Todd Klein's Blog, page 278

And Then I Read: A HAT FULL OF SKY by Terry Pratchett

How foolish of me it was to not have read more Terry Pratchett books over the years. This second book about Tiffany, a young witch in training, is every bit as good as the first, “The Wee Free Men.” I have some catching up to do!

Tiffany came into a partnership of sorts with a group of tiny Picties in the first book, showing she had powerful magic when she really needed it, but now is ready to leave her small friends and her home in the chalk hills behind and begin studying witchcraft for real with an older practitioner. While the girl heads off to get started with that, she accidentally unleashes a very powerful magic force into her world, one that will follow Tiffany and try to take over her body and soul. Meanwhile, the group of other young witches she finds herself among is not welcoming to the new girl, and her teacher turns out to be more of a local herb doctor than anything, rather disappointing. The Wee Free Men have been asked to leave Tiffany alone, but their leader is troubled, and aware of the dark power on her trail. If he doesn’t act, it could be the end for his friend.

That synopsis sounds pretty dark, but Pratchett’s work is full of humor and wisdom, wise cracks and smart ideas. I have decided he’s a new favorite fantasy writer, and I’ll be looking for the other two books about Tiffany, and more. This is great fun! Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH Vol. 4

Image © Mike Mignola.

Usually I don’t go for stories where the main characters are miserable. For some reason, in the Hellboy universe, I do. Perhaps it’s because each of the agents of the B.P.R.D. are compensating for their own unhappiness by throwing everything they have into fighting monsters and protecting their world. In this “Hell on Earth” series, the monsters are so pervasive and powerful, the cause seems almost pointless, but they all carry on anyway as best they can. This book has two storylines. One focuses on a new agent trying to bring in a girl with psychic “hunches” that keep her one step ahead of trouble. There’s so much trouble around them that even her ability isn’t enough, though. In the other storyline, the ghostly Kraus in his fragile containment suit is leading a group of newer agents on a hunt for a werewolf in the forests of Canada. The werewolf is someone he knows well, making the story even sadder.

There’s not much good news in this book, but you will find compelling writing, suspense, thrills, and fine art by Tyler Crook and James Harren. Recommended.

 

And Then I Read: GRANDVILLE BETE NOIRE

Images © Bryan Talbot.

The third of Bryan Talbot’s GRANDVILLE albums is just as wonderful as the first two. If you’ve read those, you can move on to something else. If you haven’t, read on.

The realm of anthropomorphic animals, in other words animals that act like humans, has a long tradition going back at least to Eve and the serpent, and Aesop’s Fables. Even in comics, it’s a long tradition, with characters like Britain’s Rupert Bear and America’s Disney animals. When you give them very human bodies below their animal heads, the range narrows some, but there are two masterful new series using that technique, Spain’s BLACKSAD by Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist) and England’s GRANDVILLE by Bryan Talbot. While BLACKSAD is very film noir and 1940s, GRANDVILLE is more Sherlock Holmes in Paris.

an homage to “Wind in the Willows,” the evil mastermind behind BETE NOIR’S villainy is a toad reminiscent of that book, but much crueler. Baron Krapaud has a plan to take over the government of France by force, and it’s a fiendishly clever one. Meanwhile, Detective-Inspector LeBrock has been called in on a locked room murder case in Grandville (Bryan’s Paris) that has the local police baffled. While investigating he runs into an old flame, Billie, a call-girl making extra money posing for artists. As LeBrock and his assistant Roderick delve into Grandville’s many levels of society searching for answers, LeBrock and Billie’s relationship develops. Soon, more murders begin to up the stakes as the plans for revolution are revealed, leading to war in the streets!

There’s also a steampunk element to the story, and some really clever mysteries and problem-solving, all wonderfully drawn by Bryan. This oversized album is full of great art and great reading on every page. You don’t really need to have read the previous albums to enjoy this one, but you’ll want to.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: AGE OF BRONZE 32

Image © Eric Shanower.

