THE LATEST FROM THE BOOKSHELVES
11/24/2007

Well it’s been a few weeks since my last column, a factor for which I apologize. Things have been very busy at my real time and I’ve had to do a lot of work at home which cuts down on my time for reading and writing. That said, I’ve loaded up on some really great books that I think you’ll all like. So with that said, lets get to the reviews!

GREEN LANTERN ARCHIVES VOL. 6 - Green Lantern has always been one of my favorite Silver Age titles from DC for two big reasons: Gardner Fox and Gil Kane. Fix was simply the most consistent writer for DC during the Silver Age and always respected the characters and rarely allowed them to fall into the silliness that other titles did during this period. And then there is Gil Kane. Kane was truly a shining star for DC in the early and mid-1960's. So many of DC's titles were done in their "house" style of artwork of people like Mike Sekowsky and Wayne Boring. It was all a bit bland. Kane had a dynamic and fine line detail that these other artists lacked and gave his work a layer of depth that made anything he worked on rise to the top.

In volume 6 of the Green Lantern archives we get issues #39 - 47 of the series, all featuring art by Kane and stories by Fox as well as John Broome. This volume is significant as it includes one of the most important key books of the Silver Age, Green Lantern #40, featuring a team-up of the Golden Age and Silver Age Lanterns. This wasn't the first time the pair had met, that happened in an earlier issue of Justice league of America, but it was the first time they were paired together in a Green Lantern comic. Issue #40 features one of the best Green Lantern covers of all-time.

In #41, GL battles Star Sapphire. This is the Carol Ferris version of Star Sapphire, actually the second of four different women to take that name. The last was killed by the Spectre during the recent Infinite Crisis storyline.

There are numerous guest stars in this volume...Zatanna teams up with Hal in issue #42, the Flash guest stars in #43, The Golden Age GL returns in #45, and the Green lantern Corps shows up in #46.

The last story is one of the best in the book. Green Lantern battles Dr. Polaris. Kane is at his best here in an all out, action-packed tale. Hal becomes infected by the Red Virus and has to use all his willpower to get the power ring to purge his system of the virus. As the virus leaves his body he finds himself attacked by the virus microbes.

This is great stuff from cover to cover. True classics of the Silver Age and I don't say that lightly.

BETTIE PAGE BY OLIVIA - If you thought that the pairing of the world’s premiere pin-up artist Olivia, and the most celebrated pin-up model Bettie Page, would be a match made in Heaven, you would be one-hundred percent correct. Like peanut butter and chocolate, the two were made for each other. Bettie Page by Olivia is a brand new book from Ozone Productions featuring over 50 paintings of the reclusive Ms. Page by Olivia.

Hugh Hefner provides the foreward to the book that gives Page & Olivia fans 80 pages of delectable art. Why Hefner? Well who better? Page appeared as a centerfold in the magazine in the 50’s and many of Olivia’s Page paintings first appeared in Playboy.

Several pieces are what I call progression pieces. We get to see Olivia’s preliminary pencil sketches on one page and the finished painting on the next. A great example of this is on the painting entitled The Substitute, as it’s a Bettie in thigh-high leather boots and black mini skirt taking over the classroom as the new teacher.

“Hot Sauce” will sure to be a favorite among fans as Bettie is decked out in a provocative devil outfit: red leather boots, arm-length red gloves, and red leather bra and panties, complete with devil horns and a little tail. The two pieces with Bettie dressed up in a French Maid’s outfit are also sure to please her legions of fans.

An index in the back of the book provides the title of each painting as well as the medium in which it was completed, and where the piece originally appeared. Kudos to Ozone for including the index, something that is agonizingly lacking in many art collection books.

There’s something for every Bettie fan to be found within these pages. Fetish fans will love Bettie, again all in red leather, riding crop in her teeth, or the piece entitled ”Rawhide” where cowboy Bettie is getting a spanking from a gorgeous blonde Indian maiden.

