It’s not at all true that all unhappy families are different, no matter what famous writers may say — there are only so many kinds of unhappiness, and they recur again and again. And unhappy families breed unhappy people, who again fall into types — the sullen teenage boy, the cold and controlling mother, the…
The erstwhile “Berke” Breathed, who at some point in the last two decades learned what a “berk” was in British slang and decided to extend his professional name, presents one of the most interesting and stark success stories in the history of modern American strip comics: he lept to fame with Bloom County, almost from…
This week’s tempest in a book-pot was sparked yesterday by the fine writer Michael Chabon, but it could easily have been any one of a thousand other authors. In an interview with the Washington Post, occasioned by the upcoming flood of his back catalog into electronic formats, Chabon complained about his royalty rates: When it’s…
This week’s Reviewing the Mail begins with a long-distance shout-out to Ellen Wright, who started at Wiley the first week I did, but has since moved up and on to working in Publicity with the fine folks at Orbit US. My pipeline of Yen Press titles — Yen being the manga arm of Orbit —…
From a Wall Street Journal article about e-book prices, from some random shmoe-off-the-street: It’s hard to justify the purchase of e-books that are priced at $10 to $15 when you can buy the real book on Amazon used for $2 or $3. Compare this to equally truthful pearls of wisdom: It’s hard to justify the…
The end of the year is fast approaching, which means Certain People (I name no names) realize that they need to use up their vacation days or lose them. Changing subjects entirely, today I took off from work, and most of what I did was bop into the city to do some book-shopping. (I had…
Before I get to the box that came today, I have to thank Glenn Hauman, who was responsible for several big boxes of stuff that showed up semi-mysteriously yesterday, while I was at work. He was trying to get me started on rebuilding the collection that the flood destroyed, and it was one of the…
John Wayne Cleaver is not a serial killer; he wants you to know that up front. He’s also not, sadly, a typical American teenager, though he somewhat wishes that he could be. Thirdly, he’s not officially a sociopath — that diagnosis can only be given to an adult, and John is only fifteen. What he…
My only current paying freelance gig has been shot out from under me yet again; Realms of Fantasy magazine is being shut down for the third (I think) time in as many years. SF Scope has the full story. Thanks to all of the owners of RoF for pouring money into it, even though that…
They were announced this past weekend at the World Fantasy Convention (where else?), held this year in beautiful, sunny San Diego. Since I’ve been a judge for this award (a few years back now; the scars have completely healed), I’ve got a higher regard for the winners, and now I really need to track down…
And here are four more graphic novels (or similar beasts) that I neglected to write about soon after I read them, when they were fresh in my mind. Let’s see what I care to remember… Mister Wonderful is part of the endless repackaging of Daniel Clowes, though this piece (unlike most of his recent books)…
I won’t say that I’m not an elitist — why wouldn’t anyone want to consider themselves elite? — but I still deeply believe that the books that I love are intrinsically wonderful, and that enjoying them is something that any half-smart and basically literate person should be able to do. Unfortunately, the world does not…
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