VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 Sacramento FREE Book Review NEW AND OF INTEREST Under the Dome A psychology experiment run by Stephen King 6 Page 2 Th e Atlantis Revelation World-saving astrologer Page 4 John Dies at the End Comedic high-octane nightmare fuel 11 Page 7 Following Yonder Star By Jane Yolen Gift Guide Key Porter Books, $16.95, 24 pages Page 13 Jane Yolen is considered a modern-day (fi fty-fi ve in all, if my addition skills haven’t Hans Christian Andersen, with dozens of abandoned me, across a crowded two-page Extreme Cuisine books to her name as both an author and an spread) highlights both the multitude of Bon appetit, if you dare! anthology editor. (Even Wikipedia is reluc- those aff ected and the magnitude of the Page 26 tant to compile a complete list of her literary event itself. works.) Fantasy and folklore are her most And trust me, all fi fty-fi ve are accounted recognized fi elds of stylistic expertise, but for, as I confi rmed with a brief and mildly Green Metropolis she has also contributed a great deal to the frustrating Where’s Waldo?-esque exercise 20 children’s section of the library, and it’s here of identifying each of the players featured. Go green gone wild that you’d most likely fi nd her latest eff ort, Th e closing image of the animals and Page 27 Under the Star: A Christmas Counting Story. people all gazing with wonder into the tiny With Vlasta Van Kampen’s simple illus- ramshackle manger, as two new parents trations vividly enhanced by a rich, vibrant look down upon their newborn, is an im- Ace of Cakes palette, Yolen seamlessly meshes a simple pressive one, both in scale and execution. sequential counting activity from one to ten (Th ough, admittedly, the familial trio are Th e magic behind Charm City with a barebones look at the birth of Jesus almost dwarfed by the size of the menagerie Cakes Christ. Th e slow progression provides a sort gathered around them.) Page 28 of reverse countdown to the momentous While the cynic in me would love to ask 20 event, even as the gathering people and ani- a few questions of the author -- Why are the mals herald the growing interest and knowl- sheep arriving separately from the shep- 110 Reviews edge of the importance of what’s happening. Th e fi nal image of the assembled masses See STAR, page 32 INSIDE! Sequential Art The Search Sleeper Season Two 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric Grandville By Eric Heuvel, Ruud van der Rol, Lies By Ed Brubaker Covered Box: A Dilbert Book By Bryan Talbot Schippers and Lorraine T. Miller Wildstorm, $24.99, 286 pages By Scott Adams Dark Horse, $17.95, 108 pages Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $9.99, 61 pages Ed Brubaker, the talent who brought Andrews McMeel Publishing, $12.99, Inspired by the French artist Ignace-Isi- The Search tells the story of the Holocaust readers “The Death of Captain America” and 128 pages dore Grandville, Brian Talbot (Adventures of from the perspective of Esther, a Jewish girl breathed new life into characters like Dare Honestly, how could anyone not love Dil- Luther Arkwright, Sandman) created an an- who escaped to southern Netherlands as her Devil and Iron Fist, in Sleeper: Season Two bert? Whether you are yourself a denizen of thropomorphic world where France is the family was captured by the Nazis. Relying continues and concludes this superb noir a soul-sucking, fabric-covered box, or you dominant power having won the Napoleon- on the kindness of friends and strangers, tale of espionage. Readers who missed Sea- simply like to giggle at cute little dogs as ic Wars. With a steampunk setting, Grand- she was able to avoid arrest, all the while son One will quickly come up to speed and they roundly demean the human populace, ville follows the investigation of Detective searching for her parents. As she met an old doubtless enjoy this this book is the latest of thirty-three vol- Inspector Archie LeBrock, a badger, and his neighbor in Amsterdam, she found out that dark tale, perfectly umes of surefire humor. Chronicling the assistant Detective Roderick Ratiz, a rat, as they wouldn’t be coming back. Grief-strick- suited to Brubaker’s adventures of our favorite mouthless office they pursue the killer of a British diplomat. en, she didn’t ask how it happened and tried gifts for moral ambi- drone from late 2008 Their investigation leads them to Paris and to forget the experience. guity and hard-boiled to mid 2009, 14 Years deep into international conspiracy. LeBrock Now in her old age, protagonists. of Loyal Service in a pushes his way through the Parisian under- she decides to find out Holden Carver Fabric-Covered Box is world, finding opium dealers, assassins and what really happened is a reluctant double full of that singular the Knights of Lyon, modern descendants to her parents in agent without op- kind of zany humor of the Knights Tem- Auschwitz …and tions, caught in the that we’ve come to plar. hears a revelation middle of an Oedipal love throughout the Talbot’s use of ani- which not only affects labyrinthine battle between super-terrorist past two decades. The office suffers the- ef mals as characters fol- her but her grandson Tao and amoral spymaster John Lynch. fects of the bad economy, desperation sets lows Grandville’s use as well. Carver’s power is his curse, unable to feel in on the staff, Dilbert loses his job, it’s all of them in the 1800’s Presented in the pain or pleasure but able to inflict it on oth- ripe, comedic ground. for social satire and as timeless comics format, this work is a simple ers by the merest touch. Torn away from illustration in many yet powerful re-telling of the events leading the woman he loves and bound to another “Being worthless at work is only hard of the fantastical to the Holocaust and the misery and confu- he hopes to save, Carver struggles to sur- for the first ten years. After that, it’s a books being released sion it caused the Jews and the world. The vive and dreams of finding a path that will lifestyle.” ~Wally at that time, includ- illustrations are reminiscent of Tintin comic lead to freedom and, perhaps, a way to feel ing the Fables of La Fontaine and his own books--clean lines, vivid colors, dynamic again. As complex and well crafted as any Every strip is reproduced in full color, Les Métamorphoses du jour. Grandville not stills. The story is narrated as a series of rec- of Brubaker’s work, readers will be unable giving even the dailies the full vividness of only references other literary sources - Ru- ollections, further bringing home the point to put down this collection as they pray that the Sunday pages. Combine that with Scott pert Bear, Tintin and Sherlock Holmes - but that the Holocaust is an experience too per- this tragic hero may find, if not redemption, Adams’ usual hilarious introduction, and also modern events like September 11th sonal to be forgotten. at least peace. this collection truly offers something that and weapons of mass destruction. This is Reviewed by Donabel Beltran-Harms Reviewed by Jordan Magill you cannot get in the papers. A fine exam- the first of two books, with more potentially ple of the best of office humor, and a definite planned. Grandville isn’t a book friendly must-have for any Dilbert library. for children, with adult themes, situations Reviewed by Micah Kolding and scenes, but excellent for older readers. Quite possibly what would have resulted had Arther Conan Doyle teamed up with Grandville to write a graphic novel for The Business & Investing Strand Magazine. The Design of Business “... the creative instinct--the unana- boards, and investors; and revamp financial periods are more the norm for everyone, By Roger Martin lyzed flash of insight--is venerated as planning and reward systems to encourage we need to learn not just how to cope with Harvard Business Press, $26.95, 208 pages the source of true innovation. 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