Doctor Who: The Third Doctor #3

I liked the first issue of Doctor Who: The Third Doctor for its effective nostalgia, but by this point in the five-issue miniseries, I’m honestly (and pleasantly) surprised at the turns in the story. The Doctor and Jo have been taken over by nanites, although since this story is set in the 70s, they’re...

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Tales From the Crypt Comic Back From the Dead!

I’m tempted to make a zombie joke here, since Tales From the Crypt is best known as a 1950s E.C. horror comic, one of the key exhibits in the notorious Congressional hearings about how “comics are making kids into juvenile delinquents!” You may have also heard of it due to the 1990s HBO TV series with...

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Planetes in Real Life?

Planetes is an exceptionally good manga series, recently reprinted by Dark Horse, about garbage collectors in space. Today, I saw this NY Times article, “Space’s Trash Collector? A Japanese Entrepreneur Wants the Job”. Sadly, this plan doesn’t involve sending people to space as interstellar garbage...

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DC Super Hero Girls as Lego!

The DC Super Hero Girls are really growing on me. And I’ve recently rediscovered the fun of building things in Lego. So these three new sets are quite attractive, although there seems to be more dollhouse-style play value than building strategies involved, with the exception of the huge high school...

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Anne Happy: Unhappy Go Lucky! Volume 3

When I read the first volume of this series, I thought it was cute and silly. It’s still aiming for that, but now, the fan service is overwhelming the entertainment value for me. For instance, the non-student nature of the supposedly responsible adults is indicated by giving them boobs as big as their...

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Movie Adaptation of a “Best-Selling Graphic Novel” I’ve Never Heard Of

I got a press release for the upcoming thriller Bad Kids of Crestview Academy, out digitally and “in select theaters” on January 13, 2017. I don’t normally pay attention to thriller press, because I’m squeamish and can’t watch movies based around people trying to kill each other in gruesome ways, but...

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Everyone’s Getting Married Volume 2

Everyone’s Getting Married is my favorite current manga romance, because it’s entertaining for me to see love among adults instead of schoolmates. It’s a cliche’ for the woman to want to get married before the man does, but I still like seeing Asuka and Nanami fall in love in spite of their different...

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DC Super Hero Girls: Hits and Myths

DC Super Hero Girls: Hits and Myths is the second graphic novel in the branded series, and I’m glad to say that I liked it better than the first, Finals Crisis. That may be because, now that the characters are established (although most of the main ones are already well-known), writer Shea Fontana and...

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Idol Dreams Volume 3

In Idol Dreams volume 3, author Arina Tanemura spends more time with the adult Chikage, providing a nice balance to the previous volume. Chikage finally has the phone number of the guy she’s had a crush on since high school — thanks in part to her younger self. She even gets a date with him, but she’s...

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Princess Princess Ever After Back to Print, Sold by Scholastic

Princess Princess Ever After is turning into quite the hit for Oni Press. It’s the story of two princesses (originally a webcomic) by Katie O’Neill. One is more traditional-looking, a blonde in a pretty dress. The other is dark-skinned and more adventurous, rescuing the first girl from a tower prison....

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Ten Count Volume 2

While Ten Count volume 1 established the characters and premise — OCD, germ-phobic guy meets a therapist who wants to help him — volume 2 remembers that it’s a yaoi manga and concludes with an explicit sex scene. Shirotani has quit coming to work, and his co-workers are concerned. Kurose, the counselor,...

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Amazon Continues Tweaking Review Policies to Reduce Number Allowed

A month ago, Amazon banned providing free review items (except for books). It didn’t work the way they intended. Now the same unscrupulous merchandisers trying to artificially inflate their product ratings are still giving away product, but they’re “requesting” that “reviewers” don’t include a disclaimer...

