{"id":45959,"date":"2026-04-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=45959"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:42:20","slug":"injection-enormous-smallness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/injection-enormous-smallness\/","title":{"rendered":"Injection \/ Enormous Smallness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE FIRST VOLUME OF INJECTION READS LIKE A FAIRYTALE BROUGHT INTO THE TECH WORLD<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Injection<\/em>
by Warren Ellis (author), Jordie Bellaire (illustrator) and Declan Shalvey (illustrator)
Image Comics
2015, 120 pages, 6.4 x 10 x 0.4 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science meets folklore. It\u2019s a theme that is pervasive throughout literature, from Frankenstein<\/em> to Dracula<\/em> to The Dragon Riders of Pern<\/em>. And like its predecessors, the first volume of Injection<\/em> also poses the question, what if these two things aren\u2019t as different as we\u2019d like to believe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injection<\/em> reads like a fairytale brought into the modern century, combining the folklore used by its predecessors with new computers and communication systems. The story jumps backwards and forwards in time, telling the chronicle of five brilliant people with different backgrounds who came together and built an artificial consciousness to \u201cmake the 21st century more interesting.\u201d As anyone who has seen The Matrix<\/em> or Terminator<\/em> films could tell you, this creation doesn\u2019t do what the team was hoping it would. But instead of being straight science fiction, the novel joins science with the fantastic. The creation begins mimicking folklore, and the solution to defeating it seems to lie just as much in magic as it does in science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artwork is classically rendered graphic novel illustration, reminding me of the Hellboy<\/em> series, or Sandman<\/em>. What strikes me as the most interesting part of the pictures is the range of color used in them; the palette moves from dark greys and greens to brilliant oranges and reds, and some of the scenes are done in such a surreal manner you feel as though you\u2019ve been transported to another plane altogether (which, truth be told, might just be the case). Each character is distinct in design and memorable in execution, and the different storylines interweave with each other during the telling of the tale. My favorite character remains the somewhat crazy scientist, Maria Kilbride, whose story is simultaneously dark and hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injection<\/em> proved an interesting and beautiful read, although in complete honesty I was often confused by the story. The arc is clearly designed to be resolved over several books, so I imagine this confusion was intentional, but I could have done with more background either visually or in the actual wording to get a better sense of the story they were telling. However, I still eagerly await the next installment. \u2013 Julia Pillard<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ENORMOUS SMALLNESS \u2013 WORK HARD AND YOU CAN BECOME A POET (NOT A MESSAGE KIDS OFTEN HEAR)<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Enormous Smallness: The Story of E.E. Cummings<\/em>
by Matthew Burgess
Enchanted Lion Books
2015, 64 pages, 8.4 x 11.5 x 0.7 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enormous Smallness<\/em>, written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo, details the life of poet E.E. Cummings for fans of all ages. From Cummings\u2019s fairly ordinary childhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to his adventures in Europe and New York City, the book spans the decades of writing, working, and experiencing the world that made Cummings an extraordinary artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story that emerges is one of a boy who loved observing the world as much as he did participating in it \u2014 a boy who said \u201cyes\u201d to everything. As Burgess writes, \u201cYes to the heart and the roundness of the moon, to birds, elephants, trees, and everything he loved.\u201d But the story doesn\u2019t shy away from the good or the bad, including both the praise and support young Cummings got from his parents and teachers, as well as the negative criticism his first book of poems received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message to kids is twofold and clear: one, making art is hard work that requires the same dedication and persistence that any other job does for success. And two, so long as you put in the work, you can be a poet or an artist, too. It\u2019s not a message kids hear often but it\u2019s important. As Cummings said in his Harvard graduation speech, we need artists to challenge the way we see and think. And those artists have to start somewhere. This book is a brilliant beginning. \u2013 Sara Distin at Tinybop<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 115<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45976,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45959\/revisions\/45976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}