Last-minute Christmas book gift ideas

How to Take Over the World

By Ryan North

This is a great gift for anyone who loves comic books and science fiction. Ryan North, an Eisner Award-winning writer for Marvel Comics, has written a thoroughly funny manual for how to become a supervillain and take over the world. You need to have a secret base for your illicit activities, set up a new country if possible, and study physics (to defy it), biology (to clone fierce dinosaurs or achieve physical immortality), meteorology (to control the weather)  and other pertinent subjects. Having spent his career figuring out ways by which his supervillain characters can beat the superheroes, North has an impressive grasp of a wide variety of scientific topics. And the book is also peppered with canny illustrations by comics artist Carly Monardo.