Green Lantern: No Fear is far less technically ambitious than its predecessor, Rebirth. The previous novel in the “new” adventures of Hal Jordan basically had to re-invent the character and discard a decade and more of maltreatment of the character, in my opinion.However, that said, No Fear offers a lot in the way of great character building. Geoff Johns’s first graphic novel in the Green Lantern saga was all about getting back to the basics and skewering missed approaches to Hal Jordan. This volume reintroduces Hal Jordan and Green Lantern to the world as a human being and a hero. It’s about history and family, about dreams and responsibilities, and the fact that there’s precious little wiggle room for anybody trying to balance all those things and live a good life.

I especially loved the first story. The art by Darwyn Cooke was amazingly simple and really underscored the light but deep tale as Hal remembered his relationship with his test pilot father. The fact that Hal and Kyle Rayner (the latest Green Lantern, and the character that really split the polls on favorite Green Lanterns) are shown together and we get a sense of how that relationship is going. Johns could have totally blown off the Rayner character, but he chose to embrace him in the series to offer the readers the best of both possible worlds.

From there, the stories move into more Green Lantern history with the threat of a Manhunter, the androids created by the Guardians to police the spaceways before they created the Green Lantern Corps. The art is pretty cool, shows lots of action, and allows a great pacing for Johns’s story.

I enjoyed the sequences with Hal’s brother a lot too. Johns seems intent on advancing stories as much as he is on introducing back stories that we hadn’t before seen. The story of why Hal got dishonorably discharged from the United States Air Force was especially emotionally compelling.

Johns also broadens his current Green Lantern universe by bringing in other old enemies: Hector Hammond and Black Hand. Both of those characters are far creepier and more dangerous than we’ve ever seen them before.

I have to admit that the scene where Hal pounded away at Hector Hammond when the man couldn’t defend himself made me uncomfortable. On one level, I understood it because Hammond had used his mind-probing powers to assault Green Lantern, but it still just didn’t seem like something Hal would do.

This collection of stories was much lighter than the arc that ran through Rebirth. Since I read them so close together, I’m glad there was such a difference. Rebirth emotionally exhausted me, but No Fear was – mostly – a fun romp.

The scene where Hal busted General Stone in the mouth the way he had all those years ago, and the fact that that clue was what gave away Hal’s secret identity as Green Lantern, was great. I think having a USAF general know that Hal and Green Lantern are the same guy can’t be anything but beneficial. (You still have to wonder how Clark Kent can go missing all the time from the Daily Planet.)

I’ve got two more of the graphic novels lined up to read, and I’m really looking forward to them. Johns is making magic again, and it’s fun to watch.

Hal Jordan has got to be one of the most abused heroes ever created in comics. In the whole history of the field, no other hero – in my opinion – has been through such a mishmash of soap opera wallowing and evil plotting.In the beginning, Hal Jordan was one of the coolest heroes ever in the 1960s. He was the second hero to be brought back to be updated to modern times and given a makeover in Showcase comics (as long as you don’t count Lois Lane). As a test pilot, Jordan was fearless. He was a skirt-chaser and always out for a good time. I loved those intergalactic adventures he had in the early books.Then the 1970s came along and Denny O’Neil paired him with Green Arrow, turning the whole series into a tour through the social issues and growth problems the United States was going through. I enjoyed that run and thought it was great, especially since Denny recreated Green Arrow into the fantastic, opinionated character he now is. However, I didn’t see how showing Hal Jordan having questions about whether or not he was doing the right thing during that era was undermining what Green Lantern was all about.

One of the scenes Denny did that I will take to the grave with me was of an old black man talking to Hal, saying how he’d heard Green Lantern had helped a bunch of purple skins, and orange skins, but why hadn’t Green Lantern ever helped people with black skins? Words to that effect.

At that time, I thought that was powerful writing. And it was. Except for that whole little bitty thing of putting the cracks into Hal Jordan. Later writers came along and made Hal more human. By that, I mean they turned him into a failure. They gave him an alcohol problem that seemed straight out of the pages of Iron Man.

Then they destroyed Coast City, his hometown, on his watch. And they turned him into Parallax, the worst villain EVER in the DC Universe. (Except maybe for Superboy-Prime at this point.) They even had his old friend Green Arrow kill him with an arrow through the heart.

