Sunday Moanin' Comin' Down

This past week has been more than a little hectic, and while I've got some good news and there have been more than a few interesting developments professionally, I think I'll hold off talking about it all until everything's worked out and rock solid. Which means I don't really have a whole helluvalot to talk about right now. Not that I haven't been doing some serious thinking, both critically and otherwise, it's just better to wait for the right time to speak about some things.

However, aside from noting that I'm already sick of Winter, below freezing cold, and even a hint of snow, I can make one announcement...

I'll be attending next month's New York Comic-Con at the Javits Center in, of course, New York City.

The show runs from Friday, the 23rd of February, through Sunday, the 25th. And, like last year's inaugural edition, this conference is shaping up to be an incredibly interesting event. You can find out more about the show, the other professionals who'll be attending, and loads of other important and tantalizing information by visiting www.NYComicCon.com.

And, if all goes as currently planned, my latest book, Alan Moore's Exit Interview, will premiere at that con. Look for more details on this and other, related topics in a future Speculative Friction post.

Enough pimping. Let's move on to...


What's Bill been reading the past two weeks? [1-1-07 to 1-14-07]


Fragile Things
by Neil Gaiman
published by William Morrow
www.HarperCollins.com

Filled with tales and poems both subtly sweet and delightfully sour, deeply chilling and unabashedly sentimental, this book is both thought-provoking and reverie-inducing. As such, Gaiman's newest collection of shorter fiction only serves to further cement his standing as one of the foremost fantasist writing today--or in any era. As with the lion's share of his work, this comes with my highest recommendations.


Marvel Masterworks: Captain America volume 3
by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko
published by Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

This is probably one of the more highly-anticipated volumes in the Masterworks series reprinting the legendary tales from Marvel's Silver Age. Not only does it complete Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "The King" Kirby's incredible run on this title, it also presents Jim Steranko's revolutionary work of this period. True, it's typically Steranko's issues of Nick Fury, Agent of Shield that gets mentioned by folks as being his most noteworthy work during this period, but it would be a real injustice to simply ignore his efforts on this book. Yeah, some of it does not age as well as the rest of his work from these halcyon days, but this volume is jammed packed with historically important--not to mention flat out fun and highly entertaining--comics. Recommended for those who wonder what all the fuss was about, and simply a "Must Read" for all creators, and anyone who wishes to be a well-read student of the medium.


Batman: The World's Finest Comics Archives volumes 1 and 2
by Bob Kane, Jack Burnley, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson and various
published by DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com

These two volumes actually came out a few years back, but I somehow missed adding them to my collection until I recently ran across used copies while visiting Dennis Barger's excellent Wonder World Comics shop [www.WonderWorldComics.com] in Taylor, a suburb of Detroit. While there were any number of other items tempting me, I'm truly glad that I decided to pick these two entries in DC's excellent Archives reprint series. Sure, at the start, some of the art and even stories are a touch clunky, but they're nonetheless chock full of real entertainment value. However, that awkwardness is quickly replaced with some really fine and even highly accomplished work, both verbal and visual. By the end of the first volume, and throughout the entirety of the second, all the creators know their subjects and tools intimately, and the result is a series of tales that are highly satisfying, even if the majority don't pit the Dark Knight against his high-profile Rogues Gallery. Still, you've got a good selection of Joker appearances, as well as the introduction of the Scarecrow, housed between these covers, as well as the forgotten origin of the Giant Penny which became such a prominent feature of the Bat Cave's trophy room.


Batman Archives volume 5
by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Win Mortimer, Charles Paris and various
published by DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com

Another incredible volume of tales from Batman and Robin's Golden Age, and another great find discovered at Barger's Wonder World Comics store. This volume features some of the truly fun tales from Detective Comics, and showcases some stellar work by all involved--and by Win Mortimer, in particular. I've always known that Mortimer was quite gifted, but his contributions in this volume really helped me appreciate how truly good he was as a Batman artist. A solid, entertaining and worthwhile addition to anyone's library.


And that's it for now. I'll be back in but a day or two. Until then, take care and good reading!

Pleasures, Simple and Otherwise

Not a lot to talk about at this juncture. But a lot going on behind the scenes. Including prepping for the New York Comic-Con next month, which takes a surprising amount of time and energy to do it right. I'll talk more about that upcoming show, where you might find me during that con and what you can expect to see from me there, in a future installment.

