Todd Klein's Blog, page 310

And Then I Read: THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1983-84

Images © Peanuts Worldwide, LLC.

The seventeenth volume of this great series from Fantagraphics is just as delightful as all the rest. Yes, the ink line of Charles Schulz is a little wobbly at times, but his humor is just as sharp as ever. There are a few new diversions here like Peppermint Patty in France, and then flunking and being kept back a grade (with an unusual resolution), but mostly it’s more of the many familiar situations Schulz has been building for decades, from the hapless baseball team to Snoopy and Woodstock to Sally’s cavalier attitude to school, and many more. Schulz gives a fair amount of space to Snoopy’s lonely desert-dwelling brother Spike and his cactus pretend-friends, which I usually find more sad than funny, but there’s plenty here that did get me laughing, at least once every few pages.

Perhaps the most endearing relationship is Charlie Brown in the role of dog feeder and caretaker. And for once Charlie gets to make some jokes on someone else, though Snoopy gets in his own sly comebacks. I’ve said it before, but if you want reading material that will make you smile and laugh it’s hard to beat this series. And I’m continuing to admire the subtle and classy cover designs by Seth.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN 7 & 8

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Even though he’s been thrown out of the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan can’t seem to escape the attention of Sinestro, who keeps dragging him off on space missions with a sort of half-charged ring of Sinestro’s own making. Hal has been on Earth trying to rekindle his relationship with Carol Ferris, and it was working until Sinestro showed up again. This time, when Hal is dragged off, Carol reclaims her Star Sapphire ring and powers so she can follow them. Meanwhile, the Guardians are, as usual, making plans that will most likely create lots more problems for the Corps, and themselves. For supposed mentors, the little blue guys keep getting things wrong. Before long Hal and Sinestro find themselves prisoners on a planet full of deadly enemies. The Indigo Tribe shows up to rescue them, but that leads to more questions and an unusual revelation. Geoff Johns is stirring the pot well, and I like the stew he’s serving up.

The art on these issues by regular penciller Doug Mahnke and inkers Christian Alamy and Keith Champagne is excellent. I love the realistic yet expressive and emotive figures of Mahnke, it brings the characters to life for me in a way that many other current artists don’t quite manage. If there were a need for a successor to Brian Bolland in the comics arena, I think Mahnke would fit the bill.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN CORPS 7

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This issue covers some of the aftermath and repercussions of last issue’s battles. The main focus is on honoring those Corps members who died in the fight. John Stewart has it particularly rough, as he was forced to take the life of one young Corpsman to save others. After the ceremony honoring the dead, Stewart volunteers to return the body to the family in a farm setting on a distant planet, where he must deal with the family’s anger and grief. Writer Peter Tomasi does an excellent job with a story focusing on the realities of war, making it probably my favorite issue of the run so far.

On the art, I was delighted to see the work of Claude St. Aubin (with inker Scott Hanna), a Canadian artist who I recently worked with on another project very far from superheroes. He does a great job here, capturing the heroic and human qualities of the story perfectly.

Highly recommended.

My World Series of Birding 2012 Report

My team: CMBO Cape May Center Run.

Our goal: Tally as many species of birds as possible in Cape May County on Saturday, May 12th, to raise funds for nature conservation, education and research by New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory.

Our leader: Cape May Bird Observatory Program Director Mike Crewe.

Participants: 14, each pledging at least $1 per species seen, some like myself gathering additional pledges from friends and family (and in my case, readers of my blog).

Transport: A seven-passenger van driven by Roger Horn, and two passenger cars driven by Kathy Horn and Mike Crewe (no trolley or bus this year, hurrah!).

The Competition: about 50 other teams, some covering the entire state, some just one county like us, some even smaller areas, with awards in several categories, and glory for everyone. Okay, we didn’t win anything. We’ve never won anything, but we have a great time and raise quite a bit of money!

This year the weather was perfect for us birders, and not bad for the birds, either: mostly sunny, little or no wind, about 50 degrees when we started at 5 AM, rising to the mid 70s by afternoon, and still about 60 when we finished at 9 PM. We began our day at the Nature Conservancy’s Cape May Meadows, above is first light there. Mike took the roll call and gave us a rundown of the planned route, then we set off on the trail through this wetland area out to the beach and back, picking up bird species for our tally first by hearing them call, then as the light grew, by seeing them. Hearing counts, too.

By dawn we were on the dune overlooking the ocean finding birds like Piping Plover, Least Tern and lots of gulls. Every species counts one, so we’re as happy to count the very common Laughing Gull as well as the endangered Piping Plover.

Here’s an American Coot, one of only two known in the area at the moment…

…and here’s an Osprey looking into the water for fish. We saw them off and on all day.

The fields at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area was our next morning stop, and we found lots of great birds here. Nesting birds are important to the count, but it’s migrating birds that really build our tally number, and here we added warblers like Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula and Magnolia, as well as Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and plenty more birds heading north to nesting grounds elsewhere.

