This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder...Best Wishes by Mike Richardson and Paul Chadwick, one of the best graphic novels I’ve read all year; the very weird Arakawa Under the Bridge by Hikaru Nakamura; and Simpsons Comics Explosion #4!
Just wrote this for AMAZON: From one Tony to another, I have to say this book is a revelation. Only a mensch could have written a book like this, this way, this completely, while disregarding a certain graphic novel that painted a certain Big Hat superhero in tones of derangement. Tony Isabella is, of course, rightfully respected as a creator (and Stephen Sennett's right about Tony's Derleth adaptation of "The Drifting Snows" being the best thing to appear in a Marvel black and white magazine). Writing from a writer's standpoint, Tony encapsulates each of his thousand picks in a remarkable way. For this book to be a stand-alone is, for the ultra-popular comic field the way it has grown in the last thirty years, unconscionable. There should already be two or three more companion volumes. No, I did not agree with every one of Isabella's Items of Interest contained herein, but there were enough goodies in the majority by which any sensitive critic might aptly point out Tony's perspicacity. Having written "Punk Zone," (published in Epic Illustrated in 1981, the one with the Howie Chaykin blind guitarist cover), I know how hard it is to create a comic book. That so many have taken up the holy chores is to be lauded, and for Tony to have written this canonical text lauding a premier thousand, itself a holy chore, is in itself deserving of huzzahs. I, Tony (Daley) am delighted to have another Tony do this volume. (I like the Isabella blog, but, please--another book?) I hope for continued sales of this volume, because many more people should be reading it.
ReplyDeleteJust wrote this for AMAZON: From one Tony to another, I have to say this book is a revelation. Only a mensch could have written a book like this, this way, this completely, while disregarding a certain graphic novel that painted a certain Big Hat superhero in tones of derangement. Tony Isabella is, of course, rightfully respected as a creator (and Stephen Sennett's right about Tony's Derleth adaptation of "The Drifting Snows" being the best thing to appear in a Marvel black and white magazine). Writing from a writer's standpoint, Tony encapsulates each of his thousand picks in a remarkable way. For this book to be a stand-alone is, for the ultra-popular comic field the way it has grown in the last thirty years, unconscionable. There should already be two or three more companion volumes. No, I did not agree with every one of Isabella's Items of Interest contained herein, but there were enough goodies in the majority by which any sensitive critic might aptly point out Tony's perspicacity. Having written "Punk Zone," (published in Epic Illustrated in 1981, the one with the Howie Chaykin blind guitarist cover), I know how hard it is to create a comic book. That so many have taken up the holy chores is to be lauded, and for Tony to have written this canonical text lauding a premier thousand, itself a holy chore, is in itself deserving of huzzahs. I, Tony (Daley) am delighted to have another Tony do this volume. (I like the Isabella blog, but, please--another book?) I hope for continued sales of this volume, because many more people should be reading it.