Byrne Books

This not a bad superhero yarn. There is a little of that 'Elementals' flavor to it, which is in no way a bad thing. People with powers, in a slightly more realistic social and political setting than your standard superhero type universe. Nothing overly amazing to be found in this series, though.

Most comic book fans know of writer/artist John Byrne, of his early days drawing the X-Men, of his scintillating years at the pages of the Fantastic Four, and, at DC, of his superb redefining of Superman. But that was all mainstream stuff. In the early 1990s, he explored the field of independent comics with his Next Men series. From early '92 to late '94, Dark Horse Comics published 30 issues of this title. Then, with the partial decline of the comic book industry in the mid-'90s, the series ended. Even now, his fans still wait for John Byrne to continue his Next Men stories.

There are 6 TPB volumes in total (7 if one counts 2112, which is a graphic novel prequel to NEXT MEN). Book One reprints issues #0-6 and boasts a John Byrne introduction. There's a lot of set-up in the first 30 pages of Volume 1, so bear with it. The lengthy (and maybe even plodding) back story begins in 1955 in Antarctica where awaits a frightening and monumental discovery. The story works its way down decades of scheming and skullduggery (an off-the-cuff comment reveals the "real" story behind JFK's assassination). We are introduced to the amoral, power hungry Senator Aldus Hilltop and the manipulative, vampiric Sathanas. We become privy to the maverick, mostly futile, decades-long bio-research project (dubbed Project Next Men). The story quickly gains momentum when the latest and last batch of human guinea pigs break out of their prison. So, then, we meet Nathan, Bethany, Jasmine, Jack, and Danny - the Next Men.

Some more background: For years and years, these five and many others before them have been held comatose in containment pods. But their minds roam in a shared virtual reality, wherein they interact with each other and communicate using their own terminology (where "dancing," "fade," and "reaching" have different connotations). Simultaneous to all this, comprehensive educational packages are networked to their pods, teaching and training them even as they remain blissfully unaware of the real world. When they at last awaken to reality, it's a shocker. There are seemingly only 5 survivors of Project Next Men. Nathan is the leader and has the ability to peer into the total electromagnetic spectrum. Bethany is invulnerable, but with that invulnerability comes a heavy price: she is slowly losing the ability to feel sensations. This isolates her from the rest of the group. Jasmine is a superb acrobat and is one of the most impulsive and outgoing of the bunch. Jack has super strength but dubious control over it. Danny, the youngest, is super fast which raises hell on his footwear.

Byrne is a gifted storyteller on two fronts, writing and illustrating. His pencils and inks are fabulous and distinctive. His artwork, laced with just a hint of Jack Kirby's style, is superbly ideal for the story's superheroics and science-fiction elements. Story-wise, Byrne once again excels at world-building. Here he explores themes which are darker and more mature in nature, something of which blessings Marvel or DC might have withheld. He infuses a sense of "reality" - what would superheroes be really like if situated in our world - not only by placing his characters on an Earth meagerly inhabited by costumed crimefighters but by also having these characters avoid playing out the typical comic book script.

Part of the fun lies in having these innocent kids experience normal reality and then apply it to their own eschewed worldview. As they try to adapt, they fall prey to deception and temptation and their relationships become confused and strained. Byrne burrows deep into what makes the Next Men tick and carefully lays out the repercussions stemming from their powers and then from their actions. And that's not even yet factoring in the inevitable interferences by supervillains and shadowy government entities. As Senator Hilltop inexorably rises to power and Sathanas's decades-long master plan continues to unfold, we find the Next Men simply seeking to make sense of things and find their place in the world. Of course, the world isn't about to leave them alone.

Some of the better stories I've read have come from independent comic books. I remember the Elementals, the Justice Machine, Grimjack, Airboy, and Mage, to name only a few. Not being protected by one of the big two comics corporations must give the independent comic book artist a sensation of being out on the edge, and sometimes this gets the juices flowing even more. Byrne has a fondness for the Fantastic Four and Superman, true, but the Next Men title is his baby and he puts his all into it. He takes the time to develop his story and his characters, and the result is something which rewards us with more depth while retaining the classic superhero elements. The Next Men tales come out as darker, more edgy stuff. The issues in this collection serves to lay down the structure of the Next Men universe, and yet - as the frightened and disoriented Next Men desperately make their getaway and have a faceoff of sorts in the desert - there's enough action here to sate the comic book fan (Bethany, in particular, doesn't hold back with her powers). Look for further volumes as this series only gets better.

