My 3 year old has been slowly getting into the concept of Star Wars. He hasn’t seen any of the movies, he just knows some of the characters because he has several books I read to him at night featuring the more popular ones. Not surprisingly, he gravitates to the more visually interesting ones; Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Yoda, etc. And, of course, he loves lightsabers.

So, back in early October, when I saw that our local Barnes & Noble store celebrated Star Wars Reads Day with costumed characters, book readalongs and lots of fun activities, I knew I had to take PJ.  He already loves Barnes & Noble, but to go there and see Darth Vader?  Yeah, this had to happen.

We got there around 11:30am and there were several costumed characters. First PJ and I got a pic with one of my favorite types of stormtroopers, the Biker Scout.

PJ was a little shy at first seeing these giant, life size representations of the characters in his book, but he was sort of giggling with happiness as well.

Next we saw a Sandtrooper.

And then finally, the man himself. Darth Vader.

PJ was in Heaven at this point. He loved Vader. Later on he would walk up to Vader and the other stormtroopers and tell them that “his name is PJ”. So cute.

There was only one character PJ was actively afraid of.  That was the Jawa.  I don’t think he’d ever even seen a Jawa before, so it scared him.  Consequently, he wouldn’t get a picture with it.  However, afterwards, that’s the one he asked the most questions about.  He wanted to know more about the Jawa.

Whenever we’ve gone back to Barnes & Noble after this, he asks if Darth Vader and the Jawa are going to be there.  He also has been showing lots of interest in my Star Wars figures.  I have a bunch of loose ones on display upstairs as well as a bunch stored away in plastic divider boxes.  I’ve given him about 4 figures to play with; a stormtrooper, Darth Vader, Darth Maul and The Emperor.  He also wants a Boba Fett really bad, but I don’t actually have one at the house except for a vintage one that is on display.  I’ll have to dig into my stored boxes to find one.

I can’t wait until he can actually see these movies.  I’ll probably show them to him sometime in 2015 right before the new Disney Star Wars movie is released.  He’ll be five.  I think that’ll be PERFECT.

In 1902, just two years after writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but 2 years before the first Oz sequel, L Frank Baum wrote The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. It was illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark.

This was Baum’s attempt to tell the origin of Santa Claus and explain the beginnings and reasons for all of our different beliefs and practices around Christmas time. It was a very ambitious undertaking.  But Baum does it in his usual dreamy, fairy tale-like manner and, for the most part, it works.

Baum sets up the world by describing all the magical immortal creatures that oversee various aspects of Nature.  We see creatures such as Fairies who watch over humans, Wood Nymphs who watch over forests, Gnomes who watch over the rocks and Ryls and Knooks who watch over the flowers and animals, respectively (along with many other creatures I’ll not name).  All of these creatures are presided over by the Great Woodsman, Ak.

One day Ak stumbles upon a lost child and allows a Wood Nymph, Necile, to adopt him.  Necile names him Neclaus (Nicolas).  Santa is raised by these magical, immortal creatures in the forest until Ak decided Claus must learn more about his own people and takes him on a trip into the human world.  Santa is shocked and frustrated by the wars, greed, child neglect and child abuse he witnesses.  Ak encourages him to not forsake the mortals as he is one of them.  Santa decides to do something about what he’s seen.

Santa moves to the nearby Laughing Valley where all the magical creatures help him build a workshop and get him started making toys.  The idea Baum posits here is that toys don’t currently exist.  Santa invents them when he makes his first toy which then transfixes the children.  So he continues to do it and his operation becomes bigger and bigger as he tries to help more and more children.

We get a lot of scenes with Santa meeting children and setting up his workshop.  We see him deciding to venture out and deliver toys and also building a sludge (sleigh) and getting deer to help him pull it when the load becomes to large for him to carry on foot.  We also see Santa having to get permission from the immortal creatures to use the deer overnight.  In fact, Baum actually changes a few rules here.  Santa gets permission to use 10 reindeer for his travels, not the usually depicted 9 (including Rudolph).  While Rudolph wouldn’t be created until the late 1930s, the other eight reindeer were first immortalized in the 1823 Clement Moore poem The Night Before Christmas.  However, I don’t think Clement Moore’s poem really took hold or gained mainstream popularity until the 1930s.  And while that poem famously named Santa’s eight reindeer (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen), Baum had 10 completely different reindeer names; Glossie, Flossie, Racer, Pacer, Reckless, Speckless, Fearless, Peerless, Ready and Steady.  Sounds weird to hear Baum’s reindeer names today.

Later on, we see the rise of evil cave dwelling creatures who hate Santa called Awgwa.  They want to stop Santa’s nightly deliveries.  Ak the Woodsman gathers all the immortal creatures into an army to fight the Awgwas in order to get them to stop.  Here’s an illustration from the book of Ak the Woodsman during that battle.

It’s all pretty awesome.  Baum handles it in his usual style.  After the battle, Santa makes deliveries a few more years and we see that he is aging.  He becomes very sick.  The immortals convene a meeting to see if they can help Claus and we get to see a LOT more of the magical creatures that inhabit this world.  We even see a familiar face; the Gnome King, who would make an Oz appearance in the third book Ozma of Oz.  There are subtle differences in the two characters though.  In this book the word Gnome is spelled normally, while in the Oz books it’s changed to Nome.  Also, the character isn’t evil or an antagonist in this book like he is in Oz.  The Gnome King is clearly a title that is used by different Gnomes, so the Gnome King in this book is not necessarily the same character as the one from Oz.  But it’s interesting to see this concept here five years before it would be used in Oz.

The story is good and fun.  I like how Baum tried to work in how different traditions like the chimney and stockings were begun.  It’s a fairly layered and detailed story.  Much more so than I was expecting with a lot of typical Baum magical flourishes.  It’s definitely a light, fun read that I enjoyed.  And the illustrations are pretty great, too.  Check out the website for the University of Minnesota UMedia archives which have scanned a copy of this book including all the illustrations.  They also have about 30 other L Frank Baum books scanned and up for your browsing pleasure.

Two years after writing this Santa Claus adventure, Baum would write a “semi-sequel”. It was a 1904 short story called A Kidnapped Santa Claus.  It was a short 15 pages or so and featured Santa Claus and his magical helpers; the Knooks, Ryls, Fairies and Nymphs.  On his way out to deliver toys Santa is stolen off the sleigh and held captive by several daemons who live in nearby caves and represent selfishness, greed, envy, hatred and repentance.  The daemons want to stop Santa because none of the children are acting selfish, greedy or envious now that they are receiving toys every year.  So they are holding Santa hostage for one night so kids won’t receive gifts and they’ll once again cause children to act naughty.

It’s a short story.  Literally.  And it’s pretty thin.  If it had been included in the original book, it would have barely been a chapter.  It’s not bad, but it’s too short to really be anything other than meh.  Read it for completeness, but you’ll barely get a full story out of it.

How did this happen!?  It’s that time of year again where I pick my favorite books of the year?  Is 2013 over already?  WTF?!  Time is just flying by.  My son is 3, my daughter is 1 and I’m writing the fifth in my series of year end book reports.  THAT. IS. COCONUTS.

Anyway, if you’ve read this article in the past you know I keep my book log online.  Here’s the link to my Book Log on Google Spreadsheet.  There are tabs for every year since 2007.  Take a look on the 2013 tab and you  can see that I read 58 books/comics/graphic novels this year.  That’s way low compared to 2012 in which I read 80 books/comics/graphic novels.  However, having two kids will do that to you.  Those totals include not only books I read for the first time but anything I re-read for the second (or more) time.  For the list below, though, I’ll only take into account books I read for the first time in 2013.

And I actually have FOUR books on this list that were released in 2013.  That may be a personal record.

Below you will find, first, my list of favorite books and following that my list of favorite comic books/graphic novels.  Enjoy.

Books

Impulse (Jumper Book 3) – Steven Gould – I talked about this series on the Nerd Lunch podcast last year and I sort of reviewed the first two books on the blog back in 2009.  I enjoyed the movie for what it was but it led me to the books which were published first.  And the books are excellent.  There are three of them; the original Jumper from 1992, the 2004 sequel, Reflex, and then this third book which was released early 2013.  All three books are excellent, but you’ll need to read the first two before reading this book.  There’s a lot of continuity that flows throughout the books.  Oh, and if you hated the movie, don’t worry, other than sharing a few of the same characters, the stories are completely different between the two.  Just a warning, though, there is another “Jumper” book by Steven Gould called Jumper: Griffin’s Story.  That book is not really a part of this series, it’s a part of the movie series.  Confusing? Yes, but that’s the way it is.  Read my blog review above for a little bit more explanation.  All that aside, this is a fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed.  And hopefully we don’t have to wait 10 years for another Jumper book.

