Hit Man by Lawrence Block

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Block’s book is nearly a travel journal as the main character roams about doing his job and trying to figure out his place in life. As each trip is logged in another story starts within the book. The stories aren’t broken into specific named chapters. The overall book contains probably a dozen tales of the adventures of the character. I wonder if that was the original thought. To have a series of short stories for a magazine or some such. Overall it is very good. Well written. Well defined characters. The interaction of the main character and the main contact for his work is nearly magic. The writing there is simply superb.

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Here’s a book illustration of a lion I finished this past week. I’ve been real busy and have not been posting here recently. All kinds of projects have been coming in. Along the way I’ve been trying to get a Florida history book finished. When I planned to do the Florida history book, I didn’t plan on other artwork coming in. At first i was turning work down and then realized I was really risking my financial position turning everything down. So, I’ve been juggling it all. I’ll try to catch up and add some of the caricature and illustration work I’ve been doing!

A Historical Album of Florida by Charles A. Wills

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Wow, is this awful! This is as great as an example as to why I am producing my own short history of Florida. In Willis’s book there’s a weird fixation on immigration and black Americans while leaving out important parts of Florida history. To go on pages about immigration of such a short history and only leave a photo of the 1928 hurricane and claim the crash in Florida was due to cold and hot temperatures shows a scary ignorance of one of the most important and guiding events in the state’s entire history. It seems the author’s intent was to get personal political viewpoint documented than tell the state’s history. There’s also too much mentioned about the Liberty City race riots, which lasted a short time. If the author wants to point out racial issues in Florida, why not focus of desegregation moves in Tallahassee in the 1950s & 1960s that made waves nationwide that we still feel the effects of today? There are other volumes of Florida history that take similar paths and frustrate me. Why not just tell the history. Willis is not in or from Florida and this seems like an assignment he was given and got through and went to the next one. Our great state of Florida deserves far better treatment.

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Here’s part of a feature I’m working on right now.

Was in JPnte Vedra, near Jacksonville, drawing golf enthusiasts at the Players Club at Sawgrass Country Club. GREAT crowd! They each had so much to say about themselves and I got to really work out my creative juices in the storytelling of most of the drawings. Here are some photos!

The Howard Hughes Affair by Stuart M. Kaminsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice to return to a solidly written story, after another bout with a current author that was left alone by a good editor. Kaminsky does move this one very, very fast. The plot is very good, the mystery great and the characters very well done. As usual, Kaminsky nails the dialogue of the separate characters. Also, if you are a nostalgia nut like me, you’ll love the appearances of the well-known during this 1940s setting. To some, I’m guessing, this all appears way too old fashioned. Cynics of this day might say it isn’t realistic to what was really happening at the time, as if they knew what was realistic at the time (We sure have a weird view of “realism” today). These Toby Peters novels are just very good mysteries that are also much fun to read. With the 500 page tombs drowning in excess being produced today, I think some have forgotten what a good book is.

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The President’s Assassin by Brian Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This story had a promising start for me. I liked the beginning and the humor knitted in the text. However as the book wore on, the endless meetings depicted and the constant reports of action that had already occurred began to wear on me. It would have been a better story if the narration had been brought to the action than more than three quarters of the book reflecting on it. It was almost like a series of flashbacks. As much as I love humor and sarcasm, even Haig’s leaning on it became to much for me. I kinda figured from the start who the bad guy was, which made it even tougher to get through the 500 pages. Another recent book needing severe editing is what is the bottom line…again!

The sarcastic hero reminded me a lot of Stuart Kaminky’s Toby Peters and Kaminsky’s writing & plotting in general. I would guess Haig is a Kaminsky fan. So, Toby Peters is my next stop.

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Got a bunch of artwork done today in a couple hours. Two editorial cartoons, a bike drawing and the next Swampy’s Florida webcomic.

Always Say Goodbye by Stuart M. Kaminsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first I’ve read of the Stuart Kaminsky series involving Lew Fonesca that otherwise takes place in Sarasota. This entry in the series, though, mostly takes place in Chicago as the main character looks for the murderer of his wife. The writing is well done. Especially in getting the Chicago dialogue to read true. There are a number of twists. One twist involving one character is especially well done. Also, this is not an overwritten novel as so many others are today.

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Was at our Orlando Remembered meeting on Wednesday. Here are sketches I made during the meeting. Below is a photo of some of the gang during our meeting. From right to left: Chariman Bill Milligan, Bob Buck, Betty Bandy, Hillis Bandy, Robert Serros, Claude Hunter, Claude H. Wolfe and Steve Rajtar.

Nice illustration on the cover of Agatha Christie’s Hickory Dickory Death.