#IReadsYou Review: MONSTER ON THE HILL

MONSTER ON THE HILL - (Original Graphic Novel)
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS – @topshelfcomix

CARTOONIST: Rob Harrell
ISBN: 978-1-60309-075-9; paperback (July 2013)
192pp, Color, $19.95 U.S.

Audience: All ages (10+)

Cartoonist and illustrator Rob Harrell is known for his former newspaper comic strip, Big Top (which was syndicated from 2002 to 2007), and the currently syndicated strip, Adam@Home.  Harrell enters the world of comic books with the original graphic novel, Monster on the Hill, which was recently published by Top Shelf Productions.  Monster on the Hill is the story of a sad-sack monster learning to become a real, scary monster with the help of an eccentric doctor and a sardonic newspaper boy.

Monster on the Hill is set in a fantastical version of 1860s England.  In this world, each quiet little township is terrorized by a ferocious monster, and the citizens love it, because its monster is a great source of local pride and tourism.  Yes, every town has its own monster except Stoker-on-Avon.

Well, Stoker-on-Avon has a monster, but he’s not really a monster.  He doesn’t do anything monstrous or even terrifying, and no tourists come to see him.  His name is Rayburn, and instead of scaring up some tourists, he lets loose enormous sighs and groans that shake the buildings in town.  And frankly, Rayburn’s attitude is a downer, man.

Enter disgraced doctor and scientist, Dr. Charles Nathaniel Wilkie.  The town fathers want Dr. Wilkie to “fix the monster.”  Wilkie gets some unexpected help from plucky street urchin and newspaper boy, Timothy.  The duo meets Rayburn and thus, begins an epic journey of self-discovery and redemption, guest-starring the awesome Tentaculor (a.k.a. “Noodles”).  Time is short, however, as something worse than a monster threatens to destroy Stoker-on-Avon and its people.

Readers, creators, publishers, retailers, etc:  everyone involved with American comic books on some level talks about the need for comic books for children or comics that can be read by everyone (“all ages”).  Monster on the Hill is not just a children’s comic book; it is an entire awesome children’s graphic novel, and it is a monster.  The story borrows from several genres; it is everything from a faux Victorian children’s story and grand adventure to a road trip story and plain old monster comic book.  Harrell summons the hoary ghosts of Marvel/Timely’s old monster comic books, complete with full-splash pages in order to depict epic battles between humongous monster foes.  It’s like Jack Kirby meets Japanese monster movies.

The characters are hugely likeable, and no one character dominates, which allows all the players to shine – even the dastardly villain.  Little Timothy provides easy-going, sarcastic one-liners, and Dr. Wilkie is the steady narrator.  The monsters are witty and surprisingly original; you will wish that other comic books had characters like these.

Obviously, I am big on this graphic novel.  I plan on introducing my niece and nephew to Monster on the Hill.  It’s monstrously good.

A

Neil Gaiman and Jeff Smith (Bone) provide cover quote blurbs for Monster on the Hill.

Public info on Monster on the Hill: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/monster-on-the-hill/732

www.robharrell.com
http://www.topshelfcomix.com
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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: STAN LEE'S How to Draw Superheroes

STAN LEE’S HOW TO DRAW SUPERHEROES
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS/Dynamite Entertainment – @CrownPublishing and @dynamitecomics

WRITERS: Stan Lee with Danny Fingeroth, Keith Dallas, and Robert Sodaro
COVER:  Ardian Syaf; back cover by Alex Ross
ISBN: 978-0-8230-9845-3; paperback (July 9, 2013)
224pp, Color, $24.99 U.S., $28.99 CAN

Excelsior!  Stan Lee’s back!  And he is here to teach us about comic books – this time focusing on superheroes.  That is the case in the recently released Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes.

This paperback book is the third in a series “how-to” books published under Stan Lee’s name by Watson-Guptill Publications (a division of the Crown Publishing Group).  Under a cover by Ardian Syaf, this 2013 book is co-written by Danny Fingeroth, Keith Dallas, and Robert Sodaro.  Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes is a follow-up to Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics and Stan Lee’s How to Write Comics.

The stated purpose of Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes is to give aspiring superhero creators information on just about everything related to the comic book superhero genre: from sidekicks and secret hideouts to super-villains and monsters.  The book also has 24 step-by-step exercises designed to help readers learn how to draw a variety of superhero types – from poses and powers to secret identities and secret bases.

