Somewhere at this very moment, a guy is contemplating getting a tattoo that will stain his skin for the rest of his life. He is narrowing his choices toward the select one for permanent status. Suddenly, it hits him: “I know! A pile of shit! With flies on ‘er!”

It happens. And with alarming frequency, if one is to believe the “art” on display in Aviva Yael and P.M. Chen’s NO REGRETS: THE BEST, WORST, & MOST #$%*ING RIDICULOUS TATTOOS EVER. In frightening full color, the humor collection prints page after page after photos of truly horrendous tats that their owners should have been talked out of. (Seriously, ignore the word BEST in the title.)

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Those Roxy Music album covers of my childhood will always be ingrained in my head. I had no clue what was between those cardboard shells, but I sure knew I liked the artwork, eventually sending yours truly into world of Bryan Ferry and company.

Those expecting a critical analysis of the first Roxy Music album will be in for a shock in Michael Bracewell’s exhaustive RE-MAKE/RE-MODEL: BECOMING ROXY MUSIC, since very little is actually discussed of the record. Instead, it’s mainly a history of the band’s members.

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The most enjoyable biographies, I think, are of the people you’d never expect. Current bestsellers on Napoleon and John Adams are obvious. Then there’s Charles Fort. Who? Exactly.

As Jim Steinmeyer presents in CHARLES FORT: THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE SUPERNATURAL, he was America’s premier chronicler of unexplained phenomena in a series of books that thumbed their noses at practical science. Without him, there might not be an X-FILES or RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

When I was in junior high school back in the mid-’80s, lots of fellow students read the fantasy novels of Terry Brooks, starting with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA. If I were there today, I suspect those same kids would instead have a copy of the new DARK WRAITH OF SHANNARA in their hands – Brooks’ first graphic novel, adapted by Robert Place Napton with art by Edwin David. Set after the events of WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, it follows Jair Ohmsford, the boy whose notes can turn him invisible; an ancient text of evil; and a witch behind it all. There’s plenty of swords, sorcery, clawed creatures and the usual fantasy tropes – imaginative in story and well-done in shades and tones, although probably better served if it were in color. As a newcomer to the SHANNARA world, I was more pleased to see the “making of” features in the back that demonstrated how the book came to be, and who contributed what.

Not long after a Planned Parenthood clinic is bombed, one of its teen clients is found dead in a Dumpster, in L.J. Sellers’ politically charged mystery THE SEX CLUB. Investigating separately are Oregon homicide detective Det. Wade Jackson and understandably shaken youth outreach clinic nurse Kera Kollmorgan. It’s the latter’s discoveries that drive this procedural. Her findings? These kids of today like to get freaky! (Hey, it’s right there in the title.) The prurient nature of the plot makes this CLUB worth a trial membership; it may not break new ground, but is brave in its telling. Clearly Sellers has an agenda here, so if it doesn’t match yours, don’t even start. If it does, you’ll rally behind it.

Military science fiction remains elusive to my tastes. I get caught and confused by all the lingo, nicknames, abbreviations, rank and descriptions of weapons. I had higher hopes for ORPHAN’S JOURNEY by Robert Buettner, based on its appealing cover and its Orbit Books parentage, but registered as another SNAFU with me. Its star is Jason Wander; on the plus side, the futuristic hero fights giant slugs and sea monsters, but over in the minus column, I got lost not long after that. Part of the problem may be that this is the third of a sci-fi series, so Wander’s world may seem like shorthand to fresh enlistees. With so many adventures under Buettner’s belt, I’m sure the ORPHAN series has its loyal soldiers, but I’ll have to respectfully go AWOL.

Not quite an episode guide, tie-in novel or encyclopedia, THE SUPERNATURAL BOOK OF MONSTERS, SPIRITS, DEMONS, AND GHOULS is designed to be a narrative from the himbo-brother duo of The CW’s X-FILES-esque shriek series SUPERNATURAL, only it’s written by Alex Irvine. He apes their smart-aleck tone well as they dish facts and folklore on zombies, poltergeists and creatures of urban legends, most of whom have merited considerable face time on their own episodes. If monsters are your thing, this book is actually fun and can stand alone from the show, so no advance knowledge is needed. With cool illustrations from Dan Panosian, the BOOK is well-designed (save for an ugly font used for journal excerpts) and offers stories within stories. It even made me want to watch the show, which had to be the intent all along. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

It’s not for nothing Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I AM LEGEND has now made it to the big screen three times: 1964’s THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, starring Vincent Price; 1971’s THE OMEGA MAN, starring Charlton Heston; and now last year’s I AM LEGEND, starring Will Smith. The only one to retain the title, it’s this latest and greatest version that seems most faithful to the spirit of its source.

