Taking advantage of my library system, I’ve been catching up on some of the great books that I didn’t get around to reading in time to do my best of 2009 list. Here’s a few random thoughts about a few random books:
Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell – I think technically this may have been a 2008 release, but regardless of when it came out, it’s fantastic! I have to admit I checked this out intending only to browse the art and ended up reading the whole book in less than a week. It’s part biography, part art book - an amazing recap of Steve Ditko’s entire career in comics, from the early days with Charlton to the present. I was aware of some things, like Ditko’s rift with Stan Lee, and his Ayn Rand-inspired Objectivist beliefs, yet I had no idea the extent to which the guy is a self-destructive recluse. Or at least, he comes off that way in Bell’s book. And that’s putting it mildly, because I think Bell tried to be fair and even-handed, not to paint a negative portrait or cast aspersions, and it’s clear Bell is a huge fan of the artist’s work, so I doubt his intent was to trash him. Still, it’s amazing how much more fame, money and friends Ditko could have achieved had he only been a little less rigid in his ideology. It also makes me wonder if, like J.D. Salinger, the artist has horded some of his most personal work from the public. Time will tell, I guess. It’s also one of the best designed books I’ve read recently, including lots of rare pencil pages, out-of-print rarities, and full color scans on virtually every page. There’s a lot more to Steve Ditko than just Doctor Strange and Spider-Man.
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna – I thought R.C. Harvey’s review for the the Comics Journal was pretty spot on. This was an excellent book, filled with charming, Seth/Herge-inspired artwork and a passionate narrative that really surprised me. I mean, a book about the history of mathematical truths sounds, on the surface, like a snoozer, but it’s a real testament to all four creators that this was such a thrill to read. I will confess that, despite the extraordinary lengths the writers go to make sure the readers understand the complex theories being discussed, I still felt a little lost in a few spots, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. The story is more about the life of Bertrand Russell than about mathematical theory, and that humanizing focus is what made this book so compelling.
Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke – I was so swayed by Dan Nadel’s scathing review that I skipped this book entirely when it first came out, but then when I saw how high it placed on the 2009 meta-list (#2, trailing only Asterios Polyp), and considering how much I’d enjoyed Cooke’s other books (especially his issue of Solo), I decided to check it out. It’s really pretty good, and while I can’t bring the level of knowledge that Nadel brought, having never read the original Westlake novels, I didn’t see any glaring problems. I will admit that the artwork was so highly stylized that it was occasionally disorienting and even off-putting in a few places (though just as frequently beautiful), and that Parker’s character was a little too one-dimensional and predictable (though this mono-emotionalism applies to virtually all lead characters in the noir genre). Still, overall, I thought this was a decent noir comic, though #2 on the meta-list seems way too high to me.
—Marc Sobel