After that, they turned Hal into the Spectre, the spirit of vengeance. The Spectre is another character that’s been all over the place as writers have each tried to put their unique spins on that hero. So you had these two out-of-control entities somehow going to make a better hero together. (Kind of the you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter/you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate thing I suppose.)

The Hal Jordan/Spectre combo didn’t work for me at all. The costume looked dumb. All the personal issues the writers created seemed to come out of left field.

In the end, Hal Jordan had been stripped of everything that had made him unique and likeable as a superhero. When I’d been young, I’d wanted to be Hal when I grew up. (During those times I hadn’t wanted to be Batman, and I have to admit that the Batman thing is still there. I’ve grown more realistic over the years, you see. But if power rings are ever discovered, the Batman thing is subject to change.)

The fans were outraged. They howled for years. They didn’t buy the Hal Jordan/Spectre comic books and the series was cancelled. The universe was without Hal/Green Lantern/Spectre. Then writers started going back in time and meeting the young Hal/Green Lantern. They found excuses to do this. They even brought young Hal/Green Lantern to the present for a while.

Now matter how much Hal Jordan got killed or had his body thrown into the sun to save the world and redeem himself, he wouldn’t go away. Fandom remembered him much too vividly. Then the DC archives started getting published and a lot of people started asking, Where’s this Hal Jordan/Green Lantern?

The decision was made to bring Hal Jordan back and make him Green Lantern again. Wailing and the gnashing of teeth was heard throughout fandom. I was one of the worst.

Even when I heard Geoff Johns was going to be doing the comic book, I wasn’t happy. After everything that had been done, I figured that this was one save, one retcon (one of the most hated words among comic book fans – except when a character or a storyline was so badly butchered nothing else could be done – and don’t even get me started on the “Spider-Man: One More Day” nonsense) no one could pull off.

I snorted in derision. I stamped my feet in annoyance. I bellowed my displeasure for all to hear.

The comics came out and I blew them off. Wasn’t going to read them. I was too busy to read comics at that time anyway.

Then the graphic novel containing the five issues of Green Lantern: Rebirth came out. I was curious, but I resisted. After all, wasn’t I inordinately busy? And then there was that whole doubting thing.

The fans, however, loved what Geoff Johns did. And I have to admit, after reading the graphic novel, I totally have to agree. Geoff Johns is one of the most brilliant writers I know. He pulled a hero out of the burning building that had been made of Hal Jordan’s life. From the tattered fabric of the Green Lantern Corps history, Johns saved the best part of the mythos and made it stronger by making it more detailed and complete.

The writing in the graphic novel is intensely introspective not only for Jordan, but for several other major characters as well. Johns reforged views on Kyle Rayner, the newest Green Lantern who some of the old guard hated from the time he took over Hal’s magazine, Guy Gardner, and even Sinestro, a long time villain of Hal’s who had at one time trained him. Everyone was a part of what had happened to Hal Jordan, and we get to see how Parallax came about.

Johns figured out why the Green Lantern’s rings were vulnerable to yellow, and he told all of us. He was the first among us to notice it when Hal first started to lose it, and why. When we thought Hal had killed Sinestro, Johns knew the true story. He even knew about the deal Sinestro struck with the being known as Parallax while Sinestro was imprisoned within the Power Battery on Oa, the planet of the Guardians.

The answer to what had gone wrong with Hal Jordan as a man and a comic book was simple. Johns’s restitution of the character was elegance.

You truly won’t read a better book about redemption. And if you’re a Hal Jordan/Green Lantern fan, you’ll be cheering by the time you turn to the last page of the book.

There were so many high marks and emotional points in the story that I could make a laundry list of them. But one of the best, one of the most surprising, is when Green Lantern gets tired of Batman’s lip and punches him out!

Of course, for long-time comics geeks like myself, this was just a play on the events Keith Giffen set up in his run on the Justice League when Batman punched out Guy Gardner. But man, I loved that scene! A guy who will punch out the Bat? Now that’s fearless!

I could rave forever about the accompanying art in the book. The space scenes are genuinely cool. The urbanized sprawl of cities is easily recognizable. Each of the dozens of heroes in the book are drawn in unmistakable fashion. Artists Ethan Van Sciver and Prentiss Rollins have drawn one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen, and they did it all while working with a HUGE cast.

