Category: Reviews

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Goes Like This by Jordan Crane

I like reading short stories much more than I like writing about them. And I don’t read short fiction all that much, so maybe I don’t even enjoy even reading them as much as I think I do. That’s complicated math, so I’ll leave it there.

Jordan Crane has been making comics for thirty years, but I only noticed him with his magnificent graphic novel Keeping Two  a few years ago. (Insert the usual disclaimer about the world being huge and full of interesting things, so no one can see all of it they want to.) Since making comics is time-consuming, his next book was Goes Like This , a collection of shorter works – and a lot of prints, actually – originally published from 2002 to 2022.

It is visually inventive, especially the prints, which are eye-popping and stunning. The stories are varied, from wordless one-pagers to longer dialogue-filled full stories. They tend to be sad or depressive at their core, with a surprising amount of death piling up, especially early in the book. (The first two long comics stories, if I remember correctly, sandwich a bunch of prints that all seem to be people falling to their deaths with their mouths open, so I wonder if Crane had a period in his work that was particularly doomy.)

His art style is somewhat malleable – this collection does span twenty years – but it’s all in a crisp, indy-comics storytelling mode, his people just a little soft and rubber-hose, their faces expressive with their usually-narrow eyes and other features defined with a few bold lines.

Without diving into individual stories, there’s not that much more to say: it’s a compelling collection of strong work. The stories stand alone, aside from the first two numbered chapters from a project that I suspect might have been an early attempt at what became Keeping Two. Those stories also tend to have simpler palettes – usually black and white or a few tones – while the prints are often overlaid with bright, jangling patterns. They almost seem to come out of completely different creative impulses in Crane, though you can see some continuity in his people and the situation they’re in: the prints are occasionally static, but, especially early in the book, they depict moments, out of context, where something is happening that would not be out of place in his stories.

There is a lot of death in it. Even the stories that don’t have on-panel deaths tend to be thematically about things dying or sickly, a relationship or a way of living. Crane does not seem to be a cartoonist of happiness: this is what I’m saying. That’s somewhat expected in indy-comics circles, admittedly, but know that Crane goes deeply to that well, both in narrative and in imagery, in this collection.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

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REVIEW: Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula

Growing up, I learned many things, among them that John Carradine never met scenery he couldn’t chew and that his Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is one of the all-time bad movies. It’s also fallen into the public domain, so multiple versions can be found for sale. Joining the collection is this new 50th-anniversary Blu-ray from Shoreline Entertainment, which comes with just the film and nothing celebratory.

Carrdine has said on more than one occasion, “I have worked in a dozen of the greatest, and I have worked in a dozen of the worst. I only regret Billy the Kid Versus Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing.”

Carradine is actually a fine actor with the right material. I recently observed him in his earlier Captains Courageous. But, as a working man, supporting a family (including several who became actors themselves), he took whatever job he could get. That said, maybe it was director William “One-Shot” Beaduine or the script by Jack Lewis, although credited to Carl K. Hittleman, who did nothing with the part.

There’s nothing wrong with a vampire, even Dracula, operating in the Old West, but the cherry-picking of the lore is a disservice to what has come before. He’s a bat and bites pretty women and is susceptible to the crucifix and wolfsbane, but little else. Carradine had previously worn the fangs in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945) and did a far more credible job. Here, he doesn’t even attempt to project the old-world European charm he once had.

For reasons unknown, Dracula is traveling the American frontier in the late 19th century and finds a portrait of Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman) so captivating that he decides to make her his next bride. He kills her relatives, with whom he had been sharing a stagecoach, and impersonates her uncle. An older couple, also newly in town, recognize the charismatic figure and do everything they can to protect Betty after Dracula has claimed their own daughter (although killed, she doesn’t rise as a vampire).

Betty’s fiancée just happens to be the notorious Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney), trying to find peace working the Bentley Ranch. However, when Dracula makes his move, you can be sure there will be gunplay, fangs, and more. The finale is set in a silver mine so one might expect the ore to play a factor in the climax, but that’s not the case.

