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Rereading: THE GREAT FLOOD MYSTERY by Jane Louise Curry - Todd's Blog
Curry throws lots of intriguing elements into this story, which has origins in the Great Flood of 1889 in Johnstown, PA, after a dam break washed out much of the town. The story revolves around three old houses and a possible lost treasure, and there are secret rooms, secret doors, a mysterious burglar, stories about […]
Rereading: THE BOGGART AND THE MONSTER by Susan Cooper - Todd's Blog
In this sequel to Cooper’s “The Boggart,” Jessup and Emily are back in Scotland visiting Mr. Machonochie, the man who bought their family’s ancestral castle home Castle Keep on Loch Linnhe. They and local friend Tommy Cameron find out they all know about The Boggart, that mischievous spirit who lives in the castle and loves […]
My Music: AN OLD-FASHIONED BALLAD - Todd's Blog
One of my favorite songs that I play often. My notebook says I wrote it July 30, 1978. I don’t know what inspired it, but it reminds me of the Jack Finney novel “Time and Again,” and a film I will mention below that came out later. The song: An Old-Fashioned Ballad In 1980 I […]
Rereading: CHIVALRY by James Branch Cabell - Todd's Blog
The sixth book in the series, originally published in 1909, the 1921 edition I have was revised to fit into Cabell’s masterwork with the overall title “The Biography of the Life of Manuel.” Cabell may have been the second twentieth century author to retroactively put much of his work into one overall connected world and […]
Rereading: THE FOLK OF THE AIR by Peter S. Beagle - Todd's Blog
Beagle’s third novel published in 1986 sort of combines biographical experience with fantasy in an interesting and complex way. Joe Farrell, a world wanderer and lute player, has come to Berkeley, California to look up his old friend Ben, living with an older woman named Sia in her unusual house in the hills. (Joe appeared […]
Rereading: THE MAGIC OF OZ by L. Frank Baum - Todd's Blog
The thirteenth Oz book by Baum of 1919 tells several intertwined stories featuring magic. It begins on remote Mount Munch in Munchkinland, where Bini Aru, a former sorcerer, is reluctant to destroy his most powerful magic, the word P y r z q x g l which, if pronounced just right, can transform any being […]
My Music: A ROUND SONG - Todd's Blog
As the lyrics point out, this song doesn’t have much to say, it’s just a bit of amusing fluff that I came up with on June 17, 1978, and recorded around that time. Perhaps I was thinking of tunes that seem to roll along like clockwork, there are plenty of folk songs that do. Here […]
My World Series of Birding 2025 - Todd's Blog
Two weeks from today, Saturday May 10th, is the annual outdoor escapade and fundraiser known as The World Series of Birding. I’ve signed up with the Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run team as I have many times in the past, beginning in 1988. It’s the only fundraiser I participate in. Along with lots of other teams we […]
Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION MYSTERY by Walter Farley - Todd's Blog
The thirteenth book in the horse series by Farley takes readers to Europe and beyond, and has elements of gothic horror and a quite good mystery. Alec Ramsey and his partner Henry Dailey discover three yearlings shipped from Spain that have the exact look of their own champion race horse The Black, and they decide […]
And Then I Read: FOOLS AND MORTALS by Bernard Cornwell - Todd's Blog
My brother Doug recommended this book by an author he likes, and I found it excellent. It takes place in London in Shakespeare’s time, and the main character is Shakespeare’s younger brother Richard, who followed him to a career on stage, joining the same company. William and Richard have a difficult relationship, possibly William is […]
Rereading: FRIEND MONKEY by P. L. Travers - Todd's Blog
Best known for her Mary Poppins books, this novel is long for her, and not as good, but has its moments. Friend Monkey is a curious ape living on a small island, and when a sailor lands there to collect coconuts, he stows away inside the sack and finds a new home on the ship. […]
My Music: ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN - Todd's Blog
This is one of my self-encouragement songs, intended to push me to get back into dating, something I was never very comfortable doing. As I recall, there were some efforts in that direction, a few in New York that went nowhere, and a few at home among my circle of friends, that did better. The […]
Incoming: WONDER WOMAN BY GREG RUCKA OMNIBUS - Todd's Blog
Another massive hardcover has arrived that includes Wonder Woman issues I enjoyed lettering such as the graphic novel THE HIKETEIA and some or all of WONDER WOMAN #195-226. Other issues are here as well. 1040 pages, release date is May 27, 2025. Retail price is $125. Check with your comics retailer or Amazon.
