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by Kevin J. Taylor (Author)
Shouldn't all dictionaries start with AAAA and end with ZZZZZZZTZZ-ZTZZZ? Ka-BOOM! does: it's a collection of sound effects from comic books, each one rigorously defined and cross referenced. Nowhere has the art of onomatopoeia been raised to higher heights than in the humble comic book. --TIME Digital Vol.5 No.5 /// Hey, comic book fans, good news. At long last there's a new dictionary and thesaurus of those odd words you only find in comics. KA-BOOM!: A Dictionary of Comic Book Words, Symbols & Onomatopoeia..., compiled by Kevin J. Taylor, covers all those comic words, sounds and also includes the companion work BZZURKK! The Thesaurus of Champions. Want to know what RINK-RIK means, how about BRAKK or KLUD? This book holds your answers. Taylor, who put 10 years of work into this compilation, has cited the comic books where the sound effects were used, cross referenced entries and defined them. The thesaurus is a quick guide, minus the definitions. An appendix gives a list of base forms, which is interesting in itself, particularly as some base words have either extra letters or missing letters to indicate such attributes as magnitude, volume or duration of the sound. Before you dismiss this work as too esoteric to be much use, it's worth noting that comic books encourage reluctant readers to read more and some teachers have found the book to be useful in vocabulary lessons, such as A. Simpson, an English language arts teacher from West Virginia. She said she wants to incorporate a lesson where students create their own dictionaries in the vein of KA-BOOM! --The Now Newspaper /// I love comic book words, those strange collisions of consonants meant to convey the sounds of explosions or fists thudding into abdomens or minor super heroes being electrocuted. Kevin Taylor likes them even more, enough to have compiled an entire dictionary, from "AAAA!", a cry of pain from Dare Devil - The Man Without Fear (Vol.1, issue 3, 1993) to "ZZZZZZZTZZZTZZZ", the sound of mechanical parts coming undone, from Dead Pool: The Circle Chase (Issue 4, 1993). --The Sydney Morning Herald /// Kevin J. Taylor is a West Coast author and poet.
