Review of
Cases of Sherlock Holmes, First Collector’s
Issue: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet comic version by
Renegade Press
Five out of five stars
There are many
famous fictional detectives that have delighted and entertained people for almost
two centuries. The first such detective was C. Auguste Dupin, first introduced
by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841, but the most famous is Sherlock Holmes, created by
Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes first appeared in 1887 and was so popular that there
was a public backlash when Doyle tried to kill off Holmes. He remains the most
popular fictional detective of all time, with many high quality stories and
other productions continuing the character. I have read the complete collection
of the original Doyle stories as well as many in isolation.
This Doyle story
in comic form keeps within the genre of the Holmes character. It is set in crowded
and dirty London of the late nineteenth century and is completely within the
lane of the stratified, class conscious British society. A wealthy financier
rushes to Holmes’ residence with a problem. He granted a loan to a wealthy and
very public man, accepting as collateral a national treasure that would be
described as priceless. While that item was not entirely missing, most of it is
present after some kind of robbery attempt and part of it is gone.
Holmes of
course listens to a complete description of the events and investigates,
tracking down the criminals as well as removing the suspicions of the innocent.
It is a story told using both text and images, which are in black and white. There
are no dialogue balloons. Perhaps the most interesting image is on page 5,
which is an extremely accurate rendition of Prince Charles, currently first in
line to the British throne.
Although it is
short, this story has a natural flow and has a specific conclusion. The last
four pages contain the beginning of a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle. Any
doubts that the great Holmes can properly appear in a comic book were dispelled
by this gem.
Review of
The Worst Call Ever!,
by Kyle Garlett and Patrick O’Neal ISBN 9780061251375
Five out of five stars
Even when meant to be exact, officiating is not
Major league baseball
keeps records of errors players make as it is a fundamental component of all sports.
Some of those mistakes decide games, even those involved in determining
champions. Histories of baseball mention them. For example, there is the famous
“Merkle’s Boner” in baseball that determined the winner of the National League
pennant in 1908.
Being human,
the people that officiate games in the major sports also make errors, most of
which are simply making a bad call. One of the most famous was the safe call by
first base umpire Don Denkinger in game six of the 1985 World Series. It
arguably determined the winner, although the St. Louis Cardinals seemed to
simply give up after that call. More recently, there was the erroneous safe
call made by Jim Joyce in what would have been the last out of a perfect game.
Published in
2007, this book was written after replay review was instituted in the NFL but
before it was first used in major league baseball in 2008. It features bad
calls made by officials in all of the major sports, including golf, auto racing
and even curling. It is an interesting history of what has gone wrong in the
inexact science of arbitrating professional sports.
While the
advent of replay challenges, some of the most egregious errors that have
happened since have been corrected at the time. However, there are still errors
and no-calls that manage to elude the watchful eyes of all aspects of the video
review. There was no event worse than the one now known as the “Fail Mary,” a
bad call that decided the winner of an NFL game. So officiating is still an
exact operation.
Review of
Norman Rockwell Collection 500 PC Jigsaw
Puzzle a Time for Greatness
Three out of five stars
Unnecessarily difficult
While I enjoy
the subject matter and the image, this puzzle is unnecessarily difficult
because the pieces do not interlock very well. There were many times when I had
to reattach sections because of a very minor bump. Even a light nudge to a leg
of the card table could pop pieces out of their sockets. Moving a separate
section from one location to another is almost impossible.
The pieces are
very irregular in shape, which ordinarily does not bother me. In this case it
did, because much of the instability was due to the lack of uniformity in the
pieces.
Review of
Fantastic Voyage,
by Isaac Asimov ISBN 0553271512
Four out of five stars
Too many
cliffhangers
As Asimov
mentions in his autobiographical material, since this was a novelization of a
movie, he was much more limited in what he could write. Therefore, he had to go
with far more cliffhangers than is usually the case and he had to improve on
some of the scientific howlers that appeared in the movie. Within these limitations,
Asimov did an exceptionally good job in creating a book of science fiction out
of an item of entertainment.
