Todd Klein's Blog, page 7

Rereading: FRIDAY by Robert A. Heinlein

Cover art by Richard Powers

Published in 1982, this is the second of five novels from Heinlein in the 1980s, the last years of his life, and my favorite of those. There’s less talk and more story action than the others, and the main character is appealing.

Friday works as a clandestine courier for an organization run by an elderly man she knows only as Boss. Earth in the story is quite different from our world in many ways. America, for instance, is broken up into several countries, and a few powerful corporations wield as much control as any of the national governments. There are colonies on the moon and Mars, as well as several in space, and travel to them is often done by a very tall elevator nicknamed The Beanstalk. Friday is returning from a delivery to one of the space colonies on that elevator when she realizes she’s being followed. Forced to act quickly, she kills her tail, and flees back to her home base near Chicago. There she finds that base in the hands of enemies, and Friday is soon captured and tortured. So begins a difficult and eventful time in her life.

Friday has special training and abilities, and also a secret that would make her feared and hated by many if known. That secret, and her upbringing, fills her with insecurity and self-loathing. The book is in part a quest for connections, friends, and lovers she can trust, ones that will accept her for what she really is, and who will help her accept herself. A group family in New Zealand seems an answer, but turns out all wrong. Other new friends in Canada are a better fit, but then a series of political assassinations turn everything in Friday’s world to chaos. She’s desperate to get back to the Boss and his group, but new border restrictions make that very difficult, and then she must go on the run to avoid Canadian police. How can Friday find her way in this troubled world, even with all her skills, when she can’t know who to trust?

A fine read, the story wanders around a bit, but it’s all interesting, and quite satisfying in the end. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE ICE GHOSTS MYSTERY by Jane Louise Curry

Professor Bird has disappeared while researching strange earthquakes in the Alps, and his wife and children decide to try to find him. They fly from their home in California to the small mountain village of Risenmoos, known for its ancient festival around legendary Ice Ghosts said to live in caves in the nearby mountains. Before long Mab, Perry, and Oriole are caught up in a suspenseful story of hidden powerful machines, blackmail, a maze of caverns, and a town that seems afraid of what they might find out. Is their father hidden away somewhere, and if so, why?

Lots of exciting action, a complex plot, and interesting characters. Recommended.

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Klein Letterer Biographies in JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #93

Image © TwoMorrows

In November 2024, John Morrow of TwoMorrows emailed me, saying:

I’m getting started on Jack Kirby Collector #93, and the theme is “Supporting Players.” So I’d like to represent Kirby’s various letterers in some way. Alex Jay pointed me toward your amazing historical blog posts on Howard Ferguson and Ben Oda.

I told him I’d be fine with him excerpting from my blog articles, part of my “The Art and History of Lettering Comics,” and when a complementary copy of the issue arrived, I found articles on both letterers with my byline. John included nearly all the text from my articles, and many but not all the images. I was a bit surprised by this, but seeing how well designed the articles look and read in the magazine, I’m fine with it. I look forward to reading the other articles.

Just to review, my original articles are here:

Howard Ferguson – Simon & Kirby Letterer

Howard Ferguson – A Detailed Lettering Study

(The Jack Kirby Collector only used the first of these)

Ben Oda – Prolific Letterer

If the magazine encourages some readers to look for more on my blog, I feel that’s a fair compensation.

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My Music: LINDA’S SONG

My good friend Linda, who I had known for about eight years, was going through a tough time. We lived several hours apart then, in different states, but kept in touch by letters and occasional phone calls, and I visited her once or twice a year. In October of 1978 I was shocked to hear how bad things had become for her, and wrote this song. I don’t know where I got the idea it would help, or that I had any wisdom for her, but I sang it to her when I visited in November of that year. Well, she didn’t hate it, at least. Linda’s Song.

In 2000, when I assembled a CD of my own songs to give out to friends and family, she gave me permission to include it, so I guess that’s approval of a sort.

Linda’s Song is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: JURGEN by James Branch Cabell

Jurgen, the seventh book in the “Biography of the Life of Manuel,” is Cabell’s best known and best-selling book largely because it generated a lawsuit against the author and publisher for obscenity. The book is a romantic comedy of sorts that does include lots of sex, but always inferred and making use of sly wordplay such as the word “sword” for something else wielded by the main character. The lawsuit lasted two years, during which time the book was unavailable, but in the end author and publisher won, and in a new edition of 1923, an extra chapter was added in which Jurgen himself is tried for obscenity, so Cabell had the last laugh, and the publicity propelled his career for years.

Jurgen himself is a middle-aged man of medieval Europe, a descendant of Manuel, the figure head of a religious movement central to Cabell’s books, and as a child, Jurgen was the last person to see Manuel alive. Jurgen fancies himself a poet, but works as a pawn broker, a trade which supports him and his wife Lisa well, though Jurgen is somewhat henpecked. After a fierce argument, Lisa leaves, walking out into the wilderness, and Jurgen follows and tries to find her. He tracks her to a strange cave where he meets a mysterious old woman. Jurgen considers himself a “monstrous clever fellow,” and by flattering and amusing this powerful woman, he’s granted regained youth and a grand adventure. He goes on a quest through many lands and worlds in search of justice for himself, by which he means what he considers fair treatment, and everywhere he goes he charms and seduces women, often famous ones of story and legend, like Guinevere before she meets King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, Helen of Troy, and so on. Jurgen’s quest takes him to both heaven and hell, and he continues to search for his wife Lisa despite several other wives he gains along the way.

I remember liking this when I first read it about fifty years ago. This time I found it amusing, but somewhat tiresome by the end, it’s a long book with a lot of the same situations often repeated. Still, as the inspiration for the comic fantasy novels of writers like Terry Pratchett, it’s worth a try, and it has lots of ironic humor. Mildly recommended.

