A1

by Igor Goldkind

An Atomeka Production. "Along For The Ride"; "Cyrano de Bergerac's Voyage to the Moon"; "Goofing"; "Fanciable Headcase"; Frankenstein Meets Shirley Temple"; and "Wonderful Life."

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Native San Diegan Igor Goldkind is an author, educator, and producer of advanced media technology innovations. At the age of 14, Goldkind served as a volunteer Science Fiction Coordinator for the now wildly popular San Diego Comic-Con. It was in this capacity that he met Ray Bradbury, whom he asked for advice about becoming a writer.

After living and working in Europe for 30 years, he returned to San Diego in 2014 to care for his demented mother and see her to the valley beyond. In 2015, his project IS SHE AVAILABLE? published by Chameleon broke ground in combining Poetry, Comics, Jazz, and Animation.

His second work, Take a Deep Breath – Living With Uncertainty is a unique collection of fully illustrated poetry, fables, and philosophies, a book aimed at the pandemic of crisis anxiety so many of us are living through.

“Igor takes you into the guts of the pandemic and gives you a tour of the struggles and trials of the everyday environment. He takes you from trans-global to the nightly news of the day that is rocketing past at roller coaster speed, pure emotive emotions so personal that it makes you sit back and wonder at the writing here and what you have just read”. – Chris Vannoy - US Beat Poet Laureate 2019


https://takeadeepbreath.one


Reviews

[D.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic Comics takes up the gauntlet that Atomeka threw down with the end of their original 6-part comics anthology, with this 4-part full-colour series. It's off to a stellar start, with an odd Igor Goldkind story, 'Along for the Ride,' beautifully painted by cover artist Glenn Fabry, where a British hitchhiker in the US gets picked up by the icons of Beat and goes for a strange ride. The centrepiece of this volume is undoubtedly P. Craig Russell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac's 'Voyage to the Moon' (if I remember correctly, this is a story he makes up to excuse his sudden appearance in the play when he falls out of a tree); it's funnier than Russell tends toward, but just as lovely as ever, and could only have happened in colour. Scott Hampton gives us another painted piece called 'Goofing,' all about how he's not really the pro he appears to be. Someone called Ilya does the weakest bit here, titled 'Fanciable Headcase,' which seems to be an adaptation of a song lyric about an abusive bar 'stud.' Roger Langridge gives us a great-looking, silly item in 'Frankenstein Meets Shirley Temple, part 1'; the mind reels at what the second part of this story will bring. Another soft spot in this first volume is 'Wonderful Life' on the last page, a feel-bad 'Save the Whales' eco-message from Steve White; I don't know how this got included here, and it seems ill at odds with the rest of the book (though it does match up with William Stout's painted whale back cover on UK A1 book 5).
This is a more promising beginning than the original series' first book was, and offers a high standard for the rest of the run.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend Igor has put together a multimedia ebook, which is something of a new-fashioned way of dealing with books, period. Music and art and poetry all in one little place. I especially like the 'graphic novel" portions, two episodes in particular- a hitchhiker is picked up in the desert by an insane Neal Cassidy-Jack Kerouac-Bill Burroughs configuration bordering on serial killer mayhem, and dumped later on down the road at a gas station. As well a story which must be one of his Dad's World War 2 stories, serving as a combat medic in southern France & Germany (coincidentally, my own father had the same job in the same campaign at the same time!) which leaves one to ponder about issues such as social mores in the midst of war- why holding on to them makes a difference. You'll like this if your reading horizons are not limited to the idea of wood pulp constructions in layers of leaves, mass produced to gain a fortune for the publisher if limited in returns to the author.