Peanuts / Charlie Brown cartoons copyright 1975.
Less Charlie and the other kids and more Snoopy. The Snoopy cartoons are funny but his skills border on the mystical. How can the kids compete with that?
Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Think Thinner, Snoopy
Peanuts / Charlie Brown cartoons copyright 1975.
Less Charlie and the other kids and more Snoopy. The Snoopy cartoons are funny but his skills border on the mystical. How can the kids compete with that?
Friday, November 01, 2019
Crock : There's No Escape from the Legion!
Crock comic strips, copyrighted 1981, 1982, 1983.
Led by their cruel commandant, Crock, the soldiers of the Legion do their best (which isn't all that great) to follow orders and defeat the enemy.
Fortunately, the enemy isn't all that smart either.
One of my favorite comic strips, but both Bill Rechin and Don Wilder are gone and new strips are no longer being created.
Hagar the Horrible : Helga's Revenge
Hagar the Horrible comic strips copyrighted 1982 & 1983.
Hagar and his crew doing their "Viking" thing while Helga keeps the home-fires burning.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Crock Marches On
Crock comic strips, copyright 1984 and 1985. Crock is the cruel, selfish commandant of the Foreign Legion outpost in the blazing desert of some unnamed country. Although the locals are after their blood, the soldiers are more in danger from their own leader, Crock. He cares not if the soldiers are starving, thirsty, wounded or underpaid. All he cares about is himself.
What's the Joke, Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey comic strips, copyright 1984 & 1987. What the military would be like if everyone in the military were morons.
Heathcliff Kool Kat
Heathcliff cartoons, copyright 1974, 1975, 1981, 1985, 1986. Heathcliff is a tough cat who takes no prisoners and who has the local butchers and the local dogs all dreading his appearance in their neighborhoods. Kicking ass and stealing fish before Garfield ever came along.
MAD About Sports
Illustrated by Jack Rickard.
MAD contributor Frank Jacobs pokes fun at sports and sports fans. Featuring:
The MAD Sports Hero Primer
The MAD Hall of Fame for Minor Sports
You Can See She's Not a Baseball Fan
If TV Sports Covered a Family Quarrel
Announcements for Athletes
The Polar Bear Club Diving Competition (by Don Martin)
If Sports Editors Wrote Headlines for Great Historical Events
The Big-Time Athlete Yesterday and Today
Band Formations for Small Colleges
Sports for Better or Verse
You Can See She's Not a Football Fan
If Sports Editors Wrote Headlines for the Bible
When Women Take Part in Men's Professional Sports
The copyright is 1972 and the attitudes expressed in the book are pretty dated. Also, it's about sports, a boring subject to begin with.
Hagar the Horrible : Born Leader
Hagar the Horrible comic strip copyright from 1978. Explaining Viking life to modern day humans.
Crock : Are Those Your Good Pants?
Crock comic strips, copyright 1978, 1979, 1981.
Life is hard for the soldiers of the Foreign Legion, stuck as they in the cruel desert and ruled by a harsh and selfish commander. But as written and drawn by the authors, it may be harsh and cruel but it is definitely hilarious.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
At Ease, Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey comic strips, copyright 1970.
Even though these strips date from the Vietnam War era, that war is never mentioned. It is only hinted at as in this strip:
Beetle Bailey comic strip has been around for a long time and most of its jokes are pretty familiar but I still enjoyed reading this collection.
MAD's Al Jaffee Spews Out Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions
- Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions Goes West
- A Snappy Answer to Some Stupid Questions that Backfired
- An Out of this World Snappy Answer to a Stupid Question
- A Romantic Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions Love Story
- A Snappy Answer to a Stupid Question Because It Is There
- Through History with Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions
You might not think that the "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" bit could be stretched out to fill an entire 192 page book, but Jaffee manages to do so and still be entertaining and funny.
Slide, Charlie Brown! Slide!
