Wednesday, December 19, 2007

What I have Read (yes there are black men who do read books):

I enjoy reading a good book something my mother forced upon me as a kid that I appreciate now as an adult (back than though whew!).

I am one of those dudes that can read more than one thing at a time, in fact while in college I always have some type of book not dealing with school with me.

The courses I have been taking of late have been heavy so I have kept my reading lite.

As in Graphic Novel lite.

Graphic Novels are the cross between comics and novels, and should be respected in my opinion as literature.

Same respect you would give anything on the New York Times top sellers list. (Ever tried reading the books off that list? Is it me or are most those books high browed bullshit?)

Any way what I read during finals was:

Lucifer's Garden of Verses: The Devil on Fever Street (Lucifers Garden of Verses 1) by Lance Tooks





I remember buying this brothers first novel Narcissa off a New York side walk. I was impressed with the simple yet at the same time detailed and emotional art work as well as the story line of a young black woman in Spain. I was fiending for his work since. (In fact if I am not mistaken he may have been the street vendor I brought it from.)

Lance Tooks


Along comes Lucifer a first in what is a series of GN following old scratches dirty work on Earth. The art work is modern here with him using pics as well as his pencil to get the pics out. Here is a review of the book.

From Publishers Weekly
That perennial wellspring of comic inspiration, the prince of darkness, is back. This time, the devil inhabits a b&w world, mostly inked and occasionally Photoshopped. We find Tooks's Lucifer awakening after a hundred-year nap, just in time for Armageddon, which is scheduled to occur a week after the story opens. Lucifer's henchmen, Beelzebub and Belial, are thoroughly up to date Kangol-wearing characters—this Lucifer walks today's urban streets. Eager to get their boss back into top evildoing condition, Lucifer's pals suggest that he re-enter the world of misanthropy by seducing a righteous woman: Black Lily Baptiste, a former prostitute who found God after her pimp beat her unconscious but accidentally left her with a winning lottery ticket. Her faith is strong—so strong, in fact, that when the devil shows up as a muscle-bound yet gentle man wearing a tight black T-shirt, the tables are turned and Lucifer ends up being the one who falls. But just when it looks like the devil really might leave the demonic world, there's a final plot twist. Tooks's story lacks complexity, but the world he draws is an appealing one, its sassy denizens rendered with energy. He's at his best conjuring up secondary players: mischievously ambitious demons, squabbling kids and ancillary characters reading their work at the poetry slam.