The Amazing Screw On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

The Amazing Screw On Head was originally a one shot comic book printed by Darkhorse in 2002. It won the humor category of the Eisner Awards for Best Humor Publication in 2003. In this volume which includes several other stories with similar themes, Mike Mignola describes how he created the story based on the idea of a childrens toy robot with different bodies and a scew-on head. There are several new stories added to this volume.

You could say that many of these stories satirize steampunk which is often very satirical. The stories have a dreamlike quality to them. The villains have a ridiculous theme to them; Emperor Zombie, Dr. Sharp, Gung The Magnificent, the bug eyed martians, and the monster at the top of the beanstalk.

The drawings use lots of dark shadows, browns, blacks, and reds. They look somewhat like the Hellboy comics which Mike Mignola draws, but with a much less malevolent feeling to them. The stories have a fable or fairytale quality to them. The heros are more odd and curious than heroic.

The stories made me smile. They were magical, filled with irrational objects, and worth laughing at. This book was on the Diamond Comics Distributors Bestseller List for October 2010.

Grandville A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yar Scientific Romance Thriller by Bryan Talbot

le loup Et le Chien drawn by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (September 13, 1803 – March 17, 1847), otherwise known as J.J. Grandville. This picture is very similar in style to the graphic novel.




Grandville A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yar Scientific Romance Thriller by Bryan Talbot


The drawings in this graphic novel are amazing to look at. They are in a style that combines art deco with steampunk. The details are interesting and the color is vibrant. You can see things like theater posters, art lamps, and victorian art in the background. This makes the vividly drawn animals stand out even more. The variety of talking animals is rather amazing; talking fish, baboons, pit bulls, rats, cats, rabbits, frogs, moles, and other creatures. It is not at all like anime furries. The style is much closer to Beatrix Potter or illustrated children's fairytales. The image above is fairly close to the graphic novels style.


There is a lot of action and the main character is very much a fighter. The content also has some fairly strong language, sex, and mature themes in it. The French in the story do not like the British. There is a rather funny touch in the story where humans are called doughfaces and generallly act as servants or drivers for horse drawn carriages.


The story is clearly well thought out. Detective Inspector Le Brock must investigate the death of a diplomat, Raymond Leigh-Otter who is of course a talking otter. He is accompanied by his trusted companion, Ratsi. What follows is a trip to Paris in the Grandville district. The action never stops, there are chases, break ins, visits to drug dens, and a conspiracy to uncover.


The devices in the story are pure steampunk. There are automated robots, sword canes, old fashioned carbines, and of course trains. The animals are mostly drawn in period costumes from the Victorian era. I especially like how the turtle diplomat is drawn.


The setting is a Europe where Napoleon has conquered the continent and is firmly ensconced in power. England has gained its independence by guerrilla warfare. There are many references to the British being thought of as anarchists or terrorists. They even make reference to a "ground zero" where the British are thought to have blown up the French Robida tower. Not surprisingly there is a lot of political commentary and intrigue in this graphic novel. There is even a scence where people are protesting the communards in French Indochina.


This is a great story with wonderful art. Bryan Talbot is considered one of the first comic artists for steampunk. He is known for his story, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. I think Grandville is his best story to date. He has drawn many graphic novels. Another one I can recommend by him is The Tale of One Bad Rat.


If you like comic art you will love this. Even if you don't like comic art in general, this book is exceptional in its quality. I can highly recommend it.

The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics And Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt

The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics And Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt Featuring Tips & Insight From Comics Masters: Neal Adams, John Byrne, David Finch, Klaus Janson, Karl Kesel, John Romita, Jr. and Many More.

This is a book on how to put together superhero comics by an editor who worked at Marvel and is now a senior editor at IDT Books. It is very much a guy book. None of the guest artists are women. The guest artists are some of the most popular artists currently working in the superhero comics business. They are featured in single page biographical spreads. The book was printed in 2009 so the information is very current.

The craft of making modern comics is covered in detail in this book. The book itself is very interesting to look at. The pages are a bright yellow, and they have many colorful images from comics including splash pages from comics like Captain America, X-Factor, Gray Area, Defenders, The Pulse and many other mainstream titles.

