Thursday, February 9 2012
“Blue Estate”: A Sardonic Pulp Paradigm?
It's the turning of the final tide, the groundbreaking Blue Estate wraps issue #8, which closes the second volume of the collected editions, and launches issue #9, which opens the final volume. The stakes, and the value, couldn't be higher.
Friday, February 3 2012
Bring Out Your Dumb!: The Ficarra Exclusive Concludes
It's been our longest interview for an exclusive yet, Editor John Ficarra, the mind behind MAD. And it ends in the most unexpected place; compassion.
Friday, January 27 2012
The Future Is a Faded Song: Douglas Rushkoff on the Groundbreaking “ADD”
It's especially hard to shift between being a world-class media theorist writing nonfiction, and a writer of fiction. That's even more so when the fiction appears as comics. Why does Douglas Rushkoff make it look so easy?
Friday, January 20 2012
Endless Reentry: J. Torres, “Li’l Jinx” and “Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus”
J. Torres is a mature, creative voice, a powerful storyteller, and a gifted intellect. Exactly the kind of person you'd want reimagining a classic from your childhood.
Thursday, January 12 2012
You Are Who You Learn to Become: The New Crusaders Exclusive
Can comics be meaningful and personal and accessible to all, without the elaborately stylized rituals of ComicCon? Co-creators of the forthcoming New Crusaders series offer a genuinely new way of thinking about meaningfulness in a PopMatters exclusive.
Wednesday, January 11 2012
Ok, Now Make With the Funny: The PopMatters Exclusive with John Ficarra
There's a deep sense of duty to John Ficarra and his work as Editor of MAD, as well as a practiced, finely-tuned, Olympic-level athlete mindset and an ability to tease out the patently ridiculous in everything. This is why MAD catapults beyond entertainment, and into the orbits of truly great satire.
Wednesday, January 4 2012
The Frightening and the Frightened: The Scott Snyder Exclusive
As the writer at the helm of signature DC titles like Batman and Swamp Thing, Scott Snyder flawlessly bleeds horror into the body of his stories. But where does that inner, darkening fear come from? In an exclusive interview with PopMatters, Snyder opens up.
Wednesday, December 14 2011
The Hidden Depths of Aquaman: The Geoff Johns Exclusive
Why has Aquaman, a longstanding mainstay of the DC Universe, never excelled in capturing the popular imagination? In an earnest conversation with Geoff Johns, New 52 writer of Aquaman and DC's Chief Creative Officer, PopMatters meets someone for the very first time -- Aquaman himself.
Wednesday, December 7 2011
And Action…: The Grant Morrison Exclusive, Act 2
In a time when the novelty of DC's company-wide reboot seems to push writers in the direction of a ground-up redesign of their characters, Grant Morrison does the unexpected with the original superhero. PopMatters presents Grant Morrison, and his thoughts on Action.
Thursday, November 17 2011
Darkly Drawn: The PopMatters Exclusive with “I, Vampire’s” Josh Fialkov
Screenwriter and comics creator Joshua Hale Fialkov pens one of the most perfect horror-romances in I, Vampire. The horror, and the romance, shouldn't be mutually exclusive story elements, he reminds us in the first part of this exclusive interview.
Wednesday, November 16 2011
Missing Persons: A Second Chance at Superman
At it's heart, DC's New 52 is all about re-introducing characters that in many senses have gone missing over the course of their publication history. In this edition of The Iconographies, Superman, and how he is being reclaimed both now and "five years ago".
Wednesday, October 26 2011
Grant Morrison on Action Comics: The PopMatters Exclusive
Timeous and pitch perfect, writer Grant Morrison's Action offers a much-needed reinvention of Superman. In a rare opportunity, publisher DC grants PopMatters an exclusive interview with one of the keenest intellects working in comics today. This is Grant Morrison, in his own words.
Wednesday, October 5 2011
An Awfully Big Adventure: Wrapping Up DC’s Extreme Makeover
DC demonstrated the full power of their operation by delivering sales numbers that haven’t been seen in quite some time. Month one was a complete success. See you in month two.
