Saturday, May 31, 2008

All Star Comics Archive: Volume 9

by John Broome and a cast of artists

The Justice Society faces an invasion from Fairy Land? Then next month they take on juvenile delinquents? What kind of threats are those? Well, you'll just have to read this volume of the All-Star archives to find out. The team also face threats from the Wizard's Injustice Society, criminal alchemist Zobar Zodiak and the rogue prince of the Golden Universe. The stories and art in this volume are pretty good. John Broome's style is definitely different from his predecessor's and the tales are more reminiscent of the comic stories I read when I was a kid. (Of course, some of those may have been written by... John Broome.)

Eh, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check it out.
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Monday, May 26, 2008

After the Dancing Days

by Margaret I. Rostkowski

This one's a tale of the aftermath of World War I. The war is over and Annie Metcalf's father--a doctor--has just returned home. Moved by his experience, he forgoes his old practice at County Hospital and begins working with the wounded vets at St. John's veteran's hospital. Annie's grandfather also regularly visits St. John's, to read to a local boy who has suffered an eye injury. This causes a bit of tension in the family, as Annie's mother, like most of the rest of the community, would like to put the war behind and let someone else tend to Kansas City's maimed soldiers. 13-year-old Annie's curiosity is piqued and she visits her father at work, meeting some of the soldiers. Her initial visit is a bit frightening, but she soon becomes a regular visitor, especially befriending one young man who was badly disfigured by mustard gas. It's a nice story, positively dealing with wartime losses and the emotional recovery that needs to happen afterwards.

Check it out!
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Friday, May 23, 2008

Never Wink at a Worried Woman

by Lynn Johnston

The 2005 For Better or For Worse collection leaves much to be desired. Grandpa Jim is going downhill, healthwise, and Elly is getting played by an unscrupulous employee. The ongoing soap opera of Elizabeth's love life takes a creepy turn when her ex-paramour, Anthony, gets married to another woman despite the fact that he still longs for Liz. The rest of the family is up to the usual antics, but they just don't seem to be as fun as they used to be. The closest this collection comes is the storyline that takes John and Elly on vacation to Mexico. But even that seems a bit tired. I don't know if it's because Ms. Johnston is trying to get too dramatic with the strip, or if it's just that the funniest part of the older strips is the antics of the kids, who are now getting into more adult and less interesting shenanigans.

It's only waiting room material? Alas!
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Friday, May 16, 2008

The Upanishads

translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester

I got enticed into reading this one over at GoodReads Faith & Spirituality group. The group had been going on for a while and somehow we never got around to discussing books, but rather were playing dueling dogmas. Finally one member suggested we read and discuss an actual book. He's from the other side, so instead of Rick Warren, he suggested this book, a translation of some of the sacred Hindu texts. (I'm still kind of hazy on what constitutes the Hindu canon, if there is such a thing.) I'm kind of glad that he suggested this over Rick Warren because although I don't really agree with the teachings, The Upanishads is better written and has some interesting ideas. I definitely had to get in a cross-cultural mode, because things like the personification of Death and the eternal "Self" don't carry the same meaning in this culture as they do with me. The overall message of the book seems to be to seek Brahman--the Eternal; the Omnipresent; God, if you will--by focusing on the piece of Brahman inside, called the "Self" in this translation. If you truly understand that Brahman is all, then you can end the cycle of death and rebirth and achieve immortality and true union with Brahman. (Of whom, you are really just an extension of) Of course, coming from a Christian perspective, I just didn't get it like the authors would have wanted me to. When a guru in the book would reveal the secret, that the Self is Brahman, the students would take that as the cue to start meditation and struggling to escape the life-death-life cycle. Me, I responded with, "Okay, I get that. So now what?" Christianity is just so much easier. God comes to us instead of us searching for Him. Believe it and you've achieved that eternal life. God does the heavy lifting. I suppose that makes us Christians the laziest religionists on Earth. Oh, well. What can you do?

Glad I checked it out.
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Striking a Chord

by Lynn Johnston

This one's okay, I guess. It's pretty much the era where For Better or For Worse gets boring. I mean the rabbit dies, but not much else... um, let me rephrase that. Mr. B--April's pet bunny--croaks. That's the big plot development in the world of the Patterson clan. Oh, sure Michael and Deanna deal with their new baby and Elizabeth does college things and April does junior high things and Grandpa does old man things, but those are just so... mundane. I mean, Ms. Johnston has just made the strip too real.

Definitely waiting room material.
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Sunday, May 11, 2008

All Star Comics Archives: Volume 8

by Gardner Fox, John Broome, Robert Kanigher, et al

In this volume, the JSA takes on the Wizard, Per Degaton, the Injustice Gang of the World, five men under the influence of the "Stream of Ruthlessness" and wax figures of History's greatest villains come to life. Roy Thomas claims in his introduction that these tales are from the JSA's "golden age". They are good stories, but I'm more inclined to think that the JSA were at there best at the beginning of their run. Of course, maybe that's because one of my favorite JSA members happens to be Johnny Thunder and in this volume he's quietly being phased out. (sniff) The series' regular writer, Gardner Fox, also received his walking papers during this sequence. Him, I don't miss as much. But I did appreciate the ride he gave not only to the kids of the 1940s but also to us geezers in 1990s who got to experience these reprints for the first time.

