Todd Klein's Blog, page 127

And Then I Read: BRONZE AGE BOOGIE #1

Image © Stuart Moore, Alberto Ponticelli and Ahoy Comics.

The latest new title from Ahoy Comics (with a handsome logo by Brett Evans) is an unexpected mix of times and genres. The “Bronze Age” of the title refers to both the comics of the 1970s (what some comics historians call the Bronze Age of comics) and to the actual Bronze Age about four thousand years ago.

The issue’s main story by Stuart Moore and Alberto Ponticelli begins in New York City in 1975. I remember it being a time of disruption and decay there. I don’t remember the secret super team of Go-Go Golem, Doc Lunar and Madame Ape, but then they were secret.

Next we head back to the prehistoric Bronze Age to meet King Domnall Constantine and his daughter Brita Constantina, both fierce warriors taking on a castle full of wizards and their undead army of dinosaurs and other dread creatures. King Domnall speaks as you might expect, but Brita sounds very much like a 1970s teenager. How could that be? One possible reason is the time-traveling chimp she has for a friend, who tells her lots of stories about the future he came from (and apparently can’t get back to).

It gets weirder from there, but in a fun way.

The backup story by Tyrone Finch and Mauricet is about a bear being used as a test animal for the U.S. space program in 1958. He seems like a very docile and agreeable bear, happy to take a ride into space. What happens next is not unexpected, but entertaining.

As always, several interesting text pieces fill out the issue, and fine work is on exhibit from everyone involved, including letterer Rob Steen and colorists Giulia Brusco and Lee Loughridge.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: BATMAN, KINGS OF FEAR #6

Image © DC Comics. Written by Scott Peterson, art by Kelley Jones,
colors by Michelle Madsen, letters by Rob Leigh.

This series has seen Batman driven by The Scarecrow to confront many things in his life and past that he would prefer not to think about, coaxed by Scarecrow’s fear gas to imagine his life if he had not become The Batman, and what Gotham City would be without that crime-fighting presence. Since this is not an Elseworlds story (out of continuity), that means it must end pretty close to the usual status quo. Bruce Wayne’s new understanding of his place in Gotham has to be mitigated by other voices. Here, it’s mainly a young woman working at Arkham who was once saved by Batman, policeman James Gordon, and Alfred. How that all works out, I will leave to you to read for yourself, but I thought it was handled reasonably well. Kelley’s art is wild and wonderful, as always, and the coloring and lettering by Madsen and Leigh have also been a delight. Perhaps it all boils down to one harrowing night in Gotham, but it worked for me.

Recommended.

Incoming: LOEG THE TEMPEST #5

Image © Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.

Never has the word penultimate been so fraught with meaning! One more issue after this, and the 20-year saga of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is complete. I’m working on it now. It’s amazing. This one should be out next week.

And Then I Read: BATMAN, KINGS OF FEAR #5

Image © DC Comics. Written by Scott Peterson, art by Kelley Jones,
colors by Michelle Madsen, letters by Rob Leigh.

While the art by Kelley Jones continues to be amazing and wonderful, the writing of Scott Peterson gets to shine this time, as The Scarecrow takes his psychoanalysis of Batman in a new direction. Not unlike the film “It’s A Wonderful Life,” Scarecrow shows Batman, or to be more accurate, allows Batman’s inner visions brought forth by Scarecrow’s drugs to show him what Gotham City would be like if he had never taken up the cowl and cape and begun fighting crime. If, instead, he had put his energy and fortune into other kinds of good deeds and improvements in the lives of Gotham’s citizens. This is a clever premise, as we see a much brighter and happier Gotham, and also see where all of Batman’s arch-foes might have ended up without him to oppose them. Is this really something that Batman knows in his heart but is unable to acknowledge? I suppose we’ll find out in the thrilling final issue of this fun series!

Recommended.

And Then I Read: MYSTERIES OF LOVE IN SPACE #1

Image © DC Comics.

This looked like a fun anthology, out for Valentine’s Day. Eight stories, all new except one. I gave it a try.

