Parent’s Day at Summer Camp

Isaac's Day Camp held its Parent's Day today, busing a sweaty microcosm of the Bronx up to the woods of Pearl River for a few hours to see how much fun the kids are having every day, and why they fall asleep so easily at bedtime! Isaac was already in the pool for their morning swim when we arrived, and I caught about 15-20 minutes of him happily holding his breath underwater and splashing around, and reluctantly learning how to float with and without a boogie board. He was easy to find in the midst of a ton of kids…

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On The Shelves: 7/19/06

Read GOOD Comics, not just the ones you're used to! Try something new EVERY month. My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 7/19/06. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK The HungerAK ENTERTAINMENT INC Aya #2, $2.95 Jalila #2, $2.95 Rakan #2, $2.95 Zein #2, $2.95 The first issues of these weren't bad, but they weren't…

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Review: Iron West

Iron West By Doug TenNapel (Image Comics, 2006; $14.99) Going for wacky is a dangerous gambit, particularly in comics where it can easily drift over into unintentional camp or, even worse, come completely unhinged and end up convoluted and unfunny, so when I realized Doug TenNapel's Iron West included both Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster in the mix, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Fortunately, TenNapel walks a net-free tightrope like a pro, delivering a rollicking good time filled with moments of "He's going to fa--Wow!" that begs for adaptation to the big, or small, screen.…

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LINK: Raising the Bar for Comics Journalism

Heidi MacDonald -- of the recently relocated The Beat, and defender of all that is righteous in the comics world -- proves that, with great power comes great responsibility, using the high-profile visibility of her new Publisher's Weekly platform to...well, to dish dirt. Dept. of Scandal I A while ago we told you about budding filmmaker Matt Busch reporting on his LiveJournal about a nasty breakup with his girlfriend, actress Sarah Wilkinson, with writer Steve Niles as the third party. We're not going to rehash all the story because it's just ugly stuff that should have been kept private, but…

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CBC Quickees: On Pirates and Expatriates

The Left Bank GangBy Jason (Fantagraphics, 2006; $12.95)Why Are You Doing This?, an enthralling Hitchkockian mystery with a big heart, was my first exposure to the Norwegian cartoonist Jason, and it firmly put him on my list of creators from whom I'll check out anything they do. Unfortunately, for me, his English translations are published by Fantagraphics and I rarely find myself in their corner of the comics shop, so I hadn't gotten around to checking out any of his other work before The Left Bank Gang came out a couple of weeks ago. Originally published in France as Hemingway,…

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