Todd Klein's Blog, page 242

And Then I Read: DARK HORSE PRESENTS 31

Image © Dark Horse Comics and Mike Mignola.

The lead feature and highlight of this issue for me is a new serialized Hellboy story. I don’t quite get Mignola’s fascination with Mexico as a film noir/horror setting, but he makes it entertaining. Taking place in 1956, Hellboy is something of a wastrel, drinking and smoking his way into trouble without seeming to even notice it or care much. Blinded by love until it’s too late…or is it? Nice art by Mick McMahon, another interesting interpretation of the Mignola style.

“Alabaster: Boxcar Tales” by Kiernan and Lieber is up to 12 chapters, and I still don’t know what’s going on, really, but the visuals and dialogue keep me reading.

“Nexus: Into the Past” is on chapter 7, and it’s been a wild ride, which continues here, but the story finally gets more personal for Horatio Hellpop and his family on Ylum. I still feel this story is somewhat out of control, but I liked this chapter.

“Monstrous” by Horton and Cody is an interesting premise: a human soul trapped in a monstrous body, but in this case amid a society of monster overlords that he’s trying to infiltrate.

“Saint George: Dragonslayer” part 2 is trying to turn the heroic legend on its head, and doing an entertaining job of it so far. I like the irreverent art and script by Van Lente and Brown, though some of the faces are too manga for my taste.

Other stories here didn’t catch my interest.

Recommended.

Bedminster School Reunion, 2014

About fifty years ago, in the 1960s, my brothers and I attended the Bedminster Township School in Bedminster, New Jersey, seen above in the 1950s. Recently I wrote a series of articles about the school on my blog, which begin HERE. During the research and writing process, my long-time friend and Bedminster schoolmate Tim and I were able to contact a few members of our grade-school class, and at some point the idea of a reunion was suggested. Among the group of us that were corresponding regularly now by email or on Facebook, many either still lived in the central New Jersey area, or had family who did. A plan was made, and last Saturday, July 12th, some of us got together.

We gathered at the Clarence Dillon Library’s Local History Room in Bedminster, where Tim and I had done some of our research. Attending were myself, Brent Franklin, Catherine (Cathy) Downey, Pru (Hobbie) Cuper, Tim W, and Curtis Vreeland. Several others had planned to attend but were unable to because of last-minute situations: Roxie Blazure, Bruce DeBacco and Robert (Bob) Schork. But, with my wife Ellen and Brent’s wife Sharon, we made a group of eight, and we had a fine time. We spent an hour and more in the library first, getting to know each other again, looking at old photos, and reviving old school memories. Tim and I have stayed in touch, and the two of us had dinner with Curtis a few months ago, but the rest of the group had not seen each other in decades. I was happy to learn that we all have some good memories of our grade school days and each other. From the library we continued on through an eventful day that had been planned largely by Curtis and myself, with help from the rest.

The school as we knew it back when consisted of an Old Building (the one in the first photo above) and a New Building, erected in 1958. The New Building is gone, but the Old Building survives today as part of an office complex, Schoolhouse Village. It’s the larger building shown here, the smaller one in front is new. Inside it’s all different, but the outside of our former school looks much the same, especially in the front.

Here we are at the front entrance, very much as we remember it, though with new landscaping and windows. We walked through the lower floor, but only the hallway brought back a glimmer of memory, it’s all new and shiny inside. Some other landmarks remain outside: part of the recreation field, a few of the houses next door, and the war memorials, now moved to a corner of the property and on new brick walls.

From there we walked a few blocks west on Main Street to Country Picnic to get take-out lunch sandwiches. I had actually placed a lunch order with them a week earlier, but when we arrived, they had no evidence of it. Just as well, as if they’d made up the order, there would have been extra sandwiches. Instead, we each just got what we wanted, and they were very fast making them, we didn’t wait long at all. Next we regrouped at the parking lot behind Schoolhouse Village and carpooled to our next tour location in the nearby town of Pluckemin.

