Todd Klein's Blog, page 188

And Then I Read: TIGANA by Guy Gavriel Kay

I’ve had this very long book for a very long time (not the edition shown, the first edition from 1990, couldn’t find a good image of that cover). One of those books that kept migrating to the bottom of my reading pile until I had time for it, and I finally did.

Kay creates an entire new fantasy world for this book, unconnected to his other books. It takes place in a large peninsula containing nine provinces that is reminiscent of medieval Italy. To the south over high mountains is a separate kingdom, and two others are east and west by sea, with a fourth by sea to the north. The Peninsula of the Palm, where the story takes place, is the site of a decades-long power struggle between two invading magicians, one from the eastern and one from the western kingdoms over the sea. Each of these men holds about half of the provinces with a single province still in dispute between them. The people native to this land are conquered people, but since the main wars of conquest are decades ago now, they have resumed much of the life they had before, with one exception. The province now called Lower Corte was the last to fall to the conquering King Brandin, and in the battle for it, Brandin’s son was slain. Brandin was so wounded and enraged by this that he used his troops to destroy every city in the province, and his magic to make even the original name of the province, Tigana, something that men from elsewhere cannot hear or say. The book is about some of the displaced and persecuted people of the former Tigana who have long plotted to regain their name and their freedom from both magicians. This complex plan has taken decades to bear fruit, and finally the time seems right.

Two main story lines focus on individuals caught in this mesh of intrigue and rebellion. Devin, a young singer trying to make a career with a troop of traveling players, and a new group he joins that are the leaders of the secret rebellion, and are soon traveling through the Palm gathering support while dodging enemies. Meanwhile, in the court of King Brandin, the beautiful courtesan Dianora struggles with her own divided feelings. Secretly a daughter of Tigana, she came to Brandin hoping to find a way to kill him, but instead has fallen in love with the magician king.

I enjoyed this book, though it moves slowly, at times too slowly. The first 150 pages of this 673 page novel take place in a single day, for instance. There is much to appreciate and enjoy; fine characters, an intricate plot, wise understanding of human nature, and just enough magic to make it a fantasy, but magic that always has a high cost. I do think it could have been told more succinctly. Kay’s next novel, “A Song for Arbonne” did something similar with less words and a better result. Still, this book is well worth reading.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #1

Image © DC Comics.

I’m on the fence about this one. There’s nothing I dislike about it, but it’s a rehash of Flash’s origin yet again (seems like about the sixth time in the last few years) with some changes that pull in elements from the TV show like the “Jitters” coffee shop, but many other elements are not like the show. We have some new characters in the Central City police force that seem promising, so I’ll stick with it for a while. Much of this issue feels kind of like the dress rehearsal of a play I’ve seen too many times. The art by Carmine Di Giandomenico has a loose design-ish feel that suggests advertising storyboards to me. I like the style and the design both, but at times, particularly in small figures, it loses focus. Okay, let’s see where it goes.

Mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: DOCTOR FATE #14

Image © DC Comics.

Khalid continues working with his predecessor as Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson, in this issue, as Kent advises the young man on how to close a dangerous door his powers have opened. While willing to give advice, Kent wants Khalid to solve his own problems, and sends him off to the dangerous place on his own, where Khalid is soon over his head again, though willing to solve problems himself. In a second short story, Khalid and his friends and family attend an interfaith service that is threatened by protesters, who need some handling by Doctor Fate to set them right. Both stories are by guest artists, and both handle the characters quite differently from Sonny Liew, but writer Paul Levitz’s characters and dialogue and keep things on track and enjoyable to read.

Recommended.

At the Beach with Tim and Gabe

My friend Tim and his son Gabe were with us this weekend for fun at the beach, including sand sculpture as usual. Tim always has a plan, and for the second year in a row we were taking inspiration from the abstract sand sculptures of Calvin Seibert, though we are on a far lower level of craft than he  is. It’s fun to try to duplicate at least a few of his ideas, though. Above is a sculpture block that appears to be surrounded by free-standing slabs, though it’s all one piece. Teletubby for scale.

Another side showing further blocks carved out. I did two of the slabs, the rest of this came from Tim, and Gabe helped make the packed wet sand cylinder we started with. This was our only sculpture on Friday.

