An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories edited by Ivan Brunetti

An amazing doorstep of a book featuring excerpts of American comic fiction chronologially from about the fifties onwards. You wont find any superheroes here, this is the history of the comics that appeared in papers, independent graphic fiction and fanzines, of Robert Crumb and Maus and Peanuts.

Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman

Visually and narratively this is a treat. In a future in which McCain won the United States Presidential elections Jimmy Burns is a normal big boy playing with his new toy, a handheld video camera that streams live to the net, filming his Brooklyn neighbourhood for his left wing blog when the local Starbucks explodes in a suicide bombing. On the back of his ensuing fame Jimmy is employed by Global News to go out to Bagdad and report on the Iraq War. There he finds himself caught in a lethal war of words, public opinion and guns between the secretive Sword of Islam, the American military and UN forces and the US media.

I love the graphic art used in this story, on the one hand there are standard circular white balloons with black writing which contrast with internal dialogue in black boxes with white writing, but this is complemented by great little touches such as battery indicators and buffering speeds on the web streaming footage and the scrolling headlines running across the bottom of the news footage. The artwork itself is in the style of video games with drawn characters over photographic backgrounds.

The graphics and narrative work together as a brilliant indictment of the insularity of American culture and its media coverage, my favourite sequence is the reportage of the nuking of Bangalore by Global News where the concern is not humanitarian but rather the National Emergency McCain calls because of the widespread crippling of 24 hour customer services hotlines which have been farmed out overseas because of the low cost of labour.

A terrifyingly accurate and funny satire, it never understates the horror of war and the effect it has on Iraquis, rather, it reminds us of these horrors by presenting them through the lenses of blog footage, mass media news footage and the military engines of war and graphically demonstrating how each of these are deeply dehumanising and are as a screen we can place between ourselves and the reality of living through such a nightmare.

The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender

I had the honour of reading DC Vertigo's comic The Sandman as it was being released as a monthly comic in the 1990s, and Bender has written an excellent concordance, elegantly and clearly written, the kind of book that sends you straight back to the comics themselves to see what it is being talked about.

Part 1 (Overview) does what it says on the tin, it introduces The Sandman (Chapter 1) and gives a brief biography of its creator Neil Gaiman and his creative influences (Chapter 2).

Part 2 (The Sandman Collections) comprises chapters 3-12, each chapter is dedicated to of the 10 trade paperbacks that collected the 75 issues and 3 specials and this is done in chronological order. Bender begins each chapter with a well written synopsis of the comic issues covered by each tpb and then moves on to 'Some Things Worth Noticing' before finishing each chapter with an extended interview with Gaiman. Each chapter is interspersed with black and white illustrations and by grey text boxes which contain information, anecdotes and interviews from the dozens of pencillers, inkers, colourists, letterers, editors and celebrities that were involved with the series.

In the centre of the book is a gorgeous set of colour plates displaying some of the Sandman trading cards, tarot cards, proposal sketches, posters, figurines and Dave McKean covers.

Part 3 (Backstory) covers the origins of the major and some of the minor characters of the series (some are mythology, some have their roots in the older DC Universe, some from literature and some just out of Gaiman's imagination), repeating motifs and patterns, the nature of comic as medium and The Sandman's audience.

A worthy collection, certainly not just a cash-in

The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore

The second of the Ingo quadrology really picks up pace.

Sapphire and Conor have moved from their home, a tiny cottage by the sea to the little town of St Pirans to move in with their mother's boyfriend, diver Simon. Their mother wants to get all of them away from the memories in their former home, especially those of Saphy and Conor's missing father. But despite the noise of the surrounding human lives Conor and especially Sappy are drawn back to the sea and to Ingo, the world beneath the waves.

Sapphy increasingly finds herself with divided loyalties, pulled between the worlds of Ingo and Air and made increasingly aware of the sacrifices she and her loved ones would have to make if she decided to live permanently in one or the other. These come to a head in three incidents: Sapphy's hearbreakingly disappointing reunion with her father, a genuinely disturbing encounter; in the near death of Sapphy's loyal golden retriever Sadie when she tries to follow Sapphy into Ingo and her recovery under the hands of Granny Carne; and the unleashing of the the tides when the Tide Knot unravels. Completely compelling

The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore

The second of the Ingo quadrology really picks up pace.

