Todd Klein's Blog, page 270

And Then I Read: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

The Legion is facing a reformed Fatal Five that is more powerful than ever, and not doing too well against them. While many are facing them on Earth, Invisible Kid and Polar Boy are walking through the land of dead Legionnaires, and getting advice from them, a creepy sequence. The Fatal Five may not be the smartest bunch, but they are certainly strong and vicious. My favorite is Emerald Empress. Eye like the way she says eye instead of I. In the end, it’s a beat-down battle, not my favorite sort of story, but well done of its type. The art by Jeff Johnson is quite good, and the plot by Paul keeps the pages turning.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: JUSTICE LEAGUE 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

In the back of JUSTICE LEAGUE, writer Geoff Johns has been slowly developing a revamp for Shazam, or what once was the Captain Marvel Family. While the originals worked well for their seminal runs in the 1940s and 1950s, this new version has a lot to recommend it. I did not like the lead at first, I found him mean and crabby. Billy Batson is not a smiling goody-two-shoes, he’s a real kid with issues and flaws, but he has gradually come to terms with his new alter ego: a very large, very muscular adult with superhuman abilities. The new family he’s found himself in did not like him either, but they’ve come around too, and are now fighting at his side. Harder to deal with are the super-villains out to destroy him, chiefly Black Adam, and this issue is the confrontation between them that has been building for over a year. Johns and artist Gary Frank deliver, it’s a fine story with terrific art. Well done, all. Let’s see where the Shazams go next.

Recommended.

Beach Zoo Beach

That’s how our three days with my brother Doug and his family went. Saturday was largely sunny, though only in the 70s, as has been the case the last two weeks at least, very cool for August, but we had fun at the beach, and I built this sand castle with some help.

Sunday was showery, though it never rained much, so we went to the Cape May County Zoo, which is really quite a good one.

The stars of the zoo are the current pair of Snow Leopard cubs, so very cute. It’s the third year in a row the Snow Leopards have produced a litter, and I’m guessing the cubs are being distributed to other zoos once they’re old enough.

A giraffe reaches for some distant leaves. He got them, too.

Some of the animals were sleeping or out of sight, but enough were out and being entertaining to amuse everyone.

The lion was roaring, which we heard but didn’t see.

Outside the zoo was a climbing wall, raising money for the animals. Haley and Charlie had a go.

Here’s the zoo’s photo op spot with our niece and nephews Haley, Charlie and Dylan.

Monday we were back at the beach, where the boogie boards were in good use. Mostly cloudy and still cool for August, but not a bad day.

The race for the shore.

Here are Monday’s sand sculptures, with Haley’s in front, Doug’s behind that, and my tall tower right.

The tower door, a separate piece. I haven’t tried that before, worked okay.

Tower with kids, for scale.

And finally, Doug’s deep hole. Fun was had by all, lots of ice cream was eaten, as well as excellent Japanese food at Murasaki and fresh corn on the cob at home. Ellen’s family will be visiting next week.

And Then I Read: SAGA Volume 2

Image © Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

See if this sounds like a good idea to you: team up a great writer and a fine artist, each with a proven track record, and let them come up with a new project, created from scratch, anything they like, to which they’ll retain ownership. Publish what they produce. This will not work all the time, some results will not be commercially viable, some teams will not mesh well, or not be able to produce work consistently and continuously, some will simply not find an audience. But when it works, you can get books like SAGA, which seem fresh and filled with one great moment after another, and which readers will love and follow passionately.

Star-crossed lovers Marko and Alana, now new parents of Hazel, are in a constant struggle to stay alive. Everyone wants them dead except Hazel’s grandparents, and at times we’re not so sure about them. There are paid assassins, military commanders, enemies old and new on their trail, and only their luck, skill and help from a few friends made along the way are keeping the family alive at all. That’s the plot, but what really makes this book worth reading are the characters and their complex and fascinating relationships. There are no humans in this story per se, but really every character is human in ways that matter most, and you’ll recognize their good and bad traits on every page. Both the writing and art are wonderfully adept and seamless in that way which is so very hard to do.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: JOE HILL’S TERRIFYINGLY TRAGIC TREASURY EDITION

Image © IDW and Joe Hill.

