Todd Klein's Blog, page 115

And Then I Read: THE DREAMING #16

Image © DC Comics. Written by Simon Spurrier, art & colors by Marguerite Sauvage, letters by Simon Bowland, cover by Yanick Paquette & Nathan Fairbairn

In the second part of “The Crown,” Dora finds herself trapped in a house with a wealthy man on life support, a man who tore her down in the past. The house is both high tech and full of magic. She also finds out more about her own true nature, and from a computer program, more about what’s really going on in The Dreaming. The nature and persona of the computer program is the last and perhaps most interesting revelation.

I like the art of Marguerite Sauvage in this issue, though it does tend to look more like fashion design than comics to me in some places, and her vision of Dora is rather different than Bilquis Evely’s. Still, the storytelling and drama are well done in a challenging issue where not much physical movement is going on.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: HABIBI by Craig Thompson

This and all images © Craig Thompson.

Habibi is an amazing work on many levels. There are over 650 pages each completely written, drawn, lettered and inked by Craig Thompson, a feat in itself. For this project, Thompson immersed himself in Islamic art and lettering, and the results are present on nearly every page in stunningly intricate work, like this one:

Thompson also shows and tells us some of the things he learned from the language and lettering as here:

In addition to the exploration of the religion and culture of Islam, and the book includes stories from the Qur’an and The Bible, Thompson seems to have been equally inspired by western Orientalism, things like The Arabian Nights. Tales of that sort are here as well. Then there’s the Arabian mathematics embodied in magic squares and patterns that run through the work.

That’s perhaps half the focus, the other being a story of a young woman and a younger boy thrown together by loss and hardship, first living together in the desert, then separately in a city until their paths cross again. Dodola and Zam have only each other for much of the story, trying to survive against all odds, and through all the cruelties and tragedies thrown at them. Their story covers decades and has all the ups and downs of epic melodrama, while they also seem to represent archetypes beyond their daily lives, as the heroes and heroines of legend and fable do in so many stories. That aspect of the book meanders at times, and dips in and out of the characters’ lives.

Habibi has been criticized as furthering Islamic stereotypes, and I can’t speak to that. I can only say I am astonished by the work and enjoyed reading it. I will remember it and think about it for a long time, I think. And, wow, is the art and lettering terrific!

And Then I Read: JIMMY OLSEN #5

Image © DC Comics. Written by Matt Fraction, art by Steve Lieber,
colors by Nathan Fairbairn, letters by Clayton Cowles

This is the Saturday Night Live of comics, back when it was funny. Not content to wreak havoc in Metropolis, Jimmy is now extending his chaos to Batman’s Gotham City. Batman is not amused with Olsen live blog events like “How Many Jokers Can We Fit Inside This Frozen Yogurt Shop Before Batman Notices?” Continuing as a series of vignettes, several in the issue also focus on Bruce Wayne/Batman with amusing clarity. The Bat’s attempts at humor are priceless. Back in Metropolis, Jimmy’s scheme for avoiding trouble by staging his own funeral blow up…literally. And in olden day Metropolis, star-crossed lovers from the Olsen and Luthor feuding families attempt to get married. In Gotham, we also meet Jimmy’s goth sister Janey for more laughs.

I am really having a good time reading this series. Recommended.

Incoming: PROMETHEA and a Marvel Token

Image © DC Comics.

I received this new hardcover 20th Anniversary reprint of PROMETHEA issues 13-23. I prefer the original cover designs artist J.H. Williams III and I did for the first hardcover printings, the first trade paperbacks, and the Absolute Editions, but this one looks fine, and I’m glad they’re keeping the series in print.

This and next image © Marvel.

I also received this letter and commemorative brass cloisonné token from Marvel for the one page I lettered for MARVEL COMICS #1000. It’s the first “gift” I can recall ever receiving from the company.

A closer look at both sides of the coin or token. A token of appreciation, literally.