The book is broken up into chapters on different technical subjects in making comics; lighting, panel layout, inking, coloring, lettering, and the use of space. It is not just about the technical aspects of drawing it also covers how to create comics scripts, show emotion, and create believable characters. In the script section they have a piece of the script from Captain America #1 which was quite entertaining.

An interesting aspect of the book is that it also covers where film and photography meet with comics. There are technical sections on camera angle, point of view, lighting, and many techniques that come from film. I found this rather fascinating.

The writing is clear and to the point. It follows Andy Schmidt's maxim of first communicate then entertain. I learned a lot of technical points about graphic novels which I had not known before. Maybe I will be able to use them in future graphic novel reviews.

Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall-- Bill Willingham-- Thoughts

Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall-- Bill Willingham-- Thoughts

Snow White comes as an emissary from Fabletown in New York to court of the Arabian Nights ruled by king Shahrayar. She is there to seek help against the adversary. During her audience with Shahrayar she takes the place of Sheherezade for a while having to tell tales to preserve her life.

The tales Snow White tells are fractured fairytales for adults. She is describing the fables fight against the adversary, a compilation of oz, pinocchio, and other modern mythical concoctions that is slowly taking the place of the traditional tales. She conjures up modern boojums like goblins, orcs, and other critters.

The traditional fairytales must outwit these modern tales to escape to freedom in Fabletown.

This is a graphic novel or large format comic book. There are a wide variety of artists presented. Bill Willingham, however, is the sole writer.

There are a number of tales presented. There are three stories which I liked more than all the rest. The first is the tale of how Snow White achieved her revenge on the seven dwarves with a little help from Prince Charming. The second is how Reynard the Fox tricks the goblins of the adversary into providing christmas pies for the talking animals before they escape to freedom. The third is how Mersey Dotes becomes a mermaid.

The stories are presented in a variety artistic of styles. I especially liked the art of Brian Bolland, Michael Kaluta, Charles Vess, and Tara McPherson. All of the stories are in full color illustration. There is a brief paragraph biographical snapshot at the end of the book of each artist.

Of course at the end of the book, Sheherezade comes to take her proper place from Snow White, and Snow White is gifted with many magical treasures to help defeat the adversaries including a magic carpet and several djinn's bottles.

This is a very interesting collection of short stories presented in graphic form. It is part of the Fables Series. The Fables Series is a graphic novel series under the DC Vertigo imprint. This is the same imprint as Sandman.

If you want some interesting non-superhero tales in the graphic novel format, this collection is for you.

Invincible The Ultimate Collection-- Robert Kirkman-- Praise

Today, I was looking at Invincible The Ultimate Collection created by Robert Kirkman. Mark Grayson is a teenager who has a father who is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni Man. He comes into his powers as a teenager. While defending a classmate, his principal tells him that he is not invincible. That is how he gets his name and his costume.

Mixed in with family life, his mother who treats his fathers powers like a day job, high school in the beginning, and college later in the series, Mark Grayson becomes the superhero Invincible. Mark fights various villains, Doc Seismic, Komodo, a group of bank robbers and others. He meets other young superheros including a brief fling with Atom Eve and even helps out a group of young superheros.

Where it really gets interesting is when Mark Grayson's father turns out not to be such a good hero and the plot changes. His father is secretly a villain set on conquering the earth. The only problem is that everyone else is trying to take over earth so Omni Man never has time to implement his plans for conquest. The father son fights are well done.

One of his enemies, Allen Alien turns out to be a freind, and everything is not as it originally seems.

There are a lot of very nice details in the comic collection. Mark Grayson's favorite comic book is Science Dog. Allen Alien when he fights Invincible the first time is there because he is part of the "Champion Evaluation Office" to check on Urath. Invincible tells him that is visiting Earth not Urath.

I really like the artwork, it is very colorful, has clean lines, and is quite dynamic. I like to think of it as superhero artwork updated for today. The book in addition to the comic book includes sketches, concept art, unused covers, and a gallery of the principal characters. The graphic novel is a lot of fun to read. It is well plotted and one of the best superhero comics I have ever read.

I can't really say anything negative about this book. It is just too well done. This book was purchased for the young adult collection. It is very much a coming of age story.