As for my reading, I've been investigating some comics and graphic novels. I've never been a fan of super-hero comics, but I've always liked the way artwork and words can work together to tell a story. Here are a few of the graphic novels that have crossed my path recently. The first two have been made into movies, and there's been talk of the third being turned into an animated feature and/or a TV series...

• Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics, 1998, reprinted May 2002, USA & Canada)
  This book offers a refreshingly real perspective on the world and how it appears to a young woman, just finished high school, with no idea who she really is, what she wants from life, or how to get it. She's a complex character; difficult to actually like but all too easy to empathize with. The film adaptation beautifully captures the mood of the book, the confused, unfocused anger and the bleak, sometimes terrifying discomfort of being in that terrible transition between childhood and adulthood. Clowes' artwork complements his story perfectly, being a clever blend of realism and an awkward cartoonish look. Great book and a good film -- worth investigating both.

• Road to Perdition by Max Allan Collins, illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner (Pocket Books, July 2002, USA & Canada)
  I'm somewhat ambivalent about this one. I discovered elements of the book that I would like to have seen in the film and elements of the film I would like to have read in the book. It's a straightforward story (based on historical figures) about gangsters in the early 1930s -- plenty of violence (much more in the graphic novel than in the film) with a coming-of-age plot. It's a moderately interesting tale, I suppose, but I really wanted it to be more cleverly told than it is. Nevertheless, I think this is a case where you'll only get half of what you may be looking for if you only choose one medium, graphic novel or feature film; if you're going to look into this, I recommend you both read the book and see the film -- not necessarily in that order.

• Lenore, Volume 1: Noogies by Roman Dirge (Slave Labor Graphics, July 1999, reprinted February 2002, USA)
  Ok, now this one is just plain weird. It's a series of shorts about a "cute little dead girl", most of them involving gruesome highlights like people, children or small animals being maimed and killed in disgusting ways. If you have a sick and twisted sense of humour, you might even find some of this stuff funny. I did. Some of it, anyway. But the real treat here is Dirge's artwork; he's got a demented style (the Tim Burton influence is quite apparent) that makes it seem like the Lenore comics are put together by an escapee from some high security institution for the criminally insane.

(Books are listed alphabetically by author. Only books received are noted.)

Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker
Golden Gryphon (hc, 230 pages)
 Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

The Forge of Mars by Bruce Balfour
Ace (mm, 406 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Elfsorrow: Legends of the Raven by James Barclay
Victor Gollancz (hc & trade, 454 pages)
Publication date: 22 August 2002, UK

The Sky So Big and Black by John Barnes
Tor (hc, 317 pages)
Publication date: 8 August 2002, USA & Canada

Phase Space by Stephen Baxter
Voyager, HarperCollins (hc, 426 pages)
Publication date: 5 August 2002, UK

Reality Dust by Stephen Baxter
paired with Making History by Paul McAuley
Gollancz binary (mm, 171 pages total)
Publication date: 8 August 2002, UK

The Prince of Shadow: Seven Brothers, Book 1 by Curt Benjamin
DAW (mm, 511 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

The Prince of Dreams: Seven Brothers, Book 2 by Curt Benjamin
DAW (hc, 456 pages) Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt
ibooks (hc, 300 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada
SF Site Review

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Voyager Classics (trade, 240 pages)
Publication date: 19 August 2002, UK
   Classic short fiction from 1951, framed by Bradbury's now famous conceit, the illustrated man, whose tattoos come to life to tell the tales...

Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe by David Brin and Kevin Lenagh
Bantam Spectra (trade, 193 pages)
Publication date: 2 July 2002, USA & Canada

Summer Knight: The Dresden Files, Book 4 by Jim Butcher
Roc (mm, 375 pages)
Publication date: September 2002
SF Site Review of Grave Peril, Book 3

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
Tor (trade, 349 pages)
Publication date: August 2002, USA & Canada

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
Tor (hc, 348 pages)
Publication date: August 2002, USA & Canada

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish
Roc (trade, 648 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Battletech: Endgame by Loren L. Coleman
Roc (mm, 278 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint
Gollancz (mm, 524 pages)
Publication date: 8 August 2002, UK
SF Site Review

EarthRise by William C. Dietz
Ace (hc, 418 pages)
Publication date: 3 September 2002, USA & Canada

Counterattack: The Fleet, Book 2 edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett
Ace (mm, 312 pages)
Publication date: December 1998, reprinted 2002, USA & Canada

The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
Voyager Classics (trade, 656 pages)
Publication date: 19 August 2002, UK

Regina's Song by David and Leigh Eddings
HarperCollins (hc, 424 pages)
Publication date: 5 August 2002, UK

