Current Events > Reading Thread: Number Unknown

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well I kinda got distracted and didnt read much for a few weeks so im still on the same book.

Anyway im at the turning point of Demon Copperhead now (about 70% of the way into the book) and I already have an idea of what's gonna happen to Daemon in the future. Was something that has been part of the story since the very beginning. Now it's finally creeping up on the protagonist. Im fully expecting lots of bleakness going forward but I could be wrong.

Also i appreciate the author for portraying the mind of a teenaged boy so well. Ive forgotten what that age was like ngl and this book has been a nice outlet for self-reflection. Though I know Damon's thoughts aren't universal after looking at some online reactions about it with some finding it unrealistic. I just found it fairly accurate to my own thoughts when I was a teenager and growing up with negligent parents. Like Daemon's fear of rejection (caused by neglectful adults) and his corresponding thoughts/behaviours that stem from that is very relatable to my own when I was his age.

Read Bloody Stumps Samurai last night, which I had apparently already read in 2021 - the original version had the main character's background be that of a burakumin, whereas the version I read was changed/censored to that of descended from political exiles. Very weird to re-read and have deja vu through the whole thing. The essays in the back were particularly interesting, especially Ryan Holmberg's--he talked a bit about Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Sangokushi, which also saw some re-draws for 1991 printing. Now I wonder if Hox's scanlation was sourced from the original printings or the re-draws - if I had to guess, I'd say the latter.

On that note, finally got around to reading the three volumes of bilingual Sangokushi I had bought from Japan, translated by Roger Prior. First volume was pretty much the first volume with some painfully British English expressions (Prior even admitted, he was hired to do an American English TL, yet was born in Britain and thought it might have slipped through - it did!!), second had four or so timeskips to cover some famous scenes from Rot3K - Liu Bei and Cao Cao having their drinks during the storm, Sun Ce going mad and passing leadership over to his younger brother - and the third mostly covered the Three Visits to Zhuge Liang/Kong Ming. Overall, a solid read and a weird curio - Yokoyama basically hasn't been TL'ed into English outside the efforts of fans, and even this official bilingual publication has had a very odd publishing schedule, with two year gaps between each volume, it seems. I wonder if we'll have a v4 for 2025...

cuh posted...

Also please know that I google every manga title you list

Some of them are definitely worth it, others...

cuh posted...

Update from earlier:

(Im gonna buy one more shelf piece for the top there)

Very nice, they have great shelves!! I think I might have an Ikea shelf but I don't know, I was gifted it years ago but it's remained the foundation of my piles of books for all that time, lol.

Finally read Fantagraphics' latest Nancy book (Nancy Wears Hats), the one that reprints 1949-1950. No complaints!
https://i.vgy.me/AbLA1d.jpg

Going through Sanderson's latest secret project novel, Isles of the Ember dark

Trying to keep on with newspaper strips, I read David Lynch's The Angriest Dog in the World; some good one-off jokes
https://i.vgy.me/Mmhc63.jpg

Also picked up v1 of the Daily Star's Judge Dredd strip. Again, some good one off jokes - I don't have the book on me rn but one notable page had unemployed protestors demanding job opportunities, illegal of course in Mega City One. Dredd arrests and sentences them to one year's hard labor, much to their delight lol.

I just started Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and I might expire before finishing it.

https://i.vgy.me/VFQ6yO.jpg

Finished the first volume of the Dredd strip, phew.

Just started dungeon crawler Carl. Seems interesting so far

I'll be posting my my delayed haul pics, but for the moment, a library checkout:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3a36a46d.jpg

I recently read Dungeon Crawler Carl (books 1, 2 and 3). Fun series so far!

I plan to get the rest soon. The rest of my book backlog is mostly Marvel graphic novels these days.

cuh posted...

Lol, surprise surprise, guess who DOES make an appearance in my Oulipo compilation book:

OMG no way!! I'm glad he got some representation, it was such a cool comic. Easily one of the best I've read this year.

https://i.vgy.me/LjitYr.jpg

NintendoFan81 posted...

I recently read Dungeon Crawler Carl (books 1, 2 and 3). Fun series so far!

