Todd Klein's Blog, page 269

Incoming: THE UNWRITTEN Original Graphic Novel

Image © Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Just arrived today, a project I really enjoyed working on. I’ve been lettering THE UNWRITTEN from the beginning, and Mike and Peter have been constantly teasing readers with glimpses and excerpts from the actual Tommy Taylor novels. THIS is the real thing: a graphic novel adaptation of the first Tommy Taylor novel…plus other story elements long-time readers will find enlightening. Look for it in your area soon!

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 22

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

So, Constantine is back making trouble for Swamp Thing, or at least participating in it. Sounds like a Vertigo scenario, doesn’t it? Writer Charles Soule is doing a good job with the title character, but I didn’t like his take on Constantine as much. Here he seems rather shallow and easily fooled, not the Constantine I remember from his own book. The story features a small town in Scotland on hard times, and a fellow called The Breeder who brings sudden, miraculous prosperity in the form of a tree that grows bags full of fine whiskey. Of course, things don’t go so well after that.

The art by Kano continues to be generally good, though again I didn’t care much for his depiction of Constantine. Maybe it’s my problem, not his.

Mildly recommended.

Baltimore Comic-Con, Fables, Harveys

I’ve been so busy lately I’ve neglected to mention here that I’ll be at the Baltimore Comic-Con next Saturday. I’m driving over from home Saturday morning, and should be there around noonish. Stop me and say hi if you see me. There will be lots of folks I know and work with there, and some of them will be on the…

… from  3 to 5 PM, including Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Adam Hughes, Barry Kitson, Chrissie Zullo, Shelly Bond, myself and probably others. If you’re going to the con, hope to see you there.

I’ll also be at the Harvey Awards Saturday evening, a proud nominee. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there, as well. Should be a fun day!

Balticon, Fables, Harveys

I’ve been so busy lately I’ve neglected to mention here that I’ll be at the Baltimore Comic-Con next Saturday. I’m driving over from home Saturday morning, and should be there around noonish. Stop me and say hi if you see me. There will be lots of folks I know and work with there, and some of them will be on the…

… from  3 to 5 PM, including Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Adam Hughes, Barry Kitson, Chrissie Zullo, Shelly Bond, myself and probably others. If you’re going to the con, hope to see you there.

I’ll also be at the Harvey Awards Saturday evening, a proud nominee. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there, as well. Should be a fun day!

Beach Days

Some of Ellen’s family has been visiting us all the past week, hoping for some good beach days. There were a few, not as many as they might have hoped, but they had fun anyway.  Adam, Zach’s friend, joined them, left, then nephew Zach, Ellen’s sister Ann, niece Ina and Ellen. Ann’s husband Dave was also here a few days. I, unfortunately, had lots of work to do, so missed some of the fun, but I did get to the beach for a few hours on four of the seven days.

Monday was the best weather, and we did some sand sculptures. That’s me in the back working on a pointed arch, and in the front Ann and the boys built a castle.

Here’s the finished castle, looking quite good.

And the finished arch, with the castle behind it. Nothing very elaborate this time, but I had fun doing this.

Here are Zach and Adam relaxing after all that work.

Ellen and I pose for a picture with Ellen’s camera.

One day was cloudy with a little rain. In the morning, Zach entertained Tigger on the guitar.

Leo was there too, watching from the bookcase.

That day they went to the Zoo, and there were shopping trips, and of course ice cream at Springers in Stone Harbor. Most evenings we played board or card games. Ina made several meals we all enjoyed, including her own pizza, ratatoille and crab cakes. We also got some good sushi take-out.

The crew headed home this morning, the beach vacation is over for another year. It’s a lot quieter, but we enjoyed the company, and hope to see them again soon.

 

And Then I Read: WORLDS’ FINEST 13

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

Darkseid’s sidekick DeSaad is messing with these two ladies, reason yet unknown, and he has a variety of very tough monsters at his disposal, and is apparently making more. It’s an action-filled story that moves right along, even if few new facts are revealed. The art by Robson Rocha and Wayne Faucher is excellent. This book has had a number of artists, some better than others, but this team seems a good choice to me: realistic enough for superheroes, but full of exaggerated action that sells the story. Good layouts and character acting, appealing figure work.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN CORPS 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

This issue has several themes, but they can all be linked to the idea: out with the old guard, in with the new. Yes, some familiar faces are still headlining this book, like John Stewart (with star sapphire Fatality), but new recruits are being chosen and highlighted too. Then we have a new villain force emerging that is not new really, but perhaps is for this book. The GLC is perhaps the easiest place in the DC Universe for a new writer and art team to go their own way and develop new characters in a familiar setting, as the supply of Corps members is potentially endless. Some nice moments from writer Robert Venditti and appealing art from Van Jensen and Bernard Chang made this a good read. We’ll see how things develop.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

We’ve just had lots of epic battles between cosmic forces of good and evil in the Green Lantern titles, and new writers and artists are taking over, so where to go next? Writer Justin Jordan decided to take Kyle Rayner and a group of the new Guardians on an expedition to the edge of the known universe to investigate a massive thing called The Anomaly. Sounds very Jack Kirby, doesn’t it? Not a terrible idea, exploring is a good theme. Of course, we all know it will soon lead to more battles, and that begins here when a warrior named Exeter stands up to bar the GL party from their chosen task. The art by Brad Walker and Andrew Hennessy is mostly quite good, I like their take on the cosmic stuff, not so much on a character scene back on Earth between Kyle and Carol Ferris, but in all it’s not bad.

