...A little bit after becoming perhaps the last comics fan of our age and background to read Gerard Jones's MEN OF TOMORROW , I have added to that by putting myself on track to become perhaps t. l. c. f. ooaab to read Michael Chabon's THE AVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY .
I bought a 50c library-shelves used of the latter , to-day , a weekish after buying a discount-table copy new ,, in a local bookshop , for $8.95 IIRC...The " Tomorrow " , furthermore , turned out to be the 2004-copyrighted UK edition featuring new research and writing by Jones which has never been published in the States !!!!! G.J. , whom I am Facebook friends with , told me of this edition some years ago at Wondercon , and I had always meant to hunt down this Brit one somehow .
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I loved Men of Tomorrow, but I have yet to read Cavalier and Klay, although I hear it is good. Worse, I haven't read it depsite having a copy to hand for a long time. I own a copy of it, as someone 'loaned' it to me shortly before I left Ireland about 8 years ago. The fool!
My copy of Men of Tomorrow (prob the UK updated version- certainly the paperback - and I recall benday dots on the cover) was a birthday present from my brother, so I'm worried I might have misplaced it in one of my many moves in recent years.
My wife read Cavalier and Klay and loved it. She reads the good prose novels in our relationship, whilst I destroy my brain with Yankee junk culture funnybooks.
I thought The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was pretty great myself. I've since read a few other Michael Chabon's books and they've all have been good reads.
I started The Adventures of K and C..... but found I wasn't being engaged by it and so had no real interest in continuing to read it. So I set it down. I kept hearing that it was good, and written by someone with a love for comics, but I couldn't find the thread in it.
The last thing that I remember was somebody laying awake, smoking in bed or sharing a smoke. Should I try again? Is it better as an audio book?
...The $8.95 - a bargain/marked-down price - book was Gerard's , the UK tpb being something like f11.95 originally...
Have read and liked The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. While featuring fictional leads, it is otherwise an accurate and at times very positive portrayal of the Golden Age of the comic book industry.
I just wish Michael Chabon would write a sequel, for he ended K & C right on the verge of the Silver Age beginning.
I liked Kavalier and Clay, too. There were a few plot twists that were hard to suspend disbelief for, but I'd still recommend it. I just finished his latest novel, Telegraph Avenue. That one features a used record store, so there's lots of music references, but there are some comic book ones also. I liked it more than K & C, but there have been years between the readings.
Emerkeith, don't feel too bad.
I have both books and haven't read either.
My piles have piles.