Who Watches the Watchmen?

By Chris Buchner

Alan Moore is no stranger to Hollywood, despite his personal distance from it. From Hell (2001), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) and V for Vendetta (2006) were the adaptations of his works in comics of the same name. The latest is Watchmen, based off Moore’s 1986-87 DC Comics miniseries with artist Dave Gibbons.

Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 where America is on the verge of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Superheroes have become unpopular among the public and a 1977 legislature was passed to outlaw them. All but sanctioned heroes The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan retired, with a third, Rorschach, operating outside the law. The story begins with the murder of The Comedian, and Rorschach investigating as the NYPD have failed to turn up any leads. Rorschach believes his death was part of a conspiracy to wipe out all costumed adventurers and warns his former comrades, leading each one to don their costumes again to save New York City.

Moore wanted to write a story featuring an unused line of superheroes that he could revamp as he had done with the 1954-63 British character Miracleman (also known as Marvelman in the UK). He wanted to examine what superheroes would be like in the real world. Originally looking towards Archie Comics’ Mighty Crusaders, Moore eventually wrote his pitch using the characters DC acquired from the defunct Charlton Comics in 1985. Moore’s belief was that as long as readers recognized the characters and got the shock and surprise value when you saw their reality it didn’t matter which set he used. The pitch was submitted to DC managing editor Dick Giordano. While Giordano loved the concept, he urged the writer to create an original cast as the story would have rendered most of the Charlton characters useless for future DC projects.

Gibbons, an artist who had worked with Moore before, heard about the treatment and asked to be involved. Giordano assigned colorist John Higgins because he liked his unusual style and lived close enough to Gibbons to allow human contact during the creation. Len Wein joined on as editor while Giordano stayed on to oversee, although both had a hands-off approach to the project allowing the creative talent to do what they needed to undaunted.

Moore and Gibbons designed the book to showcase the unique abilities of the comic medium and its strengths. As the story progressed, they realized the plot itself became irrelevant compared to how the story was told. They created their characters with inspiration from many sources, in particular by a Mad Magazine parody of Superman called Superduperman, although taken in the complete opposite direction for their purposes. While Moore came up with the characters’ defining characteristics, Gibbons was allowed creative freedom with his designs trying to make them as simplistic and easy to draw as possible, resulting in the characters:

Doctor Manhattan, aka Dr. Jonathan Osterman, is a government-sanctioned hero and works for the US Government. He gained superpowers when caught in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor in 1959. Moore, basing him on Charlton’s Captain Atom, wanted to give him a unique perspective on human affairs as he gradually grew from his own humanity, while Gibbons designed the character as being nude and trying to tastefully present that, reusing the skin motif from the character Rogue Trooper.

Rorschach, aka Walter Kovacs, is a vigilante who wears a mask with constantly shifting ink blots. He sees the world in black and white, and thus free to leave his own mark on a morally blank world. Moore used Steve Ditko as an inspiration, combining elements from his Mr. A and The Question characters.

Nite-Owl, aka Dan Dreiberg, is a retired hero who uses owl-themed gadgetry similar to Batman. Taking a cue from DC’s Blue Beetle, Moore incorporated a predecessor for the character in Hollis Mason, who used the same name. Gibbons used a design for Mason he created when he was twelve as the basis for Nite-Owl’s overall look.

The Comedian, aka Edward Blake, is the other government-sanctioned hero and the catalyst for the story when he’s murdered. He’s a ruthless, cynical and nihilistic character with deep insights into being a hero. He attempted to rape the original Silk Spectre in the 1940s and would later father her daughter. He was based on Charlton’s Peacemaker with elements of Marvel’s Nick Fury thrown in.

Ozymandias, aka Adrian Veidt, retired to run his own enterprise. He’s one of the smartest men on the planet, which leads him to look down on humanity with scorn that makes him the villain of the series. Moore was inspired by Alexander the Great and Charlton’s Thunderbolt, whom Moore admired for using his full brain capacity with full control over his mind and body.

Silk Spectre, aka Laurie Juspeczyk, is the daughter of the original and works for the government because of her relationship with Dr. Manhattan. Unlike the other characters based off the Charlton line, Moore felt he needed a female character in the group and took inspiration from DC’s Black Canary and Phantom Lady.

Moore began writing the series early on to try and avoid any delays suffered by other series at the time, but despite their best efforts the book did fall a couple of months behind schedule. Moore realized that his original plot only left them with six issues of story while they were contracted for 12. It was decided to break up the plot by alternating those issues with origin issues for the characters. Gibbons took pains to ensure the pages couldn’t be confused for any other comic, drawing in a particular weight of line and using a nine-panel grid for each page due to its “authority.” The cover to each issue served as the first panel to the story, and Gibbons often experimented with layout of the issue contents, such as issue 5’s symmetrical pages to go along with the story’s title “Fearful Symmetry.” Moore would also use the pages DC was unable to sell for ad space to do supplemental prose pieces, including fictional book chapters, reports and articles by the characters.

Tales of the Black Freighter was conceived by Moore as a comic that a kid in the comic would read throughout the series. Gibbons suggested a pirate theme and Moore went with it, figuring since the citizens of their fictional world had superheroes they wouldn’t be interested in superhero comics; instead allowing horror, science fiction, piracy and other genres to dominate the books. Moore was also a Berthold Brecht fan, and the Black Freighter was derived from Brecht and Kurt Weill’s song “Seeräuberjenny” (“Pirate Jenny”) from their Threepenny Opera. This story ends up, according to Moore, describing the story of Adrian Veidt.

Watchmen was a commercial and critical success, and helped DC surpass rival Marvel in the sales charts. Along with Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns miniseries, Watchmen was collected and marketed as a graphic novel, a term that allows a publisher to associate comic stories with novels and disassociate them from comics. The success of these graphic novels inspired bookstores and public libraries to give shelf space to them, which in turn led to new comic series to be commissioned on the basis of reprinting them in the collections for those new markets; a practice which continues today. The book has since been reprinted and re-released multiple times, including as a motion comic with voice acting on iTunes in 2008.

Moore had stated that if the series was well-received, he and Gibbons would most likely do a 12-issue prequel series focusing on the 1940s superhero group in the story, the Minutemen. However, Moore and DC had a falling out over ownership of this and other properties he had produced for them, as well as how his imprint America’s Best Comics, part of Wildstorm, was treated after DC bought Wildstorm in 1998. If DC should ever not use his creations for a year, the rights revert back to him and their respective artists. But, with several printings of the trade paperback collection as well as the reprint of the first issue released for the film at the book’s original $1.50 price tag, it doesn’t seem likely DC will let the rights lapse anytime soon.

The Watchmen movie had been in development as far back as 1986. Several directors and writers had been attached at its various stages, including David Hayter, Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass and Sam Hamm. Problems arose such as inadequate budget, creative differences and a conflicting desire to keep the script as true to the source as possible, and the project kept moving from one studio to another. Finally, in 2005, the project returned to Warner Bros. for the second time with producer Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin. Thanks to his work on 300, director Zack Snyder was approached to direct the film with Alex Tse writing.

As with 300, Snyder used the comic as a storyboard, but extended the fight scenes and added a subplot about energy resource to make the film topical. He also had Night Owl and Ozymandias’ looks designed to make Owl scarier and Ozymandias’ armor a parody of the rubber suits from the movie Batman & Robin. Series artist Dave Gibbons became an advisor for the film, but Moore has stated no interest in seeing the film, despite saying David Hayter’s screenplay was as close as it could get. Moore’s main reasoning is Watchmen was designed to only work in comics and not any other media; a challenge Snyder and company will try to overcome.

Watchmen comes to theaters March 6th, 2009. The Tales of the Black Freighter will be adapted into a direct-to-video animated feature released on March 11th. Series editor Len Wein has written the game Watchmen: the End is Nigh, available for download on March 4th. Watchmen collections are out now and available at your local comic shop and most book retailers.

http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

http://www.watchmenvideogame.com/?ct=us

All in the Family

By Chris Buchner

I get a lot of comics each week, and with prices being what they are I get very hesitant to try out a lot of books that are priced over $3. Unfortunately, most independents end up in that range, but sometimes all it takes is a preview of what there is to get you to ignore that tag for a good story. That was the case for me with Dynamo 5. I had heard good things about the series, but the $3.50 per issue price for a property I wasn’t familiar with seemed like a lot to go on with faith alone. If it wasn’t for a colleague of mine brining a couple issues to our meetings, I would’ve ended up missing out on a great series.

