MONSOON SEASON

We here in New York are quite simply in the watery throes of a rather nasty rain storm. Monsoonish, even. Or so the news would have those of us mired in this muck believe. Me? It's just a little rain. I know parts of Jersey and Long Island have been submerged, literally, but this island Manhattan resembled something out of DMZ this past Sunday. Nary a soul insight. Nor a smile. What a downer. We at the Planet were dutifully manning our action stations, anticipating your every sciffy need, and we ended up cleaning the store, ordering books, and scratching each other's back.And I thought... Hey! This is the perfect day for the customers what can't deal with crowds to be here. They could have the run of the store, shop unimpeded, relax.Hey! I could tell FP customers the times to shop when it's dead. So: Sunday mornings, Mondays after 7pm, Thursday lunchtime, Wednesday after 10pm. So drop by these times If you like shopping FP without having to step on the heads of a sea of people to get to the Manga section. See ya then.

Wonder Woman the Greatest Stories Ever Told TP

For the Wonder-curious, the world's greatest super-heroine gets the Greatest Hits treatment. This is whatcha need if you've never read an exploit of DC's first lady, as it contains her origin story and a bevy of skirmishes with her unique rogues gallery. Or perhaps you'd like to introduce somebody to her comic book adventures as opposed to her cultural signifigance on TV and underwear. Ya see, there are these things called comic books and Wonder Woman's been a character in 'em for, like, 66 years now. So there you go and now you know.

Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe

By Matt Groening. This book really came out some days ago, but I neglected to mention it as a pick and/or give it a proper weisenheimer blurb. I do so now: Many of us have given the creations of Matt Groening years of our time and attention, not to mention the buckets of our money that have been driven via dumptruck to his front door. Now this guy comes asking us for 13 bucks more?! WTF? The nerve of this guy! Here's the catch- Mr. Groening might be one of the funniest and talented cartoonists of all time. Take away the Simpsons and Futurama and all that jazz, and whatta you got left? Life in Hell, aka damn good comic strips. Here he takes the ramblings of his creatively twisted children and rolls with 'em. My copy is one day into its reading and my knee is already starting to bruise.

The Salon

by Nick Bertozzi. The beginnnings of art's cubist movement, starring Pablo Picasso & Georges Braque in the early 20th Century, The Salon is one of the sexiest original graphic novels we've received in months. While the subject matter sounds like an art history class you'd wanna ditch, the author keeps it tight and interesting, including a bizarre yet welcomingly weird choice to introduce an Morrison-esque element of the paranormal to the story- a blue liquid those crazy artist kids use to jump into and interact with their paintings... to solve a murder mystery, of course!(???) The amazing art of Bertozzi (The Masochists, Rubber Necker) is vibrant and exhilarating as ever, and I'm totally in love with his use of color. I know that sounds like pretentious tripe, but them's colors are damn awesome! Brilliant, but the book fetishist in me can't get down with the flaps on the cover. They end up folding the book about 3" from the endpages, grating the dork in me to the point of wishing I'd paid more for a proper hardcover that doesn't exist. Speaking of which.....

Houdini: The Handcuff King

also by Nick Bertozzi (a) and Jason Lutes (w). Cheap hardcover by two of the form's masters detailing the escape artist's handcuffed jump into the Charles River. This, too, was released a few days ago, but as they say on my planet- se la vi. For those of you who don't own this yet- shame on you. Buy it at Forbidden Planet ASAP, cause we got books and books and books and books!

It would appear I, too, am not Spock,

JEFFY