Felt Like I was Falling Off the Face of the Earth
It's been far too long since I added a new entry to this blog, but it's certainly not because I've been lazy. Quite the opposite, actually.
Since that last entry, I've prepped two full books for publication as part of a deal which I will, hopefully, soon be able to announce. I've also begun preparations on two addition books which are related to those two books already fully prepared, as well as traveled to this year's edition of the New York Comic-Con which, if all goes well over the next few days, I will be talking about both here and in the pages of a magazine I've not yet contributed to. I've done all that, and quite a bit more.
However, and more importantly for the purpose of this venue, it's all vapor at this point. Stuff I can't talk about yet, or even material that would be boring or nonsensical to discuss here.
So, with all that in mind, I'll turn to a partial list of what I've read since the last post. The books below represent things I read between then and the end of February, 2007, when I was just returning from the NYC-Con, so there'll be another fairly long listing of short reviews which should follow in the next few days or next week...
So, what's Bill been reading?
[covering the period of 2-4-07 to 2-28-07]
Eden: It's an Endless World volumes 1 and 2
Hiroki Endo
Dark Horse manga
www.darkhorse.com
In the near future a virus ravages the world, turning most of the population into crumbling statues. The survivors, predominately made up of young children and teens, are more often preyed upon than protected by their elders who remain. Still, life seeks life, and wants to beget life. So as they age and begin to reach puberty, those youthful survivors begin to search for others like them with whom they can live, love and--hopefully--mate and establish families. However, living is always accompanied by death and killing, one of the many paradoxes that lie at the heart of this series which artfully mixes breakneck action with moments of thoughtful, even sublime consideration of the human condition. An extremely fine post-apocalyptic series brimming with rich characterization, intriguing concepts, and a lust for life rarely found in any world--fictional or otherwise. Highly recommended, especially for those who are often at a loss concerning what manga has to offer readers that much of the American mainstream, and especially superheroes, doesn't these days.
Satsuma Gishiden The Legend of the Satsuma Samurai volume 1
Hiroshi Hirata
Dark Horse manga
www.darkhorse.com
Dark Horse has been recommending this series to fans of Lone Wolf and Cub and other violent samurai action, and with good reason. Set in an era of peace, when the samurai class has no real purpose or outlet for their passions and sense of duty, this series opens with an example of one of the brutal sports which these worthies "played" using living humans as objects to be fought over, maimed and killed in grotesque fashion. As an attention grabber, it's fairly hard to top, but it also serves as a vehicle to reveal the boiling rage and frustration which the warrior class must have felt at finding themselves suddenly useless. The question of how a human machine of death might achieve and maintain his honor in a peaceful, fairly stable society has never been quite like this. Nor have scenes of extreme violence been rendered with quite as much beauty, either. I'm more than a little intrigued, and look forward to seeing where this series goes in future volumes.
Showcase Presents The Elongated Man
John Broome and Gardner Fox with Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson and Gil Kane
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com
I love the entire Showcase Presents line of books, as both a concept and a reality. Putting out reprints of some of the greatest, and oddest, series of the Silver Age in easily affordable, richly rewarding formats is probably one of the best things to have happened in mainstream American comics in nearly a decade. And this volume, featuring the storied adventures of Ralph Dibny, the stretchable detective, with his wife, Sue, as they travel the United States and the larger world in search of mystery, intrigue and great shopping bargains is one of my favorites so far. This is a great, and greatly enjoyable, book which I can't recommend highly enough to those seeking some fun all ages entertainment which rarely, if ever, insults your intelligence. Also, it makes a good coloring book for the kids!
Little Lulu volumes 4 to 10:
Sunday Afternoon
Lulu in the Doghouse
Letters to Santa
Lulu's Umbrella Service
Late for School
Lucky Lulu
All Dressed Up
John Stanley and Irving Trip
Dark Horse Books
www.darkhorse.com
I've raved about these truly fun and easily afforded reprints of the classic Little Lulu comics, which ran from 1945 to 1984, before. After making through these volumes, I can only continue to add heaps of praise and giggles of joy to my previous observations that this reprint series is currently one of the highlights of the entire industry. Whether its a tale about Lulu trying to enter the boys only club, making a few pennies for candy or a gift, finding out who is truly responsible for some slight which resulted in an unfair spanking, or quieting that annoying Alvin with another wild tale of life seen through the eyes of an imaginative child, these tales are all endlessly entertaining and inventive. These aren't just great books for kids, or the adults who believe in feeding their inner child, but also prime examples of what superb storytelling really is. Not only highly recommended for everyone looking for a fine and fun read, these are required reading for anyone who wants to know how to make better comics. Period.
