Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1Q (Happy Halloween Edition)

   

  In 2011, IDW Publishing obtained the rights to publish the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after Archie Comics commanded the franchise for almost 2 decades. With IDW's new series, co-creator Kevin Eastman retooled the turtles origin for a modern audience. 

    In the first issue, we learn that the turtles and their adoptive father, the rat Splinter, were lab subjects at Baxter Stockman's laboratory. Genetically spliced, they showed signs of intelligence. But at this point, they've not mutated yet. Also, the alien brain creature of Kang is now retooled as a human general, who has a goal to create an army of hybrid super soldiers, has hired out Stockman's company which houses one-day mutant animals.

   Another big change to the origin of the Turtles is that April O'Neill isn't an intrepid reporter but an intern at Stockman's lab. Also, she named the turtles after Renaissance artists and not master Splinter! 

    This first issue wasn't bad, but it left me with more questions than answers. The story ended with a 'to be continued' and that's probably not a bad thing since the turtles have yet to become the radical sewer dwelling Heroes in a Half-Shell. So, the origin continues in future issues, which I don't happen to own currently.

    The art by Dan Duncan, along with coloring by Ronda Pattison were very good. They emulated the early works of Eastman. As a bridging of generations, Eastman even pencilled several of the covers, including this one. 

   Speaking of covers, my copy says in the top left corner 'Happy Halloween.' However, there is nothing Halloween themed in this story. For someone trying to collect holiday tales, this is a disappointment. (It turns out that while issue #1Q was re-released for 2011's Halloween ComicFest as a giveaway, it wasn't Halloween themed. Nor does it seem intended that way)

It's not bad for a TMNT fan such as myself. But I am a purist of the original Eastman and Laird title (and a fan of the cartoon, which the Archie Comics titles were based on.) So, I will probably stick with collecting those.  But I wouldn't be opposed to picking up a trade of this continuing series for the right price.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Night Nurse (Reprints Night Nurse #1-4, 1972)

I rarely buy a book new, especially if it is a comic book. But a few years ago at a lecture on the History of Comic Books, an image of Night Nurse #1 popped up on the screen and my wife exclaimed that she would actually be willing to read that. For years, I searched for an affordable copy to no avail. But with the new Daredevil series coming to Netflix, fate finally intervened.   

 See Night Nurse is apparently a character on the show. (Rosario Dawson plays nurse Claire Temple- and was intended to be Night Nurse, but Marvel Studios won't allow her real name to be used as the company has plans to use the character in a Marvel Cinematic Universe project in the near future.) So in order to both inform new viewers to what the character was supposed to be and make some money off of the property, Marvel re-released the entire run of the groundbreaking publication from the early 1970s.

      Created by Jean Thomas in 1972, Night Nurse is actually Wonder Woman. I kid, but her real name is Linda Carter and she is a student nurse operating during the evening shift at Metro General in New York. The Night Nurse was originally a candy striper in Atlas Comics’ ‘Linda Carter-Student Nurse’ which was more of a romantic-comedy series along the lines of Archie or Millie the Model.  Along with fellow up-and-coming nurses, roommates Georgia and Christine, this Linda is more dramatic, saving lives, fighting injustice and falling in love ( usually with the wrong guy.). Whether the two Linda Carters are the same character is up for debate. But it's a common practice in the comics industry, still used today, to reuse character names in order to maintain the copyright.

     The original idea behind Night Nurse was to introduce girls to comic books. Marvel's Roy Thomas was behind the effort along with the release of ‘Shanna the She-Devil'’ and ‘Black Cat’. Thomas was ahead of his time as the experiment though fondly remembered, was a failure, with Night Nurse being cancelled after only 4 issues.

  

   But like I said, Night Nurse struck a chord with readers as fans, who grew up reading the title, would usher Linda, Christine, and the rest into the modern age of comics in the pages of Nightcrawler and Daredevil.

    

 That brings us to the final reprinted tale in this edition- the first modern appearance of the Night Nurse. It's of Daredevil #80 (2004) and has Linda running a private clinic for superheroes. In this story by some guy named Bendis, Daredevil had been shot and the Night Nurse must save him while a slew of nasties is kept at bay outside by Luke Cage and friends.

   This is a very good collection of rare comic gems. The books from the 70s show their age in terms of the dialogue. The black characters speak in ‘jive’ and everyone under the age of 75 says “right on” when trying to appeal to the younger generation. Also, with all of the unrequited love going around, I thought I was reading a copy of 'Young Romance' instead of a 'superhero' title. Still, this is a great time capsule of Marvel's earliest attempts at relevant comics and the amount of care and quality in them shows.  

Worth Consuming

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Maus (Book I: My Father Bleeds History)

This is it! The book that literally put graphic novels on the map- at least in terms of finding a place on your local library's shelves. Originally published by Art Spiegelman in the pages of his groundbreaking Avante Garde comic, RAW. This first volume collects the first six chapters that Spiegelman, researched, wrote, and illustrated from 1980-86.

