Welcome back to the August edition Monthly Marvel Muster! Where I discuss the goings-on of the Marvel comics universe. August saw the long-awaited end of Secret Empire, and the first of the Generations one-shots featuring time-tossed team-ups between characters who’ve used the same code names at different times. No new ongoing series launched in August,…
Variant Covers 101
Variant covers! Those exciting, colourful often “rare” comic book covers that we all love (to hate). But what are variant covers? Why do they exist? Why does your local comic shop not have the one by your absolute favourite artist? And what does their existence mean in the greater comic book landscape? Here’s my primer…
Katie O’Neill: Visible Woman
The running themes in Katie O’Neill’s charming stories are joy and friendship. Sprinkle in a dash of learning, some tea, and sometimes romance–these are a few of the ingredients that make up the New Zealand illustrator’s magical tales. There are also healthy doses of incredibly clean lines and perfectly chosen palettes sprinkled throughout. Her natural…
The Mane Event: Lion Forge Pubwatch
For marginalized people, my queer enby self included, it is a constant struggle to see oneself in the massive sea of heteronormative bleached media. Today, when the world seems to actively rally against us, Lion Forge is here to shine a mirror on those who need it most and walk the walk of diversity. Both…
Image 25: Top Cow’s Matt Hawkins’ Full Trajectory
From some guy in a line to COO of a 25-year-old publishing imprint, Matt Hawkins saw the glory days of Image, and stayed around for the aftermath. There are plenty of interviews covering the Founding Fathers of Image’s early days as masters of their new domain. The twentieth anniversary interviews Jason Sacks carried out for…
Sci-Fi Cine: Cinematography 101
It’s in every movie, right in front of you. Sometimes it goes unnoticed. Other times it makes you go “Wow! Look at that shot!” It is what separates an epic film from shit. It is cinematography. Cinematography is the art of making motion pictures. Just like with a painting, a cinematographer (also called Director of…
Rebirth Round Up: August 9
Welcome to the first Rebirth Roundup! Here I’ll do quick reviews of most DC Comics published books. I’m not entirely caught up on everything, but am working on that front, so some titles are not included yet. But as soon as I can I’ll be reviewing everything, right here, every week. That said, there will…
Presenting Dark Horse: Cats, Hammers, Berger Books
Welcome to the first installment of Presenting Dark Horse ! This cleverly named column will be a monthly roundup of all the latest comic releases, industry news and miscellaneous musings about Dark Horse Comics, presented by a longtime comics fan and admirer of this publisher’s unique content library. Here is a brief introduction for those…
Valiant Buzz: A little bit of Faith and a whole lot of ICONS
With the end of July inevitably comes the end of San Diego Comic Con talk. But luckily for you, we still have some buzz up our sleeves. At SDCC, Valiant Comics unveiled their blind bag exclusives — three, individually bagged in opaque plastic, editions of their “ICONS” initiative. They include: Bloodshot: Salvation #1, Ninja-K #1, and…
Triangulating Looks: Introducing Fashion
Because we live life on hard mode, we naturally decided to use column #2 to dig into the most difficult to define point on our triangle: fashion. In simplest terms, we’re defining fashion as building designs from the ground up rather than duplicating or reworking real world outfits. That doesn’t mean runway versus rack, though!…
Red Death and Murder Machines, First Look At Dark Knights
On September 20th, the Dark Multiverse invades. As a tie-in with DC event Metal, there will be seven one-shot comics starring seven different twisted versions of Batman. Why? Why not, man. DC has released the covers to the first two issues, both drawn by Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson, who will also be drawing the other…
Women Making Comics: Sitting Down With Ann Nocenti At SDCC
As a woman, growing up as a comics fan, you’re often told that you’re in some kind of minority, that women don’t read (or write about) comics, and have certainly never MADE comics. This weird ahistorical version of things is a relatively recent one, with people of all genders enjoying newsstand comics and creating them since…