Bart Simpson: Prince of Pranks

I was a bit disappointed in this collection of Bart Simpson themed comics. Some of which was no real fault of Bongo Comics. Instead, the blame rests solely on trade paperback edition publisher Harper Collins. 

Some of the stories just weren't very good. (Though I think the parody of promotional comics starring Kristy the Clown and a bunch of McDonaldville clones was intentionally bad in a satirical kind of way. And I liked it!) The opener has Bart and Skinner switching roles for a day. Milhouse takes schoolboy Skinner under his wing and persuades him to pull an epic prank on Principal Bart. But before he can do it, Bart cancels school early and that's it. No real punchline to a tale that has a great but cliched plot with some fantastic gags throughout. 

The two tales starring Ralph Wiggum were probably the best. In one, Ralph is taken advantage of by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Then then bullies return but it's Bart to the rescue when he starts a rumor that Ralph fought off a gang of bikers.

I'm currently reading a collection of Futurama comics. Also from Bongo Comics and compromised of a similar bullpen of talent, the Futurama books are far superior to what's inside here. Part of it I think is that less is more. The Futurama issues have just 1 large main story and 2 very small backups, if any at all. The Bart books are all made of shorts about 6-8 pages in length. And yet, each story tries to capture the formula of an episode of the Simpsons with a brief storyline that morphs into the main premise by the second act. An average of 7 pages per story just isn't enough time for a quality story that attempts to check off all the boxes of a Simpsons episode formula. 

Another thing hurting this book is missing talent. Gail Simone, Sergio Aragones and Ian Boothby are all absent. Their creative plots (and in Aragones' case, illustrations) have created some of my all-time favorite Bongo stories starring the residents of Springfield. I'm pretty sure that there won't be very many memories made from reading this volume.

Now for the thing that wasn't Bongo's fault but 100% the blame of publisher Harper Collins. My book was literally falling apart at the seams. At first, I thought that I could eliminate this problem and glue the pages back into the spine. But towards the end, probably the 3rd to last page, I discovered that 1 freaking page was missing!!!

I understand that this book is 15 years old and yes, I bought it used. But this is not the first book from Harper Collins that I have gotten that had this problem. What are they using as book binder glue? Spit?! As much as this was one of my least favorite collections of Simpsons comics, I still want to own a complete run of stories. So I could either trade this book back in, minis the page (I don't think that's ethical) or I hold onto it in hopes of getting a replacement somewhere down the road. It seems like a lot of hassle for a book that I didn't thoroughly enjoy.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Let's Make Ramen!: A Comic Book Cookbook

For once I bought a graphic novel and it was my wife who thought that I had already read it. Let's Make Ramen! is a fully illustrated cookbook about the growing culinary art of making the traditional Japanese noodle and broth dish that isn't fully a soup but it's too liquid to be considered a noodle dish.

The book came out in 2019. I definitely remember putting this on my wishlist that year. (It would be hilarious if my wife actually bought this for me and forgot where she hid it.) Anyway, at a recent trip to Five Below, I found this book for an amazing fraction of the cover price. With an exclamation of 'SCORE!', I swept it up in my arms and promptly made my way to the checkout.

The book is written by Hugh Amano a Japanese American whose exploration of his Asian culture became enamored with the Cult of Ramen and later became inspired to be a chef. Illustrated by Sarah Becon, the artist met Amano while working on a culinary related comic book. Finding a kindred spirit, the pair created this illustrated manual devoted to everything ramen. 

In Let's Make Ramen!, you first get a history of the dish, which compared to sushi, is a dish that is relatively young. Not more than 150 years old, I think. Then you are introduced to a basic recipe. Once you master this dish, you've got the foundation to change up the dish to your liking. There are variations of the stock, the seasoning component known as 'tare', different types of protein, vegetable accouterments, and even different types of noodles! Yes, you can use thicker, broader noodles that resemble linguine. You're also educated on the equipment needed, methods of preparation and storage. 

This really is an all-encompassing work which does more in educating a reader in only 192 pages, than most massive culinary bibles do. The only thing really missing is a more in-depth lesson in sanitation of which the Japanese culture is known for. But, I think that's the culinary educator in me that is longing for that in the realm of food entertainment because it's an issue that is seriously lacking on Food Network and in most, if not all cookbooks.