Also, I'm hoping I'll be able to make that kinda major announcement I've hinted at in the near future. Some things take time, and considerable effort, to set up correctly. Yeah, it's fairly time-consuming and often frustrating for all involved, but if there's one truth I've learned over the years in this business, some things are more than worth the wait...and the work that no one hears about, much less should care about.

Regardless, I will talk about all kinds of very good and cool and exciting things to come as soon as I'm able [i.e. when certain individuals have signed off on certain projects, and the ink has dried on certain documents]. Until then, I'll do my best to keep you entertained and updated on things I can openly talk about. Things like...


What's Bill been reading the past few months? 9-20-06 to 12-31-06 [part two]


Unholy Kinship
by Naomi Nowak
NBM Comics Lit
www.NBMpublishing.com

Nowak is a young European painter whose love of comics has given rise to this, her first graphic novel. The result is a tale of two sisters, testing the boundaries of love and what we will do for those who we cannot live without. Enigmatic without being purposefully obscure, filled with realistic emotion and believable actions which lead into surreal visions of what might lie behind and beyond this world, this is a book which rewards repeated readings with newfound insights. A truly impressive debut by an artist who has only begun to explore the possibilities inherent to both the medium and her own abilities. Plus, the painted art--an elegant and evocative mixture of European and Asian sensibilities--is simply, utterly gorgeous.

Showcase Presents: House of Mystery
by various
DC Comics.
www.DCcomics.com

House of Mystery was one of the great horror anthologies of its day, and this volume serves up 500+ pages of prime material in black and white. At worst, this is decent comics, often with incredibly lush and evocative art by the likes of Alex Toth and a young Bernie Wrightson. An incredible entertainment bargain, and well worth the time and money spent on it.


Dynamic Duo Archives volume 1
by Carmine Infantino and various
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com

Yeah, sharp-eyed readers of this blog will realize that I read the second volume in this series long before cracking the cover on this, the first collection of the "New Look" Batman. While it might not be obvious, these tales marked a fairly sharp departure from the previous, incredibly campy approach to the Dark Knight and his family. If you thought that the "grim and gritty" take on a character didn't appear until Frank Miller or Alan Moore arrived on the scene in the 80s, here's some proof that it existed, albeit in a much tamer version, much earlier. And this vision of Bats is also responsible, for good or ill, for inspiring the television series starring Adam West and company.


Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man volume 8
by Stan Lee, John Romita, et. al.
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

Having assimilated his predecessor's style, transmuting Steve Ditko's angular expressionism and incorporating Kirby's explosive storytelling into a sinewy and muscular style all his own, Romita proves the perfect foil for Lee's romantic adventure tales. This is where the team transcends their limitations, turning out one incredibly vital tale after another...often without any idea of where they were taking Spidey and his legion of fans. These stories are justifiably revered, and deliver on their promise even today, decades after they were conceived and committed to paper. In case you haven't guessed it yet, this is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in how to do superhero comics.


Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense volume 1
by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and various
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

OK, this volume might not have some of the best stuff Lee wrote, but I really don't care. It might not be some of the best art that Kirby, Ditko, and other stalwarts who would eventually be inducted into the House of Ideas' fabled Bullpen. Again, it's a moot point. What this book provide the reader with, aside from bold, audacious and absolute fun, is a glimpse into the darker realms of America's psyche and inner demons, manifested in a variety of monstrous forms. And did I mention that this is a complete blast of fun?


Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor volume 5
by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et. al.
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

The Lee-Kirby team really hit their stride on this series, throwing aside more earthly concerns [along with the long-running frustrated love affair between the titular character and his alter ego's nurse, Jane Foster] in preparation of launching the Thunder God into previously unexplored regions of space and new realms of wonder. Talk about Shock and Awe...highly recommended.


Silver on the Tree [book 5 of The Dark is Rising sequence]
by Susan Cooper

Cooper wraps up this award winning and highly acclaimed fantasy series with equal dashes of aplomb, bravura and subtle twists of fate, trying together her re-imagined Arthurian saga in a wholly satisfying manner. Filled with memorable characters, intriguing situations and glimpses of several lost cultures spanning the centuries, this one has it all, and offers something worthwhile to any who enter its world. I honestly can't recommend this entire series highly enough. It is truly a modern classic, and one which should entertain generations to come.


