Todd Klein's Blog, page 165

And Then I Read: UNFOLLOW #17

Image © DC Comics.

The penultimate issue of this series begins with Larry Ferrell, not dead as many supposed, and now deciding he doesn’t want to give away any of his billions after all, thereby negating the entire Unfollow scheme that has upended the lives of many, and ended lots of them. Meanwhile, in a South American jungle, some of the few surviving Unfollowers are fighting and killing each other for what now seems no good reason (though they may not know it yet). As Ferrell sends hired killers after the rest, the number of survivors dwindles still further. The characters and writing are still compelling, the plot is a page turner, but the story is not much fun. The next issue will be the last. I’ll be reading it soon.

Recommended.

A Small Contribution to Avian Research

Photo © Todd Klein.

In September 2011, I posted this and other photos on my blog of an unusual event in our front garden: a praying mantis had captured and was eating an immature male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. My original blog post begins:

This afternoon Ellen called me out to the front garden where she had spotted a dead hummingbird in the tall flowers. When I got there we realized that it was in the claws of a large green praying mantis, who appeared to be eating from the bird’s abdomen. On that female mantis’s back was a smaller brown male mantis in the process of impregnating the female, or so it seemed.

It was Ellen who found the dead hummer and mantises. There are a few more photos and more info in the original blog post, but to sum up, I had never heard of such a thing, but research quickly turned up a few more examples online.

In March of 2015 I received an email from Dr. Martin Nyffeler, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, University of Basel, Switzerland. In part, he wrote:

I am in the process of writing an extensive review paper on “Bird predation by praying mantises”.  It is my intention to publish this paper in a top journal (PLOS ONE  or  Journal of Natural History  or  a similar journal).  Currently I try to get photos of bird predation by mantises.

In 2013, I read an interesting article entitled “A Garden Murder Mystery” on Todd’s Blog, which includes two photos of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird.

Are you the photographer who took these pictures?  If yes, I would like to ask you if I could get permission from you to use these photos in my new paper.  Of course I would give you full credit for being the photographer who took the pictures.

I hope to hear from you soon.  Thank you in advance for your support.

I was delighted to contribute my photos to this project, and Dr. Nyffeler has kept me apprised of his progress on getting the article published. I’m no scientist, but I have seen many of the scientific journals that publish papers on avian research while organizing the library at the Cape May Bird Observatory. In june of this year, Dr. Nyffeler wrote to say,

The manuscript (which has been written in collaboration with two professors from US universities) will be published in the June issue of the scientific magazine “Wilson Journal of Ornithology”. In this paper one of your photos will be included.

And a few days ago, he sent me a pdf of the entire article from the Wilson Journal,  which is one of the oldest and most prestigious of such publications. Among the things I learned reading it are:

Nyffeler and his co-authors found 147 incidents of small bird captures by 12 species of mantids in 13 different countries. 70% were from the US, with the most frequently captured species being Ruby-throated Hummingbird, as in our garden.
Reports go back to 1888, but most are from 2000 on. Mantids sometimes wait on hummingbird feeders to catch birds, where they are more often seen by people, and online photos of captures have led to a sharp increase in these reports.
Mantids have also been observed eating other small animals like frogs, lizards and mice.
In about two-thirds of cases, mantids were seen eating the brains of captured prey, which seems to be their favorite part. (In our garden, the mantid was eating from the back end.)
It goes the other way as well, 34 species of birds in North America feed on mantids but all are much larger than hummingbirds.
Non-native mantids have greatly increased and become established since gardeners began releasing them to control garden pests beginning in the early 20th century, but native mantids also capture small birds. The effectiveness of mantids in this role is unclear, and probably not helpful. As mantids also prey on helpful insects like honey bees, and may pose a threat to hummingbird populations, the authors suggest it not be done in the future.

 
Before I could even write this post, I was surprised to see the content of Nyffeler’s article showing up in my Facebook feed, thanks to a press release by the University of Basel picked up by online news sites like this one from the Huffington Post.

While Ellen’s and my parts are tiny, just one photo in the original article and one out of 147 reports, it’s still pretty cool. My 15 seconds of avian science fame!

