Rube Goldberg: Inventions

 From the faculty room book exchange shelf at my school.

Title: Rube Goldberg: Inventions
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: 2000
Writer: Maynard Frank Wolfe, Rube Goldberg
Artist: Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg is one of those artists that many people have an idea of their work without ever having actually seen any of it. At a D&D game recently, I elaborated on the "Dwarves are art deco and and elves are art nouveau" meme by adding, "and gnomes are Rube Goldberg". My crew of geeks got exactly what I meant, even though they'd probably never read an actual Rube Goldberg comic strip. Goldberg is iconic. The classic "Rube Goldberg Machine" is a device that does a simple task in the most complicated manner possible, and it has become a fixture of school competitions around the world.

Goldberg wrote and drew his The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts strip for an incredible fifty years from 1914 to 1964. He was a prolific artist with many other published comic strip, some of which rivaled his Inventions in longevity.

This book provides a nice biography of Goldberg, introduces his early and non-Inventions work, and the gives a wide selection of the Inventions cartoons grouped around general themes.

While the style gets a little repetitive, there are some brilliant details, featuring fantastical animals, pop culture and political satire, and just utter ridiculousness to be found throughout the drawings.

Goldberg's references to concepts like suicide and homelessness come of as a bit insensitive by current standards, but a lot of the political humor on topics like the stock market are still spot-on.

This was a nice overview and a good introduction to the works of a artist who is well known by reputation, but not actually read as often as when his work was a fixture of the newspapers.

Rating: 7/10

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

Another book from this series, brought home by the Kiddo from the school library.

Title: Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2000
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey

A brilliant scientist arrives in the USA from a country where everyone has a silly name. And unfortunately for Professor Pippy P. Poopypants (the middle initial stands for Peepee!), he is having a hard time getting anyone to take him seriously. Finally, down on his luck and desperate, he takes a job teaching science at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School in Piqua, Ohio, confident that children will be accepting and loving, in spite of his silly name.

That goes about as well as you would expect it to go. And the professor goes off the deep end, shrinks the school, supersizes his previously gerbil-sized mecha suit, and demands that everyone change their name to a silly one based on his three simple charts. Then, of course, it's up to Captain Underpants to save the day.

By the way, this is a guest review, written by Loopy Pizzahead, with input from his Kiddo, Gidget Pizzahead.

Really, the whole book is amusing, but the silly names charts had the Kiddo rolling with laughter. There is a nice mix of slapstick and satire here, with multiple layers of humor. The plot is pretty straightforward, and the story comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Excellent work from Dav Pilkey AKA Gidget Hamsterbrains.

Rating: 8/10

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Volume One

From the school library.

Title: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Issue: Volume One
Publisher: DC Comics (Wildstorm)
Date: 2000
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Kevin O'Neil
Colorist: Benedict DiMagmaliw
Letterer: William Oakley
Editor: Scott Dunbier, James Lee, John Nee

Trade paperback collecting the first six issues of the original comic series.

This was one of the earlier arrivals in the current wave of steampunk, and as such, it can be hard to appreciate how original this was when it was first published. Bringing together 19th Century literary figures Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Mina Murray (from Dracula), Allan Quatermain, and the Invisible Man, this story is all-in over-the-top steampunk action, with a dash of intrigue and a ton of literary references.

The story is brutally violent in places, and darkly humorous throughout. It plays with a whole range of elements from British literature and pop culture.

The plot has some fun twists, but is also a bit predictable in places, but the overall flavor of the story and the richness of detail in the art and narration make up for much of that.

The backup prose story is (intentionally) densely wordy, but does a nice job of providing a prequel for the character of Allan Quatermain, while managing to smoothly bring together the works of H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and H.P. Lovecraft.

Rating: 8/10

Grendel: Devil's Legacy #1

Another random comic from the unread comics stack.

Title: Grendel: Devil's Legacy
Issue: 1
Date: March, 2000
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Matt Wagner
Penciller: Arnold Pander, Jacob Pander
Inker: Jay Geldhof
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Steve Haynie
Editor: Diana Schutz, Tim Ervin-Gore
Cover: Matt Wagner

This reprints Comico's Grendel #1 with new coloring by Jeromy Cox. The original publication was one of those early books I bought in my first run of seriously collecting comics in the 1980s. The story focuses on Christine Spar, granddaughter of the original Grendel, Hunter Rose. Comfortable in her life as a newspaper editor and the author of a book on her infamous ancestor, Christine is drawn into the legacy of Grendel when her son vanishes under mysterious and horrifying circumstances.

This story features one of the most disturbing villains in comics, a strong cast of supporting characters, and the looming presence of the Grendel mythology that Matt Wagner does such a great job of weaving into his multigenerational saga.

As good a read now as when I first read it. The first meeting between Christine Spar and Tujiro XIV is still as creepy as I'd remembered.

Rating: 8.5/10

Poison Elves #62

From the pile of unread comics, here's a random issue of Poison Elves, the fantasy series that boasted the longest ears in comics.

I'm starting a protocol with this review of linking the Wikipedia entry for any publisher that is no longer in business.

