May 06
I’ve always considered Dune and its many sequels more science fantasy than science fiction. Sure, there’s starships and other planets, not to mention sandworm biology, but there’s also a Catholic-like sisterhood with sinister mind powers, swordfights, a Chosen One trope, and a feudal society with emperors, princesses, and dukes. Herbert cribbed a lot from human …
May 04
Cobalt’s axim: If you open up a graphic novel and see psychedelic mountains made of disembodied boobies, it must be French.
Nov 25
Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s pal, got up to all sorts of trouble in the 1950s, so much so that he had his own comic. This was one of the milder issues. Note the comics authority code at the upper right, probably the reason why such bizarre storylines became commonplace — violence and mayhem had become definite …
Oct 16
Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini, exploded onto the publishing scene in the early 1980s. A graphic novel series about, basically, hippy Native American elves who ride wolves, it took the comic world and SF fandom by storm, kick-starting the indie comic movement while also growing out of the earlier adult comic movement of …
Mar 27
Captain Marvel, now riding high at the box office, debuted under the name of Ms. Marvel in 1977 as a spinoff of Spider-man. Maryjane is worshipful, Peter Parker dubious, and J. Jonah Jameson chomping at the bit at her arrival. How about some other superheroines courtesy of random generation…? Superheroines. Swamp Nymph Scarlet Stalker Ms. …
Mar 12
Tales from La Vida: A LatinX Comics Anthology Edited by Frederick Luis Aldama Mad Creek Books, an imprint of Ohio State University Press, 2018 [EXTRA CREDIT: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety] I’m tacking on this book as extra credit to the above …
Oct 31
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Little, Brown & Co., 2017 (10th Anniversary Edition) [Challenge # 5: A book by a local author.] The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a semi-mythic coming of age story of a Native American boy’s freshman year. Arnold Spirit Jr. lives on …
