You’re an Insect, Charlie Brown

Classics meet comics...or is it the other way around?

November 27th, 2009 · No Comments

There’s a comic quality and grounds for parody in even the most classic literature. In Masterpiece Comics, R. Sikoryak proves himself  adept at discovering and exploiting these  cartoonish characteristics. But while the laughs in his collection are literate, what he parodies are the comics, everything from  Peanuts to Superman.

Masterpiece Comics would be a one-joke…

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: Featured

Bradbury Lights Ups

A graphic remake of Fahrenheit 451 sets flames against the darkness.

November 25th, 2009 · No Comments

It’s fitting–or maybe ironic– that Fahrenheit 451,  favorite of high school librarians everywhere, has been turned into a graphic novel. About half-way through Ray Bradbury’s familiar story of a world where books are put to the torch, Fire Captain Beatty tells the story’s wavering central character, Guy Montag, how books…

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: Comics

Pynchon This, Pynchon That

Reviewers struggle with Thomas Pynchon. You will, too.

August 24th, 2009 · No Comments

The Rabbit’s  March Hare personae means he’s still waiting for his copy of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (tomorrow! tomorrow!).  In the meantime, we’re reading the reviews. As usual, novelist/reviewer Walter Kirn shines a light. He’s an admirer. Even Salon’s Laura Miller, who so hated Against the Day, finds the latest to…

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: The Rabbit Rants

Kidd Stuff

Book cover designer and author Chip Kidd does comics differently.

August 20th, 2009 · No Comments

The Rabbit thought he’d caught a superhero–book jacket designer and author Chip Kidd– in a contradiction. In a recent interview for the New York Times‘ “The Moment” blog, Kidd discusses how the cover he designed for The Dark Knight Returns can be seen in any comic book store “instantly at 200…

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: Comics · The Rabbit Rants

Hiking With Faulkner

July 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

Reading William Faulkner’s The Bear on a five-day backpacking trip into the Montana high country reveals what we fear, what we love and what we’ve lost of wild country.

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: The Rabbit Rants

Souless Sucker

The past has fangs in Walter
Mosley's latest novel

July 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Even when we like them, we don’t always admire the characters in Walter Mosley’s fiction. Ben Dibbuk is no exception. A former hard-drinking, skirt-chasing angry young man, Ben has fallen into a rut thanks to a regular job and a 20 year marriage. It’s as if his soul has been…

Continue reading

[Read more →]

Tags: Book Reviews