Chris Attempts to Write Capsules

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Posted by: Chris Eckert on April 28, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Hey, long time no see. I’ve been remiss in picking up single issues of anything lately, and my trade review is being held up until I can rewatch Major League for research purposes, so I grabbed some Big Name Titles off the shelf and attempted to write capsules for them. They turned out more like horsepills. Amazing Spider-Man #592 by Mark Waid & Mike McKone The past two issues’ set-up for “24/7” was goofy in all the wrong ways: dumb science poorly applied to handwave a two month gap that in turn handwaves a bunch of supporting cast developments. Still, as headline-grabbing high concepts go, J. Jonah Jameson: Mayor of New York is a fun one. It’s also nice to…  Read More…

Batman Didn’t Tap: David Reviews Detective #853 and the State of DC Comics

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Posted by: David Uzumeri on

Categories: Reviews

“Well, it definitely wasn’t going to be called Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? at that point. That was what some people at DC Comics started out calling it, and eventually it stuck, but the title did take me slightly by surprise.” – Neil Gaiman I had some of this review prepared before this little piece of news hit, but first I just want to address the recent Mark Waid interview posted at Ain’t It Cool News, which is pretty much the balls-out closet-opening light-shining festival on the perceived insanity behind DiDio’s DC that I’ve been waiting for, also containing a few incredibly choice (and very humorously put) words for Crossgen’s Mark Alessi and former Marvel head honcho Bill Jemas….  Read More…

Arriving 4/30/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 27, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

I finally set up a Facebook page, maybe five years late, I guess? I mean, heck, my DAD already had one (not that I knew that until I made my own), which really tells you that I am a late adopter… I also have one set up for the store, but I have this sneaking feeling we did something wrong, because people can’t be “friends” to Comix Experience, only “fans”? Fuck, I have no idea what I am doing! I don’t really “get” the “social networking” thing — I mean, is the idea to “gotta catch them all” and to add friends to anyone even slightly connected to your fields of interest? Or are you meant to actually only add…  Read More…

Favorites: The Diary of a Teenage Girl

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Posted by: Sean T. Collins on

Categories: Reviews

The Diary of a Teenage Girl Phoebe Gloeckner, writer/artist Frog, Ltd., 2002 312 pages $22.95 Heartbreak and rage: that’s what I feel when I read this book. It’s the story of one Minnie Goetze, a 15-year-old girl growing up in ’70s San Francisco, doing so in large part by having sex with her alcoholic mother’s adult boyfriend and, as time goes by, through various other increasingly drug-fueled sexual encounters. There are a couple of noteworthy tricks to the book, and I talk about them after the jump… There are a couple of tricks to The Diary of a Teenage Girl. The first is that “Minnie Goetze” is Phoebe Gloeckner. Gloeckner doesn’t so much deny that the book is autobiographical as…  Read More…

Bodly…final…seek out…etc

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 24, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Went to an advance screening of STAR TREK last night. The situation was odd — originally the screening was at the Metreon on Wednesday night. Then, suddenly, on Wednesday afternoon, around 3pm or so a messenger showed up with a note that the Wed screening was canceled, and it would instead be held at the AMC 1000 on Thursday instead. Weird. What I don’t know is what happened to people who showed up at the Metreon — did they just get told to piss off, were they offered thickets to this show? What happened? Well, they certainly didn’t make it to the Thursday showing. The place was EMPTY. Maybe a quarter full, at best. I have never EVER been to…  Read More…

Whatever Happened To Good Send-Offs To The Caped Crusader?

