Today's True Story: Books I Read Last Week (and one I'll read This Week)

Yes. It’s true. I read three books in one week in between drawing/writing this week’s edition of “The Nanny & The Professor” and working my 40 hour/week contract events job where I planned/managed two all day meetings (and dealt with a few oddball situations along the way). Not to take anything away from this accomplishment, but two of them were graphic novels and one was a quick read - and I have two recommendations if you’re the sort of person who likes to get the aok from a fellow reader.

The quick read was Michael J. Fox’s “Future Boy” about being cast in the original “Back to the Future”. This is not anything close to a tell all - it’s more like an extended LinkedIn post praising everyone around him, but Fox is so cheery about it all that it’s hard to find fault especially in this day when everyone’s angry all the time (although in many cases, it’s warranted).

I loved the original BTTF and saw it while I was a camp counselor at a Lutheran camp in Texas in July of 1985. After a tough week, a bunch of us stumbled to the local mall and poured ourselves into the movie theater, almost not caring what we were going to see. It was and is a stunning piece of work.

“Future Boy” assumes that you know the movie in and out and takes you for a fun ride. BTW, I read this book in about five hours so it’s perfect for a plane ride from one coast to the next. A side note: I picked it up from my local library - and in these days of living in the hinterlands of Westchester and doing contract work, I am grateful to have a place to go to pick up all the books I’d like to read that I don’t also want or need to own.

The second book was the graphic novel, “The Sculptor” by Scott McCloud. It’s beautifully illustrated and all but it was a slog to get through - dark, depressing and, in some ways, nihilistic - a graduate of the ‘comics are only good if you want to slit your wrists after reading it’ school of thought, I think. I used to think these types of projects were Very Meaningful and therefore Very Important and therefore Very Good… but, it’s just such a drain. A few days later, I’m still shaking it off. Blech. Stay away.

A quick interlude here - I’ve been purging my comics but have been re-reading them before taking them to New York’s Housing Works as a donation. I know I ought to try to get a few bucks for them but honestly, last year a brief foray into trying to sell 50 issues of a title from the late 70s/early 80s was such a slog that I decided that it’s not worth the effort. Anyway, I re-read what issues of “Animal Man” I have from Grant Morrison’s early 90s run and, I know I thought that they were “it” at the time, but they have not aged well. Part of this is probably because every writer in the last 30 years has used some variation of his story style - here the hero is aware that he’s in a comic book - but re-reading the way it was handled this many years later in 2026, well, it just feels lazy, indulgent, and overdone. Blech again. Stay away.

The third book I read was a delightful change of pace - Eric Orner’s “Smahtguy”, the life of Barney Frank. I’d always admired Orner’s style on his weekly comic strip, “The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green” and was thrilled when I found out that he was going to be a featured speaker at MoCCA (Museum of Cartoon and Comic Book Art) Fest this year. Not only is Eric a wonderful artist, but he is also a terrfic storyteller and I found in him something with whom I share a recognition of a shared, though separate history of the gay male community, especially as that community expressed itself in 90s era New York. “Smahtguy” is a great read and will take you on a romp through 30 years of political history from the perspective of Frank, who has had a front row seat to much of it. Highly recommended.

This upcoming week, I’ll be diving into the 75th anniversary edition of Edith Hamilton’s book on “Mythology”. I’ve wanted to read this for some time and almost as soon as I requested it from the local library, it arrived. With an insanely busy week ahead at work, I am looking forward to immersing myself in ancient stories every morning and afternoon during my commute from/to the hinterlands of Westchester.

And, in addition to all of that, I’ll be working on the 700th edition of MEMO (the comic strip) which I would be excited about but an episode that I had mapped out suddenly doesn’t fit the structure any more so I have to scrap and start from scratch. This happens. Sometimes the narrative takes its own path and at some point one must simply give in to it because the characters know their story better than I do. Thankfully they are very forth coming about what they’re up to. :)

What are you reading this week?