More books

9-11 The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember (volume two), in addition to having a very long title, has a mixed bag of stuff. I need to get my hands on volume one and look at it as well. There's a mix of very serious stuff, slightly less serious bits, some politically charged stuff and some interesting (in retrospect) misplace optimism. I'm not sure if this is something to adopt, but if there were some way to bring it into the class it might be worth doing. Certainly it'd be interesting to contrast this with Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers, which is (on the whole) much more conflicted and explicitly political.

100 Bullets First Shot, Last Call is a compilation of 5 issues (two story arcs) and one short story by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. The premise is that a mysterious "Agent Grant" turns up to give people who are victims of unpunished crimes the info on the guilty party an untraceable gun with 100 bullets. In a very dark way this explores the morality of vengeance and justice. The art does interesting things with shading and a few interesting page designs. The dialogue is sharp, as many critics have pointed out, and the opening story is very "gangsta." But it's fairly bleak, and very graphic. Probably on a list of additional things to look at.

Megan Kelso's The Squirrel Mother is a collection of short stories. The stories don't tend to have traditional strong story arcs and work more like poetry in just showing interesting juxtapositions. Three pieces on Hamilton are more like essays or historical reports than anything. The art is compelling, generally simple but with a few interesting surprises. There are some sudden and startling "adult" moments that will throw some students, especially given how they seem to come out of nowhere, like the sudden panel in which her report on Hamilton and Madison turns into slash fiction. But there's rich and deceptively complex stuff here. Worth serious consideration.