Dynamo 5 is a superhero book created by Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar released through Image Comics. The book was spun off from Faerber’s other series Noble Causes, but is more action-driven than soap operatic and can be read without any prior knowledge of the other series. Spawning from a conversation Faerber had with editor Andy Helfer about how the Teen Titans were unique in that they were like a family, Faerber decided to run with that and create a team that was literally a family.

Captain Dynamo was the beloved protector of Tower City for 40 years after being exposed to an unidentified form of radiation that gave him his powers. However, Dynamo was far from being a Superman as he had a tendency to cheat on his wife, Maddie Warner, a former agent of the superhuman monitoring organization known as F.L.A.G. who posed as an award-winning investigative journalist. Dynamo was found naked and killed by poison in a hotel by a villain named Widowmaker. It was after his death Maddie learned about his infidelities, but there was the more pressing concern of who would protect Tower City.

Going through the information she found, Maddie was able to track down 5 of his possible illegitimate children. Bringing them together, she exposed them all to the same radiation that gave Dynamo his powers, giving them each one of his five powers, turning them into Dynamo 5:

Hector Chang, aka Visionary, is an intellectually curious 15-year-old geek from Canada who lives with his mother. He gains Dyanmo’s vision powers, which include lasers, x-ray and telescopic.

Spencer Bridges, aka Myriad, is half-human and half-alien, conceived when Dynamo visited an alien woman’s planet. He was brought to Earth for Dynamo to raise, but was left in custody of F.L.A.G. until he was smuggled out by a woman named Bridges and spent the rest of his childhood in a series of foster homes. He grew into an opportunistic womanizer, who only joined the team because Maddie paid him. He has the ability to shapeshift.

Bridget Flynn, aka Scrap, is a NYU Film School graduate whose Hollywood aspirations hit a dead end, leaving her selling tickets at a movie theater in LA where Maddie found her. She gain’s Dynamo’s super strength.

Gage Reinhart, aka Scatterbrain, is an Eastbridge, Texas high school football star and is the typical popular, arrogant jock. He gained Dynamo’s power of telepathy.

Olivia Lewis, aka Slingshot, is the daughter of a high-priced Washington, DC lawyer who attends Georgetown University where she volunteers for half a dozen different organizations. She gains Dynamo’s power of flight.

Together, they protect Tower City from their undersea base, the Aquarium, while still trying to maintain some semblance of their normal lives in their home towns.

The series has that old-school flair of long-running subplots, but each issue is divided into a singular adventure with one or two exceptions. Faerber makes each story as character-driven as it is defined by action, presenting that perfect blend that makes you care about the characters. Asrar is also a capable artist, his work looking fantastic on the book and a lot of the character designs inspired. It’s not easy to create a new superhero, let alone a team, in a market full of them that are worth a look, but if you like old-school superheroics but not all the dialogue they were crammed with, this is definitely a book you should check out.

The first 20 issues and an annual have already been released, as well as a $.99 cent 12-page #0 issue in February, a good jumping on point for new readers. Two trade paperback collections have also been released, Post-Nuclear Family and Moments of Truth.

Firsts in One Bookish Little Life

By Nancy Horner, aka Bookfool

How, when and why does anyone become so addicted to books that she takes on the name “Bookfool”? First, I suppose, someone has to teach a little one to become a book fool by reading to her. Because my parents were both readers, I can only assume I was read to from a very young age. I don’t recall a time when books were not a part of my life. But, it’s difficult to pinpoint which book may have first captured my interest. I wrestled with my memory and came up with a few firsts. Here are some I recall -- possibly with accuracy and maybe a bit distorted by memory:

First book I remember my mother reading to me: Are You My Mother? By P. D. Eastman -- As an adult with a brand new baby, this was one of those books I absolutely had to have and rushed out to buy for my own child. Favorite part: “Oh, no!” said the baby bird. “You are not my mother. You are a scary snort!”

First book that was so darned special I had to buy it off eBay: Jiggers by Joy Muchmore Lacey -- The story of a cute little black and white puppy who becomes lost. I was a little afraid of eBay, so my husband politely bought me a copy of the book after I basically bounced around the room because I was so excited to see a cover of it on the internet. My mother had already informed me that she didn’t have “the foggiest idea” what became of my childhood copy. My eBay purchase was sent in a Ziploc bag for protection and I’ve left it that way, almost afraid to touch it, the book is so special.

First book I recall reading repeatedly: There were undoubtedly many books that I read repeatedly as a youngster, but the first book I recall reading so often that little bits of it became a part of my mode of speech was Rosalie: the Bird Market Turtle by Winifred Lubell. My mother did a raucous impression of Rosalie’s talking bird friend, Gaston, calling, “Rosalie! Where’s Rosalie?”

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett later became the first book that I read repeatedly on my own. It’s probably notable that it took me at least a couple of decades to convince myself it was okay to watch one of the movie adaptations. And, then, of course I was disappointed. Nothing matches up to the book, which is a wondrous story of courage and imagination.

First youthful genre obsession: The first series of books I recall reading was a set of biographies stocked by my hometown library. They were blue, as I remember it, with a silhouette of each historical figure on the cover, very simply designed. My favorites were the biographies of Ernie Pyle, Clara Barton and Lucretia Mott. Another obsession was cats. I read anything and everything cat-oriented, whether fiction or nonfiction. Unfortunately, I can visualize covers, but the only title I recall is Born Free by Joy Adamson.

First book I recall buying on my own: I remember two early book purchases. One was a total disaster. I adored the movie, “The Sound of Music” and bought a copy of the original book upon which the movie was based at a book sale that took place in my elementary school library. Unfortunately, my sister bought the same book for a Christmas gift and was unable to return it, once she found out I’d purchased my own copy. So she went ahead and wrapped it. That turned out to be a really awkward gift-opening moment. The other book I recall purchasing at a young age was a ten-cent library reject of African folk tales called The Cow-Tail Switch and other stories. It’s a mess, but I still have that book, somewhere.

First time I realized classics can be awesome: The year I climbed up onto my grandmother’s 4-poster bed and read a tiny, leather-bound miniature copy of Romeo and Juliet stands out in my mind. I never had much of an education in literature because journalism was allowed as a substitute for other English courses in my high school and then I took alternates in college, as well (Writing about Film, for example). When I was in my early twenties, I realized I’d read hardly anything at all that could be considered a “classic”, apart from those I sneaked off my sister’s shelf (notably, A Separate Peace by John Knowles and Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster). Fortunately for me, the first book I latched onto for my self-imposed foray into classics was Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. I stayed up all night.

First published author I heard speak in person: Madeleine L’Engle. A Wrinkle in Time is one of my all-time childhood favorites, so I was thrilled when I heard L’Engle was going to speak at the Woodland Hills library branch in Tulsa. I remember feeling encouraged when she said the only time she didn’t write was during the years that she had “crawling babies” because I was big as a barn at that moment, pregnant with my first child and worried that I’d never find the time to write, again. Unfortunately, she ran out of copies of A Wrinkle in Time before I reached the head of the line (there was quite a crowd), so I have an autographed copy of A Wind in the Door.

There are plenty of other firsts I can think of. One that I shared with Heather is the first book I read to tatters -- my childhood book of fairy tales. Fairy tales were undoubtedly one of the first little crooked fingers beckoning this booklover into incurable bibliophilia. Fortunately, I really love being addicted and plan to continue to change those firsts into little bitty beginnings of heaping helpings of reading material I adore burying myself in each year. It’s good being a book fool.

Webcomics

By Chris Buchner

What do newspapers, movies, TV shows and comic books all have in common? All of their content is available online. In the 21st century, the internet is more prominent than ever, but before the other media began finding their way onto it comics have been there for quite some time. These comics are called webcomics.

