tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6477975191484590922024-03-05T12:52:51.356-05:00Joke BooksWords On ImagesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-66818309629633764832016-01-28T13:12:00.005-05:002016-01-28T13:12:53.685-05:00Graphic Novels Roundup<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Rosalie Lightning. Tom Hart. St. Martin’s. 272 pages. $19.99. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a shadow, a stain, the pain that never goes away. There’s nothing like the death of your child, and conveying its mad mosaic of emotions, moods, thoughts and depths of grief is impossible. Artist, writer and teacher Hart stubbornly transcends the horror and invokes his craft to capture the array of mundane and extraordinary events he and his wife (amazing cartoonist Leela Corman) experience as they wrestle with the joy and horror of their infant’s life and death.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi. Anthony Bourdain. Joel Rose. Ale Garza. Vertigo. 160 pages. $22.99. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The prequel to Bourdain and Rose’s first bloody and outrageous Get Jiro story serves as the secret origin of their protagonist sushi chef. More of a crime drama than a culinary tale, the narrative is nonetheless engaging and well told by Bourdain and his collaborators, especially journeyman artist Alé Garza. Though often an orchestrated buffet of violence, it’s mostly harmless and tasteless amusement.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>City of Clowns. Daniel Alarcón. Sheila Alvarado. Riverhead. 144 pages. 22.95.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Killing and Dying. Adrian Tomine. Drawn and Quarterly. 128 pages. $22.95. These little shards of life nicely convey Tomine’s meticulous and expressive storytelling. The art is up to his usual high standards for the stories that are funny, sad, poignant and mysterious. The title tale, a cringeworthy account of a young woman’s attempt at standup comedy and her awkward parents’ reaction, is a gem. But Amber Sweet, about the travails of a woman who resembles a porn star, and Go Owls, an indescribable vignette about love, recovery, possessiveness and minor league baseball are stellar and could only have come from the mind and pen of Tomine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Comics Squad #2: Lunch! Jennifer L. Holm. Matthew Holm. Jeffrey Brown. Nathan Hale. Jason Shiga, et al. Random House. 144 pages. $7.99.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This tasty midday-meal-themed all-ages collection of serious and silly stories by a super squad of hungry and talented cartoonists even includes a new Peanuts strip. Every kid has had to deal with lunchroom politics and the other scenarios outlined here, so this highly relatable collection is a sneaky and painless way to introduce some history and science to accompany the cafeteria hijinks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Electricomics. Leah Moore. John Reppion. Nicola Scott. Alan Moore. Colleen Doran. Peter Hogan. Garth Ennis et al. <a href="http://electricomics.net/">http://electricomics.net</a>. Free.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This experimental webcomic platform launched with unquestionably first-rate content. Editor-overseer Leah Moore contributed terrific tales in collaboration with partner Reppion and comics veterans Hogan, Ennis and Doran, along with her inestimable paterfamilias, whose Big Nemo with Doran is not only a great demo for the platform, but also a tour de force of art and story — and one of 2015’s very best comics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Fall of the House Of West. Paul Pope. JT Petty. David Rubín. First Second. 160 pages. $9.99. </b>The second sequel spun off from Pope’s Battling Boy (soon to be a major motion picture) world is even better than the first. West is a great protagonist as she fights crafty and cunning monsters and tries to avenge her mother’s death. Pope and Petty’s story is smart and surprising, and Rubin is a terrific artist, so as great as this chapter is, the next one can’t come soon enough for me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dark Knight III: The Master Race. Frank Miller. Brian Azzarello. Klaus Janson. Brad Anderson. DC Comics. 32 pages. 8 issues. $5.99 each</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The sequel that almost no one asked for — nor expected — is actually pretty damned good. The first part was groundbreaking and redefined the Batman mythos. The second was far less beloved. But Miller, here abetted by Azzarello and Kubert with incumbent inker Janson, exceeds admittedly low expectations and weaves an interesting tale featuring the breakout star of the original series and a new Robin. Wonder Woman, Superman and their offspring also appear, as well as Milleresque versions of other members of the DC pantheon, and the result is entertaining and surprisingly worthwhile.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-41842028449607450792013-02-02T11:12:00.001-05:002013-02-02T11:12:40.518-05:00Graphic novels: Classics, abandoned mutants, a depressed Lincoln and wistful animals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b>Reviews by Richard Pachter </b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374386153/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzS0hyphenhyphencmWI2exehZYpfl4H-wgdviptB0NsFFofI1ssHDJtQwab3mE2sDagigDRK4Mc5u-bky50uaei3ypgaB1Ej5HcjgiAG0ELcWPdgHcRmYyTq40WNlVfYplLPeWGPjyfyP0JTTxFOPNV/s320/wrinkleintime.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374386153/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel. Madeleine L'Engle, Hope Larson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 392 pages.</b></a><br />
Unsurprisingly, the beloved fantasy story also makes a fantastic all-ages graphic novel. Larson’s whimsical and expressive narrative illustrations are ideal for illuminating this quirky coming of age tale for smart kids. It’s a fine adaptation and longtime lovers of the original text as well as newbies will delight at the doings of Meg Murry, her family, friends and the mysterious trio of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235522/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235522/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxwz8w7KvS8NbzgegZpCToh77DOR_wnwzW1e_PQ-PIYdVXJldPuRr1QLAsvfdjhZcB1lLKgQDfPm1KLme7PTT4oJf1BidfceE6S7tF30ZIfi3oyEq9JslUnH6lCFtF1tbGAM-_wJKETOq/s320/Spaceman.jpg" title="" width="213" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235522/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Spaceman. Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso. DC/Vertigo. 224 pages. </b></a></div>
Though
a bit of the futuristic urban slang that comprises some of the dialog
can be a little challenging at times, Azzarello’s crazy-good story of
abandoned and ostracized future mutants bred for space travel, along
with a dying earth, reality TV, and the value of friendship and the
definition of humanity is audacious and riveting. Eduardo Risso’s
blazing art depicts this dystopic adventure with dazzling authority and
sensitivity. Great science fiction is always rooted in human emotions
and Spaceman soars with passion. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465032575/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-WvRVWTfjY6IykZ3YQTtu9uHW0IHsAMXqnA33CvLm12IgnTYJCcaCD-U7mZy-2mVLqvWdODS8Yzma55JJJnlpTagiEe5rKmDm7L5JArWRCPufEieLtkQBNHV_dZIag4Nqwz_bzRtZRlh/s1600/Illuminado.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465032575/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>El Illuminado. Ilan Stavans, Steve Sheinkin. Basic Books. 208 pages.</b></a><br />
Stavans’ self-starring story about a murder mystery, Spanish Catholic-to-New Mexican-Jewish conversos, art, human nature, martyrdom and more is absorbing, fresh and full of potential. But the unfinished quality of Sheinkin’s art undercuts the venture and undermines the storytelling flow. It might be a matter of style rather than of competence, but the result is unsatisfying and frustrating, especially given the rich tapestry Stavans attempts to unfurl.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1606996193/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71B9sVa6swEz7LRY5t4a7jlExHgCBSZLmUT5VBrNxjLNnQrFNSjL-iXPbV-ECGm4jzBlJ-b9pLrsH2dRX7Xr-fNcgWzB0TT03FuFdYG89mR4FGAKL28gxdoVS5MwVZkSvhSlYYF1qOq_V/s320/the-hypo-cover.jpg" width="230" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1606996193/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank">The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln. Noah Van Sciver. Fantagraphics. 192 pages.</a> </b></div>
Van
Sciver’s well-researched delineation of pre-presidential (1837-1842)
Abraham Lincoln’s dark period of depression is a wonder. The
authentically depicted contemporaneous “cures” administered for this
mental illness included bloodletting and mercury treatments, which are
presented unflinchingly. Though perhaps an odd choice for a graphic
novel, Van Sciver’s realization of this revealing chapter of American
history makes more than perfect sense.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609803787/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1URTtna1karH1LG7hVjZ7obBaEVtA1JYyHQzyXVyPlGZw2nEL3QDtNBzhP29w2GHWDBFZBCh12a-wcfhS-RYflW41_tf9fcVeWQ_IvOkcDfTXmxOkm6WPNLUY7tx6Z2f87B_4LRH-Olu_/s1600/Kick_GCv2_150dpi-234x300.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609803787/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From "Kubla Khan" to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Russ Kick. Seven Stories Press. 512 pages.</b></a><br />
This prodigious and astounding collection of literary adaptations is staggering in its ambition, but even more so in its execution and realization. Kick’s anthology, the middle volume of a chronological trilogy, includes graphic iterations of works by Coleridge, Keats, Twain, Blake, Wordsworth and others, by Megan Kelso, S. Clay Wilson, Dame Darcy, Hunt Emerson, Lance Tooks and Kim Deitch, among the superb array of contributors.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235573/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrpuOgiidc4zph3qWPF8pJ7At8QcQeFN36VGzhhDoCJ47g2CrMgJam4jZ_XGdsjh9Eu3EosgfSdvnkv_gjQYEA3ZFU18gMfWniAlSvuoYfFcoK3wpyoGf1DiQexTC1hOViKdg4jkVPOXlX/s320/DragTat.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235573/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Book 1. Denise Mina, Andrea Mutti, Leonardo Manco. DC/Vertigo. 152 pages.</b></a><br />
Not the only graphic adaptation of the first third of Larsen’s Millennium trilogy (there are French and Japanese versions from other publishers), but this one, covering the first half of the novel by the international team of Mina, Manco and Mutti, effects a very readable version of the story. Violent and powerful, it’s also studded with quiet, meditative moments between the mayhem and mystery. Its rhythm and contents are closer to the original work than the fine <span itemprop="director" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name">David Fincher</span></span> movie adaptation, too.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613771967/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTPHJnyK3eGTZZqd_ZJsR-t2-fvZhvyI8sI_nuHho5IuO9oaB_uMHBh6CCWdsu1_wacnF3xQFzQeReMy7uIzrSdXNa6sL8O9OQwRrsXsKm3MDQ7X0p4bumRigPgPUQ9XmqtAbtvBiFbnv3/s320/The-Cape-HC.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613771967/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>The Cape. Joe Hill, Jason Ciaramella, Zach Howard. IDW. 132 pages.</b></a><br />
No relation to the short-lived TV series, Ciaramella’s very able adaptation of Hill’s short story plays a nice twist on the superhero myth. Howard’s moody art is the ideal medium for the gloomy anti-heroics and twisted fraternal villainy.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/159643581X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUwIcWlRZdmg5OS7Og4V3StIWz_PP4SE1VWkGkVRVWPSiVp_p8v727OdDf6QP5ErDQcyzyq6WbyjnGeWDtOj9Gh8ZsgaJfFaWYOME4KTSV94PB980Nd5kAbOyqIZ2E_Orwv11rdMWVMhff/s320/Sumo.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/159643581X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Sumo. Thien Pham. First Second. 112 pages. </b></a><br />