Charlie Brown once again suffers the anguish of being a crummy baseball manager/player, with no help from his "friends" or his dog, Snoopy, who surpasses Charlie Brown in talent and charisma.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
The Unknown Ajax
When his son married against his father's wishes, the old lord cut him off. The boy wasn't the heir, his older brother was and the brother had a son of his own. So the succession was safely out of the hands of the disobedient son and his wife from a working-class family.
Then the unexpected happened: the heir and his son died in a boating accident. And now the "weaver's brat" has come to the manor to claim his inheritance, much to the shock and outrage of the old lord and the rest of his family.
But the lord has a plan. He will whip his heir into shape by marrying him off to his granddaughter, much to the granddaughter's dismay and disgust.
Poor "Ajax" doesn't stand a chance . . .
The unknown Ajax is not the "weaver's brat" his newly-found relatives all imagine. Instead he is a man of substance and standing and with a very lively sense of humor. He quickly understands just how they all view him, as a barely-literate bumpkin, and he goes along with the misperception, just for the hell of it. Which makes for a fun and engaging read, one of the author's best novels, in my opinion. Which is why I have read the book many times throughout my life, starting from when I was a teen. The story still grabs me, even now.
The "unknown ajax" of the title and the verses quoted in the story are from the Shakespeare play, Troilus and Cressida.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Heathcliff at Home
A collection of Heathcliff cartoons published in the 1980s. Heathcliff is one tough cat who gets what he wants by hook or by crook and who has all the neighborhood dogs cowed.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
MAD Blasts
Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1980, 1981 & 1988.
Included are:
The Shiner by Larry Siegel, art by Angelo Torres
The Lighter Side of . . . by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
MAD's Career-Oriented Mother Goose by Frank Jacobs, art by Paul Coker Jr.
Don Martin cartoons
The MAD Sale of Expendable American Properties, Landmarks and Monuments by Dennis Snee, art by Sergio Aragones
Why Didn't You Do Your Homework? A Collection of 18 MAD Excuses by John Ficarra, art by Paul Coker
What the Television Says and What it Really Means by Tom Koch, art by Jack Davis
Real Life Madness by Lou Silverstone, art by Harry North
More Wait Till You Get Home and Find That . . . by Paul Peter Porges
and much more!
Hopping MAD
Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1964 & 1968.
Included are:
Insecurity Is a Pair of Loose Swim Trunks by Frank Jacobs, art by Bob Clarke
The Evolution of a Popular Song by Tom Koch, art by George Woodbridge
The Lighter Side of Married Men by Dave Berg
Don Martin cartoons
A MAD Look at the Circus by Sergio Aragones
The Great Filter Tip Cigarette War by Al Jaffee, art by Bob Clarke
MAD Visits the Producer-Director of "Charades" by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
The Long Range Effects of Products on People by Don Reilly, art by Jack Rickard
And more!
MAD Pet Book
A collection of cartoons written and drawn by Paul Coker Jr.
The chapter titles read like a serious book about pet care. But it is totally not that.
The chapters include:
Choosing Your Pet
Housing Your Pet
Your Pets Diet
Training Your Pet
The Health of Your Pet
Some Final Obfuscations
It's an amusing collection, but for me, the best part was the illustrations.
MAD About Town
Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1976, 1977 & 1983.
Included are
Gall of the President's Men by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
Don Martin cartoons
The Lighter Side of . . . Noise by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
The MAD Guide to Parental Hang-ups by Tom Koch, art by Paul Coker Jr.
MAD's Academy Awards for Jocks by Lou Silverstone, art by Jack Davis
A MAD Look at Winter by Sergio Aragones
MAD's Death Announcements by Frank Jacobs
When You're Poor . . . and . . . When You're Rich by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
And much more!
MAD's Don Martin Carries On
A collection of cartoons by Don Martin, including
One Wednesday Morning at the Hospital
One Afternoon in the Garden
One Sunny Day in Key West
Captain Klutz Meets the Man of 1,000 Faces (Give or Take 900) written by Dick DeBartolo
One Morning in the Operating Room
The Ballad of Arthur Freen written by Frank Jacobs
One Monday Afternoon at Joe's Concrete Works
Cockroaches
The Scientist in his Laboratory
Star Spangled Bananas written by Dick DeBartolo
And more!