Robotika
Alex Sheikman
Archaia Studios Press
www.ASPcomics.com
Another series I've raved about before [hey, I'm even quoted on the dust jacket!], and one which remains one of the most enigmatic, enticing and ultimately rewarding new reads I've encountered since I began writing reviews of graphic novels. And, considering how many of these things I read, that's a real compliment. Sheikman manages to create, through line and color and dialogue and, perhaps most important of all, suggestion, a wholly alien world peopled by characters who are recognizably human and strange at once. And when read as a whole, much of what was lost in the time between reading the single issues is retained, consciously and otherwise, leading to an accretion of not just characterization and detail and information, but perhaps more importantly, of ethos and atmosphere, leading to a richer and more meaningful reading experience. Even more telling, this is a title which truly merits and rewards rereading. While this book is likely not for everyone, those looking for a challenging and decidedly different series which more than delivers on its promise should certainly check Robotika out.
Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers volume 6
Roy Thomas, John Buscema and others
Marvel Comics
www.marvel.com
This is one of the main Masterworks that I've been waiting for since they first began this important reprint project over a decade ago. Not only does this volume reprint the introduction of The Vision, one of the touchstone characters of my youth, but it also contains some of the singular best work done on the series--ever. Now that might seem like hyperbole, but it really isn't if you look at the tales contained herein. This is where the Thomas-Buscema team really hit their stride and began working together in an almost seamless unity, resulting in some of the most exciting and engrossing comics of the day. Yeah, some of these stories might creak a bit after all the intervening years, but they've still got some real power and punch left to them. Plus, this is some of Buscema's best storytelling, bar none. All in all, a great package and more than worth the price of admission if you can't find or afford the individual issues.
Marvel Masterworks: Warlock volume 1
Roy Thomas and Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane and Bob Brown
Marvel Comics
www.marvel.com
This collection presents the earliest adventures of the creature originally known simply as Him, before his transformation into a messianic super powered antihero called Warlock. Yeah, many of these tales show their age in various ways, whether its the often naive dichotomy of "the kids versus the establishment" plot points, the use of "hip" language, clothing and hair styles, among many other aspects, but they're still entertaining and sometimes even thought provoking despite these distractions. And when Gil Kane is fully committed to the book, as he seems to have been for a good part of his run on the title, the visual storytelling is sheer dynamite, complimenting and supplementing the verbal narrative in still revolutionary ways. While this is perhaps not the most vital--and certainly not the most necessary--of the Masterworks volumes released to date, this is still a fine example of what comics were back in the day and what they strove for...even if they missed the mark.
Supergirl Archives volume 2
Jerry Siegel, Jim Mooney and others
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com
This second collection of Supergirl stories is filled with everything that made this back up series so memorable: The female powerhouse serving as the "secret weapon" of her male cousin, choosing to meekly serve in secret at Superman's behest. But it also offers the maid of might's most significant moment of apotheosis, the result of a strangely convoluted extended storyline which clocks in at over a hundred pages and puts the heroine through her paces, experiencing some of the deepest depressions and most exhilarating highs of the series, culminating with a well-deserved reward when she's finally "allowed" to go public. As such, it's filled with innumerable items which make any enlightened modern reader wince, and enough material to fuel a whole wing of feminist criticism, but it's all delivered with an open hearted sincerity and wholesomeness which marks all but the most outré of DC tales of this era.
Isaac Newton
James Gleick
Pantheon Books
www.pantheonbooks.com
This biography of the man who arguably stood astride the ages of Reason and Superstition is, as all books by Gleick, both excellent and enticing. Excellent because Gleick is a writer who has a passion for not just science, but making even the most esoteric and difficult of concepts readily accessible to the average reader, and enticing because of his command of both subject and language. Add in the fact that Newton proves to be as complex, multilayered and startling a subject as the scientific discoveries he made over the course of his lifetime. Highly recommended, particularly for those who love fine investigative writing.
