I thought of my friends who had died of exposure..

"...And I remembered other ones who had died from the lack of it." - Nick Cave

I heard Nick Cave's song "Darker With The Day" a couple of days ago and thought this quote was appropriate for a book recommendation I had planned on writing here.

First, let me backtrack to the 1980s when I was learning to draw from comic books. Alan Moore's Watchmen was always on my list of books that I had to read but never got around to it. Fast forward to 2009 when the movie was due to be released. I finally struggled through every page. It was torture to read but I continued because I figured there was a great ending to justify the 20 years of hype. Nope. I personally thought it was terrible.

On the other hand I recently found a comic artist/writer I'd never heard of. I found Rutu Modan's Jamilti & Other Stories one day and was curious enough to read it. I'm not going to spoil any surprises but it's really a fantastic collection of short stories. I searched for more of her work and ended up with Exit Wounds which again was just amazing. I don't know anything about Rutu Modan but if I had a couple bucks in my pocket and was heading to the comic book store I would be bringing anything by her home with me. You can find her books published by the fine folks at Drawn And Quarterly.