LUCY: "I love you, Goosey. You are my big sister."
GOOSEY: "No. I am a goose. You, Lucy, are a dog."
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This is a storybook about a dog who loves thLUCY: "I love you, Goosey. You are my big sister."
GOOSEY: "No. I am a goose. You, Lucy, are a dog."
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This is a storybook about a dog who loves the goose who lives with her on the farm and insists on calling her 'big sister.' This annoys Goosey.
LUCY: "Look! I have glossy goosey feathers." GOOSEY: "Those are not feathers. They are leaves."
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The dog tries to waddle like a goose. The goose angrily points out geese don't have wagging tails. Lucy tries to honk like a goose, but Goosey shushes her, saying she'll disturb her eggs.
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Lucy pretends she has a nest, too, by putting rocks in a bunch of straw. Lucy tries to 'fly' but only succeeds in making Goosey a muddy mess.
Goosey orders Lucy in a stern voice: "Go bark and dig and chase like a dog. I am a goose. And you are not."
LUCY, sadly: "Okay, Goosey."
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So Lucy runs around and barks at things and digs holes.
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Goosey praises her and they both go to sleep.
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At night, Lucy hears and smells a fox trying to get into the henhouse (goosehouse?)
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She chases him off, shouting "Leave Goosey alone!"
Goosey is very happy. She thanks Lucy for saving her eggs. Lucy says, "I love you, Goosey. You are my..."
GOOSEY: "Do not say it. I am not your big sister. I am a goose and you are... my friend."
They hug. The eggs crack. The baby chick sees Lucy. BABY CHICK: "Hello, big sister!"
EL FIN ...
Ah, so. ... ... I'm kind of confused as to why Goosey has such a stick up her butt about being called 'big sister.' I find it sweet. She seems kind of grumpy and exasperated throughout the whole book, aside from the whole Lucy thing. What makes them not family members? They are different species? They can be friends but not family? IDK. I think love can create families and families are not always the ones related to you by blood. But that's just me.
This book is just mediocre, and I'm not a fan of its message. The illustrations are meh. The story is meh.
Lucy is a dog. She was bought to protect the goose from foxes. I guess that's the lesson? Each has a different purpose in life? Geese lay eggs and propagate, dogs defend the geese? I don't know, this 'they are not the same, they are DIFFERENT' message is grating on me a little bit. Who gives a fuck if the little dog wants to call the goose 'sister?' Does Goosey think the dog won't defend her in a dog-like way if the dog thinks she is a goose? I find the whole thing slightly confusing, I don't think I understand the main point. ...more
The day the antlered ship arrived, Marco wondered about the wide world.
When I first picked up this book, I thought I had already read it. But no, I waThe day the antlered ship arrived, Marco wondered about the wide world.
When I first picked up this book, I thought I had already read it. But no, I was confusing it for another book about animals that explore on a ship: The Friend Ship. You wouldn't think animals-exploring-on-a-ship would be a theme, but apparently it is quite common.
In this book, our hero, Marco the fox, is very curious about the world. He is full of questions about it, but the other foxes are only concerned about stuff like food.
So when an antlered ship comes into harbor, Marco goes down to meet it. It is the ship of three deer.
So Marco went down to the harbor to see the ship. Three deer greeted him at the gangplank. Marco wasn't surprised to learn that they were lost.
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Love that snark! ;)
The captain, Captain Sylvia, explains that she is seeking a seaworthy crew. Marco volunteers. So does Victor, the pigeon, along with his three pigeon friends which the book describes as "his entire flock" but I highly doubt that.
Captain Sylvia informs them that they will be traveling to an island
"We're going to a WONDERFUL island, with tall, sweet grass and short, sweet trees. When we get there, we'll eat a delectable dinner."
But the voyage is not easy. They run into terrible storms. The pigeons are lazy and don't want to raise and lower the sails. They just stay belowdecks and play checkers. The deer are worrywarts who just huddle in the bow and wait for something bad to happen. Marco is the only one with any brains. After days of this shit, everyone is discouraged and saying they wished they'd stayed home.
After days of drifting and dining on crackers, the animals were damp and cranky.
