Up We Go, Again

[Steven]

Taking it slowly again, in the hopes I'll meet the goal this time.

[Steven]

#1 - The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached by Mark Doyle

An interesting look at the Kinks through to 1971, with a fairly tight focus on Ray Davies and the England-centric and socially aware records. Doyle places the songs nd concepts into the mileu of post-WWII Britain, looking at the social and political shifts and the resulting uneasiness and confusion that came with those shifts. The book's fairly concise and well footnoted, and inspired me to revisit those albums.

[Steven]

Finished *that* album, so let's see if I can now pick up the pace...even as I start on two new album projects.

for those interested, the album is here: https://davidalexandermcdonald.bandca...

[Steven]

#2 - Suffrajitsu: Mrs Pankhurst's Amazons by Tony Wolf, etc

An alternate worlds take on Mrs. Pankhurst and the Suffragettes, seen as a semi-steampunk horror mystery. It's interesting but ultimately a bit flat, and ends as a to be continued.

[Steven]

#3 - Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man, Vol. 3 by Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, John Byrne, and more

To your scattered bodies (or ant legions) go! The last adventures of Hank Pym as Ant-Man (who became Yellowjacket for a time, before going off the rails, and complications ensuing and so on), followed by the appearance of Black Goliath and, finally, Ant-Man #2 in a story that was loosely adapted for the first Ant-Man movie.

It's a scattershot collection, though it does serve to condense the continuity for the Black Goliath character (who first appeared in the Power Man title) with his brief series being followed by two issues of Champions that tied up the unfinished arc. Despite restoration work, the overall look and feel of the book is rather flat.

[Steven]

#4 - Legends of the Dark Knight 3: Jim Aparo by Jim Aparo, Bob Haney, others

These books (now a discontinued line, sadly) are a nostalgia festival for me, as I grew up reading comics from the period covered by these three volumes and others in the line. The downside to these collections is minor, but can be frustrating -- a four part story is reduced to three because Aparo didn't do the story pages for the fourth part, numerous covers are absent the stories as Aparo only did the covers -- and, conversely, multiple stories where Aparo did the interior art but not the covers.

Overall, though, it's a good, sturdy collection and I enjoyed revisiting the stories I'd read long ago and reading those that were new to me. I even continue to have warm feelings towards those tales written by the late Bob Haney, often utterly mad things but *highly* entertaining.

[Steven]

#5 - Venom Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Symbiosis by David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, others

Picks up the Venom story post-Web Of Spider-Man #1, when Spider-Man manages to drive the alien symbiote off altogether. The symbiote returns, bonds with former reporter Eddie Brock, and the merged being calls itself Venom, goes utterly crazy, and launches a vendetta against Spidey. The book charts a course that eventually sets up a sort of redemption for Venom.

I'm not a fan of Venom, honestly, but it's interesting to chart the development of the characters.

[Steven]

#6 - The Star Wars by JW Rinzler by J. W. Rinzler, based on a script by George Lucas

An unusual project -- a comics miniseries based on a rough draft script by George Lucas, before he shaped the first Star Wars into its near final shape. There are familiar elements, some familiar *names* with vastly different connections, and quite a lot of differences. Had Rinzler chosen to adapt Lucas' other attempts, there would have been even bigger differences.

It's a fun read, though be warned that the art is often stiff and the story leaps all over the place, plus there's a face turn towards the end that comes out of nowhere. It would have been interesting to see a sequel from Rinzler but, alas, he passed away,

[Steven]

#7 - A Magnum for Schneider by James Mitchell

A novel with a mildly complicated history, as it started as a play, became a TV series, turned into a novel, and then became a movie. Sadly, none of the other books made it into film -- Edward Woodward played Callan, and was brilliant in the role. The novel's well worth a read, as Mitchell does an excellent job of adapting and expanding on his original material -- this is genuinely a novel, rather than a straight novelization.

[Steven]

#8 - Russian Roulette by James Mitchell

The second Callan novel and the first original. A thriller using the High Noon theme, though the timeframe is much looser. Hunter, head of the Section, has made a deal with the KGB -- they'll give him a major British asset embedded in the KGB, one now blown, in exchange for the Section, the deeply buried dirty tricks and assassination division of MI6, cutting their top agent, David Callan, loose. Callan is deprived of assets and sources, leaving only the nervous little thief Lonely to help him as three KGB killers close in.

Worse that that, Callan is having vision issues and needs an operation. even worse than that, he's getting involved with a woman. And his colleague, Meres, might well be trying to make it easy for the Russians.

