Stupid Thing Marvel Editors Say: Number 1 in a Series

“But, what I’ve stated in the past is that what we’re hoping for Civil War to do is to get us a little closer to that feeling that was prevalent in the early days of the Marvel Universe. Back to that feeling of uncertainty, of unease between characters. This was always an integral part of [...]

Erik Larsen sums up exactly how I feel about comics

Here’s his column in CBR. He talks about how he ends up buying and rebuying newer editions of his favorite comics, specifically mentioning Absolute/Omnibus/oversized editions. He did miss one fun aspect of rebuying, though. Last night, my wife told me that one of her friends had an 11-year old son who was just getting into [...]

Webcomics Goodness 9/29

Tough Friday, right? Gotta pay the rent/mortgage and wrap up all those end-of-month actionables, right? Stressed out and need a laugh? We’re here to help. We have 7- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven- examples of webcomics goodness. Get to clickin!

Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier at Toms River Bookfest tomorrow

Here’s details on Bookfest. I’ll be there in the morning. Roman will host a workshop on writing for comics. Telgemeier will be signing books, including her Baby-Sitters Club books. And here’s a charming cartoon about their relationship.

Iron Man, Iron Man; does whatever a tin can can

Here’s some cool Iron Man sketches; I especially heart the Francesco Francavilla ones. Sorry for the blog absence; I caught a stomach bug. At least I don’t talk about it like Max Barry does. I’ve been on board with Civil War, and I think it’s the best ubercrossover Marvel’s ever done, but I have one [...]

More thoughts about pogs and 7-11

I do my best thinking in the shower. I was trying to think about what I’d like to talk about while showering this morning, and something occured to me. I missed the boat on the pog story yesterday. Sure, there were pogs in a 7-11… …but where were the comics? Eighteen months ago, Marvel announced [...]

Sign of the impending comics apocalypse

I was grabbing a Vitamin Water and a banana this morning at a 7-11 on the way to work when I saw these- pogs. Apparently, they’re back. I weep for the youth of America.

35 Books in 30 Days 6: Kafka by Steven T. Seagle and Stefano Gaudiano

Everyone who reads comics wants to write comics. Yes, you too. Comics are the second easiest storytelling media to create, behind prose. All you need to make a comic is the ability to make words and pictures come together on a page to make a story. If you can draw, take photos, or use an [...]

Apparently, Gregg Easterbrook has never heard of unstable molecules

Easterbrook, noted editor at The New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, and the Washington Monthly, and also writer of ESPN’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback, discusses the X-Men. True story: I got the idea of writing haikus in book reviews from him, as he uses haikus in his column to describe football teams. If you’re going to steal a [...]

Webcomics Goodness 9/26/06

So that’s what my cat was saying this morning. (From Two Lumps)

Reacting to a Tom Brevoort post; the Marvel Universe as experiment

Brevoort’s an editor at Marvel, and responded to some comments on his blog with this gem: "Here’s the thing: the characters are invulnerable. "I’m not talking about super-powers here; I’m talking about the ability to survive bad stories and bad times and to live on and prosper again. The primary Marvel characters have been around [...]

Story of a Delta Librarian

Colleen Doran posted this LA Times story about a retiring librarian from Mississippi and his struggles with a community where illiteracy runs rampant. There’s some comics content in there too, including a note about a custom comic the people at Archie created for the community. I’m lucky. I’ve been able to read all of my [...]

35 Books in 30 Days 5: Absolute Dark Knight by Frank Miller

How many major Frank Miller works aren’t in oversized books? Dark Horse put out Sin City in 8 oversized tomes. Marvel’s putting his Daredevil work into two Omnibus volumes, and they’ve already published his Spider-Man work and collaborations with Bill Sienkiewicz in oversized hardcovers. 300, his story about the Persian invasion of Greece, was originally [...]

New Edition of Comic Widows Press Release

Hello! Just wanted to let you folks know the newest edition of our comic review website Comic Widows is now up. Comic Widows presents articles, opinions and reviews of comics in all forms of the media: mainstream and independent print, film, television, manga and anime, gaming and on the web. Our September issue features a [...]

Webcomics Goodness 9/22

3 strips for you this morning; take your pic: Questionable Content mixes quantum mechanics and sexual fetishes together and comes up with a joke that all dirty-minded physicists will be using for years. Reprographics, the web’s best fumetti comic, gives us the new ditty about cubes. Cubes! xkcd reminds you why you shouldn’t drive after [...]

Behind the scenes at For Better or For Worse

Lynn Johnston opens up her studio to the public and shows how her award-winning strip, For Better or For Worse, gets made. Here’s the link, courtesy (again) of Blog@Newsarama. No reviews tonight again, but I’ll catch up this weekend.

Professor explains physics of Gwen Stacy’s death

Amazing what you can learn on the intarwub these days… Reviews should be back tonight; I’m nearly finished a few books, but I was wiped last night.

Why I Love Comics reason #473- Toth on Rude

Found this on Neilalien: Alex Toth wrote a scathing, brutally honest critique of a Johnny Quest story Steve Rude had drawn. It’s a real piece of tough love. Toth points out every flaw in Rude’s story to try to inspire him to draw better. Take a look. One thing that I’ve always loved about comics [...]

35 Books in 30 Days 4: Captain Amazing by Scott Kurtz & Steve Jackson

Scott Kurtz is best known for his work on the webcomic PvP, one of the longest running and most successful in the field. PvP started mostly as a strip focused on video games and gaming, but has evolved into a very entertaining situational comedy. But before PvP (and this book), Kurtz was struggling to find [...]

When did “dilettante” become an insult?

The champion of the comics blogosphere, Heidi McDonald, has posted breaking news about Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit against Fantagraphics. There’s a PDF of the complaint at Journalista here. From reading the PDF, Harlan is suing over two issues: published excerpts from Fanta’s upcoming company biography, Comics As Art: We Told You So, and the cover attribution [...]