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
Eoin Colfer
Hyperion Books for Children
www.ArtemisFowl.com
The man-child who would be the greatest unknown thief in two worlds meets his match in the form of one of the nastiest villains I've run across in modern teen lit in this, the fourth installment of Colfer's series essaying the interactions between the worlds of mundane folk and fairy. And the stakes have rarely been this high, with the lives of not just Artemis and his compatriots, but the fate of all supernatural and humanity in the balance. As noted in this volume, there's been some real growth in the titular character between the first book and this one, all of it both logical and believable. However, by the end of this adventure all of that hard-won maturity, among a great many other things, is placed in a perilous position by some well-intentioned actions. An easy read that also offers some real food for thought.
The Supernaturalist
Eoin Colfer
Hyperion Books for Children
www.eoincolfer.com
www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com
Another wild ride intended for teen readers, which supplies some thought-provoking grist for the mill while providing some real thrills. In a desolate and often desperate future, orphaned children who are wards of the state serve as test subjects for corporations' various concoctions and drugs, resulting in a hellish system which offers little comfort and less hope for its charges. Escape is nearly impossible, and ultimately foolhardy. This is the only life that Cosmo Hill knows until a freak accident frees him from the system while also making him aware of strange creatures who seem to thrive upon the immense pain and suffering generated by this horrific dystopia. Saved by a small group of mismatched outcasts who have gained similar abilities, Cosmo becomes a Supernaturalist, a hunter and killer of those ephemeral creatures who thrive on human suffering. However, all is not as it seems in this world, and soon the Supernaturalists find themselves unwitting tools and pawns of the megacorporation which rules their world, fulfilling their original purpose but with an ominous, even apocalyptic twist. This is a very different kind of teen lit, dark and edgy and rarely "safe," but immensely satisfying in its own way.
And that about covers it for now. Expect another rather large batch of reviews in the next week or so. Until then, take care and make sure to have some fun!
It's been far too long since I added a new entry to this blog, but it's certainly not because I've been lazy. Quite the opposite, actually.
Since that last entry, I've prepped two full books for publication as part of a deal which I will, hopefully, soon be able to announce. I've also begun preparations on two addition books which are related to those two books already fully prepared, as well as traveled to this year's edition of the New York Comic-Con which, if all goes well over the next few days, I will be talking about both here and in the pages of a magazine I've not yet contributed to. I've done all that, and quite a bit more.
However, and more importantly for the purpose of this venue, it's all vapor at this point. Stuff I can't talk about yet, or even material that would be boring or nonsensical to discuss here.
So, with all that in mind, I'll turn to a partial list of what I've read since the last post. The books below represent things I read between then and the end of February, 2007, when I was just returning from the NYC-Con, so there'll be another fairly long listing of short reviews which should follow in the next few days or next week...
So, what's Bill been reading?
[covering the period of 2-4-07 to 2-28-07]
Eden: It's an Endless World volumes 1 and 2
Hiroki Endo
Dark Horse manga
www.darkhorse.com
In the near future a virus ravages the world, turning most of the population into crumbling statues. The survivors, predominately made up of young children and teens, are more often preyed upon than protected by their elders who remain. Still, life seeks life, and wants to beget life. So as they age and begin to reach puberty, those youthful survivors begin to search for others like them with whom they can live, love and--hopefully--mate and establish families. However, living is always accompanied by death and killing, one of the many paradoxes that lie at the heart of this series which artfully mixes breakneck action with moments of thoughtful, even sublime consideration of the human condition. An extremely fine post-apocalyptic series brimming with rich characterization, intriguing concepts, and a lust for life rarely found in any world--fictional or otherwise. Highly recommended, especially for those who are often at a loss concerning what manga has to offer readers that much of the American mainstream, and especially superheroes, doesn't these days.
