Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Evanier on Kirby reviewed by Rosenberg
See "Other Worlds: 'Kirby: King of Comics'," by Scott Rosenberg, online at Express April 23, 2008.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Dilbert, Gorey via Staake and Thompson in Saturday's Post, Sunday book reviews
It doesn't appear to be online, but the Post ran a letter to the editor - "Dilbert's 'Jesus'is offensive" by Earl H. Foote of College Park.
Also, the Style Invitational Contest is poetry couplets ala Edward Gorey ...
You know - the Post's website sucks as far as linking up with the print version. The Washington City Paper ran a good article a few weeks ago as to why that is - the two operations have nothing to do with each other and aren't even in the same state.
Here's the Gorey contest with the excellent Staake parody cartoon.
Finally Richard Thompson's got one of his excellent Spring cartoons in the Poor Alamanac, but I'm not even going to look for it. And Get Fuzzy complains about the comics page being stuck in 1954.
Tomorrow's book reviews are online as well - The Ten-Cent Plague is reviewed in "Horror! Suspense! Censorship! A cultural critic recounts how comics were ripped out of kids' grubby hands." Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page BW08. The new Kirby book is reviewed in "The Fantastic One: The father of so many superheroes could never conquer the forces of corporate America." Reviewed by Glen David Gold, Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page BW08.
As a reminder, Ann Telnaes cartoons keep appearing.
Also, the Style Invitational Contest is poetry couplets ala Edward Gorey ...
You know - the Post's website sucks as far as linking up with the print version. The Washington City Paper ran a good article a few weeks ago as to why that is - the two operations have nothing to do with each other and aren't even in the same state.
Here's the Gorey contest with the excellent Staake parody cartoon.Finally Richard Thompson's got one of his excellent Spring cartoons in the Poor Alamanac, but I'm not even going to look for it. And Get Fuzzy complains about the comics page being stuck in 1954.
Tomorrow's book reviews are online as well - The Ten-Cent Plague is reviewed in "Horror! Suspense! Censorship! A cultural critic recounts how comics were ripped out of kids' grubby hands." Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page BW08. The new Kirby book is reviewed in "The Fantastic One: The father of so many superheroes could never conquer the forces of corporate America." Reviewed by Glen David Gold, Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page BW08.
As a reminder, Ann Telnaes cartoons keep appearing.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Post reviews Michaelis' Schulz biography tomorrow
See "It's Your Life, Charlie Brown! A portrait of the anxious artist who taught Snoopy how to dance," reviewed by Julie Phillips, Washington Post Book World Sunday, November 11, 2007; Page BW04.
Tomorrow's Washington Post bit on Caniff's Terry and the Pirates
See "Terry and the Pirates" by Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World Sunday, November 11, 2007; Page BW04.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Wish You Were There #3 - A couple of book reviews
The following reviews are ones I wrote for the International Journal of Comic Art 3:1 (Spring 2001).
Raggedy Ann and More: Johnny Gruelle's Dolls and Merchandise. Patricia Hall. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2000. ISBN 1-56554-102-2. $35.
Cartoonists, children's books, and merchandise have been linked since the late nineteenth century. While Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, Berke Breathed, and especially Walt Disney are well known to the contemporary reader, Johnny Gruelle has largely been forgotten. Patricia Hall has been working to reintroduce Gruelle, and this book is the second in a planned trilogy. The first was a biography, Johnny Gruelle, Creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy (1993) and the third planned for spring 2001 will be a bibliography. Gruelle was an artist who moved easily between the worlds of comic strips, political cartoons, and children's books, eventually creating a family business that lasted until the 1960s.
Gruelle's life is recounted briefly by Hall, but readers interested in detail are referred to her previous book. This extremely well-illustrated book concentrates on the physical products derived from Gruelle's imagination. As a cartoonist for the New York Herald, Gruelle created the "Mr. Twee Deedle" comic strip which was merchandized as a doll by the newspaper immediately. While doing the comic strip, he also illustrated children's magazines and books. In 1915, he submitted a design for a patent on Raggedy Ann, a doll that was apparently partially based on characters from his comic strip.
The patent was granted and Gruelle began making his own dolls. Raggedy Ann was not based on a familiar character and initial sales were slow. Gruelle generated interest in the doll by contracting with publisher P. F. Volland for a children's book based on the doll. Other characters he developed, such as the duck Quacky Doodles, proved more popular and merchandising included a cartoon series. By late 1918, Gruelle had completed his book on Raggedy Ann and dolls were produced to be sold with it. The book and doll combination was a success and Gruelle continued producing merchandizable ideas until he died in 1938. His family took over the company and continued licensing Gruelle's characters until they sold the company to a book publisher.
Probably because of marketing concerns, the book is a curious mixture of a business history attractively designed as a full-color coffee table book that includes a price guide. Hall writes to appeal to historians as well as collectors of children's books, dolls, toys, and cartoons. Many sidebar pieces detail specific parts of Gruelle's business efforts, such as books, sheet music, and copyright infringements. Anyone interested in Gruelle, cartoon merchandising, book or doll collecting, or popular culture of the first half of the twentieth century should find something of interest in this book.
Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell. J. D. "Illiad" Frazer. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 2000.
A collection of User Friendly, a free online comic strip, raises some interesting questions about the future of comic art. Frazer's strip is written for a specialized audience of advanced computer users and is published by a company specializing in computer manuals. The strip is done on a computer and lacks backgrounds in the simplified art style that Dilbert made acceptable. Illiad has stated that Breathed's Bloom County was an inspiration, but the humor of User Friendly is extremely dependent on knowledge of computers. A niche market product, reminiscent of earlier specialized work such as Jake's military cartoons, User Friendly is not syndicated, but it still appears in more than 150 college papers and several magazines. In the introduction to this second collection, Frazer said, "But today, with the Web, the distribution infrastructure the syndicates possess is becoming less valuable, and is no longer necessary." One of the strip's webpages claims, "The site, UserFriendly.org, attracts more than 2 million visits each month, including more than a half million unique visitors and 15 million page views ...and is now by far the largest web-based comic strip... Compared to more traditional syndicated comics, User Friendly the Comic Strip is catching up very quickly. For example, Dilbert, around since 1986, is syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers. UserFriendly.org boasts an audience equal to 42% of Dilbert’s online audience."
User Friendly can thus be seen as supporting part of McCloud's argument about the transition of comics to the web, but Frazer, O'Reilly, and McCloud decided to publish and charge for a paper version. The ability of both electronic and paper versions to succeed seems to bode well for the future of comic art. The strip and additional information about it can be seen at http://www.userfriendly.org/ and http://www.ufmedia.com.
Raggedy Ann and More: Johnny Gruelle's Dolls and Merchandise. Patricia Hall. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2000. ISBN 1-56554-102-2. $35.
Cartoonists, children's books, and merchandise have been linked since the late nineteenth century. While Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, Berke Breathed, and especially Walt Disney are well known to the contemporary reader, Johnny Gruelle has largely been forgotten. Patricia Hall has been working to reintroduce Gruelle, and this book is the second in a planned trilogy. The first was a biography, Johnny Gruelle, Creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy (1993) and the third planned for spring 2001 will be a bibliography. Gruelle was an artist who moved easily between the worlds of comic strips, political cartoons, and children's books, eventually creating a family business that lasted until the 1960s.
Gruelle's life is recounted briefly by Hall, but readers interested in detail are referred to her previous book. This extremely well-illustrated book concentrates on the physical products derived from Gruelle's imagination. As a cartoonist for the New York Herald, Gruelle created the "Mr. Twee Deedle" comic strip which was merchandized as a doll by the newspaper immediately. While doing the comic strip, he also illustrated children's magazines and books. In 1915, he submitted a design for a patent on Raggedy Ann, a doll that was apparently partially based on characters from his comic strip.
The patent was granted and Gruelle began making his own dolls. Raggedy Ann was not based on a familiar character and initial sales were slow. Gruelle generated interest in the doll by contracting with publisher P. F. Volland for a children's book based on the doll. Other characters he developed, such as the duck Quacky Doodles, proved more popular and merchandising included a cartoon series. By late 1918, Gruelle had completed his book on Raggedy Ann and dolls were produced to be sold with it. The book and doll combination was a success and Gruelle continued producing merchandizable ideas until he died in 1938. His family took over the company and continued licensing Gruelle's characters until they sold the company to a book publisher.
Probably because of marketing concerns, the book is a curious mixture of a business history attractively designed as a full-color coffee table book that includes a price guide. Hall writes to appeal to historians as well as collectors of children's books, dolls, toys, and cartoons. Many sidebar pieces detail specific parts of Gruelle's business efforts, such as books, sheet music, and copyright infringements. Anyone interested in Gruelle, cartoon merchandising, book or doll collecting, or popular culture of the first half of the twentieth century should find something of interest in this book.
Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell. J. D. "Illiad" Frazer. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 2000.
A collection of User Friendly, a free online comic strip, raises some interesting questions about the future of comic art. Frazer's strip is written for a specialized audience of advanced computer users and is published by a company specializing in computer manuals. The strip is done on a computer and lacks backgrounds in the simplified art style that Dilbert made acceptable. Illiad has stated that Breathed's Bloom County was an inspiration, but the humor of User Friendly is extremely dependent on knowledge of computers. A niche market product, reminiscent of earlier specialized work such as Jake's military cartoons, User Friendly is not syndicated, but it still appears in more than 150 college papers and several magazines. In the introduction to this second collection, Frazer said, "But today, with the Web, the distribution infrastructure the syndicates possess is becoming less valuable, and is no longer necessary." One of the strip's webpages claims, "The site, UserFriendly.org, attracts more than 2 million visits each month, including more than a half million unique visitors and 15 million page views ...and is now by far the largest web-based comic strip... Compared to more traditional syndicated comics, User Friendly the Comic Strip is catching up very quickly. For example, Dilbert, around since 1986, is syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers. UserFriendly.org boasts an audience equal to 42% of Dilbert’s online audience."