If you’re an old Green Lantern fan that has walked away from comics for a time out of disgust, Geoff Johns will strap you back into one of the best adventures you’ll ever take. If you’re a new fan drawn to comics because of all the superhero movies coming out of late, this is definitely a graphic novel you’ll want to pick up. Especially now that a Green Lantern movie has been (pun intended) green-lighted.

I loved this book and it’s one I’m going to read several times. I’ve picked up the other graphic novels in the series and can’t wait to get to them.

Though I’m ashamed to admit it, I’ve never read a single issue of The Spirit until Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel collecting the first six issues of the new series put out by DC Comics. I’ve read comics nearly my whole life, and heard about Will Eisner and the Spirit for nearly as long.To tell you the truth, the Spirit didn’t fit my idea of a superhero. For one, there was the problem of no superpowers. And two, the costume was really lame for a kid who grew up with superheroes wearing Spandex and their underwear on the outside. The Spirit just looked too…real. That meant boring to the child that I was.So I went on for nearly fifty years with my assumption that I wouldn’t like the Spirit.Enter Darwyn Cooke. Actually, I didn’t know that I liked him at first either. I thought his art was too raw at the time, too two-dimensional and unfinished. Then he did New Frontier, which became an overnight bestseller and is coming out as a straight-to-DVD animated movie soon. I picked up New Frontier and really liked Cooke’s writing and art. His artistry is flamboyant and unique. He played fairly with the characters and showed real talent when reimagining the DC Universe for his story.

Now he’s brought that same understanding of character to The Spirit, a monthly comic from DC. He writes and pencils the comic, something that few people in that business do any more, or are skilled enough to accomplish. From what I understand of the character since I’ve been poking around after getting curious, he’s captured the flavor, pacing, and zest of Will Eisner’s work.

Denny Colt is a private investigator that cracks a big case but gets overwhelmed by the villains. He is also doused in chemicals that makes it look like he is dead. After he recovers and crawls out of the family crypt, he decides to remain “dead” and adopt a new identity to fight crime. He does this with the reluctant acquiescence of Central City Police Commissioner Dolan. Dolan also happens to be the father of Denny’s girlfriend, Ellen.

Even though he looks like a 1940s private eye with a domino mask under his slouch hat, the Spirit is much more than a bare knuckles hero. He doesn’t just investigate; he has adventures. Those adventures are by turns deadly serious, humorous, absolutely loopy, or anything in between.

As I read the stories, I was at first confused. Then I realized that the Spirit was a lot like Jack Cole’s Plastic Man series. Totally malleable. (Yep, that’s a pun, and I’m not sorry.) I settled into the graphic novel for a light-hearted and fun read that vamoosed through the panels with the pacing of a runaway avalanche.

I call the volume a graphic novel, but that’s doing the book an injustice of sorts. In this day and age when every writer and artist is trained to produce a five- or six-issue arc that will fit neatly and conveniently into a graphic novel format a few months later, Darwyn Cooke decided to be daring and write standalone tales. That’s right, you can sit down and read a single comic-length story and get it all in one shot. That was like a breath of fresh air. It also made for more tightly plotted stories.

One of the other things I really liked about the book is the collection of secondary characters culled right from Eisner’s works: the ever missing-in-action Octopus, P’Gell, and others. Cooke even introduces us to Silk Satin, a hard-as-nails female character and member of the CIA, and she’s tough enough to take out Dirty Harry. You never know what to expect from story to story within the pages of this beautiful hardback book.

I do wish that some kind of primer with an art gallery of iconic Spirit characters had been included with the graphic novel as added value. I understood from the stories that some of the characters were ongoing from Eisner’s original run, but it would have helped with more. Eisner evidently created a deep, rich world and Cooke is running elegantly with the ball. There’s no reason for Cooke to try to stumble through all that had gone on before for Denny while in the middle of his own stories, and you can pick up enough to get by. But now that I’m hooked, that little bit of extra would have been great.

If you haven’t read the comics and still maintain your love of great storytelling combined with sheer fun, pick up this graphic novel and prepare to be wowed. Cooke has brought major wowness to a whole new level.

