Fantastic Metropolis

• Batman: Broken City, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  I love Azzarello’s 100 Bullets and was really looking forward to his take on Batman. Things got off to a good start with a borderline psychotic Batman beating the hell out of Killer Croc, then the story goes sideways as Azzarello gets bogged down trying to involve way too many bat-villains in the story.
• Gotham Central: In The Line Of Duty, Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucks
  I’ve seen this described as “Homicide: Life on the Street set in Gotham.” Whoever said it was right on the money.
• Sleeper, Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips
  I’ve only caught the scattered issue of this super-powered espionage series, but what I’ve seen, I’ve liked a lot.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1, Alan Moore
  I read the comic then saw the movie. The comic was much, much better.

Shorts

• “Corpse Mouth, Spore Nose” and “Mansions of the Moon” in Secret Life, Jeff VanderMeer
• “Cold” in Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice, A.S. Byatt
• “Down to Boots” by D. F. Lewis, “Daoine Domhain” by Peter Tremayne, and “Only The End Of The World Again” by Neil Gaiman in Shadows Over Innsmouth, Stephen Jones, ed.
• “Screwnose” by Donald Sullivan in Whispers of Wickedness, Spring 2004
• “Milk and Ladders” by Rhys Hughes in Whispers of Wickedness, Summer 2004

Nonfiction

• The Oldest City: The Story of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Paul O’Neill
• The Job: Interviews With William S. Burroughs, Daniel Odier and William S. Burroughs
• Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997, Sylvere Lotringer, ed.
• The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World, Albert B. Friedman, Ed.
• The Queen’s Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Advisor To Queen Elizabeth I, Benjamin Wooley
• The Elegant Universe: Superstings, Hdden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, Brian Greene
• Robert Young Pelton’s The World’s Most Dangerous Places, 5th ed., Robert Young Pelton
  This edition was published just after U.S. forces moved into Iraq in 2003. I would imagine that the rankings have changed quite a bit in the past year o so. The most interesting thing about he book, aside from the survival information (which boils down to this—a little common sense goes a long way) are the section on “civilian contractors” (a.k.a. mercenaries) and the drug trade, which Pelton portrays as a monster of almost Lovecraftian proportions with tendrils poking into almost every aspect of life in some countries, and guess where the biggest market for coke and heroin can be found?—The next time you want a high, you might want to consider sticking to your local grow-op, locally occurring mushrooms, or locally produced chemical drugs. There is much in this book that should remind us in the West just how easy we have things.
• Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, Steven Johnson
• Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10^th Dimension, Michio Kaku
• The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex, Murray Gell-Mann
• An Underground Education, Richard Zacks
• Unknown Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Ritchie Unterberger
• Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies, Russ Kick, ed.
• American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story, Cynthia True
  For familiar with Hicks’ work, this biography shows a different side of the man. For those who’ve never encountered Hicks, educate yourselves.