Here’s an Eastern Kingbird, one of the flycatchers that does nest in our area, on a blooming wild black cherry tree. As you can tell, we had plenty of blue sky to see them in! The favorite here might have been a very cooperative Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

We also walked out to the beach to find birds like Purple Sandpiper and Ruddy Turnstone.

Next we drove to Belleplain State Forest to add many more breeding songbirds, some I had scouted out during the week like Prothonotary, Worm-eating and Hooded Warblers. No good still photos of these, as we were hearing more than we saw.

Heading south again around noon we stopped at Cook’s Beach for birds like this Seaside Sparrow…

…and a Bonaparte’s Gull, as well as the endangered Red Knot and other shorebirds and gulls.

Driving south again back into Cape May, we stopped at the Cape May Point State Park for lunch, where we added more birds like this Lesser Black-Backed Gull (in front), a tough one to find, here with Laughing Gulls, Forster’s Terns and Canada Geese.

After lunch and more birding around The Point, we drove north again a short way to Cox Hall Creek Wildlife Management Area where we found this rare (in our county) Red-Headed Woodpecker, as well as Bluebirds. A stop at the Cape May County Airport added Horned Lark, then we drove east to the barrier island of Stone Harbor.

Along the way there we stopped at Shellbay Avenue, then The Wetlands Institute for a scan of their ponds…

…where this beautiful Little Blue Heron entertained us while fishing.

North of Stone Harbor in Avalon we stopped to add both Yellow-Crowned and Black-Crowned Night-Herons in a spot I’d scouted…

…then drove south to Nummy Island, just off Stone Harbor Point, where we found more birds for our tally like Brant and Whimbrel.

These American Oystercatchers were fun to see there, though we’d already added them earlier. As the tally rises, new species get harder and harder to add. In the early morning we had 60 species at The Meadows, by lunchtime we were up to 118 (our total last year!) but after that it got progressively more difficult. We drove inland again to pick up Cattle Egrets on Route 9 in Swainton, then stopped at Beaver Dam Road were we added nothing new I think, next to Jake’s Landing Road which added a few more, and back into Belleplain State Forest for a few final singing birds, including Whip-poor-will (my scouting paid off there.)

Here’s the team (except me, and one person who left early) at dusk in Belleplain after a very long day, but a wonderful one for birding. One final stop to hear Chuck-Will’s-Widow calling, and then we ended our day back at The Meadows. We drove our own cars to The Grand Hotel where the World Series of Birding Finish Line was this year, and while having some free food, Mike Crewe entered our official tally. We ended up with 146 species this year, a very good result! I think it’s the best one in quite a few years. Sure, other teams saw more than us, but they always do. The winning team was Team Zeiss headed by CMBO’s director Pete Dunne, which tallied an amazing 207 species across the entire state. In our category (Cape May County only) we were sixth, and 21st overall. You can read the full results HERE. Doesn’t matter, we are very pleased with our result, and thanks to my own pledge and generous pledges from others, I’ll be contributing $832 to the organization we support. That’s it for this year, thanks for reading, and a HUGE thanks to those of you who pledged!

In addition to taking still photos with my new camera, I took some video clips. You can see a compliation HERE.

 

 

An offer that’s pure Gold(finch)!

Here’s an American Goldfinch from my yard, one of approximately 140 species of birds I and my team, the Cape May Century Run, will be trying to see and/or hear on the World Series of Birding tomorrow. In addition to the $2 per species I’m pledging myself to raise funds for nature conservation, education and research by the Cape May Bird Observatory, I’ve accrued generous pledges from friends and readers of this blog totalling $3.70 per species. I’d really like to get that number up to at least $4, so here’s a unique offer: pledge 30 cents per species and I’ll send you any TWO of my SIGNED PRINTS. That’s a $45 value ($48 for overseas pledgers) for a pledge that will probably be about $42! The first and ONLY the first person who EMAILS ME will qualify for this giveaway offer. Of course any other pledges are welcome and will qualify for the regular premiums: 10 cents per species gets you a signed comic I lettered (my choice), 50 cents gets any one of my signed prints, $1 gets any two. Weather is looking good for tomorrow, a lovely sunny day. Hope it’s a good one for birding!

And Then I Read: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 7

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

About two-thirds of this issue focuses on 31st century China, specifically an area that’s surrounded by, as the cover says, a sea of fire due to past disasters apparently. One group of Legionnaires faces a fiery Chinese villain gang, including the sister of Dragonwing, one of newer Legion members. Another group is trying to get into the heart of the burning sea to stop trouble there. Needless to say, that’s characters who can handle it, like Sun Boy. Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 and Mon-el are sparring over team leadership, and the guys with big circles on their foreheads, The Dominators I think, are hatching more serious trouble. In general I’m enjoying this run, but with the focus spread thin there isn’t anyone who stands out for me at the moment. If I were Paul I might consider giving someone a first-person viewpoint, let us get into someone’s head more. Right now everyone seems a little distant.