Monday, September 26 2011
Thus Far: DC’s New 52 at the Halfway Mark
A chat over Twitter last Sunday picks up on the halfway mark of DC's New 52. We talk about why we liked what we liked, why we hated what we did. Muse on where DC might be going. And how it got to go there because of where it's been.
Thursday, September 22 2011
The Leap: Jason Burns Is the Woody Allen of Web TV
With the launch of his first web-based TV show, Adults Only, Project Fanboy Award winner Jason Burns makes his visionary expectations of entertainment available to a much, much wider audience.
Monday, September 19 2011
Choice in DC Comics’ New 52
With DC's New 52 reboot of their entire universe, the comicbook company is evolving a greater media savvy and a far deeper cultural relevance than ever before. But has DC simply borrowed from more adaptable publishers like BOOM! Studios?
Wednesday, September 14 2011
“Potter’s Field” Retells the Drama of America
The learning curve is steep, but it breaks down like this; Potter's Field is the story of patriotic values set to detective fiction, and the medium of comics. Mark Waid displays true genius in sculpting the kind of tale he has.
Wednesday, September 7 2011
*See Issue #129, -Ed: “Spider Island” and the Art of Social Media
At the dawn of the 21st century, some of us are only now beginning to feel the wave of super-connectedness that comes from emerging social media technologies, some of us have lived in NYC all our lives, and some of us just read Spider-Man.
Friday, September 2 2011
Talking With David: Radical’s Visionary Chief Marketing Officer
How does Radical enter the digital economy in a groundbreaking way that both redefines the entertainment industry and yet remains true to core values of support for creativity and precision of user-driven environments?
Wednesday, August 31 2011
The Real Story, But Not All of It
Perhaps more than a long, critical gaze at DC's history, Secret Origins makes the incredibly savvy move of rendering the company's 70-plus years as both heartwarming and resilient.
Thursday, August 25 2011
West Coast Sound: Is Disney Victim to the “Decision Illusion”?
Is Disney's decision to let go of its subsidiary Marvel's entire West Coast marketing team a sound one? The question is certainly nowhere near as interesting as what this decision signals about the entertainment industry as a whole.
Thursday, August 18 2011
Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern Finally Buried in the Light
With the series coda to Geoff Johns' six-year run on Green Lantern just completed, the once bright Silver Age hero's adventures leave a bitter taste, more because of magical promise of Johns' early work.
Wednesday, August 10 2011
The Nouveau Retro of The First Avenger
At first glance, Captain America seems dated. But viewers are quickly reminded that WWII was as much an ideological conflict as a military one. On the battle of ideas, icons matter.
Monday, August 8 2011
Kirby v. Disney: Wanting to Want More
In the wake of the recent ruling against the Kirby Estate what is at stake may no longer be simple creator rights, but a deep psychology entwining creator, company and fan.
Thursday, July 28 2011
“Fame: Conan O’Brien” & the Fact-based Circus of the Unforgettable
In perhaps the savviest move for a print-vs-digital environment Bluewater has re-inscribed their August release of Fame: Conan O'Brien with the core values of emerging social media. Download a free exclusive preview of the book.
Wednesday, July 27 2011
Daredevil: Tragic Hero or Anti-Hero?
After the debacle that was "Shadowland" incoming Daredevil scribe Mark Waid brings a carefree exuberance and a psychological depth that was rarely glimpsed in the last 30 years of the character's publication.
Wednesday, July 20 2011
The Crater-less Impact of Daredevil’s Shadowland Hits the Big Apple
In 2009 writer Ed Brubaker left Daredevil on a high note, with the character literally ready to take on the world. But incoming writer Andy Diggle failed the test of both New York as an idea and Daredevil as a character. What can Mark Waid's Daredevil, released today, look like in the wake of past misfirings?
