Todd Klein's Blog, page 29

Rereading: THE BLESSING OF PAN by Lord Dunsany

Something strange is going on in the remote English village of Wolding nestled among the downs, and only the vicar, Elderick Anwrel, seems to realize how it threatens the souls of every resident. Teenager Tommy Duffin has become obsessed with the standing stones on the hill above the village, the mysterious shadows of dawn and dusk, and the promise of answers to questions he doesn’t even understand. He fashions a set of reed pipes, and begins to play haunting tunes that come to him from some unknown source, and his music is soon ringing across the town every night, luring young girls to join him. Other boys at first plan to beat Tommy, but then they too are captured by the music and join the audience in their rapt attention and dancing.

Vicar Anwrel realizes this sudden resurgence of paganism is something he can’t fight alone, and he appeals to his bishop for help, but the bishop instead sends him on a seaside holiday. Others in the church prove equally unhelpful and think him mad. There’s little he can do as more and more of the townsfolk are taken by the charms of Tommy’s music, and talk begins of a sacrifice on the central stone on the hill.

This book, published in 1928, shows Dunsany writing with more skill about people and their interactions than in earlier years, with characters that are real and sympathetic on all sides of the problem. Yet something is lost by his choice to never allow the real magic to become clear and take the stage. Still a fine read, with a surprising resolution. Recommended.

The Blessing of Pan by Lord Dunsany

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Rereading: CART & CWIDDER by Diana Wynne Jones

Cover art by Geoff Taylor

This early work by Jones is the first of four books in the Dalemark Quartet, published in 1975.

Clennen and his family earn their living as traveling entertainers, taking their horse-drawn caravan from town to town in both the north and south parts of Dalemark, one of the few allowed free travel between those warring sides of a fractured nation. Clennen is a talented showman, singer, and storyteller, and in addition to entertainment, he brings news to each town, and sometimes carries passengers like young Kialen, who can find no other way to travel. Clennen’s wife is Lenina, won from a noble house by his singing, and she does most of the work to keep the family fed and clean. The eldest son, Dagner, has is own quiet talent for song-writing, but he’s also very shy and a reluctant performer. Daughter Brid is more outgoing, but not as talented as she thinks she is. Then there’s Moril, the youngest son, his head often full of daydreams. Clennen feels Moril is the most talented of his children, but Moril doesn’t see it that way. He’d rather be in the background.

The family is traveling north with Kialen as their passenger when tragedy strikes, and Clennen is killed by a band of armed men. Moril doesn’t know why, but his mother soon takes them back to the castle where she grew up, and revives the romance Clennen took her away from with the local ruler, Ganner. Before long, the children learn she plans to marry him, and they go off on their own in the cart to continue the life of traveling musicians they all love. But it proves to be far harder than they expect, especially when oldest son Dagner is arrested for treason.

Fine writing, and this book is not as predictable as many of the author’s later works. Unlike most of those, the magic in the story is subtle and hard to notice until gradually gaining importance by the end, this is more of an adventure and coming of age story in a medieval-style fantasy setting. Recommended.

Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones

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Rereading: THE LONESOME SORREL by Keith Robertson

Cliff Barry’s family is moving from Philadelphia to a small town in New Jersey near Trenton, and he’s not happy about it. He’s just reached the age where he can travel around the city on his own and enjoy sporting events, movies, and time with his friends. His desire is to buy a motorcycle, when he can afford it. New Jersey will cut him off from all that, but there’s a surprise waiting for him in the barn on the grounds of the new home: a horse sent as a gift from his uncle. Cliff has no interest in horses, and would rather ride a motorcycle, but his new next-door neighbor, Addy, is a horse lover, and she agrees to take care of Cinnamon for him. The horse is large and impressive, and curiously, seems quite interested in Cliff, who looks a lot like his former owner, while remaining bored by the attentions of others.

Cliff soon encounters the town bully, Everett Steele, who is also a rider, and who sees Cinnamon as a possible rival in a local cross-country race he always enters and has won twice. Everett tricks his way into riding Cinnamon, and mistreats him, and that leads to a fight between the boys. Their rivalry causes Cliff to rethink his ideas about riding, and he begins learning and training so he can compete in the race, and hopefully beat Everett to the winner’s cup. Cinnamon, at first puzzled by Cliff’s attitude, becomes a happy and willing partner in his new plans, but can they both learn enough to succeed against the veteran competitor and his bag of nasty tricks?