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I can’t think of a newspaper headline more famous in all of history than “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but “Headless Body in Topless Bar” has to rank second. That gem was dreamt up by the staff of New York Post, of course, and it’s one of many all-bold wonders collected in the humorous hardback HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR: THE BEST HEADLINES FROM AMERICA’S FAVORITE NEWSPAPER.

During a 1989 student trip to the Big Apple in high school, I distinctly remember my journalism adviser decrying how New Yorkers snapped up the Post while letting The New York Times sit virtually untouched on the stands. This piqued my curiosity.

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We hit a milestone today, as this column marks the 100th in my never-ending run through old paperbacks. To celebrate, we’re covering three books from one certain author who also would be celebrating his 100th birthday. Regular BBB&B readers know I’ve taken many a potshot at Ian Fleming’s creation of James Bond, but actually, I’m a big fan of the books and films. So let’s don our tuxedos, get us some shaken-but-not-stirred martinis, and delve back into the world of 007.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE by Ian Fleming – I’ve replaced all my beat-up Bond books with Penguin’s recent reissues, and this 1957 novel – the fifth in the series – is my favorite of the whole run. Don’t just take my word for it; it’s considered one of the best by most fans of the series.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

Robert Louis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND gets a retelling, but through its villain’s point of view, in SILVER: MY OWN TALE AS WRITTEN BY ME WITH A GOODLY AMOUNT OF MURDER. Its framing device has the nefarious Long John Silver held captive on a ship and en route to his own hanging; via his journals, this formerly illiterate pirate tells his life story, from a thieving orphan to scourge of the high seas. Much of it involves cracking codes and ciphers to find quite the booty, but there is typical swashbuckling adventure as well. As if the title weren’t already an indicator, debuting novelist Edward Chupack writes with a good amount of dark humor (”Do not become too fond of him, for I kill him forthwith”); particularly strong are the acidic exchanges between Silver and the stupid boy who brings him food. SILVER could stand a little pruning, as one of ISLAND’s strengths is its brevity, but those into old-school pirate fiction should find it rewarding.

What if you could not only see – but sense – other people’s dreams? It’s an intriguing premise explored by Lisa McMann in her debut novel WAKE, via her protagonist: a poor high school student named Janie. The girl doesn’t like it – not one bit – especially when those dreams become nightmares with awfully high stakes. Maybe it’s me, but I found it hard to identify with a teenage girl who shops at Goodwill and has *NSYNC posters on her wall. McMann’s prose is a little too simple, with many abrupt, one-sentence paragraphs (although that does make for lickety-split reading). In its defense, it’s written for young adults – not for males in their mid-30s.

Aside from “Obama or Clinton?,” the other important continuing debate in America is whether to serve beer or wine – a point taken to extremes in brewer Sam Calagione and sommelier Marnie Old’s HE SAID BEER, SHE SAID WINE. Both present the dish on their beverage of choice – ingredients, styles, tasting tips – before squaring off on which goes best in helping what food go down. Cases are presented for various pairings, with distinct ranking systems that shows real thought went into this. Closing out the book are a number of recipes for entreés, and their suggested liquid counterparts, of course. It’s a book that made me hungry and thirsty. And indecisive – why can’t we have both?

I’m not big on anthropomorphic animals headlining fantasy tales, but it’s easy to cut MOUSE GUARD: FALL 1152 some slack. David Peterson’s six-part graphic novel – now with value-added bonus material in the back, including maps, pin-ups and character profiles – concerns a few good mice who don sword and saber to protect their kingdom and fellow rodents from other animal threats, be it snake, crab or weasel. Peterson shows much imagination in his detailed art, and the story is treated seriously rather than cutesy, much to my relief. It’s an adventure that will have all-ages appeal; I only wish the lettering weren’t so assembly-line-looking. It’s about the only drawback to this beautiful book.