Author Pham doesn’t crowd his simple but lyrical narrative with redundant text and images, but builds the potentially trite tale of a struggling American collegiate athlete who tries to find himself by seeking a career as a Sumo wrestler in Japan into much more than a fish-out- of-water story. The simple art is powerful, evocative and effective. Highly recommended.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561637017/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvwyluCozkFG-XpFVpJCLcrAVWSc-EXZlzeQMgMw4LUajskwkITsZ-X3W9d3oVvD_wEKKgpzlFLo198aB-6stWtkSHIBNMWYASKQl9albqcEdNdQ1aViSZeRmY2FGJIgL8sO-07ppVpeG/s1600/abelard-cover-229x300.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561637017/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Abelard. Renaud Dillies, Regis Hautiere. NBM. 128 pages.</b></a><br />
This engaging parable (translated from the French) tells the saga of a wistful, yearning sparrow whose chapeau produces apt daily aphorisms. Smitten by a fetching female creature, he leaves the comfort of his European marsh home, journeying to America to seek his fate. It’s a grown-up story of lust and life, with violence and tragedy, despite the animal cast. Dillies’ art is detailed and masterful, and even those (like me) who normally disdain animal stories will admire this wistful fable.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/098322384X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQuOFnCFFl3Y2SgbUK_iYqyrAbyTP5gMKjysofN4JOu5wjEJUAZ2bqKxhfpXU7rqCvSl1EzN0rpIMiWw8xJ7RxZeTxLMtGBM4L5RdyUpd4jPsfhPS0gNNWOV0uDpyjo9dDG2OWaYH_JJ4/s320/MONSTERMYTHS.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/098322384X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Monster Myths. John Lupo Avanti. ComX. 120 Pages.</b></a><br />
It’s rarely a good sign when a story is prefaced by a glossary; too much work, not enough clarity. Fortunately, Monster Myths mostly manages to convey its tale without requiring references. Avanti is an earnest artist and storyteller, and shows great promise beyond this turgid tale of good, evil and gentrification.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613772084/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbX9SsOwwD0-4Ku4nj4Ez2p3fFDadTX9JAyOVOdHUiSaS8mUXZXiU9U243elzg1AKny-JDWH7JxR43bhdxEEJ2NiOSLlHxJ_oL0-smar-1wYK0Ol9TZybhEh0V0lECq3AjwuKZiBU-0-b/s320/Richard-Starks_Parker_The-Score.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613772084/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Richard Stark’s Parker Book Three: The Score. Darwyn Cooke. IDW. 144 pages. </b></a><br />
The latest adaptation of Donald Westlake’s tough pulp series, this one about a criminal attack on a town that goes inevitably awry, is beautifully rendered. Lean, taut and perfectly plotted, Cooke’s brilliant rendition doesn’t miss a beat, nor hit a single false note. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-34775798011755878582012-12-29T13:00:00.001-05:002012-12-29T13:05:24.855-05:00Reviews: Building Stories, Marbles and more<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375424334/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXMdFYAS91OtK4g5ZllJDtyaJnpFLgbkHqRkxXxOyKReCqQ1kYf4sozHqOHeGe0cIimLB2K6BOKiNvQ3b-HEqlc353lYRI_gpg4LbQsY4_AvYoMdSTAsBMpURXYrWqzQ5A6eIe8PSmO-yB/s320/buildingstories.JPG" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375424334/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Building Stories. Chris Ware. Pantheon.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This massive multi-media presentation includes traditional books, pamphlets, magazines and booklets — 14 in all — with new and previously published material from The New Yorker and other places. Ware’s craftsmanship is obvious, of course, but his gentle storytelling is also up front and central. In this massive collection of connected and semi-detached tales, some of the stories resolve and other sort of trail off, and Ware provides a recommended, though not mandatory reading order. It’s not for everyone but if you’re among the legions of his admirers, this one’s required reading. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1906838429/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM99cSQJPO3EJZUEW800ygfaFk8kjW5cB4uZI-BnK7AwDTOxuXYTQctBbO2wdySvZ8328zTTuMM6w3WjMuInNJjGvJiG9160e-e3S79TNjt2wNgD5qm4mOc7lwDZHRo5he2zakUVH1hdOQ/s320/naoofbrowncover.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1906838429/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Nao of Brown. Glyn Dillon. SelfMade Hero/Abrams. 208 pages.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dillon’s earlier career as a comics prodigy was decent enough but not stellar. He migrated to storyboarding and advertising art, eschewing comics until a few years ago. This is the result. Meticulous and vibrant, his stellar depiction of a young British-Japanese woman’s struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is one of this year’s best graphic novels. Extra kudos for Dillon’s hand-colored art, which imbues each page with his story’s shifting moods and mélange of emotions.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1607066777/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27Db_VBqfe1jfEWOXmXgNz3NfN9R3YSJB-9VOfG7UN6_dO3Q8cg4XFyfk4-oRX0f_EM_Ao5gV4tJpkAwXrRQx-Vwf9PlxRvLizdWfM-Kw8FKZ86M4mKc4irFCB-gNNVB7D3tkJKb7GRMG/s320/happy-cover.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1607066777/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Happy. Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. Image. 4 issues. 24 pages each.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This odd and sleazy yarn, featuring an unapologetic cop-turned hit-man, has already been optioned for a movie, announced just after this first of four issues appeared. The other star is the title character; an imaginary anthropomorphic feathered flying unicorn-bunny who is only visible to the nominal protagonist. Though bloody and visceral, with a profusion of F-bombs, Morrison promises a warm and fuzzy tale. Co-conspirator Robertson, who’s previously collaborated, most notably, with star-writers Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis, and was also responsible for some of the better issues in DC’s weekly 52 series, turns in a masterful and nuanced performance, ably abetted by colorist Richard P. Clark.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592407323/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfjdCRabkBDC-yXZ9ZBf6wQgwT72kWnHUOArgimdXcP749oq1IjAj6R0eht1845QWv2sNLAmLf0KdW-lgRT6vaneFzdEvcKb2B8YOmlLOgQn0bF48sv27HBOlRDgnH_QvKAMrZ7nenojh/s320/marbles.jpeg" width="210" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592407323/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir. Ellen Forney. Gotham. 256 pages.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Does a novel about boredom have to be boring? Forney’s exhilarating and enlightening autobiographical portrait of her bipolar disorder (otherwise known as manic depression), takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster, an authentic evocation of the author’s journey. Some autobiographies are unnecessarily ponderous; their authors undeserving of the spotlight in even their own stories, but Forney is a great character, definitely worthy of the focus, and well-served by her own prodigious craft. Her clear and thoughtful art provides a powerful, effective and brilliant illumination of this unforgettable adventure.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094K70LY/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFVeTFFLGUHQYqr-YcMTeQ_JlMY3XXmbwVkjhqYzBsvQUbnoaqDwj2FRKGL0QeH_Yj-jHG-kj73tYzt6B_01wBGOhL423EIv1gd_gP5-WVgT-lYHFW7Q0JG9W78kEFE8U4tqfucde_GnV/s320/FashionBeast1-a.jpeg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094K70LY/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Fashion Beast. Alan Moore, Malcolm McLaren and Facundo Percio. Avatar. 10 issues. 24 pages each.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Adapted from a near-forgotten script for an unproduced film by Moore (from McLaren’s pitch) written around the same time as his epic Watchmen, this update of the Beauty and The Beast fairy tale is set in the world of urban fashion. Unfolding over ten parts, the stage-setting first two chapters showcase exquisite art by Percio and the promise of a unique and interesting tale.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401231969/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtcK6W693-oLiBWx2KRuX0h2YBWhQA7DsvgZYWG2_i7dCdpN1Cq0Uv82O2fpyvohrzGvL3jlRvGJjyluXMGJE4vXo6-DIs51UmnIlvCEaasEd6cF76AoLX3csIqz1xZRjHUURYNGMFwNKJ/s320/250px-Superman-Earth_One_vol.2.jpg" title="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401231969/?tag=wordsonwords-20" width="195" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401231969/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Superman: Earth One Vol 2. J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis. DC Comics. 136 pages.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s pretty clear that Straczynski is forging his own continuity for the venerable superhero, well apart from the current mythos of the monthly comics and every earlier iteration. As with the previous volume, this is a modern re-imagining that’s far better than his ill-regarded run (which was really more of a walk) on the comic series, issued just prior to DC’s 2011 reboot of their entire line. Davis’s art is modern and serviceable though hardly memorable. I wish I liked it more. Not surprisingly the story, which picks up shortly after the previous volume, soundly sets up Straczynski’s next chapter, too, signaled by arrival of a pair of lurking Lex Luthors in its closing pages.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636975/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSatmp-xutsKm2dSEM_VeQTAw-Zl4VbtUqKWdChPq13mOVAJhLGrGpslZZaT0KDAYTSIaRmZXku_3UGWqeVOGCLehTwM-itfMiou1FyZu0z5wd7fNBMZBcSNorIsV9cD2RqY6BhtMfDj4f/s320/revolution.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636975/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Taxes, The Tea Party and Those Revolting Rebels: A History in Comics of the American Revolution. Stan Mack. NBM Publishing. 176 pages.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mack’s old Village Voice cartoons of overheard real-life conversations held no clue that he would come up with in this terrific all-ages book about the revolutionary roots of American history. The tea party in the title bears no resemblance to the current voluntarily put-upon crew of racists, xenophobes and naysayers who want eve<span style="font-family: inherit;">ryone’s benefits cut but their own. These protestors are colonists who rebelled against the tyranny of corporate rulers and repressive anti-competitive taxation. Mack provides a ground-level view of American history, stripped of platitudes and political correctness. It’s an entertaining and revealing way to learn of our true revolutionary heritage.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/087140429X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-DOn1dR2vUJJRblBjwBE5fgrPsEXIi6j4IrFBMxSZl9Tvk-I97BL26ImjAIqauhRcg3L64JajNL0gtZp4ferS9Ro_Nnw6TD9rEYJVcqvPpOQGXwcjMGNapahgfdFEYmo-fEwuRcKL0vt/s1600/drawn.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/087140429X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Drawn Together: The Collected Works of R. and A. Crumb. Aline and Robert Crumb. Liveright. 272 pages.</b></span></a><br />This collection of collaborations between husband and wife is a hoot. There’s plenty of sex and randiness, of course, that’s laugh-out-loud hilarious, but there are also gems like “Our Beloved Tape Dispenser,” a heartfelt and lovely story devoted to their actual packing-tape dispenser. Most of the art herein is by Robert, who’s as great a craftsman as ever. But Aline’s humor is fearless and her drawing is quite solid and warmly expressive. What a pair!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596436360/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh71BZ7q3DNh0voQfQFG_8Ee1OYM3LuQhye1cVI7d5MTMYxH8JHAl-z7l4E1__WAhE8ukxBcS3DvsfM4pB6UuJJ_P05X586420J5tJqxSmZKNwyBWnHiHNCwpsYLT-LwPDK3LHNdxmD0J98/s1600/Twain.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596436360/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Sailor Twain: Or The Mermaid in the Hudson. Mark Siegel. First Second. 400 pages. </b></a><br />Sieigel’s idyllic tale of Mark Twain, Hudson River sea spirits and a wounded mermaid is charming and sublime. The narrative leisurely unfolds but builds progressively into a gripping page-turner. It’s a lyrical and fascinating fable, full of love, magic and grief.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636983/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzebZaXuArIKxwSSNeqosETpFTaWVcJP6rubg1WV5pJJbpMeXHddlYZh5U30tvdlDc_6fm5s5FkLHvU2ACt1Ffja6XitFiAtQMISpBXh5kXTi4nYevXpTPLwBrlYqPk6zTwqB8dYlBTBI/s200/pholosophy.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636983/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Philosophy: A Discovery In Comics. Margreet de Heer. NBM Publishing. 120 pages.</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Comics may be fine medium to educate, but a heady subject like Philosophy wouldn’t seem to lend itself to this visual medium. Wrong! Heer does a wonderful job of explaining philosophy and philosophers in a clear and highly entertaining manner with words and pictures — an impressive achievement!</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published in </i>The Miami Herald</span> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-23004326133249597572012-11-18T21:54:00.001-05:002012-11-18T21:55:43.696-05:00Graphic novels find a home at Miami Book Fair<i><b>Growing presence of graphic novels and their creators</b></i><br />
<br />
<b>By Richard Pachter</b><br />
<br />
<br />
As graphic novels and comics grow in acceptance and influence in popular culture and literature, their prominence at the Miami Book Fair International is also rising.<br />
<br />
The fair’s diversity has always been impressive as a go-to event for statesmen, scholars, academics, novelists, and, with increasing prominence, graphic novelists. Especially recently, the fair shines a bright light on writers and artists who tell their stories by combining words and pictures on the page.<br />
Programmer Lissette Mendez works with her staff to select authors and also collaborates closely with fair founder Mitchell Kaplan. “He’s been very supportive of including graphics novel creators at the fair,” she said.<br />
<br />
She’s also aided by her personal passion: “I love all kinds of books and literature — that’s why I work on this. But I’m also a fan — as is my husband — so I know about the world of comics and graphic novels, too.”<br />
<br />
Early appearances of artists and writers were few. Art Spiegelman presented in 1991, just before receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Maus, the groundbreaking visual depiction of his parents’ Holocaust experiences. He shared the presentation room with prose novelist Patrick McGrath, who read from his most recent book, Spider, a brilliant work but an odd pairing, to be sure.<br />
<br />
But when Mendez came on board in 2007, she began working on expanding the presence of graphic novels at the fair. As a result, the fair has welcomed dozens of artists and writers since then and hosted panels on groundbreaking auteurs such as Will Eisner and Harvey Pekar.<br />
<br />
“It’s a great experience,” said Brooklyn-based writer and artist Dean Haspiel. Along with collaborator Inverna Lockpez and editor Joan Hilty, Haspiel presented original graphic novel, Cuba: My Revolution at the fair in 2010. “We really appreciated that we had an opportunity to not only talk about our book and interact with readers in a personal way, which is not something we often get to do, but we also were able to display our art in a gallery-like setting, which was awesome,” he said.<br />
“Seeing so many graphic novel people at such a huge international book fair helps cement the idea that GNs deserve a spot at the table, along with fiction, poetry, cookbooks, memoirs, reportage and other recognized, respected areas of publishing,” said Russ Kick, editor of the three-volume Graphic Canon series, via email.<br />
<br />
This year, the fair has a number of graphic novel creators as guests, including Ellen Forney, Charles Burns, Derf Backderf, Aline Crumb, Chris Ware, Mark Siegal, Kick and Chip Kidd.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdIRasL1pJr-JCt-fEaxjQjjZ1X-VKkL1w0GCsvbahnIsFBkwCga9MiCDdXbXlYhVt16u6x0-shZYfvVA2jiqt7TVb2RXd7qTxs8WrdMh9Se902fHx4iIGBIctB4Cq4eT2chAKT7jN26F/s1600/JoanHilty.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdIRasL1pJr-JCt-fEaxjQjjZ1X-VKkL1w0GCsvbahnIsFBkwCga9MiCDdXbXlYhVt16u6x0-shZYfvVA2jiqt7TVb2RXd7qTxs8WrdMh9Se902fHx4iIGBIctB4Cq4eT2chAKT7jN26F/s1600/JoanHilty.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joan Hilty</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Crumb, who lives in France, will be talking about her own work in addition to collaborations with her legendary husband, cartoonist Robert. Backderf will discuss his book on his classmate Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer. Tackling issues of social change, racism, revolution and GLBT issues, Marjorie Liu, Dan Parent, Ellen Forney, Stephanie McMillan and Riva Hocherman will comprise a panel moderated by editor and cartoonist (and returning guest) Joan Hilty. Legendary writer-artists Burns, Kidd and Ware sit in on a much-anticipated free-ranging panel discussion on comics and life.<br />
<br />
Author, artist, designer and editor Kidd is a return guest, having last visited in 2010.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpCkxTDEXae71o26AFYjRDKCnTbNRcVnwK8gwb5s-olod1uKakD7yVM-G6YjfUqqrP_HbDb1YBXdP669K7pxdoH2SQroxI8hKv0NgPuHesDLvT3ox0AdJ9V2H2oUkSni16fO4cUN84IzE/s1600/ChipKidd.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpCkxTDEXae71o26AFYjRDKCnTbNRcVnwK8gwb5s-olod1uKakD7yVM-G6YjfUqqrP_HbDb1YBXdP669K7pxdoH2SQroxI8hKv0NgPuHesDLvT3ox0AdJ9V2H2oUkSni16fO4cUN84IzE/s1600/ChipKidd.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chip Kidd</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
“I love it,” he said. “I love books, just being around them, meeting readers, talking to them and signing books. Did you know that signed books make great Christmas presents?” he said with a laugh, and added, “Seriously. It’s a tremendously positive experience.”<br />
<br />
Haspiel agrees. “I love the fair. It’s wonderful to meet and talk to readers, but I’m a reader too, and it’s a thrill to meet and hang out with the authors, and hear what they have to say.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published November 2012 in The Miami Herald. </i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-55539756646630345442012-08-31T19:34:00.000-04:002012-08-31T19:35:33.238-04:00Comic Wars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767908309/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVj3OqJ4BzFhF_7r_RFkhWWh_V6vYg1-8toT7ltw_TACfNB5fPx189nlVb1DCY_Yid_AS8Tm719M5JYvN6bB8fqWZrX-AUn0bn2gqov-x8l30z9UXRK5dnmeGO7T-ki5PvGacEUXpR3shW/s320/61VPC3VE70L._SS500_.jpg" width="202" /></a></span></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767908309/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled Over The Marvel Comics Empire — And Both Lost. Dan Raviv. Broadway Books. 320 pages. </span></a></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>By Richard Pachter</b></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The business of comic books is a fascinating one, in many ways a microcosm of American industry. It all began in the early part of the last century as a means of using otherwise idle color presses. Its original "content" was compilations of previously published newspaper cartoons. But when these compilations sold well, a new industry quickly formed, and original material was required.<br /><br />With the success of its first genuine star, Superman (whose strip was a cut-and-paste job originally intended for newspaper syndication), the need for new strips exploded. Scores of new publishers seemed to appear overnight. Assembly-line principles produced thousands of pages of comics by editors, writers, pencil artists, ink embellishers and colorists in "bullpens" based mainly in New York City, the center of the American publishing industry.<br /><br />Fast forward. By the late '40s and early '50s, this once-thriving business hit on hard times. The number of publishers were down to a handful, decimated by wartime paper shortages, then a politically motivated attempt to tie comics to a rising youth crime rate — as if "juvenile delinquents" were avid readers! The growing popularity of television didn't help sales either. By the 1960s, most of the survivors sold out to larger corporations. And as consolidation continued, one of the largest remaining comics companies, Marvel, was a ripe target.<br /><br />The scene is then set as Dan Raviv's book, due out next week (on the eve of the release of the Spider-Man movie), opens:<br /><br />"Ronald O. Perelman — America's richest short, bald, forty-six-year-old chain-cigar-chomper — seemed to have a delicious deal when he bought Marvel Entertainment Group in January 1989. This was not a hostile takeover. It was simply a matter of negotiating a fair price for a property that seemed to have untapped potential.<br /><br />The owner dumping Marvel was New World Entertainment, a Hollywood production company that garnered very limited payoffs from made-for-television movies featuring the Incredible Hulk and other Marvel comics superheroes. New World had gone flat and wanted to pump itself up with new genres of TV and movies. So Marvel was on the auction block, and when Perelman saw that half a dozen companies were making bids he hardly needed to check his credit line. He simply outbid the others at $82.5 million. The delicious part was what Wall Street calls leverage: He had to put up only a small percentage of the money. All the rest was somebody else's."<br /><br />It's an interesting account — up to a point. The problem is, the book is about deals. Raviv relishes the subject, but most of the, well, color of the comics business is essentially missing. The various wheelers and dealers (Ronald Perelman, Carl Icahn, Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad) are a bunch of rich guys playing with bonds, zero coupons and leverage: boring stuff irrespective of the specifics of the business.<br /><br />Raviv, a distinguished journalist whose distinctive — and breathless — reports for CBS Radio are always sharp, unfortunately fails to elicit much interest from the reader as he describes interminable exchanges of faxes, attorneys' letters, impromptu meetings and the like. Also absent is any real knowledge of comics on the part of the author. For example, not even journeyman artist Sal Buscema's mother would call him "one of the great Marvel artists" as Raviv apparently does.<br /><br />Similar errors appear throughout, but that's not the big problem with Comic Wars. Although a current Marvel exec recently confided that he's having a lot of fun with the book, the rest of us will have to look elsewhere for tales to astonish. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published in The Miami Herald</i></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-66613910098356578142012-08-18T13:18:00.004-04:002012-08-18T14:14:16.239-04:00Another batch of short reviews<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/160309007X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/160309007X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6Hmm3RmtyaWMLPVyf7nNpUvPLTGZhE4_h8O3ga_NqFR0dqY66dpdivGFMF6AD0xv4m9Z-NUPaKgZnIA-2tBrb7-z7G-Iysu78I2oK26Gj0oAdfHkNBt5lHFT6PYEwCKfSkdhawihOjNJ/s320/LOEG_bookIII_cent2009.jpg" title="League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill" width="210" /></a><span id="goog_61715746"></span><span id="goog_61715747"></span></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/160309007X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Top Shelf. 80 pages. $9.99.</span></a></b><br />
If
all you know of LOEG is that dreadful film, you’re missing one of the
richest and most-entertaining series in comics, which also serves as a
powerful commentary on decadence, the necessity of a diverse culture and
its relevance to life. This final chapter in the third volume of
stories continues Moore’s heady blend of occult, politics and adventure,
culminating with the coming of the antichrist and the subsequent
arrival of … well, that would be telling.<br />
As usual, there’s an all-star
assemblage of borrowed characters, though few are specifically named.