Teen Titans: Titans East is the latest graphic novel gathered from the pages of the newest incarnation of the young heroes in the DC universe. Led by Robin (Tim Drake, actually the third person to wear the Robin uniform), the team consists of Wonder Girl, Miss Martian, Kid Devil, Ravager, Cyborg, Raven, and Jericho. They formed the new team after the events of Infinite Crisis (which would take a HUGE column to explain).This volume opens up with an introspective peek into Kid Devil’s life. Since he mysteriously appeared in the pages of the monthly comic series, writer Geoff Johns works his familiar magic in bringing the character to three-dimensional life. I love watching Johns write stories like this, and I knew I was going to be in for a treat when I started in with first-person narrative from Kid Devil.

Johns has got a deft, sure hand with every character he touches. I’ve yet to hear him strike a false note. To be honest, I wasn’t very enamored of the Kid Devil character. He looks kind of neat and is probably fun to draw for the artists, but he just didn’t appear to have much depth. After Johns’s first arc of the Titans East storyline, I can safely report that just isn’t true.

Eddie Bloomberg (Kid Devil) is, literally, a tormented soul. Hero worship was what brought him into the hero biz when he wanted to be the sidekick for Blue Devil. I never much got into Blue Devil either, but he was pretty interesting the way Johns presented him. And, in the end, it was hero worship that boomeranged and trapped Eddie in a situation that could leave him as one of the devil’s own – literally – when he turns twenty in three years. That story detail is left dangling for the time being, but I was good with that.

As the story moved into the next section of the arc, Deathstroke the Terminator attacked the Teen Titans with a group of super-powered kids he’d gathered and called Titans East. Long-time readers of the Teen Titans will remember that Deathstroke has been a main opponent of the Titans since writer Marv Wolfman created him for the reboot of the series he did back in the 1980s.

Johns is very clever about his plotting. He generally is. Sometimes he lays all his cards on the table and lets the readers simply watch him work magic. Other times, he keeps a card hidden or turned over or turned so that it looks one way when it’s really another. That’s what he does in this graphic novel and it makes it a little difficult to talk about much of the plot without giving too much away.

Jericho and Ravager are the son and daughter of Deathstroke. Jericho He tells the Titans that he’s there to reclaim what is his. Of course, a battle to end all battles ensues.

In Deathstroke’s corner there is Batgirl (who we find out later is drugged into listening to Deathstroke), Risk, Sun Girl, Bombshell, Kid Crusader, Match, Inertia, Enigma, and Duela Dent. If you’re not a comic geek, the names aren’t going to mean much and it would take too long to explain. Just let me say that the line-up is impressive and filled with a lot of Teen Titans history.

Johns’s scripts crackle with energy and vitality. The characters, complete with strengths and weaknesses, transcend the page and become real. Wonder Girl is still struggling with the death of Conner, as is Robin, and they’re conflicted about the attraction between the two of them. (If Conner ever resurrects and comes back, that’s going to be a can of worms!)

Tony Daniels’s art matches Geoff Johns’s writing. They are really a good match. Johns provides plenty of room to work and lots of emotion and action to draw. There aren’t any static pages, no filler. It’s all high-action storytelling that keeps readers turning the pages.

I love supergroups because of all the dynamics possible within them. Teen Titans has consistently provided that kind of storytelling, and this current volume delivers again. I had a blast reading the story, even slowing down and re-reading scenes and pages to savor the smart dialogue and the beautifully drawn sequences.

The flip Johns provides at the end of the novel is fantastic. I didn’t see it coming, and I’m used to his kung fu. But his kung fu is mighty. If you like the Teen Titans, you’ll have to pick this one up. Sadly, this is one of the last story arcs Johns will be writing on the book for the foreseeable future. But I continue to enjoy what he’s doing on Justice Society of America and Green Lantern.
 

Geoff Johns is one of the hardest working writers in the DC Comics universe. Especially now that the universe there contains 52 worlds, some of which have yet to be explored. But he’s the guy I’d definitely want taking me on the tour.

Johns has a gift of seeing the iconic heroes, a way of peeling down through decades of stories about them, to strip them to their bare bones. Once he’s hit bedrock, he rebuilds them in exactly the way they were originally created and somehow brings them into our world and our now in ways we haven’t seen before. He can take a hero that’s been around for generations and introduce him or her to today’s readers in a way that makes those readers think the heroes were just created for them now.

I’ve followed his runs on the Flash and Hawkman, and now in the pages of Green Lantern. But the greatest achievement Johns has ever done, in my humble opinion, was bringing the Justice Society of America to pre-eminence to comic book fans everywhere.

