Todd Klein's Blog, page 372

Alphabattle reaches M!

Image by Rory Phillips.

Over at the LETTERCULT site, the continuing display/competition of amazing letters is just past the halfway point. Some great work, some entertaining ideas, and some that are just puzzling to me, but it's well worth a browse.

And Then I Read: ENCHANTED GLASS

© Diana Wynne Jones, illustration © Brandon Dorman.

This new book by fantasy master DWJ (which I loved, by the way) has clarified something for me about the majority of her work. Perhaps it's because it includes some characters from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." With a few exceptions like parts of "The Dalemark Quartet," Jones' books have these elements in common, in varying proportions: plots based on mistaken identity or characters who don't know their own true identity...

Leo Update

Leo, our cat who recently gave us a health scare, went to our own vet for another x-ray today, and he saw nothing unusual, and pronounced Leo perfectly healthy. He's certainly been acting fine. We're relieved, still wondering where that missing toy cloth went, but we're willing to consider the case closed for now.

And Then I Read: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE 1-3

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

The title storyline is one that's been running through all the Batman titles in one way or another, and this miniseries reveals what Bruce has been up to lately, or not lately exactly, since he's in the past. Apparently thrown into the distant past of Gotham City by some event not yet revealed, or in some other book, and then bouncing ahead to more recent eras with each issue. In a way, it's a bit like Dr. Who: Bruce, whose memory is fragmented, enters the scene, gets ...

And Then I Read: BATMAN & ROBIN 13

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Grant Morrison ups the excitement and pulls together a number of plot threads in this issue, the first with artist Frazier Irving. The Joker is at the center of things, that's no surprise, but the intertwining of nearly all the threads from the previous 12 issues of this series is. One thing this book, which is only gently connected to the other Batman books, allows Grant to do is play with the readers' expectations of what familiar characters like The Joker...

A Cat Mystery, with Bat Mystery Digression

We have an unsolved mystery on our hands involving our cat Leo, seen above playing with Ellen's nephew Zach last Wednesday night. Wednesday was rainy all day, so our visitors couldn't go to the beach. We played some games instead, and everyone also played with the cats and their many toys. We keep string-on-a-stick type toys up on the top of a tall cabinet where the cats can't get them on their own because Ellen always says that sort of toy should not be given to them unsupervised, as they...

And Then I Read: NEONOMICON 1

Images © Alan Moore & Avatar Press.

I haven't been a fan of most of the Avatar comics I've read. They seem to be big on latching onto properties with a big creator name and milking it with lots of cover variants and different editions, and the art they use tends to be overly detailed and colored too darkly. I decided to give this one a try anyway, as it promised a new Alan Moore story, and the art by Jacen Burrows was more appealing to me than others at Avatar. Plus the title suggests a story ...

And Then I Read: ADVENTURE COMICS 12

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Along with the relaunched LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES title, Paul Levitz is also now writing this one, and taking it in a much more fun direction than when I read the book last. Conner Kent takes some time off from exploring life in Smallville to jump ahead and spend time with the current LSH, in a story called "Playing Hooky." Paul handles everyone in this book with a lighter touch than in the other one, helped by the pencil art of Kevin Sharpe, who tends to draw the...

Casual Castles

Ellen's sister Ann and her family are visiting this week, and I've joined them at the beach for a few hours each afternoon (except for one rainy day). Tuesday they had this sand pile started, and I added a small tower to the top, all I could do with the shovel and my hands, as the other sand tools had been left home.

Today they built a bigger pile and were well on the way to a casual (unplanned) castle by the time I got there. I carved the top tower and this side of the pile…

…while nephew...

And Then I Read: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 1 & 2

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

As one of DC's longest-running team books, LSH has had lots of creative teams and approaches, some of which I read and enjoyed, some I passed by. I was a fan and constant reader when Paul Levitz wrote the series in the past, and I can say I will be now again. Paul jumps right in with a firm grasp of all the characters and how they should interact, a plotline that continues from recent efforts but goes in new, interesting directions, and the same kind of snappy...