Todd Klein's Blog, page 133

Santa and the Doodle-li-Boop!

Santa and the Doodle-li-boop mp3

Rerunning an old post, here’s a Christmas song you probably haven’t heard. They don’t make them like this anymore, which is just as well. From my childhood 45 rpms collection. The more famous version is by Art Carney, this is a cover by Sam Ulano.

Rereading: FREDDY GOES TO THE NORTH POLE by Walter R. Brooks

This time of year I try to reread something from my shelves with a Christmas or at least wintry theme. This one has Santa Claus as a major character, and certainly qualifies. If you’re not familiar with the “Freddy the Pig” series by Brooks, you’ve missed out on fine, funny, entertaining reading. I loved them as a child. As an adult, I appreciate the humor and insights into human and animal nature all the more. This is the second in the series, in the first one Freddy and his animal friends went from their home in rural New York State to Florida. Brooks was not quite settled in his handling of the characters yet, so for instance, while Freddy and Jinx the Cat are nearly always front and center in later books, in this one they are off-stage for about a third of the time. Other animals get to take the spotlight instead. The illustrations by Kurt Wiese for the entire series are wonderful and an integral part of the reading experience.

The animals of the Bean Farm enjoyed their Florida adventure, and would like to travel more, but with all the work to be done on the farm they can’t find the time. Freddy comes up with a plan to give local tours to animals into the nearby town of Centerboro and around the area, often on cow or horseback for the small ones, or in small herds for the large ones. To pay for this popular activity, the animals pledge work time on the farm. Before long, Mr. Bean’s work is done nearly as soon as he mentions he plans to start it, and there’s plenty of time for the home animals to launch a new expedition to the North Pole. They thought it would be a fun adventure and hope to visit Santa Claus.

The first expedition heads out and does fine until they become stranded on an iceberg in the polar sea, and are rescued by a whaling ship. The whalers try to make pets of them, and one of the animals, a crow, is sent back to the Bean farm to get help. He organizes a second expedition, but this one is much less well prepared and runs into all kinds of trouble from bears, wolves, and angry humans. Eventually they do reach the Pole to find Freddy’s group as well as the whalers/pirates living the high life there, and interfering with Santa’s business. The animals have to figure out a way to get rid of the pirates without hurting anyone, which Santa will not allow, and help get Christmas gift deliveries back on track.

Like all the Freddy books, which had mostly gone out of print for a few decades, this was reissued by Overlook Press not too long ago, and is still available from them. I recommend it and the entire series.

Incoming: BLACK HAMMER Vol. 1 Library Edition

Cover painting by Dean Ormston.

When I got into comics as a pro in 1977, collected editions of monthly comics in any form were unknown. That began to change with the success of THE DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN collections in 1986, and today a moderately successful comic is almost sure to be collected in one or more trade paperbacks, while a very successful one, like BLACK HAMMER, can expect a hardcover edition as well. Dark Horse has gone all out and produced an oversized deluxe hardcover containing the first 13 issues and first annual for the series, the same kind of format DC calls their “Absolute Editions.” It has large format art printed on high quality thick paper, a place-mark ribbon, and lots of extra material. The only area where they skimped a bit was on the glued rather than sewn binding. Even so, this is a book that should last for many decades. Who is buying $50 volumes like this? I have no idea, but someone is, or they couldn’t be published. The material inside is quite good, but I don’t know if I’d call it quite worthy of this treatment. Your opinion may vary, and if BLACK HAMMER is everything to you, you’ll want this. I believe it’s available now.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN #2

Image © DC Comics. Written by Grant Morrison, art by Liam Sharp, colors by Steve Oliff, letters by Tom Orzechowski.

Writer Grant Morrison and artist Liam Sharp are doing an excellent job on this series, which so far stands out as quite different from what came before and thoroughly fascinating. Grant’s inventive characters, from a blind GL who operates through sound to one with a human body and a small volcano for a head, are breaking new ground, a hard thing to do in this decades-long series. Evil Star, a long-time GL villain, has been sprung from a prison of complete darkness, which had rendered him powerless.  Turns out the person who engineered that breakout doesn’t want him, but wants his powers. On Oa, the new Oa, drawn with amazing complexity by Liam, Hal Jordan is interrogating a former member of the Spider Guild. (As the co-creator of that group with Dave Gibbons, this was particularly fun for me.) New threats abound, and perhaps the biggest one is the complete disappearance of whole planets. As the surprise ending reveals, this will hit Hal Jordan hard.

Recommended.

Rereading: THE TWILIGHT OF MAGIC by Hugh Lofting

Cover and interior illustrations by Lois Lenski

By 1928 Hugh Lofting had written eight Dr. Dolittle books, and wanted to do something else. This book, his only non-Dolittle novel, was the result, and while it’s quite different in some ways from the Dolittle books, it’s equally charming and well written.

