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Magazine
May the Chi Be With You
For the last week or longer I’ve been going through my annual Star Wars binge where I watch every movie plus all of their bonus features over and over again until inevitably someone outside has… [more]
Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 2: Learning Curve
When I picked up volume 2 of Ultimate Spider-Man, I was expecting a new interpretation of a Spidey villain. Instead I was treated to a dose of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Maybe because the Kingpin… [more]
My Favorite Minicomic of the Year
One of my favorite finds of SPX was by an artist I was only a bit familiar with: Andy Hartzell. Meeting him at the Global Hobo table, I was immediately astounded by the intricacy and… [more]
Deadpan: Gabrielle Bell’s LUCKY
LUCKY started as a strip on serializer.net (as Bell’s Home Journal), then a series of mini comics. They were an exercise in doing quickly drawn diary comics, a counterpoint to Bell’s more polished “serious work”,… [more]
Customer Loyalty: Your Turn
Customer loyalty is an interesting thing in the comic book business. Some customers prefer to shop at a variety of stores, while others will shop at the same place year after year. Some people love… [more]
Josh Roberts on ComicSpace.com’s Launch
Not even a week ago, OnlineComics.net owner Josh Roberts launched ComicSpace.com, a MySpace-like website for comic book fans and creators. As of this writing, the site already has 3,500 members, and it is growing at… [more]
On Don’t Call Me Stupid! by Steven Weissman
Don’t Call Me Stupid! Written/drawn by Steven Weissman Published by Fantagraphics Books, December 2001 Child-oriented comics have been a staple of the medium since its earliest inceptions. It is the one genre that in many… [more]
Reintroduction
I’ve been checking around and am reasonably certain that Ms. Manners (oh how I love my Judith Martin) would advise me to start off this, my first article in this series, with some kind words… [more]
Formalism, Fancy and Melancholy: Paul Hornschemeier’s LET US BE PERFECTLY CLEAR
I’ve been following Paul Hornschemeier since his mini comics days. Of course, the aggressively ambitious & experimental artist made minis with production values that were astonishing. Some of the results can be seen in THE… [more]
Criminal Motivation
Crime, as simply defined by Wikipedia: 1. An action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally… [more]
Dr. Sequartlove (or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Con)
Manchester is an odd place at 9:00am on a Saturday. At a time when most people are doing something sensible or worthwhile (like sleeping), I made my trek to the G-Mex Centre throughout the large… [more]
Comics’ Identity Crisis: Claiming “Art” is a Misguided Quest
Comics have a bit of an identity crisis: our culture cannot decide what they really are, leaving them to pay the price both financially and legally.
SPX: Twelve Great Minis
One of the highlights of any alt-comics events is the opportunity to take a look at a new crop of mini-comics. Some of them are by established artists who have regular, professional publishing outlets. They… [more]
The Sequart Detective: A Matter of Justice, Part 8
THE SEQUART DETECTIVE: A MATTER OF JUSTICE Analysis #8: Reviewing half of Justice #4. My name is unimportant. What’s important is…I’m a detective. WARNING: Not only does this article contain spoilers for the Justice issues… [more]
Comic Book Retailing Part 7: Common Questions Answered
I have had a bunch of people contact me during my series on opening a comic book store. Some of them asked similar questions, so I thought I would share the answers with everyone, so… [more]
Whatever Happened to the Periodical?
In this column, I’ve mostly paid attention to the avalanche of quality graphic novels that have been released of late (I have a huge stack still demanding my attention) as well as the large variety… [more]
The Best Comics-Based Videogames Around
There have been comic book characters cropping up in video games for years, pretty much since the inception of the gaming console. And comic creators have been helping out the game industry for a while… [more]
The Slow, Donnerward Spiral pt. 2 (or, Stories of a Hollywood Retcon)
Hello again, my minions, and welcome to a new edition of Tact is for the Weak, the column that still believes Rumsfeld was behind 9/11. As many of you know, director Richard Donner (of “The… [more]
The Sequart Detective: A Matter of Justice, Part 7
Analysis #7: Reviewing half of Justice #4. My name is unimportant. What’s important is…I’m a detective. WARNING: Not only does this article contain spoilers for the Justice issues reviewed, it attempts to deduce the plots… [more]
The Sequart Detective: A Matter of Justice, Part 6
Analysis #6: Reviewing the last third of Justice #3 . My name is unimportant. What’s important is…I’m a detective. WARNING: Not only does this article contain spoilers for the Justice issues reviewed, it attempts to… [more]
Deep in the Donjon
I wasn’t sure where to start, now that the introductory articles are over. Should I focus on a mainstream, and therefore easily accessible, series? Should I select, instead, some obscure but brilliant work, while knowing… [more]
In The Beginning…#5
A Different Kind of Hero The popular preconception of comics is that they’re all about costumed crime fighters battling super-villains and saving the city / world, but of course there is a lot more to… [more]
Stormwatch, Part 4: Issues #8-9, 25, 10
This article examines issues #8-10 of Stormwatch as well issue #25. Confused yet? Well, in 1994, Image decided to make a statement that they were going to be in the market for the long run.… [more]
In Defense of Lateness
There’s been a lot of commotion in recent years over late — sometimes very late — high-profile books.