And Then I Read: CHILDREN OF THE LAMP #4: THE DAY OF THE DJINN WARRIORS by P.B. Kerr

Cover illustration © Petar Meseldzija.

The “Children of the Lamp” series of fantasy novels for young readers, is now up to seven books. I read the first book, published in 2004, and enjoyed it. The series is clearly meant to appeal to fans of the Harry Potter books, but it does have enough unique elements and good writing to make them fun to read. The  characters in the books are largely members of a secret Djinn (genie) population of magical beings who live among us ordinary humans undetected for the most part. John and Philippa Gaunt are two apparently ordinary English children, but actually Djinn, and they live and operate in a world of magic, often very dangerous magic.

I haven’t read books two and three of the series, but recently bought books four and five at a library sale. One good test of a series is whether you can read it out of order and understand what’s going on. Book four did present some challenges at first, as there are a lot of new characters, but everyone was explained and introduced well enough that, by the time the action began to unfold, I felt comfortable in the story.

And there’s lots of plot here. Twins John and Philippa are in New York with their father, who is suffering from an aging curse that has turned him into a doddering ancient. Their mother is the Middle East trying to assimilate her new role as the powerful Blue Djinn of Babylon, and the twins want to rescue her by finding the true Blue Djinn heir who is missing. Meanwhile, in museums around the world, ancient Chinese clay warriors have been brought to life and are capturing all kinds of spirits, including those of the Djinn. No one knows what evil force is behind this, but the twins aim to find out. Then there’s their friend and fellow Djinn, young Dybbuk, who has gained sudden huge fame by becoming a stage magician on TV, backed by the long-time rival magical beings of the Djinn, the Ifrits. These are only some of the many plots and storylines explored in the book that takes us to Venice, Babylon, China, Las Vegas, and other points of interest around the world.

While the books are plot-driven, the characters are well-rounded and interesting too, and the adventures and danger they get into are imaginative. The series is fun, not too heavy or memorable, but good summer reading. I’ll get to book five soon.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL #8

Image © DC Comics.

A new storyline takes Shade to Gotham City. I wonder who she might run into there? Well, no one we know this issue at least. So far, she’s having fun with her madness powers, sharing them here and there with strangers, and conjuring the spirit of Honey from her favorite TV show as a companion. Back on Meta, her friend Lepuck is being used as an unwilling experimental subject for another madness treatment that briefly puts him in touch with Loma, the Metan inhabiting Shade’s human body. Meanwhile, Shade’s friends and parents are laying blame for her running away, but have no idea where she is yet. As usual, the story wanders around but manages to be entertaining.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: HAL JORDAN & THE GL CORPS 14

Image © DC Comics.

One of the challenges in this series, now that four of the previous Earth GLs are all in it, as well as lots of other characters, is to give everyone a chance to take the stage and do what they do. Writer Robert Venditti is handling this juggling act quite well, I think.

While a meeting and debate takes place about the Yellow and Green Lanterns (those who remain) joining forces and working together, headed by John Stewart and Soranik of the Yellows, Guy Gardner has been sent out to gather intelligence on missing members of these Corps, and he does so with style. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner are heading out on a mission under orders from the two remaining Guardians, to search for Saint Walker, the leader of the Indigo Lanterns. Apparently he’s on a world full of dragons and other monsters. As this new story arc begins, there are clues that Saint Walker may be the focus rather than a mere side story. Fine art by Rafa Sandoval and Jordi Tarragona. Now, if only Mogo were to chime in, things would be even better…

Recommended.

And Then I Read GREEN LANTERNS 14

Image © DC Comics, and what great coloring by Jason Wright!

The fifth part of the Phantom Lantern story has Simon and Jessica confronting him in a park dedicated to heroes. The Phantom Ring is out of control, and Frank, the man wearing it, is being buffeted by the competing powers and colors it contains. That briefly becomes a good thing when the Indigo power of compassion surfaces. When some other Green Lanterns show up in response to Simon’s distress call, they turn out to be more belligerent than helpful. Meanwhile, Rami, the renegade Guardian is battling Volthoom, the First Lantern elsewhere. Volthoom is more ghost than anything at this point, but one with lots of power. The outcome is far from certain. Well written by Sam Humphries, well drawn by Eduardo Pansica and Ronan Cliquet with Julio Ferreira and Cliquet inks.

