Cinderella Fables Are Forever Volume Two by Chris Robertson

Title: Cinderella Fables Are Forever Volume Two
Author: Chris Robertson
Publisher: Warner Bros (DC Comics)
Rating: WORTHY!

Art work: Shawn McManus.
Coloring: Lee Loughridge.
Lettering: Todd Klein.

Writer Chris Robertson has apparently been fired from DC comics after he made some comments about their treatment of story creators! This is what happens when you go with Big Publishing™ This is why self-publishing is the only way to go these days. Maintain complete control over your work. Own it. Do not let it be diluted. The time when you work for the company which also owns the house you live in and the company store where you have to buy all your food and goods are long, LONG gone. So is it time to boycott DC? I think maybe it is.

That said, this comic (which I got from the library, I hasten to add!) was worth a read, but I think it's going to be the last one in this series that I do read. It bordered on being annoyingly repetitive because it was the continuing story of the battle between Cinderella and Dorothy Gale (yes, that Dorothy, who sure as heck is hell isn't in Kansas anymore), but it actually fell short of being annoying.

Evidently Cindy and Dottie have a long a checkered history, all of which is violent. Now Dottie has a powerful grudge against Cindy, and she also has those slippers - not the ruby ones, but the silver ones - which give her some rather startling powers, one of which surprised me delightfully, although when I thought about it at the end of this story, it made no sense!

So this is a story of repeated battles between the two, most of which are in flashback, but it was done well and not irritatingly, and the art work - which is old-style comic book for the nostalgic fans among us - is good and covers the page. Artist Shawn McManus evidently loves trees as much as I do. Note that there's continued violence and exploitative depictions of females throughout - in short, it's a standard comic.

The lettering once again was small, so you really need to read this in print form. In ebook form it would be illegible unless you have a really big screen, or you don't mind enlarging it and then fondling the screen repetitively to see the various blurbs. In short I recommend this, I just don't recommend the publisher which is Vertigo, which is owned by DC, which is owned by Warner Bros. Borrow it from the library like I did!

Harry and the Hot Lava by Chris Robertson

Title: Harry and the Hot Lava
Author: Chris Robertson
Publisher: Xist Publishing
Rating: WORTHY!

Errata:
The pages are not numbered, but there is one where "it's" is used in place of the correct form for the context: its.
There's also a page prior to this where lava is described as "most dangerous liquid known to man". I had a couple of issues wioth this, but the important one is the use of 'man'. Is it necessary to exclude woman so rigidly? Could it not be (hoever inaccurate it might be) "most dangerous liquid known to life", or "to humans" or somethign less exclusive? There are almsot four billion women on this planet. Can we not remember them a bit mroe often?

This is a very short children's picture book, so there isn’t a lot to review. It’s about a kid with a delightfully wild imagination (he reminds me of my own kids whose imaginations, thankfully, have never deserted them even though they're now way too old for a book like this), who appears to be stranded amidst hot lava which is invading his home from all quarters. Can he leap to freedom? Where will he land? (You might be surprised!)

The drawings are rudimentary but very colorful, and really evocative. The book is as full of excitement and danger as Harry is full of ideas and wild descriptions, but he never panics, and is always planning his escape. This is definitely something your kids will want to play - perhaps after exploring what real lava looks like - not in person of course - but from the safety of a TV documentary or something on the web.

Who knows, perhaps you have a budding vulcanologist in your family? I recommend this book for a fun read alone, but it’s also a great starting point for a chance to stir your child's imagination about the wonders of planet Earth and it's geology and inner structure.

Of course, you don't want to load them up with learning, learning, learning and nothing else, so it occurs to me that a whole day could be themed around this as they're encouraged to explore the idea, starting with the book, then a video, then perhaps go looking for rocks in the yard or at the park (assuming your park isn't buried under snow at this point!), and imagine how hot things would have to be to melt an actual rock! You can have them practice their motor skills emulating Harry's escapes (with due safety precautions, of course!), have them develop confidence and cool-thinking skills, and also have them appreciate a little more the wonderful and complex planet on which we're all privileged to live.