Sapphire and Conor have moved from their home, a tiny cottage by the sea to the little town of St Pirans to move in with their mother's boyfriend, diver Simon. Their mother wants to get all of them away from the memories in their former home, especially those of Saphy and Conor's missing father. But despite the noise of the surrounding human lives Conor and especially Sappy are drawn back to the sea and to Ingo, the world beneath the waves.

Sapphy increasingly finds herself with divided loyalties, pulled between the worlds of Ingo and Air and made increasingly aware of the sacrifices she and her loved ones would have to make if she decided to live permanently in one or the other. These come to a head in three incidents: Sapphy's hearbreakingly disappointing reunion with her father, a genuinely disturbing encounter; in the near death of Sapphy's loyal golden retriever Sadie when she tries to follow Sapphy into Ingo and her recovery under the hands of Granny Carne; and the unleashing of the the tides when the Tide Knot unravels. Completely compelling

Ingo by Helen Dunmore (audio)

Sapphire lives with her brother Conor in a tiny beach cottage on the edge of the Cornish sea, their days are idyllic, swimming and playing in and around their secret cove below the house. The only shadow is their lost father and their sad mother who works all hours as a waitress to pay the bills. Then Conor begins to absent himself and Sapphire, naturally saddened and curious, follows him to the sea edge where he sees her taking with a mysterious girl. One day, in frustration, she pursues what she thinks is him but coming up close realises the boy is a stranger, and very strange at that. The boy and girl draw Conor and Sapphire into the world of Ingo where myth, family history and their own lives change shape irrepably.

Great storytelling, but a bit constrained and clearly the first of a series (a quadrology in this case), but I can't wait to read The Tide Knot.

I should mention that I've been listening to this on a Playaway audiobook, a dinky little thing that is basically a preloaded mp3, much easier than loading onto my mp3 player which is a bit archaic and doesn't necessarily get the discs in the right order...

Ingo by Helen Dunmore (audio_

Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, Steve Leialoha & P. Craig Russell

This is the fourth collected TPB of the DC Vertigo Fables series and it doesn't disappoint. Set in Fabletown - the neighbourhood in New York human fairy story and fable characters fled to after they were driven out of their homes by the Adversary - and The Farm - the sanctuary for the equivalent non human characters such as the three little pigs - March of the Wooden Soldiers provides some of the history of the last stand against the Adversary and Boy Blue's sadness at being on the last boat out. Then Boy Blue's old flame Red Riding Hood, lost in the last battle, returns but all is not as it seems and the Battle of Fabletown ensues, fable against the brothers of Pinocchio. Meanwhile, Prince Charming is running for Mayor of Fabletown against Old King Cole and Snow White is trying to to juggle her job as deputy mayor with her about the cub in her belly and for Bigby Wolf...

Dark Entries: A John Constantine Novel by Ian Rankin, art by Werther Dell'Endera

Magical jack of all trades Constantine and famous crime writer Rankin, creator of Inspector Rebus, is a mouthwatering combination and it doesn't disappoint. In Dark Entries Constantine is hired by the slick Matthew Keene when the new hottest reality TV show 'Haunted Mansion' begins to go wrong. The fame desperate kids in the Mansion are encountering hauntings the production team haven't created. So Constantine signs the waivers and goes in as a mole, but being Constantine he soon figures out the darker truth behind the hauntings, terrifying enough in themselves. Watch for when the borders of the frames turn from black to white. Rankin does a great job of keeping Constantine in character, Dell'Edera's black and white strips are stark and elegant and the whole is a brilliant indictment of the hunger for reality tv.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Walter Hartright is a young drawing master who gets his break when he is recommended to teach water colours to the two young ladies under the care of a Mr Fairlie of Limmeridge House, but on his way back to London from his mother's house across Hampstead Heath early in the morning he encounters the eponymous woman in white who has an unspoken connection to Limmeridge, and so she, he and a vividly drawn cast of characters are drawn into a complex dance of deception, fraud, love and powerplay. Held me and drove me on until the last page.