The New Gods in “An Apokolips Love Story” by writer James Tynion IV and artist Jesus Merino. Too grim for my taste, but I suppose true to the spirit of Apokolips, Darkseid’s home world. Granny Goodness tortures a captured rebel.Kilowog in “Old Scars, Fresh Wounds” by writer Kyle Higgins and artist Cian Tormey is much more fun, and reminiscent of the Green Lantern Corps of Steve Englehart’s day. Kilowog is set up on a date by Guy Gardner, but things don’t go well.Bizarro in “Backward Heart” by writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Max Dunbar is reasonably fun, as Bizarro meets an appealing super-heroine and agrees to help her save a world. Bizarro dialogue is kind of annoying to read, though.Hawkgirl in “Galentine’s Day” by writher Cecil Castellucci and artist Elena Casagrande has Hawkgirl moping about her breakup with Hawkman (news to me) and getting support from Starfire and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. Predictable but not bad.Space Cabbie in “GPS I Love You” by writer Aaron Gillespie and artist Max Raynor. Cabbie’s cab has been upgraded with an alluring female GPS (Galactic Positioning Service?) who he hates at first but then loves. Amusing idea, well told.Crush in “Crushed,” written by Andrea Shea, art by Amacay Mahuelpan. If there must be a female Lobo, in this case probably his daughter, I suppose this is not a bad story for her, having a crush on a female cage fighter with a whole other agenda.Lois Lane and Superman in “Glasses” by writer Jeff Loveness and artist Tom Grummett is charming and fun, my favorite story in the book. Lois ponders what she sees in Clark/Superman and finds good reasons.Adam Strange in “The Planet Pendulum” by writer Gardner Fox and artists Mike Sekowski and Bernard Sachs is a reprint from the 1960s. I would have liked it more if they chose a Carmine Infantino art one, but okay for nostalgia.

Not a bad read, recommended.

And Then I Read: THE SECRET KEEPERS by Trenton Lee Stewart

Cover art by Diana Sudyka.

I enjoyed this author’s “Mysterious Benedict Society” series, which I felt grew better as it went along. “Secret Keepers” has all the attractions of Stewart’s earlier books like puzzles and mysteries with the addition of a setting filled with ominous dread and tension that ups the excitement.

Reuben is a loner, a boy living with his mother in a poor part of the city of New Umbra, a city controlled by a menacing mystery man known as “The Smoke,” who no one ever sees. He’s a sort of crime boss with a network of thugs collecting bribes all over the town. Police and government officials fear him too, and are unable to stop him. Reuben likes to explore the city on his own, and has become very good at doing so without being noticed. His mother worries about him, and wants him to make friends, but Reuben is happier playing solo spy games. At least until he finds a very unusual watch. The watch has the power to make him invisible for a short time, though he becomes blind when he does so. Before long he is using it to spy on even more shady characters, but somehow The Smoke has found out about him, and his henchman are searching the city for the boy. Reuben must get away, and his destination is a lonely lighthouse on the coast where even more surprises and secrets are uncovered, and new friends are found. Even with his magic watch, though, can Reuben and his new friends Jack and Penny do anything to protect themselves from The Smoke? You see, he has another watch just like Reuben’s, and is desperate to have them both.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: EDGAR ALLAN POE’S SNIFTER OF TERROR #6

Image © Ahoy Comics.

Ahoy finishes its first season on a high note with this final issue of their humor/horror anthology. Personally I’m a hard sell with that combination. If it’s scary, it’s usually not funny, and vice versa, but for the second time in the series, writer Mark Russell and artist Peter Snejbjerg have perfectly combined gothic horror with surreal Monty Python humor in “Franken Cherrie.” Like “Dark Chocolate” in issue 1, it takes characters inspired by breakfast cereal mascots and makes their stories over in a dark but hilarious bowl full of tragedy and death. I rarely laugh while reading a comic, but this one did make me laugh quite a lot!

The third and concluding part of Kek-W and Lee Carter’s “Le Duc De L’omelette” did as little for me as the first two, but I did like Peter Milligan and Sarah Burrini’s “William Wilson, Inc.,” a clever and amusing fable of a company supplying clones to busy, rich men so those men can have more fun. It isn’t at all scary like the Poe story, but I liked it anyway. As usual, there are also several text features, and this time a crossword puzzle.

“Franken Cherrie” is a must-read, and well worth the price of the entire issue. I hope there will be more of these stories in the future. Recommended.

