Todd Klein's Blog, page 247

Rereading: THE BOJEFFRIES SAGA

Image © Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse.

This hilarious collection of stories began in 1983, more than thirty years ago, and has been growing in fits and starts and ever since. The Bojeffries family is a collection of wildly divergent eccentrics perhaps inspired by British comedy like Monty Python, but going much further into the possibilities presented by the comics medium. So, we have a werewolf who has a nine-to-five factory job when he isn’t catching and eating poodles, a vampire who gets no respect from anyone, a grandfather who is part plant, and a baby in the basement who seems to be a source of nuclear energy, not to mention more outwardly normal-looking family members who are just a weird in their own ways. One of the sources of humor is that no one else around the family seems to notice just how weird they are, with the exception of rent-collector Trevor Inchmale who has stumbled on evidence showing the family owes the government about 100 years of back rent on their house, and is determined to collect it.

Later stories go in other directions, and the most recent brings things up to date in a mock TV documentary just as funny as the earlier work. There is one problem with the later stories, though. Steve Parkhouse chose not to hand-letter them as he had the early ones, and the font he used is small and rather hard to read for these old eyes. Matters aren’t helped by the heavy accent of the documentary narrator that adds lots of extra vowels. The reproduction of the later stories is also not as good, with both the lettering and the art being a little blurry and converted from line art to grayscale, thus breaking up all the lines into dots. Despite the extra effort reading them entails, it’s well worth it. If you aren’t familiar with Alan Moore as an author of comedy, you’ll be delighted with this collection.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: DETECTIVE COMICS 30

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

I enjoyed the work of Manapul and Buccellato on The Flash, so have followed them to this title (as I’m sure DC Comics hopes others will). Though the art style is very similar, there are major differences in the storytelling. First, our viewpoint character is initially two young brothers newly arrived in Gotham City, and already involved in petty crime. Batman explodes into their world, and dashes their hopes for a successful crime career pretty quickly, but I expect we’ll see more of them. Then we cut to Bruce Wayne at a motocross event. Bruce is considering backing a massive development project in one of Gotham’s derelict sections, and there might be a romantic angle between him and the woman proposing the sports complex plan. Then there’s The Squid, a crime lord in a brief but chilling scene, and some nice moments in the Batcave between Bruce and Alfred before a shocking event to close out the issue.

The biggest difference between this book and FLASH is that we get no insight into Batman’s thoughts, we only observe his actions. Makes it harder to warm up to the character for me, though the scene with Alfred helps. And the book has a grim, somber tone rather than the generally upbeat one this team brought to Barry Allen’s adventures most of the time. It’s not bad, and I’ll give it a few issues to see how it goes, but so far I’m not loving it as much as FLASH.

Still, recommended.

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 30

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

So, Alec Holland, Swamp Thing, was offered the chance to inhabit a human body for a while, the body of an acolyte of The Sureen, a centuries old group dedicated to worshipping and helping the avatar of The Green. Only it turns out they weren’t really The Sureen, but some other group intent on stealing Swamp Thing’s body to use for their own evil purposes, as above. Meanwhile, the other ex-avatars now in human bodies as well as Capucine, Alec’s self-appointed body-guard have been equally duped and return to the swamp only just in time to revive Alec Holland in his temporary body. Who might they turn to for help finding the real Swamp Thing body? How about a long-time DC Universe villain? What could go wrong there? Great story and character writing by Charles Soule, fine art by Jesus Saiz and Javi Pina. This remains one of my favorite comics to read at present.

Recommended.

My 2014 World Series of Birding Report

Images © Todd Klein.

The goal: see or hear and tally as many bird species as possible between midnight and midnight of Saturday, May 10th to raise funds for the New Jersey Audubon Society’s Cape May Bird Observatory to be used for nature education, research, stewardship and preservation.

Our team: The CMBO Century Run; 22 members including team leaders Mike Crewe and Megan Edwards, and additional leaders Roger and Kathy Horn and Karl Lukens, traveling Cape May County in two rented vans, as well as parts of it on foot.

Our day began at 5 AM in The Nature Conservancy’s Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge on Sunset Avenue in Cape May Point, known to birders as “The Meadows.” The dark sky was cloudy, there was a light wind from the southwest, cool but not unpleasant. As we walked the trail waiting for first light, we began counting birds we heard and could identify by their calls, with Tree Swallows being the first species on the list closely followed by Common Yellowthroat Warblers, Carolina Wrens and Red-Winged Blackbirds. Participants ranged from veterans like Ellen and myself to a man who was a newbie birder, this being his second time birding ever. Nearly every bird he saw was new to him!

