Killers #2 Fernando Dagnino (Artist), B Clay Moore (Writer), Jeff Powell (Letters), José Villarrubia (Colours) Valiant Comics 28 August, 2019 Last we saw of Desdemona Rush, a.k.a. Ninja-G, she was being thrown out a window by Roger Thorpe, a.k.a. Ninja-J. She survives and goes on the hunt for reinforcements, namely Raleigh Brewster, aka Ninja-F, a…
Plotting A Course With The Necromancer’s Map
Songs for the Dead introduced us to Bethany, a young minstrel and necromancer who tries to use her dark powers to bring light to the world. Followed by cute, undead animals and accompanied by a warrior who makes more dead bodies than Bethany could ever think to raise, their story now continues in The Necromancer’s…
Kingdom Has Great Production Values, But Little Else
Kingdom Shinsuke Sato (director), Tsutomu Kuroiwa, Shinsuke Sato and Yasuhisa Hara (screenplay), Kento Yamazaki, Ryo Yoshizawa, Kanna Hashimoto, Masami Nagasawa, Kanata Hongō and Takao Osawa (cast) Sony Pictures Japan/Funimation Films April 19, 2019 (international)/2020 America In ancient China, two orphaned slaves, Li Xin and Piao, dream of becoming the world’s greatest generals. They train each…
Shannon Hale’s Best Friends is an Unintentionally Helpful Guidebook for Parents of Preteens
Best Friends Shannon Hale (writer), LeUyen Pham (illustrator), Hilary Sycamore (colourist) First Second August 27, 2019 Shannon Hale’s Best Friends is a graphic memoir of her elementary school experiences. The sequel to 2017’s Real Friends, it covers everything from body image issues to crushes, and all the emotional turmoil in between that is the life of…
Sweet Valley High: Academic All-Star? Brings Back Twinning
Sweet Valley High: Academic All-Star? Pippa Mather (colors), Devaki Neogi (art), Cardinal Rae (letters), Katy Rex (writer) July 31st, 2019 Dynamite Comics The young adult book series Sweet Valley High hit a peak of popularity in the ’80s and ’90s that made the soapy, wild adventures of the Wakefield twins inescapable for folks of a…
The Vampyre’s Legacy, Part 8: In the Shadow of Hollywood
As noted in the previous post of this series, the biggest change faced by vampire fiction of the 1930s and ‘40s was that authors in the genre were now competing with films. Admittedly, dramatised vampires were not a new phenomenon: after all, the 1819 publication of Polidori’s “The Vampyre” had been swiftly followed by a…
A Fistful of Comics: Crowdfunding Roundup, August ’19
It’s August and as of yesterday I am rid of all the packages from my own Kickstarter, which means the website no longer seems to carry malevolent, threatening energy. So let’s take a look a this month’s bounty!
Desiree Rodriguez and the Catalyst Prime Universe Bible
The countdown to Catalyst Prime: Seven Days continues. Despite initial delays, the series will usher in a new superhero universe for Lion Forge in October. Orchestrated by Gail Simone, Catalyst Prime involves heroes like Noble, Summit, and Quincredible, as well as several other people empowered by the catastrophe that occurred in the Free Comic Book…
Powers of X #3: The Case For A New Phoenix
Powers of X #3 VC’s Clayton Cowles (letterer), Marte Gracia (colors), Jonathan Hickman (writer), Tom Muller (design), R.B. Silva (artist) Marvel Comics August 14, 2019 A really great mystery story unlocks in stages. It’s hard to do, but if done well, as in Powers of X #3, you’re left with just enough to work with…
Previously On Comics: Now With Space Fascists
Good news folks, comics ARE for kids again! The Wall Street Journal said so. I think. It’s behind a paywall but from what I can glean they have just now learned that graphics novels that are aimed at younger readers and deal with more sensitive topics such as those by New York Times bestseller list…
Comics and Kink: The Erotica Side Hustle of Superman Co-Creator Joe Shuster
The starving artist is one of the most curiously enduring cultural images of the last four centuries or so. Its Romantic origins established a sense of noble prestige to the cycle of poverty, sacrifice, and professional obscurity in which many artists found themselves in the pursuit of a career. These days, there’s more scorn behind…
Knights Temporal #1 Takes Readers Familiar Places in Unusual Ways
Knights Temporal #1 Cullen Bunn (Writer), Fran Galan (Artist, Cover Artist), Dave Sharpe (Letterer) July 31, 2019 In the first issue of Knights Temporal, a new series from Aftershock Comics, things are not as they seem for Auguste de Riviére, a knight freshly returned from the Crusades who finds himself following a quest for redemption into the…