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards Book 1) (2006) – Scott Lynch – I forget how I first stumbled across this book, I think it was while I was searching the store on my Nook.  I was intrigued by the title and the premise. It’s somewhat like an Ocean’s 11 con man/heist story but set in a fantasy world.  Hard to explain, but the book is extremely well written, has a great world built up within and interesting, smart and dangerous characters.  Gun to my head, I would probably put this as my favorite book of the year.  Just really fun and well written.  I recently bought the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, with holiday money and I’m eyeballing the third book, The Republic of Thieves, which came out in Oct 2013.  Lynch also plans a series of novellas based within this world.  If you like smartly written, character based fantasy with a nice helping of action, this book is for you.

Star Wars: Scoundrels (2013) – Timothy Zahn – Timothy Zahn is one of the best Star Wars EU writers. He wrote the Zahn Trilogy as well as the awesome books Star Wars: Allegiance and Star Wars: Outbound Flight (which made my favorites list in 2010).  This is a Han Solo adventure that also happens to include Chewie, of course, and Lando.  And it’s great.  I honestly hope that when Disney makes the Han Solo stand alone movie, they use this as the blueprint.  It takes place right after the first Death Star is blown up in the original Star Wars: A New Hope. Han gathers a team of expert con men and thieves in order to steal a priceless piece of art from a Black Sun boss.  Han hopes the proceeds from the job will free him of his debt to Jabba.  Lots of well written, fun dialogue and heist action.  There’s also a short story prequel to this book called Star Wars: Winner Lose All that focuses on what Lando is doing right before the actual book. It, too, is a lot of fun.

Star Wars: Kenobi (2013) – John Jackson-Miller – Oh wow, two Star Wars books get to make my list this year. Yay!  This book was very highly anticipated by myself.  I’ve said for years that a movie or book based on Obi-Wan’s “Tatooine Years” would be amazing.  When Disney was throwing out the stand alone movie ideas I said Ewan McGregor as Kenobi should get one.  And this book should be the basis.  It takes place just after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.  Obi-Wan has dropped off Luke to the Lars Homestead and he’s setting up base in the Judland Wastes and starts getting acquainted with the denizens of a small moisture farming town who are being attacked by Tusken Raiders.  Great book.  Check it out.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Gone to Texas) (1973)/The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales (1980) – Forrest Carter – I reviewed these two stories after I read them back in May 2013.  I’m a big fan of westerns; movies and books.  I’ve been getting back into reading pulpy western books in the last year or so.  I loved the Clint Eastwood Josey Wales movie so I decided that I needed to read the original novel it was based on.  And the sequel to that novel.  They are both great and it makes me sad that Eastwood never made the second Wales story into a movie.  It would have been awesome.  These are two good, classic Old West action novels.

The Last Mountain Man (1984)/Return of the Mountain Man (1986) – William Johnstone – After reading the Josey Wales books I was hungry for more gunfighter action.  I discovered Johnstone’s Last Mountain Man series through an Internet search.  This author is PROLIFIC.  We think Stephen King writes a lot of books, check out the number of books this guy has written.  BANANAS.  This particular book I read is an omnibus which collects the first two books in Johnstone’s seminal series about gunfighter Smoke Jensen.  Written very much in the style of the Josey Wales books which isn’t surprising as the second Josey Wales book was published a mere four years before these books.  Great western action contained within.

Heroes of Olympus series – Rick Riordan – This is the newest incarnation of the Percy Jackson series.  It’s currently on Book 5, which you see above, but I read both book 4 and book 5 this year.  They are EXCELLENT reading.  I love everything about this series that adds layers and layers to the story with every book that is released.  This series really reminds me of Harry Potter.  Fun, magical and it gets dark in spots.  Lots to love, especially the way Riordan deftly merges in Greek/Roman mythology into the story line.

Those are my favorite books this year.  Here are the comics and graphic novels I liked the best.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Batman: Hush (2002) – Jeph Loeb (writer), Jim Lee (artist) – As you’ve no doubt heard on my Nerd to Dos this past year, I’ve been on a real Batman comic reading kick lately. Mostly thanks to Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast. This has been my favorite Batman story I’ve read so far. Great art, great story. Lots of awesome DC hero cameos. This is hands down one of my favorite Batman stories of all time.

Flashpoint (2011) – Geoff Johns (writer), Andy Kubert (artist) – I’m a big fan of Flash and I love Andy Kubert’s art. So this was a no-brainer. Plus, this is what led into the big DC New 52 “reboot” so I had to see what was up with that.  Now, I’m only talking about the actual 5 issue mini-series, not any of the numerous “tie-in” or “spinoff” books (which there were many).  But this 5 issue run is AWESOME. The world it creates is fascinating.  I’m actually going to go back and read some of those Flashpoint spinoff books because this is so good.  I also want to check out that animated Flashpoint Paradox movie to see how well they adapted the story.  I liked this even better than the great Blackest Night 8 issue series.

The Sixth Gun (2010) – Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (artist) – This is a currently ongoing title that started back in 2010.  I’ve read the first 32 issues and I’m in love.  This is a supernatural western, or “weird western”.  Based in the Old West it has many elements of the supernatural, magic, voodoo, dark gods, undead souls and monsters.  The story revolves around six guns that are each cursed with terrible powers and the battle between the good guys and the bad guys to possess the weapons.  This book is so good and I can’t recommend it enough.  It makes me so happy that such a good western as this currently exists.

The Walking Dead (2003) – Robert Kirkman (writer), Terry Moore (artist), Charlie Adlard (artist) – I read and reviewed the first 30 issues or so of this title for AWESOME-tober-fest this year. The comic is excellent and Kirkman is one of my favorite comic writers. My only caveat is that this story is TOO dark. It’s just so damn bleak that it becomes a chore to read after a while. Consequently, I haven’t read anymore issues since I finished issue 30 back in May 2013.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll ever pick this series back up.  But it’s not because it’s bad, it’s because it’s so well written that it becomes tough to read.  Seriously, read this title if you haven’t already.

Batman & Robin v1 (2009) – Grant Morrison (writer), Cameron Stewart (artist), Frank Quitely (artist), Phillip Tan (artist) – I sort of fell in love with this Batman & Robin title. I picked it up because Morrison wrote it, it was mentioned on the Fatman on Batman podcast and I was very curious to read more about the adventures of Damian Wayne as Robin since he had just recently died.  This is a great series.  I read the first 10 issues of the full 26 issue run.  Excellent work.  As a matter of fact, the followup new 52 title, Batman & Robin v2 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason is also pretty awesome.

Those are my favorite books and comics I read in 2012.  It was a good year.  Hopefully, this year will be even better.  

Speaking of this year, there are several books I’m looking forward to, but one of them stands out above all else. Joe Schreiber, the author of Star Wars: Death Troopers is releasing his latest book, Darth Maul: Lockdown.

I am so excited by this book I can barely even stand it.  It looks all kinds of amazing.  And luckily, I don’t have to wait long because it is being released in about two weeks on Jan 28, 2014.  I fully expect this book to be on my favorites list in 2014.

I’m a reader. I love to read. And I sometimes enjoy reading classic literature. However, some of the old stuff is just flat out boring as balls.  I mean, have you actually read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Frank Norris’ McTeague or anything by James Joyce?  Snoozeville.  Population…YOU.  I had to read those in high school and I needed to drink a case of Jolt Cola to get through just one chapter.

So, being the helpful guy that I am, I thought I’d take some boring classics you may have had to read in high school and college and make them better.  More AWESOME.  And easier to read.

So now, here are seven ways to make classic literature a lot more AWESOME. You are welcome, literature.

Don Corleone Quixote – Old guard crime boss Don Corleone Quixote sets up shop in an old windmill with trusty right hand man Pancha.

Little Haunted House on the Prairie – A family is brutally murdered in their secluded old farm house.  Twenty years later, an unsuspecting couple purchases the old farm house looking for a serene retreat from their hectic lives only to find skin crawling terror and wheelbarrows of blood.

The Grapes of Wrath of Khan – The Joad family pick up a hitchhiker on their way to California.  Little do they know their new addition is a genetically enhanced super being from the future looking to overthrow and rule the human race.  Wackiness ensues.

Here are some books I previously made in this series.

Little Women Fight Club – The four March sisters join a traveling all-girls fight tournament and fight each other for the entertainment of men all over the country. It’s a stirring women empowering tale for all ages.