This book has inspired me. I'm seriously considering doing a lab where half my class makes chicken noodle soup and the other make a more stripped down version of ramen with teriyaki chicken. Then we compare and contrast the two. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd spend a whole week making the basic ramen recipe. But it's just not feasible.

Honestly, I don't think that the average family has the time nor the budget to do everything all at once. So be willing to make one item at a time. Buy some nice plastic containers and freeze things. Focus on stock first. Use a basic package of cheap ramen noodles for a while. Then work your way up to making your own ramen noodles. Add some pre-made Japanese proteins. Then once happy with the noodles, practice on the proteins, and so on and so on. Freezing along the way, eventually you will have everything ready for testing out the final product, created by your hands!

Time. Patience. The ability to adjust. A spark of customization. If you have these 4 elements in your culinary arsenal, you'll soon become another ramen master. Consider this cookbook a marathon and not a quick trek around the block, and you'll get the very most possible out of this graphic novel cookbook.

Worth Consuming!

Rating:10 out of 10 stars.

Superman/Spider-Man #1

This is a case of another time where I wrote this amazing review in my head and somehow went about my way thinking that it was a done deal. Then the other day, I'm looking over my backlog of works that I haven't reviewed yet and there's this issue!

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the legendary first meeting of the Man of Steel and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the big two publishers created not one but two oversized specials! If you're wondering if I bought both books, you're darn tootin' that I did!

This is DC's version. The main story has our two heroes battling Doctor Octopus who has allowed his cybernetic appendages to merge with the CPU of Brainiac!!! It's a fun adventure written by Mark Waid that dives really deep into the impacts two great men made on Peter Parker and Clark Kent. Plus the banter is fantastic and for once I actually thought Otto was funny!

There are also 7 short stories. As with just about any anthology type special, the quality varies. But for the most part, these were pretty good. The meeting of Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson was an interesting look at the women behind 2 of my all-time favorite superheroes. Uncle Ben continues to influence things from beyond the grave when Superboy-Prime attempts to steal Spider-Man's symbiote suit. The Spider-Man 2099 and Batman Beyond story was a disappointment as it has an ending that while epic, leaves you wanting more.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen's first day at the Daily Bugle may be his last when JJJ assigns him to cover the menace of Spider-Man and runs a foul of Carnage instead. Ben Parker is brought up a third time in a prequel tale that takes him to Smallville. Making her second appearance, Lois Lane debates Jonah Jameson on the Jack Ryder show and the topic is superheroes. Finally, Power-Girl shows up in her secret identity at a restaurant for a blind date. The eatery happens to be a front for a crime family and on the night of her big date, it's been targeted for punishment by Frank Castle!

I really enjoyed the main story. It felt like a continuation of the 1976 'Battle of the Century' and the eventual sequel that starred Doctor Doom and the Parasite. Some of the backups were perfect pairings; especially the Lois Lane/Mary Jane Watson teaming and the closing romp between Power Girl and the Punisher. That is something that I would love to see a sequel to! The Jimmy Olsen meet up with Carnage was brilliant but way too short! Having Uncle Ben and Jonathan Kent cross paths was bittersweet and heartfelt. 

I wasn't such a fan of the encounter of the Batman and Spider-Man of the future. It just feel flat and this was the tale that I was looking forward to the most. I also felt that if Superboy-Prime was going to meet a member of the Spider-Verse, it should have been Spider-Ham or Miles Morales or even Ghost Spider. Regular old Peter Parker didn't seem to fit in a multiverse story so complex, I was completely surprised that it was penned by Christopher Priest and not Grant Morrison!

As for the great debate between reporters Lois Lane and JJJ, it should have been a home run. Unfortunately, it was one of those stories that hit upon philosophies and social theory to the point that I tried to dust off my degree in sociology until I realized that I didn't have one. The punchline delivered jointly by Spider-Man and Clark Kent at least kept it from being a complete bust.