Gabe’s girlfriend Bethina was also with us at the beach, as was Ellen, but I didn’t get any pictures of them there. Here’s one I like of Bethina with our Tigger. This would make a good Apple advertisement!

On Saturday I made this smaller sculpture on my own suggested by another Seibert work, or at least elements of it. Is it a sand Sundae, a snow-covered rock, or some kind of mushroom? I have no idea.

Another view as the Thing Unknown begins to be washed away by the rising tide.

Meanwhile, Gabe made a large pile of sand and created some towers on the top. As he lost interest, Tim began carving into the side of the pile to make a giant worried face, enhanced by eyeball spheres from Gabe. This sand man seems to know the tide is after him.

Later additions included seaweed hair and very odd earphones, but they did not help him escape drowning in a pool covered in sea foam. Soon he was gone.

Later Tim and Gabe built another large packed sand block, and from it Tim carved this sphere, I think the largest one we’ve ever done. It was impressive. That was the end of our sand sculpting for this year.

On Sunday we said goodbye to Bethina, who had to return to Philadelphia, and the rest of us met friends of Tim and Gabe for lunch and a beach walk at the north end of Brigantine. Here are Gabe, Danny, Tim and Steve. We had a good walk on this undeveloped beach, but Ellen and I had to turn back after about a half hour and head home. Always good to see old friends and have some fun at the beach!

And Then I Read: UNFOLLOW #9

I really like the way writer Rob Williams is developing this story. With 140 plus characters to follow potentially, he had to narrow it to a few he found interesting, and they interest me, too. The killer in the elaborate mask, Rubinstein, is still on billionaire Larry Ferrell’s Caribbean island, and makes a startling discovery that changes everything, but before that we have a few of the targeted 140 in Russia taking refuge with members of a local mob there, for a price, and getting a ride on a massive plane that seems to be a real thing, new to me. In Marseille, France, another of the 140 is out on the streets alone, a very dangerous place to be. And a group of the 140 who have followed Akira back to his island compound in Japan discover that Akira seems to be rather less sane than they expected. Excellent art by Mike Dowling that reminds me of Frank Quitely for good reasons.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE OUTCAST OF REDWALL by Brian Jacques

Cover art by Troy Howell.

I enjoyed the first few books of the Redwall series, though I felt they had some major flaws, at least for me, things that took me out of the story. I gave up reading them a few years ago, but there are still two on my reading pile, and I chose this one for summer beach reading. My opinion has not really changed.

The story begins with a young badger held captive and being tortured by a band of evil ferrets and such led by Swartt Sixclaw. The badger escapes with the help of a young kestrel, Skarlath, and the two become friends, fleeing the ferret band together. The badger knows nothing of his background, and does not even have a name, but he and Skarlath settle on the name Sunflash for the bright yellow stripe on his head. Soon they meet a small group of moles and hedgehogs who take them in and hide them from Sixclaw and his band of marauders. Eventually Sunflash learns of his heritage and destiny as the lord of Salamandastron, a huge mountain fortress on the coast to the south, and makes his way there, where he is welcomed and trained by the warrior hares and other animals.

Meanwhile, at Redwall Abbey we meet the current generation of gentle animals, who are endangered by the approach of the evil army of Swartt Sixclaw. Sixclaw himself has craftily taken over an even larger band of warrior creatures by killing their leader, and now has a formidable army. He also has become a father, but cares nothing for his son, who is left behind after a mighty battle, and is brought to Redwall Abbey. There he is raised with kindness and given the name Veil, but his evil heritage surfaces as he grows, and eventually he is cast out of Redwall, though his caretaker Bryony and her friend Toggert, a mouse and a mole, decide to join and follow him, even though Veil rejects their company.

The army of Swartt Sixclaw eventually reaches Salamandastron where they battle the inhabitants and lay siege to the mountain fortress, and in the last part of the book, the personal battle between Swartt and Sunflash, as well as Veil, comes to a head.

