Todd Klein's Blog, page 20

Incoming: JOE THE BARBARIAN new printing

I enjoyed lettering this dark fantasy written by Grant Morrison, art by Sean Murphy that first came out as a collection in 2011. It’s an unusual coming-of-age story where a medically vulnerable boy and his pet rat are transported to a world where all his toys are life-size and doing battle with each other, a battle that Joe is soon in the thick of. Fine writing, and the slightly cartoony art of Murphy is the perfect choice. Retail price is $19.99, release date is November 26.

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Rereading: BEN AND ME by Robert Lawson

This wonderfully creative and funny book was written in 1939, the first authored and illustrated by Lawson. He tells of Amos, a mouse, who meets Benjamin Franklin, a somewhat bumbling writer, printer, and would-be inventor. As Amos tells it, many of Franklin’s best ideas came from him, though he allowed Ben to take the credit in exchange for a safe home and food for himself and his extended family. Amos’ advice begins with the idea that became the Franklin Stove, a great success. Franklin moved on to experiments with electricity, which Amos was not in favor of. The mouse also provided advice and information to Ben while he walked and talked with fellow citizens and politicians by hiding in Franklin’s fur hat and whispering in his ear. They even went to France together as Ben was tasked with getting that country to provide funding for the American Revolution.

The illustrations are full of period detail and charm, and the story is a hoot. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE WATCHERS by Jane Louise Curry

Cover art by Trina Schart Hyman

The sixth book of Curry’s Abaloc series is the final one that takes place in the present time, and it’s full of exciting events, but also has unanswered puzzles, like the earlier ones.

Ray Siler has come to the remote backwoods community of Twilly’s Green, West Virginia, sent there by his father because they were having problems about school, and no one else in the family wants to deal with him. Ray’s mother, who has passed, came from Twilly’s Green, and his extended family welcomes him with open arms, even if Ray is privately thinking he’s going to find a way to escape if he can. The people of the small community rarely interact with the outside world, and continue to live and thrive in ways that haven’t changed much in hundreds of years. Almost against his will, Ray is drawn into their friendship and he becomes intrigued with the strange old things in the surrounding hills, like an abandoned coal mine that seems to have an evil presence, and the remains of a centuries-old stone castle containing books with writing no one alive can now read. When a greedy mining company finds a legal loophole to break into the old mine, the family and Ray must try to find a way to stop them, or lose everything.

Recommended, but as with the previous books, somewhat unsatisfying, as things are not made clear about the history of the place, and its connections to the rest of the series.

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My Music: NOVEMBER WOODS

Three T’s: Tom, Tim and Todd, about 1968

Few people other than family members and close friends know that I’ve been making music since my high school years. I’ve decided to share some of it on my blog, about once a week, under the title My Music (also a page on the blog), so if this is something that doesn’t interest you, you can easily skip them.

Around 1966 I started trying to play a cheap, terrible guitar that had been my father’s, and was in our storage room. I learned a few chords from my friend Tom (seen above), and bought a few songbooks to learn more. The first song I remember learning, from the radio, is “Last Train to Clarksville” by The Monkees. From the songbooks by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary, I learned traditional folk songs. My parents encouraged this, and around 1967 my mom took me to a local music store and allowed me to pick out a new guitar. It’s Japanese, made by Conn, and has nylon strings, so really meant for classical music, but it was just right for me, and I’ve used it ever since.

In addition to guitar, Tom played ukelele and bass, and he was in a rock band in high school. I used to go to some of their practices, but was never in a band, though Tom and another friend, Tim, and I would get together at Tim’s house to play acoustic folk and other music, as seen in the photo above. We’re still friends, and still play together more than 55 years later!

Schley Mountain above Pluckemin, NJ, 1970

I’ve always loved to walk, and when living at home in Pluckemin, NJ, I often walked through the woods in a large, mostly abandoned estate that began not far from our house. I would walk up this trail through a field and into the woods, climbing the hill that was at the southwestern end of the Watchung Mountains, hardly mountains really. The Schley estate ran several miles from there toward Far Hills, and included dirt roads that had once been a system of carriage roads. They were minimally maintained, but easy to walk. In 1968 I wrote my first song, November Woods, about a walk there at the beginning of winter. The area is now a massive housing development.

