Taral Books and Comics

In my long daily commutes to and from work, I generally listen to podcasts to help pass the time.  One such show, the iFanboy Pick of the Week podcast , produced a weekly program reviewing the comic books that came out the previous week.  Through them, I've tried a number of new books that I never would have found otherwise. Every second month, the people at iFanboy release a "Booksplode" edition, wherein they read a graphic novel and discuss it at length, not unlike a book club.  I usually skip these, as they normally read a book about which I care little. However, in January 2017, the book discussed by the iFanboy team caught my attention.  They were reading " Russian Olive to Red King ", an original graphic novel written by Kathryn Immonen and drawn by her husband, Stuart Immonen,  I had not heard of the book, but I've enjoyed stories written by Ms. Immonen and absolutely love the art on some books drawn by Mr. Immonen.  I found the graphic ...

As I mentioned in my second post, I'm working on a chronological read-through of Star Wars stories, specifically those from the old expanded universe (so-called "Legends" continuity, which the new movies eschew in favour of their own original stories, a move I wholeheartedly endorse). I began this read-through well before starting this blog, so I'm going to catch up a bit with what I've already read, beginning with the earliest stories, those labeled " Dawn of the Jedi ". Cover of Dawn of the Jedi Volume 1: Force Storm .  Image from Wookieepedia I'll be discussing a total of five titles here: Dawn of the Jedi: Eruption (short story by John Ostrander, 2013) Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void (novel by Tim Lebbon , 2013) Dawn of the Jedi 0 (comic handbook, 2012) Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm 1-5 (comic, 2012) Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan 1-5 (comic, 2012-2013) Dawn of the Jedi: Force War 1-5 (comic, 2013-2014) The comics w...

The character of Laura Kinney, also called X-23 , has become a bit more mainstream given her appearance in the new Logan movie, as wonderfully portrayed by Dafne Keen .  But Logan wasn't her first appearance.  She started life in the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, and was later bridged into mainstream Marvel comics. In my attempt to read all X-Men comics from 2007's "Messiah CompleX" crossover in a rough chronological order, I'm about to reach the X-23 ongoing series by Marjorie Liu .  But before I read that, I wanted to read (and in some cases re-read some early stories about this awesome character, including her origins. I'll be discussing three stories: The first X-23 miniseries , subtitled "Innocence Lost," from 2005, six issues long.  Written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, with art by Billy Tan. The second X-23 miniseries, subtitled " Target X ," from 2007, six issues long. Also written by Kyle and Yost, with art by Mike Choi....

I plan to use this blog to do short write-ups about the novels, comic books, graphic novels (or, more generally, comic books collected in bound books), and nonfiction. I may als write about a fun video game or a movie, or some part of my real life (visits to cool places, for example; I often write a "Thoughts from Places" email for my wife if I'm traveling for work and she's not able to join me). I try to read a lot, but I do it in a bit of a disjointed manner.  I sometimes find myself reading multiple books at once, and since I don't read very fast, it takes a while to go through any one title. Here's a summary of what I'm reading right now: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived (a novel by Paul S. Kemp), as part of a chronological Star Wars books and comics; Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (nonfiction by Mary Roach, one of my favourite science writers); A chronological read-through of X-Men comics, ca. 2008 onward (I'm c...

A number of years ago, I used to write for a Star Wars fansite called EUCantina.net . It started with a series of emails I wrote to a podcast I listened to back then, called The EU Review . The podcast's two hosts would sometimes discuss new Star Wars products, review them, and make recommendations on whether you should buy them.  For comic books, they would occasionally recommend waiting for the comic to be re-released in Trade Paperback format to save money.  A thought entered my head: is that really more economical?  I opened a spreadsheet and started comparing the price of hardcover, trade paperback, and omnibus format Star Wars comics vs. the price of each individual issue. The answer was that it varied significantly, with some books collected editions being significantly cheaper on a price-per-issue basis, while others were significantly more expensive.  On average the price difference between buying issues vs. trade paperbacks was not significant (though o...