Seraph of the End: A Test of Shinoa Hiragi's Squad

I read Seraph of the End, Vol. 7: Vampire Reign

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

Book Review: ALL THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS

ALL THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Adriana Trigiani
ISBN: 978-0-06-241857-9; hardcover (October 13, 2015)
464pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

All the Stars in the Heavens is a 2015 romance and historical novel from Adriana Trigiani, the New York Times bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife.  Based on a true story, this new novel is set in the “Golden Age” of Hollywood (a two-decade period from the late 1920s to the late 1940s) and is a story of adventure, artistry, family ties, artistry, and romance.

All the Stars in the Heavens has both a prologue and an epilogue that is set in October 2000, and its story goes back to 1917.  However, the main body of the narrative is set in 1930s Los Angeles.  In Hollywood, the movie business is booming, as the film industry turns out glittery fantasies to take Americans minds off the Great Depression.

Loretta Young is an ambitious young actress who carefully plans the arc of her career.  In 1935, she is 21-years-old when she is cast in The Call of the Wild.  She considers this new film to be a pivotal moment in her career.  With the help of her personal secretary, Alda Ducci (a former novice who wanted to be a nun), Loretta carefully plans a trip to Mount Baker, Washington where The Call of the Wild will be filmed.

When he first gets a look at Loretta, Clark Gable instantly falls for his stunning and vivacious young costar.  Loretta cannot deny that she is also attracted to Gable, but her recent “romance” with former costar, Spencer Tracy, on an earlier film, has made Loretta wary of married men, which Gable is.  However, she can't resist him, and their love will be a star-crossed one.  Filled with such Hollywood legends as Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, David Niven, Hattie McDaniel, and more, this story imagines a great love affair in Hollywood's most glittery era.

When HarperCollins offered a galley copy of All the Stars in the Heavens for review, I practically jumped at it.  Reading a summary that described it as being set in Hollywood's “Golden Age” was enough for me.  I think people generally consider the 1930s and 1940s as the golden age of American movie-making.  Some historians believe that age lasted until the end of the studio system.

Anyway, many of the movies that I consider the best films of all time:  Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Maltese Falcon, Pinocchio, and Bambi, to name just a few, are from the 1930s and 40s.  Some of my favorite films:  The Adventures of Robin Hood, Crossfire, Lost Horizon, Ninotchka, and To Be or Not to Be, to once again name just few, are also from those two decades.

However, I have only seen two Clark Gable films in their entirety, Gone with the Wind and It Happened One Night (for which Gable won an Oscar).  I am familiar with Loretta Young's name, but that is all she is to me, now.  After reading this book, I do plan to sample some of the work of Loretta Young, who was also an Oscar winner.

All the Stars in the Heavens captures the drama, luster, power, and secrets that could only thrive in the studio system of Hollywood's yesteryear, simply because the novel is full of the drama and the secrets of the stars and also the power of the studios.  Every bit of it is dressed in the luster of lavish costumes and elaborate sets used to make movies and also in the stylish clothes and in the splendor that defined the lives of Hollywood's biggest stars.  Using colorful descriptions and detailed explanations of where the stars lives, how they dressed, what they ate, etc., Adriana Trigiani transports her readers back in time to an idealized version of a bygone era that specialized in creating the fanciful and the ideal.

Much of the novel is set in the mid-1930s, and the rest of the novel focuses on what occurred in the 1930s.  For all intents and purposes, All the Stars in the Heavens is like a prose version of a film from the 1930s.  In a way, it reads like a novelization of a film biopic of the real-life romance of Loretta Young and Clark Gable.  The joy and sorrow and the love and the pain reflect the high drama and melodrama of a movie one might see on Turner Classic Movies.

I will say that the last two chapters of All the Stars in the Heavens are more like a television movie about the “good old days.”  These forty pages lose the luster of “Old Hollywood,” and are surprisingly melancholy, being mostly sad and regretful.  This part of the novel yearns for the films of a dream factory that made black and white movies that sparkled as if they were colorful jewels.  It is there that everything feels right... even if none of it would last for long.  Even with almost 450 pages of story, All the Stars in the Heavens sometimes feels as if it isn't long enough.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Tokyo Ghoul: You're for Dinner

I read Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 4

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr or at Grumble.  Follow me on Patreon.

Review: NEW X-MEN #114

NEW X-MEN No. 114
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review originally appeared on Patreon.]