Friday, July 15 2011
Animated Part 2: The PopMatters Exclusive with Full Clip’s Schwarz Brothers
The real story of the Schwarz brothers isn't their improbable and meteoric rise in Hollywood after being marginalized by the Australian film industry, but the generational shift they bring to staid thinking in the media of both comics and film.
Wednesday, July 13 2011
Inherited Soil: The PopMatters Exclusive with Robert Venditti
Robert Venditti arrives at the comics medium as a fully formed artist, vested in the act of making a critical choice of medium. But he enters the popular psyche like Tom Waits or Harry Houdini, an artist in the midst of transitioning into becoming a performer. Perhaps this is what makes his recent Homeland Directive spellbinding.
Friday, July 1 2011
Animated Part 1: The PopMatters Exclusive with Full Clip’s Schwarz Brothers
The real story of the Schwarz brothers isn't their improbable and meteoric rise from being marginalized by the Australian film industry to Hollywood. But the generational shift they bring to traditionalist thinking in the media of both comics and film.
Friday, June 17 2011
The Writing on the Wall: How ‘The Unwritten’ Fails to Meet Its Own Hype
When The Unwritten first appeared in print, it promised to be unique and endearing if for nothing other than its peerless high concept. Ironically it's writer Mike Carey's reliance on this high concept that provides savvy readers with insight into the dangers of the high concept in general.
Wednesday, June 15 2011
Band Tees and Inside Jokes: The PopMatters Exclusive with the ‘Li’l Depressed Boy’ Creators
Image Comics’ Li'l Depressed Boy isn't the most conventional series on comic stands. Part comedy, part romance, part drama, it’s also charming, whimsical, snarky, and offbeat. In an exclusive and frank interview with its creators, PopMatters gets to the heart of the cultural influences that go into making this critically acclaimed bestseller.
Wednesday, June 8 2011
The Class Is Half-Empty When It’s Full: Why ‘X-Men: First Class’ Gets an F
With Bryan Singer back in the creative chair as producer on X-Men: First Class, the movie should easily exceed the heights of X2, right?
Wednesday, May 25 2011
The Dream Factory Part 1: PopMatters’ Exclusive with BOOM! CEO Ross Richie
An unexpected, but hardly improbable success story, publisher BOOM! Studios finds themselves in the position to both care for popculture of established legacy, and build new stories and settings. In an exclusive interview, BOOM! CEO Ross Richie talks frankly about how the stakes have never been higher.
Tuesday, May 24 2011
If Ye Be Worthy: Thor and Identity and Idris Elba
What's really behind the Council of Conservative Citizens' call to boycott Kenneth Branagh's Thor? It couldn't be so obvious a matter as Idris Elba's race. Could it?
Thursday, May 12 2011
Transforming the Bard Finale: Daggers at Dawn
This is the final of a three-part series of articles about Kill Shakespeare, each featuring an exclusive interview with the comic's co-creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. Read part one and part two.
Friday, May 6 2011
No Second Acts Part 2: The Public Lives of Giants
Jake the Dreaming not only offers readers an unmitigated boyhood that tilts at the world as much as Cervantes or Louis Stevenson, but also taps the changing cultural moment articulated recently by novelist Ken Follett.
Thursday, May 5 2011
I’m Starting to Root for This Guy: Branagh’s ‘Thor’ As Rachmaninov’s Second
Kenneth Branagh's Thor really is Hamlet. Larger than life, but withdrawn and meditative. It's Joseph Conrad to the kind of immersive action hero trope that has spawned thousands of Chuck Norris jokes.
Friday, April 29 2011
No Second Acts Part 1: Radical’s Reassertion of American Literature
Jake The Dreaming is Radical Studios' first illustrated novel for the iPad and iPhone. It is also the vein of American literature that goes back to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Download your full FCBD preview here
Wednesday, April 20 2011
Transforming Shakespeare 2: The Bard and “Argentinean Knife Fights”
This is the second of a three-part series of articles about Kill Shakespeare, each featuring an exclusive interview with the comic's co-creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. Read part one.
