Don’t do it, don’t try it baby: Graeme gets suicidal.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 17, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Unlike Johanna, I had a couple of moments of unexpected disappointment with SUICIDE SQUAD: RAISE THE FLAG #1. The first was how much it centered around Rick Flag; sure, I knew that the title was a play on his name, and that the mini-series would revolve around his still being alive, but I had managed to convince myself that he’s still somehow not be much of a presence in the title itself until the end of the series, partially because I never really enjoyed Flag as a character – for me, Ostrander’s Suicide Squad never really became a must read until after his death – and partially because, with series like “The Search For Ray Palmer”, I thought missing characters…  Read More…

Johanna Reads Superheroes Again: Stormwatch, Gen13, Wonder Girl, Suicide Squad

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

What I Read This Week: Stormwatch PHD #11 — This is why I don’t care about keeping up with superhero comics. (You might have noticed my issues with timeliness.) As soon as I find one I like, they cancel it. This issue sets up next’s final with yet another bad guy attacking the heroes by striking at those close to them, and events happen in abbreviated fashion. The intriguing character interaction is undercut by boob-focused art when it comes to the female characters. (Gorgeous is less impressive as a bombshell if all the other women also have her exaggerated secondary sex characteristics, you know?) I’ll miss Black Betty and several of the others when they’re gone. Okay. Gen 13 #12…  Read More…

A Comic About Life Deserves a Post About Life: Jog on a 9/12 release

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

A new grocery store opened 15-20 minutes from my building today; it seemed like an excellent chance to sustain myself on free samples, and I was totally right. I couldn’t believe how many cheese samples they were working the floor with. I wound up buying some buffalo milk mozzarella, since I didn’t want to feel like a complete mooch. And the store didn’t tolerate antics, let me tell you – while I was in the ravioli sample line, a young boy jumped right to the front of the line, only for the ravioli sample man to ask sharply if his parents knew he was skipping in line. The boy’s mother then pulled him away as he shouted “YOU SAID WE…  Read More…

Right Through Sunday, I’m Bidin’ My Time: Graeme catches up on some books.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 16, 2007

Categories: Reviews

With vacation less than a week away – I know, you’re all as excited at the prospect of two weeks without me as I am at the prospect of two weeks in Europe – I’m clearing out the piles of things that’ve been waiting for me to review them for long times. Let’s start by being girlcrazy today, huh? CLUBBING: I keep seeing this referred to as the worst of the Minx books so far, and I think I’m on Earth-2. Don’t get me wrong; Josh Howard’s art is spectacularly unsuitable and almost sinks the book on its own, but I really, really enjoyed Andi Watson’s writing here. Not only does the bitchy narrator keep the whole thing moving (and…  Read More…

Johanna Squeaks at Mice Templar #1

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

People send me PDFs for review. Here’s my thoughts on one. Bear in mind that I use a laptop, so my screen space is minimal, and by the time I blow up the pages to be able to read the dialogue, I’m looking at individual panels, not full pages. It’s not the most ideal format, but it’s effectively free for both of us. I can’t help but compare Mice Templar to the earlier (and well-lauded) Mouse Guard. After all, they’re both about mice with swords and spears. David Petersen’s art is much more attractive, though, lending a storybook/fairy tale quality to the premise that helps with suspension of disbelief. Michael Avon Oeming’s mice, on the other hand, have outsized ears…  Read More…

Buck up, you melancholy Dane: Graeme gets with the Emperor from 9/12

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching “Slings and Arrows” on DVD recently – it being a Canadian drama about a Shakespearean drama festival and actors with issues and everything that comes along with that – but I feel as if X-MEN: EMPEROR VULCAN #1 has more than the usual (for comics) sense of The Bard in it. It’s in the expositionary scenes, I think. This book actually does that kind of thing relatively well; although I almost entirely missed the Ed Brubaker Uncanny run that set up this mini, I didn’t feel lost at all while reading this latest version of Space Opera that seems to be hitting both Marvel (Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest) and DC (Sinestro Corps) lately (Is…  Read More…

Johanna Bunts Potter’s Field

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

People send me PDFs for review. Here’s my thoughts on one. Bear in mind that I use a laptop, so my screen space is minimal, and by the time I blow up the pages to be able to read the dialogue, I’m looking at individual panels, not full pages. It’s not the most ideal format, but it’s effectively free for both of us. First up, Potter’s Field #1, Mark Waid’s first book from Boom! Studios now that he’s their Editor-in-Chief. It fits right in with their publications, reading more like a media project storyboard than a comic. The first five pages set up the premise, another twist on the “oddball solves murders” plot that’s so common in hour-long TV procedurals….  Read More…