The Fall of the House of Usher Raymond – It’s the future and Usher is the ruler of the world.  He has banned all music except his own.  The people rise up against Usher in a long, epic battle for the right to listen to good music.

Jane Eyre: Assassin – After her uncle’s mysterious death, Jane Eyre is sent to the secretive Lowood School.  It is here Jane is taught to become a government assassin.  She’s very good at it and follows every order that is given to her until she is finally given an assignment she feels she can’t take.

Moby Dick: Bionic War – After an epic and bloody battle with Ahab, Moby Dick washes up at the long lost city of Atlantis.  Altantean biologists nurse the near dead whale back to health and outfit him with advanced Atlantean bionic weaponry.  Moby Dick then sets out to settle an old score with the grizzled Ahab and to once and for all send the captain and his ship to the depths of a watery Hell.

It’s been a little while, but here we are, back again for issue #3 of my Vintage Comic Throwdowns comic book cover series. This week I pit two giants of classic literature together in the same adventure. I don’t think these two have ever met, but if they haven’t, they really should have.

This week, in Cavalcade Comics #3, feast your hungry eyeballs on The 3 Musketeers Meet Zorro.

I love this matchup. And for those that are curious, the main comic book cover that made up this masterpiece was Marvel Classics #12 from 1976 (left).  It took me a while to find a pic of Zorro that totally fit what I was trying to do.  I finally got Zorro from the cover of Zorro: The Classic Adventures by Alex Toth Volume 2.

The logos, clearly, came from elsewhere. I didn’t think the Marvel logo above looked classic enough.  The 3 Musketeers logo I used actually came from DC Special #22 which, awesomely enough, featured a 3 Musketeers/Robin Hood cover.  Which is interesting because that was my original idea.  Have the 3 Musketeers meet Robin Hood.  So, when I saw DC had several DC Specials with them on the cover, I decided to use Zorro instead.  As a footnote, I don’t think those 3 Musketeer/Robin Hood DC Special stories are crossovers, I think they are issues with separate stories for each character.  Essentially they’re reprinting old Golden Age stories from Robin Hood Tales and early Brave & the Bold issues that featured Robin Hood and pairing them with some new and old Musketeer stories.

I think the Zorro logo I used comes from the Dynamite Comics Zorro series.

So that’s issue #3 of Cavalcade Comics.  Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve been on sort of an unscheduled hiatus lately due to real life kicking my ass.  I got things brewing, trust me, I just got to finish those things and get them posted.  Stay tuned.

If you’ve been listening to my Nerd-to-Dos on Nerd Lunch the last month or so then you know I’ve been in the middle of what I was calling High Fantasy Month.

The idea for this is that for an entire month I would read a bunch of “sword and sorcery” books. High fantasy is not really a genre I read. I’m not sure why, but I just don’t. So there’s several popular and famous series I’ve never tackled like The Wheel of Time, The Sword of Shannara and the Sword of Truth.  I’ve read a few, most notably Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley and The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, but as a whole, I just don’t really dip into the kings and knights sagas very often.

Well, I happened upon a pretty cheap copy of Sword of Shannara at a library sale so I thought, why don’t I make a fantasy reading marathon out of this? So I gathered a few other fantasy books I had lying around my TBR pile and made a reading schedule and started reading the first book on May 19. As of this week, I think I’m ending the first iteration of High Fantasy Month. I’ll do it again, but I want to move on to another genre. I don’t normally stick with one genre like this for so many books and I think I’m getting genre weary. I’m ready to read an action or sci-fi book now.

Here are some quick reviews of the high fantasy books I read this time out.

The First Book of Swords (1983) – Fred Saberhagen – I actually have all three of the original books in one giant omnibus edition.  But I only read the first book.  It’s good.  Saberhagen is a really good genre writer and he’s created a fascinating world with this series.  I’d definitely continue the story about 12 swords created by the god Vulcan and passed out to mortals.  Each sword has a different, terrific power.  The swords become lost for years but are eventually discovered and some unsavory characters do everything they can to get their hands on all 12 swords.  I’ve reviewed two of Saberhagen’s other books before, one was a sequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and one was a sequel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Born to Exile (1977) – Phyllis Eisenstein – Book 1 in the Tales of Alaric the minstrel.  I discovered this book while reading about inspirations for Steven Gould’s Jumper books (click the link and check out the See Also section on Wikipedia). The book is about a traveling minstrel who discovers he has the ability to teleport.  It’s an interesting book in that Alaric is really the only consistent thread throughout the story which features essentially Alaric in a series of vignettes where he tries to not use his power, winds up using it, and then gets banned (or exiled) for using it.  It’s a fun light read that I really enjoyed.

In the Red Lord’s Reach (1989) – Phyllis Eisenstein – This is the sequel to the previous book, written 12 years later.  We take up years after the first book and follow Alaric on some more misadventures.  This book actually follows more of a story line than the first book and as such somewhat lost the charm of the original.

The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) – Stephen King – I originally read this my senior year in high school for English class (1992), so this was a re-read for me.  I’ve been wanting to re-read it for years and this was the perfect time to do it.  And it’s FANTASTIC.  I love this book.  It holds up to this day.  Great fantasy story with dark wizards, wrongly imprisoned kings, secret castle passages and daring prison escapes.  Even though this was a re-read, it was the best of these four.  Born to Exile was a close second.

So, that’s it for High Fantasy Month.  I’m sure you’re wondering, “Hey, Pax, what the hell?  I thought you were going to read The Sword of Shannara.”  Well, you are correct sir who is calling me out, I was going to read Brooks’ epic novel, but after reading these four books and then grabbing the 800+ page Shannara paperback I realized I was a bit Fantasy fatigued.  I wanted to move on to another genre.  So, I’m shelving Shannara for another time.  Next time I do this, I’ll begin with Shannara.

Well, it’s been a while since I did an L Frank Baum review.  The last Oz book I reviewed was the first post-Baum Oz book The Royal Book of Oz (#15 in the series) back in September 2013.  I then reviewed Baum’s non-Oz The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus back in December 2013.  Unfortunately, now, I see I’d not done a Baum review in 2014.  And that’s a shame.  Really sorry about that.

So I thought it was time to check out another of Baum’s non-Oz tales.  There’s a short novel Baum wrote that always sounded interesting and has intrigued me ever since.  So I thought I’d do that book today.

In 1901, one year after Baum published the first Wizard of Oz book, he released the short novel The Master Key, An Electrical Fairy Tale.

The book was illustrated by Fanny Young Cory who also illustrated Baum’s The Enchanted Island of Yew in 1903.  It’s a short boy’s adventure novella with some early elements of science fiction.

The story concerns a young boy, Rob Joslyn, who likes to experiment with electrical devices.  He spends his time in his workshop creating electrical inventions that spread all throughout the house.  One night while tinkering with his switchboard, he is assaulted by a bright light and sees a being made entirely of brilliant light appear.  It’s the Demon of Electricity.  Apparently, Rob has touched the “Master Key” and has earned the right to command the Demon.  For this honor Rob will receive three gifts from the Demon for the next three weeks to total nine gifts.  Over the next few weeks Rob takes the gifts from the Demon and has several adventures all across the globe.

The gifts that Rob receives are all based on electricity and are supposed to show Rob how electricity can be harnessed in nature to do wonderous things.  Rob receives a transportation device that uses electrical and magnetic energy to physically transport someone swiftly over great distances.  He also receives a tin of food tablets that provide all the nutrition a human body needs for 24 hours (that is somehow based on electricity).  He also receives glasses that read a person’s electrical aura to tell if they are good, evil, wise or kind and a small tube that shoots out an electrical signal that knocks a person unconscious for 1 hour.  Rob uses these gifts to travel across the globe and help out people like the Kings of England and France, two shipwrecked sailors and a group of middle eastern peoples in a war with each other.

It’s a fun, fanciful read.  Typical Baum.  Rob winds up getting into a lot of his mischief because he falls asleep at inopportune moments but he’s able to use the gifts and his own ingenuity to get out of the situations.  The story reminds me a lot of Aladdin with the Demon of Electricity as the genie and Rob as Aladdin.

Baum makes a few good predictions with his gifts.  Especially considering he was writing in 1901.  The electrical tube that incapacitates people for an hour is strikingly similar to a Tazer.  In a later passage, Baum comes very close to describing intellectual piracy with another gift the Demon bestows on Rob.  It’s a small device that can look in on any event that is happening throughout the world.  At one point Rob watches a brand new play being performed and is suddenly filled with guilt because he didn’t pay to see the performance.  Rob goes on to think that if these little devices become more common then people would sit at home to watch the performances and the actors would all starve to death.  Very prescient if you ask me, Mr Baum.

