tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75788118930365666652009-11-30T16:49:38.435-05:00Culture & politicsRobert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.comBlogger205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-53099483565033792262009-11-29T11:33:00.007-05:002009-11-30T05:15:48.604-05:00

Alex Raymond's post-WWII detective strip features the great illustrator's evolution into an excellent comics dramatist, showcased in a handsome (and hefty) hardcover collectionRip Kirby, Volume One: 1946-1948, by Alex Raymond, is available for sale from Powell's Books. Click here to order.Alex Raymond is best remembered for Flash Gordon, the fantasy-adventure newspaper strip he created in 1934

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-64379978154685797242009-11-22T00:00:00.000-05:002009-11-22T00:00:00.202-05:00

My translation of Song XIX of Dante's Inferno has been posted at Dante's Divine Comedy. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-76163687634461359022009-10-28T16:53:00.016-04:002009-11-22T07:57:50.524-05:00

Michael Moore's latest broadside against the evils and inequities of American society is an overreaching, incoherent, and misguided mess. One doesn’t go to a Michael Moore movie looking to satisfy one’s curiosity about a subject. Unlike most documentary filmmakers, he doesn’t explore his material. Instead, he packages it. He never shows anything that he doesn’t have a predetermined attitude about

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-18895534085415193852009-10-25T18:03:00.004-04:002009-11-22T07:52:05.912-05:00

Lilli Carré blossoms from a promising talent to an accomplished cartoonist in this affecting, superbly crafted fantasy about finding fulfillment in one’s life.Lilli Carré's "The Thing About Madeline" is featured in The Best American Comics 2008, available for sale from Powell's Books. To order, click here.Last year, I reviewed Lilli Carré’s The Lagoon, which I found an extremely frustrating piece

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-75545352614470743692009-10-22T00:00:00.005-04:002009-11-22T07:52:29.423-05:00

This elegantly constructed poem uses a drunken tiff as a springboard for a reverie about sounds--and satirizes bourgeois African-American pretensions about their heritage along the way.“A House Is Not a Home,” by Terrance Hayes, is featured in The Best American Poetry 2009. To purchase the anthology from Powell’s Books, click here.So much of reading contemporary poetry involves working through

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-51123632198274031962009-10-21T00:00:00.005-04:002009-11-21T13:50:56.605-05:00

Jane Campion’s treatment of the love affair between Fanny Brawne and the great Romantic poet John Keats occasionally comes to imaginative life. Overall, though, it isn't much more than a mild, rather dreary historical romance.Bright Star, written and directed by Jane Campion, is at its best in its happy moments. A Romantic spirit suffuses bits like John Keats (Ben Whishaw) basking cheerfully atop

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-57011028098551377772009-10-11T00:00:00.002-04:002009-10-27T11:04:18.248-04:00

Billed as “The story of America’s greatest and most tragic jazz singer,” this short graphic novel reads more like a modernist elegy for her. Unfortunately, it is one that remembers her more for the pathos of her life than her music.Click here to purchase Billie Holiday from Powell’s Books. The book is out-of-print from the publisher, so copies may not be available at all times.It is hard to think

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-63416353572289890182009-10-04T11:40:00.014-04:002009-10-27T11:15:50.393-04:00

The master cartoonist's long-awaited Biblical adaptation is finally here, and it is a stodgy, repetitive effort--one that suggests the graphic novel is beyond his creative capacities.The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb, is available for sale at Powell's Books. Click here to purchase.Robert Crumb is undeniably one of our greatest cartoonists. Before him, the best comics artists--for

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-61173110612329611862009-09-27T00:00:00.006-04:002009-10-27T11:16:21.122-04:00

A bootleg version of the third chapter of the legendary unfinished graphic novel has surfaced--and leaves one even more wistful over the promise of what might have been.Big Numbers 3 has never been published in print format. Jpegs of the "bootleg" version can be seen by clicking here.The unfinished works of exceptional artists always hold a special fascination for their audiences. If one is

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-28477404552248039092009-08-26T10:01:00.009-04:002009-11-04T18:55:06.703-05:00

I knew when the brain cancer was announced last year that Senator Kennedy would not be with us much longer, but the news this morning still came as a shock. Kennedy was one of the rare larger-than-life figures in U.S. politics, and it is hard to believe that he is now gone.One can easily find a detailed list of his legislative accomplishments on the news Web site of one’s choice. Television today

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-83442372707344207282009-08-16T21:34:00.011-04:002009-11-04T18:47:34.675-05:00

"The String Quartet" is featured in Virginia Woolf's short story collection, Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. If you are interested in buying a copy of this book, click here to purchase it from Powell's Books.In “The String Quartet” (1921), Virginia Woolf went beyond simply trying to render the experience of music in stream-of-consciousness terms; she renders the narrator’s state of mind while

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-71563288724248179652009-08-10T09:40:00.004-04:002009-08-10T10:20:25.278-04:00

The online edition of The Comics Journal #299 was posted today, with print copies being distributed to vendors over the next couple of weeks. Three contributions by me are featured. The most notable is a full-length review of Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!, Volume 1, a collection of the first 14 issues of one of the brighest lights of 1980s adventure comics. The other two are shorter reviews of

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-88564062143523480522009-08-02T12:00:00.006-04:002009-10-27T11:16:53.162-04:00

If you are interested in buying a copy of Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell, click here to purchase from Powell's Books. Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole is a tremendously affecting coming-of-age story, but it is not a hopeful one. Most work in this vein fits a particular pattern. It begins with the protagonist as a child or adolescent, follows him or her through various travails and conflicts, with

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-26988467126420292932009-08-01T00:00:00.003-04:002009-08-01T00:00:02.988-04:00

My translation of Song XVIII of Dante's Inferno is now up at Dante's Divine Comedy. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-88425370075358718172009-07-06T09:49:00.003-04:002009-07-06T10:40:31.376-04:00

I'm a bit pressed for time--four freelance reviews due by the end of next week--but I wanted to point everyone to Of Books and Bicycles' posts on reading Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. I read parts of his companion book on Russian literature years ago while making my way through Dostoevsky's work. (My then boss recommended it to me when he saw what I was reading, although I'm not sure why.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-22117702193332638152009-07-05T19:59:00.012-04:002009-11-04T18:48:03.303-05:00

"An Unwritten Novel" is featured in Virginia Woolf's short story collection, Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. If you are interested in buying a copy of this book, click here to purchase it from Powell's Books.In her best work, Virginia Woolf challenges the reader to reconsider his or her perceptions. She requires one to view familiar things in new ways. These include words, objects, people, and

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-49450649875301415082009-06-25T17:09:00.019-04:002009-10-27T11:17:24.369-04:00

Swamp Thing, Book 5: Earth to Earth and Book 6: Reunion are available for sale from Powell's Books. To purchase Earth to Earth, click here. Reunion can be purchased here.Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing is widely considered to be one of the best--some claim the best--continuing adventure-comics series of the 1980s. Fortunately for readers, it divides quite neatly into three parts.In the

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-75416128605089427542009-06-19T13:11:00.003-04:002009-06-19T20:19:14.070-04:00

My contributor copy of The Comics Journal #298 arrived in today's mail. It includes my review of Speak of the Devil, a graphic novel by Love & Rockets co-creator Gilbert Hernandez. The magazine should be arriving in stores sometime during the next two to three weeks.The entire issue will soon be posted online, albeit behind a subscription wall. I'll add a link to the issue's preview page once it

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-27962732294033124542009-06-14T18:08:00.011-04:002009-11-04T18:48:35.558-05:00

"Monday or Tuesday" is featured in Virginia Woolf's short story collection, Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. If you are interested in buying a copy of this book, click here to purchase it from Powell's Books.Virginia Woolf’s short 1921 piece “Monday or Tuesday” is generally described as a prose poem. Some, though, feel it is better characterized as a prose collage. They don’t feel Woolf sought

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-83224697033205796422009-06-10T17:41:00.009-04:002009-10-22T17:43:49.043-04:00

Looking back on the 1970s generation of European cartoonists, it seems like the stars epitomized their own particular genres of potboiler fiction. Jean Giraud was the Western cartoonist. Vittorio Giardino was the master of espionage thrillers. Historical adventure stories were defined by the work of Hugo Pratt. A couple of genres had two competing masters, like Milo Manara and Guido Crepax with

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-81591248121143878882009-05-29T03:57:00.013-04:002009-09-18T05:39:10.529-04:00

Bloggers on the Bus, by Eric Boehlert, is available for purchase from Powell's Books. Click here to order.Note: This review has been revised since its initial posting.There’s a fairly decent test for determining whether a non-fiction book is a serious effort: See if there’s an end notes section in the back. The goal of any good journalist or historian is to provide as definitive a treatment of

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-50179964499103490152009-05-25T09:00:00.003-04:002009-06-18T20:41:37.743-04:00

My translation of Song XVII of Dante's Inferno is now up at Dante's Divine Comedy. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-38929926015919988362009-05-19T12:00:00.008-04:002009-11-04T18:49:02.025-05:00

"Tattooizm," by Kevin Moffett, is featured in The Best American Short Stories 2006. This anthology is available for sale from Powell's Books. If you are interested in purchasing a copy, please click here.A remarkable aspect of fiction is its ability to captivate us with the lives of people we otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with. Andrea, the protagonist of Kevin Moffett's 2006 short story

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-26297306617625838792009-05-19T00:00:00.001-04:002009-06-18T20:42:15.064-04:00

My translation of Song XVI of Dante's Inferno is now up at Dante's Divine Comedy. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-26528368596927416402009-05-17T12:00:00.012-04:002009-11-04T18:49:22.481-05:00

The text of "A Society," by Virginia Woolf, can be read by clicking here.Like most accomplished artists of the last century or so, Virginia Woolf worked in a number of modes. Her dominant side was her experimental one, which employed innovative uses of wordplay and character perspective, and which resulted in her most impressive work--the novels To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway are what

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0