credit: Image

Amory Wars, Vol. 1: The Second Stage Turbine Blade TPB (Image) - Hey Coheed & Cambria fans! Be one among the fence and get this book, which reworks the already existing Coheed comics and completes the storyline (which is incomplete without the other albums’ series). Did I mention all of C&C’s albums are about an epic space saga that the band plans to release in comic form? No? I’m sure I did. Read the rest of this entry »

Archaia Studios Press, the publisher that brought you Hybrid Bastards!, Misericordia and The Sisterhood continues to give us unique, creative titles as it continues to grow. One of the latest comics is Cursed Pirate Girl, a fairy tale about pirates and imagination, beautifully drawn by the writer, Jeremy Bastian.

Archaia was kind enough to arrange an interview with Mr. Bastian. Read the rest of this entry »

A few people have heard about this, and I think it’s great. What would happen if you took Garfield out of the Garfield strips? What you get is a really, really sad take on Jon. Makes you wonder if Garfield is all in Jon’s head? What is it with imaginary cats?

Hopefully Jim Davis thinks this is funny, too!

Courtesy: 20th Century Fox

What Is The Truth?

In mid-March this straight-to-DVD movie, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, based on the SciFi Network’s Stargate SG-1 was meant to be the finale to the “Ori Arc” - the new villain storyline for the show’s seasons 9 and 10. This was a necessary movie as the end of Season 10, the final season, left the Stargate crew in the midst of their struggle to fight the Ori. The series finale was no more than a sort of “what if” scenario that left the team stranded in a time dilation field, where the events of the episode were erased at the end of the show. But this movie was the real series finale the show needed.

Of course, I’ll use this movie as a springboard to examine the biggest flaw with the show, which deals with the shows treatment of religion. While the original antagonists, the Gou’ald, were meant to criticize Christianity, the Ori are meant to criticize Islamofascism. How? Read the rest of this entry »

Cape & Cowl Get LOST

I really like LOST. Get me talking about it, I’ll have theory discussions for hours. But, even though I love it, I recognize the utter stupidity of the show, it’s predictability, and the “brilliant” writing that is actually just a removal of information and then presenting really simple things at dramatic points in the show. This week I wanted to poke fun at the show, plus give you kids a fix during this unbearable month-long hiatus.

The opening scene of the pilot episode.

Also an important LOST moment, only this time taking a moment to stop and think about the absurdity of what is going on. Read the rest of this entry »

Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

Simon Dark is Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) take on Frankenstein - the patchwork corpse Simon Dark protects his corner of Gotham City with equal violence while trying to understand who he is. As far as the writing goes, this is one of the more unique super hero books to come out in awhile, especially since it is in the DC Universe, but not a rehashing of old comic archetypes. Sure he’s a literary archetype, but the way he is presented is fresh (for a corpse) and compelling.

But nothing is perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the writer and artist of Hole: Consumer Culture will be speaking at the Urbana Free Library, 210 W. Green St, Urbana Saturday, from 1 to 3PM. Topics include, of course, comics!

For more info, visit here >>>>

Last Defenders #2 (Marvel) - Last issue She-Hulk, Colossus, Blazing Skull, and Nighthawk were made members of the New Jersey Defenders. Needless to say, not all of them were thrilled with that. Better read those Defenders Essentials, though, because it looks like this series will reference old enemies and events.

Castle Waiting Vol II #11 (Fantagraphics) - Well, now the whole secret passage thing has been resolved, so hopefully we’ll get more info on other characters in the castle. But if I see one more bearded nun…

The Death of Captain America: Fallen Son TPB (Marvel) - These were one-shots by Jeph Loeb (Superman/Batman) about characters in the Marvel Universe dealing with Cap’s death. Each was meant to display a stage of DABDA - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. It already came out in hardcover, but I always recommend waiting for the paperback, unless you really loved it.

Titans #1 (DC) - The Teen Titans we know and love (the roster of the Teen Titans tv show) are grown up and off to bigger and better things, but fate, or marketing, will bring them back together to face a new (or old) foe.

Avengers Fairy Tales #2 (Marvel) - While these stories have been fun, like the Spider-man and X-Men fairy tales, they are kind of pointless. BUT, the first issue (Peter Pan) was actually really fun and captivating, probably because of the Windwaker-esque art. This week’s is the story of Pinocchio.

The first question any writer needs to ask themselves is, “does this story need to be told?” Once that has been evaluated, sometimes answered by “I think it’s cool” or “I need money,” the writer then must decide how the story needs to be told - the best way to convey what the writer wants to convey with the story, be it information, satire, or some other message.

credit: D & Q

Writers can, in abstract theory, choose to make their story a poem, a movie, prose novel, an essay, or even a play. Of course, they can choose the comic book/graphic novel medium as well, to use the juxtaposition of words and pictures as the means to express their tale.

So I asked these questions to David Collier’s Portraits of Life, a collection of comics about historical people (or at least presented as historical), like Grey Owl, Paul Arthur, Ethel Catherwood, and even his own grandfather. From a modern lit stance, yes, these are interesting stories and worth telling. Read the rest of this entry »

According to ICv2 News:

Courtesy Viz

“The Gadsen (Alabama) Times is reporting that two 12-year-old students at the West End Elementary School were arrested after school authorities discovered a Death Note-inspired notebook containing the names of faculty members, school personnel and students. The two boys, who have been suspended from school, explained that the got the idea from Viz Media’s Death Note anime series, which is running on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The anime is based on the manga series, written by Tsugumi Ohba, about a precocious teenager who discovers a shinigami’s (Japanese “death” figure’s) notebook. If a person’s name is written in the notebook, that person will die.”

Read the rest of this entry »