Fanny Cory’s illustrations are simple yet fit the story well. Below are two of the color illustrations. There are also numerous smaller black and white illustrations throughout the chapters. The picture on the left showcases the first time Rob uses the electrical transporter to fly away from his house in front of his family. The right picture shows Rob after encountering a tribe of cannibals on an island. Click the images to see them bigger.

I love the cover to the book, it has always intrigued me. It comes from an illustration on the inside. Here’s that illustration from inside the book.  It is the first time the Demon of Electricity appears to Rob in his workshop.

Considering the Demon is the main thrust of the story, I’m surprised there are not really any big illustrations of him. He is only showcased a few times in some of the smaller black and white chapter drawings.

Overall, yes, I can recommend this book. It has the typical Baum charm and is fun to read. Very much a journey story where the protagonist learns a lesson and essentially figures out that he was better off before the fantastical events of the book started.

The book is in the public domain and can be read in its entirety here.

I can’t believe I’m doing these year end wrap up reports again.  Where does the damn time go?!

Anyway, if you’ve read this article in the past you know I keep my book log online.  Here’s the link to my Book Log on Google Spreadsheet.  There are tabs for every year since 2007.

Looking at that log it looks like I read about 78 books/comics this year.  That total includes not only books I read for the first time but anything I re-read for the second (or more) time.  For the list below, though, I’ll only take into account books I read for the first time this year.

And I actually have four books on this list that were released in 2014.  That ties my total from last year.  It’s rare when I get to read a currently released book, but I’ve done it four times each in the last two years.  Amazing!

On to the lists!

Below you will find, first, my list of favorite books and following that my list of favorite comic books/graphic novels.  All that I read for the first time this year.  Enjoy.

Books

Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown (2014) – Joe Schreiber – I predicted at the end of my 2013 Best Books I Read article that this book would be on the list for 2014.  And, as you can see, I was right.  Joe Schreiber really hit it out of the park with this one.  A prison thriller that has Maul locked up in a prototype prison that pits its prisoners in gladiatorial matches and broadcasts those matches on pay-per-view.  Very brutal and lots of fun we get lots of awesome Maul in this book.  However, to be honest, the last third of the book sort of goes WAY bananas in a weird way.  It’s still really good, but the book sort of becomes super-gonzo and you’re left scratching your head wondering, “What the f**k is going on?  Did THAT just happen?!”.  However, overall, still one of the best books I read this year.

Point of Impact (Bob Lee Swagger #1) (1993) – Stephen Hunter – I was not aware of this book until I saw the Mark Wahlberg movie Shooter, which is based on this book.  I love that movie and finally picked up the source material this year to give it a go.  And it’s AMAZING.  Even better than the movie.  A bit more story to sink your teeth into and a bit more of an epic bad guy for Swagger to focus his revenge on.  Great action packed book.  I look forward to reading more of Hunter’s Swagger books in the future (there are several).

The Shining (1977) – Stephen King – This Halloween I decided to fill another hole in my Stephen King reading list.  Two years ago I had finally tackled The Stand and just last year I read The Talisman.  So, I thought, let’s continue that trend this year and I decided to read ‘salem’s Lot.  I enjoyed it more than I expected, plus it left me wanting to read more early Stephen King, so even though I only had about a week left in October, I picked up The Shining on my Nook for like $2 and dove in.  And discovered probably the scariest book I think I have ever read in my life.  The Shining is big on plot and character detail as early King likes to be, but once the stuff in the hotel starts happening, it gets seriously scary.  Like several nights I had trouble sleeping it was so scary.  So here it sits on my list.  But as much as I loved this book, I really saw no need for a sequel so I have little to no desire to read Doctor Sleep.  I even tried reading a sample and I couldn’t even finish it.

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (2007) – James Swanson – Earlier in 2014 I got into an American History phase.  I read Walter Isaacson’s epic Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and was all wrapped up in the days of the early Revolution.  I then watched Spielberg’s Lincoln and loved it before starting this book.  This book is a fascinating account of the days leading up to and the 12 day manhunt that occurred after President Lincoln’s assassination.  Lots of inside stuff I never knew about.  And it’s written in a very modern way that keeps events interesting and not like reading events out of a history book.  Right after reading this book, I watched Robert Redford’s The Conspirator to complete my unofficial “Lincoln trilogy”.  So now, I’m on the lookout for Swanson’s other books he’s written, most specifically the one about Kennedy’s assassination.  But I highly recommend this book.

Star Wars: Tarkin (2014) – James Luceno – This last slot was tough. I had a few REALLY good books I could have put here.  Most notably The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch and When March Went Mad by Seth Davis.  But I went with my gut and chose this book.  The second Star Wars book on my list.  I really love what they’ve been doing with the Star Wars novels the last few years.  They’ve really been changing it up and getting really good stories out there.  Luceno wrote one of my favorites from a few years ago, Darth Plagueis, and he looked to do the same thing here.  But this is a more intimate story than the galaxy wide epic that played out in the pages of that earlier book.  Luceno really fleshes out the character of Tarkin in this book and investigates a bit more his relationship with Vader and even the Emperor.  Lots of Star Wars-y goodness to be had.  It gets me excited to see what comes next for the Star Wars expanded universe.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk (2006) – Greg Pak (writer), Carlo Pagulayan (artist) – Oh, man, this book is epic.  It’s bad ass.  It’s just awesome.  Hulk is deemed “too dangerous to stay on Earth” by a think tank of Marvel’s smartest so they devise a way to shoot him off to another world so he can’t hurt anyone.  The only problem, something happens en route and Hulk crash lands on the wrong planet.  A planet that enlaves Hulk and forces him to compete in gladiatorial games until he decides he’s had enough and stages a coup to take over the planet.  So much awesome contained within.  I can’t recommend this enough.

Savage Dragon Vol. 1 (1993) – Erik Larsen (writer/artist) – Back in September I decided I wanted to read the first 10-20 issues of all the original launch titles of Image Comics.  Most of them were forgettable.  However, Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon was not only readable, it was GREAT and deserves a spot on my list.  I was surprised how much I thoroughly enjoyed this comic and I look forward to catching up on all that I missed with this character.

Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon (2012) – Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist) – This was suggested to me by several people but I never listened.  But the more I heard how good it was the more I became intrigued.  So I grabbed the first volume of Matt Fraction’s series for cheap and read it.  And loved it.  This is minimalist storytelling at its finest.  Sort of a “between the panels” look at what Clint Barton does when he’s not being an Avenger.  Quirky, but it’s charming and lots of fun.  I’ll definitely be checking out more of this series.

Thief of Thieves (2012) – Robert Kirkman (writer), Nick Spenser (writer), Andy Diggle (writer), James Asmus (writer), Shawn Martinbrough (artist) – I’ve actually read the first three volumes of this title which cover the first 19 issues of the series.  And it’s pretty great.  Master Thief (retired) Redmond is called back into the life in order to save his estranged son.  This is a pretty great comic with some pretty great writers.  It’s also a nice change from all the super hero books I normally read.  Just a regular guy, trying to get on with his current life but his previous life and his reputation won’t let that happen.  Great book.

Krampus! (2013) – Brian Joines (writer), Dean Kotz (artist) – I think I’ve talked about this book before.  This is such a fun read.  It makes great references to all the Santa/Christmas iconography you can imagine and even makes someone like Doc Holliday, that has nothing to do with Christmas, fit right into the story.  Great art, fun story.  I really hope this gets picked up for some sequels.  So much potential awesome to be mined out of these characters.  GET IT AND READ IT NOW.

That’s my best of list for 2014. It was really hard to pare some of that list down as I read some really good stuff this year. But I also have some good stuff lined up for myself next year. I plan to continue my Stephen King reading by possibly tackling Needful Things as well as possibly It.  There are some good Star Wars books coming out next year featuring Luke Skywalker (Heir to the Jedi) as well as two of our favorite Lords of the Sith.

The last time I did this was back in July, so I thought it was time to knock out a few more fantasy books.  Next time, I may switch up the media and do High Fantasy movies instead of books only.  I’ve been sort of dying to see Sword & the Sorceror.

Anyway, recently I bought a few fantasy books I’ve been eyeballing during a fire sale on Google Play and Amazon. So let’s see how I did.