Elizabeth Peters is well-known for her string of Amelia Peabody mysteries, all set in Egypt, so it’s no wonder that the author – real name Barbara Mertz – has a natural fascination with the ancient land. Okay, it’s safe to say she’s an expert on the subject, and RED LAND, BLACK LAND: DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT is one of two nonfiction books she’s written that stand as proof. Originally published in 1966, this revised hardcover edition contains what reads like insider info on the time where mummies dare tread. Those interested in the era’s burial procedures, sexual politics and tomb construction are going to find this as gripping as fiction. A section of full-color photos and sporadic illustrations shed further insight on a riveting subject.

There are tons of books that tell you how to write a novel, but the main problem is that you can’t teach creativity. To my knowledge, Howard Mittlemark and Sandra Newman are the only ones who had the bright idea to tell you how not to do it, in HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL: 200 CLASSIC MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM – A MISSTEP-BY-MISSTEP GUIDE. Eschewing rules, the authors ask you to think of the work as a GPS system when you’re left wondering “How the fuck did I end up here?” They use pretty funny excerpts to illustrate where so many would-be writers go way wrong, from cheat endings and vocabulary flaunting to overwrought sex scenes. Even if you’re not working on the Great American Novel – or some Passable Paperback to Pay the Rent – you’re likely to be amused. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Did you hear the one about LOLITA’s pedophiliac Humbert Humbert being confronted by DATELINE’s “To Catch a Predator” segment? If not, consult THE MCSWEENEY’S JOKE BOOK OF BOOK JOKES pronto. This slim but satisfying anthology pokes a number of holes into the often-inflated world of self-important literature and writing with dozens of brief biting bits.

From the start – namely, the introduction by John Hodgman – you can tell you’re in for a good time. “It is hilarious that Herman Melville wrote MOBY-DICK,” he writes. “It is hilarious that it has a tattooed cannibal in it named ‘Queequeg’ and also a guy with a peg leg, and what’s more, it’s GODDAMNED TITLE IS MOBY-DICK. Priceless. I know, as we all do, that MOBY-DICK is hilarious, and I HAVEN’T EVEN READ IT.”

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Who knew the works of H.P. Lovecraft would one day be so ripe for plundering by DIY filmmakers? Lurker Films has made a cottage industry out of primarily releasing compilations of these features and shorts onto DVD, and the fifth now is available in THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION: VOLUME 5 - STRANGE AEONS: THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP.

The centerpiece of the disc is 2005’s feature-length STRANGE AEONS: THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, based on Lovecraft’s well-known – but not always well-liked – 1937 story “The Thing on the Doorstep.” I was looking forward to seeing the adaptation, but that’s because I had it confused with “The Outsider,” for some reason.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

I’ve never quite been able to get into Dennis Etchison’s work. I’ve always ending up liking the anthologies he’s edited more than the actual fiction he’s written. The same goes for GOT TO KILL THEM ALL & OTHER STORIES, Cemetery Dance’s new collection of his short stories – some new, others dating back to the birth of his career in the ’60s. To me, his fiction seems a little fill-in-the-blank, as if not everything he needs to say is said, leaving this reader feeling like either every other sentence has been removed or that I just don’t get the joke. This is a shame, because KILL THEM sports a number of intriguing premises … that just didn’t pay off for me. I’m in a minority there, I know.

Perhaps no one deserves a ribbing as much as the Nazis, and New Yorker cartoonist S. Gross gives them 120 pokes in WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU LAUGH: 120 FUNNY SWASTIKA CARTOONS. This rectangular hardback takes about five minutes to read, with one drawing per page. The entries fall into two categories: deliberate barbs at the Nazi party, and largely nonpolitical ones where the swastika merely takes the place of a random object, like a lamp or a Slinky. Despite the subtitle, not all 120 are funny (I’d say half are at least humorous), but you have to love the fairy waving a wand at a Nazi and saying, “Poof! You’re circumcised!” and the cactus who asks its armband-wearing owner, “Are you my mother?”