The biggest shock I received from this book was the size of it. Yes, the word “Treasury” is in the title, but I wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as big as the old DC Comics Treasury Editions! It measures 8.5 by 13 inches, so not really tabloid size, but pretty big. Inside there are some quite good stories and art if you’re a horror comics fan, and I sometimes am, if they’re well written.

“Kodiak” is a charming mediaeval tale told by a man with a facial scar to two boys who have shown unabashed curiosity about it. There’s a bear, a beautiful princess, a nasty prince, and a clever juggler. Art by Nat Jones.

“Freddy Wertham Goes to Hell” is postmodern surrealism riffing on the unjustices done to comics creators, but in an entertaining and over-the-top way. Amazingly great art by the late great Seth Fisher and Langdon Foss.

“The Cape”, which is adapted from a Joe Hill short story by Jason Ciaramella is about a boy who finds out the home-made superhero cape he’s playing around in really does allow him to fly…or does it? Good story, but I didn’t care for the ending. Art by Zach Howard.

Finally we have a Locke & Key story, “Open The Moon,” with art by Gabriel Rodriguez that is essentially Little Nemo meets Locke & Key. Charming, joyful, chilling and ultimately heartbreaking. By far the best thing in the book, and worth the price alone.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: A GAME OF THRONES Volume Two

Image © George R.R. Martin.

Some may find it odd that I love the original novels in this series, have little interest in watching the TV version, but am enjoying this comics adaptation. I think it’s because the story is full of violence and cruelty which I find easier to digest in these forms, at my own pace, rather than having it thrust at me on a screen. Warm mediums like printed books and comics require a reader’s mental participation, cool ones like movies and TV are self-contained. Or that’s my take on the old Marshall McLuhan theory.

Daniel Abraham is doing a fine job of adapting the story to comics. There is a fair amount of exposition, but I think it’s needed with such a complex story and so many characters. A number of them narrate, with the lettering using different colors in the captions to help indicate which ones. My one problem with the book is that some of those captions are very dark, making the lettering hard to read. My rule of thumb is, when the color in a balloon or caption contains more than a combined 50% of cyan and magenta (blue and red ink), the lettering should be reversed out white for better readability.

This collection of issues 7 to 12 of the comic begins at The Wall, that northern barrier meant to keep out ancient evils of the icy north. Like most things in this world, it’s failing, a theme often repeated. Back in the capital city, a tournament is proposed that thrills young Sansa, daughter of the king’s right-hand man, but lots of threats are brewing below the surface: plots and counterplots, always the way things go in this book. The tournament is a grand affair that turns deadly for one person. Meanwhile, The Hand’s wife Catelyn has captured the dwarf, Tyrion, and fled with him to her sister’s castle high in a tall mountain peak, and across the ocean, Daenerys, the young bride of a fierce warlord, and perhaps the one-day heir to the throne of Westeros, is having more trouble with her own petulant brother than any of her new subjects.

Lots to enjoy here. The art by Tommy Patterson is quite good, though at times his faces seem a bit wooden. Overall he does a nice job, though.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: NACKY PATCHER AND THE CURSE OF THE DRY-LAND BOATS by Jeffrey Kluger

Image © Jeffrey Kluger, illustration © David Elliot.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this book when I first picked it up at a used book sale, but despite the unwieldy title I decided to give it a try. Jeffrey Kluger is a writer for Time magazine and best known as the co-author of the book “Apollo 13″ from which the film was made. This is his first book for younger readers, and as inspiration he seems to be leaning more toward Charles Dickens and perhaps Herman Melville than the usual suspects like Tolkien and Rowlings. That’s refreshing.

The book didn’t grab me right away, as the opening chapters are full of exposition and character introductions. There’s a lot to establish: an entire village (with map) and many inhabitants, their odd lifestyle of near-slavery to the owner of most of the land in the area, the unusual system of laws and punishments, and so on. The two lead characters are Nacky Patcher, a sometime thief and ne’er-do-well and Teedie Flinn, a dirt-poor child with a disabled hand. There are fantastic elements established right at the start: the complete remains of a large wooden sailing ship that suddenly appear in a lake near town, but that “dry-land boat” of the title remains mysterious for a long time.