A highly efficient story, but it does have its stumbles along the way thanks to attitudes of the time -- the depictions of gay characters are rather rough, and a significant black character ends up wobbling all over the landscape until a terrible finish as Mitchell seems not to have known what to do with them.

[Steven]

#9 - X-Men: Beauty and the Beast by Jim Shooter, Ann Nocenti, etc

A hardcover compilation of Dazzler: The Movie and the Beauty And The Beast miniseries that teams Dazzler and the Beast, putting both through the sort of massive abuse that Ann Nocenti brought to Daredevil. The result is middling, or less. The graphic novel, the result of trying to create a superhero character for Donna Summer to play, is fairly dull stuff, while the miniseries is hyperactive weirdness with rough art from Don Perlin.

[Steven]

#10 - Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers, Vol. 20 by Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, others

A rather awkward period for the Avengers as a shifting cast of writers and artists wrangled a shifting cast of characters. Writer/editor Jim Shooter got into the fray but didn't seem to be able to get the book focused either.

[Steven]

#11 - Spider-Man/Deadpool, Vol. 5: Arms Race by Robbie Thompson, etc

The not-a-team-up rampages on as Deadpool does his usual crazy-but-criminal thing and Spidey tries to rein him in. This volume scatters all over as it lurches from an attempt to collect dangerous weapons for resale to the first part of a story set in the future when the two are elderly and *both* crazy. Tends to work a bit too hard for its own good.

[Steven]

#12 - Death and Bright Water by James Mitchell

The third original Callan novel (at the same time Mitchell was writing the newspaper short stories that were collected in Callan Uncovered and Callan Uncovered 2) and the fourth Callan novel altogether.

This one finds Callan doing road construction after a year away from the Section, and it's doing him good. He's up in the North, he's making good money, he has friends and a routine and it's starting to seem that he's escaped British Intelligence and the pleasantly malevolent Hunter. Then his friend Lonely shows up riding a motorcycle and sidecar, and telling Callan that he's desperately needed back in London,

What Callan returns to is an increasingly complicated and increasingly dangerous situation involving the rescue of a young Greek woman from where she's imprisoned on Crete. It looks like a relatively easy job, even with the authoritarian Greek government of the time, as long as Callan can do it his way.

Then Hunter comes into the mix, and Callan learns that he hadn't escaped the Section quite as much as he'd thought. Hunter has something in mind for the mission, leaving Callan to not only have to sort out the players but also figure out the game -- or, indeed, the games. at stake is the future of Greece, and the future of English relations with and tacit control of Greece once the oppressive government has fallen. No pressure, then!

The story is very reminiscent of Yojimbo, with an outsider stepping into the middle of a power struggle and settling things after a convoluted back and forth. Mitchell keeps the turns coming as he goes along, and it's an entertaining read.

Do note that this is very much of its time, so can be a bit rough when it comes to race and sexuality.

[Steven]

#13 - Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles edited by Michael Ventrella and Randee Dawn

A playful look at the Beatles across the multiverse, with stories ranging from the outlandish (the Beatles as Zombies and the Fantastic Four) to the near tragic (dealing with Lennon's death, tales of what if the Beatles had never happened.) There's a couple of reprints but the majority of the stories are new to this volume. I'd love to see (an contribute to) a second volume.

I bought this initially on a Kickstarter, and later added the Kindle edition.

[Steven]

#14 - British Trolleybus Systems: Wales, Midlands and East Anglia, An Historic Overview by Peter Waller

As it says, an overview. One of four books covering the historic trolleybus systems (and the tram systems that often preceded them.) Very much a series of summaries of installations and the various units in each, complete with a variety of pictures. Most will find this dull, I suppose. For me it's comfort food, and a reminder of where I came from.

[Steven]

#15 - AC DC's Highway To Hell (33 1/3) by Joe Bonomo by Joe Bonomo

Overeggs the pudding a bit, and jumps around like Angus Young used to on a good night. I've long outgrown the band, and at this point the band's pretty much aged out (the book was published in 2009, and a lot happened in the following years, leaving Angus Young as the sole original member) but it was an interesting read.

[Steven]

#16 - The Drops of God, Vol. 1 by Tadashi Agi, et al

I got this first volume for free some time ago, and just got around to it, having no idea what to expect. I got a very nice surprise -- it's part of the Japanese food & drink subgenre, and a seinen (slice of life) and next to Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine, Vol. 1: A la Carte and its sequels it's also the most educational manga I've come across. It's also a delight.