Recommended.

Rereading THE ENCHANTED CASTLE by E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit has been a favorite author of mine since childhood, and this is probably my favorite book of hers. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it, but more than five, though not more recently than 10 years ago, maybe 20. Above is my hardcover edition published by Coward-McCann in 1933, though it originally came out in 1907. However, I didn’t read that book this time, I read the iBook version on my phone, which is a free download from Apple, using the version available online from the Gutenberg Project. More about that later.

Nesbit’s children are SO well written, you feel like you know them inside a few pages. This book features four. First, a family of three: Gerry, oldest boy, who likes to talk about himself in the third person as if he is a character in a story, which of course he is, an interesting technique; Jimmy, the younger brother, somewhat stubborn, and not always willing to follow Gerry’s lead; and Cathy, their sister, always playing peacemaker, very sweet and loveable. These three have been forced to spend their summer at a boarding school in a small country town when other plans fall through. In charge of them in the empty school is a French governess who seems to be young and pretty, probably fairly new at the job, and easily swayed by clever Gerry to let the children explore the town on their own. On an early expedition the three find a hidden entrance to a large estate dominated by a home that is more like a castle, very grand. And in the elaborate garden maze they come upon what seems to be a sleeping, enchanted princess, a girl about their own age dressed in a long, fancy dress and bedecked with lots of very expensive-looking jewelry.

When they wake her, the princess gives them a tour of the castle, which does seem to be a magical place. One room holds secret panels behind which are lots more magnificent jewels — this is where the princess’s came from, and among them what she tells them is a magic ring. Indeed, it proves so when the girl, on a dare, wishes herself to be invisible to prove it to them, and is shocked to find she actually IS invisible. She’s really Mabel Prowse, the daughter of the housekeeper, and now in lots of trouble!

Many wonderful adventures ensue, and as in most Nesbit books, the magic is very difficult and tricky, always leading to unexpected and sometimes dangerous results. Or funny ones, though not so funny to the children who have to deal with it. Nesbit’s book is much more than that, with romance and intrigue for adults as well as deep magic involving gods and dinosaurs and very creepy people made out of old clothing, secret passages and caves, and lots of insightful humor and social commentary as well as very realistic kids.

Now, about the iBook version. It’s a mess. I checked the Gutenburg Project original, and the mess began there, it’s where the iBook came from. Yes, it’s free, and one has to applaud that, but the book is full of confusing mistakes: lots of missing punctuation, for instance. Nesbit often used em dashes ( — ) in her writing. They’re all missing in the online version, making for some very odd sentences. For instance, in the original:

“I’m not—I’m alive—I’m talking to you.”

In the iBook: “I’m not I’m alive I’m talking to you.”

Many other errors; missing commas and periods, probably words and lines dropped out, though I didn’t check for that. Not to mention things like words italicized for emphasis that aren’t in the iBook. It’s great to have Nesbit’s work available to anyone with a computer, but too bad it’s such a mangled version. Having read it many times, I could enjoy it anyway, but someone reading it for the first time would find many things puzzling I think. And the original illustrations by H. R. Millar are also not in the iBook, though in the printed book I have they’re reproduced quite badly, so that’s not good either.

In any case, if you like adventures with magic in them, this is a classic. Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: WINTERSMITH by Terry Pratchett

© Terry Pratchett, cover art © Bill Mayer.

It was great fun revisiting the world of young witch-in-training Tiffany Aching and her attendant band of small blue Wee Free Men. The latter are not present as much in this one, and that’s too bad, as they are a delight whenever they do appear, but in this third book about Tiffany she’s dealing with romantic problems that they can’t help with as much as before. First, there’s the young man she rescued in the first book, the son of her local lord, who she corresponds with, next there’s a godlike entity called the Wintersmith, actually the spirit of winter, who also develops a “thing” for young Tiffany, creating all sorts of embarrassing and dangerous problems for everyone around her. And by around her I mean within hundreds of miles, when Wintersmith tries to impress the girl by making the fiercest winter ever. Then there are Tiffany’s witch tutor, Miss Treason, the head witch Granny Weatherwax, the witchfinder Miss Tick, and the other young apprentice witches, some friendly to Tiffany, some scornful. All are swept into the madness of her winter romance. In the end, only a perilous trip to Hades will help the young girl and her allies, a trip which creates the funniest of many funny scenes in the book, when the Wee Free Men, aboard Charon’s boat crossing the river Styx, begin to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

Terry Pratchett can be very funny, but he’s also a masterful writer of real depth and fine characters. This series is excellent, great reading, and highly recommended.