Fantastic Four #545 is the greatest Marvel comic this year

Why, do you ask? I give you three reasons. 1. Dwayne McDuffie really has a handle on what makes the Fantastic Four unique. It’s not just four people with superpowers; it’s a family. And even though that family is going through post-Civil War jitters, and Reed and Sue have been replaced with the Black Panther [...]

The lost Jack Chick/Stan Lee comic

This is scary-brilliant. However, I suspect Brandy Clark would have talked to Bill Mantlo, not Roy Thomas. Still, brilliant.

Let’s have some fun, shall we?

Thanks to my friend Ray Lopez. Your results:You are Lex Luthor Lex Luthor 77% Dr. Doom 75% Green Goblin 73% The Joker 67% Magneto 66% Apocalypse 64% Riddler 59% Kingpin 59% Mr. Freeze 50% Venom 46% Catwoman 45% Juggernaut 41% Dark Phoenix 37% Poison Ivy 37% Two-Face 33% Mystique 25% A brilliant businessman on a [...]

Another sad comic

At Gail Simone’s board, one of the posters (Ed Contradictory- what an alias!) posted this, and my heart stopped. I edited it to fit here. And to answer your question…no, it’s not an authentic strip. Someone made it in Photoshop. But it still stopped me cold. By the way, Gail Simone is one of my [...]

What’s the saddest comic you’ve ever read?

ESPN’s Bill Simmons had a link to sadkermit.com, with a clip of everybody’s favorite frog singing Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”, complete with images of Kermit shooting up heroin and staring at portraits of Miss Piggy and Jim Henson. It reminded me of the saddest comic I ever read, Chris Aubry’s “I Still Think Of You, Jim [...]

The Summer of Sinnott!

TwoMorrows is publishing a book about the greatest inker ever, Joe Sinnott. I’ve bought a ton of TwoMorrows books over the years, and I’ve never been disappointed. John Morrow and his crew do a fantastic job of covering the history of comics and the lives of the people who make them. John has a special [...]

DC Licensing must be so proud

My bum leg felt okay tonight, and my wife needed to shop for her mom’s birthday, so we hit the Monmouth Mall tonight. While walking around, we spotted a store we had never seen before: The merchandise for sale was…ahem…rather interesting. Exotic lingerie… …spare uniforms for nurses and cops… …shoes only a stripper could love… [...]

Marvel Civil War and 9/11

In an article for the New York Review of Books, critic Daniel Mendelsohn writes about watching the first plane hit the World Trace Center on 9/11: I flipped the phone shut, looked up, and a dark flash of something darted into the building that loomed directly before me, which was the north tower of the [...]

New theme tryout

I admit that part of the fun of having this site powered by WordPress is the ability to change themes on the fly. As much as I liked the old theme, I wanted something a bit more dramatic, and Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s XMark theme seems to take the cake. I need to edit the header and [...]

More YouTube goodness

I can’t figure out how this relates to comics, other than I found this on the Nodwick site. But it’s still darn cute.

Something Other Than Medical Drama

Check out the Batman villain masks in this ultra-swinging Gnarls Barkley song. (Regular posting resumes soon, I promise.)

Dear Joe Quesada

(from a comment I made on Newsarama): For the past two months, I’ve been suffering from an unknown malady in my spine, hip, and thigh that has made it painful for me to walk or lay in bed. The condition has gotten so bad that I now have to work from home 5 days a [...]

Note to NYCC: Women make comics too

(Warning: this article is written under the influence of Vicodin. I see the orthopedist on Friday for the worsening problems in my back and leg. I’m cranky.) The New York Comic Con is trying very hard to do a better job than last year’s debacle, where they accidentally oversold the show to the public and [...]

You thought Spider-Man was unmasked in Civil War? Wait till you see this…

Christopher Butcher has the best take on the full-frontal Spider-Man in this week’s Spider-Man: Reign #1 issue. (I’m still waiting for the obligatory "Spider-Nuts" theme song parody.) The big issue for Marvel isn’t the dangly bits shown in the picture. It’s the lack of quality control at the House of Ideas. How many errors has [...]

The good and the bad of New Comics Day

Unlike those of you who make the weekly trek to your friendly neighborhood comics store each Wednesday, I get my comics once a month from MailOrderComics.com. Once a month, I get a box or two (or, um, three) full of graphic novels and comics, all wrapped lovingly in cardboard and styrofoam peanuts. I dive in, [...]

Go ahead- Share This!

I’ve installed the Share This! plugin created by WordPress guru Alex King. If you like one of my posts, you can email it to someone, add it to your Google bookmarks, Digg it, and a whole bunch of other options. For me, this blog isn’t supposed to be a monologue. It’s a conversation. I’m hoping [...]

Fox Trot goes to Sunday only in 2007

Tom Spurgeon caught this story today. I’ve been reading Fox Trot since I was an undergrad at the U of Delaware, and have always loved the geek-friendly strip. I’ll miss the daily strips, but every artist should know when it’s time to close up, and I wish Bill Amend well with his new projects. We’re [...]

The back’s worse

It turns out that my back condition is degenerative disc disease. I go for an MRI soon to determine the extent of the injury. Bleh. (Thanks to Glyph Jockey for the Nancy cartoon. Click through for the whole joke. Thanks to Boing Boing for pointing it out.)

It’s not always good to feel like Batman

I’ve been battling back pain for a while now, and my doctor over the weekend now suspects I have a herniated disc. It’s hitting the nerves on the right side on my right leg, so walking any distance more than a few feet is mighty painful. I should be getting an MRI to confirm the [...]

‘Fun Home’ is the NYT Sunday Book Review token graphic novel of the year

The list is here. I’m not arguing the inclusion of the graphic novel Fun Home to the list. I’ve always been a fan of Alison Bechdel’s work, and while I haven’t gotten to this book yet, I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about it. It’s in my to-read pile, which at this point is almost [...]