1. Peter S. Beagle fans take note: The Last Unicorn is being released in a six part comic mini series from IDW Publishing this spring. The first issue is due out in April, (for $3.99 - I imagine it will be collected into a single volume by the end of the year though if you want to wait), and Beagle was completely onboard with the project:
Originally published in 1968, The Last Unicorn has sold more than five million copies around the world, and in 1982 was made into a hugely popular animated film that has now captivated four generations. In this engaging tale, Beagle created some of the most wondrously real and delightful characters in modern fantasy fiction: the Unicorn herself, Schmendrick the Magician, Molly Grue, Prince LÃr, Mommy Fortuna and her threadbare Midnight Carnival, and of course the implacably threatening Red Bull and its master, King Haggard. Fans all over the world have treasured The Last Unicorn since its debut, revisiting the story repeatedly and finding new things to explore each time. This first-ever graphic treatment is bound to please them.
2. Am I the only person who reads a book and immediately thinks "summer, bologna sandwich, chips, backyard in the sun"? I don't mean a beach book because honestly that is a much different thing (for some reason I always think of Jackie Collins in that context). I recently finished Susan Patron's Lucky Breaks (sequel to The Higher Power of Lucky) and thought it was a perfectly decent although not exceptional story (a bit formulaic actually) BUT - give it to a 9 year old on the way outside with nothing to do and this book was perfect. Add a ball game on the radio or some decent tunes and a dog lounging on the deck in the shade and you've got a Rockwellian moment. I would say all this is old fashioned and impossible except my son spent enormous amounts of time in the yard with the dog digging holes last summer, so I know such book reading visions are possible. So anyway, Lucky Breaks has some slight adventure, some slight friendship dramarama, lots of small town charm and everything works out in the end. Add a glass of lemonade and it's pretty much a cure for what ails your average preteen.
3. I neglected in my recent "Judge Me" post to mention the gorgeous new covers for Madeleine L'Engle's classic novels Camilla and And Both Were Young from Square Fish. These books are a bit dated - they certainly read as more old fashioned then A Wrinkle in Time, but they work if you approach them with that in mind. And Both Were Young succeeds also as it is a boarding school novel, which never really goes out of style. But the covers are outstanding - they really elevate the books far more than any covers they have had in the past (and some were really really bad). A plaid coat and boots and holding hands in the snow - could anything be more schoolish and romantic? Lovely and timeless and most welcome and they stand out wonderfully from current cover trends.
4. I could not possibly be more annoyed about this whole "Captain America dissed the Tea Party Movement" scandal. CBR rounds up several links so you can get the whole low down. I don't know what is more annoying - the crass comments about adults reading comics or the fact that Marvel felt compelled to apologize for this when there are so many other things over the years that have been completely ignored. (Case in point - name an African American Marvel superhero right now - do it, I dare you. I'm waiting.....and no, Luke Cage and Storm do not count as they are part of ensemble casts and don't have their own titles. I'm waiting.....yeah, you get my point.)
5. What I'm reading right now: For Booklist - a book about feminists around the world which included mention of Metis, Zeus' first wife. I've never heard of Metis, so color me royally pissed off about the whole patriarchal way of teaching Greek mythology. (I felt the same way when I learned about Lilith from Sarah McLachlan.) He swallows her so he can give birth to their daughter and not her. He SWALLOWED his wife! And then you never hear from her again.
If that doesn't say something about men and women and power than I don't know what does.
Also reading, Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen's American Vision. It was suppose to be just for fun but has ended up giving me some more to think about for the wilderness myth book. Plus it's Springsteen which is always a good thing....The Thoreau You Don't Know by Robert Sullivan for the myth book...Every Bone tells a Story, nonfiction for the April mystery column and Shadowed Summer which has a cover I do not like but a story I'm enjoying the heck out of. Great YA mystery with all sorts of appropriate creepiness and BONUS - a ghost. Very cool and will be in the April column also.
Oh - and I also just finished reading issues of New Avengers and the Siege mini-series and the New Avengers Annual. And JSA and Fables and I have a new Battlefields mini series on deck. Want to make something of it? Go ahead - I dare ya. :)
February 16
2010
04:18 AM
Wow, the L'Engle covers are gorgeous. Those books are dated and old-fashioned and angsty, but so sweet.
Well, in Greek mythology, there was always a whole lot of swallowing going on. Zeus' father tried to swallow him. I always thought it worked out nicely that Zeus gave birth to Athena through his forehead; served him right for swallowing his wife. I hope he had a migraine.