LOU SCHEIMER: CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation is Scheimer’s 2012 autobiography, which he wrote with Andy Mangels. Scheimer co-founded Filmation in 1962, and he was the only one left when the sale to L’Oreal shut the company down in 1989. As such, this book also serves as a comprehensive history of Filmation, which is best known for such cartoons as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and Star Trek: The Animated Series.

The book begins with Scheimer’s parents’ immigration to the United States and his childhood and schooling; from the foundation of Filmation onward, Scheimer keeps things mostly chronological but largely gives a show-by-show account of events. I only have one real complaint about the way the book is laid out—it would have been nice to get more information on the animation process earlier in the book so that certain portions would be easier to follow.

The book has a very conversational tone, which makes it extremely engaging. Scheimer’s personality really comes through unfiltered, and by all accounts, he was quite a character. He never met a tangent he didn’t like, but most of what he has to say is so interesting that it’s easily forgiven (e.g., his dad purportedly punched Hitler in the face).

Scheimer heavily emphasizes his passion and vision for animation throughout the book. He was a trailblazer, he says, for incorporating racial diversity into children’s cartoons, and for producing material that communicated values, morals, and instruction. He was also committed to keeping animation jobs in the United States when most studios were sending large amounts of work overseas (this is, in fact, one of the primary reasons for Filmation’s well-known and oft-maligned stock animation system.

This is a huge book—8.5” by 11”, and almost 300 pages—and it’s kind of unwieldy. It’s worth wrestling with, though, because of the vast number of pictures. Contrary to what its Amazon page would lead you to believe, however, the book is not in full color. Only pp. 209–224 are; the rest are in black and white, so caveat emptor. The book really could have done with some serious copyediting, especially to clean up Scheimer’s serial misuse of “I” when he should have used “me” and the redundancies in the writing (Mangels, isn’t that your job?).

For me, at least, the production and editorial knocks on the book are readily forgivable. Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation gave me a new appreciation for Scheimer, for Filmation, and for some of the cartoons I grew up with; I’m grateful simply that the book exists.

If any of the Filmation shows you grew up with are still meaningful to you as an adult, odds are you’ll find Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation well worth your time.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

WHY GRIZZLY BEARS SHOULD WEAR UNDERPANTS by Matthew Inman

Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants is a 2013 collection of comics by Matthew Inman from his website, The Oatmeal (theoatmeal.com). It features a large number of comics from the site plus several new ones.

This is pretty standard Oatmeal fare, which is to say, it’s vulgar, over-the-top, snarky, by turns informative and relatable, frequently hilarious, and not for the easily offended. There are a lot of highlights here, including the title comic, “What It Means When You Say Literally,” and “The Crap We Put Up with Getting On and Off an Airplane.” And like the other Oatmeal collections, this is a high-quality book with glossy pages; the vast majority of the illustrations are in color.

Some of the old comics have been expanded or edited in subtle ways. An example is the removal of the “thankfully” from “the (thankfully) late Jerry Falwell” in “What It Means When You Say Literally.” This, in conjunction with the conspicuous but not unwelcome omission of the controversial “How to Suck at Your Religion” and the online appearance of some other recent Oatmeal comics not included here (e.g., “Christopher Columbus Was Awful”), shows us a new, more constructive, less cheap-shot-taking Oatmeal. Don’t worry, though, The Oatmeal hasn’t become any gentler or more restrained, and it’s still not for the uptight. But it’s a bit more mature, if anything that prominently features jokes about bear testicles can be called “mature.”

The bottom line, though, is that this is funny stuff. Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants is another great Oatmeal collection, and if you like Inman’s other work, you’ll like this one about as well.  

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s groundbreaking 1962 novel about life in a Soviet labor camp. I read the Ralph Parker translation.

Solzhenitsyn takes the reader through Shukhov’s everyday activities, including all things mundane, as well as into the prisoner’s mindset, illuminating a number of interesting and surprising attitudes. All this is done with the extensive detail of personal experience, which makes One Day immersive and compelling. The novel builds slowly and steadily before making a rather sizeable impact upon its conclusion.

One Day is a short novel, and yet Solzhenitsyn does an excellent job of depicting not only Shukhov’s personality, tenacity, and attitudes, but also, in sketches, those of many others in his squad as well as their interactions. Solzhenitsyn’s breath of life in these characters helps the reader invest in all their fates.  

In short, One Day is a stark look into an important part of twentieth-century history as well as a well-told account of humanity’s aptitude for both cruelty and survival.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

FINALLY FREE by Heath Lambert

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace is a 2013 Christian book on escaping pornography by Heath Lambert.

This is an extremely short book (176 pages) – there’s no time spent on why pornography is bad (because people who think so usually have a pretty good idea why, Lambert says) – nearly the entire book is devoted to practical steps and solutions. And it includes some things you don’t typically find in books of this sort (Lambert’s eight tools for fighting pornography are godly sorrow, accountability, “radical measures,” confession, your spouse/singleness, humility, gratitude, and your dynamic relationship with Jesus). And Lambert is refreshingly specific on what to do and how to go about it.   

Yet while Finally Free is extremely practical, the foundation of Lambert’s arguments is, as it should be, the grace of Christ. Lambert ties every bit of his practical advice to the transformative power of grace – the power to be changed, to become different. In a book that goes on at length about what actions a man should take, this discussion of grace as a power is what instills hope for real, permanent change.

Finally Free is a concise, practical, and, most importantly, grace-centered treatment of pornography bondage, and probably the most immediately useful book I’ve read on the subject.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

SERPENT MAGE by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Serpent Mage is a 1992 fantasy novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the fourth in the seven-volume Death Gate Cycle. Here, Haplo and Alfred travel separately to the ocean world of Chelestra, where they discover the last bastion of the Sartan as well as a mysterious race of powerful creatures.

Weis and Hickman are thus far doing a very fine job of making their world(s) increasingly complex. Serpent Mage begins to explore the series’ theological theme in greater depth, for one thing, and in the course of their storytelling, the authors also paint a clearer picture of some of the lingering mysteries from prior volumes.

Serpent Mage is longer on lengthy conversations and shorter on action (although what action there is is quite good) than the previous books in this series, but the authors do an excellent job of building up compelling intrigue, which drives the story forward to a satisfying climax. If there are any criticisms of the story, they would include the fact that the overall plot structure bears more than a casual resemblance to that of Fire Sea, the case of Haplo being too quick and too eager to trust the dragon-snakes (particularly as they all but have “evil” written across their foreheads), and the fact that the geographical structure of this world is extremely alien, not all that clearly explained, and thus kind of confusing. But by and large these are minor quibbles.  

Character development gets a passing grade. Haplo spends a lot of the book kind of stuck between gears, and Alfred, while he’s making progress, can still be extremely frustrating. Samah is nicely done for the most part; he can be impressively complex, although he lapses into the one-note arrogant despot a bit too often.

In the end, Serpent Mage is an engaging, page-turning novel that continues this series’ strong march forward. It’s at least as good as Fire Sea, and maybe better.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED