Dave McKean

I love Dave McKean. Started to love him when I saw his covers on Hellblazer way back when (1988 on). Then went head over heels in 1991 when I got my hands on Cages. And I've tried to follow him since then, but (1) he's pretty prolific and (2) some of his books have some heavy price tags. But today whilst perusing the shelves at The Great Escape, I saw

& all I could think was, "Ah wont thet." There was only one copy. I gently plucked it from its spot on the shelf and looked through the pages. Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling. I turned to the back cover to look at the price. $30. Pretty rich for my blood. I regretfully put it back in its place.

But as I started to make my way to the cashier with the paltry two new comics I intended to purchase, I thought (1) these two stinky little comic books are going to cost $8, and for just "a little bit more" I could have that beautiful Dave McKean book and (2) I haven't been buying all that many books since I started coming back to The Great Escape (post-pandemic), and I really should do my part to re-start the comic book economy. But as good as those rationalizations were, I left the store without Dave McKean in hand.

I looked it up on Amazon when I got home. Hmm. $21.50 there. And $17.99 on Kindle. But no, I don't do Amazon anymore. And the savings weren't significant enough for me to go there instead of The Great Escape even if I was willing to go back for a dip in the Amazon cesspool. So I said to myself, "Self, this book came out July 27, 2021, so maybe you can get a copy at the library at some point."

And then I promptly forgot about it.

However...since it's a new month, I knew I had the chance to borrow six new items from Hoopla, so I went over there to see what I could see. Specifically, I went to Browse the Comics...under the Just Added to hoopla category. I do this on a pretty regular basis. And as always, there were some pleasant surprises: Guillem March's Laura and Other Stories #1, which I'd had in my hands and almost bought off the shelves today (release date November 3 2021); King Spawn #3, which I'd intended to buy--because of it's Dave Sim-is cover--when it came out (release date October 27 2021), but couldn't find; Mamo #4, which I'd already bought a print copy of, but was glad to see available here, as I'm hoping this excellent book finds a bigger audience; lots of issues of Dune and Firefly, both of which are on my Been Meaning To list; Raptor: A SOKOL Graphic Novel--uh, what? Yep. 

So my first Hoopla borrow for November was the book I almost spent $30 on. 

I love Hoopla.