Todd Klein's Blog, page 349

Comics Shop Appearance

On Friday, April 8th, I'll be appearing at Locust Moon Comics and Movies in Philadelphia at the kind invitation of owner Chris Stevens. He's been asking me to come for about a year now, and has finally worn me down, even though I keep telling him I'm not going to attract much business for him. Of course, YOU could always show up and prove me wrong! I'll have copies of my signed prints to sell, plus a few surprises, and of course would be happy to sign anything I've worked on. Ellen is coming too, and we should be there around 7 PM. Hope to see some of you there! Here's a pic I found online of the inside of the shop, looks like my kind of place:

And Then I Read: MYTHAGO WOOD

© Estate of Robert Holdstock, illustration by Christopher Zacharow.

I remember reading good reviews of this in LOCUS when it came out in 1985, but for some reason I never picked it up. My loss, it's an excellent book, a literate fantasy with echoes of some of my favorite fantasy authors: George MacDonald, Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen, but with an original flavor all its own.

An old house in the country, home of the Huxley family for many generations, is the setting, and the ancient and mysterious forest it sits next to. In square miles, this forest is not large, but it has many strange and magical properties, including being much larger inside than would seem possible if this were not a fantasy. Christian Huxley is newly returned from fighting in World War Two Europe to this home where he and his brother grew up. Their father was always busy studying the forest, making long expeditions into it, bringing back artifacts, and writing in his study, with apparently little time for his wife and children. Christian has little fondness for his father's memory, now that the old man has apparently disappeared for good into the woods. His brother Steven is still nominally living in the house when Christian gets there, but is following in his father's footsteps, and soon he, too is gone for long travels there.

When Christian explores the edge of the woods himself, he begins to realize what a massive and powerful place it is, and the creatures and people inside it are equally strange and mysterious. Only his father's journal and Steven's occasional visits and knowledge can begin to unlock some of the mysteries, and before long Christian is himself being drawn into the enticing place. As the story develops, things continue to get stranger. For instance, the woods themselves are growing toward and finally INTO the house, sprouting in the very ground beneath it. Then there's the young woman, Guiwenneth, who emerges to take up company with Christian. Is she a myth brought to life by his own mind, or something that's been in the wood all along, with many other iconic figures? When Steven comes back with a band of outlaws to claim her, Christian and his friend Keeton barely survive, and yet Christian is determined to go deep into the wood to find and save the girl, and Keeton agrees to go with him. The final third of the book is this epic quest, full of deep magic and thrilling action. Thus the story develops from well-conceived ideas to full-blown epic fantasy, and it's all terrific.

The woods itself reminds me at times of the island on the TV show "Lost," in that it seems to have a life and immense power of its own, and this story never stopped surprising and delighting me. Looking up Holdstock's Wikipedia entry, I was sorry to see that he died too young fairly recently, but happy to learn that there are several other books about Mythago Wood that I can now search for and enjoy.

Very highly recommended!

And Then I Read: BRIGHTEST DAY 16

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This issue has two threads. One focuses on the new Aqualad, son of Aquaman's mortal enemy, Black Manta. He and Aquaman are in an undersea refuge where Aqualad learns more about his own secret past as well as Aquaman's. It's a good story, well told. The other thread features Firestorm and his evil Black Lantern twin, heading for confrontation, with people the various personalities of Firestorm care about held hostage, their lives in great danger. But perhaps the greatest danger is the immense power Firestorm seems to have now, and it's power he doesn't have much control over.

The art by a team of three pencillers and two inkers looks good. The coloring is also quite nice and adds a lot to the book as well.

An enjoyable issue, nothing too surprising, but a good read, and recommended.

Buckingham/Klein print in color

Images © Mark Buckingham and Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

When Bucky turned in the finished art for this print of ours in late 2009, I thought it would work fine in black and white with one spot color, like all the others, but I also felt it would look even better in full hand-painted color. In addition to the 500 prints I made just like this, I suggested to Bucky that we do a short run that I could hand-color later, when I found the time. I did a sample to show him what I had in mind:

It was a start, but not a great one. there were too many similar colors touching each other, and it needed more variety and contrast, too. Bucky thought this was a fine idea, and we agreed to print a special lot of 50 to eventually be hand-colored, and to help, Bucky agreed to paint a guide for me himself. It took a few months, but when it came, Bucky's version was much better:

Painted over a scan of the incomplete lettering I'd sent much earlier, and as Bucky said, just a guide not a finished watercolor, it gave me the information I needed to paint a version that would work as I'd originally hoped. I was too busy then to go back to it, and it wasn't until this past January that I was able to start painting them again.

Here's the result, one of the 20 I painted between other work over the last three months. It was a long and tedious process, but I think it turned out well. In addition to the colors, there are several differences in this short run: it's on a lighter paper stock than the main run, and the signatures are different colors. Bucky signed these in black rather than orange, and I signed in brown rather than black.

I decided to price them at $53 including shipping. This is a lot more than the other prints I've sold, but I had to consider the time it took. I'm not a fast painter, and I wanted to at least try to achieve minimum wage. Last Friday I offered them for sale first to those on my MAILING LIST and 12 have sold that way to regular customers, who I'm happy to say were very enthusiastic. Since there are only 8 prints remaining to sell, and there's no telling when I'll have time to paint more, I'm going to offer them on a first-come first-served basis, one per buyer. If you're interested in having one, EMAIL me at that link and let me know. I'll tell you how to pay through PayPal. If I have more buyers than prints, I'll put you on a waiting list to be notified and offered one first whenever I get more painted.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed there haven't been any new prints from me in quite a while; last June, in fact. This is not from lack of trying, but there have been unavoidable delays. I have two new prints in process, and the art just came in for one of them, so I'll be working on that next, and should have news about it soon. And, of course, all my regular prints to date are still available on my BUY STUFF page. My print partners and I thank you for your support!

And Then I Read: CHALLENGE TO ADVENTURE

There's very little information available about Mary Evelyn Atkinson, author of more than twenty children's novels, published from the 1930s through the 1950s. I bought one of her books many years ago, but didn't realize there were lots more until relatively recently, in the 1990s, when I began to see she was a series book writer. Her longest and best-known series is about the Lockett family, and falls easily into the category of "family adventures," usually taking place on a holiday or when the family of two boys and a girl is not at school. THIS website identifies fourteen Lockett books, as well as five in the "Fricka" series, which involve horses and riding, and there's at least one other non-series book that I have. While I wouldn't call them classics, they make for enjoyable reading. I would place them below the quality level of Arthur Ransome's books, but above Enid Blyton, for instance.

Jane, Oliver and Bill seem to lead a good life, and one quite prone to adventure. Their parents are conveniently off in some faraway land, and they live with several aunts and uncles, one set when at school, several others when not. The conceit of the series is that the children are real, and their adventures are written up for them by one of the aunts who is a newspaper reporter and the de facto author of the series. This particular book, which is the sixth in the series, is prompted by some other kids who don't believe the Locketts really have the adventures in the books, and that they're all made up. A challenge is set up by three children of the Grenfell family in a sort of adventure competition. Each group of kids will set out on their bikes along an agreed course, staying with friends and family along the way, to see if any adventures happen, and to whom. Each group will bring along a friend of the other group to act as a witness and referee to the rules of the competition.

Kind of an elaborate setup, but the book is still good fun, and there are some exciting moments for the Lockett family, including a race through a stormy night to prevent a child from swallowing poison, a lion escaped from a circus, and a burglary attempt thwarted. Because of the competition concept, a lot of talk and worry revolves around what the other team is doing, and whether certain things "count" according to the rules, which gets somewhat tiresome, but overall it's an enjoyable book. I still have two Lockett books to find, and I look forward to that.

Unfortunately, Atkinson's books are long out of print, and many were never published in the US, so finding them anywhere other than online is difficult. The England she writes about is somewhat idealized and idyllic, and little mention is made of World War Two, going on when this one was published. I bet children of the time welcomed books like this as a respite from all the real news.

Recommended if you can find it, but I'd start with any of the earlier Lockett books: Mystery Manor, The Compass Points North, Smuggler's Gap, Going Gangster or Crusoe Island. The later ones I've read are also good. This one just makes more sense if you've already read some of the others.

Diana Wynne Jones passes

From Neil Gaiman's twitter feed:

Rest in Peace, Diana Wynne Jones. You shone like a star. The funniest, wisest, writer & the finest friend. I miss you. about 10 hours ago via web.