I tried to meet you, I’ve been wrong: Graeme watches the fireworks from 9/12

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 15, 2007

Categories: Reviews

The strange thing about PARADE (WITH FIREWORKS) #1 is the sense of scale; this is a relatively small tale told against a large canvas, and despite the best efforts of Mike Cavallero, it reads as mismatched as that sounds. The problem isn’t with the plot – based on the real life experiences of one of Cavallero’s relatives – but with the way in which the plot is executed. After a promising prologue that suggests a more personal, internal, story than what we get – running through the history of one of the main characters in the main part of the first issue – we’re taken into a narrative that relies on a political background that gets no explanation whatsoever. Don’t…  Read More…

My Life is Choked with Comics #9 – Kill Your Boyfriend & Girl #1-3

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on September 14, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Hello to you all! I’d hoped to do it this week, but it seems next week I will begin slowly creeping backward towards the wee hours of Wednesday slot I’d originally planned for this column to run in. That’s a good sign of progress, in a sort of ‘supermarket having a sale to bump down the prices it just raised last month’ kind of way. So, in the spirit of a thrilling triple coupon discount effort, I’m happy to announce a very special feature for this week only (until I do it again). No bonus card required! It’s a little something I like to call: Involuntary reader participation!! You see, back in the very first installment of this column, I…  Read More…

Feminists and vegetarians: Graeme reviews some DC books from 9/12.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 13, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Continuing the apropos of nothing nature of my posts, I’d like to partially recind my WTF to Nellie McKay. Yes, she continues to play live in San Francisco when I’m on vacation and unable to see her, but having now heard her third album, I’m happy to report that the plot that she so spectacularly lost on the second album (If ever there was a second album that showed someone so flushed with success and thinking they could get away with anything, pushing away editors, it’s “Pretty Little Head”) has apparently been rediscovered; “Mother of Pearl” alone is worth the price of purchase. Also, Bob Dorough sings on one of the tracks! How can anyone have a problem with Bob…  Read More…

The Price of Blood: Douglas reads the POTTER’S FIELD of 9/12

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Posted by: admin on September 12, 2007

Categories: Reviews

The first issue of Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta’s POTTER’S FIELD doesn’t feel like the first issue of a miniseries, which is what it is, or like the first 22 pages of a 66-page story; it feels like an adaptation of the pilot episode of a TV show. The premise is that there’s an uncanny, one-step-ahead-of-you guy known only as John Doe, whose life’s work is figuring out the names of unknown people buried in the public cemetery on Hart Island, and scratching them into their numbered stone markers; he has operatives all over New York. Hour-long TV detective drama, right? Or maybe the sort of series of short stories that used to appear in the back pages of Ellery…  Read More…

Never to part since the day we met, down on interstate 91: Graeme looks for the Atom.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

I’m not dead; I missed Monday and Tuesday due to insanity at the day job that saw me pull 12-hour days without breaks and with stress that caused episodes that may have included vomit. That’s what I get for working as PR flack for Britney Spears in the shadow of her VMA performance, I guess. Nonetheless, COUNTDOWN PRESENTS THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER: WILDSTORM is pretty much of a wasted opportunity. I know, I know; you kids are reading this and all “Dude! Where was the opportunity in this cynical cash-in to a flawed mini-series that you’re always complaining about?” (Admittedly, you may not be using those exact words, but still), but here’s where I get optimistic about what the…  Read More…

Hi, I’m Abhay; Here’s Part One of a Review of Runoff, and Part One of an Interview with Runoff creator Tom Manning

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on

Categories: Interviews , Reviews

Hello. This is part one of a review of Runoff, a horror-comedy, funny-animal, monster, all-ages gore comic mash-up from Tom Manning, published by OddGod Press. Runoff is comprised in its entirety (beginning, middle and end) of three “Chapters” — softbound graphic novels running 144 to 176 pages each. In total, roughly 456 pages of black and white comics (eventually plus greytones), drawn over the course of ~8 years. The book is set in a small, isolated town somewhere in the Pacific Northwest named Range, and the central mystery of the book is as follows: Range has been afflicted by a condition where people can enter into Range from the outside world but no one in Range can leave. Small towns…  Read More…

Arriving 9/12/07

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Posted by: admin on September 11, 2007

Categories: Shipping Lists

Looks like a much more “normal sized” week to me. 100 BULLETS #85 (RES) 2000 AD #1551 2000 AD #1552 AGE OF BRONZE #26 AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #12 BAD PLANET #3 (OF 6) (RES) BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #9 BATMAN STRIKES #37 BETTY #168 BLACK ADAM THE DARK AGE #2 (OF 6) BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #129 BOOSTER GOLD #2 BPRD KILLING GROUND #2 (OF 5) CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #17 CASANOVA #9 CASTLE WAITING VOL II #8 COMPASS #1 COUNTDOWN 33 COUNTDOWN SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER WILDSTORM #1 COVER GIRL #5 (OF 5) CTHULHU TALES TAINTED ONE SHOT DAREDEVIL WRAPAROUND #100 DMZ #23 DRAFTED #1 FABLES #65 FALLEN ANGEL IDW #20 FANTASTIC FIVE #5 (OF 5) FEAR AGENT LAST GOODBYE #3 FINAL…  Read More…

He Worshipped A Dark and Vengeful God: Jeff Looks At Spidey, Sweeney, and Others.

