Monday, November 12, 2012

Albert Avilla Reviews: The Final Issue of Captain America

The Final Issue of Captain America (Captain America #19)
Marvel Comics

Review by Albert Avilla

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Steve Epting

The greatest run of Captain America comes to an end. This is comparable to Frank Miller leaving Daredevil. You have to appreciate the knowledge of Captain America and the understanding of who Captain America is that Brubaker has.

During his run Brubaker never strayed from the traits that made Captain America who he is. If anything, Brubaker has cemented them in his stories. Captain America has been a leader and an inspiration for other superheroes. Under Brubaker, Captain America has become the undisputed leader of the Marvel Universe. The character’s popularity has grown to a level that is unprecedented. Brubaker has taken a stagnant character and made him interesting and vibrant. This is difficult to do with a character with such steadfast morals and personality. Through his masterful storytelling, Brubaker has made this an award-winner when many thought the character was outdated. This story is our opportunity to appreciate a great talent that may not be seen for years to come if ever again on Captain America.

Thank You, Mr. Brubaker, for your hard work and for sharing your talent. Another generation of comic readers will be inspirited by the heroism of Captain America because of Brubaker’s monumental effort.

Epting did some of his best work in this issue. Brubaker and Epting will be linked to Captain America forever.

I rate The Final Issue of Captain America Recommend it to a Friend. This is the Al-O-Meter's highest ranking.


We Were There: Sengenji and Takeuchi Don't Hold Their Peace

I read We Were There, Vol. 15

I posted a review at ComicBookBin.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Review AFTER THE FALL: An Illustrated Novel

AFTER THE FALL: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVEL
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @norton_fiction and @NewYorker

AUTHOR: Victoria Roberts – @TNYcartoonistVR
ISBN: 978-0-393-07355-3; hardcover (November 2012)
188pp, B&W, $24.95 U.S., $26.50 CAN

After the Fall: An Illustrated Novel is a new book from Victoria Roberts, who has been a contracted cartoonist (or staff cartoonist) for the magazine, The New Yorker, since 1988. Her illustrations and cartoons have also appeared in numerous other periodicals, including The New York Times, Barron's, Playboy, Time, Town & Country, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among many.

After the Fall: An Illustrated Novel is exactly that – an illustrated novel. Featuring over 200 cartoons and illustrations, After the Fall is a sparkling New York City fairy tale that reinvents a familiar story – a well-to-do family suddenly becomes homeless. This book may be aimed at The New Yorker’s sophisticated audience, but this slim volume will eventually be a favorite of young readers – at least I think so.

The story is narrated by Alan, a 10-year-old-boy from a wealthy family (a fabulously wealthy family) that lives in an Upper East Side penthouse. His father, Pops, is a mad inventor and self-made millionaire because of creations like Smokos (a simulation cigarette) and GloveDip (an invisible replacement for medical gloves). Mother is a chain-smoking socialite with a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue. His sister is Alexandra, a creative 7-year-old also known as “Sis.”

One morning Alan awakens to find himself in Central Park. It seems that regime change and bad investments have left the family destitute and exiled from the penthouse. However, the entire contents of the penthouse – from furniture and artwork to clothes and the family pugs (Olive, Phoebe, and Sancho), have been relocated to the Park. In fact, everything has been positioned around Central Park, as if the park were the penthouse.

Usvelia the housekeeper and Gudelia the cook remain in the service of the family. Monsieur Marcel, the maître d’ of the family’s favorite restaurant, Le Château Boheme, regularly drops by to deliver food. As winter approaches, however, old tensions and furniture magnate, Hamid Kohlrabi, divide Pops and Mother. Now, it’s up to the resourceful Alan and the imaginative Sis to restore home and hearth.

After the Fall has that singular quality of an old book that remains timeless because its story seems to carry an enchantment. Roberts’ illustrations are lovely, and they come on with the force of a New Yorker collection of cartoons. Still, it is important not to downplay Roberts’ prose, which shimmers with charm and wit. Like a classic children’s story, it mixes imagination with melancholy, so it doesn’t come across as syrupy. That’s why this fantastical and fanciful scenario seems almost real – like some human interest story that could happen just once, and also manage to capture national interest, if only for a day or so.

Since part of After the Fall’s story takes place during Christmas, it has the makings of a Christmas (or Holiday) favorite. I hope Victoria Roberts tries the illustrated novel again. I hope another New Yorker cartoonist attempts this. Heck, I wish Charles Addams had written a book like this just once.

A

www.wwnorton.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

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Vampire Knight: Return to Cross Academy

I read Vampire Knight, Vol. 15

I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Review: MARVEL COMICS: The Untold Story

MARVEL COMICS THE UNTOLD STORY
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Sean Howe
ISBN: 978-0-06-199210-0; hardcover
496pp, $25.99 U.S.

Sean Howe has been an editor at Entertainment Weekly and for The Criterion Collection, and he edited the Deep Focus series of books about films. Howe’s recent book is Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, and it is a freaking great book.

HarperCollins describes Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, as “An unvarnished, unauthorized, behind-the-scenes account of one of the most dominant pop cultural forces in contemporary America.” “Unvarnished” is just the right word to describe this book. Also, it takes a “behind-the-scenes account” to reveal the outsized personalities that took Marvel Comics from nothing to a whole lotta something.

