Comic Book Review: Uptown Girl Imitation of Life

Comic Book Review: Uptown Girl Imitation of Life by Bob Lipski This is another collection of the Uptown Girl comic book stories, filled in with short newer pieces.  The main stories feature Rocketman’s never before mentioned career as a pinball champion (and the forgotten rival who wants revenge), and a zoo-related saga that combines an… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Uptown Girl Imitation of Life

Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibault Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1

Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibaut Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1 by Theodore Roscoe The Légion étrangère was created in 1831 as a way to remove disruptive elements from French society, primarily foreigners of all sorts, and put them to good use fighting far away.  Their first and primary posting was… Continue reading Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibault Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1

Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012

Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012 edited by Tyree Campbell If you want to stand out in the crowded field of speculative fiction, one of the ways is “genre-blending,” taking two different popular genres and splicing them together.  For example, horror and romance to create the vampire love stories so immensely popular in recent times.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012

Book Review: War Wings

Book Review: War Wings by Eustace L. Adams Jimmy Deal and his squadron are Navy flyers assigned to Souilly-sur-Mer, near the Belgian border and some heavy fighting in World War One.  Ensign Deal was a Reservist before the Great War, and many regular officers resent him.  Good thing he’s one of the best seaplane aces… Continue reading Book Review: War Wings

Magazine Review: Pirate Stories November 1934

Magazine Review: Pirate Stories November 1934  Some of the pulp magazines went for very specialized subjects, so it’s not a surprise to find one dedicated entirely to stories about pirates.  As this was the first issue, there’s an publisher’s note indicating that there will be stories about pirate of the past, present and future (it… Continue reading Magazine Review: Pirate Stories November 1934

Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1

Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1 art by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika & Takashi Nagasaki Taichi Hiraga Keaton is a mild-looking fellow with a bumbling exterior personality.  You’d never guess that he’s a brilliant archaeologist, ex-SAS soldier and freelance insurance investigator.  He often takes leave of his day job as a poorly paid… Continue reading Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1

Book Review: Republic of Thieves

Book Review: Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch Note:  This is the third book in the Locke Lamora series, and this review will contain spoilers for the first two.  If you haven’t already read them, you may want to check out my review of the first volume, The Lies of Locke Lamora. We return again to… Continue reading Book Review: Republic of Thieves

Book Review: Temporary Walls

Book Review: Temporary Walls edited by Greg Ketter and Robert T. Garcia This short book of fantasy stories was inspired by John Gardner’s On Moral Fiction, in which the author argued that writing fiction is an inherently moral endeavor and that writers, especially those in the fantasy genre, should instruct their readers about “the morality that tends… Continue reading Book Review: Temporary Walls

Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories

Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg This was my Halloween season read this year, an anthology commissioned for the Barnes & Noble stores in 1995.  There are indeed one hundred stories in this hefty tome, averaging about six pages.  They are not all about… Continue reading Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories

Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3

Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3 by Yoshiki Nakamura Kyouko Mogami and Shoutaro “Shou” Fuwa grew up together after Kyouko’s mother largely abandoned her.  The Fuwa family runs a chain of traditional Japanese inns, but Shou didn’t want to go into that business, partially because it is the proprietress that is the face of the inn,… Continue reading Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3