Steaming MAD
Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1968, 1969, 1975.
Included are:
If Comic Characters Were Psychoanalyzed by Frank Jacobs, art by Bob Clarke
Cartoons by Don Martin
The MAD Ice Hockey Primer by Larry Siegel, art by Jack Davis
The Lighter Side by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
Christmas Is . . . by Gilbert Barnhill, art by Al Jaffee
A MAD Look at . . . Sex Education in the Schools by Jack Kent
Casey at the Dice by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
MAD's Follow-Up Report on Progress by Dick De Bartolo, art by Bob Clarke
A MAD Look at Movie Monsters by Sergio Aragones
And much more.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Mad for Kicks
Excerpts from Mad Magazine, dating from 1973, 1974, and 1980.
Satire, cartoons & humorous pieces featuring Mad's most well-known artists and writers like Dave Berg, Don Martin, Mort Drucker, Bob Clarke, Jack Davis, Stan Hart, Dick De Bartolo and Larry Siegel.
Included are satires of the James Bond movies, Dave Berg's The Lighter Side, a Mad Tennis Primer, Spy Vs Spy, and a satire of the 1970s TV show McCloud titled McClod.
This was my era and looking back at those days is quite a hoot. A lot of Mad's best known artists have passed on so enjoying their humor and art is pleasant and sad at the same time.
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mad
Excerpts from Mad Magazine, dating from 1968 and 1975. Cartoons, satire and humorous nonsense, still funny and enjoyable forty some years later.
Included are:
Mad's "Cliche Conversation" Killers by Stan Hart, art by George Woodbridge
Several Don Martin cartoons
More Specialized Self-Defense Books by Dick De Bartolo, art by Joe Orlando
Balmy and Clod by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
You Know You're Really a Parent When... by Phil Hahn & Jack Hanrahan, art by Paul Coker, Jr.
Alley-Oops! by Sergio Aragones
A Nostalgic Look at Sandlot Baseball by Dean Norman, art by Paul Coker, Jr.
The Lighter Side by Dave Berg
And much more!
These humorous pieces may be old, but they are still funny and well worth reading.
The Brothers Mad
A collection of excerpts from Mad Magazine, dating from 1953, 1954 and 1955.
These comics and satires date from 65 years ago. Of course the movies and TV shows lampooned are no longer familiar to most readers today. But the book is still funny and enjoyable even if you don't get a lot of the references.
Included are:
- Black and Blue Hawks
- The Dave Garrowunway Show
- How to Get into the Army
- Shermlock Shomes: The Hound of the Basketballs
- Fozless Fooznick
- Shadow
- Alice in Wonderland
- Woman Wonder
- Melvin of the Apes
- Little Orphan Melvin
Greetings From Sherman's Lagoon
A collection of cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, dating from 1992 to 1993.
Sherman is a great white shark and has a taste for people. He frequently comes up with plans to eat humans but often fails. He is occasionally successful though, appearing with human legs sticking out of his mouth.
He has a steady girl friend shark, Megan. You can tell she is a female because she wears a string of pearls around her "neck". He also has a best friend, a sea turtle named Fillmore. Being friends with a shark can be a bit tricky, as Fillmore sometimes finds himself on the menu, although when he protests, Sherman always backs off.
I enjoyed this book of comic strips. It is always funny, if a bit grim at times.
Summerlings
Washington DC, summer 1959. The city is experiencing a strange infestation of spiders. Spiders and their webs are everywhere, much to the delight of the neighborhood kids and the displeasure of the adults.
Three boys are getting the utmost enjoyment from the infestation, setting out to capture and catalog as many different kinds of spiders as they can find. John, Max and Ivan live in a very diverse neighborhood. On their street are Ukrainians (Ivan's family), Brazilians, Austrians (Max's family), Southerners from Louisiana, Netherlanders, Hungarians and native Washingtonians (John's family).
