Green Arrow: Year One January 26, 2010
Posted by pthornell in DC Comics.add a comment
DC Comics has published a group of miniseries over the last few years entitled Year One, and the characters in the stories cover everyone from Metamorpho to the Teen Titans to Black Lightning. My favorite of the bunch, by far, is Andy Diggle’s Green Arrow: Year One.
Oliver Queen is a wealthy playboy who takes a lot of chances with his life and his money, and those chances and choices leave him taken advantage of and abandoned at sea, winding up on island in the middle of proverbial nowhere. What happens between this point and his eventual departure from the island makes up the story, but let’s just say it’s a perfectly drawn tale that clearly and dramatically retells Oliver’s story while also creating interesting parallels to the world he already inhabits. What I mean by that is that his origin is not retold as much as fleshed out, creating events that cause one to look differently at Green Arrow’s actions over the course of the years.
The artwork by Jock is compelling and exciting with its rougher almost jagged edge presentation. Diggle and Jock have worked together for years, and their familiarity really comes through in the overall unity of the project. This is a great read, and a great entry point for one of the coolest heroes in comics.
Astonishing X-Men January 12, 2010
Posted by pthornell in Marvel Comics.add a comment
One of the joys of comics is that any one character or group of characters can be treated completely differently depending upon who’s at the reins of any given series. Robert Parker’s characters will always be the same from book to book, as will most of the series characters we read: that’s part of the reason we love to read those books. But it’s just as exciting to not know what’s going to come next. Case in point, the X-Men.
There have been several different versions of the X-Men over the years, from Uncanny to Ultimate, spinoffs such as X-Force and X-Factor, and today’s featured series, Astonishing X-Men. Astonishing, as mentioned today, refers to the series written by Joss Whedon from 2004-2008, and is one of the most entertaining branches of the X-Men universe. The canon itself, the official branch of the X-Men is Uncanny, so this sideline set of stories has the opportunity to take characters and relationships we love and tweak them just enough to blaze their own trail but tell amazing tales. The first arc “Gifted,” is a perfect example of the dynamics of the X-Men team combined with Whedon’s deft ear for dialogue and character development.
We’ve finally acquired the other volumes in Whedon’s run, so you should check these out as soon as you can. Enjoy the ride!
The Dark Reign continues December 23, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Marvel Comics.add a comment
A brief note today, and one that bookends a similar post a few months back about the Marvel Comics miniseries Civil War and all its spinoffs and tie-ins. The hot story these days in the Marvel U. is called Dark Reign. What’s so neat about this storyline is that it’s not really a storyline at all, but a summation of everything that’s happening in the Marvel U. 
Basically, Norman Osborn – known to many as the legendary Green Goblin – has unexpectedly jumped to the head of the pack in the wake of the Secret Invasion miniseries, and is in a position of power unlike any he has ever held. However, he’s just flat-out evil. So as his ascent to power and the way in which he wields it is the stuff out of which great, GREAT, stories can be told. Every major Marvel title has a Dark Reign bent these days, and the books bring it all to life. If you currently do a search on our computers for “dark reign,” you should find a handful of titles, and that list will be growing over the coming months. 
The two Deadpool related titles have to be some of the craziest and funniest things on the market right now, and the Fantastic Four titles are always a treat. So remember to pick up any of the Dark Reign titles you see to get the current temperature of the Marvel Universe. Because as we all know, things can change pretty quickly in the world of men like Norman Osborne!
Battle for the Cowl December 15, 2009
Posted by pthornell in DC Comics.1 comment so far
For those of you not aware of the turmoil in Batman’s corner of the DC Universe, do yourselves a favor and pick up two recent collections: Battle for the Cowl, and Battle for the Cowl: Companion. 
These two books chronicle the days and weeks following the death/disappearance of Batman from Gotham City. As the criminal element begins to grow stronger and take more chances in the wake of Batman’s absence, several different contenders try to stake their claim in Gotham City as its new protector, leading up to a new face behind The Cowl. 
For those of you who may have missed hearing about Batman’s disappearance in the first place (and shame on you, if you have), check out Batman R.I.P., Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, and the DC Comics miniseries Final Crisis, where the true fate of Batman/Bruce Wayne is revealed. But remember, there are very few deaths in comic books that last. Superman died, Captain America died, Jean Grey died a couple of times. The only major characters who normally stay dead in comics are the formative parental figures: Bruce’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne; Superman’s parents Lara and Jor-El; and, of course, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. So while Bruce Wayne will eventually resurface (he said hopefully), readers are in for a steady treat of new developments in the ever-expanding world that is Gotham City.
