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Magazine Archives for:
2014
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Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Justice League America Volume 1 #61
On Christmas Day 2013, 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… [more]
New Gods and Old Soldiers: Kirby in the ’70s
To put it simply, it’s impossible to imagine comic books existing in their modern form without Jack Kirby. It’s hard to fathom what Marvel Comics at their inception and heyday might’ve been like without Jack… [more]
Only Humanoid: The City and The City
District 14 Writer : Pierre Gabus Art : Romuald Reutimann Possibly the most enjoyable thing about District 14 (and I say “possibly” only because there is so much to choose from that I wouldn’t begrudge… [more]
“The Wholeness That’s Way Too Big”: Imagining the Sublime With Kant, Derrida, and Jack Kirby
Since I earned my master’s degree in art and philosophy, it may be unsurprising that two of the most dog-eared books on my shelf are Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment and The Truth in Painting… [more]
“Even The Worst Among Them Has Potential”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 32
Continued from last week. So, the Millar who wrote Swamp Thing was enthusiastic, ambitious, and ethically engaged. But for all his efforts and good intentions, and for all the occasional highpoint, the run was heavy-handed,… [more]
Jack Kirby and His Pal Darkseid
Jack Kirby is among the greats in comic book culture, not for his creations really, but for his signature tone that set the stage for what would become modern comicbooking. His antiquated writing style, outlandish… [more]
True Detective as Minotaur Myth
I recently binged all of HBO’s True Detective. Though not perfect, the show is gorgeous and full of enough mystery and symbolism to keep me puzzling over it long after I was finished watching. Nic… [more]
No Country for Old Men: Jack Kirby, The Hunger Dogs, and the Modern Age of Comics
Jack Kirby’s a great artist. He just can’t draw very well. –Anonymous comics fan Okay, so it was me. I’m not proud of it, but that “anonymous” quote was something I actually said a few… [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed and Reconstructed, Part Two
15 pages a week — written, penciled, and edited. Think about that for a minute. That’s the number that Jack Kirby’s fairly-lucrative-for-its-time DC contract called for when he created the concept of the One-Man Army… [more]
It’s Jack Kirby Week at Sequart!
In celebration of what would have been Jack Kirby’s 97th birthday on 28 August, Sequart will be publishing content related to Kirby all this week. Sequart uses themed weeks as a way of celebrating popular… [more]
Discovering McGruder’s Black Jesus: “The Shit Heist,” Episode 3
I had the opportunity to meet Christopher McCulloch (AKA Jackson Publick) and Doc Hammer this year at the San Diego Comic Con. (It was a random affair, the sidewalk meeting of a minor hero/celebrity that… [more]
The (de)Evolution of DC Animated Movies
The DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM) has long been one of my favorite areas of the expanded media empire that comes along with DC Comics being part of the Warner Brothers family. Although they… [more]
Living Like a Comic Book: Casanova vol. 1 “Luxuria”
Note: In my previous article on Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon’s Casanova, I examined the series in its relation to themes present in the fiction of Thomas Pynchon. This next series of articles… [more]
Manifest Destiny: Death is their Ally
There’s a line in Oliver Stone’s criminally underrated film Nixon in which the titular character muses to a painting of Abraham Lincoln, “What is that’s helping us? Is it God? Or Death?” That must express… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: The New Warriors Volume 1 #33
On Christmas Day 2013, 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… [more]
Comic Con Discoveries Part 3: American History Z and Bob the Angry Flower
There’s no denying the power and popularity of zombie stories, even if I, and others including Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, can’t fully understand why. Obviously there’s the horror genre thrills, the sheer grotesque power… [more]
The Fisher King: Love and Mercy
For those of you playing the home game, some time ago I did an MA dissertation on the works of Terry Gilliam. Like most things I wrote as a student, today I find my middlebrow… [more]
“Ritual Must Be Observed”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 31
Continued from last week. As for his two warring Lodges of super-mages, Millar seems to have used them as a symbol of religious sectarianism and reconciliation. Their differing interpretations of how to save the world… [more]
Discovering McGruder’s Black Jesus: “Fish and the Con Man,” Episode 2
My previous article was an introductory exposition on Black Jesus and the treatment of Jesus by Aaron McGruder that discussed setting Black Jesus within an environment akin to the historical Jesus’ milieu. Now that I… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 1, Videophony
David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest is, for my money, the greatest novel ever written. It appears regularly near the top of “best novels of all time” lists such as Time Magazine’s. It has… [more]
When Vultures Weep: Reflections on Robin Williams and the Alchemy of Joy
I didn’t want to write this column. From the first moment I heard about the death of Robin Williams, it was hard enough just to process the news. Besides, I knew millions of other people… [more]
“This Mutant Dreamtime” – Language in Australian Post-Apocalypse Horror Broken Line
Broken Line, available digitally from Perth-based Australian publisher Gestalt Comics, is set after a typical Cold War-era nuclear war. In the familiar nightmare image of a man-made apocalypse, artist Emily K. Smith renders the mushroom… [more]
Sex Criminals #7: More Real Life
In a week in which many of us are wondering if there’s any justice left in this world, one bright spot is to remember that Sex Criminals was honoured with an Eisner recently, which means… [more]