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Magazine Archives for:
July 2013
Thoughts on Reviewing Comics
Every Wednesday, local comic shops and online retailers provide readers with a bevy of new comic book titles and issues. Some superhero series take flight while others crash without rhyme or reason. Some of us… [more]
“Lots of People Dressed Like That in the Sixties”: Shameless? Part 21
Continued from last week. Fifteen months would pass until March 1992′s 2000 AD Action Special and the next of Millar’s superhero stories to see print. A stillborn revamping of the Sixties British superhero The Spider, it… [more]
Half Action Movie, Half Art Film, The Wolverine Delivers
The Wolverine has everything fans require. It’s got lots of great actions sequences, culminating in a big showdown. But it’s also got some art-film DNA in the mix. It’s an action film that also works… [more]
Why the World Needs Superman
I look back on the things I’ve written occasionally and discover old parts of me that I can treasure and hold on to nostalgically. This is one of those pieces. What follows is the script… [more]
What it Means to Take Superheroes Seriously
It’s been a few weeks now, and I think that maybe, just maybe, comic book fandom is ready to talk about something else besides Man of Steel. Maybe. As expected, the movie turned out to be… [more]
Humanity, Heroism, and Action: Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #9
After completing the first arc on Action Comics, Morrison spends one issue in the alternate universe of Earth-23 where Superman is not only black, but also the President of the United States. President Superman had… [more]
Archetypes of Conflict: Weaponized Narratives in “Parliament of Rooks”
“How does the story end?” is a legitimate, but not often enough asked, inquiry of our narratives. Imagine any fairy tale. The Tortoise and the Hare embodies the weathered adage, “slow and steady wins the… [more]
“The End” Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing #50
Swamp Thing #50 “The End” Writer: Alan Moore. Editor: Karen Berger. Artists: Stephen Bissette, Rick Veitch and John Totleben (and special thanks to Tom Mandrake). Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letterer: John Costanza. Cover Date: July 1986.… [more]
“That Slightly Dodgy, Anarchic Material”: Shameless? Part 20
Continued from last week. The obviousness of Millar’s influences would become more and more of a problem as his work for Fleetway continued. Of course, 2000AD had been founded upon a deliberate policy of appropriating and… [more]
Miracleman, Chapter 9 Concludes
We’ve begun discussing chapter nine of Alan Moore’s Miracleman (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6), illustrated by Alan Davis. Today, we continue our exploration of that chapter.
Why Can’t Spider-Man Swing Both Ways?
Recently, Entertainment Weekly ran a piece in which Amazing Spider-Man 2 star Andrew Garfield questioned why his character, Peter Parker, couldn’t be rewritten as being gay in the upcoming film. Garfield, who last played Parker/Spidey… [more]
The Garden and the Wilderness – Walking Dead #13-19
The “prison saga” is one of the longest-running and commercially successful arcs in Walking Dead history, and also captures better than any other storyline to date how the “garden and wilderness” theme is unique to… [more]
Tyrant Issue Three: The Egg
The third issue of Steve Bissette’s Tyrant is devoid of any title, which is odd. Every other issue opened with a strong title page. Perhaps Bissette wanted to distance this issue from the others, as it… [more]
Colloquium #2: Blindspots — David Mack on Daredevil: End of Days
Markisan interviews David Mack on the mysteries and characters of Daredevil: End of Days. Plus, David discusses his brush and ink paintings, featured at the Century Guild Galleries in Chicago and L.A. (1:25:39)
“A Worm Shouts a Magic Word”: “Shameless? Part 19
Continued from last week. Millar hardly made it easy for the reader to sympathise with his protagonist. Arthur Montgomery is as unconvincing as a type as he’s unsympathetic as a character, and it’s only in… [more]
Miracleman, Chapter 9: The Masculinity of Miracleman
We’ve begun discussing chapter nine of Alan Moore’s Miracleman (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), illustrated by Alan Davis. Today, we continue our exploration of that chapter.
Colloquium #1: Blood’s Blood — Brian Azzarello on Wonder Woman
In the debut episode, Markisan interviews Eisner-Award winning writer Brian Azzarello on how he has reinvented Wonder Woman and the Greek Gods for DC Comics’ New 52. (25:44)
Catalyst Comix #1 (of 9) Review
Catalyst Comix #1 (of 9) Written by Joe Casey Art by Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury and Ulises Farinas Colors by Brad Simpson Published by Dark Horse Comics Rating: 7 (of 10) “Catalyst Comix #1 is… [more]
Yet Those Hands Will Never Hold Anything: Emiya Shirou as the Interactive Superhero of Fate/Stay Night (Part 2)
Continued from part one. At some point in the superhero trope, the hero has to start building on the foundation of their training and perfecting their powers. For Shirou, this results in the mangling of… [more]
Humanity, Heroism, and Action: Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #8
The issue begins inside the bottle city of Metropolis as Lex Luthor explains that he has no desire to be rescued by Superman and then tries rationalizing his alliance with the Collector as a plan… [more]
Why I’m (Proudly, this Time) Boycotting Orson Scott Card
Having weighed in on the Orson Scott Card controversy earlier this year, when he was hired to write Superman, I feel compelled to weigh in now that he’s issued his non-apology apology. The controversy earlier… [more]
Sandman’s Soft Places: Travelogue Through the Dreaming
Corporeality is overrated in the comic book multiverse. Grant Morrison’s theoretical conceptualizations of the infinite reality have interwoven themselves through the vein of modern storytelling, but Gaiman’s play on this concept is also well documented… [more]
“The Summoning”: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing #49
Swamp Thing #49 “The Summoning” Cover date: June 1986. Writer: Alan Moore. Artists: Stan Woch and Alfredo Alcala. Editor: Karen Berger. Colorist: Tatjana Wood. Letterer: John Costanza This issue opens with a recap of the… [more]
“It’s A Rare Thing to be Ordinary These Days”: Shameless? Part 18
Continued from last week. In fact, it’s more than possible that Morrison actually had a considerable influence upon the format of Zenith: Tales of the Alternative Earths. Four years previously, he’d written his own series of… [more]
Sequart’s 2013 San Diego Comic-Con Panel
Sequart is proud to announce its 2013 San Diego Comic-Con panel, Sequart: Advancing Comics as Art.