This isn't really a songbook since there are no musical notations. What it is is a collection of song lyrics from Moore's music (he actually heads an obscure band in England I've never had the fortune or misfortune to hear) accompanied by illustrations that I believe are all collected from issues of the now defunct Negative Burn anthology series. As poetry, its fine (not great) and covers all of Moore's usual territory (e.g. one or two about Victorian serial killers).

The accompanying illustrations range widely in quality. Some artists (e.g. Art Adams) are fine drawing comics, but aren't the greatest as black and white text illustrators. Others are just plain mediocre. One of the most interesting contributions is by Neil Gaiman (didn't know he could draw that well until I saw this book) that is, not surprisingly, abstract.

Basically, if you are not familiar with any of the above names, this is not likely for you. But if you are a fan, this is an interesting little collectible curiosity. Not great, but obscure and fun to shove in the face of other Alan Moore collectors in order to watch them turn green with envy.

When you're Alan Moore, a comic writer of such talent and reknown that you can (or could) rub elbows with Eisner or Kirby or Schwartz, you're likely to get tired of the same old thing in your funny books.

Moore uses the comic format to lend a graphic element to the chilling verses contained in these pages. From happier, more upbeat lyrics, to the darker and more disturbing, the combination of perfectly chosen graphics and songs solicited from all over the landscape makes this something no Moore fan; and, for that matter, no fan of dark literature, should be without.

Anyone at all familiar with Sam Kieth's previous work (The Maxx, or his Marvel work) already knows what they're getting into when they pick this up. For the uninitiated, here's what you'll find:
1) a unique story...Kieth never tells a "standard" tale, and Zero Girl is certainly no exception. Circles good, squares bad. Foot sweat. Trust me, it all makes sense.
2) Great art. Any excuse to view Kieth art is worth the price. His characters look like no one else's. His style cannot be duplicated easily, and those that try fail horribly. Think Frazetta on acid for a general idea.
Zero Girl is a good read and was hailed as one of the best of 2001 by many in the industry. There's a reason. READ IT!

"Zero Girl" is a great, quirky series. Sam Keith is a man with insight into the weird, with an emphasis on the private worlds of outcast girls.

The story of "Zero Girl" is a dream fantasy, where Circles are locked in a war with Squares. Our hero is at the center of this war. Circles protect her. Squares attack her. Her feet get wet. Somewhere locked inside this war are half-faded memories trying to get out.

An off kilter romance appears in the form of a high school girl in love with her school councilor. This is not a bad thing, in context of the story.

The art, of course, is Sam Keith's usual brand of goodness. He takes all of these strange story elements and welds them into a cohesive story by the force of his art.

And, as a topper, "Zero Girl" has an introduction by Alan Moore praising it. If you don't take my word for it, take Alan's. "Zero Girl" is great comics.

Alan Moore has consistently proven to be one of the most interesting and engaging writers in the comic book medium. Longtime fans will never forget his "Watchmen", "V for Vendetta" or his stint on "Swamp Thing".

Since these mid-80s triumphs, Moore's labored a bit in obscurity. The gripping "From Hell" didn't appeal to the comics mainstream, nor did "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", but were still well-written and worth the read.

Then Moore started "America's Best Comics", marking his return to the superhero genre, with a distinct Moore-ish twist, of course.

"Promethea" is Wonder Woman as seen through a realistic lens. The daughter of a sorceror rescued by mythological gods when her father was murdered, she is immortal, but lives only through possessing the bodies of mortals. Naturally, she has some supernatural foes to take on and some rather exotic powers, yet the world she inhabits is quite similar to our own in all its ragged glory.

I won't reveal any of the plot but will note that it is quite good and reveals Moore to have fallen in love once more with the superhero genre which spawned him. The illustrations are wonderful as well.

Sweet Christ.

If the Harry Potter book-burners only knew about Promethea.

Here we have a character who explores the history of magic via a sexually-transmitted lecture before Alan
Moore stops the story completely in order to take a 10-issue detour into the Kaballah.

