Toast Toasted

The Girl Before is one of those CostCo impulse purchases that you are excited about and then are let down by. I could have absolutely skipped it, but enjoyed overall. Turned out to be a 'good-not-great' read. I don't regret reading it but I regret buying it and could have borrowed it from a library if at all.The Girl Before (JP Delaney)352 pagesBallantine BooksISBN-10: 0425285049ISBN-13: 978-0425285046
If you already know the plot, skip to 'The Gimmick' below for additional thoughts.JP Delaney's story revolves around a couple of women (not girls) who both lived in the same apartment. Their worlds are intertwined not just because of the rooms they ate and slept in, they also loved the same man.Jane moves in after a horrible miscarriage rips her world apart. Emma, the prior renter, arrived after a burglary makes puts her on edge and forces her to evaluate her living arrangements.The apartment at One Folgate St is not a normal apartment. Owned and designed by hands…

The full collected mini series of Peepland is now available in Graphic Novel format.I have read a number of Graphics lately, but Peepland is by far my favorite of the bunch. The imagery is solid, dark, and centric to the 80's post-punk attitude and styling. Pop culture references, music, heavy dependency on tape media, no cell phones but at least one beeper was witnessed. A tape being eaten by a VHS machine.. Ahh the nostalgia.Peepland (Faust/Phillips/Camerini)128 pagesTitan Comics/Hard Case CrimeISBN-10: 1785851195ISBN-13: 978-1785851193The text and story in Peepland was pretty amazing. It dabbles in the dark background of sex workers, but branches off to poverty, racial tensions, and features a character who is a prominent NYC realestate mogul (not named Trump, but sure reminds of him).Set in Times Square, 1986, Peep follows an erotic dancer who witnesses some of the last living moments for a sleezy patron, Dick Durbin. Sweating and afraid, Dick bursts into Roxanne Bell's sh…

Nearly forty years ago, in 1979, Walter Hill directed the cult classic The Warriors. Less than a decade later, amidst other gigs, he penned the story for Triggerman. In 2015, Rue de Sèvres releases the French language graphic novel Balles Perdues (translated 'Stray Bullets')Triggerman (Matz, Hill, Jeff)128 pagesTitan Comics / Hard Case CrimeISBN-10: 178585867XISBN-13: 978-1785858673
Lucky for those of us do not speak French, Hard Case Crime just released the first edition English graphic titled "Triggerman". It is 128 pages of gritty prohibition badass. Individual issues were released last year, but this collection soles the piecemeal problem many of us have with buying singles.Machine Gun Roy Nash is dead. A fat bloated body attributed with his name was riddled with bullets inside a prison and cremated. Nash is delivered inside a pine box and on opening, Roy Parker is born.Roy has a knack for locating people and extracting from them anything which requires extracting…

While this review is based on the first issue, Trade Paperback is on pre-order for Januarty 2018!!
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Normandy Gold is a new series launched 06/14 (yesterday) under the Hard Case Crimes imprint of Titan Comics.1970's Sheriff Normandy Gold is stationed in Dealy Oregon. While Dealy is not real, I found it humorous that Google maps auto-corrects it to 'Deadly Oregon' and then points you to the location of the Oregon Department of Justice. Coincidence?Normandy Gold #1 (Abbot, Caplan, Scott, Kindziersky)First issue - 32 pagesTitan Comics / Hard Case CrimesASIN: B06WVCSH8T
Back on topic- Gold enters a manhunt beginning in Oregon and moving to Washington DC (arguably real). As a runaway, she she was found and raised by the local Sheriff and taught life skills. Justice is her family business.In a poorly timed phone call, Normandy finds herself listening to her estranged sister being murdered over the phone by a John. She already knows the when and is determined to find out the who …

I love love LOVE this.

Unfortunately, Behance requires a login in order to leave a comment on any portion of the site.. So I will just talk about it here.

This book looks fantastic. It is not literature, just pure artistic statement.
All you need to know about graffiti is in this book.Graffiti is often misunderstood, and it is difficult for a graffiti writer to explain what he feels about it. I have been asked by a book publisher to write few pages to explain to teenagers how to practice graffiti. [...] I created my own book to share my point of view through a conceptual message.

via Graffiti book. on the Behance Network.
To be honest, I believe that items like "All you need to know about graffiti[...]" have a bit more credibility these days than in decades past.

This book bypasses all of this and gets right to the point. "pick up a goddamn rattle can and just get to it." mm.. pizza box stencils..
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I am Jack's pizza box stencil by TrashyBrad

Book leading to another to another, I find I am wading through decades of old novels. I have been shoveling them into my gaping brain maw and chewing them up, enjoying every bite.
One stands out a little from the others. It is having it's 30th birthday this year and holds sway in my view as under appreciated and overly influential to how my think meats process the world.

Swan Song (Robert McCammon)864 pagesGallery BooksISBN-10: 1439156735ISBN-13: 978-1439156735
(ISBN for newer version, mine is out of print)
My perspective post reread of Robert McCammon's Swan Song? As expected, it was every bit as good as the first time, with the exception of spoiled surprises.

I was introduced to Swan Song in 2002(3/?) by a karaoke singing dirty old man (RIP: Dr Lou). He traded me for a Stephen King novel (Black House, sequel to The Talisman). King is important here because at the time, I was of the impression The Stand was an infallible masterwork of apocalypse. Two days after receiving Swan S…