Superheroes and Sorcerers

So, it’s Saturday, and I’m doing the rounds at my job, working at the local library. I’m shelving at our graphic novels section when something catches my eye. It’s a very bland-looking graphic novel called “Johnny Hiro” by Fred Chao. I said to myself, “Hey, I need something new to read”, and I decided to take a look at it.

It’s not actually a superhero story, but rather the chronicles of a half-Japanese busboy named Johnny Hiro. He lives with his girlfriend Mayuki, a Japanese immigrant in New York who works as a copy editor. Their relationship is honest, sweet, and endearing.

Johnny’s life is filled with crazy mishaps, from a giant lizard named Gozadilla trashing his apartment to getting attacked by sushi chefs to computer programmer samurai at the opera, it’s a truly absurd and hilarious tale.

The writing by Chao is honest, real, and while Johnny’s problems are outlandish, he deals with life and moves on as well as any normal person. Sprinkled in with a moving set of characters is a beautiful rendition of New York, simple artwork that still is enjoyable, and more guest stars you can shake a stick at, from a pastiche of Power Rangers to Michael Bloomberg and David Bryne.

This is, put plainly, the best comic book I have read in the past year. It’s something I would recommend for anyone who enjoys a good, clean human tale.

So, I’ve ben tossing around ideas lately, and ended up with nothing even close to what I was hoping I’d finish by the end of February. But, hey, it’s life. what can you do about it?

Anyways, I was working on the most promising of ideas of late, a short story that I’m hoping will turn intos omething appraching finished relatively soon. Anyways, no spoilers, but while I was working on the piece last night, I was doing my usual. Listening to som classic rock, air guitaring in betwen paragraphs, and actually doing some writing when I wasn’t being a total dork.

And then, I swear to God, I start hearing noises. Not like a bump or a pop, which has happened before, and I’ve quickly found the solutions to the problems(The pop happens when we leave our grill plugged in, and the bump is usually either my brother or the cat). Instead, this was the exact same noise the monster in my story makes. I turned on every light in the house, grabbed the holiest thing I could find(for those of you who are wondering, the holiest thing on my desk at that moment was the Imperial Infantryman’s Uplifting Primer), and raced like a bat out of hell upstairs.

Imagining the monster you’re writing about appearing in your house? God damn, I need to get me some rock salt and consecrated iron. Or maybe I’ve just been watching too much Supernatural of late.