What is a webcomic? Simply put, it’s a comic available online created with a variety of mediums. Without the limitations of paper, these comics can be produced quickly and cheaply while not being forced to conform to a particular structure standard, and able to reach a much broader audience. Like their print counterparts, it has taken some time for webcomics to gain the respect and artistic recognition they deserve, but in recent years they’ve begun to get their own spotlight.

Before there was an internet as we know it today, there was Usenet and CompuServe. Usenet offered a place that functioned much like present day message boards for the free sharing of pictures and ideas, and CompuServe was the first to offer E-Mail and chat as well as a structured environment with many internet-related services in a user friendly interface. These are the services where the earliest webcomics found their roots as far back as 1986. Among them were Joe Ekaitis’ T.H.E. Fox and Where the Buffalo Roam which started out as a college strip in the Colorado Daily.

In the 1990s, webcomics began the shift into the world wide web with the introduction of the Mosaic browser when creators realized the freedom it offered. Bryan McNett created a hosting service called Big Panda, and then a webcomics portal that readers could use to find new works and creators. McNett, though, began to lose interest in the endeavor but sparked the creation of additional portals. Chris Cosby ran his own webcomic Superosity through Big Panda, but after his dealings with the site decided to create his own hosting service called Keenspot in 2000 with Terri Crosby, Darren Bluel and Nathan Stone. The plan was to have readers pay to see the strips and profit sharing with creators. In 2001, they formed Keenspace, offering free hosting services to creators. That would eventually become known as Comic Genesis with a focus on revenue through advertising. In 2000, Scott McCloud published a book called Reinventing Comics, which encouraged readers to embrace technology and take their comics onto the infinite space of the web. He believed webcomic creators could make just as good a living as those who worked in print.

Keenspot was a success, leading to more portals such as Joey Manley’s Modern Tales, Serializer and Girl-A-Matic. Hosting sites were also on the rise, such as Drunk Duck, Smack Jeeves and Webcomics Nation. While professional creators were doing original work on the web, they had also begun taking previously printed stories and creating new material for them online. Lea Hernandez, editor-in-chief of Girl-A-Matic, was one of the first to move her series, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie, to the web after being dissatisfied with how Image Comics was handling it. Since then, many creators have begun to do the same, or at least create supplemental material to go along with what was being printed.

Slowly but surely, webcomics began to receive their due notoriety. As their popularity grew, comic awards began to take notice. In 2000, the Eagle Awards introduced a category for favorite webcomic. Following that, the Ignatz Awards and the largest comic award ever, the Eisner, added their own categories. The community also created their own awards, the Web Cartoonist’s Choice Wards, as a form of peer recognition.

Today, the line between print comics and webcomics gradually fades. Strips like PvP and Garfield Without Garfield have been published in both standard comic and collected book form. NBC’s TV show Heroes ran a webcomic on its site that filled in gaps between events of episodes and was later collected into a hardcover book. Meanwhile, in 2007 DC Comics began their own webcomics imprint, Zuda Comics. They also place several page previews for their upcoming vertigo issues, and PDF files of first issues of certain books to coincide with their release. Dark Horse puts its monthly anthology Dark Horse Presents on their Myspace page. Marvel has also recently began publishing their own all-ages webcomic strip on their site, as well as releasing free samples of certain upcoming publications and a library of back issues through their new Digital Comic subscription program.

Comics took some time to gain recognition in the artist world, and so too did webcomics within the comic world. As the internet began to grow and with the changing tastes of new readers leading towards the electronic, the print guys have begun to realize there’s something to what the web guys have been doing for some time. While it’s not likely print comics will disappear anytime soon, there is a viable market to be reached through the web, and many of the old warhorses of the industry are finally realizing it. With webcomics, creators have all the space they want to tell a story in any way they choose, can add things like animation or links, and they’re very cheap to produce. The comics industry is always looking for ways to hook in new readers, and by keeping up with the times and making the shift onto the web, they may succeed in doing just that.

The Anatomy of First

By Melissa Fox

First love. First kiss. First steps. First child. First home. First impressions.

They all have something in common: the excitement, anticipation, of being first. Unsullied. New.

In the book world, so much hinges on that first. First book by an author, first book in a series, first time with a particular genre. All of which determines whether or not you'll keep reading, not just that book but -- narrowly -- others by that author or -- broadly -- others in that genre.

What is it, though, that makes a good first? It's obviously different for every individual, but these are some of the elements that make a good first book experience for me.

A good cover: Like a good first impression, a good cover can make or break that first. If you know nothing about the story or about the author, the cover can draw you in or repel you. Think about it: how often have you been drawn to the colorful, interesting, beautiful, catchy cover? It doesn't matter if you liked the book afterward; the cover is what draws you in.

Good jacket flap copy: For me, a consummate jacketflap reader, having a good description on the dustjacket (or the back) is essential. I want something that will whet my appetite without giving too much away. Something that will give me a small sample of the flavor of the book. Something that will let me know what this book is about, and give me a reason to buy it or check it out, and spend time with it.

First sentence: Granted, it's not always important, though I have picked up books on the strength of the first sentence alone. (I Capture the Castle comes to mind.) But the first sentence is something special. It sets the tone of the book, raises (or lowers) expectations, draws you into the world that the author has created. While I don't think the first sentence can make or break a book, it's certainly something that will help (or hinder) your overall impression of the story.

But enough of the first impressions. Reading a book is like meeting a person: you spend valuable time with these characters, this author. What makes a book something that you want to read again -- immediately start over once you've finished it? Or read the rest of the books in the series? Or branch out to other authors who write in a particular genre? Or read everything else that author has written, waiting with baited breath for their newest book?

Again, it's individual for each reader, but these are some of the things I look for:

Engaging plot, characters, story: This, to me, is what really makes or breaks a first book. If I'm taken away into another place or time, if I can escape for a few moments into the author's world, and find interesting or enjoyable or captivating or challenging characters there doing interesting or enjoyable or captivating or challenging things, then I'm hooked. I like it when authors do something different with a familiar genre; it makes me want to go out and read other authors to compare. But I also like it when the comfortable and familiar are well done.

Writing: Yeah, I'll forgive a lot when it comes to writing; I'm not one who will love a book primarily for the beautiful/elegant/picturesque writing. But it does matter, even to me (more to some others). If a book is clunky, then it makes it hard to enjoy the characters, plot and story. Granted, I also think that sometimes exceptionally beautiful/elegant/picturesque writing--with the result that every paragraph just seems carefully fitted into place--also can make it hard to enjoy the rest of the book.

Right time, right frame of mind: More than anything, I think this has everything to do with the success of a first book. The author worked, sweated to create this story and get it into your hands and you're having a bad day so you don't like the book. Or conversely, you are at a point in your life where the book hits you just exactly right, and you're in love. It's not always the case, of course, but there's a reason many readers are so fickle. Why else would we say, "What do I feel like reading today?"

Curiosity factor: Sometimes, especially when you're trying something new, it's because you're curious. You've heard about the author and want to sample some of his or her work. You're interested in the genre or subject matter. How interested you are in what that author is presenting has a lot to do with how you react to the book. If it's something you're longing to know about or be exposed to, you'll forgive a lot more than if it's something you've been assigned. And the curiosity factor has another side: if everything falls into place, and you love the book you've just read, you're propelled to seek out more. Whether it be the other books by that author, other books in the same genre, or simply the next in the series, you've been made curious by what you've just read.

And that's the best first of all.

Firsts

By Heather T.


Estella’s Revenge's January ‘Firsts’ theme gave me some difficulty in the beginning. When contemplating this theme I gave some thought to how the books I had on the go would fit and whether or not a review would work. I had a number of books in the rotation but none were of a genre I hadn’t previously explored so I wasn’t sure where I could really go with that.

I thought perhaps I could reread the first book I remembered and explore some ideas surrounding that but I tried to remember the first book I ever read and couldn’t come up with a title. Books have simply always been there and although they haven’t run together, I certainly didn’t have a blog back than to help me keep track of the books I read and what I might have thought about them. It certainly would have been fun to reread that first book though. I suspect it was a fairytale of some sort since I do remember being obsessed with having my father read to me every night the wonderful tale of Cinderella.