Promethea is as innocent as Little Nemo and so sweet that it's been endorsed by Trina Robbins. It's also arguably the most subversive comic around, not so much because of the sex or magic, but because it celebrates intelligence and personal responsibility, which is a definite double no-no these days, at least in America.

And get this, Book 2 is even better.

Alan Moore is, and deserves to be, a highly regarded author of what we should still call comic books (other names seem largely a reflex action hide embarrassment - which makes me annoyed to see them referred to as "the graphic story medium" in this book). He has in more recent years created a line of comics under the imprint "America's Best Comics", of which Promethea is one of those titles. This volume reprints the first five issues of that comic.

'Promethea' is an attempt to render the female super hero in an archetypical form. This book has a strong mystical or spiritual theme, with the female lead cast in a pluralistic role: she is both Sophie Bangs, student, and Promethea, imagination personified. Our Promethea is not the first, there is a whole line of Prometheas stretching back to ancient Egypt, and we get to know some of the earlier ones in this book.

What's good: as Promethea, Sophie doesn't know all the answers although, it seems, Promethea does (sounds confusing? Sophie is Promethea, but Promethea isn't Sophie). Indeed, Sophie finds herself thrust in to a broad canvas full of elements that she doesn't know about or understand. The book allows for Sophie and Promethea to be intellectual, rather than just wiping the enemies off the face of the Earth (and the Immateria) with her caduceus - even where she does that, it is thought through.

What's not so good: I gave it 5 stars, so not much. My main complaint is that it finishes at an inopportune moment. Sophie is learning about the four weapons she has, and learns about two and then it stops. The comic book has continued, so the rest will be in volume 2, but it still a bit inconsiderate.

Lots of thumbs up, and also check out Alan Moore's male archetype in 'Tom Strong'.

I've been reading Moore's comics writing for 15 years, and sought out a copy of this book based on its intriguing premise: A look at the darker history of the world over 5000 years from a single place in England.

Unfortunately, the book is all style and almost no substance. There's the "mangled English" chapter, the "no punctuation" chapter, the "told by a dead man" chapter, and everything is told in first person present tense. The final chapter introduces another hoary and annoying literary trick, and none of these tricks are in the least interesting. They just make the book harder to read.

The book itself is a collection of tenuously linked short stories, usually involving characters who come to bad ends. The story suggests an obsession with sex and death, and it often does its best to get in as many erotic and/or scatalogical references as it can. There's no overall plot or even theme to the stories, and at one point the text itself suggests that anyone looking for meaning or redemption is going to be disappointed.

And disappointing it is. Other than the clever second chapter about a woman who impersonates a woman she murdered to gain a dying shaman's riches, Voice of the Fire is a struggle to get through all the way. Even if you find a copy of this book, I wouldn't bother with it. I was bitterly disappointed with it.

I want this book to be very successful for Alan to understand that he can be as big a writer as a grafical one. After all, Gaiman became big in writing - why not Moore! Actually, I blame on him an unhealthy passion to books with garish pics which found me in an ripe age of 34. It was him to showed to me that clever ideas can be communicated in any form - now it he who gets to get this lesson:)
But as for his first (as far as I know) experience in "conventional" - in sence that it does have no pics - writing, Moore easily outdone a vast majority of "clever" writers. God bless you, Alan, but now it's time to go commercial!

This book's characters face down disappointments, corruptions, madness and dreams in a series of short stories - which all take place in a short radius in central England but are spaced over 6000 years (not 5000 as it says on the cover) until the present day. What can I say - one of the best books to travel through the history of England. Dark, bitter, loving, and embedded in the earth below and burning with the fire above. Passages of brilliant prose will linger - no, just stay - with you. Ideas bounce around the confines of the book, ignited by the fires it tells of. From inventing a language in the first chapter (in which Moore imagines an English language of 6000 years ago, using a vocabulary of few words) to passages that make you realise just how rich the language can be (and infrequently is) you get the sense that Moore is in control and really working at this book. Stand-outs: that first chapter, a Roman facing both the loss of Empire and the savagery of the locals, a Crusader facing his own madness and the madness of his faith - and, in one of the most beautiful descriptive texts I know, the burning at the stake of two "witches" in love.

