Work in Progress

I haven't talked a lot about the book I'm working on this here blog, because (1) no one comes here and (2) I haven't been entirely comfortable with how work has progressed. The first assertion is probably true and the second is slowly changing. Things are ramping up and, starting in 2009, I'm going to be delivering a couple of entries a week to my editor.

Here's kind of a boilerplate that I've been using to tell people about the book in shorthand:
Black 2.0 [working title] is a project that I'm co-writing with Mos Def for Spiegel & Grau, which is a division of Random House. The book is envisioned as a spiritual successor to The Black Book from 1973, which was commissioned by Toni Morrison back when she was still an editor at Random House. Described in very broad strokes, Black 2.0 hopes to look at the shifts and changes in black culture and the larger American mainstream since the publication of The Black Book.

My awesome editor Chris Jackson and I are trying to make it smart, funny, insightful and incisive. We'll see about all that. Here are some sample entries I've worked up that should give a bit of the feeling we're going for. These are subject to change, blah, blah, blah. The janky-ass layouts are all my work in Word and will be realized to brilliant fruition by our designer. Basically, if you're someone who's asked me how the book is going, this post is for you.

Get your own - Open publication

Get your own - Open publication

Get your own - Open publication

2008's Best Comics (so far)

One of my editors at Time Out New York asked me for my favorite books this year. I put together this list, with contextual descriptions that it turned out he didn't need. It's kind of an impulsive list, but I'd back most of this stuff up if pressed.

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
the whole run, but especially # 10 where Superman struggles against his own mortality to leave a lasting legacy of good.

Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean McKeever
a perfectly dirty and intertwined noir series, full of sex, guilt and violence.

Captain America by Ed Brubaker and various
A solid re-invention of a seemingly jingoistic icon by passing the mantle to a supposedly dead sidekick filled with regret over past sins and the weight of expectations.

Scalped by Jason Aaron and various
The story of Dashiell Bad Horse, a bad seed who returns to his old reservation as an undercover FBI agent. It's ornery yet deeply affecting and every issue feels like a punch in the stomach.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight
by Joss Whedon and various
Moving the series to comics form lets Whedon and his collaborators do things that would have been budget-prohibitive on the screen and he chooses to let the characters grow rather than freeze them in time.

Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction and various
Fraction's post-movie series looks shiny on the outside but examines what happens when old mistakes come back to haunt a man who can't afford to be fallible.

Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw
A dysfunctional family portrait that manages to avoid being prosaic by the specificity of its internal logic and sharply delineated loneliness.

Path of the Assassin, Vol. 13: Hateful Burden by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
This installment of the fictionalized historical manga about the rise of iconic shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu had me gasping multiple at the tightrope walk of suspense and sexual intrigue. I was nearly late for a meeting with my book editor because of it.

Now The Hell Will Start by Brendan Koerner
This WWII micro-history–focusing on the trials of a black GI who shot a white lieutenant–features drug use, brutal racism and cross-cultural lust in a story that seems like it could never be true.

The Jazz Ear by Ben Ratliff
The NY Times writer listens to music with some of jazz's greatest and most misunderstood players. It opened up new understandings about the things driving musicians I already know and introduced me to tunes and people I'd never heard of before. Ratliff does a hard thing: making jazz seem accessible to to those who don't listen to it and deepening the understanding of those already trained to hear it.

Ex Machina #35 by Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris
Superhero-tuned-mayor is the high concept that drives Ex Machina but it's really about the collision of the personal and political. This issue deals with the legacy of slavery in downtown Manhattan, centering on City Hall, and Vaughn avoids easy platiitudes to wind up in an uncomfortable but honest place.