Magazine
Seeing through Spectacles
Julian Darius’s essay Hollow Spectacle cites a current DC comic for its overuse of meaningless spectacular scenes, such as a scene in the recent Justice League #1, in which Green Lantern uses his power ring… [more]
Captured Ghosts Advance Screening During NYCC
Sequart and Respect! Films are proud to announce a special New York Comic Con screening of Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts at the downtown theater Cinema Village (22 E. 12th St. NYC 10003, ph# 212.924.3363) on Friday, 14 October, at… [more]
Whatever Happened to the Big Red Cheese, Part 1: The Naming Curse
Night in the city. “Papers!” a boy calls out into the storm ravaged night.
The Right Number – Rules, Structure, and Rhythm
Earlier this month, I had a look at Scott McCloud’s The Right Number, an experimental web-comic with a unique format based on digital technology. The zooming format and the forward reading convention were both novel… [more]
Sexism, Sexuality, and the DC Relaunch
Last week’s DC relaunch offerings didn’t prompt much serious debate over which title was the best, but they launched a flurry of reactions against their portrayal of women. But first, a warning: my goal here… [more]
Female Leads in Comics: Don’t Shoot the Messenger
There has been a lot of talk about comics being sexist or DC comics in particular not wanting to hire women and while it can be construed as a problem when DC’s titles went from… [more]
Adding Insult to Injury
As a comic book character, Batgirl only really took flight once she became permanently grounded.
Through a Siege Perilous: Rebooting the X-Men, Again
Much like any super-hero team around for 50 years, you eventually run out of stories to tell. Especially with a property like the X-Men, you can only tell the persecution story so many years before… [more]
Man of Steel, Woman of Legs
Given how often Superman and Batman have been paired into dualisms ranging from “day and night” to “Apollo and Dionysus,” it’s surprising that in the second week of DC’s “new 52” they paired the Grant… [more]
The Curious Case of Hyper-Criticism
Let’s talk about who we are as fans for a moment, shall we?
Put Your Money Where Your Panel Is: On Action Comics #1
Action Comics #1 is a simple story with a simple premise – introduce the character Superman, make the readers care about him, and put him in a dangerous test to set up for the next… [more]
Superman Returns Prequel #4: Lois Lane
Five years ago, around the release of Superman Returns, I began a look at its four-part prequel mini-series, examining how it changed Richard Donner’s original films and what it revealed about Superman’s five years of… [more]
Rosebuds and Grim Reapers: Why Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the Citizen Kane of Animated Films
From the deputized FBI agent of the 1940’s movie serials to the gritty, realistic vigilante of Christopher Nolan’s films, Hollywood has portrayed Batman in a variety of ways, but none of the live-action films have… [more]
Exposing Triple-D Tits: Sexuality and the Comic Book
There is no limit to what can be said about sex. Such a simple, almost industrial an act, yet mind boggling broad in its implications. The wealth of films, TV shows, and countless songs about… [more]
Clash of the Mythologies
I can appreciate someone like Chris Ware for his artistry, which I think is beautiful, but I think his attitude stinks, it just seems to be the attitude of somebody really privileged, and honestly, try… [more]
Whatever Happened to the Big Red Cheese?
As I write this, Captain Marvel’s future at DC comics is uncertain. Before the relaunch, Freddy Freeman was Captain Marvel (or maybe he was going by the name “Shazam” to clear up all those pesky… [more]
The Right Number – A New Reading Convention
Scott McCloud’s The Right Number is a compact, experimental web-comic. It is also one of the most successful web-comics ever produced. This is primarily due to it questioning something that most creators take for granted… [more]
The Walls of Samaris, Part 4: Textual Variants
We’ve previously examined the story of The Walls of Samaris, a French masterpiece that deserves to be known among comics-literate Americans. In part two, we looked at several implications of its trompe-d’oeil device. In part three, I wrapped up… [more]
Diagram for Delinquents Update #19: For Good
One question looming over our documentary, and it’s certainly a controversial one (especially for longtime comics readers like myself) is: was Wertham right? A simple question indeed, but one that has many more questions packed… [more]
Keeping the World Strange in Comics Stores Wednesday
Keeping the World Strange, our book on Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary, hits comics stores Wednesday (14 September 2011).
Justice League International #1 Review
It’s hard to put into words how silly Justice League International #1 is. On the one hand, it’s written in a style that’s a throwback to the very early 1990s. That shouldn’t be a total surprise:… [more]
Not Your Daddy’s Superman: How Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1 Works
Having slammed Justice League #1 so severely in the last week, I feel as if I’d be remiss not to point out how excellent Action Comics #1 is and how it gets right virtually everything… [more]
The Heroic Struggle of Beta Ray Bill
This is a somewhat informal essay on a character that has fascinated me for a few years, Beta Ray Bill. While it echoes the work of folklorists and the hero narrative (Propp, Campbell, et al),… [more]
Mark Millar’s The Ultimates, Part 6: And Now for Something Completely Different
If Ultimate Comics Avengers was a departure from Millar’s previous Ultimates work, then its sequel goes completely off the rails.
Spider Jerusalem and Friedrich Nietzsche
“Spider Jerusalem is like Hunter S. Thompson in the 25th century.” That is how the lead character of Warren Ellis’s Transmetropolitan was first described to me.
