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Nonfiction Reviews
The Jazz Ear: Conversations over Music Ben Ratliff . Times , $25 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8146-6 Ratliff, the jazz critic for the New York Times, spent just over two years interviewing jazz greats for a recurring feature at the paper: rather than ask musicians like Pat Metheny or Dianne Reeves to name their favorite records, Ratliff sat with them as they listened to songs and picked out the qu...
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Children's Book Reviews
Picture Books Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa Jeanette Winter . Harcourt , $17 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-206545-4 Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner whose Green Belt Movement has planted 30 million trees in Kenya, is the subject of Winter’s (The Librarian of Basra) eloquent picture biography.
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Fiction Reviews
Friendly Fire A.B. Yehoshua , trans. from the Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman. Harcourt , $26 (400p) ISBN 978-0-15-101419-4 Celebrated Israeli novelist Yehoshua (A Woman in Jerusalem) explores the power of grief and bitterness in a blunt drama studded with political, historical and religious significance.
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August Comics Bestsellers
Rodrick Rules stays at #1; DC has The Killing Joke (#4) and Y The Last Man (#10) ; Marvel has The Walking Dead (#5) and X-men: Unstoppable (#9).
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Everyday Hiro: Fairy Tail’s Mashima at Comic-Con
Hiro Mashima first burst onto the scene in Japan with the popular comedy/supernatural series, Rave (known as Rave Master in the US), in 1999. His mix of fantasy, over-the-top slapstick, and down to earth irreverence led him to create Fairy Tail next, a comedy/fantasy adventure series licensed by Del Rey Manga in the U.S.
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Kubo Comes to Comic-Con
Tite Kubo is the creator behind the manga series, Bleach, now up to volume 23 in the U.S., and volume 33 in Japan, where it has sold more than 100 million copies. It's also been developed into an anime series, two feature-length animated movies—one of which had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. this summer—and a number of video games.
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Two-Fisted Tiki Tales
If you’ve ever seen South Pacific or been to a Trader Vic’s, Tiki Joe Mysteries might be for you. Mixing Polynesian pop culture and Las Vegas kitsch, this graphic novel is part murder mystery, part hard-boiled thriller strummed on a ukulele. Debuting this month, the black-and-white graphic novel comes from cartoonist Mark Murphy and San Jose-based SLG Publishing.
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Comics Briefly
Lolita Fashion at NYAF; Third Volume of Plain Janes; Obama and McCain Bios from IDW; Fantagraphics August Events; David B. from NBM; Typhon Signing at Jim Hanley’s and Sam Henderson at Desert Island
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Bull’s-eye
The Dart League King Keith Lee Morris . Tin House (PGW, dist.), $14.95 paper (280p) ISBN 978-0-9794198-8-1 In this absorbing and intelligent novel, Morris (The Greyhound God) follows five characters through a handful of hours culminating in a dart contest on a Thursday night in Garnet Lake, Idaho: Russell Harmon, who lives for the dart league and his cocaine habit; teammate Tristan Mackey,...
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Children's Books
Picture Books Pete & Pickles Berkeley Breathed . Philomel , $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-25082-8 A pig named Pete leads a perfectly predictable and sensible existence until Pickles, the runaway circus elephant, turns it upside-down. Pickles possesses the joie de vivre of Auntie Mame (and the extensive wardrobe to carry it off with élan).
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Fiction Reviews
Blindspot Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore . Spiegel & Grau , $24.95 (600p) ISBN 978-0-385-52619-7 Professors Kamensky and Lepore try for playful historical romance, but deliver instead a novel that is, if rich in period detail, also overwrought, predictably plotted and at times embarrassingly purple.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 8/4/2008
This week's Web: a schlub's moment in the sun, habits of the consumer class, a friendly owl, art iconoclast Jeff Koons, George Costanza channels Kirk Douglas, and a UK fantasy behemoth makes it to the U.S. Plus: When you're sick, you get sad, and you get high.
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Publishers Find Fans and Trends at Comic-Con
Every year more traditional book publishers make the pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic-Con International, and 2008 was no exception. Harry N. Abrams used the 2008 Comic-Con to launch Abrams ComicArts, a new imprint for comics and comics-related books; Del Rey has come to Comic-Con for years to promote fantasy and sci-fi titles and, more recently, a burgeoning manga program; and DK Publishing st...
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Nonfiction Reviews
Thames: The Biography Peter Ackroyd . Doubleday/Talese , $40 (512p) ISBN 978-0-385-52623-4 For a river with such a famous history, England's Thames measures only 215 miles. Acclaimed novelist and biographer Ackroyd (Hawksmoor; Shakespeare) invites readers on an eclectic, sprawling and delightful cruise of this important waterway.
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Comic-Con International 2008 Bursts at the Seams
Once you got past the glitz, the foundation of Comic-Con was still visible and sold quite well.
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San Diego Is Manga Country
This year's San Diego Comic-Con drew some of the newest and hottest manga creators in Japan and set them down in San Diego to meet their American fans.
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San Diego and the Future of Comic-Con
This year’s Comic-Con International was another impressive showing, but all the great features of Comic-Con become moot if you can’t buy a ticket to the show or find a hotel room.
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Devil’s Due lands Humanoids and Triggerstreet
French publishing giant Humanoids is making a reappearance on US shelves thanks to a new deal with Devil’s Due. The announcement was made at a panel on Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con.
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Photo Mania Comic-Con International: San Diego
Photos of the events and personalities at the San Diego Comic-Con 2008
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Comics Briefly: San Diego Comic-Con 2008
Comic-con Briefly: Broccoli Looks at the Market; Yaoi Works for DMP; Big Ambitions at Netcomics; ‘Surrogates’ Sequel from Venditti; Wright Shows Off ‘Spore’; Mobile Comics, ClickWheel; iPhone Format for Uclick; Black Panel Represents; Black Panther on B.E.T.; Eisner For Rutu Modan; Mondo Marvel and Barbara Vey Does Comic-con
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