The Suppleness of Shame: Jeff Looks at Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 4

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 30, 2008

Categories: Reviews

The fourth and final volume of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus suggests the editorial staff at DC are either far ballsier, craftier, or more ignorant of the material than I thought: although printing four titles in the order of their publication (instead of grouping them by title) did a superb job of initially highlighting Kirby’s protean imagination, reading the first 250 pages of the fourth volume is like watching the weakening death throes of a formerly-powerful animal: it’s awesome in a truly depressing way. The schema had been problematic before Volume Four: the arrangement strips the first seven issues of Forever People–basically one sprawling epic on its own–of any momentum, putting seventy pages of material between one cliffhanger and another….  Read More…

Abhay Continues to Read Blue Beetle; Episode II

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on April 29, 2008

Categories: Reviews

This is part two of an irregular multiple part series of essays looking at the first 25 issues of the BLUE BEETLE comic book series, recently published by DC Comics. Part One– a statement of intentions and a look at the first issue of the series– can be found HERE. This installment will look at BLUE BEETLE issues #2-6. I. The first full storyline of the comic is about Blue Beetle’s confrontation with his first set of antagonists. Blue Beetle’s “secret identity” is a Mexican-American teenager. So… the first challenge he has to face? A street gang. Named the Posse. Race is a motherfucker. It’s a tough issue to deal with in any capacity, and I appreciate that the writers…  Read More…

Week 103: One More Year Later

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Posted by: Douglas Wolk on

Categories: Reviews

It’s almost a year after 52 ended–as of this Wednesday and DCU Zero, the next cycle of DCU stuff is about to begin, and I’m a lot more curious about that than I was about virtually anything in the Countdown era. (The line in this week’s DC Nation column about how Countdown‘s goals “met with various levels of success” is a delicate way of putting it.) But before that starts, I thought I’d take one more look at the afterlife of the series I spent a year writing about. 52 opened up a bunch of possibilities, opportunities and resources for the DCU setting, and the last year has not been kind to many of them. Here’s what’s happened with each…  Read More…

Arriving 4/30/08

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 28, 2008

Categories: Shipping Lists

In good news, on Round 2 of the SF public school lottery, Ben got into the A#1 school we wanted him to get into, so there’s happy happy happy dancing all around. In the mediocre news, its yet another small teeny week of comics. Considering this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, can I declare THE ENTIRE COMICS INDUSTRY as the ASSHAT OF THE WEEK? It really woulda been a smarter idea to have a rich and full week of comics this week, given that we’ll have thousands of civilians pouring into DM stores, right? *sigh* 2000 AD #1581 2000 AD #1582 ACTION COMICS #864 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #557 ARCHIE #584 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #188 AVENGERS INITIATIVE #12 BIG AMOEBA ONE…  Read More…

Count this!

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Posted by: admin on April 23, 2008

Categories: Retailing/Industry , Reviews

Haven’t done a proper comic book “review” in a really long time, and despite being swamped with getting ONOMATOPOEIA done this week, and having to make a serious dent in the new order form, I thought I’d jump back in here for a minute. I’m reasonably sure that better writers than myself will tackle the complexities and joys that were COUNTDOWN (I’m especially waiting for Chris Eckert’s deconstruction — Downcounting, when he wrote it, was WONDERFUL), but in the meantime you can deal with my bleating. DC has had a pretty bad last two years. Their editorial vision has been, in my humble opinion, horrifically broken, and, more importantly, completely and utterly out of touch of the interests of the…  Read More…

Arriving 4/23/2008

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 22, 2008

Categories: Shipping Lists

Here’s what we’re getting this week… I’m going to go ahead and assume that next week is going to be a ball-breaker, then… 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS ADVENTURES OF SINBAD #0 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #79 (A) ARMY OF DARKNESS XENA WHY NOT #2 (OF 4) BART SIMPSON COMICS #41BATMAN #675BETTY & VERONICA #235BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #160BIRDS OF PREY #117CHECKMATE #25COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 1DARKNESS VS EVA #2 (OF 4) DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #8 (OF 8)DYNAMO 5 #12FABLES #72 FALL OF CTHULHU #11 CVR AFALLEN ANGEL IDW #26 GODLAND #22HACK SLASH SERIES #11 SEELEY CVR A HULK #3HULK VS HERCULES WHEN TITANS COLLIDEINDIA AUTHENTIC #12 ANDHAKA INJURY COMICS #2 JIM BUTCHERS DRESDEN FILES #1 (OF 4)…  Read More…

This Place Is Killing Me: Graeme reviews 4/16

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

Was it just me, or were this week’s comics kind of… bad? Not even enjoyably so, just very run of the mill and lacking in joy. Maybe that’s a sign that I’m reading the wrong comics (And somewhere, Alan David Doane cheers in agreement), but still. Where are the smiles, people? Where is the awesome? Be warned: I spoil Captain Marvel’s big reveal under the jump, and the end of Countdown #2. Don’t come complaining to me when you find out what happens to Darkseid. THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #12: With the news that Mark Waid’s leaving the book with #16, I kind of despair about the lack of success of such a straight-ahead, basic fun superhero book as…  Read More…

WHY DO NERDY THINGS WORK? ABHAY REREADS BLUE BEETLE, EPISODE I

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on April 19, 2008

Categories: Reviews

This is the first part of an irregular, multipart series on issues #1 to #25 of the Blue Beetle series published by DC Comics. The John Rogers “era” of BLUE BEETLE ended recently with issue #25. Keith Giffen had left his position as co-writer of the recently launched book more than a year earlier. Artist Rafael Albuquerque is staying with the book, apparently– he’d replaced Cully Hamner, the artist who’d launched the series before moving on to some bigger, better deal, if I can accidentally quote the 1984 USA Up All Night shit-fest, HARDBODIES. The overarching origin story that Rogers-Giffen started in issue #1 and drove the first two years of the book also concluded in #25. I hadn’t picked…  Read More…

NYCC: The Dream

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Uncategorized

One of the big downsides of being sick is that you sleep a lot, but you’re not really sleeping WELL — tossing and turning all night long, waking up in pain, and the latest one, now that the antibiotics have started to work, the pain in the tonsils has switched to a sinus drip in the back of the throat, so that sleeping at night is sort of like being slowly waterboarded in your sleep. Joy. But, last night I finally had like 6 solid hours of REM sleep, and what do you know I dream about a comics convention. Actually, it was more like New York City itself had been turned INTO a giant comics convention, because my dream…  Read More…

Tonsillitis

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 18, 2008

Categories: Uncategorized

Tuesday, while I was in the middle of pulling the comics, I started to get chills, then fever, then chills again, and I was feeling very logy. When I got home Tuesday night, I passed out for nearly 24 hours. On Wednesday, the searing throat pain began, and the only reason I didn’t sleep continuously for the next 24 hours was that pain. Thursday I finally went to a doctor — Tonsillitis is the verdict and anti-biotics should knock it back fairly soon, but if you wonder why I’ve been completely silent here (and only writing Priority One emails), its because I feel like someone stuck a rusty dagger in my mouth, and really all I want to do is…  Read More…

Arriving 4/16/2008

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 14, 2008

Categories: Shipping Lists

Small week for tax time! 100 BULLETS #90 2000 AD #1579 2000 AD #1580 76 #3 (OF 8) ANNIHILATION CONQUEST #6 (OF 6)ARCHIE & FRIENDS #118ARCHIE DIGEST #243ARMY OF DARKNESS #8 LONG ROAD HOMEATOMIC ROCKET GROUP 66 #1 AVENGERS CLASSIC #11AVENGERS INITIATIVE #11BAD PLANET #5 (OF 12) BADGER SAVES THE WORLD #5 (OF 5)BAT LASH #5 (OF 6)BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #6BATMAN STRIKES #44BOY WHO MADE SILENCE #2 BRAVE AND THE BOLD #12CAPTAIN ACTION #0 GULACY CVR CAPTAIN AMERICA #37CAPTAIN MARVEL #5 (OF 5) SIICATWOMAN #78COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 2CTHULHU TALES #1 CVR BDAMNED PRODIGAL SONS #1 (OF 3)DARKNESS #3 KEOWN CVR A DC WILDSTORM DREAMWAR #1 (OF 6)DEADWORLD FROZEN OVER #2 (OF 4) DMZ #30 DOCTOR WHO #3FEAR AGENT…  Read More…