Courtney is a fine stuntman and a stiff as an actor, more familiar to viewers as Dan Reid, the title character’s nephew on The Lone Ranger. The rest of the cast are character actors recognizable from other productions in the 1950s and 60s.

Shot in eight days, it has a rushed, sloppy feel. Stereotypes masquerade as characters, and the dialogue is about as perfunctory as you can get.

No details on how the transfer was made, but the 1080p is serviceable with adequate audio. Lacking any special features, this is as bare-bones a disc as it is a horror film. Keno has a superior Blu-ray edition, released in 2019, complete with audio commentary.

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Young Shadow & the Watchdogs by Ben Sears

I’m still not sure if Ben Sears intends his comics to be all-ages (or, more specifically, most-ages, for tweens and up), or if it’s a by-product of the stories that he tells. Either way, I’d say his books are OK for tweens, mostly, if that’s something you care about.

Young Shadow & the Watchdogs  is Sears’ new book this year; it follows 2021’s Young Shadow  and can be considered a sequel to that book. I say “can be considered,” because it doesn’t reference the plot of the first book in any way, and Spiral Scratch isn’t in this book – so maybe it’s a prequel, instead. Or just another book in the same world, with no clear time sequence.

In the first book, Young Shadow was an urban vigilante, of the kind renowned in comics since the 1930s, though he was somewhat more lefty – mostly beating up polluters and corrupt cops – than the typical Big Two character. And he’s still doing some of that here: the story starts with Shadow and a group of kids – a distributed group of sidekicks, I suppose, or something like the Shadow’s organization, or a anarcho-syndicalist collective, if we think he’s leaning more heavily into the lefty thing – follow a truck with two bearded guys, stop them from dumping large barrels of something toxic in a place they shouldn’t, and turn them those bearded guys to the authorities of Soil & Water.

So we think “Young Shadow & the Watchdogs” is this vigilante group, probably. The title at first made me think it was a band, but sadly it’s definitely not that. But it’s not exactly a superteam, either: The Watchdogs are actually a baseball team, and Shadow is their coach. There’s only eight of them other than Shadow, which means, including him, they only just barely have enough players to field a team, and can never change pitchers – but it’s comics, and I suppose Sears wants to avoid having a too-large cast.

Anyway, the Shadows have a game coming up, with the requisite snooty rich kids – the term of art used in the book is “prep school jerks” – in two days. So the day after the vigilante action, they’re going to have a big practice to make sure they’re ready.

Parenthetically, these seem to be school-age kids – maybe middle school, maybe late elementary – but no one even mentions school. They’re out late at night stopping polluters who threaten them with guns, and parents don’t seem to bat an eye. And they spend the whole next day playing baseball. I assume that Bolt City has public schools and that these kids are enrolled, but the book itself provides no evidence to support that.

The reader thinks that the book will be about that big game with the snooty rich kids, and this old Meatballs fan was up for that. Or, possibly, that the polluters would come back and interfere with the game: some kind of intersection of the vigilante plot and the baseball plot. Neither of those two things are true.

Instead, Watchdogs takes a turn into the supernatural – signposted by a cold-open sequence about a nasty pro baseball player, in some earlier time and place – and the Watchdogs instead play a very different baseball game, against an unexpected opposing team. I don’t want to be coy about it; you can see them on the cover: the Watchdogs need to battle a team of skeletons because of the usual haunted-artifact-makes-them reasons. If they lose, they all die.

To immediately defuse all tension, they do not get eaten by the eels at this time. Sears works in a combination of the traditions of the superhero comic and the It-was-Old-Man-Jenkins! kid-friendly mystery, both of which require that the hero win in the end and everything be put right with the world. So they play fair, they play well, and they win in the end. The haunted artifact is returned to its proper custodian, and even the grumpy old  supernatural baseball player has a change of heart, maybe, we think.

