Thursday, February 9 2012
The Evolving Anthropological Tone of Star Wars in “Dawn of the Jedi”
When examining a work whose mythology is an expansive as Star Wars, it almost becomes a historiographical investigation as opposed to a literary one.
Tuesday, February 7 2012
Becky Cloonan’s Smile: Dark Horse’s Reboot of “Conan”
I'm sure the smile used by Becky Cloonan to signal her enjoyment is a perfectly good smile. But the smile she draws on Conan is sublime. It opens the character in a way very few writers have been capable of.
Monday, February 6 2012
Five Years Gone: The Folded Time of “Action #6”
Action #6's "When Superman Learned to Fly" reminds us poignantly that the superhero's struggle is never against their inner demons, but a never-ending battle to overcome the siren's call of mediocrity.
Thursday, February 2 2012
That Dame With Them Questions: Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand #1
You can't possibly expect to write a book called Lobster Johnson and push the Lobster to the very edge of the very first issue can you? I mean that wouldn't work, would it? And therein lies the genius of Mike Mignola.
Tuesday, January 31 2012
Geoff Johns and the Batman Problem
Before Grant Morrison's JLA, the creative challenge for any Justice League writer was the overpowered Superman. With JLA Batman became the writer's peril. But with Justice League #5 Geoff Johns introduces a new kind of creative danger.
Monday, January 30 2012
Playing the Piper: Wolverine & the X-Men #4
After a philosophical split with Cyclops over care for the next generation of mutants, Wolverine returns to upstate New York, to the roots of the X-Men to rebuild the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.
Thursday, January 26 2012
In Our Minds, and Our Everyday Behavior: Rushkoff unbridled in “ADD”
ADD offers a flawless animation of the passions and concerns regularly voiced by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff in his nonfiction.
Tuesday, January 24 2012
A Zombie King’s Quest for Restoration in “Valen the Outcast”
In Valen the Outcast writer Michael Alan Nelson reverses the usual trend of the Zombie genre by presenting a king-turned-zombie on a quest for redemption.
Monday, January 23 2012
Breaking the Fifth Wall in “Batman #5”
To say the issue is ambitious feels almost insulting, yet that is the best way to describe Snyder and Capullo's Batman #5.
Tuesday, January 17 2012
Edmondson’s Victory Over War
Nathan Edmondson's plea is for a different kind of warfare, one that can fought easily, and above all, won without the mass loss of life.
Monday, January 16 2012
The Devil Is in the Characterization in “Spider-Man #677”
"It's only an interregnum", you'll say to yourself. You can always pick up the book when Dan Slott returns next month. But then you'll read Mark Waid's beautiful, pensive pacing, and you'll be drawn in…
Friday, January 13 2012
Peter Milligan and the Bridge to Dangerous Ideas
In Hellblazer Annual: Suicide Bridge, Peter Milligan offers the frightening marriage of social media, and far more sinister forces.
Thursday, January 12 2012
Subtlety and the Narrative Fidelity of The Li’l Depressed Boy #8
If you're engaged enough, Li'l Depressed Boy will give you the intellectual wonderland of Fisher on human narration, and the emotional core of our daily lives writ large as popular culture.
Wednesday, January 11 2012
Grant Morrison and the Problem of 93 Million Miles
In Batman: Leviathan Strikes, Grant Morrison bravely returns a strong, resilient Batman to the fans after decades Frank Miller's characterization of Batman as borderline psychotic.
Tuesday, January 10 2012
Jack and Marlon, and Art and Franco
A recently discovered letter by Jack Kerouac to Marlon Brando hints at the kind of collaboration between giants we could have seen in the early 60s. In a wholly different arena, creative team Art Baltazar and Franco's Young Justice captures perfectly that same aspirant spirit.
Monday, January 9 2012
“Batman #4” Is Character Development on Display
By issue #4 of any storyarc, things should slow down. Predictably, even the high-frequency genius of the Snyder-Capullo creative team on Batman does. But it's this downturn that allows writer Scott Snyder's true vision of Batman to shine through.
Thursday, January 5 2012
MAD About You: An Open Letter to MAD’s “Usual Gang of Idiots”
Thanks a lot, you Usual Gang of Idiots. You just broke Satire! Used to be I could sit back on my couch and chuckle it up because satire was just entertainment. No chance of that after your "20 Dumbest of 2011".
Tuesday, January 3 2012
Aquaman and the Literary Depths
It's all-out action as Aquaman plumbs the depths to uncover the secret of The Trench. But writer Geoff Johns deeply meditative tones make Aquaman #4 equal parts Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as George Lucas' Raiders of the Lost Ark.
‘Opera Adaptations; Vols 1-3’: A Synaesthetic Echo of the Operatic Performance
The graphic novel, in its robustness and variety, is the perfect setting for opera’s troubled universe.
Thursday, December 15 2011
Aww Yeah, Titans: ‘Tiny Titans’ Creators’ New Kind of Writers’ Room
It's the Holy Grail of DC interviews, an exclusive with Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. So why am I stealing time to read Tiny Titans: The Treehouse and Beyond instead? Maybe it's because Tiny Titans allows me to touch base with why I read comics in the first place.
