Watchmen: The Art of the Film book review

Aperlo, Peter. Watchmen: The Art of the Film. London: Titan Books, 2009.
256 pages, $40 (hc).
ISBN-10: 1848560680, ISBN-13: 978-1848560680

Unsurprisingly, The Art of the Film complements and somewhat overlaps The Film Companion. It focuses more on the film’s design and special effects. Of special interest to comic book readers is concept art by Adam Hughes, David Finch and John Cassaday, prop art by James Jean and new art by Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins including three pages drawn as a new alternative ending to the comic book, and thus the movie.

The only word to describe this movie, and this resulting book is ‘lush.’ An ad for The Veidt Method (Page 13) quotes comic books’ one-time ubiquitous Charles Atlas self-improvement ads. Dozens of prop newspapers hang in a hallway, with decades spanned in their headlines, waiting for approval to use in the movie. Production manager Alex McDowell explained part of the rationale for such detail, “This film is interesting because environments really have to represent the characters iconically, because you are in this very complex, fluid time stream back and forth. You need something to ground you when you cut back to something that’s 1970 or ’77 or ’85.” (p.28-29) The small black & white television shown in the original Nite Owl’s apartment on p. 39 is actually the same model that this reviewer had in his bedroom as a teenager.

The Introduction chapter gives the basic rationale behind the design and look of the movie. Concept Art has the initial redesigns of characters, the storyboards and the new ending by Gibbons and Snyder. Several pages focus on James Jean’s painting of Silk Spectre I’s World War II propaganda poster. Jean painted her in both Norman Rockwell and Vargas’ styles. Production Art focuses more on how a scene is actually laid out and what it will look like – an example is the cemetery for the Comedian’s funeral which is shown as a painting and a set of elevation drawings. This leads naturally into the Sets chapter, which again shows design artwork and stills from the finished movie; here a good example is Dr. Manhattan’s apartment or Adrian Veidt’s office.

Props drills down into more detailed pieces especially, and unsurprisingly, weapons although it also includes the newspapers seen waiting for approval in the Introduction, Rorschach’s diary, Watchmen action figures from Veidt’s office (sculpted for the film by Neville Page, but the viewer can now own a set as a result of the movie, as reality and fiction intertwine). Moore and Gibbon’s original story had a secondary story running through it – a knock-off of an EC pirate horror comic called The Black Freighter. Interleaving that into the movie would have been impossible, so Snyder created an animated direct-to-video version which went on sale before The Watchmen opened. A few pages show artwork from the ‘comic book’ and the resulting animation.

The Owlship, a flying version of Batman’s Batmobile, gets a chapter to itself, as do Costumes. Both are filled with production artwork and the final results. The book ends with a look at the multiple poster campaigns designed for the movie. Like The Film Companion, this book is well-done and should appeal to those interested in more information than the movie alone could provide.

Watchmen: The Film Companion book review

Aperlo, Peter. Watchmen: The Official Film Companion. London: Titan Books.
176 pages, $19.95 (pb), $29.95 (hc)
ISBN-10: 1848560672 (pb), ISBN-13: 978-1848560673 (pb), ISBN-10: 1848561598 (hc), ISBN-13: 978-1848561595.

Watchmen, a movie that I thought would never be made due to its absolute need for familiarity with comic book superhero tropes, is generating merchandising and spinoffs just like the original comic books did over two decades ago. The movie audiences’ familiarity with DC Comics characters such as Superman and Batman apparently carried over to acceptance of the Watchmen characters which Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had based on Charlton Comics’ superhero knockoffs of the DC heroes.

Titan Books has put out some handsome volumes on the making of the movie. To long-time American readers, Titan was best known for repackaging DC and Marvel comics for the British market, frequently collecting material like Neal Adams’ Batman in black and white. More recently, they have been the source for reprints of British works including comic strips like the excellent James Bond series. Now, as it publishes high quality books about the making of movies based on comics, the company has moved into a market held by Chronicle Books and Hyperion. This business decision was probably partly motivated by the success of books such as “The Art of (Our New Animated Movie)” which now accompany every new animation release.

