Category Archives: Books

Justice League: The Grid, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Treachery, in the world of action comics or the graphic novel, not one plot device captures the imagination more and makes the reader feel aggrieved at the sense of injustice that has befallen the team or the solo hero. The disloyalty meted out is of such a despicable nature that it is akin to treason to the state. The betrayal of a handshake given in good faith is almost left hanging in the mind as you see in the other person’s eyes just exactly they are planning to do. When it is properly captured by the writer it is the most symbolic action to be placed down on paper and in the fourth volume of Justice League, under the banner of the New 52, The Grid, betrayal and treason come no higher that one of their own turns against them.

Justice League: The Grid, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Stephen King, Mr Mercedes. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

After so many years of writing in a particular style that even the appearance of a full stop suddenly placed before the reader’s eyes was enough to have them scurrying for the covers and checking nervously under the bed, to witness Stephen King, the ultimate in the name of Horror in the 20th Century, take on a straight forward suspense thriller is akin to see him offer a book aimed at children…Mr Mercedes is no My Pretty Pony though, then again it is also no Under The Dome either.

Stephen King, Mr Mercedes. Book Review. full post

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

The Guardians Of The Galaxy, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

One of the most perplexing and perhaps insistent of all the creations by Marvel comics is The Guardians of the Galaxy. Unlike other explorations into the team ethic made by Marvel, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, West Coast Avengers, X-Men for example, The Guardians of the Galaxy is one that doesn’t necessarily jump off the page and grab the sympathetic attention of the reader. It could be argued that it delves into a space that would have been more suited to the underworld/underground realm of comic books and yet given the amount of time it takes a class A comet to light up the sky and bring an end to all life on the planet, it grows upon you.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Justice League: Volume Three, The Throne of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10

There is no dispute to what the New 52 series has done for D.C. Comics. It has made even the most dedicated fan of Marvel and the independent Graphic Novel publishers fall in love for the re-branding of one of the comic industries’ big two. Where at one time, with the absolute exception of Batman, the very possible concession to Wonder Woman and certainly in America, the absolute mainstay of the franchise Superman, there was never really anything for a lover of the comic book to latch on to and take to their heart.

Justice League: Volume Three, The Throne of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The shadows are drawing in and the darkness has claimed yet more lives in the small American town of Lovecraft, the reckoning is yet to happen and it will take an strength that is far beyond the years of the two older Locke children in which to save humanity from a force that will destroy or enslave them forever. Such is the delicious darkness that lives within the final graphic novel by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez in the Locke and Key series that Alpha & Omega could well be the finest finish to a the finest set of graphic novels ever created.

Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(605 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Clockworks. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Every outstanding Graphic Novel or superhero requires a back story, there is a law somewhere, probably laid down by story teller supremo Stan Lee on a scrap of paper in a rest room and the flourished signature witnessed by Jack Kirby. The paper, possibly now residing on a wall in Marvel offices just below the enormous Captain America drawing that greets visitors to the building in New York, is surely seen by all aspiring writers and artists, none so more as Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez and in the book Clockworks.

Locke & Key: Clockworks. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(568 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Wonder Woman, Volume One: Blood. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

If you look at so called Big Two of American comic publishing, then Marvel for some reason has infinitely more heroines in which to glorify than those that live in the D.C. Universe. Even away from Marvel, which seems to have embraced with a lot more heart the reality of women who can hold their own against any of their male counterparts and in many ways are actually far superior to them, after all who would you rather have alongside you in a fight to the death, Susan Storm/Richards or Benjamin Grimm?

Wonder Woman, Volume One: Blood. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Justice League, Volume Two: The Villain’s Journey. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whatever they were paying Geoff Johns at D.C. Comics, to be honest it really was not enough. Almost single handed, (when isn’t writing a single handed occupation unless it involves film scripts and American television comedy?) he revitalised, what was in the eyes of many a dying flag ship, the crumbling dust of an empire that had been ground seemingly apart by Marvel’s prodigious output and the emergence of some true independent greats. Whether Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Terminator, Locke & Key or any other superbly written graphic art novel, D.C. seemed to be only holding together in part due to the bankability of its greatest creation, Batman.

Justice League, Volume Two: The Villain’s Journey. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(619 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Aquaman: Death Of A King, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The fourth volume in D.C Comics excellent revival of Aquaman brings all the facets together as if the running of a thousand taps had finally found a deep crevice in which to conjoin and multiply in. By bringing all these together and with the exceptional writing and artistry of all involved, it should be noted that Aquaman, the stuff of much unnecessary hilarity due to the poor nature and lack of respect shown the individual in the past; is arguably one of the most interest characterisations in the last 40 years of publications by D.C.

Aquaman: Death Of A King, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(548 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Justice League, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

All it takes is one person to turn everything you thought you understood about the world of comic art and graphic novels upside down, shake the stupidity of pre-conception out of your head and spank you with your rolled up, tattered copy of reasons why company is better than the other.

Justice League, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(673 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)