Celebrity is not all it is cracked up to be.

If there is a real life superhero team running around, then it is pretty obvious to take a crack at a comic series starring them, isn't it? Yep.

Because of this, the heroic bunch get asked to help out on a nasty case in a small town. They do have to wonder about the sheriff's motives for doing so.

Mr. Byrne's theme of superheroes-set-in-the-real-world forges ahead. With Dark Horse Comics 1994 release of JOHN BYRNE'S NEXT MEN: FAME (Book 3) - which collects the title's original issues #13-18 - Creator/Writer/Artist John Byrne has his five fish-out-of-water protagonists integrating even more closely with everyday society. This time out, the Next Men are outed to the world and become celebrities, touted as the world's first real superheroes. But fame, as we know, comes with a lot of baggage. When their faces are splashed all over the media, it doesn't take long for one particular sheriff in the desert to recognize them and promptly hightail it to New York, where the Next Men are currently hanging out. Before you can say, "Lord, Bethany sure is pale!", the Next Men are arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder (see Book One, which tells of their escape and ensuing confrontation in the desert).

In other news, a devastating personal betrayal by two of the Next Men forever changes the dynamics of the team. A time traveler from the future arrives, and two characters from John Byrne's novel The Whipping Boy have a cameo. Meanwhile, the evil, vampiric Sathanas motors along as his decades-long plan continues to gel. The ruthless Aldus Hilltop, who's worked his way up to the Vice-Presidency, has his eye on bigger things. We also learn the origin of the plucky Tony Murcheson. And Danny keeps his secret, but loses something else.

To be honest, not much in the way of action happens in these pages. But just because there isn't a lot of action doesn't mean that stuff doesn't happen. Read the stories, you'll get sucked in. No, it's not as "real" as, say, Brian K. Vaughan's EX MACHINA stories, but the events which unfold for these uncertain superheroes are things I could actually envision happening, given the wild premise. John Byrne manages to set forces in motion, preps the stage for later issues, and gives his readers the reassuring sense that he knows exactly where he's going with these stories. There's certainly plenty of character and plot development. And the kids get fancy costumes and a whole new batch of superhero names. John Byrne's artwork is, at first glance, simplistic, but there's a wonderful evocativeness and a timelessness to his pencils and inks. He's one of my all time favorite comic book artists.

If you're at all a fan of the Next Men or are curious about them, be advised that you can't really miss an issue. There's a deliberate and well-thought-out chain of progression here; every installment is integral to the overall story arc and to the development of the key characters. Trust me, there isn't a filler to be found. That's the downside and the beauty of this series. And, finally, for those who've actually read the original issues, there's a segment at the end of Book 3 which reprints the covers to issues #0-18.

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This is an excellent "how-to" suitable for Purim, Halloween or just fun. The book illustrates how to create a variety of faces, and comes with it's own make-up kit. Each character has step-by-step instructions, and also suggestions for accessories and costumes; at the end of the book, there is a "bits and pieces" section for wounds, and other such attachments. It's a great book to have around!

Much has changed since this book was first released a few years ago, but Proctor's writing still should be acknowledged. Many of the concepts expressed and explained in this book are still valid today, as is some of the technology as well. The sections on firewalls are especially worth noting, and the guidelines for developing policies remain equally important today.

Those who like books such as Have You Locked the Castle Gate? Home and Small Business Computer Security [URL] and want to learn more will find The Secured Enterprise: Protecting Your Information Assets a good springboard for more information.

While the Castle Gate is more focused on the home and small business sector, The Secured Enterprise: Protecting Your Information Assets is geared for corporate technology managers who need to know more about information security.

