Seth Green Books

This book covers everything needed to hatch and grow your own trout. It includes instructions for creating a spawning box and details on transporting the live fish. It is an excellent guide for a beginner to the world of Trout culture.

Just because Vowell is unapologetically partisan in her essays throughout The Partly Cloudy Patriot doesn't make her book any less interesting. In fact, it really enhances it. Even though I found myself agreeing with basically all of what she said, I suppose I could understand why some conservatives could get upset at some of the content here. That would be a waste though; Vowell didn't write a political manifesto, she wrote rather eloquent and heartfelt pieces about what it means for her to be an American, full of contradiction and inner-conflict. That for her, being an American necessarily would include some mention of her political views shouldn't be a surprise. And anyway, I doubt the ability of most conservatives to write about what it means to be patriotic and maintain the same level of nuance and, well, thought that Sarah does. I really liked it, and I'll gladly read whatever else she writes.

THE PARTLY CLOUDY PATRIOT is a collection of essays and personal stories by Sarah Vowell, who has an interesting resume--she has been a contributor to NPR's "This American Life," has a pretty impressive list of writer pals (Dave Eggers, Nick Hornby and David Sedaris, to begin with), has written some guest editorials for the NY Times and has provided the voice of a character in the animated film "The Incredibles." This is the second of her four books.

Vowell has a "nerd" obsession with American history and civics. Confirming her nerd credentials is a high school experience lacking the usual teenage graces with the concomitant bad gym memories. These themes, especially the civics lessons, absorb most of the essays in this book. Such is her voice, her ability to get to the heart of a matter and finding the heart not exactly where we generally think of it being located in the given matter, and her sheer passion that book is informative, insightful and immensely appealing. My favorites include her exploration of what it is to be a "nerd," a look at how Al Gore's nerdiness not only recommends him as a national leader but also intruded on his success in the media and public image, her tour of Presidential libraries (posed as a letter to Bill Clinton as he was leaving office and building his own), Teddy Roosevelt and the Gettysburg address. Her essays on the 2000 election and 9-11-2001 are also strong and bring fresh perspectives to both topics. She treats the office of President with abiding respect but makes no bones about not appreciating George Bush. Her criticisms and conclusions about him flow from analysis of his leadership and choices. She loves the American way but understands that it is flawed, hence our "partly cloudy" patriot.

The only reason I nick a star off my rating for this book is that having first read the author's most recent book, ASSASSINATION VACATION, this looks by comparison more like the training wheels or practice for that mature achievement. Also, many of the essays are topical and you are left wondering, given more recent events like the 2004 election and the Iraq war, what the author would say today. However, I do recommend this. I think Vowell would be surprised to hear herself called "cool" but that's exactly what she is.

Sarah Vowell is my favorite essayist writing today. Her style is her own - quirky and by turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud. The topics in 'Patriot' range all over, unlike my favorite of her books (Assassination Vacation), but this makes it a good introduction to her: you'll probably find at least one piece you agree with.

What I love about this book is that it puts a younger voice on patriotism, tapping into our generation's love of the quirky and random by showing America for many of its quirky, random components--like the underground snack bar in Carlsbad Caverns or how preparing cornbread dressing can make you contemplate death. My favorite essay, "The Nerd Voice", I think perfectly translates that youthful randomness-bordering-on-apathy into an expression of what would be and is appealing in terms of elections and government, and it made me care about voting like I never have before.

Sarah Vowell is a patriot. She might be left-leaning in her political views and voting trends, but first and foremost, she's a history buff and a lover of America. Her essay collection focuses on the political and cultural issues surround the end of the Clinton presidency and the first years of George W. Bush's tenure in office. She explores a wide range of topics, but without any anger or vituperation against people on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

The shining star in this collection is her ruminations on presidential libraries. Vowell writes an open letter to President Clinton about the her ideas for his presidential library. She sets out to visit the Kennedy, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Johnson libraries to examine their treatment each man. Johnson directed his curator that no one had managed to save his reputation in the last twenty years, so there was no need to sweep any of his presidential controversies under the rug. Nixon, on the other hand, used his library to present his side of political scandals and the dark side of political witch hunts. Eisenhower's library focuses almost entirely on his military career, while the JFK library shows videos, home videos, and pictures of the cultural icon. Vowell recommends that Clinton celebrate his charisma like JFK, openly address issues like Johnson, and remember that presidential adversaries will seek out scandal wherever they can find it.

