Scanning the Bookshelf

The "So Many Books" team of writers, editors, researchers and literary spooks has uncovered a fine assortment of graphic novels and illustrated works.

Let's start with an easy one, sure to make the time pass: "The Talisman: Volume 1, the Road of Trials" (Del Ray, 160 pages, $25), illustrated by Tony Shasteen and Nei Ruffino, adaptation by Robin Furth.

The trio does fine with the Stephen King and Peter Straub chiller, which was originally published in 1984 and returned as a comic book series last year. The artwork is dark, no surprise, to match the book's tone; the story remains compelling, with all the hooks you'd expect from King and Straub.

This next work also took a side path to graphic novel: First it was a concept album, then a live rock set piece, and then a film. Quick, name it! Pop culture hounds already know the answer: It's "Neil Young's Greendale" (Vertigo, 160 pages, $19.99).

Young gets credit for "guidance and direction" of his environmentally sensitive story's transition to print under the very able hands of writer Joshua Dysart and artist Cliff Chiang. The drawings are stark, black and white, as befits the story; you can easily envision Young morphing this yet again into an animated short.

Another venture from an "outsider": novelist Luis Alberto Urrea. This one has a back story:

Cinco Puntos Press published a collection of short stories by the Pulitzer-nominated author in 2002, and one story "kept swimming around" as a potential illustrated work, just waiting for the right artist. Enter Christopher Cardinale via a coincidence, and, voila, his first stand-alone work: "Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush" (Cinco Puntos Press, 64 pages, $17.95).

Cardinale's woodblock-like art panels give additional life to Urrea's magical realism in this nostalgic tale of youth, longing and one crotchety old guy who leaves his graffiti writing on everything from skeletons to the narrator's buttocks. All in all, a charming outing.

"Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980" (Abrams, 302 pages, $40) is a hefty collection of excellent, MIA works.

Dan Nadel has assembled a selection of neglected comic book stories that, for one reason or another, fell by the wayside. Genres range from superhero to jungle, from writers responsible for everything from "Little Lulu" to "Wonder Woman," from "Tarzan" to "Sub Mariner."

The comics can stand on their own, but Nadel does a nice job setting each up with a short essay, detailing each artist and placing each work in the context of its times.

Joe Kubert ("Sgt. Rock") draws on real life for his graphic novel "Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965" (DC Comics, 200 pages, $24.99).

The book started life as a syndicated newspaper series in 1967 to coincide with Veterans Day.

Years later, a soldier whom Kubert portrayed contacted him; their conversations about the battle of Dong Xoai inspired Kubert to write and illustrate this work about an assault by Viet Cong against a Special Forces unit in a remote village.

This ain't no Sgt. Rock — "Dong Xoai" is a vivid, and vividly drawn, rendering of combat and the young GIs caught up in it.

Conflicts are also the focus of "War Is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the World's Worst War Zones" (New American Library, 124 pages, $12.95, paperback), David Axe's raw account of his days as a freelance journalist in such lovely battlegrounds as East Timor, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He's a war junkie, plain and simple. Matt Bors' artwork expertly captures, and amplifies, Axe's emotionally draining stories.

Whoopie! "Wednesday Comics" (DC Comics, 190 pages, $49.99) gathers works that were printed last summer on unbound, color newsprint in a large-format, newspaper-sized hardcover edition.

Retro? You betcha. There are 16 takes on superheroes ranging from Superman to Green Lantern as well as such characters as Metamorpho and Metal Man. The talent is equally broad, with such Big Names as Neil Gaiman, Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, Dave Gibbons, Eduardo Risso and Paul Pope pitching in for the fun. Grab a copy and settle back for some thrilling Saturday, er, "Wednesday," morning reading.

Cormac McCarthy, watch your back! Jeff Lemire's entered your turf.

The twisted writer-illustrator takes the road tale to, well, a twisted place with "Sweet Tooth: Out of the Deep Woods" (Vertigo, 122 pages, $9.99, paperback). The story follows young Gus, a human-animal hybrid who teams up with a drifter after the death of his father.

Oh, yeah, there's a post-apocalyptic setting, and a journey, all fueled by Lemire's originality.

Peter O'Donnell passed away in May, at age 90. Luckily, his works live on in a series of reprints from Titan Books.

"Modesty Blaise: Death in Slow Motion" (102 pages, $19.95, paperback) is classic, penned when men were men and women were voluptuous espionage agents. The story is well done, but that's almost beside the point. Bonus: an informative intro by Eisner-winner Steve Epting.

For me, "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (Everyman's Library, 1,059 pages, $32) is the icing on the cake for this month's column.

As Christopher Buckley puts it in his lovely and fitting introduction to the man who "has been a working author for 71 years": "Many writers are prolific. It is perhaps Ray's influence on other writers — to say nothing of his readers — that sets him apart. It is profound."

There are a hundred great tales here — "... only a sampling of the canon ... a miraculous legacy" — so spread them out, savor them. Sing the body electric!

To find out more about Martin Zimmerman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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