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Neil Gaiman: The Early Years, Black Orchid’s Passive and Impassive Universe Part 1
Neil Gaiman, like Alan Moore, is someone working in comics who seems to need no introduction. Their influence and impact is so pervasive that they’ve practically become a household name. But there’s a danger to… [more]
Superior Spider-Man Memories
The premise of one of Marvel Now’s flagship titles, The Superior Spider-Man, may initially come across as a classic sci-fi plot: two characters having their minds magically “switched” to create fish-out-of-water scenarios. But within the… [more]
“Windfall”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Issue #43
Swamp Thing #43 “Windfall” Cover date: December 1985. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Stan Woch & Ron Randall. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letters: John Costanza. Editor: Karen Berger This issue is aptly entitled ‘Windfall’, both for its… [more]
“That Wicked Tongue Will Land You in Trouble Some Day”: Shameless? Part 6
Continued from last week. Shameless? will inevitably reference the way in which Mark Millar has discussed his own work. As such, it’s worth noting that his distinctive public persona turns out not to have been… [more]
On Warren Ellis’s Super-Hero Work at Avatar
We’ve previously looked at Warren Ellis’s realistic worldview, at his much-celebrated 1999-2003 period, and at his work for Marvel from 2004-2010. One of the more interesting developments of Ellis’s career, especially given his professed distaste… [more]
“Don’t Tell Me What to Do”: Looking at Hellboy Refusing Fate by Pushing Freewill
Hellboy is the intellectual demon child of comic book writer Mike Mignola. It’s been published by Dark Horse Comics off and on since 1993. Hellboy’s origin is simple, during WWII in 1944 an occultist by… [more]
Humanity, Heroism, and Action: Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #2
In the supplemental material in the issue, Grant Morrison writes, “Superman is mankind at its best, and Lex Luthor is us at our worst . . . but they’re both us.” It’s a sentiment that… [more]
Sandman #21-24: Expanding Cosmologies and Dream’s Spiritual Subjugation
In the forward to The Absolute Sandman, Volume One Paul Levitz quipped that Sandman was an unfolding dialectic that narrowed the lines between folk tale and myth. Since the beginning of this narrative, Levitz speculated… [more]
1986: Strikeforce: Morituri, Part 2: No Way Out
In Strikeforce: Morituri, the Marvel Comics series created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson, which debuted towards the end of 1986, the Earth of the late 21st century is under attack by… [more]
The Adolescent High Conceptualist: Shameless? Part 5
Continued from last week. It would take Millar almost a decade to develop a style that was as controlled and effective as his ideas were consistently intriguing. The first substantial evidence of this would appear… [more]
Warren Ellis at Marvel, 2004-2010
We’ve previously looked at Warren Ellis’s overall realistic worldview and how this is reflected in the revisionism of his much-celebrated 1999-2003 period. We now turn to his work at Marvel from 2004-2010.
DC Nation: The Final Days of Great Programming
If there was ever a time more confusing in relation to comic books it was the ’90s. I was born in 1988 and grew up a child of the ’90s, a product of a pop… [more]
Humanity, Heroism, and Action: Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1
On page 1, panel 1, the first dialogue in the comic goes to real estate developer Glen Glenmorgan says, “and it’s a done deal! How about a drink to celebrate this turning point?” to a… [more]
First World Problems: Imperialism and Noncombatant Casualty in Saga Volume One
Comics are analogues of reality, and paint in fantasy tales more compelling than the real world conflicts they are based on. Saga overwhelms the reader with a terrible level of detail, capturing conflicts ranging from… [more]
“Strange Fruit”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Issue #42
Swamp Thing #42 “Strange Fruit” Cover Date: November 1985. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and Ron Randall. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letters: John Costanza. Editor: Karen Berger. This issue serves to conclude the… [more]
Why are People so Frightened of Change?: Shameless? Part 4
Continued from last week. “Why are they so obsessed with continuity? A story is a story – nothing more, and yet people want to know which Earth Watchmen takes place on.” (*1) The adolescent Millar… [more]
Warren Ellis, Revisionism, and Reconstructionism
Last time, we discussed how Warren Ellis is a realist, and we contrasted this with the views of Grant Morrison. These two modes correlate strongly with two different modes of super-hero stories. Revisionism, most frequently… [more]
Humanity, Heroism, and Action: Grant Morrison’s Action Comics — Introduction
For years now, the problem that all Superman writers must face is how to show the heroism and humanity in the world’s most powerful and recognizable hero. Prior to the New 52, Geoff Johns and… [more]
Humanizing the Endless Immortals in Sandman: Dream Country
Finalizing the Doll’s House narrative plot, Neil Gaiman’s celebrated Sandman series concludes the first twenty issues with four limited one shot arcs, both harkening back earlier tales and looking forward to future ones. So far… [more]
1986: Strikeforce: Morituri: We Who are About to Die
In many of the great comics of the year 1986, their creators were examining the medium and the genre in which they were working and their histories, critically reevaluating them and redefining them for a… [more]
Mark Millar, Deconstructionist, Man and Boy: Shameless? Part 3
Continued from last week. From the middle of the Eighties to the decade’s end, the teenage Millar’s preference appears to have been for the breed of super-hero comics associated with the label of deconstruction. The… [more]
The Very Different Worldviews of Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison
In an interview for Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, Ellis recounts how some comics fans, in the wake of 9/11, expressed the wish that Superman were real, so he could have prevented such a devastating tragedy.… [more]
Dylan Dog: Of Death, Of Love
Death – Death – Death comes sweeping down – Filthy death, the leering clown. Death on wings, death by surprise, failing evil from worldly eyes. Death that spawns as life succumbs, while death and love,… [more]
A Unwelcomed Visitation: A Treatment of Drone Warfare in Royden Lepp’s Rust
With the advent of newer technologies and advanced AI, humans are being systematically phased out from everyday life. This is the machinist’s nightmare: to be replaced by the very things they fabricate and build. What… [more]
“Southern Change”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Issue #41
Swamp Thing #41 “Southern Change” Cover date: October 1985. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Stephen Bissette & Alfredo Alcala. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letters: John Costanza. Editor: Karen Berger. Moore and Bissette offer a Voodoo-inspired tale beginning with ‘Southern Change’ in this… [more]