Check it out!
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Reality Check

by Lynn Johnston

In this For Better or For Worse collection Michael & Deanna face the reality of married life, Elly deals with a theft at her store, Elizabeth discovers the truth about her boyfriend Eric, and Grandpa Jim moves out. (Not because of Elizabeth's boyfriend, but because... oh, just read it yourself.) April and John pretty much hang in the background, playing the straight man or providing punchlines as needed. As far as strip development, the writing is okay--nothing spectacular or heinous. Michael's storyline seems a bit sparse. After years of being involved in his schooling and social life, we only get an occasional strip of him at work or out with his friends. Elizabeth picks up the slack somewhat, but I guess she comes across as a weaker character and her storyline is not as satisfying. Ah, well. The book is still worth a read.

Check it out.
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Friday, May 09, 2008

Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card

This is a good book, despite the fact that it has one of the plot elements I loathe--the gifted child. (In fact there's more than one gifted child in the tale.) In this future time, humanity has twice been attacked by the insectoid race referred to as "Buggers". The only reason they survived the second invasion was by the brilliance of a single commander, who in a single battle managed to decimate the alien fleet. So now, years later, the leaders of Earth's space fleet are looking for the next commander who might enable Earth's survival of the third invasion. Children are monitored from an early age to determine those who might have the necessary potential, and the likely candidates are drafted into military academies for further training and evaluation. Ender Wiggen is a six year old boy whom the monitors consider the prime candidate to be humanity's savior. The book follows Ender's journey through Battle and Command Schools as he is pressed and molded into command material. It's a fascinating tale, with an interesting cast. Mr. Card has endowed his child prodigies with enough character to almost make me forget that they're @#$%^ wunderkinder. On the down side, the fact that the soldiers in the book are kids does give the tale a creepy edge. Also, I found some aspects of the end to be disappointing. Whether it's because they didn't seem well developed or because they conflict with my worldview, I don't know. Still, it made for quite an enjoyable read.

Check it out!
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

With this Ring

by Lynn Johnston

Okay, I was wrong. For Better or For Worse hasn't jumped the shark with this collection, either. I had failed to recollect just how much humor Ms. Johnston was able to conjure up out of a wedding. Michael and Deanna are tying the knot and the mother-in-law to be has a great many ideas of how things should go. So we get to journey with the Patterson clan through the trials and joys of one of the most momentous events in a person's life. Of course, life goes on outside of the nuptial planning, hence there are also strips featuring April's summertime antics, a blossoming romance for Grandpa Jim, a souring romance for Elizabeth and John's Hallowe'en decor. Good stuff.

I'm keeping it on my shelf.
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Sunday, May 04, 2008

All Star Comics Archives: Volume 7

by Gardner Fox, et al

In his introduction, Roy Thomas said that the last story in this collection, "The Revenge of Solomon Grundy", was the beginning of the peak of All-Star Comics. I remember reading through this volume and grumbling that I had just bought a bunch of mediocre stories and had to wait a whole year for the "good stuff" to be published. The tales in this volume are a bit better than those in Volume Six, but still are a far cry from the tales from the early forties. In this collection the JSA go up against Landor, the man from the future; the Brain Wave; Zor, the alien Duna who possesses a humble toymaker; the original Psycho Pirate and the aforementioned Solomon Grundy. Most of the tales are standard mid-40s fare, though I have to admit that the Grundy story is the best of the lot. In a lot of these tales, the members JSA merely plow through the bad guys in their individual segments and then neatly wrap things up at the end. Solomon Grundy made the boys sweat a bit, making the inevitable victory that much more satisfying.

'Tis pretty good waiting room material.
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Saturday, May 03, 2008

Sounder

by William H. Armstrong

Alas, I wanted to write something original about this one, but as I see on the back of the book, the School Library Journal has already used the word that popped into my mind: understated. Despite being named after a dog, Sounder, is the tale of a boy, a young African-American sharecropper's son who is living somewhere in the American south sometime in the late 19th Century. (Maybe it's named after the dog because the dog's the only character that's given a name.) Times are lean and the boy's father gets arrested for stealing a hog to feed his family. What follows is a drawn out tale of loss, sorrow and longing for the father's return. But when I say "drawn out" I don't mean that in a negative sense. Sounder is not a tale of passion or angst. It contains no overly dramatic scenes of crisis or triumph. The moments of pain and hope are all low key--but deeply felt for the reader who is willing to slow down and let the tale flow at it's own pace.

Check it out.
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Family Business

by Lynn Johnston

Okay, this was the For Better or for Worse collection where I thought the strip was supposed to start going downhill. Well, I guess I was a bit premature. April is starting to become a more interesting character, and while Michael the grown-up is less interesting than Michael the student, his relationship with Deanna is stil a bit interesting. (The twist it takes is something I still don't understand, but then, if all characters acted logically, we would be left with very few stories worth reading.) I found the biggest tale, Elly's unique solution to her employer's business woes, to be lacking. Ms. Johnston didn't manage to bring a lot of humor out of the concept. Ah, well. As I think about it, the collection itself is fine. The only reason I think of it as part of the decline, is that I now read the collected strips in light of the plot twists I know are coming. It seems like in the years to come, the Patterson clan become more like victims to various evils out there, and that trend seems to start here.

They're still worth checking out at least.
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