I do remember the first time I went to the public library by myself. It was during summer vacation and I was fourteen. I don’t know if that seems old or not but before that I’d only ever gone with my father. I suppose it never occurred to me that I might like to go by myself but I think there was one morning my father was busy working in the garden with my mother so off I went.

I remember feeling a different sort of excitement than usual – a certain empowerment. The length of the walk seemed shortened. The sky seemed a deeper blue and the sun seemed to shine even brighter than usual. It was late summer and the sound of tree frogs was amplified by my excitement and happiness.

What books did I explore that wonderful summer day? I wish I could remember but I’ve no idea what books I might have taken home with me. I remember only the joy I felt in opening the door to the library, striding inside and breathing deeply, smiling to myself and entering a random stack to see what I could discover. I still behave exactly the same each time I enter a library.

Where Have All the Goblins Gone?

By Stuart Sharp

Have you noticed that there’s something of a dearth of goblins in fantasy writing these days? No, I imagine you have a social life instead, so you’re going to have to take my word for it. But think about it. It used to be that no sooner had you got through the first couple of chapters than the pages started to fill up with short green chaps whose only real purpose in life was to be cut down by the intrepid heroes.

For a brief period after Tolkien, practically every fantasy book was full of the things. These days, though, there hardly seem to be any, just as there seem to be rather fewer bushy-bearded wizards, arrow-shooting elves, and overly muscular barbarian types who never seem to be able to afford enough clothes despite all the priceless jewels they steal.

The answer to this, of course, is that fantasy writing, as with any writing, is far from static. Just look at how the goblins started out. Before Tolkien got hold of them, they were just a collection of moderately malevolent fairie creatures scattered across a host of folk-tales. They weren’t even green, for the most part. Just take a look at the widely varying goblins of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, with their bestial heads, for proof of that. Just as writing changed to become what we now think of as fantasy, it was inevitable that the style of fantasy would change to meet the imaginative leaps of new generations of authors, and to fill the needs of new readers.

As with so many other areas of writing, one of the obvious reactions to fantasy’s traditional forms was to parody it. The likes of Esther Freisner, Tom Holt, Robert Asprin, Terry Pratchett and countless others have turned the traditional forms upside down, inside out, and every other way they could think of. The main question, though, is what did they do with the goblins? Sadly, they mostly seem to have ignored them. Freisner made some small use of them, and Mary Gentle’s Grunts makes wonderful fun of their usual orcish counterparts, but for the most part they’re absent.

They’re not entirely alone in that, since any straight ahead fantasy component wasn’t likely to last long under a relentless barrage of comic fantasy oddness. The difference is that where most of the obvious elements were easily transformed into something workable, producing, among other things, an almost unending stream of inexperienced, incompetent or simply weird wizards, goblins don’t seem to have merited the same treatment. The major exception is the work of Tom Holt, where they make regular appearances as mildly sinister office workers in such books as The Portable Door and Earth, Air, Fire and Custard.

Perhaps the reason for this is that comic fantasy has largely changed its focus. The shift is readily apparent if you just read the earliest of Pratchett’s Discworld novels followed by some of his more recent ones. Where The Colour of Magic is firmly rooted in subverting the conventions of fantasy, something like Hogfather or Making Money is far more focused on making fun of the world as we know it.

A similar sort of shift has taken place in the more serious sort of fantasy too. Take a look at the relevant section of your local bookshop. Maybe once it would have been filled with books set in unpronounceable worlds and faithfully reproducing every element of traditional fantasy, even if they changed a few of the names. Now though, there’s hardly space for it under the weight of urban fantasy, supernatural thrillers and modern supernatural romances. Not that I have any problem with any of those genres. For anyone who hasn’t them yet, I can heartily recommend the likes of Living With the Dead by Kelly Armstrong, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Swallowing Darkness, and Storm Born, by Richelle Mead. But, except for those that show up as minor characters in Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series, they don’t really leave much room for goblins.

Ok, I promise that’s enough about the goblins. They aren’t really the point anyway. The point is just how much fantasy writing has changed over the years. Even the more traditional sort of epic fantasy has changed so much as to be virtually unrecognisable. The likes of the late David Gemmell and Joe Abercrombie have taken to writing a brand of fantasy that is much more character driven and gritty than much of the earlier stuff, bringing the unpleasant sides of their characters forward as often as the heroic ones. Even someone like Trudy Canavan, whose fantasy is much more obviously fantastic than either of the others, still seems far more interested in the inner world of her characters than in the spectacular world around them.

To me that seems like a good thing, but it does have one mildly unpleasant side effect. Occasionally, it means that I can read what are considered fantasy classics and not particularly like them. And now for the words that have already caused me at least one argument: I don’t particularly like Tolkien. I really don’t like the main Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s no more than my opinion, obviously, but I find him too focuses on his world and his grand quest, and not enough on those engaged in it. My feelings on Robert E. Howard’s original Conan stories are even more ambivalent, and I can only take Fritz Leiber in small doses.

I suppose the point, therefore, is just how quickly fantasy can date. It’s not the same genre that it was at its inception. Nor is its main focus the same as it was even a few years ago. Of course, if that’s the case, then there’s always the question of what it will look like in another decade or two. Will it just be more of the same, or will it find yet another way to reinvigorate itself. I have no idea. I am, however, kind of hoping that whatever the future brings, it will still have some sort of place for goblins.

A Fantasy World

By Elaine Simpson-Long

I have made no secret of my love of Georgette Heyer on Estella’s Revenge and was delighted when Source Books, who are republishing all of this wonderful lady’s output in the USA, sent me a parcel of books by this, one of my favourite authors.

I have recently written about comfort reading having been asked what constituted such a genre, and I had a bit of a ponder and came to the conclusion that it is reading a book or books for pure pleasure; no analysis, no essays, no posting on one’s blog. In short, no obligation to do anything but sit down and wallow. It was a horrid day yesterday, cold and chilly and the first snow of the winter here in the UK, and as the nights are now dark early, it was the perfect kind of day for drawing the curtains, sitting by the fire, hot drink to hand, chocolate biscuits and a big comfy sofa to curl up on and a favourite book to read.

If you describe a book as a fantasy novel, the natural reaction would be to imagine it is a story full of Hobbits, trolls, Orcs and other such phantasmagorical creatures, set in a far distant magical land. But there is a different kind of fantasy. It is the fantasy world the reader creates when reading any book that transports you away from the realities of life, where no washing up exists, no housework needs to be done and we are swept off our feet by dashing men who clasp us to their manly breasts.

Be still my beating heart...

All of Georgette Heyer’s novels have the ability to transport us into such a world. Deep down we are aware that the realities of living in the Regency times were not as they are portrayed here in the salons of the fashionable of good ton. We know that most people were fairly indifferent to personal hygiene, the streets and roads were filthy dirty, most people lived in slums and in dire poverty and while lip service is paid to those who lived in such awful circumstances (Leaky Peg in Heyer’s Arabella is a case in point), all of Heyer’s Regency novels are full of beautiful heroines and masterful heroes. We know all this but we put it to one side while we read.

Two of the books I was lucky enough to receive and enjoy all over again were Faro’s Daughter and Regency Buck.

Faro’s Daughter opens with Lady Mablethorpe, awaiting the arrival of her nephew, Mr Ravenscar. When he arrives we see immediately that he is one of the dark, sardonic, saturnine Heyer heroes:

“He was very tall, with a good pair of legs, encased in buckskins and top boots, fine broad shoulders under a coat of superfine cloth, and a lean harsh featured countenance with an uncompromising mouth and extremely hard grey eyes”

He learns that Adrian, Lady Mablethorpe's son has fallen in love with a lady in a gaming house who has him “in her toils” and she wishes Ravenscar to help extricate Adrian from this predicament. His reaction is unfavourable in that she will have to be bought off and he makes it clear that she need to expect him to lay out his money:

“You need not be afraid Max! I hope I know better than to expect you to lay out any of your odious wealth on this business!”

