Back to form this month with a half-dozen novels, both regular and graphic, as I slide out of vacation mode and into a cozy reading one.
Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, The Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts by Jeremy Egner • 5 Stars on Goodreads
This book presents an oral history on the unprecedented success of Apple TV’s hit show, Ted Lasso. Using various sources, including interviews conducted by the author, NY Times journalist Jeremy Egner, the history of the show is revealed from its earliest days as a Premier League commercial on NBC featuring Jason Sudeikis as Ted through the process of making it into a streaming series, including the writing and casting. There are numerous quotes from most of the primary and secondary cast members, plus directors, writers, producers, and casting people. Egner also offers analyses of various episodes. All in all, it’s a very enjoyable read, and something to fill the time as we wait for season 4, which they’re currently filming in England.
Life or Death by Michael Robotham • 4 Stars on Goodreads
I labored on this one at first, which is the slowest moving (and I believe longest) book I’ve ever read by Michael Robotham. It’s a standalone volume and while it does pick up about halfway through, it just drags for the first 40% or so, and I almost gave up on it around that point. Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the last half of the book and glad I stayed with it. The story involves Audie Palmer, who escapes on the day before he is scheduled to be released from a ten-year sentence in prison. Audie was involved in a robbery that left four people dead and seven million dollars missing, and that’s all I’ll say, but Robotham takes the reader on a long, twisty journey to get to a conclusion I didn’t see coming. I’ve enjoyed Robotham’s other books, especially his series involving Cyrus Haven (4 books) and his newer character, Philomena McCarthy, a young London copper (2 books). His most famous series (9 books) features psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, which I hope to get around to someday. This standalone novel is proof that he’s a great writer, continuing character or not
Fallen Star by Lee Goldberg • 5 Stars on Goodreads
I love Lee Goldberg’s Eve Ronin series and this is book number six so far, and one of the best. Ronin is a young Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department detective who made a name for herself when she took down a famous movie star and it was captured on social media. The subsequent fallout (if you can call it that) made Ronin a rising star in the Sheriff’s ranks, even though she’s hated by her colleagues and also netted her a streaming TV series (Ronin) based on her exploits, even though she’s never personally jumped from a helicopter onto a moving car. This book brings her full-circle back to that original encounter that made her famous and adds to the story. I love Goldberg’s portrayal of Ronin and the byplay between her and her partner, aged veteran detective Duncan Pavone, who sometimes takes us on a culinary tour of Los Angeles’s finest fast food places (an oxymoron, indeed). Goldberg’s arson investigator duo, Sharpe and Walker also make an important appearance, and an unexpected treat was another character from a Goldberg book who joins the Ronin Universe. The Ronin books have been optioned by none other than Madison Lintz, Maddie Bosch on the excellent Bosch and Bosch: Legacy series, who—hopefully—will both produce and star in a series based on Goldberg’s books (the author is no stranger to TV, having written for numerous TV series, including Diagnosis Murder, Monk, and Psych). And yes, the title of this book has a particular resonance, on a number of different levels. Here’s hoping the fictional Ronin series finds a real TV streaming home; in the meantime we have book seven, titled Split Screen, coming out a year from now.
