Books Without Borders: Recent Reviews

Updated January 7, 2021.

Since 2014, I have composed a number of reviews for book editor Tony Norman at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here is a running list of the links (all have been for the P-G, unless otherwise noted):

Edie Ledwell Deserves a Better-Led Creator

In her new “Robert Galbraith” Cormoran Strike novel, J.K. Rowling reportedly savages her critics as a “woke Twitter mob” motivated by “cancel culture” and the sheer jealousy of a successful woman.

1998 Interview with Don Simpson on the Megaton Man Web Comic and Print

The following is the text for a Comics Journal column by Jeremy Pinkham from 1998 that never ran; I believe it was to be the first in a series of columns cover web comics. It was based on a brief interview with me; I suppose since it was largely about my now-defunct MEGATONMAN.com website, it was canceled, since the Journal (also now defunct) was in denial about the impact of the internet on printed comics). It is presented here for historical purposes only.

The Three Rs: Rat, Race, Writing

In a 2000 interview, Doris Piserchia (1928-2021) makes a number of quite revealing statements about the life of a mid-century, mostly straight-to-paperback SF and fantasy author:

The Summer of '85 and the Megaton Man Reprints That Never Happened

By the summer of 1985, it was clear that Megaton Man was the hottest title Kitchen Sink Press had ever published to that point.

What Makes GApds - Golden Age Public Domain (Costumed) Characters - So Different, So Appealing?

What is the appeal of Golden Age public domain characters?        Fans may rightly ask, and I certainly ask this myself: Why am I wasting time drawing Golden Age public domain characters, especially when I have so many creator-owned characters under IP (intellectual property, i.e., creator-owned projects like Megaton Man and Border Worlds) going begging?

Pretensions on the Edge of Forever: New Age Comics #1

“Megaton Man artist … Donald Simpson,” from New Age Comics #1, 1985:

With Megaton Man #4, artist-writer Don Simpson began to add depth to his cast of madcap characters.

Byron Starkwinter: Alan Moore's Self-Fulfilling Prochecy?

Shortly after I drew "In Pictopia" in1986, Fantagraphics forwarded a plot synopsis from the same author to consider illustrating. Unfortunately, Anything Goes, the fund-raising series for which it was intended, came to an end.

The Secrets of Dumbalmoore: Fantastic Bleats and Where to Find Them

This text began as a Facebook reply to Stephen Bissette, who was commenting on a link to Mikey Crotty's video, and somehow turned into yet another long-winded and self-serving blog post, rehashing the same tired, stale tropes as I've done elsewhere, on my insignificant collaboration with Alan Moore. Enjoy!

Fantastic Beasts and Other Unwritten Big, Fat Books

Some thoughts on the eve of one of the most ambivalent, if not pre-hated, movie releases in recent memory. Revised with a couple of elaborating paragraphs inserted on May 3, 2022.

The biggest problem with the Fantastic Beasts film franchise, and it has been the biggest problem from the start, is that the films lack big, fat J.K. Rowling books to precede each film.*