Todd Klein's Blog, page 371

Hurricane Misses, Phillies Hit

After a week of beating the drums of danger on TV and radio, Hurricane Earl passed us by on Friday with minimal impact. Despite very high humidity I kept the windows open and the air conditioning off so I could monitor the weather. The cats did the same, and the wind seemed to make them restless. There were a few light showers, but no real rain, which is too bad because we could use some. Here are Tigger and Leo in a window of my studio.

After lunch I drove to Sea Isle City for a look at the o...

Incoming: STARSTRUCK 8-10

Images © Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta.

Not a review, since I lettered it back in the dim corridors of history, just a few comments. I can't tell you how good it is to see this series being reprinted for current readers in such a fine and attractive format. The colors by Lee Moyer are wonderful, bringing out details I never noticed before myself, and I looked closely at the original art while lettering it. It's kind of unfortunate that the coloring process has given a slight halftone blur ...

And Then I Read: FIRST WAVE 2

Images © DC Comics and the respective copyright holders.

I tried to like it, but this series is not for me. It's a fun idea, getting together some of the pulp stars and early superheroes, but the treatment is grim and violent, and some of the characters are changed in ways I don't care for. The Spirit's sidekick Ebony as a sexy black woman? The Blackhawks as black ops? Sorry, no. Batman finally shows up in this issue on one page only. More of him might have made it better.

The art is okay, but ...

If it fits, it ships…

How about MAAOOUUI?

Lettering Wisdom

One of the sites I visit daily is the LETTERING SHOWCASE message board on the Digital Webbing site. There you'll find messages and comments from seasoned lettering professionals (and friends of mine, I believe) like Tom Orzechowski, Clem Robins and Kurt Hathaway as well as Blambot font creator and chief Nate Piekos. There are also quite a few younger letterers or would-be letterers that have interesting things to say or questions to ask. I was struck recently by how much good advice about...

Reading: ROBERT A. HEINLEIN (Part 2)

© William H. Patterson, Jr.

Continuing from Part 1, I'm taking a look at this book in sections, here covering chapters 11-19, up to page 251. More fascinating reading, more surprises, taking Heinlein into a second marriage, through his Navy service into a brief political career and the beginnings of writing fiction.

Without ever having considered the numbers, I always thought the man's Naval service ran at least through World War Two, but in fact it was much briefer. He served in various jobs a...

And Then I Read: AGE OF BRONZE 30

Images © Eric Shanower.

While Eric continues to tell the massive epic story from Homer's "Iliad," he's making it even larger by including other related works, even those not from Greek mythology at all, as in this issue's focus, the romantic couple Troilus and Cressida, brought together for a lover's tryst by the scheming Pandarus. This story first appeared in mediaeval times, most notably in a poem by Chaucer and a play by Shakespeare, the latter being, I think, the main source here. It's an ...

Reading: ROBERT A. HEINLEIN VOL. 1

© William H. Patterson, Jr., art by Donato.

I don't read many biographies, but this, of one of my favorite writers, was preordered as soon as I learned of it. It's very long, over 600 pages (and that's just volume 1 of 2, though about 100 of it is notes), and will take me a while, so I thought I'd report on it as I read. At present I've read the first 10 chapters, 125 pages.

Heinlein wrote very little about his own life directly, aside from one travel book ("Tramp Royale") and in his rare...

And Then I Read: AMERICAN VAMPIRE 3 & 4

Images © Scott Snyder & Stephen King.

The two stories in this book seem to be working together better as they go along. Both have picked up the pace with lots of action and horror in each. Pearl's story by Snyder continues to impress with great character development, while King's story here is back to masterful in-your-face western showdowns of the vampiric sort. His main character Sweet seems to be getting more vicious, and with good reason. Perhaps the creepiest thing about these new...

And Then I Read: WARLORD 14 & 15

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This title will end with issue 16, so the current storyline, about the son of Travis Morgan taking his father's place as The Warlord, will be the last for now. I'm sorry to see it go, I think Mike Grell's art is looking as good as ever when he does it all himself, as on issue 15, and when he doesn't it looks pretty good, too. The writing was a little rocky at first, but then fell into a good rhythm for the last 10-12 issues. Why didn't it sell better? My theory is the ...