Category Archives: Books

Harley Quinn: Vengeance Unlimited. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Vengeance is a dish best served slightly less chilled than its more unnerving half sibling Revenge, for vengeance reeks of slaughter on a bigger scale, it doesn’t just require the two spades that revenge insists be carried, it asks for a dumper truck, a blind eye and a concrete mixer big enough to fill in a new section of motorway. For vengeance takes down all who get in the way and for Harley Quinn, getting in the way is a hobby that crosses boundaries between the good, the bad and the psychiatrist chair are all too strewn with Vengeance Unlimited.

Harley Quinn: Vengeance Unlimited. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Green Lantern Corps: Volume 1 Fearsome. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Whilst American graphic novel giants D.C. were working near miracles with their New 52 series, miracles that saw the complete re-grafting and overhaul of titles such as Aquaman and Wonder Woman into near titans of the class, the same unfortunately doesn’t seem to have happened in some of the more obscure, less handily placed titles, including the underwhelming and distinctly average Green Lantern Corps. Not everything can be perfect in life and certainly not for the comic book or Graphic Novel buyer but some titles just don’t readily make themselves an attractive proposition.

Green Lantern Corps: Volume 1 Fearsome. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(420 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Fables: The Dark Ages, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The war is over, the enemy vanquished and a new optimism fills the hearts of the populace of Fabletown. Yet something dark lurks in the shadows, something let loose as the Great Adversary wrestles with his freedom within the confines of his new home in New York City. It is a power that sees Bill Willingham’s collection of tales of heroism and valour return with a bang, and the world of the Fables is once more thrown into jeopardy.

Fables: The Dark Ages, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Harley Quinn: Welcome To Metropolis, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It always seems like an entertaining idea when a crossover in the world of graphic novels presents itself before the reader. Even within the pages of a company such as D.C. where the appearance of Batman and Superman outside of a Justice League story can titillate and tantalise even the most rabid of fans, such a crossover can mean growth, further development and more intriguing aspects that may have gone undeveloped for years. It can in some cases allow the undisguised stink of a money making exercise, the chance to breathe life into a fading, unlikeable character by teaming them up with a big monster of a comic book gem, either way, the fan will have an opinion on it.

Harley Quinn: Welcome To Metropolis, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The war is over, the battles, at great cost, have been won and the exiled fables have been saved in part to the heroics of Bibgy Wolf, Prince Charming and Boy Blue, yet deep down, even with Geppetto being captured and the puppet adversary finally succumbing to overwhelming odds, the reader and fan of Bill Willingham’s highly delightful fantasy graphic novels knows that the real test is still to come and that Fables: War and Pieces is only the end of the beginning.

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Harley Quinn Volume Two: Power Outage. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There always seemed to be an issue in the D.C. world of graphic novels in comparison to its other dominant rival and even the less fashionable, less well known comic book makers at the time, its representation of women, aside from those in the Wonder Woman and Cat-Woman titles, was woefully lacking and in many cases perhaps even tiresome and undeserving. There really was no edge to them, nothing other being seen to be seen; there was no equality and no female hero or anti-hero worthy of looking up to.

Harley Quinn Volume Two: Power Outage. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

Fables: The Good Prince. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never dismiss the caretaker or the janitor; they might be the only one who truly knows where all the bodies are buried.

The tenth instalment of Bill Willingham’s Fables, The Good Prince, is perhaps arguably the most fairylike tale of them all. A tale told of the valour of one man with more to lose than anyone in the whole of Fable Town, a man whose life throughout the previous nine books has been one of the utmost importance but who never realised what he was until his memory was forced to return as he thought of indiscretions with Red Riding Hood.

Fables: The Good Prince. Book Review. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

The New 52: Harley Quinn Volume 1: Hot in The City, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Re-invention is at times good for the soul, for D.C. Comics’ Harley Quinn it’s a positive boon.

The arguments of the New 52 series is one that might last until graphic novels sail long into the collective memory of all who have had the fortune to be taken on many a voyage of discovery with the utopian marriage of an excellent scripted story and the artwork that would adorn many a wall. It revived and refreshed what had become a standing joke amongst fans of the superhero genre in Aqua Man, it gave new context to titles such as The Justice League and perhaps greatest of all, took the most insane but beautifully crafted of modern inceptions of the D.C. world, Harley Quinn, and made her a true star in her own dramatic right.

The New 52: Harley Quinn Volume 1: Hot in The City, Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

Spencer Leigh, Best Of The Beatles: The Sacking Of Pete Best. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Over 50 years since The Beatles first played In Hamburg on what was to give them the grounding for the relentless touring to come, over forty years since they last all played together on the seminal Abbey Road, over 30 years since John Lennon was cruelly taken from his fans and probably about 90 seconds since a Beatles track was played somewhere in the world, and yet after all this time there are still some people in the world who would struggle shamefully to recognise the force that gave them their unique sound in the early Liverpool and Hamburg days.

Spencer Leigh, Best Of The Beatles: The Sacking Of Pete Best. Book Review. full post

(593 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Marvel’s Original Sin. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Crossovers in the world of the graphic novel are to be seen almost as often as the tides turn or as social media finds another person in which chase down in a witch hunt. There was a time when it was seen to be special, a nod to the existence in some gigantic way that for example Captain America could breathe the same air as the Fantastic Four, the Thing and The Hulk could batter themselves silly across several different issues and take in the force of Doctor Strange at the same time. Now it seems all too common place, not necessarily a bad thing but one in which a heavy laden serial such as Marvel’s Original Sin requires so much forethought to carry it off with grace.

Marvel’s Original Sin. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(345 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)