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Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 59
Issue #71 “Finest Hour” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Assistant Editor: Julie Rottenberg; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Last we left John Constantine he was in a… [more]
They Were Lost in Space-Time and Then They Found God
Written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Al Milgrom, the Lost in Space-Time saga ran from West Coast Avengers #17 to 24. The real meat is between 18-23, with the others serving as a prologue… [more]
Academics on Batman v. Superman
Released on March 25, 2016, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was a movie decades in the making. As the first live action film featuring both Batman and Superman it was a movie featuring two… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 8 – I Love This Part
Comics is a diverse and flexible medium, and one of the greatest examples of that is how it can tell both big stories and small stories. Many people are aware of the degree to which… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 7 – The Fade Out
The Fade Out is a comic about Hollywood, specifically that magical post-war late-1940s Hollywood that is so often romanticized. It’s one of America’s true mythic places, full of hard-drinking writers, bombshell girls (and the occasional… [more]
A Look at East of West (Volumes 1-5)
East of West is an ongoing series that hasn’t exactly been getting the attention it rightfully deserves. So, if you haven’t been reading this series, then you need to run to the nearest bookstore and… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 6 – Two Great Web Comics
As they recognize achievement in all of the widely diverse world of comics, it makes sense that the Eisner Awards have a category for Digital/Webcomics. Two of the nominees this year are Lighten Up, by… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 58
Issue #70 “Heartland” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Stuart Chaifetz; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Assistant Editor: Julie Rottenberg; Cover: Glenn Fabry; After nearly 6 years of being published as a monthly… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 5 – The Spire
The Spire is a comic that’s overflowing with creative ideas, determined to build its own rich fantasy world and completely heedless of any limits or restrictions in terms of genre. Some comics blend genres, but… [more]
The Music of Defiance: Thoughts on Early American Punk Rock
“To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It’s freedom.” — Patti Smith “To me, punk is about being… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 4 – The Faceless Ghost, and Other Macabre Tales from Japan
If there’s anything at all to old cliche that to understand someone, you must know what they fear and what they desire, then reading ghost stories from a different culture must qualify as some sort… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 3 – Lady Killer
The title of Lady Killer, by Joelle Jones and available from Dark Horse Comics, sort of says it all. This is a comic about Josie Schuller, a killer who stabs, punches, kicks and spins without… [more]
Superweapons vs. Supervoices: What the Beliefs and Opinions of Super-Villains Are Telling Us About the Present Day
To hell with negotiations, most want to see a good blow’em-up story: the Death Star, Starkiller Base, the Red Matter from the famed Star Trek reboot, and GORT from legendary The Day the Earth Stood… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 2 – Paper Girls
Another contender for the 2016 Eisner Award for Best New Series is Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, from Image Comics. By now we’ve come to expect great things from the creator… [more]
A Tour of the 2016 Eisner Nominees, Part 1 – Harrow County
The nominees for the 2016 Eisner Awards were recently announced, and as always, the list of nominees provides a serviceable list of some of the best comics currently in circulation, regardless of which ones actually… [more]
Better Call Saul Season Two Finale: Blind Spots
It would be so easy, as season two of Better Call Saul comes to an end, to be angry with Chuck McGill. But that would be like getting angry at a snake when it bites… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 57
Issues #68-69 “Down All the Days” and “Rough Trade” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Assistant Editor: Julie Rottenberg; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Depression is defined as… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 9: Consequences
“Consequences” is the big theme of this, the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul’s second season. We don’t often mention the creators’ names (and frankly I also ignore media from the creators of this show,… [more]
Looking Back at the First Appearance of Saul Goodman
Way back in season two of Breaking Bad, in April of 2009 to be precise, we were introduced to a new character named “Saul Goodman” in an episode with the catchy title “Better Call Saul”.… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 56
Issue #67 “Dear John”1 Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Todd Klein; Editor: Stuart Moore; Assistant Editor: Julie Rottenberg; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Life is filled with pain. To deny that would… [more]
Better Call Saul, Season 2, Episode 8: Out of the Comfort Zone
This latest episode of Better Call Saul is easily the series’ most cinematic. There are some plot developments here, but not many. There’s dialogue, but not too much, and there could have been much more.… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 55
Issue #66 “Fear and Loathing Part Three: Down to Earth” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Fear and Loathing is very much the… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 7: Parallel Lines
There’s no point in me doing this if I can’t be myself. Every time I try to do things someone else’s way, it blows up in my face. I’ve been trying to be the person… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 2, Giant Feral Hamsters and Infants
A worldwide reread of the greatest novel ever written, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, is currently underway, celebrating twenty years since its first publication. “Infinite Winter” began January 31; readers consume about 75 pages per… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 6: Changing Masks
Though it doesn’t pass the Bechdel test (there are too few female characters to meet that very specific bar), Better Call Saul is, in its way, a very feminist show. Not just because there’s a… [more]