Friday, April 15 2011
Where Your Heart Is 3: The PopMatters Exclusive with Radical’s Barry Levine
With the rise in contestation between print and digital distribution, the very medium of comics seems to be at stake. In a PopMatters exclusive, Radical's Barry Levine opens up about the company's rise, his own career path, and the future of the comics medium.
Wednesday, April 13 2011
The Roads to New Cross: The London Small Press Expo
With convention season in the US rapidly becoming a yearlong calendar event, the London Comics Small Press Expo still makes those small, personal connections between reader, newbie creator, and established pro.
Thursday, April 7 2011
Transforming the Bard 1: The “Justice League” of Shakespeare
This three-part series examines the extraordinary Kill Shakespeare, and each part includes an exclusive interview with the comic's creators. This is part one.
Friday, April 1 2011
Where Your Heart Is 2: The PopMatters Exclusive with Radical’s Barry Levine
With the rise in contestation between print and digital distribution, the very medium of comics seems to be at stake. Newcomers Radical Publishing have had the truly sublime idea of viewing other media as a death-knell, movies and gaming might be an opportunity.
Thursday, March 24 2011
Cowboy DNA: BOOM! Studios’ Courageous Leap into Social Media
BOOM! Studios harnesses the power of social media. In launching Hellraiser: The Prelude as downloadable, viral PDF, they've achieved what legendary inventor of the graphic novel format, Will Eisner dreamed of so long ago.
Wednesday, March 16 2011
Stand on Earth: Reading Manga During Fukushima
The horror-quake that hit Japan this past Friday has no context in recorded history. The human price is unimaginable. But it is a cultural shift in the popular imagination from the 1980s that allows us to understand the simple heroism of perpetually rebuilding.
Wednesday, March 9 2011
Where Your Heart Is 1: The PopMatters Exclusive with Radical’s Barry Levine
With the competition between print and digital distribution, the very medium of comics seems to be at stake. Newcomers Radical Publishing have had the truly sublime idea of viewing other media as a death-knell, movies and gaming might be an opportunity. In a PopMatters exclusive, Radical President and Publisher Barry Levine opens up about the company's rise, his own career path, and the future of the comics medium.
Wednesday, March 2 2011
Security Blanket: Previewing Robert Venditti’s ‘Homeland Directive’
Robert Venditti has always managed to use his narrative art as a staging area for wrestling with deeper issues around identity. PopMatters was afforded a rare sneak peek at Robert's forthcoming Homeland Directive, which promises to exceed even the sublime The Surrogates: Flesh & Bone.
Thursday, February 24 2011
These Long Years, and the Miles: Remembering Dwayne McDuffie
With the passing of Dwayne McDuffie this last Tuesday we're left with the loss of a pioneer in film, television and comics, and a man of singular vision.
Thursday, February 10 2011
The Ten Last Days: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba’s ‘Daytripper’
The conclusion of Daytripper, in its own way, both subverts and expands upon the ending of another notable work of literature to emerge from the post-911 condition, the TV show Lost.
Thursday, February 3 2011
Solid State Society 3: Archie CEO Jon Goldwater and the New Economy
In the closing segment of PopMatters exclusive interview with Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater, the Iconographies considers not simply the cultural complexity of Goldwater's embrace of technology, but the bold moves he is making in redefining both the brand, and the business model.
Wednesday, January 26 2011
Ralph’s Jet-Pack Theory, Muhammad Ali and “Last Son”
A reprint of a classic '70s comic triggers schoolyard memories of an odd kid, and reignites a personal interest in the “big blue boy scout”
Thursday, January 20 2011
Solid State Society 2: Archie CEO Jon Goldwater and the New Economy
With an ever-growing percentage of the population entering into social media through smartphones, the radical shift of Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater is focusing not on access, but on what you carry with you.