Topics such as security ROI, policy, technologies, architecture and more are discussed. The book is written in an easy to use style and provides valuable information to those who need to know more about one of the most crucial area of information technology today - corporate information security.

A daringly austere office building towers above the teeming streets of Manhattan. Shortly after it opens, a woman dies from a glass pane hurtling down from the upper stories, and an office executive is killed when his floor's windows blow out, leaving him hanging from a precarious ledge until his heart fails. An engineer is hired to discern the building's flaws, as lawsuits mount against the nefarious owner. Suddenly, the engineer comes to a ghastly conclusion.....! A well written, taut drama which blends non-fiction events with an array of colorful fictional characters, and tension-filled plot elements. A real page-turner!

I first read this book in it's condensed format, but enjoyed it so much, I sought out the full, unedited version at my local library. Skyscraper is so well written, so vivid, that I can see it being made into an exellent movie with a huge special effects budget. The lead villian in this book was so well done, a person could'nt help but REALLY hate him. All the characters were very believable, and at various points in the story, you actually get inside thier heads, and see what they are thinking, which makes them seem so much more real. As the tension mounts, you can almost taste it, and the climax is truly an awesome thing. I found the book a very difficult thing to put down, and enjoyed every last page. As I said before, This book has all the ingredients needed to make one incredible motion picture.

The book is here and came in quickly.

Byrne offers a more readable alternative to the hard core approach of learning EQS from its official manual. The latter presents a heavily mathematical framework that might be offputting to some readers who lack a strong statistical background.

Instead, her book goes through much of what EQS can do for you. But at a gentler pace. Giving a brief walkthrough of multivariate statistical modelling. The book starts off explaining the format of the EQS input file. It uses a graphical approach similar to what electrical engineers have for laying out circuits. More intuitive for the user. Where you can draw regressions paths from one component in the diagram to other components, for example. This is reminiscent of how SPICE went from a text input file that described a circuit to a graphical approach that was far easier to understand.

Much of the book then goes into how you can test for causality in your model. EQS has formidable abilities to do so, and you need to master how to control these.

Offer different softwares(LISREL8, PRELIS2,SIMPLIS) and cover single, multiple groups analyses and provide MTMM model, I thought Dr. Byrne's book one of the most useful resource to apply structural equation model for social science research.

This book is a good starting point for someone desiring to learn SEM in Lisrel. Theoretical/statistical concepts have been explained in a simple manner and explanation of Lisrel is thorough. Useful as a course book. Not a good book if you already know SEM and are looking for in-depth understanding.

Good book for research/articles for classwork toward a degree in special ed.

As a special education administrator and a doctoral student in special education I appreciate the opportunity to look at issues from different perspectives. I am familiar with many of the authors included in the book and thought that the editor did a very good job in choosing people to contribute. All-in-all, a nice, concise overview of current issues that all special educators should be aware of.

The rapid current pace of state politics and interrelated developments (for every action there remains an opposite reaction) would initially make inclusion of this particular work in reproductive policy cannons both inconsequential and redundant upon initial evaluation by a harried reader, even if they themselves are students of this particular policy area.

Because there is no shortage of other texts to delve into and analyze over an exotic cup of cappuccino, a reader's initial conclusion might be to simply consign this comparatively early individual work to the ever-growing list of past works (by implication previously but not currently helpful with anything) and skip over it entirely in exclusive focus on newer research which theoretically addresses today's policy environments more accurately. Decidedly not uncommon, activating and following this binary would be a profound injustice for both the individual reader and the larger society.

Since the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade completely legalized abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, abortion has been a perpetual favorite of all political viewpoints who clamor for their representation at the state and federal levels. This same climate however means several 'current event' research compilations on state politics (as opposed to historical perspectives) run the risk of themselves appearing dangerously outdated only a few years after publication precisely because of the rapid pace of legislative history in 21st century politics. Even by the time the book has been printed, the issues (barring the truly unique circumstances) have been debated and votes cast, leaving opponents the recourse of passing counteracting legislation or attempting various legal maneuvers to reverse the policy effects.