As morning light grew we stood atop the dune crossover at The Meadows scanning for birds on the beach and in the ocean, adding more species to our list. At the beginning of the day, it all seems so easy, with new species turning up on all sides, and the list growing by the minute. Leader Mike Crew, with his scope, is pointing out a Northern Gannet flying over the waves.

On World Series day, they all count equally, from Mute Swan, a species disliked by many birders because the swans chase other birds off all the ponds…

…to favorites of birders and non-birders like Snowy Egret, fishing in shallow water by wriggling his bright yellow feet to attract minnows…

…to tiny Least Sandpiper, here coming remarkably close to us as we watched him.

Despite a forecast of rain, the day’s weather turned out to be nearly ideal. Cloudy much of the day with a few brief light showers that bothered neither us nor the birds, and occasional moments of sun as above. The light southwest winds continued all day. On the minus side, clouds and some fog overnight probably kept new migrating birds from reaching the area, but on the other hand also kept existing migrants from leaving. A day with lots of sun would have given us a better chance to see hawks and other soaring birds, but we did get some anyway, and avoided sunburn and baking heat. The temperature began at around 60 degrees and got no warmer than the mid 70s, quite comfortable.

After The Meadows we headed to Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area where we added species like Yellow-Breasted Chat, above, Baltimore Oriole, Prairie Warbler and Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, always tough to find.  After a brief stop at the Cape May Point State Park for bathrooms and a few more species, we got in our two vans and headed north to Belleplain State Forest around 9 AM with 75 species on our list. A good start!

Ellen and I ended up in the rear of four rows of seats in the van driven ably by Roger Horn, with Kathy Horn next to him communicating with the other van by walkie-talkie. Getting back there was a squeeze and grew tiresome, but the van was comfortable and we had room for our stuff: extra clothes, a cooler full of food, and so on, so it worked out okay. Next year I’m going to find out who I have to bribe to get the second row, though… (kidding!)

We did well at Belleplain, picking up species like Eastern Phoebe, above, as well as expected nesting birds like Summer Tanager, Acadian Flycatcher, Hooded Warbler, Eastern Meadowlark and more.

Eastern Bluebird on the bluebird house at the state forest headquarters was an easy add, and there we also got Ruby-throated Hummingbird and White-breasted Nuthatch at their feeders. A reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer joined us there and tagged along for a few hours, preparing a story for today’s paper which I probably won’t see for a while.

The team prepares to walk a short trail in search of Blue-winged Warbler and Wood Thrush. Belleplain woods are full of ticks, but though we found a few crawling on us during the day, Ellen and I seem to have avoided any tick bites this year, an unusual bonus! By 12:15 PM we were ready to move on right after leader Mike Crewe spotted a rare Mississippi Kite soaring far overhead that made species 101 on our list. Our “century run” of at least 100 species was now official, but after the first 100 it gets progressively harder to find new ones for the list, and we had a long afternoon and evening ahead of us.

A visit to Beaver Dam Road gave us good looks at my favorite local nesting warbler, Prothonotary, seen here in a photo from the Wild Delmarva website, as well as Gull-billed Tern and Glossy Ibis.

The Philadelphia Inquirer photographer caught up with us here, he’s at the right trying to get a photo of the warbler. Lots harder than his usual subjects, I suspect he didn’t get one! After a few other brief stops we headed to the east side of the Cape May peninsula.

In Avalon, after a late lunch stop, we picked up Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, above, as well as Black-Crowned and Piping Plover, and a few more. (Wish all the birds were as easy to photograph as this one!) By about 3 PM we were headed toward Nummy Island just southwest of Stone Harbor to look for more shore and sea birds with our tally at 114 species.

We did find some, including this handsome Surf Scoter, a sea duck, as well as shore birds like Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and the threatened species Red Knot. After that we went back to the Cape May area for a second round of searching. All the easy ones were already on our list, and now it became a matter of picking up one here and two there. At the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Northwood Center we found American Goldfinch and Brown Thrasher, and driving by a pond near the State Park, Megan spotted a difficult to see Belted Kingfisher.

At the Cape May-Lewes ferry terminal just north of Higbee Beach we searched for and found Purple Sandpiper and Ruddy Turnstone.