STORY: Grant Morrison
PENCILS: Frank Quitely
INKS: Tim Townsend
COLORS: Brian Haberlin
LETTERS: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
COVER: Frank Quitely
32pp, Color, $2.25 U.S., $3.50 CAN (July 2001)

X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“E is for Extinction” Part One of Three

When Joe Quesada became Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, one of his first goals (apparently) was to make the company's flagship titles regain some of “their former glory.”  One of the franchises in need of some polishing was the X-Men, and Quesada recruited writer Grant Morrison, known for his work at DC Comics, to take the X-Men in a new direction.

Morrison took X-Men, the X-title that began in 1991.  Its title was changed to New X-Men, but retained the series numbering.  Thus, the new direction began with New X-Men #114, written by Morrison; drawn by Frank Quitely (pencils) and Tim Townsend (inks), colored by Brian Haberlin; and colored by Richard Starkings.

As New X-Men #114 (“E is for Extinction” One of Three) opens, Scott Summers/Cyclops and Logan/Wolverine are in the process of destroying a Sentinel, after saving a persecuted mutant, Ugly John, from the death machine.  Meanwhile, Professor Charles Xavier, a.k.a. “Professor X,” attacks his renewed mission to help a new generation of mutants with a sense of urgency that can also be described as an episode of mania.

Jean Grey is trying to assist him, and so is Henry “Hank” McCoy a.k.a. “Beast.”  However, each has his or her own issues.  Jean and Scott's relationship is in a difficult state.  Hank has undergone a shocking “secondary” mutation that sometimes physically complicates his ability to be a super-scientist.  What the X-Men do not realize is that a new enemy has arisen from seemingly nowhere, and she wants to launch a campaign of genocide against all of mutantkind.

As a kid, I read most of my comic books so many times that they practically fell apart.  As an adult, the only comic books that I read repeatedly were Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Sandman, and anything by Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Will Eisner.  I also often re-read works of alternative comix creators like Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge, and R. Crumb, to new a few.  Everything else was one-and-done.

I must admit, however, that I have lost track of how many times I have read the New X-Men story arc, “E is for Extinction,” especially “Part One” in New X-Men #114.  I think that the reason is because no matter when I read it, this story arc feels fresh and ground-breaking.  New X-Men # 114 especially seems new and an exhilarating; it is as if by reading it I find myself on the cusp of a revolution.

Well, New X-Men ended up being only “kind of a revolution.”  The rest of Grant Morrison's run on this series was never as explosive and “begin-with-a-bang” as “E is for Extinction,” mostly because this first story arc was so different from anything an X-Men comic book had ever been.  It was as if there were a decades' worth of advancement between New X-Men #114 and the two decades of X-Men comic books that had come before it.

Also, I find that Morrison's best work on an established comic book series is usually his first 12 issues, as was the case here.  After the first year, Morrison's work on established series or characters turns weird or contrived, although that weirdness is usually still better than most other comic books coming out at the same time.

It also did not help that Frank Quitely was incapable of keeping up a monthly schedule, so that the first two years of Morrison's run on New X-Men is a patchwork of inconsistent art styles, some of them ugly and some of them being an ill fit with Morrison's storytelling.  It seemed as if Quitely was the only artist who could make Morrison's New X-Men stories seem truly revolution.

Another thing that I have to admit is that I had and still have mixed feelings about the villain, Cassandra Nova, who turns out to be some kind of sibling to Professor X.  I think a better choice for “E is for Extinction” villain would have been either an obscure X-Men villain from the distant past or an obscure Marvel character reconstructed or “retconned” into being a mutant.  The entire subplot slash narrative angle involving Cassandra and Professor X is almost a bridge too far for me.

Still, even with my complaints, I think that New X-Men #114 is one of the all-time great single issues ever published in American comic books, so I am going to read it again.  In fact, I am going to find other individual New X-Men back issues (especially the Quitely-drawn ones) so that I can enjoy Grant Morrison's “revolution” of the X-Men.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaus


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and  syndication rights and fees.

Dorohedoro: Central Department Store

I read Dorohedoro, Vol. 17

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

Review: ROCKETEER Adventures #4

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES No. 4
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITERS: Dave Gibbons; Joe Pruett; John Arcudi
ARTISTS: Scott Hampton; Tony Harris; Brendan McCarthy
COLORS: Scott Hampton; JD Mettler; Jamie Grant
LETTERS: Shawn Lee
PIN-UPS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Alex Ross
ALTERNATE COVERS:  Dave Stevens (Cover B), Alex Ross (Cover RI – sketch); and Dave Stevens (B/W Incentive Edition)
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (August 2011)

Rocketeer created by Dave Stevens

Long live The Rocketeer!