All my early music was first recorded in my Highland Park, NJ living room starting around 1976, where I set up a simple recording studio with two Teac reel-to-reel recorders, and Electrovoice microphones. This was one of them. You can read more about some of the recordings I made on THIS page of my website. Let me know if you like the song, which is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

ADDED: I’ve just done some internet research on Conn guitars, and learned they did not begin manufacturing until 1971, so contrary to what I wrote above, that would have been the year my parents bought me the model C-200 I have. I know I had it when I went to Kansas City that year. Before that, I must have been playing the terrible guitar of my dad, or possibly I borrowed one from a friend, not sure. Memory is fickle!

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Rereading: LAZY TOMMY PUMPKINHEAD by William Pène du Bois

I have even fewer picture books for young readers than I do chapter books, but again, du Bois books are always great fun and worth having. This is part of a series illustrating bad habits and what might come of them. It’s 32 pages, almost all with illustrations.

Tommy is extremely lazy, and his automated house makes that easy for him. From the moment he wakes up in the morning until he climbs slowly up the stairs back to bed, machines bathe, dress, and feed him. Then one morning the power goes off, and all the machines are silent. What will happen to Lazy Tommy then?

Recommended.

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Rereading: THE BEAST WITH THE MAGICAL HORN by Eleanor Cameron

For this chapter book (74 pages), Cameron has drawn inspiration from European fairy tales, and the illustrators Beth and Joe Krush adopt a medieval style that reminds me of British illustrator Pauline Baynes.

Allison is a beautiful young girl living in the mountains, and one day she sees a unicorn being chased by robbers. A handsome prince, Basil, comes to rescue both Allison and the unicorn, and falls in love with Allison. He takes her back to his kingdom’s castle, where his aunt and uncle rule in his stead until he is of age, declaring he will wed Allison. Basil’s aunt, the Queen, is struck with jealousy on seeing Allison, and soon concocts a plan to prevent the wedding. She declares that Basil and Allison must gather and cage seven mythical beasts before they can marry, to raise funds for the kingdom’s waning treasury, and Allison must also find the Secret of Life and place it in a box for the Queen.

Needless to say, these tasks seem impossible, but the young couple has a secret ally in the unicorn, who may be able to help them.

I enjoyed this, but felt it lacked suspense and was too predictable. The illustrations are excellent. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ by L. FRANK BAUM

Illustrated by John R. Neill

In the 1960s, I filled in my Oz book collection with then-available recent hardcovers from publisher Reilly & Lee. There are no color plates, but otherwise these are nicely printed and fun to read.

The book alternates between two main storylines. In one, the Nome King is angry about Princess Ozma of Oz taking away his Magic Belt, and vows revenge. His new general, Guph, comes up with a plan for the nomes to dig a tunnel under the Deadly Desert so they can attack the Emerald City and destroy Oz. Because Oz has powerful magic, Guph enlists the aid of evil magic beings known to the Nomes to lead the attack. Each of those beings has plans of their own to take everything.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, along with Dorothy and Toto, are about to be evicted from their farm because Uncle Henry is in debt and can’t pay his bills. Dorothy uses a signal she has arranged with Ozma to bring her to Oz, and explains the trouble. Ozma invites Henry and Em to come live in Oz forever, along with Dorothy. When the elderly couple are brought to Oz, they are amazed and frightened, but everyone is very kind, and Dorothy helps them understand it all.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book is largely taken up by one of those wandering tours to remote and little-known towns and communities in Oz taken by Dorothy and her relatives along with the Wizard and other familiar characters. The plot is not advanced, and Baum amuses himself with lots of silly characters and bad puns as they visit places and characters like Miss Cuttenclip, the Fuddles, Utensia, Bunbury and Bunnybury. Eventually they get back to the Emerald City in time to witness the fearsome attack of their enemies, who Ozma refuses to fight!

Recommended, but not one of my favorites.

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DC COMICS 1940s STAFFER HENRI A. FLUCHERE

From Donenfeld companies staff photo, 1948, from “The Golden Age of DC Comics” by Paul Levitz, Taschen

Recently I received emails from Peter Fluchere about his father Henri. He had found some information about Henri on my blog, and more on Alex Jay’s blog. I knew little about Fluchere other than his name, and some brief comments by Gaspar Saladino, who remembered him as “a Frenchman with an interest in fine art who did not think too highly of comics.” Gaspar put him into his National Comics floor plan of the production department, but with the name spelled wrong as Henri Fluscher. I didn’t connect that man with the person Alex Jay wrote about in his 2018 blog post until it was pointed out to me by Peter Fluchere. Peter also identified the man above as his father, from the National/DC Comics staff photo of 1948 as seen in THIS post on my blog, a larger version is HERE.

