Chabon's Unwritten Adventures

If I was asked who my favorite writer is, most days I would say Michael Chabon. Why? It starts with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and continues with The Yiddish Policeman's Union and all the points in between. He doesn't just write great novels, though; he also excels at the essay and just published his second collection of them, Manhood For Amateurs. He writes about a teenage sexual encounter with his mother's friend, the beauty of a developing a personality in a basement, his love for Big Barda, the question of whether his son should have been circumcised, and many other topics. It is all written beautifully and fascinating. I can't wait to see what he does next (though I wouldn't mind another novel).

Anyone who has read my blog(s) over the years has heard me talk about my love for the Legion of Super-Heroes and has seen my constant back-and-forth of how I consumer my comics. Those longtime themes clash as I have once again broken my recent rule of only trade paperbacks with the purchase of the two most recent issues of Adventure Comics. And while the Legion is the second feature in the book, I love it more for the first feature of Superboy. Geoff Johns is writing a character-based comic around Superboy's quest to discover which man's DNA is winning the war in his blood - Superman or Lex Luthor - and it is pitch perfect. To make it even better is Francis Manapul's gorgeous art. I will miss this team when they leave after three more issue but I can follow them to a new Flash series if I want. These are great comics.

Did I stop at that comic? No, I did not. I also realized that I don't want to wait for a second trade (which would come out next fall at the earliest) to continue reading The Unwritten. Issue #5 was a standalone delving into Rudyard Kipling's involvement with the mysterious figures who have been manipulating the written word and #6 brings us back to Tom Taylor as he goes to prison and meets a most-interesting monstrous literary character. I will continue to buy this in single issues and do my part to try and ensure that Mike Carey and Peter Gross get to tell this tale for as long as they want.