Great Caesar's Ghost!

In prep for my graphic novel class that starts (eep!) very soon, I decided that I needed more books. So, I just spent nearly 200 bucks on Amazon. Because a lot of my comics are not kid-friendly, I bought the following, with commentary

Single volume collection of Bone by Jeff Smith (hey, less than 27 bucks for 1300 pages). If you have never read it, it's a lot of fun just for the rat creatures (stupid, stupid rat creatures). I met Jeff Smith at a con a while ago, and he drew me the dragon. I have no idea where that thing is right now.

One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry (which I should have anyway). I caught some of Barry's work at Krazy, a really weird exhibit of manga, comics, video games, visual art, etc.... in Vancouver last year. (It just closed in New York at the Japan Society). I meant to do a review of the exhibit, and I might on Anime Cake. Anyway, long aside, to my comment about Barry. They had some of her work there, and it's amazing to see in person because she makes a freakin' collage -- something that really can't be represented in print. Or, at least, she did this for her covers. She's just amazing.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the film by Hayao Miyazaki. The kids are reading the first volume of the manga and I figured I couldn't show them my fansub of it.

A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, an autobiographical comic which may not be suitable for them, but I want to read it anyway.

Also, a maybe for them, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard by Eddie Campbell. You may know as the artist from Moore's From Hell, and as the artist/writer for Bacchus.

Then, I got a bunch of theory related stuff including two books with essays from Mr. Gene!
A Comics Studies Reader (Gene's essay on Chris Ware)
The System of Comics by Thierry Groensteen (which Gene worked on). I have been meaning to buy this book for a long time. I hear it's a quick read! (ha!)
The Language of Comics (which has that same Ware essay I believe).

That's a lot of comics. I figured I could splurge since it's for teaching.