I did not have to peruse through too many chapters of Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes before I began to think that the book was about superheroes as much as it was a “how-to” art book, if not more so.  There are 13 chapters in this book, and all of them are basically written surveys of superheroes, costumed heroes, and super-powered humans and heroes, from Gilgamesh all the way to the new superheroes being introduced by Dynamite Entertainment.

With chapters devoted to “Sidekicks and Teen Heroes” and “Robots, Androids, and Cyborgs,” Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes is a broad overview of the elements that make up and the ideas that shape and structure superhero comic books.  This book can either be a refresher course for those familiar with superheroes or a guide for those unfamiliar who want to enter the unique world of reading that is American superhero comic books.

As a book about superheroes, Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes is good.  As a how-to art book:  well, there are better, and that includes Lee’s own How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (1978), produced with the late John Buscema.  In fact, the earlier Watson-Guptill book, Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics, offers more about drawing theory and procedure than Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes.  So buy this book for what it is (about superheroes) and not for what it is advertised as (a how to draw book).

B

www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com


Contributing artists:  Vinicius Andrande, Javier Aranda, Mark Bagley, Ed Benes, John Byrne, Tim Bradstreet, John Buscema, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Cheung, Chris Caniano, Will Eisner, David Enebral, Francesco Francavilla, Ale Garza, Phil Hester, Joe Jusco, Jack Kirby, Jim Lee, Adriano Lucas, Steve McNiven, Frank Miller, Ivan Nunes, Lucio Parillo, Paul Renaud, John Romita, Jr., Alex Ross, Tim Seeley, Joe Shuster

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Review: STAR WARS: Legacy Volume 2 #1

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME 2 #1
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

["Star Wars Central" review page is here.]

SCRIPT: Corrina Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
ART: Gabriel Hardman
COLORS: Rachelle Rosenberg
LETTERS: Michael Heisler
COVER: Dave Wilkins
EDITOR: Randy Stradley
28pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (March 2013)

Prisoner of the Floating World Part One

Dark Horse Comics recently launched a new Star Wars comic book series. Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 is written by Corrina Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, drawn by Hardman, colored by Rachelle Rosenberg, and lettered by Michael Heisler.

In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Legacy is a time period that begins 40 years after the end of the original Star Wars (or Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) and continues to some indeterminate time. There was a long-running comic book series, Star Wars: Legacy, which Dark Horse Comics launched after the release of the film, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 is a new series set in the Legacy era. The events of Legacy Volume 2 take place “approximately 138 years after the events in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.” [Of note, the previous series began 130 years after A New Hope.] This new series focuses on the character Ania Solo, who is the great-great granddaughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo and who also owns a junkyard.

Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 #1 opens as Imperial Knight Yatla Val leads a mission to the Carreras System in the Outer Rim. This is part of a larger effort by the Triumvirate, which is a unity government made of the Jedi Council, Imperial Court, and Galactic Alliance, to connect the galaxy. The mission meets an unexpected snag.

On an ice mining platform in the rings of Carreras Minor, Ania Solo shows her latest finds to her friend, Sauk, a refugee from Mon Calamari. The young junkyard owner has recovered a lightsaber and an Imperial communications droid, and both will mean trouble for her.

Sometimes, I review books and don’t give a thought to revealing spoilers; if I spill a secret, it either does not bother me much or I wince a only a little. Other times, I am fastidious about saying too much, to the point that my review ends up being a timid paragraph dedicated to secret-keeping.

In this new review, I’m definitely being the latter. I want to be tentative and persnickety about my review of Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 #1. Co-writer Corrina Bechko and co-writer/artist Gabriel Hardman give this first issue so many layers, such depth, and rich texture that it seems more like the first chapter of a prose novel than the first issue of a comic book. In Ania Solo, they have the potential to create one of the truly exceptional and great Star Wars Expanded Universe characters.

The art by Gabriel Hardman recalls the art Al Williamson produced for Marvel Comics’ adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back in the publisher’s long-running Star Wars comic book series. I don’t know anything about the quality of Corrina Bechko and Gabriel Hardman’s previous work on Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes, but Dark Horse should chain them in the company dungeon and keep them working on Star Wars comics.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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