So What Are you Reading?: Generations
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I read the Badlands duology for the first time. I don't hear it talked about very much on here, and I can see why. Not much happens in each individual story. The Voyager section does work as a decent prelude to the episode "Caretaker," and specific dialogue sections show exactly how the story interlaces with the pilot for the series. The DS9 portion was my favorite, as it connects a lot of 5th season and other later season plot threads together, and it gives a POV for the Bashir changeling before "In Purgatory's Shadow" happens. Is the other changeling on DS9 an invention of the author (perhaps as an outgrowth of the "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" paranoia storyline) or something that I forgot from within the series?
Finished reading Michael Eury's The Team-Up Companion (TwoMorrows, 2022) around a week ago. I absolutely loved this book.
Now, this is another one of those types of books that I call an "If you like X, then you will really like this book about X" type of book.
If you love the "team-up" comic books of the 1960s, 1970s, and/or 1980s, then you will most enjoy this issue-by-issue breakdown of those wonderful late Silver Age and Bronze Age comics. If those types of comic books weren't among your favorites (or if you have no idea what I'm talking about), then this book is probably not for you.
Eury begins with clearly differentiating a "team-up" comic book (or comic book series) from a "crossover" comic, a "buddy book", and a "super-team" book. For the purposes of this companion, a team-up book is whenever you have an issue (or an entire series) which features "two different heroes join[ing] forces, with their logos appearing together on the cover". (A crossover is when a hero guest-stars in another hero's series, such as the Flash or Batman guest-starring in an issue of Superman. A buddy book is similar to a team-up but the two lead characters don't ever change, such as the Superman and Batman that appeared in just about every issue of World's Finest Comics, or when Captain America became Captain America and the Falcon for a stretch of issues, same with Green Lantern becoming Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Daredevil temporarily becoming Daredevil and Black Widow. A super-team book/series is "a collective, a club of heroes that gathers routinely to tackle dangers generally too intimidating for a single superhero".)
The Team-Up Companion is broken up into the following chapters: "The Brave and the Bold" (begun in 1955, the series that became comics' very first regular team-up comic with issue #50 (1963); at first featured two different characters each issue but became a "Batman and another character" team-up series with #59 (1965) and remained a Batman team-up book throughout the rest of its 200 issue run which ended in 1983), "World's Finest Comics" (focusing on the brief period from 1970 to 1972 when it became a "Superman-and-someone-not-necessarily-Batman team-up series), "Marvel Team-Up" (the long-running Spider-Man team-up series (except for a few issue headlined by the Human Torch or the Hulk instead of Spidey) that ran for 150 issues from 1972 to 1985), The New Scooby-Doo Movies (the 1972-1973 season of "Scooby-Doo" Saturday morning cartoons that featured guest-stars like Batman and Robin, Don Knotts, Josie and the Pussycats, the Three Stooges, Sonny and Cher, and the Harlem Globetrotters), Marvel Two-In-One (the long-running Ben Grimm/"The Thing" team-up series that ran for 100 issues from 1974 to 1983), Western Team-Up (1973), Super-Villain Team-Up (1975-1980), Super-Team Family (1975-1978), "DC-Marvel Team-Ups' (covering Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), Superman/Spider-Man (1981), Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk (1981), and The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans (1982)), "Harvey Team-Ups" (various Harvey Comics character team-ups like Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost), DC Super-Stars (1976-1978), DC Comics Presents (the long-running Superman team-up series that ran for 97 issues from 1978 to 1986), and "The 'Superman vs.' Team-Ups" (covering the Superman vs. Wonder Woman, Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, and Superman vs. Shazam! specials, all in 1978), followed by an extensive "Team-Up Companion Index".
In addition, Eury also features "Creator Spotlights" on Brave and the Bold writer Bob Haney, artist Jim Aparo, and writer Charlie Boatner, Marvel Team-Up writer Mike W. Barr and cover designer Eliot R. Brown, and a "Fan Spotlight" on DC Comics Presents fan contest winner Mark Teichman, whose prize was to be an actual guest-star in an issue of DC Comics Presents. And also loads of cool little sidebar blurbs of notable team-ups from both comics and also various other mediums besides comic books, like the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman team-up episodes, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Saturday morning's Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis team-ups, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny meeting in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Much of the interview quotes throughout The Team-Up Companion are taken from the long run of Back Issue Magazine, a comics nostalgia magazine that Eury edits that has been published since 2003 and that is now at issue #140 as of the time I'm writing this review plus other magazines published by TwoMorrows like Alter Ego and the first Comic Book Artist magazine series. But Eury did also conduct new interviews via phone and email specially for this book, too.
