Sidney 2040.

The small community of Sidney on Vancouver Island has offered an opportunity for countless sight gags over the years since I've moved to British Columbia, and our current visit is no exception.  However, as a science fiction fan, I found the latest photo op to be particularly interesting - how often do you get to ask for input on the future you?  

Admittedly, in 2040 I'll be one year away from 80, so sensible input would probably involve watching my step on icy sidewalks and keeping an eye on my cholesterol levels, but who knows what 2040 will bring? It could just as easily be advice on picking the best bionics for seniors, or who offers the most complete brain transfer into clone bodies, a lot can happen in 20 years.

- Sid

Losing my religion.

Yesterday I started my vacation on Vancouver Island by purchasing a hundred dollars worth of used books and felt a solid sense of satisfaction that I had done well in finding replacements for some of the more battered novels in my collection.  

Today we visited Munro’s Books in downtown Victoria. Munro's is an excellent independent bookstore, and offers a well-chosen selection of the best in current fantasy and science fiction. In spite of which, I left the store empty handed, enough of a departure from tradition that my wife commented on it with mild surprise. I just couldn't buy anything. After years of book shopping, it suddenly all seemed so unaffordably and unreasonably expensive - it broke me a little.

The problem has nothing to do with inventory as such.  Munro's science fiction section had some excellent options: N. K. Jemisin’s latest, The City We Became; the surprising paper publication of Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries novellas; the award-winning 2019 novel This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone; Andy Weir's third novel, Hail Mary, currently their top selling science fiction novel - which I confess to just having finished in bootleg ePub format rather than spending $38.99 CAD for a hardcover copy (or waiting until August 23rd for the release of the paperback version at $25.95, which hardly seems a saving).

All the shelves seemed to be just packed with expensive hardcovers and pricey trade paperbacks in lieu of cheaper mass market editions. I was particularly unimpressed by the impractical absurdity of a four inch thick collection of Ursula K. Leguin’s Earthsea series, an unwieldy sixty* dollar tome that would defy actual handheld readership.

I recently read somewhere that the end of the mass market paperback is upon us, and if that's the case, I'm sort of checked out as far as new book stores go.  I may well recover, there may be a gradual return to retail book purchasing, but for now, it would appear that for me new books have become the province of birthdays, Geekmas gift list postings and secret Santa suggestions - a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless. 

- Sid

* Actually $59.99, but I don't think that fools anyone anymore, does it?

Hunting for Books, Fit the Fourth and a Bit: Cancon.

As I mentioned in my post regarding Cavity's Curiosity Shop, when I finished shopping I was unable to immediately pay for my books, and as a result wandered around the store for a few minutes while I waited for the owners to finish their conversation. 

My brief tour resulted in the addition of a couple of graphic novels to my purchases: Jaka's Tale and We Stand On Guard. Strictly speaking, neither one is a graphic novel - they're both omnibus collections of previously published comic books.

We Stand On Guard, originally published as a six-issue mini-series by Image Comics* in 2015, is a grimly nihilistic tale of a future invasion of Canada by the United States. Whereas Steve Skroce, the artist on the series, is Canadian, story creator and writer Brian K. Vaughan** is American.  Vaughan, whose wife is Canadian, has explained in interviews that the concept for the story was partially prompted by "friendly arguments with my in-laws during Canadian Thanksgiving." 

The story paints a brutal picture of the US destroying Canada as a nation in order to gain control over its vast reserves of water, a future which seems far too plausible in the era of climate change and frequent drought conditions south of the border.

Jaka’s Tale…where to begin?
 
Okay.
 
In December of 1977, an artist named Dave Sim from Kitchener, Ontario decided to do an independent black and white Conan the Barbarian parody comic book featuring an aardvark named Cerebus.

As bizarre as that sounds for an elevator pitch, Cerebus was an unexpected and incredible success.  It was Sim’s plan to take his earth-pig protagonist through the course of their entire life over 300 issues of the comic, and end the series with his death in the final issue – an astonishing plan, given that there are lots of comics produced by the major publishers that only last a year or two before being cancelled.  

Amazingly, he succeeded – 6000 pages and 27 years later, Cerebus passed away in a final moment of barbarian anger, falling out of bed and breaking his neck.

The entire series has been collected*** in ten volumes, commonly known as "phone books", based on their size.  Jaka's Story is the fourth phonebook in the series, and is distinguished by the fact that Cerebus himself only makes a marginal appearance in the events of the story.

The character of Jaka the tavern dancer was originally introduced in Issue 6 of the original run - a thief drugs Cerebus with a love potion**** so that he will fall in love with Jaka, allowing her to then extract the secret location of a treasure trove from him.  Cerebus eventually recovers from the potion and abandons his pursuit of Jaka, but the story ends with a twist - Jaka announces her love for him after he leaves and says that she will wait forever if need be for him to remember his love for her. 

Jaka proceeded to become one of many recurring characters in the series, and was later revealed to be the niece of Lord Julius, ruler of the city-state of Palnu.  Issues 114 to 136 dealt almost entirely with Jaka’s life – a bold decision, given that Sim only had 300 issues planned for the comic.  

Whatever prompted this digression on Sim's part, Jaka's Story is an astonishing creation, combining a unique artistic style and brilliant storytelling to create an illustrated tour de force.  It's almost a novelistic experience - literally, given that the story contains extended prose passages from a book describing Jaka’s childhood - the Jaka's Story of the title. It's an anguished, uncomfortable tale of betrayal, anger and repression, and could easily stand on its own without any of the rest of the issues of Cerebus.

I was pleased to find We Stand On Guard, but I consider Jaka's Story to be a bit of a score at ten bucks.  I'm a bit tempted to buy the other nine volumes now, but I don't think they're still in print, and Amazon pricing for each seems to be in the $50-$70 range - I don't think I'm $600 worth of tempted. 

- Sid

*This is a weregeek moment waiting to happen. Image Comics was founded in 1992 by a group of comic book artists looking to take control over their own properties.  They're still around, in third place as comics publishers after the giants of DC and Marvel.

** Vaughan is probably best know for his 2002 comic book series Y: The Last Man - there's a television adaptation coming out in September.

*** Sim originally created six four-issue collections of the early Cerebus comics under the name Swords of Cerebus - I have the first five of those collections, no idea why I never bought the sixth one to finish the set.  Birthdays or Christmas, anyone?  I don't need the first print run or anything that would drive the price up.

**** Always keep an eye on your drink, kids.