Brandon Lee Books

Brandon Toropov has concocted a fun and illuminating guide to all of William Shakespeare's plays that admits to the huge gap between the Bard's language and our own, and bridges it nicely. Each play is summarized and analyzed, plot points outlined, and main quotes isolated for easy identification. In addition, each play contains its own "theme" for the accompanying illustrations: Laurel & Hardy, Woody Allen, and others help new modern readers to quickly identify what it's all about, while long-time Shakespeare fans should no doubt get some delightful chuckles out of the creative way the material has been presented. I was sad to see this is out of print, until I found the website for the publishers...

Well, I bought this book 'cause I wanted to learn some about Shakespeare and his creations. You can find a lot of funny cartons that will help you to understand better this genius.This book is an easy way to discover Shakespeare's play and probaly thoghts.

Flash dynamic studio is an Excellent book that teach you how to make wonderful web pages.
If your job is related with internet, you should see it because it has a lot of useful information that will help you in the design of impressive and interactive internet sites.

This book is very well written, but most of contents are for beginner to intermediate who have basic actionscript skills. If you have already know CGI (such as php, perl, asp etc) and fairly understand action script, this might disappoint you.

If you are a newbie,......their are other alternatives that will get your feet wet, but if you are a practicing Flash developer and have a firm understanding of ActionScript...this book will inspire you to build real dynamic Flash apps. It touches on Flash Javascript methods, Flash and textfiles and goes into server side middleware solutions like, CGI,Perl and PHP. It also introduces you to database integration. This book gives you real world solutions, which maybe a bit elementary, but overall it lays the foundation for you. I found this book to be inspiring and to be the book which pushed me to learn CGI,PERL,PHP and MySQL. If your looking to build real dynamic/interactive Flash applications or websites this is the book.

I've been programming for many years. ActionScript doesn't look like anything new to me. That's the perspective I'm coming from, anyway.
If you think the same way, this is a reasonably good book and here's why: it gives you an instant immersion - like being thrown in the middle of a swimming pool. The book lets you look over people's shoulders while they explain what they're doing. The book doesn't hold your hand so don't expect it. There definitely is inconsistency in the depth of coverage. Some things are glossed over while others are heavily documented. I wasn't looking for a college textbook, though.
Client/Server transaction is covered like no other book I've found. That's what I wanted out of it. I stole bits and pieces and put together a proof-of-concept in one day. I know now that Flash can do what I want. The book paid for itself in saved time.
As a plus, I saw things in the book that I might want to do later... if I can find the time.
Don't expect to learn ActionScript itself with this book if you don't already have a solid foundation in C++ or Java. Knowledge of VB or its ilk will give you some footing.

This book is very well written though is extremely dissappointing. The ideas behind the examples are good but there were so many errors in the code that my jaw dropped. The examples on the CD which correspond to the lessons have different code than in the book and the reason is because they wouldnt work if it was the same! Luckily i had previous actionscript knowledge so i could after some time troubleshoot them, but in the other technologies i have no previous experience and therefore do not know if what ive learned is correct. This book is ok for learning the thought processes behind the examples but not for learning the programming languages -which is the focus of the book. not recommended

This wonderful graphic novel is a collection of comic book stories, seamlessly knitted together to form a fascinating story. Herein, the story of the Fantastic Four is updated, without substantially changing the characters or their powers. Once again, with superb illustrations, the team finds themselves given fantastic powers, battle the Moleman, Prince Namor the Submariner, and their greatest foe-Dr. Doom.

These comics are superbly drawn, while the story is gripping. I must admit to cringing when I first saw this book, so many people now want to transmogrify the old character out of all recognition. But, this book succeeds in retelling the old tale, faithfully and interestingly. I really enjoyed this book, and think that you will too!

This book collects the first arc in 'Fantastic Four' vol. 2. The Fantastic Four (as well The Avengers) had sacrificed their lives to save the world from a new (and vastly underwhelming) villian. Or so the world thought. Little did anyone know that Frankling Richards, the son of Fantastic Four leaders Reed and Sue Richards) had spirited away all heroes into a pocket universe. Their the heroes would relive their earliest adventures without any memory of the lives they once lived.

Which brings us to this book. The best of the 'Heroes Reborn' (the banner title for this event), this retelling stays true to the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby tales of the 1960's. Just updated for the 1990's. Ben now serves in the Persian Gulf War and not World War II. The heroes are trying to reach an interstellar anomly and not beat the Russians into space.