John is the main character and his family life is a bit of a puzzle for him. His parents are in the middle of a divorce, he hasn't been told why. He only sees his father rarely, mainly for a week at the seashore during summer. His mom is in the hospital, ostensibly for illness, but there is some doubt about the truth of that. Meanwhile, John lives with his grandparents, Brickie, his grandfather and Dimma, his grandmother.
John tries to understand the undercurrents in the lives of the adults but rarely comes to the correct conclusion. Meanwhile the boys have big plans: capturing spiders, sneaking into the Pond Lady's backyard to capture the albino frog Peachy and sneaking a peek at Pond Lady's iron lung, figuring out how to get back into the good graces of the DeHaans, who have the only swimming pool on the street and organizing a block party. But the biggest plan of all is breaking into the museum to steal a pirate vinegaroon. They plan to use this poisonous scorpion relative to get their revenge on a neighborhood bully they call the Scutcheon.
This may sound like a kids book but it isn't. Mixed in with the boys' adventures are the threats and phobias of the time, Commies, Russian spies, and the atomic bomb. One of the secondary characters dies and the cause of death is murky at best. The boys pretty much run wild, and the adults in the their lives rarely supervise their activities.
I really enjoyed this story. It isn't a long book, only 243 pages, but it totally captured my interest.
Review by Kirkus Reviews.
Friday, September 13, 2019
The Churchgoer
Mark Haines used to be a Christian pastor. But then life kicked him in the ass, as it is apt to do, and he lost his faith. Now he is working as a night watchman and trying to stay clean and sober. Unfortunately his carefully constructed new life falls to pieces when a fellow night watchman is murdered and Mark loses his job.
Meanwhile, Mark has befriended a young, vagrant woman, Cindy Liu. He invites her to stay at his place but comes home to find she has vanished. He then pursues a quest to track her down, unable to accept that she has moved on.
He ferrets out she might be staying at the home of a drug dealer who used to attend Mark's former church. He finds her there and she seems to be under the influence. But the drug dealer quickly sends Mark packing and shortly after Mark leaves the man's house, the police raid it and sweep up Mark in the raid too. But in those few minutes between the time Mark caught a glimpse of Cindy and when the police arrive, Cindy has vanished once again.
Mark, still obsessed with the girl, tracks down her former church and talks to the pastor. He soon discovers that events that transpired at the church were the trigger that sent Cindy on her downward spiral into drugs, prostitution and homelessness.
This was an OK read. The main character, Mark, seemed to me to be a very unpleasant and out-of-control person. He strange attachment to Cindy is tied into his guilt over the death of his sister and his estrangement from his daughter. Cindy certainly doesn't give him any encouragement and pretty much refuses to be rescued. But he still won't let it go, even to beating up a man at one point.
He is a weird person and as a character, not very sympathetic.
Review by Publishers Weekly.
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
The Lost History of Dreams
A poet dies, author of a popular book of poems, The Lost History of Dreams. He wanted to be buried beside his dead wife in the glass chapel he built for her. But his heir and current resident of the property is unwilling. She has issues with the dead man.
So a relative is sent off, with the dead man's corpse, to try to talk the woman into changing her mind and fulfilling the poet's wishes. However, the relative has a lot of mental baggage of his own to deal with, all centering on the tragic death of his bride a few years earlier.
This book was pretty good. It lagged a bit in the middle as it went through the history of the poet and his wife, as retold by the recalcitrant woman who is the heir. This woman's identity is becomes one of the mysteries of the story. Is she who she claims? Is she, perhaps, the dead poet's wife? Or is she just an opportunist and an impostor, as her enemies claim? The other mysteries are the story of the poet's wife and her death and the truth about the death of the relative's bride.
I thought the latter part of the book was a bit silly and not in a good, amusing way. Too many identity switches.
Review by Kirkus Reviews.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
The Galactic Gourmet
Gurronsevas is renowned throughout the galactic Federation for his skills as a chef. He has amassed great wealth and success and fame. But now he is desiring a new challenge and the giant hospital, Sector General, is in his sights. Because, according to the reports, although the food served at the huge hospital is nutritious, it is famously bland and unenticing. So, with the right connections, Gurronsevas is now in charge of the Sector General kitchens.