I loved his run on the previous volume of the book. I have all the copies in monthly magazine format as well as graphic novels. He’s lately reintroduced the JSA once again in Justice Society of America: The Next Age.

In this latest series, spinning out of the events of the year-long event known as 52, Johns once more brings his considerable talents to the re-envisioning of the JSA. The first graphic novel of the new series contains the first four issues of the new monthly title. We get to see old favorites (the Alan Scott Green Lantern, Jay Garrick Flash, and Wildcat – who has been one of my personal heroes for a long time) as well as get introduced to new heroes/heroines.

Johns revisits the JSA’s history to give us Cyclone, the super-powered granddaughter of Ma Hunkle, the original Red Tornado, a new Wildcat (with surprising twists), and even a new Steel (though we don’t get to see the culmination of that origin story in this graphic novel). All of these heroes fit perfectly with the old favorites Johns has lined up.

I’ve loved the JSA from the first time I saw them crossover from Earth-2 back in the pages of the 1960s Justice League comic book. Not all of those heroes were revamped and reintroduced to the world in what has become known as the Silver Age of comics. Mr. Terrific, Hourman, and Dr. Mid-Nite – as well as others – never found their way to Earth-1 except to visit.

In the early pages of this graphic novel, Batman tells Flash, Green Lantern, and Wildcat that the JLA wants to help the JSA rebuild. As Batman points out, the JLA has always been something of a strike force or weapon, while the JSA has always been about family.

It’s wonderful touches like that simple declaration that keep bringing me back to the JSA and to all of Johns’s work. I’ve never read a comic of his that I didn’t like. Story and character always work well in his scripts, and no one plays more fairly with the history of even the most long-lived heroes.

The plot in this graphic novels focuses on the rebuilding of the JSA with new blood while at the same time learning of the attacks against the families of heroes. The action is fast, violent, and bloody, with a number of deaths within the architecture of the story. Johns doesn’t take any shortcuts, and he makes the violence – so he says – as real as he can because readers want to feel like they’re living in hero worlds.

Johns’s words and Dale Eaglesham’s incredible artwork kept me turning pages, and wanting more when I’d finished. The story switches back and forth among several of the characters, and Johns conveys those different narrators skillfully. But he’s definitely aided and abetted by Eaglesham. The panels are beautiful to look at, and they push the story forward with exquisite pacing. With a book dedicated to introducing new characters to readers, there are a lot of dialogue sequences that could have dragged in the hands of a less skilled artist. Johns trusted Eaglesham enough to make it all work, and he does.

I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot, and I can’t wait for more. I hope that Johns and Eaglesham have a long stay on the title. I can’t wait to see what they do next, because they’ve opened up a ton of possibilities.

Meg Cabot is a high profile author whose books have gone on to become movies and television shows. Her series include The Mediator, 1-800-Where-R-You (which became the television show, MISSING), The Princess Diaries (which became movies of the same name), and others as well as many stand-alone books of romance and humor.

Avalon High was originally a stand-alone title but was picked by TokyoPop to become a 3-volume graphic novel series. The book is also in development with Disney to become a live-action film.

The story is very familiar, culled from the Arthurian mythos and brought into the high school arena. Arthur is now known as Will, and he quickly becomes the boyfriend of Elle, who is basically the character of the Lady of Shalott. All of the other Arthurian legends are represented as well: Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Modred, and Morgan Le Fey.

Jinky Coronado’s black and white drawings are a pleasure to view and up the frenzied pace of the book. Coronado blends the pure manga stylings with current, popular comic book art that creates an interesting hybrid on the pages. The sequential action draws the eye naturally. Several of the panels kept drawing my attention back to them because they were so well done.

Cabot’s story is pretty straightforward and simple. King Arthur has been reborn once more, but that means his enemies have also been reborn. The main problem: according to Mr. Morton (Elle’s history teacher and very probably Merlin the wizard), Will Wagner must recognize and accept himself as the rebirth of Arthur. That’s not going to be an easy feat because Will is certain he knows who he is. And he has to do it within a few weeks or the world will be destroyed.

The impending destruction of the world is such an easy thing to lay on teenagers! But Elle is quickly off and running as she tries to deal with being the new girl in school, being Will’s girlfriend, and dealing with the enemies they have separately as well as together. Morgan in particular doesn’t care for Elle.