I FOUND THE BOOK VERY SPECIFIC ON WHAT AND WHAT NOT TO DO IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS.THE INFORMATION PROVIDED WILL BE VERY HELPFUL TO ME, AS I AM A BANK TELLER MYSELF.

I fully recommend The Armed Robbery Training manual on CD-ROM to anyone and any location which could be randomly selected for the crime of Armed Robbery.

Now that we have entered the Year 2000, and the world did not come to an end, the criminal element has once again set to work to wreak havoc upon Mom and Pop stores, retail convenience stores, fast food restaurants, retail chain stores, armored couries and even postal carriers. All of these occupations can be categorized as High-Risk occupations and High-Risk workplaces. It goes without saying that Banks and other financial institutions are certainly high risk workplaces, but with the newest coined phrase, "Going Postal" and the fatal and life-threatening incidents which have taken place in our nation's postal facilities, the playing field has greatly expanded to each and every postal location becoming a hazardous, high-risk workplace. Armed Robbers, throughout the nation, have taken "Going Postal" still another step by boldly committing armed robberies against carriers in "your" neighborhood and community. The time for honing awareness, training, Intervention and prevention skills and tactics is now! The Armed Robbery Training Manual on CD-ROM is that answer. I have used both the diskette version and the CD-ROM version and I can attest that the CD-ROM is one of the best anti-Armed Robbery I have seen in many, many years. I can see that someone, probably the publisher has come before me and has listed the contents, but the latest CD-ROMs have been continuously enhanced with more and more information, which will continue to help both employers and employees in any at-risk or high-risk workplace.

The local food store you shop at now may not be the safest place to buy your food if their employees and security staff have not been properly trained in what to do and what not to do before, during and after an Armed Robbery, which includes how to safeguard customers and innocent citizens. This goes for your Bank, Convenience Store, Retail Clothing Store, Your favorite Sit-Down Restaurant, Fast Food Restaurant (Remember Wendy's in New York and Luby's in Killeen, Texas and McDonalds on California), your favorite Dance Club and more. If they are not properly trained if it occurs while you are there, then your life and safety are also at-risk and in jeopardy. While it may not have happened to you yet, it's something to think about. We all know how to keep ourselves reasonably safe, but what happens when that safety is threatened and we are unable to trust those who wield the responsibility to protect us.

The next time you go to any of the locations listed above, ask the Store Manager or Proprietor or the uniformed or plainclothes security officer if he or she has been properly trained on What To Do and What Not To Do in the event of an Armed Robbery, especially if it occurs while you and your children are patronizing the store or facility.

If they can't reasonably answer you to your complete personal satisfaction, they may not have because of the overwhelming belief that "It Can't (or Won't) Happen Here!" ... please feel free to refer them to the Armed Robbery Training Manual on CD-ROM, readily available for acquisition from Amazon.Com.

Armed Robbery is a grim reality and an important concern in our seemingly modern society. It's better to prepare and not have to use the training and tactics, than not to prepare and experience victimization on a grand scale.

Five stars is not nearly enough of a rating for The Armed Robbery Training Manual on CD-ROM, because the training it offers to properly prepare the at-risk workplace, the high-risk workplace, the school, the retail faclity, the library or any target which may be randomly selected by Armed Criminals has the unique capability of saving innocent lives, and because it's just that important!

I've read all of the stories in this Batman TPB, and while the Bat-Mite and Poison Ivy tales are OK, the first tale, "Blades" by Robinson and Sale, is spectacular. If you're a fan of "Starman" or anything else by Robinson, buy this quick. If you like great storytelling and great art by Sale, buy this quick!

I especially liked the story with Bat-Mite! HE is so cute and funny. "Hothouse" is a little confusing though, but I think I pretty mush got it down.