The identity of the antichrist drew a bit of contrived controversy when
this book first appeared in the UK, but the presence of this corrupted
persona is well within the traditions of literary satire. Century 2009
is a mostly satisfying conclusion to this volume, nicely setting up
Moore’s next tale — a visit with Captain Nemo set in an earlier time,
due in 2013.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401228275/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401228275/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHPBUaMvse_NnifPuw_nkOR6Ly6wa7G27AYNV1C8tMxMsVit1iK5xu7gAGyKfoRePYPd8-M_IjnJNI1zYhxK58-hlKvv822-3R3dQ7fwY7Ebvdw-gHrLDeB9JcGfR8xXEjuLDRgdVoGjo/s320/GETJ_COVER.jpg" title="Get Jiro. Anthony Bourdain," width="208" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401228275/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">Get Jiro. Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose and Langdon Foss. Vertigo. 160 pages. $24.99.</span></a></b><br />
Chef,
author and TV personality Bourdain’s manic parable posits an epicurean
dystopia with bloodthirsty chefs and food to die for. The violent fable
deftly skewers feckless foodie pretensions, especially in California,
and Foss’ well-done art imparts a delicious and tasty sizzle.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232086/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232086/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17p9aAtE6UNrhb7cms_c6MMJrlTcVVyCDZPtjt10Z-lA35X9GgTbRuHzBZgIRVZu1BQdLG7Qg_nDlFfNt3d2Z6Kuj7UpivcyHymCQheLf9d1844k3T6oI2DeVORVIpu5r0SrQsYn5ookM/s320/batman-earth-one.jpg" title="Batman: Earth One. " width="211" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232086/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">Batman: Earth One. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. DC Comics. 128 pages. $22.99.</span></a></b><br />
Though
no one yearned for yet another retelling of the beginnings of Batman,
Johns and Frank deliver a startlingly fresh take that incorporates many
elements of the first origin of the Dark Knight while adding some smart
and engaging emotional beats. Frank is one of DC Chief Creative Officer
Johns’ go-to guys, and he once again rises to the occasion with powerful
and effective pencils, ably delineated by Jon Sibal.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1770460713/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232086/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7FIwn4sUOPFPU21VIDDAMJ-MSLOLVzeePyOeJ-861ZcCagtmo4Pc1osCxzU2yTVwf7YosLZkd9wEV4b-UDdsj82sUshzxw0uC_rpdLoC-9OcxPOKjptySqHKL9-FVyOzAfO3sGQ1XYL4/s320/Jerusalem.jpeg" title="Jerusalem: Chronicles From The Holy City" width="213" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1770460713/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b><span class="bold">Jerusalem: Chronicles From The Holy City. Guy DeLisle. Drawn & Quarterly. 320 pages. $24.95.</span></b></a><br />
Another
eloquent and sensitive cartoonist attempts to explicate the conundrum
that is Jerusalem, the Holy City of three religions. If you’re
unfamiliar with the complicated and conflicted landscape, DeLisle brings
the divergence down to ground level. The Canadian’s art is simple and
effective, and he doesn’t preach or proselytize as much as gamely
attempt to explore and find meaning in the mundane and ordinary aspects
of life in this far-from-ordinary setting.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603091521/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603091521/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_ZS9BV9iWFxixHYgt4pTSgci0Pt6-IYhLQyHxs8KgFlCh8GbHJ6k9ckA06yvEsal-WB8Ha75vKErFNPq0azZNBAEsFx7xoaFoJ82nROiovVT_2LwJC2hOrZpOuafQM5BRAyuyQwOaIn4/s320/LOVELY+HORRIBLE+STUFF+HC.jpg" title="The Lovely Horrible Stuff. Eddie Campbell." width="231" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603091521/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">The Lovely Horrible Stuff. Eddie Campbell. Top Shelf. 96 pages. $14.95.</span></a></b><br />
The <span class="italic">From Hell</span>
artist and Alec auteur’s painfully honest and often hilarious look at
money, relationships, life and art delves deep into his family history
and world explorations. Campbell is quite a character, and his
experiences and insights on how we deal with high and low finance make
for a funny, rewarding and frankly educational experience.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401223516/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401223516/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnmRQsZlnEuB6HJRCefL_lu9gotbRpDW5F5XdwGK4-KCNuMi9P3Jwt_mXvgUlS1EAfi6Z1d8sNE3jCqU9RT-ar7BQAjv8glhryZw5G4Ad6a0-VCu9VRz42gRLN9LABM2AsaNQ9i44O2bSi/s320/gonetoamerikay.jpg" title="Gone To Amerikay. Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran. Vertigo." width="206" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401223516/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">Gone To Amerikay. Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran. Vertigo. 144 pages. $24.99.</span></a></b><br />
Master
storyteller McCulloch’s wise and poignant tale of Irish immigrants
coming to America, weaving three different time periods in parallel, is
soulfully illustrated by veteran artist Doran. It’s a heartfelt and
genuine story of human emotions and drama; nothing post-modern, snarky
or ironic here, just believable behavior depicted with lyrical dialog
and rich imagery. You’ll want to re-read it as soon as you finish to
savor and reflect upon the transcendent intelligence and artistic vision
responsible for this masterpiece. <b>Highly recommended.</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636266/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636266/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs2KWk48LAMlvZPS0vfsrudXylrKnnQRw-PUUfc5Je8FaZZDzoSdC0aJCMe61sKME7r1ZXw4GLQNda3Fh5cMPXUXL1hLzxFUWFVsH2S9f2X8u5rqizgU3QX2AxgQRlcZXa_UY1basNqBsy/s320/WildePrince.jpg" title="Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince" width="251" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636266/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince. P. Craig Russell. NBM. 32 pages. $16.99. </span></a></b><br />
Wilde’s
beloved allegory is beautifully and smartly adapted by master craftsman
Russell. The story, timeless and relevant, centers on a statue of a
chastened prince who aches for his poor subjects and aids some of them
with the help of a friendly, anthropomorphic swallow. The tale of the
lifeless boy and the faithful avian is conveyed sweetly and with great
heart. Special mention to Lovern and Jesse Kindzierski for their
intelligent and sympathetic coloring.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603090916/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603090916/?tag=wordsonwords-20" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHDB9ZyNlUXQnGxE4DC3GLcW7MliP4-SYTYNMMVALz8EMgoo5-jJpXiMY8jYGYkMbwcIaSC-pBVnZQPWokX8vLIMU5e4A_fYqCYKHkJhWWvcH1duDqMXn9xWrvWE11KmxGsO5O0W6ItOY2/s320/PekarCleveland.jpg" title="Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland" width="228" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603090916/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><span class="bold">Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland. Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant. Top Shelf. 128 pages. $21.99.</span></a></b><br />
In this, one of the <span class="italic">American Splendor </span>creator’s
final projects, the reader experiences an intimate portrait of the late
Pekar’s life and work. Considering the autobiographical focus of almost
all of his stories, it’s pretty amazing, but the casual revelations
about himself and his beloved city are bracing and revelatory. More than
a coda, it’s a wonderful conclusion to one of the medium’s great bodies
of work. Remnant’s art is fresh and familiar, and one of the best of a
long series of collaborations between Pekar and other expert and
simpatico illustrators. Harvey lives!<br />
<div style="color: black; font: 10pt sans-serif; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;">
<br />
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/08/v-print/2884540/new-graphic-novel-reviews.html#storylink=cpy</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-11524385078951806792012-04-15T15:38:00.002-04:002012-04-15T15:39:56.735-04:00Graphic novels reviewed in The Miami Herald<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dreams, Teens, Swords and Serial Killers</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<b>By Richard Pachter</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0980782368/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaskk2EfcLRyHyDIxujNNWME8lE0Ogm-JVk1VzAyZ2G9xw-lSM5zh4hgvIbpgc14lYvtkzqV8rUTAWkxCg7kS7f6Ns4NvAnOhBa0aXkE8P31F6qS_rO0pfbeN8HDlKC8uTJf0HCGr4RY9/s320/His+Dream+of+the+Skyland.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0980782368/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>His Dreams of Skyland. Anne Opotowsky and Aya Morton. Gestalt. 312 pages. $31.95.</b></a><br />
It opens with a scene of furtive, hurried sex, as the protagonist prepares for his first day of work at the post office, a very prestigious position, apparently. But this astounding tale, by veteran screenwriter and journalist Opotowsky, belies its prosaic beginning. With its well- drawn characters, naturalistic storytelling and cultural explorations, it’s a stunner. Set in China’s fabled Walled City of Kowloon, the breathtaking illustrations by Morton are more like fine art than toonage, and this large and very lovely book would not be out of place on any tasteful coffee table. The rollicking narrative unfolds fairly leisurely and the characters interact in very human ways. As the first part of a planned trilogy from these American creators (and Australian publisher), one can only hope that the stratospherically high quality can be maintained in subsequent chapters.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936975009/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBruIjAtqkaH6BaifRKpz4Ax6IQGbxnmSjo2SCMYf1XNLsb__fj1s-GhmURJiwWrRYy7Cw6wzAL6b-eem5s4fQTq2PqTH-gGAhBuCM3vZWW9cp2V06kM53yJphHwAovR8inASDWsiImLW/s320/JINX.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936975009/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Jinx. J. Torres, Terry Austin and Rick Burchett. Archie Books. 112 pages. $16.99 (hardcover) $9.99 (paperback).</b></a><br />
Archie Comics continues to upgrade its line by introducing new characters and shaking the rust off their old ones. They’ve also upgraded their creative staff, adding new and old writers and artists. Jinx is an old character, originally appearing in Lil Archie books in the 40s. Here, grown into a teen, just starting high school, the team of J. Torres, Rick Burchett and Terry Austin launch her into the 21st century. It’s hardly edgy but there are plenty of typical teen dreams, angst and cattiness, all fairly sterile and safe, told in the Archie-esque manner.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232213/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTuaDte0kIoEOH-k7GKWjN2toYesRIwo-13z96XUHfgUvhBQoPFzkaZJlKu5UnTKbveaM1lPG2rbatCg5O11hyIpFxpUdEBjCtYqlH91WeoZq3f4qlNQWf_yc0SpqOQUerDQdSEzC7UgXQ/s320/mentallocover.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232213/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. DC/Vertigo. 128 pages. $22.99.</b></a><br />
Grant Morrison’s original 4-part 1994 miniseries — a spin-off of the Doom Patol comic — allegedly withheld from republication due to a legal tiff with supposed parody subject muscleman Charles Atlas, has finally been complied in a single volume. Morrison has always been fascinated with the ongoing bleed between fiction and reality, as evidenced in his other works, most notably The Invisibles and Final Crisis. But Flex is one of the most autobiographical manifestations of this trope. Whole chunks of Morrison’s childhood and upbringing are depicted within. The story, such as it is, relies heavily on the brilliant art of frequent collaborator Frank Quitely, who breathes visceral emotion, life and humanity into the discursive and somewhat convoluted imaginings and recollections.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440423635/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXl9EJe9l_2EDg701RANxU5MQ2h_ZCz4gAMG5NHrl2icTD-GnfN0NOsqpWsM3oB77nUxOYYi8b_xJV3a9xKPv9lTMn7p53UMvnQSOB6flMrdLK0ZfOL9V1lmdsQBF6hPt5QAEtz6dP77Mq/s320/silentpartner.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440423635/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>S</b><b>ilent Partner. Jonathan Kellerman, Ande Parks and Michael Gaydos. Villard. 128 pages. $23.</b></a><br />
