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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]
On the Professional Pre-History of Mark Millar: Shameless? Part 2
Continued from last week. Only Mark Millar knows which twelve months of his life would most deserve the title of Annus horribilis. But from what he’s said in the press, the years of the late… [more]
Ancestral Jungles and Voodoo Fears: Evelyn Cream and Race in Miracleman, Chapter 9 (Part 2)
We’ve begun discussing chapter nine of Alan Moore’s Miracleman (parts one and two), illustrated by Alan Davis. Today, we continue our exploration of that chapter.
Foil Hats and Skin Suits: Examining the Content Concerns of Mental Illness in Villainy
In the last few years, there have been many concerns over the content of comic books. In fact, the concerns are over a wide range of topics from Catwoman being too provocative to that of… [more]
Portrait of a Serial Murderer
Conventions exist to bring people together, even serial killers. At least that is the spin put on them in Sandman #14: “Collectors.” Those familiar with Gaiman’s catalog can attest to the diversity of his corpus,… [more]
1986: Will Eisner on Old Age (Part 2)
In the final issue of Will Eisner’s Quarterly, published in 1986, Eisner wrote and drew three comics stories that each deal with a protagonist in the last decades of his life. In the previous installment,… [more]
Shameless? The Super-Hero Comics of Mark Millar: Part 1, An Introduction
It’s too good a story not to be treated with suspicion. Asked to recall his first comic by Lee Randall of The Scotsman in 2009, Mark Millar declared that he could remember the matter “exactly”.… [more]
Evelyn Cream and Race in Miracleman, Chapter 9
We’ve begun discussing chapter nine of Alan Moore’s Miracleman, illustrated by Alan Davis. Today, we continue our exploration of that chapter.
Analyzing Time in the New 52
I’ll admit it. I love the new 52 DC Universe. Despite the jarring and sudden nature of its introduction, I have found the new mythology incredibly delightful. However, despite my love of the new continuity,… [more]
Romantic Reflections in “A Glass of Water”: Morrison and McKean Unplugged
When you do research for a book, you often find yourself searching through the more obscure work of a writer or artist, naively hoping that between all the usual awkward experiments and routine exercises in… [more]
“Fish Story” and “The Curse”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Issues #39 and #40
Swamp Thing #39 “Fish Story” Cover date: August 1985. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. Editor: Karen Berger. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letterer: John Costanza.
The Renaissance Man, The Master Of The World?: One Last Look at the Ditko / Lee Doctor Strange (Part 12)
One recurrent criticism of Doctor Strange as a character is that he’s simply too powerful. A great many writers and fans alike have contended that comic book magic provides him with the tension-destroying ability to… [more]
Miracleman, Chapter 9: “Inside Story”
We’ve previously introduced Miracleman and discussed chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, as well as the interlude “The Yesterday Gambit.” We now continue this critical examination with chapter nine (written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Alan Davis) of this celebrated but… [more]