Howe’s nonfiction book takes readers back to the early years of the life of Martin Goodman, the hardscrabble magazine publisher of pulps whose luck rarely ran out (which includes just avoiding the Hindenburg’s ill-fated final voyage). One man’s economic misfortune meant Goodman was handed the material that would become the seminal comic book, Marvel Comics #1. Essentially, its publication is the dawn of Timely, the company that would eventually become Marvel Comics.

Most of this book, however, focuses on the Goodman publishing division that took the name, Marvel Comics, Howe chronicles Marvel Comics’ beginnings as a struggling company operating out of a tiny office on Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. The company began publishing comic books featuring a roster of brightly costumed characters: Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and Daredevil. Distinguished by smart banter and compellingly human flaws, these characters not only won over children, but also captured the imaginations of college students, pop artists, public intellectuals, and even some assorted radicals, beatniks, and peaceniks.

From that point in time, Howe takes the reader on a journey over the course of a half-century, as Marvel becomes a multibillion-dollar enterprise. Howe chronicles how Marvel survives both Hollywood’s and Wall Street’s machinations, as well as clueless, greedy owners. There are struggles over credit (who created what) and control (who gets what, if any, and how much). There are battles between editors and management, editors and creators, creators and management, and even creators vs. creators.

There are so many storylines. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby becomes Kirby versus Lee. Spider-Man mastermind Steve Ditko’s goes Randian and then, goes away. See Jim Shooter’s ego trip, and then, see him lose his damn mind! Learn about “the next generation,” those renegade creators Stever Gerber, Steve Englehart, Don McGregor, and Jim Starlin. Follow the birth of the Direct Market. See the Image Comics guys before they were Image, and then, get another side to the story of their exodus.

Sean Howe has packed Marvel Comics: The Untold Story with so much history and story that I’d need more page space to describe it than you, dear reader, are willing to read. According to the publisher, Howe conducted over a hundred original interviews of Marvel insiders for this book, and I guess those interview subjects had a lot to say. With the additional information and reference material he obtained from other books and interviews, Howe has created a behind-the-scenes look at the history of Marvel Comics.

I think the best of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is Part 1: Creations and Myths. This opening section opens with Martin Goodman and ends with Jack Kirby’s departure from Marvel Comics in March 1970. Despite the ups-and-downs of the company and the conflicts and feuds among people at the company – from the top down – the first three decades of Timely/Marvel is a time of discovery and wonder. It is a new frontier, and it doesn’t matter if Howe’s telling is “unvarnished.” Those first three decades are varnished enough that they outshine even the media behemoth that Marvel Comics has become, as well as the decades of squabbling.

It’s like reading about the space race, as if this book were written in the space age, capturing a new frontier. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is a great book not because of the story it tells, but because how it tells that story.

A

http://seanhowe.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


Bleach: Love me Bitterly Loth me Sweetly

I read Bleach, Vol. 51: Love Me Bitterly, Loth Me Sweetly

I posted a review at ComicBookBin.


Friday, November 9, 2012

DC Comics Now Available at iBookstore, Kindle, and NOOK Stores

DC Entertainment Digital Comic Books Now Available on Kindle Store, iBookstore and NOOK Store™

DC Comics’ Entire Line-up, Including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Many Others, Now Available for Direct Download from All Major e-Bookstores

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DC Entertainment, the #1 comic book publisher in the U.S., announced today its entire line of periodical comic books are now available for download from the top three e-bookstores including Kindle Store, iBookstore and NOOK Store™. The precedent setting new digital availability brings bestselling DC Comics and Vertigo periodical titles, including JUSTICE LEAGUE, BATMAN, SUPERMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, ACTION COMICS, BATGIRL, WONDER WOMAN, GREEN LANTERN, FABLES and AMERICAN VAMPIRE, among many others, to an even broader audience of digital readers.

“As e-readers and tablets continue to explode in popularity it’s important for us to offer consumers convenience and choice in how they download digital comics and graphic novels and these new distribution deals with the top three e-bookstores do just that,” said Jim Lee, co-publisher, DC Entertainment. “We’re very excited to work with Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble to bring bestselling DC Comics and Vertigo periodicals to their e-bookstores.”

DC Entertainment is now the only comic book publisher to offer its periodical line-up across all major e-bookstore platforms. The deals reinforce a long track record of digital comics industry leadership and innovation from DC Entertainment that dates back to its game-changing decision to make its entire line available same-day digital with the launch of DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 in Sept. 2011. That launch is widely seen as reinvigorating the comic book industry, and has led to increased sales of both digital and print comics.

Lee continued, “We were the first to offer our entire comic book line same-day digital and now we are the first to offer fans the convenience of multiple download options.”

In addition to now being available for direct download through the top three e-bookstores, DC Entertainment will continue to deliver periodical comics online at www.readdcentertainment.com, through the DC Comics and Vertigo apps, and all comiXology platforms.

Prior to this announcement only DC Entertainment graphic novels were available through the top three e-bookstores.


About DC Entertainment:
DC Entertainment, home to iconic brands DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash), Vertigo (Sandman, Fables) and MAD, is the creative division charged with strategically integrating its content across Warner Bros. Entertainment and Time Warner. DC Entertainment works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its stories and characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment and interactive games. Publishing thousands of comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC Entertainment is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world. In January 2012, DC Entertainment, in collaboration with Warner Bros. and Time Warner divisions, launched We Can Be Heroes—a giving campaign featuring the iconic Justice League super heroes—to raise awareness and funds to fight the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa.