tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75788118930365666652012-01-26T18:15:15.618-05:00Thoughts on culture & politics, by Robert Stanley MartinRobert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.comBlogger3101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-24399246022501943732012-01-24T08:55:00.004-05:002012-01-24T10:07:33.266-05:00

To see my predictions for this year's Oscar nominees, click here.Here are this year's nominees in the eight highest-profile categories:BEST PICTURE: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War HorseThe Best Picture category has become somewhat hard to predict. The number of nominees, starting this year,

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-43443939685417623262012-01-19T00:00:00.001-05:002012-01-20T12:43:14.853-05:00

Alfie’s title character, a swaggering Cockney ladies’ man, may be Michael Caine’s greatest role. Caine makes Alfie both charming and repellent; he plays this cynical womanizer with bravado, and he’s nothing less than riveting. His skill is considerable; like Laurence Olivier’s Richard III, the character addresses the audience with asides throughout the action of the scenes, and Caine paces the

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-35450977243896401932012-01-14T15:30:00.001-05:002012-01-15T15:38:45.324-05:00

Noah Berlatsky at The Hooded Utilitarian has turned a few of my comments about the influence of The Comics Journal on the indy-comics field into their own post. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-9834819410615203762012-01-12T00:00:00.006-05:002012-01-26T18:15:15.628-05:00

“Make it visceral.” That’s the goal of the director (Vincent Cassel) of the production of Swan Lake at the center of Black Swan. Those words also seem to be guiding the film’s director, Darren Aronofsky. The story is about a high-end New York dancer (Natalie Portman) who, while preparing to play the lead in the ballet, confronts her insecurities—or, rather, wrestles with insanity. The script,

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-86828511941855446412012-01-11T00:00:00.010-05:002012-01-26T18:14:31.290-05:00

Director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970) turns the sexual coming-of-age comedy inside out with a potent blend of psychodrama, incisive social detail, and poetic filmmaking. A working-class London teenager (John Moulder-Brown) takes his first job as an attendant in a seedy city bathhouse, where he quickly becomes infatuated with a pretty co-worker a few years his senior (Jane Asher). The

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-71002524383245855862012-01-10T00:00:00.002-05:002012-01-19T15:11:16.624-05:00

Tuesday Weld gives a terrific comic performance as Barbara Ann Greene, the teen beauty at the center of director George Axelrod’s Lord Love a Duck. Barbara Ann dreams of success and for everyone to love her, and the day before classes start at her new school, she meets Alan (Roddy McDowell), an eccentric genie of a boy who makes it all happen. With Alan’s help, Barbara Ann connives her way into a

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-12635900979114384612012-01-08T00:00:00.001-05:002012-01-10T00:29:35.338-05:00

Alan Moore's guest storyline for Howard Chaykin's '80s cyberpunk adventure feature is marred by substandard art, but it compensates with cleverness and wit.American Flagg!: Lustbusters was serialized in 1985 in issues 21 through 27 of the American Flagg! comic-book series published by First Comics. It has not been collected in book form. The original issues are long out of print, but they still

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-36920686492223977232012-01-07T00:00:00.002-05:002012-01-10T08:32:00.735-05:00

The first storyline in scriptwriter Grant Morrison's reworking of the Dynamic Duo is probably the most enjoyable superhero tale of the last couple of years, and this includes movies as well as comics.Batman & Robin, Book One: Batman Reborn, by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Philip Tan, is available for purchase from Powell's Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell's website.Given a

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-11057589206388998572012-01-06T17:46:00.005-05:002012-01-08T20:31:18.891-05:00

Kelle Groom offers a lovely--and potent--meditation on the capacity of images to set off reverberations in one's thoughts.The poem "Oh dont," by Kelle Groom, originally appeared in Witness XXII (2009). It is also featured in her collection Five Kingdoms, as well as in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler and David Lehman. Both book collections are available from Powell's Books.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-16021286859636541162012-01-06T00:00:00.004-05:002012-01-18T15:27:37.108-05:00

Jim Shepard combines metaphor, philosophical insight, and character study in a masterful piece of short fiction."Your Fate Hurtles Down at You," by Jim Shepard, was originally published in Electric Literature 1 (July 30, 2009). It is featured in his 2011 collection, You Think That's Bad. One can also find it among the selections in The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011, edited by Laura Furman. Both

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-56463396367874794222012-01-05T00:00:00.001-05:002012-01-05T22:25:49.499-05:00

The Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith’s 1915 epic about the Civil War and Reconstruction, is a landmark film. It was the first feature-length picture produced in the United States, and it more or less established an art form. It is also hideously racist. The story is about two friendly white families, one Northern and one Southern, whose bond is challenged by the events of the war and its