The Official Film Companion is a lovely book. It is largely a photography book with a small amount of text, as these books tend to be. The printing is of excellent quality, and is far higher than earlier books of this type such as those that came out for the first Batman series. The book is divided into seven chapters: Pre-Production, World of Watchmen, The Characters, Production, Post-Production, Making Manhattan and Conclusion.

Pre-Production features some interesting artwork by other comic book artists, but is mostly devoted to background material such as set and prop designs. World of the Watchmen demonstrates the inherent difficulty of a book like this – the ‘history’ of the Watchmen’s world is written straightly and shown in photographs. Then director Zach Snyder is quoted. “What does [being a superhero] do to you?” Snyder asks … “Does it make you crazy? Does it make you a recluse? Does it make you lose touch with humanity?” (p. 38). The book then continues on describing the formation of the Minuteman team in the 1940s. The Characters, a chapter describing each one in some detail, has the same problem differentiating between the character’s reality and the actor’s reality. The next three chapters examine how the movie was actually made, especially the special effects. The chapter on Dr. Manhattan has many pictures of the motion-capture suit, and decisively settles the issue of how much of Billy Crudup’s anatomy is actually shown on the screen: none, except for his face.

Overall, this is a very well-produced, typical example of this type of book. If you are interested in knowing more about the film, or if you like looking at cool photos of props or special effects, you’ll find something of interest in the book.

Soon to come - reviews of The Art of the Film and Portraits.

Thanks to Katharine Carroll of Titan Books for providing review copies. A revised copy of this review will run in the Fall 2009 International Journal of Comic Art.

Book review: Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories

This book came over the transom a few months ago, and I'm just catching up to reviewing it. This review should also appear in print in the International Journal of Comic Art's 11:1 issue in the late Spring.




Owen King and John McNally, editors. Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. Free Press, 2008. 432 pages. $16.00. ISBN-10: 1416566449; ISBN-13: 978-1416566441.

Superhero novels have been published off and on since George Lowther’s 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman. Most times these books are based directly on existing comic book superheroes, frequently due to a media tie-in, as in the novel and the radio show in which Lowther wrote for both. The 1960s saw Batman novels due to the television show, and Marvel Comics had a series of novels based on their superheroes in the 1970s. In recent years, many of these types of books, frequently labeled ‘media tie-in’ have been produced, but this book hearkens back to a different trend. In the 1970s, some superhero novels such as Robert Mayers’ 1977 Superfolks attempted to be ‘serious fiction.’ This trend continued with infrequent novels such as 1994’s What They Did to Princess Paragon by Robert Rodi until the recent success of Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem inspired new attempts.

Of the twenty-two stories in the book, six have previously appeared, and of that six, three of them were in the Virginia Quarterly Review. Although the author notes at the end list each one’s favorite superhero, judging from their answers, it appears that few of them are serious superhero comic book readers and none are comic book writers. This lack of familiarity with the genre can lead to some awkward or uninteresting writing at times.

The book starts off strongly with Stephanie Harrell’s “Girl Reporter,” a strong take on an alternative Superman – Lois Lane type of relationship, told from the reporter’s point of view. “The Quick Stop 5®” by Sam Weller is a good example of a story that would not work well in a comic book, but partly because Weller mocks the genre. The characters gain their powers in a typical freak accident, but the powers are not necessarily ones that would be desired. Prophylactic Girl, with rubber powers, also has a condom tip on her head while Dip is a walking wad of chewing tobacco in the mold of Swamp Thing or Man-Thing. The story is a satire, and is amusing though. John McNally’s “Remains of the Night” is another satire in which the narrator appears to work for a hero named the Silverfish – one can only go in one direction with a premise like that although McNally’s writing is competent. “The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children” by Will Clarke takes the premise of the X-Men, mutant children in a special school, and turns it on its side. Clarke wrote, “Unfortunately, the Redbird didn’t possess the necessary might to be a major-league superhero. In the world of superpowers, flight was pretty much table stakes. … So the Redbird was relegated to working in the superhero farm leagues. … However as the years passed, it became apparent that the Redbird had moved to Shreveport for less-than-savory reasons. Turns out the Redbird came to our town not just for the easy work, but for our chronically bored housewives, our prodigal daughters, and our all-too-easily seduced Baptist Ladies Prayer Circle.” (p. 110) The children of his liaisons end up becoming a problem for the whole town.

