CBLDF: Ready For War or Peace

Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, divides the organization's activities into “peacetime and wartime,” and right now, he said, the CBLDF is on a war footing. Since 2004, the CBLDF has spent nearly $100,000 defending Gordon Lee, a Rome, Ga., comics retailer charged with distributing materials harmful to minors, who faces a year in jail and $1...

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 10/29/2007

Picture Books Out Came the Sun: A Day in Nursery Rhymes Heather Collins . Kids Can , $19.95 (96p) ISBN 978-1-55337-881-5 Collins arranges 45 mostly familiar nursery rhymes in a sun-up to sundown romp starring a multi-species stuffed animal family, who made similar appearances in her Traditional Fairy Tales series of board books.

Fiction Reviews: Week of 10/29/2007

The Outcast Sadie Jones . Harper , $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-137403-6 Set in post WWII suburban London, this superb debut novel charts the downward spiral and tortured redemption of a young man shattered by loss. The war is over, and Lewis Aldridge is getting used to having his father, Gilbert, back in the house.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 10/29

Buffy Season 8—the Shape of Things to Come?

The popularity of Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 is making other publishers look for comics with famous authors or with TV tie-ins.

Matsumoto’s Mashup

Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet, is an avant-garde masterpiece. But what the hell is a “tekkon kinkreet”?

DrMaster: Publishing Manga Small Scale

DrMaster is hoping a small, independent manga house can compete with larger publishers

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cemetery

Cartoonist Mort Gerberg brings together 26 New Yorker cartoonists to take an amusing look at the big topics—including the big D—of our senior years.

Comics Briefly

BEA ’08:Comics All Day Saturday;APE Moves to November; ICv2 Confab For NYAF; Auction for Disabled Vets; TV Grabs The Middleman; DMP Club Otakie Contest; Matt Groening on TCM; NBM Debuts Trondheim Blog; First Second Creators Blog; and OSU Cartoon Fest

A PW Web-Exclusive Review:
Fair Game by Valerie Plame Wilson

PW has obtained a copy of the outed CIA agent's book, which is embargoed until Tuesday. While the author reveals aspects of her personal life and bluntly criticizes prominent media and Republican figures, the heavily redacted book says little new about the events that became known as Plamegate.

Topalian Promoted; Fensterman Joins NYCC

Reed Exhibitions promotes Greg Topalian to senior v-p and BEA director Lance Fensterman joins the staff of New York Comic-Con as show manager.

Pinsky Lends His Voice to Alzheimer’s Film

The day his newest collection of poems was released, former poet laureate Robert Pinsky was in Chicago to support a documentary on Alzheimer's.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 10/22/2007

Christmas Books We Three Kings Gennady Spirin . S&S/Atheneum , $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-82114-1 Opulence befitting royalty characterizes Spirin's (The Tale of the Firebird) lush, jewel-hued watercolor-and-colored-pencil interpretation of the beloved carol about the three wise men (and their extensive entourages) who traverse afar.

Fiction Reviews: Week of 10/22/2007

Resistance Owen Sheers . Doubleday/Talese , $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-52210-6 Poet Sheers takes readers to a small Welsh village during a speculative WWII—featuring a German invasion of Britain—in his auspicious debut novel. It’s 1944 and Sarah Lewis and the women in Ochlon valley are left alone after all the local men disappear one night.

Making the Crime Personal

Cops, criminals and neglected families collide with disastrous results in Person of Interest, the third novel from Theresa Schwegel, whose debut, Officer Down, won the Edgar Award for best first novel.

Hollywood Revealed

Children of L.A. royalty (actor Dennis Hopper and producer Leonard Goldberg) put their pedigree to good use in Celebutantes a collaborative first novel. What inspired you to take up your pens against your hometown? Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper: We met several years ago at the annual Oscar Party at Mr. Chow’s.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 10/22

Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 10/22/2007

Falling into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl Wendy Merrill . Putnam , $22.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-399-15455-3 Merrill’s debut collection of essays—which details her many troubled relationships, struggles with bulimia and alcoholism, and sexual adventures—tries too hard to entertain the reader and ends up disappointing instead.

Cosby Shows "tough, thoughtful" side in Sociological Self-Help

Today, Bill Cosby graces Oprah Winfrey's couch to discuss his new book, Come on, People!, which fleshes out his polarizing opinions on the state of black America and provides a thorough guide for black families struggling with poverty; to celebrate Cosby's return to Harpo Studios, PW weighs in with an online exclusive review.

Cosby Shows "tough, thoughtful" side in Sociological Self-Help

Today, Bill Cosby graces Oprah Winfrey's couch to discuss his new book, Come on, People!, which fleshes out his polarizing opinions on the state of black America and provides a thorough guide for black families struggling with poverty; to celebrate Cosby's return to Harpo Studios, PW weighs in with an online exclusive review.