"We should have stayed in the woods," Sylvia said. "Deer aren't supposed to go to sea."
"We should have stayed in the park," added Victor. "Pigeons aren't supposed to do hard labor."
Marco eyed the deer and the pigeons. "Foxes aren't supposed to be vegetarian," he said. "Still, we must do the best we can."
Points to the author for bringing up foxes' diets! Lots of points for addressing this! And in a funny way!
Marco finds a recipe book and makes a stew.
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Then he suggests looking at the charts. They do, and Marco hopes there will be other foxes where they're going.
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Then they run into a pirate ship. Very amusing to me. A boar, a parrot, a raccoon, a big rat, a crocodile, a ferret, a bear, a mouse, and an owl are all dressed up in pirate gear. Slater has a pretty realistic drawing style so it is pretty amusing.
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The pirates demand the Antlered ship's treasure. ("What treasure?!?!!?" I'm thinking in my head) and the pirate ship looks like a giant elephant. The deer-looking ship and the elephant-looking ship butt heads and 'fight.' Eventually the pirates leave.
They find the island.
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The deer eat. The pigeons tell tales to seagulls. Marco goes off searching for foxes but he can't find any. I hope he got to eat, too! o.O
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Finally, the crew gathers to watch the sunset.
"I have failed," Marco told Victor and Sylvia. "No foxes. No one to answer my questions."
He discusses the questions, and (I think) it is established that they are all friends now.
In the morning they leave, off for a new adventure. EL FIN
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THE GOOD:
1.) The book is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. Take off the dust jacket and you'll see that the front cover is engraved with an antler/anchor and the back is engraved with an antler/helm. Open the book and you will be greeted by the Fan Brothers' stunning illustrations. STUNNING. You could frame these. The end pages on both ends are gorgeous maps. There are ways to visually explore the book - it takes time to drink in all the details. For instance, one pigeon has a wooden leg. You may notice the animals use a drawing-compass made of carved deer antler.
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2.) The book gives animals names. It grates my cheese when children's books - which INSIST on using animals as MCs - name them after the animal itself. Bear, Pigeon, Mouse, and Fox are NOT names. How the heck would that work? Would you name a baby "Human?" Get out of here with that crap. Slater has the decency to name her animals MCs. Thank you, Slater.
3.) There is vocabulary you can teach and discuss with your child. gangplank shoal seaworthy delectable belowdecks reviving
4.) The book acknowledges the problem of a fox traveling with a bunch of herbivores. What's he going to eat? Or should I say... WHO is he going to eat? Usually authors just ignore this as if all animals are snuggle-buddies. o.O Major points to Slater for winkingly bringing it up.
THE BAD:
1.) Marco's stupid questions. Here are some examples:
Why do some songs make you happy and others make you sad? Why don't trees ever talk? How deep does the sun go when it sinks into the sea? Why is water so wet? Do islands like being alone? Do waves look more like horses or swans?
I was just like "Shut the fuck up, Marco! Just SHUT UP!" He was driving me NUTS.
2.) At the end you're just like, "Welp. That happened." It's not very satisfying.
TL;DR - SO BEAUTIFUL. But the story is not the powerhouse it could have been.
After three omnibuses of Golden Age Batman, I'm a bit burned out. Things are getting very weird and absurd, Robin has started punning, and we have sceAfter three omnibuses of Golden Age Batman, I'm a bit burned out. Things are getting very weird and absurd, Robin has started punning, and we have scenes like Bruce spanking Dick that I could have happily gone my entire life without seeing. At least three (THREE!) comics in this book use the Hansel and Gretel ploy of leaving a trail of _____ to guide the hero to them. The comics are getting a little tired and weird.
On the other hand, there are some gems here. A great take on A Christmas Carol, "The Secret of Bruce Wayne," and "The Cop Who Hated the Batman" were some highlights that I enjoyed reading. It surprised me how many plots were lifted from these comics written in the early forties to create the show The Animated Series.
