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Let Us Worship the Golden Boy: Gaiman’s Teen Prez Messiah
Patriotism is difficult to define. There is no true article or concept of what patriotism is. It can, in the hearts and minds of the common man, come to signify a love for one’s country,… [more]
Tears of Joy and Nightcrawler
Two times… There are two times in my twenty-five plus years of reading comic books that I can remember shedding tears over the content of an issue. I have been upset, I have felt sadness… [more]
“Our ‘War-is-Fun’ Attitude”: Shameless? Part 37
Continued from last week. Hindsight suggests that Canon Fodder marked the beginning of the end of Millar’s relationship with 2000AD. It was by no means the last of his scripts to appear in the comic,… [more]
Super-Powers in Mai, the Psychic Girl’s Final Act
Continued from our introduction to Mai, the Psychic Girl and parts one and two of our discussion of how super-powers are depicted in the series. In the story’s truncated third and final act, Mai’s life has… [more]
Cowboy Bebop, Coolness, and Genre Mash-ups
There is an endless number of reasons to love Cowboy Bebop. This kung-fu, detective, sci-fi, crime, honky-tonk tinged mashed-upped masterpiece is cooler than any of us. Not because it wears the clothing of those genres,… [more]
Revenge, Hypnotism, and Oedipus in Oldboy (2003), Part 2
Last time, we began examining the 2003 South Korean movie Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-wook and adapted from the 1996-1998 manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. We just got to the movie’s big twist ending. So be warned:… [more]
My Body is a Cage: Evangelions, AT Fields, and Hedgehogs
My body is a cage that keeps me From dancing with the one I love But my mind holds the key – My Body is a Cage, The Arcade Fire Talking about the soul is… [more]
Super-Powers in Mai, the Psychic Girl’s Second Act
Continued from our introduction to Mai, the Psychic Girl and part one of our discussion of how super-powers are depicted in the series. As the narrative shifts into its second half, in which the Wisdom… [more]
The Noise They Make: Akira and the Bosozoku
Akira is an odd film. Some like to believe it a riddle that if you can just get a crowbar into, you might crack it open and spill it’s meaningful contents. And while it is… [more]
Revenge, Hypnotism, and Oedipus in Oldboy (2003)
The brilliant 2003 South Korean film Oldboy, directed by directed by Park Chan-wook, is a revenge story. As such, it has to negotiate this genre’s long history, which it manages to do rather successfully by simultaneously… [more]
Super-Powers in Mai, the Psychic Girl
Continued from our introduction of Mai, the Psychic Girl. Ryoichi Ikegami is one of manga’s most talented artists, and he’s certainly one of my own favorites. His cityscapes and vehicles are bafflingly realistic. And while… [more]
The Grandmasters
I’ve been planning a series of articles about the all-time greats of the medium for a while. I was planning to focus on living greats, but with Sequart doing this Manga Week it seemed like… [more]
On Mai, the Psychic Girl
In early 1987, Eclipse introduced American comics readers to manga with three translated series. The first, debuting one week before the other two, was Mai, the Psychic Girl. The following week, Eclipse debuted The Legend… [more]
JFK: Comic Book Hero
(…continued from THIS) It was a bright, sunny Friday like this one, 50 years ago, that John F. Kennedy met his end in Dallas, Texas. This is, of course, well known, and one of the… [more]
An Unknown Soldier in an Unknown War: Joshua Dysart’s Unknown Soldier
An exploration of the Unknown Soldier’s meta-mythology about war and the individual. Joshua Dysart reboots the franchise in Uganda. [more]
The Bechdel Test and a Sexy Lamp: Detecting Gender Bias and Stereotypes in Mainstream Comics
Recently, the Swedish Film Institute began sponsoring a movement spearheaded by a number of theaters who are now making use of the “Bechdel Test” to evaluate their films in order to determine the extent of… [more]
Lee Harvey Oswald: A Comics Villain?
This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most infamous days in world history: November 22nd, 1963. Based on the violent and deadly events of that day, the names John F. Kennedy and… [more]
Slip and Slide
A few weeks ago, I went to the New York City Comic Con for the first time in my life and suffice it to say, it was an incredible experience. From meeting creators who were… [more]
“Where’s Canon Fodder?”: Shameless? Part 36
Continued from last week. Though pinpointing exactly when Millar stopped working for 2000AD is an difficult business, he’d most definitely moved onto the American market by the time Canon Fodder returned without him in 1996. With the… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #12
This issue has Cap taking stock of his life. He confesses to the Falcon that he feels lost. Meanwhile, Nuke is on a killing spree in Eastern Europe, fighting a war for hearts and minds… [more]
The Original (and Better) Kickass: A Look Back at Steve Gerber’s Foolkiller #1-10, Part Two
Continued from part one, wherein we met Kurt Gerhardt, the “new” (in 1990) Foolkiller, and took a look at how far ahead of its time his story was, and considered the fact that Steve Gerber… [more]
Hob’s Leviathan and Other Fantastic Stories
A burial at sea holds so many secrets. The sea, or open waters, have upheld a strange significance in the hearts and minds of passengers, sailors, and captains alike. With satellite imaging and advanced cartography… [more]
Ultimate Spider-Man #13 Uses Art and Dialogue to Add Depth to Its Characters
There are no masks, tights, or supervillains in Ultimate Spider-Man #13. There isn’t a fight scene. No one gets hurt. The whole comic is about a teenager having a conversation with his girlfriend and aunt.… [more]
“I Only Wanted To Be Loved”: Shameless? Part 35
Continued from two weeks ago. Canon Fodder reads as if two distinct stories had been awkwardly spliced together. In its first half, it’s the tale of how the Canon, Doctor Watson and Mycroft Holmes desperately combine… [more]
Fitting Young Miracleman’s “Quiet Desperation” into Miracleman, Book Two
We’ve discussed the silent Young Miracleman story (parts one and two) originally printed in Warrior #12. Today, we discuss how to understand that story as part of Book Two. (If you’re new, hop to the introduction,… [more]