Sears tells all of this in a fun cartoony line, softly rounded and full of amusing visual interest in every panel. He tells it all straight, but his art subtly tells the reader not to worry; nothing too scary will happen from these skeletons and other monsters. That’s another reason I think his books are OK for younger readers: they fit well in that tradition, and tell stories in ways that audience will both enjoy and be familiar with.

I’d still like to see a proper sequel to Young Shadow, to see what happens next and what’s the deal with Bolt City, but this was an amusing diversion from that plot, with an appealing cast and a lot of pages with great bits on them.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

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REVIEW: Iron Man: Super Smash

Iron Man: Super Smash
By Dean Hale and Douglas Holgate
96 pages/Abrams Fanfare/$12.99

The team behind the entertaining Iron Man: Something Strange is back with a new graphic novel for younger readers, this time pairing Shellhead with the jade-jawed giant himself, the Hulk. In this whimsical adventure, Iron Man senses the Hulk has something against him, and he takes Thor’s suggestion to heart, that the pair bond through smashing things.

For the remainder of the story, the two travel together as they smash monsters, robot monsters, and rocks. Iron Man tries to get the hang of random violence rather than using his technological know-how to resolve problems. The Hulk is bemused and frustrated by his fellow Avenger. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear one person is behind the mayhem, and the reveal is a nice use of a lesser Marvel villain, one our heroes have little familiarity with but makes long-time readers smile.

The pace is brisk, and the artwork nicely complements the tone. And in a first, I believe Dean Hale has the Hulk be intentionally sarcastic in this not-too-bright incarnation.

There are nice lessons on friendship and responsibility carried throughout the story.

In the back, there are a few pages devoted to the process of going from script to finished artwork, which is a nice bonus for the young readers who will enjoy the adventure.

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REVIEW: The British Are Coming Vol. 1

The British Are Coming Vol. 1
By Rick Atkinson, Nora Neus, and Frederico Pietrobon
320 pages/10 Speed Graphics/$35

Adapting prose storytelling to a graphic novel is tricky. Sure, it’s easier to visualize colonial America than describe it in words, but you also need to ensure readers know what they’re looking at and why. In this adaptation of Rick Atkinson’s same-titled book, so much context is missing that it’s a breezy, empty read that won’t enhance the reader’s knowledge.

We open in 1773 and the night of the infamous Boston Tea Party. So, right from the start, we’re missing vital information. This needed to begin with the 1765 Stamp Act, which really set the colonies on the path to independence.

We meet people with a close-up and an arrow providing us with a name, but nothing else, so when John Adams, for example, shows up on page 4, he’s a lawyer and nothing more, little seen again in the narrative.

Nora Neus and Frederico Pietrobon leisurely take us from event to event between 1773 and March 1776, leaving some juicy stuff for volume two. But it’s a limited view. Nothing occurring below Virginia is discussed, the first Continental Congress is ignored, and the vital impact of the January 1776 publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is entirely missing. We periodically go to England to see King George III froth, but the divide between colonists—rebels and Tories—is missing.

Instead, we are treated to leisurely depictions of marching, their rebellion suffering from degrading conditions due to little funding, and way too much time spent on the ill-fated attempt to conquer Quebec, and too little time on the theft of cannons from Fort Ticonderoga.

It appears Neus took the dialogue from primary sources, correspondence, and journals, but it’s formal and doesn’t at all sound like people speaking to one another or even the reader.

The book is nice to look at, easy to read, and robs the subject of the grit and personalities that shaped a new nation. Better the reader find the source material or watch the recent Ken Burns documentary series.

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REVIEW: Power Rangers: Shatter the Universe

Shatter the Universe
By Diana Ma
316 pages/Abrams Amulet/$19.99

The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers has always been a mystery to me. I understand the concept, but found the initial series, when imported to the USA by Saban, cheap with bad storytelling. But those colorful costumes and theme of unity and power proved irresistible in the 1980s.

