Customer Reviews

Blue Beetle Companion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me just start by stating that I've been a fan of Blue Beetle (alter ego of millionaire industrialist Ted Kord) since I was a kid. In early elementary school, I could find old reprint copies of Blue Beetle comics for sale at the local convenience store (called "Ice Service") and was really amazed by the Steve Ditko art and, of course, "Bug," Blue Beetle's floating headquarters. It helped that the family car at the time was a huge blue Buick, which quickly became my fantasy version of Blue Beetle's "Bug." Fast forward a few years and Blue Beetle is a part of DC comics, hamming it up with Booster Gold and providing a great distraction while I was in Middle School. Only many years later did I discover that there were other, earlier versions of this character. While the Golden Age BB looked cool, I could never find any reprints of his adventures and the copies I found of the "Silver Age" BB (Ted Kord's predecessor) were not very impressive. Ted Kord was always THE Blue Beetle to me and I was shocked and saddened to learn that he was "killed" by DC during some new "earth-shaking" Crisis-thing.

Now, imagine my surprise after ordering this book entitled "The Blue Beetle Companion" and finding that, despite his large presence on the front and back covers, the Ted Kord Blue Beetle is the focus of only 20 pages, 6 of these 20 being full-page reproductions of comic art! This in a book where two entire pages (p. 99-100) are wasted reproducing images from someone's website which takes comic pages and inserts unfunny comments in the word balloons. This might be forgiveable if the sections on Ted Kord were informative. Unfortunately, they aren't. Regarding the origin of Blue Beetle, Christopher Irving (the author of this book) makes completely groundless comparisons between Blue Beetle and Spiderman, suggesting that simply because Ditko drew a vaguely similar scene for both characters, there's some type of relationship between the two (p.84). Sorry, but I can't see the resemblance between a millionaire industrialist (BB) and a down on his luck, loser high school kid (Spiderman) simply because the two characters had the same artist. Also included for your amusement is a reproduction of the comic scene where Ted Kord is brutally (and graphically) shot in the head and killed. Thank you, Christopher Irving. All this had me wondering, "what is the deal with over half the book being devoted to the Golden Age Blue Beetle? Is there that much of an interest in this Golden Age character?"

After reading the "Author's Note" in the back of the book, things began to make sense. The huge section on the Golden Age Blue Beetle (pp. 1-83) originally appeared as a stand-alone article in a magazine and the "section" on the Ted Kord incarnation of the Blue Beetle was "retooled" from an article in another magazine and finally cobbled together with information on the new Blue Beetle (yes, there is a new one). Thus we have the current publication, which turns out to be a well-researched examination of the Golden Age character which only briefly touches on the incarnation of the character that so many of us remember as Blue Beetle. Needless to say this book was a let-down for me. I left it feeling like I had been the victim of false advertising; the smiling Ted Kord Blue Beetle on the cover covers up what I consider an appaling lack of respect for this character both on the part of Christopher Irving and the copyright holders of the character, DC Comics. Not recommended UNLESS you are a rabid fan of the Golden Age Blue Beetle.

I was excited to pick up "Blue Beetle Companion" and was saddened to see the result. While 2009 still has five months to go, this is my reading letdown of the year so far. The Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle was one of my favorite comic book characters when I grew up in the 1980s but this book has little to say about him. Instead, the work focuses on the first Blue Beetle and the often turbulent world of comic production of the 1940s. The reprinted comics are not well produced and book is choppy-the result of this being a collection of articles shoved together to make a book. While fans of the Golden Age character may find the book to be of some interest and those few readers wanting to know more about comics publishing in the 40's will enjoy the book, this work can not be recommended to fans of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle or casual readers, even if they are the most devoted of comics fans.

Being a Blue Beetle fan helps when reading this, but this book is more about failed attempts people went through to get BB famous than anything else. Not only is it a niche book because it is intended for those interested in comic book history, it requires you to know a certain level of that history. If you are unfamiliar with names like Eisner, Kirby, Simon, Ditko, Gill and Kanigher (which are really the famous names that pop up) then this book is not for you. Though a minor hero, the credits of people who worked on BB reads like a who's who of golden and silver age comics. If you liked reading about the publishing history of a star like Superman then you will probably enjoy this as it is about a character who never quite hit the big times.

This book needed further editing, as there are obvious spelling and sometimes even factual mistakes (at one point he talks about a ship that was commissioned in 1946 and then decommissioned in 1945). Publisher Victor Fox is pretty much the "star" for the first half, but other people - some of them very interesting or notable - whiz by. The book is a bit odd because it can give you great information, but is so brief at times that it acted like a supplement to my existing knowledge. You really need to be familiar with comic book history already or you will get little out of this. An enjoyable read and I learned some things, but it needed improvement.

Just who is the Blue Beetle?

Christopher Irving answered that question in "The Blue Beetle Companion' published by TwoMorrows. His answer is more or less 124 pages long, and includes a detailed history of Victor Fox, Charlton Comics, a radio series, a daily comic strip, and creators the like of Charles Nicholas, Joe Simon, Alex Ross, Jack Kirby, Keith Giffen, Joe Gill, Roy Thomas, Cully Hammer, Len Wein and many more.

What this book lacks in appeal to the average comic fan, it makes up in enthusiasm for the topic. Clearly Chris loves the Blue Beetle, and in his position as assistant editor for Comic Book Artist with Jon B Cooke, he was able to compile an impressive biography. With Ted Kords' passing this last couple of years, this is a splendid obituary. So many stories, so few notices. But, as a character he enriched every book he appeared in.

Artwise, it is very cool, but a couple of color pages would have been nice.

Great for the comic fan with a hankering for the obscure, and appreciators of comic book history.


Tim Lasiuta

The Blue Beetle appeared in 1939 and came to rival Superman and Batman for comic history, but didn't become popular until his recent death when DC Comics resurrected him in the Infinite Crisis series. The history and adventures of the character are followed here in The Blue Beetle Companion: His Many Lives from 1939 to Today, following some 60 years of the character's evolution and transitions and providing interviews with key and major comic graphic artists along the way. Black and white comic strips from all eras enhance the presentation.

Excellent . A complete history for such a obscure character . I especially liked the homage paid to poor Ted Kord , a totally overlooked hero .

Many of the previous reviews I read regarding the book are unfortunately right on the mark. The book does contain some valauble information, but on the whole I suspect it was rush-released to take advantage of DC Comics launching a new Blue Beetle character in a new comic book (which has since been canceled).

An entertaining look at the history of the character but overall it seemed a bit too breezy, especially compared to TwoMorrows other companion books.