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Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed And Reconstructed, Part Thirteen
It’s panic time! When last we left “The World That’s Coming!,” OMAC had reverted to the form of his human alter-ego, Buddy Blank, who had no knowledge of where he was or how he got… [more]
Japan’s Copyright Crusade: Six Months Along
About six months ago I wrote here on Sequart about the new enforcement of copyright laws in Japan. Since that time their efforts have had some chance to play out in the real world and… [more]
Batman #1—The Ultimate Batman Comic
Batman’s co-creator Bill Finger crafted in 32 pages every single tone and approach to his character that would follow in 75 years. Batman #1 is the single greatest Batman comic ever produced. [more]
Gamera 2: Advent of Legion: The Best Gamera Movie?
The creatures plan to spread their species to other planets by launching the pod in the centre of the flower. Gamera, genetically designed Atlantean guardian of the world that he is, isn’t having any of this. [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 18
Issue #20 “Betrayal” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Mark Buckingham, Alfredo Alcala Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Elitta Fell Cover: Dave McKean From the seaside to Stonehenge, before taking a doomed train back to rain soaked London,… [more]
A George R.R. Martin Drinking Game: Featuring Game of Thrones (HBO) and A Song of Ice and Fire (Books)
“Stephen King loves using ‘dime-sized’ as a descriptor,” Amy said. “’Dime-sized droplets of blood’ or ‘dime-sized holes in the wall’ or whatever. Everything is ‘dime-sized’ with him.” “Does that annoy you?” I asked. I had… [more]
Too Late Blues: Cassavetes, Darin, and Changing Masculinities
Last year I enjoyed writing about a relatively obscure jazz film, All Night Long, so I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I discovered another interesting one of the same genre. Too Late… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 17
Issue #19 “The Broken Man” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Mark Buckingham, Alfredo Alcala Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Elitta Fell Cover: Dave McKean Due to the length of The Fear Machine, 9 consecutive issues, much of… [more]
About Face: Character and Portrayal in Snyder’s Batman
DC’s decision to essentially relaunch and, therefore, reboot its output three years ago met with as much praise as it did criticism. Despite proceeding in the wake of Grant Morrison’s seven year labyrinthine run, one… [more]
“…Of Past Times and Beginnings. Before The Before.”: The Multiversity Guidebook #1 Maps and Legends
One of the things that appeals to me most about comics is the breadth, depth and scope of their world building. Their longevity far outweighing that of say even the most consistently broadcast of television… [more]
“We Will Not and Cannot be Patient”: On John Lewis’s March: Book Two
If I had to pick one moment from the second volume of John Lewis’s March to explain what makes it so special, I know what I would choose. It happens at almost exactly the halfway… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #3
As much as I find Remender’s recent storylines to be thought-provoking, Sam Wilson’s backstory is one long cliché: inner city youth, a community ravaged by drugs, his parents die; Sam then raises his siblings and… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 16
Issue #18 “Hate Mail and Love Letters” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Mark Buckingham, Alfredo Alcala Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Elitta Fell Cover: Dave McKean As stated previously, The Fear Machine’s main focus is on dichotomies.… [more]
Harvey Pekar Tells the Michael Malice Story in Ego and Hubris
I’ve never read a comic book quite like Ego and Hubris: The Michael Malice Story. Like so much of Harvey Pekar’s work, it’s deceptively intellectual material presented in an underground comix style (art by Gary… [more]
Will Fame Spoil Stanley Kubrick?: On Seeing the Kubrick Exhibit
Southern: You have won ‘unreserved critical praise for a least three of your pictures. At 33 you have already directed one of the biggest pictures ever made. Will success spoil Stanley Kubrick? Kubrick: Fifth Amendment. [more]
Greetings, Starfighter: A Tribute and a Drinking Game
The Last Starfighter was released in the summer of 1984, which back then meant that in the winter of 1985, it was making the rounds on home video. It seemed like everyone I knew that… [more]
J.M. DeMatteis and His Neglected Contribution to the Revival of DC
“Has our world become so twisted, so violent, that this is the kind of hero we produce?” Lois Lane, in a different world, types on her computer a new story and reveals to the world… [more]
The Sixty-Seven Million Dollar Man*: (*Adjusted for Medical Inflation)
“It feels like a Six Million Dollar Man night tonight! Who’s with me?” Those were the words that escaped my lips last Tuesday evening. I still don’t know where they came from. It wasn’t anything… [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed And Reconstructed, Part Twelve
Before we get into the beginning of the end here, I suppose we’d better talk about that cover first. Yeah, it’s not by Kirby. In fact, I’m willing to bet that even if his distinctive… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Three: Every Day Is Like Sunday
I can’t stand Morrissey, but when I was between the ages of, say, 16 and 19, I thought he was pretty cool—which is precisely what I was supposed to think, given that his music has… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 15
Issue #17 “Fellow Travellers” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Mike Hoffman Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Todd Klein Cover: Dave McKean Over the course of Jamie Delano’s 40 issue run on the series, and his return in… [more]
The Challenger Remembered Through a Great Scientific Drama
Today marks the 29th anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and seven astronauts on launch, on January 28, 1986. It was an historic moment for the US space program, but sadly it… [more]
Asa Nisi Masa: Casanova vol. 2 “Gula”
The second volume of Casanova (issues 8-14 of the original Image run and collected under the title Gula) with art by Gabriel Ba’s brother Fabio Moon, picks up soon after the end of the first… [more]
Orson Welles Gives Peas a Chance
By the 1980s, Orson Welles was alive, creative, charming, and essentially unemployed. He had spent the last decade working on a number of projects, only one of which (F for Fake) saw release. (The most… [more]
American Sniper, Justice, and Equity before God and Country
In the 2015 film American Sniper, following the first kill that Navy Seal Chris Kyle undertakes, he arrives on base and is greeted by fellow soldier, and future friend, Biggles reading a Punisher comic. After… [more]