Another story that alters a typical superhero tale is “Mr. Big Deal” by Sean Doolittle, in which a police officer’s superpower is that he can disable other peoples powers permanently. His father, a superhero called The Hard Bargain, never felt comfortable around him because his son could take away his powers at any time, but now the father lies in a coma in a hospital bed because “For Four decades, in the service of the common good, he absorbed gunshots, stabbings, conflagrations, falls from great heights, and the kind of damage that would spread a natural over a country mile like so much fertilizer. And then, finally, little by little, my father’s jungle of internal scar tissue began to strangle his won organs, shutting him down one function at a time.” (p. 298) The story ends with a twist that O. Henry might have tried.

Some of the stories, especially the shortest ones do not work quite as well, but the collection as a whole is worth reading especially if you have an interest in the superhero genre. I am not sure if this type of fiction is sustainable in the long run, but one might as well enjoy it while it appears. The book is capably illustrated throughout by Chris Burnham who has worked for Image Comics. The cover photograph and design is well done too.

New York Times' comics gifts recommendations

It's tomorrow's news, but see "Holiday Books: Comics," DOUGLAS WOLK, New York Times Book Review December 7, 2008. I'm in agreement with the second half of his recommendations and although I haven't read 'Swallow Me Whole' yet, I do have it.

OT: Bill Willingham's most important book

There's nothing to do with Washington in this essay, but I like Willingham's work and have since he was writing about undead superheroes a long time ago. So check out the Book Reporter's blog for Bill Willingham's most important book.

And here's more info from publicist Nicole Bruce about the larger project which is neat:

Bookreporter.com's Author Holiday Blogs

Many great writers share that their path to publishing started by being a voracious reader. To celebrate this season of giving --- and getting --- more than thirty authors are sharing their favorite memories of giving or receiving a book at the holidays on the Bookreporter.com Author Holiday Blog. For example, International best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark reminisces about the books that she was overjoyed to find under the Christmas tree during her childhood, while her daughter and co-writer, Carol Higgins Clark, theorizes that her most popular character, private detective Regan Reilly, may have had her roots in books given to her as a young girl. Meanwhile, Wendy Corsi Staub tells us why Christmas always means Little Women to her.

Upcoming blogs include a piece by Francoise Mouly, who reminisces about the intimate experience she shared over a comic strip with her now-husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman, during the early stages of their relationship, and how that event forever changed the way she approached the solitary act of reading. Head over to Bookreporter.com each day until Christmas to read these essays and others from David Baldacci, Laura Pedersen, Ad Hudler, Kristin Hannah, Garth Stein, M.J. Rose, Mary Kay Andrews and more.

The blogs can be read each day at: http://www.bookreporter.com/blog/blog/index.asp

Express on Casarosa and Delisle

Here's Scott Rosenberg on two good books The Venice Chronicles and Burma Chronicles - "Around the World: Graphic Novel Travelogues," Express December 2, 2008.

Books I've liked lately

I don't have the inclination, nor the discipline to do a 'year in review' column, but here's a few titles I've enjoyed lately. Of course, I've got tons unread so if a title that I've mentioned buying recently (Derf, Get Your War On) isn't on here, I probably just have gotten around to it yet.

Bourbon Island 1730 - Apollo and Trondheim tell a tale of a search for the dodo on Reunion Island. The search quickly gets derailed by pirates, romance and a brewing war between ex-slaves and the island's government. It's taken me a little while to get used to Trondheim's funny animal characters, but now I enjoy them.



Skitzy by Don Freeman - this is a minor graphic novel from 1955, but it's enjoyable. It could run in today's New Yorker without too much trouble. Freeman is best known today as a children's book author, but this story is for adults and tells about the conflict between a man's artistic and professional sides. There's an excellent afterword with information on Freeman's wide-ranging professional career.



