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Category: Comic books

The Depressed Genius Of Peanuts

Published 11 November 2025 by Fievel

I’ve always loved Peanuts. Now that I’m middle-aged, though, I love it in a different way. Several years back, 3eanuts first introduced me to the depressive nature of the strip. That was the first time I started to relate to it in a deeper way. And the more I’ve learned about Charles Schulz, the more I identify with him as a creative person with a deep sense of inadequacy and a frequent lack of faith in the love shown to him by others. All of this together has made me approach Peanuts anew with a much deeper emotional connection. Then, too, there’s my strong desire to go home to New England. That’s not where Peanuts is set, but the interior world of Peanuts reminds me of the interior world of my childhood there and also of the feeling of groundedness I get when I’m home. These days I’m going through a major period of obsession with Peanuts, at the same time as a renewed desire (need?) to return home, and I now realize I’m going to have to own all of these, having finished the first volume tonight. I owned several volumes before, but lost them all in one of my many (mis)adventures. Thanks, Sparky. You really did a thing.

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POEM: Victor Hugo Batman

Published 14 June 2023 by Fievel

Victor Hugo Batman

wrote Les Miserables in the Batcave, mostly,
while waiting for Dick to finish his daily lessons.
Victor Hugo Batman would sit
in his big Bat-Chair at the Bat-Computer,
pecking away at his novel with two fingers.
(Ra’s Al Ghul had taught him many things, but
typing wasn’t one of them.)
He based Javert on Gordon, of course.
Jean Valjean was mostly biographical.
By day, Victor Hugo Batman dreamed
of the City of Light. By night,
he was a creature of darkness.

/ / /

13 June 2023
Charlottesville, VA

This poem was inspired by a TikTok video
in which the creator talked about an
actual relative of theirs named
Victor Hugo Batman. (I made a TikTok
video of my poem in response.)

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Books And Comics I Read In 2022

Published 1 January 2023 by Fievel

1. Without Fail by Lee Child
2. Persuader by Lee Child
3. A Call For The Dead by John Le Carré
4. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
5. Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
6. The Enemy by Lee Child
7. One Shot by Lee Child
8. The Hard Way by Lee Child
9. Humble Pi by Matt Parker
10. Light Of The Jedi by Charles Soule
11. The Great Jedi Rescue by Cavan Scort
12. Into The Dark by Claudia Gray
13. A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland
14. Marvel’s The High Republic Vol. 1 by Cavan Scott
15. IDW’s High Republic Adventures Vol. 1 by Daniel Jose Older
16. The Monster of Temple Peak by Cavan Scott
17. The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott
18. Race To Crashpoint Tower by Daniel Jose Older
19. Showdown At The Fair by George Mason
20. Marvel’s High Republic Vol. 2 by Cavan Scott
21. IDW’s High Republic Adventures comic Vol. 2 by Daniel Jose Older
22. Marvel’s Trail of Shadows by Daniel Jose Older
23. Out Of The Shadows by Justina Ireland
24. Tempest Runner by Cavan Scott
25. The Edge of Balance by Shima Shinya and Justina Ireland
26. The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray
27. Midnight Horizon by Daniel Jose Older
28. Mission To Disaster by Justina Ireland
29. A Really Big Lunch by Jim Harrison
30. Bicycling With Butterflies by Sara Dykman
31. The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis
32. Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
33. Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
34. Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
35. The Easy Life In Kamusari by Shion Miura
36. Kamusari Tales Told At Night by Shion Miura
37. The Great Passage by Shion Miura
38. The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams
39. Small Town Skateparks by Clint Carrick
40. When The English Fall by David Williams
41. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
42. Geraint Thomas: How A Welshman Won The Tour de France by Phil Stead
43. Old Man On A Bicycle by Don Petterson
44. 1984 by George Orwell
45. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
46. Path of Deceit by Justina Ireland & Tessa Gratton
47. Quest For The Hidden City by George Mann
48. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
49. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison
50. Batman: The Knight by Chip Zdarsky
51. Strange Adventures by Tom King
52. How To Watch Football by Tifo
53. Stargate Atlantis: Back To Pegasus by Mark Haynes & J.C. Vaughn
54. Stargate Atlantis: Gateways by Mark Haynes & J.C. Vaughn
55. Stargate Atlantis: Hearts & Minds by Mark Haynes & J.C. Vaughn
56. Stargate Atlantis: Singularity by Mark Haynes & J.C. Vaughn
57. Convergence by Zoraida Cordova
58. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
59. Windswept by Kaitlin Bellamy
60. Warlock by Oakley Hall
61. My Side Of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George
62. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
63. Bad Luck And Troubly by Lee Child

(I read more comics than this but I didn’t think to track them until partway through the year.)

