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Westward

I’ve been enjoying the fuck out of Westward, an ongoing independent comic title currently taking pre-orders for its fourth issue. It is, I swear to god, a gritty steampunk Inspector Gadget. The art is gorgeous. I know the art is great because I stop on every page just to look at it, and my lack of attention to the art is one of the main reasons that I rarely read comics. The storytelling is slow but has depth, the protagonist is an unreliable mess of deadly gadgets (the scientists, well, they did the best they could, and they’re so sorry, but the defeat and secrecy surrounding him make his scenes delightfully tense), and the worldbuilding, while light so far, is promising.

I want to be Penny. I mean, I always wanted to be Penny, with her handheld computer and goofy dog Brain and ability to save the day every episode. When I was a kid, the whole point of the Inspector Gadget cartoon was how much smarter I really was than all the grown-ups around me. So this Penny, all wistful and interesting in waist-cincher, gloves, and goggles while she helps her uncle out, was bound to be high on my list of favorite comic characters.

Westward is good. I recommend it.

Other Stuff I’m Reading

This post seems like a good place to mention that I’ve started updating a page of stuff I’ve read in 2013. You can access it by clicking “Reading” over there in the sidebar, under “Pages”. I might even keep it updated! So far, writing the page has been keeping me motivated to finish books instead of starting four and then only finishing one.