Reviews

Reviews of books, comics, movies, and other random stuff.

A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Marketing Monday: First Things First

Among the myriad challenges comics publishers of all sizes face, one of the biggest -- and most frustrating, personally -- is marketing. Way too many publishers believe that marketing is little more than sending out badly written press releases and snagging previews, reviews and interviews from Wizard, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, et al. While some recognize industry trade shows and fan conventions as being a necessary part of any marketing plan, few understand what it takes to maximize their presence at such events. Perhaps most astoundingly, many publishers don't even have the sense to invest in a solid web site…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Suburban Dysfunction & Blaxploitation

Ghost World By Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics Books, 1998; $11.95) I skipped the movie version of Ghost World when it came out because I could tell from the previews that it wasn't my cup of tea; stories of suburban angst make my skin crawl (ie: I hated American Beauty), suburban teenage angst even more so. But, I convinced myself a while back, there's no way I could not read the critically acclaimed graphic novel it was based on, right? In retrospect, that was as silly as thinking I couldn't just skip House of M and Infinite Crisis, and in all three…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Amazon POD Update: Raves for Sale!

Last month I posted a brief item about Amazon's Print-on-Demand services, offered in partnership with BookSurge, suggesting it might be "worthy of consideration for potential self- and micro-publishers." On Friday, Slate posted an interesting article entitled "Raves For Sale" that reveals one of the options available to its customers is "a personally crafted review written by 'New York Times bestselling author, Ellen Tanner Marsh.'"Amazon.com's recently acquired print-on-demand division, BookSurge.com, offers several tiers of publishing programs with menus of services starting at $99.The most interesting add-on BookSurge offers is, for $399, a personally crafted review written by "New York Times bestselling…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Smallville’s "Justice" Was Pretty Damn Good

It's been a long while since I caught a full episode of Smallville, but there was no way I was missing tonight's episode, "Justice", even if it meant skipping my latest addiction, Ugly Betty. (One year after "Code Black", Grey's Anatomy remains my numero uno!) Bart Allen is the only one of the nascent Justice League I'd ever seen before, and while I still didn't particularly like him, I think the kid who plays him does so perfectly, because if I did like him, something would be wrong. Victor Stone was cool, a rare combination of brains and brawn (even…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

On The Shelves: 1/17/07

Reading is fundamental. Don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit! My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 1/17/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK Batman: Year One HundredAMAZE INK (SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS) Tron #3, $3.50 As a casual fan who was intrigued by the first issue -- which came out…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Review: Robotika

Robotika
By Alex Sheikman and Joel Chua (Archaia Studios Press, 2006; $19.95)

It’s rare for a mini-series whose first issue turned me off the way Robotika‘s did gets a second chance, but thanks to Alex Sheikman‘s commitment to his work — emailing me to clarify something from the first issue that I didn’t like get, and sending me the second issue that I would have otherwise passed on — it got one and I am pleased it did. I previously described it, somewhat snarkily, as “a sci-fi cyber-samurai yarn conceived by an artsy SoHo hipster,” and a “visually impressive if somewhat convoluted story that edges up to the border of pretentiousness while nudging you with a friendly elbow and raised eyebrow.”

In retrospect — with the benefit of both hindsight and a second, more thorough reading — I’d say that Robotika stands alongside Archaia Studios Press’ Artesia and Mouse Guard as some of the best work published in 2006, better than 99% of what’s on the shelves any given Wednesday.

“Robotika comes during a time when almost everything has such a staid formula to it. But it’s anything but formula.

What it is is totally damn brilliant.”

Those are Ted McKeever’s words of praise from the Hardcover edition’s Fore Word, and I quote them here because I think he nails what makes this a special piece of sequential art.

(more…)

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Review: The Dreamland Chronicles: Book One

The Dreamland Chronicles: Book One By Scott Christian Sava (Blue Dream Studios, 2006; $19.95) I have to admit that I was initially put off by the computer animated artwork when I first flipped through The Dreamland Chronicles, especially compared to Diego Jourdan's more familiar cartoony style in Scott Christian Sava's Ed's Terrestrials, which I received in the same review package. At first glance, it struck me as too similar to fumetti or cinemanga, the characters seeming unnaturally stiff, almost like the worst of Greg Land's work for Marvel over the past few years. Having enjoyed Sava's writing in Ed's Terrestrials,…

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