A Minor, Insignificant Question about Mainstream Comics from Abhay

33 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on January 9, 2012

Categories: Uncategorized

Dear Savage Critic readers, I’m very sorry to bother, but an extremely minor and insignificant question about mainstream comics occurred to me the other day, one that’s been nagging at me, that I thought I’d put to you and request your assistance with. Extremely minor; extremely insignificant.   I probably haven’t been paying as close attention to mainstream comics as some of you, and so some of you may be more knowledgeable on this topic than I am.  (Indeed, those less knowledgeable should be warned that there may be spoilers for comics you may want to read someday below). I’m sure this is a question that’s already been asked elsewhere, already discussed at great length by my betters, so I…  Read More…

Abhay: HOMELAND DIRECTIVE

19 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on December 2, 2011

Categories: Reviews

THE HOMELAND DIRECTIVE by Robert Venditti, Mike Huddleston, Sean Konot, Chris Staros, and Jim Titus, published by Top Shelf Productions in 2011, copyright Robert Venditti but not Mike Huddleston.

7 Questions about Images On the Internet of the Final Pages of Catwoman #1

33 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on September 22, 2011

Categories: Reviews

SPOILER WARNING.

Creator vs. Critic #2– Abhay interviews Mark Sable re: Mat Brinkman’s MULTIFORCE

6 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on August 29, 2011

Categories: Interviews

WOLVES AND MOOSE!  THE RATTLESNAKE AND THE MONGOOSE!  COMIC CREATORS AND COMIC CRITICS! NATURAL ENEMIES ENGAGED IN A TERRIFYING DANCE OF DEATH.  BUT UNLIKE THE LAMBADA, THIS DANCE IS NOT FORBIDDEN, FOR THIS DANCE IS CALLED… CREATOR VS. CRITIC In the CREATOR corner, hailing from the mean streets of Hollywood, California– Mark Sable… author of GROUNDED, HAZED, TWO FACE YEAR ONE, CYBORG,TEEN TITANS: COLD CASE, WHAT IF SPIDER-MAN OH WAIT ALL THE JOKES ABHAY CAN THINK OF SEEM KIND OF RACIST NOW, FEARLESS, RIFT RAIDERS, and/or his latest book from Image Comics, GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES with Paul Azaceta (POTTER’S FIELD, SHI: SHOWDOWN IN BONERTOWN).  In the CRITIC corner, Abhay, author of such controversial  internet facebook status updates as “Iron Man Is Talking All Weird  in FEAR ITSELF“,…  Read More…

ABHAY: KIRBY GENESIS #1

10 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 30, 2011

Categories: Reviews

KIRBY: GENESIS #1, by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Jack Herbert, Vinicius Andrade, Simon Bowland, with characters created by Jack Kirby, published by Dynamite Comics. This was just an impulse buy for me.  I think there was a #0 issue before it, but I didn’t buy that. I don’t really know what the deal is with this series– I didn’t read any interviews or promotional materials for it; I kinda knew that the pitch was “Kurt Busiek writing about unused Jack Kirby characters“, but that was much as I knew– or heck, still know. I haven’t even listened to the new WAIT, HELLO– IS IT ME YOU’RE LOOKING FOR? podcast where it’s apparently discussed.

NOT-COMICS: Why Abhay Loves The Shadow Line, and Why You Should Too.

8 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 29, 2011

Categories: Uncategorized

This is about a television show sorta in the crime-conspiracy thriller genre, that aired on the BBC between May 5, 2011 to June 16, 2011. For those of you who do not have access to the BBC, this may not be helpful for you unless you’re one of those people who somehow watch television shows from other countries on some sort of magical appliance found in your home and/or office, and do not have any moral qualm in using said appliance to do so.

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 3 of 3)

49 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 24, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

The fiery climax of our roundtable Q&A, in which questions about FLASHPOINT #2 are FINALLY ANSWERED, preconceptions are EXPLODED, homes are INVADED, true love is TESTED, and the hope of ALL will fall into the hands of ONE– and in a stunning twist ending, it turns out we were all in monogamous relationships with prostitutes this ENTIRE time.  Who saw that coming?  Well, in my case, everybody.  Everybody saw it coming.  Awwwww.

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 2 of 3)

12 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 22, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

Part 2, in which Questions are asked about FLASHPOINT #1 & FEAR ITSELF #3, lessons are learned, truths are revealed, a bloody revenge is discharged and a bloody discharge has its revenge.

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 1 of 3)

12 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 20, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

As part of the 10th anniversary of The Savage Critics on the internet, and in conjunction with the 4-part discussion of Chester Brown’s PAYING FOR IT, a more mainstream-oriented “round-table” discussion of Marvel Comics’s multi-title crossover headline series FEAR ITSELF and DC Comics’s multi-title crossover headline series FLASHPOINT was conducted between April 11, 2011 and June 19, 2011, covering slightly less than the first halves of both series. As each issue of FEAR ITSELF #’s 1-3 & FLASHPOINT #’s 1-2 was released, a single question was posed.

