Stocking Stuffer: Rising Stars Compendium
One final gift suggestion, and this one is both the priciest and the least likely to fit in anyone's stocking: Rising Stars Compendium. This hardcover collects all 24 issues of J. Michael Straczynski's fascinating story of not just a world but of the world, ours, the real one, with the minor addition of 113 children born with various powers some months after an extraterrestrial wave of energy blankets the town where they're all in utero.
The characters are both highly original and completely derivative: some can fly, some have super-speed, some can control types of energy, some are telekinetic, et cetera, so very few of the powers the kids manifest actually surprise a regular reader of comics. However, the ways Straczynski holds up the warped mirror of superpowers to the world we inhabit are fresh and engaging. This series both predates and outperforms the television show Heroes, but the parallels are sufficient to make that a decent comparison. If you know someone who can't get enough of heroes in the "real" world and the way society reacts to their presence, get them this book. It is pricey, yes, but Rising Stars Compendium is the whole kit and kaboodle: the three story arcs of the comic itself plus three spin-off shorts written with Straczynski's blessing.
The story of how Rising Stars came to be and how Straczynski managed to beat a publisher at their own game is almost as interesting as the story itself: with two of the three major arcs already put to bed, Straczynski buttonholed Top Cow and said that there were three conditions he was placing on them ever seeing another script, including an apology for a previous slight and confirmation of ownership of a different work he had already created for them. Straczynski was quite forthright about this with fans, stating online and in interviews that he had placed conditions on completing the work and that when they were met he would deliver the final scripts. Top Cow saw the light of reason - and the money Rising Stars was pulling in for them - and Straczynski scored one of the few marks in creators' collective win column when playing hardball against publishers.
This isn't just a great gift for a comics lover, either. Straczynski created many, perhaps most of his fanboys in another medium altogether with the creation of the much-loved television series Babylon 5. If you know a rabid, possibly aging B5 fan who doesn't normally read or know as much about comics, get them this. You'll make them very happy.
Klarion
Posted to Trade Paperback on 23 December 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, Rising Stars
I have to second this one. Rising Stars was so good.