This follows Tom Strong from his chilhood on a mysterious island where his parents trained him on a harsh gravity, to his most recent adventures as he nears the age of 100.
Teaming up with his wife, daughter, butler robot, and super smart ape.
The first three issues are okay, but it really works in the last four, showing one of the coolest characters of all time, the Pangean.
This is an okay book and if you like Alan Moore and have a few bucks, pick this up.

Alan Moore is, and deserves to be, a highly regarded author of what we should still call comic books (other names seem largely a reflex action hide embarrassment - which makes me annoyed to see them referred to as "the graphic story medium" in this book). He has in more recent years created a line of comics under the imprint "America's Best Comics", of which Tom Strong is one of those titles. This volume reprints the first seven issues of that comic.

'Tom Strong' is an attempt to render the male super hero in an archetypical form. This book has a strong science and family theme, with the male lead cast in a paternal role: Tom is a husband and a father, and has other family members around him, and he is also the leader of a society called the Strongmen of America, ordinary people who takes Tom's life as an inspiration. This book looks over the 100 years that Tom has lived to date, and throughout it he derives benefits from his family/ies and passes them on to the next generation.

What's good: Tom represents all those things we have enjoyed about many characters in the past. You'll spot echoes of Tarzan, Doc Savage, Superman, Tom Swift and many more as you read. Alan Moore has built an impressive back-story, which reveals itself slowly as the book unfolds, and everything fits together very well. Tom is also a thinker, rather than just a brawler - he overcome problems with his brain more than his fists. Tom's wife, Dhalua, and daughter, Tesla, are also fabulous characters.

What's not so good: I gave it 5 stars, so not much. My main complaint is that that many of the villains are overly stereotypical for me. With a little more effort, they could have been more rounded people. I could also have lived without the comical sidekicks, talking ape King Solomon and robot Pneuman.

Lots of thumbs up, and also check out Alan Moore's female archetype in 'Promethea'.

Don't let the talking monkey fool you.

Ditto the robot butler.

Tom Strong is a smart book.

Written by hirsute prodigy Alan Moore, this is a book about growing up. More to the point, it's a book about how Western pop culture grew up. Tracking the 20th Century as witnessed by Strong and his family (wife Dhalua, daughter Tesla, robot butler Pneumann and simian aide-de-camp King Solomon), the first collection chronicles their pulp-inspired adventures protecting the world from enemies like the Modular Man and invading forces from the Aztech Empire at the dawn of the 21st.

But don't be fooled. There's a heck of a lot more going on here.
Tom Strong is self-aware right off the bat: The first chapter tells the story of Timmy Turbo, a preteen who buys the first issue of a comic called - you guessed it - Tom Strong. As it turns out, Strong's adventures are chronicled in a series of comic books, which Moore uses as s storytelling device to clue the reader in on the family's adventures earlier in the century.
Many of the stories involve Tom Strong battling some enemy from his past, the introductions of which are chronicled in the "Untold Tales" of Tom Strong - comics-within-a-comic written and drawn in the styles of comics from decades past. The format gives the book a chance to showcase different artists, though all, I think, have well-established résumés; Dave Gibbons, Moore's partner in crime in the well-known Watchmen, makes an appearance.

But, as I said, it's not all about the pulp. There's a more profound message in Tom Strong one about how we imagine our heroes, and how that could have gone wrong, and where it didn't.
Strong is a Western pop hero in the classic sense of the word: tall, rippling biceps, Caucasian, nigh-invulnerable. But other aspects of his story aren't so typical. His wife, Dhalua, is black, and the two have a biracial daughter. His arch-enemy is Ingrid Weiss, a genetically engineered Nazi superwoman, who represents all of the evil things that Strong could have been created to be.

In this way, Strong is almost an antidote to critics who understandably charge that Western popular culture is white-centric and paternalistic. Strong may be the titular superhero as well as husband and father, but he is in no way patriarchal. On at least one occasion, it is Dhalua and Tesla who come to Tom's rescue at the hands of something far more sinister than he ever could have become. Both women are strong characters, operating as part of a family unit, but at the same time fiercely independent.