Every year, sorority girls wanting to get back at their dads pose nude for Playboy’s college issues, which may or may not later become a sticking point with prospective husbands. But imagine the explaining the coeds pictured in BOINK: COLLEGE SEX BY THE PEOPLE HAVING IT will have to do. Edited by Alecia Oleyourryk, Christopher Anderson and Vanessa White, this collection of articles and pictorials from the collegiate sex mag is most notable for featuring no-imagination-needed photo spreads of higher-ed student couples – same- and opposite-gender – playing around with themselves and one another. But like Playboy, you might want to read it for the articles, which include true confessions of a guy who’s still a virgin and a girl who’s a serial masturbator. Interesting to say the least, even if it leaves you wondering why.

Move over, Sudoku! Now there’s YUBOTU. You might known it better as Battleship. Peter Gordon, Mike Shenk and Conceptis Puzzles (the firm behind SNAKES ON A SUDOKU) here assemble 200 of these “addictive” pencil games for the armchair torpedo commander in you, divided into different skill sections like “petty officer” and “admiral.” As with the Milton-Bradley game, the object is to find – and sink – the fleet floating in a visually pleasing grid. Unlike Battleship, it’s not so simple. In fact, it takes about 15 pages of rules up front to explain. Because of that, the impatient among us won’t even make it to the first round. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

When Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS finally hit theaters in the summer of 2006 after a long gestation period, synergistic cable TV and DVD responded with LOOK, UP IN THE SKY: THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN, a wonderful two-hour documentary about the Man of Steel’s history on the screens big and small.

But it was hardly the whole story. Far from it: They left out all the sordid parts, tortured conflict and attempted stabbings, as Jake Rossen’s SUPERMAN VS. HOLLYWOOD: HOW FIENDISH PRODUCERS, DEVIOUS DIRECTOR, AND WARRING WRITERS GROUNDED AN AMERICAN ICON makes as clear as the crystals in the Fortress of Solitude.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

About all I remember from the 1983 miniseries V of my childhood: 1) Faye Grant looked hot, 2) Freddy Krueger was in it, and 3) that lizard baby. V’s writer/director Kenneth Johnson revisits the loose ends of the resulting 1984 weekly series with the novel V: THE SECOND GENERATION. The reptilian alien “Visitors” have wrestled control of Earth by tricking its residents, except for the small splinter group of resistance fighters. Your enjoyment will help tremendously if you’ve revisited V on DVD, as several characters and storylines either are referenced or still in play. Everyone else may be working at a disadvantage, and may be better suited to awaiting the eventual screen adaptation, even if Johnson’s ever-thriving imagination is still in full force.

For THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES: ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE FOOD, Jennifer 8. Lee traveled the globe to find the very best Chinese restaurant. I won’t spoil the surprising winner for you, but the real charm of the book comes in the other chapters, in which she laments the dangers of being a Chinese food deliveryman, explores the origins of chop suey, visits the manufacturers of those white takeout boxes (a wholly American thing, by the way) and recounts a 2005 Powerball mishap when there were more payouts than usual because a fortune cookie string of lucky numbers actually was. Lee writes so friendly, you want to take her out for a bowl of hot-and-sour soup. This engaging buffet of travel, history and popular culture will put a smile on your face and a pang in your stomach. And no MSG!

Gonzo cruciverbalist Ben Tausig attempts to hook kids into pencil games instead of video games with MAD TAUSIG VS THE INTERPLANETARY PUZZLING PEACE PATROL. You’re supposed to stop madman Mad Tausig by doing crosswords, cracking codes, unscrambling words and tackling a variety of logic, word and other puzzles. The quasi-mystery is a lot of fun, with something to do on every page, and the cartoony illustrations by Goopymart – an alias, I’m assuming – help make the book irresistible. Buy one for your kids … and one for yourself. It’s not the most fiendishly clever puzzle book out there – that’d be Lemony Snicket’s THE PUZZLING PUZZLES – but it’s darn close.