It’s been quite a while since I was able to read an issue of AGE OF BRONZE, but despite the large cast of characters, many of whom look somewhat alike (no superhero costumes here), I had no trouble getting back into the story. Of course, the inside cover synopsis helps, but mostly it’s because Eric is really good at retelling this mammoth story.

Not only is it mammoth because it’s a war with hundreds of speaking characters, it’s mammoth because Eric is folding in not only the story told by Homer in “The Iliad,” but other stories within that story as embellished and expanded by other writers. This time the focus is on Troilus and Cressida, two troubled lovers made famous by the Shakespeare play, and not really in the old Greek legends at all. Cressida’s father has decided he wants to defect and join the Greeks, but Cressida has fallen in love with Troilus, son of the king of Troy. Father and daughter are given up to the Greeks in a prisoner exchange, which naturally does not make the couple happy. Once in the Greek camp, the pretty young maiden is beset with romantic offers from many of the Greek warriors, which only makes things worse. Meanwhile, the battle rages on outside the walls of the mighty city, and heroes fight and fall.

Of course you really need to start this epic at issue 1, but this one is just as good as the rest, with fine art and writing. Recommended.

This Week’s Nature Pics

Images © Todd Klein

The World Series of Birding is next Saturday, and the best time of year for seeing birds here is upon us. I’ve been getting out early as often as I can in search of them. Here’s a foggy morning in Belleplain State Forest.

A Prairie Warbler in Belleplain, a rare warbler close enough for a decent picture.

Usually I resort to photographing things that don’t move like this unusual lichen.

The beaver pond in Belleplain is a good place to find Prothonotary Warbler. I heard them, but didn’t see them.

A walk at The Beanery in Cape May brought this nice picture of a Killdeer.

And an afternoon walk with Ellen at Cox Hall Creek allowed me a pretty good Bluebird shot.

The oak leaves are emerging, and insects will soon follow to eat them while they’re tender.

Back home in our yard, Azaleas like this large-flowered native one are blooming…

…along with the imported ones.

The non-native pink dogwood is also colorful, and there are lots of native white ones in the woods.

It’s finally getting warm enough to keep the sliding door to the screened porch open for a while. So what do the cats do, when they can no longer bug me to open and close the door? Go upstairs for a nap on the bed, of course!

I’m kind of disappointed that I haven’t had any new pledgers for my fundraising efforts on the World Series of Birding this year, just two terrific repeat pledgers who support me every year. Please consider making a small pledge to this worthy cause, the only fundraiser I do all year. You can read more HERE. Thanks.

And Then I Read: T-MODEL TOMMY by Stephen W. Meader

Images © estates of Stephen W. Meader and Edward Shenton.

Meader is a favorite author of novels for children for me for at least two reasons. First, his stories are well told and often exciting adventures. Second, many of them take place in my home state of New Jersey. His early work, written during the Great Depression, often feature a young man from a background with few resources using ingenuity to make his way in the world of work and steady income, and this is one of those. (Later works were more often historical novels.)

Tom Ballard has graduated High School, and is looking for a way to make some money to help himself and his mother, their entire household. He tries lots of odd jobs like mowing lawns, but has his sights set higher. Using all his savings, he buys an old, run-down Ford Model-T truck, and with some work, gets it into good enough shape to haul cargo in and around his home area of southern New Jersey not too far from Camden and Philadelphia. When he’s proven he can do the work, bigger opportunities come his way: hauling produce to Philadelphia and New York, and carrying coal from central Pennsylvania to homeowners in New Jersey. There are all kinds of dangers and trouble along the way, from hijackers, union gangs, and rival trucks, not to mention treacherous weather, unsafe roads and a vehicle well past its prime. Tom perseveres, and in time can afford a larger, newer truck, hiring a friend to continue working the Model-T. One particular hijacker and Tom keep crossing paths until one night Tom is kidnapped by the criminal and fears for his life. A daring escape through woods and swamps is his only hope.