The overriding challenge in adapting a prose novel to the screen is conveying anything interior; thought, dialog, time and emotion. As a kinetic and visual medium, if you can’t show it and have to say it, it’s going to be a boring movie (My Dinner With Andre notwithstanding). Not so with graphic novels, which can freeze time and space and use words to express the things film cannot. Parks and Gaydos do a masterful job here with Kellerman’s original prose. Conflicted relationships, repressed characters and ambivalent morality are all on hand, along with the patently bittersweet California noir vibe. The story, featuring Kellerman perennial Alex Delaware, replete with the required murder, sex, wealth and psychology, unfolds quite nicely, leaving one longing for further Kellerman adaptations by the pair.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419702173/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0qiR1fZebv9uhrLLpmwbcVI0SyVNrWuWL2R8F_MC8g5Y62Oqrx2zqKvxHBCesbgNI77Pjkt4sHeTztAoUvo0OoMP13xXNSqogOhcKHrtC5VZ_izekxTeQg9REFqEUoOaL7zYX4YfuCJbr/s320/Dahmer.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><b> </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419702173/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>My Friend Dahmer. Derf Backderf. Abrams ComicArts. 224 pages. $24.95 (hard cover) $17.95 (paperback).</b></a><br />
Sounds like the makings of a very sick joke but cartoonist Backderf was actually well acquainted with notorious serial killer, necrophiliac and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer during high school in the 70s. Well aware that his entire book foreshadows the discovery of a series of horrid and unspeakable acts, Backderf uses the knowledge with studied restraint and avoids cheap shots and undue sensationalism. He’s an interesting artist but a better writer, frankly, and his list of sources at the end of the book reinforces the book’s authenticity in recounting the banality of evil, up close and highly personal.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/044042321X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEBfy1mK8GW-SpwZ-FCS4h4kYGuILCDBesXRFCQSO9P9RDYCtbTzCxSn6jKtBSLq8oY4Kfr7g_ykLKDwAksoDBEKQlaU9-EmHyG5A5TpvEHedhjp6chey9vDZR_-Di-pgd9qONQJjIZU5/s320/Thrones.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/044042321X/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank">A Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin, Daniel Abraham and Tommy Patterson. Bantam. 240 pages. $25</a>.</b><br />
This serviceable adaptation of the first part of Martin’s epic series might provide a keepsake for fans of the HBO series, though it would probably not satisfy readers of just the original text. It differs from the source material (as does TV series) when it needs to accommodate the format of the page and its attendant limitations. Since it’s not the same as the original or HBO version, one wonders who would best be served by this sword and sorcery soufflé. Not being overly familiar with either iteration, I found this graphic treatment entertaining though mostly unmemorable.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636142/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNlEJOtffLn1wQnwDwP74EnUUTauuetFQqG0of_ClIafighTi8EwcIG99htQKdPtFnY0j9II0T2x9mqoC3PQctNYXaGqYVjCw5ibvn5XWNPorlBp5tRwfHNHqhwG3youBFgxAt96XKzt-/s320/InnerSanc.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561636142/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b>Inner Sanctum: Tales of Horror, Mystery and Suspense. Ernie Colòn. NBM. 128 pages. $16.99.</b></a><br />
Billed as an adaptation of the classic radio show (with no other story credits), veteran editor and artist Colòn conducts a virtual art clinic here, showing his deep mastery of composition, design, figure drawing, expression, use of blacks and more in this collection of hoary guilty pleasures and cheap thrills. Throughout, his art is in service to the storytelling, creating clear narratives with tension and emotion. It’s nothing more (or less) than solid entertainment.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published in The Miami Herald </i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-57661826480953269662012-04-03T21:16:00.003-04:002012-04-03T21:24:11.449-04:00This looks pretty amazing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1576875911/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvQV7jYtxAGSDv1wd0jsz7J4SES5A58FpEQlbEbTYpwPIq4nanWc1iaBQb8tgD08k5aMecnFXscoWg8NjYFTe0D4QuBk5j4PODRUrUcTCVR2i83QFoupiAt3ko8pIfc9KcQBTH3oxla8nP/s320/LTB_cover.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><i><b><span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>Here's the press release:</i></span></b></i><br />
<span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Some are mild mannered geeks, others mad geniuses or street-smart city dwellers driven to action. These are the men and women behind the masks and tights of America's most beloved superheroes. But these aren't the stories of the heroes' hidden alter egos or secret identities...these are the stories of their creators! <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1576875911/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><b><i>Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics</i></b></a> gives you the truth about the history of the American comic book—straight from the revolutionary artists and writers behind them.<br />
<br />
From the founders of the popular comics website Graphic NYC—writer Christopher Irving and photographer <span class="il">Seth</span> <span class="il">Kushner</span>—comes the firsthand accounts of the comic book's story, from its birth in the late 1930s to its current renaissance on movie screens and digital readers everywhere. <span class="il">Kushner</span>'s evocative photography captures the subjects that Irving profiles in a hard-hitting narrative style derived from personal interviews with the legends of the art, all of which is accompanied by examples of their work in the form of original art, sketches, and final panels and covers. The creators profiled include <i>Captain America</i> creator Joe Simon, <i>Marvel</i> guru Stan Lee, <i>Mad</i> magazine's fold-out artist Al Jaffee, visionary illustrator Neal Adams (<i>Batman</i>), underground paragon Art Spiegelman (<i>Maus</i>), <i>X-Men</i> writer Chris Claremont, artist/writer/director Frank Miller (<i>Sin City</i>, <i>300</i>), comic analyst Scott McCloud (<i>Understanding Comics</i>), <i>American Splendor</i>'s Harvey Pekar, painter Alex Ross (<i>Kingdom Come</i>), multitalented artist and designer Chris Ware (<i>Acme Novelty Library</i>), artist Jill Thompson (<i>Sandman</i>), and more.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1576875911/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><i>Leaping Tall Buildings</i></a>, like comics themselves, uses both words and images to tell the true story of the comic's birth and evolution in America. It is a comprehensive look at the medium unlike any other ever compiled covering high and low art, mass market work and niche innovations. It is the story of an art form and an insider's look at the creative process of the artists who bring our heroes to life.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>For a preview of the book please visit:</b> <a href="http://www.powerhousebooks.com/preview/leapingtallbuildingspreview.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.<wbr></wbr>powerHouseBooks.com/<wbr></wbr>leapingtallbuildingspreview.<wbr></wbr>pdf</a></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1576875911/?tag=wordsonwords-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://welcometotripcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/leapingtallbuildings560.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br />
<b>Christopher Irving</b> is a pop culture historian with a concentration in the American comic book. A veteran of comics history and journalism magazines like <i>Comics Buyers Guide</i> and multiple Eisner Award-winning <i>Comic Book Artist</i> (where he served as Associate Editor), Irving combines new journalism with comics history to create personality essays on comic book creators. <i>Leaping Tall Buildings</i> is Irving's fifth book on comic books. Irving currently edits digital comics magazine <i>The Drawn Word</i>. <a href="http://www.thedrawnword.com/" target="_blank"><b>www.thedrawnword.com</b></a><br />
<br />
<b><span class="il">Seth</span> <span class="il">Kushner</span>'s</b> portrait photography has appeared in <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>, <i>Time</i>, <i>Newsweek</i>, <i>L'<wbr></wbr>Uomo Vogue</i>, <i>The New Yorker</i> and others. He was chosen by <i>Photo District News</i> magazine as one of their 30 under 30 in 1999 and is a two-time winner of their Photo Annual Competition. <span class="il">Seth</span>'s first book, <a href="http://www.powerhousebooks.com/site/?p=10128" target="_blank"><i>The Brooklynites</i></a>, (with Anthony LaSala) was published by powerHouse Books in 2007. Currently, <span class="il">Seth</span> is working on CulturePOP Photocomix, and profiling real-life characters on ACT-I-VATE.com and WelcomeToTripCity.com. <span class="il">Seth</span> resides in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York with his wife, son and way too many cameras and comics. <a href="http://www.sethkushner.com/" target="_blank"><b>www.SethKushner.com</b></a><br />
<br />
<b>Eric Skillman</b> is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, and writer best known for his work with The Criterion Collection and his design blog Cozy Lummox. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/ericskillman.blogspot.com" target="_blank">ericskillman.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com</a></span><span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-75395917369348963822011-08-07T21:45:00.000-04:002012-12-29T13:07:17.467-05:00GN Reviews<a href="http://www.amazon.com/League-of-Extraordinary-Gentlemen/dp/0861661621?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0861661621&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="208" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0861661621" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/League-of-Extraordinary-Gentlemen/dp/0861661621?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i><b>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century 1969. Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill. Top Shelf. 80 pages. $9.95</b></i>.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0861661621" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Moore is a synthesist, expropriating bits and pieces of characters, legends and life, then crafting amazing stories studded with premises, plots and undiscovered subtexts inspired by this “found” material. LOEG began as a relatively conventional super-group of fictional characters and now, freed of corporate restraints and ”the conventions of boys' adventure comics," (according to Moore), has morphed into a dense, meta-textural multi-era tale. This latest, possibly penultimate chapter mostly takes place in 1969 Swinging London, mixing occult, the music scene, criminals and, as always, politics, into a heady psychedelic brew. While you may not necessarily need the copious annotations provided online <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">here</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%28http://jessnevins.com/annotations/1969annotations.html">(http://jessnevins.com/annotations/1969annotations.html</a>) and in other places the numerous appearances of fictional favorites, obscurities and real-life analogues deepen the enjoyment of this ripping yarn. Kudos also to the faithful and steadfast Kevin O’Neill whose startling art is more than equal to Moore’s relentlessly clever script.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Ross-Mackintosh/dp/0983223807?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Seeds" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0983223807&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="208" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0983223807" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Ross-Mackintosh/dp/0983223807?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Seeds. Ross Mackintosh. Com.x. 80 pages. $10.99</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0983223807" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
There have been other graphic novels devoted to the terminal effects of this malignant disease on the family, most notably Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabnner and Frank Stack’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Our-Cancer-Year-Harvey-Pekar/dp/1568580118?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Our Cancer Year</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1568580118" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. This one, Yorkshire designer Mackintosh’s first graphic novel, unambiguously recounts his father’s decline and demise in simple and relatable terms. It’s intimate and accessible, clearly told and honest. Powerful and palpable in ways that’s hard to fake, this sober story of the slow loss of a beloved parent and the effect on his grown-up son and other family members is an auspicious debut. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Work-Original-Hollows-Graphic/dp/0345521013?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Work-Original-Hollows-Graphic/dp/0345521013?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Blood Work: An Original Hollows Graphic Novel" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0345521013&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="206" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0345521013" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Work-Original-Hollows-Graphic/dp/0345521013?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Blood Work. Kim Harrison. Pedro Maia, Gemma Magno. Del Rey. 176 pages. $23.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0345521013" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
