Category Archives: Books

Doctor Who: Engines Of War. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

It was perhaps arguably one of the greatest twists in the long history of the much loved television series Doctor Who, the appearance of John Hurt as The Doctor who went to war. The Time War, talked about since the return of the man from Gallifrey, perhaps a throw-away line to get round why the programme had been shamefully off air in its original format, one film aside, since 1989. An off the cuff comment which came to be the dystopian nadir in which tantalised the show’s legion of fans like a hungry wolf being offered a free slap up meal with a herd of caribou and then getting to have the dinner guests for deserts.

Doctor Who: Engines Of War. Book Review. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Fables: Storybook Love, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Love, for some a fairy tale, for others it is the start of a nightmare, a time in which everything they do is wrong and in which can lead to anguish, despair and hopelessness and yet in between the immensity of the emotions, something grand stirs, something in which the future can be held tightly.

For immortals love can be complicated, for a creature of the fairy tale, complicated doesn’t even cover it, it is more akin to placing your trust to a pyromaniac and asking them to make sure it doesn’t catch fire.

Fables: Storybook Love, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Age Of Ultron, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

When Henry Pym built the entity known as Ultron, nobody really could have foresaw what was going to happen down the line in the often convoluted but truly entertaining world of Marvel Comics.

Age Of Ultron is one of the graphic novels in which was always begging to be written, it would sit majestically alongside other crossovers that have thrilled Marvel fans across the ages and would be thought of in the same high esteem as perhaps Days Of Future Past and The Secret Wars…it is just a pity that high expectations doesn’t always play the same game that the reader’s minds wishes beyond hope that they would.

Age Of Ultron, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Fables: Animal Farm. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Who killed Cock Robin? Well in any Revolution there are always going to be casualties, some will say those that die in ensuing civil war are martyrs to the cause, some are murdered by design and others, innocents like Cock Robin, were just caught in the cross fire of the opening skirmishes and jostling for position.

Revolutions in the mind of Bill Willingham though are so much more complex, the land of Fable is not as straightforward nor as nice as many believe it to be. If Fables in Exile set the stall out for what is a remarkably well written series then Fables: Animal Farm is the dark underside that makes the series make sense.

Fables: Animal Farm. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

The Flash: Rebirth, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Heroes never stay dead, at least not in the world of fiction and certainly not in the world of the graphic novel. Merchandise, fan pressure, the thought of a new riveting story in which to place a much loved character in, all can play their part in bringing back to existence a hero who gave up life willingly in the fight against evil. Even a true villain never stays dead for long. So that should be the case with Barry Allen, arguably the finest incarnation of D.C.’s speedy hero that ran against the wind.

The Flash: Rebirth, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Arrow, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

It seems strange in a way to read a graphic novel that is based on a highly rated television programme that in itself is based upon one of D.C Comics greatest publications and whose central character turned up from time to time in the American programme about Superman’s early life, Smallville. Go back far enough with this idea and the chicken-egg scenario will admit defeat and leave the comedy circuit and go back to the poultry farm to relative ignominy.

Arrow, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Fables: Legends in Exile. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is trouble in the land of make believe, the images of fables have made their way into the world of humanity and are living amongst us, living their lives, their dreams and facing their nightmares in a world that is every bit as fantastical as their own but with none of the happy endings…legends after all still need to breathe.

Fables: Legends in Exile. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Flash: Volume 2, Rogues Revolution. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Of all the heroes that you encounter when travelling through the world of D.C. Comics, it could be argued that Barry Allen, The Flash, is by the most accessible to both the relative new comer to the land where fiction meets graphic art and the long standing devotee of comic book/graphic novel publications to grace the pages in which the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman have gained the most adoration over the years.

The Flash: Volume 2, Rogues Revolution. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

The Flash: Move Forward. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

D.C. Comics’ Justice League has so many parts to it, so many interesting characters within its framework that at times the reader could be forgiven for overlooking perhaps one of the more interesting members within its ranks, that of Police Scientist Barry Allen, A.K.A The Flash.

With American television finally producing a television series of one of D.C.’s finest creations, on the back of the success that The Arrow has had, The Flash seems finally ready to take his place in the wider world of acknowledgement as the great hero he has always been.

The Flash: Move Forward. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Wonder Woman Volume Two: Guts. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Hell is a place that is reserved for the most evil, the most corrupt or those that have caused such monumental anguish to a fellow human being and it takes a great person to avoid its lure and perhaps aside from Faustus, only a daughter of Zeus might stand any chance of dealing with the realm.

For Wonder Woman, single handed the finest female creation in the D.C. Universe the reason she has to go to Hell is to return Zola, a mortal woman who is the latest in line to be carrying the father of the Gods’ child, back to realm of humanity and away from the lives of those who manipulate the lives of mortals for their own benefit or amusement.

Wonder Woman Volume Two: Guts. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)