This is the story of Shizuki Takayaki, the son of a recently deceased wine and food critic, Yutaka Takanaki. He stands to inherit a house house and a wine cellar worth millions. Unfortuately he's up against Issei Tomine, who was adopted by the elder Takanaki just before his death -- and Tomine is a wine expert almost as good as the old man. That's important, because the will specifies that the inheritor will be the one who found most of the "12 Apostles" and correctly identified the wine Yutaka called :the Drops Of God."

The problem is...Shizuku was highly trained by his father and has superhumanly fine senses. But he's never touched a drop of wine...and he works for a beer company.

It's well worth reading beyond the running lessons in wine, too, as Shizuku's journey leads him to unexpected places and people (and enormous bills.)

[Steven]

#17 - 22 - Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 Fantastic Four, Vol. 2 Fantastic Four, Vol. 3 Fantastic Four, Vol. 4 Fantastic Four, Vol. 5 Fantastic Four, Vol. 6 by Jonathan Hickman, et al

#23 -#26 - FF, Vol. 1 FF, Vol. 2 FF, Vol. 3 FF, Vol. 4 by Jonathan Hickman et al

A lot of complicated reading here as Hickman uses the FF to bridge his work on the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his world-ending (literally) run on the Avengers titles. he takes a lot of big swings here, while setting up Dr. Doom to become God-Emperor Doom, and even shows us Doom's first attempt at creating a universe of his own -- it doesn't go well.

Ultimately, Hickman's run doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it does focus nicely on the family aspect of the FF, and Susan Storm's ability.

[Steven]

#27 - The Returned, Part 3 by Peter David

A disappointing end to the three-part novel. David seems to have written everybody into a corner they couldn't get out of, and drops in a literal deus ex machina courtesy of Q's actions.

[Steven]

#28 - Quantum of Nightmares by Charles Stross

Middle book of the New Management trilogy within The Laundry Files (the Laundry itself might not even exist at this point.) CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN has come to pass, an elder god is running Great Britain, and all sorts of unseemly stuff is going on. In this outing the widow of a billionaire cultist goes up against her late husband's cult, superheroic coppers have their kids kidnapped by evil Mary Poppins, and a scheme involving meat zombies in a supermarket needs to be foiled.

Starts slow, but by the end it's zooming along. Sadly, it's not Stross at his best, but it did keep me reading.

[Steven]

#29 - Dark Reign: Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman, etc

Forgot to include this in the big read through of Hickman's FF. Pretty much a fun romp through time with multiple iterations of the Thing, Sue, and Johnny.

[Steven]

#30 - The Saint in Miami by Leslie Charteris

Apparently the last time Patricia Holm features in a Saint story. This outing has our charming adventurer taking up residence in the home of a missing acquaintance, and witnessing an oil tanker blowing up. When a body washes up clinging to a life belt from a British submarine, the Saint goes investigating.

A rather violent, pulpy outing this time, as tended to happen with US-set Saint adventures. Charteris also brings anti-Nazi sentiment into the story, although at the time the US was still more than a year away from getting into the war (the book came out in 1940.)

An entertaining romp that makes it quite clear that Simon Templar is an adrenaline junkie and lunatic.

[Steven]

#31 - Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two-in-One, Vol. 1 by Steve Gerber, et al

The Thing teams up with various Marvel heroes and travels cross-country in the process. Occasionally gloriously lunatic, often just okay.

[Steven]

#32 - Swordfishtrombones by David Smay

An analysis of the album, with biographical material.

[Steven]

#33 - Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 3 by Carl Burgos and others

I can't say these stories aged well, but then again they weren't intended to age at all but to be disposable. Yet here we are with a restoration of four 64 page issues of Marvel Mystery Comics from the 1940s. Most of the published material is retained, including the two page short stories. The Torch and the Sub-Mariner battle, the Angel fights monsters, Ka-Zar ends up in New York just as Tarzan did, and so forth.

A big quibble with these volumes is that the restoration ignores the factors that went into the production of the comics -- even an accurate attempt at redoing the colouring results in a gaudy, overblown look because modern reproduction and high quality paper used in these volumes brightens everything rather too much.

[Steven]

#34 - Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al

The exploits of Sergeant Nicky Fury and his Howling Commandos during World War II. Often quite ludicrous and sometimes, surprisingly, solid stuff, with stakes (one of the early Howlers dies on a mission) and sometimes even a positive message. The art varies and the writing veers regularly into corn, but overall the series tends to be better than might be expected.

[Steven]

#35 - The Beatles: Every Little Thing by Maxwell MacKenzie

A collection of Beatles informational snippets from before to after. There's some good stuff in here but the organization is a bit scattered and the snippets either elide things or have some misinformation salted in.