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superhero
Diamondopoly (or, Second Issue Spectacular!)
Hello, my babies! It’s time for another edition of Tact is for the Weak, the column that definitely won’t send you flowers the morning after! Let’s face it: unless you own a comic shop, you… [more]
Encyclomania: A Look at Some Comics Encyclopedias
Looking at the etymology of the word encyclopedia one reads “[Med. Lat. encyclopaedia, general education course <Gk.enkuklopaideia< enkuklios paideia, general education.]” I know, sounds boring, and far too ambiguous to be of great value.
First Issue Spectacular! (or, What the Hell is This Garbage?)
Greetings! This is Tact is for the Weak, the comics articles that all the other articles avoid at the office. Generally speaking, this article will focus on the issues pertaining to the comics industry that… [more]
The Valiant Tangent — Solar: Man of the Atom #1-4 (Second Death, Part 1 of 2)
Happy New Year and welcome back to The Valiant Tangent, a column whose goal it is to chronicle some of the stories and characters of Valiant Comics and the things that made them not only… [more]
DC’s Impact Imprint: A Look Back
The idea was for DC Comics to launch an entire new set of books aimed toward younger readers. The launch of these books would cross over from comic shops to the mainstream and try to… [more]
Comics in Other Media
Superheroes have been in our language for years. Nearly every American, somewhere along the line, has been exposed to superheroes or comic books either directly or peripherally. In the least, we all certainly could name… [more]
Did the Dark Knight Strike Again? Frank Miller’s New Digital Reality
The longevity of comics depends on the effort to give them relevance and context in history. The medium’s survival relies on its connection with its contemporaries.
The Valiant Tangent — Magnus Robot Fighter #1-4 (Steel Nation, Part 1 of 2)
Welcome back to The Valiant Tangent, a column whose goal it is to chronicle the stories and characters of Valiant Comics and the things that made them not only cool, but some of the greatest… [more]
The Valiant Tangent — Solar: Man of the Atom #0
Welcome to The Valiant Tangent, a column whose goal it is to chronicle the stories and characters of Valiant Comics, and the things that made them not only cool, but some of the greatest of… [more]
Dino of Two Worlds: Dean Haspiel’s Action Autobiography
One of the weirdest comics experiences I’ve ever had was reading Jack Kirby’s “Street Code”, an autobiographical tale of his past that was reprinted in the intriguing STREETWISE collection a few years ago. Kirby wrote… [more]
Modernism and the Birth of the American Super-Hero
The idea of the modern American super-hero is an abstract and nebulous concept.
Ultraverse Ten Years Later
The fairly recent announcement of a Prime feature film led me to dust off my collection of Ultraverse comics.
Fall of the Mutants, Part 1
The quest is a simple one: There are a lot of crossovers out there for you to dive into, and Sequart is going to try to steer you toward the better ones. Welcome to a… [more]
Don’t Tread On Me
Politics has invaded comics, and I’m pissed. What do G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and and Sean Hannity all have in common? They’re superheroes. We have a convicted felon, a man that should have gone… [more]
Abstract-Empire-China: must there be a Sandman?
I am being slightly humorous with the choice of title of course, but I wish to evoke the sense that the politics in this essay have been negotiated before, in a different context. The piece… [more]
The Use of Genre: Visions of The Incredible Hulk
Within the oeuvre of Jack Kirby, the Incredible Hulk arrives as one among many generic engagements with the monster archetype. The Hulk, a military-funded scientific experiment run amok, casts up specters of other works by… [more]
Your Guide to Infinite Crisis: The OMAC Project
Having examined DC Countdown, let’s turn our attention to the four mini-series it spawned, beginning with the one that most directly springs from DC Countdown‘s narrative: Greg Rucka’s The OMAC Project.
MoCCA 2005: Move On Up
The 2005 MoCCA (Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art) Festival in New York was held on June 11th and 12th, and once again the event was a success in the face of a brutal heat… [more]
Artists to Seek out at MoCCA ’05
The fourth annual MoCCA Art Festival is coming up this weekend in New York City. Last year saw the festival truly mature into a well-organized event that still captured the quirkiness that its eclectic guest… [more]
Optic Verve Strikes Back
Fantastic Four #527 Marvel Comics – J. Michael Straczynski (w); Mike McKone (p); Andy Lanning (i) I’ll be real honest: I’m not a huge JMS fan. The part of his work that the majority of… [more]
Mister Chon, Suddenly I Wish to Leave Your Island (A shrill partisan talks about Birth of a Nation)
Do comics have a liberal bias? This seems like a loaded question because most conservatives will tell you everything has a liberal bias (You know, not counting the Supreme Court, the FCC, our new electoral… [more]
A Trip to Sin City
Frank Miller is the man generally credited for taking Batman and returning the character to his roots (through his groundbreaking works The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One) as a take-no-prisoners hard-ass. For a… [more]
Do SexBots Dream of Electric Skeet? (Chon’s going to have apologize to his mommy after this one)
Remember when I said superhero comics shouldn’t lose their sense of wonder, because bad things happen? Well, um… yeah. Anyway, as you now know, Sue Dibny was brutally raped and murdered in a cheap shock… [more]
Call Samus Davis, Jr. He’ll vouch for me! (Your Humble Servant endorses The Cartoon History of the Universe)
Comics made me a smarter person. Not necessarily bragging here; it’s not as if I’d just said, “comics made me the smartest person in the world” (because my brain’s staggering capacity for intellectual growth at… [more]
The Last Comics Blotter
Comics Lit Spotlight in New York Times MagazineIf you are already a member or you don’t mind registering with the online version of New York Times Magazine, there is a great article by Charles McGrath… [more]