Todd Klein's Blog, page 300

And Then I Read: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 10 & 11

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

The Dominators have kidnapped two Legionnaires, Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl. For political reasons, the Legion can’t just send a team after them, but one goes anyway without official sanction and without official Legion members: Star Boy (on medical leave), Duplicate Damsel and Bouncing Boy (not active members, heads of the Legion training school) and a few of their best students. It’s not much of a team power-wise, but the best that can be done in the circumstances. Meanwhile, the Dominators are trying to invade their captives both mentally and physically in search of DNA and powers they might co-opt. Brainy and Dream Girl are holding out so far, but DG has had a premonition about their hoped-for rescuers. One rescuer is going to betray them!

I continue to enjoy and be impressed with writer Paul Levitz’ work on this title. It’s kind of a chess game with so many characters, but it never feels completely plot-driven, the players all have their character moments and the twists and turns are unexpected.

Regular artist Francis Portela is joined on both issues by the team of Andres Guinaldo and Dan Green. The result is not seamless, but both styles work together reasonably well, and I’m sure it takes some deadline pressure off Francis. It works for me. The covers by Steve Lightle are great.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GHOSTING HOME by Julia Jones

© Julia Jones, cover illustration by Claudia Myatt.

The “Strong Winds” trilogy by Jones is completed with this volume, and I’ve enjoyed all three books a great deal. There are many references to Arthur Ransome and his own books inside. He’s another favorite writer of novels for children, one of the best in my opinion. While there are some common themes (sailing, children working together to solve problems and crimes, English waterways and nature), Julia Jones has not attempted to walk too closely in Ransome’s footsteps, and has instead charted her own course, which I think makes for a much more interesting series.

Donny Walker has survived a world of trouble in the first two books, and here finds new trouble falling on him from a familiar source, a social worker, Denise Tune, who continues to make his life miserable. “Toxic” Tune, as the children call her, is really a remarkably evil woman who seems to revel in her misuse of power and intentional cruelty in a way I haven’t seen in fiction since Dodie Smith’s Cruella DeVille in “101 Dalmations.” Donny is doing what he’s supposed to, going to school, staying on his Care Plan, but Toxic throws him into a panic, causing him to make a new plan. His grandmother and mother are charting a trip across the English Channel to The Netherlands to work out some problems with the registry of their large sailing ship. Donny is supposed to stay in England with his friends, but instead, in a daring act of rebellion, throws himself overboard into the cold sea and refuses to be rescued until he’s allowed to come with them. Just as well he did, for on the way into port in Holland, the ship is attacked by another old enemy they call The Tiger, a Chinese crime lord in charge of a human smuggling and slavery ring operating in the area.

Meanwhile, in alternate chapters we follow a Chinese boy, Min, as he attempts to travel to England to find his mother, one of The Tiger’s workhouse slaves. It’s an equally exciting and dangerous journey that ends in tragedy for many of the illegal immigrants.

All the threads and characters and ships from the previous two books are continued here in a somewhat complex storyline with lots of action, as well as some time for fun, like a camping trip on the Norfolk coast and some thrilling sailing. I found the second book, “A Ravelled Flag” somewhat unsatisfying because of some unresolved plotlines, typical of a middle trilogy book, but this one makes up for it in spades, with lots of satisfying revelations and consequences. Donny’s fascinating journey, along with that of his many friends and allies, brings some new characters, like an unknown uncle, and a touching farewell to another favorite one. Serious themes like human trafficking and misuse of power over children and adults are well explored, and unlike real life, villains come to their just rewards, as do the heroes. A fine series, one I highly recommend. I read this in e-book format, all three are available for the Kindle and Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad.

Summer Visitors

The Greene family has returned home after their week with us, having enjoyed five good beach days and lots of pleasant evenings. Here are a few photos. Ellen, Ann, Zach, and Dave (at right) talking to his friend Danny.

Ellen, Ann and Cristina scrapbooking on our porch.

Zach has to finish his homework before we can enjoy that pizza. Hurry up, Zach!

Meanwhile, Cristina makes the salads.

Zach and Ellen working on their castle.

Watching some of the Olympics on TV (recorded).

Ellen and her sister Ann.

Zach and Leo. We had fun, and will miss them.

Friday Castle

Being all caught up with work on Friday, I was able to spend the entire day at the beach with Ellen and her family. I decided it was time to do a large sand sculpture, the first of the summer (and perhaps the last). I marked out a roughly square area and dug around it to begin a mound. Not having any real inspiration, I decided to just go with a standard castle. Once the mound was begun and a platform packed down, I dug a round hole to reach water and really wet sand. Zach is standing in it here. Using double handfuls of this sand slurry I added further to the mound.

When the pile was large enough I started carving away, making a central manor with a tall tower, and an inner bailey wall with towers at each corner. The central tower was flat on top originally, but looked kind of bare, so I made the pyramid top separately and placed it on. In the background are two small towers Zach made.

Here’s the finished castle after about four hours of work. I added an outer bailey wall with four corner towers and two smaller ones at mid points. The one on the right is meant to be an entrance gate. Windows were added with small scoops, and I dug out the space between the outer bailey and the inner bailey, adding to the height of the latter. This was all I had time for. If I had another hour I might have tried adding crenellations to the walls and towers by making a smooth slab of wet sand and cutting tiny cubes from it. Maybe next time.

Another view looking landward. Late afternoon light always adds a bit of drama to the shapes and shadows.

