Graeme Takes On The New 52. All At Once.

24 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on September 28, 2011

Categories: Reviews

You know, before DC Comics so politely sent me the entire run of the New 52 launch issues, I don’t think that I’d ever read an entire month’s worth of a superhero universe before. I have to say, it’s kind of exhausting. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try and run down very quick capsule reviews of all 52 right here, right now, as Fatboy Slim once said many many years ago oh God I am so old.

Wait, What? Ep. 52.2: Jerks, Fighters, and Jus’ Folks

23 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on August 18, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

I admit it. I love “Our Valued Customers” even though it caters to the worst stereotypes about comic store customers. (Although I had my share of crazy people stories when I worked the counter at CE, none of them ever seemed quite as bad as what apparently walks into Mr. Tim’s store on a weekly basis — and honestly, most of the crazy people we had were “it’s San Francisco and there are mentally ill people on the streets” crazy as opposed to “I must talk to you about Spider-Man so hard spittle is always flying off my lips” crazy.) In any event, none of this is especially relevant to the conclusion to Episode 52 of our podcast, although it…  Read More…

Marvel’s Best And Worst: Graeme Looks At Comics From 7/13, 7/20

3 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on July 22, 2011

Categories: Reviews

It’s been awhile, but that’s because of too much work/vacation/too much work, respectively. But! Finally! Comics! Well, some of them, anyway.

Things That Actually Happened This Week: Graeme Really Manages To Review Some 6/22 Books

5 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on June 27, 2011

Categories: Reviews

Why, if it’s Monday, then it’s capsule reviews. And, for once, proper capsule reviews about books that came out on Wednesday! How did that happen? (Also, scroll down for John’s reviews, and then down some more for the shipping list. Yes, it’s a surprisingly busy Monday here, for once.)

Graeme Tries To Remember How This Capsule Thing Works For Some 5/11 Books

7 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on May 16, 2011

Categories: Reviews

Call me a sentimental old fool if you must, but it feels to me like the best way to do a post on the 10th birthday of the Savage Critics is to go old school, and try and remember how those capsule reviews of yore worked… (Click through for nostalgia! But scroll down to read Hibbs’ post, if you haven’t already!)

Geeks on Film

9 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on May 2, 2011

Categories: Reviews

I’ll get back to print in the next day or so, but I wanted to dive into a few things-on-film for a moment.   (I quite imagine there will be SPOILERS here, so be careful, kiddo!)   THOR: Saw an advance screening on Saturday morning (10 am, what an odd time for a preview screening!), and yeah, pretty decent film. My reaction could possibly be the result of low expectations — I mean, seriously, did anyone ever think there could possibly be a Thor movie based on the comic, prior to 3-5 years ago? Let alone a good one?   It largely kept my attention, and it has some astonishing design on display — I particularly liked their interpretation of…  Read More…

Look, Up In The Sky: Graeme On The First Post-JMS Superman

9 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on January 13, 2011

Categories: Reviews

From the very first page, you can tell that someone new is handling SUPERMAN #707. After more than half a year of a passive, dickish Man of Steel walking across America and coming across either standoffish and dick-like or curiously naive, the first page of the issue has Superman doing three “super” things – Stopping a bank robbery (with bullets bouncing off his chest!), saving a girl’s life (by stopping a train! With his bare hands!) and grabbing a falling helicopter. It’s as if new writer Chris Roberson thought, “People might need a reminder why Superman is awesome.”

SELF-PROMOTION from ABHAY

24 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.

Wait, What?, Ep. 17.2: The Really Big Picture.

11 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on November 18, 2010

Categories: Podcasts

On the one hand?  Graeme and I talk about the recent news/controversy surrounding J. Michael Straczynski’s departure from the Superman and Wonder Woman titles in a way I don’t think anyone has yet. On the other hand? So…maybe it all evens out in the end.  It should be up on Itunes shortly and is available for you to listen to right here: Wait, What? Ep. 17.2: The Really Big Picture And our grand finale for Ep. 17–our discussion of Return of Bruce Wayne #6 should be up very soon….

