Art in the Blood

If you have followed this blog for more than a week you well know that I love art work involving Sherlock Holmes and the 'lighter side' of the Canon.
So get this book was a real treat because I have always loved Scott Bonds treatment of the Canon.

This book covers most of the work Bond has done on Sherlock Holmes with captions explaining way the work was relevant when he did.
Glossy and well made, the book is a lot of fun.

I like her work . . .

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Are you ready for this?

Hey, remember how we told you the rather surprising news that basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had written a novel about Sherlock Holmes’ brother Mycroft? Well, now he’s writing a comic about it. Featuring the sexiest Mycroft Holmes ever.

Here’s the full cover, bask in its glory:

If you’re wondering if I have questions about how the legendarily fat and sedentary Mycroft—whose club forbid talking—ended up being a bare-chested adventurer, you bet I do. They are “What?” “Why?” “What?” “No, really?” “How?” “Can someone help me understand?” and “What?”, in that order.

On the same link as the last post you can also find some othe Sherlockian book connections

Here

From one of my favorite web comics 'Sheldon' - Because it's Friday and you deserve it.

'Watson and Holmes - A Study in Black' a review

While at our local library Monday evening I discovered this title in their Graphic Novel department.

Always on the look out for good Sherlockian artwork and stories I checked it out and thought I would give it a try.

The concept once again attempts to bring Holmes and Watson into the modern era. This time modern Harlem.
Both Holmes and Watson are African American and ghetto smart.

Watson is a young Afgan. vet. working as an intern in an inner-city hospital. He has also just left a troubled marriage and has a son.

We don't learn a whole lot about Holmes' motives for what he does. And nothing of his background other than his mother like Mycroft best.
The back story may come in follow up novels.

We have Mycroft showing up (wants to be called Mike), as does Moran (no, Moran does not want to be called Mike, but he is mentioned). Mrs. Hudson is also present.

Lestrade is represented as a white female cop named Det. Leslie Stroud (Les-Stroud).

Graphic Novels take a lot of work. The story has to fit into a comic book type format mixing images and words to tell the story. Dialoge is necessarily limited to fit that format, so a lot is expected of the few words used.

The art work is very good in this novel, done by Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman. It is gritty and, well, graphic.

Some spelling and grammar errors make parts hard to read, and for me the two story arcs didn't connect.
Also the introduction between Holmes and Watson was abbreviated and needed to be filled out.
Once again to make a modern Holmes it seems like he has to be tech. savoy or at least have many friends who are and known Sherlockian habits could have been better represented.

Baker St. Irregulars make a couple of appreances as street smart inner city kids.

Gun violence in the novel made it something I would not introduce to young riders. That may be the way of the world now, but is unnecessary to make a good story.

For all the faults I found with it, I still think it is a workable idea and would have some appeal as an after nine p.m. TV show.

I will check to see if there are more stories and give it another chance.

Note; There appears to be three in the series so far. Kindle version are fairly in-expensive while a hard copy of number one is around $140.00. 

From Watson came Robin?

As Batman co-creator Bill Finger noted, Gotham’s protector needed a someone to help him get out of his own head:

”I found that as I went along, Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That’s how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea.”

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Because it's Friday and you deserve it.

A Sherlock Holmes Christmas Illustration

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Because it's Friday and you deserve it. . . .

By Drazen

His blog

The Seven-per-cent Solution now in comic book form . . .

Here

SHIN - Advance Review, . . . but not by me.

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Advance Review: In stores today!

SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. HARRY HOUDINI #3

Writer: Anthony del Col & Conor McCreery
Artist: Carlos Furuzono
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Lyzard

My relationship with Anthony del Col and Conor McCreery as a critic of theirs has been a rocky one. There are the times that I am praising their works, and then others when I am left shaking my head and crying “why, why” when things go ever so utterly wrong in their narratives. Then there is the snickering over Twitter when those two somehow take a story from a-okay to awesome. Our rapport is hardly consistent. Their work on SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. HARRY HOUDINI, however, is.

This comic hinges on the back and forth between the asshole detective and pompous magician. Though there is a mutual respect between the two men, it is their constant need to one-up the other, to be the smartest man in the room, to beat the other to the punch (sometimes literally) that drives this comic along. The series has potential far beyond the current mystery, but only because of how del Col and McCreery have written these two characters. While their artistic depictions are much too similar, their voices are keenly distinct. A line said by Houdini could not be mistaken for spoken by Holmes. Even though in issue #3 they spend the least amount of page time together, their contesting natures drive the story. They could be searching for a dognapper for all I care, I’d still read this comic.

But Holmes and Houdini have their sights set on someone more villainous than Cruella DeVille. After Houdini’s London premiere ended in a “suicide,” the two rationalists have been looking for the flesh and blood murderer who caused the incident and who has also threatened to create more chaos unless the American bows down to his awesome powers. Sound familiar? Perhaps I was so taken by the comic’s conceit that the similarity escaped me for the first two issues, but the climax of this book veered eerily close to the first Robert Downey Jr. SHERLOCK HOLMES flick. I am in no way accusing anyone of plagiarism. Parallels are bound to be found in material based on the same literary source. But if I were to find fault with the storytelling in this issue it would be how the plot felt more like del Col and McCreery’s other works, perhaps more “Killing Conan Doyle” rather than a clear focus on their original pairing of Houdini and Holmes, two jackass geniuses fighting against rather than with each other.

The artwork, same as the writing, has changed very little since the first issue. There is a lack of detail resulting in characters with nearly identical features. When Houdini and Holmes are on the same page there is enough to distinguish, but when both men go their separate ways to solve the crime, it can take a panel or two in order to decide whose footsteps we are following now. There was little in the way of action for the first book, so it is not inconsistent for the artwork to improve now that we get some punches being thrown. Much of the physical drama is drawn tight and up close, where Furuzono’s penciling improves in detail. It is when a panel has depth or scope that the over-simplification stands out.

SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. HARRY HOUDINI #3 does exactly what a midpoint issue should do. The stakes are raised ever so high, pushing the characters to their breaking points, and the reader to the edge of their chair in anticipation for what will happen next. I’ve learned my lesson in trying to predict what del Col and McCreery are trying to do, so I will leave the deduction to the experts. However, I doubt even Houdini or Holmes could guess how this story will end.

Lyzard is Lyz Reblin, a graduate student at the University of Texas pursuing a master's degree in Media Studies... which is just a fancy way of saying she plays a lot video games, watches far too many horror films, and then tries to pass it all off as "research."