Words: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Pia Guerra
Publisher: Vertigo
This issue was published more than ten years ago (2002). Yet, what has it lost? Not a damn thing. Not the exceptional artwork or the insanely good writing. It’s as fresh and exciting today as it was when it was initially released.
I find, rereading the series after all this tim [...]
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Y: The Last Man #1
Words: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Pia Guerra
Publisher: Vertigo
This issue was published more than ten years ago (2002). Yet, what has it lost? Not a damn thing. Not the exceptional artwork or the insanely good writing. It’s as fresh and exciting today as it was when it was initially released.
I find, rereading the series after all this tim [...]
Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tale #5...
Grimm Fairy Tales #54
Written by: Joe Brusha
Drawn by: Dafu Yu and Tess Fowler
Published by: Zenescope Entertainment Inc
Revelations and surprises–this issue has both in droves.
Having been tasked with reviewing a three-issue arc of Grimm Fairy Tales, and having approached those reviews as an inchoate consumer of Zenescope comics, I fo [...]
Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales #...
Grimm Fairy Tales #53
Written by: Joe Brusha
Drawn by: Alisson Rodrigues and Roberto Viacava
Published by: Zenescope Entertainment Inc
This is, at its core, an origin story.
It tells the heartbreaking tale of how a noble, virtuous knight, Morrigan, became Death incarnate, a ruthless, soulless harvester of spirits.
Our narrator is a hirsute d [...]
Machinations dark, mysterious, and wo...
Grimm Fairy Tales #52
Written by: Joe Brusha
Drawn by: Alisson Rodrigues and Roberto Viacava
Published by: Zenescope Entertainment Inc
It’s always difficult to jump into a series mid-arc, and unfortunately, much has taken place in preceding issues to set up the events that unfold in Grimm Fairy Tales #52.
Through what I imagine was ve [...]
James Kochalka’s Magic Boy &...
Magic Boy & the Robot Elf
Written and drawn by: James Kochalka
Published by: Top Shelf
An unmitigated disaster, full of disingenuous surrealism and typical, almost derivative artwork and writing (think Matt Groening‘s Life in Hell)—that’s the very best praise I can give Magic Boy & the Robot Elf, the misconceived, misdeli [...]
Prismatic Wanderings in Nicolas Robel...
Fallen Angel
Written and drawn by: Nicolas Robel
Published by: Drawn & Quarterly
I liken the visual style of Fallen Angel to that of a kaleidoscope—we see colorful fragments of reality, all of which coalesce to form a particular picture, or series of pictures. The slightest movement, the most fragile repositioning, and the image is lost f [...]
Since when do Gingerbread Men sell ic...
Image by MingalabaYAH via Flickr
Catch As Catch Can
Written and drawn by: Greg Cook
Published by: Highwater Books
Run, run as fast as you can!
You can’t catch me!
I’m the Gingerbread Man!
So it turns out that the Gingerbread Man has a lot more on his mind than just avoiding carnivorous grandmothers.
Author and artist Greg Cook&# [...]
Addicted to WARFIX
Image by Kewei SHANG via Flickr
WARFIX
Written by: David Axe
Drawn by: Steven Olexa
Published by: NBM Comics Lit
Simple. Stunning. Sublime.
A perfect collocation of drawing and writing is indeed a rare jewel, one that shines everlasting in its crown.
WARFIX, written by David Axe and illustrated by Steven Olexa, is just such a jewel.
Not oft [...]
Tripping the light mediocre with Alie...
Image via Wikipedia
Alien Legion: Piecemaker
Written by: Chuck Dixon
Drawn by: Larry Stroman
Published by: Checker Book Publishing Group
Space opera is supposed to be grand—its scope, its characters, its plotlines.
Many of us have enjoyed the sweeping drama of Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass Effect, and Battlestar Galactica. Regardless of media— [...]
Craig A. Tallefer’s Wahoo Morri...
Image via Wikipedia
Wahoo Morris
Written and drawn by: Craig A. Tallefer
Published by: Too Hip Gotta Go Graphics
Band politics, melodramatic twenty-something romance, alcoholism, and magic—welcome to the world of Wahoo Morris, a struggling young bar band with big dreams, bigger libidos, and enough awful lyrics to fill a Badfinger LP.
The br [...]
Foo Swee Chin’s Thwart Thus: Su...
Image by Alexio's pics via Flickr
Thwart Thus
Written and illustrated by: FSc
Published by: NEKO PRESS
James Joyce, Henry Miller, T. S. Eliot–the list of ostensible influences on FSc’s (read, Foo Swee Chin’s) Thwart Thus is both extensive and exhausting.
So what do these voices inform? How do works like Ulysses, Tropi [...]
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laug...
Would you raise the dead for one million dollars?
Would you do it if you had to kill someone in the process?
These are two of the fundamental questions Anita Blake must negotiate at the beginning of The Laughing Corpse–Animator.
Her ruminations are set against a cascade of disturbing image after disturbing image–a child’s bl [...]
Batman: The Widening Gyre, No. 1
Batman: The Widening Gyre, #1
Written by: Kevin Smith
Art by: Walter Flanagan
“This is better than anything I have ever written before.”
That’s Kevin Smith’s own assessment of his work on Batman: The Widening Gyre. In fact, if we are to listen and adhere to what Smith says about this series, and about his work in comic [...]
I Feel Sick, #2
I Feel Sick, No. 2
By: Jhonen Vasquez
This is the finest piece of illustrated literature I have read in a long, long time, and I have no idea how to do it justice.
Perhaps you can help me…
Issue #2 of this series differs very little from its predecessor–the art is equally rich, equally unsettling, and equally effective. The narrat [...]
I Feel Sick, #1
I Feel Sick, No. 1
By: Jhonen Vasquez
Meet Devi. Devi has problems.
She’s your typical starving artist—principled, dedicated to her craft, angst-ridden. She’s also your typical Goth girl—jaded, ironic, dismissive of the world and its inhabitants.
Name your stereotype, and she probably fits it.
In I Feel Sick, Devi, a protagonist of sorts, is [...]
Batman and Robin, #5
Batman and Robin, #5
Written by: Grant Morrison
Art by: Philip Tan
So…Batman’s dead, his son is the NEW Robin, and the OLD Robin, Dick Grayson, is the NEW Batman. Confused? Well, if you’re anything like me, you sure as hell are…
Batman and Robin #5 starts in dramatic style—with patricide. A vigilante named Sasha (though for all intents and pu [...]
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, No. 2
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, No. 2
Written by: Robert Rodi
Art by: Matt Merhoff
It’s always exciting to read a fresh take on a series or character that has been around for a while. And the character of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, has been around for an eternity—Will Eisner and Jerry Iger created her almost 75 years ago
So after decades [...]
Neverland
Neverland, #0
Written by: Joe Brusha
Art by: Jean-Paul Deshong
This book is everything you’d expect from an “origin” issue—lots of characters/relationships being introduced; a number of plotlines being set up; and just a hint of danger, controversy, and/or surprise…basically, you’re getting the pilot episode of what you hope will become a suc [...]