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caffeinatedTopic: Comic Books - New
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3265: In Blog #3247, I posted that YOU could start pre-ordering YOUR copy of the upcoming book 'Gotham City 14 Miles', (referred to as GC14M in this post), at your LCBS (Local Comic Book Shop)! Being a comic book / graphic novel / books on comics reviewer, I was able to obtain an 'advance review copy' .pdf of this book. I do need to point something out here, before going further. For those of you that don't know, I am also one of the fourteen contributors to this upcoming book, GC14M.
Enough of the disclaimers, you now know why this book has been on my personal horizon for months now. So here's 'My Take' / review: I have found that reading .pdfs on my laptop is not the easiest way for me to read 'comics', 'graphic novels', and certainly not 'real books'. I prefer the 'hard copy' format, as I am more of a tactile reader. Saying that, I found that my initial excitement about this book was justified after receiving my 'review copy' via .pdf format. That's because this book is highly organized, presented well, and written by people who 'know' this TV Series that has been running in syndication since it first left the air in 1967! As stated before in my earlier posts, this GC14M book is written as a series of fourteen essays. That's 14 chapters on the TV Series with 14 different topics. Great marketing tool to use the Mile Marker shown in the TV Series as the title. Kudos to the Editor, Jim Beard, for thinking that up! I finished reading the GC14M 'book' last night. Since it is so fresh in my mind, I'm blogging my "review" this morning. Here are the first 'Seven Reasons to Love the New GC14M Book"! Please note: These are MY personal choices to highlight first, and are not meant to slight any of the essayists that contributed. I enjoyed reading all of the 14 Mile Markers. This blog covers far more than most blogs, as it is presented in a web page format, not just a 'blog paragraph' teaser with a link to someone else's article or blog. But I still have a 'space limit' on how much I can post in each blog. You can see ALL of the 14 Mile Markers & their authors at my Blog #3247. And No, I'm NOT including my Mile Marker #10 as one of the Mile Markers being mentioned first here! Here's those Mile Markers from the 'Table of Contents' in their numerical order that comprise my first 'Seven Reasons To Love the New GC14M Book'!: Mile Marker No. 2: “Batman — From Comics Page to TV Screen” by Peter Sanderson. Delves deep into “Batman’s” comic book roots. This essay really brought in additional info that I did not know, and presented in such an entertaining way, that it jumped right out at me! Maybe because it also included histories of Catwoman, Batgirl and Aunt Harriet, but this essay had info I wanted to read about. Mile Marker No. 4: “Notes on Bat-Camp” by Tim Callahan. An effort to answer that age-old question: “Was ‘Batman’ truly camp?” - I lived through this period when the TV Show was first aired. I enjoyed it, although by Season 3 it was little too 'formulaic' in its presentation. However, I had never seen an in-depth article on 'Camp' let alone 'Bat-Camp'. Researched well, and formatted well in this Mile Marker! Mile Marker No. 6: “POW! – Batman’s Visual Punch” by Bill Walko. Looks into the impact of the show’s vibrant visual design. Bill hits it right on the money...The Batman TV Show was "...a live action pop-art camp adventure". Well researched, well written, and presented many facts that I had not known about the TV show. Mile Marker No. 8: “May I Have This Batdance?” by Michael S. Miller. Very good history presented in this essay! Being a record collector / seller at the early Capitol Records Collector Meet in Hollywood during the 1970's, this essay had special meaning for me. And I never did get to hear all of the records mentioned in this essay. Now I have to find them on YouTube or somewhere! Mile Marker No. 9: “The Best Dressed Women in Gotham City” by Jennifer K. Stuller. Presents a compelling argument for its female denizens and their place in “Batman.” - As you can see from the top of this blog post, I definitely have a fondness for those actresses that had either continuing roles or one-shot features in this TV series! So this essay really was one I had a pre-disposition to want to like. It was well researched, and well written, so I wasn't disappointed! Neither will be fans of Catwoman or Batgirl! Mile Marker No. 13: “Jumping the Bat-Shark” by William Patrick Murray. Delves into the third season of “Batman.” -Really good summarization of the third (and last) season of Batman! I had a problem when re-watching all of the series episodes in order to write my own Mile Marker for this book. My wife who watched several with me, and then 'listened' to others when the series became too formulaic, would agree here. The introduction of Batgirl was fine, but the one episode per week just didn't work for the episodes that were two parters. I appreciated the extra effort that William put into this essay. It would have been easy to jump on the bandwagon on how bad the third season was, but he didn't. William really put together some great facts into a well written essay! Mile Marker No. 14: “Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb” by Paul Kupperberg. The legacy beyond its original broadcast. Quite honestly, I haven't kept up with the Batman mythos in recent years. I've seen ALL of the Batman theatrical live action films on the Big Screen at local theaters, and rented the animated DVDs of major animated releases. I haven't watched the several animated series that have been shown on TV, or have been released on DVD. So it was very interesting to read in this essay on what has been happening since the 1966 Batman TV Show eneded.
I did want to mention here a few other items that are included in this book. One is the 'Introduction' titled: 'Giant Lighted Lucite Map of Gotham City' by Jim Beard, who is also the Editor of this book. Now I know why this book came into being! Thanks for sharing that at the beginning of this book! Another is an Appendix that wasn't listed on the 'Table of Contents' in the pre-publication .pdf that was sent to me. I have sent in word on this, hoping that the published book will have that correction. That is the Appendix: Bat-Discography by Michael S. Miller. Yes, the same author of Mile Maker No. 8! This is a wealth of info on this subject, the best I've ever seen! For Batman TV Show fans, this is a list you need to copy off and carry with you to record collector shows! Last, but certainly NOT least is the 'About the Contributors' section. It was good that all of the Contributors were listed with a little about them. It could have been worked to have the Mile Marker Number included with the paragraph on them for easy cross reference, but it was good to see what the backgrounds were of each Contributor for those that are picking up the book to possibly purchase it. So, as you can see...I'm more than slightly prejudiced in favor of this book being in YOUR personal library at home! Even so, I'm going to give this book a Near Mint (NM) 9.4 out of a 10.0 comic book grading scale. That's because it is well researched, well written, and will be presented for sale in a print format in the upcoming future! Again, when YOU go to your LCBS to pick up your weekly shipment of comics, don't forget to pre-order this upcoming book that is due to arrive at the end of December! Gotham City 14 Miles / ISBN 9780578064611 / $22.95 MSRP Also, in the meantime please feel free to check out the Facebook Fan Page for Gotham City 14 Miles and 'liking' it! PLUS...My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over the 3,260 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! BTW, You can 'follow' this Blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app! I would appreciate that! ~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
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Of course since I'm a contributor, (Mile Marker #10), as well as a fan of the TV Show, I've been blogging about this book now for what seems quite a while...(
The above are 7 of the 14 Mile Markers that I have space to mention here this morning. (I'm planning on running an additonal post in the future on the other 7.)
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