Drawing Cute with Katie Cook: 200+ Lessons for Drawing Super Adorable Stuff is almost exactly what it says. (One could quibble with “lessons”, since most of the pages are just four process steps, from the first blob to the finished sketch.) This is a book that educates through encouraging mimicry, a time-tested approach. I can’t think of anything else out there like it, and I’d easily give it to an aspiring artist. The chapters cover animals, food, sports and games, […]

I had no idea, when I posted preview pages from The Art of Harley Quinn, just how huge this book was! It’s almost the size of a TV tray! All the better to show off the art pieces within in glossy color. It’s not just pretty pictures, though. There’s a foreword by Paul Dini, character co-creator, with some thoughts on how Harley Quinn lends herself to different approaches. There’s a brief history, with quotes and memories from key players, of […]

Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power! is a young adult novel spun off from the popular comic series. It’s written by Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer, Supergirl: Being Super) with cover and occasional illustrations by Brooke A. Allen, co-creator of the Lumberjanes. It’s aimed at ages 10-14 years old, and older readers may find the writing a little strained, as early on, the book attempts to work in as much background and trivia about the characters and concept as possible. I thought it […]

The Many Lives of Catwoman: The Felonious History of a Feline Fatale is a comprehensive, readable history of this unique character. From the first chapter, where author Tim Hanley disassembles the myth of Bob Kane’s creation of the character (she was actually developed by Bill Finger, like much of Batman’s early mythology), it’s clear that he won’t be pulling his punches. (He previously wrote Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine and Investigating Lois Lane: […]

Review by KC Carlson For some reason, the 1960s suddenly descended upon the Carlson household over the last few weeks. Johanna has been binge-watching DVDs of Doctor Who (the earliest Doctors, of course). And the recently released Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD from Time Life unexpectedly plopped down on our front porch the other day — not too surprising, since we ordered it (but I, of course, had forgotten about it an hour after Johanna pressed […]

I don’t know why I didn’t know about this until now, but friend of the blog Michael Eury has a book coming out in April that explores the camp comics of fifty years ago. Hero-A-Go-Go: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, & Culture of the Swinging Sixties pretty much lays out its premise in its lengthy title. The book … celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone –the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even […]

Want to indoctrinate your favorite child into superheroes? Get them one or both of these large children’s picture books aimed at ages 3 and up. For a focus on powerful women, you want The Big Book of Girl Power, emphasizing how “DC’s super heroines… have the courage to fight for peace and justice.” Each character (with three exceptions) gets a two-page spread with an image (many drawn by Scott Kolins) and a brief explanation of her origin and abilities. The […]

Now available is Black Widow: Red Vengeance, a YA novel by Margaret Stohl featuring the Marvel Comics superspy. It’s a sequel to the popular Black Widow: Forever Red from last year. In Red Vengeance, Natasha Romanoff and Ava Orlova (introduced in the previous book and created by Stohl), aka Black Widow and Red Widow, have teamed up to “stop a conspiracy involving stolen nuclear warheads, mind-altering chemical weapons, and ultimately, betrayal by old friends and enemies alike.” It’s a globe-trotting […]