Adopt a Comic: Win Elk’s Run #1
[NOTE: Updated contest info here.] Generally speaking, the Comics Blogiverse is relatively united when it comes to showing love for indie comics and harping on the need to support them, with several sites even running contests giving away copies of trade paperbacks of series they want more people to read. I’ve been sitting on the
ménage à trois: 3/23/05
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.] Thanks to an impromptu trip south to Virginia for the Easter weekend — a trip which inadvertently
Retro: Orbiter (TPB)
Prior to 9/11, there were many who believed that my generation’s defining moment happened on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, instantly killing all 7 crew members aboard, including the first teacher scheduled to fly in space, Sharon Christa McAuliffe. I was in 11th
ménage à trois: 3/16/05
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.] A healthy week from the Big Two, including several of my regulars, along with a new issue
Interview: Fialkov on Elk’s Run
It’s a sad fact in the comics industry today that succesfully launching a brand new title is a Herculean feat for the Big Two, requiring a massive marketing and promotion campaign with no guarantees of success. For independent publishers, it’s a near impossible task. Even sadder is the fact that the lower half of the
Review: Western Tales of Terror #1-3
Comic books I like generally fall into one of two primary categories: 1) well-written, character-driven fare (Gotham Central, Ex Machina); or, 2) old school, straight-up fun comics (Ezra, The Losers). A third category – the thought-provoking, big idea classic – is a rare treat that usually starts in one of the two other categories before
ménage à trois: 3/9/05
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.] When I first started this column, I figured finding a decent indie to review each week would
Comment: Making Comics Thin-Skinned
It’s no secret that creative types can be pretty thin-skinned when it comes to their art, especially when they’re in their early developmental stages. Personally, when I first got into the poetry slam scene – competitive poetry readings, for the uninitiated, where original poems are performed and then judged on a scale of 0-10 by
Review: Comic Book Encyclopedia
When I was a kid, encyclopedias were often frustrating for their lack of depth or currency. These days, with the pervasiveness of the internet, the notion of a printed encyclopedia is about as practical as a hand-cranked engine. Nevertheless, Ron Goulart decided to go the throwback route anyway, and compiled his ambitious and admirable, if
Review: DEMO #1-12
[EDIT: Welcome, Larry Young fans! Be sure to also check out my response to what brought you here, here.] I have to admit to having an extreme aversion to hype. I call it the American Beauty-syndrome, in reference to the inexplicable amount of praise that overrated retread of suburban dysfunction received. I saw it three