Magazine Archives for:

July 2012

On Paul Chadwick’s Concrete: Complete Short Stories 1986-1989

Becoming a monster’s not all bad, or so Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko assured us.

The Road to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins

We’ve previously examined the road to Christopher Nolan taking over the Batman film franchise, from Batman and Robin through Frank Miller’s “Year One” screenplay. This installment concludes the story, taking us up to Batman Begins.… [more]

The First Five Minutes of Our Warren Ellis Documentary

Warren Ellis sees the future. He is a comic book writer and cyberpunk philosopher living on the edge of tomorrow.

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, Part 3

Lately I’ve been writing about comic books mostly from a mythological sort of angle, either as they pertain to mythological symbolism or how they can be used as real-life lessons the same way a myth… [more]

Grant Morrison’s Day-Glo Years: Fantastic Four: 1234

Fantastic Four: 1234 was written at the tail end of Morrison’s Day-Glo Years, during his brief period writing for Marvel in the early 2000s.

“Swamped”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Issue #22

Saga of the Swamp Thing #22: “Swamped” Cover date: March 1984. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Steve Bissette and John Totleben. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letterer: Todd Klein. Cover: Tom Yeates. Editor: Len Wein.

On Larry Gonick’s The Cartoon History of the Universe (1978)

Human beings don’t arrive on the planet Earth until its opening chapter is very nearly over. Yet every single panel of the first book of Larry Gonick’s The Cartoon History of the Universe contains something… [more]

Why The Dark Knight Rises Fails

Let me start by saying that I’m glad if you like The Dark Knight Rises. I wanted to. I wrote a book about Batman Begins. I love The Dark Knight, and its ending makes me… [more]

Scott Porter on His Love of Image Comics

Scott Porter is best known as an actor from acclaimed series like Friday Night Lights and The Good Wife. But he’s also a big comics fan, particularly of Image Comics.

Roots: Elliot S! Maggin, Alan Moore, Superman & “Last Son Of Krypton”

1. Wherever you look, there he is. And if he isn’t there, well, why not? Because even today in 2010, there’s still something distinctly peculiar about any modern-era superhero comic which appears to bear no… [more]

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man is a Reboot with Legs, Just Not All Eight

Several comments on Slashfilm’s review of The Amazing Spider-Man stated that, while Marc Webb’s Spider-Man is fine, the Sam Raimi films were infallible.

A Peek Behind the Curtain: Into North Korea with Guy Delisle in Pyongyang

Guy Delisle’s travelogue, Pyongyang, takes readers on a journey to a country that has been closed off to the West for years, and instead of dispelling fears of a fascist nation oppressing its people in… [more]

Meet the Magus, Part 5: Microcosm, Macrocosm, and Magic in V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta may well be Alan Moore’s most politically concerned work, and its sci-fi dystopian vision has a decidedly practical edge.

On DC Comics Presents #50, by Mishkin, Cohn, Swan, and Shaffenberger (1982)

Nothing ever ages worse than a typical product of the moment just before a paradigm shift.

Frank Miller’s Year One Screenplay

Late 2000 seems, by all accounts, to have been a turning point for the languishing Batman franchise. It was then that both Batman: DarKnight and the live-action Batman Beyond were cancelled, with Warner Bros. focusing… [more]

J.H. Williams III on Working on Seven Soldiers

Artist J.H. Williams III is one of the most innovative and acclaimed comics artists working today.

A Brief Report from Comic-Con — with Movie Batmobiles

Here at Comic-Con, our Image Revolution panel seemed to go over well, and thanks to everyone who attended. Special thanks to Marc Silvestri, who was on the panel, for his tremendous support. Top Cow even included… [more]

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, Part 2

In the summer of 2011, Spider-Man died.

Grant Morrison’s Day-Glo Years: The Mystery Play

The Mystery Play is another short-form Morrison work from the “adult comics” era of the early ’90s.

“The Anatomy Lesson”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Issue #21

Saga of the Swamp Thing #21: “The Anatomy Lesson” Cover date: February 1984. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Steve Bissette and John Totleben (co-penciled by Rick Veitch). Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letterer: John Costanza. Cover: Tom Yeates.… [more]

On Jeff Hawke: Overlord, by Sydney Jordan and Willie Patterson (1960)

“Adult” all too often has a different meaning now. But in the very best sense of the term, Jordan and Patterson’s Jeff Hawke was a newspaper science-fiction comic strip for adults.

Unproduced Attempts to Film Batman’s Origins

Batman Begins was, in fact, preceded by other attempts to dramatize Batman’s origins, both on film and on television. In 1999, one production company proposed a weekly series about the boyhood of Bruce Wayne prior… [more]

Diagram for Delinquents Update #23: We are Now Broadcasting Live from…

The San Diego Comic Con begins in three days. The comic con of comic cons. I so wish we could be there to bask in all the splendor of this most magnificent festival of comics,… [more]

Warren Ellis on the Future Happening Everywhere

Warren Ellis has made a career of thinking about the future. Here, he discusses the ways that the future is happening all around us, even when we’re not aware of it.

The Image Revolution at Comic-Con

If you’re going to be at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, be sure to stop by our panel about The Image Revolution, our forthcoming documentary film about Image Comics. On the panel will be director and… [more]