Twelve-Cent Archie

Bart Beaty’s Twelve-Cent Archie resembles a grab bag of blog posts put under book covers. There are 100 capsule pieces, in no immediately obvious order, each lasting 2-4 pages and covering some aspect of Archie comics cover-dated from December 1961 through July 1969, when Archie publications sold for...

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Batman: Bad Blood Next DCU Animated Movie

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced that the next DCU original animated movie will be Batman: Bad Blood. It’s coming out on Blu-ray and DVD on February 2, 2016, with the digital HD version available a month earlier, on January 19. This was the film previewed on Justice League: Gods & Monsters...

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Will Tokyopop Return? We’ll Find Out Next Year

This summer, news went around that former manga publisher Tokyopop, which stopped printing books in the US in 2011, was returning. Again. For the third time. Tokyopop had a panel at this year’s Anime Expo where they announced that they are “planning to begin publishing manga again in 2016” by “seeking...

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Princess Jellyfish Comes to Print in US

Princess Jellyfish has long been enjoyed by US fans as an anime series. They’re drawn to the story, about a girl geek living in a house full of women devoted to their hobbies, including a manga artist and a history buff. The shy young lady loves watching jellyfish, and one night she meets a beautiful...

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ABC Cancels First Show of Season; Why Did It Take So Long?

Two weeks ago, news broke that ABC canceled Wicked City after three episodes of the 1980s-set show about a pair of serial killers. In it, Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) and Erika Christensen murder while LAPD detectives (Jeremy Sisto and Gabriel Luna) hunt them down. The premise and period setting sounded...

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New Marvel DVD Art in Amazon-Exclusive Set

Amazon has an exclusive: the super-deluxe Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two set becomes available on December 8. List price $250, currently $185, the set includes the most recent six Marvel superhero movies in Blu-ray, 3-D Blu-ray, and digital formats. Ant-Man Avengers: Age of Ultron Captain America:...

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Modern Masters: Paolo Rivera

I really like the guys behind TwoMorrows. They made a go of publishing historical magazines and books about comics at a time when few others were. However, their publications are aimed at a core, comic shop-based, male audience that is so clearly irrelevant to what I enjoy about the medium. Take, for...

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Martyrdom: The Coloring Book

What a weird world we live in, that this book would be published at all. Martyrdom: The Coloring Book is what it says on the cover. It’s a coloring book for adults, written by Hallie Fryd and illustrated by Julia Gfrörer (Black Is the Color). Each set of two pages consists of, on the left, text about...

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Time-Traveling Superheroes Are Cool!

We now have a longer trailer for Legends of Tomorrow, the DC superhero show teaming up the Atom, White Canary, Firestorm, Captain Cold and Heat Wave, and Hawkgirl and Hawkman. It debuts January 21, and the team is going to time travel! The villain is Vandal Savage, which explains the need for battles...

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Is the Good Dinosaur a Bad Pixar Movie?

Pixar’s been on a roll for a long time, making some of the best ever animated films about meaningful subjects. Inside Out, newly out on home video, even managed to dramatize pre-adolescent emotions in an entertaining way. However, their latest, The Good Dinosaur, in theaters now, may break their streak....

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Ooku: The Inner Chambers Volume 11

It’s been a year since the last volume of Ooku: The Inner Chambers, but the themes of volume 11 are so powerful and immediate that I had no trouble picking it right back up. And Fumi Yoshinaga’s art is so gorgeous that it’s always a pleasure to spend time with, particularly given her facility with emotional...

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My Love Story!! Volumes 4-6

The problem with saving the good stuff for later is that it’s too easy to get caught up with the everyday and never get back to them. Which is how I found myself three volumes behind on one of my favorite manga series. I’m impressed by how enjoyable I find this simple story, that of a mismatched student...

