A passionate, multilayered, and valuable call for readers to embrace their inner superheroes.
A guide offers a plan for unlocking the superhuman through creativity.
“Each of us has innate talents and abilities,” Burlock writes. “These are our superpowers.” The author seeks to help readers recognize and strengthen those skills in their daily lives—with recognition being the first key. Another major key is creativity: Burlock views this as the crucial element in the whole cycle, the “fuel” of the superhuman lifestyle. The moral compass of that regimen is something he calls the “Superhuman Code,” a set of principles composed of six core elements: awareness, humanity, integrity, humility, resilience, and sacrifice. Urging his readers to concentrate on essentials like healthy breathing, personal magnetism, and the restorative process of “rebooting” their minds, the author assures them that this kind of concentration on developing their superpowers is far more useful than “mindlessly scrolling through social media, seeking inspiration and relief in an endless news feed.” Nourish the spirit and mind, pay attention to issues of finance, make time for health and fitness—these are all standard self-help maxims. But Burlock infuses his discussions of them with animated reflections on his own experiences in the design field and on the outlooks and philosophies of the sprawling superhero entertainment world—especially the Marvel cinematic universe. The tone he adopts throughout is a combination of breezy confidence and consistent, outspoken encouragement. He compares his approach with TED Talks, and readers will immediately see the similarities. He views the whole superhuman idea as inextricably linked with the concept of leadership. Underneath its mentions of the Black Panther and the Hulk, the book is essentially a spirited, upbeat plea for readers to be leaders in their own lives. This, too, is familiar ground in motivational literature, but Burlock’s infectious enthusiasm may very well be his own superpower.
A passionate, multilayered, and valuable call for readers to embrace their inner superheroes.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73-577020-8
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Gold Coast Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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