A decent read. It just wasn't perfect for such a tribute to one of the most important comic book crossovers of all-time.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Case of the Silent Partner by Erle Stanley Gardner

This is the second of 2 Perry Mason novels that I found during my family's annual 301 Endless Yard Sale Scavenger Hunt. That first book was so unlike what you would expect from an episode of the classic 60s TV show starring Raymond Burr. There was no courtroom scenes! Not so with this book. But The Case of the Silent Partner also wasn't my favorite compared to The Case of the Dangerous Dowager!

A woman who owns a trio of successful flower shops gets visited by her competitor; a somewhat nice fellow who owns a conglomerate of floral businesses. The flower tycoon shows the small business owner that he now owns 5 shares of her company. This triggers the woman to check with the husband of her invalid sister if their 50% shares of stock are still in their possession. The hubby is a bit of a gambler and the florist has never really trusted the bum. 

Brother-in-law promises that he still has the stock. But he refuses to produce it. He has a meeting with the guy he accidentally sideswiped in an automobile accident. This leads the lady to make some phone calls and she learns that a grifter and a mysterious woman were in the car with her in-law at the time of the wreck.

The woman somehow figures out that those 2 have possession of her sister's stock certificate. She goes to the nightclub that they frequent and learns that they gave the stock to one of the owners of the nightclub. She also manages to get the mystery woman to help her get the stock back. To do such, she must have representation. Enter Mr. Perry Mason.

Mason agrees to meet with both women at 1am at his office. But at around 12:30, the mystery woman calls his office, claiming to have been poisoned. On top of that, it's revealed that the club owner with the stock certificate has been murdered! The woman claims that her sister committed the crime. The invalid sibling... who has been at death's door for the first 4 chapters of this book! To save her sister from a life and early death in jail, the woman admits to the crime while hiring Mason to now defend the handicapped sister. 

Balancing both sisters as clients, the woman about the hostile takeover of her floral shops and the sickly sister for murder, Perry Mason and his legal team must save a third woman's life, untangle California business law and solve a murder! 

I'm struck by how different the world was in 1940. Newspapers and radio were your only sources of information. If a person wasn't listed in the phone book directory, you had to scour voter records, question landlords and grease a few palms in order to find them. It makes for thrilling reading, like the chapter where Perry must find his poisoned witness before its too late. For me, growing up in the 70s and 80s before the coming of the internet, it's almost nostalgic. I can imagine for someone born in the 2000s, such a scene might be a living nightmare. Or maybe such privacy would be considered a dream come true...

However, it is due to the lack of information that I didn't like this novel as well. I already mentioned that I have no idea how the main character figured out who had her sister's stock certificate. But she did. Then, the woman goes to the very nightclub where these 2 ne'er-do-wells frequent and just happened to find the mystery woman on the very first try, sight unseen! Remember, there's no Facebook or Instagram. So unless you were a famous person, the odds of knowing what somebody else looks like without much description had got to be an astronomical number! It just felt implausible in a pre-World War II America .

The dialogue was rapid paced and exciting. This is the first novel where I encountered Detective Tragg, the guy who always investigated the crimes of which Perry Mason's clients are accused of. He's supposed to be Mason's 'antagonist', as Tragg is the one trying to arrest the bad guys Perry Mason defends. But I thought he was a great character. Way smarter than Lestrade in so many Sherlock Holmes novels. Tragg is kinda prickly, but in a likable Tommy Lee Jones sort of way.

There's still no Hamilton Burger, the district attorney that never seems able to beat Perry Mason. Technically, we still haven't visited a criminal defense court of law. The courtroom we visit in this story is a civil court, where Mason does his darnedest to make sure that his client doesn't lose her business to her wealthy, and rather intimating rival.

This book was a first edition from 1940. At 278 pages and almost 2 inches thick, I don't understand how those tiny paperbacks my mom read were unabridged and yet, all research that I find states that those are the complete manuscripts. My favorite used book store has got a bunch of those novels and I expect to pick up a few more in the very near future. I might rank this book lower than my first Erle Stanley Gardner read. But I enjoyed it enough to keep on reading more.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium: Volume 1

There were two reasons that I ordered this book new. 1) It advertised as an anthology series that offers many of the later issues of Simpsons Comics that had never been collected before. 2) Each book was to include a papercraft model of popular establishments from the town of Springfield. Characters included. Being involved in the miniature dollhouse and book nook hobby, I was really excited about that. Yes, I know that would mean cutting up a page or two from this book but I wasn't planning on this thing becoming so rare that it would one day pay for a month or two of retirement. What I didn't expect was to learn upon delivery of this book that it wasn't a new release!