Well written, great characters, clever plot, recommended.

The Lonesome Sorrel by Keith Robertson

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Rereading: JULIA’S MAGIC by Eleanor Cameron

Eleanor Cameron wrote many books I love, including five about Julia Redfern. I bought and read them as they were published in the 1970-80s, but oddly, they were written mostly in reverse chronological order, telling stories about Julia at younger and younger ages. I’ve decided to reread them in chronological order, and this is the first, when Julia is a young girl of about five years.

Julia lives with her parents and brother Greg in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where her mother’s brother and his wife live in a fancy house they love to visit. Julia’s own house is more modest, and rented, but has a nice yard, and they all enjoy it. Julia is rather good at getting into trouble, and when she accidentally breaks her aunt’s perfume bottle, she keeps it a secret. Later, she finds out that Aunt Alex has accused their cook and maid, Hulda, of breaking the bottle, causing Hulda to leave, and that causes Uncle Hugh and Aunt Alex to fight and separate. Julia knows it’s all her fault, and she wants to set things right, but how?

Meanwhile, their landlady has sold their house, and they must move, but can’t find anything nearly as nice as where they live now. Everything comes to a head when Julia rides the trolley to find Hulda, but gets lost.

Beautifully written, wonderful characters, set around 1915, though the situations somewhat autobiographical and are timeless, and the illustrations by Gail Owens are charming. Recommended.

Julia’s Magic by Eleanor Cameron

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Rereading: FREDDY PLAYS FOOTBALL by Walter R. Brooks

The sixteenth book in the Freddy series has football as one of the main subjects, a sport I have no interest in, but I knew the author would make it funny and entertaining all the same, and he did.

A new problem as arrived at the Bean Farm, in the person of Aaron Doty, the brother of Mrs. Bean, who she hasn’t seen since childhood. Or so he claims. Doty is a clever storyteller, and an entertaining speaker, but he’s hoping to collect his half of Mrs. Bean’s family inheritance, money the Beans don’t really have handy, and that makes Freddy suspicious. He begins detective work to find out more about the man, soon connecting him to frequent opponent Mr. Garble, but proof he isn’t really Mrs. Bean’s brother is hard to come by.

Meanwhile, Freddy gets drafted onto the Centerboro High School football team, becoming a school attendee to make him eligible. Freddy can’t throw or run with the ball, but he’s very effective as a tackle, and the team needs help against a rival team that includes players clearly much too old and strong to be high schoolers. For a while, Centerboro does well, until their rival decides to add their own animal team members.

The only way Freddy can think of to keep the Beans from handing over money they must borrow to pay Mr. Doty is to steal it himself, and Freddy is soon once again on the lam, and how can he help the football team then?

Great fun, recommended.

Freddy Plays Football by Walter R Brooks

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Rereading: DUNE by Frank Herbert

Cover art by John Schoenherr

Paul Atreides is the son of Duke Leto, daughter of his consort Jessica, and their family must move from their home planet to a harsh desert one at the command of the Emperor. Leto suspects a trap, and has prepared for it, but is unaware of the treachery of one of his household, who brings down the shields, allowing his rivals, the Harkonnens and their imperial troops into the royal home on Arrakis, and Leto’s own death. Paul and his mother escape into the desert with help from a friend, and become part of the Fremen society, native to Arrakis, and at home on the desert with its dangerous sandworms and harsh moisture-draining climate. Water is life on Arrakis, as Paul soon learns, but a long-known prophecy about a powerful new leader seems to the Fremen to be embodied in Paul. In time, he is forced to accept his new role as their leader, and his prophetic visions help guide them in a new war on the Harkonnens and eventually the Emperor himself.

This book was first published in 1965, I first read it around 1971. It’s very long for the time, 188,000 words, about triple the average science fiction book of that period, and it does have fascinating ideas and a well-developed back story. The characters are interesting, though most of them are cruel and conniving. I liked Paul in the first half, less so by the end of the book, as he becomes more like his enemies. The desert society is well thought out, the sandworms are impressive, and I enjoyed the book, but never felt the need to read the rest of the series. I thought about that during this reread, having the same lack of interest in the rest of the Dune saga. I think it’s because there was no character I wanted to know more about, and the cruelty so often shown by everyone in the story was not appealing. Give me Tolkien or Heinlein instead. Still worth revisiting, and recommended.

