Reviewing the Mail: Week of 4/5

It's been another light week at the Hornswoggler compound. If this keeps up, I'll have to go back to writing about the books I get from the library -- and, trust me, nobody wants that. Time to bug some publicists, I guess...

First this week is Psycho Busters: The Novel, Book One. It was written by Yuya Aoki, who is credited as "creator of Get Backers," but who also wrote the manga derived from this novel. Actually, the press release says that this is a "light novel," which means that it's not all that long (169 pages) and has manga-style illustrations (in this case, by Rando Ayamine). I imagine the story isn't terribly different from the first volume of the manga, which I reviewed for ComicMix. Psycho Busters: The Novel is being published by Del Rey as a small trade paperback on April 8th, which means it's probably in most stores already -- or maybe still on the truck on the way to those stores.

Then there's Fantasy Classics, fifteenth in the series of Graphic Classics published by Eureka Productions and edited by Tom Pomplun. I really like the idea of these books -- classic works of literature (usually popular ones -- Mark Twain rather than Henry James) adapted into comics by a wide variety of creators -- even if I find the results a bit wordy sometimes. This volume is anchored by a 47-page adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, plus works by Lovecraft, Hawthorne, Dunsany, and Baum. Fantasy Classics was published in March 2008.

Little Vampire is an omnibus of three stories by Joann Sfar, the first two of which were published individually in English a year or two ago. It contains "Little Vampire Goes to School," "Little Vampire Does Kung Fu," and "Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club." First Second will publish it in May of 2008. I think it's officially for kids -- as many of First Second's books are -- but I'm looking forward to reading it myself.

And last this week is a book by Andy Mangels to tie into an upcoming movie: Iron Man: Beneath the Armor. It's a guide to all things Iron Mannish, with a history of the character in great detail (a random poke through it got me to a page about Mike Grell's work on Iron Man in 2003), extensive dossiers of characters from the comics, and, inevitably, a gallery of all of the different armors Tony Stark (and others) have worn over the years. I did mention this once when I saw a bound manuscript, but now I know that Del Rey is publishing it April 8th, so I can mention it again.