As far as being ashamed of liking Hack/Slash, you know that I’m mostly kidding with these reviews, right? I joke with you! I mean, I am vaguely embarassed, but not to the level I may have led some of you. Although really, JKosto, does hard work mitigate something being crap, or (in Hack/Slash’s case), not being anything more than fun genre stuff? I mean, most of this is my hangups; I was a lit major who never read or liked much literature, and that’s a self loathing I’ll carry with me for awhile, I bet. But… knucklehumps. I ran out of steam there and just threw in an amusing compound word, I’m sorry.

Also, my typos never fail to shame me, I just don’t care enough to try and prevent them.

“Tomine’s stories always seem to be pretty half-baked, the sort of thing a first year Creative Writing student who just discovered Carver would write, coupled with – and carried by – incredibly accomplished draftsmanship.”

Yeah when the first few issues of Optic Nerve came out, he would have been in college (if he went to college, i dunno)…kind of a victim of his own early success.

Glad you had fun on your Austin trip. I love this city so much, I’m glad when anyone else thinks it’s as awesome as I do.

In town and no head’s up? Lame. Wedding? Whatever. At least you went to Half Price Books. That’s good. If it’s as big as you say it was, you went to the one on N. Lamar. The one on S. Lamar also has a really good TPB/graphic novel selection.

Really should’ve swung by Austin Books and Comics though.

Also, you could’ve had free tickets to a show I directed for the first time Saturday night. That’s right! I just did a self-promoting plug!

Anyway, yes, Austin good.

I’m always tempted to pick up Hack/Slash, but never managed to get myself to do so yet.

If you didn’t visit Austin Books and Comics you missed out on one of the best shops in the country. They are doing a massive renovation currently, so the back issue stock is in hiding, but the graphic novel section alone would make you faint. If it’s in print, they have it.