Dune by Frank Herbert

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ABOUT MY BOOK

Image © Todd Klein 2024

If you’ve known me for a few years, you may have heard about a book I was writing for Abrams on lettering. I signed a contract for it in 2019. Don’t bother looking on Amazon, it’s not out. Here’s what happened.

In early 2018, I contacted Charles Kochman, editorial director of Abrams ComicArts, about a book I contributed to that a friend was trying to sell. I’d known Charlie for a many years, we worked together on projects at DC Comics, and then at Abrams. Kochman was not interested in my friend’s book, but on March 29, 2018 he wrote:

I do think there is a book that you could write that I could certainly sell — an Art of Lettering book, where you, Todd Klein — award-winning letterer and valued historian — takes the reader on a guided tour of lettering and the history of all of the great letterers and what they did and how they are different. There is no one more qualified to write that book, and because it was a general overview instead of a specific deep dive into one creator, I can easily sell that in the market.

We talked about that several times at conventions, and in the fall of 2019, when I was cutting back on my lettering workload while easing toward semi-retirement, I decided to take Kochman’s offer. I had already been writing about comics history and lettering on my blog for over ten years, and thought what I’d written there would be a good starting point. I put together an outline for “The Art and History of Lettering Comics,” and emailed it to him.

On November 14, 2019, Charlie wrote: 

I loved your proposal and added it to the agenda for our Editorial Meeting on Tuesday. I am confident everyone will agree with me that this is the perfect ComicArts book, and it would be an honor to work with you on it.

On November 19 he wrote:

Great reaction today at the editorial meeting today and the book got 100% support.  I could not be more grateful to you for the opportunity to work with you on this book.

Emails back and forth clarified a few things, and I started writing. In late February I received a contract for the book dated March 10, 2020. The book, as described in the contract, would run about 240 pages, have text of about 30,000 words, captions of about 5,000 words, and include about 200 images, which I would supply. I was also responsible for obtaining rights and permissions for the images. I would be paid $10,000 on signing of the contract, $10,000 on receipt of the first draft, and $10,000 on receipt of final files and manuscript. There was also a budget of $10,000 for rights and permissions, so $40,000 in all. I was quite happy with this deal. I asked Neil Gaiman if he would write an introduction, and he agreed. Suggested deadline for final material was August 1, 2020, but that was flexible. I received the $10K signing advance and $5K toward rights in May, another $10K in August for my first draft. I sent $5K to Alex Jay, who had been helping me with research on my blog for years, and was doing the same for the book, as well as being first reader. His notes and information were invaluable. 

In the real world, Covid was happening, and that seemed likely to postpone publication, but I moved ahead, finishing the first draft in May and sent it to Kochman, but he wasn’t able to read it right away. I knew it was a lot longer than the contract suggested, but Charlie had said not to worry about that. Even so, I went through the manuscript and pared it down as much as I could, taking the word count from about 79,000 words to about 56,000 words including captions and reducing the number of images from 350 to 262, resending it to Kochman on June 10, 2020. He promised to read it and get me notes soon, but suggested I work on rights and permissions in the meantime, which I did. 

That proved to be a bigger and more complicated job than I expected. I spent about five months on it between paid lettering jobs. Some rights holders were easy to work with, and in the case of artist friends, often gave me permission at no cost except a copy of the finished book, but dealings with relatives of deceased artists was sometimes more difficult and costly. A few rights holders could not be located or contacted. Some publishers wanted substantial payments for use of their property, while others were willing to give permission for copies of the finished book. Newspaper syndicates and agents asked for the highest fees, their job being to make as much money for their clients as possible. By September, 2020, I had spent about $7,700, and that was without images from DC Comics and Marvel Comics, which would make up more than half the images in the book as I had planned it. Itwas clear that rights to all the images I wanted to use would run well over my $10,000 budget. I stopped there, thinking I would get help negotiating the rest after the first draft was returned with notes. I had 55 signed license agreements.