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Rereading: THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster

A favorite of my childhood and I enjoyed rereading it the past two weeks, a chapter a day. The illustrations by Jules Feiffer are excellent, too.

Milo is a boy who doesn’t know what to do with himself, or how to use his free time. One day a large package appears in his room with instructions on how to assemble the contents: a small tollbooth along with coins and a map. Milo does this, and he has a small electric car that can drive up to it so he can deposit coins. As he rolls past, he’s suddenly in on a road in a different place, and off on an amazing adventure in a magical land.

It’s hard to pin down the charm of the setting and characters, but they are full of wordplay. Milo first meets the Whether Man of Expectations, then he and his car become lost in The Doldrums, where Milo is rescued by a large WatchDog named Tock (see image above). Among the many amusing and sometimes scary places he visits are Dictionopolis, where words are bought and sold, the Forest of Sight, the Valley of Sound, and Digitopolis, city of numbers. Milo and Tock meet many strange characters, and are later joined by a Humbug. This land is full of troubles, and the only thing that will save it is the return of the twin princesses Rhyme and Reason, but they are captives in a Castle in the Air beyond the Mountains of Ignorance, which is full of monsters and demons. Despite that, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug agree to try their best to rescue the princesses and return joy to the land.

Great fun, and perhaps the cleverest use of words and ideas in a story since Alice in Wonderland. Highly recommended.

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Rereading: GLINDA OF OZ by L. Frank Baum

This fourteenth Oz book of 1920 was the final one completed before Baum’s death. His usual introduction is replaced by a note from the publishers telling of the author’s passing, and promising more Oz stories from his “unfinished notes.” In fact, they hired Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue the series, and she wrote way more than Baum did, more on that in the next Oz book review.

While Dorothy is visiting Glinda, her friend and the most powerful sorceress and protector of the realm of Oz, she reads in Glinda’s magic book about an impending war between two little-known groups living at the northern edge of the Gilliken country, just south of the Deadly Desert that surrounds Oz. These people, the Skeezers and the Flatheads, are about to go to war. When Dorothy learns that, she quickly returns to the Emerald City to tell Ozma, ruler of Oz. Ozma also knows nothing about these people, but decides she must visit them and try to make peace. She and Dorothy leave the next day, but soon find themselves in trouble. Both groups are ruled by leaders with powerful magic that Ozma is unable to counter. First the two girls have to flee from the mountain of the Flatheads, then they’re taken prisoner on the island of the Skeezers. An expedition led by Glinda to rescue them is comprised of Oz’s finest heroes and characters, but when they arrive, they find there’s little they can do, and more help is needed to free the prisoners and restore peace.

I quite like the plot of this book, there’s none of the idle wandering and pop-up threats that fill many pages in some of Baum’s other Oz stories, and the characters are appealing and interesting. Recommended.

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My Music: EVERYONE’S LOOKING

I wrote this song on October 5th, 1978, one of many written that year. In fact, I had filled up an 8.5 by 11 inch sketchbook where I wrote down all my poems, songs, and brief stories, and I had to start a new one. Here’s the title page:

Image © Todd Klein

All done with a brush, something I didn’t use very often for lettering, but it worked well here. As to the song, it speaks to the unfulfilled feeling I had at the time. I knew there was something and someone out there for me, but hadn’t yet made the right connection. The song: Everyone’s Looking.

Everyone’s Looking is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: CASTAWAY CAMP by M. E. Atkinson

After fourteen holiday adventure novels for children about the Lockett family, Atkinson continued to write them, but began with a new cast of characters. The oldest girl, Fricka, is impulsive and temperamental, the oldest boy, Hugo, is dependable and good with tools. Sugar, the younger girl, is motherly, often caring for the others at home when their guardian, an uncle they call The Bear, is not around. The youngest boy, Adrian, is adventurous but often forgetful and thoughtless, and quite a bit the youngest at age six. Readers of Atkinson’s earlier books will recognize some of these traits, but by starting over, she was able to avoid all the complications, explanations, and large cast of her previous series, and this story has a fresh feel that jumps right into the action. Illustrator Charlotte Hough also seems inspired, no longer having to try to match previous illustrators’ ideas.

The four are on a summer holiday at a fishing cabin on a Scots loch. The Bear began with them, but has gone off painting somewhere, he’s a sculptor and artist, so the children are making their own fun. While fishing on the loch, a heavy mist rolls in, and then Adrian drops one of the oars overboard because he wants them to become shipwrecked on the island they were approaching. When that happens, and after scolding Adrian, they make a castaway camp in an old crumbling shack, the only structure on the island, and begin exploring. Later they make a new friend, Dingle, who has arrived in his own small boat, and arrange for him to help them get supplies for their camp from home. Many adventures ensue, it’s a fun read, and recommended.

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Rereading: THE HORSE TAMER by Walter Farley

The fourteenth book in Farley’s Black Stallion series takes a different turn, as Alec’s friend and trainer Henry Dailey tells the story of his brother Bill, one of the finest horse tamers of the late 1900s, when they were both young. At the time, before automobiles, nearly everyone used horses for work and transport, but hardly anyone really understood them. Bill’s chosen career was carriage-building, but a love and understanding of horses leads him to become a lecturer and teacher about taming hard to handle horses, helped by his young brother Hank (Henry). At first, Bill partners with a traveling salesman, Finn Caspersen, who promotes Bill’s talents and organizes the demonstrations that give him an audience and a reputation for his skills. But Finn really wants to make a show of it, selling fake cures and nostrums that do nothing, and tarnishing Bill’s actual skill and knowledge. They part ways, and then Bill and Hank must figure out how to handle the entire business, and avoid the fakery that everyone is eager to embrace.

Excellent read, recommended.

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