Old Man Logan… so good it hurts! December 7, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Marvel Comics.1 comment so far
Let’s just skip the formalities. Old Man Logan is to Wolverine what The Dark Knight Returns was to Batman: a dystopian work of genius that encapsulates everything about the main character in a way never before seen. 
Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns portrayed an aging Batman coming out of a 10-year retirement to a world that desperately needed him. Mark Millar’s brilliant tale set 50 years in the future explores a world controlled by what’s left of the super-villains, the super-heroes having dwindled away years before. Logan has not allowed any vestige of “Wolverine” – including the infamous claws - to emerge for years, and his passive stance is deeply challenged by the disturbing level of violence in what’s left of the world, surrounding him and his family.
For any fan of Wolverine, I think this is the perfect story. It’s full of juicy geek-tidbits for Marvel obsessives, and has more than its share of unforgettable panels. Steve McNiven has created some of his finest art for this collection, which is – I must be clear here – terribly violent and gory at times, but that’s exactly what this story is all about. How long can a man bred for violence sit idly by until the violence that surrounds him becomes too much to bear? I loved The Dark Knight Returns and its almost crazy-angry take on Batman, but I think this tops it. Maybe it’s the fact that most Marvel or DC comics end with the heroes winning the day, or at least temporarily defeating their enemies, while Old Man Logan lets the villains run amok and destroy everything Wolverine and The X-Men ever stood for? Maybe it’s something deeper than that. Maybe it’s just wicked cool.
Queen & Country December 2, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Misc. Graphic Novels.add a comment
For anyone who loves espionage and spy thrillers, this is the comic series for you! Greg Rucka, author of several bestselling novels in his Atticus Kodiak series, is a terrific writer of suspense, action and, almost paradoxically, character. Many suspense writers often succeed at the expense of character development – choosing instead to focus on the “chase,” so to speak – but Rucka has typically had a great handle on his characters, and this remains true in his Eisner Award-winning series Queen & Country. 
This series has been collected in four volumes in what Oni Press calls the Definitive Edition, and it’s a beautiful thing. This is a work in black and white, which fits the style and content perfectly. If I had to compare the story to something else, I might say the television show Alias, but so much better.
Tara Chase is the main character, and she’s a field agent for British Intelligence. The plot is less important to describe than the way in which the characters work within the plot. These aren’t flawless, paragons of the spy game like James Bond-types or, to again mention Alias, a Sydney Bristow who can fight international terrorists in the afternoon and have a nice evening by the fire with friends that night. These are people in one of the most demanding and stressful lines of work imaginable. Nobody swaggers here. Nobody saves the day with no care for collateral damage. This is cinematic suspense, yet much more realistic and plausible than anything Hollywood hands out.
If you need a break from superheroes, this is the series for you. If you’re new to graphic novels and are looking for a good place to start, welcome to Queen & Country.
DC & Marvel Comics… A to Z November 24, 2009
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So, before we went to the internet and Google to find information about how this works, who did that, or the answer to whatever piece of trivia was rattling around our heads, there were these books called encyclopedias. Well, turns out we still have them, and in this case, the contents of the encyclopedias in question are comics. 
Comic characters, comic worlds, everything you ever wanted to know but didn’t have time to ask about DC and Marvel Comics nicely organized in a large hardcover book where you could look up the origin of Giganta or Nightshade (if you really wanted to know).
We’ve had these books for quite some time, of course, but because of their high levels of use they had been listed as Reference books, and only allowed to be used here in the library. WELL, now that Dorling Kindersley has published new and updated versions of these books, the older editions are finally available to circulate, filling your days and nights with origin stories and lists of special powers and abilities. 
The 2009 editions will become our Reference sources, so we’ll still have encyclopedic entries available at all times.
There have always been patrons eager to take these books home, so I’m very happy to add the new copies and give everyone the chance to dig deeper into the DC and Marvel Universes. So read, re-read, and enjoy. Live long, and prosper. Oh, wait… wrong universe.
How true is life, and how painful… November 18, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Non-Fiction Graphic Novels.add a comment
David Small’s new work, Stitches: a memoir…, is surely one of the most perfect and perfectly harrowing memoirs I have ever read – graphic novel or otherwise. 
The bulk of the story is revealed on the jacket blurb, so I don’t mind sharing a few details. In the early 1950’s, at the age of 14, David Small had an operation on his neck to remove what the young boy had been told was a cyst. He had been told this information three and a-half years previously, but his parents had not gone ahead with an operation. When all was said and done, and the operation finally complete, David had lost the ability to speak, wore a horrific scar on his neck, and the already teeth-clenching tension among his family only got worse.