Politics is supposedly about thoughtful long-term planning for the greater common good, but it's modern incarnation also includes carefully strategized moments for the benefits of potential voters---and unfortunately political action groups from all sides of the political spectrum. Because votes are the only method by which each group can truly discern whether elected officials have lived up to their position on an issue (and figure into support or opposition) it is in each official's best interest to undertake abortion votes early enough and often so those same votes can promptly become recorded for posterity as evidence.

Unfortunately for the casual reader not intending to do expansive research, this same dichotomy is frustrating and may ironically be one of the many factors contributing to a noted decline in general citizen satisfaction with the political process. If people are more concerned with going through the motions of public participation as opposed to actually doing it, potentially interested individuals may internalize the same process as closed and/or inherently difficult to keep up with, thereby shutting themselves out of very critical debates governing their own lives and health.

A set of political statistics, no matter how compelling in their own time may eventually find itself unable to contribute as fiercely to modern portraits, themselves replete with equally pressing challenges. Both scholars and lay public need not fear however because this 1995 book transitions itself nicely (however informally) into the latter category without any problems. The wealth of information contained within the collection transcends time, thereby imparting powerful lessons for today's researchers who coincidentally would otherwise have a difficult time locating the same information from multiple obscure sources and several newspapers of record.

Particularly of interest to this approach is the chapter on Arizona state politics and how initial party identification is not always correspondent to political ideology of the individual. In, 1992 the late arch conservative Barry Goldwater, considered the godfather of the New Right (which made attacks on abortion one of its many defining hallmarks) personally opposed a state constitutional measure which would have banned most abortions.

Goldwater's reasoning strangely echoed that which 'liberal/radical' feminists had previously used for years (including initial campaigns for abortion rights) directly tying women's reproductive access into their larger stake within society---and gendered opposition as large-scale and systematic. It was both hypocritical and fundamentally anti-conservative to oppose international threat of intrusion into citizen's private lives via communism, and then attempt to carve out a special caveat exemptor for women and other historically subordinated communities (including GLBT Americans) precisely because they were also traditionally defined as mutually exclusive to the status quo.

Because America still likes to pride itself on freedom and tolerance, exposure of the dichotomy from within the proverbial ranks no less set off a storm of controversy. Mr Conservative himself ultimately did the previously unthinkable and endorsed a pro-choice Democratic female over a fellow Republican who had earnestly attempted to campaign to voters using Goldwater's previous internationally-recognized likeness without fully bothering to understand the genuine political sincerity behind these same pronouncements. Rather than talking about how conservative he was, Goldwater was able to demonstrate it to the voters by his words and actions.

Still vehemently disagreeing with him on the importance of the great society and other social welfare programs, I personally came away from the chapter with a greater appreciation of his own political positioning and background. Because the term 'conscience' is also freely tossed about by people of all political parties (including former Goldwater associates who abandoned conservatism in favor of promoting fascism) seeing an actual account was refreshing.

Well worth it's featured acquisition price, this book is a mandate for social scientists from all perspectives. Even if it does transgress policy of spending valuable public monies on only recently published non-fiction books (to guard against inaccurate statistics) an exception should clearly be made for this title since the work featured within is not likely to be found else where.

This book, published in 1981, is a wonderful introduction to Captain America. Partly text, the book contains three Captain America adventures. The first adventures shows Cap locked in battle with the Red Skull, whose acquisition of the fantastic Cosmic Cube has granted him nearly unlimited power. The book then goes on to give the story of the Red Skull, and discusses some other villains. The second adventure shows Captain America's rebirth when he is found by the Avengers (then Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp), and resumes his fight against evil. Then Cap's friends are discussed, and the final adventure is presented. This adventure tells the history of Captain America during the early days of World War II.

I enjoyed this book, and was glad that I was able to give it to my son. The Captain America adventures are very attractive, and quite interesting. I question the order of the book, and especially the inclusion of the Cosmic Cube adventure, which I did not think was the best choice for this short book. But, that said, it is a nice book, and an excellent introduction to Captain America.

As the skies seem to darken yet again, I can't help but feel that the time has come for Captain America to once again rise to inspire a new generation of Americans.