The Venice Chronicles by Enrico Casarosa - Casarosa is an Italian artist working in the US on animation. This book is a graphic travelogue of a trip with his girlfriend back to Italy where they go exploring Venice, meeting his family, and running into Hugo Pratt's daughter. It's done in a sketchy style with watercolor that is very appealing. I bought mine from Casarosa's website and got a little sketch in it. I bought all his other books at the same time - they're slighter sketchbooks, but still fun.




Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer - I talked to Chris at HeroesCon and bought some of his artwork so I'm thrilled to see this out. It's another pirate story, this time in the grand swashbuckling tradition of Rafael Sabatini. The Crogan family is apparently given to much derring-do and this is the first installment. Other members have been gunfighters, secret agents and French Legionnaires. In this "Catfoot" Crogan is a reluctant pirate, but proves to be quite good at it. Chris' art style is more cartoony than one might expect in an adventure tale, but he's got a fine handle on action (see the bottom of page 75 for example). I'm definitely looking forward to more in this series.



Various sketchbooks by Ryan Claytor - Ryan's been doing comics-format journals and publishing them for a while. I ran into him online and liked the idea of that so I bought them all from him. He's kind of like Harvey Pekar with drawing ability and better-controlled angst (although I've got issues with his music tastes that I don't have with Harvey - sorry Ryan). I'm reading these now, and enjoying them, but I seem to have bought the last copy of his masters thesis in comics form.

Book review: European Comics in English Translation: A Descriptive Sourcebook.

I've submitted this to the International Journal of Comic Art for the Spring 2009 issue, but I think I've got a different audience here. If not, read it twice; it's short, it won't hurt too much.

Randall W. Scott. European Comics in English Translation: A Descriptive Sourcebook. McFarland & Company , 2002. 401 pages. $75.00. ISBN-10: 0786412054; ISBN-13: 978-0786412051.

Although the comic art form is almost four hundred years old – dating reasonably to the popularity of British satirical prints in 1729 – there has been very few scholarly bibliographical works available to the average researcher. American studies have been particularly slow to follow in the footsteps of the British who began cataloguing their prints as early as 1870. American comics bibliography took approximately a century to start after the first comic art ‘golden age,’ that of editorial cartoonists, but it is growing strongly now. Randy Scott is one of the key figures in the field, having worked to build Michigan State University’s Comic Art Collection for two decades.

In this book, Scott has provided an annotated bibliography for European albums that are available in a variety of stand-alone forms in English. The bibliography is arranged by creator and all of the books listed in it are available at the MSU library. Since he does not include serials, stories from Heavy Metal magazine, which has frequently published translated material in both single and multi-issues, is not included. Given the amount of material that has appeared in Heavy Metal and nowhere else, this is an unfortunate decision, although possibly the only practical one. In spite of this, Scott lists 543 albums, along with publication information, and more impressively, plot summaries for the albums. The plot summaries mean that the book’s index can be used to find items of particular interest, such as the randomly selected “cross dressing” which is linked to six citations. As with any work of this type, some points are arguable. The genre ‘funny animal’ probably would have been a helpful index term to link to books like Benoit Sokal’s Inspector Canardo. Although his stories belong to the genre of crime fiction and are not funny at all, Canardo is a duck.

Scott also included citations for reviews when he knew of them; an example can be seen in the listing for Mattotti’s Murmer which includes listings for two reviews from The Comics Journal. Most helpful of all may be his “Author/Translator Notes & Index” which gives brief biographical information as well as references to albums cited in the book, and source material that the biographical information was found in. An example of this is:

Madsen, Frank. Danish artist, writer, and translator, born in 1962. Annotated here are Kurt Dunder in Tirol (album 299), which he wrote, drew, and translated, and Sussi Bech’s Nofret: Kiya (album 27), which he translated. Source: DANISH (i.e. Danish Comics Today, Copenhagen, 1997), p. 104-105.