Jaran by Kate Elliott
DAW (mm, 496 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada
   First novel of the Jaran series, originally published in 1992.
SF Site Series Review

The Wizard's Wife by Becky Gauger
1st Books (trade, 375 pages)
Publication date: April 2002, USA

Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
Gollancz (mm, 116 pages)
Publication date: 8 August 2002, UK

Sorcerers of the Nightwing: The Ravenscliff Series, Book 1 by Geoffrey Huntingdon
ReganBooks, HarperCollins (hc, 279 pages)
Publication date: August 2002, USA & Canada

Rossetti Song: Four Stories by Alex Irvine
Small Beer Press (chapbook, 72 pages)
Publication date: July 2002, USA

Taggerung: A Novel of Redwall by Brian Jacques
Ace (mm, 403 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Strange But Not A Stranger by James Patrick Kelly
Golden Gryphon (hc, 297 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey
Gollancz (mm, 406 pages)
Publication date: 8 August 2002, UK
SF Site Review

Shikasta by Doris Lessing
Voyager Classics (trade, 448 pages)
Publication date: 19 August 2002, UK
   First published in 1979.

Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm
Voyager, HarperCollins (mm, 298 pages)
Publication date: 5 August 2002, UK
   First published in 1986.

Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm
Voyager Classics (trade, 360 pages)
Publication date: 19 August 2002, UK
   First published in 1991.

Once Upon a Galaxy edited by Wil McCarthy, Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers
DAW (mm, 318 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Burning the Ice by Laura J. Mixon
Tor (hc, 544 pages)
Publication date: August 2002, USA & Canada

The Fifth Sorceress: The Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Book 1 by Robert Newcomb
Bantam Press (trade, 591 pages) Publication date: 2 September 2002, UK

Tathea by Anne Perry
Ace (trade, 522 pages)
Publication date: 3 September 2002, USA & Canada

Stone by Adam Roberts
Victor Gollancz (hc & trade, 261 pages)
Publication date: 18 July 2002, UK

Sharamitaro: The Milhavior Chronicles, Book 1 by Jonathan M. Rudder
Infinity Publishing.com / Athor Productions (trade, 302 pages)
Publication date: December 2001 / October 2002, USA

The Witch Queen by Jan Siegel
Del Rey, Ballantine (hc, 345 pages)
Publication date: 6 August 2002, USA & Canada

Fate: The Trinities by Christopher Socha
House of Muralann (trade, 309 pages)
Publication date: May 2002, Canada & USA

T2: Rising Storm by S.M. Stirling
Victor Gollancz (trade, 378 pages)
Publication date: 18 July 2002, UK

T2: Infiltrator by S.M. Stirling
Gollancz (mm, 499 pages)
Publication date: July 2002, UK
SF Site Review

The Wall by Barry Tomkins
PublishAmerica (trade, 224 pages)
Publication date: 2002, USA

Eternity Row: A Stardoc Novel by S.L. Viehl
Roc (mm, 410 pages)
Publication date: September 2002, USA & Canada

Graphic Classics: Volume 3, H.G. Wells
Eureka Productions (illustrated trade, 144 pages)
Publication date: 2002, USA
    Eleven classic Wells stories illustrated in b&w. The first two volumes in the Graphic Classics series from Eureka are Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle. Volumes 4 & 5, forthcoming, will feature illustrated tales from H.P. Lovecraft and Jack London respectively.

Fallen Angel by Kim Wilkins
Gollancz (mm, 552 pages)
Publication date: 29 August 2002, UK

Magazines

Analog, October 2002, USA & Canada
Contributors to this issue include: Edward M. Lerner, Michael A. Burstein, Rajnar Vajra, Timothy Zahn, Arlan Andrews Sr., Mary A. Turzillo

Asimov's, September 2002, USA & Canada
Contributors to this issue include: Eleanor Arnason, Charles Stross, Kage Baker, Brian Stableford, James Van Pelt, Goeffrey A. Landis

Black Gate, Summer 2002, USA & Canada
Contributors to this issue include: Michael Kaufmann & Mark McLaughlin, Tina L. Jens, David B. Coe, Cory Doctorow, David W. Hill, Patrice E. Sarath, Keith Allen Daniels, Bill Johnson

Interzone, June-July 2002, UK
Contributors to this issue include: Eric Brown, Timons Esaias, Keith Brooke, Terry Bisson, Chris Beckett, and an interview with China Miéville

The 3rd Alternative, Summer 2002, UK & USA
Contributors to this issue include: Gala Blau, Conrad Williams, John Aegard, Christopher Fowler, Mat Coward, Steve Mohn, interviews with Michael Marshall Smith, Alan Moore and Jeffrey Ford, and more.