I can't say much more without giving away the ending. But in the end, all of the Strongs must do battle with the worst that humankind has to offer, and the evil that Tom could have become had he - and the people who canonized him a hero - made a few different choices.

Alan Moore, the much-admired writer of such dark comicbook classics as V for Vendetta and Watchmen, was sent on a path of reflection on life's most profound questions after the death of his mother in 1995. His thoughts are documented in the Birth Caul, a shaky, poetry-like exposition, performed as a spoken word piece and later produced as this experimental comic book, illustrated in the scatchy artwork of Eddie Campbell. Like all Moore creations, the Birth Caul is forbiddingly contemplative. The author has long displayed a gift for placing sizeable meaning into small pictures. But the wide range of bewildering subject matter packed into forty-eight pages (the illusions of childhood, the plights of the working class and the big bang are both portrayed somewhere in the book) and its repetitiously cynical, spiteful tone make the Birth Caul come off as somewhat pompous. The work features a few sparks of serious power but the graceful blueprinting that allowed Moore to dodge pretension in his more grounded work is not evident in this overly confrontational and unstructured book.

...it's more like a comic book essay. Alan Moore has written some of the best comics stories I've ever read, but other things he writes go completely over my head. This one falls primarily into the "over my head" category. These are the same creators who brought us the excellent FROM HELL, but the BIRTH CAUL doesn't resemble that story much. It has no real characters or plot; and if there's an argumentative point it makes, I can't say what the point is.

That's not to say it's all bad, or even mostly bad. Some of the passages really sank in for me and kept me reading. It definitely affects your mood and makes you think, a bit, about how you are living your life.

Anything written by Mr. Moore is worth reading. He understands human nature and the power of words, two things that are essential for a great writer. He is one of the few who can make me cry. For those who are hesitant to read a book with pictures (The Watchmen, V for Vendetta) "The Birth Caul" is a great place to start.

Important background! In late 1993, Martha Honey & Tony Avirgan recanted their previous claims that the CIA tried to [end] Pastora after determining that Sandinista intelligence was behind the assasination attempt. Doug Vaughan published an expose on this in the San Francisco Chronicle/Miami Herald on August 1st, 1993.

Considering that Brought To Light was published in 1988, and the book seems to imply that the lid would be blown off of these scandals, it's ironic to read it now and see that not only did nothing come of the expose, but no one even seems to remember (or care) about La Penca.

Brought To Light is designed as a flipbook, with each side having a complete story, and it's own cover. The stories can be read in any order, as they only really converge at the end.

I read Flashpoint: The La Penca Bombing first, and it's the best of the two. Joyce Brabner and Tom Yeates tell the story of a couple of American journalists trying to expose American involvement with the attempted assassination of a Guerilla leader in Central America. It's a gripping story, but with almost 15 years elapsing since it's original publication, I can't help but wonder what the REAL story is, and if anyone was ever brought to justice. Another reviewer here states that the whole story was later recanted....

Shadowplay: The Secret Team, is a whole other ball of wax. Both stories are based on a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government by The Christic Institute, in which they hoped to expose 30 years of illegal and unconstitutional U.S. covert activities. Where Flashpoint tells a straightforward docudrama tale, Shadowplay is like Oliver Stone on a bad acid trip. Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz' hallucinatory tale is a conspiracy-nut's wet dream, but the art is almost as hard to follow as the twisting logic of the narrative, and the lettering is so hard to read, I was sorely tempted to just stop reading the book entirely, something I NEVER do....Usually I LOVE Alan Moore, but this story was just too much.

Overall, Brought To Light is an interesting read. If you already distrust "The Man", it won't tell you anything you didn't already suspect. And if you buy everything Uncle Sam tells you, you won't buy what the writers are selling.
It's an interesting look back at a time when it seems America was more naive and trusting in the Government, but that's about it.

Read Susie Morgan's book "In Search of The Assassin" in conjunction with this book. Susie was a survivor of La Penca and has doubts about the conclusions that this book comes to. Nobody wanted to talk about the bombing, and it is known that people lied to interviewers to cover up the facts.
Read with a pinch a salt.