Rereading: THE STARS MY DESTINATION by Alfred Bester

I read this first as a teenager, but not since. It came up as a favorite of several friends, so I thought it was time to read it again. I’m glad I did.

As the story opens, Mechanic’s Mate 3rd Class Gulliver Foyle has been adrift in a wrecked spaceship in the asteroid belt of our solar system for 170 days. That he’s still alive is due to his tenacious will and stubborn refusal to give up. Only a small part of the ship is habitable, his supplies are almost gone, but he’s hanging on. Foyle, “Gully” as he’s known, is a simple working man, born and raised in the gutters, with no education or ambition. He’s 30 years old and has made a life for himself in the spaceways until now. He doesn’t even know why his ship, the Nomad, was wrecked. He won’t last much longer. Suddenly another ship appears near his course, close enough to read her name, Vorga. He hails it, sends up flares, pleads for rescue, but is ignored. Thus is born Gully Foyle’s fury and desire for revenge on this callous act that will fuel escape by his own cunning, and fuel his deadly quest for the rest of the book. That quest will take him back to Earth, allow him to learn to jaunt, or teleport himself from place to place around that planet, and send him deep into the lives of several wealthy men and smart women involved in interplanetary trade. Along the way, Foyle will end up in prison, in a circus of his own creation, in the board rooms of the powerful, and in an interplanetary war. Through it all his singular purpose drives him like a tiger after its prey. Because of it he is changed in many ways, and his path will draw others in its wake, some to destruction, some to glory.

Still an amazing read, and not very dated. Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: LIVEWIRE FUGITIVE

Image © Valiant. Written by Vita Ayala, art by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martin,
letters by Saida Temofonte, cover by Adam Pollina

I received this trade paperback collecting the first four issues of the LIVEWIRE series at the ‘Ringo Awards. I don’t follow Valiant comics, having read only one previous collection, and this one did not give me an easy way to get up to speed. There is a brief bio of the character, but the story jumps into a continuity that obviously happened in some other series, but that’s never identified or made clear. Despite that, I enjoyed the writing and the art.

Amanda McKee is a psiot (hero with mental powers) known as Livewire, who can control any digital device or system. Apparently she and her friends were put in a corner by the U.S. Government, and to allow them to escape, Livewire shut down the entire electrical grid for the country. This caused a number of deaths from various causes. Now the psiots are on the run, and when Amanda tries to gather her psiot friends in a safe location, she finds they too want nothing more to do with her because of her actions. Soon Amanda is being hunted by another superhuman who has powers equalling her own, and she finds herself captured, powerless, and in more trouble than she’s ever imagined.

Recommended, despite the unclear story origins.

And Then I Read: THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden

The second book of the Winternight Trilogy takes the story from the forests and small villages of mediaeval Russia (then known as The Rus’) to the large city of Moscow. Large for the time, but still a relatively small city behind walls to keep out enemies and ruled by Grand Prince Dmitrii. His wife is Olga, one of the family followed in the first book. Her brother Sasha is now a monk, but one that wears a sword and fights alongside his friend and cousin Dmitrii against raiders who are pillaging small villages in the area. Meanwhile, their sister Vasya, the one with arcane powers both innate and given to her by Morosko, the Frost King, is determined to see the world beyond her small village. She rides out on her magic talking horse, Solovey, and for a while they have adventures and narrow escapes from capture, and avoid starving and freezing with Morosko’s help. At length Vasya, disguised as a boy, joins forces with Dmitrii and her brother Sasha, helping to fight the barbarian raiders. When they all arrive back in Moscow, Vasya’s adventure becomes much more complicated and perilous, especially when her true identity is found out. Soon Vasya is surrounded by enemies: her old foe the priest Konstantin, a wily sorcerer and a Tatar warlord, while her family seems set against her. Worst of all, Morosko has little power to help her in Moscow.