Title: Poison Elves
Date: 2000
Publisher: Sirius Entertainment
Writer: Drew Hayes
Artist: Drew Hayes

Two experienced elves are escorting a younger elf on a journey when a hunting horn sounds in the distance, and the group quickly realizes that they are the ones being hunted. And the hunter is something magical and very dangerous.

About half of the issue consists of dialogue between the younger elf and his two guardians, who are not exactly thrilled with his attitude. There is a lot of posturing, which feels right, given the circumstances, and when the posturing breaks down, there is a good ring of truth to the dialogue. Still, the characters don't really come off as likeable and there is not much hook for me as a new reader coming on board at this admittedly random spot.

The art and the plot both improve during the hunt sequence, which does a good job of building tension. The huntsman is frightening and formidable.

This was my first time reading this series, which I've heard good things about for many years. I didn't feel like it really left me wanting to read more, but there was some good artwork and the dialogue felt natural.

On a minor note, and something I seldom find myself complaining about, I didn't like the lettering in this issue. I felt it was unnecessarily difficult to read in several places.

Rating: 5.5/10

Meridian #4

Continuing through the stack of comics I originally brought to Vietnam. Eight to go after this one. Most of these are from convention bargain bins back in the US

Title: Meridian
Issue: #4
Publisher: Crossgen
Date: October, 2000
Writer: Barbara Kesel
Penciler: Joshua Middleton, Bart Sears
Inker: Dexter Vines, Andy Smith
Colorist: Michael Atiyeh
Letterer: Dave Lanphear

When her sky-island nation is invaded, Sephie, the new Minister of Meridian, escapes from the captivity of her uncle and races back to help fight for her island home. Meanwhile on Meridian, a small group is organizing to resist the invasion.

The visuals of the floating-island world are gorgeous, and I loved the action sequences involving the flying sailcraft that are the world's main mode of transportation. The story is tightly plotted but still complex, and I was able to get a good sense of all the characters who appeared in this issue, in spite of jumping into the story in issue #4. I also loved the awesome and classic cliffhanger ending.

Backup story is part of a series called The First, and it didn't really do much for me. It involved two characters calling forth some sort of  grave-element-like creature. Some other things went on, but not enough to catch my interest.

Main story totally rocked, however, and I note that I have one other issue of this series in my to-read stack, and it's #19, and I really find myself wishing it was #5. Might have to seek out more of this story when I get back to the US.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sigil #6

Here's another random book from the backlog.

Title: Sigil
Issue: #6
Publisher: Crossgen
Date: December, 2000
Writer: Barbara Kesel
Penciler: Steve McNiven
Inker: Batt, Jordi Ensign
Colorist: JD Smith
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Cover: Steve McNiven, Ray Lai, Wil Quintana

I went into this one with low expectations. The art looked a bit too Image-
influenced and the story, a space opera featuring a hero with a mysterious sigil branded on his chest that gives him superpowers, appeared to be a jumbled mess based on the "story so far" segment at the beginning of the book.

But once we got past a somewhat awkward initial fight scene in a spaceship hangar deck, the story started to flow pretty nicely. There was a lot going on here, but it generally made sense, and did a nice job of building suspense as the various characters were brought together so that Sam (the sigil-guy; short for Samandahl actually) can get to face a bad guy with the unfortunate name of Loser in a climactic arena fight.

I particularly liked the character of Zanniati, the runaway wife of another bad guy. She had a nice kind of cool confidence about her that worked well in the story. Former guardsman JeMerik was also fun, but he is annoying close to Sam in looks, and in a book this complicated, and potential character confusion is detrimental.

Still, this had a fun Star Wars kind of feel to it, with quick plot twists and frequent action scenes.

Much better than expected.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: Gotham Knights #6

Title: Batman: Gotham Knights
Issue: #6
Date: August 2000
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Devin Grayson, Walter Simonson
Penciler: Paul Ryan, John Paul Leon
Inker: John Floyd, John Paul Leon
Colorist: Jean Segarra
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Dennis O'Neil, Mark Chiarello

Bruce Wayne learns the details of a city councilman's misdeeds during the Gotham Earthquake and the various catastrophes that followed. The evidence needed to put the corrupt politician behind bars is buried under rubble in a bank vault, and the Batman turns to Barbara Gordon for help in locating the vault. But it turns out that Oracle has a secret of her own hidden in that same vault. This story engages in a fair amount of retcon, but if you can get past that, the interplay between Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Jim Gordon is excellent. It's also nice to see a Batman story where the mayhem really takes a back seat to the character interaction really. It helps that Barbara Gordon has become one of the best characters in the DC Universe, and that she's got the Batman to play off of. Penguin is also handled well here, as are the rest of the supporting characters.

This issue also features an excellent "Batman: Black & White" backup story, told almost entirely from the point of view of the Riddler as he searches the Mad Hatter's (booby-trapped, of course) mansion on a quest for the answer to one of literature's great riddles, a conundrum scribed by Lewis Carroll himself.

Two excellent stories in one issue make this one of the best single issues of an ongoing Batman series I've read in a while.

Rating: 8.5/10