Satsuma Gishiden The Legend of the Satsuma Samurai volume 1
Hiroshi Hirata
Dark Horse manga
www.darkhorse.com
Dark Horse has been recommending this series to fans of Lone Wolf and Cub and other violent samurai action, and with good reason. Set in an era of peace, when the samurai class has no real purpose or outlet for their passions and sense of duty, this series opens with an example of one of the brutal sports which these worthies "played" using living humans as objects to be fought over, maimed and killed in grotesque fashion. As an attention grabber, it's fairly hard to top, but it also serves as a vehicle to reveal the boiling rage and frustration which the warrior class must have felt at finding themselves suddenly useless. The question of how a human machine of death might achieve and maintain his honor in a peaceful, fairly stable society has never been quite like this. Nor have scenes of extreme violence been rendered with quite as much beauty, either. I'm more than a little intrigued, and look forward to seeing where this series goes in future volumes.
Showcase Presents The Elongated Man
John Broome and Gardner Fox with Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson and Gil Kane
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com
I love the entire Showcase Presents line of books, as both a concept and a reality. Putting out reprints of some of the greatest, and oddest, series of the Silver Age in easily affordable, richly rewarding formats is probably one of the best things to have happened in mainstream American comics in nearly a decade. And this volume, featuring the storied adventures of Ralph Dibny, the stretchable detective, with his wife, Sue, as they travel the United States and the larger world in search of mystery, intrigue and great shopping bargains is one of my favorites so far. This is a great, and greatly enjoyable, book which I can't recommend highly enough to those seeking some fun all ages entertainment which rarely, if ever, insults your intelligence. Also, it makes a good coloring book for the kids!
Little Lulu volumes 4 to 10:
Sunday Afternoon
Lulu in the Doghouse
Letters to Santa
Lulu's Umbrella Service
Late for School
Lucky Lulu
All Dressed Up
John Stanley and Irving Trip
Dark Horse Books
www.darkhorse.com
I've raved about these truly fun and easily afforded reprints of the classic Little Lulu comics, which ran from 1945 to 1984, before. After making through these volumes, I can only continue to add heaps of praise and giggles of joy to my previous observations that this reprint series is currently one of the highlights of the entire industry. Whether its a tale about Lulu trying to enter the boys only club, making a few pennies for candy or a gift, finding out who is truly responsible for some slight which resulted in an unfair spanking, or quieting that annoying Alvin with another wild tale of life seen through the eyes of an imaginative child, these tales are all endlessly entertaining and inventive. These aren't just great books for kids, or the adults who believe in feeding their inner child, but also prime examples of what superb storytelling really is. Not only highly recommended for everyone looking for a fine and fun read, these are required reading for anyone who wants to know how to make better comics. Period.
Robotika
Alex Sheikman
Archaia Studios Press
www.ASPcomics.com
Another series I've raved about before [hey, I'm even quoted on the dust jacket!], and one which remains one of the most enigmatic, enticing and ultimately rewarding new reads I've encountered since I began writing reviews of graphic novels. And, considering how many of these things I read, that's a real compliment. Sheikman manages to create, through line and color and dialogue and, perhaps most important of all, suggestion, a wholly alien world peopled by characters who are recognizably human and strange at once. And when read as a whole, much of what was lost in the time between reading the single issues is retained, consciously and otherwise, leading to an accretion of not just characterization and detail and information, but perhaps more importantly, of ethos and atmosphere, leading to a richer and more meaningful reading experience. Even more telling, this is a title which truly merits and rewards rereading. While this book is likely not for everyone, those looking for a challenging and decidedly different series which more than delivers on its promise should certainly check Robotika out.
Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers volume 6
Roy Thomas, John Buscema and others
Marvel Comics
www.marvel.com
This is one of the main Masterworks that I've been waiting for since they first began this important reprint project over a decade ago. Not only does this volume reprint the introduction of The Vision, one of the touchstone characters of my youth, but it also contains some of the singular best work done on the series--ever. Now that might seem like hyperbole, but it really isn't if you look at the tales contained herein. This is where the Thomas-Buscema team really hit their stride and began working together in an almost seamless unity, resulting in some of the most exciting and engrossing comics of the day. Yeah, some of these stories might creak a bit after all the intervening years, but they've still got some real power and punch left to them. Plus, this is some of Buscema's best storytelling, bar none. All in all, a great package and more than worth the price of admission if you can't find or afford the individual issues.
