28 April 1998: Today, The Stuff Comes To Me

Tuesday, 28 April 1998:

Today, The Stuff Comes To Me

So at work today I get a phone call that a box has arrived for me. It's the box of three hardcover Sandman graphic novels I bought through eBay, for about half cover price. The three were "Brief Lives", "World's End" and "The Kindly Ones", which in terms of the quality of the art are perhaps the low point of the series other than "Preludes and Nocturnes". Actually, Jill Thompson's pencils on "Brief Lives" are lovely, but inker Vince Locke is all wrong for her. Oh, well.

I'm still hoping I can track down "Season of Mists" and some of the other short story collections in hardcover, cheap. The funny thing is, I paid less for these hardcovers than I paid for the paperbacks, new.

When I got home, I found another package had arrived for me, from Bud Plant Comic Art. Its highlight was a set of six Prince Valiant reprints from Fantagraphics. They retail at $15.95 each, but Bud Plant is selling sets of them at less than half cover price, so I figured I'd give them a try. I haven't read 'em yet, though.

I also bought some fluff from them: Dinotopia: The World Beneath, which has nice art but a flimsy story (or, at least, the first Dinotopia book was like that), and a book on Celtic mythology, which was disappointing because I thought it would be illustrated with original art, but instead it's mostly photos and reproductions. But at least it was relatively cheap.

I'm trying to resist buying stuff until at least next week. A weak effort at self-control. Actually I just want to get my credit card paid off for the month and then I have some stuff I (still) need to get framed.

I went to dinner with Karen tonight, which was pleasant as usual. I also watched the tape I rented of John Sayles' The Secret of Roan Inish, which was a pretty good film, but no Lone Star. Sayles' films are so understated, they're very unusual to watch. Karen and I talked about going to see his new one, Men With Guns, sometime in the next week.

I was disappointed that Reel no longer has their expert system movie recommendation system (or, at least, not that I could find). I don't watch many movies, but I used it to recommend a list for me which I still have written down in my wallet. On the other hand, I also spent some time tonight rating fiction I've read on Alexandria Digital Literature, but I haven't had them compute recommendations for me yet.

I'm still looking for a similar site for music, BTW. Anyone know of one? How about a comic book site?

Hmm, the radio tells me that Todd Snyder has a new album coming out. Hmm.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)