'Johnny Alucard' by Kim Newman is a just a fun, fun book. But it is also so well written and conceptually innovative it comes close to breaking new ground in fiction.

'The Counselor' will inevitably be a very entertaining movie, but Cormac McCarthy is our greatest living writer, so it is very likely he intends to do more than just entertain us here. Like 'Blood Meridian,' this is about the inner frontiers within us and how we become most alive when we live close to these frontiers and demarcate them within ourselves, staking out the interior territory that we call our souls.

'Lost Planet: First Colony' could succeed by either highlighting the ecological themes or by simply letting loose and having fun in true 'Starship Troopers'-style, so let’s hope these glimpses of promise we see begin to take center stage in forthcoming issues.

What makes everything in 'Land of Smiles' work is Jess Kroll’s superb control over the language and pacing. This kind of control is exceptional in a first novel and Kroll is certainly one to watch as his experiences and stories grow into his already formidable skills.

Bluewater Comics' treatment of 'Logan's Run' in these three collected volumes are all very much enjoyable in their own way, and as a whole they constitute one of those rare sequels that enhance and deepen the appreciation of fondly remembered source material.

'The Mis-Adventures of Adam West' features a fictionalized-yet-somewhat-authentic Adam West (the real West served as a consultant to this comic) at the center of this meta-narrative is ideal, and it positions this series to critique both the general cookie-cutter crappiness of today’s action movies as well as the idealized masculinity of the 50s and early 60s.

Amanda Sun does a great job describing the foreign setting and customs using language that younger readers will likely enjoy and find compelling, and the narrative is breezy and readable. Unfortunately, 'Ink' also suffers from some pacing issues.

'Suttree' is arguably as good of a book as 'Blood Meridian,' and for some readers, it may be more palatable than the relentless but beautiful dirge of the latter work. It deserves a place alongside the latter as one of the greatest works of 20th Century American fiction.