“‘I hope you do Aunt, for I shall certainly do no such thing”........Lady Mablethorpe said with a somewhat vindictive note in her voice “I beg that you will take care Max. They say the girl is like a honey-pot and I’m sure I’ve no wish to see you caught in her toils”

This sentence is a dead give away as we know immediately what is going to happen, and it does. Max finds himself falling love with Deborah Grantham who is, of course, a lady of breeding forced to run a gaming house in order to survive. She is beautiful, intelligent and honest and, as in all good romantic stories, at first disliking Mr Ravenscar ends up falling in love with him. Lots of adventures on the way and intrigues and plotting and all great fun.

Regency Buck concerns a brother and sister, Peregrine and Judith Taverner who have been left in the guardianship of Lord Worth, following the death of their father. It transpires that their father, not the most intelligent of men designated, incorrectly, the 5th Earl of Worth to be responsible for them in his will and instead of a middle aged gentleman they expected to see, they find someone of a totally different mien.

“He was the epitome of a man of fashion. His locks were carefully brushed into a semblance of disorder, his cravat of starched muslin supported his chin in a series of beautiful folds; his driving coat of drab cloth bore no less than fifteen capes and a row of silver buttons. He had a look of self consequence; his eyes, ironically surveying her from under weary lids, were the hardest she had ever seen and betrayed no emotion but boredom his nose was too straight for her taste. His mouth was well formed but thin lipped. She thought it sneered”

OK – well she dislikes him. He sneers at her. Instant antipathy so once again, we know what is going to happen. However, this story is one of Miss Heyer’s more substantial books and before the inevitable ending, we discover that somebody is trying to eliminate Peregrine in order to gain his fortune and Lord Worth finds his guardianship more onerous than he had anticipated. A great deal of historical background in this book and a wonderful portrayal of the Prince Regent and the Pavilion at Brighton which is to be savoured.

We are also introduced to Worth’s brother, Charles Audley. A warm hearted, handsome laughing man he appears the opposite of his cool, sarcastic brother and Georgette makes him a lovable, endearing character. There is method in this as Charles appears in another of Heyer’s books, and one which is, in my opinion anyway, her finest work: An Infamous Army. Her depiction of the Battle of Waterloo makes for absorbing reading and Charles is the hero in the love story fashioned around this momentous event in history. We also meet Judith and Lord Worth in this story and Lady Babs Childe, Charles love, who is a member of the Alastair family, who feature in These Old Shades and Devil’s Cub. Georgette Heyer links these stories together beautifully through the generations so that the reader is delighted to stumble upon familiar characters.

If the fantasy land of the balls, salons, visits to Vauxhall Gardens, dashing heroes and glamorous heroines is one you love, and I fully admit to being a paid up member, then read every one of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels you can lay your hands on and for sheer wit, vitality and laugh out loud humour, may I recommend Cotillion or Friday’s Child. Fantasy froth at its finest.

The Year of Reading

By Jodie

2008 - The Year of Reading

In the UK 2008 has been the official ‘Year of Reading’. It has encouraged people who couldn’t read to go out and learn this important skill and asked parents to pass a love of reading along to their kids. Despite its advanced school system Britain has a serious illiteracy problem. It has attempted to support those who missed out on reading in school back into education

For those of us who were already enthusiastic readers 2008 has just been a normal year. Personally I continued to read vast amounts of books and enjoy reading. Job done the government would probably say, you didn’t fall off the reading wagon in 2008, well done. However I feel that I, an avid reader should have been able to make more of a difference during this year dedicated to my favourite form of entertainment. But as I’m not in education and don’t have kids to read ‘We’re Going on a Bearhunt’ to I struggled to think of a way to help people to read more.

2009 - The Year of Readers

I was always taught that reading is powerful and I’ve experienced it for myself many times. Reading can lift you out of poverty, it can give you open doors that you never knew existed; it has helped me develop my views and my reason over and over again. I wanted to put this massive power that affected me personally to greater use.

The Year of Readers aims to bring people who enjoy books together to have fun bringing literature into the lives of others. From the 1st January 2009 until 31st of December 2009 I will be running an international read-a-thon that will be open to anyone who reads. It doesn’t matter what kind of books you read or how many you read as long as you’ve got your nose in a book in 2009 you can join in.

It’s an easy concept (which is probably why I thought of it). You pick a literary charity that you want to support in 2009. You sign up to be part of The Year of Readers, get people to sponsor you and just start reading whatever you like. Every time you complete a book between 1st January 2009 – 31st December 2009 you will be increasing the funds of your chosen charity and enabling them to pass reading materials along to those who can’t just walk into a Waterstones or teach people who don’t yet know how freeing reading can be.
If you’re going to read next year why not join and help a bookish charity at the same time? Not only will you be harnessing the power of reading for the good of other people but you’ll also pass that power along, giving people around the world the ultimate freedom, to read whatever they want.

Join Now

Journey over to The Year of Readers and sign up via the Mr Linky there. Once you’re signed up leave a comment stating your chosen charity and leaving your e-mail address so you can receive updates and your electronic fundraising pack.

10 Bookish Things to Be Grateful For

By Stuart Sharp

Sometimes, we need to stop for a while, just to appreciate some of the things we have. This is no less true with books than with anything else, so I have, naturally enough, compiled a list. You might have other things that you feel grateful for, but these, I think you’ll agree, are mostly pretty great things too:

1. Libraries
Public libraries, when you think about it, are really quite a wonderful idea. Despite the scary looking people who stand in front of the section you’d really like to browse, despite their refusal to get the one book you want to read, despite even the dreaded librarian’s stare that tells you that if you so much as breathe on the stock, you’re in trouble, the central idea is still absolutely amazing. You want to read something, so you go to a library, and you read it for free. For free! Well unless, like me, you happen to have a terrible memory for return dates.
Just think of all the books you weren’t quite certain of that you still read, because you were able to get them out of your local library. Just think of all the things you’ve learned by spending time there. As the brief history of libraries at http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html shows, the idea is thousands of years old, but it’s still every bit as brilliant now as it was then. Those of you who agree should probably make the time to go to http://www.lovelibraries.co.uk/ at some point as well.

2. The E-Book
No, I know it will never fully replace the paperback. I know it will never have that wonderful papery feel, or the smell of a really old book (which reminds me rather a lot of a sock drawer that has been kept perfectly dry for fifty years, though I suspect I might be alone in that thought) or the way you can drop a book and not lose more than your place. Go on though, admit it. You want one. Hundreds of books crammed into a space the size of one ordinary one? Is there anybody reading this whose bookshelves don’t need that sort of solution? And it’s kind to trees, which is nice.

3. The fact that you can read at all.
The nobility of the middle ages probably weren’t quite as much of an illiterate bunch as has occasionally been made out, but most of them weren’t big readers either. And the peasants were far worse off. Throughout history, large portions of the human population have been unable to read or write to any kind of high standard. And it’s still a problem even in so called ‘first world’ societies. According to the UK’s Literacy Trust (http://www.literacytrust.org.uk) 1.1 million of the UK’s adults have almost no literacy skills, while 3.5 million have the skills that the National Curriculum would expect of an 11 year-old. It’s a scary thought.

4. Authors Who Publish Exactly on My Schedule
Of course, being able to read is not the same thing as having something to read, which brings me nicely to my next point. There are some authors who, thanks no doubt to some very persistent bullying on the part of their publishers and agents, produce books exactly when I’m running out of things to read. Kim Harrison, in particular, seems to have timed many of her recent releases to coincide with my running-out-of-books moments. There are some authors who are even more predictable than that. For several years, the question of what to buy my mother for her birthday was solved for me by the fact that Terry Pratchett would invariably have something out two or three weeks before it. That this also allowed me to read it afterwards never entered my head. Honest.

5. Small Bookshops
There are a lot of big bookshops out there. They’ll have uniforms, and centrally determined marketing policies, and usually coffee shops where the overwhelming scent of the stuff is enough to put those of us who don’t drink much coffee off browsing. They aren’t always a bad thing. They usually have a wide range in stock, and decent prices. One of my favourite bookshops is my university’s branch of a major chain. It occurs to me though that the things I like about it most, that the staff know me by sight, that a couple of them know my reading habits, and that they occasionally recommend things I like, are actually things resulting from it being quite a small branch. Small bookshops just feel… more comfortable. Odd, in many cases, but comfortable. Rather like the cardigans many of the owners seem obliged to wear.

