ON COMICS CHARACTERS
ON SCI-FI FRANCHISES
ON GRANT MORRISON
ON TV AND MOVIES
OTHER BOOKS
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Search Results for:
The Big Bang Theory and Geek Culture
Geeks have become a spectacle. Right now being a geek is considered cool. It’s considered fairly trendy. Very few people who self-identify as geeks are the real deal. This statement may cause all sorts of… [more]
Beware the Batman Episode 3 Review
So I’m three episodes into this show and I’m just now finding out that Tatsu Yamashiro, who Alfred has put forth as Bruce Wayne’s new bodyguard, is actually the DC Comics character Katana. And to… [more]
An Unknown Soldier in an Unknown War: Joshua Dysart’s Unknown Soldier Issue #3
An exploration of the Unknown Soldier’s meta-mythology about war and the individual. Joshua Dysart reboots the franchise in Uganda. [more]
The Power Cosmic Screams: The Death of Reality in Sandman #56
The Worlds’ End Inn: here, reality goes to die. That is the conclusion one can draw after finishing Sandman #56. Existing outside of time, this nexus of infinite zeitgeist is constantly being remade and destroyed… [more]
Escaping the Cage: Martin Vaughn-James’s The Cage and the Question of Comics
In comics studies, there is a great interest in defining what exactly constitutes a comic. Scott McCloud famously begins his Understanding Comics by trying to define exactly what we can and what we cannot consider… [more]
Stop Sexually Assaulting Women at Cons!
Convention season has become a really sad time for me. What was once a fun, light gathering of comics fans has become a Bingo card of sexual assault. Women of a sadly growing number are… [more]
Fight Comics: Burn the Orphanage #2
I should have really liked Burn the Orphanage more than I did. But I am, as always, getting ahead of myself. The second oversized – and a bit overpriced – issue of Sina Grace and Daniel Freedman’s… [more]
Maybe this Franchise Thing is Out of Control
It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when super-hero movies were few and far between. Now, they’re so ubiquitous that even super-hero fans worry there are too many. Marvel’s had success tying movies… [more]
Phony Beatlemania: Zombies, Nostalgia, and Satire in Al Ewing and Henry Flint’s Zombo: You Smell of Crime and I’m the Deodorant
One of my favorite moments in Al Ewing and Henry Flint’s 2000 AD serial Zombo takes place when the titular character – a half human / half zombie hybrid created by the British government to… [more]
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Review
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Story by: L. Frank Baum Written by: Eric Shanower Art by: Skottie Young Cover by: Skottie Young Rating: 8 (of 10) Of all the contemporary and modern American fantasy and… [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Two (or, The British Invader Who Stayed Home)
Believe it or not, I’ve never known a John Smith. They say it’s the most common male name in the English language, but seriously — I never went to school with one. I’ve never worked… [more]
Harley Quinn #1 Review
With last month’s zero issue restoring my – and no doubt many other people’s – faith in the Harley Quinn character, as presented in DC’s new continuity, this month’s issue was eagerly anticipated. And it… [more]
On Comic Book Adaptations
This article isn’t about comic book movies. Quite the opposite in fact. What follows is a semi-directionless musing on why there are so few good comic books that adapt their stories from books and movies.… [more]
On “The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas”
Surely among the least-known early Transformers comics, “The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas” appeared in the 26 December 1985 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. The four-page story wasn’t an insert; it was printed on page… [more]
Flowers, Fire, and Dreams in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Overture #1, Part 3
The next segment of The Sandman Overture Issue #1 doesn’t have a very auspicious beginning. Pages twenty-five and twenty-six open up into a spread with Morpheus flying towards his Castle and his Dreaming kingdom: now… [more]
Batman: Noël — The Redemptive Dickensian Drama
It’s not uncommon this time of year to hear the phrase “holiday cheer” being thrown around. It’s a nebulous saying, undefined, and passed around like an offering plate collecting alms for the poor. In our… [more]
On Shia LaBeouf: An Explanation, but Not an Excuse
Recently, one of the big comics news stories involves actor Shia LaBeouf and his adaptation antics. To review: LaBeouf produced a short film titled HowardCantour.com, starring the fine comedian Jim Gaffigan and presented it at… [more]
Why We Shouldn’t Have to Play Detective When it Comes to “DB,” or Why Douchebags Need to Be Named and Shamed
On December 18th, MariNaomi, author of Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22, posted an article on popular feminist website xoJane.com. It detailed how she was publicly humiliated and heckled by a heterosexual man… [more]
Alan Moore and Super-Heroes, Part 5: Caveats Galore
Continued from last week. Perhaps at this point, I really ought to begin another round of caveats. First, I don’t regard the super-hero fans I’m describing as “emotionally subnormal,” nor do I think they’re representative… [more]
Colloquium #6: The Monster that Wears Our Face — Mike Carey on Suicide Risk
Markisan interviews Mike Carey on Suicide Risk, his ongoing superhero series for BOOM! Studios. They discuss the epic scope of the book, the possibility of a Careyverse, and how real people would react if they ever got… [more]
Chronocops! – An Alan Moore Time Twister, Part 3
A Link in Comic Book History As Lance Parkin correctly states: “A lot of Alan Moore’s work is concerned with the history of comics – subverting it, redefining it, challenging it, or often just celebrating… [more]
The Village Voice Names Sequart’s Curing the Postmodern Blues One of the Year’s Best Graphic Novels
Even though Curing the Postmodern Blues: Reading Grant Morrison and Chris Weston’s The Filth in the 21st Century isn’t a graphic novel, the legendary taste-making newspaper The Village Voice named it one of the best… [more]
Beware the Batman Episode 2 Review
A few weeks ago, I weighed in on the first episode of Beware the Batman, the Batman franchise’s current animated iteration. The new series features a younger Bruce Wayne entering into his crime-fighting career with… [more]
Steel Sinews: Sex and the Super-Hero
There’s a moment in Cable and X-Force #5 where Dennis Hopeless’s script introduces some foreplay between mutants Colossus and Domino. Poor Piotr Rasputin has been experiencing some control issues recently as a result of being… [more]
Our Dearly Departed: Mortality and Death in “Cerements”
There is an inside joke at the beginning of Hamlet that few catch. Shakespeare, well known for his wit and narrative charm, deals with religion quite frequently in his plays. This is to be expected… [more]