Marvel Masterworks: Warlock volume 1
Roy Thomas and Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane and Bob Brown
Marvel Comics
www.marvel.com
This collection presents the earliest adventures of the creature originally known simply as Him, before his transformation into a messianic super powered antihero called Warlock. Yeah, many of these tales show their age in various ways, whether its the often naive dichotomy of "the kids versus the establishment" plot points, the use of "hip" language, clothing and hair styles, among many other aspects, but they're still entertaining and sometimes even thought provoking despite these distractions. And when Gil Kane is fully committed to the book, as he seems to have been for a good part of his run on the title, the visual storytelling is sheer dynamite, complimenting and supplementing the verbal narrative in still revolutionary ways. While this is perhaps not the most vital--and certainly not the most necessary--of the Masterworks volumes released to date, this is still a fine example of what comics were back in the day and what they strove for...even if they missed the mark.
Supergirl Archives volume 2
Jerry Siegel, Jim Mooney and others
DC Comics
www.DCcomics.com
This second collection of Supergirl stories is filled with everything that made this back up series so memorable: The female powerhouse serving as the "secret weapon" of her male cousin, choosing to meekly serve in secret at Superman's behest. But it also offers the maid of might's most significant moment of apotheosis, the result of a strangely convoluted extended storyline which clocks in at over a hundred pages and puts the heroine through her paces, experiencing some of the deepest depressions and most exhilarating highs of the series, culminating with a well-deserved reward when she's finally "allowed" to go public. As such, it's filled with innumerable items which make any enlightened modern reader wince, and enough material to fuel a whole wing of feminist criticism, but it's all delivered with an open hearted sincerity and wholesomeness which marks all but the most outré of DC tales of this era.
Isaac Newton
James Gleick
Pantheon Books
www.pantheonbooks.com
This biography of the man who arguably stood astride the ages of Reason and Superstition is, as all books by Gleick, both excellent and enticing. Excellent because Gleick is a writer who has a passion for not just science, but making even the most esoteric and difficult of concepts readily accessible to the average reader, and enticing because of his command of both subject and language. Add in the fact that Newton proves to be as complex, multilayered and startling a subject as the scientific discoveries he made over the course of his lifetime. Highly recommended, particularly for those who love fine investigative writing.
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
Eoin Colfer
Hyperion Books for Children
www.ArtemisFowl.com
The man-child who would be the greatest unknown thief in two worlds meets his match in the form of one of the nastiest villains I've run across in modern teen lit in this, the fourth installment of Colfer's series essaying the interactions between the worlds of mundane folk and fairy. And the stakes have rarely been this high, with the lives of not just Artemis and his compatriots, but the fate of all supernatural and humanity in the balance. As noted in this volume, there's been some real growth in the titular character between the first book and this one, all of it both logical and believable. However, by the end of this adventure all of that hard-won maturity, among a great many other things, is placed in a perilous position by some well-intentioned actions. An easy read that also offers some real food for thought.
The Supernaturalist
Eoin Colfer
Hyperion Books for Children
www.eoincolfer.com
www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com
Another wild ride intended for teen readers, which supplies some thought-provoking grist for the mill while providing some real thrills. In a desolate and often desperate future, orphaned children who are wards of the state serve as test subjects for corporations' various concoctions and drugs, resulting in a hellish system which offers little comfort and less hope for its charges. Escape is nearly impossible, and ultimately foolhardy. This is the only life that Cosmo Hill knows until a freak accident frees him from the system while also making him aware of strange creatures who seem to thrive upon the immense pain and suffering generated by this horrific dystopia. Saved by a small group of mismatched outcasts who have gained similar abilities, Cosmo becomes a Supernaturalist, a hunter and killer of those ephemeral creatures who thrive on human suffering. However, all is not as it seems in this world, and soon the Supernaturalists find themselves unwitting tools and pawns of the megacorporation which rules their world, fulfilling their original purpose but with an ominous, even apocalyptic twist. This is a very different kind of teen lit, dark and edgy and rarely "safe," but immensely satisfying in its own way.
And that about covers it for now. Expect another rather large batch of reviews in the next week or so. Until then, take care and make sure to have some fun!
posted by Bill Baker at 3:36 PM
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