Todd Klein's Blog, page 327

Fall Colors

Ellen and I went for a walk at a nearby park late this afternoon, and I brought my camera to capture some fall colors. Some trees are past peak color, a few are still green, but there are plenty to enjoy.

I not only like the yellows, oranges and reds, but also all the rich variety of browns in fall leaves.

Many oak leaves go from green to brown, but some do have a nice variety of colors.

Here's a young maple like a small burst of fireworks among the groundcover of lowbush blueberry.

I think I like the colors of maple leaves the best, especially the peachy orange ones.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS 11-13

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Again catching up on comics released by DC before the New 52. As in GL CORPS, these three issues are each stand-alone stories with Guy Gardner as the main protagonist.

11 has Guy on a space mission where a pretty face puts him in a romantic mood until treachery puts him right out of it. Great art on this one by Bernard Chang, and the story is well done, reminding me a bit of a Dr. Who episode.

12 takes place largely on Oa, where Guy and some new GLs are sent to face an old foe of the Guardians that even they seem to be afraid of. Past GL teams sent on the same mission have vanished, but Guy isn't worried about that. Perhaps he should be! And the monstrous villain looks kind of familiar to me… Pencils by Chris Batista on this one, looking quite good.

13 is an interesting team up of Guy and Batman on a space station in Earth orbit where one of the crew members has been murdered. Clearly the suspect list is a short one, but of course Guy and Bats go at things in very different ways. Another fun story that would have fit in pretty well inside the old BRAVE AND BOLD comic.

Pencils on this one are by Ron Frenz, whose work I haven't seen in a while. Again, it looks good. the artistic standard in both story and art has been high on all the GL titles recently, and these do not disappoint. Recommended.

Incoming: CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL 2011

Images © CBLDF and the respective artists.

Just arrived in time for the holidays (and I include Thanksgiving), 48 pages of great-looking work in support of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I'm inside lettering two pages written and drawn by J.H. Williams III, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest. If this Grendel cover by Matt Wagner doesn't grab you, about about…

…this one by John Cassaday…

…or this one by Frank Quitely? All great, so choose one or get them all, and do your part to support this worthy cause. Get them at your comics shop, or directly from the CBLDF website. You'll be in good company!

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN CORPS 61-63

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Still catching up on books that came out before the New 52. These last three issues of GLC (before the latest relaunch) are each stand-alone stories with none of the crossover madness and little of the war repercussions of previous issues, and it's a refreshing change.

61 focuses on John Stewart helping out a newbie GL on her first mission. It's charming and well written by Tony Bedard, the kind of story I used to love reading, and occasionally writing, in GL Corps backups years ago.

62 is a face-off between GLs Kyle Rayner of Earth and his girlfriend Soranik Natu (of Korugar I think, same place as her father Sinestro). It's a relationship story that develops into an action story in a situation set up by the Star Sapphire Miri to get the two of them fighting side by side. Miri's plan is to rekindle their failing romance in the heat of battle. Will it work? Read the issue to find out. This one's also written well by Bedard.

63, the final issue, is written and partly drawn by Scott Kolins. Always good to see someone stretching their boundaries in comics. Centered on Oa, the story is divided into chapters, with a focus on Alpha Lantern Boodikka (one of the machine-like Alpha Lanterns), attempts to bring her back to the Corps, and some of the other Lanterns trying to clean of the messes from the last battle there. Kind of a set-up for the next series, but well done.

Here's a page of art from 63 by Joe Prado, but the bulk of the pencilling in these issues is by Daniel HDR. I like most of it (a few wobbly bits here and there), but generally good work. I'm still not sure if HDR is a last name or some kind of abbreviation, though.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE MARVELOUS MISADVENTURES OF SEBASTIAN

Image © Estate of Lloyd Alexander, illustration by Jacob Landau.

This is an early work of Alexander's, the next thing published after the final book of his award-winning Prydain series. I'm not sure why I haven't read it until now. Possibly the incredibly ugly original cover art (above) put me off, or even the subject: the adventures of a fiddler in a mythical Middle Ages Europe-like setting. In any case, it's a fine book, though much lighter in tone than the Prydain series and other works. It has something of a "comedy of errors" feel at times, at others it's an adventure story with Sebastian just one step ahead of various enemies, accompanied by a stray cat and a variety of fellow-travelers. Alexander was taking violin lessons, and says he was inspired by the young Mozart, though I think he was really inspired more by Mozart's "The Magic Flute," which shares some common ground with this book. Instead of a magic flute there's a cursed violin that, when played well, seems to draw the life out of the player, vampirically. That's the only fantasy element in this story, the rest is more like "The Three Musketeers" or books of that nature, but with less swordfighting.

Good fun, entertaining characters, some rather one-dimensional villains, and lots of scenery-chewing by a theatrical group Sebastian falls in with. Then there's the mysterious Captain everyone is hoping will save them from a brutal ruler; he's perhaps the most interesting character of all. There's a princess, but for once Alexander does not give her his usual feisty young woman character personality (like Eilonwy in the Prydain books). This princess is stiff and stuffy, speaking in long-winded paragraphs in the third person. Not too appealing, though she finally comes out of it at the end.

There's nothing too surprising here, but it's an entertaining read. Recommended.

Incoming: ABSOLUTE SANDMAN VOLUME 5

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

I was surprised when I first heard about this. Didn't think there was enough material to fill a fifth volume. But it arrived today, and looks grand, just as lush and rich and pregnant with great material as the other volumes. The bulk of it is the two versions of "The Dream Hunters" (the one with Yoshitaka Amano and the one with P. Craig Russell), Endless Nights (the hardcover of new stories from, I think 2003), and "Sandman Midnight Theatre," that collaboration with Matt Wagner and the Golden Age Sandman that I always forget about, even though I lettered it. The excellence of the production on these volumes gives me hope that they will be around a long time, probably longer than Neil or any of us who worked on the original material. It's a pleasure to have been a part of this great work.

