Showdown by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘The Last Gunfighter’ series is appearing to be the better of the many Johnstone Clan series. This one one starts badly and then continues into a fun tale.

It’s a tired tale, even among the hundreds of Johnstone Clan books. The book tumbles into the premise with a whole series of outsiders suddenly finding the famous Frank Morgan. How this happens is not really explained except for some mention of detectives. Considering the book states Morgan happened to the town, that was quick work by detectives and travel from the northeast to Arizona.

All goes awry as the outsiders plans go out-of-control as bad guys will be bad guys. Seems a stretch the outsiders – not a one – expected even the potentiality. All leads to the fun of Frank Morgan cleaning out the mess. That is the fun and worth of the book.

Writing is standard Johnstone clan. Many characters are duplicates of so many before. Dialogue standard. Great characters.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

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Z Is For Zorglub by André Franquin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To note: The past couple of years I’ve been adding comic/graphic novels to the reading list to keep my head in a good part of my training: Sequential storytelling.

This is the best of the Spirou series I’ve read. The plot is rather simple. It’s the execution and all tied to it that has this a more complicated and fulfilling graphic novel. The bad guy is well introduced through pages and then a splash of an image. From that point the tentacles of the plot spread and snares all in one form or other. How the duo heroes and squirrel and the odd animal get caught up and wrapped into the story is full of clever situations and good storytelling. One welcome missing element are pages of slapstick.

The artwork is very good. Especially negotiating through large crowds and giant machinery.

A major drawback is the font and size used throughout. With such an involved tale, the font setting makes too much hard to read.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 9 out of ten points.

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3195616-rob-smith-jr

Here’s a big part of my annual Christmas illustration of Florida critters at the 70 year old The Candy Kitchen in Madeira Beach. I’m posting different portions on my pages.

From Sunday evening.

The story! : Elvis often found he had an enormous amount of free time, so he opened a barber shop that catered to only birds. He often twisted and shouted during a term of styling. All cuts were available, including permanents and weaves.

Thanks to all who participated! Dean Scott: Barber Shop Rob Maystead: Elvis Melissa Busby: Spoonbill, Heron Tiffany Sokolowski: Butter (On back of magazine) Ellen Hunter Simms: Snake Cindy Morris Mackey: Cookies Cindy Garland: Birthday Cake

Someday soon I’ll post a sped-up video of me drawing this.

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If you would like to help cover the costs of pens, paper, etc.: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/YBP4S36MCXP8E/checkout/4U2QISDKFR6SHD3UKDLVR7J2?fbclid=IwAR2A9GK2IrrZho6K6tbjbdlw9vxEUTmkxDWbDGY9_CNR5dMKT88VQJ0zPIM
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. #Art #Artlife #LIVEART #liveartist #Illustration #BArber #BarberShop #Elvis #Birds #Heron #Spoonbill

Tom and Jerry Wordless Graphic Novels by Christopher Harbo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Instead of purchasing this, best spend less for any of the ‘Tom & Jerry’ comic books that existed from the ’40s through the ’80s. This volume is a poorly illustrated, greatly lacking tale. Sequential story telling isn’t difficult. The ones that put this together have a lot to learn. Making all of this worse is that this is basically a rehash of earlier ‘Tom & Jerry’ tales. The difference is a cell phone is inserted. There was so much that could’ve been done here! And with far less words!

A plus to the earlier comics, besides better stories and art, is that there are more of them. This book has just one story. One of those old Gold Key comics might run you a dollar to, maybe, ten, tops from a local comic book store. You can check E-Bay, too. That is the best direction for ‘Tom & Jerry’ printed material.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of ten points.

I should note I got access to this volume via the #NetGalley service for a review.

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Spirou & Fantasio in Moscow by Tome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an entry that has some fantastic artwork, but the execution of the story was poorly thought out. Not helping is a far too complicated tale for the limits of the usual length of these tales.

Too much gets confusing with two problems.
1) The inclusion of actual Russian and then a playful use of fonts that turn certain letters backwards to present the feel of Russian. Some of the Russian is translated. Some of it has an asterisk to see a footnote at bottom. The inconsistency makes the story hard to read and know where to look at any one point.
2) The illustrations are handled in a more erratic style that makes understanding what’s going on. That and distinguishing characters.
The two problems together create a story hard to get through.
Then the ending is unsatisfying.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

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