Unfortunately, the first third of the graphic novel is more or less a summary of things that have gone on before. This choice really impedes the story for a while, and it takes up so many pages that by the time the tale gets underway, it’s practically over. Still, the cliffhanger ending should bring readers back around for a do-over.

I’m looking forward to reading the other two volumes in the series, as well as handing it off to friends of mine who are heavily into graphic novels. But now I have to go back and read the book as well, because I somehow missed that one. And I’m going to be interested in the upcoming movie as well.

If you want light, easy entertainment with some extended value (or at least something you can share with other and talk about quickly), Cabot’s new manga series is a good choice. It’s not as far out there as some of the Japanese manga, and it’s a great size to throw in a backpack or back pocket for on-the-road reading.

Ms. Tree started out as a comic book series back in 1981. Conceived by writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty, she began the longest ever career for a lady private investigator in the comics field. She also set some milestones in the publishing world. Much has been said of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. I’ve read both those series, as well as Linda Barnes’s excellent Carlotta Carlyle books, and can honestly say that none of them have ever been as cold-bloodedly ruthless as Ms. Tree.

Of course the name is a tongue-in-cheek joke, but the lady’s work isn’t. Ms. Tree was written by Collins as a tribute to his friend and mentor Mickey Spillane, who penned the tales of Mike Hammer, who was about as hard nails as tough has ever been.I read all the comics that came out about the character, beginning with the release by Eclipse Comics and finishing up with the run at DC Comics. Those haven’t been re-released, but hopefully they won’t be long in coming now that interest has once more been stirred.Deadly Beloved is a new novel about Ms. Tree. In fact, it is the first – and thus far – only novel about the character. But longtime readers who remember the stories are going to get a feeling a déjà vu. Collins and Beatty recently got an option for Ms. Tree as a television movie, with the intention of potentially adding more movies to the initial one.

The book has been published by Hard Case Crime, a line of novels produced by Charles Ardai that is about 50% new material and 50% books that have been out of print as much as fifty years. All of the books are crime novels, and all of the covers offer noir stylings that make my heart beat faster. I can remember reading some of those books back when I was a kid and got them at the secondhand stores.

Dearly Beloved is a blindingly fast read. Clocking in at a little under 200 pages, Collins spins his story quickly, dipping in and out of two plotlines that he dovetails neatly back into one cohesive whole. The action is intense, the dialogue gripping and constant, and the feeling of the city around Ms. Tree and her colleagues feels true.

For me, this was a pleasant walk down memory lane with a few interesting twists and turns thrown in for good measure. I generally like all of Collins’s novels, and have re-read several of them over the years. I loved his Mallory series as well as his Nate Heller books.

If you haven’t met Ms. Tree before, this is the perfect place to do so. The book is lean and mean, and the character steps right off the first page and into your face. And if you have read about her before in one of the comics or graphic novels, it’s probably been too long. Pick this one up, put your feet up, and prepare to spend a couple hours in total tough gal noir bliss.

Max Allan Collins’s A Killing in Comics is both well-researched and a labor of love that’s masquerading as a mystery novel. Set in 1948, back in the days when the military was returning from World War II and the usual fiction heroes in comics and the pulps were transitioning to harder-edged fare, the novel is a fun, sort of hardboiled romp.To an accomplished comics fan, and I admit to my geek factor and claim that title, Collins’s portrayal of the industry tensions going on at the time was dead on. Wonder Man is really Superman, and the problems Siegel and Schuster had over trying to claim the rights to their greatest creation is true, and sad. But, as Collins points out, that was the way business operated in those days.

Batwing is, of course, Batman. And that tale offers up yet another depressing tale of a partnership where one partner took advantage of another. Amazonia is Wonder Woman.

I have to admit to distraction during the novel, so I wasn’t completely focused on keeping up with the clues. Most of the time I was relating my comics knowledge to the story and how Collins wove in the many details. Richard Lupoff and Don Thompson’s All In Color For A Dime is an excellent resource to go along with this novel. Reading it before or after Collins’s book is recommended for deeper enjoyment of everything that was going on at this time.

In the opening chapter of the novel, Donny Harrison, the publisher of Americana Comics, ends up dead at his own fiftieth birthday party while dressed in a colorful Wonder Man outfit. There are suspects aplenty. The two guys who invented Wonder Man are on hand and pretty upset about getting their own invention yanked away from them. Batwing’s creator has a way of beating his contract and getting his contract annulled so he can get control of his character back.

