Manga Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood Volume 02 by Hirohiko Araki Quick recap: In 19th Century England, orphan Dio Brando comes to live with the wealthy and noble Joestar family. In retrospective, they probably should have asked more questions about how he became an orphan. Dio planned to supplant the heir, Jonathan… Continue reading Manga Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood Volume 02
Tag: Italy
Book Review: The History of Opera for Beginners
Book Review: The History of Opera for Beginners by Ron David Opera is one of the great art forms, blending theater and music into a powerful emotional experience. But it also has a stereotype of being incomprehensible melodrama that boring rich people drag their unwilling spouses to. And many of the books about opera are written… Continue reading Book Review: The History of Opera for Beginners
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master written by Jack Miller After the success of Jack Kirby creations The Challengers of the Unknown in 1959, DC Comics took a chance on two other quartets of non-powered adventurers in the pages of Showcase, their try-out comic. The more successful of these was Rip Hunter’s team of time… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master
Anime Review: Lupin the Third: The Italian Adventure
Anime Review: Lupin the Third: The Italian Adventure Arsène Lupin III, alleged French-Japanese descendant of the famous 19th Century criminal Arsène Lupin, is a master thief. If he says he’ll steal something, Lupin the 3rd most certainly will. A master of disguise, able to open any lock, and possessed of great cunning, he steals treasures… Continue reading Anime Review: Lupin the Third: The Italian Adventure
Book Review: The Transplanted
Book Review: The Transplanted by John Bodnar This volume, written in the 1980s, is a survey of patterns of immigration into urban areas of the United States between 1830-1930 (approximately.) It covers those who came to stay, those who just came to get a nest egg to improve life in their home country, and… Continue reading Book Review: The Transplanted
Book Review: Rad Women Worldwide
Book Review: Rad Women Worldwide by Kate Schatz Right up front, I have to say that the title is the most annoying thing about this book. Did anyone ever use “rad” as an adjective unironically? That said, “radical” is not an unfair term to apply to many of the women whose short biographies are… Continue reading Book Review: Rad Women Worldwide
Comic Book Review: Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman
Comic Book Review: Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman edited by Gary Groth In later years, Harvey Kurtzman was better known for his humor work, among other things being the first editor of MAD. But while he worked at EC Comics in the early Fifties, Mr. Kurtzman was also known for some… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman
Book Review: Fright
Book Review: Fright edited by Charles M. Collins The cover makes this book look like a generic product, but that’s a little deceiving. It’s actually an anthology skewed towards the Gothic end of horror rather than the gory, emphasizing vocabulary-rich authors. Most of the stories were rarely reprinted before this collection in 1963. We open… Continue reading Book Review: Fright
Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter
Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter edited by Mary François Rockcastle. This is the latest volume of Hamline University’s annual literary magazine, which I picked up at the Rain Taxi Book Festival. The subtitle comes from one of the poems in this issue, “Is This What Poets Do?” by Elizabeth Oness.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter
Book Review: The Hugo Winners Volume 5 1980-1982
Book Review: The Hugo Winners Volume 5 1980-1982 edited by Isaac Asimov The Hugo Awards are given out every year by the membership of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon.) This series of books from 1986 collected the winners in the three short fiction categories: Novella (17,500-40,000 words), Novelette (7,500-17,500 words) and Short Story (less… Continue reading Book Review: The Hugo Winners Volume 5 1980-1982