The End [Book the Thirteenth in A Series of Unfortunate Events]
by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist
Harper Collins Publishers
www.lemonysnicket.com

The insanely popular, incredibly droll epic adventures of the Baudelaire children ends here, in precisely the way it had to end--on a down note. There's death, danger, more death, more danger, still more death and--surprisingly--a new beginning which are witnessed herein. And while there is some, albeit small, hope contained in this volume, we are given only a glimpse of what's to come before, like Moses leading his flock to the Promised Land's doorstep, everything draws to a close.


Little Lulu: Lulu Goes Shopping volume 1

Little Lulu: Lulu Takes a Trip volume 2

Little Lulu: My Dinner with Lulu volume 3

Little Lulu: Color Special
by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
Dark Horse Comics
www.DarkHorse.com

Like too many young fellas, I avoided this and similar "girly" comics while growing up...and for far too long afterwards. After all, what could a series about the daily adventures of Lulu, her buddy Tubby and their circle of friends around their town offer me? Well, how about laughter? Not enough? Then, how about real and truthful insight into not just human society, but the human condition itself? What's really noteworthy about these tales is how well they work, despite all of the changes, large and small, that time has wrought upon not just society as a whole, but the nature of childhood itself. This series of reprints should be on the shelves of every comic shop and in the library of every student of the medium, period. Absolutely essential reading. [And if the fact that the main series of reprint volumes are "only" in black and white, you can always grab the color special, which contains some of the best tales from throughout Lulu's incredibly long run.]

[Say you want a] Resolution


Well, let's not do that again.

No, I didn't plan on being absent from this forum for such an extended period. Very far from it, if truth be told. However, my best intentions proved to have little influence over events of the past few months, much less any real restorative powers of healing. The back problems I talked about in my last entry [posted at the end of October, '06?!] indicated, physically, things had really deteriorated to the point where I found myself unable to sit at the desk for any real extended period.

In fact, it was only after the fact and well into a time when things had begun to ease, pain-wise, that I realized that I had been lucky to be able to work for a total of an hour and half a day for several months on end. This lead to a situation where I had to be very careful about what I spent that time doing, and the obvious choice was to expend it towards getting paying work done. All else, including this blog and my Baker's Dozen column for Justin over at WorldFamousComics.com, had to give way to those paying projects I had already begun and needed to complete. Obviously, this wasn't a good place to find myself in, and I needed to get myself back on a more regular schedule as soon as possible. As a side note, one of the things that made this whole situation even more unbearable for me is the simple fact that I prefer, even like, long work periods. So not being able to just sit down and work for a straight six to twelve hours as I've been accustomed to left me feeling incredibly frustrated.

The bad news is that it took several months for things to heal and stabilize enough for me to get back to the keyboard for anything resembling a regular work day. I'm still hampered a bit by the occasional muscle spasm or stabbing pain, but find that I can actually work for longer and longer periods. The good news is that it looks like that trend is holding, and the various exercises and such I've been doing have begun to have a real and positive effect, and I'm now able to contemplate spending some of this valuable time on this blog and the column again.

And, since this happened to coincide with a season given to making prognostications and promises, I've decided to make one Resolution for this little enterprise: I will do at least one entry a week, however small or inconsequential, come hell or high water for the foreseeable future. Now, this might mean that there could be a week or ten days between entries, due to being on the road and such, but I'm hoping and planning to add something new each calendar week of '07.

So, unless something major prevents me from getting access to the Internet or this blog, you'll be seeing at least 52 new Speculative Frictions this year. And if I have my way, you'll be seeing a lot more than that minimal number over the course of this newly-minted year.

Still, the question remains of what I did during this enforced "vacation." Well, a surprising amount of work, actually. Some things, like the woefully late Alan Moore's Exit Interview book, I can and will talk about very soon. And, of course, I'll be sharing what I read over the past three months with you in a moment. But a whole lot of what I've been working on during this prolonged "silence" I still can't talk about, aside from saying that I've been in some very interesting and, ideally, extremely fruitful negotiations which I can't talk about at this point. Not trying to be a tease, but it's a fairly big deal and I've probably already said too much about it already. As soon as I'm able, you'll be among the first to hear about it here.

In the meantime, I suppose it's time for...


What's Bill been reading the past few months?