The franchise has endured, going through periods of high volume and attention, constantly reimagined and rebooted.

Here we have a series of novels that focus on the various Rangers, giving them the spotlight in ways the shows never could. This one follows Force of Chaos, which explored the Rangers’ origins from Yellow Ranger Trini Kwan’s point of view. For continuity buffs, this hews closely to the established stories in the BOOM! Studios comics.

Following the defeat of Rita Repulsa, Trini and Black Ranger Zack Taylor are dating in peaceful Angel Grove. However, alternate reality Rangers arrive to break them up, as their romance in this universe threatens to destroy the Morphin Grid.

Trini must decide between saving her relationship and protecting the universe, while fighting against her evil alternate self, Lady Lunara. Unlike any other version of the property, the prose books allow the characters to actually have, you know, character. Diana Ma provides just this in a light, fun manner.

The book leans heavily into the relationship between Trini and Zack, a multiracial dynamic that is not typically explored in mainstream television. Their romance is constantly interrupted by the alternate-reality Rangers doppelgängers, here with a singular goal: to break up Trini and Zack because their relationship threatens the Morphin Grid.

It’s interesting to learn that the Trini/Zack relationship is a rarity across the multiverse, which makes this coupling unique enough to give meaning to the threat.

Trini’s internal narrative is well-developed, with Ma expertly weaving in iconic elements like the Zeo Crystal and classic villains like Rita Repulsa and Goldar. That said, as a teacher, Trini sounds way younger than the 16-year-olds in my classroom.

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Uri Tupka and the Gods by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart

Mike Mignola seems to be settling into his “Lands Unknown” for an extended stay; that’s a good thing for those of us who enjoyed the light touch and quirky bits of folklore – not to mention the pure joy of storytelling evident throughout – that he brought to the first “Lands Unknown” book, Bowling for Corpses .

In possibly even-better news for long-term Mignola fans, he’s also shifted to a longer narrative, with a main character who he says will return in at least one more book. This isn’t like Hellboy; the world is not constructed around a single character that we’ll follow for a decade. But we might get more than the quick views of semi-archetypes that we got in Bowling.

Uri Tupka and the Gods  is the second “Lands Unknown” book, a standalone graphic novel set in that world. The background is one part Europe in the Dark Ages and several parts vaguely Europeanesque fantasy-novel-land, of the style stretching back to Bob Howard. We get bits of maps in this book, with clusters of small countries with evocative titles and a “Northern Empire” lurking on the edge of that map, plus the usual dangerous wildlife (in one scene a forest giant fights a river dragon) and humans (pirates, caught between those aforementioned monsters). Mignola throws out minor details of the world, which could be hooks for further stories or just local color, as his hero navigates through it.

Uri Tupka is a scholar in late middle age, who has spent his life studying the gods of this world. Along with a few colleagues, he sent a letter condemning the emperor for some kind of statue, for which he was declared a heretic – his colleagues were seized and killed immediately. But Tupka had a prophetic dream, which told him to run – and so he did.

He travels south, as a pilgrim, after a fateful encounter with a local hermit. He is actually on a pilgrimage, honestly – to find out what happened to the gods, who were part of normal life in the deep past but are distant and unseen now. He has various other adventures, including frightening episodes with a devil-figure and various naked flying witch-women. I won’t give more detail than that: this is an episodic, picaresque book – and a fairly short one – so the episodes are best read for themselves.

But he does make it to an ancient city, with a famous temple to the gods. (This world has lots and lots of gods, by the way: Mignola names a handful of them but says there are vastly more, seeding the ground for as many more stories as he wants to tell.) And then he goes on from there to an even more remote and strange place, where he does learn where the gods are now and what they are doing.

Again, I don’t want to give away the whole thing, but this is a Manichean world, as fantasy worlds usually are. There is an Adversary, opposed to humanity and life and light and happiness, with as much or more power as the forces of light. And Tupka now has a new focus for his studies: that adversary and its minions. That will come in the second book about Tupka, which Mignola promises at the end here.