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-51290248305824910722012-01-04T00:00:00.006-05:002012-01-05T00:10:22.260-05:00

Seconds (1966) is often considered the third film in director John Frankenheimer’s so-called “paranoia” trilogy, after The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964). It tells of New York banker (John Randolph) who, dissatisfied with his life, falls into the clutches of an underground business that offers him the opportunity to start again in a new identity. Coerced into accepting,

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-45343348546953200542012-01-03T00:00:00.001-05:002012-01-03T00:28:08.155-05:00

Director Martin Campbell did a bang-up job relaunching James Bond with Casino Royale, but he lays an egg with this prospective franchise. His big-screen treatment of the DC Comics character just goes to show that movies may have effectively exhausted the costumed-superhero genre. Created in 1959 by editor Julius Schwartz, scriptwriter John Broome, and illustrator Gil Kane (and derived from

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-82438141393280774482012-01-02T12:00:00.005-05:002012-01-02T12:08:04.369-05:00

Flaubert's classic short story is a masterful blend of naturalistic detail, sublimely poetic effects, and deceptively simple prose.Gustave Flaubert's "A Simple Heart" is part of the Three Tales collection. This review refers to the A. J. Krailsheimer translation, published by Oxford University Press. The book can be ordered from Powell's Books. To go to its page on the Powell's website, click

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-13618718640990445282012-01-02T00:00:00.000-05:002012-01-02T00:00:06.271-05:00

“Lime Light Blues,” by Kevin Young, was originally published in Tin House 37 (Fall 2008). It was reprinted in Young’s collection Dear Darkness, and is featured in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler and David Lehman. Kevin Young’s short poem “Lime Light Blues” evokes feelings of extreme self-consciousness, specifically the African-American narrator's awareness of the prejudices

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-45262102062374671412012-01-01T00:00:00.002-05:002012-01-01T00:06:02.665-05:00

Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, a wryly witty take on literature, history, and whatever else captures the cartoonist's attention, has now been gathered in its first (and welcome) book collection.Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton, is available for sale from Powell's Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell's website.Webcomics, for the most part, are just the latest iteration of newspaper

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-68194768372379611032011-12-31T00:00:00.008-05:002011-12-31T08:29:52.699-05:00

This British romantic farce was a critical and commercial hit back in 1966. In general, it has not dated well. The picture appropriates the hallmarks of the French nouvelle vague films of Godard and Truffaut, but without making those elements feel intrinsic to the material; the filmmakers seem to be working their way through a checklist. The happy-go-lucky young protagonists, the extensive use of

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-47436628322460005462011-12-30T00:00:00.001-05:002011-12-30T00:00:06.277-05:00

Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster did a solid job on The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), their first Hammer Films horror effort. This follow-up film, from 1958, is even better. The story is told with a similar succinctness, and not a single element is a letdown. Christopher Lee is an ideal Count Dracula. He has a regal bearing in his calm moments, a smug glee as he approaches

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-88823770170388915442011-12-29T00:00:00.007-05:002011-12-29T18:21:03.076-05:00

Roman Polanski’s third feature, from 1966, is like The Desperate Hours--as reimagined, perhaps, by Samuel Beckett in collaboration with Edward Albee and Harold Pinter. An American gangster in England (Lionel Stander), fleeing a botched robbery, hides out in the beachfront castle home of a retired factory owner (Donald Pleasance) and his young French wife (Françoise Dorléac). The gangster holds

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-21106066674106355612011-12-28T00:00:00.010-05:002011-12-29T18:21:30.881-05:00

This 2010 film about the Valerie Plame case, directed by Doug Liman, should have been a lot better. Plame was a covert CIA officer specializing in nuclear weapons counter-proliferation. In 2002, her husband Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat, traveled to Niger at the CIA’s request to investigate whether Saddam Hussein had purchased enriched uranium there. Wilson firmly concluded the Iraqi dictator

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-57999533443486059552011-12-27T00:00:00.002-05:002011-12-30T00:45:49.272-05:00

This 1957 Hammer Films adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel doesn’t much concern itself with the moral, philosophical, and allegorical aspects of the book. Like most pop-culture treatments of Shelley’s material, it is content with being a reactionary horror melodrama. The story couldn’t be more familiar: A misguided scientist plays God and builds a creature from the remains of human corpses

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-6202670191206711602011-12-26T00:00:00.002-05:002011-12-29T18:22:32.512-05:00

Akira Kurosawa's next-to-last film, 1991's Rhapsody in August, lacks the historical settings his films are famous for; it's set in and around present-day Nagasaki. In the opening scene, an elderly woman, Kane (Sachiko Murase), receives word that a brother is sick and would like her to visit him before he dies. She refuses; she voices doubts about whether the man is even her brother. It quickly

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-46267636248833617882011-12-23T22:28:00.004-05:002011-12-23T22:34:51.229-05:00

The December 2011 issue of the literary monthly Black Lamb features my review of Julian Barnes' Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-82378259615050478182011-12-21T08:42:00.000-05:002011-12-21T09:12:31.635-05:00

My essay on the photographer Brassaï is now up over at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read. It's a revised version of a paper I wrote for an art history course taught by Tamara Machmut-Jhashi back in 2001. The paper disputes the identification of Brassaï with the Surrealist movement. It instead relates his work to the Nietzschean perspectivism that guides, at least in spirit, such

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-9653465001793071582011-12-20T09:38:00.003-05:002012-01-24T08:55:10.630-05:00

It's that time again. The 2011 movie year is wrapping up, the years' awards and award nominees have begun being announced, and I'm offering my predictions of what will be nominated for the Academy Awards on January 24th.There's a new wrinkle to the Best Picture nominees. The number of films nominated in the category isn't set. There will be between five and ten nominees in the category. Voters

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-38513095087703341832011-12-19T00:00:00.000-05:002011-12-19T00:00:08.393-05:00

A poem that starts as humorous alliteration brilliantly shifts into dark synecdoches.“Q,” by Sharon Olds, is featured in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler & David Lehman. It originally appeared in the August 10, 2009 issue of the New Yorker. The BAP 2010 collection can be purchased from Powell’s Books. To go to it’s page on the Powell’s website, click here.Sharon Olds' poem "Q

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-32090484052898961912011-12-18T00:00:00.002-05:002011-12-18T09:02:20.953-05:00

This review was originally published on The Comics Journal's website on March 15, 2010.A major goal of publisher James Warren’s 1960s comics was to recreate the glory of the 1950s EC line for a new generation. Blazing Combat was his answer to the Harvey Kurtzman-edited Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, the war comics that were EC’s most highly regarded titles after Kurtzman’s MAD. The series

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-63980938865770691062011-12-17T00:00:00.002-05:002011-12-17T00:00:05.521-05:00

This review was originally published on The Comics Journal's website on March 3, 2010.Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable is a rude, crude, and frequently hilarious portrait of suburban teenage life in the 1980s. The book’s narrator, Tammy Pierce, is probably the most hapless 15-year-old girl imaginable. Her home life has nothing to offer; her parents are indifferent, and her little brother is an

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-67382804333366293182011-12-16T00:00:00.001-05:002011-12-16T00:00:01.830-05:00

This review was originally published on The Comics Journal's website on December 29, 2009Just about every reader of David B.’s memoir Epileptic recalls the four dream sequences that highlighted the closing sections of the book. Purportedly dramatizations of actual dreams, they were obvious allegories of the cartoonist’s complex and conflicting attitudes towards his older brother, whose

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-1439943582334464822011-12-15T10:10:00.009-05:002011-12-29T18:23:50.283-05:00

My second contribution to The Hooded Utilitarian's Jean-Luc Godard roundtable is now up. It's a review of his 1964 film Band of Outsiders. Click here to read.Reviews of other films directed by Jean-Luc Godard:BreathlessLes CarabiniersContempt (Le Mépris)Le Petit soldatVivre sa vieWeekendA Woman Is a Woman

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-52355784319154977072011-12-15T00:00:00.010-05:002011-12-15T00:00:03.860-05:00

This essay was written in late 2003 for Anthony Low's graduate seminar on 17th-century British poetry at New York University.The pervasive influence of Saint Augustine on John Donne is all but beyond dispute. The prevailing view of the great theologian's impact on Donne's work is epitomized by Alexander M. Witherspoon and Frank J. Warnke's remark that "Donne holds him [Augustine] highest in

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-3013359657998801402011-12-14T00:00:00.001-05:002011-12-14T00:00:08.089-05:00

This review was originally published on The Comics Journal's website on April 10, 2010.Peter Bagge has always had a knack for depicting compulsive and monomaniacal personalities. He never fails to find new ones, and he never seems to repeat himself. One would be hard-pressed to find a Bagge character that isn’t a vivid, unique personality. Best of all, he knows how to play them off each other for

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-5716310935905421442011-12-13T00:00:00.000-05:002011-12-13T00:00:11.519-05:00

This review was originally published on The Comics Journal's website on March 1, 2010.Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre’s The Photographer is an outstanding book in many respects. Based on Lefèvre’s experiences as a photographer accompanying a Doctors Without Borders mission in Afghanistan in 1986, it is a fine memoir that doubles as a compelling adventure story. It also offers a richly

