Abadazad

I just found out a couple of nights ago that JM DeMatteis and Mike Ploog's Abadazad books have already hit store shelves - sometime in July, if I'm not mistaken. This little tidbit of information came courtesy of DeMatteis himself, having posted something to the effect on his brand new author's blog on Amazon.com. Being 2 AM, I did a quick internet search to find out more about the books, their retail selling price and overall availability through sites like Amazon.com, .ca, Chapters/Indigo and McNally Robinson.

Since we actually have a standing McNally Robinson in town, and they claimed to carry the book on their website, I figured the most prudent course of action would be to wait until the morning and see if they had any in stock. Then I could just pop out of work at some point, or even stop by after work, and pick up a copy. I gave them a dingle in the morning and, after some searching, they found both books in their young readers section, just where they should be.

I'm kind of pumped about getting in on the ground floor with this series. I enjoyed the short-lived comic series from CrossGen and I'm looking forward to seeing if it lives up to its pedigree - with influences ranging from L. Frank Baum to Lewis Carroll to C.S. Lewis, DeMatteis has his work cut out for him. Still, he is a very capable storyteller. Comic book people will probably think of him as that 'bwa-ha-ha' guy that worked with Giffen on the funny Justice League, but anyone who has picked up a copy of Moonshadow or Brooklyn Dreams or Seekers Into the Mystery knows what he is capable of given the chance to let his imagination run wild.

Another reason I'm looking forward to the Abadazad books is because of my oldest daughter, Emma. We've sort of made it a thing between us to read the classics together. Jen started her on Beatrix Potter when she was younger, I brought some A.A. Milne to the table and she's enjoyed having me read the first Oz book to her, as well. She now loves Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is keeping her interest so far and, even though Alice in Wonderland was a bit of a head trip for her when we first tried it a couple of years ago, she does like the Disney version of the story so we'll probably be trying it again sometime soon.

She got a bit of a preview of Abadazad in its comic book incarnation, but nothing serious. Just some random images and a brief outline of the story from me when the issues first started rolling in.

Hopefully she'll take to them. If not, I still enjoy them so it's really a no harm, no foul situation.

Anyway, I'll post some rections to them when I pick them up.

Later!

mike