Comics

The Dirk Gently Graphic Novels (IDW, 2016-2017)

After hearing the Douglas Adams audiobook earlier in the year, I was again interested in the ancillary Dirk Gently stories published by IDW starting in 2016. These were tie-ins and publicity to the BBC America series that ran for two seasons. I had collected most of the stories as individual issues but not all of them, so I was delighted to receive the three volumes collecting three separate story arcs: “A Spoon Too Short,” “The Interconnectedness of All Kings,” and “The Salmon of Doubt.”

If you’ve never read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency or The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, the original novels by Douglas Adams, start with those. The comics play in that world but are not adaptations.

I am more of a Hitchhiker’s Guide fan, but as an adult I have come to appreciate the absurd, and Adams did well with Dirk Gently. Arvind Ethan David has acquitted himself honorably with the characters and tone of the original. In particular, the Salmon of Doubt intertwines the TV version of Dirk Gently somewhat and I find myself wanting to go revist the 18 episodes of the show. (In researching I found a 2010 version done on the BBC that was just four episodes that is on BritBox. More to watch!)

Back to the comics: these collections are good, filled with the variant covers of individual issues and a couple of actors introducing the volumes. I’m not a huge fan of the artwork but it’s not bad.

Superman Over the Years

This post covers two items I just got for Christmas. The first, Superman: Welcome to Metropolis by David Lewman (who doesn’t even get his name on the cover) was released in 2025 as the only tie-in book to the tentpole movie for DC Studios. It’s a “Junior Novel” which the publisher says is for ages 6-9. As such, only a geek like me would want it to see what it says. Turns out it’s a fun bit of backstory (not canon to the film universe) about Clark Kent coming to the big city for his reporter job. It’s absolutely appropriate for your kids or grandkids! The only quibble I had with the book is that, even at this age they are no longer “superheroes” but “metahumans”, even those like Green Lantern who just has a cool ring.

As I lamented when I read & posted about the Wonder Woman ’84 ‘junior novel’ it’s a shame that there is no perceived market for more adult tellings of superhero/metahuman stories.

That brings me to the collection of the Max Fleischer Studio collection of theatrical shorts. This collection is from 2023 and represents a new remastering of the 17 cartoons. It is an amazing transfer in both sight and sound. I owned a previous edition on DVD which is now obsolete, as this gift from my son means this is the go-to edition to watch.

These cartoons are of their time so you get “Japoteurs” produced in the middle of World War II. This is Superman before all of the elements of his origin story and universe are all there, as it was only four years after his first story in the comics!

I wish they had embedded a “skip” function for the introductions as they are basically all the same–and his theme music is reused a lot.

This cartoons are held up as some of the finest cartoon art ever done. Even if you’re not a huge Superman fan it’s worth watching a few of them. You can find them on YouTube but they won’t look or sound as good.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Deluxe Edition for DCUI Ultra (2025)

Sorry for that mouthful in the title, but this week I received a special reprint of the 2021 miniseries. It was one of the first things I read completely on my tablet, so it’s funny that I now have a print copy. DC sends out a premium gift each year to its yearly subscribers to the Ultra tier, and this book was this year’s new title.

Word has it that James Gunn is relying heavily on this for inspiration for the Supergirl movie, so if you care about source material it’s worth reading just for that. I find that most books that Tom King has written are worth reading. The art by Bilquis Evely shows a powerful Kara Zor-El without resorting to the boobs-n-butt that so many male artists will, um, accentuate.

The story’s a good one, a bildungsroman for the girl that Kara befriends. This retelling of Krypton and Argo City for Kara is an insight into her character that I can see James Gunn attaching himself to.

The special edition has an exclusive cover (pictured with this post) and welcome material on the inside cover, but otherwise has the features of the “regular” deluxe edition. I enjoy seeing variant covers; generally the art sketches or pencil reproductions don’t do much for me and the reproductions here are very small. If you are a budding artist, though, it is probably a great insight into how a story like this is made. I appreciated the rejected script for issue #6 as that kind of thing is rarely reprinted.

This story has been frequently cited on “best of” lists and with the movie coming you’ll probably see a lot more about it. Check it out from your local library. If there’s a teen girl that’s looking for something ‘meaty’ in the world of the fantastic this is a perfect thing to pass along.