Look, up in the snippets! Is it a bird?

….
No.
Is it a plane?

……
No. Is it —
Look, it’s a book about writing a super-man story.

“It’s a bird” by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen is a book about a free-lance writer who’s been tasked with the assignment of writing a super-man comic book.

Sounds like another hot item on the regular fanboy dream-list, wouldn’t you think so? Wow, getting a shot to write the superlative and quintessential character of the golden age of comics.

Whatever, that’s just wrong. At least that’s what the protagonist seems to realize, when he finds itself at utter loss as how to apply his creativeness to come up with a good Super-Man comic.

And he doesn’t even like Super-man… at least he thinks he doesn’t.

1 – Why should you read It’s a Bird?

If you’re the least bit interested in meta-fiction, this book will come across as a honest and dignified effort towards writing a super-man book that isn’t utterly boring.

Let’s face it, most super-man books fall within a realm that’s just so… what do you call it, like the children’s section in a library. Is there a word for that?

It’s a Bird is part a story about writing a superman comic book, and part an autobiographical and self-referential narrative about the person who’s writing the book – who we cannot help but assume is a projection of the author.

This book is a interesting exhibition of the creative process used by the author to conceive a graphic novel – he’s writing the story the you’re reading, and you cannot help but wonder “how this is by far the best Super-man comic book I’ve read, and Super-man is not even a real person, in it!

2 – What you may not like about It’s a Bird.

This one is a no-brainer: if you’re looking forward to read an actual Super-man comic book, this will leave you disappointed.

And probably angry, and feeling like punching someone in the face who even the slightest seems to be more literate than you.

Because you’re all about brawl, right? And this book makes you feel dumb, dunnit?

Well, if so this book will make you go berserk like that odd new red hulk they seem to have going now.

Anyway… honestly: don’t pick up this book if you’re looking for a run-of-the-mill super-hero comic book. There’s a whole different section in this website for that, you know?

3 – Something unique about It’s a Bird…

Asides from the fact this is a super-hero comic book with an appeal that goes exceedingly beyond the limitations of the muscular men-in-tights genre?

It’s a bird is a literate and appealing dissertation on life.

It’s a super-man flavored book – indeed – but the simple fact that it does’t take place in Clark Kent’s world.. but rather our own. That makes “It’s a Bird” wholesomely special and intriguing.

Even though there isn’t an actual story about Super-Man in this book, there are several hypothetical attempts the author would have pondered.

All of these attempts the protagonist/author conceives are terrible, and therefore make for a striking comedic effect, from their literary excessiveness that comes naturally from having a literary author write a super-hero comic book – just like that, out of the blue.

4 – Where to buy It’s a Bird… or get further information!

This book is actually an elegant 150+page Graphic novel, that was released by DC comics in 2004.

You can check out this wikipedia article for more in-depth information on this unique book.

If you’d like to buy this book and support the industry, you can get it at Amazon for just $12 from Amazon and roughly the same price from Powell’s Books. If you’re a big fan and rally want the first print, you can also get it from Amazon, but it’ll cost $100+!

5 – Have you read It’s a Bird? Share your opinion with us: