Comic Novel: MARIA M. by Gilbert Hernandez

 Comic Novel: MARIA M. by Gilbert Hernandez, 2019, 9781683960164.

I'm not sure what I have read of LOVE AND ROCKETS. I did read one of his books about Luba and probably have it at home somewhere.

Maria comes north from Central America looking to restart in the U.S. Without cash and a super zaftig body she is recruited into dancing, modeling, and sex work. She marries a mob boss. She cheats around a bit. The mob boss's violent son has a hankering for his stepmother. The other mob son is dangerous but not hands on.

Anyhoo. A good story as Maria keeps surviving for years with dangerous people, keeping secrets, and getting dumped by her husband. She gets a happy ending.

Decent: A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER by Roger Zelazny

 Decent: A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER by Roger Zelazny, 1993, 9780688125085.

Narrated by a dog who is Jack the Ripper's pal and familiar. The dog works for Jack and they are in a small town that will be the site of a possible opening to hell or some other dark side full of bad stuff. At the end of October will be a prescribed conflict between pro-hell and anti-hell sides to compete over whether the magic portal will be opened.

Dog walks and sniffs around keeping an eye on the participants and their familiars. Those participants and interlopers are obvious literary and folklore and real-life characters but are never quite named. Heck, Jack is not called the Ripper; it's just obvious. Characters include Sherlock Holmes, Rasputin, Frankenstein and monster, some werewolf, others I forgot. 

The animal familiars make alliances. The animals argue and trade insults. There is humor. There is danger. I enjoyed it.

This is more likely the first Zelazny novel I ever read. I think of him as being the fantasy and scifi king of the 1980s. His books were everywhere.

DNF: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG by Mimi Pond

 DNF: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG by Mimi Pond, 2017, 9781770462823.

Memoirs in comics format. Someone on Patti Abbott's blog recommended the book but I just didn't get into it.

Memoir of 1970s Oakland as author is in early part of her cartooning career and working as a waitress. 

Paperback: THE VOICES IN MY HEAD by Charlie Stella

 Paperback: THE VOICES IN MY HEAD by Charlie Stella, 2021, 9781951473501.

The great crime novelist Charlie Stella writes a "fictional memoir" from pre-birth to, I don't know, 2018-ish?

Stella had a rotten dad. Stella had a caring mother. The rotten dad's sleazy behavior messed up the entire family. He was frequently out every night with girlfriends and not trying too hard to hide it. He uses a family mob connection to run a private department store of stolen merchandise in the basement of the family home. That family home breaks apart when Dad has an affair with a relative's wife. (Yech. What the hell is wrong with you?)  Dad claims poverty and screws over his ex-wife and children but getting out of paying any decent maintenance or child support. Dad is an awful father. Charlie just wants approval, acceptance, love, etc. All the things every child needs. Charlie gets into frequent fights. Charlie ends up going to a mental hospital a couple times. Charlie's sister craves paternal approval as well, instead of starting fights she takes on the Dad's behavior of belittling and Charlie.

Anyhoo. Charlie keeps on trucking and gets to reading. Charlie makes poor romantic decisions. Charlie makes more poor romantic decisions. Charlie sleeps around with party people. Charlie gets into loansharking and bookmaking and makes a ton of money that goes to supporting his gambling habit, his mother, his children, his ex-wives. 

I'm not going to attempt any literary interpretations or psychological analyses except to say Stella opens up a lot. I presume making it 'fictional' is a way to focus on his memory and emotions rather than fact check everything. 

Paperback: DIRT BAGS by Eryk Pruitt

 Paperback: DIRT BAGS by Eryk Pruitt, 2014 (original) 2025 (reprint by Rock and a Hard Place Press), 9798999100016.

The back cover description says the book is not a feel good story. 

Short: Three dirtbags get involved in murder-for-hire and murder-for-fun. 

Long: Dirtbag Restauranter wants his ex-wife murdered. He hires the husband of his mistress to do the job. Husband brings along Dirtbag Pal in a drive from North Carolina to Dallas, TX.

Murder ensues. Spree killing ensues. Cops are flummoxed. 

A fun book.

Short Stories DETROIT IS OUR BEAT by Loren D. Estleman

 Short Stories DETROIT IS OUR BEAT by Loren D. Estleman, 2015, 9781440588457.

Police goon squad in WW2 Detroit. Estleman's introduction about life in Detroit in the 1940s was interesting. How does he balance modern sentiment presenting accurate characters when the cops were violent, racist, misogynistic and more in the 1940s. He also provides a big ass bibliography - an impressive list for any fiction title.

Anyhoo Short stories about a group of four Police Detectives of the Racket Squad. The police department is severely undermanned with Officers joining the service and other able bodied men in the production plants. The Racket Squad are restricted from joining up after being labeled essential. Or, as long as they don't upset their commanders enough to send them to the Navy. 

Actually, the four of them seem to figure that military sign-up is inevitable. They are just doing their jobs arresting black marketeers and hitting protestors with clubs until then.

Quit: PARADAIS by Fernanda Melchor

 Quit: PARADAIS by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes. 201 for original Spanish. 2022 for English. 9780811231329.

Guy working as maintenance at a gated and exclusive community in a smaller Mexican city sorta makes friends with a creepy local teen. The friendship is based on the skeezy local guy stealing money from his grandparents and buying booze for him and the maintenance guy.

A short novel at 112 pages. But, I think there are no sentences shorter than half a page. Loooooong sentences throughout the work and the style got way too annoying. 

Comments:

• Are the long sentences meant to show a thought process by a character?
• Long sentences as a constant mental bebop of the character?
• Long sentences as a "check this out literay pals!" by the writer?
• Doesn't matter because I just wanted to read the story and not analyze the style or text.

Library: PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIE: OUTLAWS AND VIGILANTES IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND by Ken Lizzio

 Library: PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIE: OUTLAWS AND VIGILANTES IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND by Ken Lizzio. 2018. 9781493036591.

Pretty neat. A history of crime on the frontier of West and Northwest Illinois in the 1830 (ish). I read this a couple months ago. What I recall is: 

The area was recently taken from the local tribes and there is little to no court system or law enforcement. It was a crook's paradise in a lot of ways with the thieves working together and protecting one another. If a crook was caught and put to a grand jury or court trial his pals would show up as witnesses and lie-lie-lie. They would pack juries. They would threaten and beat and kill those willing to pursue charges or oppose them.

Nauvoo was a center of crookery. The Mormon church would protect their own people and own community and did not care what the crooks did outside the immediate area. Crooks would bring their earnings and stolen goods back to Nauvoo.

Horse thieving was a constant threat. They was a loose association of crooks running from Missouri/Iowa all the way to Pennsylvania. Horses would be sold and traded all along the line. Highly valued animals could pass down through a couple states. Other animals just needed to get far enough away from the owner's pursuit.

Speaking of pursuit, crime victims would travel to find and identify stolen property. This also created a con. A thief would be suspected of horse theft and apprehended. One of his crook pals would show up and claim to be the horse owner, take the horse, and leave. The crook under arrest is let go when the evidence disappears. The crooks would be very mobile as well and willing and able to travel farther than a Sheriff.

Other things:

1. Murder.

2. Long distance pursuits and investigations to catch murderers from a killing in Rock Island. The pursuit went over months and hundreds and hundreds of miles.

3. River crime and land traveler crime caused many disappearances. A traveling peddler would be robbed, murdered, and no trace of the guy. River pirates would capture a flatboat, kill everyone, keep the loot, sink the boat.

4. Don't expect bad guys to get caught. Don't expect your neighbors to be trustworthy. Don't expect the courts to be successful. Did your crook get caught and convicted? Well, his jail is a log cabin with a dirt floor and he escaped last week. Keep a look out because he'll be back for vengeance.

5. Yeah. Your neighbors. Did you flash some cash? mention you've got a gold watch in a box at home? You're fucked because armed guys will show at 2AM.

Comic: THE ONCE AND FUTURE RIOT by Joe Sacco

 Comic: THE ONCE AND FUTURE RIOT by Joe Sacco, 2025, 9781250880260.

More journalism by Sacco in comics form. Sacco visits Northern India where riots in 2013 killed scores of people. The riots were a mix of religious and political power fights and occurred across several villages and towns in the region.

A few years later Sacco and a couple local journalists travels around the area interviewing witnesses, victims, and alleged perpetrators.  Sacco tells the story with flashbacks from the interviewees points of view and reports at the time. He also draws and writes about the interviews and his suspicions on who is lying and why.

There are still thousands of displaced people rightfully afraid to return to their homes and towns. Meanwhile, many people from each side are willing to blame the other side for instigating and escalating the violence. I was reading a lot of lingering guilt in their statements. Also read a lot of, "I'll keep lying and stay out of prison."

Comments

- I always enjoy the details and perspective of Sacco's work. 

- Sacco will talk to most anyone he can.

- Sacco is always putting himself in dangerous and near-danger situation. This book's danger is traffic and an incredibly reckless driver.

DNF: THE LAMB by Lucy Rose

 DNF: THE LAMB by Lucy Rose. 2025. 9780063374607.

Mother and her elementary aged daughter live in remoted woods of Northern England and murder and eat lost travelers, hikers, and anyone else who wanders in.

I tried getting into this a couple times and just couldn't. Story was moving slowly and there was not enough about the characters to keep me involved. Narrated by the 10-year-old and, therefore, a bit simplistic.

The Lovely Eggs rock band started a facebook group to talk books. A guy on there wrote that he thinks this is a modern masterpiece. That prompted me to try again. I had to bail anyway.

Wait. Are the Lovely Eggs rock? Or punk? There are a very DIY duo.

Horror-Ish: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING by Raymond A. Villareal

 Horror-Ish: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING by Raymond A. Villareal. 2018. 9780316561686.

I find it on the shelf and liked the title and cover artwork. Started out strong. Kinda petered out.

I've not much to say. Working attorney author leaned into some attorney/legal stuff which was a new perspective for me.

Plot: Mysterious dead people in rural New Mexico. Bodies disappear from the morgue. CDC PHD tasked to take a look starts a years long experience of chasing the missing people and figuring out what the hell is happening. 

There are also an FBI guy, a Priest, and other people I don't quite recall.

Overall a fun read. Glad I read it.

Took A Bit: THE BORROWED HILLS by Scott Preston

 THE BORROWED HILLS by Scott Preston, 2024, 9781668050675.

Guy grows up with an incredibly emotionally distant father in the sheep and hill country of Cumbria. His mother up and leaves when he is a child. Guy leaves home to drive long-haul trucks. Gets called back when father is ill and ends up helping his father and a neighbor with destroying all the stock when Foot-and-Mouth outbreak. The work rounding up, killing the sheep, and burning the corpses. 

The Foot-Mouth experience is awful. The work is 24 hours a day and walking through the smoke and soot of burning sheep corpses. Guy finishes that help, gets fed up with father, leaves a couple more years, returns when father dies.

Guy takes on "work" with Neighbor. No pay to speak of. Guy just works and lives on the farm. His life is work, visits to the pub, and poorly hidden infatuation with Neighbor's Wife that Guy knew in school. 

Neighbor joins with a regional crook on a theft of sheep from down South. Things just get worse and worse from there.

Comments:

1. No. Names are not needed. I barely noticed them, really. Just a way to tell the difference among the two primaries and three others.

2. Probably a ton of symbolism and literary methods I never recognized or parsed.

3. Not sure I'd recommend this or not.

BBC: THE MIGHTY ONION by Mark Crilley

THE MIGHTY ONION by Mark Crilley, 2024, 9780316490313.

Read in 2025. I'm way behind on entries.

I follow Crilley on Facebook after really enjoying the AKIKO comic book novels. Crilley was also doing some really neat instructional instructional videos on drawing. 

I read one post in July, 2025 he shared about this comic novel and HOLY SHIT! RADCLIFFE AND MACONIE?!

Yeah. I was very surprised he named two characters after one of my absolute favorite BBC 6 Music shows. 

I've been listening to The Radcliffe and Maconie Show for years, so I couldn't resist sneaking in a little shoutout to them in my MIGHTY ONION series. If you live in the UK, you really ought to tune in to their radio show-- it's delightful!

