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.
Wednesday, November 11 2009
The Four-Color Adventures of the Fab Four: The Beatles and Comic Books
Comics have often used characters from Greek and Norse mythology to populate their books. What we see with the following examples is that the Beatles had, at the time, become the new mythology.
Wednesday, November 4 2009
Celebrating the Death of the Dark Knight – and His Rebirth
With the recent passing of Bruce Wayne, can the Batman character escape the tragedy of Bruce Wayne's life that originally birthed it?
Thursday, October 22 2009
We’ll Stay Quiet: Comics in an Age of Social Media
In the comics industry, the hit-driven economy was already decimated in the early ‘90s. It is in this way that comics' recent history becomes a roadmap for the navigations that await the major genre of the popular culture mainstream.
Wednesday, October 14 2009
Beautiful and Unique Snowflakes: Warren Ellis’ ‘Planetary’
Warren Ellis, once thought of by many as comics’ resident Orson Welles, an angry, embittered artist, is actually the industry’s Kurt Vonnegut, sent here to make us feel as if "everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt".
Wednesday, October 7 2009
Hollow “Victory”: J Michael Straczynski ‘Reboots’ the Mighty Thor
J Michael Straczynski's storytelling stands out as one of the most inventive in recent mainstream superhero comics.
Wednesday, September 30 2009
The Devil’s Due: What Ed Brubaker Did to Reinvent Daredevil
Could Ed Brubaker have written the definitive version of a character renowned for its production of 'definitive' visions?
Wednesday, September 23 2009
Maximum Carnage: A Look Back
I was a kid when I first read Maximum Carnage and it became my favorite comic book series. How well does the story hold up over time? Is it still as good as I remember or was my innocent childhood love misplaced?
Thursday, September 17 2009
Abstract Comics
If nothing else, it seems that Abstract Comics makes explicit that the line between comics and high art is beginning to disappear.
Wednesday, September 9 2009
Fear of a Mouse Planet: What Disney’s Acquisition of Marvel Means for the House of Ideas
The fears of a Disney planet are fears that these characters we cherish will be tinkered with or even taken away from us.
Wednesday, September 2 2009
Explainers: Back to the ‘50’s and Up to the Present
Jules Feiffer's groundbreaking Village Voice comics delivered a satirical take on current events and paved the way for many contemporary strips.
Friday, August 28 2009
The Devil You Know: Mignola’s Hellboy in the Chapel of Moloch and the Old Debate
Modernist drama around the popularizing of the cultural archive, or postmodernist deliberation on the redemptive value of art in world awash in mass consumerism, the story of Mignola's Hellboy is also the story of comics' struggle for legitimation both as art-form and industry.
The Horror of Science and Magic in Hellboy
While the popular imagination often depicts science and magic as locked in a fundamental opposition, Mike Mignola's Hellboy depicts the true horror that lurks beneath.
Thursday, August 27 2009
Hellboy Versus Hellboy: The Competing Authenticities of Mignola and del Toro
Is avant-garde horror director Guillermo del Toro's vision of Hellboy too compromised to achieve the cultural impact of the original comicbook?
Wednesday, August 26 2009
Dylan Dog vs. Hellboy: A Study of Pulp and Pop Pastiche
Horror stories and Mignola's cultural project with Hellboy, at home and abroad. If Hellboy is the all-American, indestructible demon with the Right Hand of Doom, then Dylan Dog is his handsome, eccentric, phobic (and horny) European cousin, with a penchant for the clarinet.
Tuesday, August 25 2009
Build to Suit: Guillermo del Toro and the Mythology of Hellboy
The mythology of the Hellboy films is, to use del Toro's own apt description, “…a jazz riff on what the comic book is”.
Monday, August 24 2009
The Boy Who Would Be The Beast of the Apocalpyse: Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, Mythology, and the Human
Hellboy essentially argues that biology indeed need not be destiny, and that to exist as a human means something more than possessing a certain normative appearance.