User Friendly can thus be seen as supporting part of McCloud's argument about the transition of comics to the web, but Frazer, O'Reilly, and McCloud decided to publish and charge for a paper version. The ability of both electronic and paper versions to succeed seems to bode well for the future of comic art. The strip and additional information about it can be seen at http://www.userfriendly.org/ and http://www.ufmedia.com.
Zadzooks on Morrison's Batman
Zadzooks looks at three comic books today - and most interestingly, Grant Morrison's take on Batman. See "Lots of text to distract from 'Batman and Son'" by Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times September 15, 2007. It occurs to me that I haven't been giving Mr. S enough play in this blog. He's been writing on comics in the area for at least a decade, going back to the Times' giveaway experiment Pop Art Times. I'll try to link to his weekly column from now on.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm review in Post
In the Washington Post, September 2, 2007, an A- is given by Evan Narcisse to the new graphic novel Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm, By Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly, Vertigo/DC Comics, $19.99.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
National Portrait Gallery's PROFILE reviews Disney book
See "Book Review - Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler,Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006, 851 pp., by Amy Henderson and click on the pdf link to the whole journal. I saw Gabler speak at Politics and Prose, and enjoyed the talk immensely. Bought the book, haven't read it yet.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Book on superhero films from area author
See "Tracking Heroes: John Flynn Offers An Up To The Second Compendium Of Comic Book Superheroes Moving From Page To Screen" by Daniel Krall, Baltimore City Paper (August 15, 2007)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Postcards review in Las Vegas Weekly
Did anyone make it to the signing at Olssen's last week? I need to stop up there and see if I can still pick up a signed copy...
Meanwhile, here's another review - "Marriage, madmen and monsters", Las Vegas Weekly July 26, 2007, by J. Caleb Mozzocco.
Meanwhile, here's another review - "Marriage, madmen and monsters", Las Vegas Weekly July 26, 2007, by J. Caleb Mozzocco.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Mike Carey reviewed in The Onion
The Devil You Know, the book he signed earlier this week, is reviewed in the paper copy of the Onion that came out on Weds. You can also read it online, and there's some reviews of comics online too, that weren't in the print edition.
For what it's worth, I enjoyed the book and didn't find his text overly descriptive.
For what it's worth, I enjoyed the book and didn't find his text overly descriptive.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Yardley on Thurber
Today's Post has "James Thurber's Humorous Heart" by JONATHAN YARDLEY, Washington Post Saturday, May 12, 2007; C01. For us the key sentence is "One does indeed turn to Thurber for the drawings, but the great glory is his prose." Thus is cartooning dispatched although Yardley writes a good appreciation of Thurber's prose.
Right by Yardley, humorist (the word cartoonist may be verboten in Yardley's neighborhood) Richard Thompson has a good sendup of the Jamestown celebration madness.
In the letters to the editor section, a reader took a swipe at Ohio's Bok:
Bending Reid's Word
Washington Post (May 12, 2007)
The May 5 Drawing Board cartoon by Bok of the Akron Beacon Journal was a disgusting example of just how low the right-wing press will go in painting Democrats as troop haters. The cartoon shows Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) passing a U.S. soldier in an airport and yelling: "LOSER." I assume this cartoon was drawn because Reid recently said the war in Iraq was "lost." However, Reid never said the troops themselves were losers.
-- Eric Crossley
Tomorrow is an interview with a bunch of the women who do voices of Princesses in Shrek the Third. A preview ran in yesterday's Express and it should be a funny article.
Right by Yardley, humorist (the word cartoonist may be verboten in Yardley's neighborhood) Richard Thompson has a good sendup of the Jamestown celebration madness.
In the letters to the editor section, a reader took a swipe at Ohio's Bok:
Bending Reid's Word
Washington Post (May 12, 2007)
The May 5 Drawing Board cartoon by Bok of the Akron Beacon Journal was a disgusting example of just how low the right-wing press will go in painting Democrats as troop haters. The cartoon shows Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) passing a U.S. soldier in an airport and yelling: "LOSER." I assume this cartoon was drawn because Reid recently said the war in Iraq was "lost." However, Reid never said the troops themselves were losers.
-- Eric Crossley
Tomorrow is an interview with a bunch of the women who do voices of Princesses in Shrek the Third. A preview ran in yesterday's Express and it should be a funny article.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Breathed and Lust in the new Onion
Thurday's Onion had a couple of articles on comics.
"Random Rules: Berkeley Breathed" by Tasha Robinson is an interview about his taste in music. The online version is about twice as long as the print one.
The second article is a review by Keith Phipps of the 1950s graphic (in both senses) novel "It Rhymes With Lust" by Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller, and Matt Baker just reissued by Dark Horse, in the same spring when both writers Drake and Waller died.
"Random Rules: Berkeley Breathed" by Tasha Robinson is an interview about his taste in music. The online version is about twice as long as the print one.
The second article is a review by Keith Phipps of the 1950s graphic (in both senses) novel "It Rhymes With Lust" by Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller, and Matt Baker just reissued by Dark Horse, in the same spring when both writers Drake and Waller died.
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