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.
Tuesday, December 13 2011
Red Lantern Mosaic: Milligan’s Mastery of a Complex Emotional Palette
It's a book based on a single premise, and a single emotion... rage. But writer Peter Milligan surpasses all expectation in crafting Red Lanterns as a story of deep emotional complexity.
Monday, December 12 2011
“Defenders #1” Already Feels Like “When Tomorrow Comes”
Why has Defenders always been a seminal title, but never been a mainstay of the popular imagination? Can writer Matt Fraction and artist Terry Dodson assert this new volume of the classic book as tomorrow's halcyon, today?
Tuesday, December 6 2011
A Very Gödel Christmas, Batman
"'Cuz for this story to make sense… for it to mean anything… you have to believe in something. Something very important. You have to believe that people can change". Batman: Noël is the pure, staggering genius of superimposing Dickens' A Christmas Carol on the darkest of Dark Knights.
Friday, December 2 2011
Disney’s Ducks, BOOM! and Grand Theft Bob Dylan
It's an accidental magic that brings up the perfect two-Dylan playlist for reading Darkwing Duck/DuckTales: Dangerous Currency, Disney's swansong at publisher BOOM! Studios. Or maybe it only seems accidental.
Tuesday, November 29 2011
Decision 2012 By Way of a Sense of Place
BOOM! Studios' release of Decision 2012 read through the political and economic realities of life in the Bronx. Life has been complex here these last few years, Decision 2012: Barack Obama should be as well.
Monday, November 28 2011
The Evolution of the Thinking Man in ‘Captain Atom’
Ancient philosopher-king, detached god-complex egoist or superhero here to the save the day? J.T. Krul offers a profound new vision of classic DC science-hero, Captain Atom.
Monday, November 21 2011
Blue Estate’s “Tonight’s the Night” is Perfectly Balanced
The line between parody and send-up is very fine. Image Comic’s Blue Estate has danced on that line for six issues, and with issue seven, the limited series takes that same line and twists it into a pretzel.