Meanwhile, I was concerned that I hadn’t heard much from Kochman about my first draft. Charlie is a very busy man, not only as editorial director of Abrams Comicarts, but as hands-on editor for things like the popular “Wimpy Kid” book series by Jeff Kinney. In answer to an email from me, he wrote on August 5, 2020:

Apologies on the manuscript edits — I am almost done but I have been working toward my Wimpy Kid deadline which is this Friday and until then I have intermittent bandwidth. It’s in great shape and I am really loving it, so apologies for the delay.

Charlie also told me he thought I should add more material about the lettering/logos of Will Eisner, and also more of my own work. I got a similar apology on October 5, and another one on January 11, 2021. On October 28, 2021, a year and four months after sending the revised draft, Kochman wrote:

First, mea culpa. The delay has been on me, which in no way means that I am not still excited to do the book or that Abrams has lost interest. It’s strictly a bandwidth issue. Now doing two Wimpy Kid books a year, it’s hard, and a lot of books have suffered. Combined with the challenges of working from home, computer issues, a lack of a printer, etc., it’s been taking a lot longer for us to edit and route materials. The book is now scheduled for March 2023, which means we have until March to get the book done. And more time if needed, but that would be an ideal schedule.  

I had been making corrections and additions to the manuscript reflecting new research from Alex Jay and myself as well as what Kochman had suggested, and I offered to send Charlie a revised copy of the manuscript, which he agreed to. I sent it, marked “second draft” on November 3, 2021. A designer had been assigned to the book, and I first heard from him directly on November 18, 2021. He asked that I send him images for the first two chapters so he could do sample layouts, which I did. For some images I had cropped out just a few panels, or combined several comic strips into one image, and he asked for all the original full-size uncropped images. I never saw any design samples or heard from him after that.

On March 18, 2022, after more pleas for feedback, Charlie sent me his copy of the manuscript with notes, saying it was unfinished. There were extensive notes and copy edits for the first three chapters, almost none for the remaining twelve chapters. At the end, there was this:

Todd: This is AMAZING. Thank you. I learned so much.

Later requests for updates were not replied to. I got no further versions of his notes. I suggested assigning the book to another Abrams editor might get things moving, but that was also not replied to. I didn’t hear anything from Kochman until December, 2022, when he called me to ask if I’d be willing to letter a book he was working on with Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell. I was quite annoyed about not have his full notes yet for my book, but I love McDonnell’s work, and after seeing the script, agreed to letter the project, “The Super Hero’s Journey,” which I did mostly in January, 2023. It was great fun. Once again, Kochman told me he was working on notes for my book, and promised to have them by the end of January. That didn’t happen. I have not heard from Kochman since February 2023.

By March 2023, more than four years since I had begun, I had lost confidence my book would ever come out from Abrams, and I decided to publish it myself on my blog. Over the next ten months I converted my manuscript to a series of blog articles. At the same time, with no restrictions on length or number of images (rights and permissions were not an issue since I make no income from my blog), I expanded most of the material, added new images and research (with help from Alex Jay), and wrote quite a few completely new articles to fill out areas I had previously skimmed over to save space. In the end, I had 75 blog articles that would make up the bulk of my online book. I haven’t done a new word and image count, but it’s a lot higher than the version I sent to Abrams, maybe double the size. I gradually published those articles through 2023, two or three a week. Meanwhile, I set up a new page on my blog for the book, and went through everything again to proofread and make corrections. I contacted Neil Gaiman, who said he would still do the introduction, which he delivered this week.

I didn’t know if there would be any adverse reaction from Abrams or Charlie to this decision, but there were no comments from them to my blog articles as I published them. I’m not sure if they saw them. I felt if I was asked to return the $25K I’d received of my advance, I would. If Abrams still wanted to publish the book at some point, I’d be fine with that, but I was tired of waiting.

So, if you’ve read this long story, I’m happy to announce that my book is, as of today, published on my blog, link below. If you’ve already read the articles, at least now you can see how they’re intended to fit together into a complete book, and most have been updated at least a little since I published them. I welcome any comments or corrections, and I hope you’ll spread the word about my project. Those of you who supplied information, thanks for your patience! Friends and colleagues, thank you for your friendship and assistance! To everyone else, thanks for supporting me and my work. I hope you enjoy the book.

The Art and History of Lettering Comics.

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Rereading: THE DOG NEXT DOOR by Keith Robertson

While my favorite Keith Robertson books are those about the Carson Street Detectives and Henry Reed, he wrote many fine stories, often about kids and animals, as here.