Mignola’s art is strong and inspired in Uri Tupka, with writing quirky and specific – this new world has clearly inspired him, and he’s pouring out its details in stories that play well to his strengths. I hope he keeps up this pace – a new “Lands Unknown” book a year for a while would be a nice thing.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

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REVIEW: We Are Pan

We Are Pan
By Andre Frattino, Yasmin Flores Montañez, and Fabi Marques
184 pages/Top Shelf Productions/$19.99

One of the best parts of mainstream publishers widening the breadth of graphic novels now available for readers of all ages. One of the hottest categories seems to be creating nonfiction, exploring memoir, and little-known tidbits of history.

I was far too young to be aware of the problems with Cuba at the dawn of the 1960s. But, from 1960 to 1962, some 14,000 Cuban children were flown from Cuba to America, parents tearfully sending them to safety and a better life than what was offered under Fidel Castro’s brand of Communism. They feared the alternative, as talk raced across the tiny island nation that Castro intended to take the children and educate them as he saw fit.

Operation Pedro Pan is lovingly explored in the new graphic novel, We Are Pan, which draws on real-life stories from numerous interviews Andre Frattino conducted. There are siblings, lovers, lost souls, and dreamers among the many children whose stories are nicely intertwined.

Additionally, the combined efforts of Father Bryan O. Walsh of the Catholic Welfare Bureau and Cuban ex-pats and Americans, including James Baker, helped secure funding and make the arrangements. What’s interesting to note is that the program operated in total secrecy until the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote a story about it in 1962. Imagine running an op like that today.

Frattino, artist Yasmin Flores Montanez, and color artist Fabi Marques take their time introducing us to the lead-up to Castro’s revolution and its ramifications, then each family makes the emotional choice for their children’s future. For most, it’s fine, and they’re safe, but as you will see, not everyone makes it to America.

This is Frattino and Montañez’s first graphic novel despite their careers in illustration and storytelling. It’s a terrific way to introduce themselves to the reading audience. Kudos to editor Heather Antos for guiding them through the process, resulting in a compelling book.

It’s a well-told story, spotlighting bravery in many forms, with ramifications still felt today as the survivors tell their stories. The book opens with a Foreword by writer Alex Segura, whose mother was a part of the operation.

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REVIEW: Disney Descendants: A Lost Revenge

Disney Descendants: A Lost Revenge
By Kalynn Bayron and Asiah Fulmore
176 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 turned them into a set of idealized characters that have been endlessly exploited ever since.

In 2015, that roster of familiar heroes, villains, and comical sidekicks was more than doubled with the creation of Descendants. Here, we stretch our disbelief to accept that all the Disney characters share a universe and now, 20 or so years later, they all magically have offspring of approximately the same age.

Not having children during this run, I knew of the spinoff but didn’t realize how many musicals, short subjects, cartoons, prose, and graphic novels have mined the territory. The sixth such film is due later this year on Disney+, and the latest graphic installment is coming soon.

The focus is on Uma, daughter of Ursula, a pirate captain sailing the seas in and around the United States of Auradon. The theme here is an exploration of acting as others expect you to, or carving your own destiny. To the surprise of her VK (Villain Kids) peers, Uma has gone straight, fighting for what’s right, much to her (mostly unseen) mother’s chagrin.

In the sprawling continuity, this is a prequel to Descendants 3: Rise of the Red, explaining how Uma became headmistress of Auradon Prep. It pits her against Captain Hook’s daughter, Harriet, with her beloved friend Harry, the son of Hook. What starts as a search-and-rescue mission becomes something more when Hazel kidnaps her sister, CJ, and uses her as bait.

If you’re at all a fan of this franchise, you get it and can be entertained and captivated. If you’re an outsider, just dipping your senior toe into the realm, you need something annotated, which the graphic novel fails to provide. It expects you to know, which I find insular.