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Rowan’s Ruin

You may have missed noticing this spooky little miniseries, which began in the fall of last year. Mike Carey wrote and Mike Perkins illustrated Rowan’s Ruin, the story of a house swap with deadly consequences. Katie trades her Florida apartment near her parents for a stay in Emily’s English cottage,...

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When Anxiety Attacks

It’s the perfect comic for our times. When Anxiety Attacks is Terian Koscik‘s autobiographical story of how and why she talks to a therapist about anxiety. This simple autobiography is straightforward and approachable, great at demystifying the condition. The thought bubble, considered an old-fashioned...

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Small Favors to Return From Oni’s Limerence Press

I can’t think of a better pairing. Colleen Coover’s Small Favors, a lesbian porn comic about a magical shrinking fairy and the woman she befriends, will be coming back into print in April 2017 from Limerence Press, which aims to release female & LGBTQ-friendly, sex-positive erotica. They’re best-known...

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A Visual History of Batgirl’s Costumes

Batgirl Barbara Gordon was created 50 years ago this year, and to honor her history, here’s a rundown of not only Batgirl’s costumes, but the similar heroes Batwoman and Bat-Girl, provided by fun.com. I hadn’t realized just how many versions of her there were! Not bad for someone who exists because...

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Justice League Action Has Debut Date

The Justice League Action cartoon announced earlier this year now has a release date! The show, which features the return of Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman and promises a ton of DC superheroes and super-villains, will launch on Cartoon Network next month with a “four-part special event”. “Shazam...

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Drink Your Comics! Revival Beer Released

Arcade Brewery, a Chicago craft beer maker, has just released Ten Pin Creep: A Revival Mystery. It’s one of their 6-Pack Stories, a six-pack of beer where each bottle’s label has a different part of the story. It’s written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Mike Norton, and it’s a spinoff of their Image...

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Pope Hats #2 Now Available Again

I was very pleasantly surprised by Ethan Rilly’s Pope Hats #2 when I first read it five years ago. It’s an accomplished portrait of young urbanites and their struggles, beautifully illustrated. Since then, Rilly’s put out issue #3 (preview here) and issue #4 (preview here), all through the exceptional...

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The Mummy’s Sabbatical

Old friend Joel Priddy (Pulpatoon Pilgrimage) has a newish webcomic, written by Benito Cereno (who also writes for Comics Alliance), called The Mummy’s Sabbatical. It’s about a mummy who becomes a professor, assisted by a young monster in the style of Frankenstein. The professor is due a sabbatical...

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Marvel’s Inhumans Becomes Imax-Sponsored TV Show

Rumors have been flying for months that Marvel wanted to replace the concept of mutants with the Inhumans in their universe because Fox has the movie rights to the X-Men. Two years ago, an Inhumans movie was announced for November 2018, then moved to summer 2019, before being taken off the release schedule...

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Slam! #1

Roller derby stories are great for visual entertainment. There’s a lot of action, the sport has an edgy authenticity to it, it’s female-centered, and it’s a believable way for rebellious young women to discover their power and abilities. I liked the idea when I saw it in Whip It, and I liked it in Slam!...

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Ready for Riverdale, the Darker Archie TV Show?

Riverdale, the live-action TV show based on Archie Comics first announced in summer 2015, now has an official release date: Thursday, January 26, 2017. The show’s time slot will be Thursdays at 9 PM ET on the CW. According to the press release, the show “has been described as a subversive take on the...

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A Memory of Muskets

The latest Chloe Ellefson mystery, following Death on the Prairie, is A Memory of Muskets, and it’s the best one yet. Part of that is due to the connection to author Kathleen Ernst’s own experience. The mysteries are set at Old World Wisconsin in the 1980s, which is when Ernst worked there. This particular...

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Justice League Dark Second DCU Cartoon to Get R Rating; Trailer Now Available

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced release dates for Justice League Dark, a supernatural take on the DC universe that will be the second original animated movie with an R rating (after Batman: The Killing Joke). Here’s the description: When innocent civilians begin committing unthinkable...

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