Jeremy's Reading Diary

Suddenly I'm on an Aaron McGruder kick. I recently picked up his "Birth of a Nation" which was co-written with Reggie Hudlin and Illustrated by Kyle Baker. I really can't say enough about this book. It's hilarious, it's insightful, and it's angry. How can you not love this? How did I not know about this? I mean, the man who made "The Boondocks" side by side with the man who made "Nat Turner" is a match made in heaven. How much Reggie Hudlin had to do with this I'm not sure. Clearly, he didn't learn much about writing comics from working with McGruder or I'd still be reading "Black Panther" (btw, don't do that to yourself).

So inspired was I by this book, that I ran out and found a collection of the Boondocks comic strips (cause it wasn't always a show folks). I'm just really getting to the meat of it and I've fallen in love all over again. The show is great, but seeing a great strip cartoonist in action is beyond compare. It's like doing a stand up routine without any of the vocal props which make stand up possible. The collection is called "All the Rage", do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Also, I recently read "Asterios Polyp". This book has had so much praise piled on it, I can't begin to imagine what new I could say. Mazzuchelli does things with art which aren't humanly possible. I finished it and immediately wanted to read it again. I DON'T DO THAT! It's awesome sauce with not a cape or ridiculously large breast in sight.