Diana Goes Digital #5: You Spin Me Right Round

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Posted by: admin on April 12, 2008

Categories: Reviews

Sorry for the hold-up, but I’ve been locked in a cosmic battle between good and evil for the past few weeks (I’ll let you guys decide which side I was on). No quarter was asked, none was given, and mark my words, I will get Vista off my computer. If I made it through Rob Liefeld’s heyday without having my eyes poked out by Cable’s pointy feet, I can beat my husband’s fascination with transparent windows… Anyway, I thought we’d take a look at spin-offs today. It’s hardly a foreign concept in the biz: every X-MEN eventually begets a NEW MUTANTS (though, like Pringles and Lolcats, it rarely stops with just one). When they’re done properly, spin-offs are a welcome…  Read More…

Around the Store in 31 Days: Day Nineteen

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Reviews

Enough of the creator shelves for a while, how about we move on to “Art instruction and comics careers” Here’s one where I AM going to go with the “obvious” pick. There are some terrific books on “how to draw” or even “how to approach a comics page” — Burne Hogarth’s DYNAMIC… (ANATOMY, WRINKLES & DRAPERY, FIGURE DRAWING, etc etc) series, Will Eisner’s COMICS & SEQUENTIAL ART or GRAPHIC STORYTELLING, and so on, but there’s one book that I think that each and every comics reader in the world, whether or not they have the SLIGHTEST interest in ever drawing a single comic ever, really should have on their bookshelf: UNDERSTANDING COMICS by Scott McCloud. McCloud’s book is just as…  Read More…

Around the Store in 31 Days: Day Eighteen

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 10, 2008

Categories: Reviews

And today’s “Creator shelf” is Grant Morrison. (I don’t know if this image link thing will work — first time I’ve tried it, but I’m linking from our own site, so I’m guessing it will?) (That was a Thanksgiving window display we did several years ago. The art is by Christopher Hsiang) But, actually, like most of the previous “creator shelf” entries, I won’t go with the obvious choice of DOOM PATROL (or ANIMAL MAN or THE INVISIBLES)(though if FLEX MENTALLO was in print, that would probably be the one…) for multi-volume series or THE FILTH or WE3 for single-volume picks, though each and every one of those is really excellent comics work! No, trying to stay on the “obscure”…  Read More…

Conformity 4/9: Jog obeyed every law in the course of obtaining this comic

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

Criminal Vol. 2 #2: Things are coming together pretty nicely. And if that sounds like I’m treating this issue as more of a chapter in a continuing serial than another standalone tale of crime, rest assured that I’m only putting it in the context of its strengths. Sure, you can take this particular book as a one-off thing – there’s a beginning, middle and end, and whatnot. The plot concerns Teeg Lawless, #1 Dad, and his thrilling adventures in the city after getting back from Vietnam in ’72. He can barely look at his wife, the drink has sent his mind flickering, he’s deep in debt to some bad characters, and the big score he’s counting on is bound to…  Read More…

Around the Store in 31 Days: Day Seventeen

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 9, 2008

Categories: Reviews

Continuing the creator racks, we’re on Frank Miller. Again, there’s some stupidly obvious choices here: SIN CITY, BATMAN: YEAR ONE, DAREDEVIL (though much of it is OOP), DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, but I’m going to go with a slightly less obvious one here: HARDBOILED Created with Geof Darrow in 1992, HARDBOILED is a masterpiece of over-the-top detail and carnage. Really the star here is Darrow, with more detail-per-square-inch than any five other comics combined. There are pages here you can stare at for five minutes each, pulling out details. There’s a level of outrageous here that I’d never seen before in a comic before this — where crazy background details do more for world-building than anything previous. And there’s a crazy…  Read More…

Why I sometimes think about going to a high point with a sniper rifle….