So, my issues with this series are these: The animals are essentially people in animal guise, in a long literary and fantasy tradition, but they still have enough animal characteristics to make their interactions strange. Tiny mice fight alongside huge badgers with no mention of the size difference. Rabbits and mice are often fierce warriors. Animals that are predator and prey in nature are best buddies here, and all eat mostly plants, though with some fish, who are left out of the character roster. Accents and dialect are sometimes hard to understand, particularly the moles. Everyone is obsessed with feasting and food, and descriptions of food preparation are full of nonsensical made-up ingredients and silly food names. Descriptions of feasts are long and repetitious. Plot drives the narrative in ways that don’t make sense, even regarding the world itself. In this book, a large river seems to flow uphill toward the mountains in order to make the plot work, for instance.

When the action happens, the story is more interesting to me, and the characters are often well-developed and complex, but getting past all the above makes the books hard for me to get absorbed into. I think young readers may be more able to overlook or not notice things that bother me, and for them the books may well be enjoyed and even loved. I was less critical myself then!

Incoming: FABLES DELUXE BOOK 13

Image © DC Comics, cover art by Daniel Dos Santos.

Just in, the latest in this series. By far the best way to enjoy FABLES, with much better printing and paper than the original monthly comic, and slightly larger art as well. Contains issues 114-129 with the delightful “Revolution in Oz” storyline as well as the heartbreaking “Cubs in Toyland.” Out soon!

Pulled From My Files #43: TWO-FACE

Images © DC Comics.

I have no records on these logo sketches, but they are done with markers over pencils, so probably from the early 1990s, and most likely for the DC Comics licensing department. Villains are hard to market, but the character of District Attorney Harvey Dent, one side of his face ruined by thrown acid, has been around since 1942 and appeared in movies, animation and TV. His trademark two-sided coin (heads on both sides, one side heavily scratched to represent the character’s evil side) was probably suggested as a theme or element to use. I think the sketch above captures the dichotomy well.

This version does not captured the two sides of the character as well, and the coins as suggested would be hard to see.

My third idea is probably too ambitious and is both hard to read and hard to understand: why is the name there twice? people might say. The coin is probably an image provided by DC.

I don’t think this went any further on my part. Perhaps they gave me a kill fee and someone else did the version used. Or possibly DC decided not to pursue the project. I don’t see any character licensing use online, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t prepared. There is a 1996 one-shot comic with a Two-Face logo, but by then, if it was something I was asked to submit designs for, I would have done them on my computer. I can’t fault DC for not going with these ideas, none of them are very good, in my opinion.

Incoming: AMERICAN GODS PAPERBACK

Cover art by Robert McGinnis

Just arrived, some copies of the 10th Anniversary mass market paperback edition of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” for which I designed the title and chose and placed the type (mostly). This is the first of a series we are working on and has been released early because the upcoming TV show has created so much demand for the book that previous stocks are sold out. I’m thrilled to be working on the series with Neil and legendary illustrator/painter Robert McGinnis, who is 90 and still doing wonderful work.

I think at first glance the cover will give the hoped-for impression that this book was actually published during the 1960s-1970s, but there are two obvious clues it’s more recent: the spot varnish and emboss on the title, and the two-inch thickness of the book. There can’t have been many (if any) paperbacks of that era that were so thick! I’m looking forward to rereading this myself, as it’s Neil’s preferred text with about 12,000 more words than in my first edition hardcover.

Neil writes about the project HERE.

THE DANNY CRESPI FILES Part 7

Danny Crespi, 1982, photo © Elliot R. Brown.

This time I’m covering pages 25 to 28 of the collection of Marvel cover lettering from about 1974 to 1978—mostly by Danny Crespi—compiled by fellow letterer Phil Felix. I never met Danny but have an ever-growing respect and appreciation for his work seen in these photocopies of his hand-lettered cover titles and balloons.

This and all following images © Marvel.

Page 25 has some great examples of Danny’s work. I particularly love the bullet-ridden wood treatment of SHOOTOUT. Note that edges are trimmed off on the copies I have. Here are the sources:

“Stegron” from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #165 dated Feb. 1977. Note that, where I’ve identified Danny as the letterer of one piece of cover lettering, it’s almost certain he did the others as well, such as the speech balloon and burst balloon here.

