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Marlon Brando and the Problems with Collective Cartooning
In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud defines the act of cartooning as “amplification through simplification.” In other words, a cartoon ignores most of the details, focusing instead on only one or two key components. In the… [more]
Media and Conflict: Reflections on the Centenary of WWI
Today, as I write this, it is 4 August 2014, the centenary of WWI. Or, as I prefer to conceptualize it as a historian, Act I in a Century of Tragedy. Niall Ferguson calls it… [more]
On Black Jesus: Adult Swim’s Reimagining of the Messiah
I wasn’t surprised to see that late night programmer Adult Swim was going to put on a show called Black Jesus. I’ve been watching the network since my early teens (now about 10 years), recalling… [more]
Basic Instructions Creator Now Writes Novels
Many of you Sequart readers already know Scott Meyer from his popular webcomic Basic Instructions. The comic is thoroughly venerable by internet standards, having written and posted it since 2003. Here is a fairly typical… [more]
Comic Con Discoveries Part 1: The Goon and The Guns of Shadow Valley
I picked up several comics at the recent San Diego Comic Con, so I’m having a look that them all as I get some good reading time. All of these comics are first-time reads for… [more]
Only Humanoid: The Jodorowsky Paradox
The Incal Writer: Alexandro Jodorowsky Artist: Jean Giraud Watching Jodorowsky’s Dune (an excellent documentary about the never completed adaptation of the Science Fiction classic into film) I was struck by how good it appears to… [more]
So Long and Thanks for all the Apes
I just had to write a fitting send-off to the Planet of the Apes series. I recap, rank, and reminisce these wonderful films. I also do that for the duds. But lets focus on the wonderful aspect. [more]
Andre the Giant: A Modest Graphic Novel about a Giant Man
They call it “the business”. That’s the first thing I learned in the wonderful new comic about the life of one of the 20th century’s famous wrestlers. It’s not “the sport”, because that would open… [more]
Borgman: Mysteriously Effective
Everything about Borgman feels muffled. Like glimpsing a striking image through a foggy haze. Or hearing a catchy song muffled by feedback and noise. The movie relies on this atmosphere. One can’t feasibly be divorced… [more]
“Up Onto The Overturned Keel Clamber, With A Heart Of Steel…”: The History Channel’s Vikings and Hyperreal Heathenry
The French postmodern philosopher Baudrillard I believe would have found the History channel’s Vikings to be very interesting. Particularly in light of some of the ideas he espoused in his work Simulacra and Simulation. You… [more]
It’s Okay to Criticize Guardians of the Galaxy
I read Julian Darius’ essay on Guardians of the Galaxy with great interest, just as I read Stephanie Zacharek’s review of the same film. Both of them have come under fire on social media (Julian’s… [more]
“Why Try to Create a New God?”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 30
Continued from last week. But for all the carelessness and clumsiness of Millar’s scripts, his and Morrison’s Swamp Thing consistently displays a deliberate and serious moral purpose. Indeed, the comic persistently plays out two quite… [more]
A Much Longer Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: On Reading The Star Wars
Star Wars began for me in the toy section of an old five and dime store called TG&Y. It was there I discovered a whole collection of new and unusual looking figures—“dolls” as my Arkansas… [more]
We are the Candy Bars of Pop Culture: Guardians of the Galaxy Broke Something in Me
I just can’t take it anymore. I know we’re in a new age of Hollywood spectacle, in which intelligence is largely relegated to a few TV shows, and viewers feel there’s no point shelling out… [more]
Outsourcing War and Profiteer Heroism in the Jacamons’ Cyclops
The Jacamons’ Cyclops is a science-fiction war thriller about a world where wars are delegated to private mercenary companies and televised for entertainment. Gruesome, amoral, but close to home with the modern reliance on mercenaries, the progress of communication technologies including helmet-cams, and the rising popularity of reality television. [more]
A Sandman Miscellany: Sandman Overture #3 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 Since its genesis in the long distant past of December 2013,… [more]
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]