Mike Baron (1) (1949–)

Beautiful comic/graphic-novel adaptation.

Moorcock's stories were always more adult than majority of fantasy books in its time, and Corum is the same. I think when it comes to complexity of the characters and the gray line they walk, only Wagner's Kane comes near to Moorcock's heroes.

Member of stagnating race (very Elf-like) Corum finds himself targeted by a barbarian group of Humanity that are slowly taking over the world.

We follow our hero from one tragedy to another, as he suffers show more greatly, not only in losses of his people, destruction and desecration of his family but also body losses induced by the barbarian humans during torture. He finds refuge in the more civilized humanity and there finds his love, Rhalina, that will prove the corner stone for his survival and finally striking back at his enemies.

First step is to fight against the Arioch (of Elric's fame) and fighting against the one of the Duke's of Hell is something that is not advisable to anyone, especially half crippled Corum. As it always happens in these stories he will find unlikely allies, and there is question if they are any better from the horrors Corum is fighting.

Art is just stunning. I like this period of Mike Mignola - characters are not devolved entirely into the abstract forms with polygon splashes of black and white, scenes of horror are done superbly, and mass scenes, especially when it comes to fighting the hordes attacking the Rhalina's castle are just breathtaking, including the duel between Glandyth and Corum.

Highly recommended to all fans of heroic fantasy, beautiful adaptation. show less

Honestly, a much better adaptation than I was expecting. Like Hawkmoon, Corum is never going to be my favourite Moorcock creation, but this?

Damn.

The story was typical Moorcock, and Mike Baron did a decent job of adapting it. But it's Mignola's art that absolutely elevates this work, something I never thought I'd say. I'm not a fan of Mike Mignola's art, I find it far too cartoonish and blocky, but here, pre-Hellboy, it's much more fluid and whimsical, and shows that, had he gone in a show more different direction, he could have been the next P. Craig Russell.

And don't get me wrong, I understand why no artist wants to be the "next (fill in the blank)" when they can be the first in their own style. Very likely why Bill Sienkiewicz stopped aping Neal Adams and went off his own way as well.

But for this Corum series, this pre-Mignola Mignola style is perfect. show less

Though I've read the novels many times, this was my first time reading the comics adaptation of Timothy Zahn's trilogy of Star Wars novels, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, making this a different sort of climax to my time of rereading New Republic-era Star Wars novels.

Unfortunately, although it was rarely bad, mostly this book served to remind me of a much superior work. Zahn's Thrawn novels are distinguished by their large, complex political plots; abbreviated show more into comics, each story is nothing but a series of haphazard and rapid scenes. Characters go places and do things for reasons the reader doesn't quite know, referring to things the reader hasn't seen. Though Baron gets better with this as the adaptations go on, they never become involving or deep.

The art itself is nice. Olivier Vatine and Fred Blanchard have a very distinctive style-- I love their narrow-eyed Thrawn-- and I certainly enjoy the work of Terry Dodson and Eric Shanower. (And since I complain about it so much elsewhere, never once did I feel here that a female character had been gratuitously sexualized, not even Mara to my surprise.) While it's nice to get visualizations of some of the story elements, this comic fails to add much of a new level of meaning to the original. Mostly, I just want to read the original now. show less

3 stars for the story, 4 stars for the audio production: I don’t care for audio books because I can read much faster than a narrator can read to me, but my husband prefers them. So, I was delighted to discover GraphicAudio, which specializes in full cast productions. The few audio books I have enjoyed were full cast, and are more like listening to a radio show than “reading” a book. Both my husband and I are superhero fans, so we decided to give this Green Lantern title a go on a show more recent road trip.

The story started out strong. We begin in the past, during WWII, when a yellow ring is passed to a medic by a dying soldier. The story then jumps to the present where Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary and Green Arrow are driving across the US. They come across a wildfire out of control and about to decimate a small town; the heroes immediately intervene. The sequence was exciting, with sound effects to enhance the action. The voice actors were on point, and the dialog was clear. After they save the town, the heroes find themselves battling a familiar and powerful enemy. They defeat him and then the story jumps ahead in time again to a new Green Lantern named Kyle. Kyle is in love with Jade, who has powers and green skin. Most of the plot revolves around these two, with appearances by Superman, and some other familiar characters.

Unfortunately, the story went downhill from those exciting opening sequences to wallow in romantic angst. Half of Kyle’s dialog is spent whining about whether Jade loves him, why she won’t marry him, is she pregnant… For her part, she can’t decide if she’s ready to commit so she flirts with an exterminator who shows up at their apartment, who is turning into something else thanks to a certain yellow ring. Further, this angst interferes with Kyle’s ability to do his job as a Lantern – he consistently acts, or fails to act, because he’s so mired in the relationship drama. It was frustrating. The actual plot that requires the superheroes had a lot of potential. A race located in the antimatter universe wants to find a way into our universe because theirs is dying. When Kyle and Jade end up in that universe, the plot finally kick started and became more engaging. The conclusion was satisfying.

While this wasn't quite “a movie in your mind,” owing to an excessive use of the narrator, it was a very good production. We won’t listen to any further volumes of Sleepers, but I will definitely be buying more titles from Graphic Audio. The prices are very reasonable for an audio book, but especially ones with a full cast. Recommended. show less