Wednesday, January 19 2011
Rebuilding American Manhood: The Green Hornet Circa 2011
More than escapism, the Green Hornet gives an U.S. audience nurtured on frontier imagery an example of individual agency that resonates with the effort to believe and achieve the American dream.
Thursday, January 13 2011
Solid State Society 1: Archie CEO Jon Goldwater and the New Economy
Following on from their landmark announcement to synchronize their print and digital publication schedules at close of business yesterday, Archie Comics led by CEO Jon Goldwater is taking a leadership role not simply in comics, but in business.
Friday, December 10 2010
Clairvoyance: The Polarized Political Life of ‘DMZ: Collective Punishment’
Brian Wood's DMZ reads like a savage critique of the fracturing of political life that has led to the formation of the Tea Party. What makes DMZ all the more compelling, is its prescience in having identified those politics never six years ago.
Friday, December 3 2010
My Own Private Singularity: “Iron Man: Rapture” and the Horror, the Horror
Tony, Ex Machina!: In Iron Man: Rapture, a very real, very human brush with death sends Tony Stark over the edge. When faced with his own mortality, what does the smartest man in the world do? It’s simple: build a better body. But at what cost?
Wednesday, November 10 2010
“What If Superman Was Hopelessly Insane?”: Mark Waid’s Irredeemable
The man who made me love Superman, now makes me terrified of someone with such god-like powers.
Thursday, November 4 2010
If You Can Read This, You’re Literate: An Interview with Filmmaker Todd Kent
After five decades of self-censorship stemming primarily from the Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, can comics reassert its rightful role in promoting literacy during childhood? Wertham had a few valid points, contends filmmaker Todd Kent.
Friday, October 15 2010
Vanguard Moon: How Johnny Zito and Tony Trov Reinvented the Future of Comics
In picking up the well-worn Golden Age classic Moon Girl, writing duo Johnny Zito and Tony Trov table the central debate of 21st century creativity -- an open source of intellectual property.
Wednesday, October 6 2010
The Three Creators: PopMatters at the “Chicago Women in Comics” Panel
This past week Columbia College hosted the Chicago Women in Comics but rather than unearth a discourse of marginalization, the event showcased a deep wellspring of talent and widescale commercial success.
Thursday, September 30 2010
Quality Time with the Powells: The Ordinary Anxiety of ‘No Ordinary Family’
While Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis both shuffle off darker roles in their recent past to become the core of ABC's new No Ordinary Family, the show itself might prove exceptional in its use of simple social structures in a time of a collapsing middle-class.
Wednesday, September 22 2010
The Future of Comic Stores in the Digital Era
Joe Field, owner of Flying Colors Comics and founder of Free Comic Book Day, shares his insights into comicbooks, new media and the prospect of a world without print.
Wednesday, September 15 2010
Bloodletter: Ennis & Ezquerra’s Autopsy of the Female Action Hero Genre
Far from enforcing sexually exploitative stereotypes in the female action hero genre, Bloody Mary and sequel Bloody Mary: Lady Liberty simply explodes them.
Wednesday, August 25 2010
MAD’s Maddest Artist Gets Even: Don Martin Strikes a Blow for Creators’ Rights
In 1988, MAD's Don Martin helps set the stage for the move towards comics creators' rights in the '90s.
Thursday, August 12 2010
Catwalk: Images of Female Power
For over 70 years Catwoman's Selina Kyle has been a character to offer a more credible voice to questions of power in the representation of women in comics.
Wednesday, August 4 2010
Confederacy of Bad-Asses #2: The Life of Reilly
From here on in for the next few years, The Punisher would be published exclusively under Marvel’s mature-readers MAX imprint, allowing Ennis to explore the character in a more realistic setting, with more swear words and fewer men in capes.
Wednesday, July 28 2010
“Patty Hearst Heard the Burst”: Joshua Dysart’s Unknown Soldier
It’s impossible, while reading Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli’s superlative Unknown Soldier, to not think of the late, great Warren Zevon’s ballad of Roland, the so-called “headless Thompson gunner”, and his seemingly endless battle. Perhaps there's a reason for that.