Kalynn Bayron makes her GN debut here and acquits herself well, with good dialogue and nice pacing. The art from Asiah Fulmore mostly works, although there are too many panels that need art direction for clarity. It’s light and carries strong messaging for the tween readership.

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REVIEW: Gilmore Girls the Series

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 on the air at the time, mixing humor and pathos while using its colorful cast of characters, and I do mean characters, to explore family, both found and blood.

It generated buzz and turned Lauren Graham into a star, and propelled other members of the cast into the public conversation while the production team of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino became major players. In the years since its conclusion in May 2007, its pull rivaled that of a black star, generating memes galore and a rabid, growing fandom. Such was its demand for more that Netflix accommodated them in 2016 with the four-part A Year in the Life.

The conversation among fans continues as seen in the recent film Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, where the characters engage in a lively debate over who was the better boyfriend for Rory (Alexis Bledel).

To satisfy that demand, Warner Home Entertainment has just released Gilmore Girls: The Series, which collects all seven seasons and the miniseries in a twenty-eight-disc box set that demands to be watched. And in so doing, your first thought is ‘my how young everyone looks’. But you also watch the series find its footing as Lorelai (Graham) returns to her parents (Kelly Bishop and Edward Hermann), asking for money so that her brilliant daughter can attend a prestigious private school. Her mother agrees, but in return, demands their presence every Friday for dinner.

Over time, we come to understand why Lorelai fled home as a teen, had Rory at 16, and made her way, working at the nearby Independence Inn, rising to become its manager. She has built a support system with Chef Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) and the prissy front-desk clerk Michel (Yanic Truesdale). She goes to town for endless cups of coffee at Luke’s diner, bantering and flirting with Luke (Scott Patterson), beginning the Will They/Won’t They dance that carries on way too long.

Lorelei and Rory Gilmore get a cup of joe at Luke’s Diner.

But the Palladinos, who wrote or rewrote almost every episode, gave it a twist, filling Stars Hollow with idiosyncratic characters that gave the town its charm and set it apart from the network competition. Interestingly, the pilot received financial support from the Family Friendly Programming Forum’s script development fund, a rarity. Amy Sherman-Palladino not only used rapid-fire dialogue but also made the issues small and personal, focusing more on the aftermath of the blowups than on the matter at the center.

Across the 112 hours and 12 minutes, you can enjoy the antics as well as the growing cast as Lorelai and Rory each find their foils, rivals, and potential life partners. There are many wonderful relationships developed across the series, from Rory’s warm relationship with her grandfather to her rivalry with Paris (Liza Weil) at Chilton. While Lorelai’s simmering romance with Luke has its ups and downs, it’s Rory’s relationships with three distinct men that let the viewers watch a girl become a woman and try to find herself.

It begins with Dean (Jared Padalecki), then Luke’s nephew Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) roars into town and becomes the bad boy everyone wants to love. He’s followed by Logan (Matt Czuchry), who represents the life her grandparents enjoy.

As the series entered its final season, the WB and UPN merged into UPN, and the new entity couldn’t make a deal with the Palladinos, who left the show in the hands of writer/producer David S. Rosenthal, and you could tell. It missed the snap and spark of the preceding seasons and was wisely overlooked when the Palladinos came back.

The miniseries picks up years later, and while it was nice to revisit, we see how time has been kinder to Lorelai but less so to Rory, who is struggling to be an independent adult. That said, it was nice to see everyone back again, except Hermann, who, sadly, passed away, and his character and performance are well remembered here.

All the episodes make their Blu-ray debut in this sturdy box set, and the high-definition transfer has a fine 1.33:1 ratio, looking crisp and colorful.

Special features from the DVD sets have been ported over, and sadly, nothing new has been added. The witty Gilmore-isms” booklets being included in the DVD sets of the first four seasons are absent, which is a shame since the series’s allusions are one of its charms (and an education for many viewers, even today). The Dolby Digital English 5.1 audio track works just fine to capture the dialogue and the music that is a character in its own right.

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