Another shot featuring Zach’s two auxiliary towers. It was time to go home, so I filled in the large hole as much as I could to prevent walkers from stepping into it by accident, and left the castle to its fate. In about another hour the tide would reach it, and if that or destructive kids didn’t finish it off, the beach rakers would that night. It’s an ephemeral art, but one I enjoy.

Sand Castle and Sea Serpent

When Ellen’s family is here they usually do a bit of sand sculpture at the beach, and I join in if I have time. I haven’t gotten to the beach much this year, but on Thursday I admired this tower by Zach and castle by Ann and Ellen.

The tide was coming in, but I just had time to add this Sea Serpent in front of the castles. Perhaps we’ll have time to do more today or tomorrow before they head home.

And Then I Read: KIRBY GENESIS 5 & 6

Images © Roslyn Kirby Family Trust.

I wanted to like this book. I like the idea of it: Kirby’s many later and/or unused concepts appearing in a new series owned by the family. Unfortunately the execution doesn’t work for me, and these will be the last issues I’ll be reading. The script by Kurt Busiek makes a valiant attempt to tie things together, especially in issue 6, but there are just too many characters, too many storylines, too many different teams and objectives and struggles and cataclysmic events. When everything is super and cataclysmic, nothing really has much impact, it all kind of runs together for me. The male and female regular folks that began as the viewpoint characters at the outset of the series are still here somewhere, but again largely lost in the shuffle. Despite the long roster of characters already in play, new ones are still being introduced in issue 6:

The art by Jack Herbert and Alex Ross is colorful, well-crafted and full of energy, but often too crowded with figures and actions. The frequent lack of real panel borders and often diagonal panel dividing lines does not help the reading experience, either, it’s hard to find the correct reading order in many places.

Hope there’s an audience out there that’s loving this book, I’m not it.

And Then I Read: AQUAMAN 10

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

While I’ve never been a fan of long-time Aquaman villain Black Manta, I like the way Geoff Johns writes him in this issue. And I like the back story he’s revealing—through Mera’s interrogation of the scientist Shin—even more, giving the man under the odd helmet a good reason to hate Aquaman, and sharing out the guilt and anger on both sides. Meanwhile, Johns continues to explore the until now unknown superhero team that Aquaman once belonged to, who are now being hunted down by Manta and his gang. Good stuff.

The art by penciller Ivan Reis and inkers Joe Prado and Andy Lanning continues to be excellent, abetted by great coloring from Rod Reis and fine lettering from Nick Napolitano.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: DARK HORSE PRESENTS 10

Images © Dark Horse Comics and the respective copyright holders.

Not much that appeals to me in this issue. The cover features the final part of a new Tarzan story written by Al Gordon, art by Tom Yeates. The art is generally great, but in places it does look a little rushed this time.

The dialogue I found rather odd and unconvincing, largely unlike what real people would say. Perhaps it’s meant to be some kind of futuristic talk, but if so it didn’t work well for me. This page is too busy, too much going on, too many sound effects, for instance.

The final chapter of The Massive by Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson is pretty, but the entire preview seen here has been pretty slow and doesn’t make me want to read further.

UXB by Colin Lorimer is a dystopian street gang story with some magic or mental powers in it. I didn’t care for it.

The new chapter of Finder by Carla Speed McNeil seems to be some kind of desert hallucination that I didn’t understand.

The new chapter of Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles and Christopher Mitten has some good character writing. I don’t really care for the art style, but will read more because of that.

The Milk and Cheese/Murder Family story by Evan Dorkin I found rather repulsive and hard to read. I couldn’t finish it.

The second chapter of Amala’s Blade, about steampunk pirates, is entertaining. Liked this one the best in the issue, I think.

Old Reliable is a depressing short story nicely illustrated by Andrew Vachss. I’ve read little by Vachss, but all of it was depressing.

The fourth chapter of Skultarr by M.J. Butler and Mark Wheatley is definitely upbeat, a satire of Conan. The humor is pretty obvious and over the top, but still entertaining, and a welcome respite from much of this issue.

Chapter 3 of The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne begins with a full-page handwritten letter in a very difficult to read font. I kind of gave up on that. The rest of the story is okay, but I don’t love it, and the art style seems rather amateurish to me.

Overall, this issue is mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH 10

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Writers Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato continue to bring in their own versions of long-time Flash villains with the Weather Wizard featured this issue. It takes place in what I think is a Central American country and involves a family involved in crime and drugs. The story is well-told, but this Weather Wizard is not appealing to me as the one from the 1960s. He seems less sure what to do with his power, and much less in control of the situation and his own life than would make for a really threatening villain. True, he does create an impressive flood that Flash must deal with in an action-filled opening sequence, but then tries to run away. You can’t run away from The Flash.

In a subplot, Barry Allen rescues his girfriend, but is unable to tell her the big secret he wants to reveal. And Iris West and others are still trapped somewhere in the Speed Force.

Guest artists Marcus To and Ray McCarthy do a nice job filling in for Francis Manapul, who I’m sure appreciates the help, though their work is in more traditional comics style with black linework well colored. Looks good, but it’s not as fresh and innovative as Manapul’s own art on this title using gray washes.

Recommended

They’re here…!

Some of Ellen’s family are visiting all week, planning to spend a lot of time at the beach. Here are her sister Ann, nephew Zach and niece Cristina. A few more will be coming later. I may not have time to blog every day this week, but we’ll be having fun.