Very sad to hear this, I've a shelf full of her books, and have enjoyed them all.

From Neil Gaiman's twitter feed:Rest in Peace, Diana Wy...

From Neil Gaiman's twitter feed:

Rest in Peace, Diana Wynne Jones. You shone like a star. The funniest, wisest, writer & the finest friend. I miss you. about 10 hours ago via web.

Very sad to hear this, I've a shelf full of her books, and have enjoyed them all.

Booksale Booty

Usually I have a large backlog of books to read when I find the time, but over the last month or two that reading pile had dwindled to almost nothing. So when my friend Tim mentioned that he was going to a large booksale in Princeton, NJ this week, I thought I'd like to go too, and restock. Ellen was also interested, and took the day off work so the two of us could make the two hour drive north to Princeton to meet Tim at the sale.

Like many large booksales it's an annual event that raises money for some good cause. This one is the Bryn Mawr and Wellesley Booksale, organized by graduates of those two schools in Pennsylvania to fund scholarships to them. The sale actually began on Wednesday, which they call Preview Day, and to get into it then costs $20. Now, for Tim and us, the whole point of booksales is to save money and get books cheaply, so we had no interest in doing that. Thursday was also not good for us, and we decided to go on Friday. Tim has been to this sale before on Friday, and said there were still plenty of books left, so it sounded promising, and as you can see above, it turned out well for us. The three piles in the back are Ellen's books, the rest are mine. Most were found in the Children's Books section of the sale, which was quite large and with a great selection, even on the third day. I saw quite a few fine books there I have in my own library from other sales, but ones that I've rarely or never seen since. I also found some I wanted in the Science Fiction section, and one or two elsewhere.

There were a few I bought that I've already read and reviewed here: "A Canticle for Liebowitz" and "Red Mars," two Tim had lent me that I liked well enough to want on my own shelves, a very nice first edition hardcover with dustjacket of "Bedknob and Broomstick" by Mary Norton to replace my crumbling book-club edition, and a hardcover with dustjacket of Robert Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galaxy." It's not a first edition, and is ex-library, but still, it'd be hard to find one like it for sale for less than $40 online, and was a great bargain for $1. It will sit happily on my shelf with other Heinlein hardcovers I've collected, and replace the paperback edition I have.

Other books bought were to read. One, "Preacher's Boy" by Katherine Paterson is a signed copy, another nice find for $2. I've been thinking of reading more of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, so bought five of those, found a few by Lloyd Alexander I didn't have, a few others by authors I like, and some I just chose because they sounded interesting. You'll see many of them show up in reviews here over the next year or so, I imagine.

The only downside to book sales, when you already have a house full of books, is finding places to put them all! I guess we can manage to do that.

And Then I Read: EMERALD WARRIORS 5

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

If you've been reading my reviews much, you can imagine what I think of the above cover. It really puts the "EW!" in Emerald Warriors for me. The issue is fairly interesting, in that it puts Guy Gardner and friends in conflict with the mysterious power they've gone off to find, though only through his puppet Green Lanterns, ones that he's taken mental control of. Still, there's a good deal of taut conflict and action in the sequence, as well as deft insights into the minds and feelings of some of the characters involved. Then the Red Lantern thing comes spewing to the forefront toward the end, and it looks like this book and its team is about to be dragged back to Earth and into BRIGHTEST DAY storylines. Too bad, I was enjoying their quest.

The art by Fernando Pasarin and Cam Smith is quite good, and I like the creativity shown in the depiction of the new, young GLs set up against the old pros. The distant manipulator is also well depicted. Lots to like about the art, the spewing blood aside.

Mildly recommended despite a cover I dislike intensely.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN 61

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

I find that my interest in the Green Lantern books wanes considerably when the focus is on the Red Lanterns, so this issue wasn't very appealing to me. It's all about Rage, justified in some cases perhaps, but still not appealing to me. The presence of The Spectre (now "manned" by Crispus Allen) was somewhat interesting, as I haven't seen much of him in a while, and I used to like the character, even though he, too, was largely about rage and revenge.

The art by penciller Doug Mahnke and a quartet of inkers is fine if you like detailed depictions of spewing blood and splattering flesh. Okay, it's not all that, but that's what stays with me. I can acknowledge that such things have a place in dramatic comics stories these days, but I'd rather move on to other things.

Not recommended.