At the Cape May County Airport we found the always reliable Horned Lark, the only place to find it in our county, and this year close enough for a good photo.

This distant Bald Eagle perched in a tree there was the third of the day, and more typical of looks we tend to get. At Miami Beach Road on Delaware Bay we finally found Ring-billed Gull, and at a pond in the town of Villas located a well-documented rarity, Red-Necked Grebe. It was now 6 PM and we were running out of daytime and out of species to look for. We headed back north toward Belleplain State Forest for another go there with 128 species on our list. We picked up a few more on the way, bringing our total to 133 species.

The second try at Belleplain was a complete bust, with nothing new added. Birds that should have been singing were quiet. Even leader Megan’s excellent Barred Owl imitation brought no response. It was very discouraging, but we had one more good place to try, Jake’s Landing Road just south of Belleplain, on the marsh leading to Delaware Bay. In the fading light we gradually picked up six more for the list! Seaside Sparrow and Marsh Wrens were easy, calling everywhere. Leaders Mike Crewe and his wife Megan Edwards were able to somehow tease out a few from the shadows: American Black Duck, Green-winged Teal, and Great Blue Heron flying far overhead, one that had eluded us all day. Finally, as darkness fell, Whip-poor-wills began calling in the woods for our final species of the day. We climbed one last time into the vans, weary but satisfied. We stopped three times at likely spots to listen for another night-caller, Chuck-will’s-widow, but heard none, so around 9:45 PM we returned to the parking lot and our cars at The Meadows, then most of us drove to the Grand Hotel in Cape May for the Finish Line.

We arrived at the Finish Line around 10 PM, weary and bleary, but the applause as we walked in was heartening. World Series of Birding officials were there going over the tallies of teams that had already arrived. The top teams of 74 total teams would not get there (or report in by fax) until just before midnight, but about twenty were there ahead of us, some with old friends among them.

Here are the tally boards I’d put together the previous week beginning to fill in with team totals. Ours is not there yet.

These are the trophies in various categories that were awarded to the winning teams at today’s Awards Brunch. We never go to that, but I do have some winners from the website. The Urner Stone Cup (center) for highest number of species, 218, went to the Cornell Redheads. Second and third place trophies went to UMLY Band of Birders with 208 species and YMOS Raucous Gulls with 203 species. I think those are all teams of younger birders covering the entire state, and good to see that new generation prospering and the tradition continuing! Other winners and complete team standings can be found HERE.

Our team enjoyed a hot meal while we went over our lists and compiled the official team tally of 139 species. Two better than last year, which is good, and almost at our target of at least 140. As always there were some that we think we should have gotten and didn’t. The complaint of “I had such-and-such here all last week!” was often heard during our big day. We ended up in the middle of the pack, as always, but are proud of our effort all the same. Ellen and I will be contributing $278 for our own pledges, and I’ve raised an additional $660 from generous pledges from CARL RIGNEY, SUSAN DAIGLE-LEACH, MARTIN MILLER, AL B. WESLOWSKY, JIM AND WENDY WILLIAMS and SHAWN GALDEEN. Thanks to all of them for their very generous pledges!

The World Series of Birding is over for this year. Before we know it we’ll be planning for the next one. When we do, you’ll hear about it here!

 

 

 

 

Big Day Tomorrow

The World Series of Birding is tomorrow, and Ellen’s and my team, the Cape May Century Run will be out there searching for and tallying bird species from 5 AM to 9 PM or so. Today I spent a few hours helping out at the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Northwood Center in Cape May Point, where teams out scouting for tomorrow were coming in for snacks and information. I did a little scouting myself before that, but most of the work has been done by the regular and veteran birders that populate the Cape May area. Information on where to find tough species has been shared in a virtual swap-meet, to give everyone a chance to raise as much money as possible in our fundraiser. And knowing WHERE to look for something doesn’t mean you’ll find it, as we know all too well! There have been some rarities around this week like Crested Caracara, Cerulean Warbler and Pileated Woodpecker (rare for here), but often the rare ones don’t show up on the big day, so we’ll see how it goes.