The Wise Man’s Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two (2011) – Patrick Rothfuss – I read the first book in Rothfuss’ series, The Name of the Wind, back in January 2014 and I enjoyed it. It was very story heavy with lots of characters with weird names but the book is well written and I was very interested in the world that Rothfuss had built.  So, when I found the sequel on sale for super cheap a few months ago on Google Play, I snatched it up. It continues the story of Kvothe, a legendary arcanist (ie magic user) who is relating the unbelievable events of his life story to a scribe.  Overall, this book is good.  However, it’s LOOOOONG.  The eBook is 875 pages long.  And it feels every bit of that length.  And I didn’t realize this, but it’s also a road book.  The main character, Kvothe, is sent out on a journey that lasts FOREVER.  He finishes the initial task on the journey and then goes off on an interlude. And then another interlude.  And another.  To infinity.  I was ready for the book to end.  But the book is written very well and is set in an interesting world with an interesting take on magic.  I just think, since we KNOW this book is continuing into a third book, that Rothfuss should have ended it a little sooner.  And I feel this is a gripe I have with many books in the fantasy genre.

Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel (2014) – Matthew Reilly – I’ve read most of Matthew Reilly’s books. He’s a great action adventure author who’s most famous series involves a special forces officer code-named Scarecrow.  So, this was a bit of a genre departure for Reilly.  It’s a junior fantasy adventure.  Very simple.  Short.  The novel is in three parts and each part is only about 50 pages long.  I actually liked it quite a lot.  It reminds me of L Frank Baum’s fantasy stories.  Like this could have been a lost fantasy fable found in his papers after he died.  It has that type of heart and charm with a touch of morality and lessons to be learned.  The story involves our hero, Raf, who has a sister that has fallen ill to a disease that is plaguing the land.  There are trolls living in a nearby mountain that have an elixir that will cure it but they require a high payment.  Raf, who is poor, decides to travel to Troll Mountain, sneak into their vault and steal the elixir in order to save his sister.  It’s a pretty fun, quick and light read that I highly recommend.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Book 1) (2006) – Brandon Sanderson – I’ve had my eye on Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy for a while.  Finally Amazon put the Kindle versions on sale for a song (all 3 books for less than $6) and I snatched them right up.  So, I read the first book in the trilogy and it’s pretty damn good.  The world Sanderson creates is interesting and he has filled this world with interesting characters and a very interesting system of magic.  And the setup is similar to something you’d see in another fantasy series I like, The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch.  It’s a group of thieves and cons who are hired to perform an impossible heist.  Exactly the type of plot I love.  I will definitely continue this trilogy.  However, I have a similar gripe about this book that I had with the first book in this list.  The book is a little bit too long.  The first book in this trilogy is nearly 700 pages.  Knowing there are two more books in this series, reading through to 700 pages starts to get a little tiring.  And slightly annoying.  Even when I enjoy the characters and subject matter, story fatigue sets in around 600-700 pages.  However, that being said, I really did enjoy the book and would recommend it.

The Second Book Of Swords – Fred Saberhagen – You’ll recall during my last High Fantasy Month that I read Fred Saberhagen’s First Book of Swords. I actually have the compilation of all three of the original swords books, so I thought I’d pick up the book and read the second book in the series.  But, alas, I didn’t get much further than 4-5 pages.  I just couldn’t get into it.  I kept glazing over reading the pages and nothing would stick.  Not sure what was wrong.  I’m close to saying I’m not reading this series anymore, but I may give it a few months and try again.  When I couldn’t finish this book, I started to read Mistborn instead.  And you see how that turned out, so clearly it was an issue with this story and not with me getting tired of reading fantasy books.

A month or so ago Shawn Robare and I unveiled our custom set of vintage Young Guns trading cards. I showed you the even numbered cards in the set (Billy, Dick, Charlie, Tunstall, etc) and Shawn showed the odd numbered cards (Doc, Chavez, Dirty Steve, Murphy, etc). Also, if you guys were paying attention, we both revealed some variant/chase cards over on Cult Film Club which featured alternate image cards as well as custom book covers for the movie novelizations Shawn and I so wish existed.  Click the cover below to see these alternate card images plus see the other Young Guns novelization cover.

As such huge fans of the Young Guns movies, Shawn and I couldn’t leave well enough alone.  I mean, if we do an entire custom made vintage set of trading cards for the first Young Guns movie and then can’t do one for the sequel, then what are Shawn and I doing here?  Not our jobs, I’ll tell you that much.

So, we dug in and made a second set of cards for the sequel and now it’s time to see those cards.  Like last time, I’m going to show you half the set here.  If you want to complete the full set of Young Guns II cards, hop on over to Branded in the 80s and see Shawn reveal the second half of the set.

First off, lets check out the wax paper wrappers.  Here’s the main wrapper with Billy.

And as is sometimes done, we made a variant wax wrapper for the set featuring Pat.  Shawn even has a rare third wrapper variant over in his article featuring Arkansas Dave.  Check it out.

Now, let’s take a look at the odd numbered cards in this set. Like I said, jump on over to Branded in the 80s to see the even numbered cards in the set. You can click any of these images to see them BIGGER on Flickr.

The next two cards have variant images.

Jane Greathouse is a great character and I thought she needed a variant card for her most famous scene from the movie.

Like Tom Cruise in the last movie, Jon Bon Jovi gets a small hidden cameo in this movie. The image on this card represents that cameo.  But, I thought he looked more iconic in an image from the Blaze of Glory music video, so that gets a variant card.

And that’s the Young Guns II vintage card set. And that should cover pretty much everything Shawn and I created for this Young Guns merch extravaganza. Oh, one more variant card I made.

From Halloween 1989. Me as the Young Guns Billy the Kid. This would be my final dress up for Halloween until I got through high school and college.

So, like I said, to finish out the Young Guns II, set, head on over to Branded in the 80s. Hope you enjoyed this vintage card set as much as Shawn and I enjoyed making them.  And thank you Shawn for letting me join you in creating this awesomeness.

I’ve always been a fan of comic book adaptations of classic literature.  The most famous versions of this are the Classics Illustrated line of comics from the 50s and 60s.  But several other companies jumped on that bandwagon over the years.

The original HG Wells novel was adapted several times in comic book form. Here are a few of them.

In 1955, Nesbit Publishing released Superior Stories #1 which featured an adaptation of Wells’ novel. Art and inks were done by Pete Morisi.  It was a mostly faithful adaptation except that they ended the story with the death of the lead character and did not include the epilogue from the novel involving the character of Thomas Marvel.  Nearly ten years later this exact adaptation would be reprinted in Fantastic Adventures #18.

In 1959 Classics Illustrated #125 would feature an adaptation of the Wells novel with art by Geoffrey Biggs.  As in the last comic, this adaptation also ends with the final fate of the invisible man and completely cuts out the novel’s epilogue.  It makes me wonder if these comics were actually adapting the Universal movie instead of the book.

Marvel Comics would adapt the Invisible Man novel twice.

Marvel Supernatural Thrillers #2 from 1973 would feature an adaptation of Wells’ novel. It had a script by Ron Goulant and art/layouts by Dan Adkins and Val Mayerik.  The art looks pretty great in that early 70s Marvel style that I love so much.  Unlike the Classics Illustrated adaptation above, this comic features the epilogue.

In 1977, Marvel Classics Comics #25 would again adapt the novel but this time with art by Dino Castrillo and Rudy Messina and a script by the great Doug Moench.  I’m surprised they didn’t just reprint the Supernatural Thrillers adaptation from four years earlier in this issue, but the art and layouts are great here as well in that 70s Marvel horror style.  And yes, this adaptation also includes the novel’s epilogue.  Not sure why the first two comics omitted it.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

In 1987, H.F. Saint would write his first and only book, the sci-fi thriller, Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

It’s essentially a more modern, comedic take on HG Wells’ classic story.  The book had great success after it was first published and subsequently Saint would receive an unusually high sum for the movie rights in the early 90s.  This lead to Saint deciding he would rather retire than write a sequel that potentially wouldn’t live up to his first book.

Like most everyone else, I was aware of the 1992 Chevy Chase movie of the same name, but not that it was based on a previous book.  I have thoughts on that movie that I’ll reveal in a separate review, and, consequently, I was a little reluctant to start the book because of those thoughts about the movie.  But I sucked it up for AWESOME-tober-fest 2015.

So, the plot.  Essentially, like I said, this is a new, more modern take on the concept of the invisible man.  Nick Halloway is an investment banker.  He travels with his sometimes gal pal Anne to a scientific demonstration at MicroMagnetics Labs and becomes caught in a massive explosion and wakes up several hours later completely invisible.  While sealing off the area, a shady government agency discovers that Nick survived the explosion, and is invisible, so they do everything they can to capture him.  Now Nick must stay one step ahead of his pursuers led doggedly by Colonel David Jenkins who seems to be several steps ahead of Nick who only narrowly escapes being caught on several occasions.  Can Nick keep from getting captured and becoming a lab rat/covert government agent for the rest of his life?  He’ll certainly try.