Anyhoo. Middle reader comic novel about a kid, Elliott, who is convinced he has a sure fire hit idea for a comic book hero. Except he cannot draw worth a damn. He looks for a classmate to be his artist and finds Pamela who has plenty of talent.

Story unfolds where the comic is a hit at school, even the teachers enjoy it. But, Elliott wants total control and clashes with Pamela's artistic renderings. Things happen. The partnership fractures until Elliott realizes he was in the wrong. Partnership unifies and returns to super heroeing.

Fun story with epistolary episodes of back-and-forth notes between the two. Also drawn by the two different characters with rough sketchwork of Elliott and skilled art of Pamela.

Hardcover: THE BIKERIDERS by Danny Lyon

Hardcover: THE BIKERIDERS by Danny Lyon, 2014 edition, 1968 oridinal, 9781597112642.

Lyon lived in Chicago and hung out with a renegade club. Not sure why non-AMA clubs still called themselves renegades. I presume clubs calling themselves 1% in the 1960s were often also criminal gangs as now.

Plenty of information about their about Lyon, his career, and this book. BIKERIDERS being an important book in photography. paired with interviews of the club members and their wives and girlfriends. Some bikers are regular people who love bikes, racing, traveling across midwest, so on, so forth. Some bikers are skeezy misanthropes.

Plenty of booze and bike wrecks and a riding couple fatalities. Interviews are very interesting and the interviewees very forthcoming.

I am pretty sure I reserved this after reading the Wisconsin connection since the group would travel to WI races and events, and had bike friends in MKE.

Comic Memoir: I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN by Mannie Murphy

 Comic Memoir: I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN by Mannie Murphy. 2021. 978168396410052499.

Starts as a memoir of teen love and fascination with River Phoenix by a woman who grew up in the PNW and Portland. Turns into a story about Phoenix and director Gus van Sant. van Sant's upper middle class fascination with street kids and culture. The connection of street kids to white supremacy groups. The growth and popularity if white supremacist dirtbags. Influence and presence of nazi leader Tom Metzger. The connection to the infamous GERALDO episode of thrown chairs and new-nazi garbage humans. 

A listing of true crime stories recalled or connected to the author and her youth in Portland. Attending a alternative high school with a bad reputation. A well-known neo-nazi garbage human who went to the high school and convicted of murder. van Sant's very sketchy behavior with teen street people. 

Overarching theme of failing children and teens and "don't trust adults". Kids left adrift to early abuse of drugs and sex - River Phoenix the famed example. Uncritical following of leaders like Metzger and the both the Oregon Episcopal School mountain disaster with nine dead. 1978 airliner crash into a Portland suburb killing ten.

Artwork is black and white on a lined notebook. I don't know enough about art to know the type of painting. To me this is a black-and-white water color. The illustrations really do match the darker colors and themes I recall from van Sant's work. Where every day is cloudy and it feels like the sky is pressing everything down.

Very Brief: WAR ON GAZA by Joe Sacco

 Very Brief: WAR ON GAZA by Joe Sacco. 2024. 9798875000904.

32 pages of comics reporting. Well, opinion and commentary than reporting. Sacco has done some excellent reporting in the past. He just uses comics format instead of prose. SAFE AREA GORAZDE was a real eye opener for me on how people lived in a war zone. Sacco has spent a lot of time in Palestinian areas over the past 30 years and observing life and meeting people.

There is:

• plenty of criticism of Joe Biden and Netanyahu. 
• Pointing our victim blaming. 
• Listing liars and their lies. 
• U.S. domestic politics and the U.S. financial and military support. 
• History of peaceful efforts met with deadly violence. 

Online Guy: THE LONG FALL by Lynn Kostoff

 Online Guy: THE LONG FALL  by Lynn Kostoff. 2003, 978078711659.

I run across Kostoff online and had been intending to read his work for a while. This came out 22 years ago. And, dang it, I cannot recall time period it is set in. I'm thinking it was the 1990s. Anyhoo. 

Slack-ass loser and released convict Jimmy is a self-involved fuckup. He went to prison for stealing Saguaro cacti - a felony in AZ - and now has a big gambling debt to a loanshark. Jimmy got fired from his latest job at a Western themed local amusement park. He figures he can turn his recently inherited property into cash. He just needs his much, much, much more successful brother to sign some papers.

Successful brother Richard tells him to pound sand because he is sick of Jimmy's BS and need for bailouts. The brothers argue. Richard pulls a scam on Jimmy because he knows Jimmy won't read the actual documents he is signing. Jimmy and Richard argue. 

Jimmy is under threat by the loanshark's goons. Jimmy makes stupid decisions. Laughter ensues. Bad Guy has evil background and evil intentions. Jimmy's sister-in-law hates her work and obligations. Jimmy and sister-in-law start sexual affair.

I enjoyed the book. A cover blurb compares to Cark Hiassen. I've not read Hiassen in a long time so I cannot vouch for that. This does fit that humorous noir category of bad guy making bad decisions with little to no way out. Except the category of 'humorous noir' also means it's not really noir because a happy or bittersweet ending is usually included.

Comments:

• Lots of Phoenix and Phoenix area details.
• Gun talk with Bad Guy have an odd assemblage of weapons. One of which is a P239. I used to really want a P239 years ago.
• Ripping on Rotary and stuffed shirt members.
• Hey, man. Rotary does a crap ton of community work. My club is not filled with self-serving a-holes.
• Sister-in-law married Rich Brother and had to join the family business. She wants to go back to the art world and run a gallery. Managing dry cleaning stores is NOT her thing.

Online Rec: OTHER SANDBOXES by F. Paul Wilson

 Online Rec: OTHER SANDBOXES  by F. Paul Wilson. 2020. 9781637890776.

Short story collection with Wilson writing stories using other authors' universes and characters. With five stories riffing off Sax Rohmer. 

Each story has a nice preface by Wilson explaining how he chose or was requested to write a story. I enjoyed the Fu Manchu ones. I never read one of the Rohmer novels.

I'd say this is more a enthusiast's book. Either for Wilson fans or old mystery fans. Except, he also plays in the worlds of Heather Graham, Blake Crouch, and Ann Voss Peterson.

Re-Pubbed: SECRET DEAD MEN by Duane Swierczynski

 Re-Pubbed: SECRET DEAD MEN by Duane Swierczynski. 2024. 9781835410486.

I've read enough Swierczynski books that I can now type his name without checking correct spelling. That doesn't mean my fumble fingers won't mis-type his name.

This came out in 2004 and the 2024 issue has a very nice cover design.

What was this about? I'm sorta trying to remember. It has the part-gonzo, part-horror, and part-fantasy approach Swierczynski does so well. Basically, a spirit is stuck in a human body and looking for another spirit that enjoys killing people. 

Protagonist spirit inhabits another body and brings along the spirits of all the people whose bodies he has taken over. In the novel some of those spirits assist Protagonist to find Antagonish.

I don't know. The book was fine. I recall it having some weak spots but I cannot recall what I thought those were. If you like Swierczynski it's worth a go.

Comments:

• Lately I've been confusing Swierczynki's work with Charlie Huston's. The share similar taste, attitude, character personalities. Mixing in some gonzo humor with dark tragedy.
• Does my idea of gonzo match your idea of gonzo? Hell if I know.

From 2002: THE CONTORTIONIST'S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger

 THE CONTORTIONIST'S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger, 2002, 193156115X.

Like most books I forgot why I put this on hold. Crime novel set in mid-'80s with a drug addicted forger. Mostly about him growing up and learning his trade. A bit of a high IQ autist with art skills he is mainly self taught and VERY detailed oriented.

He regularly builds up identities with details and either backable data or "County Courthouse burned down, must be a real birth certificate." Current day story - 1980 something - is set in a L.A. County mental health facility after narrator ODs and is under observation to judge whether he is suicidal. Narrator tells  his tale and the tale is compellingly told and fun to read. Plenty of detail added about forging and growing up with absent parents and teenage legal trouble. 

But, narrator is trying to avoid bad guys and I never quite believed the threat of the bad guys. Only a smal portion of the plot includes Bad Guys and they are assumed to be mob guys with a lot of money, power, and reach. 

I enjoyed the read but it's not a crime or mystery novel as much as a character study. ANd Clevenger does put together a neat character.