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Magazine Archives for:
2014
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Black Mirror, White Christmas
(In honour of the nature of this show, this will be as spoiler-free as I can make it and still qualify as a review… This should be quite a challenge.) The great thing (or at… [more]
Sensual Female Guardian Angels: Luc Besson’s Early Films, Part 3
Not unlike the stereotypical “whore with a heart of gold,” the title character of Leon (1994) is a kind-hearted, Italian-American hit man with an ennobling ethical code. Leon Montana (Jean Reno) refuses to kill women… [more]
Subversive Season’s Greetings: Tim Burton’s Christmas Trilogy
One of my favorite Christmas songs is the opening track on Elvis Presley’s first holiday album. The album itself was a largely traditional collection of songs—“O Little Town of Bethlehem” and such—but Elvis insisted that… [more]
Krazy Kat Vs. Little Nemo
Dichotomies are dangerous, though useful, monsters. As silly as debating the relative merits of Star Trek and Star Wars can be, these conversations inevitably probe our relative biases and also outline the vast set of… [more]
“So Which Leg Do I Eat Logan?”: Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #3-4
The two year gap between Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #2 and #3 would become somewhat infamous in the comics community. Ultimate X-Men referenced what Wolverine did, but cleverly alluded to the storyline’s incompletion. Ultimates 3… [more]
Newspaper Comic Movies: Little Nemo
So newspaper comic week doesn’t leave many film related options. And the ones it does leave aren’t exactly…great. The Spirit. Garfield. You get the idea (holy shit I just realized I should’ve watched that Bill… [more]
Manifest Destiny Issue #12: A Bend in the River
This is a pivotal issue of Manifest Destiny, in which Chris Dingess and Matt Roberts are clearly changing gears, in anticipation of a new and more intense chapter of the Lewis and Clark journey. Of… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 9
Issue #12 “The Devil You Know” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Richard Piers Rayner and Mark Buckingham Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Todd Klein Cover: Dave McKean It is fairly obvious that suffering abounds within Hellblazer: demonic… [more]
Newspaper Comic Movies: The Spirit
I have to admit, I like a bad movie. A certain kind of bad movie anyways. The kind that took effort. The results of a lone crazy man off in the woods with a camera.… [more]
A Sandman Miscellany: Sandman Overture #4 Review
Written by: Neil Gaiman Art by: J.H. Williams, III Cover by: J.H. Williams, III Dave McKean Variant Cover by: J.H. Williams, III Dave McKean The long awaited Sandman Overture #4 has arrived, just in time… [more]
The Super-Heroics of Miller and Moore Part 7: Legacy
Alan Moore and Frank Miller’s Impact on Comics Commercially The legacy and influence an artist has on all who follow him/her is always surprising. Some artists take a great work as an inspiration to try… [more]
Movies You Should Watch: Paths of Glory
The title of this article isn’t meant to be a command. It’s not “you” the reader so much as it is a proverbial “you.” Movies a movie fan is meant to watch. I’ll tell you… [more]
Up Front: How Bill Mauldin’s Cartoons Captured the Truth of WWII
Although the name usually implies humor, cartoons don’t always have to be funny. In fact, like any other artistic medium, cartoons can –and should– express the entire range of emotions, and just maybe they can… [more]
Colorworld: A Review
“Wen knows what love looks like. Since her mom died over a year ago, she’s seen it every day on her orphaned younger brother’s face. Wen’s made good on her promise to her mom that… [more]
ABC v. Aereo: Broadcast and Performance
In what I am hoping will be but the first in a series (or second, depending on how one counts it), the following is a look at the intersection of the arcane worlds of popular… [more]
Breaking Through The Far Side: Gary Larson’s Postmodern Antiquity
Many grow up with the presence of newspaper strips immediately within reach. These snippets of surreality appeal primarily to children, which is odd considering the intended audience of the “funnies” earlier in the 20th century.… [more]
ODY-C Reimagines the Odyssey
“You are my density.” That was pretty much my response to the first reading of Matt Fraction and Christian Ward’s ODY-C. And my second reading as well. This is a dense, idea-filled very “inside baseball”… [more]
Cody Walker on Everland
Cody Walker has a long history with Sequart, having served as our webmaster and having produced multiple books for us, including one on Planetary and another on Grant Morrison’s Batman. We sat down to talk… [more]
Race, Racism, and Italian-American Crimefighters, Part 2: The Punisher
This article appeared originally in the anthology Pimps, Wimps, Studs, Thugs, and Gentlemen (2009), edited by Elwood Watson. I’m reprinting it here because I believe it has things to say about Italian-Americans, law enforcement, and… [more]
Martin Scorsese’s American Gangster Trilogy
Martin Scorsese is perhaps the most admired living filmmaker in America. His works continually strive to reflect his unique vision and often appeal critically and commercially to audiences. Some of his works are also thematically… [more]
“Australia’s Favourite Boy” Gets the Chop
Hey gang! If you could click this link and vote the second strip (Ginger Meggs) to keep me alive I’d be grateful. Yes that is just a fictional character’s plea on a promotional Facebook page… [more]
Smorgasbord #8: It Came from the 1980s!
Shawn and Tom are oddly excited about the prospects of the Jem and the Holograms comic book adaptations, which leads them through a weary road of the yet untapped 1980s nostalgia market. Also, in news, the now… [more]
Sensual Female Guardian Angels: Luc Besson’s Early Films, Part 2
The Fifth Element features a similarly incongruous love story between a retired-marine-turned-cabbie and a woman that is, literally, all the goodness and beauty humanity has to offer. The plot concerns a contest between the radically… [more]
Arrow Season 3 Episode 9 Review
“The Climb” begins in media res, with Oliver struggling his way up the side of a mountain. At first it’s hard to tell whether or not this moment is in the present or past, whether… [more]
Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts: The Longest Jazz Solo in History
The panel opens on a barren sidewalk. Two unnamed children, a boy and a girl, sit on some steps, leading to another, equally barren sidewalk. There are no trees, no buildings, no animals, no cars… [more]