Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Friday, December 22, 2017
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Recently Read: The Superman Chronicles, Vol. 9
In the second-to-last volume of DC's missed chronological reprintings of the adventures of Superman, cartoonist John Sikela does a good job attempting to keep the book looking like co-creator Joe Shuster's work.
Fortunately, Jerry Siegel's still writing every story and the work has a charm missing from today's interpretations. In this volume, Lois and Clark take on car dealers who purposely sell unsafe cars, take inner city kids out for a day in the country, rat out a fake astrologist, and help a budding baseball player start his career. This down-to-earth and humanist take on Superman is just what's missing in the stories I've read in the past several decades (although Grant Morrison's run started promisingly).
These are also the first reprinted stories I've read which use material created for the Superman radio show as orthodoxy. Jimmy Olson and the Fortress of Solitude are used in the stories as if they've already been introduced on the page; rather, they were apparently created for the radio show first and transferred to the comic books (and comic strip?). I'd love to hear from comics historians about this particular transference from radio to comics.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Recently Read: Little House in the Big Woods
The first book in Wilder's series, taking place in 1871, is at the same time romanticized and realistic, and perfect for children and adults with an open mind. It tells of growing up in the Wisconsin wilderness with siblings and two loving parents, surrounded by dangerous predators. Life is harsh, sometimes brutal, and the ways in which the family uses everything around them, organic or not, to survive is educational and fascinating. The narrative is also filled with tales of the past and premonitions of the future (such as new technology which saves days worth of hard work). The illustrations by Garth Williams are lovely, as always, and were based on his visits to the locations described in the text.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
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