Again, I highly recommend The Team-Up Companion to anyone who, like me, grew up reading and loving the team-up comic books of the 1960s through 1980s. I gave this five out of five stars on GoodReads.
—David Young
Now, this is another one of those types of books that I call an "If you like X, then you will really like this book about X" type of book.
If you love the "team-up" comic books of the 1960s, 1970s, and/or 1980s, then you will most enjoy this issue-by-issue breakdown of those wonderful late Silver Age and Bronze Age comics. If those types of comic books weren't among your favorites (or if you have no idea what I'm talking about), then this book is probably not for you.
Eury begins with clearly differentiating a "team-up" comic book (or comic book series) from a "crossover" comic, a "buddy book", and a "super-team" book. For the purposes of this companion, a team-up book is whenever you have an issue (or an entire series) which features "two different heroes join[ing] forces, with their logos appearing together on the cover". (A crossover is when a hero guest-stars in another hero's series, such as the Flash or Batman guest-starring in an issue of Superman. A buddy book is similar to a team-up but the two lead characters don't ever change, such as the Superman and Batman that appeared in just about every issue of World's Finest Comics, or when Captain America became Captain America and the Falcon for a stretch of issues, same with Green Lantern becoming Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Daredevil temporarily becoming Daredevil and Black Widow. A super-team book/series is "a collective, a club of heroes that gathers routinely to tackle dangers generally too intimidating for a single superhero".)
The Team-Up Companion is broken up into the following chapters: "The Brave and the Bold" (begun in 1955, the series that became comics' very first regular team-up comic with issue #50 (1963); at first featured two different characters each issue but became a "Batman and another character" team-up series with #59 (1965) and remained a Batman team-up book throughout the rest of its 200 issue run which ended in 1983), "World's Finest Comics" (focusing on the brief period from 1970 to 1972 when it became a "Superman-and-someone-not-necessarily-Batman team-up series), "Marvel Team-Up" (the long-running Spider-Man team-up series (except for a few issue headlined by the Human Torch or the Hulk instead of Spidey) that ran for 150 issues from 1972 to 1985), The New Scooby-Doo Movies (the 1972-1973 season of "Scooby-Doo" Saturday morning cartoons that featured guest-stars like Batman and Robin, Don Knotts, Josie and the Pussycats, the Three Stooges, Sonny and Cher, and the Harlem Globetrotters), Marvel Two-In-One (the long-running Ben Grimm/"The Thing" team-up series that ran for 100 issues from 1974 to 1983), Western Team-Up (1973), Super-Villain Team-Up (1975-1980), Super-Team Family (1975-1978), "DC-Marvel Team-Ups' (covering Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), Superman/Spider-Man (1981), Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk (1981), and The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans (1982)), "Harvey Team-Ups" (various Harvey Comics character team-ups like Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost), DC Super-Stars (1976-1978), DC Comics Presents (the long-running Superman team-up series that ran for 97 issues from 1978 to 1986), and "The 'Superman vs.' Team-Ups" (covering the Superman vs. Wonder Woman, Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, and Superman vs. Shazam! specials, all in 1978), followed by an extensive "Team-Up Companion Index".
In addition, Eury also features "Creator Spotlights" on Brave and the Bold writer Bob Haney, artist Jim Aparo, and writer Charlie Boatner, Marvel Team-Up writer Mike W. Barr and cover designer Eliot R. Brown, and a "Fan Spotlight" on DC Comics Presents fan contest winner Mark Teichman, whose prize was to be an actual guest-star in an issue of DC Comics Presents. And also loads of cool little sidebar blurbs of notable team-ups from both comics and also various other mediums besides comic books, like the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman team-up episodes, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Saturday morning's Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis team-ups, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny meeting in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Much of the interview quotes throughout The Team-Up Companion are taken from the long run of Back Issue Magazine, a comics nostalgia magazine that Eury edits that has been published since 2003 and that is now at issue #140 as of the time I'm writing this review plus other magazines published by TwoMorrows like Alter Ego and the first Comic Book Artist magazine series. But Eury did also conduct new interviews via phone and email specially for this book, too.
Again, I highly recommend The Team-Up Companion to anyone who, like me, grew up reading and loving the team-up comic books of the 1960s through 1980s. I gave this five out of five stars on GoodReads.