But working in a hospital is not the same as working in a hotel. Gurronsevas has a lot to learn and he makes some serious mistakes. One mistake so serious, he is fired and ordered to immediately leave the hospital on the next available transport. However, chief shrink Major O'Mara believes Gurronsevas could be a real asset to the hospital and he arranges for the chef to accompany the hospital ambulance ship, the Rhabwar, on a mission to rescue the few remaining sentient inhabitants of a blighted planet, Wemar.
The Wemar have pollutated their planet almost unto death. In consequence, their population has been decimated, along with the planet's vegetation and animals. The Rhabwar lands next to a small Wemar community, offering help to the struggling locals. But the natives are not very welcoming and regard the strangers with suspicion.
The Wemar have long believed that meat is necessary to health and fertility of adult Wemar. So able-bodied adults set out on hunts, looking for what little wildlife is left to harvest. Young Wemar and elderly Wemar subsist on a bland vegetable stew, leaving what little the meat the hunters bring home to the healthy adults. So the crew of the ambulance ship has to try to change the Wemars' misconception that adult Wemar need to have meat in their diet. Luckily, they have Gurronsevas, the most talented and most skilled chef in the galaxy, to help them in this effort.
This was an OK read. I really enjoyed the first part of the story as Gurronsevas brings his culinary talents to benefit the staff and patients of Sector General. But when the story changes location to the planet of Wemar, it wasn't nearly as interesting. I also found the idea that the Wemar are more ignorant about their local sources of food than some alien off-worlder silly.
Friday, August 30, 2019
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Going home late one night, April May finds a large robot on a street in New York City. She thinks it is a new art installation, and, seeking internet fame, she calls a friend, Andy, who comes down and videos April and her discovery, which she names Carl.
It soon is clear that April's Carl is not unique. Carls have appeared on the streets of many of the major cities of the world. But since April was the first to document the phenomenon, she becomes the de facto expert.
Soon April and Andy are making the media rounds and have hired an agent and April is writing a book about the Carls. The money and fame accelerate and April finds herself addicted to the attention, even to the point of dumping her best friend and lover, Maya. The media frenzy grows and grows when scientists declare the Carls to be extraterrestrial in origin. With the media attention, April becomes a target of hate groups who accuse her of being an E.T. or a traitor to the human race. She has to take the hate and threats seriously when someone takes a shot at her through her apartment window.
This was an OK read. It seemed to me that the Carl plot becomes secondary to the internet fame plot. The author, Hank Green, is quite active online and very familiar, I suppose, with the benefits and liabilities of internet fame. So much of the novel is concerned with this subject, which to me, being an older person, is not so engrossing. Very little actual action occurs in the story until nearly the end as April deals with the consequences of attracting the notice of the whack jobs and haters that infest online communities.
Review by the New York Times.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
There's a Word for That
Janine Kessler started out life as the daughter of a successful Hollywood producer. In her teens, she became a sitcom star, much to the disappointment of her father, her mother Pamela and her younger sister Amanda.
Marty Kessler knew from experience that Hollywood fame ruined people and he didn't want his daughter exposed to stardom. Pamela preferred her prettier, younger daughter and expected Janine's fame for Amanda, as did Amanda.
But the sitcom ended after a few seasons and Pamela, who suffered from depression, killed herself, leaving her two teen daughters struggling to understand. Janine ended up in treatment and vanished from the spotlight.
Now in her forties and living on the income from reruns of the her old sitcom and on her rich daddy's generosity, Janine has just drifted through life. She shuns her former fame and lives a secluded life in New York City.
But her father, Marty, is in trouble again, for the umpteenth time. He has long struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and he is, once again, in rehab. Janine travels to Los Angeles to be with him. While there she reconnects with her sister Amanda and her two teen daughters, both of whom have dreams of fame and fortune, very much against Amanda's wishes.