Abhay: Traditional Capsule Reviews

8 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on April 30, 2011

Categories: Reviews

I was out all week, so spent tonight in, recharging.  I usually try to avoid the capsule reviews– I don’t think I’m very good at those.  But I thought I’d try again tonight.  My apologies before we begin– I can’t really promise much here.  Just some randomly selected books I’ve read in this past month, I think…

Abhay: THE SIXTH GUN

9 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on April 17, 2011

Categories: Reviews

THE SIXTH GUN– BOOK I: COLD, DEAD FINGERS By Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, Bill Crabtree, James Lucas Jones, Charlie Chiu, and Keith Wood. “Why must pronouncements and judgements … be so sweeping and extreme, not to mention callous and cruel? Why can’t our voiced opinions be more measured, tempered, considered?” – Doug Moench, May 1984, COMICS INTERVIEW #11

Creator vs. Critic– Abhay interviews Mark Sable about SECRET AVENGERS Issues #1 to #5

32 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on March 22, 2011

Categories: Interviews

COMIC CREATORS! COMIC CRITICS! NATURAL ENEMIES SINCE THE VERY DAWN OF TIME! An enmity forged in the fires of Malice! Born to hate, living to die, dying to love, but loving to fury– a fight that can only end one way: in the squared octagon. A SQUARED OCTAGON MADE UP OF LENGTHY BLOCKS OF DULL TEXT THAT WE CALL… CREATOR VS. CRITIC.   In the CREATOR corner, hailing from the mean streets of Hollywood, California– Mark Sable… author of GROUNDED, HAZED, TWO FACE YEAR ONE, CYBORG, TEEN TITANS: COLD CASE, WHAT IF SPIDER-MAN DID SOMETHING OR ANOTHER THAT I’M SURE WAS VERY INTERESTING, FEARLESS, and/or RIFT RAIDERS. Mark’s next book is GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES from Image Comics, with Paul Azaceta…  Read More…

NEW YEAR; SAME JACKASS: ABHAY, COMIC BOOKS, RUCKUS, WOO-HAH!

40 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on January 1, 2011

Categories: Reviews

Real quick: I couldn’t figure out how to register to post a thank you note on the Comics Journal site, so a quick thanks to Dirk Deppey. Many is the morning that I started my day, stumbling out of bed and heading straight to read my “news” from off the Journalista blog Mr. Deppey wrote for many years.  It was a lot of mornings thinking, “Why can’t you just eat breakfast like a normal boy? Why is this how you choose to spend your first waking moments? Why can’t you ever just be a normal boy? Why?? Just put on some underwear already, at least.” So… thanks  for that (?) and best wishes in the future to him. This one…  Read More…

SELF-PROMOTION from ABHAY

23 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on December 2, 2010

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Self-promotion warning.  For those of you not interested in self-promotion, and don’t want to spend their free time consuming advertising, this is fair warning, and I’ll hide my infomercial for myself behind a jump.  I apologize in advance to anyone who thinks this doesn’t belong here– in my defense, I got Brian’s okay, plus Brian reminded me that Jeff had already done the whole self-promotion thing so… Please send all angry e-mail to Jeff Lester.  Also: please send photos of yourself but just from the waist down to Jeff Lester. Pants tolerated.

Abhay: MOVING PICTURES.

12 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on November 10, 2010

Categories: Reviews

CAUTIONARY NOTE: First of all, for those of you reading this on the 11th of November, Happy Veteran’s Day, and thanks to our nation’s veterans for the sacrifices they’ve made.  This essay… wasn’t written with Veteran’s Day in mind– it just happened that I got this done this evening.  It’s not really ABOUT the sacrifices veterans have made but World War II does come up in a fashion, so… If you’re especially sensitive about veteran’s issues today, you know– put this one away for a day, and come back to it later.  I apologize at the outset if anyone who’s served finds this in bad taste.  But enjoy your day and sincerely, we all thank you again for your service….  Read More…

Marvel Comics of 8/4/2010, A to H, with Abhay (Part 3 of 3)

21 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on August 7, 2010

Categories: Reviews

“A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.” — Edmond de Goncourt. Let’s prove Edmond de Goncourt wrong, everybody! HYAH!

Marvel Comics of 8/4/2010, A to H, with Abhay (Part 2 of 3)

32 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on August 5, 2010

Categories: Reviews

Previously… On the Savage Critics Blog… And now… the thrilling continuation to … some  reviews of comic books or something.

Marvel Comics of 8/4/2010, A to H, with Abhay (Part 1 of 3)

22 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on August 4, 2010

Categories: Reviews

I have a fantasy that I’m sure is shared by many of you, and that fantasy is to walk into a comic book store and say, “I will have one of all of the comic books, sir.”  And in my fantasy, like in yours, I have red lipstick on, and I’m wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress from The Seven Year Itch.  I think we’re all on the same page. So, I’ve had a bit of a day at work, and I thought to myself at its conclusion:  Today is the day for all my easiest-to-achieve, most unimpressive dreams to come true! I’d go to a comic book store, and buy one copy of every Marvel comic released that week so I…  Read More…

ABHAY’S QUICKIE ESSAY ON WHY WALLY GROPIUS IS HIS FAVORITE BOOK THIS YEAR (SO FAR)

10 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on July 23, 2010

Categories: Reviews

I don’t think I have anything particularly novel to say about Tim Hensely’s WALLY GROPIUS– if you read Blog Flume or Comics Comics, as I imagine you must, I wouldn’t suggest to you that I have much to add to what those fine gentlemen have already deduced.  My Mickey-Mouse “WALLY GROPIUS for Idiots” reading of the book offered below is probably more for my benefit, as a way for me to find a way to have that book stop nagging at the back of my head. As a value-adding proposition for you…?  I can’t make much by way of promises.  With that caveat: essay, ahoy. Also: SPOILERS.  For reals.  Though– look, if you haven’t read WALLY GROPIUS, this isn’t a…  Read More…

Abhay re: Killing the Cobra #2; This Might Have Been Better a Week Ago, But… Whoops.

13 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on July 10, 2010

Categories: Reviews

An essay based upon MARIO ACEVEDO’S KILLING THE COBRA: CHINATOWN TROLLOP #2 after the jump.

Abhay Memorialized Capsule Reviews

39 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on May 29, 2010

Categories: Reviews

Hello.  For your long weekend, here’s another boring “capsule” post where I drone on about things I’ve found interesting in the last couple months, while I’m too exhausted by work to write anything halfway decent or worthwhile.