Junk Food For Thought: Review- THE STUFF OF LEGEND BOOK 1: THE DARK

THE STUFF OF LEGEND BOOK 1: THE DARK (Th3rd World Studios/ Villard Books, Third Printing, 2010; Softcover)

Collects The Stuff Of Legend Volume One: The Dark Books 1, 2 (cover dates 2009)

Writer: Mike Raicht and Brian Smith

Artist: Charles Paul Wilson III

Colorists: John Conkling and Michael DeVito

This is one of those independent titles that I have sampled via various Free Comic Book Day comics but have never gotten around to buying. My local library has a fairly impressive graphic novel section, and I noticed that they had all four of these books available. I figured hey, the stuff I've read was good, the price is right, and the only thing that it will cost me is my time.

I liked this. It didn't knock my socks off but I found the concept to be polished and the artwork has a nice feeling to it. It's a fast read, which is fine because the story is light and doesn't require a lot of exposition. The setting of 1944 doesn't make a whole lot of sense, at least not yet. Maybe they did this because the toys all look old. Kids today have licensed characters as far as the eye can see. Time will tell why it is set in 1944 instead of today.

If Chronicles Of Narnia and Toy Story had a baby, it would be The Stuff Of Legend. This is all-ages reading that should appeal to even the most sophisticated comic book reader. It's smart, slick, and accessible.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The dimensions of this book are a landscape format.

Paper stock: Acid free coated stock. The indicia states that this is acid free paper. I now wonder about the acid content of the paper in the rest of my collected editions. While there are cheap, easy ways to check for things like OBAs, there are no real easy ways to test the acid levels in paper. Just when you thought that you were going to be getting a good night's sleep...

Binding: Sewn binding in a softcover. While this generally makes me happy, the problem with sewn binding in a softcover is that it is not glued to a cloth super. The signatures are just glued into place, and as you can see from this picture, this is a big problem. I would think that perfect binding might be preferable to this, as it is easily repaired with library glue. Repairing this binding could be tricky. Please note that this is a library copy and has been checked out by dozens and dozens of folks and has been read more times than anyone's personal copy likely would be.