This type of additional biographical information can be very useful especially since Scott’s book covers the whole continent and is not segregated by country. The sole reason this reviewer would have for not recommending the book to anyone interested in learning about comics beyond America is the cost. The list price is far beyond what a paperback volume of this length should cost.

Steve Heller reviews Mauldin, Panter, Baseman and Wacky Packages

"The Artist at War," Reviews by STEVEN HELLER, New York Times Book Review July 27, 2008

Book review: Marvel Graphic Novels and Related Publications

This will appear in the fall's International Journal of Comic Art, but I'll give Rob a plug here as well.

Robert G. Weiner. Marvel Graphic Novels and Related Publications: An Annotated Guide to Comics, Prose Novels, Children's Books, Articles, Criticism and Reference Works, 1965-2005. McFarland, 2008. $49.95. ISBN-13: 978-0786425006. www.mcfarlandpub.com or 800-253-2187.

Rob Weiner, a librarian at Texas Tech University, has attempted a Herculean task in this amazingly ambitious annotated bibliography. Marvel’s publishing history runs for over sixty years and, through licensing, covers dozens of publishers. In his preface, he notes, “This volume is intended to be a handbook, not only for the Marvel Comics fan and collector, but also for academic, public, and school librarians, who want to include Marvel graphic novels in their collections. While many of the publications in this work are known to most Marvel collectors, it is my hope that even the most knowledgeable collectors will find something new in it. There are some entries in this volume, which, to my knowledge, describe material not documented anywhere else.”
Weiner lists citations with annotations for all kinds of publications from Marvel. He has attempted to bring some order to the citations by breaking them up into seventeen categories, three of which are appendices, along with two introductory “Background Highlights” sections on the history of both graphic novels and Marvel Comics.

A typical citation, chosen at random (p. 73), reads:

DeFalco, Tom, Pat Olliffe, Al Williamson, et al. Spider-Girl: A Fresh Start. New York: Marvel, 1999. ISBN: 0785107207. Reprints Spider-Girl 1-2.
Peter Parker’s teen-age daughter, May Day, inherits amazing powers from her father. She becomes Spider-Girl, much to her father’s dismay. She defeats Crazy Eight and encounters Dark Devil.

One can see both the strengths and limitations of bibliography here. One is given the basic information about the book, along with a plot summary of the story and who Spider-Girl actually is, except that in standard Marvel continuity, Spider-Man does not have any children. In fact, since 2008, he is not even married – a deal with the devil erased his marriage to save his Aunt May’s life. So one must come to a project like this with a good bit of existing knowledge, namely that Marvel published a series of comic books set in their character’s ‘future’ in which the normal aging not usually permitted fictional characters had taken place.

As mentioned above, Weiner broke up the book into sections. The major category “Marvel’s Superheroes” is divided into sections like “Major Characters, Teams, and Team-Ups” which is then further reduced into subsections like “Conan / Kull” and “Fantastic Four / Dr. Doom and Inhumans.” A sampling of other subsections include “Epic Comics Graphic Novels,” “Marvel/DC Crossovers,” “Movies and Television,” “Prose Novels” and “Scholarly Publications,” the last of which cites several articles from this Journal. The three appendices include single line citations for 2005 publications, game books, and possibly unpublished books for which an ISBN exists.

As with any project of this size and complexity, one can quibble. Weiner’s introduction is too concerned with rationalizing the importance of the study of comic books. Anyone willing to even glance at his bibliography does not need to read an argument which sums up “Epic Stories like Earth X, Kree/Skrull War and Marvels exhibit as much character development, and thought, as any work by Shakespeare, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Margaret Mitchell, or Jack London.” (p. 7) By engaging theoretical critics, Weiner gives them both too much credibility and ammunition. His work is a bibliography of an aspect of popular culture, and as such, does not need defense or apology, let alone attempting to reach an intellectual high ground. Any library or scholar interested in studying Marvel Comics, and especially their publishing history, should add this bibliography to their collection.

Evanier on Kirby reviewed by Rosenberg

See "Other Worlds: 'Kirby: King of Comics'," by Scott Rosenberg, online at Express April 23, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.