“When Bites the Beaver!” from HOWARD THE DUCK #9 dated Feb. 1977. While the idea and villain are meant to be funny, to make that work the art and lettering have to be completely serious. Funny or comic lettering would ruin the humor.

“Menace of the Man Called Morbius!” from PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #7 dated June 1977. Notice the short upper stroke of the C in MENACE, an odd choice, but it works fine. As always, Danny’s caption borders are very thick, making for easier paste-up and coloring.

“Shootout at Hooker Flat” from KID COLT OUTLAW #205 dated April 1976. On the original lettering there is no caption box, it must have been added later, and was necessary to separate the lettering from the background. The handling of AT is unusual for Danny.

“The Demon from the Deep!” from CONAN THE BARBARIAN #69 dated Dec. 1976.

Page 26 all lettered by Crespi. All are identified below except for the circle at upper right.

“The Rampage of Razor-Fist!” from MASTER OF KUNG-FU #29 dated June 1975. The rough vertical lines inside RAZOR-FIST give the word texture and grit.

“This Savage Unchained!” from KA-ZAR #19 dated Dec. 1976. The caption box has been filled black, which makes the banner caption fail to work, especially on the right side. This sort of thing may have been done by whoever pasted the cover together, or it might have been a choice of the colorist and therefore done by the color separator.

“Slaughter on Ninth Avenue!” from OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #2 dated May 1976. In this case filling the rectangular caption box with black does no harm, and works fine. The word ON has been reversed (white on black), something done either in the Marvel production room with their photostat camera, or by the separator.

“The Scorpion Stings But Once!” from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #145 dated June 1975. They don’t write them like that anymore! We don’t know who wrote the cover copy on any of these covers, but the editor is the likely choice. Note all the heavy black around STINGS on the original is covered by blacking in the entire banner, again killing the effectiveness of it as a banner.

“The Hitman’s Back in Town!” from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #174 dated Nov. 1977. A thinner caption border than usual for Danny. Note the white type on red at the bottom. That kind of color knock-out had to be done by the color separator, following indications by the colorist.

“Swords, Sorcery and Savagery–” from MARVEL PREMIERE #34 dated Feb. 1977. Round captions are eye-catching, but can make for odd shapes if the words are made to fit inside the circle, as with CONAN here, larger in the middle. Works fine, though.

Another round caption from HOWARD THE DUCK #14 dated July 1977.

Page 27, all identified below with help from Ray Bottorf Jr. All lettered by Danny Crespi.

“Two Against the World!” from THE INCREDIBLE HULK #196 dated Feb. 1976. Danny’s burst shapes are unmistakeable once you’ve studied a few. There are large points that zig-zag in all directions, while most letterers try to get the points going directly away from the center. Works fine, just a different approach.

“The Deadliest Gun in the West!” from THE RINGO KID #24 dated Nov. 1975. The red color-hold words are harder to read than the ones with black outlines, but it works okay.

“Assault on Olympus!” from THE CHAMPIONS #3 dated Feb. 1976. The heavy outlines work well against the red background color.

“Death-dealing Samurai!” from MASTER OF KUNG-FU #20 dated Sept. 1974. Danny did not use serif letter forms often, but they look great here on SAMURAI.

Page 28, all lettered by Crespi, all identified below except the first round caption, which is actually from MASTER OF KUNG-FU #20, just above.

“The Day They Caught the Kid!” from KID COLT OUTLAW #197 dated Aug. 1975. The square and jagged outline on CAUGHT is a nice contrast to the very rounded outlines of the lines above and below it.

Burst balloon from THOR #249 dated July 1976. Note that the tail was added when the lettering was pasted onto the cover. The ink spot after ASGARD was a comma but perhaps smeared, and was fixed later after paste-up.

“Shanna teams with Spidey!” from SPIDEY SUPER STORIES #14 dated Dec. 1975. One of those rare cases where the word and line length fit perfectly in a rectangle. Nicely done.

“The Death-cult of Kara-Kai!” from MARVEL PREMIERE #19 dated Nov. 1974. Partial serifs on KARA-KAI just on the top left of each letter add interest and infer motion. I really like this one.

Other parts of this series can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog, as well as more articles you might enjoy. More of this when I have time.