Category Archives: Books

Rob Davis, The Can Opener’s Daughter. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The art of the surreal is to draw attention to the sense of the off balance that we feel when we stop to look at the world from a position of standing still, to make us do more than think, but to accept that all we may have put faith in may be wrong, that we have forgotten to stop blindly accepting, that we don’t know how to communicate with someone with different ideas without starting a fight; to consent to the fantastic and weird is the best possible course of action that humanity can do.

Rob Davis, The Can Opener’s Daughter. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Rob Davis, The Motherless Oven. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

What may seem surreal to one, makes perfect sense in the eyes of another, and it is in this dichotomy of visual experiences that confronts the reader of Rob Davis’ The Motherless Oven, to delve further into the notion of the rationalising strange, that is what constitutes the embrace of imagination, of recognising that the extraordinary can happen.

Rob Davis, The Motherless Oven. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(505 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Davy Edge, The Darkling Dusk And Other Poems. Poetry Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It can only be hoped that the more you may know someone, the more they may surprise you, after all what is the point of the sunrise if you cannot enjoy the spectacle of the dusk and twilight that inhabits the same path.

Whilst night may fall and plunge the world into darkness, Dusk illuminates the shadows with one final kiss on the brow of the collective streets and buildings, the people’s thoughts which turn to images of lengthening shadows, the stranger by our side which has remained hidden by the pursuit of day, and whilst the shadow breathes one last time, it is to the Grandfather of American poetry that we remember that, “Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.”

Davy Edge, The Darkling Dusk And Other Poems. Poetry Review. full post

(555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Stephen King, The Institute. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

An author can obsess over the same story as many times as they wish, as long as they continue to change the narrative, the setting and the drama, it is after all within their power to set the tale anyway they wish if it means the reader is hooked on the detail; what must always alter is the flow, the discussion and the frank exchange of how the world responds.

Stephen King, The Institute. Book Review. full post

(555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Batman. The Dark Knight: Master Race. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Timing is everything, even when seen benefit of what may seem like distance between events, what you read, listen too, witness, can resonate through time and feel as if it is talking to you personally in the here and now.

That timing is paramount in the preserve of recognition, we understand the connection because the warning signs, the heartbeat of joy or the trepidation of our own fickle echo are calling out to be heeded, and regardless of whether we see the link as a song from the 60s, a paragraph from a book written in 1949 or even as a piece of graphic art that has been drawn and coloured for maximum effect, the resonating belief is one of stimulation and inspiration.

Batman. The Dark Knight: Master Race. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

David Rault, ABC Of Typography. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

How you convey the meaning of a word is important, equally just as significant is the way it appears in the body of a text, in the application of pen to paper, or in the semi glow of the computer screen; the misuse of a line full of capital letters can lead to distress to the modern eye, confrontational, hostile, it may have been unintentional, a slip of the fingers and then not bothering to change because the sender knew what it meant…but to the recipient it feels as if they are put in the eye of someone else’s storm, and the defence mechanism kicks in.

David Rault, ABC Of Typography. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(479 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Julie Birmant And Clement Oubrere, Isadora. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

Ballet divides opinion, but the dance never should. The ability to break, to smash the conventional is a right that few of us find the true appetite for, we may talk of revolution across every sphere and subject, but in the end we hold on, almost by our fingernails, kicking and screaming, to the orthodox and the dogma of the traditional.

Julie Birmant And Clement Oubrere, Isadora. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

Georges Simenon: The Carter Of La Providence. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

There is always a question that hangs over the artist’s head, the answer slipping in and out of conscious as they grapple with their vision and attempt to breathe life into it; a question that might scare them, can possibly be years in the making, how do I capture the intensity and drama of my first success as I sit here and contemplate my second offering to the public.

Georges Simenon: The Carter Of La Providence. Book Review. full post

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

Derf Backderf, My Friend Dahmer. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

How do we look in to the eyes of a killer, of a psychopath, of a human being who has fallen under the weight of madness and whose life will go on to unravel to the point of extreme actions taken, and not see either ourselves, or perhaps the part that we have played in that person’s downfall.

Derf Backderf, My Friend Dahmer. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(760 words, estimated 3:02 mins reading time)

Hallie Rubenhold, The Five: The Untold Lives Of The Women Killed By Jack The Ripper. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We are all guilty of playing the game one sadistic and evil man has managed to trick us into partaking, perhaps willingly as some have searched for answers to a 19th Century riddle, maybe in naïve conversation when we have been drawn into the media spotlight which routinely returns to the streets of Whitechapel, the chilling music reaching our ears, the sensationalist need for gossip but presented as a preamble into lively, even intellectual, discussion. In the shadow of Jack the Ripper we have all at some point ventured, and by doing so, we have created a smokescreen in which entertainment and investigation have become one and the same.

Hallie Rubenhold, The Five: The Untold Lives Of The Women Killed By Jack The Ripper. Book Review. full post

(696 words, estimated 2:47 mins reading time)