Born in 1955, Dave Stevens was an illustrator, artist, and storyteller who worked on newspaper comic strips and as a storyboard artist on both live-action and animated films and also for television.  Many, like me, know Stevens for his comic book work.  While there was not much of it, what Stevens did produce was spectacular and beautiful.

His most famous comic book creation is The Rocketeer, a superhero Stevens first introduced in 1982.  The Rocketeer’s style and the mode of his adventures recall the Saturday matinee heroes of the 1930s and 1940s.  The Rocketeer’s exploits are mainly set in and around Los Angeles, beginning in 1938 and into the 1940s.  The Rocketeer even made it onto the big screen in a 1991 film from Walt Disney Pictures.

The Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers an experimental jet pack (or rocket pack).  When he straps it on, Cliff can fly and becomes The Rocketeer.  Cliff’s friend, Peevy, an airplane mechanic, helps him maintain and modify the rocket pack.  Cliff’s girlfriend is the actress, Bettie, whom Stevens based on real life, 1950s pin-up and fetish model, Bettie Page.

Debuting in 2011, Rocketeer Adventures was an anthology series from IDW Publishing.  Edited by Scott Dunbier, Rocketeer Adventures featured Rocketeer short stories (about 7 to 8 pages in length) produced by some of the most popular, imaginative, and unique creators in comic books.  The series, which had a sequel, basically paid respect to Stevens (who died in 2008) and his most beloved creation.

Rocketeer Adventures #4 features three stories.  The first is “A Day at the Beach,” written by Dave Gibbons and drawn by Scott Hampton, which finds the Rocketeer taking on surfboard thieves.  In “Waterlogged,” written by Joe Pruett and drawn by Tony Harris, the Rocketeer battles a Japanese submarine.  “The Flight of the Aeronaut,” written by John Arcudi with art by Brendan McCarthy and Jamie Grant, finds Cliff battling Nazis who want Peevy’s plans to improve the Rocketeer’s rocket pack.

“A Day at the Beach” shows off Scott Hampton’s technique in illustrated narrative, which I still find eye-catching decades after I first saw his work.  The delicate watercolors (or watercolor-like colors) perfectly convey a sunny day at the beach.  “The Flight of the Aeronaut” is scary, and I wish it were longer.

In fact, since Rocketeer Adventures was first published, IDW Publishing has published three original miniseries starring the Rocketeer (one of them featuring Will Eisner’s The Spirit).  So here’s an idea for another miniseries, Mr. Dunbier, editor of all things Rocketeer, a follow-up to “The Flight of the Aeronaut.”

As a bonus, Rocketeer Adventures #4 features two pin-ups by artist Ashley Wood.  The second of the two, entitled “Heaven Bound,” captures the sense of wonder and hope that the Rocketeer embodies.  Long live the Rocketeer.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

-------------------------

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for January 13, 2016

DC COMICS

NOV150249    BATMAN 66 MEETS THE MAN FROM UNCLE #2    $2.99
NOV150224    BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #15    $2.99
NOV150211    BATMAN SUPERMAN #28    $3.99
SEP150286    BATMAN SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN TRINITY DLX ED HC    $29.99
NOV150250    BATMAN TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #2    $3.99
NOV150222    CATWOMAN #48    $2.99
NOV150180    CONSTANTINE THE HELLBLAZER #8    $2.99
NOV150184    EARTH 2 SOCIETY #8    $2.99
SEP150296    FLASH HC VOL 07 SAVAGE WORLD    $22.99
OCT150257    FLASH TP VOL 06 OUT OF TIME    $16.99
NOV150233    GOTHAM ACADEMY #14    $2.99
NOV150162    GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #1    $2.99
OCT150281    HELLBLAZER TP VOL 12 HOW TO PLAY WITH FIRE (MR)    $19.99
NOV150303    LUCIFER #1 SPECIAL EDITION (MR)    $1.00
NOV150307    NEW ROMANCER #2 (MR)    $3.99
NOV150196    NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #16    $2.99
NOV150194    RED HOOD ARSENAL #8    $2.99
NOV150238    ROBIN WAR #2    $4.99
NOV150259    SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #65    $2.99
NOV150310    SLASH & BURN #3 (MR)    $3.99
NOV150197    STARFIRE #8    $2.99
NOV150207    SUPERMAN AMERICAN ALIEN #3    $3.99