—David Young
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Okay, I would say most of those non-comics examples fall under his definition of a crossover rather than a team-up. The TV appearances were all one character guest starring in the other's series. Godzilla vs. Megalon would have needed to have Jet Jaguar's name in the title to qualify as a team-up rather than a crossover by his definition -- although despite its title, GvM is really a Jet Jaguar movie that had Godzilla shoehorned in as a guest character in hopes of boosting ticket sales.
That's as much a part of the SW franchise as lightsabers. Goes all the way back to A New Hope, before it was even called A New Hope.
I'm about 70 pages (out of 460) into the 2023 World Book Year Book. And I'm convinced that reading the beginning section (highlights of the previous year, day-by-day) right before going to sleep led to some rather interesting dreams, one of which was a Janeway story (synopsis posted in "General Trek"; it's too ludicrous even for a fanfic in a 'zine, much less a produced episode or licensed TrekLit). The new Mel Brooks memoir, All About Me, is on-deck.
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Whaaaaaa??? I don't think you understood what I was saying. I meant that there are too many new characters in Light of the Jedi and the scenes change too swiftly between them, making it hard to get a clear sense of them or remember them all. That is specific to that book, certainly not true of SW productions or publications in general, including the other High Republic books I've read. That particular book just tries to do too much all at once.
By contrast, I'm currently reading Claudia Gray's first YA High Republic novel, set simultaneously with the events of Light of the Jedi, and it handles its characters far better, giving a clear sense of all their personalities and quirks and making them all memorable, so that I had a good sense of them all just a few chapters in, unlike LotJ where I was struggling to remember who was who most of the way through the book. Gray is simply a much better writer than the others.
Star Wars - Shadow of the Sith
Reading Vanguard: What Judgments Come.
It's, uhhh....it's taking a while. I don't know why exactly.
It's, uhhh....it's taking a while. I don't know why exactly.
The Dresden files: turn coat
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Last night I finished MWB's Burning Dreams. It's quite wonderful, and I feel like the producers of Strange New Worlds drew a lot of series backstory from Bonanno's novel. Either that, or they seriously extrapolated in very similar ways from a couple lines in "The Cage." It's too bad Bonanno didn't live to see SNW.
And it mostly fits with SNW. Put Anson Mount on the cover of a reissue, and a lot of readers would never know the difference.
And it mostly fits with SNW. Put Anson Mount on the cover of a reissue, and a lot of readers would never know the difference.
I think your take is right with the adult High Republic novels. I enjoyed the Phase I adult novels, but I also found myelf wanting to edit them down, and I found it helpful to think of them as the "spine" or, to use a different comparison, the comic book crossover mini-series event with all the characters and all of the action, while the YA books, the kids books, the short stories, the comics had the ability to take one or two characters and really focus on them. The adult novels, unfortunately, didn't have that luxury, but they felt more complete to me than Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire did back in 1996 (where a key plotline of the project -- Boba Fett -- wasn't even in the book).
I haven't started reading Phase II yet.
I've gone back and read the first couple of YA books, and I realize I should've read them, the adult novels, and the comics in chronological order. I was expecting something like Trek where the different series mostly stand alone and tell their own stories with minimal overlap, but these books and comics are all telling an interwoven narrative and building off each other's developments, so that the second adult novel references the Drengir story that was introduced in the first YA novel and the main comic, and there are references to side adventures that I assume are from the kids' books and other things. And the cliffhanger ending of the second adult novel leads into a side comic. I don't think that's a good way to structure it. Ideally, each subseries should be able to work entirely on its own with only subtle interconnections. Readers should be free to read as few or as many parts of the whole as they like and feel they've had a complete experience either way.
Really, I don't see a meaningful difference between the "adult" novels and the "YA" novels. They're about the same length, and they don't seem much different in the maturity of their story content, violence, or language; indeed, the YA novels discuss sex and romance at least as much as the "adult" books do. The only real distinction I can see is that the YA books focus on younger main characters, usually age 17-19. But that's kind of a meaningless distinction for Star Wars, given that Luke and Leia were 19 in the original film.
And so far, I've been enjoying the "young adult" books better than the "adult" books, since they get deeper into the characters. Although, as I said, I expect The Fallen Star to be better, because Gray is really good.
I just got a royalty check for "Night of the Vulture." $3.66.
Not bad for a story I wrote back during the Clinton Administration.
I just started Star Trek Discovery: The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller. So strange reading it now, and then taking in SNW, despite the fact this book was written before, i think? the series was even known about?
December issue of Model Railroader.
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