The premise is
that the Cold War between the United States and the Other Side is very active
and tense. A scientist named Benes is on the other side and he has knowledge
that could overturn the delicate balance of power between the two sides. An American
agent named Grant was able to spirit Benes out of the area controlled by the
Other Side, but they are so desperate to keep the knowledge from the Americans
that agents of the Other Side launch an attempt to assassinate Benes. While they
do not succeed, he sustains a head injury and a major blot clot in his brain.
Using new technology to miniaturize large objects down to the size of bacteria,
a submarine containing a small team is injected into Benes’ blood in order to
destroy the clot.
The strength of
this book is Asimov’s detailed descriptions of the microstructures of the human
body. In each instance it is possible for the reader to develop a crisp mental
image of the structure and its function. This makes up for the seeming never-ending
sequence of major problems that must be overcome. After reading this book I now
want to see the movie for the first time.
Review of
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle,
DVD
Four out of five stars
The right blend of stupid when that is what you need
There is no
pretense of intelligence by the creators of this movie. Harold (John Cho) is a
white collar worker in finance that is so low on the corporate ladder that he
feels the need to do extra work in order to get along. He is also very shy with
girls, becoming completely tongue-tied when he is alone in an elevator with a
girl he is attracted to. Kumar (Kal Penn) is a genius fully capable of handling
medical school yet seems to have no ambition to do anything more than smoke
marijuana and annoy the people around him.
After consuming
their last joint, they develop an overpowering craving for White Castle
hamburgers. Unfortunately, this requires a lengthy journey, so an unusual road
trip is on and the tale has begun. There are the seemingly obligatory moronic other
guys their age, a spooky guy right out of the horror genre, cops that couldn’t
whip a light bulb in a spelling bee and bare female breasts. While none of that
is original, some of their methods of transportation are. Their encounter with
the spooky guy is more than a little gross yet has some originality that fits
with how this movie plays out.
Sometimes what
we need most is mindless entertainment to tone us down from the stress of our
lives. In those situations, this movie can be medicinal.
Review of
The Stag At Eve,
ideas by Walter Schmidt
Five out of five stars
Published in
1931, this collection of cartoons ribald for the time is a look back at what
was the limits of material that could be published in polite society. There are
of course none of the harshest of the bad words and only the hints of actual
sex. There are occasional bare female breasts as well as hints of backside
cracks.
The clothing,
even that of the intimate occasions, is very much of the early thirties. Suits,
ties and hats for the men, gowns, and jewelry for the women when they are in
public. With few exceptions, all of the people are of the wealthier class,
making it an outlier for what was really the case in the early years of the
Great Depression.
This is a humor
book that must be seen through the lens of a historical retrospective to set
the context of different times, both societal and economic. These cartoons were
meant to amuse the wealthier people, not those struggling to survive amidst
widespread hardship.
Review of
Little Brown Koko Has Fun,
by Blanche Seale Hunt
Two out of five stars
The only reason
I assign two stars to this work is that it demonstrates what was considered
acceptable racist content at the time of publication, which was 1945. The
author’s work appeared monthly in “Household Magazine” and the hardcopy
versions of her work sold over 600,000 copies. The text is some of the most
blatantly racist material you will ever see in print for the masses. In this
case, it is directed at children.
To understand
the level of racism, I will quote the first paragraph verbatim.
“Little Brown Loko’s nice, big, ole, good, fat, black Mammy
went to town one afternoon and left him at home to keep the chickens scared out
of the flower-beds. But before she left she took one of her big, fat, black
fingers under Little Brown Koko’s little, flat, brown nose and said, ‘An’ mind,
Little Brown Koko! Don’t you-all skeer up no mischief while I’s gone.’”
It is amazing
that such material was once considered quality reading material for young people,
yet it is important to look back and understand some of the more blatant racist
expressions if the world is to move forward and continue to put such material
in the dustbin of history.