This is the tale of how scientist Reed Richards, his friend and astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed's fiance and financier for the project Sue Storm and her hot-headed brother Johnny. When the government takes over the project, commandeering Reed's spaceship for theirselves, the four band together to reach space ahead of the feds. In a ship without proper shielding they go into space, only to have the anomly explode on them. Crashing to Earth the four are surprised they lived but even more amazed at the new powers they have gained.

The four then battle the Mole Man, meet SHIELD and Nick Fury, and save Manhattan from the wraith of the Namor, the Sub-Mariner.

Great stuff, done like a movie but in the end trivial when one realizes everything in 'Heroes Reborn' doesn't matter. We all know the heroes will learn reality is a sham and return to their world where their original origins will be reinstated. But in spite of that, pick this book up and find out what comics really should be like.

The Fantastic Four will NEVER die. They will stand united and fight for justice until all the members die in unison. This relaunch of the Fantastic Four by Jim Lee is visually stunning. Perhaps the best of the Heros Reborn group. However, is it necessary? I think not. I give two stars for the art, ZERO stars for the story or originality. I'd recommend The Essential Fantastic Four for the best FF stories. I'd recommend waiting for the Carlos Pancheo and Jeph Loeb series which would surely be bound together in Trade paperback form in the near future. I'd recommend many individual issues of the FF, but this series is so unnecessary that I was completely regretful of my purchase. If you like Jim Lee's art, buy it. If you like FF as a group, don't. If you like to collect trade paperbacks, get it. If you like to collect great stories in one volume, don't get this. This will disappoint even the most sympathetic comic reader.

A new start for the Fantastic Four that are more uncanny & richfull in content then which I ever seen , with a context of darkness and a full structured details that amaze even me . also include Some of marvels best heros incaged with the 1st meeting with the FF . all in FF #1-6 .

This Marvel comics Book shelf reprints the first six issues the Fantastic Four in the Heros Reborn project done several years ago. I was there at the time when I bought those issues and I had some signed by Master illustrator Jim Lee! He does the most powerful illustrations! This project was to take the Marvel Superheros like Fantastic Four, Captin America, Iron Man, and the Avengers into a Pocket Universe outside the regular Marvel Universe we know. Jim Lee was given Fantastic Four and Iron Man. This Marvel project was to re-start and re-build some of the Marvel titles that loosing readership. Heros Reborn was suppose to re-boot these characters and bring them into the 1990s era. It was also suppose to be attribute to the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby era when these Marvel comics were first published. He wrote and drew Six issues of FF and did some plot work for Iron Man. Jim Lee was given a-lot of money do this project. He even took over Captain America and the Avengers when his Marvel Heros Reborn Collaborator, Rob Liefeld was fired for having low sales. He is a master in comic book art its field. I recommend This Marvel book shelf if you like Jim Lee! buy it! It's a great visual! Some of Jim Lee's best artwork ever!

This a anthology to get. Solid storyline. Very good artwork. A very great team of X-men, possibly the best roster of x-men. Though the book is basically about Magneto taking control of genosha. Also about Rogue and Quicksiler's involement with the character's past. Awesome cover. Proves why the X-men are the best. Collects about nine issues. Get it now!

I found this collection to be rather enjoyable. It is a good story, though it does weaken at parts. And on the whole, the artwork was pretty good. I don't really see what there is to complain about.

Ok, first off, I won't say that this trade paperback is awe-inspiring, but it's not bad. The story is average, continuing Magneto's constant attempts at ruling the human race, with the X-Men opposing him. Most of the battles are fought between the Acolytes and the X-Men, which is somewhat disappointing because the Acolytes are pretty incompentent. Yes, Mellencamp is a lame name for anyone (especially a bad guy), but get over it man. He's only in a few panels. As for Fabian Cortez, he's been around for a while and has his own place in the Marvel universe. Who's to say he can't use his own name? Jean Grey is known more as Jean Grey than Marvel Girl or Phoenix.
No where could I find the text reiterating the art to the degree that the reviewer talked about. I did notice it to a very small degree, as all comic books have that once in a while. All of the non-dialogue text serve more as a narrative explaining the characters' backgrounds or as an exposition on the characters' current state of being and emotion. All in all, there is a fair size of reading to do, but who says comic books need to be less writing? As for the art, I thought it was great. Marvel has been putting out great artwork recently and this continues the trend.
Hmm, as for the other points, I don't understand what his problem is with unfamiliar readers not understanding what's going on. That's how it always is! These comics are part of a series and if you don't keep up with the series, you'll get lost. That's how it's always been. Marvel would love to have anyone pick up these comics and get right into them, but that's completely unrealistic. Marvel lovers will enjoy this paperback, especially X-Men buffs like me. There is some character development... and the writing is decent. The one problem I have is that this X-Men vs. Magneto thing is getting monotonous, but there's actually more to this paperback than that. If you like Magneto (like me), pick this one up. If you like the X-Men, pick it u with a little caution. Anyone else, read it and judge it before buying it.