Ellen and I will be up at 3 AM in order to get our act together and down in Cape May Point for the gathering of our team by 5 AM. Then we’ll travel by van through the next 16 plus hours, first around the Cape May area, then to other good birding spots in the county. Top teams will bird the entire state of New Jersey, starting at the northwest corner, and ending in Cape May, but that’s a particularly grueling 24 hours, and many teams now do only one county, or even just the Cape May area. Our team is Cape May County only, and believe me, it’s plenty to cover! I’ll be posting my write-up of our Big Day on Sunday, hopefully, if I’m not too wiped out to manage it.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN 30

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

I like that fact that we’ve seen Hal Jordan go through a learning curve about how to lead the Corps. He’s doing much better in this issue, which opens with a somber scene remembering the fallen, including Kyle Rayner. Too bad Hal’s subscription to GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS isn’t up to date, or he’d know Kyle is still with us. Later, we see Hal taking on a one-on-one match with a formidable foe to decide a critical tactical point in the war with the Khund. It’s along the lines of Kirk fighting a Klingon, but not bad. The art by Martin Coccolo is well done, and apparently all pencil work. Looks good.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: HECK by Zander Cannon

Images © Zander Cannon.

This small but powerful book is a testament to what one writer/artist can do with a good idea. Hector (“Heck”) Hammarskjöld is one of those guys who seems to have it easy in life, from football hero in high school on. His father was a powerful sorcerer, and when he dies, Heck discovers he’s inherited a house that contains a gateway to Hell. It’s the hell of Dante’s “Inferno,” the one with all the different levels for different sinners and their punishments. Heck decides to open a most unusual consulting business, one where he will travel into Hell to make contact with the deceased loved ones of his clients to learn last wishes, or ask important questions.

Heck is not alone in this, he has an assistant named Elliot, who we first meet as an overly-fawning fan of Heck since high school. Later we find Elliot drastically changed by one of their missions into Hell, covered with bandages and seemingly a broken person, giving us the first clue that Heck’s travels below are not so easy.

But business seems to be going okay. Hector is visited by a new client, Amy, a girl he had a crush on years ago, who wants to get information from her recently deceased husband. Thus begins the harrowing adventure of Heck and Elliot’s latest descent into the underworld, where we and they quickly discover how hellish it really is.

This is more than a thriller or adventure story, it delves into complex psychological depths that unveil many things about the characters that will surprise you, or perhaps not, depending on your knowledge of human nature. It’s a masterful piece of writing by Zander. The art, on the other hand, is very simple and cartoony. Generally that works fine, but at times I found it got in the way of the story for me, especially when character faces became so simplified they lost humanity, as in the girl’s face above. But other times the simplicity allows Zander to get across moments that would have been too horrible in great detail, so it’s a delicate balancing act that works most of the time.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s an experience that will keep you thinking for a long time.

And Then I Read: ASTRO CITY 10

Image © Juke Box Productions.

In this concluding chapter of the Winged Victory story, it’s no surprise that she finally overcomes her persecutors, and does it a convincing and triumphant way. We know the arc of the story isn’t going to end on a downward slope. But writer Kurt Busiek knows how to get every potential emotion and meaning from the story, and artist Brent Anderson does the same with his art. Satisfying to the last panel.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: AQUAMAN AND THE OTHERS 1

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

We first met The Others, a super-group of sorts, in issues of AQUAMAN last year, where the team of unlikely agents from around the world was retconned as one that Aquaman had been a part of some years earlier. In this book, we first see the team individually, in trouble. Seems Aquaman had given each of them Atlantean artifacts with powers  (created by Atlan a thousand years ago), but they’ve suddenly stopped working. The team, including Aquaman, reforms intent on investigating this problem, despite issues that broke them up earlier. As the book ends, some force is clearly out to get them, but the final pages are a teaser for another comic that I don’t plan on reading.

Not a bad start. The script by Dan Jurgens is entertaining. He handles the characters well, including Arthur Curry. The art by Lan Medina and Allen Martinzez is excellent.

Recommended.

Turtle, Bird, Worm

Why does the Snapping Turtle cross the road? To get to another pond with a female turtle in it is my guess. I helped this one across today. He was about six inches wide and weighed maybe 10 pounds. They get much bigger. Snappers are feisty, he hissed and tried to reach my hands to bite, but didn’t succeed. Hope he gets where he’s going without having to cross any more roads.

And here’s a Worm-eating Warbler doing just that. They’re very hard to see normally, but this afternoon in Belleplain Ellen and I watched this one on the ground near the road turning over leaves and finding worms, chipping quietly to itself all the while. A very cool thing to see. Not quite in focus (my camera’s autofocus couldn’t keep up), but not bad for a warbler picture. The other 15 photos were useless.