Spring-Heeled Jack Review

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(More customer reviews)I've just finished reading it to my 6 and 8 year olds. "Read, read," they roared when I threatened to stop and put them to bed. With some of the narrative drive of Raold Dahl, Pullman leavens his darkness with a brilliant combination of cheeky humor, self-satire, post modern machinations all set in a Dickensian London. My only complaint: the kids were so excited they couldn't fall asleep. Me too.

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500 Comic Book Villains Review

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(More customer reviews)Mystified by the multitude of arcane characters who have come out of the DC Universe woodwork during its latest "Crisis," I was pleased to find this book in Cody's, a bay area bookstore. So many villains have become heroes over the years that I have so far been able to identify 32 characters I had never noticed before. Expanded essays have been written about major characters, such as Marvel's Galactus and DC's Sinestro. Highly recommended.

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Here come the heels and hoodlums! It's an entertaining rogues' review, starring Batman's Joker, Dick Tracy's Flattop and Pruneface, Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless, Spider-Man's Green Goblin, and hundreds more villains connoisseurs of comics have always loved to hate. Written especially for comic book collectors and nostalgia buffs, 500 Comic Book Villains is a chronicle of fictional wickedness that also touches on Arthurian legend and old-time radio and movies, in addition to the comics. It's an encyclopedia of evildoers that lists and profiles the major recurring villains who for generations have lurked in countless comic book illustrations, flaunting the iniquity that is always vanquished at story's end by heroes who represent truth, justice, law, order, and the American way. This terrific collection, compiled by comic book historian Mike Conroy, serves as a fine companion volume to his recently published 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes, also available from Barron's. More than 300 color illustrations include reproductions of comic book covers and pages. Readers will also find a handy index and a bibliography.

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Sandman by Kirby and Simon Review

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(More customer reviews)The good news is DC is giving us access to another 1940's hero. Since I was a kid I have heard of the Simon and Kirby Sandman, but could not find (or afford) these comics. DC a couple of years ago did an archive edition of the Sandman (see Golden Age Sandman Archives, I recommend it too), but it did not get as far as the Simon and Kirby years. I am glad to see these stories. The stories are written OK for being 1940's material. If you're new to 1940 comics you will find the stories in this comic era are generally are not as well plotted or well written as the stories of today. Sometimes older comic stories are almost not readable. As I stated the readability of the Sandman stories here are OK.
The problem with this book is the art. It is neither a recreate or reprint scan of the original work. Recreated art has an artist interpret the original work. Depending on the artist doing this (or their contract, example Disney has strict guidelines for reconstruction of color with their old comics to capture the original visual impact) it may or may not be very accurate. Reprint scans do minor cleaning up of the art, but may not be very pretty to look at because of the primitive printing technology used and the deterioration the comics have suffered over time.
DC has used a hybrid scan approach with Sandman. Generally the yellow text boxes have been retouched (example page 19 and 20) in the book. Also the Sandman's yellow uniform in some places looks as its been retouched too, see page 19 and 20 again. The color where it has been retouched is smooth and continuous. The other art in the book is generally muddy and you can see the original printer dots.
What surprised me was how bad the art in the last story was. This story is from 1974. The colors are muddy and you see printer color dots galore. I compared this with the Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus volumes (which I recommend as great set of books). These comics were drawn around the same time as the last Sandman story. The color in the Omnibus books is crisp and the art has been fully reconstructed in these books. The Sandman's last story art is especially disappointing when you compare it to the Omnibuses.
Likely the art approach used in the Sandman was done to visually improve the art and also save money by only doing a partial recreation of the art. The bad thing is this hybrid art scan approach creates art that is now a 21st century interpretation of the 1940's work. You are not getting the impact of the original art work! Well at least the stories were not rewritten.
DC needs to clean up their act when publishing older comics (e.g. don't blame the book's restorer, Rick Keene, for the mess. He has done great jobs in the past, like the DC Archive series. He was likely contracted by DC to do the Sandman book this way). DC has brazenly published a string of badly restored comics in the last year; examples Starman Archives 2, Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore, and now the Sandman. DC - where has your focus on publishing quality gone?
DC you're lucky to get two stars here...

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DC Comics continues its series of Jack Kirby titles with a volume collecting this 1940s super-hero series for the first time ever.In 1942, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon began a remarkable run of stories for DC Comics that included The Sandman, featured in the pages of ADVENTURE COMICS. Leaving behind his trademark green suit, fedora and gas mask, The Sandman became a brightly costumed adventurer, on the trail of crime in the big city with the help of his sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy.With a strong element of the fantastic in the form of haunted dreams and foes claiming to be figures of myth, these stories were the kind of fast-paced, slam-bang adventures that made Kirby and Simon famous.

