Busy month of reading for me, post-Comic-Con. Here’s what I read in the overheated month of August …
Physics for Cats: Science Cartoons by Tom Gauld • 5 Stars on Goodreads
The latest in Drawn & Quarterly’s series of reprint volumes by British cartoonist Tom Gauld was released in advance by the publisher at San Diego Comic-Con with a special signed bookplate by the artist. This 160-page, full-color collection features Gauld’s cartoons for New Scientist magazine and it’s a hoot and a half, as always. This is the fifth D&Q collection of his work, all of which are packaged in elegant little oblong hardcovers with new endpapers by Gauld. He’s one of my favorite cartoonists and it’s always great to see a New Yorker or New York Times cover by him, in addition to his New Scientist and weekly Guardian cartoons (where he does book-oriented weekly cartoons).
Spider-Man: Panel by Panel by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Chip Kidd, and Geoff Spear • 5 Stars on Goodreads
This follow-up to Fantastic Four: Panel by Panel from Abrams ComicArts a few years back runs along the same lines: Panel by panel blow-ups of the first Spider-Man stories, lovingly photographed by Geoff Spear from an actual vintage comic book and designed into book-form by Chip Kidd. Kidd also contributes an introduction (although it appears later in the book) and historical articles on Spidey and creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is provided by Marvel Comics Senior VP of Publishing and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and comics historian Peter Sanderson. This edition includes both Amazing Fantasy 15, Spidey’s first appearance, and Amazing Spider-Man 1 and has the added bonus of reproducing the original art for the AF 15 story side-by-side with the printed comics pages. You can almost smell the musty aroma of old comics wafting up from the page, and Kidd’s design aesthetic and Abrams top-notch production values make this a must-buy for any old-school Marvel fan (like me!).
Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and Frank Martin • 3 Stars on Goodreads
Let me start by saying: Not my Batman, nor is Scott Snyder my favorite Batman writer. I feel his New 52 run and the subsequent Metal books he did with Greg Capullo are overrated and went on far too long (especially the “Zero Year” storyline). As for this “absolute” re-imagining of the Caped Crusader … I found it to be an entertaining read. Dragotta’s art brings an indy comics style to it, but I much preferred issue 4’s art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta, whose depiction is less giant-body, teeny-tiny head than Dragotta’s. As to the changes to the character, they’re superficial at best, so I guess I’m just being an old fart and not getting what all the hoopla is on any of the Absolute books. I thought Wonder Woman (having read only the first issue) was the best of the “Trinity” redos and the one that reached the farthest; Superman I couldn’t even get through the first issue. I might check out the second AbBat TPB when it comes out, but for now … this is a bit of a MEH for me.
Never Flinch by Stephen King • 3 Stars on Goodreads
I love Holly Gibney, Stephen King’s detective-ish character who premiered in the Mercedes Man books (and on the TV series), but boy, this one was a bit of a slog, at least for the first half. It didn’t really start to get going until Holly accepts an offer to be a bodyguard of sorts to a media personality who is being threatened while doing a series of live events. At the same time, Holly is involved with a serial killer case with her cop friend, Izzy, and you just know at some point the two storylines will collide. There’s a bit of extraneous stuff in this one, including Holly’s friend, the poet Barbara, becoming a roadie and singer with “Sista Bessie” and her band, that the story could have certainly done without. And eve King admits that he had problems with this one in the Acknowledgements section at the end of the book … I thing it shows, Steve. The finale of the story is so packed with characters and business going on, it’s pretty ridiculous. If you haven’t read any of King’s Holly Gibney novels, go with either The Outsider or Holly. They’re both far superior to this one.
The Trap by Ava Glass • 3 Stars on Goodreads
This is the third in the “Alias Emma” series by author Ava Glass and the third one I’ve read this year. I liked the first one (Alias Emma) well enough to go right into the second (The Traitor), which I think is the best of the series. This one, which concerns a Russian businessman at the center of a plot to disrupt the G7 meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a bit of a slog. I still love all of Glass’s characters, especially “Emma Makepeace” (not her real name) and her handler, Ripley, both of course, front and center in this book. And while it has a surprise or two, the action doesn’t really start until around page 200, making it the least enjoyable of the series so far. I hope if Emma returns it’s under better circumstances.
DC Finest: Superboy—The Superdog from Krypton by Otto Binder, John Sikela, and Curt Swan • 3 Stars on Goodreads
I have a stack of some of the latest DC Finest volumes staring at me from my coffee table, and this is the first one I’ve finished, post-Comic-Con. This Superboy volume—reprinting the Boy of Steel tales from Adventure Comics 199 through 216 and Superboy 33-43—are pretty much uncharted territory for reprints, with a cover feature—“The Superdog from Krypton,” introducing Krypto (a rather cartoony and dumb-looking mutt in his earliest appearances, even drawn by Curt Swan) as the hook to get people to buy this volume (what with Krypto being the real star of James Gunn’s Superman movie this summer). All the stories in this volume are from 1954 and 1955 and I’ve never seen most of them. Superboy is definitely a gateway drug for Superman, and these stories are written for a younger crowd, mainly by Otto Binder, Jerry Coleman, and Alvin Schwartz. As such, they kind of mimic the later Supergirl stories in that Superboy saves the day a lot by doing something at super-speed, thus averting catastrophe. All of the villains are petty crooks and schemers (like “Angles Anthony”), who have come up with some kind of plan to trick Superboy while they rob the Smallville bank. The art is pretty much split between John Sikela and Curt Swan—Sikela’s Superboy is about a head too short, figure-wise, giving him an almost charming, gnome-like look.The stories are enjoyable, but man … are they text-heavy! Not sure how kids waded through some of them, but maybe it made the comics-reading experience more enjoyable in the mid-1950s by having a comic that probably lasted a bit. While the industry was burning, Superboy must have been a stolid beacon of innocence for comic book buyers in those turbulent times.
DC Finest Blue Beetle: Blue Beetle Challenges the Red Knight by Joe Gill, Steve Ditko, and Bill Fraccio • 4 Stars on Goodreads
This was an impulse buy for me—I’m trying to stick to just the DC Finest volumes featuring Superman and Batman—but I’m glad I bought it. At 368 pages, it’s the smallest DC Finest book I’ve seen so far, and it reprints all the Charlton Blue Beetle stories from 1964 through 1968, plus one Charlton Bullseye story from 1981, before Blue Beetle moved over to DC. The first ten issues of Blue Beetle by writer Joe Gill and artists Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico are forgettable at best, but it’s nice to see them reprinted. Steve Ditko’s very Spider-Man like revamp of the character kicks in with four issues of Captain Atom (83-86) and then five issues of his own series. Issues 1 through 4 are great—even though they’re marred by the awful lettering of “A. Machine,” typewriter-like lettering that’s ugly and hard to read, more than likely set up by an office worker. Issue 5 shows Ditko’s increasing philosophical interests coming to the forefront, with some of the longest (and most tedious) word balloons I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Re-reading these Ditko revamp stories (all of which were plotted by Ditko but “scripted” by Gary Friedrich and D. C. Glanzman) made me realize they’re much better than I remembered, and part of that, no doubt, is due to the fact that Dick Giordano was editor of what he called Charlton’s “Action Heroes” line. These issues are as close to Ditko’s Spider-Man work as you’re going to get, better than his Creeper stories at DC.
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