Rereading: MR. WILMER by Robert Lawson. - Todd's Blog
Mr. Wilmer is an accountant, a shy man who has lived in a boarding house and worked at the same company for many years without attracting much notice. One day on his way to work, Mr. Wilmer is passing a mounted policeman and seems to hear the horse talking in his head. Thinking he’s mistaken, […]
Incoming: SUICIDE SQUAD BY JOHN OSTRANDER OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 - Todd's Blog
This is quite a large book reprinting issues 1-18 of the series plus many other early appearances of the characters/team members. Written by John Ostrander and others, art by Luke McDonnell and others, 1064 pages. Retail price $125, on sale May 20, 2025. Check with your comics retailer or Amazon. I enjoyed lettering the original […]
Rereading: THE GIANT by William Pène du Bois - Todd's Blog
The author narrates this story as himself, describing how his stay at a Paris hotel leads to a startling discovery. He is on the seventh floor facing an odd featureless building of equal height with one large window opposite his own balcony. One day he looks out and sees the window entirely filled with a […]
My Music: SOMEONE DIFFERENT - Todd's Blog
I wrote, or at least began this song in the spring of 1978 based on the unfinished version from my notebook above. I may have added the additional verses later that year when I recorded it. I was still climbing out of the funk I had been in during the end and aftermath of my […]
Rereading: DONKEY DETECTIVES by Lavinia R. Davis - Todd's Blog
The second of two books by Davis featuring a donkey, my guess is she or someone she knew well had one that their kids enjoyed. Duffy Agnew lives in a hot southern part of America with his family in the small village of Buckstown. He has a habit of getting into mischief and always being […]
Rereading: THE EGYPTIAN BOX by Jane Louise Curry - Todd's Blog
Tee (Letitia) Woodie is not happy about her new life in the American Southwest. She and her family have moved there because an uncle has left them an antique shop, a video store, and a large stone house. Tee’s parents and brother Charles seem fine with it, and are fitting in, but Tee hates the […]
Rereading: THE BOGGART by Susan Cooper - Todd's Blog
The Volnick family of Toronto Canada, father Robert, mother Maggie, son Jessup, and daughter Emily, have inherited a small castle in Scotland from Maggie’s distant relative elderly Mr. MacDevon. Tommy Cameron and his parents live in the small store across the loch from the island where the castle sits, and Tommy often helped out Mr. […]
Incoming: DC FINEST BATMAN and DR. FATE Trade Paperbacks - Todd's Blog
These arrived together, first up is DC FINEST: BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE AND OTHER STORIES, 608 pages, including material from 1987 and 1988. Collects Batman stories from BATMAN 413-422, DETECTIVE COMICS 580-589, plus graphic novels BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham, and BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE by Alan Moore […]
Rereading: SUMMERLAND by Michael Chabon - Todd's Blog
Ethan Feld lives on small Clam Island in Puget Sound, Washington state, where he’s part of a youth baseball team, and sadly, the team member who everyone including himself feels is the worst player. He wants to quit, but his father loves baseball so much that Ethan hates to do it. Team member Jennifer T. […]
Rereading: ALICE'S ADVENTURES UNDER GROUND by Lewis Carroll - Todd's Blog
The book that became known as “Alice in Wonderland” was first a story told, or at least begun, on an idyllic summer of 1862 boat trip with Reverend Charles Dodgson (Carroll), his friend Robinson Duckworth, and young Alice Liddell and two of her sisters. Carroll was most fond of Alice, and made her the main […]
My Music: THE CHEERING-UP SONG - Todd's Blog
This short song was written on January 14, 1978. By then I had been working in the DC Comics production department for about six months, and loved working there. I was beginning to get freelance work to do at home as well, but not nearly as much as I would have in a few years. […]
Incoming: KINGDOM COME DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION - Todd's Blog
This is a smaller (5.5 by 8.5 inches) trade paperback edition of the 1996 miniseries I lettered with fine writing by Mark Waid and excellent painted art by Alex Ross. The reproduction is not as good as either the original comics or earlier full-size collections, but for $9.99 it’s a good deal, and it’s certainly […]
Rereading: A SPELL IS CAST by Eleanor Cameron - Todd's Blog
This standalone novel from 1964 shows considerable growth and craft in writing for Cameron beyond her “Mushroom Planet” series, the beginning of more subtle work by her. The illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush are excellent. Cory lives in New York City with Stephanie, though they’re not related. Cory was the infant daughter of Stephanie’s […]