I bought this book while caught up in a wave of excitement over the current Grant Morrison run on X-Men. I mean, how bad could it be, right?

Oh boy....

This is possibly the worst Comic Book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Awful. Just AWFUL. I'd go lower than 1 star if I could.......

The only redeeming quality is Alan Davis' art, which takes up less than a third of the book. Other than that.....The story slavishly adheres to the Chris Claremont formula, keeping the X-Books in their own incomprehensible corner of the Marvel Universe. Genosha. The Acolytes. Villains with such awe-inspiring names as Fabian Cortez and Mellencamp. (MELLENCAMP!!! WHO THE HELL THOUGHT OF NAMING A VILLAIN THAT????) Page after page of so many expository word-balloons that the art is almost buried. The first chapter shows the X-Men rescuing people from a burning Hospital, complete with HUGE BLOCKS OF TEXT that just reiterate what we're seeing in the pictures. Isn't that the POINT of the art- To move the story along WITHOUT the writer having to spell out EVERY LAST THING? Wolverine cuts through a wall, while we read pages of dialogue about how Wolverine is cutting through a wall.....Gee, I never would have figured it out on my own!

I can honestly say that I suffered through this horrible book without ONCE being interested in what was going on. Character development is nil, readers unfamiliar with the characters will be totally lost, the writing is awful, the art is mostly poor-man's Todd Mcfarlane (Which ain't saying much!)......If you're looking for 200 pages of people talking while they fight pointless battle after pointless battle, you've come to the right place. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence should steer clear.

And what brain at Marvel decided this poop needed to be collected?...

This book turned out to have (pretty much) exactly same page-by-page content as ISBN 1563894963 (The book titled just "Gen 13"). Which I already own. Don't do the mistake I did. (The only difference as far as I can tell is the cover, and the fact that some of the tilted two-page spreads are instead the right way up, and on one page only.)

WildCats: Covert Action Teams was Jim Lee's first Creator owned projected published by Image Comics in 1993. The story centers on the formation of a new superhero team to doing covert missions against an evil alien race called the Demonites. Void is the spiritual, cosmic, time, lady of the lake Russian entity who finds the chosen one, Lord Emp. He is a short, homeless, drunk, White male who wines off the streets of New York city. Void tells him he is the chosen who will defend human life against the Demonites. At first he thought he was dreaming but then Viod takes him to his future and learns the Lord Emp will become a billionare and will have his own covert superhero team called "The WildCats". This introduces the whole bunch of new characters that started Wildstorm productions which is now at DC Comics. This introduces Spartan, the combat leader of the team, Maul, the big purple guy with muscles, Warblade, warrior that can longgate his figures and hands, Zealot, the barbarian female take no prisoners type warrior, and Grifter, the mystery man with the guns. This book started Wildstorm productions for Jim Lee and his publishing company , So if your fan of DC comics an never heard of Wildstorm, I recommend that you read this book! Buy it! Great Jim Lee artwork!

The Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four book is very good! Brandon Choi, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams who are the creative team on WildCats revamped Fantastic Four for Marvel comic's Heroes Reborn project! Jim Lee draws the first six issues and Brett booth and Ron Lim draw the last six issues. Jim Lee's art is breath taking! The way Jim Lee draws Fantastic Four & Avengers is wonderful! He draws Namor very well! The Marvel characters, Wyatt Wingfoot, Mole man, Super Skrull, Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer also play a part in Heroes Reborn. I recommend it if You like Jim lee art and Fantastic Four comics!A++

This book has been hyped as the "best of the Heroes Reborn" books, featuring artwork and "plotting" by Jim Lee. If so, I think I will skip the other Heroes Reborn books (all of which failed after an initial surge in sales). The artwork is not Jim Lee's best (sorely missing the inking of X-Men collaborator Art Thibert) and the writing is astonishingly bad.

Marvel followed up on the concept of updating their classic characters with the highly successful (and fanboy approved) Ultimate universe a few years later. If you're looking for a fresh take on the FF, I would recommend checking out Ultimate Fantastic Four, Vol. 1.