6. Paperback Novels
Hardback novels undoubtedly have their uses, but really, when you take away the ones that don’t come under the heading of ‘remarkably durable blunt instrument’, what are you left with? No shelf space and a bad back, probably.
Paperbacks are convenient, they’re light. A lot of the time they can fit in a spare pocket. Admittedly, they’ll disintegrate under a spilled cup of coffee, but I’ve already warned you about that sort of bookshop, haven’t I? More than that, paperbacks are cheap. Look at your bookshelves. Imagine how many fewer books there would be if you only bought hardbacks. Imagine how much lighter your bank balance would be. Now feel grateful that the paperbacks are pressing together in some strange, jumbled arrangement that would do the average dry stone wall proud.

7. Small Press Publishers
Otherwise known as those publishers who put out most of the decent poetry collections. Let’s face it, no one else will. Some of them, like Bloodaxe, have gone from being small to being quite a bit bigger, but they’ll still never compete with the truly large publishing houses. Instead, they, and publishers like them, will simply continue supplying almost every poetry book I own. The big names, in contrast, will probably continue to contribute those annoying ‘the nation’s favourite poems about love/trees/mildly concussed penguins’, none of them containing poems newer than fifty years old. I don’t want to read those collections. Except possibly the one about the penguins, which is, sadly, the one I made up.

8. Authors with imagination
To continue being moderately grumpy for a moment, let us consider some of the things that show up on bookshop shelves. There are the ghosted autobiographies, the reality TV tie ins, the utterly awful books that get their place because someone famous, good looking, or merely possessing embarrassing photographs of the publisher happens to have written them. I could go on, but it would depress us, so I won’t.


Let’s concentrate, instead, on the existence of authors who have made a living being as odd, as different and as wildly imaginative as humanly possible. From the realms of ‘proper’ literature, we have the likes of Murakami describing reality in a way that shouldn’t really make sense, and yet somehow does. For my own favoured genre of fantasy, we have Kelly Link, who not only has the ability to write the strangest short stories you’ve ever read, but who also has the peculiar knack of slotting zombies into parts of stories you never thought they’d fit into. I’m sure we can agree that you can never have too many zombies.

9. Buying books online
Which isn’t to say that your favourite small bookshop will necessarily have the particular slab of (maybe) zombie filled joy that you want to read. They are, after all, small, and don’t always have room for everything you might desire. They could always order it for you, but we all know how long that can take.


But the beautiful thing these days is that thanks to the likes of Powells (and some other online bookshop whose name I can’t quite recall at the moment) it’s possible to simply order books online, at three in the morning should you feel like it. Now, I have to admit to preferring real life bookshops, with assistants who are real (but quite possibly alien) people, but even so, there’s something quite remarkable about the thought that these days I could order Kafka’s complete works without ever bothering to change out of my pyjamas. Slightly worrying, but also quite remarkable. Isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing?

10. Book Blogging and Zines
On the subject of which, our last thing worth really appreciating is… well, us. Zines, bloggers and online communities. Random strangers who make up lists of things to be grateful for about books and then put them on the Internet for you to see. Estella’s Revenge and all the marvellous, marvellous book zines like it. Can’t decide if you’ll like the new book by a favourite author? Dozens of online reviews will help you. Can’t decide what to read next? Start a poll on a blog. Have a sudden urge to read a list of things to be grateful for?

Actually, I think we may have just covered that one.

OP/ED: The Loss Of Spider-Girl

By Chris Buchner

Spider-Girl is a great example of how things should be done.

A year ago for another website, I wrote an article entitled “The Marvel Tapestry,” in which I talked about how no matter the change of the creative team or overall direction of a particular book the comics seemed to flow as one continuous story. Almost like somehow, the writers of the past could see ten, fifteen years into the future and open the doors to subplots that the future writers would pick up and run with. Of course, obviously, it really was just a sign of talented writers who came on board and made sufficient use of what came before in order to craft their own tales.

This insight came from someone who started really reading the books after their having been around for 30 years and literally read them from new to old. Marvel, in the last decade, has taken that ability to build on what came before and completely reversed it with their constant desire to reboot books and characters in order to retool them. Instead of allowing the story to flow and change things through a natural form of progression, they decide to just scrap everything and start over as if nothing came before.

The reasoning behind a move like that is supposedly to allow new readers to jump into books. New readers are apparently intimidated by high issue numbers and years of back story which makes it hard to follow any of the new stories that come out. Of course, companies will cater to the potential new readers to replenish their aging audience. However, a lot of that audience (myself included) started reading in the technical middle of the story and were able to not only follow well enough to enjoy the stories, but also to enjoy them enough to want to go out and get the stuff that came before and that would come after.

Spider-Girl is how it should work. It stemmed from the controversial Clone Saga story in which Peter was temporarily replaced by his clone, Ben Reilly, and the Parkers were expecting their first child, May. Fan backlash caused a quick reversal on Peter’s replacement by having Ben die by the hands of the original Green Goblin, and the company felt a baby would age Peter too much so they had Goblin set up the contingency plan where Mary Jane would be forced into labor and the Parkers told their baby died in birth, but in actuality she was abducted by Goblin’s associates. From then on, the Clone Saga was slowly phased out of the consciousness of the Spidey books. The last traces of this story were when the deranged original clone, Kaine, rescued the baby violently. That new subplot was wiped out entirely when the books were rebooted from #1 in 1999 running from a new “streamlined” origin for Spidey by John Byrne in Spider-Man: Chapter One.

Now you know the back story of that era in the books, but here’s what you needed to read Spider-Girl:

Peter Parker was Spider-Man but retired.
Peter and Mary Jane had a baby that grew up into a young girl that inherited her fahter’s powers.
Green Goblin was Norman Osborn, who had a son who in turn had his grandson, Normie.
Both children decided to continue their family’s legacy.

All that was given to you within the very first issue. You could come into this story without knowing anything else but the basics. All that other detail was gradually filled in over the course of the series to some extent, although it was never really necessary or crucial to the story. For the most part, continuity in this series served as Easter eggs for long-time fans who have been reading Spidey books for a long time. A weighty hindrance it never became.

Let’s look at what else the book had to offer. The whole reason behind the Brand New Day debacle in the main Spider-books was because Spidey’s world had become too streamlined. Most of the supporting cast had been absent from its pages save Aunt May and Mary Jane. And Marvel’s stance on Mary Jane had become that her marriage to Peter was dull and aged the character too much which makes him unrelatable to new readers. Spider-Girl, not only did you have a single webslinger in the books, but fans of Peter and MJ also had the two happily together in supporting roles. May also had a wide array of supporting cast members, including friends in school and allies in costume. And none of these characters remained stagnant. Each one evolved over the course of the series in logical ways, each one got their own chance to shine in May’s world.

The book was also a return to classic storytelling. Each issue featured not only a self-contained main story, but had an ongoing subplot in the background that would build over each successive issue. Despite that, the story was never hard to follow because of Tom DeFalco’s use of captions or character dialogue to fill readers in on what came before, as well as Marvel’s patented first page recap of previous issues. There was no decompression, the stories were light and fun, heroes were actually fighting VILLAINS, and everything was done the way many Spider-Man fans wished it was still being done for some time.

Despite the book having something for everyone, it never became the runaway success it should have been. I often find it funny the books that make it to the top 10, hell the top 50 even, while others fall significantly lower. It’s a shame that this book escaped so many reader’s radar, and that it took the recent changes in the Spidey book to bring over others. Now I know, many of you are saying she had a pretty impressive run considering all the threats of cancellation and compared to the records of all other solo books starring Marvel heroines, but as the stories have not yet run out is that really enough? Is 16 pages quarterly in Amazing Spider-Man Family what May and company have come to deserve?

