Disney Descendants: A Lost RevengeBy Kalynn Bayron and Asiah Fulmore176 pages/Abrams Fanfare/$16.99 Fairy tales require a suspension of belief, a willingness to accept the impossible as possible. It gives us a sense of wonder that magic is real. Tapping into that, Walt Disney adapted these fairy tales for modern-day audiences with charming animated musicals and…
Talking fast and being whip-smart got you noticed at the turn of the century. Aaron Sorkin set the pace with The West Wing, but it met its match on October 5, 2000, when the WB invited us to visit Stars Hollow, CT (population 9,973), and stay a spell. The Gilmore Girls was unlike any dramas…
Olive: Lost in Inner SpaceBy Vero Cazot and Lucy Mazel256 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$38 Autism is a challenge to depict in comic form; so much depends on the artist’s strength, since it’s all about nuance. Take Olive, for example. In Paris, she arrives at school as a 17-year-old, forced to adapt to a world alien to her….
Where does courage come from? Is it inborn? Can it be taught? These are some of the questions explored in the 1937 film Captains Courageous, based on the Rudyard Kipling novel. You start with Harvey (Freddie Bartholomew), the prototypical spoiled little rich boy who clearly needs to be taught how to behave, and those harsh…
An unnamed man walks into a neighborhood diner and asks for volunteers to help him save the world. But, it can’t be just anyone; it has to be a specific combination of people at that moment, 10:10 p.m. Once assembled, they need to go a few blocks over to insist that a nine-year-old boy install…
It is likely that many Star Trek fans since the 1960s have shot home movies, recreating Gene Roddenberry’s television in their basements and backyards. I know I was part of one in sixth or seventh grade. So, it’s little surprise that film students in California in 1985 wanted to take their turn at making one…
Soviet LandBy Pierre-Henry Gomont320 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$34.99 Those of us of a certain age recall when the Berlin Wall was breached and the USSR, the evil empire that was our Cold War enemy, was shattered. We knew of détente, perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the other big players of the time. But, as I recall, the Western…
Geeks come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. Among the earliest might be Henry James, who developed the box score for baseball, which evolved under Bill James into the field of Sabermetrics. An entire generation of people scoured box scores and then followed James, who dug deeper and came up with entire categories Major League…
Human Nature: Book 1By Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, and Jeff Welch208 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$29.99 When an inventive filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky produces a graphic novel, it warrants attention. His work on Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream, among other movies, shows an inventive director but also an inquisitive storyteller, examining different aspects of…
The Undertaker Volume OneBy Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer112 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$25.99 While the Western has risen and fallen in favor here in America, it has continued to fascinate European creators, who have produced works set in an era they know only from history and movies. Among the more interesting offerings has been the Undertaker series…
Since the first animated short in 1929, the Looney Tunes brand has signified creative genius and unusual freedom for its animators, who were not required to follow the vision of one man: Walt Disney. Instead, producer Leon Schlesinger oversaw a long run of entertaining eight-minute cartoons that introduced a stressed nation to live-wire characters, beginning…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine OmnibusBy Various384 pages/IDW Publishing/$24.99 While Star Trek: Deep Space Nine may never achieve the commercial success of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is, for many, the best of the many series. Produced while the focus was on TNG and the development of Voyager, it allowed the…
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