{"id":7856,"date":"2005-08-06T08:46:07","date_gmt":"2005-08-06T15:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05-when-comes-the-blogathon.html"},"modified":"2005-08-06T08:46:07","modified_gmt":"2005-08-06T15:46:07","slug":"bt05_when_comes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_when_comes.html","title":{"rendered":"BT05 – When Comes … the Blogathon?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going strong so far (an hour and a half in), but I can see that I’ll need to do something to speed things up, or be more efficient, or something. This is just taking too long to get through each book.<\/p>\n

Hmmmm …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]<\/b><\/p>\n


Conan<\/strong>: The Frost-Giant’s Daughter (Vol. 1)<\/a><\/em> (Dark Horse) [4\/4\/5\/3<\/b>] (collects #0-7)
\nw. Kurt Busiek; a. Cary Nord<\/em>
\nI grew up on Thomas\/Buscema’s “Savage Sword of Conan,” and read most of the actual Howard books — and what Busiek and Nord are doing here is simply terrific. These retellings and fleshing out of Conan’s career, starting as a kid in Cimmeria, never miss a beat, being appropriately brutal and inspiring as they go along. Nord’s artwork evokes Frazetta but with its own verve, and Busiek has a solid appreciation of the canon without being a slave to it. Conan has, I’ll say, never looked or sounded better. A classic in the making.<\/p>\n


Bone<\/strong>: The Crown of Horns (Vol. 9)<\/a><\/em> (Cartoon Books) [4\/4\/1\/5<\/b>]
\nw\/a. Jeff Smith<\/em>
\nThe wrap-up of arguably the best long-term comic book fantasy series of all time is a mixed blessing and a mixed bag. On the one hand, Smith’s work stands as a classic in the field, and its upcoming reprinting by Scholastic Books ensures a serious mainstream following. On the other hand, somewhere along the way the fantasy drama of the series began to overcome the madcap fun of the early issues, rendering it marginally less charming, if just as enthralling. And, to be fair, the story sort of … ends. The actions complete, the plotline wraps, and then folks head on with their lives with little sign of having actually grown or changed over the course of the story. It’s a bit bittersweet, and to that degree disappointing — only insofar as the Bone saga falls just short of the mark of brilliance, to instead be simply marvelous. Don’t let that put you off. Buy it. Read it. Give it to your kids. Enjoy.<\/p>\n


The Book of Balads<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Tor) [5\/5\/5\/5<\/b>]
\nw. Trad and various; a. Charles Vess<\/em>
\nAn enchanting collection of traditional British ballads and tales, retold by some top-knotch fatasists (Gaiman, De Lint, Bull, etc.) and illustrated gorgeously by Charles Vess. Nobody does fantasy <\/em>better than Vess, and this book is both a delight to the eye and a glimpse into the dark world of the “comic books” of their day, the tales of the bards and balladeers, where dallying with elfinkind could lead to magic, romance, and\/or a painful death, depending on your luck. This deserves to be on anyone’s bookshelf, comic book lover or not, and that gives me an idea for some Christmas gifts …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going strong so far (an hour and a half in), but I can see that I’ll need to do something to speed things up, or be more efficient, or something….<\/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-7856","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":9315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_conan_tpbs.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":0},"title":"BT06 – Conan TPBs","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 9:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Conan:\u00a0The God in the Bowl and other stories (Dark Horse) [4\/4\/4\/4] (collects...","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":15317,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-a-is-for-astro-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":1},"title":"BT09 – A is for Astro (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 8:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"A copy of Astro City: Local Heroes is one of the prizes that sponsors of $25 or more can potentially choose from. \u00a0 Astro City: Local Heroes\u00a0(Wildstorm) [collects AC vol 2 #21-22, AC:LH #1-5, AC Special #1, 9-11 vol. 2] w. Kurt Busiek; a.\u00a0Brent Anderson, Alex Ross\u00a0 Writing New reader?\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":15356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-j-is-for-justice-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":2},"title":"BT09 – J is for Justice (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 4:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 JLA\/Avengers\u00a0(DC) [collects #1-4] w. Kurt Busiek; a.\u00a0George Perez\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? \u00a0This book is seventeen kinds of awesome. Decades in the making (mostly due to wrangling between DC and Marvel), Busiek's love for the characters here is matched only by Perez getting the chance to draw\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":7816,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/07\/bt05_top_25_com.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":3},"title":"BT05 – Top 25 Comics I’m Buying Today","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Aug-05 3:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Including this post, I have seven posts left to do. Wow. That means there is no way I will run out of material because I have at least 16 posts...","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":6700,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/30\/graphic_novel_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":4},"title":"Graphic novel review","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Jul-04 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doyce and Margie both razzed me for dragging graphic novels off to the Con, but it made for an enjoyable pre-show pump-up on the flight out. In keeping with the...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30011,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/28\/kurt-busiek-on-swexy-female-bombshells-in-comics.html","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":5},"title":"Kurt Busiek on swexy female bombshells in comics","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Aug-12 11:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's about the story, stupid. If it serves it, fine. If it gets in the way, then it needs to be changed. Embedded Link Response to \"Any thoughts on how the female figure is illustrated in comics these days? Not sure if you're aware of this blog - - but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7856","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=7856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}