I wanted more of this book. I wanted hundreds more pages, hundreds more drawings. Small is an award-winning author of children’s books, among other things, and the artfulness he employed in books like The Gardener, sneak into these pages in wonderful ways. The gray and white watercolor look of this memoir can be both rough and jagged yet artfully and deeply beautiful. Some of the greatest moments come from a series of images I can only think to call the crying sequence, which follows his first visits to a therapist when he was fifteen. An earlier dream sequence featuring a bat and an umbrella – trust me – brought me to tears, suddenly, and powerfully.
I don’t know what it is about harrowing childhood experiences that make for such compelling reading, but I am so glad David Small chose to share his story with the world, and to do it in this most eloquent form. Do. Not. Miss it.
At long last… Y: The Last Man November 9, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Vertigo Comics.add a comment
I have previously sung the praises of Brian K. Vaughan in this blog, and I’m here to do it again. The one series of his I had yet to add to the collection is finally here – Y: The Last Man. 
This is one of the best creator-owned series ever published. The quality of the reviews for this title compare to the praises sung for the best of the medium, and Y deserves every word, along with as many readers as possible.
Designed from the start to be a finite series of 60 issues, or 5 years (it concluded in January 2008), there has rarely been a concept as original as this masterstroke by Vaughan. The year is 2002 and the world has seen the sudden death of every male mammal on the planet, save for New Yorker Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand. What follows is a multi-faceted journey by Yorick and Agent 355 (the woman assigned to protect and conceal Yorick) to discover the source of the plague, why Yorick and Ampersand were not affected, and ultimately to find Yorick’s girlfriend Beth, last known to be in Australia.
But as in all great tales, the map is not the territory. The plot line carries our characters through a world suddenly made female. The trains and planes have stopped flying, most of the elected officials in the entire world are gone, and most of the world’s industry has instantly come to a halt. Women begin to craft a society that is both logical and tragic: in its darkest realms, a group of women calling themselves The Daughters of the Amazon believe men were wiped off the planet as a cleansing act by Mother Earth, and their fanaticism leads them to honor ancient Amazon rituals, such as the identifying trait of removing a breast (done originally to remove the “obstruction” allowing better use of a bow or spear). The genius of this book is in creations such as “The Daughters,” where Vaughan takes a simple premise – a world without men – and runs with it in ways that are completely believable, and seem not only possible but probable.
This series, being a Vertigo publication, falls under the heading of “Suggested for Mature Readers.” The same guideline applies to The Sandman, Fables, and many of the actual “graphic novels” on our shelves. All this means is that – in these titles, at least - sex exists, brief nudity may occur, and the concepts or ideas explored may and should be a bit heavier than whether or not Wolverine can take down The Hulk. Having given that proviso, do not miss this series. If it were a weekly television show, it would rule the ratings. Great storytelling is great storytelling, wherever you go. Discover the genius of Y: The Last Man.
The lies that bind November 3, 2009
Posted by pthornell in Misc. Graphic Novels.1 comment so far
I know I’ve said this before, but it often feels odd calling our collection of books “graphic novels” when so very few of them actually merit that title. Almost all of the over 850 titles in our collection are collections of monthly issues of comic books, not true graphic novels. So when a really interesting “true” graphic novel comes along, I like nothing better than to bring it to your attention. 
The book in question is The Big Kahn by Neil Kleid and Nicolas Cinquegrani.
I am, as you may have guessed by now, a tremendous fan of visual storytelling. My favorite panels tend to be the ones that are strictly visual – no text required to tell their tale. There are great big handfuls of those images in this wonderful tale of a contemporary Jewish family caught in the middle of a horrible circumstance.
The story is this: Rabbi David Kahn has just passed away, and the lie of his life, “the big kahn,” is revealed. The Rabbi was not, and had never been, Jewish. His congregation didn’t know, his wife and children didn’t know, only his brother – who the family had never met until the funeral – knew the truth. The bulk of the story thus becomes the reactions, responses, and tortured dealings with what it means to have lived a lie, not just with yourself, but in front of and so intimately involved with a close community of people. Is the family any less Jewish because they were not raised by a Jew, even though they were taught and lived by the codes of Jewish law? For even though Rachel Friedberg – David Kahn’s wife – is Jewish by birth, the staggering deceit of her husband has permanently destroyed the family’s place in their tight-knit community.
This is a quick read at just under 200 pages, but it most certainly shouldn’t be rushed. The Big Kahn is another fine example of just how effective the medium of graphic novels can be, how personal, how powerful.
