Masters of Comics

Masters of Comics by Joel Meadows (2019 Insight Editions softcover 184pp)

Not too much to say about this one, its not bad, not amazing. An interesting diversion for an hour or two perhaps. Basically, it’s a collection of short Q & A style interviews with 21 supposedly well-known comic artists – although I’d only heard of a handful of them before. Most in the book seem to have become so-called 'Masters' after they worked on US Marvel or DC superhero comics. Its been a very long time since I’ve read anything like that, so count me out of the loop.

Each chapter features a simple interview with an artist. The questions don’t vary much and after a few chapters became repetitive. Likewise, the answers don’t change too much, although some of the subjects are allowed to go a bit off topic. If this book was only the interviews it would probably only be about 30 pages long – fortunately each chapter is padded out with several examples of their art and a few pictures of their studio set-up. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the latter but that’s just me.

Worth a quick read if you’re into the graphics arts or the world of comics, of limited interest otherwise.

 

Coming Undone: A Memoir

 

Coming Undone: A Memoir by Terri White (2020 Canongate Books Ltd Kindle eBook 256p)

 

Terri White is the current editor-in-chief of the UK movie/entertainment magazine ‘Empire’. She has worked in senior positions at a number of magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. She also is an occasional host on Empire’s own podcast and a regular host on the related ‘Pilot TV’ podcast. The podcasts are where I first heard of her – she’s a cheeky, chirpy personality with a fierce intelligence and deep knowledge of her subjects. I was intrigued to find out more about her.

As the book starts, we find her in a New York hospital ward following a pill overdose. To her dismay she is being moved to a psychiatric ward, she hopes for only 3 days.

The book then moves back to her childhood days where she matter-of-factly recounts all the physical and sexual abuse she received at the hands of a seemingly endless string of horrible men who were attracted to her mother.

From there we go through her school days where she felt like the eternal outsider, the deprivations of being poor and her discovery of alcohol at age 12. We skip her later education (it seems she did well enough to attend and graduate from university) and catch up with her early in her career as things begin to fall (further) apart. She drinks herself to oblivion and finds some sort of solace in self-harm. The descriptions of what she wants to do to herself and what she actually does are extremely disturbing. I found it increasingly difficult to read, especially with the overwrought, florid language she uses to describe her thoughts.

About 75% of this book is a tirade of the bad things that happen to her. It is relentlessly GRIM. I know it sounds odd but it reminds me of the feeling I had reading descriptions of Nazi atrocities in other books. Its full-on stuff and doesn’t really let up until we catch up with her where we started in the psychiatric ward. There are a few lighter chapters as she adjusts to life in the ward and describes the people she meets and the activities she’s expected to do in there. She’s eventually released and falls back into her bad habits. There’s no real glimmer of hope until the end where she returns to the UK to take up what I assume is the job at Empire magazine.

Not fun and not for the faint-hearted. I’m not sure I can recommend this book without some warning.

Post Captain

 

The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels Volume 1: Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian (2016 Harper Collins hardcover 478pp)

 

The adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin continue. And if you haven’t read the first book in the series don’t start here – there is little or no introduction to the characters for the new reader as the book pretty much assumes you’ve read the previous instalment.

Peace breaks out and we find our heroes without a ship living an idyllic rural life and socialising with a nearby household of young women. The main characters’ affections towards the same pair of said women becomes a major source of tension between them that continues on for most of the book.

Aubrey’s finances have collapsed and the debt collectors are after him, he spends most of his time trying to avoid being recognised in public in case he is seized and thrown in jail. Maturin, meanwhile, has been working in secret for the Admiralty. Taking part in secret missions to Spain in the hope that nation could be weakened if war comes again, something he keeps secret from Aubrey.

The pair run away from their problems to France but then war breaks out again and they find themselves walking part-way across the country in disguise to avoid being interned there.

Back in England, Aubrey is given command of an experimental vessel the HMS Polychrest. This new ship isn’t the best handling but he sails her into combat and succeeds in his efforts. The crew however are on the verge of mutiny and this leads Aubrey to take desperate action.

The final section of the book sees Jack finally given his long sought-after promotion to Post Captain but lacking an available ship of his own he is given the role of acting captain on HMS Lively, a top-of the-line frigate. Discovering the ship and its crew has seen little real action he raids French ports and eventually takes part in a battle that could alter the course of the war.

A worthy sequel this book however had me scratching my head occasionally. Its written in a different style than its predecessor. While that book was a straight forward narrative, “Post Captain” tells its story with a lot of internal dialogue, letters and journal entries. We are never a few pages away from learning the current mental states of the main pair. There’s also the odd way O’Brian has chosen to move things along quickly – where some writers would spend a chapter describing a new setting or the passage of time, he changes things dramatically from one sentence to another. Giving the reader something of a mental ‘whiplash’ feeling. Other times I felt so immersed in the terminology and ye olde language in a passage that I totally missed that something major had occurred. Maybe its just me but I had to read entire paragraphs again to understand what happened.

Still an excellent read, putting you into another time and place once more.