This was a good read. At times I thought Vasya seemed fussy and spoiled, unable to make the wisest choices and putting those close to her in danger, but that works itself out as the story moves on to an epic conclusion. I will be reading the third book soon. Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE DREAMING #15

Image © DC Comics. Written by Simon Spurrier, art by Bilquis Evely, colors by Mat Lopes, letters by Simon Bowland, cover by Yanick Paquette & Nathan Fairbairn

And so, the Vertigo label is gone from this and I suppose any other new issues at DC to be replaced by “Black Label.” Isn’t that scotch whiskey?

As one might expect, things are not going well for some of The Dreaming’s key figures. Cain is missing, and Abel finds himself unable to go on without the routines of the past. The new ruler of The Dreaming, Wan, the mothlike creature reportedly made of computer code, seems to be losing control. Matthew the raven, the eyes of Wan, is seeing things that disturb him, such as Merv Pumpkinhead playing an odd kind of golf. Perhaps most disturbed is Lucien the librarian when he finds out his library has been digitized. Back on Earth, things are equally askew.

A new storyline falls into play. I’m liking it so far. Recommended.

Incoming: SNOW, GLASS, APPLES by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran

This has been out for a while, but I just got my letterer copies from Dark Horse. I loved working on this book, the art by Colleen is amazingly wonderful, and her adaptation of Neil’s story is excellent. This is my first time seeing many of the pages in color, and the colors look fine, but I like the line art even more.

As she says in her notes, and as I recognized right away, Colleen’s style for this project was highly influenced by Irish artist Harry Clarke. I know his work mainly from his illustrations for “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” by Edgar Allan Poe. I’ve had the 1936 edition in my library for decades, example above, his art for the story “The Cask of Amontillado.” As we began to prepare for this, Colleen also shared some of his stained glass work, which I hadn’t seen before.

Most of the lettering is in captions. I sent samples using different fonts to Colleen, Neil and editor Daniel Chabon, and we settled on this one. For the caption fill I created a pattern from one of Clarke’s stained-glass windows.

After that it was mainly a matter of keeping out of the way of the art as much as possible. I hated to cover any of it. I think there were only a few places where placements were difficult, though, Colleen did leave me room.

Much as I like the coloring, I hope there will eventually be a version in black and white so that all the details of the art can be best appreciated. I know it’s too soon, but an Artist’s Edition should happen someday.

A closer look at part of a page. The work is so rich in detail, yet at the same time it reads well due to the wise choices in open space and black areas. This really is a remarkable achievement.

If you haven’t seen the book, I highly recommend it. And even if you’ve read the story by Neil Gaiman before, this version will haunt you.

And Then I Read: BLACK HAMMER 3 FOR $1

Well, only one third of this is new to me, and that’s what I’m reviewing here. This new Black Hammer starter set contains BLACK HAMMER #1, which I lettered, and THE QUANTUM AGE #1, which I’ve already read and reviewed. The third book is SHERLOCK FRANKENSTEIN AND THE LEGION OF EVIL #1, written, as they all are, by Jeff Lemire, nearly everything else in the story is by David Rubin.

SHERLOCK features and is narrated by Lucy Weber, the daughter of the original Black Hammer, still in Spiral City and trying to find out what happened to her father and the other heroes who disappeared in the cosmic battle with Anti-God, some years before. So far she’s found her father’s secret base, the Hall of Hammer, and has decided to try to find some of his most notorious opponents as a way to help track him down. Number one on that list is Sherlock Frankenstein. (Hard to think of a more memorable name than that!)

Lucy’s search leads to the Spiral Asylum for the Criminally Insane (an Arkham analog), whose warden was a winged hero during World War Two. With the assistance of guard officer Lopez, also a former superhero, Lucy visits the ominous armored creature known as Mectoplasm, a one-time henchman of Sherlock Frankenstein. What Mectoplasm tells Lucy fills out the rest of the issue, and sets up the rest of the series.

Nicely done, but of course, one is left wanting more, as is the point. Recommended.