A Pound of Flesh

The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History—and How We Can Fight Back Alan Michael Collinge . Beacon , $22.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-8070-4229-8 Think credit-card debt is a problem? Take a look at the lives ruined through the corporate thug tactics, usurious fees and vicious harassment employed by some of the nation's largest student-loan providers in this shocking expos...

Nonfiction Reviews

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood Donovan Campbell . Random , $26 (310p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6773-2 Campbell decided as a junior at Princeton that attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School would look good on his résumé. Three years later, in the spring of 2004, he was in Iraq commanding a platoon known by its radio call sign, “Joker...

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books Peter Pan: A Classic Collectible Pop-Up Robert Sabuda . S&S/Little Simon , $29.99 ISBN 978-0-689-85364-7 Continuing to innovate, Sabuda enhances the already powerful enchantments of J.M. Barrie's classic 1902 tale with astonishing paper engineering. Illustrations suggest a hybrid of period styles, somewhere between arts and crafts, with their rich patterning, and art nouvea...

Lots of Fans, Fun at the 2008 New York Anime Festival

The second annual New York Anime Festival started with a small trickle of fans after the professional day ended Friday afternoon, but their numbers had swelled considerably by evening.

Baltimore Showcases Comics First

With a mix of popular comics creators from the book and periodical worlds, last weekend's Baltimore Comic-Con was a crowd-pleasing showcase.

Vampire Hunter D Creators Come to New York

Bestselling Japanese novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi and his long-time illustrator Yoshitaka Amano are legends among anime and manga fans in both Japan and America for their collaboration on Vampire Hunter D, an ongoing series of prose novels about a vampire hunter who is half-vampire himself.

Photo Mania

PWCW's photographers roamed the exhibition floor to bring back signature images from the 2008 New York Anime Festival at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Comics Briefly

Dark Horse Revives Robert Howard’s Solomon Kane and Kull

Following the success of its Conan the Barbarian comic books, Dark Horse is now bringing back two other Robert E. Howard creations from the pages of the pulps to the pages of the contemporary comics world.

Big Fan Turnout for the 2008 New York Anime Festival

The second annual New York Anime Festival, held this past weekend at the Javits Convention Center, began slowly with a small group of fans on the floor during Friday’s professional day but their numbers swelled considerably by the evening.

Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 9/29/2008

This week on the Web: a vaccine and pediatrics expert on the latest autism myths, an activist on America's fossil fuel addiciton, a bad-boy screenwriter's path to God, a Jewish typographer's memoir of survival in the Nazi counterfeiting operation, a French marine biologist explains the origins of life, and a multi-talented UK writer takes a trip through the human head. Plus: doughnuts, dogs, green cosmetics, farming, Richard Nixon and exquisite Chinese food.

Children's Book Reviews

Picture Books Amandina Sergio Ruzzier . Roaring Brook/Porter , $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59643-236-9 Amandina Goldeneyes, a shy, lonely, long-eared dog, is a talented performer, “but nobody knew that, because nobody knew Amandina.” Amandina decides to rent the rundown Teatro Ventura “in the old town” and spruce it up.

Nonfiction Reviews

Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World Amy Seidl , foreword by Bill McKibben. Beacon , $24.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-8070-8584-4 In this intimate reflection, Seidl, an ecologist, records her observations of life and ecology in the wooded Vermont hollow where she lives, depicting how human, animal and plant life is changing as the weather becomes warmer and less predic...

Fiction Reviews

Oh, Johnny Jim Lehrer . Random , $25 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6762-6 PBS NewsHour anchor Lehrer mixes baseball, WWII and romance in his 19th novel to mostly pleasant results. Even though Johnny Wrigley, from smalltown Lafayette, Md., is being scouted by the Detroit Tigers, he enlists in the Marines in April 1944 to “kill Japs for America.

DC Folds Minx; Virgin Becomes Liquid Comics

The day after former Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan announced plans to resurrect the now defunct Virgin Comics under a new name, DC Comics said it was shutting down Minx, a line of graphic novels targeting teen girls.

ADV Survives Hurricane Ike

Overshadowed by the financial crisis on Wall Street, Hurricane Ike's touchdown in Texas has had a tremendous effect on companies like the Houston anime and manga producer ADV Films.

Global Voices: Mia Kirshner’s I Live Here

Actress Mia Kirshner's effort to draw attention to the plight of International displaced people has led to I Live Here, an unusual collaborative graphic work that will be published by Pantheon in October.

IDW Launches G.I. Joe Invasion

The license from Hasbro's famous toy has landed with Idea and Design Works, which is wagering that G.I. Joe is poised to once again be a big seller. In a bit of synchronicity, original G.I. Joe writer Larry Hama is returning to the property, and a movie is set to come out next year.

Afro Samurai Makes Its Manga Debut

The much touted Afro Samurai series, a popular animation series on Spike TV, made its debut as manga for American audiences this month.

Panelmania: Nothing Nice to Say

In this 13-page excerpt from Nothing Nice to Say, a compilation of strips from the webcomic of the same name, creator Mitch Clem critiques the punk rock subculture with a comic eye.