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on September 10, 2007

Categories: Reviews

I’d planned for a longer intro but, wow, work is busting my ass today. Anyway, here’s some reviews of comics and not-comics with love from me to you:   AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #544: Is it just me, or does Joe Quesada’s art here have a deeply strange nose fixation? Check out that first panel of page three where Peter’s well-detailed schnoz utterly throws off the visual line of the storytelling, for example. In fact, the most dramatic page in the story–Peter’s webbing of Iron Man–is notable for being the only page except for the first without a nose. Surely that’s no accident? The other odd thing about the issue is the cover: between it and the preview of next issue’s on…  Read More…

Men Who Dress Fine for Fancy Beatings: Jog covers fighting spirits from 9/6

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

I’ll start with what’s by far the most fashion-forward comic of the week, keeping in mind that I didn’t buy The Black Canary Wedding Planner… Wolverine #57: Howard Chaykin almost stopped my heart this issue; for a split second, I seriously thought he had Wolverine looking for trouble on the mean streets of Iraq in a mesh t-shirt. That may sound unbelievable, but when you realize that Chaykin has also clothed Logan’s Atlantean lover/partner Amir in a battle ensemble that’s mainly composed of leather straps, and has decked out the henchmen of new villainous organization Scimitar in Phantom Blot body stockings with thigh-high red chrome boots and knobs on their ears, clearly anything is possible. Sadly, it soon becomes clear…  Read More…

-ism, -ism, -ism: Hibbs talks 9/6

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

This was definitely BKV’s week, as he comes out with a comic that’s most-likely to be the best-selling thing he has ever written, as well as a getting even closer to the end of his personal magnum opus. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT #6: As much as I liked Whedon’s first five issues, I’m going to commit a little heresy and suggest that I liked BKV’s first even more — crisp action, nice plot movement, and snappy dialog (I thought that Faith and Gile’s voices were pitch-perfect — I could easily hear Dushku and Head’s intonations in every line). If you were thinking “Oh, I can drop this now that it isn’t Whedon”, I’d say think again — this…  Read More…

WTF, Nellie McKay?: Graeme doesn’t explain the title, but reviews DCs from 9/6.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 9, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way first: There is no reason for the BLACK CANARY WEDDING PLANNER to exist. I mean, ignoring the obvious cash-grab element and desire for DC to try and fill the shelves as much as possible, of course, this is a book that seems to have been brought about purely out of a desire to – as editor Jann Jones has said at numerous occasions – create the girliest comic possible. It’s not the girliest comic ever, if you’re really wondering. It’s also remarkably slight – there’s nothing resembling a real plot here, beyond “Dinah has to organize her wedding! Oh noes!” and even that gets no kind of resolution whatsoever, because –…  Read More…

And it works: Graeme gets Amazing from 9/6.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 8, 2007

Categories: Reviews

I’ve said it before – and always about this title, weirdly enough – but the downside of solicitations for books three months in advance, and the ever-increasing lead-time of the news cycle, is that the comics themselves seem to become more and more of an afterthought. Take THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #544, for example, the first part of the once-weekly, now-taking-place-over-three-months-ly “One More Day” crossover. Despite all the hype about the storyline, it’s completely anti-climactic; not only have we seen the one action sequence in the book in previews for the last, what, four months or so, but the entire storyline feels like something that we have to suffer through before we get to the relaunch storyline of “Brand New Day”…  Read More…

Peggy Bundy Hated Labor Day Too: Diana on 9/5

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

I agree with Graeme that there’s something transparently jingoistic about CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE CHOSEN #1, from its over-the-top cover to its horrendously cliche dialogue – seriously, some of David Morrell’s lines could give “DO YOU THINK THIS A ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE?” a run for its money. There’s a considerable gap between the serious issues Morrell is trying to raise (ie: if you’re a soldier in a foreign war zone, will you always recognize your enemies when you see them?) and the simplistic, ethnocentric We Are Right And They Are Wrong Because We Are America way in which these issues are raised. Given that David Morrell created Rambo, I don’t know that we should’ve expected anything more, but…  Read More…

More like Chekhov’s Seagull than Steven’s Seagal: Jeff reviews Exit Wounds.

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on September 7, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Let me cut straight to the chase: Rutu Modan’s EXIT WOUNDS is one of the best graphic novels I’ve read this year and I’m kinda surprised it hasn’t gotten more online coverage. I’m trying to think why that might be–perhaps some perfect storm of unfamiliar creator, pricey packaging and lousy title? (Thanks to the miracle that is Steven Seagal, I was instantly put off by this title. Those of you working on the indy graphic novels “Fire Down Below,” “Today You Die,” and “Half Past Dead,” take warning.) I can see why that might be the case, although it’s deceptive in all particulars: Rutu Modan, although not a household name over here, has a long career over in Israel and…  Read More…