Wednesday, July 21 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 7: A Wall of Swords
In the classic Lone Wolf and Cub writer Kazuo Koike achieves the redemption of the villainous Yagyu Clan by a meticulous depiction of their fighting style, the infamous Wall of Swords.
Thursday, July 15 2010
Getting Better Than They Are: Harvey Pekar Obituary
At the age of 70, comics giant Harvey Pekar passed on July 12th. Survived by his wife of 27 years, Joyce Brabner, and his daughter Danielle, Pekar leaves a legacy of having nurtured a generation of cartoonists.
Thursday, July 8 2010
Goblin on Our Back: Norman Osborn’s Path From Killer to Savior and Back Again
Marvel’s writing staff of the last seven years created an iconic, status quo-shifting series of events that redefined a universe and, most importantly, showed a staggeringly real, organic evolution of a character whose time, many thought, was over.
Wednesday, June 30 2010
Who Is Henry Pym, and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things About Him?
Dan Slott has redeemed the founding Avenger and leader of the "Mighty" team, deftly and expertly removing him from the ghetto of mischaracterized misanthropic anti-heroes just in time for the Heroic Age.
Thursday, June 24 2010
Confederacy of Bad-Asses 1: You ‘n Me, We Onna Same Side, Homes
The first in a series of Iconographies examining Garth Ennis-scripted Punisher villains spotlights Barracuda, one of the Punisher's sickest, most deranged enemies, who also turns out to be almost the exact same man.
Wednesday, June 16 2010
Gotham After The Rain: The Cult of Personality of Batman and Robin
Morrison's "Bat-God" gets a makeover after the seeming death of Bruce Wayne, revealing Gotham's near-deification of not just the man, but of everything from the costume to his methods to his legend and legacy.
Wednesday, June 9 2010
It’s Not Easy Being Green: Swamp Thing, Ecology and the (Sometimes Slimy) Nature of Being
Continuing the critical analysis of the Swamp Thing character as it transitions from creative control of Len Wein and Berni Wrightson to Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Jon Totleben.
Wednesday, June 2 2010
It’s Not Easy Being Green: Swamp Thing, Ecology and the (Sometimes Slimy) Nature of Being
New Swamp Thing scribe, Alan Moore evolved the character in the early 1980s by introducing stories around the frailty of human consciousness into a book which until then examined human/plant interaction.
Wednesday, May 26 2010
Tabling the Debate: Comics, The Cultural Mainstream, and the O>Matics
Cross-media project "The O>Matics in Comics", tables a wide list of talking points around comics, the web and the sustainability of the garageband music industry.
Wednesday, May 19 2010
Room For Danger: The Case For Marvel’s Ultimate X-Men
Ultimate X-Men was perhaps not the radical departure from Stan Lee's original vision it has always been taken as. The common ground lies in Ultimate writer Mark Millar's evolution of the theme of danger.
Wednesday, May 12 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 6: Cloud Dragon, Wind Tiger
Koike and Kojima explore the nature of true loyalty in this story of a disgraced ronin.
Wednesday, May 5 2010
Nice Job Kid: Fathers and Sons, Technology and Tomorrow in ‘Iron Man 2’
Threatened to be consumed by a world not ready for technological evolution, Tony Stark wrestles with the ghost of his father, and escapes self-destructive narcissism.
Thursday, April 22 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 5: Half Mat, One Mat, A Fistful of Rice
The warriors Ogami meets on his quest for revenge offer different interpretations of the path of honor, and even challenge legitimacy of his quest for revenge.
Wednesday, April 14 2010
Sedition of the Ignorant, No More: A Profile of Comics Evangelist Ruben Miranda
For the past 30 years, Miranda has been an avid reader and collector of comicbooks. Now working at Manhattan's Forbidden Planet, Miranda uses his encyclopedic knowledge to connect people with the books that they will love.