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What I Read In March 2015

Published 1 April 2015 by Fievel

readinmarchall

As you can see, I read a lot of comic books in March. I also decided this month that rather than reading only books by women this year, I’d read mostly books by women. My main focus in comic books has been Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, begun in 2000 to give new readers a chance to get started without needing all the continuity from decades of stories in the main Marvel universe. So I’ve been reading those in order. I also started reading Brian K. Vaughan’s amazing series Saga, and G. Willow Wilson’s wonderful Ms. Marvel, which features a Muslim-American teenage girl as its protagonist. On the book side, I read Linda Barry’s excellent One Hundred Demons; In The Land Of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent; a collection of photos of Muhammad Ali from the Magnum library; Sylvia Plath’s Ariel; and Blessed Are The Dead, the third book in Malla Nunn’s detective series set in 1950s South Africa. Oh, and a fabulous book by Chris Taylor called How Star Wars Conquered The Universe.

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Capsule Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy

Published 18 August 2014 by Fievel

Nova_1_(1976) Guardians Of The Galaxy was spectacular. I got into comics in ’77 or ’78, and the first comic I ever loved was Nova. My cousin Todd Jacquot was into Nova, and I was into whatever Todd was into, so I read Nova, too.

Nova was my Spider-Man; a kid I could relate to who suddenly gets superpowers and has to figure out how to use them and what to use them for.

Nova himself isn’t in Guardians, but the Nova Corps is, and so are many of the cosmic races and entities that swept me into the Marvel Universe when I was growing up. Guardians is extremely well written, well acted, well directed, and beautiful to look at. Highly recommended.

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POEM: Spring Robins

Published 11 April 2010 by Jason Crane

Listen to this poem using the player above.

Spring Robins

I’ve been seeing robins everywhere this season
on the lawn when I leave for work
outside my window at the office
in the yard while I’m playing with the kids

they wander to and fro, looking lost and confused
and who can blame them — it’s still early days
prey is scarce and the bright red gives them away
before they can pounce

I think the main problem, though, is that
they’re longing for Batman
he’d only choose one of them anyway
who ever heard of Batman and the Robins?

the warm weather always brings them out
once it’s clement enough for short shorts
and tights, they don their masks and capes
and head out in search of crime

do you think Batman and Robin were dating
like the Comics Code people claimed?
I don’t — they were too far apart in age, and
Robin was in great shape, he didn’t need to settle

for a much older man with obvious identity issues
that said, Dick did agree to let Bruce
dress him in that ridiculous outfit
he should have been twirling a baton

not swinging punches into the jaws of
painted evildoers and crazies
you don’t keep your boyish good looks
being eaten by a shark or buried alive

if you see a Robin, don’t feed him
you’ll only encourage him to come back
before you know it he’ll be on your porch
looking glum and asking if you’ve seen the Batmobile

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Book Review: Joe Sacco’s Palestine

Published 24 January 2009 by Jason Crane

Journalist and comic book artist Joe Sacco has been rightly praised for this intense account of his time in the Palestinian territories during the first Intifada. Sacco decided from the start to tell the Palestinian side of the story — not to aim for the false balance of much of modern journalism. His graphic novel is primarily a series of interviews with Palestinians, some arranged in advance and some on the spur of the moment.

If you enjoyed Art Spiegelman’s MAUS books, you’ll probably like Sacco’s work.

Highly recommended.

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Book Review: Will Eisner’s Contract With God Trilogy

Published 18 January 2009 by Jason Crane

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this collection, which gathers together Eisner’s three graphic novels about the mythic Dropsie Avenue, a street in New York patterned after Eisner’s own childhood neighborhood. I’d never read any of Eisner’s work, famous as he is, and I mostly thought of him as the creator of The Spirit, a comic book hero.

This trilogy, though, is both an autobiography of sorts for Eisner and a biography of a street in New York City. The three books share an attention to detail combined with an epic sweep of history. Eisner explores religion, the meaning of life, aging, poverty, immigration, racial and ethnic relations, and the development of urban centers with a keenly observant — if not objective — eye.

The black-and-white illustrations are perfect for the stories. The drawing has a raggedly realistic style that catches every piece of cracked plaster, every shadowed face, every trick of the light.

Recommended.

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Book review: The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation

Published 12 January 2009 by Jason Crane

This brilliant graphic novel tells the unvarnished story of the development and amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The book is no hagiography of the document or its authors. Hennessey and McConnell point out the flaws in the Constitution and its unfortunate application to restrict the rights of many Americans.

In total, though, this book, like the best history books, inspires both an appreciation for past events and a desire to improve conditions going forward. Hennessy and McConnell are to be commended for furthering the cause of Constitutional literacy. Get this for every middle- and high-school student you know, and get a copy for yourself, too.

Highly recommended.

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Supernatural Law

Published 19 February 2006 by Jason Crane

One of the sites I read every day is Mark Evanier’s News From Me, a blog about TV, movies, animation, comics and more. The other day, Mark linked to Supernatural Law, a comic strip about lawyers who represent the undead, monsters, and other unsavory characters. It’s hilarious, and it’s free, and you should be reading it right now!

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Ex Machina (with no Deus)

Published 9 February 2006 by Jason Crane

You should be reading the comic book Ex Machina. Really, you should. In fact, if I were you, I’d throw a coat on and go pick up the latest issue right now. There’s a nice video interview with the artist, Tony Harris, at the DC Comics site. Message ends.

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