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Buffy: Out of Control
Things are starting to get out of control for the Slayer army. That’s the essential, long-range, overall story arc point made in issues #22 and 23 of Buffy Season 8. But you could be forgiven… [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Eleven
Like you, I’m not quite sure what Glenn Fabry and Tony Luke’s cover for Scarab #5 is exactly supposed to be depicting other than some weird electricity coming out of our protagonist’s head, but it… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Tangent Comics: Nightwing Volume 1 #1
This Christmas my brother gave me a booster pack of random, non-sequential issues from a variety of popular comic book titles that syndicated in the late eighties to mid nineties. The nineties was a time… [more]
Why You Should Watch Justified
Justified should be a way more popular show. It’s not that it’s unpopular, in fact it’s heading into its sixth season, it’s that it should be resonating more clearly with viewers. It is the kind… [more]
Grant Morrison: The Zoids Years
Grant Morrison is well known for looking at the banality of life and giving things a unique cosmic twist. To live in his world of a magic-fuelled, comic rock-star means working in a world of… [more]
Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin
In honour of what would have been Orson Welles’ 99th birthday today, I’d like to offer some insight on one of his lesser-known and seldom-seen films, 1955’s Mr. Arkadin. It’s impossible to meaningfully discuss Orson… [more]
Starting Out Again at the Top: Swamp Thing (1994 to 1996) — The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 17
Continued from last week. It’s no overstatement to say that Mark Millar’s first major breakthrough at DC Comics owed everything to Grant Morrison. Offered the chance in 1993 to write Swamp Thing, Morrison assumed the… [more]
Absolute Editions, 3D Movies, and the Silent War on Democratic Art
Last summer I decided to re-read the entirety of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Even though I’m a big fan, it had been years since I sat down and systematically went through the whole ten-volume series, so… [more]
Buffy: Harmonic Divergence
The next five issues of Buffy Season 8 (#20-25), seem to represent a determined and conscientious effort on the part of the Whedon crew to experiment. They revisit some old ideas, and old characters, and… [more]
Spider-Man Shrugged: The Lack of Randian Heroes in The Amazing Spider-Man
A cursory exploration of “The Amazing Spider-Man” #1-#38 and its tangible threads to Steve Ditko’s known ardent Objectivism, a philosophy of self-interest developed by Ayn Rand. [more]
Examining the World of Night of the Hunter
“Lord save little children…They endure and they abide.” These words are spoken directly to the camera at the end of Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton’s directorial debut. This ending reminds me of another classic… [more]
Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol #20, A Companion Reader
This essay series will devote time and attention to intertextual themes in the first four issues of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol (#19 to #22). [more]
Spider-Man Was Never Just the “Loveable Loser”
“Yes siree, things are sure looking up for my favorite couple of guys–namely, me!”—ASM #12 Quick: what’s Spider-Man really all about, in one sentence? With most major superheroes, someone might have to pause a second… [more]
“The Final Chapter!”: Peter Parker, Steve Ditko, and the Greatest Spider-Man Story Ever Told
It was clear from his first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 that Spider-Man was a very different character than any of the other super-heroes battling for justice on the newsstands at the time. Unlike… [more]
(Almost) the World’s Finest Team: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 16
Continued from last week. Millar was hardly the first comics scripter to bridle at the constraints of continuity. But few can equal his predilection for heedlessly flouting the more obvious aspects of a property’s backstory. The… [more]
The Spider-Man Moment
This is not the essay you were supposed to read today. When I first heard that we were having a Spider-Man week at Sequart, I knew pretty quickly what I wanted to write about. While… [more]
Harvey Pekar’s The Quitter: My Favourite Comic Book
I sometimes get asked what my “favourite comic of all time” is. All of us who reflect on creative works, whether that be music, film, TV, theatre, literature or any other kind of art, have… [more]
X-Men: To the Outback & Beyond… Part 4
Writer: Chris Claremont Penciler: Marc Silvestri Inker: Dan Green Colorist: Glynis Oliver Letter: Tom Orzechowski Editor: Ann Nocenti & Bob Harras From the demon filled fields of Limbo and the drama of the Rasputin family… [more]
Buffy: Time of Your Life
This arc of Buffy Season 8 is complex and more than a little confusing for those who don’t pay strict attention. This has to be said up front for those playing the home game because… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #19
It took a long time in coming, but the pay-off is finally here. After what seems like half a year of paralyzing misgivings, Cap, the ultimate, ethical hero is back! “Fallen into weakness in the… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Catwoman Volume 2 #20
This Christmas my brother gave me a booster pack of random, non-sequential issues from a variety of popular comic book titles that syndicated in the late eighties to mid nineties. The nineties was a time… [more]
2010: The Year We Make Contact: An Adaptation of an Adaptation
For those who, like me, are longtime readers of Science Fiction, we’re very familiar that classic literature in this genre falls into a few recognizable categories. In general, either it’s concerned with plausible technology and… [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Ten
Welcome back to the nominally fictitious town of Whitehaven, North Carolina and the most delightfully repulsive story to ever go out under the Vertigo imprint — if you thought that the opening installment of Scarab’s… [more]
“Nice to Meet You, Big Guy”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 15
Continued from last week. November 1998′s Superman Adventures #25 gave Millar one last substantial shot at depicting The Batman. Putting the overwrought misjudgements of the JLA Paradise Lost mini-series behind him, he returned to the conception… [more]
Examining the Two Acts of Noah
Some major spoilers for a movie based on a 24,000-year-old portion of the Bible follow: The world in the first act of Noah is magical. It’s not just the Watchers, angels punished to serve their… [more]