This building was once the Pluckemin School, housing the Kindergarten, First and Second Grades for all Bedminster students until 1958 when those classes moved to the New Building in Bedminster. When my family and I arrived in Pluckemin in 1960, it was already closed, so I never went to school here.

The school is now The Center for Contemporary Art, with a gallery and workshops. Curtis and I had arranged a tour with Elie Porter Trubert, the Executive Director, who took this photo of the four former students of the school: Curtis Vreeland, Brent Franklin, Cathy Downey and Pru Cuper with myself.

Inside, Elie (in the green top) talks to Cathy and Pru while my wife Ellen looks on. Much has changed since it was a school, of course, but some things were familiar to the former students, including this floor upstairs, the pressed tin ceilings, and the old staircase in the front leading down to the basement. This upstairs room was part of the Kindergarten back when. Stories were told about having to go down alone to the bathrooms in the basement, a dark, spooky place.

Among the photos brought to the reunion was one of the 1956 Pluckemin School Kindergarten class, saved by Pru’s mom, who even listed most of the students on the back! A larger version is HERE. The teacher was Miss DeVoe, who Cathy and Pru remember as large and strict. Here are the student names we have. In the front row: Pru Hobbie, Brent Franklin, Bobby Sue Marsh, David Humphreys, Joann Graf, Owen Jackson, Susan Gary, Harlan Frost. Second row: Patty ___, Tommy ___, Julie Cimosz, Roxie Blazure, Frank Robertson, Richard Rodenbach, Cathy Downey, George Ashmun and Donna Timpson. Third row: Anne Yeager, Alfred Herzog, Curtis Vreeland, Romie Hoyt, Dana Christian, Bruce DeBacco, Steve Jackson, Claytona ___, and Glen Hough.

So, not only are four of our group in the photo, but twelve more were still in the class when I joined it in third grade. A wonderful and historic find that I’m sure our classmates will enjoy seeing.

After our school tour, we had a picnic lunch in the covered pavilion in back of the Art Center. Our sandwiches from Country Picnic were great, and we had other things to eat and drink brought by the group. Tim provided the tablecloth, picnic tableware, and music: a boom box playing Top 40 hits from our school years. Go, Tim! More stories were told and an enjoyable time was had by all. Brent mentioned an incident I have no memory of where he defended me from some bullies in the school gym and got into a fight with them for it. Thanks for that, Brent! Another topic was, “What was your first live music concert?” Several people liked my own story of seeing The Mothers of Invention (with Frank Zappa) at the Fillmore East in New York City with classmate Maxine Dixon, where I was mocked for my poor choice of wardrobe, a very out-of-date Nehru jacket and large gold medallion. Maxine and I were embarrassed, but the concert was great. Personally I think that tale was well trumped by Curtis’ stories of attending Woodstock, the only one in the group who did.

Curtis’ friend Julie Henderson joined us for lunch. Here she and Curtis look at some of the documents I brought, like the autograph sheet from 6th grade seen below.

Collecting autographs from schoolmates was a fad at the time, and many of us cultivated signatures with fancy swirls and loops. Our music teacher, Mr. Ragno’s signature is also here, so perhaps this phone list was his idea. I know he was encouraging us to take up a musical instrument at the time. I tried clarinet and hated it.

After lunch, Brent and Sharon Franklin had to leave, so we said our goodbyes to them and headed on to the next part of our tour.

From the northern edge of Pluckemin, on Schley Mountain Road in The Hills housing development, a two-mile walking/biking trail runs north to Bedminster, and we had decided to walk it. We left our cars at a day care center nearby and headed out on a hot and muggy day, but with temperatures in the mid 80s, so not too bad. It was partly cloudy, so we had some shade at times from that, and from trees. Curtis knows the path well, and here he’s showing us the trail map. At this end, much of the trail is on elevated walkways that wind up and over all the busy roads here where Route 202-206 meets Route 287. At first all we heard was lots of traffic…

…but later the path moved away from the highways and into the woods, along the North Branch of the Raritan River, through areas we’d not seen in a very long time, if ever. It was a fine chance for more conversation. Cathy is a naturopath specializing in herbal medicines, so she kept finding and telling us about plants she’d worked with. I put names to some of the birds we saw and heard. Everyone told stories.