4 stars for the Jim Lee wonderful drawings, with a lot of color, action, powerful characters: super-heroes and vilains.
There is a high contrast between the present times marvel comics and jim lee's. Action, super powers, vilains, color, humour, dynamic story, are all present in Jim Lee's comics. We don't find this anymore today, but only thriller, "grey universe", violence, and... no action along the pages.
A great story for a great pleasure

In the mid-90's, Marvel decided to conclude their much maligned Onslaught storyline with the deaths of many of their top tier heroes. The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, and the rest of the Avengers, all bought the big one as their respective titles were canned and re-launched with a new direction (allegedly) as Marvel teamed up with Wildstorm (before they became part of DC) to produce some new takes on old stories. Many fans weren't exactly thrilled with this chain of events, and the Fantastic Four books ended up being the best of the Heroes Reborn lineup. Spotlighted by Jim Lee's artwork, Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four finds Marvel's first family tackling with Dr. Doom, Namor, the Mole Man, and the list of usual suspects in a more modern setting. The storyline isn't anything we haven't seen plenty of times before, but it's not bad considering, and Lee's fantastic (no pun intended) artwork makes this TPB worth checking out alone. If you're a FF fanatic, you'll want to pick this up for completist reasons alone, or if you're a Lee fan, you'll want to check this out too.

I admit having found this hard to come-by but was pleased to eventually recieve it because Sinners and Saints is a dark comic in unique style both artistic and story based. the stark black and white images with limited use of colour provides a nice alternative to the over-coloured world other titles may portray.The story is interesting and seedy and reminds me of frank millers Sin City books it is an overall good title and worth the investment though perhaps not if you live in the UK

Despite a somewhat rough start, Deathblow ended up becoming one of the better early Image Comics titles, thanks in large part to the issues collected in this volume.

Deathblow: Sinners & Saints collects issues 1-12 of the ongoing Deathblow series, which focused on Michael Cray, aka Deathblow, a black ops warrior with a bloody past, a guilty conscience, and a disease that leaves him with very little time left to live. This series was obviously born of superstar artist Jim Lee's joint fascination with Richard Marcinko novels and Frank Miller's groundbreaking Sin City work. The first couple of issues, which were drawn by Lee, featured an abundance of military jargon and artwork that was extremely similar to the black and white style found in Sin City. They basically established Cray as a warrior without peer in a military unit known for doing the government's dirty work.

How that turned into a series about the Antichrist and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is anybody's guess.

The story took a radical turn in issue 3, in which the Black Angel (who for some reason looks a lot like Trent Reznor) was released from Purgatory, where he was imprisoned by the holy Order of the Cross. Seriously, the story became ½ black ops and ½ supernatural horror. Weird, but writer Brandon Choi makes it work. Cray is forced to reconcile the events in his past and lead the fight against the Black Angel and his Horsemen. In a nice turn of events, Cray's former Team 7 mates reunite to lend a hand. The Team 7 back story is really what ties the Wildstorm Universe together, so seeing them together again, particularly in such a spectacular fashion, is a real treat.

The artwork from issue 3 forward was provided by former Grendel artist Tim Sale. He would later become a major name in the industry with his work on Batman: the Long Halloween and several other projects with writer Jeph Loeb, but this was where he made his mainstream debut. He obviously started out with the same Miller worship that Lee brought to the series, but established his own unique style soon enough.

Overall, this was a good series and makes a nice trade paperback. Looking back a decade later it's easy to see the flaws in a lot of these Image books, but I think Deathblow holds up pretty well. My only complaint about this volume is that it did not include the Deathblow preview story that ran in the Darker Image one-shot. Not only did it feature Jim Lee artwork, but it was also the character's first appearance, and should have been included here.

Deathblow was one of the best of the early Wildstorm creations. The character has a depth and intensity seldom found in Image comics. This volume collects the first twelve issues of Deathblow, in which a regretful killer must try to save his soul while dealing with armageddon. Though the story stretches on a bit long, it's worth it. The first two parts feature incredible Sin City-inspired art by Jim Lee. The rest is by Tim Sale, now known for his work on Batman: The Long Halloween. This collection is well worth the investment.

Contrary to the first reviewer on this site, I found Isami's House eminently readable, from first to last. The book's concept is, indeed, highly original and should serve well as a resource for understanding the evolution of family life in modern Japan.

Essentially, this is the story of fourteen generations of the Matsuura family, who, until the postwar years, served as headmen of a village in northeastern Japan called Yamashiraishi. A substantial amount of information is provided about the family during Tokugawa and Meiji times, but the heart of the book concerns the family's triumphs and travails in the twentieth century. Many people in the family are discussed, including numerous in-laws, and several stand out prominently. The hero of the story, essentially, is Matsuura Isami, who lived from 1879 into the early 1960s. His wife, Ko, is also given considerable attention, as is the daughter named Toyo. It was Toyo who served as the host for Gail Lee Bernstein, the author, during her first stay in Japan, in 1963, when she was there as a graduate student of Japanese history. Since 1963 was when I, as a graduate student, also first visited Japan, I feel a personal connection to her experiences.

