Appearance
Clarence the TV Dog.
My son and I read this book together. I remember my grade school reading it to me as a child. My son LOVED this story and now he REALLY wants a dog of his own!
500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes
I had hoped that this volume would prove an informative guide to assorted characters and series in the comic book world, and it is true that it covers a lot of ground. It doesn't just focus on the "Big Two", Marvel and DC, but also has plenty of information on some of the current so-called independents, various defunct companies from the Forties to the present day (many of which were absorbed by DC), and also a smattering of entries on non-American comics.However, a heck of a lot of the detail that is presented is in the way of simple timelines about when a given series was published or resurrected and who might have been writing or drawing it. So we learn a lot about the year in which a title first debuted, when it was canceled, when it was re-started, and what issue numbers were involved in each run. There's just a good amount of strangely mundane detail that would be of little interest to anyone but the specialist. This book is sort of the equivalent of one of those super-focused tomes on the military costumes of the Napoleonic Wars. Sure, somebody wants to know that stuff, but most people want to get to the good parts about battles and generals and kings and campaigns, and not dwell on what kinds of buttons and flashings your average Austrian grenadier had in 1805. So the relative lack of commentary on the actual characters themselves and the key plots is rather disappointing.The organization is also idiosyncratic and a bit off-putting (a simple A-Z listing would've sufficed), and there are a fair number of spelling and grammar errors. The entries themselves basically give equal weight to every selected character or group, so the Avengers get the same number of paragraphs as comparative unknowns such as the Challengers of the Unknown.Really, this book is best used as a resource to learn about some of the more obscure non-mainstream or now-unpublished characters or to find out see which artist or writer was working on which title. Definitely not for the casual fan.
500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes
If I had to pick the most important feature of a reference book, it would probably be accuracy of information. Almost as important would be the comprehensiveness of information; a dictionary, for example, would be of little use if it only covered the letters A and Q. Finally, a reference book should have easily accessible information; that same dictionary would be hard to work with if the words weren't in order. Mike Conroy's 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes scores well enough on the first point and decently on the second point. On the last item, however, it is not very good.In terms of accuracy, the book does a good job. While I am a comic book fan, I am not nearly enough of one to truly say if every detail is accurate; for all I know, the fact that the first Blue Beetle appeared in 1939 may be right and may be wrong. On the other hand, the information I do know fits with what is presented in the book, so I'll take the other stuff as true until told otherwise.Comprehensiveness is harder to judge. Certainly, most major superheroes (and other action heroes) are here, but anyone familiar with the genre can probably name a few that are not mentioned. For example, such "classic" heroes from the 1980s as Rom, the Micronauts and Ka-Zar (all of whom had decent runs) are basically omitted, as well as other folks like the Moon Knight and Luke Cage (Power Man) and the Question. On the other hand, we do get to read about some interesting but obscure heroes such as the Badger and Congorilla. It's a mixed bag. Are there even truly 500? I never bothered to count.The big problem is with organization. While the heroes are basically listed in alphabetical order by category (such as Male, Female, Teams and War Heroes), each section is interrupted by special items on specific items and trends. There's a lot of fun information here, but it's often hard to find. The Table of Contents does provide some help, but the lack of an index is a major problem.Overall, the book looks nice, with plenty of art and nice paper, but I am hard-pressed to give it more than a high three stars. On a fundamental level - organization - this book is sub-par, so as a reference book, it doesn't do the trick as well as it should.
500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes
This book covers a lot (and I mean a lot) of material. As a nice, quick overview of Comic Book heroes and their history, as told from a loving and friendly point of view, this is fairly good. There were characters in here I did not know about, or had forgotten about (and I'm a lifelong comic fan).However, Mike Conroy could have used some fact checking. With the sheer amount of detail, I suppose we can forgive a few small errors, but here are a couple of details I found to be more than incidental:On page 149, he refers to the character Starseed as "malevolent." In fact, the opposite was true. Starseed did drop a mountain in the middle of Sunset Blvd. - but he was merely returning it from when he took it ages ago. He was actually benevolent, and offered to cure Morbius, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night of their afflictions. Unable to control their monstrous selves, the monsters killed Starseed rather than accept his gift. The tale was a tragedy, with Starseed as the hero that dies in the end. Next time, read more closely, Mr. Conroy.On page 141 he refers to the character of Blade, the Vampire Slayer as "African-American." I find it hard for a man who was born and raised in England to be an American, but maybe his citizenship changed later in life (although all Blade's early adventures take place in or near London, where he was living with his girlfriend Safron).If these two small errors don't bother you (they actually don't bother me all that much), then the other errors likely won't bug you either.A good, solid book of capsule histories and an accessible, quick reference work.
500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes
This little reference book has a quality of fandom and charm about it. While it has its flaws, its easily read in bit-sized bits that leave you wanting to go find out more. The numerous mini-essays give an overall sense of the trends and fads of the industry over the years, from the brief affair with martial arts to monsters as protagonists. Makes a wonderful beach holiday read for yourself, or to page through to encourage younger comic readers of the way things were.
The Marathon Chef: Food for Getting Fit
This book is filled with pictures of beautiful, colorful food and the chef's personal running tips and eating habits. I found the narration charming. I don't think that Chef Roux used an interpreter, so the text has a few idiosyncracies (e.g., "pet hates").The chef really has a thing against frozen entrees and other processed foods, but I think they make life easier. Ease of preparation and taste are important, especially when you're trying to fit in school, work, and running and I think The Marathon Chef is lacking a bit in those very important areas.As for the recipes themselves... they are a little too sophisticated for my tastes. The flavor combinations are unusual, like basil and fruit. Also, the ingredients are measured in grams and milliliters so you'd need to get a kitchen scale to make them.On the plus side, the bread section is good and so are the fish recipes. If you have time to spare and a sophisticated palate then I would recommend this book to you.