I don’t usually think of myself as a specialist, especially when it comes to entertainment. I like to sample media from lots of different genres. Consequently, I know a little about a lot of things, but don’t have true expertise…
Category: books
Comic Book Report: X-Men: Magneto Testament
This coming Sunday is the start of the Days of Remembrance, so it’s fitting that I just read the excellent X-Men: Magneto Testament. I came to this book by another route–that of researching writer and filmmaker Greg Pak’s oeuvre, the…
Book Report: I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President
Like Jon Stewart (the Daily Show host whose blurb appears on the cover–not the Green Lantern), I loved this book. It’s got a very PS238 feel, albeit on a smaller scale. Author Josh Lieb does a nice job of balancing…
Comic Book Report: World War Hulk (Various)
That’s it? Really? The above is my overall reaction to this recent Marvel line-wide crossover event. I mean, first of all, the title is completely misleading. The story doesn’t involve the whole world (it’s only Manhattan), and it’s not actually…
Comic Book Report: Batman: False Faces
As comic book writers go, Brian K. Vaughan has a pretty solid batting average. He created the Eisner Award-winning Y: The Last Man, the singular Ex Machina, and Marvel’s Runaways, all of which are great titles. (I have some quibbles…
Comic Book Report: Planet Hulk
I’ll be honest: I was never really into Marvel comics. I don’t have anything against them; they just never spoke to me in the same way the mythic characters of the DC universe did. So it doesn’t bother me as…
Comic Book Report: Scalped Vol. 4
Kurt Busiek himself recommended Scalped to me last year, and he was not wrong. (That in itself is a bit of a story–he was signing at Excalibur Comics on Free Comic Book Day, and when I stopped by during a…
Comic Book Report: Star Trek New Frontier
I cannot recommend this book. It collects “Turnaround,” a five-issue miniseries published by IDW in 2008. And while I realize it’s part of an ongoing storyline, there’s just too much “continuity bingo”–which is a phrase I just made up to…
Book Report: SuperFreakonomics
I don’t generally read a lot of non-fiction books, but I enjoyed Freakonomics a lot, and the follow-up, SuperFreakonomics, did not disappoint. Unlike some writers, who like to draw lots of conclusions based on sometimes slim or anecdotal evidence (coughMalcolmGladwellcough),…