The book, to put it bluntly, is pretty damn awesome.  Luckily, I haven’t watched the movie since it was in the theater, so I went into this book mostly blind.  The events take a while to setup.  It’s about 60 pages before the lab explosion.  It’s over 100 pages before Nick escapes the labs of MicroMagnetics and goes on the run on the streets of New York.  Throughout this book HF Saint really dives into explaining the unique problems Halloway encounters because he’s invisible.  Not just the physical stuff like seeing through your eyelids, watching your food digest and walking without any visual body references.   Most of this stuff gets mentioned briefly in the original HG Wells book as well as the Universal Invisible Man movie.  No, it’s living on the streets as an invisible man where Saint really digs in.

How would Nick find a place to sleep?  Sneak into one of the many Manhattan men’s clubs?  Or vacant apartments?  What about food?  How do you walk the crowded streets of New York without bumping into other people and revealing yourself?  How do you shed your previous identity and acquire a new one when you are invisible and can’t provide ID or show up to meet anyone?  There are lots of problems Nick has to overcome which would be hard enough even without a determined government agency out to capture you at all costs.

The book has periods of Nick living rogue within New York and how his whole “system” works (how he acquires places to live, food and learning about the nature of his invisibility).  And then the government agency finds him and we have quick, thrilling periods where Nick is all of a sudden forced to drop everything and go on the run again.  It’s a roller coaster ride and one I thoroughly enjoyed which had me guessing and anticipating how it was going to end.

Another thing I like about this book is the way it’s setup.  It’s written by the main character sometime in the future.  He’s relating the events of the book to us as they happened in the past (like the title states, it’s a “memoir”).  This allows the book to drop small hints about how things turn out in the future.  Now that the book is over, I wish HF Saint would have continued with Nick Halloway’s adventures.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

The Invisible Mouse was an episode of Tom and Jerry directed by Hanna and Barbera and was released in 1947.

It was a parody of the Invisible Man concept from both the HG Wells novel and the Universal Studios movie (which was released 14 years prior to the cartoon).

As usual the cartoon starts with the rampant chasing and violence between Tom and Jerry. They chase each other up a flight of stairs, jump on the banister and start sliding down. Then Jerry shifts to a second banister to avoid….wait, WHAT?! I don’t think banisters work that way. What the hell is going on there?

Jerry jumps on the counter, finds a “chemo set” and jumps in a random bottle to evade Tom. However, it seems that Jerry accidentally jumped into a bottle of “invisible ink”. And it’s turning him invisible.

Interesting.  Jerry’s invisibility is not hampered by seeing your food through your stomach. Whatever he eats seems to immediately turn invisible.

But he still apparently casts a shadow.  Wait, what?!  What is the light reflecting around to cause that shadow?!

Jerry has lots of fun with his new invisibility. He gives Tom the classic “hot foot” and tees off on Tom’s backside with what looks like a 3 Wood.

The short ends with Jerry banishing Tom from the house by getting Spike the dog to chase after him and then laying on Tom’s pillow drinking his chocolate milk. Which seems to restore Jerry back to visible?!  Okay.

Well, this particular version of invisible has some goofy rules but what can you expect from a Tom and Jerry cartoon?  It’s still a fairly enjoyable watch for fans of the show.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

In 1988 Robert Cormier published the novel Fade. It is about a boy named Paul who discovers that he has the ability to turn himself invisible, or fade.

Since this book’s publication it has consistently been on the American Library Association’s list of Most Challenged Books for it’s depiction of violence, murder and incest.

The book begins in a small town outside Boston called Monument during the late Depression era.  As a teen, Paul is fascinated by tales of his uncle and this mysterious photograph from which everyone says the uncle was there but he isn’t in the photograph.  When that uncle visits, Paul learns his secret.  Certain male members of his family gain the ability to fade. It is typically passed down from uncles to nephews.  His uncle has it, and so does Paul.  This ability has been kept a strict secret.  Only the individuals with the power actually know about it and never reveal it to the rest of the family.  Or anyone else.  The uncle warns that it is not the gift it appears to be.

That’s the basic setup in the beginning, but the book is structured very different and goes several different places than you would expect from the first 100 pages or so.  It took me by surprise.  There are essentially 5 parts of the book, each focusing on a different character and each part jumps around in time forward many years into the future and then back again.  And honestly, for the first 2/3 of the book, the ability to fade is almost incidental to the story.  The story is really about Paul and his relationships with his family and especially his Aunt and how these relationships affect him later in life.

While using his ability, Paul finds out the fade can actually be a curse when he witnesses things he shouldn’t.  And it becomes apparent to him that the fade may be creating in him thoughts and urges he wouldn’t have otherwise.  This sets up what happens later in the book as we fast forward into the future.  There are other aspects to the fade that are interesting.  Paul can somewhat control the ability at first, but it sort of takes on a life of its own later.  Also, unlike other invisible men, Paul’s clothes become invisible when he fades.  Which is doubly interesting because other physical objects he’s touching, like a knife, won’t turn invisible.

Did I like the book?  Yes.  It was definitely not what I was expecting, but the characters were interesting as was the aspect of fading.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

Donald Westlake is a famous crime novelist probably most known for his series of novels about relentless professional thief, Parker, written under the pseudonym Richard Stark.  Westlake is also well known for his comic heist novels about charming master thief John Dortmunder.  Parker debuted in The Hunter in 1962 and Dortmunder debuted in The Hot Rock in 1970.

In 1995, Westlake took a break from straight up crime novels and wrote a comedic crime novel with sci-fi elements called Smoke.

I was aware of Westlake before I discovered Smoke when researching “invisible man novels” for this Halloween. I’d seen the movies based on Westlake’s “Parker” character (Payback in 1999 and Parker in 2013) and I’ve had my eye on the first Dortmunder novel, The Hot Rock, for a few years now.  So, I thought Smoke would be a great opportunity to read Westlake to see if I like his style before committing to either the Parker or Dortmunder novels.

The gist of the story is that Freddie Noon, a small time thief burgles a research lab late one night and is caught by the two research scientists that live there. They are testing two melanoma formulas and they blackmail him into testing one of them. Freddie mistakenly takes both formulas and then escapes the research lab and makes off with a bunch of the doctors’ equipment. Later, Freddie discovers that the formula has turned him completely invisible. Freddie, along with his girlfriend Peg, has to get used to him being invisible, attempt to continue stealing and fencing goods in his new condition and stay one step ahead of the shady organization that had employed the research lab in the first place who want nothing but to exploit Freddie for their own gain.

This book is sort of a spiritual cousin to HF Saint’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man which was published about 7 years prior to this.  Similar plot lines, only a few details are different, but the tone of the books are completely different.  Saint’s book is a taut suspense thriller from beginning to end.  Westlake’s book is a comic caper with a very light, humorous tone.  The characters are funny and interesting for the most part, but I prefer Saint’s edge of your seat thrill ride to Westlake’s easy going pace.

I’d mostly recommend this book, but if I’m picking my favorite, HF Saint’s Memoirs is a much more satisfying read.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

And here we are again, my year end wrap up articles.

Queue Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”.

I say it every year, how did we get here already? The year just flies by. Anyway, the particulars: If you’ve read this year end round up before, you know I keep my book logs online in a Google Spreadsheet. I’ve been doing it since around 2009.  Only “new to me” reads in 2015 are eligible, no re-reads.

This past year was an interesting year for my book/comics list.  I really had an off year for books.  It was really hard to get a good list of 5 books that I really enjoyed.  This year as I combed through my list of books I realized I had been in a slump of “didn’t like” and “meh” books that I just didn’t feel comfortable forcing into this year’s “best” list.

Conversely, this was a phenomenal year for comics.  I had SO MANY comics I read that I just LOVED that it became very hard for me to pare it down to only five.  So, I think this year I’m going to cut the book list to maybe three and increase the comic list to 8.  This would be a better representation of the good stuff I’ve read this year.

Looking at the log I see I read around 106 books and comics over the course of the year.  That total includes books/comics I’ve read for the first time as well as any re-reads I did this year which I’ll do from time to time.  Also, I see, after two years of reading 4 books released in the current year, I uptick to 5 books I read this year that were current releases.  Wow.  And none of them are going to make this list.  One of them almost did, but, in the end, I decided no.

Here’s the list!

Books

Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1987) by H. F. Saint – I read and reviewed this book for AWESOME-tober-fest this year.  See my full review there.  But this hands down makes my best of year list and looking at my book log, it’s probably the best book I read all year.