Overall I'd say it is worth reading, along with the other two, but with all three in the row I am experiencing some Batman burnout. Also, they've cut out the cute introductions where they used to dramatically discuss how awesome Batman and Robin are. I miss those....more
Supersleuth, Archavenger of crime, foe of the underworld... this is The Batman! A dark-mantled fighter who seems to dwell in night itself and whose faSupersleuth, Archavenger of crime, foe of the underworld... this is The Batman! A dark-mantled fighter who seems to dwell in night itself and whose fame as a scourge of evil has become almost legendary. Assisting the Batman in his unceasing battle against crime is a boy... not an ordinary boy, but Robin, the Boy Wonder! Little wonder it is then that every campaign against crime has resulted in complete victory for the Dynamic Duo!
Things have changed in this omnibus. For one thing, you can see Finger starting to institute the "Batman doesn't kill people (on purpose) rule" with varying degrees of success. Batman only kills three men in this omnibus, that's 1/3 of his kills in the first omnibus. So, you know, he's trying to cut back. Finger also keeps having Batman frequently remind us (and Robin) that he never kills with or carries a gun. You can see someone is influencing Finger to clean things up and make things bit more child-friendly.
Another author's ploy which gets used here is villains saying, "Don't shoot Batman! It'll draw the cops!" This, of course, is not because it is going to draw the cops, but because the author needs an excuse for the villains to fight Batman in hand-to-hand combat. There still are occasional guns, but Finger uses this ploy often.
This particular omnibus also surprised me because there were touching and endearing comics in here. The comics as a whole are becoming more civic-minded. Beyond that, there were just some plot threads in here that I think were more emotionally moving than in Volume One. There's even a comic in which Batman is a complete mensch to a woman, something we are not used to seeing from Bruce/Bats. This omnibus also goes out of it's way to illustrate lots of political corruption, and explains the evils of turning to crime a lot. Rather than being turned-off by this, I more or less enjoyed it even if it was a bit cheesy at times. Besides the comic which features Bruce/Bats engaging in mensch-behavior, I also want to note that when Julie Madison breaks off her engagement with Bruce Wayne he is an absolute sweetheart about it, and gets extra points from me.
Fourthly, Batman loves Robin. Bruce/Bats isn't a man who shows a lot of emotions. Any kind of emotions. But if he thinks Robin has been injured or killed, he flips the fuck out and goes on murderous rampages. These reactions and the sole comic in which Bruce/Bats surprisingly mensches up and fixes things for a woman endear me to what is otherwise a cold, indifferent character. The love and concern Bruce has for Dick is very apparent in this volume. You could see what Batman is doing might be horrible on some level - training a child to fight and kill, being proud of and encouraging his naturally violent and adrenaline-loving nature. But on the other hand, we see what happens to kids in Gotham with no parents or living in poverty. They turn into criminals and often die at a young age. So I have to think that even though Bruce's... "parenting" methods are highly questionable and at times disturbing, he's provided Dick with a much better future than he'd have otherwise.
The omnibus also insists on referring to Dick as a 'schoolboy' and talking about 'homework' even though I see ZERO evidence that this kid attends school of any kind.
Every single beat-cop in Gotham is Irish-American. I don't know if this is a reflection of the times (early 1940s ) or what.
This omnibus reminded me of various other fictions at various times. The movie AI. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And James Bond. But I guess no plot is 'new,' right? Everything has been done and certainly Finger was writing before the invention of all three of these things.
Again with the mysteries - these are presented like actual mysteries which Batman has to 'solve.' It's a lot like Scooby-Doo, and sometimes just about as serious. :p Batman isn't just some growling dark figure who enjoys terrifying, beating, and interrogating criminals and making them beg for mercy. He's also a detective. This is different than the recent films IMO.
There's mild sexism and racism in this book. I've certainly read worse, but it is definitely noticeable and can be annoying. I can ignore it for this fun slice of history, but I want to mention it.
TL;DR - Surprisingly fun and gripping. More enjoyable IMO than the first omnibus. Perhaps Finger is getting better at writing as he goes along. Definitely worth checking out if you have an interest in either Batman or early comic books.
Just as the Batman had earned his name from his garb, so did another figure gain his... a figure suggesting a ghastly, deliberate mockery, like death taunting life... You must already know who this grim jester is.. it is that killer-clown, that mirthful menace known as The Joker!...more
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