When I opened this compendium, it listed the publishing year as 2013. With a couple of bad creases on the cover and a couple interior pages, I was a tad confused, thinking that maybe I was sent the wrong book. So I went all over the Internet, scouring comic book store websites, used book sites, and even Amazon. I even went to the Library of Congress. What I discovered is that despite being sold as a new release, nothing changed. Nothing. The advertising blurb from earlier this year was the same as the year that it was first published! Same ISBN. Same everything. But for some reason, HarperCollins didn't add that this was second print, despite retailers selling this book as a completely new release. 

I'm wondering if Amazon had a few leftover issues on hand and that's what I was sent instead of the new print because nothing had changed. Sure, I am glad that I own this book. I needed those missing issues. It just that had I known that I could have bought a used issue way cheaper than what I did new, I would have gone that route. 

I expect that the other 6 volumes are going to be the same way. Unfortunately, HarperCollins never published the last 20 or so issues in any collection. I'm hoping that possibly once the publisher re-issues the original 7 compendiums that they'll issue an 8th that wraps up the series.

One thing that is maddening is how HarperCollins published the Simpsons books out of order. Sure, very few issues had a cliffhanger and you don't really have to read them in order as they're not canon. I do appreciate that these editions include issues from the spin-off books like the Ralph Wiggum one-shot and issues from the Bart Simpson title.This volume includes the Simpsons Summer Shindig special and the Radioactive Man: The Official Movie Adaptation. Unfortunately, my wishlist/inventory is a giant mess right now. But once I complete the total Bongo run, it should be much cleaner. 

The Radioactive Man faux movie adaptation was great. If you loved the Tim Burton Batman films, you'll love the Springfield themed parody. A joining of the various incarnations of Bart over the multiverse was pretty cool. It was also pretty violent and bloody for a Simpsons story that wasn't from the Treehouse of Horror. 

Keeping with the multiverse theme, 'Crime Spree on Springfield 2' was fantastic. It has Batman and Milhouse as House Boy, finding a shortcut to Shelbyville and discovering their slightly off, yet strangely familiar counterparts.

I enjoyed reading the book immensely. I was very confused when I received it. But I think that I have figured out that I can save money seeking out the first edition volumes. So I won't be waiting on the re-releases. I just hope those missing issues get the Omnibus treatment real soon.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Captain Action: The Classic Collection

In the late 1960s, in answer to the massive popularity of G.I. Joe, Ideal Toy Company introduced Captain Action. If you bought the traditional 12-inch figure, Captain Action was dressed in a paramilitary type outfit, and accessorized with weapons and a working 4-foot diameter parachute. 

So far, this sounds like pretty basic stuff and not something that's going to eat into Mattel's G.I. Joe sales. What made Captain Action different were the extra wardrobes you could purchase for the action figure. You could increase CA's wardrobe, including facial masks, transforming the character into Superman, Batman, The Lone Ranger, Buck Rogers and even Sgt. Nick Fury! Even sidekick Action Boy got into the act, transforming into Robin, the Boy Wonder, Superboy and Aqualad!

An immediate hit, DC Comics was quick to cash in on the craze. Obtaining a license from Ideal, editor Mort Weisinger tasked wunderkind Jim Shooter with writing up the first issue. Given a set of parameters, Shooter had to include all of the characters, vehicles, and accessories. Superman was also to make an appearance in the first issue. But other than that, Shooter had carte blanche over the storyline. That's not saying much.

Wally Wood illustrated the first issue. It would have been amazing to see him draw Captain Action as Flash Gordon or Spider-Man. But as those characters were licensed by competitors, DC had to scrap that popular concept of the Ideal toy line. Instead, Captain Action and his sidekick obtained their powers from several magical coins that boasted powers from a famous mythological god. In the first couple of issues, Action was trying to gather all of the coins before his arch nemesis Krellek did. 