Troll Mountain (2014) by Matthew Reilly – Matthew Reilly is no stranger to my “best of” books list.  His Scarecrow and James West Jr novels have both made it on here.  I read this fantasy novel back in February for the second installment of High Fantasy Month.  It was a serial novel in three parts, each part about 55 pages long.  And it’s junior fantasy, aimed at a younger audience.  But like I said in my review, I really enjoyed it.  The story reminded me of L Frank Baum.  Lots of fun and adventure, full of hope, believing in yourself and believing that good will triumph over evil.  Definitely worth a read.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Book 1) (2006) – Brandon Sanderson – I really had trouble picking this final spot.  A few things could’ve gone here.  Rick Riordan’s tenth Percy Jackson book, The Force Awakens novelization, Stephen King’s Needful Things or Brad Meltzer’s The Inner Circle.  And I liked all of these choices but I didn’t love them.  So, I flipped a coin and the first book in Sanderson’s fantasy series gets the nod.  It’s a great piece of fantasy world building with a cleverly different system of magic.  Like Troll Mountain, I reviewed it for the second High Fantasy Month back in February.  I just felt that this book runs a little long.  But I liked it and I plan on reading the second book, even if I’m hearing that the second book is even longer.  And unnecessarily so.

Now, let’s move on to the comics I read this year that I LOVED.  And there are lots of them.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Aquaman (The New 52) by Geoff Johns and Jeff Parker – I’m including all six of the currently released collections of this title.  This first entry was probably the most relevatory comic I read all year. I’ve never been an Aquaman fan, even with the Peter David series and the hook hand/long hair iterations. I just didn’t like the character. However, I heard such good things about this take on Aquaman that I decided to read the first trade.  The next thing I know, I’ve read all six of the trade paperback collections encompassing the first 40 issues or so plus annuals.  Geoff Johns writes the first four collections and Jeff Parker takes over for the next two.  And they are AWESOME.  All of a sudden, I’m an Aquaman fan.  I even dove into and read the entire side series, Aquaman and the Others, which is not as good, but still enjoyable to read.  I can’t recommend this title enough.  I think Cullen Bunn has taken over the writing from Jeff Parker as of issue 40 or so.  I look forward to more adventures with the King of Atlantis.

Avengers vs. X-Men (2012) – This is the 12 issue maxi-series Marvel event from 2012.  It launched the Marvel NOW! line of comics.  It’s written by a murder’s row of my favorite comic writers; Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis, Johnathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker and Jason Aaron with lots of awesome art by John Romita Jr and Adam Kubert.  The story is epic, it’s awesome, it’s everything you want in an Avengers vs X-men title.  I loved it.  And the conclusion of this entry leads directly into…

Uncanny X-Men Volume 1: Revolution (Marvel Now – 2013) – Like I said, AvX leads directly into the Marvel Now! re-brand as well as this very title.  Marvel Now! was a re-brand for several Marvel titles as well as the launch of several other new titles.  The stories were a little more serious and “dark and gritty”. And I hate to say that because the 90s really ruined the phrase “dark and gritty”. Anyway, Uncanny X-Men cast Cyclops as the “villain” due to events that happened in AvX and he now leads a splinter radical group of mutants in much the same way Magneto did in the 80s.  I really liked what Marvel was going for in this (as well as All-New X-Men which I read last year) so I also read Uncanny X-Men Volume 2: Broken also by Brian Michael Bendis as well as Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers Volume 1 and Volume 2 and Gerry Duggan’s new Deadpool title.  Marvel Now! has just a really good set of titles that I’m still reading through and discovering.

Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet – Speaking of Gerry Duggan’s Deadpool…I never really read Deadpool before.  I was aware of him and his schtick, but I never really jumped on board.  This was a mini-series featuring Deadpool taking a job from Dracula to deliver a very important package, but the package is opened en route and Deadpool finds himself in more trouble than he can handle.  Lots of fun humor, lots of guest stars, lots of quips.  I loved every second of this 7 issue series.  This is what got me to start reading the aforementioned Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn’s Marvel Now! Deadpool.  Which is also awesome.

Star Wars: Lando – Okay, if I’m being honest, Star Wars comics and I don’t have a good history.  I’ve never really liked them.  I’ve tried, but I just can’t get into them.  So when Disney bought Lucasfilm and the Star Wars comics license jumped back to Marvel, I honestly was a little intrigued.  Especially because they assigned some nice talent to do some of the work.  My inclination was to jump into Mark Waid’s Princess Leia mini-series first, but I actually wound up reading this Lando mini-series by Charles Soule first even though I’d never read any of Soule’s stuff before.  And I was rewarded.  This title is awesome. Lando is awesome and I have a new favorite comic writer.  Right after this I jumped into Soule’s first Superman/Wonder Woman collection which is also excellent.  Check this Lando series out, it takes place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back and sends Lando and Lobot towards their appearance in the latter movie..  It’s really good and everything I wanted in a Lando comic.

Star Wars Vol. 1: Skywalker Strikes – Written by the great Jason Aaron. I’m going to include Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader Volume 1 along with this as well.  While I think Aaron’s flagship book is better overall, Gillen’s Darth Vader is not only really good on its own, it also ties in so closely with Aaron’s book that you would see the same events in both comics but one from the heroes’ point of view and the other from Vader’s point of view.  Makes for a fun reading experience.  This collection takes place just after A New Hope and deals with the heroes in the aftermath of the first Death Star explosion.  I also devoured Aaron’s Star Wars Volume 2 which is just as good.  I’m loving the direction Star Wars comics are going now that Marvel is in charge.

Ghosted Volume 1: Haunted Heist – Written by Joshua Williamson.  I picked this up due to the super high concept synopsis: A master thief is hired by a rich benefactor to steal a ghost from a haunted house.  It’s Ocean’s 11 meets Ghostbusters.  I didn’t know how the actual comic could live up to that synopsis, but I read it anyway and am happy to say, it does.  It’s pretty bad ass and awesome.  I have since read the rest of the series which finished up at around issue #20 (there are 4 collections of the series).  Each story arch ups the ante and gets more bonkers and dark until the unbelievable ending.  High, high recommend on this.

Nailbiter Volume 1: There Will Be Blood – I loved Ghosted so much I decided to try another Joshua Williamson title.  And this one is even darker but it’s such a good story.  Buckaroo, Oregon is the birthplace to sixteen of America’s worst serial killers throughout history.  An FBI agent must figure out the mystery behind Buckaroo’s bloody past in order to save an old friend of his and he must team up with the town’s most famous serial killer, Edward “Nailbiter” Warren, to do it.  Very dark, very twisty, but SO good.  I’ve read the first three collections of this title which covers nearly the first twenty issues.  Williamson also wrote a comic called Birthright that is pretty great as well and a RoboCop ongoing title that is a direct sequel to the original 1987 movie. And it’s also dark…and awesome. Williamson has a very dark sensibility about his writing.  He was just hired to write a new Disney Haunted Mansion comic that I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do with.

Those are the best things I read this year.  As you can see, a great year for comics.  It’s a little lopsided, I really wish I would’ve had better novels to read.  Maybe in 2016, it’ll be the year of the novel.  We’ll have to see.

Click the above banner to see my other High Fantasy Month reviews.  I had recently picked up a new omnibus of a fantasy series and read the first book, so I thought I’d follow it up with a few more fantasy books and knock out another High Fantasy Month.

It’s interesting, the collection of books this month are all sort of similarly themed.  I really didn’t even plan it out that way.  Each of the books in this months collection are novels mostly set in a fantasy world, but have some twist to the story.  They aren’t straight up fantasy, they have a little something extra.  It’s an interesting mix this month.

