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Magazine Archives for:
June 2014
“A Martyr for All Mankind”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 24
Continued from last week. At first, Morrison and Millar’s scripts were religious only in the very broadest sense of the term. With the former’s influence clearly dominant, Swamp Thing’s series-opening crisis of identity is clearly framed… [more]
When the Transformers Got Religion (in Transformers: The Movie)
There are a lot of reasons why Transformers: The Movie was revolutionary, when it was released in 1986. Its level of animation was spectacular for anything but a Disney film. Akira hadn’t yet been released,… [more]
When the Good Guys Deserted: On the Blaster Saga
In 1986′s Transformers: The Movie, set in 2005, both the Autobots and Decepticons got new leaders. Marvel Comics adapted the movie as a three-issue mini-series, but the main comic book didn’t leap forward to 2006,… [more]
Why “Man of Iron” May Be the Best Transformers Story Ever Told
When Transformers debuted from Marvel Comics in the U.S., it was originally a bimonthly four-issue mini-series, but it was so successful that it got extended. After a three-month pause between issues #4 (Mar 1985) and… [more]
The Transformed Man: Close Encounters of the Optimal Kind
One day, just another day of organized happiness Like all the others I closed all the doors behind me. –all quotes from William Shatner’s “The Transformed Man,” words by Frank Devenport About a month ago… [more]
When “Tales of Cybertron” Explored the Transformers’ Backstory
The original Transformers comic in the U.K. was augmented by hardcover annuals, beginning with Transformers Annual 1986 (published in late 1985). These annuals generally included several short stories, some in the comics format and others… [more]
Sherlock’s Women: The Good and the Bad
I was continuing my journey through my imposing edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes when I realized my mind could not stop making links between the original texts and BBC’s hit series Sherlock. While I… [more]
It’s Transformers Week on Sequart!
In celebration of the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, Sequart will be publishing content related to the Transformers all this week. From their initial “Generation 1″ cartoon, toys, and comic book in the 1980s,… [more]
Fear and Loathing in a Dead Guy’s House
I recently read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Then I watched the movie, which is a great adaptation. This is about those things, and also some time I spent in an abandoned house. [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Fourteen: Indigo Primer
Before delving into the eighth and final issue of John Smith, Scot Eaton and Mike Barreiro’s Scarab, we need to take a brief side-step and examine an earlier Smith creation, the trans-dimensional troubleshooting way-above-top-secret agency… [more]
X-Men: To the Outback & Beyond… Part 10
We left off last issue with Rogue / Ace and Wolverine rescuing Phillip Moreau from the Mutant Train with promises to “…bring this flamin’ country down” while their teammates finally arrived in Genosha on their… [more]
Unmasked Review
Unmasked (written by Christian Read with art by Emily Smith and Gary Chaloner) tells the story of a married couple living a seemingly normal live. However, they are in fact super-villains who have given up… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #21
“The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.” —Mahatma Gandhi. So reads the penultimate panel of Captain America #21. The… [more]
Ang Lee’s Hulk and Seriousness in Comics Movies
I came across a quote from Ang Lee made in 2012. It was during press for the film Life of Pi. Lee said he wouldn’t have been able to do the film without learning about… [more]
My So-Called Secret Identity: An Interview with Will Brooker
Dr. Will Brooker is no stranger to this site. He and his creator-owned comic My So-Called Secret Identity have been featured multiple times either within the context of an interview or a review. Dr. Brooker has most… [more]
Sex Criminals #6 Review
[If you read this comic, consider yourself guilty of the sin levelled at many a child: you've been spoiled.] Well, well, well, our friends the sex criminals return in issue #6, after we left them… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Cage #15 Volume 1
Last Christmas my brother gave me a booster pack of random, non-sequential issues from a variety of popular comic book titles that syndicated in the late eighties to mid nineties. The nineties was a time… [more]
God Damn You All to Hell: Planet of the Apes TV Show
“The mother ducking humans are talking!?” That was the fourth note I took about the Planet of the Apes TV show pilot. My iPad has an annoying habit of autocorrecting “fucking” to “ducking”. This is… [more]
Sequart Announces Meet the Magus: Magic in the Work of Alan Moore
Sequart is proud to announce that it will publish Meet the Magus: Magic in the Work of Alan Moore, authored by Dr. Hannah Means-Shannon. Meet the Magus: Magic in the Work of Alan Moore explores… [more]
Everything’s Just Vibrations: A Review of GraphicAudio’s Final Crisis Production
Due to the restrictions of life, I often find myself being unable to read as often as I would like, comics or otherwise. Luckily, audiobooks exist, allowing me to make good use of the time… [more]
The Stuff of Nightmare: A Review of Justin Randall’s Changing Ways
I can remember vividly the first time I played Myst, the ground-breaking video game by Broderbund. I had purchased it earlier in the day and sat down at my PC with the whole evening spread… [more]
“[The] Most Morally Objectionable Comic DC Has Ever Published”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 23
Continued from last week. As ever, it’s impossible to precisely disentangle Morrison’s influence from Millar’s. Yet Swamp Thing’s storylines and themes certainly bear the stamp of many of the former’s recurrent passions; magic and folklore,… [more]
F for Fake: Orson Welles’ Last Movie
Years later, reflecting back on his life and work, Orson Welles would say, “I thought I was onto something,” in reference to his last completed film, 1973’s F for Fake. The relative lack of impact… [more]