Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1 story by Doug Moench, art by various. Doctor Bruce Banner was one of the nation’s top physicists, and an expert in gamma radiation, when he was drafted into creating a new kind of nuclear weapon called a “gamma bomb.”  Just before the device was about to go… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Book Review: The Silence of the Loons

Book Review: The Silence of the Loons edited by The Minnesota Crime Wave The long-time reader may by now have realized that I have something of a weakness for anthologies.  Collections of short fiction are an excellent use of limited lunch reading time.  And I am also a faithful son of Minnesota.  So this book… Continue reading Book Review: The Silence of the Loons

Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind

Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind by Douglas Warner (also published as The Final Death of Robert Colston) When newspaper editor Michael Curtis witnesses a man being gunned down in front of the Evening Telegram office, he’s startled to realize that it’s Robert Colston, a man who’s already been declared dead twice.  Robert Colston, who has… Continue reading Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind

Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939

Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939 This is a facsimile reprint by Adventure House of a pulp magazine.  Pulp magazines tended to stick to one genre, so you knew what you were getting from the beginning; in this case action-mystery.  Great literature was rare, but they really got the blood pumping.  And a dozen stories… Continue reading Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler The title of this volume is slightly misleading; “locked room” stands in for the general idea of impossible crimes in mystery stories.  A man  is found stabbed in the back in a windowless room with the door locked from the inside.… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014

Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014 It’s the second anniversary of this blog, so it’s time for the annual look at the online edition of Shounen Jump Weekly, the best-selling manga anthology in Japan. The big news this year was the end of the long-running and popular Naruto series (see my previous post on the… Continue reading Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014

Book Review: Insurrections of the Mind

Book Review: Insurrections of the Mind edited by Franklin Foer Disclaimer:  I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.  The copy I read was an uncorrected proof, and changes will be made in the final edition.  (Specifically, a second introduction by Leon Wieseltier–an index may also be forthcoming.)… Continue reading Book Review: Insurrections of the Mind

Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan)

Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan) by Gosho Aoyama Shin’ichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo) is a teen genius detective, well known for solving cases that baffle the police.  One day while visiting an amusement park with his female friend Ran Mouri (Rachel Moore), he witnesses a murder by two men in black.   They catch him,… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan)

TV Review: The Man Behind the Badge

TV Review: The Man Behind the Badge It’s back to the big box set of old TV shows with this anthology series that ran 1953-55, with Charles Bickford as the host.  This one is interesting because it didn’t concentrate on one law enforcement agency or type of crime, instead featuring public servants of all kinds.… Continue reading TV Review: The Man Behind the Badge

TV Review: Public Defender

TV Review: Public Defender “If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.”  The office of the Public Defender is a special government department that  specializes in handling the cases of indigent defendants.  The first such office was opened in Los Angeles in about 1914. This series, which aired in 1954-55, was… Continue reading TV Review: Public Defender