I encourage everyone to pick up some issues; either in their original form or in any of the inexpensive digests released collecting them and check Mayday out. And if you like it, pass it on to someone else. Good books, good characters, like this deserve to be kept in the spotlight and not relegated to a supporting feature. We also, those of us Spider-fans disillusioned by the new changes in the main title, need another option to get our Spider-fix. And for you female readers out there who feel these books cater too much to the men, this is definitely the book for you to check out.

My thanks to Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Pat Oliffe, Sal Buscema and all others involved with the book for giving us over a decade of great tales.

Spider Girl: The End

By Chris Buchner

The little comic that could just ran out of steam.

Former Marvel Editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco had the idea of what it would be like if Spider-Man had a daughter that grew up to be a hero like him. The answer came in the pages of What If…?, Marvel’s look into alternate versions of its universe and characters. 1998’s issue #105 of the second volume brought us the tale of May “Mayday” Parker, aka Spider-Girl.

The premise carried on from the controversial Spider-Man Clone Saga that had just concluded two years prior. During this time, Peter Parker was dealing with an elaborate plot against him set in motion by Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. Out of that plot came Ben Reilly, Peter’s perfect double who was in self-imposed exile for 5 years before returning to the city and temporarily taking over the webs. Also at this time, Peter and his wife, Mary Jane, were expecting their first child. However, the Marvel brass felt a kid would age Spidey too much, so they had Osborn had plot to force Mary Jane into an early labor, and the child was pronounced dead. In later issues it was hinted that the baby was, in fact, alive and in the possession of the cult of Scriers. Peter’s first, and deformed clone, Kaine rescued a baby-sized item from the Scriers in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #435 and the plot line was dropped from that point forward.

In the universe presented, the story takes place in the current day, but all the comics that came before took place 15 years or more in the past. Kaine had rescued baby May from the Scriers and returned her to the Parkers, where she grew up and developed spider powers by the time she was 15. At the same time, Normie Osborn, the grandson of Norman, sought to restore the family’s honor by eliminating the Parkers as the latest Green Goblin. May found Ben Reilly’s old spider gear in the attic of her house, donned them, and became Spider-Girl. From that point on, she took up crime fighting at first hindered, and then aided, by her concerned parents who wanted to spare her the spider lifestyle.

Following positive reviews of the issue, Tom DeFalco moved forth on his idea of a possible future universe in order to produce comics that were more accessible to a wider audience and without the hindrance of decades of continuity. The result was the Marvel imprint, MC2, or Marvel Comics 2. The original idea was to present 3 twelve-issue maxi-series, followed by three more the following year (it should be noted Spider-Girl actually received a 13th issue: a reprint of her first appearance under Spider-Girl #0). The first three were A-Next, featuring the next generation of Avengers, J2, the son of Juggernaut who was a hero, and Spider-Girl. Although both A-Next and J2 ended as scheduled, Spider-Girl proved popular enough to carry on.

The next books to come out of the line were Fantastic Five, the continuing adventures of Marvel’s first family, and Wild Thing, the daughter of Wolverine and Elektra. However, due to the collapse of a deal to sell all three books through Target and K-Mart as well as low sales, the other titles were cancelled after only 5 issues. Two mini-series spun out of Spider-Girl starring supporting allies, DarkDdevil and The Buzz, but Spider-Girl was essentially the only MC2 title left in publication.



Since her debut, readers have been treated to old-school storytelling courtesy of DeFalco and artists Ron Frenz and Pat Oliffe, with inks by another Spider-Man legend Sal Buscema. May has gained a massive and strong supporting cast during her run, as well as villains both modeled after ones her father faced and completely new. Much like comics used to be, each issue told a standalone tale, but also included a subplot that would build up along successive issues. This formula has allowed Spider-Girl to become the longest running title starring a female character in Marvel history, reaching 127 issues as of this article. She has also had alternate versions of her appear in comics and novels, her own action figures, and even became an alternate costume in the mutli-platform video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Despite initial interest, sales steadily dropped and the book was placed on the chopping block for cancellation twice. Because of a very vocal and loyal fan base that the character has amassed, the book was saved through many promotional initiatives by both the fans and DeFalco. The book was reprinted in Marvel’s then-new digest format initiative, earning respectable sales. So much so, that associate editor Nick Lowe announced that the book was safe from cancellation for the first time in November of 2005.

But, cancellation was exactly what came, in a sense. Spider-Girl was officially cancelled with the landmark 100th issue, but Marvel had decided to re-launch the title in the hopes of drawing in a new audience with a brand new #1 issue. The following month, Amazing Spider-Girl began with a new #0 done in the style of Marvel’s recent Saga books, which recapped everything that has happened to that point through prose with sparse images. May was also given a slight makeover, with a few details changed on her costume and her web-shooters made longer and slimmer. Unfortunately, the series continued to perform below Marvel’s satisfaction. On October 11th, 2008, they announced the cancellation of the series with #30, giving her a grand total of 134 issues between two volumes and an annual.



But, Mayday’s adventures may not be over yet. Marvel has claimed a love for the character, and has alluded to her becoming a 16-page back-up feature by DeFalco and company within the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Family, the third volume of the Spider-Man anthology that features original stories from various eras of his career and reprints of classic comics. This decision, though, has raised questions among fans over the fate of DeFalco’s series currently running in the book: Mr. & Mrs. Spider-Man, a prequel to Spider-Girl and MC2 in the days when May was just a toddler.

Spider-Girl had survived cancellation three times thanks to the efforts of fans and her creators, but has she met her final fate? Or will another Save Spider-Girl campaign keep her book going for just a while longer?

Intellectual Freedom and Those Who Love It

By Lisa G.

The library I work at doesn't observe Banned Books Week. Their thinking is "Don't rock the boat; what the patrons don't know can't hurt us." In other words, if we raise the profile of banned books people will realize we have them. That will give them the opportunity to complain, if they'd be wont to.

And that is true. If you point out the fact you're harboring banned or challenged books fundamentalist conservatives may just come out of the woodwork and complain. Being a firm believer in intellectual freedom I may not agree with that position, but knowing I'm a small fish in a big pond I haven't raised a fuss. I respect the right of the administration to stand where it will. So I'm turning to my blogs to vent on an issue near and dear to my heart.

Banning or challenging books really gets under my skin. Every time I read or hear a story about this subject I feel my blood pressure rising. As with so many issues my take is, "If it offends you don't/read it or do it, but don't tell me I can't."

Book banning is ignorant. Should inappropriate or disturbing material be kept out of the hands of children? Of course, but there's a grey area there. That's where parents come in. It's not the responsibility of the library to deem all material appropriate or inappropriate for children, or any other group of people. In the case of minor children it's the parents who need to make that call. No library would dare intercede, nor should it. With adult materials, those over 18 are presumed to have already developed their personal values and tastes. They may choose to read or not read as they wish.

Period.

The library chooses which books to order. Nothing spewing hatred or advocating violence toward any group of people would be purchased by a librarian with any degree of sense. But that's not book banning; that's using public money to buy materials which will be used and appreciated by the patrons of that library. There's a difference.

Is there a grey area here? Certainly. Life is filled with grey areas. Librarians do the best they can. Patrons who want materials the library hasn't purchased can search the world to find them. Librarians do that, too. And if no one has the material, or doesn't want to lend it, that's how it goes sometimes. You can't please everyone. Budgets are a reality.

For a list of banned or challenged books visit the American Library Association's website. I encourage you to choose a book or several from the list and read it/them. In fact, for everyone who does that, and sends me a short review of a banned or challenged book, I'd be happy to post that here. Then I'll send you a review copy from my pile, if you'd like. That's a win/win situation.
Read a banned book, and encourage everyone you know to consider how banning books is a violation of and an infringement on intellectual rights and freedoms.

Ignorance is not bliss; it's just ignorance.

Big Books, Big Choices...

By Jodie

When I was browsing the summer reading columns this year a pattern began to emerge. The novel that every book section said not to take away on holiday was the doorstoppingly solid ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth. Any readers who attempted to get through that on holiday were apparently lunatics, destined to long days of reading failure. Strange, I thought, as I consider ‘A Suitable Boy’ accessible, lively and easy to follow, once you pin down exactly how the large cast of characters relates to each other. I couldn’t understand the prejudice against this book until I noticed a similarity, none of them had ever finished the book. So what made them describe ‘A Suitable Boy’ as a book too scary for summer reading? Its massive size seemed to be all they had to base the book’s bad reputation on.