Alex Jay’s blog post has a thorough history of Henri, and suggests he worked at DC from about 1946 to 1950. Henri is described in several newspaper articles there as Production Manager, which may have been so, though I thought Sol Harrison held that position at the time. But Sol came over from All American Comics around 1946 when the companies merged, and though he had been Production Manager at All American, he may have had a different job title when he came in at DC, at least until Fluchere moved on to McGraw-Hill as an art director, illustrator, and occasional author around 1950. One thing that’s clear is that Fluchere and DC editor Murray Boltinoff were close friends, as Murray was best man at Henri’s 1946 wedding. Peter told me:

 Murray invited Henri to work at DC, because they were in service together, and my father was working at Chartmakers across the hall. 

According to Alex Jay’s research, Fluchere enlisted in the Army in 1942, and served in Europe. He was wounded and received the Purple Heart award, then was reassigned to the Stars and Stripes newspaper in Paris as an illustrator and artist. Military records for Boltinoff show he also enlisted in 1942, and spent time in a military hospital in 1944. Perhaps he also was reassigned to Stars and Stripes, and they became friends there.

Peter said about his father not thinking too highly of comics that it was mainly his mother who held that opinion, not his father. He also said that Henri did coloring of comics pages at home to make extra cash.

I will be adding this information to the two blog articles involved later today, always good to get more information about former DC staffers. Thanks, Peter.

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Rereading: EDWARD, HOPPY AND JOE by Robert Lawson

This is a chapter book published in 1953, 122 pages, with a similar approach to animals acting like humans as in Lawson’s “Rabbit Hill” and others, but perhaps aimed at younger readers. Hoppy the frog, Edward the rabbit, and Joe the possum are young animal friends who like adventures and get into trouble, while their elders and parents, particularly Father Rabbit, offer advice and deal out punishment, while also allowing them to have fun and try new things. Some of their adventures involve riding in a car, learning to swim and paddle a canoe, trying roller skates, exploring the river and woods, and visiting a circus. In each chapter they learn a lesson of some kind, but it’s still a fun read with wonderful illustrations. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE BLOOD BAY COLT by Walter Farley

Illustrated by Milton Menasco

Walter Farley’s sixth book about race horses takes us to the world of harness racing, something I knew nothing about when first read this book at about age 12. The author not only educated me and other readers, he did it in an exciting way with some fine writing.

Tom Messenger loves horses, and makes regular visits to a harness racing training track a few miles from his home. He’s become friends with long-time driver Jimmy Creech and his assistant George, and loves helping out with their racing mare, the Queen, who is pregnant by the amazing race horse The Black through Jimmy’s friend Henry Daily. Jimmy needs a place for the Queen to have her foal in a quiet country setting, and Tom suggests the farm of his Uncle Wilmer and Aunt Emma many miles away would be ideal. The plan is set, and Tom will be there to take care of the Queen while Jimmy and George do their summer racing circuit at all the county fairs.

Tom finds trouble with Uncle Wilmer, who has his own ideas about how to handle horses, and doesn’t like Jimmy’s way, which is what Tom is firmly following. When the foal is born, it’s a magic moment, but later Uncle Wilmer keeps trying to interfere in the training of the young colt, until he causes harm, and realizes he should leave Tom to do things as Jimmy wanted. When Jimmy comes to their local fair to race, everyone meets and friendships are formed. Tom goes back with the foal, named Bonfire, to continue to help train him.

Then Jimmy’s stomach trouble returns, and forces him out of racing and into a hospital. Now it’s Tom doing the training and driving, getting Bonfire ready for his debut the following summer, with George’s help. It’s a big responsibility, but Tom and Bonfire have formed a bond that makes them a great team. Are they great enough to win races, though? Jimmy’s medical bills need paying, and winning races is the only way to get there.

Despite all these books having similar elements, Farley gives each one unique characters and challenges, and writes about them well. I found the chapter on the birth of the foal particularly effective. Recommended.

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