  
  Maus is a factual account of the author's father and his time spent in Nazi-occupied Europe. Though the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Nazis as cats and non-Jewish Poles are drawn as pigs, this in NOT a funny animal comic. Even though Spiegelman crafted the characters to reflect Hitler's view that the Jews were vermin to be exterminated, deep down there's a more powerful purpose behind the use of animals in this account of the early days of the Holocaust.

   Think about movies such as Bambi or the Lion King. What's the saddest moments of those classic films? It's when the parents die. For some reason, humans are torn to shreds when anthropomorphic animals die in cartoons. I for one cried like a little girl when Fry’s dog died alone on Futurama.

  I have seen the terrible pictures of Jews rescued from Allied forces at the end of the Holocaust. But nothing in the entire Museum of the Holocaust got to me as a full page splash of several Jewish mice being hung to death for trying to survive in the ghettos of Poland. (One thing did literally destroy me at the museum in Washington DC. It was an actual train car used to transport Jews to the concentration camps. The thought of my wife (who is half Jewish) and our children being put in those death wagons because of something beyond their control (their heritage), was a feeling beyond words.)

   Until finally reading this volume did I learn that this was only the first of two books about Spiegelman's family during World War II. I knew of Maus II, but I thought it was about Art and his father coming to grips with the suicide of his mother. But, all of that actually builds into Art convincing his dad to agree to an account of his time in war-torn Europe in framing sequences set in New York around 1978. Maus II will examine what happened after Art's dad was captured by the Nazis and placed in Auschwitz. I will be reading that volume as well!

This is a classic that must not only be read- but it's memory must not be forgotten! The book's lengthy censorship struggle is the reason why I finally got around to reading it. During last month's Banned Book Week, I was encouraged to pick out a banned graphic novel in a post by the CBLDF. I'm very glad that I finally did read this riveting account of the horrors of the ghettos during World War II. It's hard to read at times and not for kids who are not old enough to read the 'Diary of Anne Frank'- no matter how friendly those mice look on the cover.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Zinc Alloy Vs. Frankenstein (Family Comic Friday, Halloween 2015 Edition)

  As a gigantic tornado threatens Zack’s hometown, the student activates his body armor and assumes the role of Zinc Alloy! The crisis seems averted, that is until the gyros in Zack's suit recalibrate from being spun in the cyclone so ferociously. This results in the robotic suit going wonky and all of Zinc Alloy’s hard work is undone.

 With the town finally in shambles, it's citizens revolt against their mechanical hero. Driven out of town, Zack seeks refuge in an abandoned mansion. Only this creepy home is anything but as Zinc Alloy comes face to face with the King of All Monsters, Frankenstein!

 

 This library edition graphic novel was cute and had a couple of moments that made me laugh out loud. But I felt that the story focused too much on the tornado scene. By the time Frankenstein appears, there's not much book left. In fact, the story ends so abruptly, that I did a double take, looking to see if a page got torn out or something. But alas, this story ends without a definite ending.

  Being a library edition, the back of the book is filled with comprehension questions, writing skills activities, and a glossary of terms. But I think that author Donald Lemke could have used it on himself. He kept having the townsfolk refer to the metal hero as a ‘ mutant.’ At one point, even Zack calls himself such. But if my memory serves me right, donning a suit of metal does not a mutant make. If that was the case, Tony Stark would have been made a member of the X-Men long ago.

  Zinc Alloy Vs. Frankenstein was a good read. There isn't anything scary in it. So, this would be an ideal Halloween read for children of all ages. Even the tornado scene wasn't so bad. I was more afraid when Zack's suit went bonkers. Not great on ending and some terms are greatly misused, but a fun read nonetheless.

  Worth Consuming

Rating; 7 out of 10 stars.

Spook-A-Rama (Family Comic Friday Halloween ComicFest 2015 Edition)

   

Young Cory loves monsters. They were a bonding point with his late father who adored classic horror films. Desperate to keep the memory of his dad alive, Cory dresses up as creepy creatures and plays pranks on the local townsfolk.   

                         
     A friend of his mother's (the town vacuum salesman) has a plan to make a man out of the youngster by having him work in the company's mailroom. But when Cory meets up with his hero famed horror director, Wilbur Atchison, at his movie studio, the boy's world will be turned seriously upside down.

    This week, I choose to examine 'Spook-A-Rama' a free comic book offering at this year's Halloween ComicFest. Written by Philip Kim with art by Rick Koslowski, I had the chance to buy a pack of 25 of these to give away to trick-or-treaters this year. But I wasn't very sure about the content and I passed it up. So, I downloaded a preview of the comic online and from what I read, I am kicking myself for not grabbing this when I had the chance.

   The art was very good and the story, what little I saw was intriguing. The book is based on the classic horror magazine 'Famous Monsters.' I remember this publication as a kid and I thought it was great. It was filled with images of the classic Hollywood Universal monsters as well as fiends from Hammer, Toho, and other studios devoted to horror and sci-fi. If you were a kid who loved monster movies that weren't in the vein of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then this magazine called out to you every trip you'd make to the 7-11.

