Christian characters in modern comics are jokes. This can be debated, of course, but the general attitude towards these token characters tends to be hostile. The secular mindset prevails in most comics and gets the last word over Christians that may be in any given book. Other religions are another issue - non-Christian religions are usually respected, yet when secular or atheist negativity appears it is usually directed towards the Christians. Every once in awhile a writer will throw in what they feel is a genuine Christian character, you know to be nice to that minority, and it usually comes off as a flat representation of what people think Christians are.

courtesy DC

Alan Moore’s Top 10 was a fantastic series, not just because of the crazy homages to super hero and comic conventions, but because its characters where fully developed in the short time they were introduced. Peregrine is a super hero who flies using a wing suit, happily married to her husband, and a member of the Top 10 police force. She also happens to be Christian. Moore handles this character with respect, putting her in a faith questioning situation in the original comics, and reinforcing her beliefs even though Christianity is in disagreement with Moore’s practice of magic and belief in a Roman snake god.

Let’s jump forward to the first “sequel” to Top 10, Top 10: The Farthest Precinct. Here writer Paul Di Filippo was just mean to the character Peregrine. He has Peregrine see Jesus drunk in a bar, having been called in to deal with his disorderly conduct. This sends her into a faith questioning spiral that was handled without regard for the way Moore had already set up the character. Likewise, this recent issue of Top 10 Season Two, not written by Moore, has Peregrine’s husband cross dressing into other costumes, a socially unacceptable practice, especially for this conservative Christian. In fact, the couple goes to Premise Keepers, clearly a parody of the Christian men group, the Promise Keepers. Read the rest of this entry »

America’s Best Comics Returns!!!

Yes! This is it! I’ve been waiting 4 years for this! Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct was a travesty, a book too bizarre and random, undercutting the serious human issues Moore presented in his original series.

This new series, the second season, is what Farthest Precinct should have been. The characters are set up; old, new and underused alike to get set loose in a brilliant maze of story that all converges at one glorious end.

America’s Best Comics are the best modern comics readers can find, and naysayers need to read Top Ten to prove them wrong. Everything a super hero book should be - bizarre, epic, emotional - Top Ten is. Zander Cannon and Gene Ha know what they’re doing, and we should listen when they speak.

courtesy DC Comics

courtesy DC

While many of you know about Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta and Watchmen, no one outside of comics will have heard of Moore’s sub-imprint of DC’s Wildstorm imprint, America’s Best Comics.

These stories are the best comics have to offer. What Moore did was instead of write a single title, he wrote a dozen series all part of the same universe. With each title, he could use different artists to tell different stores. Tom Strong was a campy Superman/Doc Savage pulp hero, while Promethea was a dark fantasy exploration of Moore’s religious philosophy. Each title had a different theme, but the characters shared a central universe.

America Best Comics’ was Moore’s attempt at saving comics. He gave different writers and artists the chance to play in a unique toy box of characters that homaged the wonderfully stupid legacy of comics. But, all of the series were eventually canceled, and ABC was left on hiatus.

Hopefully, with this trade paperback that reprints all the title’s first issues and the announcement of a Top Ten (the super hero police title) sequel, ABC may be back on the rise. If sales and interest justify it, these brilliant series may soon return.

Plus, this book is only $5.

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 »

They aren’t comic’s only married creative team, but they’re one of the few. Working together on such titles as Albion, Wild Girl, and titles using other creative properties, Leah Moore and John Reppion continue to bring new ideas and unique interpretations of the medium.

Recently, Moore and Reppion took time to talk to me about their new crossover and their zombie series, Raise the Dead. Read the rest of this entry »

The Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 2 TPB (Dark Horse/Marvel) - Reprinting old Marvel Conan comics, Dark Horse has been bringing most of the Conan books to us as color comics in slim, expensive trades. These Dark Horse Presents books are like the Marvel Essentials - about twenty issues of black-and-white reprints in one volume. It may seem nit-picky, but it seems to me that the paper quality is much better for these Dark Horse editions when compared to Essentials or Showcase Presents. This volume contains classic Conan adaptations like “The Slithering Shadow” and “The Pool of the Black One.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ashley “Ash” Williams is creating quite the resume these days. Not only is he an S-Mart employee, but fresh off this adventures in his own series and fighting the Marvel Zombies Ash seeks to destroy more Deadite zombies in the form of two of horror’s largest slashers.

Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger have met before in the movie Freddy vs. Jason. There was supposed to be a movie sequel to this clash, featuring Bruce Campbell as Ash, but the movie fell apart. Luckily this story that needs to be told has made its way to comics as a joint project between DC’s Wildstorm imprint and Dynamite Entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »