What It's About

     I was on an author panel a few weeks ago and someone asked the question "how do you decide what to write next?"  There are a number of factors that go into this (a good idea for a story really helps, for instance) but a crucial element, and my answer to the question was, I write a story because a feel like I have something important I need to say in it.  We are in an era when more and more of our stories are about escaping what is going on in our lives and in the world, and God knows, there's plenty a person wouldn't want to think about these days.  But doesn't that mean that our stories should make us think about the world more carefully rather than less?  Shouldn't our stories make us consider things in a new way that could -- oh, I don't know -- help make the world better?
     Star Trek always tried to do that.  Star Trek Into Darkness gets some things right (charming performances and strong characterizations) and some things wrong (it draws on only a single Star Trek "text" as its entire inspiration -- spoiler alert: don't click on the last link if you don't want to know what that text is).  But it's about something, something that is directly relevant to the world we live in.  Whether you leave the theater thrilled with all the fun you've had or frustrated by its flaws, at least it offers you something important to consider, if you choose to.  And that's Star Trek. 

Stories

     Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials Trilogy, said "after nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."
     This one doesn't feel like it requires any further comment. 

The Librarian Manifesto

     Here is everything the world needs to know about librarians and libraries. 

Captain America, Bonkers Version

     Captain America is hitting a high-water mark in its history with the current run by writer Rick Remender and artist John Romita, Jr.  They have taken the Captain out of his standard mileu and dropped him into the utterly bonkers Dimension Z.  As weird as it is, this bizarre, monster-infested, war-torn environment is proving ideal for exploring the character's greatest strength, namely, his ironclad refusal to ever lay down and die.  This has always been Captain America's defining and most compelling characteristic, and Mr. Remender takes us even deeper into the formation of this extraordinary willpower by exploring the character's early history in greater detail than ever before.  Meanwhile, Mr. Romtia Jr.'s artwork captures the terror of Dimension Z, even as it evokes the desperate but more innocent days of the Depression for the flashback sequences.  Despite the fact that he is the son of John Romita (one of the industry's defining talents), Mr. Romita, Jr. captures the dynamisim of Jack Kirby unlike any other artist working today (which is particularly appropriate for this run, which is itself an homage to the King's 1970's work on the character).
     The first arc of this series will be collected in June, but in the meantime, individual issues arrive monthly at your local comic store and are well worth a read.

High-Flying History

There is no shortage of excellent books on the history and cultural impact of comic books.  Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright and Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones come immediately to mind).  However, Larry Tye's recent offering Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero has taken a spot among the very top.  By looking at the quintessential hero and tracing his history from preconception to near future, he not only manages to explore what makes the character so much a part of our cultural psyche, but also uses the enduring hero as a lense through which to examine the history of the comic book form and even the last eighty years of culture itself.  Perhaps most importantly, he tells the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the two Cleveland just-barely-grow-ups that created the Man of Steel, in a more balanced, intimate and complete narrative then anyone has ever managed.  Mr. Tye's research is unrivaled.  His endnotes alone are thirty-five pages long and make for as fascinating a read as the rest of the book.