Reviews

Reviews of comic books, graphic novels, books on comics, and other comic-related media.

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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]

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]

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]

Review of Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid the Omniscient

Devin Townsend has never been insular when it comes to his emotions. He formed his first major-label band, Strapping Young Lad, following his disillusionment with the music industry and its practices. Prior to this, he… [more]

Matrimony and Demons: Hour of the Wolf

There’s something pretty intriguing about the idea of Ingmar Bergman dabbling directly in the horror genre. Anyone who practices that much distancing and experimentation may not seem suited to an inherently visceral genre. I mean,… [more]

Black Mirror: The Best TV Show You’re Not Watching

Few would seriously argue that Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone is one of the seminal texts in popular culture, particularly in science fiction. Serling took TV sci fi out of the spaceships-fight-aliens-with-lasers cliche and brought… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 9 Review

“The Man in the Yellow Suit” is a pretty big relief, if only because so much of the episode seems concerned with progress, taking many of the plots that The Flash has put into play… [more]

I, Claudius: What Shall We Do About Claudius? Review

The series that has been so far filled with poisoning, drowning and an orgy does not let up in the scandalous story of the first Imperial Family of Rome. So many tidbits in the story… [more]

Sex Criminals #9: The Tale of Dr. Cocaine

I may have gotten a few things wrong about Sex Criminals, after initially getting them right. When I first started reviewing this book, I was drawn to how the characters shared their back stories, how… [more]

Too Little Too Late: Thoughts on True Detective

The way the show incorporated meta moments was key to understanding the ending. True Detective displayed an undeniable desire to poke and prod at the edge of the frame containing it. [more]

A Brilliant Black Comedy: World’s Greatest Dad

An amazingly disturbing, pitch-black comedy starring Robin Williams. If you like your comedy cringe-inducing and horrifyingly bleak this amazing movie is for you. [more]

“A Perfectly Finished Work of Art Right Where I Am Sitting Now.”: Cosmic Trigger -The Play

A fair few of you may not have heard of Robert Anton Wilson. This is tragic. A fair few of you may have heard of people influenced by Robert Anton Wilson. This is not so… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 8 Review

One of the exciting things about bringing two superheroes together is seeing how they interact with one another. Most of the big, marquee heroes have their own distinct outlook on the world; Superman is optimistic,… [more]

Arrow Season 3 Episode 8 Review

One of the things that the creative teams of Arrow and The Flash truly excel at is understanding the inherent appeal of superhero stories. The writers on the shows just get why so many people… [more]

I, Claudius: Waiting in the Wings Review

After an extended length episode that introduced us to the Imperial Family, we are treated to Claudius appearing the main storyline as a character. But this time he is portrayed by Ashley Knight, who does… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 7 Review

“Power Outage” is an ambitious episode of television; it’s filled with ideas, themes, and plots. All of which is nice to see, both in that it demonstrates the heights that the creative team is reaching… [more]

Review: The Mythology of Grimm: The Fairy Tale and Folklore Roots of the Popular TV Show by Nathan Robert Brown

This work is a must read for any fan of the NBC series Grimm, which recently began fourth season with all the timeliness of a series that started shortly before the bicentennary of the brothers’… [more]

Twisted Dark #1: A Long Days Journey Into Personal Hells

Twisted Dark is a haunting collection of 12 stories, all with a spin on darker subjects.  No super powers.  No aliens.  No trans-dimensional beings.  Neil Gibson and the artists (each story has a different artist)… [more]

Review: OUTRÉ #3 – Xenophobia

Recently, I finished a new indie anthology called Outre. This anthology is unique in structure as it doesn’t focus on genre, but on theme. The issue I read was #3 and its theme was xenophobia.… [more]

John Scalzi’s Lock In: Fifty Pounds of Story in a Twenty-Pound Sack

Lock In, the new science fiction novel by Hugo winner John Scalzi, boasts the density of a red dwarf. It’s a hardboiled detective novel, and a surprisingly plausible “future history,” and an exploration of identity… [more]

I, Claudius: A Touch of Murder Review

In the early half of the Twentieth Century Robert Graves was translating Suetonius masterpiece The Twelve Caesars to English. As he was translating the life of Claudius, he felt that there was far more to… [more]

Arrow Season 3 Episode 7 Review

This week’s installment of Arrow goes all in on the series’ romantic couplings and complications and it’s readily apparent from the word go that this is not particularly fruitful ground for the show. Many of… [more]

Greenpoint of View: A Top-Notch Autobiographical Comic

One of the most interesting genres within the diverse world of comics is the autobiographical comic. Pioneered by the legendary Harvey Pekar and others, these comics are a fascinating application of the comics medium to… [more]

Review of Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Many devout Flaming Lips fans might be already finding themselves casting doleful glances towards the cheeky antics of the group’s earlier albums, before the time of heated disagreements and middle-age-crisis tomfoolery from the band’s maverick… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 6 Review

The moments that work in “The Flash is Born” mostly occur around the edges of the central plot. The main focus of the episode isn’t a total bust, but it is pretty standard material featuring… [more]