Vowell also gives the reader (or listener, if you pick this up in its outstanding, musically accompanied audiobook form) an inside look at a serious media misquote of presidential candidate Al Gore. While speaking at Concord High School, Al Gore told students that about environmental hearings he held on sites like Love Canal. A Washington Post reporter left out a key word and the context of his statement, and soon Gore was lambasted in the media for claiming to discover Love Canal. The students were outraged at this mistrial in the press. Their teacher was dismayed that a formative day for many students was tainted by controversy and late-night television jokes. Vowell, a liberal, explores the issue fully, and is willing to grant the harried report a pass for a small mis-quote during her 20-hour day. Vowell also ponders our propensity to report only on negatives and controversy; no one writes about the powerful and moving statements that get made in speeches and debates.

Other essays include a visit to the underground lunchroom in Carlsbad Caverns, ruminations on Canada's "modestly spectacular" rise to sovereignty from the British, a visit to the theme park that is Salem, MA, explorations of great moments in American history, and personal pieces about family, tourism, outdoorsiness, and Montana. This is a funny, uplifting, and educational collection of essays from a proud American citizen.

Supposedly taken from cartoonist Seth's sketchbooks, the book is a lively, jaunty, hilarious read!

As Seth notes, inspired by recent work from Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, and David Heatley, the book uses short fragmented episodes, featuring many characters, to tell one over-arching story. The story, ostensibly about a master comic book collector, is a loving portrait of the comics industry, one that encompasses creator, readers -- and comic book stores! At the same time, it is a mystery, an adventure story, and a screwball comedy. (And there's even one character who looks strangely like Seth.) In a manner similar to Michael Chabon's brilliant Kavalier and Clay, Seth creates out of whole cloth a history of comics similar to our own. Fitting his own tastes, most of the comics are of the non-superhero variety, reflecting a much more ecletcic mix of genres.

And despite its less-polished style, the artwork is classic Seth, with that beautiful clean line, use of simple shapes, loving attention to architectural detail, and his characteristic ink wash shading.

Just who is Wimbledon Green? Why has he disappeared? And what drove his quest to collect comics? In brilliant fashion, these are the questions that noted Canadian cartoonist Seth asks readers to consider about his fictional uber-collector of obscure comics, and you may still find yourself asking them after you've put the book down.

Drawn in Seth's deceptively simple style, Wimbledon Green: The Createst Comic Book Collector in the World is told almost as a sort of documentary, tracking the secretive life of a collector both ruthless and personable. At its heart, this book is a sympathetic satire of high-level comic collecting, the comic book industry, comic fandom, comic creators, silver and golden age comics, and the collector's impulse in general. Interspersed among the "documentary segments," which are largely highly-entertaining and exceptionally well-written talking heads expounding candidly (as one does in a documentary) on their topic, are more light-hearted cartoon segments with highly absurd (and thus highly relatable) storylines.

Those who have read Seth's "It's a Good Life If you Don't Weaken" will be familiar with his attachment to pathos in his stories, and there is a good deal of that here. However, there is also much levity and outright humor (although, those not familiar with comic book history may feel themselves to be at sea with some of this material). Like many of the great cartoonists of old, Seth has that exceptional ability to give a character life with just the nuanced movement of a mustache or placement of an eyebrow. Overall, an excellent read and recommended especially for comic book fans.

On the back cover of Wimbledon Green is a disposable band of paper with the `Praise For' section printed on it. Written on the bottom is the following... "The artist requests that this band be disposed of upon purchase". I found this intriguing and I'll return to this in a moment.

Wimbledon Green isn't so much a story as an analysis of the enigmatic character Wimbledon Green, "The Greatest Comic Book Collector" in the World. Seth creates an imaginary world with a menagerie of oddball comic collectors who discuss Mr. Green, his mysterious past, his quirky personality and his abrupt disappearance. The book is filled with short strips, some less than a page and other spanning a half dozen or more. Most are from the view of other collectors. There are some who loath Wimbledon, others who admire him and some who are just jealous of his collection. A few things in the book caught my attention. First, was a collector making fun of another for taking on the singular name `Jonah'. I assume this was a bit of self deprecating humor from the writer/artist known only as `Seth'. The second was an imaginary comic artist putting out drawings unworthy of his talent by skimping on the backgrounds. The irony of this one is that most of the frames in Wimbledon Green have sparse backgrounds and in many case none at all which is a shame because Seth is clearly capable of some wonderful landscapes and city scenes.

I was initially drawn to Seth thanks to his beautiful artwork with its clean lines, thick borders and retro feel. It reminded me somewhat of C.C. Beck. My issue with Wimbledon Green is that the bulk of the book consists of much more simplistic drawings. In fact the best artwork in the book is on the inner front and back covers which display some of the made up comics from Wimbledon Green including the `Green Ghost' and `Fine and Dandy'. The interior artwork consists of small one to two inch panels that often contain nothing more than a simple portrait drawing with a blank background. It was disappointing because I wanted more.

