Category Archives: Books

Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

You don’t need to look any further for a magnificent read when it comes to a series of graphic novels than Joe Hill’s and Gabriel Rodriguez’s Locke & Key.

It is a series built upon the very fundamentals of great story telling that art can only ever enhance.  The premise of a unique story, the realisation that you care about the way each character is drawn from the writer’s imagination and lovingly captured by the artist, the pace of the narrative, whether it is fast or slow doesn’t matter and the action and thoughts drawing you ever deeper into their own world, blurring the lines between narrative symbolism and the representation of Humanity’s great assets, that of the overwhelming power of vision, inspiration and creativity.

Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(700 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

Aquaman: Throne Of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It shows just how good an idea it was that the people behind D.C. Comics  came up with the concept of the New 52. A re-branding or re-imagining, which ever you wish to grasp onto, of their super heroes and the way that they were looked upon, from the casual interloper that may have been a staunch fan of their bitter rivals Marvel or the mass and gratefully received comic books and graphic novel fans who had shifted their purchasing power of the independents such as Dark Horse, it was a change that they could get on board with.

Aquaman: Throne Of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(666 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Crown Of Shadows. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There can be nothing more wonderfully terrifying to the mind than reading something, a classic gothic novel, a piece of macabre inducing poetry or indeed the prosaic style of any of the finest horror writers of the last hundred years, or finding a set of books that just make you squirm with delight with every turn of the page.

For anybody who loves the Graphic Novel, for anybody who the loves horror, Locke & Key is an absolute must and the third in its series, Crown of Shadows, maintains the very high standards that writer Joe Hill and artist extraordinaire Gabriel Rodriguez have thrilled fans with in the previous two books.

Locke & Key: Crown Of Shadows. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(497 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Sin City: Family Values. Graphic Novel Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

One of the most overwhelming features of the Sin City series is that of family. In a neo-noir world in which you would expect a dystopian vision to be lurking on every black and white panel drawn and scripted by Frank Miller, the surprising comfort afforded to the reader is that of the tight unit in which many of the characters are drawn into.

Sin City: Family Values. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(602 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Head Games. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The deadbolt should have been kept padlocked; the catch on the memory firmly kept in place and armed guards placed on every conceivable exit and as for the imagination…well that’s best left to Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez to care for. For the Locke family certainly need them to keep them safe or at least care for them in the same manner throughout as they do in Locke & key: Head Games.

Locke & Key: Head Games. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Sin City: Booze, Broads And Bullets, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Into every magnificent series must come a dip, a lack of form or supposed interest that makes all the other titles so far printed seem even more tantilising. In Frank Miller’s Sin City series that fall comes with the sixth in the range, Booze, Broads and Bullets.

Sin City: Booze, Broads And Bullets, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Welcome To Lovecraft. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Welcome to Lovecraft; welcome to the world of Joe Hill but whatever you find it might be better to keep it under Locke & Key.

Locke & Key: Welcome To Lovecraft was the opening graphic novel by the writer Joe Hill and top rated artist Gabriel Rodriguez and as graphic novels go it is sensational. A story of incredible depth but with the added bonus of some of the most interesting comic art to ever see the light of day that its only peers in the last twenty years would be arguably Watchmen and the Sin City series, certainly when it comes to independent graphic novels.

Locke & Key: Welcome To Lovecraft. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(601 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Aquaman: The Others. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Aquaman may well have been the poor relation for many years in terms of superheroes from the big two mainstream makers of comic books and graphic novels but in terms of modern story-telling, the fight against injustice actually going hand in hand with environmental concerns, it really has opened many fans eyes to the possibilities that was afforded to Arthur Curry due to the huge re-boot by D.C. Comics in the New 52 series.

Aquaman: The Others. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Geoffrey Beevers, The Forgotten Fields. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We perhaps like to think we look at the periods of time that went before us with a modern, dispassionate eye. An eye that picks over the fine details of what made the people of the time the way they were, the condition in which they allowed their lives to flourish or stagnate and the system of which they featured. We are not so far removed from the days that saw the world go to war in 1914, from the rush for Empire in the 19th Century, (instead of countries to conquer, there are now conglomerates who desire to own everything that moves) or even the so-called Dark Ages and the race to collect souls in the name of religion. How will future generations evaluate us, how can they decide what we were like if all they have to go by is the mess that we leave behind? This is the fascinating question that lurks at the heart of Geoffrey Beevers’ novel The Forgotten Fields.

Geoffrey Beevers, The Forgotten Fields. Book Review. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Aquaman, The Trench. Volume One. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There used to be a saying that you were either a Beatles fan or a Rolling Stones devotee, the same could be said of the big two comic book publishers in America, D.C. Comics and Marvel. Like the argument between The Stones and the four Liverpool musicians, there will also be a crossover who say for example find the compelling stories of Batman or Wonder Woman just as exciting as the moral guideline set out by Captain America or the incredible life of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, just as there are those who love The Beatles but also see the appeal of Paint It Black or Sympathy for the Devil.  However sympathy for D.C. Comics marine hero Aquaman has never really captured comic book fans in any kind of dramatic way.

Aquaman, The Trench. Volume One. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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