SUPERMAN: SUNDAY CLASSICS (1939-1943)

      The above books, published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (2006) are compilations of the Superman daily and Sunday comic strips dating from the strips’ inception in January and November 1939, respectively. Both were originally published by DC Comics and Kitchen Sink Press in 1998 and 1999, respectively. The Sunday Classics volume includes an introductory essay by comics writer Roger Stern, while the Dailies consists of three volumes bound together, each section introduced by James Vance and covering Superman’s premiere in newspapers, on radio, and in the movies, respectively.
     Both books show the evolution of the Superman character from his second year as a comic book and strip hero to the middle of World War II. The Dailies begins with the character’s origin story, in which the original form of his Kryptonian name, Kal-L, is given, while the Sunday Classics gives two one-page summaries of his origin story. (The name would later be changed to the more familiar “Kal-El” in George Lowther’s 1942 Superman novel, along with changing the names of his parents from “Jor-L” and “Lora” to “Jor-El” and “Lara.”)
     The books chart much of the Man of Steel’s development, from the change of the newspaper from The Daily Star to The Daily Planet in early 1940 to the evolution of the “S” shield from its early triangular shape to the more familiar pentagon we know today. Superman’s powers rapidly grow from super-strength, super-speed, super-leaping, and invulnerability to include super-hearing, telescopic and X-ray vision, and super-breath. (His title of the Man of Steel appears for the first time in “Assassins and Spies” in the Sunday strip in 1940; previously he was known as “The Man of Tomorrow.”) Unlike later stories, here the Metropolis Marvel had little compunction against, if not actually killing his foes, letting them die or thrashing them severely.
     Lois Lane, drawn with black hair for most of her years in the comic book, appears with red hair in the Sunday strip, similar to the color of Noel Neill’s hair in The Adventures of Superman TV series of the 1950s. Her relationship with Clark Kent/Superman is one where both Clark and Superman indicate feelings for the courageous girl reporter, unlike the aloofness exhibited by the Action Ace in the decade following. Luthor, introduced in 1940 with a shock of red hair, appears with his more familiar bald pate in “Pawns of the Master” later that year in the daily strip and in “Luthor, Master of Evil” the following year. George Taylor appears as Clark Kent’s boss in place of Perry White, who was introduced on radio, while Jimmy Olsen has yet to appear as the cub reporter we know, and the Fortress of Solitude is simply Superman’s “mountain retreat.”
     Many of the daily stories show Superman involved with the problems of individuals ranging from a washed-up boxer and runaway orphan to a man more timid than Clark Kent. The Sunday stories, in contrast, include fantastic stories where the Last Son of Krypton battles hemophiliac giants, mad geneticists, and giant robots akin to the mechanical monsters he would face in one of the Fleischer Brothers cartoons.
     Both volumes are excellent reading for the amateur comics historian as well as collectors and fans of Superman.  --  Rodney Ruff, Dec. 19, 2006

          Warped Factors is Walter Koenig’s honest look at his life before, during, and after Star Trek up through his appearances on Babylon 5. Koenig begins with an awkward childhood as the third child and second son of Russian Jewish immigrants Isadore and Sarah Koenig (the original family name was Koenigsberg), a father who was an avowed Communist sympathizer and a mother who made several attempts at spontaneous abortion while pregnant with him. Growing up in a tempestuous family, his main source of support was his older brother, Norman, who would die shortly after Koenig suffered a heart attack in 1993, and to whom the book is dedicated. (Another source of support was his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Rothman, who showed him various kindnesses.)
     A poor student afraid to show his athletic gifts, Koenig found his calling as an actor during a childhood performance at an American Labor Party camp retreat at age seven. From there, he had roles in various school plays, including his years at Grinnell College in Iowa and at UCLA, before joining New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and working with the likes of James Caan, Dabney Coleman, and Jessica Walter. He would return to Los Angeles and have roles on The Alfred Hitchock Hour and The Lieutenant before winning the role of Ensign Pavel Chekov on Star Trek. He then began a second career as a writer and appeared as the alien Oro in The Star Lost before returning as Chekov in the Star Trek movies and then moving on to play the PsiCorps’ Alfred Bester on Babylon 5.
     Along the way, Koenig suffered many personal and professional ups and downs, which he recalls with a mixture of wit, honesty, anger, and resignation. He recalls such incidents as being fired from a TV movie for staring at its director and declining to help a fan sacrifice a chicken without carrying an agenda or grinding an ax, but showing himself as a traveler on a sometimes quirky journey through life. He reports honestly on his interactions with his fellow Trek cast members, giving praise where needed and criticism to a minimum. (He reports his difficulties with William Shatner on Star Trek II but also presents his perception of Shatner’s side of things and their eventual becoming friends during Star Trek: Generations.)
     Warped Factors also includes Koenig’s filmography, his notes to Harve Bennett on Star Trek II (with notations in the narrative as to which of his suggestions were taken), and his proposal for the story for Star Trek VI, a radically different story than The Undiscovered Country that would have had the crew go out in a blaze of glory instead of to a heroic retirement. Overall, Koenig provides a fair and balanced (as much as the “neurotic” in the title allows) portrait of his life, career, and activities in an informative read for fans of Star Trek, Babylon 5, or the man himself.                    --   Rodney Ruff,  Feb.. 20, 2007

     Obsidian Butterfly, by Laurell K. Hamilton, was one of her earlier novels in the Anita Blake, vampire executioner, series. In this story, Anita was in Santa Fe trying to find the perpetrator(s) of mutilations and murders. Along the way the author explored enough Aztec mythology to give an exotic flavor to the plot.
     For a series steeped in erotica, this had surprisingly little, which is one reason I recommended it for our very public discussion.
     The group found Obsidian Butterfly enjoyable, but flawed. We noticed an over-emphasis of a bar’s floor show for a relatively minor plot point, plus resolution of sub-plots was skimped. Also, someone noticed a plot discontinuity (ex. Anita casually leaned against a truck coated in mud), and she considered the amount of angst off-putting.                                              --   Cyndi Trail,   March 20, 2007