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Secret Volume 3

Well, that was abrupt. I had no idea this “revenge among the student survivors of a bus crash” series only ran three volumes, making this the series conclusion. That keeps it moving quickly, though, as I had hoped. And it’s about time. We’ve found out who the three murderers promised to us in the first...

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The World’s Greatest First Love Volume 3

Why am I reading The World’s Greatest First Love volume 3 when I so disliked the first volume? Because I found out that the series is about more than just the couple featured in the first two books. In the first chapter, new manga editor Ritsu has been given the additional responsibilities of coordinating...

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Slush Pile: SLG: Sisters’ Luck, Shadoweyes, Captain Long Ears

I’m normally, as a comic reader, focused on story first, but I was surprised to find that these three SLG Publishing graphic novels impressed me more with their illustrations than their plots. All were review copies provided by the publisher. The Sisters’ Luck by Shari Chankhamma, $12.95 I was intrigued...

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Second Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Out Tomorrow

The second Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus is due out tomorrow in comic shops. The first volume reprinted three of the books for $19.99, and this one does the same, containing individual volumes 4-6. Stories feature Crop circles and alien visitors Plasticized museum bodies A dead baby and a...

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Love Stage!! Volume 4

Love Stage!! volume 4 continues the excellent pacing of the series written by Eiki Eiki, drawn by Taishi Zaou, and published by SuBLime Manga. The relationship between the nerdy Izumi and the famous Ryoma progresses at a sprightly pace, just as Izumi’s fated celebrity career does. In the last book,...

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Halo and Sprocket Returns

Halo and Sprocket is one of my all-time favorite comics. Its premise of a girl, an angel, and a robot together learning about life in funny ways is timeless and entertaining. Now, thanks to digital, Halo and Sprocket has new life. Kerry Callen is reposting his stories, now in color and with the occasional...

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DC’s Not the Only One With Lego Superheroes: Lego Marvel Avengers Assembled Airs Monday

On Monday, November 16, at 9:30 PM Eastern / 8:30 Central, Disney XD will air a 22-minute compilation special of Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled. It’s another version of the Avengers facing off with Ultron (like the movie), only this time, the robot has taken control of Iron Man, as shown...

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The World’s Greatest First Love Volume 1

I enjoy manga set in the world of manga publishing. (This is in contrast to comics about making comics, which tend to be dopey and morose.) Even when Bakuman was ridiculous about its characters, for instance, I appreciated the bits about working in such a demanding creative profession and how the industry...

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Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir

Review by KC Carlson The word “humble” appears just 30 words into Stan Lee’s new illustrated biography Amazing Fantastic Incredible. Considering that Stan’s about the closest thing to a modern day P.T. Barnum that we’ve got (huckstering like there’s no tomorrow), it’s a wonder that he waited that long!...

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Michael Cho Gives Marvel Characters Retro Designs

Another month, another variant cover theme. There are too many to even post them all lately, but I really like the classic streamlined look and the saturated colors of work by Michael Cho (Shoplifter), so here they are. Select “All-New, All-Different” Marvel Universe titles in February (available for...

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Yukarism Volume 4

The reincarnation shojo manga series by Chika Shiomi concludes in this fourth volume, bringing the story to a quick close. I’m a bit disappointed, but I think I was expecting something different from what the author intended. I wouldn’t mind reading more stories about how someone living life today interpreted...

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Louise Brooks: Detective

Rick Geary, the artist behind the acclaimed Twentieth Century Murder true-crime graphic novel series, takes a side step into fiction with a strong historical flavor in Louise Brooks: Detective. In real life, the distinctive actress, who starred in Pandora’s Box and popularized the severe dark bob hairdo,...

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Season 2 of The Librarians Debuts Tonight

Are you familiar with The Librarians? It’s a fantasy adventure show whose second season premiere airs tonight, November 1, at 8 PM (ET/PT) on TNT. I started paying attention to it because it was developed by John Rogers, previously responsible for Leverage. It’s a spinoff of the three Librarian movies...

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