{"id":11630,"date":"2007-07-28T10:23:14","date_gmt":"2007-07-28T17:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07-and-on-a-lighter-note.html"},"modified":"2007-07-28T10:23:14","modified_gmt":"2007-07-28T17:23:14","slug":"bt07_and_on_a_lighter_not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07_and_on_a_lighter_not.html","title":{"rendered":"BT07 – And on a lighter note"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink: Id, Ego, Superego!<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Vol. 1 <\/i>(Dork Storm) [collects #0-3]
w. John Kovalic; a. Christopher Jones<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Writing<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n New reader?<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Art<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n Non-comics reader?<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The idea of a psychiatrist who treat super-heroes is rife with possibilities, and Kovalic manages to hit successfully on most of them here, usually using carefully modified surrogates for “actual” (i.e., copyrighted) heroes and villains.  But rather than just a gag book, Kovalic tried to also set up a functioning superhero world and a story line for Dr. Blink as well.   This muddles the results a bit, though providing more depth to the whole shebang.  A non-comics reader wouldn’t get a lot of the gags, but might enjoy the irreverence of the tone toward standard superhero tropes.<\/p>\n

Jones art is simple and serviceable.  The book also has some interesting essays on the creation fo the book, and a mini-sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds <\/em>for the heroes it spotlights; true geeky joy.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure whether sales were disappointing or if Kovalic got pulled off in other directions, but I wish there were more issues than just this.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Dork Tower: Dork Decade<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Vol. 9  <\/i>(Dork Storm)
w\/a John Kovalic<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Writing<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n New reader?<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Art<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n Non-comics reader?<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This book is a decade-long retrospective of Dork Tower, including all the strips published in Shadis <\/em>and Dragon <\/em>magazines.  While many of these have been published before (yes, the “Hey, Marcia! Come and see the Satanist!” strip is here), everything is in color and the geek\/gaming humor is still fresh and enjoyable.  Many of the strips also have reference notes in the back (I’d have preferred them on-page).<\/p>\n

Great stuff.  I’d recommend any of the numerous DT trades out there, but this volume provides a light, strip-oriented introduction.<\/p>\n

(listening to: Shore, Howard, “Foundations Of Stone” from <\/i>LOTR2: Two Towers)<\/small>
(listening to: Blondie, “Call Me” from <\/i>Billboard Top Rock ‘n’ Roll Hits – 1980)<\/small>
(listening to: Ma, Yo-Yo & Amsterdam Baroque Soloists, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” from <\/i>“No Music, No Life” Sampler 1999)<\/small>
(listening to: “Hub 7” from <\/i>Unreal)<\/small><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink: Id, Ego, Superego!, Vol. 1 (Dork Storm) [collects #0-3] w. John Kovalic; a. Christopher Jones  Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? The idea of a psychiatrist who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9313,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_another_si.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":0},"title":"BT06 – Another (sigh) two TPB comics reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 10:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Daisy Kutter:\u00a0The Last Train (Viper) [4\/4\/4\/4] w\/a. Kazu Kibuishi It's a\u00a0Western.\u00a0 No,...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07_school_daze.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":1},"title":"BT07 – School Daze","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Jul-07 6:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And from the creator of Nodwick and Full Frontal Nerdity ... PS238: No Child Left Behind!Vol. 3\u00a0(Dork Storm) [collects #10-15] w\/a. Aaron Williams\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? Williams...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7827,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_a_blogatho.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":2},"title":"BT05 – A Blogathonner Walks Among Us!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-05 10:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm doing fine on material, but I'm running out of things to say \"above the fold\" like this. I do thank those of you who've piped up to comment --...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7815,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/07\/bt05_top_25_com.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":3},"title":"BT05 – Top 25 Comics I’m Buying Today (Part 2)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Aug-05 4:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the list of Top 25, the following are my Top 10 -- at least of the comics I have on hand at the moment. The precise order may change...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15403,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/26\/bt09-w-is-for-wicked-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":4},"title":"BT09 – W is for Wicked (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 26-Jul-09 3:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"We've passed up the 5\/6 mark, if I'm doing my math right (which is problematic at this point). \u00a0 RThe Walking Dead, Vol. 7, \"The Calm Before\"\u00a0(Image) [collects #37-42] RThe Walking Dead, Vol. 8, \"Made to Suffer\"\u00a0(Image) [collects #43-48] RThe Walking Dead, Vol. 9, \"Here We Remain\"\u00a0(Image) [collects #49-54] w.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7845,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_when_blog.html","url_meta":{"origin":11630,"position":5},"title":"BT05 – When Blog the Mighty!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-05 1:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Quiet house, save for the fan and the music. It's interesting -- some folks are a lot into the \"Blogathon Community\" -- the forums, the \"radio,\" the chats, etc. Me?...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}