But the birthday party is being held at Harrison’s mistress’s apartment with Harrison’s wife in attendance. There are two more instant suspects.

The hero of the mystery is Jack Starr, a licensed private eye who works for Starr Syndicate, the company his father created. The syndicate is currently headed up by Maggie Starr, Jack’s stepmother who was an ex-stripper and is also the smartest woman Jack knows.

I liked the breezy way Collins unveiled the story in Jack’s first-person narrative. I was immediately reminded of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries with the way Jack worked for Maggie and she refused to leave syndicate headquarter.

Collins makes all the familiar moves of the hardboiled novel, including getting on the wrong side of the cops and the gangsters. While this is welcome in some respects, some it just seemed too familiar. Not hackneyed, but definitely in the old neighborhood of this kind of mystery.

I read the book in a couple of sittings and had a good time. The mystery was well planned, the research well executed, and the dialogue – most of the time – crackled. The time period was a welcome treat to the read.

I don’t know how Collins could do any more books about Jack and Maggie Star, but I’d definitely read them if any more are forthcoming. I liked the characters, and getting to see Jack and Maggie back in action would be great.

When I was a child back in the early 1960s, I wanted to grow up to be a hero. I tied a towel around my neck and was sometimes Superman or Batman. I ululated in the back yard like Tarzan and shamed the cats in the neighborhood. I ran as fast as Jonny Quest in my PF Flyers.

But the hero I loved most of all at that time was the Lone Ranger. His adventures came on every afternoon, and I’d get home from school in time to watch him shoot the guns out of the bad men’s hands, give lectures on the evils of, well…evil, and leave that cool silver bullet behind so people could ask, “Who was that masked man?”

The Lone Ranger was the brainchild of George W. Trendle, a radio producer, but he was given life by Fran Striker in radio script and novel form, and brought to iconic life on television by Clayton Moore.

But in the beginning, he was a young Texas Ranger named John Reid who was with his father and brother the day they were gunned down by Butch Cavendish’s men. Reid clawed his way out of the grave, donned his signature mask, and started cleaning up the West.

The last couple of years, Dynamite Entertainment Comics brought the Lone Ranger back to comics, which had to have been one of the coolest and riskiest things ever done. I mean, in an age of FaceBook and MySpace, who’d buy a cowboy hero?

More people should, because the graphic story rendered by Brent Matthews (a Hollywood scriptwriter) and Sergio Cariello (an award-winning graphic artist) is one of the best stories that came out in novel form this summer. The story is familiar to everyone, but Matthews’s way of telling it in cinematic presentation, and Cariello’s beautiful drawings, give the tale a life that hasn’t been seen before.

There’s enough new twists and turns, between the principal characters as well as the legend itself, that even old-time fans like me will find something to celebrate and enjoy.

I loved the pacing of the book. The story came to life and moved toward an emotional peak that will leave you breathless at the end. I enjoyed the way the friendship that developed between the Lone Ranger and Tonto was the same, yet different, from everything I’d known. That relationship was re-imagined in a way that works perfectly.

Matthews stays off the page as an author. Some comics authors give in to the temptation to clutter the pages up with narrative boxes and dialogue. Matthews is only there when he needs to be. He stays out of the way and lets Cariello work his magic.

The art is astounding. Vivid and raw, I could taste the dust and feel the heat of the day as I zipped through the panels. At first glance, Cariello’s art looks a lot like Joe Kubert’s pencils. Kubert was another favorite of mine for his tenure on Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank as well as several other war strips.

The graphic novel has drawn some flak from Lone Ranger purists, but I believe it’s one of the best stories that’s ever been done that brings in all the elements of the character. I loved the story enough that, after finishing it the first time, I opened the cover again and read it once more.

If you like the Lone Ranger, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Unless you’re one of those purists. If you want a good read or a fine example of everything the graphic novel can be, you’ll want this book. So saddle up, pardner, because it’s time to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Before I read The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker I’d heard of Eric Powell’s creation. I’d even picked up an issue and dismissed it (probably more for the reason that it was a mid-book in an arc and I was reading way too many comics at the time).

As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one to make that mistake. From its inception in 1999, The Goon has – from time to time – been dismissed by readers and retailers. Well people, it’s time to put a halt to that.

