Favorite Audio Books of May 2021!! CHOICE ONE — Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME!!

 

I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVEVEEEEEEEEEEEE this audio book!. I’ve had the audio cassette for years and ripped my copy to cd so I can listen to it when in my car going to/from work, etc.  I Loved the graphic novel so much that when I heard about the audio book, I just had to have it.

And this audio book, actually does what I thought was impossible. it makes the graphic novel, which I consider a masterpiece and one of my favorite books, even richer and more beloved.

That said it has been a good couple years since I have found these CDs and revisited this audio book. I listened to them this week…. and it still hits me the same…. my goodness I LOVE this audio book.

And I know Mark Waid the scripter is not a fan of this audio book, but I adore it. And what gets lost about KINGDOM COME, the graphic novel that inspires this audio book, when discussing it, is it is Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME. 

Click the image above to own the ABSOLUTE KINGDOM COME while it is still in print. A must own.

Alex Ross was not just the artist on the book, KINGDOM COME, it was his brain-child, he conceived it, this was and is very much Alex Ross’ story that he brought to DC,  this idea of the Twilight of the Gods, even to having his Dad in the book as a central character, and DC paired him with Mark Waid to flesh out the story and create the script and structure.

 

And all due respect to Mark Waid (you can’t have a much better scripter/writer to flesh out your ideas, and make your concept better, especially when it comes to DC Characters and history and imbuing it with a sense of the iconic and the nostalgic);  but I do think we need to give due respect to Alex Ross, and start giving him his due praise for the story even existing, and its romantic, and  even spiritual nature… giving us the gist of this story about —  faith rewarded.

And here another great writer and lover of all things DC, Elliot S. Maggin, takes the Graphic Novel and adapts it for the novel and the audio book, I think with faithful and momentous and heartfelt results.

“5.0 out of 5 stars Read the comic, then read this exceptional novelization

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

The best novelization of a comic I’ve ever read, hands down. In fact, this is better than any novelization of a film I’ve ever read, either. From Elliot S! Maggin comes an adaptation that matches the iconic, mythic feel and grandeur of the original story. He adds such rich detail and additional story that I tend to tell people that it’s not enough to just read the comic anymore, that a full appreciation for and understanding of the story requires also reading this novelization. I give it an enthusiastic recommendation”–Amazon.com Reviewer

Moments in this audio book never fail to give me chills or make me teary eyed or make me inspired. The audio eliciting memories of Alex Ross’ stunning iconic painted moments. So yes, you very much need to have read the Graphic Novel first, to appreciate the audio book.

I’ll post links to both items,  and more, throughout this post.

“And fingers that can fuse coal into diamond, crawl across human bone. And in the hush, ears that can hear a cell divide, pick out with chilling ease, the  scream of human rage.”

Holy Effing Crap.

I think the performers with one or two brief exceptions for the bit players, are all fantastic. The main characters, Superman, Batman, WonderWoman, Magog, Norman McKay, Wesley Dodds, Spectre, many more— are all picture perfect.

Alex Ross meets Mark Waid meet Elliott Maggin— all add up to the best DC adaptation ever made.

The cassettes have dried up, but sometimes you can catch one popping up from time to time. And hopefully one day they will release the CD (but wouldn’t hold my breath, considering it has been over 20 years since the Audio Book was released). However, if you can snag a copy, it is worth having.

Strongly Recommended!!!

 

Happy Holidays, Merry Mass of Christ and Improbable Heights

‘When you strip everything away from Batman, you are left with someone who doesn’t want to see anyone die.’ — KINGDOM COME by Alex Ross and Mark Waid

When I think of humanity in general, and the holiday season in particular it strikes me that that should be our goal. The pursuit of a world, where nobody dies in vain.

But the reality, particularly in America, this time of year is that with the eyes of the media diverted; government sponsored mass-murders actually ramp up, bombings ramp up (now of the drone and unmanned variety, machines murdering men.. what an unholy road we walk), the terrorism of the rich… ramps up.

I’ll not forget the media celebrating the death of Bin Laden. Death and Murder and Torture are never things to celebrate, no matter the justification.

While I am savage enough to know that killing may be a necessary evil, I am human and moral enough to know it is never a joy, never a victory, never a cause for celebration.

Be the murdered Bin Laden, or Hitler or insert bogieman here, bringing murder to murderers is never anything less than a soiling, and a failure, necessary though it may be, it is a failure of reason. And as such is a solemn time, not a glorious one.

Because to do otherwise, to take joy from death, and celebration from degradation and horror… is to devoid you of moral high-ground, is to make you (in ways stark and true) worse than those you would revile, worse than your Hitlers and Bin-Ladens. It makes you a lynchmob, a coward, and an opportunist of carnage.

We must strive to be better than that, otherwise your protestations of Christianity, and Holy Nights, and piety are just lies, are hypocrisy and mendacity most foul, that you use to conceal your roman desire to see people bleed and suffer and die.

You become that lowest form of life, a gibbering coward among cowards, you become nothing more than a grasping claw, a rolling eye, and a screeching mouth… in the creature we call lynchmob. And there is no lower, and ultimately, more inhuman form of life.