I wasn’t familiar with the Hollows series, of which this is a supposedly freestanding chapter, and this untold tale is pretty inaccessible to the uninitiated, though I slogged through it, undeterred. The art is cutesy enough, perhaps, for its intended audience but ihe storytelling was flat and average, though the coloring and tones were pretty. Maybe devotees of this series, with its slender witches, succulent vampires, young-adult angst and sexual tension will find it appealing. I hope so, because I found it on the level of amateur fan fiction.<br />
<br />
<i><b></b></i><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Tooth-Vol-Animal-Armies/dp/1401231705?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Sweet Tooth Vol. 3: Animal Armies" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1401231705&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="210" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1401231705" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Tooth-Vol-Animal-Armies/dp/1401231705?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Sweet Tooth Vol. 3: Animal Armies. Jeff Lemire. Vertigo. 144 pages. $14.99. </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1401231705" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
Rising star Jeff Lemire breathes fresh life into the reliable fantasy trope of post-apocalyptic survival in this yarn, collected from the monthly comic book. The drama, mystery and tragedy that befall its humans and human-animal hybrids is illustrated in a loose but evocative style by Canadian Lemire. He deftly avoids dopey melodrama and other predictable stuff as the story unfolds in a smart and engaging manner. The violence is never gratuitous and always shocking and integral to the plot in this surprisingly entertaining adult comic.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-American-Simon-Joe/dp/085768115X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Fighting American (Simon, Joe)" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=085768115X&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="208" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=085768115X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-American-Simon-Joe/dp/085768115X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Fighting American. Joe Simon, Jack Kirby. Titan Books. 200 pages. $19.95. </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=085768115X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
Simon & Kirby spawned several putatively patriotic heroes in the mold of their original and most famous red-white-and-blue Avenger, Captain America. This chap started his superheroics fighting comic Commies during the postwar Red Scare. But after slack sales, the creative pair retooled their approach and the stolid patriotic icon (plus putative sidekick, Speedboy) then fought a variety of comically bizarre and zany adversaries with punny monikers like Yafata’s Moustache. This collection includes the character’s complete run as well as a previously unpublished tale, all lovingly restored. This may be a footnote to comics history but even less than stellar Simon & Kirby is worth a look.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Krazy-Kat-Art-George-Herriman/dp/0810995948?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Krazy Kat and The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0810995948&tag=wordsonwords-20" width="236" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810995948" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Krazy-Kat-Art-George-Herriman/dp/0810995948?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Krazy Kat and the Art Of George Herriman. Craig Yoe. Abrams ComicArts. 176 pages. $29.95. </a></b></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810995948" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />Though some may best recall the character from King Features' beloved series of antic animated shorts produced by Gene Deitch in the early sixties, the funny feline enjoyed a very long run in newspapers. The gorgeous volume includes essays by comics historians and creators (including Calvin & Hobbes’ reclusive Bill Watterson and poet e.e. cummings) as well as generous servings of sketches, strips, original art and more.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i> Originally published in the Miami Herald</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-80566259851949858572011-03-19T11:17:00.012-04:002011-03-19T11:37:55.049-04:00Neonomicon in Hardcover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Moores-Neonomicon-Moore/dp/1592911315?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Hardcover coming in November.</a><img alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1592911315" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><img alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1592911315" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></div><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Moores-Neonomicon-Moore/dp/1592911315?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-F5lCzhl2lVmRDv5CdIoGc0tE8I5Cr4VUiRPMfjvPZ38w9-kfsUzVwBKoc6TN9pQVEE8uw5dIgHgcLg9il4q8ZW5-UCxbGHoMT-LHL2UQuEhTGF50mdqn9mafAdmKQLlRcbtMMZeMQ_Se/s400/Neonomicon4Wrap.jpg" border="0" height="309" width="400" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-6952284512211421762010-02-14T08:16:00.002-05:002010-02-14T08:23:27.543-05:00Round Up: From anthologies to Detectives to Johnny Cash<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">BY RICHARD PACHTER</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Comics-2009/dp/061898965X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Best American Comics 2009" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=061898965X&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=061898965X" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </span><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Comics-2009/dp/061898965X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">The Best American Comics 2009. Charles Burns, Jessica Abel & Matt Madden, editors. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 332 pages.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=061898965X" style="border: medium none ! important; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Like a greatest hits collection from indy labels, this "best of'' eschews contributions from the majors, so there are no mesomorphic crimefighters, though there are several anthropomorphic animals and plenty of angst-y adolescents. Editors Abel and Madden, joined by the eminently estimable Burns, assemble stellar contributions from all-stars Clowes, the Crumbs, Kupperman, Pond, Spiegelman, Tomine, Ware and others. There's something to appeal to most every taste, though you'll have to decide for yourself if it all adds up to "the best.''</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Cash-I-See-Darkness/dp/0810984636?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0810984636&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810984636" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </span><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Cash-I-See-Darkness/dp/0810984636?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness. Reinhard Kleist. Abrams ComicArts. 224 pages.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810984636" style="border: medium none ! important; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Originally published in Germany and written in that country's language, this graphic bio of the country legend is told affectionately, despite unfolding like a restless nightmare in stark black and white. Though it may not strictly stick to the facts, this visceral tale of Johnny Cash's rise and fall and rise again is lyrical and haunting.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Luna-Park-Kevin-Baker/dp/140121584X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Luna Park" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=140121584X&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=140121584X" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Luna-Park-Kevin-Baker/dp/140121584X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">Luna Park. Kevin Baker. </a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Luna-Park-Kevin-Baker/dp/140121584X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">Danijel <i>Zezelj</i></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Luna-Park-Kevin-Baker/dp/140121584X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">. Vertigo. 160 pages.</a></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Baker's hallucinogenic dream of Russian survival in Coney Island, Afghanistan and Dallas blends history, pulp fiction and fantasy, with Zezejl's perfect art, and a didn't-see-it-coming, jaw-dropping final twist.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Detectives-Inc-Don-McGregor/dp/1600104940?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Detectives Inc." src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1600104940&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1600104940" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Detectives-Inc-Don-McGregor/dp/1600104940?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Detectives Inc. Don McGregor. Marshall Rogers. Gene Colan. IDW. 160 pages</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1600104940" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Don McGregor's pair of groundbreaking graphic novels, with art by the late Marshall Rogers and the great Gene Colan, is back in print in this lovingly produced collection, replete with script samples, reminiscences and more, plus stills and text from a film adaptation. McGregor's scripts may seem wordy and violet-hued to some, but his honesty, sincerity and humanity always shine through. Bits of ancillary material were obviously reproduced from secondary sources, but the stories themselves are crisp and sharp and hold up quite well, all things considered.</span><br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/ALEC-Years-Life-Size-Omnibus-Hardcover/dp/1603090479?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="ALEC: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Size Omnibus) - Hardcover Edition" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1603090479&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1603090479" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></b><b> </b></i><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/ALEC-Years-Life-Size-Omnibus-Hardcover/dp/1603090479?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" target="_blank">Alec: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Sized Omnibus). Eddie Campbell. Top Shelf.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1603090479" style="border: medium none ! important; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If autobiography is the lingua franca of the graphic novel form, Campbell is its undisputed Shakespeare. The consistency and growth of the artist's narrative skills and draftsmanship are unique though unsurprising. This long-awaited collection that gathers 30 years of disparately published stories limning the life and loves of Campbell's alter ago, Alec, will undoubtedly top every year's-best list, including mine.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talking-Lines-R-O-Blechman/dp/1897299850?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Talking Lines" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1897299850&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1897299850" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </span><br />
