Mike Mignola has never shied away from teasing us with Hellboy’s apparent destiny, to rule this world as Hell on Earth. Hellboy, it was strongly believed by his enemies, was…
Maybe someone more in tune with themselves than I am can find some kind of hidden meaning in Archaia’s Tale of Sand, an adaptation of an unproduced screenplay by Jim…
In Scarlet Book 1, Brian Michael Bendis wants to be a dangerous storyteller. He wants to be edgy and relevant and maybe even thought provoking with his story of a…
Genetically bred human/animal hybrids, the Elephantmen were created for war. Imagine hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses that walk like men tearing through the countryside, trampling everything under their feet. Sent into Europe…
The most startling element about American Vampire Volume 2 is how different it is from the first book in this series by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque. The…
If you were to ask what makes Greg Rucka a strong writer, my answer would be that it is everything that he leaves out of his stories. It’s not that…
Fear Itself #1 supposedly reflects our real world fears only, you know, with costumed heroes and mythological gods running around as well. That “real worldness” of Marvel is supposedly what…
What kind of pretty girl gets a job digging graves? The answer is simple; the kind of girl who needs to know where fresh bodies are buried. Zombies are hugely…
Let’s tell it like it is. Out of all the superheroes, only Superman can say he has gone up against the greatest of all time. It wasn’t Lex Luthor. It…
Jeff Lemire’s characters, no matter how old or how young they may be, all carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Just look at any of the characters…
Since the days that Stan Lee first wrote him back in the early 1960s, The Mighty Thor as always been a brash and boisterous character. He was a thunder god…
After reading Grandville: Mon Amour, there’s one thing that puzzles me; why are most of Bryan Talbot’s characters in this book animals? Archibald LeBrock, the main character, is a walking,…
What would you do if it was going to be impossible to commit a crime? Not just hard or tough but flatout impossible? What if your own government took the…
As Bruce Wayne returns to the present day fold in Batman and Robin #16, joining Dick Grayson and his son Damien for an epic battle with Doctor Hurt and Professor…
Sometimes it’s not the story itself but how the story is told that counts. In The Outfit, Darwyn Cooke doesn’t let himself be hemmed in by Richard Stark’s original story,…
In Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner’s Red, Paul Moses is a monster. The former CIA operative who can’t escape the memories of the acts he did in the name of…
There are lots of X-Men books on the stands right now, and Remender and OpeÁ±a’s “Uncanny X-Force” is the ass-kicker of the bunch.
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Gauntlet Vol. 5 — Lizard begins with a couple of short stories by Fred Van Lente, Jefte Palo, Roger Stern and Xurxo Penalta, reminding us of…
I’m kind of amazed at how much of Marvel’s Golden Age roots are lost to the past. Thanks to Roy Thomas’s 1980-era efforts like All Star Squadron and the miniseries…
Is it too much to ask for an explanation? To want some kind of closure to a story? In Daytripper #1 from DC’s Vertigo comic line, Fabio Moon and Gabriel…
Naoki Urasawa likes to create questions in his stories. In Monster, it was what wass Johann’s endgame? In Pluto, who is killing the world’s most powerful robots and why? 20th…
Warren Ellis and John Cassaday know where the bodies are buried. Not literal bodies but the fictional corpses of the 20th century heroes and legends. In a 1998 short introductory…
There are two important questions you’ve got to ask yourself going into writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca’s The Invincible Iron Man — Stark: Disassembled. 1) What are Tony…
There are two stories that Jason is telling in Werewolves of Montpellier. In the first story, the thief Sven prowls the rooftops of Montpellier wearing a werewolf mask. The mask…
Coming out of DC’s Sinestro Corp War, which was a surprisingly organic event, I had high hopes for Geoff Johns’ followup Blackest Night. The Sinestro Corps War was a fairly…
I don’t know many comics that actually smolder. Beginning with the cover of Parker: The Man With The Getaway Face, as we barely see Parker’s eyes between the bandages on…
One book is about a girl entering school and the other is about a boy graduating and beginning his job but Twin Spica Volume 2 and Saturn Apartments Volume 1,…
Scott Cederlund reflects on the state of the Sunday funnies, and reviews DC’s newly compiled Wednesday Comics series.
Depending on who you listen to and/or read, the dawning of the digital age of mainstream comics is either the new lifeline the comic industry needs to survive — as…
The first Phonogram book Rue Britannia was about music on a cerebral level as Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie pulled us along on a whirlwind education, celebration and wake for…