In the end it's clear that Seth considers himself more than just a comic illustrator/writer. Seth is an artist who takes his craft serious. My suspicion is that the band on the back cover is a compromise between the publisher who wanted a `Praise For' section and Seth who probably felt it marred the aesthetic beauty of the book hence the message to dispose of it after purchasing. From the quality binding to the heavy paper stock this is clearly a labor of love. It's kind of surprising then that the colors on the edges of the cover wear off so easily from just a single reading of the book. I admire Seth for trying to create something with a higher level of artistic flair. It's not a complete success but at the cover price it's worth the purchase if for nothing else than its unique charm.

This is a fun read, especially if you like non-linear narratives and multiple points of view. The setting, the sometimes-vicious world of comic book collecting, is appealing.

The early part of the book poses many questions: Who is Wimbledon Green? What was in the Wilbur R. Webb collection? Why was the first auction cancelled? Where did Green's vast wealth come from? Does Green Ghost #1 exist? etc, etc.

All these mysteries are entertaining, but they aren't developed very far. Most are either forgotten, or end with rather everyday solutions.

The book changes gears midway with a lengthy chase story. It's well done, but doesn't seem to fit with the multiple voices / flashback style around it.

The character of Wimbledon Green changes -- early on he seems a cold-blooded collector, but by the final story, he's much more sympathetic. This is one of the strongest parts of the book, because of its emotional content.

Seth dismisses this book on its own cover: "A story from the sketchbook of the cartoonist `Seth.'" In other words: this isn't a full-blown graphic novel, just a little sketchy thing or whatever. And again, more specifically, in the foreward: "This book was created on a lark. Actually, it was never even intended to be a book at all - merely an exercise in my sketchbooks...the drawing is poor, the lettering shoddy, the page compositions and storytelling perfunctory." My high school English teacher told her class that Shakespeare didn't give a hoot about his plays - it was the sonnets he thought would win him immortality. I'm not sure if that's true (I've never heard or seen such a thing said about Shakespeare before or since, and that's after spending four years as an English major in college), but it rings true. Sometimes the things that an artist dashes off with his/her distaff hand can turn out to be more interesting than the things he or she labors over - maybe because they weren't labored over. I'm not willing to go quite that far with Wimbledon Green. I still think It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken and (possibly) Clyde Fans are more "important" works. But this one is better than Seth would have you believe, in part because it's just straight-up refreshing to see one of our most dour and fastidious cartoonists cutting loose, and being, mostly, silly. Okay: there is an attempt to darken and deepen Wimbledon's life story, late in the book, but, while that moment doesn't exactly fail, as a moment, it does fail to overshadow the light-hearted, entertaining spirit of the work overall. Besides: the drawing's great, the lettering's legible, and the storytelling works just fine. Seth's "good enough" is far better than most any other cartoonist's best efforts.

(the above is excerpted from my longer review at graphicnovelreview.com)

This book was very imformative, the colour pictures appriciated (!),and although an actual interview with Seth would have been more usefull, the interview snippets allow the reader to appriciate the number of films and programmes Seth has been in.
The book covers most of Seths life and displays information that would otherwise be hard to come by if you are one of these people (myself included) that like information given and to not have to got searching for it!
Overall a worthwile enjoyable read, only if you like Seth Green of course!

Seth Green is gorgeous and hilarious: we all know that. But did we know much else about him? Not really. I was curious to find out.

This "unauthorized biography" wasn't as indepth as I would personally prefer, but a quick and enjoyable read to find out about my red-headed cutie. It was aimed entirely at teeny-boppers and Buffy fanatics, but it was great to be reminded of the large number of movies he's been in. He had always been a familiar face to me back before the original Austin Powers movie even came out.

It would have been good to read more about his getting up to no good or just reading more stuff he's said because he's extremely articulate, intelligent and funny. I guess the writers were afraid they might corrupt their young readers. It's great that he just lies and exaggerates in interviews - what a cack!

It should have had older pictures of him as well as recent ones, since a big slice of the book was about his life as a child actor. But I guess you can't complain.

I can't believe he's the same kid that was in "Can't Buy Me Love" because that kid looked freaky deeky!

It was sad to see him basically leave Buffy, but I was happy for him because I'm sure he has a long road ahead in movies. And to be honest, the more dude-ish he is, the better! It'd be great to see him in a quality romantic comedy or maybe just a full-on comedy where he's the main star. Watch out Jim Carrey!