It’s also the only book of his illustrated by someone else. Lois Lenski, at the beginning of her career, was an excellent choice. Like Lofting, her drawings were simplified and a bit cartoony, but Lenski had greater skill and her drawings for this book capture a medieval flavor that I think would have been beyond Lofting. She, of course, became a prolific children’s book author and illustrator of nearly 100 books.

Giles and Anne live in a medieval town, and they are fascinated by an old woman who sells apples in the street, Agnes the Applewoman. Some call her Shragga the Witch, and think her and her two black cats dangerous, but when Giles and Anne befriend her, they find she is a kind person who simply tries to help the sick and poor with her medicines and doctoring. Giles and Anne’s father is deeply in debt, and they may soon lose their home, so the children appeal to Agnes for help. She finds for them a magic shell by the seashore. When put to the ear, instead of simply sounding like the ocean, it allows one to hear what others are saying about you anywhere in the world. Agnes tells them, “Whoever carries the Whispering Shell to the one in greatest need of it shall make his fortune.” 

At the time of the story, Lofting says, magic is dying out to be replaced by science, and the Whispering Shell is the only magic in the book, but it plays an important role when Giles is able to give it to their kingdom’s new young King, on a visit to their town. Using the shell, the king is able to learn of and thwart a threat to his life, and in gratitude, the king makes Giles a valued member of his royal household. Giles, using the shell secretly, takes on the role of the King’s Finder, and amazes the court with his ability to find lost things.

This story grows naturally from a simple tale of two children to the story of a kingdom, its court and ruler, and the difficulties and rewards of royal life. Lofting’s writing seems to grow with this challenging subject, and the characters gain a depth and emotional resonance that is rarely found in his other books. There are some animals in the story, but they do not talk. Instead, the people and their world take center stage. It’s an excellent tale, well told and highly recommended.

MY COMICS LIFE-LIST 1979

From HOUSE OF MYSTERY #274, image © DC Comics

Continuing my life-list for comics, a list of the writers, artists, colorists, and editors I worked with on story pages. 1977-78 is HERE. Ground rules: I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I won’t count are relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories, mostly. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist. Of course this lists only the first time I worked with someone, so anyone from the previous year list will not be here. Entries are tagged as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), or inker (i). I did not often interact with colorists in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. Editors will only be listed where I did not work with them in any other capacity. I base the date of first work with someone on cover dates of the issues, then alphabetically for ones with the same date, though they may not have been, probably weren’t, lettered in that order, but you have to have some system.

Robert Kanigher (w) G.I. COMBAT #212, Feb.-March 1979

Michael W. Kaluta (a) THE UNEXPECTED #190, March-April 1979 (1 page Doorway to Nightmare intro.)

Martin Pasko (w) THE UNEXPECTED #190, March-April 1979 (I colored his story)

George Evans (a) WEIRD WAR TALES #74, April 1979

Dennis O’Neil (w) DETECTIVE COMICS #483, April-May 1979

Bill Draut (i) GHOSTS #76, May 1979

George Ruppert (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #75, May 1979

Dan Adkins (i) WEIRD WAR TALES #75, May 1979

J.M. DeMatteis (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #76, June 1979

Gale Heimbach (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #76, June 1979

Murray Boltinoff (w) G.I. COMBAT #214, June-July 1979

Dick Ayers (p) MEN OF WAR #19, Aug. 1979

Michael Uslan (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #78, Aug. 1979

Curt Swan (p) ACTION COMICS #499, Sept. 1979

Don Heck (p) SUPERMAN FAMILY #197, Sept.-Oct. 1979

Dick Dillin (p) DC COMICS PRESENTS #14, Oct. 1979

Ric Estrada (a) WEIRD WAR TALES #80, Oct. 1979

Joe Orlando (a) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979 logo design from his sketch

Mike W. Barr (w) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979

Tom Sutton (a) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979

Marshall Rogers (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #274, Nov. 1979

One thing I’ve discovered as I check these credits in the Grand Comics Database is that I worked with some of these writers without knowing it, as they used pen names, usually on short stories for the war or mystery titles. 

I will continue this series when I have time, it takes surprisingly long to list the stories from my Archives, cross reference with dates to get the date order, look up each job on the GCD for the creator credits, and put the blog post together, but I’m enjoying the trip down memory lane!

And Then I Read: MISTER MIRACLE #12

Image © DC Comics. Written by Tom King, , art and colors by Mitch Gerads, letters by Clayton Cowles, cover by Nick Derington.