Rereading: DOCTOR DOLITTLE’S PUDDLEBY ADVENTURES by Hugh Lofting

It took 68 years, but I’ve finally read ALL of Hugh Lofting’s Dr. Dolittle stories. I’ve owned a copy of this book for decades, but until recently I didn’t know that the later printing I have leaves out two long stories, “The Sea Dog” and “The Story of the Maggot,” as well as a brief introduction by Lofting’s wife, Josephine. It was assembled and published in 1953, after his death, from stories he wrote for the Herald Tribune Syndicate in the 1920s. The first edition has eight stories in all, each with multiple chapters.

The first four stories are tales of dogs living in the Home for Crossbred Dogs in the Doctor’s expansive garden, and can be placed at the beginning of “Doctor Dolittle’s Garden.”

“The Sea Dog” is a sort of Robinson Crusoe’s dog story about a shipwreck and a cabin boy who survives with the ship’s dog. “Dapple” is about a valuable champion pedigreed dog who is sold to a rich owner he hates, and he keeps running away to live with the Doctor, causing that kind soul lots of trouble. “The Dog Ambulance” is an idea from the doctor’s own dog, Jip, that the dogs living in his garden could be of service by running an ambulance for injured animals. This seems like a good idea but doesn’t work out so well. “The Stunned Man” is my favorite of these four tales, a cracking good detective story with dog detective Kling on the case. He’s the canine Sherlock Holmes.

“The Green-Breasted Martins” is a story that fits into the first Dolittle book on his initial trip to Africa. The Doctor helps the Martins prove to the local people how important they are to their well-being by going on strike and refusing to eat any insect pests.

“The Crested Screamers” and “The Lost Boy” fit into “Doctor Dolittle’s Caravan.” In the first, Cheapside tells the doctor about some birds in the London Zoo that all the other birds listen to. In the second, one of the rare cases of a child other than the Doctor’s assistant Tommy Stubbins being a main character, the lost boy wants to join the caravan, and is soon driving all the animals to the point of quitting with his well-meaning but annoying antics.

“The Story of the Maggot” could fit into the second half of “Doctor Dolittle’s Garden,” where a very brief summary of it resides. I can understand why Lofting had a hard time getting this one published, because the concept of maggots is off-putting to many, though in this case he means a grub, really, that feeds on nuts still on the tree. Lofting draws it as an inchworm, oddly. It’s a wildly unlikely tall-tale of one worm that travels widely across the ocean and back in a series of accidents. Entertaining enough.

This was a fun read, though not up with the best of the series. It leaves only “Gub-Gub’s Book” not reread, and I didn’t like that one so much, but I may get to it again eventually.

And Then I Read: DRAGONFLY & DRAGONFLYMAN 1

Image © Ahoy Comics.

Here’s a sampler comic from Ahoy that you can get for nothing on Free Comic Book Day at the right retailer. It’s a full-size Ahoy comic with all new material as far as I can tell: 20 pages of the lead feature by Tom Peyer and Russ Braun, 8 pages of Captain Ginger by Stuart Moore, June Brigman & Roy Richardson, a two-page Poe vs. The Black Cat by Hunt Emerson and a one-page text piece by Hart Seely and Frank Cammuso. The lead alternates frequently between the two versions of Dragonfly, one retro, one grunge, telling two stories with many parallels, and is an excellent introduction to the concept. Captain Ginger gives us an origin story of sorts for the relationship between the Captain and his right-hand cat Sergeant Mittens, from their kittenhood. The Black Cat is typically “Spy-vs.-Spy” funny. Ahoy has put their best effort into this giveaway, and it’s a fun read.

Recommended.

Incoming: THE SANDMAN OMNIBUS VOLUME III

Yet another print version of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN, this time in three large “Omnibus” editions. I haven’t seen the first two, but received copies of the third one recently. Measuring 7.5 by 11 by 2.5 inches and weighing six and a half pounds, it includes the two DEATH mini-series, SANDMAN MIDNIGHT THEATRE, SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS, both versions of SANDMAN: THE DREAM HUNTERS, SANDMAN: OVERTURE, and the three all-art GALLERY books. Cover price is $150.00. I haven’t opened the shrink-wrap, but I expect the art size and paper quality will match the PROMETHEA Deluxe Edition I looked at recently, so not as large and high quality as the Absolute Editions, but better than the regular hardcovers. Release date is March 27th. If you want a three-volume set of Sandman, this is for you. I think the only possible remaining version is a one-volume edition, which would probably be too heavy for me to lift!