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on April 23, 2009

Categories: Reviews

And this is where Brian and I go our different ways, because I thought that DETECTIVE COMICS #853 was really, really appallingly bad. As in, I read it and almost thought that I had accidentally been reading some misprinted copy and that somewhere out there, there was a “real” version of the issue that had, you know, a story and a point and anything other than an overwhelming smugness and sense of incredible deja vu.At first, I put down my sense of disappointment to the fact that the issue was late and that that had, somehow, raised my expectations of it to an unrealistic level, but a second read made me realize that, no, it was just plain bad. I’m…  Read More…

Potpourri

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 22, 2009

Categories: Reviews

I haven’t done one of these for a while, so let’s kick it OLD SCHOOL CRITIC style, with a quick look at ten titles out this week… ASTONISHING X-MEN #29: I find Bianchi’s art to have some beautiful, ethereal qualities, and I enjoy looking at it. On the other hand, I don’t think he’s much of a storyteller, and in reading the comic, I find that I’m just racing from balloon to balloon, letting that tell the story rather than the art. Overall, I’m digging the story, but the delays between issues are just killing the momentum. We’re down by just over 50% from the first issue of the arc (and the 16 pages for $4 of GHOST BOXES didn’t…  Read More…

Favorites: Batman: Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat

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Posted by: admin on April 18, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Batman: Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, writers Jim Aparo, Jim Balent, Norm Breyfogle, Graham Nolan, artists DC, 1993 272 pages $17.99 Knightfall was the big Batman event during my time as a comics reader in the early to mid ’90s. That basically means it was the big superhero comic event for me during that time. Batman was the character that got me reading comics. The first Tim Burton movie sparked my interest in the character, and The Dark Knight Returns–the first comic book I can actually remember reading–cemented it. The comic shop I went to was called Gotham Manor, for pete’s sake. And so, a multi-series crossover pitting Batman against basically his entire rogues gallery until…  Read More…

New Tilting up!

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 17, 2009

Categories: Retailing/Industry

The new TILTING AT WINDMILLS is up at Comic Book Resources: thoughts on 20 years, New York City, Going to the Well, and “amazonfail” I’m nearly caught back up on all of my work, reviews again from me in a few days… -B

Arriving 4/15/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 13, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

Back from NYC, and I have sooooo much work to catch up on. Why do you always need a vacation from your vacation? *sigh* I’ll have some reviews in a few days, just let me get caught up and get my sea legs again… 100 BULLETS #100 ACTION COMICS #876AIR #8 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #591AMERICAN MCGEES GRIMM #1ANGEL SMILE TIME #3ARCHIE DIGEST #253BETTY & VERONICA #241BEYOND WONDERLAND #6 (OF 6)CAPTAIN AMERICA #49DARK TOWER SORCERER #1DMZ #41 DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS SERIES 2 #5ENDERS SHADOW BATTLE SCHOOL #4 (OF 5)EUREKA #4 (OF 4)FABLES #83 FARSCAPE STRANGE DETRACTORS #1 (OF 4) CVR AGODLAND #27 GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #19GREEN LANTERN CORPS #35HALO UPRISING #4 (OF 4) INCOGNITO #3 LEVITICUS CROSS #3 (OF 5)LILLIM #2…  Read More…

Give me something to sing about: Diana gets nostalgic, 4/9

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Posted by: admin on April 12, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Here’s an interesting bit of synchronicity: just as I’m feeling a bit tired of comics, two of my old favorites stage a comeback. Insert Al Pacino/Godfather reference here… EXILES #1: I may have mentioned that EXILES used to be one of my favorite series back when Judd Winick was writing it. I liked the Tony Bedard run too, warts and all. But then Chris Claremont took over, and… well, I’m pretty sure that if you hold his first issue in your hands and listen closely, you’ll hear an eight-man band playing “Nearer My God To Thee”. It was that bad. Enter Jeff Parker, relaunching the book with a new #1, a new team, and a familiar premise with a new…  Read More…

Every Band Has A Burrito Blade Who Loves Them: Part III of Jeff’s Talk with Adam Knave