Alan Moore Rarities site

Image © Alan Moore and Steve Moore.

If you're a long-time Alan Moore fan like me, you might be interested in the GLYCON blog by Irish Moore fan Pádraig Ó Méalóid (who I think puts all those accents in his name to drive typists mad). Pádraig has been given permission by Alan and sometimes his collaborators to publish there rare, obscure and sometimes unpublished Moore work. Up most recently is a small pamphlet of four poems, "Technical Vocabularies," two each by Alan Moore and Steve Moore, who also published the pamphlet in a limited edition of 101 signed copies. Interesting work: Alan's poems are earthy and playful, Steve's are more fantastic and wishful. Previous entries have more work by Alan you may never have heard of, let alone seen. A site worth visiting from time to time for certain.

 

And Then I Read: WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS AFTERMATH 1 & 2

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This is another one of those plot-driven vehicles designed to get from point A (the end of the Green Lantern War storyline) to point B (The launch of new GL titles in the New 52). I wasn't expecting too much from it, and it's a good thing. Mostly what we see are GLs in post-battle trauma arguing with each other and questioning decisions made in the heat of battle and afterward. Main points of contention: the destruction of Mogo, the planet-sized GL by John Stewart (to keep Krona from creating more GLs with it) and the apparent decision by the Guardians to let Sinestro keep his GL ring that he donned during the war. It's a crabby bunch all around in these issues for the most part. Even a visit from a Blue Lantern doesn't help much.

There are different art teams on each issue, but I can't say I liked the look of either book very much. Issue 2, above, has characters with disturbingly distorted faces at times, so I guess I like it less, but both issues have inconsistent art, especially given the high standard usually seen on the GL books lately.

Can't recommend these.

And Then I Read: GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S DOORWAYS

Images © George R.R. Martin and IDW.

Collected in this hardcover are the first four issues of this new series created and written by Martin with art by Stefano Martino. It began life as a TV series proposal/pilot and with Martin's name on it I suppose could be one again someday. It's a story of Cat, a woman on the run across multiple alternate Earths. She falls into ours just in time to be hit by a truck, and in a hospital emergency room finds an unsuspecting and somewhat unwilling ally in her doctor. Before he knows it he's dragged onto her runaway train of a life, trying to evade otherworldly killers with her, and hopping to another version of Earth to do so, one where civilization has ground to a halt due to lack of fossil fuels. Dr. Thomas Mason is now in deep, and equally a target, and he and Cat are still just one step ahead of their tracker/killers.

The characters are good, the dialogue is choice. Cat speaks in a charminlgy mangled English that reminds me somehow of a Tarzan movie, and she's a hellcat who pulls no punches. The other people along their path are all very human, except for the otherworldly villains who are right out of a horror/SF movie. It's a good ride.

The art is appealing and quite accomplished. Nicely handled figure work, storytelling and action, good character acting most of the time. No complaints there. My one complaint about this collection is that there's no sense of story arc to it. Four issues, each of which digs deeper holes for Cat and the doctor with no resolutions or hope in sight. Will there be more? If this were a monthly from DC or Marvel I'd feel pretty confident there will, but we're talking about a top SF writer here, whose time is probably in very high demand. I'd have been happier with some kind of at least minor closure at the end rather than just another cliffhanger.

Still recommended.

And Then I Read: THE LAST DRAGON

Images © Jane Yolen & Rebecca Guay.

It must be a coincidence of scheduling that two original hardcovers containing the fine painted work of Rebecca Guay have been released so close together. This one is dated September 2011, so it probably came out before A FLIGHT OF ANGELS from Vertigo/DC, but not by much.

Jane Yolen is a highly respected name in fantasy literature, both for children and adults, and the script for this book is adapted by her from a short story she wrote. Add comics writer to Ms. Yolen's accomplishments, the adaptation reads smoothly, avoiding novice comics writer mistakes like trying to tell too much in captions and showboating with clever wordsmithing. There are some lengthy captions in the beginning to set up the world and situation of the story, beautifully lettered by Clem Robins, but then it settles into real comics easily, and Yolen's dialogue and thought balloons are perfect for the art and the story.

Yes, it is a dragon story with a real dragon, set in a world and time when dragons have been extinct for centuries, so no one is expecting there to be one lurking around the small island of the tale, newly hatched but growing quickly, and soon snatching livestock and then people. The story centers on a family of the island. The father is an herbalist, and his daughter Tansy is following him in that trade. Two other daughters have their own ideas. The characters come to life quickly and convincingly, and when one of them has an disastrous meeting with the dragon the town finally realizes its peril. They decide to send out a task force to find a dragon slayer. When Lancot arrives, he turns out to be something of a fake, but before long he's fallen for Tansy, and he and that resourceful girl end up working together to face the dangerous beast.

Guay's art is charming, full of earth tones and glowing with warm light. There's some small variations of style, from almost colored linework to more fully developed painting, but these are small shifts that do nothing to detract from the storytelling as a whole, and the entire book is a delight to look at. Characters are full of life and emotion, action sequences are strong and exciting, the dragon is shown in bits first, gradually revealing himself as the story progresses, a great way to build suspense. The lettering by Clem Robins is also excellent, in styles I've not seen from him before, and his work adds to the reading enjoyment.

Highly recommended!