The whole of our country’s cinema criticism is chronicled in AMERICAN MOVIE CRITICS: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE SILENTS UNTIL NOW – EXPANDED EDITION, edited by Phillip Lopate. Among its earliest entries are poet Carl Sandburg’s awkwardly phrased reviews (”Then it is for you this Caligari and his cabinet”) and Cecilia Ager’s take on KING KONG, which focuses solely on Fay Wray. Film criticism got better as the decades progressed, as Jonas Mekas’ all-question review of Andy Warhol’s SLEEP shows, or the rightfully praised works of Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael and Vincent Canby. More recent pieces of note include J. Hoberman’s bad movies essay/tribute and screenwriter Paul Rudnick’s take on DANCES WITH WOLVES, albeit under the satricial guise of Libby Gelman-Waxner, the über-yuppie columnist from the late Premiere magazine. At more than 750 pages, there’s a wealth of material here for serious film enthusiasts.

THIS MAY HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORLD, goes Lawrence Potter’s slim little volume, which serves as an FAQ for this current crazed earth of ours. It seeks to tackle – through both commentary and good ol’ hard facts – many of the trickiest hot-button issues of today, including “Is Bush actually stupid?,” “Is it possible that global warming is not taking place?” and “What is Iran up to?” (The short answers, respectively: His IQ equals John F. Kennedy’s, not likely, it ain’t pleasant.) Chapters are divided amongst topics like China, Darfur and Russia. That Potter offers concise, easy-to-follow explanations justifies the book’s title; unfortunately, those in most need of knowing the answers may not even care.

‘Tis easy to see why they call New York “the city that never sleeps”: Because when you have a thousand-plus-page book like WRITING NEW YORK: A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY, you’d better be planning on some long nights. Edited by Phillip Lopate, the book originally was published in 1998, but this 10th-anniversary edition from Library of America is much more relevant with the inclusion of post-9/11 material, like a chilling excerpt from Don DeLillo’s FALLING MAN novel. A wealth of classic writers are here – F. Scott Fitzgerald, William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller, Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Wolfe, O. Henry – paying tribute to (and sometimes knocking) the Big Apple. If you’re a fan of the metropolis, or a New Yorker subscriber, this belongs on your bedside table. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Here’s how little I understood BEOWULF when I had to read it in English class in junior high and again in high school: I thought the title referred to the monster, and that the monster was a wolf. Laugh all you want, but Anglo-Saxon epic poems of the 8th century aren’t the easiest things to decipher.

Luckily, Robert Zemeckis’ BEOWULF is different, and I don’t just mean because it’s animated. It’s his “no-bullshit” version of the epic poem, as he promises on the making-of documentary featured on the DVD’s extra features: “This has nothing to do with the BEOWULF you were forced to read in junior high school. It’s all about eating, drinking, killing and fornicating.”

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Former New York Times reporter Sarah Boxer has picked what she deems the 25 best blogs – out of an estimated 80 million –  and provides examples of each in the anthology ULTIMATE BLOGS: MASTERWORKS FROM THE WILD WEB.

The end result? To borrow an Internet phrase: Meh.

Even if it didn’t purport to showcase “the best,” the book proves that tastes are entirely subjective, especially in the blogosphere. On most of what Boxer likes, I fail to share her enthusiasm.

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Sometimes, there’s a lot to be said for keeping it simple. As undemanding as Steven Gould’s 1992 novel JUMPER is, it’s certainly memorable. Picking it up five years after first reading it, details came flooding back with ease.

While watching director Doug Liman’s big-budget adaptation starring STAR WARS prequel vet Hayden Christensen, I was forgetting plot points minutes after they were introduced – its can’t-miss conceit complicated by a need to muddle something so straightforward.

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Flashback to 1986, when my 15-year-old hormones were in full force. I was just starting high school, and to me, Kathleen Turner was “it.” Yes, she’s a terrific actress, but I mean she was sex incarnate.

Just a hair over two decades later, how things have changed. Although not short on talent, she’s no longer an A-list draw. What happened? Lots, as it turns out, as she reveals in her autobiography SEND YOURSELF ROSES: THOUGHTS ON MY LIFE, LOVE, AND LEADING ROLES, written with Gloria Feldt.

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I need to make a confession: I was a huge VERONICA MARS fan. It was something I did not brag about; I’d get strange looks from friends for being in love for a TV show that dealt with a high school detective. This is not TV for a man in his late 30s to be watching, but it won me over.