Halfway we took a side trail up and over the highways again to River Road Park on the west side of Route 202-206, where we had a look at the historic Jacobus Vanderveer House. It wasn’t open to visitors, but it was still fun to see, and we looked in the windows. Home to General Knox, artillery commander of the American Army in the Revolutionary War when that division was quartered in Pluckemin in the winter of 1778-79, the house has been restored in recent years. Curtis lived nearby growing up, and he remembers it as a run-down wreck being lived in by the master of the Essex Foxhounds, with all the hounds in residence.

We rested there a while in the shade, and told more stories. One of the topics became, “What were you doing during the Vietnam War protests in our college years?” Tim had the best story. He was attending Harvard at the time, and his dorm room looked down on the scene of a large protest gathering. His room was used by the school radio station to do on-the-spot reports. Cathy also had a good story about her participation in a Greenpeace protest in New York City.

Soon we continued back over the highway and north on the main trail toward Bedminster. We were interested to see that part of the trail is named for our former school principal Jacob Snyder! Not sure how that happened, but nice to see him remembered there.

The path emerges from the woods at the NEW Bedminster School, just south of the one we attended, but much larger. Then it goes into the woods again briefly before rejoining Elm Street next to where we had left our cars.

One topic that often comes up when remembering playing in our schoolyard are some large concrete drainage pipes someone thought were appropriate for kids then to play on. And going through that last bit of woods just south of our old school, we came across this one! We don’t know if it’s from our school playground, but it could be. Today you have to wonder, what were they thinking?

We rested for a few minutes by our cars, quite hot now, and then headed up Elm Street to Main Street, and east. We walked past this house, where our classmate Robert (Bob) Schork lived, the only classmate who lived that close to the school. Bob had hoped to join us, so I took a picture of his old house and emailed it to him. Bob wrote, “Yes it is our house. It looks like there were two additions to it. The big evergreen tree by the porch is gone. When I was sent to my room for punishment, I would climb out the window onto the porch roof and down the tree to escape.” Thanks, Bob, good story!

Finally we ended our hike at the Far Hills Pharmacy, which has a small soda fountain counter selling delicious Giffords Ice Cream from Maine. The root beer floats were excellent!

Back at our cars behind the school, we said farewell to Pru, who had to leave to spend time with her mom. It was wonderful to reconnect with Pru, one of my best friends from grades 4 to 6. Then we all got into Curtis’s car, and he gave us a tour of the back roads of Bedminster, pointing out the former homes of some of our classmates, as well as much grander ones owned by people like Donald Trump these days.

We stopped to look around the Lamington Black Cemetery on Cowperthwaite Road, where in early days slaves were buried, and later black servants at the big estates. This is something I’d heard of but never visited. Lately local Boy Scouts have put a lot of work into the Cemetery, clearing and cleaning it up. It’s a sobering place to visit. Of the 97 graves, only 36 have names identified for them, including some Civil War casualties.

One of our last stops was the house Cathy grew up in. Here she’s taking a picture. The current owner of the house came over, and he and Cathy had a long talk, which they both enjoyed. The house had been moved during the construction of Route 287, but seems to have survived well. We also drove by the former homes of myself and Curtis.

It had been a full day, and after returning to where we’d left our cars, we all parted after hugs and smiles and assurances we’d all stay in touch, and perhaps visit each other in the future. A terrific experience, one I’ll remember always.

Other posts that might interest you are on the REMEMBERED page of my blog.

