Read Comics for Free (If You’re Not Too Picky)

I checked out PowFolio (available on iTunes or Google Play), a free, ad-supported comic app. It lives up to its promise — you can read comics for free. My problem today, though, isn’t “I don’t have enough comics to read”. It’s “I have too many comics to read, so they better be worth my attention”, and...

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Thirteen Women

I watched Thirteen Women, a 1932 proto-thriller, because I was inspired by the impressively good You Must Remember This podcast, which has started a new series on “Dead Blondes”. It sounds morbid, but it’s an interesting way to explore how women are sold as sex objects and often end up the worse for...

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Zodiac Starforce to Return

Last fall’s Zodiac Starforce miniseries featured a team of magical girls coping with real-life struggles while battling cosmic monsters. Now it’s coming back for more. The four-issue Zodiac Starforce: Cries of the Fire Prince launches on July 5, 2017, by the same creative team, Kevin Panetta and Paulina...

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Lumberjanes #35

I wasn’t expecting to see such a well-done sporting explanation in this comic. There’s a great rundown of the basics of roller derby here, which I would have expected instead to see in Boom!’s title Slam! In the latest chapter of the series, written by Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh and illustrated...

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Usagi Yojimbo #158-160

Stan Sakai’s samurai rabbit has been a part of comics for over 30 years, longer than a number of readers have been alive. It’s easy to take it for granted as a result, but every time I read an issue, I’m impressed by the clarity of the stories, the insight into the characters, and the accomplishment...

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Riverdale #1 — Third Time’s the Charm?

At the time of this writing, we’re five episodes into the first season (13 episodes) of Riverdale, the creepy, dark take on the small town the Archie Comics characters live in. You’d expect a comic publisher to put out something to sell to customers interested by this kind of mass media exposure (although...

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Clothes Don’t Work That Way: When Alternative Covers Are Better

Aftershock Comics has a new title coming out April 5 called Eleanor & the Egret. It’s written (and lettered) by John Layman (Chew, Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen) and illustrated by Sam Kieth (The Maxx), and it’s about an art thief accompanied by a giant bird. Here’s the description: A slightly surreal...

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High Moon, First Zuda Contest Winner, Returns in Print

Zuda Comics is probably not remembered much these days, since it started a decade ago. It was DC Comics’ attempt at doing webcomics, launched in October 2007 and shut down in July 2010. It ran on a contest basis, where each month, a group of submissions was voted on and the winner would get paid for...

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Thom Zahler’s Next Project: Drunk Time Travel!

I’m a big fan of Thom Zahler’s work, because he’s one of the very few cartoonists creating comic book romantic comedies that work as both love stories and funny books. His best-known is Love and Capes, which follows a superhero romance with more emphasis on the characters than the heroing. I was also...

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Spell on Wheels #5

The crime caper/road trip/family of witches story wraps up successfully. The three young women confront their burglar (who’s also a manipulative, jealous ex-boyfriend), but first, there’s time for a magical fashion change, because even when you’re fighting for justice, you should feel good about how...

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Don’t Split Hairs Over Industry-Specific Terminology

I was confused when I saw a press release from Titan Comics about continuing their Hard Case Crime comics line with three new titles. One of them was described as the following: Presenting a new vision of the worldwide bestselling Millennium novels by Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is...

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Drawn & Quarterly Releasing Another Tom Gauld Collection

I really enjoyed reading You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, a collection of Tom Gauld’s insightful, clever comic strips. I’m impressed by how creative his ideas are, expressed in deceptively simple fashion but evoking a wide range of references, from classic literature to modern online culture....

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An Essential Convention Resource

If you’ve ever thought about exhibiting at a comic convention, you must read Steve Lieber’s latest Dilettante column. He breaks out what you need to successfully negotiate the show and season, from months ahead to the day before. There are several components to working a show, from getting there and...

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Love Is Love Now Available Through Digital Library Service

Love Is Love is a 144-page anthology co-published by DC and IDW and created to benefit those affected by the 2016 hate crime nightclub shooting in Orlando. All of the content was donated by the writers, artists, and editors and all proceeds went to victims, survivors, and their families. (That didn’t...

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Dark Horse Announces MST3K Comics

There is a remarkable lack of specific information in this announcement, but Dark Horse has just announced “a new partnership with the popular entertainment brand and cult-hit comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), which is slated to include a brand-new comic series as well as a variety...

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Next Davodeau Book in English Part of Louvre Collection

As part of their publication list celebrating their 40th anniversary, NBM Graphic Novels has announced a new book by Étienne Davodeau (The Initiates, Lulu Anew). The Cross-Eyed Mutt is part of the Louvre Collection, a series of translated graphic novels by world-famous artists set in and exploring the...

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Michael Eury Explores the Camp History of Comics

I don’t know why I didn’t know about this until now, but friend of the blog Michael Eury has a book coming out in April that explores the camp comics of fifty years ago. Hero-A-Go-Go: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, & Culture of the Swinging Sixties pretty much lays out its premise in its lengthy...

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The Last of August

Charlotte Holmes is back! In the sequel to A Study in Charlotte, this generation’s Sherlock descendent and her best friend Jamie Watson are spending the holidays together in England. The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro takes the two to Holmes’ house in Sussex over winter break. They’re uncomfortable...

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Kiss Him, Not Me! Volumes 6-8

Now that we’re firmly into the run of Kiss Him, Not Me!, the series about a yaoi fangirl with four potential boyfriends and a potential girlfriend, it’s settled down into typical harem antics, only with a fannish twist. Volume 6 continues from the previous book, with Mutsumi planning to confess his...

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Big Trouble: A Friday Barnes Mystery

R.A. Spratt’s Big Trouble: A Friday Barnes Mystery is third in the series featuring the girl detective at a modern-day boarding school. It’s a terrific blend of humor, mystery, and adventure, particularly since this volume starts with more about Friday’s family. Her parents and four older siblings are...

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Powerless Also Laughless

I got a chance to watch the first two episodes of Powerless, the NBC workplace comedy set in the DC universe. Unfortunately, the superheroes are used only as set dressing, and the comedy isn’t funny. It’s the story of Emily (Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical), new girl in the big city, who’s been...

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Angel City #5

Angel City #5 is packed with action, gearing up for the conclusion next issue. Dolores’ attempt to solve her friend’s murder takes a back seat to staying alive, as crooked cops and gangsters sent by studio bosses are both after her for not shutting up and leaving well enough alone. (No matter the era,...

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Phoebe and Her Unicorn Original Graphic Novel Coming

My favorite comic strip, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, has been collected in a series of books. Now creator Dana Simpson has tweeted that there’s an original graphic novel coming in October called Phoebe and Her Unicorn in the Magic Storm. It'll be the first standalone graphic novel (as opposed to collections...

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Lumberjanes Expands to Young Adult Novels

The popular Boom! comic series Lumberjanes, about a mixed group of young women at a camp that tends to attract supernatural and mythological creatures, is going to be books! According to Publishers Weekly, Amulet Books, the children’s imprint of Abrams (they publish the super-popular Diary of a Wimpy...

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Justice League Dark

Justice League Dark has a promising concept but executes it half-heartedly, turning a visit to the magic-using side of the DCU into just another superhero-style battle. As the movie opens, people start seeing demons. Defending themselves, the humans attack, but the demons are really other people. It’s...

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