Review Category: Books

WAR AND PEAS – FUNNY COMICS FOR DIRTY LOVERS / AUTHOR: JONATHAN KUNZ, ELIZABETH PICH / PUBLISHER: ANDREW MCMEEL PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: 3RD MARCH

Being able to produce regular four-panel gag strips that are also reliably funny is an uncommon thing. The internet is filled with many different sorts of web-comics, but only the brave tackle the challenge of producing short, well-made strips. It’s much harder than it looks.

War and Peas – Funny Comics for Dirty Lovers is a collection of cartoons from the website of the same name. Jonathan Kunz and Elizabeth Pich’s art is pretty and also minimalist; we have cute but not highly detailed depictions of the various characters, in a style that would be familiar to fans of work such as The Perry Bible Fellowship. The sweet, quirky design is innocent and simple. The humour, however, isn’t.

This is a collected comic book stacked high with filthy humour and lots of subversion. One of our recurring characters is Death, who apparently has a dog and is getting a little bored with his job. The breakout character is ‘slutty witch,’ a long-legged redhead with a pointy hat who apparently dresses in a revealing Halloween costume. Most of her gags involve sex and the supernatural in some way, with some human sacrifice thrown in for added spice.

We also have a horny robot who doesn’t really understand love, a dumb dog who understands people a little too well and a pair of permanently lost hikers who don’t seem to understand anything. This is quite clearly a collection of strips from a web-comic; one page is dedicated to the memory of Laika, one of the Russian space dogs. This is a lovely tribute and makes sense on a website, but here it just seems like a bit of a non-sequitur as it appears in the middle of the book.

War and Peas – Funny Comics for Dirty Lovers isn’t essential in any way, and it’s most likely going to be the sort of book that sits in one place and is read at random. However, it’s a lot of fun and, if you have a friend who has a dark sense of humour (and a big sense of humour), it would make an ideal gift. This is perfect casual reading for anyone who might find themselves in need of short and funny distractions. Ideal for putting by the phone or leaving on a bathroom shelf.

Silly, sexy and just dark enough. Rather fun.

SNOOPY: FIRST BEAGLE IN SPACE / AUTHOR: CHARLES M. SCHULZ / PUBLISHER: ANDREW MCMEEL PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: 16TH APRIL

It’s a rather nice surprise to discover that Snoopy (and his friends) are connected to all things sci-fi in a way that most of us don’t expect. Charles Schulz was a huge supporter of America’s effort to explore space, all the way back in the 60s. So much so, in fact, that Snoopy is the official safety mascot of NASA.

Snoopy: First Beagle in Space is a charming collection of Snoopy strips from a classic era of Snoopy’s fame. It’s full of all the characters you expect to see in a Snoopy comic and has the same level of gentle humour that’s just funny enough to make you smile and is unlikely to offend anyone. It’s aimed squarely at kids and has Snoopy wandering round the woods leading Woodstock and chums on a scouting mission. Because he’s a beagle scout, apparently.

Despite the name, the majority of the content is nothing to do with beagles in space. Anyone expecting a comic book version of the TV show Snoopy in Space will be sorely disappointed. We get some space-related strips at the beginning and the end of the book, mostly related to Snoopy either fantasising about being an astronaut or worried that the moon will fall on his head. We also get some reprints of classic 1950’s era ‘space’ strips; mostly Charlie Brown playing at being an astronaut. The book also has some content about space exploration suitable for kids, but it’s more an afterthought than anything else.

What we do get is Charlie Brown playing baseball, Lucy being a loud-mouthed braggart, Woodstock being cute and so on. There’s a hint of the Red Baron, but mostly these are cute, short gag strips about being a carefree child in a world where the scariest thing is running out of dog food. The artwork is exactly what you’d expect; deceptively simple and incredibly easy on the eye.

Snoopy: First Beagle in Space doesn’t live up to the promise of its title in the slightest, and yet that doesn’t really matter. It’s Peanuts; it’s cute and silly comfort food for the soul. If you’re not familiar with the material by now you’ll most likely be bored to tears by it, but if you’re a beagle fan, then prepare to enjoy the warm and fuzzy nostalgia this sort of thing evokes.

If you want space adventures with everyone’s favourite big-nosed dog, check out Boom Studios’ Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars, which is more modern and actually puts a dog in space. Otherwise, settle in with a mug of hot chocolate and enjoy.