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-640020959670209322011-12-12T17:30:00.001-05:002011-12-13T18:10:08.721-05:00

The essay below is a revised draft of the paper submitted to Professor Elizabeth McHenry for her African-American Literature graduate seminar at New York University in late 2003.The major controversy among critics of James Baldwin’s 1953 autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, is how to reconcile the book’s intensely felt affirmation of religious faith with the author’s personal

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-26131941602392520242011-12-11T23:03:00.001-05:002011-12-13T18:10:29.431-05:00

This is a revised draft of a undergraduate paper written in April of 2002. It was the term paper for an independent study devoted to Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu, better known by the English titles Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time. The supervising professor was Jude Nixon. The paper went on to went first prize in Oakland University's annual undergraduate essay

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-5892492955481286962011-12-06T18:22:00.004-05:002011-12-06T18:28:29.825-05:00

My translation of Song XXVI 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-20105888448781364872011-12-06T10:00:00.009-05:002011-12-29T18:24:43.596-05:00

The Hooded Utilitarian is having its long-awaited roundtable on the films of Jean-Luc Godard this week and next. My contribution, a discussion of his 1967 satire Weekend, is now up. Click here to read. Caroline Small's roundtable introduction is here, and an index to the contributions is here.Reviews of other films directed by Jean-Luc Godard:Band of OutsidersBreathlessLes CarabiniersContempt (Le

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-13538446020885869842011-11-15T15:02:00.004-05:002011-11-15T15:09:00.354-05:00

My review of Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, this year's winner of the Man Booker Prize, is now up at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-46375755100013942772011-10-18T11:49:00.009-04:002011-12-29T18:25:46.746-05:00

I see I overlooked posting the announcement of my review of Jean-Luc Godard's Les Carabiniers when it was published at The Hooded Utilitarian in July, so here it is now. Click here to read the essay.Reviews of other films directed by Jean-Luc Godard:Band of OutsidersBreathlessContempt (Le Mépris)Le Petit soldatVivre sa vieWeekendA Woman Is a Woman

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-45168547672829607882011-10-18T11:18:00.009-04:002011-12-29T18:26:49.013-05:00

My review of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, starring Michel Piccoli, Brigitte Bardot, and Jack Palance, is now up at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.Reviews of other films directed by Jean-Luc Godard:Band of OutsidersBreathlessLe Petit soldatLes CarabiniersVivre sa vieWeekendA Woman Is a Woman

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-60669083915686421202011-10-10T09:25:00.006-04:002011-10-10T09:36:18.156-04:00

My extended review of Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants is now up at The Hooded Utilitarian. This is a revised version of the essay that appeared in The Comics Journal #301. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-57127801359176966242011-10-09T01:00:00.002-04:002011-10-09T01:00:02.356-04:00

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.Note: This is the original text of the expanded version of the review that was published in The Comics

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-5766772572426481362011-10-04T01:00:00.002-04:002011-10-04T01:00:05.601-04:00

This dull rehash of adventure clichés is blandly skillful, but its two creators have done far better work elsewhere.Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot, by Gary Gianni & Mark Schultz, is available from Powell's Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell's website.This collection of contemporary Prince Valiant newspaper strips demonstrates just how boring craftsmanship for its own sake can be.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-35713232372514362972011-10-03T01:00:00.003-04:002011-10-03T06:02:33.780-04:00

This 1988 graphic novel by Bill Sienkiewicz is more enjoyable to look at than to read, but one will have a grand time looking at it.Bill Sienkiewicz's Stray Toasters is available for sale from Powell's Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell's website.Bill Sienkiewicz was easily the most visually striking and idiosyncratic adventure cartoonist of the 1980s. He came into his own when he

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-61831189908481065492011-10-02T08:09:00.005-04:002011-10-02T09:12:30.303-04:00

With American Flagg!, Howard Chaykin created one of the great adventure-comics series. After a long wait, it's back in print--and it reads better than ever.American Flagg!: The Definitive Collection, Volume 1 is available from Powell's Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell's website.Sexy, smart and smashingly well executed, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! made just about every other

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-47658132845575265612011-09-28T09:18:00.005-04:002011-09-28T09:26:49.992-04:00

My discussion of the above image is now up at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-88945959361750346692011-09-11T18:32:00.004-04:002011-09-11T18:40:49.136-04:00

My translation of Song XXV 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-52103448168671879282011-09-01T08:57:00.006-04:002011-09-01T10:19:10.923-04:00

I’m not exactly a neutral critic when it comes to the poetry of Laura Hope-Gill. I divided my time growing up between Michigan and Florida, and she was a classmate of mine in the latter. She’s now based in North Carolina, where she’s published two books of poetry in collaboration with area photographers. One generally doesn’t hear her name in discussions of the best contemporary poets; she has

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-33476372713236589702011-08-27T09:47:00.021-04:002011-10-10T09:45:48.034-04:00

This is a little belated, but here is the top ten comics list I contributed to the International Best Comics Poll I organized and edited for The Hooded Utilitarian:The Alec Stories (especially "Graffiti Kitchen" and The Fate of the Artist), Eddie CampbellMy review of the Alec: The Years Have Pants collection, which includes "Graffiti Kitchen," is here. My review of The Fate of the Artist is

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-51732298504311541702011-08-22T10:30:00.002-04:002012-01-09T23:27:45.315-05:00

This post is to provide a direct link to my article on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen for The Hooded Utilitarian's International Best Comics Poll countdown of the top-ten vote getters. (The book came in fourth place.) I think the essay is a fine addition to my series on Moore's work. Click here to read. Reviews of other works by Alan Moore (click title to read):American Flagg!:

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-55199268909351220962011-08-22T09:28:00.001-04:002011-08-22T09:28:00.629-04:00

I've been absent from the site for a good little while now. The reason has been The International Best Comics Poll at The Hooded Utilitarian. I was responsible for organizing and supervising the project from beginning to end. This included individually inviting approximately a thousand people to participate, tallying the 211 top-ten lists we received, and being the managing editor of the

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-87556930931468557982011-07-26T11:28:00.006-04:002011-07-26T11:50:48.546-04:00

The results of The Hooded Utilitarian's International Best Comics Poll will begin publication on Monday, August 1. As a warm-up, I'm publishing my appreciation of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts from the Parkinson's Disease benefit anthology Favorites, published by Team Cul-de-Sac. Click here for purchasing information about Favorites. It features some lovely pieces by a fine collection of writers,

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-51543028914369825422011-07-14T09:47:00.003-04:002011-07-14T09:52:03.220-04:00

My review of Ron Rash's 2009 short story "The Ascent" is now up at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-42605797486328455932011-07-08T10:31:00.003-04:002011-07-08T10:36:55.073-04:00

My essay "Thoughts on Henry Miller and Surrealism" has just been published over at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-88861099607708019932011-06-22T09:49:00.003-04:002011-06-22T09:52:23.291-04:00

My essay "Satire, Racist Imagery, and Robert Crumb" is now up over at The Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-4535398921033143732011-06-05T19:05:00.004-04:002011-06-05T19:14:01.563-04:00

The good folks at Robot 6 asked me to contribute to their "What Are You Reading?" feature this week. I write a bit about the Hooded Utilitarian's International Best Comics Poll, William Stout's wildlife art, Jaimy Gordon's National Book Award-winning novel Lord of Misrule, Jennifer Egan's "Safari" short story from A Visit from the Goon Squad, and Laura Hope-Gill's poem "Jonah." Oh, and I also

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-89873657291535824652011-05-21T14:45:00.009-04:002011-12-29T18:27:56.646-05:00

Jean-Luc Godard's portrait of a young prostitute is level-headed, superbly realized, and searing. And it features actress Anna Karina in what is perhaps her greatest role.In Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s films, his leading lady (and then-wife) Anna Karina shows an expressive fluidity that rivals the best work of the great silent-film star Louise Brooks. She’s rarely stolid, but one never catches her

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-31967081735038770942011-05-21T13:51:00.004-04:002011-05-21T13:58:39.648-04:00

My announcement for The Hooded Utilitarian's Best Comics Poll:Would you like a break from all the incessant, pretentious squabbling here at The Hooded Utilitarian? Well, so would we! And we’re going to have a party!We’ve already started sending out personal invitations to comics creators, members of the comics press, and various others to participate in a poll. We want to know their favorite

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-11751198850914219122011-05-21T13:31:00.004-04:002011-05-21T13:38:32.864-04:00

Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, site editor Noah Berlatsky thought my comment-section remarks on Chester Brown's Paying for It, a didactic graphic-novel memoir that argues in favor of prostitution, deserved a post of their own. Noah characterizes them as the harshest statements he has seen published about the book. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-70102471178404329952011-05-21T12:00:00.004-04:002011-05-22T07:15:25.492-04:00

Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, The Comics Journal's online edition co-editor Tim Hodler took exception to aspects of my "Thoughts on Canonicity" essay. I replied. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-87072150849527912122011-05-10T07:57:00.004-04:002011-05-10T08:00:20.733-04:00

My latest piece at the Hooded Utilitarian, "Thoughts on Canonicity," is now up. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-77018451919000976202011-05-06T10:59:00.010-04:002011-12-29T18:28:55.909-05:00

Jean-Luc Godard's take-off on Hollywood musical comedy is a delightful parody of the genre's narrative and stylistic conventions, highlighted by leading lady Anna Karina's charming star turn.Angela (Anna Karina), the main character of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1961 film A Woman Is a Woman, is a young Danish woman living in Paris. She works as a stripper, and she lives with her boyfriend Émile (

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-29436777931720571362011-05-01T23:40:00.005-04:002011-05-04T19:41:20.526-04:00

This expansive graphic novel about a teenage love affair is an astonishingly executed piece of cartooning.Lucille, by Ludovic Debeurme, is available for sale from Powell’s Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell’s website. Ludovic Debeurme is a master cartoon dramatist. In his 2006 graphic novel Lucille, just published in English, he works wonders with a minimalist approach. From a

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-21069130039786655252011-04-30T13:17:00.015-04:002011-12-29T18:29:48.612-05:00

Jean-Luc Godard's follow-up to Breathless uses the Algerian War to question the moral blankness one finds in the earlier film's protagonists in both ethical and political terms. It may first appear an atypical effort on the filmmaker's part, but the more one considers it, the more it seems like a key work in his career.Le Petit soldat (The Little Soldier), made in 1960, was Jean-Luc Godard’s

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-40978244347020531952011-04-21T23:26:00.015-04:002011-12-29T18:31:31.598-05:00

Musings on Godard's 1960 classic.Why Breathless (À bout de souffle)? Why take a look back at a movie that’s over fifty years old? The answer isn’t a particularly sexy one. The Hooded Utilitarian, where I do most of my published writing outside of this blog these days, has tentatively scheduled a writer roundtable on Breathless filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. (The original idea was for the contributors

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-28783364730693393002011-04-19T23:40:00.005-04:002011-04-20T07:14:24.645-04:00

Compelling eye-candy artwork is the saving grace of this graphic novel’s rather tired rehash of detective-story clichés.Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano’s Liar’s Kiss is available for sale from Powell’s Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell’s website.Liar’s Kiss, written by Eric Skillman and illustrated by Jhomar Soriano, is a moderately enjoyable subway read. It holds one’s attention

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-55055759074986770212011-04-09T11:00:00.002-04:002011-04-09T16:59:33.645-04:00

This gathering of powerfully desolate imagery overtly challenges the reader to recognize the limits of words and interpretation.“Carrying on Like a Crow,” by Charles Simic, is featured in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler & David Lehman. It originally appeared in the 20 November 2008 issue of the London Review of Books and is included in Simic’s own collection, Master of

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-90120573593987265502011-03-29T00:00:00.000-04:002011-03-29T00:00:04.401-04:00

This effort by Hernandez is a stupid, illogical, gratuitously violent waste of time. It's a sad comedown for a cartoonist whom many consider among the most accomplished of his generation.This is a slightly revised version of a review that was originally written in December 2008 and published, in somewhat abridged form, in The Comics Journal #298, cover-dated May 2009. My title for the piece was “

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-13048595944659975112011-03-28T12:00:00.001-04:002011-04-22T23:06:15.500-04:00

David Trinidad's "Five Ways of Looking at a Telephone" is an imaginative little poetic exercise.“Black Telephone,” by David Trinidad, is featured in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler & David Lehman. It originally appeared in Tin House #42, Winter 2009. The BAP 2010 anthology can be purchased from Powell’s Books. To go to BAP 2010’s page on the Powell’s website, click

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-4699550916591847262011-03-28T00:00:00.008-04:002011-03-28T17:14:32.652-04:00

This superbly written short story is a hilarious and ultimately resonant tale of bad luck run amok in a young English professor's life"Painted Ocean, Painted Ship," by Rebecca Makkai, was originally published in the Winter 2009/2010 issue of Ploughshares. It is featured in The Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard Russo and Heidi Pitlor. The BASS 2010 volume is available for sale

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-14486960273316841552011-03-27T00:00:00.002-04:002011-03-27T09:34:48.638-04:00

This early effort by French cartoonist Jacques Tardi is a diverting entertainment—part Hergé, part Jules Verne—dressed up in gorgeously detailed though easy-to-read artJacques Tardi’s The Arctic Marauder is available for sale from Powell’s Books. Click here to go to its page on the Powell’s website.A couple of years ago, in a review of José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo’s Joe’s Bar, I said some

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-57668092232248892632011-03-22T00:00:00.002-04:002011-03-22T06:45:49.762-04:00

B.H. Fairchild’s lovely poem both evokes the longing and highlights the absurdities found in movie-inspired daydreams. It also subtly challenges the reader to ask the value of those daydreams for oneself“On the Waterfront,” by B.H. Fairchild, is featured in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler & David Lehman. It originally appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of Sewanee Review and

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-38548750920172695742011-03-21T00:00:00.002-04:002011-03-21T00:00:06.884-04:00

This selection from Bonnie Jo Campbell’s celebrated American Salvage collection tells of a single working mother taking all comers. Along the way, it also offers a tartly funny view of Y2K silliness and masculine folly, all of which is grounded in the universal of an everyday adult dilemma.Bonnie Jo Campbell’s American Salvage, nominee for the 2009 National Book Award and National Book Critics

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-16082169315137208172011-03-11T12:40:00.003-05:002011-03-11T12:50:22.834-05:00

My discussion of Eddie Campbell's The Fate of the Artist, titled "The Fate of the Artist and Its Stepping Stones," is now up at the Hooded Utilitarian. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-56247809308926192772011-03-07T00:00:00.001-05:002011-03-07T00:00:03.490-05:00

My translation of Song XXIV 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-41354782568339733732011-03-06T00:00:00.006-05:002011-03-07T12:19:18.594-05:00

Eddie Campbell brings his extraordinary cartooning prowess to Daren White's slight though witty portrait of a writer whose professional success walks hand-in-hand with his private defeats.The Playwright, by Daren White & Eddie Campbell, can be purchased from Powell’s Books. To go to its page on Powell's website, click here. Note to readers: It's Eddie Campbell week at the Hooded Utilitarian and

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-81188556837837771272011-02-22T22:22:00.009-05:002011-02-22T23:05:35.243-05:00

(Note: This is a slightly revised version of a piece was originally published in 2009 in The Comics Journal #296, their annual best-of-the-year issue. It was written in response to the question, “What Is the Most Overrated Book of 2008?")American Presidents, by David Levine, can be purchased from Powell’s Books. To go to its page on Powell's website, click here. I had to pass on submitting a “

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-3593398337745142392011-02-06T01:43:00.004-05:002011-02-06T01:51:18.082-05:00

The Poetry Foundation has quoted my discussion of Petrarch's work (published on this blog) in their article on the Italian Renaissance master. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-49646795772336921432011-02-03T13:10:00.010-05:002011-02-11T11:24:43.134-05:00

Over at Comics Comics, Jeet Heer has posted a largely excellent overview of Maus: A Survivor's Tale author Art Spiegelman's varied career. (Click here to read.) Spiegelman was just named the recipient of the prestigious Grand Prix at this year's Angoulême International Comics Festival (story here)--he's only the third U.S. cartoonist to receive the honor--and that's a pretty good occasion for

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-63650773498706468512011-01-23T11:29:00.008-05:002011-12-29T18:35:28.750-05:00

It's again the occasion for my favorite frivolous pastime. However, I do have to say that I expect the announcement of this year's Oscar nominations Tuesday morning to be a big anti-climax. I doubt there will be any big surprises. The only real suspense this year, at least in the major categories, is whether the fifth slot in the Best Actor category will go to Mark Wahlberg for The Fighter or

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-6093191355349056322011-01-15T18:41:00.005-05:002011-01-15T18:44:18.907-05:00

My translation of Song XXIII 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-6509204440933283852011-01-01T06:44:00.007-05:002011-01-01T07:33:49.693-05:00

“The Carnival” is an exquisitely wrought piece of melancholy fantasy, and a high point in the blossoming career of Lilli Carré, the most poetic of contemporary North American cartoonists.Lilli Carré’s “The Carnival” is featured in MOME, Vol. 14: Spring 2009 and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010. Both titles can be purchased from Powell’s Books. To go to MOME 14's page, click here. To go

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-54578752079083308572010-11-04T20:49:00.003-04:002010-11-04T20:55:53.676-04:00

My contribution to The Hooded Utilitarian's essay roundtable on Charles Hatfield's critical study Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature is up. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-1058524429142665862010-10-12T01:14:00.001-04:002010-10-12T02:04:01.476-04:00

The closing story in Virginia Woolf's Monday or Tuesday collection exemplifies key characteristics of modernist style. It also argues against the romanticist ideal of engagement with the world, embraces it as a basis for fantasy, and showcases the author's delight in absurdist humor."The Mark on the Wall" is featured in Virginia Woolf's short-story collection Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories,

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-75422970607495486292010-09-26T11:05:00.003-04:002010-10-17T00:49:51.006-04:00

My translation of Song XXII 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-9817418626804020102010-09-01T23:44:00.007-04:002011-12-29T18:36:13.032-05:00

The American, the new thriller starring George Clooney, is an unexpected throwback to the action-adventure movies of the 1960s and ‘70s. The elements are all there: the amoral, taciturn hero; the slow, unforced pace; the melancholy, pseudo-existential, “that’s reality” atmosphere. Like those earlier films, The American makes terrific use of locations. The bulk of the picture was shot in and

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-61314690899373965962010-08-18T06:49:00.004-04:002010-08-18T06:55:17.312-04:00

My contribution to the Hooded Utilitarian's roundtable discussion of E.C. Segar's Popeye is now up. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-5705648012647398432010-06-29T07:59:00.004-04:002010-06-29T08:06:26.165-04:00

My article, "Frazetta in Perspective," is now up over at the The Hooded Utilitarian. It's a fairly far-ranging discussion of the work of illustrator and cartoonist Frank Frazetta from all periods of his career. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-13421660454789118672010-06-21T11:05:00.003-04:002010-09-26T11:08:59.326-04:00

My translation of Song XXI 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-22901976388248473932010-06-07T15:31:00.004-04:002010-06-07T15:52:15.428-04:00

Noah Berlatsky has been hosting a roundtable over at The Hooded Utilitarian on David Mazzucchelli's recent graphic novel Asterios Polyp. My own thoughts on the book were posted there last night. Click here to read.I'm not especially satisfied with the piece--a proper review may be forthcoming here in the future--but it's not an entire waste. I do think I made some good points about the book that

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-63627931329653095262010-04-21T16:04:00.004-04:002010-04-21T16:16:37.905-04:00

My review of Other Lives, Hate creator Peter Bagge's new graphic novel, is now up at The Comics Journal's Web site. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-79932685647918396862010-04-01T20:15:00.002-04:002010-04-01T20:18:59.067-04:00

My translation of Song XX 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.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-56780780577525837322010-03-22T10:23:00.009-04:002010-03-22T19:11:52.402-04:00

Kim Deitch and his brothers team up in an ostensible effort to combine comics and prose fiction into a new form. But apart from an elegant autobiographical piece by Kim, the book never really comes together--in terms of form or content.Deitch's Pictorama, by Kim, Seth & Simon Kallan Deitch, is available for sale from Powell’s Books. Click here to order a copy.The five stories in this collection

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-76482863665623263752010-03-16T17:57:00.009-04:002011-12-18T07:40:54.046-05:00

My review of the book collection of writer/editor Archie Goodwin's Blazing Combat has been posted at The Comics Journal's Web site. For the uninitiated, Blazing Combat was a 1960s comics anthology magazine that featured adventure and suspense stories in historical war settings. However, the strips were not jingoistic or sensationalistic. Goodwin's models were the 1950s EC Comics war titles

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-12628635379250030252010-03-07T00:00:00.006-05:002012-01-09T23:29:03.797-05:00

This short journeyman piece from twenty-odd years ago is the inspiration for its publisher's most recent crossover-event project, but it still ranks among Alan Moore's ephemera.Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: "Tygers," by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, is featured in DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. It is available for sale from Powell's Books. To purchase a copy, please click here.As

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-77529260985702020192010-03-03T20:36:00.005-05:002011-12-18T07:44:20.928-05:00

My review of Esther Pearl Watson's Unlovable, Volume One, is now up at The Comics Journal's Web site. The book is the first collection of Watson's humorous teen-girl angst strip from Bust magazine.Update 12/17/2011: The review is now posted on this site. Click here to read.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-522458323862015582010-03-01T13:55:00.007-05:002011-12-13T06:31:28.601-05:00

The Comics Journal has just posted my review of Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemercier's The Photographer, a graphic-novel memoir of Lefèvre's experiences as a photographer accompanying a Doctors without Borders mission in 1980s Afghanistan. The book doubles as a narrative showcase for Lefèvre's pictures. Emmanuel Guibert is a French cartoonist best-known for his graphic-novel

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-74599883502607537782010-02-24T17:47:00.006-05:002010-02-24T18:21:54.339-05:00

The first volume of Josh Simmons' scatological fantasy-picaresque is a tired, amateurishly drawn rehash of dream-surrealist tropes.Jessica Farm, Volume One, by Josh Simmons, is available for sale from Powell's Books. to purchase a copy, please click here.The episodes of Josh Simmons’ Jessica Farm are constructed around the dynamic of Snoopy Syndrome. In Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, the Snoopy

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-70911542142615050562010-02-04T18:36:00.003-05:002010-02-04T18:47:19.924-05:00

Click picture to enlarge.

Robert Stanley Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578811893036566665.post-32476514359620190022010-02-03T16:09:00.006-05:002011-03-21T06:29:37.326-04:00

Bonnie Jo Campbell's treatment of a break-in's aftermath is a frightening little story about the most fragile of victims: one's sense of security, well-being, and identity. "The Trespasser" is featured in Bonnie Jo Campbell's short-story collection American Salvage, a nominee for both this year's National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It is available for sale from

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