Interesting. I just checked mine, and it says copyright 2004, but doesn't specify a date of printing. I do remember buying it because I didn't want to wait for the later collections to be translated to Norwegian, so mid-aughts sounds about right.

Someone's selling it on eBay as a "rare variant cover", but I can't find anything backing up that claim. Maybe they just use a new cover with every reprint.

If you enjoy Chew, you may also like Outer Darkness. The reason I'm reading Chew is that I loved Outer Darkness so much, I wanted to check out what else Layman had written.

It's kind of what Star Trek would be if everyone was an asshole, and there's some very cool world building. Like, how do you make a starship go faster than light? You trap a god and channel its reality-bending powers into the engine. What do you do when a crew member dies? You chase down their soul, capture it, and force it into a cloned body. Good stuff.

I have a paperback one volume

This one? 1.330 pages or so. The ones I'm reading now look puny by comparison, but they are a bit more practical.

Telltale video game

Ah yes, back when Telltale was pumping out games for any IP they could get their hands on, with varying degrees of success. According to Wikipedia they only finished 2 out of 5 planned episodes, and they got mediocre reviews.

a spin off novel trilogy

Huh, that one I wasn't aware of. Novels, apparently. Guess I'll have to see how conclusive the ending feels now when I reread the comics, and if I feel the want to continue reading.

Good to hear!

Bob the skull and Toot-Toot the faerie are the standout supporting characters for me so far.

For some reason, the potion-brewing scenes are my favourite moments, and the moments much later in each book when he drinks the potions. Probably an odd pick, but it's among the more concrete descriptions of how magic works in the universe, and very creative. Plus, Bob is involved.

Are the graphic novels good? As you can probably tell, I'm very into comics. Are they original stories, or comic versions of the books?

I've been reading comics, mostly.

Beastars volume 2

It's rare that a manga manages to keep my attention, but I've kinda fallen in love with this one. I'm pretty sure the writer got inspired by Zootopia, but because of the different format, she has much more room to really explore and develop the concept. Volume 2 focuses on the high school drama club, and we learn more about its members, especially the charismatic lead actor Louis. But it's not really about highschool drama, it's more about the relationship between predators and prey in anthropomorphic society.

I'm planning to watch the anime at some point, it's also supposed to be very good too, but I want to read far enough first that the anime won't spoil anything.

Billionaire Island

Meant as a biting satire of our late stage capitalistic society, but while there are some good ideas here, the writing and art both feel kinda lazy. Also, I have a feeling I'd enjoy this more if I was better at recognising faces. I recognise a few; Kid Rock (president of the USA in the comic), C. K. Lewis, and Harvey Weinstein, but I think there are many more characters inspired by real-life villains, and I think the jokes would land better if I knew who. And the satire is very heavy-handed, so if you enjoy subtlety, stay away.

Bone volume 5

A small publisher has made a new Norwegian translation. It's a classic, which I've read before, but that was in English, and in black and white. The colours are nice, and the translation is pretty good. No extras, just the comics, which is fine with me, straight to the point. I wish the format was a bit bigger; this edition is somewhere between pocket book and trade paperback in size.

Chew volume 2

The world has been hit hard by a bird flu pandemic, resulting in a world-wide ban of chicken. The comic follows a psychic FDA agent solving food-related crimes, usually by eating parts of murder victims to get visions of what happened to them. For me, that's just the right amount of bonkers.

Volume 2 seems like a side-story in the bigger picture, but a minor character from volume 1 shows up in a bigger role, and is played up to be the big villain of volume 3, so who knows.

Y The Last Man volume 1

Every male on Earth suddenly dies, both human and animal, except the protagonist and his pet monkey. The comic follows his attempt to travel from the east coast of the USA to meet up with his girlfriend in the Australian Outback. Spoiler: He doesn't get very far. I think this comic does a better job of social commentary than Billionaire Island (though this too a bit heavy-handed at times), plus it's more exciting and fun. Volume 1 is 240 pages, but it felt like a breeze to read.

I'm also reading a book-book, which I'm hoping to finish this summer: The Dresden Files - Fool Moon

The second book about wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden. This time, he's up against a band of werewolves. Or maybe several? In any case, it turns out Chicago has a surprising amount of werewolves. This book has some pretty brutal fight scenes compared to the first in the series, but the same pulpy noir style, and I love it. Not exactly high-brow literature, I guess.

Who can come up with a relatable animal simile form me for 2,000 blue whales? Or at least better than my pathetic 66,000 elephants.

I think we should stick with aquatic animals, this being a ship and all. But yeah, I don't imagine anyone here has ever tried lifting a blue whale. Neither other big aquatic animals like hippos or crocodiles. How about trouts? By my maths (and Wikipedia's numbers), there's about 10,000 trout to a blue whale, which means the fully loaded Ever Given is as heavy as 20,000,000 trouts.

Or maybe we should stick to floating animals, that makes more sense for a ship comparison than underwater animals. If my maths are correct, the fully loaded Ever Given weighs as much as roughly 250,000,000 ducks.

Maybe more relatable, but those numbers are so big the human brain can't really make sense of them.