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

THis is like pissing in the wind — after all, it is WIZARD I’m talking about, but I’m flipping through WIZARD #200 (Gold) [since there are more than one magazine that is "WIZARD #200", OFMG where's-the-rifle, where's-the-rifle, where's-the-rifle!], and I get to the “50 events that rocked comics 1991-2008″ article, and I-swear-to-god-that-I-am-not-making-this-up, but #3 is, with no irony whatsoever, in let me remind you, WIZ-fuckin-ARD magazine: ************ THE BOOM MARKET IMPLODES (1994-1996) Publishers had plenty of reasons to smile in the early 1990s. Misguided collectors were snapping up record numbers of variant covers, egged on by hyperbolic story stunts; non-sport trading cards were disappearing from shelves; superstar artists would fart out tripe and watch bank accounts swell. And, just like…  Read More…

Why can’t these things be more Secret?

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on April 8, 2008

Categories: Reviews

The strangest thing about SECRET INVASION #1 actually had very little to do with the book itself. I mean, sure, it’s Okay, it does the job relatively well and Mark Morales’ inks bring a nice shine to Lenil Yu’s pencils that I haven’t seen before, but reading it after having read all the spoilers about it online, I was kind of surprised that not one plot point had escaped being revealed ahead of time. The feeling of déjà vu wasn’t helped by Marvel having previewed half the book online ahead of its release, either, but I’m not really complaining about that (DC did it first for Countdown’s first few issues, didn’t they? It’s obviously the way to get people talking…  Read More…

Arriving 4/9/2008

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 7, 2008

Categories: Shipping Lists

Teeny tiny week this week…. wouldn’t it be nice if publishers could even out their schedules? ADAM AMONG THE GODSAMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #19AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #556AVENGERS FAIRY TALES #2 (OF 4)BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #16BATMAN DEATH MASK #1 (OF 4)BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #183BOOSTER GOLD #8BPRD 1946 #4 (OF 5)CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #24CASTLE WAITING VOL II #11COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 3CRIMINAL 2 #2 CRIMINAL MACABRE MY DEMON BABY #4 (OF 4)DEAD OF NIGHT FEATURING MAN THING #3 (OF 4) DEVI #18DIARY OF NIGHT #3 (OF 4)DNA HACKER CHRONICLES #1DOCK WALLOPER #3 (OF 5)DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS #5DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #6 EXTERMINATORS #28 FANTASTIC FOUR #556FOUNDATION #4 (OF 5) (RES)FX #2 (OF 6)GAMEKEEPER SERIES 2 #2 GEN 13 #19GEORGE R R MARTINS WILD CARDS #1 (OF…  Read More…

Around the Store in 31 Days: Day Sixteen

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 4, 2008

Categories: Reviews

Continuing on the “creator racks”, we’ll move on to Warren Ellis. This one is kinda hard, actually, because it would be really easy to default to TRANSMETROPOLITAN. Which is great and awesome, no doubt, but it seems too easy. One of Warren’s greatest strengths as a comics storyteller is his love of telling a complete story in a single unit. You can see this on display in FELL or GLOBAL FREQUENCY (both which also could easily make the cut), which are collections of single-issue stories bound up as part of a larger narrative, but I think that for this pick, I’m going to edge myself over to PLANETARY v1: ALL OVER THE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES (which is, actually, a…  Read More…

Around the Store in 31 Days: Day Fifteen

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 3, 2008

Categories: Reviews

The next few days we’ll focus on the “creator” racks, since those are easy to bat out (and I need easy since our bathroom is being remodeled, so I’m living at my parent’s house and have maybe 20 minutes of not-between-customer’s-computer-time each day) We’ve already done the Moore and Wagner shelves, so let’s move on to another one of my favorite writers: Garth Ennis. This one is super-double easy, actually. If I had to pick one SINGLE Garth book to hand you, there’s really only one choice: PREACHER. You’ve got a disillusioned Preacher from Texas, his hit-woman ex girlfriend, and an alcoholic Irish vampire who go on a quest to find God, and to make him answer for the state…  Read More…