Superman: Earth One

53 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on October 27, 2010

Categories: Retailing/Industry , Reviews

About 2 months ago I received an advance copy of  the SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE original Graphic Novel. This was an uncorrected proof, and was a bit rougher than other galleys I get — there’s only about a dozen pages in color, other pages were inked, but not toned, while there’s even a few pencil-only pages. I get a lot of galleys from many different publishers, but this one came under the auspices of a ComicsPRO program, and I made a fatal error of thinking of it while wearing my “Critic” hat, rather than my ‘retailer” hat (I wear far too many hats) DC was (and, let’s underline this very strongly) justifiably upset that I screwed up my hats, and as…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 11.2: The Podcast With The Jaws of Steel!

6 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on August 31, 2010

Categories: Podcasts

A podcast cut brutally short: oh sure, Graeme and I talk about Jack Kirby’s Losers Omnibus, and The Hunger Dogs (and Graeme, like the last podcast, is pretty much firing on all guns), Jimmy Olsen and Superman, and then Skype decides Jeff needs a timeout…whether I like it or not. (I didn’t.) Anyway, it should probably be longer, but it’s on Itunes and you can listen to it right here: Wait, What?, Ep. 11.2 (Also, if you could pretend I didn’t refer to it in the recorded intro as “The Loser Omnibus,” I’d appreciate it. Believe it or not, that intro was the best I could do.) By next week, we should have two generous portions–and hopefully I won’t blow…  Read More…

Look! Up In The Sky! It’s… Wasted Potential!

11 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on March 25, 2010

Categories: Reviews

My secret shame: I have been buying all of the Superman books since Superman left Earth for Krypton. No, wait, that’s not actually shameful in and of itself. The shame part is this: I’m not sure I’ve actually been enjoying them for awhile.

Favorites: All-Star Superman

18 comments

Posted by: Sean T. Collins on March 11, 2010

Categories: Reviews

All-Star Superman Vols. 1 & 2 Grant Morrison, writer Frank Quitely, artist DC, 2008-2010, believe it or not 160 pages each $12.99 each The cheeky thing to say about the brand-new out-of-continuity world Grant Morrison constructed to house his idea of the ideal Superman story is that it’s very much like the DC Universe we already know, but without backgrounds. Like John Cassaday, another all-time great superhero artist currently working, Frank Quitely isn’t one for filling in what’s going on behind the action. One wonders what he’d do with a manga-style studio set-up, with a team of young, hungry Glaswegians diligently constructing a photo-ref Metropolis for his brawny, beady-eyed men and leggy, lippy women to inhabit. But, y’know, whatever. So…  Read More…

Obsolescence & Model Kits: Jeff Looks at FC: Superman Beyond #1 and G-Mo in the DCU

no comments yet

Posted by: Jeff Lester on September 3, 2008

Categories: Reviews

I remember when I was a kid being entranced with model kits. It was a different time then, back before semi-autistic engineers could make themselves rich with their penchant for elegant complexity: instead of writing computer code, they wrote tactical charts for historical wargames, assembled model kits of cars, ships, jets, and rockets (and, occasionally, monsters and robots), and crafted massive model train sets in garages and basements. Painstakingly, they assembled private landscapes–usually based on an actual historic train route–stipling mounds of carved foam to create textured boulders; studying photographs to create detail accurate train yards; rigging lighting; recreating timetables. Until finally, the engineer was done: he’d remade a corner of the world to scale. It looked perfect, ran smoothly,…  Read More…

Don’t Tug

no comments yet

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on February 29, 2008

Categories: Retailing/Industry

It’s February 29th, Leap Year Day, which can only mean one thing: It’s Superman’s birthday! Superman is, of course, 70 years old this year (ACTION #1 had an June, 1938 cover date, so that would have shipped in April, I think), but sometime in the 1970s it was decided that he was a Leap Year baby. I asked Mark Waid if there was a citation in the comic books to this, and he replied: “I know it was in one of E. Nelson Bridwell’s/Mort Weisinger’s letter columns, a jokey answer about how Superman could have been an adult in 1938 and still look so young. Nelson ‘cemented’ the date in the 1976 Super DC Calendar from Warner Books.” I had…  Read More…

I am I am I am Superman and I know what’s happening: Graeme gushes about 4/11.