My Music: GROWN - Todd's Blog
This song was written in May 1977, and it’s about career choices. At the time I was working two jobs to pay the bills, and in my spare time doing illustrations for science fiction and fantasy fanzines. Here I am, pensive, with one of those illustrations, this time for a book of Lovecraftian humor that […]
THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON by James Branch Cabell - Todd's Blog
The fifth book in the “Biography of Manuel” is a short one, 54 pages, eight of which are full-page wood engravings by Leon Underwood. Though not stated in this book, one of the two main characters, the beautiful maiden Etarre, is the daughter of Manuel. The story is of a musician and poet, Madoc, who […]
Rereading: THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ by L. Frank Baum - Todd's Blog
In his twelfth Oz book, Baum delves into the past history of the Tin Woodman, and even Oz itself, briefly, a tale that has fresh elements as well as familiar ones. The Tin Woodman and his best friend The Scarecrow are enjoying time together in the Woodman’s palace in the Winkie country when a boy […]
My Music: TIME WAS - Todd's Blog
This song was begun in the early 1970s, in my notebook I have 1971 with a question mark as the date, so I wasn’t sure. After the title it said (incomplete), but that’s crossed out because below this I added a second verse in January 1977. The song is complex in chord structure and rhyme […]
Rereading: THE THIRTEENTH ADVENTURE by M. E. Atkinson - Todd's Blog
The second to last adventure of the Lockett family and friends continues on from the end of the previous book: “The House on the Moor.” But just when it seemed Oliver, Jane, and Bill Lockett might be able to enjoy the return of their parents from India for an extended stay, Oliver comes down with […]
Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION'S COURAGE by Walter Farley - Todd's Blog
Growing up, I loved animals and was fascinated by horses and the idea of riding, though the only chances I had for that were occasional pony rides at a fair or party. Likewise, I knew nothing about horse racing other than what I read in Walter Farley’s books, I didn’t attend any actual races until […]
Rereading: McWHINNEY'S JAUNT by Robert Lawson - Todd's Blog
This short book by one of America’s finest writer/illustrators is great fun. Professor McWhinney, needing to fill his bicycle tires, accidentally invents a gas that makes his bike lighter than air. When he sits on it, he can not only travel quickly, but through the air itself. His wife is busy with her hobbies, so […]
My Music: ABOUT JOHN - Todd's Blog
In August, 1976 I went back to Kansas City for the first time since 1972. The main reason was to attend the World Science Fiction Convention there and to see one of my favorite authors, the guest of honor, Robert Heinlein. I accomplished that, and it was wonderful, but I also wanted to spend time […]
Rereading: THE SECRET OF DONKEY ISLAND by Lavinia R. Davis - Todd's Blog
My favorite books by Davis are about horses, this one features a donkey, and as always her handling of animals is excellent. Jamie Bassett lives with his family on the shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and enjoys visiting small Lion Island just across the bay from his home, which he reaches by rowboat. One day […]
Rereading: THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon - Todd's Blog
I bought and read this when It came out in paperback in 2001. At 640 pages, it’s a commitment to read, but well worth it in my opinion. Joseph Kavalier grows up in pre-war Prague in a Jewish family to parents with good jobs, so he can indulge his interest in magic and escape tricks […]
Rereading: THE BLACK CANARY by Jane Louse Curry - Todd's Blog
This 2005 novel by Curry takes the “boy in London goes back in time” familiar theme in a somewhat different direction. Twelve-year-old American James Parrett is staying in London with his parents. His mother is a singer who is working with a small ensemble on a tour of Britain and Europe, his father is doing […]
My Music: DREAMSONG - Todd's Blog
I’ve always had interesting dreams, though I’m sure I remember only small bits and pieces. Often they’re in color. Common themes are “back in high school, haven’t studied,” “back where I used to live many years ago,” “working in New York,” “traveling in other countries,” “at a convention,” “with family and friends long gone,” and […]
Rereading: TO THE GREEN MOUNTAINS by Eleanor Cameron - Todd's Blog
Published in 1975, this is one of Cameron’s best and most thoughtful books in my opinion. Kath Rule and her mother Elizabeth live in one room in a hotel in a small Ohio town, Elizabeth is the hotel manager. The time period is World War One, but that doesn’t enter the story much. What does […]