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 9, 2009

Categories: Interviews

Part the last of my talk with Adam Knave, covering his webcomic, influences, and the ‘speed of ludicrous.’ My thanks to Mr. Knave for taking the time to talk to me, and all of you for taking the time to read it (or suffer through it in silence, depending). More jibbity-jab after the jump. JL: So how long have you been doing comics then between this and…I’m assuming you’re pretty new to it between this and Legend of the Burrito Blade and the other webcomic whose name has dodged me [Things Wrong With Me]… AK: I’ve only really been doing this for, good lord, probably less than a year, writing comics? JL: That is not a very long period of…  Read More…

Happiness Is A Warm Popgun: Part II of Jeff’s Talk with Adam Knave

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 8, 2009

Categories: Interviews

Yesterday was the first part of my interview with writer/editor Adam Knave, wherein I did a terrible job of getting him to talk about the third volume of Popgun, out today. Today, I do a slightly better job, and although I’m still meager with the art, it doesn’t look quite as tiny. The interview should conclude tomorrow, with discussion about Knave’s webcomic and influences. Part II is after the jump. JL: Anything else you want to add about Popgun? AK: It’s awesome and you should buy it? It’s funny; my mother is mostly an editor and also a writer. My father was a writer first and would occasionally edit. And I grew up self-identifying—I’m not like one of those kids…  Read More…

We Like the Guns, The Guns That Go Pop: Part I of Jeff’s Talk with Adam Knave.

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 7, 2009

Categories: Interviews

Adam Knave is an assistant editor for the third volume of Popgun, out this Wednesday. He’s also a writer of prose and a webcomic writer, and from what I can tell he works his ass off. Other writers and artists have projects they describe as “boot camp,” for example, but Knave, along with artist Renato Pastor and editor Lauren Vogelbaum, are planning their webcomic to be a five year boot camp, one in which they’re already significantly ahead of what they have posted. I’m still learning the interviewer ropes so I apologize for the awkward breaks and pacing in the interview–I tried to keep this first part short then realized it was in fact too short. Part one is behind…  Read More…

Da Fug? Jeff is Enslaved by Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 6, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Is it fair to review a book about which I have very little to say? To you or to me? Probably not. And yet, it seems necessary to write a little review of Grant Morrison’s Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #1, if only because I and a million other people on the Internet were more than willing to record our impressions of G-Mo’s Final Crisis each and every time an issue came out. Although I have nothing to support this theory, I’ve always assumed one of the conditions to Morrison’s agreeing to do Final Crisis was that Vertigo publish the follow-up to his sublime but not particularly fiscally successful Seaguy. And so, in my mind, while not fair to you…  Read More…

Arriving April 8th, 2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 5, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

I’m in New York City this week, which is why I’ve been otherwise silent for the last couple of days, and will be for the next few. Our 20th anniversary thing went REALLY well — we did more than 200% of a normal Wednesday, saw a lot of old and familiar faces, AND we got a ton of food donations for the San Francisco Food Bank, yay! We went out to dinner last night with the astonishingly awesome Garth Ennis, the even more awesome Ruth Cole (*I* wouldn’t have the stones to do an intercontinental yacht race, that’s for sure), and Brian K. Vaughan. Such nice people, such great company. Anyway, here’s the one tiny bit of work I have…  Read More…

Patterns of Patterning: David Takes a Look at Irredeemable #1 (With Capsule Comments on Other Stuff From This Week)

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Posted by: David Uzumeri on April 1, 2009

Categories: Reviews

In Grant Morrison’s afterword to Irredeemable #1, he discusses an email exchange he had with the book’s writer Mark Waid regarding patterning, or the practice of essentially permanently categorizing and cubbyholing a person’s potential and MO. Morrison goes on to relate this to himself being “patterned” as a factory of insane gobbledygook – and while that’s an opinion of him that may be held by many, I’d hardly call it a complete majority, so I was surprised at how defensively that came off – and of Waid being “patterned” as a dude who writes Silver Age throwback stories, which, well, is pretty true. A lot of people don’t remember Empire. And it’s difficult not to compare Irredeemable with its seeming…  Read More…