The art by Francis Portela is good, and I think improving. There are still a few faces that seem a bit off to me, but in general everything works well from storytelling to layouts to action and acting.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS 7

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Kyle Rayner and his band of multicolored ring-bearers are facing off against a very powerful, almost godlike creature, and they’ve managed to get him to stop fighting and start talking. That might not sound too interesting visually, but what he has to say about his past involves the Vegan star-system, something I have personal history with, so I loved that part. More important to this book, it also involves the orange lantern owner Larfleeze, who caused all kinds of trouble for this character Invictus, in his usual greedy way. Even after being interrupted by the attack of another lantern, Bleez, Invictus is willing to make a bargain with Kyle and company. It’s an interesting one.

The art by Tyler Kirkham and Batt continues to be quite good. And he gets a lot of action into this essentially talky issue.

Recommended.

Watching THE AVENGERS (no spoilers)

Image © Marvel Studios, Inc.

First off, I enjoyed it! There were times when the enormous amount of visual and auditory information being thrown at me were somewhat overwhelming in the action scenes, but that’s been true for many of the super-hero films I’ve seen in the last decade. There were also lots of fine character moments, witty dialogue, surprise plot twists that made me laugh with delight, and very few if any slow parts, the sign of a good film. The development itself is quite slow, but the ride through it is entertaining, even if somewhat predictable in parts (everyone has to test everyone else, for instance).

Perhaps the biggest difference in the approach is how difficult it is to get everyone on the same page. This is not really much of a team. But that’s true in the comics these days as well, I’ve made the same point in reviews of the new JUSTICE LEAGUE. There are many nice touches, nothing that struck me as really “wrong,” which in a movie of this length, nearly 2.5 hours, is impressive. As said above, the amount of detail is staggering, as the end credits attest: there must be several hundred digital and other artists listed from about a dozen special effects companies. I can see where young people who really want to absorb a lot of that detail (the kind they’re used to in video games for instance) will want to see it more than once.

What would Kirby have thought, I wonder? He also loved putting in lots of detail, in things like machinery or fight scenes or his famous collage pieces. One difference is, there you can take your time and study the art if you like. Hard to do that with a film. Perhaps Kirby would be too old school to get today’s action films, but if you imagine Kirby as a young man today I bet he’d love it (leaving aside the entire credit and compensation question, which is another discussion).

Of the Marvel films working up to this, I missed “Thor,” and I’m kind of sorry now, I liked what I saw of Chris Hemsworth, the actor playing him here. Everyone was quite good in their roles, really. Robert Downey Jr. probably has the best possible role imaginable for a man of his size and build in an action film. And most of the action scenes are all the suit with face shots cut in here and there. The others must envy that somewhat. Though Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk also can take a break when his character hulks up. The main set pieces were all quite well done, from S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to Tony Stark’s Manhattan skyscraper, and they were all used (and misused) thoroughly, as was midtown Manhattan.

Would I see it again? Not sure, but I’d like to see a sequel, which seems quite certain to happen. I loved the possible upcoming villain for the sequel teased in the clip during the credits. (The other tease at the very end was okay, but not really worth the wait I thought.)

Recommended.

“Logo of the Day” #50…

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

…is now on my “Todd Klein, artist” page on Facebook, link in the left column of this page. Had to go with one of my favorite Ira Schnapp logos for #50. This and 49 others available in the same album for your perusal, each with designer credit, date and first use, where known. Interesting comments on some. Plenty more to come.

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 8

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

I have to admit I wasn’t too impressed with the writing of Scott Snyder on AMERICAN VAMPIRE, but here in SWAMP THING I think he’s doing a terrific job. The title works best for me when it deals with moral dilemmas and iconic/mythic power. Both elements are played strongly in this storyline. This issue, Alec Holland has retaken the role of Swamp Thing, champion of The Green, and goes to war with The Rot, the embodiment of death and decay. Holland also hopes to rescue his once-love Abby, who has been taken into The Rot, even though he’s been told repeatedly it’s a lost cause. But then, lost causes are one of the things Swamp Thing is all about.

I’m also so impressed with the art of Yanick Paquette on this title (and also the work of Marco Rudy on the first nine pages). I worked with Yanick in the past, and his work, which was good then, has improved greatly. Not only are his characters and images striking, but his layouts are creative, not only a delight to look at, but helping to tell the story through mood and an epic sweep that brings gravitas to the struggle of this war. And wait until you see what he and Snyder have in store for Abby…! Great coloring by Nathan Fairbairn and lettering by Travis Lanham enhance the book, too, as can be seen on this page.

Highly recommended.