Books – the Addison Recorder

The J&STAC Holiday Gift Guide

December 16, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

If there’s someone on your holiday shopping list who like comics, or books, or art here’s a list of our favorite comic book recommendations, most of which Steph has already shoved in peoples faces and shouted READ THIS! [Read more…]

STAR WORDS: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

December 10, 2015 by PK Sullivan Leave a Comment

The latest release from Del Rey’s line of Star Wars novels is a quartet of short stories by Landry Q. Walker collected under the more-than-slightly cumbersome heading of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away. I will call them Tales for ease of reading. The quartet is available only in e-book format, look for it online from your e-book seller of choice.

Each story in the collection features characters from the imminently released film. What’s fun and interesting in this selection of stories is the wide variety of genres on display. Walker’s four tales rely on and reference wildly different sets of tropes, from horror to Western. [Read more…]

J&STAC: Re-envisioned

December 2, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

Modern comics are a medium of iconography and archetypes, whether reinforcing or re-inventing them (or re-booting them, or cashing in on them…). The Bat-symbol carries worlds of meaning to countless fans, but which version of the symbol? Is your Iron Man the Tony Stark of Kirby & Lee, Fraction & Bendis, or Robert Downey, Jr.? What’s your opinion of the last Superman flick? Do you have a think-piece on all the differences between Jessica Jones in the comics and on Netflix?

While we have thoughts on those questions, we decided it would be more fun to focus on the re-imaginings, re-interpretations, and re-envisionings that piqued our interest over the years. [Read more…]

STAR WORDS: Hyperspace Troopers

November 26, 2015 by PK Sullivan Leave a Comment

Video game tie-in novels are typically of dubious quality. Shadows of the Empire was never great storytelling as prose or pixels. It came as a surprise to me how much I enjoyed Battlefront: Twilight Company and how grounded the series felt. Freed was clearly inspired by the long history of military science fiction and the hard-hitting reports of wartime journalism so prevalent in the last decade. What we get is a gritty, grimy, soldierly look at war on a galactic scale from the perspective of a boots-on-the-ground grunt. And somehow the book maintains the optimism inherent in Star Wars. It’s a refreshing look at Star Wars and brings to mind Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath in many ways – the action has an immediacy that pulls the reader into the world, caring about one character rather than the fate of a galaxy.

Johnny Rico, meet Namir

The novel follows Namir – a veteran sergeant of the 61^st mobile infantry, Twilight Company – as he rises through the ranks during the darkest days of the Rebellion. He’s a jaded soldier fighting for the Rebel Alliance because fighting is all he knows. There is no patriotism in him, no love for the cause. As he is thrust up the chain of command he must grapple with his own doubts and whether he can serve the soldiers under his command if he is not a true believer. [Read more…]

J&STAC: Even More #1s?

November 18, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

Steph: The last few months have a been a veritable smorgasbord of new titles. After weeks of bringing home dozens of number 1’s, it’s becoming difficult to keep up. Here’s a quick list of some of the most recent.

-J.: Before we get to the few new #1 issues that didn’t inspire a hearty “meh,” let’s talk about the sheer volume of #1 issues that have hit the shelves recently. It’s ridiculous. [Read more…]

STAR WORDS: The Necessary Tentpole

November 12, 2015 by PK Sullivan Leave a Comment

I’ve raved a lot about the Star Wars comics here in my little column. Deservedly so, I feel. Lando, Princess Leia, and Shattered Empire were all excellent stories – well plotted, well paced, intriguing art, solid characterization, and satisfying endings. If the first three issues of Chewbacca are anything to go by, there’s more great things to come from Marvel. They hire good talent – solid writers and artists – to produce these books and that looks to hold true going forward.

And yet, the central title in the little comics experiment Marvel has embarked upon with the Star Wars brand is really only okay. It’s a mediocre comic and, unfortunately, only mediocre Star Wars. It’s frustrating as a fan because this comic tries to explain the last line of the opening crawl of The Empire Strikes Back: “The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space….” How does Vader know who Luke is? [Read more…]

J&STAC: the Sandman: Overture

November 4, 2015 by -J. 1 Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

Today is the release of the deluxe edition of the collected volume of the Sandman: Overture. The Sandman comics were an influential and formative part of creating the duo of -J. and Steph, so it was only fitting that they discuss the final Sandman story, which is also the first.

the Sandman: Overture

words by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart, published by Vertigo

Synopsis: it’s the story of what happened just before the sweeping saga that is the Sandman, where we discover why Dream was galaxies away and dressed for battle. [Read more…]

Thoughts from the Recorder: On Grantland

November 3, 2015 by Travis J. Cook Leave a Comment

I wanted to write about the World Series on Monday. I wanted to write a wrap-up about the culmination of the Royals journey, a journey that started last October and ended on November 1st with Kansas City sitting on top of the world. I wanted to write about the sheer joy of seeing a team come together, about the sheer joy with which that Royals team played baseball, about the fact that even in the most dire of moments, this team always felt like they would rise above everything.

But I didn’t. Because my heart was broken a few days earlier when ESPN announced that they were shuttering Grantland for good.

[Read more…]

STAR WORDS: Shattered Empire

October 29, 2015 by PK Sullivan Leave a Comment

A tender goodbye between Shara and Kes.

Journey to the Force Awakens – Shattered Empire, a four issue comic mini-series written by Greg Rucka (Smuggler’s Run) follows A-Wing pilot Shara Bey and her husband Kes Dameron, a Pathfinder specforce commando, through the months following the Battle of Endor. The comic achieves a surprisingly grand scale in just four issues. It tackles many themes and questions – honor, duty, and the personal cost of war among them – that are typically addressed in lengthier novels or films. It is an incredible piece of work. I’ve spoken highly of Princess Leia and Lando here on STAR WORDS before but Shattered Empire surpasses them both as an artistic achievement.

Accompanying Rucka on this odyssey is a small collective of artists – Marco Chechetto took the lead and was featured in all four issues; playing backup were Angel Unzueta and Emilio Laiso. Their work on Shattered Empire cannot be overstated. The book succeeds because the art and prose are knit together seamlessly, supporting one another and creating a whole greater than the sum of the parts. Chechetto has an uncanny ability to convey complex emotions in the characters he draws. The range of emotions Shara displays can be heartbreaking at times. The dialogue is fairly minimal at times with the emotion of the drawn characters carrying the narrative. [Read more…]

J&STAC: Talking Cap (and Other New #1s)

October 21, 2015 by -J. 1 Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

It’s a very Marvel J&STAC this week, with a special appearance by Image. We normally don’t do back-to-back new #1 reviews, but there are a lot of them, one of which got a lot of media attention. You can probably guess which one based on this tweet from Kurt Busiek:

I saw a tweet saying liberals should create their own Captain America. They did. In 1940.

— Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) October 18, 2015

Let’s start with Cap, shall we? [Read more…]