Wednesday, April 7 2010
Bleed American: Cap and the Watchdogs of the Internet
By now the story is well-known, the outcry against Captain America and Marvel from conservative bloggers. But why have cooler heads not prevailed?
Wednesday, March 31 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 4: Ogami Itto and the Rejection of Bushido
Ogami's actions become an indictment of the corruption and degradation of the samurai code and his forsaking of that path ultimately and symbolically redeems it.
Wednesday, March 24 2010
Beneath the Great Wave: Azzarello and Morales Return to the Roots of Comics
Azzarello and Morales tap the roots of modern popular culture to offer a highly stylized view of the birth of comic books.
Friday, March 12 2010
Oscar Afterglow, “American Century” and a War of Popular Cultures
Oscars hopefuls Up in the Air and An Education offer different but complementary views on popular culture. "American Century" throws this neat paradigm into question.
Wednesday, March 3 2010
Sorry I’m Late: The Real Return of Barry Allen
Racked by delays, pushed aside by creative commitments, and years after the phenomenal Green Lantern: Reborn, Flash Reborn couldn't really matter. Could it?
Wednesday, February 24 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 3: Artwork and Swordplay
The third installment of Shawn O'Rourke's series on Lone Wolf and Cub. This feature examines the way Goseki Kojima brilliantly uses different artistic devices to draw the reader into the story.
Wednesday, February 17 2010
Another Chance: Fox’s Reboot of DC Comics’ “Human Target”
Primetime TV may prove to be a necessary rescue of a classic DC character.
Thursday, February 11 2010
A Modern Promethea: Mike Carey and Peter Gross Pen the Unwritten
Story these days is a battlefield, and Mike Carey and Peter Gross are the new generals.
Thursday, February 4 2010
Life During Wartime: The Cultural Catharsis of Brian Wood’s DMZ
DMZ creator Brian Wood offers a cultural catharsis for our times, one that is enduringly artistic, despite being overtly political.
Friday, January 29 2010
Die With Your Mask On: The Grim Superheroics of Rick Veitch
Rick Veitch wonders where the next step in superhuman evolution will take us.
Thursday, January 21 2010
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 2: Revenge in the Epic Narrative Tradition
For something to be an "epic", it must be replete with cultural significance and deal with important themes on a grand scale, just like Lone Wolf and Cub.
Thursday, January 14 2010
Iconic Spider Jerusalem and The New Journalism
There’s someone every journalism student should know. The iconic, irascible and deeply compassionate Spider Jerusalem has proven to be darkly prescient of the decade that lay immediately ahead.
Wednesday, January 6 2010
What’s Past Is Prologue: The Best Comics of the Past Decade?
Could Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca have produced six perfect comics pages in the recent "Counting Up from Zero" issue of The Invincible Iron Man?
Wednesday, December 16 2009
Good Memories of Bad Times: Wolverine Under the Boardwalk
Under the Boardwalk taps hidden micro-genre in Wolverine, reaffirming the inexhaustible inventiveness of the character, and delivering hard comment on the need for human resilience.
Wednesday, December 9 2009
The Sociology of Superheroes: Andi Ewington and 45
Andi Ewington's 45 appeals to an audience that transcends 1970s Batman, and even the phenomenal Watchmen.
Wednesday, December 2 2009
Lone Wolf and Cub Part 1: History and Influences
This unparalleled tale of honor and vengeance illustrates the full scope of human drama. In this introductory feature, appearing monthly, a brief overview of the series is sketched.
Friday, November 20 2009
Masters of Horror Manga: Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino
Perhaps more so than any other artists, Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino defined the genre of horror comics in Japan, an influence that extends to the West, and also to the world of J-horror films.
Friday, November 13 2009
We Few, We Happy Few, We Bandaged Brothers: Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody and the Quest for Self
A touching, heartfelt meditation on identity and isolation in a small town, Jeff Lemire is able to redress an H.G. Wells classic and make it as timely and disturbing as ever.
