On comics and other pop culture topics, including archived Comic Book Commentary posts from 2005-2007.
Support Independent Comics!Independent comics (and manga) being released tomorrow, 5/24/05, courtesy of ComicList. Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it.Recommendations, sometimes blind, in BOLD. Which ones are YOU reading?AAA POP COMICS Golden Plates #2 (Of 12), $7.99AIT/PLANETLAR True Story Swear To God Vol 2 This One Goes To 11 TPB, $12.95ANTARCTIC PRESS AP How To Draw Manga Toning Techniques CD Ed Vol 1 TPB, $24.95AMAZE INK (SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS) Punch And Judy TPB, $7.95ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS Archie #557, $2.19 Archie Double Digest…
WOW should begin and end every sentence when speaking about Batman Begins. Last night, America was treated to a 10-minute preview of the future blockbuster, courtesy of the WB Network. At the end of the preview my first thought was, "WOW!" My second thought was, "Hopefully I won't die before June 15th." It sounds ridiculous, but it's true. That's what I thought.Then I said another "WOW! "It looks like Chris Nolan will have another quality movie under his belt with Batman Begins. If you haven't seen his last two films, do so. Memento is great, and Insomnia is solid.The cinematography…
There's a request of my NY-area readers at the end of this, but first, the preamble. "Life, she is a roller coaster; for every thrilling dip, there is an uphill slog." I just made that sagacious little quote up, because it pretty much sums up last week. Long story short, we've squashed the Bloomfield house search - several reasons, among them the lack of full-day kindergarten, which we didn't realize until AFTER our bid was beaten on the one house - and for now, the overall housing search itself. Turns out fate had a Plan D we didn't know about.…
Just a little heads-up on some changes afoot here at CBC. Most significant, in terms of content, is that I will no longer be posting current reviews, including ménage à trois, or interviews here. The Editor is a megalomaniacal control freak who insists on...Oh, wait, wrong site! I'm the Editor here!Seriously, though, last week I signed on with the recently re-launched Buzzscope.com - f/k/a PopCultureShock.com - one of my favorite comics sites that's home to some of the funniest, enlightening, and insightful columns on the internet. They also publish weekly reviews to which I'll be contributing my fair share, starting…
Post-"War Games", writer Andersen Gabrych is slowly but surely turning Batgirl into the most satisfying Bat-book not named Gotham Central. Freed from the angst-ridden constraints of patrolling the streets of Gotham City in Batman's shadow -- and to a lesser degree, Oracle's -- Batgirl is on her own, relocating to the mean streets of Blüdhaven and carving her own niche out of one of the darker alleys of the DC Universe. After ruining the also-relocated Penguin's arms deal by taking down the Brotherhood of Evil last issue, this time around he raises the stakes, bringing in Deathstroke to take her…
Damn Kurt Busiek and his unexpectedly enjoyable revitalization of Conan! If not for him, I wouldn't have taken a chance on Red Sonja, a comic book I was pretty sure I wouldn't like from the minute I first saw its Greg Land cover. The easy thing would be to simply say you get what you pay for and move on, but I like to do things the hard way and will figure how to belabor the obvious in as interesting a manner as possible. Cheesecake aside -- and this comic is pure cheesecake with a faux-gritty graham cracker frosting --…
Most mainstream comic books these days ride a rickety wooden roller coaster throughout their ever-shortening life spans, offering an uneven mix of definitive and forgettable story arcs before inevitably being rebooted by some flavor-of-the-month talent in the kind of short-term thinking that brought down corporations like Enron and Worldcom. Then there are comic books like The Losers, defined by a singular creative vision that, hopefully, is allowed to carry through to its organic conclusion and then able to rest in peace. Typically, though, these types of comics die on the vine, languishing in obscurity as they are ignored by the…