While in rehab, Marty runs into his first wife, Bunny. Bunny, a superstar children's author (think J.K. Rowling) is also at the rehab to deal with her alcoholism. Attendant on Bunny is her son Henry, who has a strained relationship with his mother. Marty rediscovers exactly why he fell for Bunny as a young man and they make plans to travel together, which is an unpleasant surprise for everyone involved, especially for Marty's live-in girlfriend, Gail, who is more attached to Marty's bank account than she is to Marty.
Janine, Marty, Bunny and Henry are the main characters in the story, with the largest part concerned with Janine. In the beginning, it centers on the Kesslers and then abruptly switches to Bunny, without a clue as to how she connects to the Kesslers. We don't find out she is Marty's ex until quite late in the story when she and Marty bump into each other at rehab. I enjoyed that.
It's a pretty good story, although the ending is a bit cliché and deus ex machina. It wasn't all that amusing and certainly not hilarious as described in three of the blurbs on the back cover. Take the blurbs with a grain of salt.
Review by Publishers Weekly.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
They Rang Up the Police
A British Detective story, first published in 1939 and recently republished in 2017. The detective is Guy Northeast, Detective Inspector of the CID. He is in a bit of a disgrace with his bosses, due to having bungled a previous investigation. He feels he has been sidelined to this missing persons investigation as a punishment. If he doesn't want to end up permanently sidelined, he dare not bungle this investigation.
A well-to-do, middle-aged spinster has suddenly vanished during the night. Her bed has been slept in and her suitcase and some clothing are missing. Has she finally grown tired of the single life and run off with a man? Coincidentally, a local married man with whom she had a connection has gone missing the same night. Did they run off together? Or is something more sinister going on? Her family (two spinster sisters and their elderly mother) are sure Delia would never just run off like that. Or if she did, surely she would telephone or leave a message?
But in a family where everyone calls each other "darling," it's pretty clear to the detective that there is something rotten in the heart of Marley Grange. And it turns out that Delia didn't run very far when her body is discovered hidden in the manure pile.
For an old book written 80 years ago, this was quite an enjoyable read and holds up very well. At one point the detective, Guy Northeast, remarks that, "It's the little things that matter when investigating a murder." Even truer today when DNA plays such a key role in most serious investigations. At the end of the story, he sits alone and meditates on the killer, thinking, "And it's true that it is worse to spoil a person's life than to kill someone, and it's true that freedom is a splendid thing."
It is said that the second (and only other book to feature Guy Northeast) is even better that this one. It's Death at the Dog and I am looking forward to reading it.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Gitchie Girl Uncovered
In November of 1973, a group of five teens jumped into a van and headed off to Gitchie Manitou State Park located in northwest Iowa. It's a popular location for hiking and camping.
The kids consisted of four boys and one girl. The van belonged to Stewart Baade (18). His younger brother, Dana (14) accompanied his brother along with Mike Hadrath (15) and Roger Essem (17). The lone girl, Sandra Cheskey, was the youngest, only thirteen. The kids were at the park to enjoy a campfire and to smoke some weed.
But they were not alone. They were being observed by three men, all brothers, who had been in the park to do some poaching. The brothers, Allen, James and David, thought the group consisted of three boys and two girls, mistaking young Dana for a girl because of his long hair. They decided to attack the kids and take the girls and the weed. But for some reason, they shot and killed Roger and shot Stewart. Sandra was taken away by Allen and the other two men, David and James, stayed behind and killed the remaining two boys, Mike and Dana. Sandra was raped by James but was taken to Sioux Falls and released by Allen.
Sandra's testimony is the reason why the three brothers were captured, convicted and remain in prison in the Iowa State Pen to this day.
This is the story of the investigation into the murders of the four boys, Stewart, Dana, Mike and Roger, and the kidnapping and rape of the young girl, Sandra.
This was a very interesting story. I have been to Gitchie Manitou but I didn't know the park was the scene of a mass murder. I just happened upon this book at the library. I was afraid it would be a little boring but it is not. It is well written and quite griping.