9-20-06 to 12-31-06 [part one]


EC Archives: Weird Science volume 1
EC Archives: Shock Suspense Stories volume 1
by Al Feldstein and various
Gemstone Publishing
http://www.eccrypt.com/

I could talk for days about how good, and even important, the work contained in these two beautifully designed and produced oversized hardcovers, but for now I'll leave it to this single observation: If you've never read these stories before, and particularly those contained in Shock Suspense, and you think you're a well-read scholar of the medium, you're lying to yourself. No, really.

In fact, I've begun to wonder if it wasn't the truth-telling tales inhabiting that title which prompted the eventual suppression of this entire line.


The Deadman Collection
by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, et. al.
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com

Deadman was one of those characters who has, if you'll excuse the obvious pun, haunted me since I first encountered the disembodied spirit of Boston Brand as a kid, way back when. Aside from the incredible art which graced the pages of this feature, it was the character's understandable sense of isolation and alienation which drew me in and hooked me--along with a whole generation of readers.


Absolute New Frontier
by Darwyn Cooke, with Dave Stewart and J. Bone
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com

I skipped this in its first two incarnations, both as a mini-series and a pair of paperback collections, not because I didn't want to read it [I love Cooke's work, as well as that of his two compatriots on this project] but more out of a hidden knowledge that, sooner or later, DC would give this incredible and vital tale the presentation it deserved. It was worth the wait--hell, the extra section at the back of the book is worth the price of admission--and this volume is now on my list of "Must Read" books. Permanently. One of the single best hardcover collections I've ever had the joy to read.

Thanks, Darwyn and co., for giving me a few more precious moments in the company of the heroes I once knew.


Essential Luke Cage volume 2
by various
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

I read this in a red heat, over 500 pages, in a red heat over a few days. It might not be high art, but it is entertaining, fun and often funny [both intentionally and otherwise]. We all need something light to read or fall back upon, when needing to recharge our batteries or get away from the more serious things of life. This is like being immersed in an extended B movie, with all that implies.


Essential Godzilla
by various
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

See the final line of the review directly above, then multiply it by some ridiculously huge number. A number of folks have expressed surprise that I not only bought this volume, but enjoyed it more than a little. All I can say is that anyone who can't raise a smile while contemplating the concept of mixing the schlockier aspects of the House of Ideas with one of the icons of Japanese Sci-Fi probably should avoid this collection...and many other, simply fun entertainments.


Captain America and the Falcon: The Swine
by Jack Kirby and various
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

There's a surprising amount of Marvel material in this listing, true, but none more anticipated or enjoyed. This third and final volume collecting King Kirby's later work on the character he co-created with Joe Simon in those halcyon days of yore delivers more pure and unadulterated entertainment than books which are twice as long. It's really too bad that this period of Jack's work has been so long denied the light of day, and that, once the initial printing of this and the other volumes are sold, it will be too long until its seen by another generation of readers and creators. There's a lot to be learned from Kirby's later work, particularly how he balanced some fairly gritty subject matter with his unembarrassed zest for life and sheer joy in bravura storytelling, qualities which are too often lacking in today's comics.


The Invincible Iron Man: Extremis
by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

I've been a fan of Warren's work since I first encountered a short story in the back of the final issue of the color Akira reprints done under the Epic sub imprint, over a decade ago now. His work has only improved, generally, since then. This is good Warren, and fits nicely alongside some of his other superhero work. And Granov has done some solid, even splendid, work here.


Squadron Supreme: The Prewar Years
by J. Michael Straczynski, Gary Frank, et. al.
Marvel Comics
www.Marvel.com

As with Warren Ellis, I've generally enjoyed "Joe" Straczynski's comic work, sometimes even more than I've enjoyed his television work, including his justly-revered Babylon 5 show. And his work reimagining the Squadron Supreme, essentially Marvel's version of DC's JLA, has been very, very good at its worst.

My only complaint with this book is that I found it disconcerting to discover that I had missed a large part of the story leading up to the events depicted in these pages because Marvel hadn't yet released that collection [i.e. the recently published Supreme Powers volume 2 hardcover]. That unfortunate state of affairs drained some of the events and interactions in this volume of their emotional power and resonance for me, but didn't keep me from generally enjoying what Joe, Gary and the rest of the crew did in these pages. I suspect that, if I read the story in its proper sequence, this would be no problem and I'd be raving about this book as much as I have the Supreme Powers issues I've been acquainted with in the past. Bear this in mind when you seek this title out.


And I think that's enough for now. I'll be back in the next few days to finish up this listing, and let you know what else has been on my mind and on the reading pile. Until then, take care and enjoy!