Our goal therefore must be to reject that, to reject the easy lies and the easy hates, and work toward this wildly improbable world where no one dies in vain.

But humanity’s very existence is an improbability, so we can bend that already fanciful existence to either improbable heights of good, or improbable depths of evil. We just have to pick a direction.

‘We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. ‘ — John Fitzgerald Kennedy when imploring men into space

Here, on this holiday season, more fiction than fact, ‘goodwill to all’; look into yourself and find what is hypocrisy, what is lies, and find it in yourself to make truths, and truly believe and act on this idea…. of a time of peace.

Here endeth the lesson.

Artist of the Day: Alex Ross!!

The only reason I started rereading comics or graphic novels or slims, is because of Alex Ross. I had turned my back on the medium, just tired of the juvenile art, the storytelling style, everything. Then Alex Ross exploded onto the scene with the one-two punch of the graphic novels MARVELS then KINGDOM COME.

Self contained, stand alone, complete stories, told with jaw droppingly astonishing painted art. People immediately began calling him the Norman Rockwell of comics, and that term is not quite undeserved.

Like Norman Rockwell, Alex Ross is able to imbue his scenes with a sense of homey Americana, that calls back a yearning to better, simpler days now passed… or perhaps never existed.

But he does more than imbue scenes with nostalgia, he does something Rockwell never did, perhaps never dreamt of doing, Alex Ross imbues his scenes with a sense of awe, of scale, of grandeur.

Of myth.

It has become habit these days for people without a fraction of Ross’ talent or vision to take his work for granted. To call his effort: extremism, and to call his meticulous paints: stiff, over rendering… I see nothing stiff or over-rendered in the work of Alex Ross but people are allowed their opinion, though the criticism always struck me as uninformed opinion.

It always struck me as the voices of jealous ants trying to deride an elephant. People disparaging Alex Ross, simply because he was that good.

Alex Ross is a meticulous perfectionist, who paints worlds that never were, but should be, and populates them with the stuff of faith…rewarded. Long before Hollywood made a habit of making our marvels real, Ross reached out to the lightning, and called down the thunder, and put it on paper, and gave us all a vision… to aspire to.

Many a painter has come on the sequential art scene since Ross’ mainstream debut, and they all bring something wonderful to the mix. But it’s a testament to Alex Ross’ skill, his understanding and his love for the heroic… that none of the numerous painters now in the medium, quite grasp that sense of grandeur that Ross brings to even the least of his creations.

All his creations look out at you with eyes that have seen the worst, yet still seem to say… “endure, be better.”

And end of the day, I figure… that’s not such a bad message for an artist and his art to leave us with. So for all these reasons Alex Ross is our Artist of the Day.

Check out all his work at the links below:

Site for Alex Ross Art and Info!

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross

Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross

The Dynamite Art of Alex Ross HC

The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes

Absolute Justice

Absolute Kingdom Come

Uncle Sam: Deluxe Edition

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS by John Ridley

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS by John Ridley, Read by Patricia R. Floyd

This is the first book in John Ridley’s SOLEDAD series. Set in an alternate world where superheroes aren’t just real, but have fallen from grace like pop stars or athletes, and are now considered terrorists and are hunted and killed if found in America.

Our protagonist, Soledad, is a member of the special LA unit that hunts and kills super powered beings. It’s capably read by Patricia R. Floyd, who gives the characters distinct voices. The issue isn’t the reading.

The problem is trying to do a super-hero pastiche/deconstruction is a bit of an uphill battle in any format, just because it has been done so well, by so many in comic-book/graphic novel form. From WATCHMEN to KINGDOM COME to MARVELS it’s this huge history of mankind dealing with beings they do not trust. And it has been done, exceptionally well, in the medium that is tailor-made for these types of stories… comics.

Now John Ridley brings this tale of a mutant hating cop into novel form, and it’s not badly told, even exciting in places, it’s just from scene one it feels dreadfully familiar and by the numbers. Bigoted cop and this tale of redemption, either because she sees the good some ‘mutants’ can do, or perhaps learns she’s part mutant. And if there’s no redemption, that’s even worse. That’s spending time with an unlikeable character that stays unlikeable, ie a David Ayer movie (Not a fan, hated his TRAINING DAY, didn’t like his HARSH TIMES any better).

I don’t know, point is by the third cassette, I just don’t care. I’m just not interested. It just feels like a chore to slog through. Cop shoots Angel, and tries to justify it. Yada, Yada, Yada. It’s just hundreds of words in and I don’t feel any fresh ideas.

Possibly someone who brings no superhero experience to the novel will get more out of it, though I find it hard to believe if you have no interest in previous superhero items you’ll for some reason find this of interest. And those who do bring a history with the concept, will just find it, like myself, marking time till it gets out of first gear.

I couldn’t tell you, because I just could not be bothered to go any further. Only the excellent reading by Patricia Floyd kept me going this far, reading the paperback I would have become severely disinterested quite a bit before.

My recommendation… stick to John Ridley’s earlier pure mystery/pulp fiction novels. He’s a good writer I just don’t think he brought enough engaging or captivating to this story. FINAL GRADE: Rent something else.