<i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talking-Lines-R-O-Blechman/dp/1897299850?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Talking Lines. R. O. Blechman. Drawn and Quarterly. 288 pages. $27.95.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1897299850" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Blechman's beautiful squiggly drawings are instantly recognizable to generations of magazine readers. This lovely and overdue collection makes an eloquent case for the prodigious talents and seriously whimsical art of a modern master. The accompanying text is similarly enlightening and almost as entertaining.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dread-Superficiality-Woody-Allen-Comic/dp/0810957426?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0810957426&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810957426" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dread-Superficiality-Woody-Allen-Comic/dp/0810957426?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip. Stuart Hample. Abrams ComicArts. 240 pages.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0810957426" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Inside Woody Allen was a fun and funny strip when it ran in newspapers (from 1976 to 1984), though none ran front-page retrospectives mourning its demise. But this thorough collection is an unexpected delight. As a primer for would-be cartoonists, the text provides great insights into the development of this sadly dying art form. Creator Hample collaborated loosely with subject Allen, abetted by several writers, including, astonishingly, The Cluetrain Manifesto's David Weinberger, now a Harvard professor, but then a Ph.D. philosophy candidate, which pleased the Woodman to no end, no doubt.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">originally published in The Miami Herald</span></i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-21796435052038799952010-02-13T21:42:00.002-05:002010-02-13T21:44:59.612-05:00More reviews<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b></b></i><br />
<i><b></b></i><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grandville-Bryan-Talbot/dp/1595823972?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Grandville" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1595823972&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1595823972" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </b></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grandville-Bryan-Talbot/dp/1595823972?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Grandville. Bryan Talbot. Dark Horse. 108 pages.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1595823972" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
Funny animals? Ugh. Though Walt Kelly, Carl Barks and even Jack "King'' Kirby embraced and elevated the genre, it mostly left me cold — until now. Talbot's tightly plotted political thriller posits an alternate universe where France conquered England in the Napoleonic Wars, and the world is ruled by anthropomorphic animals, with a few hairless apes as servants and lackeys. Following his tour de force <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Sunderland-Bryan-Talbot/dp/1593076738?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Alice in Sunderland</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1593076738" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, the grand master of British comics' recent projects have been a bit odd. Grandville is no exception, but this wildly heady blend of mystery, heroics, politics, religion and romance is more reminiscent of his classic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Empire-Legacy-Luther-Arkwright/dp/1593077262?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Luther Arkwright</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1593077262" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> series than anything he's done since. If you can get past — or embrace — his archetypical menagerie of well-drawn faux-bipeds, the story, with allegorical echoes of 9/11, is further evidence that Talbot blazes his own path and is always worth following.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Year-Loving-Dangerously-Ted-Rall/dp/1561635650?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Year of Loving Dangerously" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1561635650&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1561635650" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Year-Loving-Dangerously-Ted-Rall/dp/1561635650?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Year of Loving Dangerously. Ted Rall, Pablo G. Callejo. NBM Publishing. 127 pages.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1561635650" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
In different alternate universes, normal-looking Rall, an award-winning writer and artist, is a stud-muffin, so irresistible that women at peace protests, pizza joints and other public places invariably invite him to share their beds. Just as well: Since he was tossed out of Columbia, Rall has no fixed abode and usually bunks down in supply closets or subways (and strange ladies' apartments). The story is true, apparently, and unfolded in the 1980s after a freak medical condition resulted in Rall's school expulsion for failure to take his final exams. Rall scripted but wisely left the illustrations to Spain's Callejo, who did a great job illuminating a story as bleak as the empty experiences it depicts.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Escapists-Brian-K-Vaughan/dp/1595823611?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Escapists" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1595823611&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1595823611" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Escapists-Brian-K-Vaughan/dp/1595823611?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Escapists. Brian K Vaughan, Eduardo Barreto, Philip Bond, Steve Rolston. Dark Horse. 160 pages</a>.</b></i><br />
<br />
Stories about comics can be dull affairs. Affection for the medium and its practitioners often distorts the image. Even the great Will Eisner's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dreamer-Will-Eisner/dp/B0030J4MBQ?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Dreamer</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0030J4MBQ" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0030J4MBQ" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> was somewhat whitewashed and sentimental.<br />
<br />
Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-Clay/dp/0312282990?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0312282990" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> added mysticism and religion to the mix, but his love of the genre dominated. The series of comics spun off from his novel are a mixed bag, but this standalone story is wistful, evocative and powerful as it depicts the conflict and ambiguity of art, comics and real life. Vaughn's story has all the elements of a great comics tale with clearly drawn heroes and villains, but it also transcends the medium with its great heart and spirit.<br />
<i><b>— Richard Pachter</b></i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Originally published in The Miami Herald</span></i></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-31537880855537352212010-01-14T22:49:00.009-05:002010-02-13T22:59:03.870-05:00Zombies, Dylan and the Bible<div class="storyDetail" id="pageContainer"><div id="col2"><div class="content printable"><div id="wide"><div class="byline"><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>BY RICHARD PACHTER</b></div><br />
</div><div id="mainImage"><div class="image"></div></div><div id="storyBody"><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Recorded-Attacks/dp/030740577X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Recorded-Attacks/dp/030740577X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=030740577X&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=030740577X" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Recorded-Attacks/dp/030740577X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson. Three Rivers.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=030740577X" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></i><br />
Brooks' silly and self-important "historical'' zombie vignettes serve as illustrated back-stories to his popular series of expository zombie prose novels. It's a decent enough gimmick, and this graphic treatment might be entertaining and important to acolytes and fans of his other undead work. But the only redeeming feature for the unconvinced is the lithe and imaginative illustrations and vivid storytelling of Ibraim Roberson, whose craft and skill far outclasses Brooks' moribund material.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Dylan-Revisited-Graphic-Interpretations/dp/0393076172?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Bob Dylan Revisited: 13 Graphic Interpretations of Bob Dylan's Songs" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0393076172&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0393076172" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Dylan-Revisited-Graphic-Interpretations/dp/0393076172?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Bob Dylan Revisited. Various artists. Norton.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0393076172" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></i> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This French collection of illuminated Dylan lyrics, illustrated by an international, non-American team of artists is a mixed bag. Some of the selections seem odd choices for graphic retelling; others represent missed opportunities. But when things click, like in Dave McKean's <i>Desolation Row</i>, Gradimir Smudja's <i>Hurricane</i> and Zep's <i>Not Dark Yet</i>, you can see the promise of the concept. But most of the interpretations are a bit too serious and austere to justify the effort.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-New-Adventures-Archives/dp/156971732X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Spirit: The New Adventures Archives (Spirit Archives)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=156971732X&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=156971732X" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </b><br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-New-Adventures-Archives/dp/156971732X?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Spirit: The New Adventures. Will Eisner and others. Dark Horse.</a></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Reunions are usually iffy, which is why Eisner wisely resisted revisiting his creation, The Spirit, except for a few brief encounters. But he finally acquiesced to publisher Denis Kitchen's entreaties to allow other creators to play with his most famous character. The result was an eight-issue series that's gorgeously reproduced in this volume. Artists and writers alike were canny enough to resist slavish mimicry, bringing a new energy to the strip while retaining the original noir-ish blend of innovation and tradition. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Eddie Campbell, Kurt Busiek, Tom Mandrake, John Ostrander, Paul Chadwick and others clearly had a ball with their stellar homages to The Spirit of Will Eisner.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Genesis-Illustrated-R-Crumb/dp/0393061027?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0393061027&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0393061027" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </b><br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Genesis-Illustrated-R-Crumb/dp/0393061027?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. R. Crumb. Norton.</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0393061027" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The good news is that Crumb tackles the Bible -- but that's the bad news too. While his draftsmanship and composition have never been better, the material is, frankly, weak, hackneyed and disjointed. Unless readers allow their own transcendent faith and suspension of disbelief to make it more than what it is, Crumb's visual tour de force is for naught.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Masterpiece-Comics-R-Sikoryak/dp/1897299842?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Masterpiece-Comics-R-Sikoryak/dp/1897299842?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Masterpiece Comics" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1897299842&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1897299842" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </b><br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Masterpiece-Comics-R-Sikoryak/dp/1897299842?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Masterpiece Comics. R. Sikoryak. Drawn & Quarterly.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1897299842" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1897299842" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Sikoryak's astonishing mashups take classics from Shakespeare, Camus, Bronte and the Bible and combines them with the hoary comics motifs of Batman, Superman, Mary Worth, Blondie, EC, Garfield and more. He's a terrific artist, and his awesome mimicry and maniacal imagination will startle and delight litt'rateurs and fanboys alike.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Logicomix-Search-Truth-Apostolos-Doxiadis/dp/1596914521?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1596914521&tag=wordsonwords-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wordsonwords-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1596914521" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> </b><br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Logicomix-Search-Truth-Apostolos-Doxiadis/dp/1596914521?ie=UTF8&tag=wordsonwords-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth. Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, Annie Di Donna. Bloomsbury. </a></b></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This amazing and rewarding book presents a portrait of Bertrand Russell -- of all people -- and his quest for meaning in logic and romance. The book's creative team also appears as characters in their resonant and interesting evocation, using of the graphic format in an imaginative and engaging way.</div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published in The Miami Herald</i></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-34786861759597401052009-09-11T19:46:00.000-04:002009-09-11T19:45:29.946-04:00Cameron Stewart on Batman and Robin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cameronstewart.blogspot.com/2009/09/bats-out-of-bag.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpxlgAhUCkN1XfOpqlCnkeIuWYscKmSlp6r6wi4vUuaxJfOx1Klwq1vPLmFmWFkAYo6stY5r7DMOZupX2MUTbxZ4QQkJg8qG3U2Z0ypjfz4mbQWxMzdBrAzUu3dLWWbTHuzqNccmRpX9c/s400/br7coverfinal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380317633115605794" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2009/09/11/whos-handling-art-on-batman-and-robin-after-philip-tan/">Announced today</a>.<br /><br />He'll be doing Issues 7-9, right after Philip Tan and before Frank Quitely returns for 10-12.<br /><br />Here's a sketch <a href="http://cameronstewart.blogspot.com/">from his blog</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cameronstewart.blogspot.com/2009/04/batman-and-robin.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4wOC8e7aLPdrBYAkBvjrYxX5ZZTDkSqwJq3H9_IoVQZlVktG587toTXzm-Z2zIIpMgbJYO6jXN2lkGvycmPUmxB-h8sANJlB6_7uqySXU6h6jWsqdwCtcxlVilDkZWD4NxGfudlTVsEER/s400/batmanandrobin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380316620983365090" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-48209638912677902882009-08-31T14:40:00.002-04:002009-08-31T14:42:34.255-04:00Planetary #27 preview<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://wildstorm.blog.dccomics.com/2009/08/31/planetary-27-the-preview/"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 486px; height: 648px;" src="http://wildstorm.blog.dccomics.com/files/2009/08/planetary_27-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">An actual story, <a href="http://wildstorm.blog.dccomics.com/2009/08/31/planetary-27-the-preview/">it would seem</a>. Nice!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-39644387341530336232009-05-27T17:21:00.002-04:002009-05-27T17:23:42.546-04:00New Brian Azzaello promo comic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://josephfinder.com/content_books/vanished.asp?OtherVar=Buy"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQ3xp3VJBy46_FQwBW6dWdW5wJoFOoTGgLWS_ff_JyAtz-MXKxfbQ5_IhkuA32qMjguGY3nSiTu_4itaSAxu0RFsMerqhz5Yohndrp30Ll0pXYPhLyzPPzwnx_PpGZ2eaqR5NiHiuU2jI/s400/thecowl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340615897819772642" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />In conjunction with his forthcoming novel,<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Vanished</span>, author Joseph Finder produced a comic featuring his creation, The Cowl.</span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />From his site: </i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Cowl</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">is written by Brian Azzarello, one of the greats in the comics world and the author of </span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">100 Bullets</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >and the bestselling </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Joker</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >, and drawn by talented new comic artist Benito Gallego. There are limited quantities of the comic book available in print. This is an exclusive offer for fans who<a href="http://josephfinder.com/content_books/vanished.asp?OtherVar=Buy"> pre-order </a></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://josephfinder.com/content_books/vanished.asp?OtherVar=Buy">VANISHED</a></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >. (Click <a href="http://josephfinder.com/content_books/vanished.asp?OtherVar=Buy#origin">here</a></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >) for a letter from Joe explaining the origin of </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;">The Cowl</i><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-71765683727817535542009-05-21T14:01:00.003-04:002009-05-21T14:07:45.563-04:00More Chris Sprouse<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwlHBwuFmMxAiZoHWCZ0AHuw4q9AFSjV2ZZF8upGfgmLTLv09OiA-qWMegEglVKHjI6tuFa5jP1kIydQb79O8hZbSIhLAZJd_dizL6nhtbopVYIu1Kj1JVme78kJXKEmE-NnfrhwW_ErX/s1600-h/mm+montage.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9ZmCnJdJlzYIfPhMTZKBfeowjbtmkuf0mau1PHTL3Puy7unaU5k4fLLjBJx98-t6Te_VmAnCCRAxPXWhCoc6vjP77Ef8s4Cy4LVse3QvwLsAqMFk9V6SNL665wsbsSE7IURyAg-LgcRy/s400/mm+montage.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338340441668173234" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In a bit of synchronicity, <a href="http://sardinianconnection.blogspot.com/2009/05/chris-sprouse-interview.html">this interview</a> of Sprouse just appeared online. Disregard the typos. It's pretty good!<br /><br />And Sprouse was set to do a Superman story, he says, but it was canceled.<br /><br />Alas!<br /><br />My favorite quote: "It was very easy to break in: I simply mailed sample pages to DC Comics and they called me two weeks later! "<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-25035044392590309702009-05-19T22:42:00.009-04:002009-05-19T23:58:49.893-04:00The great Chris Sprouse<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1V0Ff0-S5MJuG3i5JBlimBhvqOkU8f5-fzGO7Eyttm-MjRWr95pvnAYSoJsku-g54RtwCAY6YSIHJukt2y0I7fOmQm9BTPd2H6ltyZf-cRRgpSgZxtMGIw_z4BLRQ8TxWbT1JhMFAyIP/s1600-h/Superman+%26+Misc+head+%26+hand+studies.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglxO8rTql8Kpj9KzuLgLfGlSGFxc8j3MOq959OouaqtxfCG4TKWrHH-dvvy3uTWdjSXvV5jUH4MhFQlVZ6RdYSXu7bjcoMFyovhBmQc59_KAtDIaJjz5jgWMjHMA8bxnIOoXHw7qinN9jc/s400/Superman+%26+Misc+head+%26+hand+studies.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337735266152763010" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />Artist Chris Sprouse has a very appealing style. Simple, clean and really elegant line work, expressive faces, terrific page design, smart sexy ladies, powerful men, scary villains — Sprouse does it all and makes it look easy.<br /><br />He's currently <a href="http://blog.newsok.com/nerdage/2009/03/19/tom-strong-to-return-in-new-miniseries">working on a new series featuring Tom Strong</a>, the character he co-created with Alan Moore.<br /><br />I ganked the above image from his <a href="http://sprousenet.blogspot.com/">website</a> which is well worth a visit.<br /><br />Wouldn't it be great if Chris Sprouse regularly drew Superman? I sure think so.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Wayne Boring + Curt Swan + Kurt Schaffenberger = Chris Sprouse. </span><span>That's how I figure it, anyway.</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-72272370762999256602009-05-11T12:33:00.006-04:002009-05-11T12:44:24.177-04:00Batman returns?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dcublog.dccomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/wc2kamandi2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDzlGkx-aSZjfX_9MGQfUpCrqYS5Wfy8H0laq3ZCkh6Kf6tMB-LO6nEvb5hQHn7lC9ceVMMx6wFxEkGr-pJf1SydZErhZSxdym3xY4KeZMRb4Pt_NOuoqUEz8gWmKn1DpNKNAJHCnOrji/s400/wc2kamandi2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334606533634669970" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left; font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(click twice for readable image)</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Ha! </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">From Wednesday Comics.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-36891056129656998372009-05-08T09:17:00.001-04:002009-05-08T09:19:58.272-04:00No Moore?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kfH1jA5SfQeOWArlG36GiCTiI1ox1MQLjKy-WDcd_13EOtM3D3bacs7nxYNMCWE-JPPNrM2ZFGBqZUp15uBQH_db1pyG1GO8f-Mkmz6MO73JwuGLvIRiD_Rs7_hfM2cPwEuuj6iQUBV0/s1600-h/League+Extraordinary+Gentlemen+Century+BritanniaAlan+Moore+Kevin+ONeill.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kfH1jA5SfQeOWArlG36GiCTiI1ox1MQLjKy-WDcd_13EOtM3D3bacs7nxYNMCWE-JPPNrM2ZFGBqZUp15uBQH_db1pyG1GO8f-Mkmz6MO73JwuGLvIRiD_Rs7_hfM2cPwEuuj6iQUBV0/s400/League+Extraordinary+Gentlemen+Century+BritanniaAlan+Moore+Kevin+ONeill.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333442171612293634" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The final part of the interview, <a href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?cat=30">here</a>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-13300482378820921102009-05-07T08:57:00.000-04:002009-05-07T08:57:44.395-04:00More Moore<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkj_JXxlvZNArWbheGc2ZoLY-4CLjUcRkJ94QmYpxPs5CNb1g5LoSokmMuW5e6wtiGaoS9YD8-ARRnI3WQl-OFf4fppQnfZi4ldoUm9EHvVIliM50_K93AuszxE8PVQqAoYFzYafwkW45b/s1600-h/Moon+and+Serpent+Bumper+Book+of+Magic+Alan+Moore+Steve+Moore.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333064431633913874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkj_JXxlvZNArWbheGc2ZoLY-4CLjUcRkJ94QmYpxPs5CNb1g5LoSokmMuW5e6wtiGaoS9YD8-ARRnI3WQl-OFf4fppQnfZi4ldoUm9EHvVIliM50_K93AuszxE8PVQqAoYFzYafwkW45b/s400/Moon+and+Serpent+Bumper+Book+of+Magic+Alan+Moore+Steve+Moore.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 400px; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Pádraig Ó Méalóid</span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">'s </i><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">fine i</span>nterview continues <a href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=12835">here</a>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-38462124426008969572009-05-06T10:12:00.003-04:002009-05-06T10:15:28.908-04:00Latest from Alan Moore<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Alan%20Moore%20P%C3%A1draig%20%C3%93%20M%C3%A9al%C3%B3id.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8S_CCN0IJ5YNVJZuBfJRqkw-Y9cTzGp1L8NsNaavG2Ph1IjqKV15EUBqexOXkNYcFKTwLehx7slxoa5rexZjQLcDRWH0WE3NimZoJVWwM8wkseHdZ_05HmYzl5F4bqi7YkAMH_0X5TYLa/s400/20090506135952.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332713727784696674" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">New Alan Moore </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=12828">interview</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">!</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;">(h/t Pádraig Ó Méalóid and Forbidden Planet.)</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-57471591182330589012009-05-05T09:21:00.002-04:002009-05-05T09:25:08.572-04:00Flashing on Wednesday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://karlkerschl.com/images/blog/WednesdayFlash01.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 343px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqj48WPmJjlo8pYYgrm1TsX4K24aLqGQeH7q6u4d6m_1CT-zlHZaaEVlVUxMQjM6X_E4p7HU4W_t__rnYd0kETSO9BGwyjGNceqeSqJmUzQBc3KX4Wqd3o6CE0E79YBY0on0-2_H7HbBC/s400/WednesdayFlash01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332329631282116658" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Karl Kerschel </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://karlkerschl.com/2009/05/wednesday-flash/">previews</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> his new Wednesday Comics <span style="font-style: italic;">Flash</span> strip.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-49302991174314870552009-04-23T10:17:00.001-04:002009-04-23T10:20:57.031-04:00Tucker Stone reviews!<object width="853" height="505"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Cheerfully ganked from <a href="http://www.comixology.com/articles/220/Advanced-Common-Sense-the-Web-Show">Comixology</a>.<br /><br /><br /></span><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UIi8EP9z0G0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UIi8EP9z0G0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-647797519148459092.post-30417951109936232282009-04-03T09:01:00.003-04:002009-04-03T09:09:41.494-04:00Before Watchmen<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vicsage.com%2Fdc%2Fcomicscavalcade.php&ei=OAnWSeqKJMaEtweny43hDw&usg=AFQjCNE04VPW-mTEZ0tqpdz2nlW4oc_OPw&sig2=csXKojYmXdwUsN49v1J3Qg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NcMiJUwGo4XOwltcPkOd-Sfrt_49y5Knm35KXXTV0L1MsVffblxE_jQvh6iHwdMVEUHjhpiLJAN9813coKrj89SBYwseI2ntX008UMY7AaVHYpTO9WLYCmkp9bFFt82rti-UUADqG3DV/s400/comicscavalcade.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320451466934480898" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Dave Gibbons' unpublished cover for a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vicsage.com%2Fdc%2Fcomicscavalcade.php&ei=OAnWSeqKJMaEtweny43hDw&usg=AFQjCNE04VPW-mTEZ0tqpdz2nlW4oc_OPw&sig2=csXKojYmXdwUsN49v1J3Qg">proposed new weekly comic</a> that would feature the Charlton hereoes — and Superman.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0