Happy birthday, Chris Isaak!

 

Some books I've read 64

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Intriguing, and of course beautifully written, but for me the book starts to drag a bit in the second half.

The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons

Great oral history of the TV show and the movies. Some bitterness shows up towards the end (Eric Idle!). You can see the similarity to The Beatles, how the members of the group wanted to go in different directions.

Local Hero: Making of a Scottish Classic by Jonathan Melville

Another great book. About a great little film. "Whose baby?"

The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Book one in a longer series. So far four have been published in Norway. Not bad, but the book has a TV series feel to it, including a cliffhanger at the end. Do I want to go on? Not sure.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

A collection of strangely sincere short stories. I read this book back in my teens. I should read The Martian Chronicles next. 

Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati

An early graphic novel. A pop art re-telling of Orpheus and Eurydice taking place in Milan. 

The Silver Surfer: Sentinel of the Spaceways by Stan Lee and John Buscema

Nice art by Buscema, but the whole Woe is me! tone by Lee gets old pretty fast.

Daredevil: Unmasked by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

Great drawings by Colan, never trying to copy Kirby, but man, are the plots silly! Daredevil pretends to have a twin brother, and it goes downhill from there. DD has a lot of quippy lines of dialogue, that probably worked better in Spider-Man. And the villains are boring, too. 

Amazing Spider-Man: Big Apple Battleground by Len Wein and Ross Andru

The final book drawn by Ross Andru. He was on that book a loooong time. Unfortunately, some chapters are inked by Jim Mooney, who was never as good as Giacoia and Esposito. One of the villains is Green Goblin, but with a clever twist. Peter Parker leaves college at the end.

I have no idea what happened to Spider-Man after this and have no interest. This whole story from Steve Ditko through John Romita and Gil Kane to Andru, The Amazing Spider-Man #1 - 185, now collected in ten Epic Collections, is superhero comics at its best. And this is how you colourize superhero comics, with flat colour, no shadings and for pete's sake no blurs!

Happy birthday, Paul McCartney!

 

PAM