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Magazine Archives for:
2014
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Why Can’t Erica be Thor?
This is Erica. She will be the first to tell you all about the meaning of her name, and how it’s described in various books as the name for a female warrior, with adjectives like… [more]
My First Comic Con
My first experience at San Diego Comic Con was almost overwhelming. And I mean that in a literal sense: there were many times when I felt an almost irresistible temptation to “take a knee” and… [more]
She Who is Beyond Time – Kali Yuga #1 Review
The relationship between comic books and magic fascinates me. One day I want to write a book, or a very long series of articles, about the links between them. With several comic professionals claiming they… [more]
The Fifth Beatle Revisited: An Update from San Diego Comic Con
This has been a big year for one of the most elegant and beautiful comics to come along in some time, The Fifth Beatle by Vivek J. Tiwary and Andrew Robinson (which I had previously… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Bloodstrike Volume 1 #2
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]
Reinventing the Cog: A Conversation with The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye’s James Roberts – Part Two
Ok, so I have something of a confession to make. This interview in its original conception was a single piece and was meant to have been published quite some time ago. James had originally hoped… [more]
“Take a Look Inside My Mind”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 29
Continued from last week. It’s impossible to believe that Morrison and Millar’s Swamp Thing wasn’t intended as an allegory. For all that Morrison’s original plans appear to have been significantly modified by his junior partner,… [more]
Guarding the Galaxy, Part 2: Cosmic Avengers
One of the papers I usually assign in my composition course is a cultural antecedents essay. The students choose something from popular culture and then examine its relationship to its cultural antecedents. Or, put in… [more]
NASA vs Popular Culture: They’re Cooler Than You Think
Along with several others in the Sequart family, I’m going to be attending San Diego Comic-Con this week. One of the panels I’m excited to see is hosted by Seth Green and called “NASA’s Next… [more]
Power Fantasies: Superman, Jeffrey Baldwin and the Worth of a Publishing Brand
Jeffrey Baldwin was powerless. The five year-old had lived, and died, locked in a cold bedroom in the Toronto house where he was left unchecked after being removed from the custody of his parents. In… [more]
Eternal Return: The Enduring, and Problematic, Influence of The Dark Knight Returns
When the Man of Steel sequel was officially announced at Comic-Con back in July of 2013, director Zack Snyder claimed that the film would be “inspired” by Frank Miller’s classic Dark Knight Returns. Even though… [more]
Under The Flesh #1: Violence, Zombies, and Weird Plot Choices
A strange virus comes to Earth and starts turning every human male into brainless impulse-driven zombies in Under The Flesh. The nefarious zombification urges the male populous to satisfy their most primordial, sexual needs. The… [more]
Brian’s Comic Book Grab Bag: Gen13 Annual 2000
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]
The Politics of Batman, Part 1: Batman vs. Osama bin Laden
The following is an excerpt from the book War, Politics and Superheroes: When Frank Miller announced that he would be crafting a graphic novel in which Batman would confront real-world terrorist Osama bin Laden, journalists… [more]
X-Men: To the Outback & Beyond… Inferno Part 2
The son of Scott Summers/Cyclops, Nathan Christopher, is finally in the hands of his demonically twisted mother Madelyne Pryor aka The Goblin Queen. Her promises to turn the world to ashes seem very probable given… [more]
As Human as You Want to Be: A Review of Charles Soule’s Swamp Thing: Seeder
It’s an obvious pun when the subtitle here is “Seeder”, but Charles Soule’s first Swamp Thing book is such a scattershot of ideas and beginnings that it’s like he’s planting the seeds of larger storylines… [more]
Rat Queens #7
Rat Queens continues to deliver on all cylinders: sparkling dialogue, rich characters and just the right amount of horror and action for this genre. In issue #7, more plot elements start to fall into place… [more]
Only Humanoid: Everything Louder than Everything Else
Armies Writer : Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Picaret Art : Jean-Claude Gal I always found it hard to square my ideas of what European (well, French) comics was meant to be with what most of it turned… [more]
“Old Souls, Dark Agendas”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 28
Continued from last week. The final pages of Millar’s Swamp Thing depict the Earth on the eve of a historically unprecedented golden age. (*1) Humanity has been empathetically transformed through the god-like Swamp Thing’s influence,… [more]
Manifest Destiny #8: Sacagawea Keeps Score
Things are getting “curiouser and curiouser” for the Corps of Discovery in Manifest Destiny #8. Aside from the usual thrills this comic provides, giant frogs, giant insects, scary jungle, etc, in this issue you can… [more]
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is Phenomenal
Two Apes articles in one week! This time I cover the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and why it’s such a critical juggernaut. [more]
Completing the Trilogy: Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I’ve never been much of a summer person. I can barely swim, don’t really enjoy the beach, and hate hot weather. But something about summer clicked for me this year. Even though we weren’t able… [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium! Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed and Reconstructed, Part One
If there’s one work by the King of Comics that polarizes his legion of fans, it’s his short-lived 1974 DC series OMAC. Appearing to take place in a future universe all its own (as was… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #22
Cap, now a shriveled old man, lies in a bed in the Avengers’ Manson. Banner runs tests on him and reports that there is no trace of the super-soldier serum in his blood. Tony Stark… [more]