Bernstein hit a mother lode in becoming close to Toyo's remarkable family, as Toyo was one of fourteen siblings (seven sisters and seven brothers); a fifteenth died young. This rich field of close relatives provides the author with a wealth of material for recounting the ups and downs of modern family life in Japan, taking us through the prewar years, the war years (Toyo's family was in Hiroshima when it was atom-bombed), the Occupation, and after, when Japanese values changed so rapidly in the midst of unparalleled economic development. Although there are so many characters that one occasionally has trouble keeping track of who is who, Bernstein does her best to keep the narrative clear, and we get to celebrate the various characters' achievements while also sympathizing with their catastrophes. The Confucian values Isami assiduously cultivated in his children bring rewards to some, but by the century's end they no longer have much relevance to the younger generation, and the strong familial rope Isami wove comes close to breaking. Japan, too, the author suggests, has suffered such a breakdown, and the family's often heartbreaking history comes to be seen as a microcosm of the nation's journey.

Although extensively researched and documented, Isami's House is not a standard sociological tract for use in college classes; in fact, it often--especially the final chapters--reads like gossip, since Bernstein has maintained her ties to the family until quite recently, despite the eventual loss of the principal players. She is, to a degree, like a family member herself; still, her detailed recounting of the less savory deeds of some family members are unlikely to have been exposed to the world at large by the family members themselves. Thus we are given the kinds of insights into Isami's family that only someone with Bernstein's privileged position could provide. Perhaps one could raise ethical questions about the appropriateness of such revelations; on the other hand, the information--apart from the appeal it will have for most readers--has great historical, cultural, and sociological value for outsiders interested in the dynamics of modern Japanese family life.

It should be noted that although Bernstein herself, mainly in the final chapters, becomes increasingly present as a family participant (albeit at one step removed), she never reveals much about who she is. She discusses arranged marriages, love marriages, divorce, childbearing problems, childraising problems, religion, work, etc., but never tells us whether she herself is married, has children, or has shared in any experiences akin to those she so closely chronicles. Her name suggests that she is Jewish. If true, what did this mean to a family that followed Buddhist and Shinto practices but which saw a good many of its members convert to Christianity? I, for one, would have found such personal information useful in understanding her position vis a vis some of the subjects she addresses. She injects herself into the narrative as a way of explaining how the family treated her; I believe we are just as entitled to ask, who is Gail Lee Bernstein?

Isami's House is a fascinating book that provides a view of general Japanese history through the history of one family. As the back cover tease promises, this is an entirely new approach to history, one that presents the drama of modern Japanese history through the gripping ordeal of a single family. In this sense, Isami's House is a fascinating, gripping and original approach to Japanese history.

Nevertheless, I found myself put off greatly by Bernstein's uneven writing style and odd organization. Bernstein's paragraphs are haphazardly organized, and her sentences are riddled with clause after clause. Often, it is difficult to tell exactly where the story is going, and sentences are so dominated by detail that the point behind each story is nearly impossible to decipher.

Take, for example, this selection from page 60: "A ten-day spree of rioting by three thousand farmers in the Asakawa area in January 1798 - nine years after the French Revolution - brought a crowd to the Matsuura family's door on the morning of January 26. The fifth-generation patriarch, also called Yuemon (though his name was not written with the same characters as his deceased father's), had left with his wife and mother several days before; only family servants and a "young couple" remained at home. Rampaging peasants spilled out large amounts of the sake manufactured on the grounds of the family's compound and damaged other property as well." Did the ten-day spree of rioting begin on the 26th, or end then? Why does it matter that this happened 9 years after the French Revolution? Each sentence has a different subject, and little is done to link each separate idea together. Overall, this flaw in Bernstein's style leads to very bad, almost unreadable, prose.

Bernstein's organization is also rather odd. The first half of the book seems to be organized topic by topic, and parallels are directly made between the family's exploits around the Meiji years and earlier family experiences. The second half, however, deals exclusively with the family's experiences during and after World War II. This leads to discontinuity: the first half seems to contain no narrative, and the second half seems to completely abandon the lessons learned in the first. I would have been much happier had Bernstein stuck with one style throughout.

Nevertheless, it is a noble concept, and still a good book to read.

I bought it because I had no choise. I saved some money in Yahoo. That is all.