   Parents, if you are anti-horror film, then this book wouldn't be ideal for your child. In fact, from what I read, this book is not all-ages. I would say that it's more suited for older trick-or-treaters; around 10 and up.

   Unfortunately, I can't give very much more background on this book, other than to make you aware of it. I've tried to do some further research on this book to see if it's a preview of a larger work or continuing series due to do be released at a later date. But I came up with nothing more than the mini-comic preview that I included a link to. (Even Amazon is noticeably quiet about this book!)

    I'm hoping to hit a comic book store on Halloween morning. If I do, I'm planning on snagging up a copy of this book. (It's good to have goals.) If I can obtain it, I'll give it a read and will include an update. Feel free to comment me with any further info about Spook-A-Rama you might come across as well. Happy Haunts- er I mean reading!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating of Preview pages: 9 out of 10 stars.

Tales of the New Gods

An eclectic collection of stories featuring Jack Kirby's Fourth World. Some of the tales were originally explored by the King himself whereas others expound or even completely develop some the origins of the various background characters that inhabit New Genesis and Apokolips. Featuring the awesome writing and artistic talents of John Byrne, Mark Evanier, Frank Miller, Steve Rude, Art Adams, and dozens more, this is a volume you don't want to miss.

    The episodes in the volume were originally printed in Mister Miracle Special, Jack Kirby's Fourth World, and Orion. That in no way means that you shouldn't collect Fourth World or Orion because with the exception of the Mister Miracle Special, the other chapters reprinted here were backup features to those titles. If you was to omit them from your collection would mean that you would be missing out on two dynamic titles from the 90s as each story is only about 4-8 pages long (and the titles Tales of the New Gods were contained are about 4 times more in length.) So if you were to find Orion or Fourth World in a dollar box or cheaper, you would still be making a wise investment in completing your Fourth World collection.

    I knew about this when I bought this book at a used bookstore a while back. I was so desperate to read more adventures about the New Gods, that I gladly shelled out some hard earned cash knowing very well, I will probably sell this book once I collect the previously mention titles that contain these legends.

    If you are new to Kirby's Fourth World, I strongly encourage this book as a primer. Some of Kirby's work isn't easy to dig into, particularly New Gods. This work is the perfect way to learn of the backstory of such important characters like Darkseid, Highfather, and the Infinity Man; all of which Kirby plotted out their origins but never got around to diving into in his Fourth World titles in the 70s as the entire line was cancelled in less than 2 years due to poor sales.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Feynman

   It seems like everywhere I go right now, Richard Feynman is there. From a factual account of the Oppenheimer's involvement in the Manhattan Project (Fallout) to Jonathan Hickman's alternate history of the program in the pages of the Image series of the same name to an article about the strange quirks of famous people on Cracked.com; I just keeping running into Feynman. Why, even his van achieved some notoriety when it appeared on an episode of the Big Bag Theory a couple of weeks ago. It seems that the noted mathematician and physicist has achieved that rare rock star status of Einstein or Hawking in which they are more than science royalty but pop culture icons!

   From my recent readings, including this graphic novel by Jim Ottaviani (who also wrote Fallout) and Leland Myrick, Feynman has become my personal favorite genius (he's also Sheldon's on Big Bang Theory.) Feynman is very down to earth and while he looks at the mysteries of the universe with an analytical mind, he's not opposed to the idea of a creator nor does he claim to know or even understand all of the puzzles of science. 

   From Feynman's odd hobby of picking locks while at Los Alamos to his attempts to join a Carnival krewe in Brazil, it didn't matter if the subject was trivial or not, as long as his continuing self-education exercised his mind it was a subject worth studying for the Nobel Prize winner. This book maps just about every step of Feynman's life, but it's not in linear order. Just as his autobiographies rambled out of sync with his personal timeline, this graphic novel jumps from time period to time period. Thankfully, unlike Hickman's 'Manhattan Projects', Ottaviani and Myrick are keen to inform the reader of the year in which events unfold.

    While I enjoyed the heck out of this book, it was not an easy read. But that's okay. Complexity doesn't have to equal enjoyment. In at least 2 sections of this book, Ottaviani and Myrick place Feynman behind a lectern as his attempts to explain to the reader his award-winning theory on QED. It has something to do with how light particles reflect off of a surface but not at the same time or in the same fashion every time. (Please, don't ask me to explain more because I would be doing a terrible disservice to both the genius behind the theory and to you my loyal blog readers.)

    Even though understanding his groundbreaking theories were not easy for me to accomplish, I am in no way turned off by Richard Feynman or his work. In fact, the author posted an extensive assortment of suggested readings on Feynman that have inspired me to pick up a few in the coming new year. I am particularly interested in his mostly autobiographical works 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' and 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?'

    Feynman is an interesting read that like the physicist himself, challenges the reader to think, expand, and grow with every life experience. Don't be intimidated by scientific jargon in this 2011 work because even the late physicist's didn't have all the answers either. Look at this as a doorway to world of new ideas and when someone says to you that graphic novels are kids stuff, show them one of Feynman's formulas and ask them if they think a 5-year old could solve it or not? 

   Worth Consuming

    Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.