Kindred
A graphic novel adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings
A young black woman finds herself magically transported back in time to the days of southern plantations and slavery, summoned to save the young life of her distant ancestor.
Dana and her husband had just moved into a new place when she felt dizzy and abruptly found herself on a riverbank, arriving just in time to rescue a little boy who was drowning. The boy was Rufus, the son of the man who owned the plantation and Dana's great-something grandfather. As Rufus told her later, as he was drowning he had a vision of Dana and somehow called her to him and to his time, 1810.
Time and again Rufus would call Dana back to the past and she was forced to experience the terrible reality of being a black person in the time of slavery, even to the point of enduring a whipping and being forced to work in the fields. And even though she tries her best to educate Rufus, his white privilege and selfishness prevents him from taking it to heart and he, when he is grown, he forces himself on the woman who would become Dana's great-something grandmother. But once the child of that rape is born, Dana's ancestor, Dana is at last free to end Rufus' domination over her life and return to the future where she belongs.
What the author wants to do here is look at the life and hardships of a slave from the view point of a modern educated woman and she uses the gimmick of time travel to achieve that end.
This is a depressing story and brings home the terrible tragedy of slavery in all of its cruelty, selfishness and ignorance. It's a disturbing read and lays bare one of the ugly truths of America's past.
Thursday, August 01, 2019
The Swords of Lankhmar
Rat insurrection! The rats of Lankhmar are plotting to take over the world, starting with Lankhmar. Their first step, destroy Lankhmar's alliances by scuttling their grain shipments to their allies. This is where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser come in.
The two adventurers are hired by the overlord of Lankhmar to ensure the latest shipments make it to their destinations. No one is quite sure what has been causing the previous shipments to be lost at sea.
On board the ship is the chief Lankhmarian grain merchant's daughter, Hisvet, and her twelve trained white rats. The rats wear clothes, use weapons and perform on command.
Just as with the previous shipment, the grain convoy is attacked. But the attackers turn out to be hundreds of rats, launched from the enemy ship, and intent on gnawing holes in the hull of the grain ship causing it to founder. But the attack is thwarted by the fortunate arrival of a two headed dragon with a huge appetite for rats.
With the grain successfully delivered, the two heroes split up, with Fafhrd staying at their destination and the Gray Mouser heading back to Lankhmar. But when he gets back, he finds that Hisvet and her father have been badmouthing him to the overlord. It has become quite clear to the Gray Mouser that Hisvet and her father are behind the grain shipment sabotage, for reasons not yet clear to him. Seeking help, he visits his patron wizard who gives him a magic potion.
This potion, when consumed, shrinks the Gray Mouser down to rat size and he sneaks into the city of rats that exists under Lankhmar. There he stumbles upon the vicious rat plot to enslave humankind and make themselves rulers of the world.
Next to the short story, Lean Times in Lankhmar, this is my favorite Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story, only this is a full length novel. Like most of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, it is a combination of action, adventure, magic, drunkenness and the strangeness typical of Nehwon.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
True Detectives
A look at the working lives of several New York area private detectives.
Vincent Parco helps a man find out if his wife is cheating on him with his business partner.
Joe Howard, president of Carney Detective Agency, which he named after his uncle, helps a small museum discover who among the staff has been stealing items from the museum.
Peter Castillo, bounty hunter, has the unenviable job of tracking a bail skip wanted for rape.
And finally, there is Barry Silver, who is helping a young man find his biological mother.
This was a pretty interesting book, written back in the 1980s but a bit dated because of that.
An interesting side note, one of the detectives in the book, Vincent Parco, was recently convicted (June 2019) of try to blackmail a witness in a child sex abuse case.
Review by Kirkus Reviews.
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser : The Cloud of Hate and Other Stories
A comic book collection of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. Some of the stories are adaptations of ones written by Fritz Leiber. Other stories were new additions written by Denny O'Neil.
No. 1 is an adaptation of the story, The Price of Pain Ease where the two adventurers get involved with a man who wants to kill death.