Eric Powell writes and draws the bi-monthly comic book, but he infuses it with passion and a keen eye for characters that aren’t cut from traditional hero material. Powell’s writing is spare and lean, appearing over his bold, brash art only when necessary. It’s hard to say if Powell is a better writer or a better artist. I’d say that he’s a lot like Frank Miller when Miller was writing and drawing Sin City. Powell’s as easily at home in his Depression-era metropolis as Miller ever was on the grimy streets of Sin City.

After runs at Avatar Press and Albatross Exploding Funny Books (Powell’s independent comics publishing venture), The Goon found a home at Dark Horse Comics. Six graphic novels plus one hardcover have been published previously.

The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is an original graphic novel that hasn’t been gathered up from the bi-monthly issues. Dark Horse Comics backed Powell’s desire to tell one of the most important stories in the Goon’s history and release it as a hardcover.

The book is a sheer delight from cover to cover. I was immersed in the characters from the beginning. Powell tells two stories in the graphic novel: one from the Goon’s past and the other in the present. Using sepia tones to separate the pages recounting the past was simply brilliant. The change is subtle and doesn’t jar the reader. I was pulled through the stories effortlessly, turning pages as the two stories kept dovetailing back into each other.

In the pages Powell pulls from the Goon’s past, we see him as a wide-eyed child. His mother was the circus strongwoman, but she had definite ideas about her son growing up to be a good man. Longtime readers know that the Goon’s mother was killed by Labrazio, a gangster that everyone in town seemed to owe.

Labrazio kept all the information about those debts in a book. After his mother was killed and Labrazio talked about how stupid she was, the Goon lost control and killed the gangster. The Goon decided not to tell anyone. Instead, he passed himself off as Labrazio’s chief enforcer and basically took over the whole crime syndicate.

With a background like this, the Goon doesn’t come across as heroic. He’s definitely an anti-hero. But he has heroic tendency. Powell’s world is peopled by off-beat supernatural creatures as well. You’ll find zombies, skunk-apes, cannibalistic hoboes, robots, vampires, and werewolves in the pages of this comic book, and you’ll probably be just as fascinated by the mythology and stories as I became.

In the graphic novel, the Goon experiences romantic complications that suck him back to that earlier time in his life when he went through similar circumstances. Of course, the earlier life had him matched up with Chinese gangsters trying to muscle in on “Labrazio’s” territory. Their leader turns out to be a shape-shifting, fire-breathing dragon.

The present story involves the Goon’s love for a nightclub singer who spurns what he has to offer. There’s also a new threat on the streets: a mysterious being that seems to be made of wicker. He calls himself Mr. Wicker, and he’s out to unite the underworld against the Goon and take over. Mr. Wicker has a secret that rips the Goon’s world apart again.

As I read the book, I couldn’t help being reminded of Popeye the Sailor. I mean the Popeye Elzie Crisler Segar created that strode defiantly through the panels of Thimble Theater, not the spinach-swilling near-superhero he became in the cartoons. Popeye didn’t even show up in the original strip until it had been going strong for ten years. But the Goon has the same earthiness and vulnerability of those long-ago strips, and there are the supernatural elements.

The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is an amazing read that I finished in a single sitting, then found myself immediately wandering back through the pages to study the art and the interpersonal relationships that Powell builds and renders so gracefully. Everything in the book is tight. It constantly pushes toward the two resolutions that hammer the Goon mercilessly.

The Goon is an ugly brute of a man. He’s got scars all over the left side of his face and his left eye is dead. In this graphic novel, you get to find out where all those scars came from. More than that, though, you get a peek at all the scars on his heart and understand more about why he’s so hardcore about running “Labrazio’s” business.

As a side note, you also get to see a lot of his relationship with Franky, the guy who watches the Goon’s back. This friendship between these two men is done so well and so muscular that you can’t help but root them on. These are men that Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck would have known and understood completely.

Powell’s art is simple at first glance, but not to look more deeply is an injustice to his craft. He draws it to look simple, to be easily absorbed, but if you take time to realize that he had to plan each panel and to work hard to keep it that simply, I think you’ll be blown away as well. The sepia tones of the story set in the past contrast to the present-day story, but the color even in the present-day story is subdued and never overpowers the action.

If you’ve never read The Goon, this graphic novel is a fine place to jump on. And if you’ve been a longtime reader, this is the story that you’ve been waiting years to read. Now I’ve got to go back and read the previous volumes.