about a crowd that I, quite simply, would be bored with in real life. So why would I want to read stories about them?

But as I said that could just be me. It took me a while to get through this book but I wanted to because it really is well crafted and pretty. If you like slice of life stories or just well drawn comics check out this book.