No. 2 is an adaptation of Theives' House where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser get tangled up with a jeweled skull.
No. 3 is a new story, Betrayal, and finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser off to rescue a princess in distress who, it turns out, doesn't want to be rescued.
No. 4 has two stories. One is based on Leiber's story, The Cloud of Hate. The other, The Prophecy, is by Denny O'Neil and is the story of young Fafhrd before he joined up with the Gray Mouser.
No. 5 also has two stores: an adaptation of The Sunken Land where Fafhrd falls in with doomed treasure hunters and a story by O'Neil, The Mouse Alone, which is a story of the Gray Mouser when he was just a young Mouse.
It was interesting to see the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in full color. But I really prefer the original stories more than these adapted ones and the new ones by O'Neil. Partially because I have always had a sort of mind's eye image of Lankhmar and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser which was much grungier than in these drawings. One thing I truly disliked was how every woman is drawn nearly nude. That is just plain stupid and disgusting.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Swords in the Mist
Another collection of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories.
The Cloud of Hate — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are broke and hanging out in an alley on a night when an evil mist calls forth the hate in men's hearts. They are minding their own business when they are attacked by some thugs who were goaded by the evil fog.
Lean Times in Lankhmar — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser go their separate ways. Fafhrd becomes an devotee of Issek of the Jug, a very minor god in Lankhmar. And the Gray Mouser goes to work for a gangster who specializes in shaking down temples and churches.
Their Mistress, the Sea — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser leave Lankhmar after the Issek debacle and voyage off to new adventures. Just over 3 pages long, it's not really a story, it mainly serves to link the next story to the previous story.
When the Sea-King's Away — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are lured into the depths of the sea by a magical tunnel that leads to the home of the absent sea king and to the sea king's women and treasure.
The Wrong Branch — Another story that serves to link the previous story to the next story. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have a streak of bad luck they blame on the sea king's curse.
Adept's Gambit — A complete change of scenery finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser no longer on Nehwon but on Earth at about 300 to 200 BC in the region of Tyre. A strange curse has been placed on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. When they try to get intimate with a woman, the woman turns into an animal. So the two set out on a quest to understand why this is happening and to get the curse lifted.
This collection has one of my favorite Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, Lean Times in Lankhmar. But the last story in the collection is one of my least favorite, it doesn't make much sense and I really don't care for the change of location from Nehwon to Earth.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Swords Against Death
Another collection of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, published about 1970.
The Circle Curse (1970) introduces the reader to the two wizards that would intersect with the two heroes in later stories, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. This story is a set up to the rest of the stories.
The Jewels in the Forest (1939) Rumors of an unbreachable treasure house send the two adventurers off to challenge the legend only to discover the treasure is guarded by the house itself.
Thieves' House (1943) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are hired by the Thieves' Guild to steal the jeweled skull of a long dead thief.
The Bleak Shore (1940) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are put under a spell that sends them on a journey to meet their promised doom.
The Howling Tower (1941) What is the source of mysterious howling? A tale of justice long delayed.
The Sunken Land (1942) Fafhrd finds a ring in the belly of a fish and he ends up on a voyage to a land of myth, held captive by a gang of his fellow countrymen on the search for long lost treasure.
The Seven Black Priests (1953) Once again the two are on the hunt for treasure. Their target this time, a fabulous diamond guarded by seven fanatical priests willing to die protecting it.
Claws From the Night (1951) Someone is using trained birds to steal jewels from the wealthy women of Lankhmar. Fafhrd has a plan to use his own trained eagle to attack the bird thieves and get their booty for himself. But it turns out to be much more complicated than he and the Gray Mouser supposed.
The Price of Pain-Ease (1970) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser steal a small house and end up in a battle against Death itself.
Bazaar of the Bizarre (1963) The two wizards send the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd to take down a new merchant in Lankhmar who is up to no good. But the Gray Mouser becomes ensnared in the merchant's enchantments and needs rescuing.
A good collection of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser adventures in Nehwon which ties together the older tales with the story of the two men's first loves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