Adding much to the book are many fine illustrations by Edward Shenton, a talented and much-lauded illustrator for decades. You can read about him HERE. Shenton’s work has an art deco flavor, and a sure knowledge of both figures and machinery that made him a good match for Meader, and they worked together on over a dozen novels for kids. Shenton also illustrated classics like “The Yearling,” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and works by Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Wolfe and Hemingway.

Most of Stephen W. Meader’s books are long out of print, which is a shame. They do reflect a simpler time, but I think many young readers of today would enjoy them all the same. Highly recommended if you can find them.

And Then I Read: WORLDS’ FINEST 11

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

There are some characters from the golden age of comics with now-embarrassing or silly names. One of them is kissing Power Girl on this cover. Writer Paul Levitz gets around that by never mentioning the name at all, in fact it took me a while to remember who this guy with the floating T balls is: Mr. Terrific. I guess no name is better than that. Huntress and Power Girl are putting together the pieces of a puzzle in which he’s a major figure…or is he? The reveal at the end of the issue says something else is going on here! Something that should make the next issue interesting.

The art this time is by three new artists, only one of which is familiar to me: Barry Kitson. His pages are terr…wonderful, the others not so much. The look of the characters changes too much from one artist to another to work for me. I expect this is a fill-in, artistically.

Mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: DIAL H Vol. 1

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

I’ve heard good things about this series which I haven’t been reading, so I decided to try the first collection. The writer, China Miéville is a well-known science fiction writer, but I haven’t read any of his work, this was the first. The gimmick of this book in its original incarnation was the great variety of heroic personae the lead could dial up in a moment, usually several per issue. The revamp is more complicated than that, with a loser-type, Nelson Jent, discovering the magic dial by accident in a phone booth, and spending much of this book trying to figure it all out, with help from another dial-holder, and lots of hindrance from various characters who either want to kill him, or get the dial for themselves. While there are some comic moments, most of the story is played serious and violent. Miéville is very creative with his hero personae, almost to the point of parody, but they are entertaining. And while there are lots of mysteries and unanswered questions, some idea of how the dial works and why emerges by the end.

If the art all looked like the cover, I’d be calling this a pure winner, but unfortunately the main interior artist, Mateus Santolouco’s work does not appeal to me. His characters are all rather ugly, but what bothers me most is a kind of Plastic Man feel to them, in that their shapes and features move around in an nonhuman manner from panel to panel. The grasp of anatomy is uneasy, and the style is loose and sketchy, just the opposite of Brian Bolland’s covers. I liked the art of David Lapham and Riccardo Burchielli—each on one issue—better, and would be more inclined to continue reading if one of them were the main artist. Wish it wasn’t so, but good writing does not always triumph over art I don’t care for.

Mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 19

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

This issue begins a new storyline with a new writer and artist. I thought about not continuing, but decided to give it a try. Hey, at least it’s not part of a crossover. One thing that soon becomes clear is Alec Holland, Swamp Thing, is meant to be thoroughly involved in the DC Universe, as he visits Metropolis and faces The Scarecrow, attracting the attention of another Metropolis character you might have heard of. Before that, he’s dealing with terrorists in a desert oasis. The best part of the issue allows us to follow Swamp Thing as he travels through The Green. Writer Charles Soule does a good job overall, but the story feels plot-driven, and perhaps it is. The Swamp Thing dialogue has not found a consistent and convincing voice for me. The art by Kano is fine, with some excellent work on The Green section in particular. I’ll give it a few more issues, see how the story develops.

Recommended.

Act Today to get the NEW STARSTRUCK GN!

The new STARSTRUCK book is funded for full color on Kickstarter, but there’s still one day to go to support the project and reserve your own copy, with lots of bonus stretch goal extras (for $35). If you have any interest in the work of Michael Wm Kaluta, this is something you should put your money on!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elainelee/harry-palmer-starstruck-or-old-proldiers-never-die