Our fourth Summer Reading List comes from Kevin Boyd, Toronto comics guru. Please send us your list.
Kevin Boyd’s Summer Reading List
My name is Kevin Boyd, and I’m a cancer researcher by day, but after hours I am: (A) Canadian Guest Coordinator for HobbyStar Marketing’s Toronto ComiCONs and FAN EXPO CANADA – kevin@hobbystar.com – (B) Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards – kevin@joeshusterawards.com – (C) an Overstreet advisor (since 2005) and at US conventions I work for CGC (the comic book grading company) as their Signature Series coordinator.
2. I’m currently hyping: Fan Expo Canada – August 28-30, 2009 http://www.hobbystar.com/fanexpo/ and the 2009 Joe Shuster Awards along with our JSA booth at the Word on the Street festival in Toronto on the weekend of September 26-27, 2009 – http://joeshusterawards.com/2009/04/03/2009jsas/
3. I am currently reading: Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard by Mark Finn. As a teen I was a big fan of Howard’s Conan stories, and this very thorough biography digs pretty deeply into every known corner of Howard’s life and psyche with very healthy doses of the man’s correspondence and excerpts from various published stories.
I recently finished: How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders by Bill Fawcett (editor). While this was billed as slightly humorous, it was pretty much a straight-forward series of articles on some of the worst military miscalculations and one-sided battles in western history.
On my desk still to read are George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth, the Schulz and Peanuts biography by David Michaelis, as well as Maps and Legends and Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon. I hope to finish all of those by the end of the summer.
I buy and read a lot of comics, and because of the San Diego con, July and August are traditionally big months — between now and the end of August I’ll be buying and reading the following:
Original graphic novels: Asterious Polyp (David Mazzuchelli), Dark Entries, Filthy Rich, Richard Stark’s Parker The Hunter (Darwyn Cooke), The Nobody (Jeff Lemire).
Collected editions (of serialized comics): 100 Bullets Vol. 13: Wilt, Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Dark Avengers Vol. 1: Dark Avengers Assemble, Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Invincible Iron Man Vol. 2, Most Wanted Book 1, Kick-Ass Vol. 1, Mighty Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest, Mouse Guard Vol. 2 Winter 1152, New Avengers Vol. 10: Power, and Vol. 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme, Spider-Man: Election Day, The Goon Vol. 8: Those that is Damned and Vol. 9: Calamity of Conscience, The Incredibles: Family Matters, The Umbrella Academy: Dallas, and Thunderbolts: Burning Down the House.
Archival projects: DC Archives — Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 6, Superman in World’s Finest Vol. 2, Marvel Masterworks — Warlock Vol. 2, Golden Age Young Allies Vol. 1, The Sub-Mariner Vol. 3, Atlas Era Black Knight/Yellow Claw Vol. 1 and The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 11, plus Popeye by E.C. Segar Vol. 4: Plunder Island, The Complete Strangers in Paradise slipcase, and Hellboy Library Edition Vol. 3: A Conqueror Worm.
Art books: The Art of Mark Texeira: The Artist’s Great Escape, The Art of Marko Djurdjevic, Modern Masters — Vol. 21: Chris Sprouse, Vol. 22: Mark Buckingham, Vol. 23: Darwyn Cooke as well a bunch of limited edition sketchbooks that will be released at the San Diego con in July.
Books and Magazines about comics: The All-Star Companion Vol. 4, Marvel Comics in the 1960’s, Alter Ego and Back Issue magazines.
Comics: Wednesday Comics, Glamourpuss, Cerebus Archive, Invincible, the Walking Dead.
4. Between now and the end of the summer it’s all about Fan Expo Canada August 28-30, 2009 and the Joe Shuster Awards / JSA Word on the Street booth on the weekend of September 26-27, 2009.