i have a difficult relationship with him. mildly impressed with his urban novel “Erase una vez el amor pero tuve que matarlo” i’ve been reading every other thing he publishes thinking “i’ll give him another chance”. most of the time it fails to impress, sometimes i get pleasant surprises. at least he’s one of colombia’s most irreverent writers with a penchant for bukowskian humor and seemingly no fear to experiment. and that’s a great deal for a mildly successful young colombian writer. the stories in this book range from the bukowskian to the cheesy. and really, the cheesy ones are the ones i was mostly impressed, i wasn’t expecting them. recurrent theme in the stories: the father gone. all over the place, like a soft spot in a rotting mango. at the end i wouldn’t recommend the book. he is still just OK. it wasn’t a transformative experience but i still hope efraim keeps on trying.

i just came back from colombia and read this book in the plane. enjoying my return to speaking spanish for a little bit. i’ve always liked fernando V. he is intense like no one else. his prose is agile and nice to read. the book doesn’t have an academic format but it has plenty of academic discussion blended with just pure ruthless opinion. he is quite versed in greek and latin so a lot of discussions are quite authoritative. fernando V. despises the catholic church, seriously. he completely destroys a lot of its arguments and tells you the brutal bloody story of 20 centuries of killing and destruction the catholic church has perpetrated. it’s brutal, it’s so brutal, so many killings… fernando loves animals and he spends quite the time speaking for them and pointing that jesus never did so.
the reading is recommended – i’ve never read a translation though – but if you read in spanish, it’s good, well, if you like his work, his prose, his way of being. it goes well with the recent movie “religulous” – very similar -.

very simple yet quite polished. short fantastic stories. some sad some dreamy. the line is so simple and so expressive. nice to see some work by Dupuy by himself.

a diary about writing a comic book in comic book form. practice what you preach. it’s good. these guys have amazing narration skills. it reads almost like the monsieur jean but it gives you an idea of how things are done between these two collaborators. might be a map for the collaboration endeavors.

oliver sacks reads like fantasy or scifi but he’s an actual working practicing neuroscientist with incredible talent for storytelling. this book reads like the others, from the fascinating to the pure horrifying. some of the stories give lots of insight into musical related events to the musician and non-musician alike.

mr gibson keeps up with his revisit of the present. no more future scifi, that is here, now. i liked the cuban-american character with his mix of high profile spy and santeria (some parkour thrown into the mix). very geographically conscious book.

very exciting book. i loved the technical explanations, the historical background, the references. if you are a boingboing.net reader you can almost see where cory got all the stuff from, but there is even more to it. although the book is aimed at younger readers there is a point where even hard s.f. aficionados will enjoy it (just give it some chapters). i liked the way in which a lot of arguments around 9/11 are presented and meditated upon. it’s not simplistic, it’s not just the view of a lefty activist that hates (rightfully so most likely) what has happened, but there is a lot of empathy; empathy for the suffering and the loss and the incertitude and where that can take you as a human being. yes, there are a lot of emotions and difficult arguments presented in the story.
i got a hardcopy of the book because i wanted to support the author and the fact that he released it online for free and under a creative commons license, i also want to pass it around. yes, buy it (or download it), read it, and pass it to young people in your life.

dark and depressive biographical introspective comics. not bad. good colors, good paper. it’s not terribly life changing but i like that sort of feeling you get when what you are reading doesn’t really seem to take you anywhere at the end. like a stroll in the mind of some random character.

i read this one on bed too. with the flu. with the fever. it’s so very grim and sad and it’ll burn horrible images in your head but how important to read it. ay, the bomb was so much more horrible terrible that is than i imagined. quite hellish. quite dark. ooooh, don’t read it with a fever.

i read the collected edition. this is long long. it reads like a graphic novel and it’s full of references alan moore style it has pages and pages of notes at the end. the drawings are great. black and white, lots of architectural detail and it goes between a loose very expressive inky-scribbly style and full on detailed precise drawings. it gets a little wordy some times alan moore style but overall it’s a great piece. this one came to me through my comic book pusher Joe.