FOLLOWERS / AUTHOR: MEGAN ANGELO / PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS / RELEASE DATE: 9TH JANUARY

 

Satirising the likes of celebrity and social media is a topic with targets too numerous to quantify, and is such a ludicrous concept to begin with the task is often rendered redundant by its own subject matter. Dealing with such a problem is what makes Followers such a captivating read.

The first of the book’s two plotlines takes place in 2015, where disillusioned blogger and sporadic novelist Orla uses her meagre influence to transform her flatmate Floss from just another hot girl posting selfies and vacuous nonsense on Instagram to a revered celebrity, despite the latter’s demonstrable lack of any kind of discernable talent. Running in parallel in 2050 is the life of Marlow, Floss’ 35-year-old daughter who lives in a town created as a reality TV show, where the populace’s fame and success is dependant on the quantity of people obsessing over their every waking moment, and after a major life decision is dictated for her a subsequent discovery motivates her to investigate hidden secrets of her family history.

Along the way, the book meditates on the transitory and arbitrary nature of fame, where the stupidest of things can make people celebrated for the most pointless of reasons. Chiefly highlighting this are early chapters where Orla crafts Floss’ notoriety with an ease that makes you wonder how many talentless and interchangeable people’s names you only know due to the application of similar methods.

The point is not to ridicule the obsessive desire for celebrity or the kind of people who seek to attain it, but rather the bizarre nature of the very concept of fame itself. Since people can attain notoriety through the most ludicrous of means, maintaining its ephemera relies solely on the whim of those who have become, to varying degrees, obsessed with you, hence the book’s title.

Marlow’s unveiling of revelations coincides with their being related in the past, so that even though the two stories are separate, they still complement each other as part of a larger whole. The dual journeys are highly personal ones, seeing Orla gradually transform into everything she used to despise as she is sucked into the world of the infamous, while Marlow realises that, despite her disdain for the life her mother chose for her, she is nevertheless part of the problem it causes by performing as somebody whose artificially constructed life is advertised as perfect, while also spending the best part of two decades as the face of a mood stabiliser.

The women are flawed, but it’s precisely this which makes them so compelling. Each is a product of her environment and, as they gradually shift towards enlightenment of what it will take for them to be happy, the book tacitly asks if in their place you would really have done anything differently.

RICK & MORTY: SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT / AUTHOR: GALLERY 1988 / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Rick and Morty is an animated TV show that has generated a tidal wave of spin-off merchandise. Filled with catchphrases and dark humour, it is currently the big weird cartoon thing with a rabid fanbase. The show itself is surreal, witty and filled with amazing ideas, but the associated tie-ins have always been a little bit hit and miss.

One of the more interesting associated events was an exhibition of Rick and Morty-themed art in Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, back in early 2017. The exhibition sold out and pretty much all the prints did as well. And given that even Uncle Rick doesn’t do time travel, it seems that you would be out of luck if you wanted to see some of this unique art inspired by the show.

Rick and Morty: Show Me What You Got collects together the exhibits in one place so you can peruse the exhibits without having to hitch a ride on a TARDIS. This is an oversized book that won’t fit on your shelf but is intended instead to lie around the house so you can browse the pictures of the exhibits. Each artist gets at least two pages dedicated to their work, and there are 64 artists involved in the project.

Some pieces stand out more than others. Chet Phillips’ take on the Cronenberg versions of Rick and Morty are visually arresting, as you’d expect. It would have been nice to see more prelim sketches, but the artist somehow manages to make body horror adorable. Shane Lewis approaches the idea in a similar way, but by drawing Rick as a classic Dungeons and Dragons monster (a Beholder, no less). Show creator Dan Harmon, of course, is a huge D&D fan. Lawrence Yang’s piece, Show Me What You Got, is a watercolour where Mr Meeseeks and friends try to save a world from the Lovecraftian Cromulon. Lovely work, though it’s not big enough on the page and would have been nice to see a poster-sized version of the same piece.

Some don’t quite work on the page and it’s obvious this was once a gallery exhibit. DCAY’s design takes a cheap and battered hipflask and makes it Rick and Morty. It looks quite tame, and we imagine some of the impact is lost on paper. Kelly Vianco’s piece called The Real MPB is a marionette of the character Mister Poopy Butthole. A bit of an interview with the artist and some photos fall short of delivering the experience of the piece to the reader, though it’s obviously a clever statement on the character. Meanwhile, Jared Circusbear’s 3D take on merchandising really works, simply because the parody is obvious from the start.

This is a great pick for Rick and Morty fans who love art. A great source of ideas for creators and eye candy for the rest of us. One to add to the collection.

ACCIDENTAL ANTICHRIST: A SURVIVOR’S GRIMOIRE / AUTHOR: NATHANIEL J. HARRIS / PUBLISHER: PETROLBOMB PRODUCTIONS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Having written numerous books about ‘magick’ and the occult on his way to becoming one of the UK’s leading authorities on the dark arts, Nathaniel Harris tells his own extraordinary life story in this highly entertaining first volume of his autobiography. A true outsider and outrider to this age of conformity, his memories of growing up in rural Essex amid a culture of witchery and alternative parenting inevitably takes in all manner of oddness including paranormal happenings, murderous aunts, kiddie fiddlers, bullying, and mad hippies. And death, of course – lots of it.

Science fiction and fantasy loom large: Tom Baker-era Doctor Who fuels Harris’ fertile imagination; a chance encounter with the teenage daughters of 2000 AD writer Pat Mills leads to him being mythologised in the pages of the legendary comic and, while dealing with frequent beatings from his violent stepfather at home, he sees potential escape in the discovery that his real father is a TV and movie visual effects guru who wants to re-connect with his long-lost son.

The other key culture strand here is music: the broiling cauldron of punk, skinhead and goth that delineated the youth clans of the mid-‘80s is evocatively re-fired and so becomes the book’s virtual soundtrack. Every accidental/on purpose punch in the face Harris gets at an elemental gig by notorious Scottish punks The Exploited in 1984 is received like a bruise of honour. If you ever experienced the dark energy of bands like Coil, Psychic TV, and Current 93 back then with friends surrounded, this will bring back a lot of ghosts.

Throughout proceedings, our diminutive (anti) hero gets himself into all manner of bizarre scrapes and there’s real relish in the telling. At its weirdest points, the story sends us down the kind of the Gothic English rabbit holes Clive Barker used to dig, minus the pinheaded Cenobites, of course, although you sense they – or creatures very like them – are standing just beyond the thin walls of the caravan Harris is forced to live in at the bottom of the garden when his parents expel him from the house, Harry Potter-style.

For a story that couldn’t be more removed from the safe fixations of Mr WHSmith himself, Nick Hornby, there’s something undeniably Hornby-esque about Harris’s urbanely direct style and his deployment of comedy to best communicate the emotional roller-coaster of growing up.  Because for all the fire, ire and portents of stranger things to come, this is really about a boy.

AUTHOR: PABLO HIDALGO | PUBLISHER: DK BOOKS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

With toy releases thinner on the ground than the glory years of the first two trilogies, fans can no longer depend on the 3.75″ action figure range to get closer looks at the endlessly intriguing background characters that populate every frame of this most beloved of sagas. (Imagine Hasbro bothering with a Pruneface figure in 2020! Not going to happen.) Luckily, we have The Visual Dictionary series, a regularly updated, lavishly produced reference tome written by Lucasfilm’s very own Jacosta Nu, Pablo Hidalgo. (Though Hidalgo does have a sense of humour about the galaxy far, far away that the Jedi Master sorely lacked.)

Want to find out the names and peccadillos of each of those cool looking Knights of Ren fellas? Look no further for the full lowdown on Ap’lek, Ushar, Cardo, Kuruk, and Trudgen. Of course, it’s not just the galaxy’s colourful characters Hidalgo does deep dives on, with the informative text also exploring planets, environments, and vehicles, all the while providing answers to queries Rise of Skywalker audiences may have had while watching it. And as we all know, those questions are, sadly, legion.

It’s not to the book’s detriment that it’s essentially ‘damage control’ for the film’s clumsy, rushed narrative, of course, and therefore it retains full marks alongside its predecessors. But it can sometimes be a baffling read in that it highlights ‘just’ how many essential details were skipped over by J.J. and co-writer Chris Terrio. This type of release should augment the movie, not act as a Wayfinder to navigate its plot! Speaking of which, turn to page 52 to get the inside scoop on this mightiest of MacGuffins. Did you know that these ancient sci-fi Sat Navs were created through the study of Purrgil, the flying hyperspace-whales seen in Star Wars Rebels? Course you didn’t. And that’s why these books are so entertaining. Thank the maker for Pablo!