THIS BOOK IS GREAT, A GREAT BOIGRAPHY OF TODAYS SPUNKIEST HUNK SETH GREEN, GIVES YOU SOME OF THE MOST COOLEST GOSSIP AND FACTS ABOUT HIM, I AM PERSONALLY HIS NO.1 FAN AND KNOW LOADS ABOUT HIM AND I DID ENJOY READING THIS BOOK AND YOU WILL TOO.

great show love the fact I can get the first two seasons instantly by downloading now just wish the other seasons were as readily available oh well just have to wait for season 3 to come in the mail.

This classic episode began what was to be a classic tradition of celebrating Halloween, Buffy style. Buffy and the Scoobies dress up in costumes supplied by Ethan's, a store owned by an old "acquaintance" of Giles. A spell is cast by Ethan and they all become what they are wearing. Buffy dresses as a woman from the time when Angel was young,and becomes weak and helpless. Willow first dresses sexy and provocative, but then wimps out and throws on the ghost costume over that. She then becomes a ghost. Xander dresses in fatigues and goes commando. Spike, who normally would take the night off (all good vampires and demons take Halloween off), takes advantage of the chaos and goes after the now helpless slayer. Of course Angel steps in to save the day. However, the best part of the entire show is Xander, who normally is wimpy and helpless. He does a great job of taking control of the situation and fighting off the bad guys. To add icing to it all, you don't want to miss Giles, the mild-mannered librarian, and his confrontation with Ethan. This is one episode you will not want to miss.

I have a love hate relationship with this episode. The acting is fantastic as is the story line, but Joss shows us his true evil side in the last 5 minutes in the show. The only other episode that makes me cry as much as this one is The Gift in season 5.

IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODES A WAY TO GET BUFFY AND ANGEL TOGETHER WITHOUT CHANGING THE STORYLINE. AND THE CHARACTERS WHERE ABLE TO EXPRESS HOW THEY FELT TO EACH OTHER.

I downloaded the player and this episode as part of a promotion that gave a free episode. Not only did I get charged, but when I cancelled the download to contact about the charge - I was told I had to finish downloading before they could refund. Once it finished downloading, it didn't play anyway. I gave up.

I picked this book up randomly, just because the premise sounded interesting, but I ended up reading the whole thing in one day. Just the fact that the book revolves around a rag-tag superteam composed of people with some people with almost useless powers (or none at all) is funny enough, but then they get into some ridiculous situations that made me literally laugh out loud. Unfortunately, then they start to deal with some more serious topics and issues that kind of hurt the initial feel of the book. It is certainly a memorable book though, so much that I even went out and got the second one later on.

One of the greatest origin comics of our time. If you haven't been shut-in you entire adolescent life, in one way or another, you will be able to relate to one or more of these characters and totally get where they're coming from. That and super powers combined, make for a mighty fine read.

This book is fun. It's not over the top slapstick humor or full of witty conversations, but it is pretty fun. It's really well drawn by Leonard Kirk, who I remember from his great run on Peter David's Supergirl, and is written by Hugh Sterbakov, who I never heard of. Hugh mentions in his afterword that co-creator Seth Green is his best pal...so I think we all know how he broke into the field. The book is labelled Volume 1, but the story has a real ending and sequels, although welcome, aren't needed to enjoy the book.

The story: You've got a bunch of stereotypical college freshmen (except for the Amish guy and the beaver) (yeah, I just wrote the line "Amish guy and the beaver" in a review) who find themselves living in the school's science building due to a dorm shortage (except for the beaver - he is there for another reason).

When a science experiment on another floor misfires, the freshmen, and the aforementioned beaver, are all given super-powers related to whatever was on their mind at the instant of the misfire. It works out pretty well for the chick who was wondering how to get into other people's heads. But not so well for the guy looking at a squirrel or the guy who was measuring his, um, well, ahem, let's just call it his 'shortcoming'.

Anyhow, they all get drawn into a plot involving some bad guys and in the process turn into a super-hero team led by an uber-comic-book-geek who ironically happened to be out of the dorm at that critical moment when the others gained their powers.

The book collects the complete six issue miniseries, some art in progress pages, alternate covers, some pinups, introductions by Seth and Hugh, character bios and a short prose wrap-up story.

I don't think I'd give this book to anyone under the age of 14 or so since it does involve frank depictions of college age topics like sex and drinking. But for the super-hero fan looking for something lighthearted it's a good read and it is completely accesible to those who don't read other comics.

Although I must be the biggest Seth fan on the planet, this book was somewhat of a dissappointment. It didnt satisfy my thirst for more information on quite possible the best actor of our time. Actually, I think that most of what was presented in this book was information I myself or any big fan could have told you. I would still reccomend it for a good.. relaxed read. If your looking to find out more about him this isnt the book for you.