 

 

 

 

 

And Then I Read: JUSTICE LEAGUE 31

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Image © DC Comics, Inc.

I was nine years old when the first issue of the original JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA came out in 1960. For a few years it was my favorite comic. I’d already been reading about Superman, Batman, Flash and Green Lantern, and there they were in one story, with even more heroes (and heroines) and the coolest villains ever. There are moments when the new series by writer Geoff Johns gets close to that for me, as in the extensive scene this issue where we see Lex Luthor having coffee in Bruce Wayne’s living room as Lex confidently explains how he KNOWS Bruce is Batman, and why they should work together. Chilling and thrilling, a merger that could really rock the worlds of both! It’s great comics with nary a punch exchanged. Other elements of the issue involve a very evil Green Lantern ring, and hijinks on the new Justice League satellite. The art by Mahnke and Champagne is excellent.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: SUPERMAN #32

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

There’s been lots of publicity for this new creative team of writer Geoff Johns and artists John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson, so I gave it a try. I haven’t read a SUPERMAN issue in years, so I can’t compare it to what came before, but I enjoyed this one. Yes, Romita’s characters don’t look much like other recent versions, but that’s okay with me if the story works, and I think it does. Johns takes the opportunity to introduce a character named Ulysses of equal power and a similar background to Superman. The name and story have resonance: a wanderer returned home to find things much changed. Meanwhile, John’s handling of the Superman supporting cast seems great so far. I liked it, and will read more.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1991-92

Images © Peanuts Worldwide LLC.

By the time of this collection, Charles Schulz had been doing the Peanuts strip for 40 years. Hard to imagine how he kept going, and unlike many of his contemporaries, he did the entire strip himself: writing, drawing, lettering and inking. Yes, the strips are simple, but grinding them out incessantly for that long would seem to be impossible without losing the charm and humor you began with. Somehow, Schulz defied the odds. The lines in these strips are a little shakier, a slightly lower percentage made me smile or chuckle, but on the whole, they’re still terrific, full of the dry wit and slapstick humor, the characters we all recognize in ourselves, the whimsy of a dog who can be anything, and much more. Yes, there are some subjects that don’t work for me, like Snoopy’s brother Spike trying to deny his loneliness in the desert with fake friends, but plenty more are familiar and still funny.

I don’t think any new characters show up in this volume, and some are only in it very briefly, like Rerun and Pigpen, as well as the annoying girl sitting behind Linus in school. The tit-for-tat humor of these Snoopy and Linus strips had me laughing out loud. As Schulz headed into his fifth decade, he was still warmly entertaining, and this volume is well worth your time.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE ART OF NEIL GAIMAN by Hayley Campbell

Images © Hayley Campbell and Neil Gaiman.

The newest hardcover about Neil is a coffee-table book of modest proportions for the genre: about 8 by 10 inches. At 320 pages with about half text and half photos, illustrations and documents, it’s full of information about Neil and his writing. After being given free rein in Neil’s archives, author Hayley Campbell does a fine job with the text, getting lots across in an entertaining way, not getting bogged down in detail, but not missing much of Mr. Gaiman’s large volume of work. And I bet looking through it all must make him tired, it would me! I think I learned the most about Neil’s early work before he got into comics, and about his movie work, some of which I hadn’t been aware of at all.

I hope this won’t come across as snarky, but I found it amusing that there are lots of examples of Neil’s own handwriting, which I find hard to read. It made me glad we’ve nearly always worked together with him on keyboards. I imagine there are plenty of Neil fans who will have no trouble deciphering it.

Neil’s SANDMAN has been by far the most written about in other books, so the somewhat light coverage here is perfectly understandable. Hayley Campbell does consider Neil’s other comics work in more detail, and of course his novels, stories, poems, children’s books, audio recordings, TV and movie scripts, and more. Inevitably there will be a few things missed, or not discussed well enough for each reader’s satisfaction, and I had a few of those moments myself, but in all it’s a fine book, a great read, and an excellent record in both the visual and written sections. Well done.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: DOC SAVAGE 1

Image © Conde Nast.