The icing on the cake in “Bettie Page by Olivia” is an ultra-rare interview with Page, now in her eighties, conducted by I.S. Levine. In the interview, Page talks about her rural upbringing in Tennessee, as well as how she first broke into modeling. While Page was one of Playboys earliest centerfolds (1955) she didn’t meet Hugh Hefner until some forty years later in 1996. It’s a short, but fascinating interview.

Rounding things out, Olivia shares her own feelings on Bettie and what makes her such an intriguing subject, not only for her own work, but also for all the Bettie fans around the world. It’s a magnificent book. Cliché as it may be to say, this is simply a must have for fans of Bettie page or Olivia.

THE ALL STAR COMPANION VOL. #2 - Roy Thomas and TwoMorrows Publishing are back with a second helping of fascinating information about the world’s greatest superteam, The Justice Society of America. If you though the first volume of the All-Star Companion covered it all just take a look at this massive 240 page book packed cover-to-cover articles and great artwork featuring the Justice Society.

Some of my favorite things to read in the first two Companions is the Mysteries of the Justice Society. Here we uncover fascinating information about the genesis of the team as well as the odd substitutions in appearances. For example, in All-Star Comics #21 – 23, we will find that the Spectre sure wasn’t acting much like his spectral self as he hides behind curtains and climbs through windows. Hardly the behavior of a ghost! It is theorized that these stories were originally intended for another JSAer, Mr. Terrific, and the Spectre ended up being penciled in place of the superpower-lacking Terrific. This is detective work worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

There are wonderfully nostalgic articles about the Junior Justice Society membership club and the “Laboratory Notes” features from All Star Comics 48 – 57.

The bulk of the second volume is devoted to two features. First, there is a Who’s who of the All Star Squadron that covers some 70 members of the Squadron or the Young All Stars. This section features brief bios of each character along with a list of their Golden Age appearances (if any). Here you will find the famous (Captain Marvel, Plastic Man) and the not so famous (Captain Triumph, TNT & Dan the Dyna-Mite).

Next up is an issue by issue look At the All-Star Squadron and the JSA mini-series’ of the 1980’s. A picture of each cover is included along the issues story and art credits, character roster, detailed story synopsis, and notes for each issue along selected artwork. This is a must have for any JSA fan. The Inclusion of the four-issue America Vs. the Justice Society and the one-shot Last Days of the Justice Society special are welcome inclusions as these were both outstanding stories and somewhat hard to find today.

And if you think that you’ve NOW seen it all when it comes to the Justice Society, just wait a few more months, volume 3 is set to come out this Fall. This is a book that you can just lose yourself in for hours. Thomas is so passionate about the Justice Society that you can’t help but appreciate his efforts in putting these books together.

THE GRAVE ROBBER’S DAUGHTER - I wasn't really sure what to expect from Richard Sala's slight, 96-page graphic novel "The Grave Robber's Daughter" so my expectations were somewhat low. Sala surprised the hell out of me with a truly terrifying, and no-frills story. The art is straight black & white and somewhat reminiscent of old underground art in its style and delivery. Hardly conventional to say the least!

Judy breaks down on a deserted road and wanders on-foot into the haunted little town of Obidiah's Glen. The town appears completely deserted and Judy's chances of getting help seem to be trickling away. She finally manages to find some people at the town's carnival but they are all teenagers and don't seem to have an interest in helping the stranger out.

Once again venturing through town she finally finds a little girl named Nellie who tells her about the clowns...The clowns arrived in town in the middle of the night, holding a parade through the downtown. In the morning, all of the adults had gone missing. Judy soon learns the terrible secret of the Clowns and their circus but does she have a chance to escape in time.

I was genuinely chilled by Sala's story. It was so simple in its delivery yet hauntingly effective. What can you say...clowns are just plain scary. It definitely has some Killer Klowns from Outer Space influence but with a more supernatural slant to it. This one really took me by surprise and I look forward to seeing more by Richard Sala. CHECK IT OUT HERE: http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Robbers-Daughter-Richard-Sala/dp/1560977736/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/103-8467586-4769412

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