DC Finest: Batman Red Skies by Doug Moench, Tom Mandrake, and Gene Colan • 3 Stars on Goodreads
Sad to say, this is my least favorite Batman volume in the DC Finest line to-date. One of my first buys in this now year-old line was Batman: Year One & Two, which helped launch the series and started with Batman 401 (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths), which included the legendary Batman Year One story arc by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, along with Mike W. Barr and Todd McFarlane’s Year Two (with a first issue drawn by Alan Davis). I guess I shouldn’t have strayed before that post-Crisis line, though, because this 1985-86 volume collects Batman issues 388-400 (a great anniversary issue, with story by Doug Moench and art by the likes of George Perez, Joe Kubert, Art Adams, Brian Bolland, and many more), Batman Annual 10, Secret Origins 6, and Detective Comics 554-567. Just about all the Batman and Detective stories are written by Doug Moench, with the Batman issues drawn by Tom Mandrake and the Detective ones by Gene Colan, and that’s where my problem lies. I’ve always felt—even when I was buying these comics as they originally came out—that Colan was totally unsuited for Batman (and his run on Wonder Woman, for that matter, when he left Marvel for DC in the ‘80s). His work looks sketchy and rushed in my opinion and the inking by Bob Smith is not a good fit with Colan. And while I loved Moench on Master of Kung Fu, his Batman just didn’t score with me. Two issues that really disappoint in this volume are when Moench is teamed up once again with his MoKF artist, Paul Gulacy. I don’t know what it is with the reproduction on those two issues, but it’s among the worst I’ve seen in a DC Finest volume so far (most have been exemplary). I wonder if Gulacy did super-tight pencils on those issues and they were not inked and shot instead from the pencil art. While the stories are fine (and it’s great to see Moench & Gulacy together again), there’s just a loss of sharpness on those two issues. With Moench being the only writer on both Bat-books, the Batman story often continued into the following Detective issue, and the disconnect between Tom Mandrake’s hyper-detailed art (he inked his own work on the Batman issues) and Colan’s sketchy style is really apparent. Anyway, I think I will stay north of the Crisis line on subsequent Batman volumes (“Red Skies” refers to the year in which Crisis was published, when all DC comics were affected with that phenomenon), and it looks like two of the Batman volumes coming in 2026 will continue along those lines: Batman: A Death in the Family (due in April), and Batman: Blind Justice (July), will bring the complete run of Batman in DC Finest from 388-435, including this volume. A third Batman volume will go back to the very beginning and start with Detective 27 in 1939 and Batman 1 in 1940. That one is due in January and I’m really looking forward to it.
Spawn of Venus and Other Stories by Wallace Wood • 5 Stars on Goodreads
Here’s my dirty little secret about EC Comics: I love the art, but hate the writing. This is the only EC Artists Library book I own, even though this lovely little series has been in existence for over 10 years and is a great way to collect almost the entire line (I believe this is volume 38). I love Wallace Wood’s work (he hated being called “Wally” and I respect that when I write about him), and this is a great book, once again filled with incredible Wood science fiction art from Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science-Fantasy, and Incredible Science Fiction (I think this is the fifth or sixth EC Artists Library book featuring Wood art). EC publisher Bill Gaines said they were proudest of their SF books, even though they didn’t make any money (that came from the horror books and eventually MAD, after the comics went away), and Wood is certainly the epitome of that line. This volume also has numerous historical articles, plus some special features, which I always love in just about everything of this nature published by Fantagraphics Books. These books make up one of the most elegantly designed comic reprint series currently being published. I love the artist-centric format, but I just can’t read Al Feldstein’s (who wrote most of the stories across the EC line) verbose, over-the-top scripts, no matter how great the art is. I guess what I’m saying is I love the history and art of EC much more than the actual comics. Still, this collection—the pinnacle of Wood art for the line—gets 5 stars from me.
Out of Alcatraz by Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook • 5 Stars on Goodreads
I’ve been fascinated with this book since I saw the first issue’s cover at my local comic shop, but I knew immediately that it would be a much better experience to read as a collected edition. This hardcover from Oni Press is a beauty, too, with a great design and featuring all the variant covers for the 5-issue mini-series by writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Tyler Crook. The latter did all the art chores on the series, too, (save for some variant covers for each issue), including painted color and even the lettering. It’s the story of three escapees from Alcatraz in 1962, the only three whoever got away from the Rock … or did they? The real life theory is they all drowned in San Francisco Bay, but Cantwell and Crook’s story posits that they survived and met up with another accomplice, a woman who aided their escape on the mainland and has her own agenda. Beautifully drawn—and written—this little piece of film noir on paper (a rare thing in today’s horror-infused comics industry) is a great read.
@innocent-bystander.com 
Leave a comment