If you have never watched an episode, do so. Actually, watch all the seasons before opening NEPTUNE NOIR: UNAUTHORIZED INVESTIGATIONS INTO VERONICA MARS, since it goes into great detail about the season-long mysteries that the show was built upon. As the cover clearly states, this is an unauthorized investigation into the world of VERONICA MARS, edited by Rob Thomas, the show’s creator.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

Cross Encyclopedia Brown with Will Shortz and you might get Winston Breen, the grade-school star of THE PUZZLING WORLD OF WINSTON BREEN. Eric Berlin’s young-adult mystery has Winston using his mad puzzle skillz to unravel a riddle that will lead him to a rumored million-dollar booty. Interspersed within the story are all sorts of puzzles that Winston must solve – but not before the reader has a chance to do so, too. These make the novel interactive, even if most are unconnected to the plot. Kids will dig it, but so will adults, even if more for the games than the story. This has franchise potential.

Marc Aronson and HP Newquist’s FOR BOYS ONLY: THE BIGGEST, BADDEST BOOK EVER may be an even cooler treasure trove of knowledge – both useful and arcane – than the runaway hit THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS. It downplays the studied nostalgia for a more Internet-savvy, here-and-now approach. With a cool, icon-driven design, its scattered, uncategorized contents touch on everything from great moments in video games to how to best survive a shark attack. There are also natural disasters, math tricks, treasure maps and just a ton of other bits and bites to keep lads young and old busy. Reading the book could pay off, too; its margins are embedded with secret codes that, if cracked, can land you big prizes. Check the website for details and bonus content.

It may not be E.C., but CHAMBER OF MYSTERY: WITCHCRAFT VOL. 1 collects 13 “ghastly tales of 1950s ‘pre-code’ horror!” These comics aren’t nearly as grotesque (or as clever) as TALES FROM THE CRYPT, but who cares? It’s just a blast to have them at all. The stories entail a circus contortionist haunted by a “death tattoo,” a vampire puppet, a truck driver who likes to run over cats, a cowboy bloodsucker, a shrinking scientist and a pie-eating giant caterpillar. Plus witches, undead spouses and a weird Western tale. Colors are beautifully bright, and Olympian Publishing gets my goodwill by including a couple of vintage comics ads, such as the back cover’s reproduction of Charles Atlas’ immortal “Hey Skinny!” campaign. A second volume – CHAMBER OF MYSTERY: VOODOO – is promised this spring.

We are, writes food journalist Frederick Kaufman, a gastrocentric society – not recently, either, but from this nation’s very start. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN STOMACH tracks – with dates aplenty – how our appetites (or lack of) have driven the way we live. From a history of diet books (including one that likens cheese digestion to a release of opiates) and Cotton Mather’s obsession with vomit as a cure-all to a look at today’s competitive eaters and their “biler-iron bowels,” Kaufman has it covered. The best chapter, however, is its first: a pornographer’s comparison of Food TV shows to XXX movies, where a close-up of a raw chicken breast is likened to “a pussy shot.” To paraphrase Rachael Ray, yum-o!

CLARK GABLE: TORMENTED STAR is the name of David Bret’s biography of the Hollywood legend. How tormented? Try this on for size: “He was uncircumcised and would sometimes scrub his penis until it bled.” He also was a bisexual who would sleep with “anything that had a hole and the promise of a couple of dollars.” There are plenty of tawdry nuggets like that, which propel you past the rest of the standard, dull, facts-a’plenty rundown of his rise to superstardom and Hollywood legend. Hardcore Gable fans may be offended at the TMZ-style openness of Bret’s approach, while the casual admirers may not care enough about the star to bother. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Being raised on DC and Marvel, it was a total shock in my youth to discover a British weekly called 2000 AD. It featured early works by who would later be the leading lights in the comic field, such as Alan Moore. But what sold me on the publication first was the artwork, with one of the standouts being Bryan Talbot, who worked on one of the freakier titles: Nemesis: The Warlock, a bizarre dragon-like creature.

It was at that moment that I became a fan. But that is not the start nor even the end to Talbot’s long career. From the earliest works which he refers to as crap, THE ART OF BRYAN TALBOT takes us from the very beginnings to his current works, with his commentary along the way.

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