 

AUTHORS: AARON HARVEY, RICH SCHEIPS | FORMAT: HARDCOVER | PUBLISHER: TITAN UK | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the vast range of Star Trek canon, the Animated Series is often neglected. Ignored for years, the ‘70s-era Filmation cartoon has only recently gotten a proper Blu-ray release, and its stories and characters have been mostly side-lined, seen as an artefact of the show’s original cancellation. Only very recently has it enjoyed a nod or two from the contemporary live-action versions of the franchise, though its influence on Trek lore should not be discounted. Not only does the Animated Series sit in a unique part of this lore, but it’s also rather fun!

Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series is a rich and well-illustrated look at this short-lived chapter in Trek history. Though essentially an episode guide, the authors have gone in as much depth as they can into the history and creation of the show. We get a very detailed look at the show’s origins, from its beginnings as an attempt to bring back the series, to an earnest and solid attempt to introduce sci-fi to a younger audience.

The book is clearly a labour of love and is chock full of interviews, insights, and artwork from the series. Many of these sorts of ‘guide’ books tend to be by the numbers, but not so here. This is both highly researched and intricate in its approach. Don’t be fooled by the bright and fun page layout, there is a heck of a lot of information crammed into these pages. They were only 22 episodes of the show completed, but the amount of work that goes into animation has meant that the authors have plenty to go on. Everything from new characters, lore, and various bloopers and production notes are given huge amounts of attention. This is always presented in a light and enthusiastic way, so it never feels like too much.

Voiced by most of the original cast and written by some of the scriptwriters of the original series, the show won an Emmy in 1975, and for many fans, this show was the lifeboat of fandom they needed after the series was cancelled. This book finally gives the loving detail that other parts of Trek-dom have enjoyed for years. It’s easily the final part of the puzzle for any Trekkie who is also a completist.

AUTHOR: DAN DINELLO | PUBLISHER: AUTEUR | RELEASE: OUT NOW

A critical triumph and a box-office disappointment, Children of Men is the 2006 big-screen adaptation of P D James’ acclaimed 1992 dystopian novel. James’ work imagines a near-future world locked in the downward spiral of a fertility crisis. With conception and pregnancy no longer possible, the human race is destined to slowly die out within a couple of generations. Around the world, the impact of this existential calamity has seen societies slide into dysfunction and disaster.

Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men was greeted by rave reviews on its release, as critics heralded its gripping storyline, inventive design, ground-breaking production techniques and its impressive cinema veritéstyle. Cuarón and his cinematographers delivered breathtaking, intricate single-shots on a huge scale, with the story brought to the screen through an edgy documentary style of filmmaking. The film was rightly nominated for both Academy and BAFTA awards.

One of the things which distinguished Children of Men from other near-apocalyptic sci-fi movies of the decade was the film’s rich cultural and political texture. Cuarón’s script amplified the themes present in James’ novel, to bring into focus a whole range of contemporary social concerns: immigration and the plight of refugees; the corrosion of democracy; the threat to civil liberties; ecological collapse; and the impact of the ‘war on terror’.

It’s the film’s engagement with such ‘real world’ concerns that are the focus of this latest release in the Constellations series. The result is a persuasive and powerfully argued text that begins by setting Children of Men in the context of an ‘era of apocalyptic anxiety’ in popular culture. Dinello goes on to explore the film’s cinematic antecedents, and to examine the range of innovative techniques and technologies that Cuarón employed so effectively.

Due attention is paid to the film’s masterly and immersive design, to the movie’s documentary ambience, and to those signature unbroken, and continually mobile, sequences. There’s a thoughtful examination of the motivations and morality of the rebels, and attempts throughout to draw parallels between the film’s themes and events in modern history, referencing ideas drawn from theology, philosophy and politics. The film’s deliberately ambiguous ending is also carefully appraised.

The Constellations imprint produces work that aims to reach both an academic and a wider genre audience. That can be a challenging ambition, and it’s evident from Dinello’s prose how much he takes that commitment to heart. This is an impressive, intelligent and perceptive analysis of a film increasingly recognised in retrospect as a classic of modern dystopian cinema. Reading this treatise, it’s impossible not to be continually reminded how often the story’s disturbing conjectures feel like something you might hear about in tomorrow’s news headlines.