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Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)First Impressions:
The Cover is gorgeous. A larger than life copy of a close-up on Orion - very evocative of the whole Kirby Fourth World experience.
The "heft" of the tome is very light, feeling more like a trade-paper back than a hardcover edition.
The reason for this feather-weight feel is soon obvious. The paper used in this volume is quite unexpected. My initial reaction was one of disappointment and dismay. The paper looks and feels like a higher quality newsprint, not at all what one would expect for a book with a $50.00 cover price! Upon closer examination, there does not seem to be immediate concerns; the paper itself seems quite sturdy - it doesn't have the same feeling of shoddiness that regular newsprint entails and the ink seems to be quite permanent and smear-proof. Upon further examination, I actually began to feel quite good about this rather unorthodox choice. The paper really evokes the feel of an early 70s comic books and it really carries the somewhat garish colors of the original comic (which are faithfully reproduced btw) very well. It really suits the emotional, nostalgia experience.
For those that care about such things, the binding is glued, not sewn, but seems to be well-done and very strong.
Content:
In addition to an introduction by the esteemed Grant Morrison and an afterward by Kirby associate and close friend, Mark Evanier, there are a few Kirby concept drawings.
The heart of the book however are the chronological reprints of the following:
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct 1970)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134 (Dec 1970)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135 (Jan 1971)
The Forever People #1 (Feb 1971)
The New Gods #1 (Feb 1971)
Mister Miracle #1 (Mar 1971)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136 (Mar 1971)
The Forever People #2 (May 1971)
The New Gods #2 (May 1971)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #137 (May 1971)
Mister Miracle #2 (June 1971)
The Forever People #3 (July 1971)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #138 (July 1971)
The New Gods #3 (July 1971)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #139 (July 1971)
Mister Miracle #3 (Aug 1971)
"Wow". Reading or re-reading this volume is just plain fun. For those of us who grew up reading/loving comics in the 60s, there was probably no bigger shock than discovering that Jack Kirby, the heart and soul of the Marvel Universe, was jumping ship to DC. One thing that Jack insisted on for his DC tenure was more creative control of his output. This book represents nothing less than Kirby Unleashed. In re-reading these stories - clearly written for a different era (this was coming on the heels of the end of the 60s after all!) one can still feel the raw electricity, the sheer exuberance of the unbridled creativity pouring from Kirby. Sure, a lot of the dialogue is awkward - a middle-aged man trying to capture the "groovy" language of the youth culture. Nevertheless, these works are nothing short of, well, utterly psychedelic, man! More concisely, Kirby was creating an astounding new mythos which would profoundly change the way the comic book universe of DC would work henceforth and which would forever impact the entire world of superhero comics (again). These are the first chapter of that new world. Read them for their place in the history of the comic book, read them for the enjoyment!
In summation, this is well worth the Amazon discount price. I look forward to future volumes.

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After co-creating comic book heroes including The Fantastic Four and The Hulk, legendary writer/artist Jack Kirby came to DC Comics in 1970 to write and illustrate four interlocking series known collectively as "The Fourth World."Now, for the first time, DC collects these four series -- THE NEW GODS, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE and SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN -- in chronological order as they originally appeared.These comics spanned galaxies, from the streets of Metropolis to the far-flung worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, as cosmic-powered heroes and villains struggled for supremacy.Volume 1 features the debuts of Orion of the New Gods, the evil Darkseid, super-escape artist Mister Miracle and many others.It also features numerous appearances by Superman.

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Silverheels Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the graphic novel compilation of a 3 issue mini-series by the same name, originally published by Pacific Comics in the early 80's. The original series was the first work I saw by artist Scott Hampton, who was one of the first in comics to utilize fully painted panels to convey the story (as opposed to inked art with color fills). While the art here is slightly primative (Scott really shows his stuff in the mutch moodier "Pidgeons from Hell" a RE Howard adaptation), Silverheels hightlights Scott's growing talent. I think that darker storylines allow Scott to use more contrast, better setting the mood. Technically the painting (mostly watercolor and guache if I'm not mistaken) is top notch - in this volume the panel flow is slightly weak, but improves as the story progresses.

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Signed and numbered hardcover edition, limited to 750 copies world wide. It is signed by it's 3 creators, Bruce Jones, Scott Hampton and April Campbell.

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Dancing Through Life in a Pair of Broken Heels Review

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(More customer reviews)Cathy Guisewite once commented that she has three sisters, but did not give her alter ego siblings because they're like "three women sharing a brain." After reading this book, it's utterly undeniable.
Mickey Guisewite, Cathy's sister, pens a hilarious tale of the modern woman, her career, her relationships, her home life, and why all of them are disastrous and conflicting. All in a style very reminiscent of her sister. Can you trust a girlfriend not to tell her husband about the shoulder pad that wandered down your chest? Can you angrily confront a man in the office without sniveling? Can you get a boyfriend to pick up a container of Windex? How do you choose one of the four million "white" paint chips? And what can you do when the fifteen pairs of shoes JUST DON'T MATCH the dress for the Big Meeting?
The real-life relatives and significant others resemble characters in Cathy as well (one can see from where the cartoonist gets her inspiration): the obsessively thrifty, why-aren't-you-married-dear mother, the golf-obsessed boyfriend, the father who arrives at the airport six hours early, the married friends who whip out ten thousand ugly baby photos, the friend she eats lunch with, and so forth.
Amusing anecdotes (that probably wouldn't be allowed in a strip) include the woman who shrieked "I'M NOT WEARING UNDERWEAR!" in a crowded party, and the gal who had to call her mom for help when her merry widow got caught in her bedspread. These tales of romance, food, and humiliation will make you laugh, cry, then laugh a bit more.
Micky Guisewite has a hilarious style and plenty of emotional crises to unload. Well worth the read, and the reread! (Illustrated with little one-panel cartoons by Cathy Guisewite--also hilarious! They're worth the book alone...)

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Forty-one hilarious short essays, accompanied by zany cartoons, shed new light on the key mysteries of modern life: including How did the lunch hour shrink to seven minutes? and Why is it impossible to agree with your mother? Reprint.

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