Don’t make me bored, you wouldn’t like me when I’m bored: Graeme doesn’t dig Hulk.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on January 13, 2008

Categories: Reviews

It’s probably sad to point out that HULK #1 marks the point where Jeph Loeb has started recycling Al Milgrom plots, but I am a man cursed with a long memory for off-periods of Marvel history. But still, despite the seeming return of the Rick Jones Hulk – Didn’t Rick die, on panel, in World War Hulk, or am I misremembering? – and the (unfulfilled) potential for big dumb visuals, this comic ends up feeling much more flat than it should. Part of that is that, for all the ideas that feel as if they should be popping, none of them are actually taken anywhere new. A Hulk shooting bad guys with a massive gun? Not only does it sound…  Read More…

Here Comes Everyone: A Quick Bit of (Kinda) Self-Promotion.

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Posted by: admin on January 11, 2008

Categories: Site News

Yeah, “kinda,” because is it really self-promotion if you’re promoting the people that you work with on this here blog. (Answer: Duh, of course it is!) First, in case you missed it, essays from both Abhay and Jog were mentioned(repeatedly) in Chris Mautner’s excellent round-up of the best comics criticism of 2007 over at Blog@. Then, Johanna’s fine blog, comicsworthreading.com, got name-checked by Newsweek magazine in its article on Wonder Woman (which, unfortunately, has one of the stupidest titles I’ve ever read). Finally, there’s a blissfully long interview with Graeme conducted by Tom Spurgeon over at The Comics Reporter. (And The Comics Reporter has been exceptional lately, I think: even before it’s accidental holiday hiatus, it was bursting with amaazing…  Read More…

Abhay Tries Writing About James Sturm & Rich Tommaso’s Satchel Paige: Striking out Jim Crow

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on

Categories: Reviews

I. I first heard of James Sturm with the positive reception of The Golem’s Mighty Swing, his 2001 comic about an all-Jewish baseball team lost in America during the 1920′s. Sturm followed it with Unstable Molecules, an odd sort-of Fantastic Four comic but one transformed by Sturm and collaborator Guy Davis to elaborate upon themes from Golem: families struggling to stay together, families splintering apart; intersections between myth and reality; an America that seems to promise greatness if only just out of reach; grasping characters longing to escape from rural/suburban areas/their identities in society; et cetera. Sturm’s latest comic is a collaboration with Rich Tommaso entitled Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. It’s “presented by” Sturm’s new school dedicated to…  Read More…

Groundhog Day: Douglas reads ASM

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Posted by: Douglas Wolk on

Categories: Reviews

I’m probably a pretty decent test case for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546, since I haven’t read a non-Ultimate series about Spider-Man regularly in many years, am fond of high-speed serialization in theory, enjoy Steve McNiven’s artwork (particularly for action scenes), and don’t have strong feelings about this particular continuity revision beyond my general distaste for it-was-all-a-dream soft reboots. (I should also note that the initial rumor I’d heard about the upshot of One More Day–about a year ago–was that it was going to reboot the entire 616 universe, the way Marv Wolfman intended to have Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot the DCU.) Jumping-on points? I’m all for ‘em. So I’ve jumped on, and… it’s Okay, but I don’t think this is…  Read More…

Brand New Year, apparently: Graeme, Spidey return.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on January 10, 2008

Categories: Reviews

“You missed One More Day!” This was Hibbs, yesterday, when I went into pick up the books I’ve missed during my three weeks away from everything. And it’s true, I did miss One More Day… or, at least, the end of it, the part that we all knew was coming and still managed to want to read nonetheless. I can’t quite work out if I’m sad about that or not – Having kept track of all the upset, melodrama and gossip that’s spun out of the damn thing, I kind of feel as if I’ve managed to read it after all, as if there was some kind of geek osmosis that gave me One More Day cooties through the internet…  Read More…

We Found It: Jog scratches up some 1/9

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

Note that while the images I’m posting in the following review are in b&w, the actual comic is in full Laura Allred color. I just can’t seem to find any color preview material, save for the Nick Cardy/Dave Stewart cover. To wit: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual: This was originally known as the Teen Titans Swingin’ Elseworlds Special, back in 2003 when it was first expected for release. The story and art were complete at that time, but the material was nonetheless denied publication for reasons that remain somewhat vague to this day. Penciller Jay Stephens has recently cited the dialing down of the Elseworlds line and a potential for confusion with the contemporaneous launch of the Geoff Johns-written Titans…  Read More…

New Year, Old School — Hibbs on 1/9/08

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Reviews

I’ve been meaning to do an “old school” style Savage Critic for a while now, but keep running out of time at the end of each day. So today, I thought I’d try instead of reading everything, then writing it all up, that I’d write-as-I-go, in between helping customers (it’s a slow day too, so I guess that works out). Hopefully this won’t suck too hard… This is pretty properly “old school” too in that I’m just writing up my reaction to the work presented, rather than actually reviewing anything, or being a “critic” — most things will have two sentences or less. Its been a good long while since I’ve tried it this way, so be sure to tell…  Read More…

Arriving 1/9/2008

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on January 7, 2008

Categories: Shipping Lists

Comics are finally back to Wednesday, hurrah! Another tiny little week, however…. 52 AFTERMATH THE FOUR HORSEMEN #6 (OF 6)A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #73 (A) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546 BNDARCHIE #581ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #185BAT LASH #2 (OF 6)BATMAN STRIKES #41BOYS #14 BPRD 1946 #1CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #21CORY DOCTOROWS FUTURISTIC TALES HERE AND NOW #4 (OF 6)COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 16EVIL DEAD #1 (OF 4)EXTERMINATORS #25 FALL OF CTHULHU CVR A #9FOUNDATION #1 (OF 5) (RES)GEN 13 #16GENE SIMMONS DOMINATRIX #6GHOST RIDER #19GOON #20GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #4GREEN LANTERN CORPS #20GRIMM FAIRY TALES RETURN TO WONDERLAND #5 (OF 6)HICKEE VOL 3 #4 HULK #1INDIA AUTHENTIC GARUDA #8INFINITE HORIZON #2 (OF 6)INFINITY INC #5JENNA JAMESONS SHADOW HUNTER #0 JLA CLASSIFIED #50JOHN…  Read More…

Johanna Does DC: Atom, Supergirl, JLAC, Teen Titans

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

All-New Atom #19 — A classic fill-in issue, with the first page featuring the hero thinking about all the things going on in the “regular” title storyline, before the rest of the book becomes about an unrelated adventure. Some have of his buddies have been exploring an abandoned mine, and they haven’t returned in days. The Atom goes after them, with text lumps conveniently explaining heavy-handed plot needs to keep the story going: the radio must not work at that depth, no one can excavate because the ground gives way, and so on. A scary underground inbred community living like its the 1800s has already been done, and much better, by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving in Klarion the Witch…  Read More…

Letting The Days Go By: This Is Not Diana’s Beautiful Comic, 1/3

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Posted by: admin on January 4, 2008

Categories: Reviews

I hate to kick a man when he’s down (because, really, Chris Claremont couldn’t be any further down at this point), but EXILES: DAYS OF THEN AND NOW presents the perfect argument to avoid the upcoming NEW EXILES relaunch. I’m going to expose a bit of a bias on my part here: in earlier times, Judd Winick’s EXILES was my favorite X-book. Yes, even more than Morrison’s NEW X-MEN. To this day, I think of EXILES as the last truly good book Winick ever wrote: the characters were dynamic and engaging, the line-up was fluid and changed frequently, the premise allowed for some interesting use of the old “What If” scenario, and the pace allowed an occasional introspective issue. The…  Read More…

A Plug, A Random Observation and A Question From Jeff…

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on January 3, 2008

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy New Year, everyone! Kinda got a couple things on my plate but I did want to direct your attention, in case you missed it, to the recent launch of io9.com, a sci-fi blog run by some of CE’s favorite people–Annalee Newitz, Charlie Anders, and Wassisname McMillan covering comics. Mr. Ellis didn’t like it too much, nor did Mojo, but I think it’s a fun little nerd culture blog that promises to feed me some thoughtful stuff to go along with my fix of “wait, Tyler Perry is in the new Star Trek?!” news. In other news, I’m just getting over that stomach flu that’s been going around, and recommend if you get a chance to watch the first season…  Read More…

Douglas raises a toast to 2008

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Posted by: admin on January 2, 2008

Categories: Retailing/Industry

I recently put together a list of some of the graphic novels/squarebound comics coming out in 2008 that sound potentially interesting to me, but I figured it might be helpful or interesting for other people too. Please note that this list is incomplete, and that there are a lot of publishers whose release schedules I don’t have; if I left something off, that’s not an indication that I’m not looking forward to it. (And if I’ve gotten something wrong, please write or comment and correct me.) Also note that I’ve only included books whose release dates have been announced somewhere–in most cases Amazon, sometimes Read Yourself Raw or elsewhere–to within a month. (So Kramers Ergot 7, one of the forthcoming…  Read More…