Hal lives with his parents in a small town on the New Jersey side of Raritan Bay, and the two things he most wants are ones his parents won’t allow: his own boat, and a dog. Hal has a friend who makes boats, Mr. Seward, and he spends a lot of time at his dock and boatyard. Mr. Seward thinks Hal needs a new project to keep him busy, and suggests he build a tree house in the large tree at the back of his family’s yard that overlooks the town and surrounding area. Hal agrees, and with help from his father, is soon looking at his world from the treehouse with a seaman’s telescope Mr. Seward gave him. There he watches as his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, prepare a strong pen in their back yard capable of holding a large animal, and one day the animal is delivered: it’s a handsome fawn-colored young boxer, a gift from Mrs. Perkin’s sister, who breeds them.

Hal grumbles that the Perkins’ are perhaps the worst people in town to have a dog, and it’s true. Mrs. Perkins is afraid to go near it, and Mr. Perkins is sure it’s dangerous and when he’s walking the dog, warns everyone to keep their distance. In fact, as Hal soon finds out, Beau is a normal dog who just wants afriend, and Hal becomes that friend. In time, he’s allowed to feed Beau and take him out into the woods, where they have fun together. Then one day a small child in town is bitten by a dog when no one else is around, and Mr. Perkins is sure it must have been Beau, who had dug out of his cage. He wants the dog put to sleep. Hal can’t stand that idea, and he steals and hides Beau, which is only the beginning of the trouble both of them get into.

Great story, fine characters, the illustrations by Morgan Dennis are equally fine. Recommended if you can locate a copy.

The Dog Next Door by Keith Robertson

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Rereading: THE SHY STEGOSAURUS OF CRICKET CREEK by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

If you can suspend your disbelief enough to accept a living stegosaurus dinosaur who has somehow survived for millions of years in dry eastern Oregon, and can also speak fluent English, this is a fun story that I enjoyed as a child, and enjoyed reading again.

Twins Joan and Joey Brown live with their mother in the run-down farm they inherited from their uncle. They moved there from the city, thinking they could support themselves by raising crops and having chickens, but the area is so dry, crops don’t do well, and most of the chickens have been taken by coyotes. A professor looking for dinosaur bones is staying with them, and his board helps some, and the twins are ready to help him when needed, such as bringing him his lunch when he forgets. On one such trip, a rattler is about to strike when it’s suddenly squashed by a large dinosaur foot. That’s how they meet the talking dinosaur they name George, who claims his very small brain makes it hard for him to understand many of the things they tell him, but who is very adept at self-preservation. George becomes their friend, and eventually helps them in several ways, especially when a small plane out of fuel brings two strange men to the farm, and Joey suspects one of them is a thief after their meager savings.

Fun story with exciting events and appealing characters. Recommended.

The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

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Rereading: THE PRETTIEST GARGOYLE by William Corbin

Cover art by Lydia Rosier

This is my favorite of the William Corbin books I’ve read. Something of a departure from his other books for young readers in that it includes romance of a sort appropriate for the thirteen-year-old protagonist.

Michael Horner is in Paris with his sister and parents, and has been there for months. The others love it, but Michael hates it, and longs for his home in Bend, Oregon where he can ride his horse and enjoy the wild outdoors. He especially hates the school he has to attend for English-speaking children, and one day he rebels and declares he’s not going back. Michael’s father is sympathetic, and has recently bought him a spy-glass or telescope with which he can get good looks at the outside of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, just across the river from their apartment building. He decides to study the gargoyles, and one day he gets a glimpse of a pretty girl in a red sweater standing next to one. Then he sees her again, but very late, when the Cathedral is closed to visitors. She must be hiding out there, and he wants to know more. The gargoyle project begins to turn into a mystery-solving one.

A local paper gives him the who and why, reporting that Dani de la Tour, niece of a wealthy businessman who lives nearby, has been missing for several days. The photo makes the identity clear. Michael is determined to find and talk to the “prettiest gargoyle” of Notre Dame, and help her if he can.

This book has lots going for it: suspense, mystery, history, the city of Paris, and a bit of romance, but really a friendship between Dani and Michael that surprises both of them. Highly recommended.

The Prettiest Gargoyle by William Corbin

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