Besides having maybe one of the coolest civilian names of any superhero ever, Janet Van Dyne is one of the founding Avengers. As well as being the character who named the team way back in 1963, she’s also a rich kid from New Jersey from a well-to-do family, eventually helping to fund the Avengers at…
Sisco #1: You’re in the Danger Zone
Sisco #1 Thomas Legrain (artist), Benec (writer), Peng Weng and Studio 9 (colorist) Europe Comics June 2017 In an era when comics are becoming more diverse and the stories told more creative, I find it fascinating how some cling ever tighter to the same stories of the past. With Sisco, I hoped for something new. Instead, I…
Secret Weapons Volume 1 and #0: Owen
Secret Weapons, Vol. 1 Eric Heisserer (writer), Raúl Allén (artist), Patricia Martín (artist and letterer) Valiant 2017 Secret Weapons, #0: Owen Eric Heisserer (writer), Raúl Allén (artist), Patricia Martín (artist and letterer) Valiant March 14, 2018 Look. Do you want a ragtag interracial band of misfits to form a supportive team led by a competent…
Rocko’s Modern Life: Still Punching My Guts
Existing is kind of gross. It’s also unreasonably hard sometimes. And because I like things I consume to reflect the realities of my life, I want my art to be nasty, brutish, and short. I like to prod the beach rubble, you see. So, as a young person I was drawn to Rocko’s Modern Life, but…
Marvel’s Silver Surfer Knocked Off Doctor Who, Becoming Great in the Process
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An alien with a haunted past travels the galaxy with a human companion who helps him learn to love again. They visit strange worlds, filled with even stranger people, and manage to save the universe a few times along the way.
X-Men 2099: When the Father Skins the Prodigal Son
This is the lineup of 1993’s X-Men 2099. What do you notice about this picture? Maybe nothing. Let me show you another.
Distilled Essence: Alcoholism in Excalibur
A while ago I was listening to a podcast on the drive to work, and in it, the hosts took time to discuss the very first Excalibur story The Sword Is Drawn. It’s a great book, and the start of an even greater series, but I’d rather leave the discussion of the overall story to…
Wondercon 2018: A Fan’s Thoughts
Con season is in full swing, and Wondercon, sister convention to the epic monstrosity known as San Diego Comic-Con happened this past weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center in southern California. The weather was perfect for a con: sunny, but with just enough breeze to keep a jacket close by. Cosplayer groups and camera folx…
Manga on Stage: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui / Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon’s Pluto
We sit on a single row of seats, backs against a wall, hands on a railing before a drop. Beneath us is the main audience, and ahead of that is a curtained stage littered along the front with scrap metal. At first glance that’s all it appears to be, but there are a few distinguishable…
The Castle Offers Fictions Within Fictions
If you’re going to read a comic co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick and edited by Sana Amanat, you probably want them all to be pretending to adapt a novel written by a fictional character from a television show. Right? Isn’t that what people want? That’s what happened in 2011, when Marvel…
Pubwatch Oni Press – Celebrating 20 Years with Charity and Dragons
And we’re back! Two-ish months in and it already feels like a year’s worth of things have happened in 2018 (did January last like three months for anyone else?). Over in the Oni Press corner, we’ve got some catching up to do, so let’s get going. Things to look forward to: Have you read Katie…
Black Comix Returns With A Bang!
Black Comix Returns Damian Duffy (curator) & John Jennings (curator) The Magnetic Collection at Lion Forge (Publisher) Release Date: February 20, 2018 The comics world is often a homogenous mix of the same white male writers and creators, making the same comics. Often PoC are not recruited to tell their own stories. In 2017 Roxane…