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on April 13, 2007

Categories: Reviews

So, I read Tom Spurgeon describe All-Star Superman as “one of the best superhero comics of the last 30 years” this week and thought, wow, that’s pretty high praise. And then I read ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #7, and re-read the first six issues (released in collected form this week as ALL-STAR SUPERMAN VOLUME 1 HC) and thought, you know, maybe he’s not giving them enough credit. As much fun as the series is in single issue sittings, there’s a lot to be gained from reading the first half of the series in one go. You catch the running themes (multiple identities, mortality, the multiplicity of the Superman character type) much more clearly when you can sit there and connect the dots….  Read More…

Hibbs & SUPERMAN RETURNS

one comment

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on July 2, 2006

Categories: Reviews

Hurray, it’s me! SUPERMAN RETURNS: is absolutely a gushing love letter to the 1978 Donner SUPERMAN film. The are repeated shots, structure, even Lex Luthor’s plot is basically identical to the one from the first film. And all of this would probably be fine if it didn’t keep missing what I took as the best elements of the original. Here’s a for example: both films have a sequence of vignettes of “superman fighting random crime one night”. In RETURNS, this is more bombastic: chain guns and bulletproof eyeballs, and lifting cars over his head and whatever. But for me, what made the ’78 version work was that Supes stopped to help a little girl get her cat out of a…  Read More…

All-Star Fawning: Graeme’s reviews of the 11/16 books

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 20, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Apparently Thanksgiving is coming up, which is always strange for me, being non-American and all. Oh, sure, I know what Thanksgiving is meant to be about, but I still get kind of freaked out by the whole “Macy’s Parade means that Christmas has officially started” part of the whole deal. Not that I’m not thankful for the time off work to spend reading comics and catching up on TiVo, mind you, so I guess I’m getting close to the spirit in some way. Still, happy Thanksgiving, if I don’t end up saying it closer to the time. What’s that, you say? You want reviews? ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1: Yes, Lester got here first and wasn’t as impressed with this as I…  Read More…

Since I said I’d be back with more

no comments yet

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on February 7, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Here, at least, is my epiphany about Superman. I didn’t really understand #213. It sounded like Superman saying HE had caused “The Vanishing” because he was upset about earth ending like Krypton. Or something? That’s what I thought I read, at least. Doesn’t make any sense, but there you go. And there’s a page where they’re discussing Kal being sent off to earth in his rocketship and a paragrpah before or later they’re talking about the Phantom Zone, and it hit me: Jor-El is an idiot. Now as I recall my continuity (And my memory is fluid, so maybe I have this wrong), but didn’t Jor-El “invent” the Phantom Zone? Well the projector, I guess. At the least, he’s well…  Read More…

Some Comics from 8/25

no comments yet

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on August 26, 2004

Categories: Reviews

Less time than I thought this week — too much message boarding (How does any of those incessant Newsarama posters get ANYthing done in real life? Do they just post on their boss’ dime all day or something? Are they all pale 13 year olds who never see the sun? Someone should do a study!), plus, last night our Television went out so we need to go buy a new one this morning. So just a quick couple of reviews so, y’know, they don’t take my blogging rights away from me. By the way, do I need to insert possible spoiler warnings for the below? Or is it just assumed? WORLDWATCH #1: If I know you well enough, you have…  Read More…

Comics of 8/18

no comments yet

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on August 19, 2004

Categories: Reviews

Yah, like Lester I was thinking about how good ol internet time made it seem like we never posted. What’s up with that? I’ve mostly been trying to unravel a Mystery in the UK the last few days — I think I have most of it sussed, but I’m still not sure HOW to solve the crime, as it were. I also finished TILTING (appears on Friday on Newsarama), and have started making notes on Deppey’s NuMarvel essay in the new Journal. Damn, that’s one fine issue. Plus I dinged 30 in CoH, and am now playing the How Long Until I Get Bored and Quit game (I doubt I’ll make it to 35, is all I can say, but…  Read More…