Recommended.

Ten Years After

Today is the tenth anniversary of this blog and my website, which launched July 3rd, 2007. At times that seems like yesterday, at others it seems I’ve always been doing it.

According to a new plug-in I just installed, there are 3,202,106 words on the blog (until this post). I’m guessing that includes comments and every word everywhere, as it’s a lot larger number than the last time I checked a year ago with a different plug-in, but that one doesn’t seem to work now. There have been 3,117 posts by me (including this one), and 3,951 approved comments. (That leaves out any I didn’t approve, including about half a million spam ones.)

I will be attending Comic-Con International: San Diego this year from July 20 to 24, and will no doubt be blogging about it here. Work continues on my Ira Schnapp and Danny Crespi research when I have time. I’m still reading and reviewing books and comics, though less of the latter these days. No major new comics history articles are underway, but there’s always a chance of that at some point.

I have no particular insights into how things will go on the blog in the future. I’ve cut back my workload this year, but that hasn’t meant much more time spent on the blog, at least so far. Possibly in the winter months it might. I’m still enjoying being here and having this forum for my work and interests.

Thanks to you, the readers, for stopping by and joining in! I appreciate your attention and interest in this ever more distracting world. Wishing those of you in the U.S. a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Pulled From My Files #56: MULLKON EMPIRE LOGO

Images © Tekno Comix.

I designed several logos for Techno in the mid 1990s that went through lots of versions, but this one was straightforward and easy. I did three marker sketches, using the same design for JOHN JAKES’ on each, and the same design for MULLKON EMPIRE on the first two. This first design is a bit hard to read in this format, but in color I thought it would work fine. I was able to save space with this layout for the double L. I went for an art deco space opera look, something that would have worked on Flash Gordon.

Version 2 simply added a telescoping drop shadow. This is my favorite, has that epic look I thought the book called for.

The third sketch went a different way, a more pointy look and a black drop shadow.

The art deco block letters of version 1 suited them perfectly, and the final logo is simply traced from that on Denril plastic vellum.

Here’s the first issue of the series printed, and I think the logo works fine on it. Love that painted cover by John Watkiss!

More articles like this can be found in the PULLED FROM MY FILES category on the right side of the blog home page, and in the LOGO LINKS page.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #16

Image © DC Comics.

Continuing this enjoyable storyline bringing Flash’s classic Rogues’ Gallery back to oppose him, we find Barry Allen back in Central City where each Rogue EXCEPT Mirror Master has committed a major crime and massive damage. (The cover for this issue should have been on the last issue, I think.) Flash first encounters Heat Wave, after figuring out where he might be, and they have at it. The back story is that Flash feels he has failed Central City by falling for the Rogues’ plan, and that may not be over. As the Rogues gather, we find out a bit more about their plan. Nicely done by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE SMALL MIRACLE by Paul Gallico

Illustration by Reisie Lonette.

Paul Gallico is an author I like mainly for his cat books: “The Silent Miaow,” “The Abandoned,” and “Thomasina,” filmed by Disney as “The Three Lives of Thomasina.” His best-known book is probably “The Poseidon Adventure.” This is one of several small books by him, short stories published in book form, that I never read until now.

Pepino is an orphan boy living in the town of Assisi in post-World War Two Italy. His only family is his donkey, Violetta, and together they make a scant living carrying things for shop keepers, and running errands. Their bond is close, and when Violetta shows signs of illness, Pepino comes up with a plan he hopes will help her. He wants to bring Violetta into the shrine of Assisi’s most famous son, St. Francis. Assisi was an animal lover, and Pepino hopes his spirit might help Violetta. The problem is that the old way into the shrine has been bricked up, and the new way will not accommodate a donkey. Pepino appeals to his local priests, but they say they cannot open the old doorway. That leaves Pepino only one option: go to Rome and appeal to the Pope himself for help.

Charmingly written, not sappy, heartwarming. Just what I needed to read. Highly recommended.