Reprints the first four 64-page Sub-Mariner comics from 1941. These
stories, frankly, aren't as compellingly written or drawn as Bill
Everett's first Subby stories. Spread thin, he was relying on assistants
by this point (and about to enter the military). They are, nevertheless, worth a gamble. The Angel is
the just okay backup strip. Jack Kirby's fantastic Angel cover for
Marvel Mystery Comics #12 whetted my appetite for more Kirby Angel
stories, but I don't think those ever happened (comics historians please
clarify).
The volume is filled out with filler pieces by Mickey
Spillane and Basil Wolverton (two creators not often mentioned in the
same sentence), historical notes by Roy Thomas and the various house ads
for all four issues, which appeared in other Marvel comics.
The Deeper is the lead story in my upcoming anthology series, All-Neno Comics #1.
What a wonderful, complex book. Little House on the Prairie covers
nearly a year when the Ingalls family left their home in Wisconsin to
build a new house and life on the Indian territory plains of Kansas. The
hardships and beauties of such a life are told vividly. Despite some
critic's misgivings about Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter's editing
input into the creation of the books, the autobiographical stories told
here ring true, poignant, memorable and sad. Children will be reading
and learning from this book for a hundred years.
How tragic and
ridiculous it is that the Association for Library Service to Children, a
division of the American Library Association, has removed Wilder’s name
from her own award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award - primarily due to a
conversation in the book wherein a racist neighbor expresses a racist
remark about Native Americans. These particular ALA justice warriors
must believe the primary object of children's literature is to coddle,
mollify, pamper and protect children from any viewpoint - even a
fictionalized viewpoint - which doesn't make them feel good about their
race/gender/age/whatever. History and our present reality is much more
complex and nuanced, though, as today's children will soon realize when
they enter the adult world. And then there's the true cliche, 'Those who
do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.', which makes it very
important for young readers to learn about past racial injustices.
Good-natured whimsy isn't something you expect from much pop culture
today, but Dwight R. Decker's A Dream Flying has it. Using Decker's
youth in Mount Vernon (renamed New Romford), Ohio as an autobiographical
setting, he tells a far-fetched but enjoyable and relatable tale of a
teenager, Kyle Rhodebeck, who dreams of flying and then inadvertently
finds a way to do it.
It's a charm of the novel that outlandish
events (with the exception of the story's climax) are made believable.
Kyle's attempts at elevation are detailed and, ultimately, exhilarating.
I'd never considered what it might be like to fly - the physical
dangers, the risks involved, the required secrecy - but after reading
this book, I almost feel like I have flown!
Many adventures,
flying-related and not, are told within. The fantastical elements of the
book are woven into a tapestry of small town life, one which I could
relate to, partly because I grew up and still live near where the story
takes place (watching the same Chiller Theatre on Friday nights on
Channel 10 and buying science fiction books at Northland Mall in
Columbus as Kyle does), but also because I grew up in roughly the same
time period, listening to Ventures LPs and reading Edgar Rice Burroughs
paperbacks as Kyle does).
My one big disappointment with A Dream Flying, even though it's nearly
300 pages long, is that it ends too soon. I'd love a sequel!
