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MY HERO

Intriguing ideas, but teasing out meaning from this confusing presentation becomes a challenge.

A superhero comic and what it signifies to a writer who can’t draw becomes the meditative center of this graphic novel.

This unusual work consists of three parts. The first is notes for a comic book roughly indicated on blank forms with spaces for publisher (“HEX”), title, issue, and page number, beginning with two unnumbered pages filled with the word “black” and synonyms (blackness, dark, darkness, inky), along with the word “CORY.” Numbered pages 1 to 20 contain few drawings except for a superhero silhouette, mostly consisting of captions, dialogue, and instructions for the artist on what to draw. For example, “a chance comet shields Doby from the blast” or “still supposed to look like half a skull.” Four more pages, still presented as if on the blank forms, provide a full-color, dialogue-free sequence that bears a tangential relationship to the foregoing. In the last section, titled “My Hero” and no longer using the form backdrop, the author provides autobiographical details about the conception of this story and his growth as a writer, giving thanks to those who contributed. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on in this puzzling offering from Jones (Mapping the Interior, 2017, etc.). Readers gather that Lance and Kenneth, two high school friends, are the creators of a comic book called Dr. Never, “foiler of dastardly deeds,” featuring Stardillo, Korga, and Rexo. They’ve succeeded enough to have a merchandising deal and action figures. This is mixed up with memories and present-day reflections in a baffling manner, with elliptical statements that leave out information (who is Cory, mentioned early on?) or make the reader hunt for it. (The best guidance is the book’s back cover blurb, which explains that Jones and his best friend, who once dreamed of collaborating on superhero comics, now have children of their own who play together, as they once did, and with action figures based on the author’s own comic book.) In addition, the emphasis on how unusual it is to write but not draw a comic seems odd, given the enormous success of Harvey Pekar.

Intriguing ideas, but teasing out meaning from this confusing presentation becomes a challenge.

Pub Date: June 27, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9986667-0-9

Page Count: 46

Publisher: Hex Publishers

Review Posted Online: July 31, 2017

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THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Life lessons.

Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Pub Date: July 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-345-46750-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

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SEE ME

More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose...

Sparks (The Longest Ride, 2013, etc.) serves up another heaping helping of sentimental Southern bodice-rippage.

Gone are the blondes of yore, but otherwise the Sparks-ian formula is the same: a decent fellow from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches falls in love with a decent girl from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches—and is still suffering the consequences. The guy is innately intelligent but too quick to throw a punch, the girl beautiful and scary smart. If you hold a fatalistic worldview, then you’ll know that a love between them can end only in tears. If you hold a Sparks-ian one, then true love will prevail, though not without a fight. Voilà: plug in the character names, and off the story goes. In this case, Colin Hancock is the misunderstood lad who’s decided to reform his hard-knuckle ways but just can’t keep himself from connecting fist to face from time to time. Maria Sanchez is the dedicated lawyer in harm’s way—and not just because her boss is a masher. Simple enough. All Colin has to do is punch the partner’s lights out: “The sexual harassment was bad enough, but Ken was a bully as well, and Colin knew from his own experience that people like that didn’t stop abusing their power unless someone made them. Or put the fear of God into them.” No? No, because bound up in Maria’s story, wrinkled with the doings of an equally comely sister, there’s a stalker and a closet full of skeletons. Add Colin’s back story, and there’s a perfect couple in need of constant therapy, as well as a menacing cop. Get Colin and Maria to smooching, and the plot thickens as the storylines entangle. Forget about love—can they survive the evil that awaits them out in the kudzu-choked woods?

More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose corn syrup, stickily sweet but irresistible.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4555-2061-9

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

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