The concept of Doc Savage, the super-smart, super-strong, super-rich adventurer and his gang of odd but equally smart and talented sidekicks never worked for me in the comics versions I’ve read from Marvel and DC. I hasten to admit I haven’t sampled the original pulp adventures that spawned him either. In this effort, writer Chris Roberson gradually brought me around so that, by the end of the issue, I was involved and enjoying the main character. The plot involves some sort of invisible effect causing people in specific areas to act belligerent and crazy for a time, then all come to their senses at once, clearly under the influence of some outside force. Doc and his gang do a fine job of homing in on the problem and its source, but it takes courage to bring the perpetrator to justice. The art by Bilquis Evely did not impress me much, it has the uneven quality of an artist still finding his way with depictions of the human figure in the many different angles and situations required for comics. There are nice panels and pages, but others that pulled me out of the moment with dodgy anatomy or composition. In all, I enjoyed the issue and might read more in a collection, though I should add this issue is a complete story, a rarity in today’s comics.

Recommended.

Feline sun worshippers

Every once in a while a photo taken on a momentary whim really works. I think this one does. Tigger and Leo sunbathing on my windowsill this morning. As of now, my favorite picture of them.

Rereading: THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

First edition, above, I’m rereading this and all the Holmes stories on my phone when I have the odd moment. I first read some of them in my teens, and then I discovered The Annotated Sherlock Holmes in our local library, and devoured all the stories and novels over a summer, I think, probably in the late 1960s. It’s been long enough that I don’t remember any details about many of the stories, even though I watched the Jeremy Brett TV adaptations and loved them. Having them as a free download on my phone and iPad through iBooks has been a delightful bonus from Apple.

These stories pick up Holmes and Watson’s crime-solving career some years after he was apparently killed in the story, “The Final Problem.” That was Doyle’s attempt to kill off the characters he’d grown tired of writing about so he could concentrate on other books and characters. His audience badgered him for more, though. A few years after the death of Holmes, Doyle wrote the most famous Holmes novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” though setting in before Holmes’ death, which rather than assuaging his audience made them even more vocal in asking for more. At last Doyle gave in, and in the first story here, “The Adventure of the Empty House,” Watson is astonished to find a living Holmes once more on his doorstep inviting him to participate in a new case. I’m not going to plot outline the stories in this book, you can find that HERE, but I certainly enjoyed these tales every bit as much as the earlier ones. True, there is some repetition of types of cases, but Doyle always makes them interesting, and in each story manages to add a few fascinating details about Holmes that we didn’t know before.

If you haven’t read the Sherlock Holmes stories, I envy you the experience. And with the short stories you can really start almost anywhere and have a great time. Recommended.

It was seven years ago today…

…that I began this blog and my website. I had no real plan for either, just wanted to put my name and work out there for the world to visit or not as they chose, and write about whatever came to mind. Started making a new line of signed prints so I’d have at least a small amount of income from them. It’s worked out pretty well for me, people seem to like it. Over the past year my series of posts about the DC Comics offices from the 1930s to the 1950s got the most attention, with over 4,300 visits for part one, linked here. Previous favorites like my Batman Logo Study and Comics Sans font article are still in the top five. A newcomer, and I’m not sure why is Part 3 of my Wonder Woman logo study.

Over the years I’ve sold quite a few of my signed prints. Longtime fan and buyer Laura Kinnaman recently sent me this photo of some of them framed. She writes, “I’m pretty sure I have coolest dining room ever :)” That’s the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile, thanks, Laura! If you enjoy my site and blog, the best possible way to support it and me is to buy something from my BUY STUFF page. Thanks to all of you who have, and everyone out there who checks in to see what’s going on here regularly. I appreciate it!

Tomorrow I’ll begin my eighth year, hope to see you back here soon.