The final issue of this series wraps things up, but also leaves many things unclear. Scott Free and Big Barda have a quiet domestic life with their son and soon a daughter in a condo in Los Angeles. Funky Flashman, the one-time Stan Lee parody created by Jack Kirby, is their babysitter. They apparently commute by Boom Tube to Apokolips, where they take on Darkseid’s minions for control now that Darkseid has been defeated. In this issue, the ghosts or digital hallucinations of the many characters who have died in this series talk to Scott about his life, his choices, and what his actual reality might be. Nothing is clear. Did he succeed in committing suicide in issue #1, making all this an afterlife experience? Is he trapped on Apokolips dreaming of his family life? Is he in hell or in heaven? Those are all possible answers. Scott’s answer remains, “I can always escape.” And no doubt he can and will escape into another reality in the future, in which this entire series will be largely ignored. Kind of frustrating, but that’s comics for you. I had hoped for more of a resolution, but I did enjoy reading each issue of the series, including this one.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: CAPTAIN GINGER #3

Image © Stuart Moore, June Brigman & Ahoy Comics. Main story written by Stuart Moore, art by June Brigman & Roy Richardson, colors by Veronica Gandini, letters by Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt. Backup written by Tom Peyer, art by Randy Elliot, colors by Andy Troy, letters by Rob Steen. Extras by those listed above.

I can’t quite decide if the main cat characters in this book are just winging it, or if they have a better idea of how to get by in their world than it seems. The Captain and his right paw, Mittens, are risking their lives in a jury-rigged ship to follow a signal they think might be from another cat ship like theirs. How this might help them is not clear. Once they’ve gone, things continue to go wrong on The Indomitable. One ray of hope comes from a message pulled from the computer archives featuring the feeder (human) who “created” them. His hologram seems willing to help. Ginger and Mittens have reached a destination, but found only more trouble. 

The Hashtag: Danger backup has fun exploring the personalities and resources of the three-member team, and as usual, there are several text features to read and enjoy. Good stuff.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: STARSWARM by Jerry Pournelle

Cover illustration by Vincent di Fate.

Kip lives on a science research station on a planet whose official name is Paradise, but most people call it Purgatory. The planet has many life forms, most of them highly dangerous, but as Kip grew, he learned from his Uncle Mike how to deal with the dangers, helped by the station service dogs, and helped even more by a voice that speaks in his head, a female voice he knows as Gwen. Gwen gives him help and information, but has cautioned Kip to keep her existence completely secret, even from Uncle Mike, and he’s done so. Kip’s schoolmates sometimes wonder how he knows so much, and why he gets that faraway look before answering questions, but no one has guessed his secret.

Kip’s parents died when he was an infant under mysterious circumstances. Uncle Mike knows, but won’t tell him. Gwen also seems to know, but says she’s not allowed to tell him until he reaches a certain age. Paradise is essentially owned by a giant Earth corporation, and Starswarm Station is their nod to science and the environment. The scientists primarily study the giant plants known as Starswarms like the one near the station. Others are in the sea and elsewhere. When corporate shenanigans bring threats to the station’s Starswarm, Kip and his friends try to protect it, and before long are deep in trouble that forces them to hide out in the wild areas outside the station. Gwen is, at last, able to tell Kip more about what’s really going on, but things keep escalating, and it seems Kip himself is somehow at the center of a massive secret power struggle he doesn’t understand. Will his friends and new allies among the creatures of Paradise be enough to save him?

In his introduction, Pournelle makes it clear that this book is an homage to the novels for young readers of Robert Heinlein, and I’d say it’s a satisfying example of just that. It starts a bit slow, but the pace of the story accelerates steadily, and soon I was finding it hard to put down. Pournelle has some more modern scientific ideas to work with than Heinlein, and he handles them well, but the characters and the story itself are the real draw.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: THE WRONG EARTH #4

Image © Ahoy Comics. Main story written by Tom Peyer, art by Jamal Igle & Juan Castro, Backup story written by  Paul Constant, art by Gary Erskine, both colored by Andy Troy and lettered by Rob Steen. Additional material credits above.

This book continues to surprise me, and after a lifetime of comics reading, that’s not easy to do. Most of the main characters show intelligence and resourcefulness in their mixed-up situations. Earth Alpha (the fun one) has Stinger knocking out his doctor and Deuce neutralizing the Earth Omega version of her boss, Number One, for instance. Even the signs on the buildings are clever and amusing, like the one on the Earth Alpha garage of sidekick Stinger labeled, “Abandoned Warehouse, No Trespassing.” Earth Omega has a criminal dive bar named the Razor and Kidney, while Earth Alpha has fun crime props like a huge piggy bank. And just when I think I know where the story is going, Peyer and Igle do something else more interesting.

The backup Dragonfly story is pretty good too, and the text stories are all worth reading. In fact, my favorite line in the book is from “Rich” by Carol Lay: “People vex me.”

Recommended.