The book really comes alive with Chapter 4, where we learn about Nacky Patcher’s time aboard a sailing vessel at sea in a tremendous storm. While still full of details about the ship and sailors, this chapter is also a thrilling account of a disaster at sea that had me glued to the pages.

Once I realized Kluger could write that kind of suspenseful drama, the rest of the book pulled me on through the occasional slow part, and as I got to know all the characters, I liked it better and better. I did find Kluger’s choices for names not particularly well done. They tend toward jokey or silly, undercutting the more serious aspects of the story (which really has very little humor in it). And the climax of the story is kind of disappointing, as the long-promised conclusion of the dry-ship adventure never really arrives. But in all, it’s a fine book and well worth reading.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: AQUAMAN 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

Great cover: the lonely king. And who knew undersea life could be so complicated? We have two undersea civilizations, one called Xebel, which is the original home of Mera, who’s just returned there. The other is Atlantis, where Arthur is supposed to be king, but is being undercut on all sides by rivals and enemies. There are plenty of surprises for both of them, not the least is a very large, very old entity with icy powers who claims to be the REAL King of Atlantis. And there are still loose Atlantean weapons out there causing trouble, too. Writer Geoff Johns keeps things circulating well, and the art by Paul Pelletier and Sean Parsons is looking better with every issue.

Recommended.

Cats’ Bath Day and Cape May Walk

Yesterday was the annual event our cats hate most — bath day. Ellen bathes them this time of year before summer visitors arrive who are allergic to cats. The bathing cuts down on the allergens. This year I made a short video, which you can see below.

Despite their hate for bath day, they behaved remarkably well.

Later we had dinner in Cape May and went for a long walk on the promenade there, along Beach Drive. We hadn’t been there in a while, and the weather was fine, warm but not too humid.

From the west end of the promenade you can look across to the lighthouse in Cape May Point.

A few of the many historic Victorian inns and homes.

We’d heard about a new place serving organic ice cream, and tried it. Quite good, with unusual flavors, though as Ellen said, not better than Springers in Stone Harbor, our favorite local ice cream place. Still, we approve of the organic ingredients. I had blueberry-lavender and Ellen had blackberry-agave. A nice way to finish the outing.

And Then I Read: GHOST KNIGHT by Cornelia Funke

Image © Cornelia Funke, illustration © Andrea Offermann.

Though my favorite novels for younger readers by Cornelia Funke are her “Inkheart” trilogy, all the other books of hers that I’ve read have been good, and this is another. In present day England, young Jon Whitcroft has some problems with his family. His mom is seeing a new man, who Jon dislikes intensely and has nicknamed “The Beard,” even though the rest of the family adores him. After being as concerned and patient as she can be, his mom eventually decides to get him out of the house by sending him to a cathedral boarding school in Salisbury.

Jon does not want to be at this school, and tries his hardest to not fit in, though everyone seems to be trying to get along with him. But some others have a very different attitude, a group of ghosts on horseback led by a bully named Stourton who has it in for Jon, and wants to kill him. This is not only frightening but baffling to Jon, but a girl at the school, Ella, seems to know where to find answers. Her grandmother, Zelda, is an expert on the ghosts of the area, and with her help they track down the story of Stourton, who killed an ancestor of Jon, and was later hung for it.

What to do? Ella suggests they appeal for help from another ghost of the cathedral, a knight buried there named William Longspee, who legend says will help those in need. Jon and Ella sneak into the cathedral at night and rouse the ghost knight, and he agrees to help them.

Longspee is a brave ghost, and helps when he can, but Stourton is clever, and strikes out at Jon’s friends. Other surprising things happen, such as the appearance of “The Beard” in this ghostly struggle, and troubling mysteries around Longspee and his possible role in another murder are soon part of the mix.

Well told, exciting supernatural adventure with appealing characters and a clever story. Highly recommended.