Starting a big book seems like a big decision. A book over 500 pages could take up a large chunk of your reading life when there are already so many books to fit into your limited life span. Carrying it on the train won’t be easy. It’s not a book you can balance if you want to read in the bath. For me the biggest bar to beginning a massive paperback is my fear that the book will be terrible but once I’ve started it I will feel obliged to finish it. The book will languish beside my bed, reproaching me and occasionally striking out at my toes as I walk past it. I will spend miserable weeks in the company of its dull and stupid characters, constantly distracted by all the other books slotted into my bookcase.

It’s all psychological of course. I could unsuspectingly open an awful thin or medium sized book. I could get stuck in its pages as my brain refuses to go any further, pleading mental cruelty. I could still get ‘book guilt’ and be unable to throw the badly written pages at the wall. However it doesn’t seem as if this would cost me as much as being caught in a big, bad book. Stop me if I sound crazy but half finished, bigger books look as if they are mocking me. Bookmarks left half way through gigantic novels taunt me, telling me I just don’t have the mental stamina to climb this intellectual mountain. Although I know not all books that are enormous can be works of intricate genius gymnastics they get some kind of special status in my brain that tells me they must be worth persevering with even when I can clearly see that they aren’t. Surely someone couldn’t write that many pages without including one sentence spectacular enough to silence the whole world.

Despite a fear of what large books could do to my life (and apparently my sanity) I continue to be unhealthily attracted to them. I only have to see a book bigger than my head, written about a vaguely interesting subject and it is dropped into my basket then dragged home to wait on my shelves (due to the fear) and occasionally mock me with my inferiority. “You haven’t read Anna Karenina yet? Or Until I Find You? There’s dust gathering on them! What a disgrace.”. As you can see now the books can talk, the big book madness is getting worse.

There is only one way for me to get past this fear of the big book and this is to set aside chunks of a weekend and choose from the obese stack of books over 500 pages. As my hand reaches out towards their reassuring plumpness and shiny covers I may still be unsure that I’m about to do the right thing, commit weeks to the right book, but I try to use my previous good experiences with books designed as cudgels to fight the fear. I often wonder if I didn’t have those good memories if I would be brave enough to sit down with books like ‘A Suitable Boy’ in my spare time, despite all the critics telling me not to try. How much poorer would my life be without having read this and other special books, clothed in thick layers. How many other readers are kept from attempting humongous books like this because they know their size has scared David Baddiel away?

So to encourage you on to bigger things here is are some big books I’ve read and had purely positive times with.

A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth:

A massive family saga full of romance, politics, religion and upheaval. It is,much more substantial than many family stories following the politics and religious conflicts of India and Pakistan but is still full of comedy and love. The large cast of characters contains someone for every reader to route for. The contents page forms a big rhyming poem outlining the story, which is an interesting extra touch.

Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts:

Gregory David Roberts really did escape from prison, journey to India, live in slums and work for gang leaders but this book reads as smoothly and poetically as a novel. It’s moving, involving and just couldn’t have been done justice in a smaller amount of words.

The Far Pavillions – MM Kaye:

A historical novel this time focusing on India during the time of British occupation. Ash is a remarkable character who embodies both of the dominate religions within his country but is also able to gain the respect of the British officers in the army. This novel is as much about serious politics and history as it is about romance but never feels over burdened and is full of constant adventure.

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

This is Dickens most autobiographical novel. It’s a straight forward biography of young David who goes from the ousted step-son to a prosperous young man at the heart of a family. Although you may be tempted to invent a time machine and use this book to hit Dickens after the ‘fortunate’ death of Dora ‘David Copperfield’ is better reading material than weaponry. This is the perfect book for anyone who feels characters are the most important element of fiction as much of it is a detailed, entertaining character sketch of David and those around him.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas

Imprisoned unjustly and torn away from the love of his life Edmand Dante swears revenge. Once escaped from prison he assumes a new identity and sets out to destroy those who conspired to incarcerate him. He also does some good along the way and Dumas makes sure we learn many fascinating things along the way. Most editions have rather small print but if you can immerse yourself in Dante’s mind you will find it worthwhile.

Virgin No More

By Chris Buchner



Another independent bites the dust.

Virgin Comics LLC and Virgin Animation Private Limited was a collaborative founded in 2006 by Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, author Deepak Chopra and his son Gotham, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, Sharad Devarajan and Suresh Seetharaman of Gotham Entertainment Group, South Asia’s largest comics publisher. The principle company was based out of Bangalore, India while the comic branch opened an office in New York City. The goal of the company was, as said by Devarajan, to “create content that not only reaches a global audience but also helps start a creative renaissance in India.”

Virgin had a two-fold vision:

The creation of original stories and character properties that tap into the vast library of mythology and re-invent the rich indigenous narratives of Asia in a unique, compelling, and entertaining way.

Collaborating with creative talent from around the world—from filmmakers, to writers, to musicians and other artists—to craft original stories and character properties initially in the form of comics and graphic novels subsequently to be developed into films, television, animation, gaming, wireless content, online, merchandise and more.

Virgin Comics’ initial lines were their flagship Shakti, Maverick and Director’s Cut. Shakti, which means power in Sanskrit, feature Indian mythology, art, history, classical stories and other related themes with a modern twist. Devi, by Siddharth Kotain featuring a modern take on a very ancient myth, and The Sadhu, by Gotham Chopra about revenge from an individual who was once a mystic, were the first titles released. Other titles included Ramayan 3392 A.D., The Asura Analogues, Beyond, Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya, Buddha and others.



The Maverick line, later renamed Voices, was intended to feature both new talent and comics presented by actors and musicians. The first was by Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart called Dave Stewart’s Walk In #1, written by Jeff Parker and loosely based on his real life experiences as a young man doing stage shows while suffering from moments of memory loss. Nicolas Cage and his son Weston brought out their story Voodoo Child with writer Mike Carey, set in a post-Katrina New Orleans and heavily featuring Voodoo Mythology. Porn Queen Jenna Jameson teamed up with writer Christina Z. to present Shadow Hunter, about an attractive woman who finds herself facing off against legions of hell. Other titles include Masked Magician based on the character from Breaking the Magician’s Code, The Stranded in a venture with Sci-Fi Channel, and an upcoming Hugh Jackman project called Nowhere Man.



The Director’s Cut line was designed to showcase the work of film directors and give them the unlimited freedom to do stories that might be impossible to do on screen with things like budget constraints. It was a big draw because of its ability to give directors a springboard with which to approach Hollywood with their ideas. One of their biggest and most hyped titles was John Woo’s Seven Brothers, a Chinese folklore with a modern twist added by writer Garth Ennis, and was too be the line’s debut comic. However, that honor fell to Snakewoman by Kappur and artist Zeb Wells. Another successful title was Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper, set to become a Warner Brothers motion picture that begins filming in 2009. Also in the line was Edward Burns’ Doc Walloper and Jonathan Mostow’s The Megas.



Virgin had also looked into a foray into graphic novels, including the environmental children’s book The Econauts. At New York Comiccon, Grant Morrison was said to be working with Virgin to produce websidoes based on the Mahabharata. They also started Coalition Comix on Myspace where users could suggest ideas for a comic. The first to come from that was Queen’s Rock by Mike Carey.

On August 26th, 2008, reports came out that Virgin had shut down its New York office. The company announced a restructuring plan with a relocation to Los Angeles. In September, it was announced that the company would be renamed Liquid Comics after a management buyout. Virgin will still own the rights to the comics its produced, and Liquid looks towards the future and continuing the initiatives which Virgin had started. Gotham Entertainment, which was kept as a separate entity, remains unaffected by all the changes. It’s reported Virgin’s troubles came at the withdrawal of Branson’s Virgin Group, which is suffering from its own financial troubles due to the current economy. But, publisher Devarajan is confident that they can continue to make comics without Branson like they did before.