Comics Briefly

Popeye's "Immortalicky"

Popeye: one of the most beloved cartoon personalities of the 20th century, was created by E.C. Segar (a former movie house projectionist who loved his Chaplin) some ten years after he became a cartoonist in pre-Capone Chicago. At the time, Popeye was a world-wide sensation. The daily adventures of this very American character literally changed the face of comic strips and heavily influenced that other burgeoning art form, animation.

About Comics at the Ten Year Mark

About Comics has lasted 10 years with a small staff and a very personal vision that creates an eclectic line of books.

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books How to Build an A Sara Midda . Workman/Artisan , $17.95 ISBN 978-1-57965-378-1 Offering a hands-on approach to learning the alphabet, this small-format book comes with 11 off-white foam shapes (as well as a mesh storage bag). In the book, miniature, stylized people (and the occasional dog) work together to construct each letter of the alphabet, using rectangular blocks and arcs...

Nonfiction Reviews

The Painter’s Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art Hugh Howard . Bloomsbury Press , $26.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59691-244-1 Patron of the arts is not the first association one makes with George Washington, but Howard elegantly makes the case that the founder of the nation also helped establish America’s art.

Can't Buy Me Love

The Secret Currency of Love: The Unabashed Truth About Women, Money, and Relationships Edited by Hilary Black . Morrow , $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-156096-5 While women have made enormous strides in their earning power and financial self-sufficiency in the past century, research shows that many would still be “very willing” to marry for money, underscoring the complicated natu...

Fiction Reviews

The Possession of Mr. Cave Matt Haig . Viking , $24.95 (244p) ISBN 978-0-670-02056-0 “Could it have been that the desire to protect is the desire to possess?” wonders antiques dealer Terence Cave in Haig’s overwrought study of a father creepily bent on protecting his beautiful 15-year-old daughter, Byrony.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 11/17/2008

On the Web this week: a stunning index of Indian wildlife, the man who gave birth, country music's Southern roots, a cookbook celebration of Paris's ethnic diversity, and a Booker Prize finalist. Plus: Lana Turner's daughter, a third McCourt brother, and more.

Q & A with Anita Silvey

Bookshelf spoke with Anita Silvey about her new book, I’ll Pass for Your Comrade (Clarion).

Meet the Joie de Tel Aviv: Graphic Novelist Rutu Modan

At age 42, writer-illustrator Rutu Modan has been creating comics for over a decade now, amassing a hipster following in her native Israel. But it wasn't until she released her graphic-novel debut, last year's coolly complicated familial drama Exit Wounds, that she finally earned international praise from both the comics cognoscenti and the ever-discriminating literati.

Abrams To Publish Hereville Web comic in Print

Barry Deutsch has signed a book deal with Harry N. Abrams to publish his much lauded webcomic, Hereville, as a graphic novel

AX: Top Shelf To Publish Gekiga Anthology

In August 2009 Top Shelf, will publish AX, a much-anticipated Japanese alternative comics anthology.

Gaiman’s Sandman At 20

On Sunday November 9, the twentieth anniversary of DC Comics’ Sandman series was marked at one of Manhattan’s leading cultural centers, the 92nd Street Y, when creator Neil Gaiman was interviewed onstage by acclaimed graphic designer (and comics enthusiast) Chip Kidd.

Books About Comics: Encyclopedic Wonders

Comics Briefly

Miami Book Fair Embraces Comics; 2009 Eisner Judges ; Steve Geppi Speaks; NYCC Sign-up, Casting Call; Death Note II Canadian Screening ; Abel on NPR; Fan Questions on MyCup o' Joe; Spotlight on Comics; and This Week In The Beat

Nonfiction Reviews

Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds Olivia Gentile . Bloomsbury , $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59691-169-7 In this biography of bird enthusiast Phoebe Snetsinger, former journalist Gentile wonders whether there is a “line between dedication and obsession, and when does obsession cross the line into pathology?” Married, with four children, Phoebe was...

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books Hush Little Polar Bear Jeff Mack . Roaring Brook , $16.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-59643-368-7 In his first solo outing, Mack (illustrator of the Bunnicula series) sends an eager-looking polar bear on a series of dreamtime adventures: “Swim through a waterfall./ Splash in a stream./ Paddle past rainbows/ that glisten and gleam.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 11/10/2008

This week's Web: some final thoughts from Studs Terkel, this history of sex in video games, Poland's most famous foreign correspondent, and a two-for-one plan for the ecology and the economy. Plus: Chagall, Nugent, New York's No. 1 escort, and Lincoln! Lincoln! Lincoln!

Fiction Reviews

Thanks for the Memories Cecelia Ahern . Harper , $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-170623-3 Contrivance and a multitude of sitcom mixups drive Ahern’s fifth novel. When Joyce Conway gets a blood transfusion after a tragic accident that caused her to miscarry, she strangely picks up the memories of her donor.

Persian Nights

Things I've Been Silent About: Memories Azar Nafisi . Random , $26 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6361-1 Nafisi follows up the internationally acclaimed Reading Lolita in Tehran with another memoir, concentrating this time on her unhappy family life. Her mother was vocally nostalgic for her first marriage to a man who died two years after their wedding day, while her father sought the company of oth...