Here are the reviews:

Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold! (Landover Book 1) (1986) – Terry Brooks – The Magical Kingdom of Landover is a series, written by the great Terry Brooks, that has, currently, about 5 books.  I’ve read only one other Brooks novel and that’s the Star Wars Episode I novelization.  But it’s good, it really is and it made me want to read more Brooks.  I thought I was going to start reading Brooks’ other magnum opus, which sort of spawned this whole idea of High Fantasy Month, The Sword of Shannara, however, I found the first three books of the Landover series in an omnibus for super cheap so I snapped it up and started reading without much thought.  The basic premise is that a lawyer, disappointed with his life after his wife dies, finds an ad in a catalog to buy a magical fantasy land called Landover for $1 million.  Spontaneously he decides to do it, but it doesn’t turn out to be exactly what he expects.  Initially, that premise spoke “satire” to me. I fully expected a massively tongue-in-cheek parody of fantasy novels.  What I got was surprising.  The novel takes a while to really get started, but once it does, it’s really good.  It takes the premise honestly and earnestly.  It’s not a satire or a parody.  It plays the entire plot straight and is a better novel for it.  I liked it much more than I thought considering my expectations were completely wrong and the first 80 pages or so were kind of slow to get through.  I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

Fool: A Novel (2009) – Christopher Moore – I have read two other Christopher Moore books and thought they were okay (A Dirty Job, Lamb).  He has interesting premises, but sometimes he’s a little too droll for my tastes.  Like the other Moore books I read, the premise of this book sounded pretty great.  A satire of William Shakespeare’s King Lear told from the point of view of the fool.  It has lots of mad kings, backstabbing daughters, witches, lusty maidens and, of course, a ghost (there’s always a damn ghost).  After years of wanting it I finally grabbed the eBook for cheap a year or so ago but just couldn’t get myself to start it until this month.  What did I think?  Similar to Moore’s other books.  Well written, very dry, sarcastic, British humor.  This feels like a BBC mini-series.  I wasn’t laughing out loud but I chuckled a lot and enjoyed the ride.  For the most part.  And now I can pretty much say I’ve read Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Sir Apropos of Nothing (2001) – Peter David – I love Peter David’s novels and for years I tried to read everything he’d written.  I originally read this book back in 2005 when I randomly found it on eBay.  I loved it.  The story is a parody of fantasy books in general.  It uses a lot of the tropes and has fun with them.  Peter David is great at humorous dialogue and he doesn’t disappoint here.  Essentially, it’s your traditional epic hero fantasy, except, instead of focusing on the hero, the story focuses on one of the side characters.  And that side character is well aware he’s in a hero’s tale and that he’s not the hero.  In fact, he prefers it.  Lots of fun with the fantasy genre.  Also, I’m surprised at how similar this book was to Moore’s Fool.  I guess it’s sort of the same idea, except David’s idea goes a little more broad with the concept.  And, honestly, I think it’s a better book.

Here we are! Day 1 of AWESOME-tober-fest! Welcome to my daily celebration of all things spooky. As you can tell, my theme this month is “mummies”! So I’ll be looking at books, comics, movies and TV shows that feature mummies. It should be a lot of fun. Today, we’ll start with a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1890, Cornhill Magazine published a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story called The Ring of Thoth.

While this story has a mummy in it, it isn’t technically a “mummy story” like you’d expect. However, it has elements in the story that will clearly influence mummy movies in the many years to come afterwards.

The story is about an Egyptology student who falls asleep in The Louve and winds up locked in overnight and witnesses a bizarre sight.  The overnight caretaker unwraps one of the mummies from the collection, embraces and kisses it, then rummages through some of the jewelry in the Egyptian collection clearly looking for something.  The student is discovered in hiding and the strange looking caretaker reveals his story about living in ancient Egypt, discovering a long living chemical serum and losing the love of his life to a plague.

This story is short, obviously, and very concise with much of the backstory filled in by exposition from the museum’s overnight caretaker.  However, the way the story is written you feel a sense of wonder at the caretaker’s tale as well as a sense of urgency at what he plans to do that very evening.  These two things make the story breeze by.  It’s also interesting and it keeps you reading along with its fantastical story ideas.  Plus, as I mentioned, there are elements within the story that have clearly influenced many successor mummy movies but also the original Karloff Mummy movie.

First of all, the strange looking caretaker, Sosra, is described as being a very tanned and overly wrinkled person.  Someone with much wisdom and experience in his eyes.  From the description, I immediately got an image of Karloff in his Ardath Bey disguise from The Mummy.  There’s even a scene in which Sosra threatens the protagonist with a knife, much like in the picture below.

Second, the trinket that Sosra is looking for is the title bearing The Ring of Thoth. Thoth is the God of Knowledge in ancient Egyptian culture. His name would be used in countless mummy movies, however, this story would be one of the first. Universal’s The Mummy used it as well in describing, not a ring, but a scroll.

Like I said, while this story doesn’t necessarily involve a reanimated mummy it does carry several things that would influence mummy stories and movies in the years to come. Including a story Doyle would write just two years later called Lot 249.

Overall, this is a really enjoyable, short read.  The timeline is very compact and you feel like there is some urgency in the main characters.  It keeps the action moving along despite that the majority of the story involves backstory exposition.  This is definitely a recommend.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

Back in 2006-2007, Universal Studios commissioned a series of novels that would update their classic monsters in a series of more adult horror tales that also worked as sequels to the classic movies. I discussed one of these books back in 2010 for my werewolf AWESOME-tober-fest (The Wolf Man: Hunter’s Moon by Michael Jan Friedman). Today, I’ll talk about another one, The Mummy: Dark Resurrection by Michael Paine.

While I didn’t like The Wolf Man novel, I thought it had potential, so I picked up this Mummy book hoping it would do a little more with the subject. Did it?  Let’s see.

First of all, it’s really tough to place the book in the mummy movie timeline.  I assume it is a sequel to the very first movie from 1932 with Boris Karloff as Karloff’s character, Ardath Bey, is the main antagonist.  But no other characters from any of the Mummy movies either show up or are even mentioned in any way.  Plus, many of the characters that do appear in this book are given a backstory that sound similar to people in the original mummy franchise which just confuses the entire issue.

The book’s protagonist is Josh Brandt, a rich guy from a rich family who funds an archaeological dig that is trying to find the tomb of Ankh-es-en-Amun, the betrothed of Imhotep.  It is revealed that Brandt’s father and grandfather both funded digs for the exact same tomb and both men were lost and presumed dead while at the dig site.  When the current dig seemingly discovers the tomb’s entrance, strange things start happening to the Brandt family and a mysterious stranger, Ardath Bey, seems to be at the center of it all.

Like I said, Brandt’s father and grandfather’s disappearance is a big part of the back story.  And the way it’s written, it feels like those two men’s stories would have been told previously, like in a mummy movie.  But there are no Brandts in any of the previous movies, which confuses me.  Plus there’s no mention of any previous dealings with Ardath Bey by characters in the book.  I guess this story is just continuing many years later with no other links to the movies except Ardath Bey.

The book is written competently, but antagonist Ardath Bey isn’t utilized enough.  Josh, his crazy family and the supernatural events that happen to that family’s members are the focus of the book with Ardath Bey showing up once or twice menacingly and then again at the end to wrap things up.

Honestly, it was kind of a struggle to finish the book.  Part of my problem could be that I’m not a huge fan of “the mummy” as a monster since it’s so similar to zombies (which we know I don’t like). Also, for a “mummy book”, there’s a surprising lack of mummies in it.  Bey seems to possess the power to make recently dead bodies come to life and kill, which he does throughout the book, but those are zombies, not mummies.  Ancient Egyptian mummies are practically non-existent in this story.

Put all of that together and I can’t say I really recommend this book unless you are already a fan of mummies.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, Lot 249, was originally presented in a collection of medical stories called Round the Red Lamp.

Published in 1892, this collection of short stories created a scandal when first released. Doyle’s fans were expecting more Sherlock Holmes-type detective and crime stories but this collection featured mostly harrowing medical stories about disease and amputation.

The story I read is called Lot 249 and is about an Oxford college student whose downstairs neighbor may or may not have reanimated an ancient Egyptian mummy through some type of dark magic.  This story was written during a late 19th-Century fascination with Egyptology and was the very first to use a reanimated mummy as the antagonist and would influence horror stories for years afterward.

It’s a short, quick read.  It reminded me a lot of Lovecraft’s Herbert West story in style, which wouldn’t be published for another thirty years.  Lot 249 is mostly three characters interacting over the course of a few days.  We get the details of the events through dialogue after the fact.  We don’t really see any of the mummy attacks.  We actually don’t really even get to see the mummy walking around.  There are a few quick glimpses in the coffin, but that’s about it.  And surprisingly enough, the story is wrapped up completely with no “will the mummy actually come alive again” type cliffhanger ending.  You could almost argue that there’s no definitive proof that the mummy did in fact come alive and start killing people.  Like I said, a lot of the eyewitness testimony is coincidental and hearsay.  Doyle leaves it up to the reader to fill in the blanks however he wants.

It’s an interesting story to read from the perspective of that this will influence the “creeping mummy” horror genre for so many years to come.  I’m glad I included it here, even if it isn’t the most exciting story I’ve ever read.  I’m a fan of Doyle and was glad to be able to include him in this year’s AWESOME-tober-fest.

In 1990, Lot 249 would be adapted as one of the chapters in the Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.  The adaptation in that movie would be written by Michael McDowell who also wrote the movie Beetlejuice and the movie novelization for Clue: The Movie.  It would star a very young Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and Christian Slater.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.