I plan to get the rest soon. The rest of my book backlog is mostly Marvel graphic novels these days.

It's reminding me of the Bobiverse books.

cuh posted...

Every day I see articles and reports like this, and I get so sad and also nervous for the middle schoolers I teach. Um are things really getting that bad?

:(
I'm no expert on the subject but I may have related this impression/anecdote before, if not here it is

Fall 2023 - no mention of AI in any of my courses, no checks for AI in writing, just felt like a typical college semester, nearly everyone I encountered in the discussion forums were writing with their own "voices".
Spring 2024 - basically same as above, I might have had one professor say "AI can be used as a research tool but don't use generative AI for submissions" - it was based on good faith, however.
Fall 2024 - I think this was the biggest shift, every course now had a default "don't use AI" that everyone had to agree to, professors specifically would say don't use AI in our meetings/discussions, and a few of the younger professors utilized tools that would check submissions to see how much writing had been done by students vs generated by AI.
Spring 2025 - The submission check tools were now utilized by every professor, yet despite this I became increasingly aware that a handful of students in the discussion forums were just throwing each others' work into generative AI as prompts and asking for a response back. Once I became aware of the way AI writing read, I realized in retrospect that some of my peers sounded awfully similar in the previous semester...

Basically it felt like a shift from day to night, the first year AI was barely even a topic of concern but the second, it was EVERYWHERE. I've seen recent graduates across the web crowing about cheating their way through college with AI, apparently oblivious that in doing so they are essentially robbing themselves of knowledge and developing critical thinking skills. I think everyone ITT is well aware that trusting AI to do either accurately is just playing yourself, especially if it comes to topics obscure, incendiary, or considered "dangerous" to the maintainers of said technology...which IMO is one of the points of education, to actualize yourself as a person and become aware of information you might not otherwise have.

So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if things are starting to spiral, it was starting to become grim when I was on my way out...I'm kinda glad I graduated when I did <_<

Finally started reading The Nancy Show, surprised to learn that Milt Gross and Ernie Bushmiller were close friends. Milt was, of course, quite perceptive:
https://i.vgy.me/DI6JeD.jpg

Still on a strip kick, I read Milton Caniff's "Male Call" - it had some surprisingly wholesome moments for a strip with plenty of cheesecake. His inking was really top notch and I had a few moments of "huh this looks familiar" - having never read him before, I'm actually kinda reminded of Harvey Kurtzman's use of light and darkness.
Any rate, good stuff! I do have the first volume of Terry and the Pirates on my shelf...

cuh posted...

Bushmiller was so Nancy-like himself, I dont know how to explain it
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1bca4a54.jpg

The second essay in the book discussed Nancy's "looks" through the years, and honestly the first thing I thought of seeing his face was hers
https://i.vgy.me/hBuU6t.jpg
The eyebrows, the eyes, and the smile (my picture isn't a great example but still!) - he drew himself plenty but he and Nancy almost share the same face IMO.

I have to pick up another strip, I'm leaning towards the one volume of Cecil Jensen's Elmo that I have.

cuh posted...

For some reason I felt compelled to read the beginning (the frame story) of One Thousand and One Nights and its crazy to me how that introduction features various curious stories with cliffhanger breaks, even before the very first of the one thousand and one stories. Its kinda meta, as if the dad is trying to persuade his daughter not to go through with the plan by telling her story after story (as she, of course, does to the king to delay her beheading), albeit for a short while.

Mindlink time, I always wanted to read 1001 nights but never could find an unabridged copy - it seems like such a cool story.

Ooh nice, I'll have to grab the Penguin version ^^^

Just started reading Cecil Jensen's Elmo, it's uhh, quite something. The blurb mentions how morbid the strip can get and yeah...I'm not sure if the main character being oblivious to everything makes the WTF aspects better or worse, lol. I'll post some of the funnier panels later.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e263e2bd.jpg

Wooah did people really have stains on their shirts like this back then (early 2000s)???

From Demon Copperhead. This part takes place in the early 2000s and in like the really rural part of Virginia (part of appalachia)

https://i.vgy.me/EtjqWE.jpg

Ratchetrockon posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e263e2bd.jpg

Wooah did people really have stains on their shirts like this back then (early 2000s)???

