AltWeeklies Wire
Comically Disinclinednew

Here's a selection of comic books for those who don't care for comics.
Baltimore City Paper |
Tim Kreider |
09-28-2005 |
Fiction
Dark Artsnew
Comics master Charles Burns digs deeper in Black Hole.
Baltimore City Paper |
Tom Chalkley |
09-28-2005 |
Fiction
Social Sciencenew
In On Beauty, the 30-year-old Jamaican-British writer achieves greater dimension and restraint than in her first two books, giving readers a social novel that is true both to the times and to the mysterious workings of beauty itself.
Boston Phoenix |
Catherine Tumber |
09-23-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Get 'Em While They're Young
A children's author provides a primer in the politics of fear for tomorrow's Republicans.
Columbus Alive |
J. Caleb Mozzocco |
09-14-2005 |
Fiction
G. I. Jihadi

A new comic book series Black Heart Irregulars attacks the Iraq War head on.
Columbus Alive |
J. Caleb Mozzocco |
09-02-2005 |
Fiction
Dante, Dudenew
The Commedia finds a 21st-century vernacular.
Boston Phoenix |
Jeffrey Gantz |
09-02-2005 |
Fiction
An Abstract 'Animal Farm'
George Saunders' strange political allegory plays out in an even stranger setting.
Columbus Alive |
J. Caleb Mozzocco |
09-01-2005 |
Fiction
Novel Goes For Something Sweet Rather Than Scandalnew
A 20-year-old Elvis Presley -- a hillbilly with a funny-sounding name who's just beginning to get noticed on the country music scene -- shares an extended, intimate correspondence with the straight-talking Achsa McEachern, a prodigal 14-year-old Atlanta girl who has skipped three grades in school and is racing toward a bright future in New York City's theater scene, even as her family slowly self-destructs.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-01-2005 |
Fiction
Memory of Texas Political Giants Malingers Onnew
Beyond its veiled allusions to familiar people, places and events, Waterloo is that rare accomplishment, a provincial fiction that finds the universe in a grain of Texas silt.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
08-25-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: Karen Olsson, Waterloo
At Play in the Fields of the Borgnew
Paul Di Filippo is not a sci-fi master -- not yet, anyway -- but he is a skilled journeyman who has explored more of the sci-fi universe than most.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-25-2005 |
Fiction
True Liesnew
Middle-aging enfant terrible Bret Easton Ellis tells the story of his life -- sorta.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret |
08-24-2005 |
Fiction
Frank King's Gasoline Alley Comes to Hardcovernew
In Frank King’s Walt and Skeezix, editors Jeet Heer, Chris Oliveros, and Chris Ware have produced a handsomely designed, sweet-souled book, along with a forthcoming multi-volume set of his Gasoline Alley comic strips.
Boston Phoenix |
William Corbett |
08-22-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: Frank O. King, Walt and Skeezix
Scratching Chicago's Underbellynew

A travelogue with a twisted sense of humor makes the case that today's real Chicago is less interesting than it was just a decade ago.
Illinois Times |
Corrine Frisch |
08-17-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: Chicago Noir, Neal Pollack, editor
Potter Nauseanew
The Potter tales are explicated by Sartre's Being and Nothingness, and the two books should be read simultaneously for maximum effect.
North Bay Bohemian |
Peter Byrne |
08-16-2005 |
Fiction
Book Written as Letter to Bin Ladennew
The novel is written as a letter to Osama bin Laden from a distraught unnamed woman whose husband and son were killed in an al-Qaeda bombing of a London football stadium. It was released in Britain on the same day as the real-life bombings of the London mass transit system.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-04-2005 |
Fiction