Don't know who Krellek is? Don't feel bad, as readers didn't either. Captain Action's true antagonist, Dr. Evil, didn't appear until the 3rd issue. By then, Shooter and Wood were essentially gone. Gil Kane took on pencil duty with the 2nd issue, religating Wood to inks through issue #3. Gil took over scripting in issue #3. As Dr. Evil didn't have a set origin either, it was determined that Evil was Captain Action's father-in-law. This also made him Action Boy's grandfather. After finding a mysterious amulet, the elderly man was possessed by an alien being. 

Having familiar connections, Captain Action and son wanted to end Dr. Evil's reign of terror while hopefully saving their relative. Unfortunately, actions like enslaving a race of aliens and stealing a nuclear bomb that destroys most of the California coast by earthquake made any sort of redemption nearly impossible. Dwindling sales in both the toy line and the comic book cancelled the series after issue #5 ceased any further attempts at turning Dr. Evil into Professor Good.

In my opinion, Krellek was the better bad guy. The whole alien possessing an old dude and then suddenly looking like a blue alien wearing Space Hippie Jesus mask was preposterous. The story for issue #4 where Dr. Evil enslaves a race of aliens that look like him was the best issue. There is one of those morality tale elements to the story that you see in sci-fi anthologies of the time period. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the story was originally written for insertion in an issue of House of Mystery and that the characters were changed to fit those in the Captain Action line. 

Mark Waid writes a compelling history of the toy line and the terrible decision to remove both Shooter and Wood from the series as this volume's foreword. Not being able to have the protagonist change into any of his superhero personas should have shelved the title from the get go. Yet despite all of the missteps Ideal made with the Captain Action toy line, it has a strong cult fan following to this day. Case in point, this 2022 hardcover collection of DC books was published by IDW and the franchise lives on as a high end toy line featuring new superhero and villain wardrobes that is coveted by collector's young and old!

An interesting read that is more a visually appealing work than a masterpiece of comic book literature. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit: Life Lessons from Pop Culture by Robb Pearlman

A gift from my wife, I had packed this in a box of books to read and somehow overlooked said box until very recently. The 2021 book is about a guy attending some sort of con being held at a hotel. Getting hungry, he stops in at the establishment's tavern. It is here that he stumbles across a Vulcan, a Wookiee, a  Hobbit and an elder. They're actually fellow attendees who are in full cosplay. While waiting for their food and drinks, the quintet examine life through the eyes of pop culture, in particular geek pop culture.

Topics include:

* What does Blade Runner teach us about corporations that manipulate beneficial science?

* Who are the real monsters in works such as Frankenstein and The Walking Dead?

* Why has pop culture made us so afraid of quicksand when its so incredibly rare?

And of course what does it mean to live like a Vulcan, Love like a Wookiee and laugh like a Hobbit?

Obviously, much of the philosophical observations made are through a secular lens. And yet Christianity, nor most world religions are scarcely mentioned. Okay, maybe saying that these philosophies fit under the category of what some would call 'woke' is more accurate. In other words, this book might not be for everyone. There's several comments among the characters about abolishing the patriarchy, living your truth, the evils of white colonialism, and systemic racism. While there's a lot of righteous indignation that is warranted, it's just amazing how much imperfections can be forgiven, as long as you're on these 5 sci-fi and fantasy fans side of things. 

As a Christian, I am guilty of this too. I get sickened when I learn that somebody cheated on their spouse or murdered someone. But like it or not, serial killer Ted Bundy is in Heaven right now. Christ's forgiveness is for everyone. Society's grace is only for those who are liberal it seems.

I think my wife thought that this was going to be a book about life's lessons learned through the eyes of geek culture. It kinda was. But it was more like Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven or John Travolta's Propeller One-Way Coach. More fiction than fact. More questions asked than actually answered. Enjoyable to a fault; this just wasn't my cup of tea. As much as the characters say that they enjoy franchises that enlighten without being preached at, I felt like I was sitting through a 100-page sermon on being politically correct by the author. Maybe someone else will get something deeper out of it than I did after I take it to the used bookstore for trade credit. 

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.