From Demon Copperhead. This part takes place in the early 2000s and in like the really rural part of Virginia (part of appalachia)

Heck if I know, I wonder if any Virginians have commented about the book online...

Read the first story of the British strip Garth, had some interesting art and fourth wall breaks (Garth is in a hidden passage, listening to the villain's plans - the panel borders acting as the "wall" between them) but it felt a bit dated socially.

I still have to read more Elmo but I've been slacking, trying to acquire a wider variety of strips at the moment

Ch 56 of demon copperhead is so darn sad
I'm close to the end of the book now

Gonna read Middlesex next

Read the Wonder Woman dailies, and tbh - I can see why it only lasted a year <_<
The back material did show some of the other strip collections IDW/LoAC had released, it's just a shame they're all basically out of print and so expensive on the secondary market now.

I finished Demon Copperhead.

Those last couple of chapters were pretty sad for sure but am glad it didn't have a miserable ending.

Gave me more insight on rural mindset in America too which is nice. I grew up overseas (basically until 19; tho briefly spent 3 years in cali at a much younger age) and wasn't naturalized till I was around 8 or so a lot of American culture is lost on me.

I'll def read more of her books in the future

I am in the middle of Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury. I remember loving Dandelion Wine as a kid and this book of short stories about Green Town where Dandelion Wine takes place is definitely not disappointing.

Finished Wally Wood's Cannon. For a 70s spy strip it was alright. Funny to think that within 30 years, social mores had relaxed enough for military publications to go all in on naked women every other page, when Male Call treated showing pantyhose as a very risque thing.

At any rate, it was alright. Something less violent and naked next I suppose (I swear I'll pick up Elmo again soon, I swear!!)

>Elmo goes to duel a guy with water pistols
https://i.vgy.me/fq3YDh.jpg

The impossible has happened.

Dark Horse is re-releasing Lone Wolf and Cub with the original right to left art.

LONE WOLF AND CUB WILL NO LONGER BE FLIPPED.

Also looks like a lot of good old manga coming up this year. City Hunter and Cat's Eye come out on September 23, lol.

Read Dondi - I think the entry on Wikipedia sums up my thoughts well:

Dondi was considered by some to be repellently wholesome.

Indeed, it was. The "negative" pages were made all the more memorable for this.
https://i.vgy.me/BpY1Mx.jpg

cuh posted...

And also, when I looked up this manga, why did I think of DK and Pauline

The kid on the shoulders!! I wonder if LW+C is the ur-example of this in Japanese media...

cuh posted...

I love that Latin phrase: Praeterit figura huius mundi. The shape of this world passes away.

Love it. Reminds me of the transience of what we know to be real - even between generations we can see "our" world change shape, mutating or fading away.

Forgot to post my recent comic haul and a couple sandwich containers:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/52a57311.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0230294f.jpg
VR Trooper is a flipbook with the FCBD Power Rangers Prime on the other side.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b15dc9fa.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6ac9ae08.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4e0f36ce.jpg

^USM is still pretty good, I look forward to going back and giving it a full read through once this year is done

Read Shattuck, another strip that ran in Overseas Weekly, from Wally Wood. This one was a cowboy feature. Not much to say other than it was passed off to assistants, had lots of naked women though not as many as Cannon - I think one of the assistants actually mentioned in the afterword, the standing rule was "show skin as fast as you can" - I rolled my eyes when this occurred with the SECOND panel of the strip - and actually was unfinished, ends mid-story. All that's left from this batch of Overseas Weekly+Wood is Sally Forth, which I might pick up after or before I finish Elmo.

Finished the first volume of Elmo, what a comic strip. Not only was it hilarious, the way Jensen set up interwoven plots--even if they were to be taken with a grain of salt--was remarkable. One of the great "lost" treasures of newspaper strips, IMO. Definitely will be picking up the second volume, where Elmo returns after his strip had been taken over by Debbie. Highly recommended.

https://i.vgy.me/f5rpab.jpg

Started reading V.T. Hamlin's Alley Oop, his expressions are top notch
https://i.vgy.me/hlgvci.jpg