Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season Three on Blu-ray

Completing the trilogy of seasons, Warner Archive has released season three of Batman: The Brave and the Bold on Blu-ray. This final season only had 13 episodes, contained here on one Blu-ray disc, but there are some real gems, with many inspired by famous comic stories or nostalgia for a certain style...

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Interview With Alison Sampson, Artist of Winnebago Graveyard

I recently spoke with Alison Sampson, artist of the upcoming Winnebago Graveyard, a four-issue miniseries written by Steve Niles and published by Image Comics. The first issue is due out June 14, and it can be ordered from your local comic shop with Diamond code APR17 0723. As regular readers of this...

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The Zeta Project Now Fully Available From Warner Archive

Back in 2009, the first season of The Zeta Project was put out on DVD. This animated series isn’t well-known, but it’s loved by its fans. It’s a spin-off of Batman Beyond, focusing on a rogue robot who doesn’t want to be an assassin (voiced by Diedrich Bader) and the young runaway (Julie Nathanson)...

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Superhero Shows to Get Tie-In Novels

Coming this fall… the two most popular CW superhero TV shows will get brand-new adventures in book form, set within the TV continuity and released in conjunction with the new season fall debuts of the series. Amulet Books will be publishing two three-book series. Both are aimed at ages 9-12 and will...

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Biggest Anime Film of All Time Coming to US in April

The biggest-grossing film of last year in Japan was an anime called Your Name., directed by Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star, 5 Centimeters Per Second). It’s also become the biggest anime film of all time worldwide, beating the Miyazaki movies Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. If you’re curious...

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Comet TV Comes to Streaming Boxes

Comet TV, the network with the aim of bringing “audiences everywhere the best in science fiction and horror programming” has taken another step towards that goal by releasing apps for Roku (series 3 and 4) and Apple TV (generation 4). Previously, they were an antenna broadcast network, available in...

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IDW Collecting For Better or For Worse in Library Editions

There are few long-running comic strips recognized as so important and affecting as to have their entire run collected in handsome hardcovers. Some of them include Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Bloom County, and of course, Peanuts. Now comes the first (I can think of) created by a woman. Beginning...

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The Librarians Coming to Comics

The Librarians is what I think of as an old-fashioned basic cable show. Nothing particularly memorable or outstanding, but fun popcorn entertainment. Four quirky personalities (Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, John Harlan Kim), aided by an immortal John Laroquette, team up to rescue magical...

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Heroines #1: Ted Naifeh Does Superheroes

I’m always surprised to find out what Ted Naifeh’s going to do next. My first awareness of his work was when he was exploring goth identity and gender fluidity. Then he took a sarcastic approach to the fantasy genre starring a young girl discovering her family history of magic. He’s also put out a female...

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Jem: The Misfits #2

I’m late talking about this — issue #3 of the Jem: The Misfits is already out — but I keep coming back to this issue and being struck by the honesty of the struggle it portrays. The Misfits, after various schemes and shenanigans, have been dropped by their record label, so the next best option open...

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Furari May Finally Appear in June

Fanfare/Ponent Mon puts out some great, unusual manga, from an exploration of the Japanese prison system (Doing Time) to the contemplative works of Jiro Taniguchi (The Walking Man, A Distant Neighborhood). It was their publishing the works of Taniguchi that made me realize how skilled something so simple...

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Calexit Possibly the Most Timely Comic Coming Out

In times of stress, people often turn to entertainment to escape but also to cope. There haven’t been a lot of comics, though, tackling the struggles that come with the current political environment. Black Mask wants to change that in May with the launch of Calexit, a science fiction comic about California...

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Clueless Comes to Comics

There are four main ways to sell corporate comics these days: legacy superheroes zombies kids’ cartoon adaptations and licensed properties, often with nostalgia attached. The latest in the last category is this: Boom! has announced that they’ll be putting out a Clueless comic book. But hey! There’s...

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User Returns: How 2001 Online Plays Today

Back in 2001, Vertigo published a three-oversized-issue miniseries called User. Written by Devin Grayson, it was the story of Megan, an unhappy young woman who found her true self through text-based role-playing as a male knight. Megan’s everyday world was illustrated by Sean Phillips, while John Bolton...

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Why Isn’t There a Lego Batman Comic? Can Funko Fill the Gap?

With the success of The Lego Batman Movie — perhaps the best Batman movie, combining adventure, heroics, comedy, satisfying use of a wide range of related characters, and a knowing awareness of the diversity of the character’s history — the question has obviously been asked: Why isn’t DC putting out...

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Dark Horse to Collect Andi Watson’s Glister

I’ve been a huge fan of Andi Watson’s work for decades now, from his gorgeous slice-of-life stories — Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day — to his sojourns in action genres — Geisha, Love Fights — to his more recent fantastic fable, Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula. One of his best fantasies, though,...

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Marvel Water Bottles From Nalgene

Now that we’re starting to be able to think about being outdoors again, you may want to consider a water bottle to take with you on activities. Nalgene Outdoor has created an entire line featuring many favorite Marvel superheroes: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and the Avengers....

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A New DC Super Hero Girls Movie Coming in May

I enjoyed watching the first DC Super Hero Girls original animated movie, Hero of the Year, so I’m glad to hear another one will be coming. This franchise, aimed at and starring young women, is a breath of fresh air, and I’m glad to see heroes like Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, and many others working...

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The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-Wrestlemania

Out Tuesday is the latest collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation and WWE Studios. Following in the footsteps of Scooby-Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery, Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon (which gets a one-line callout), and The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age Smackdown comes The Jetsons &...

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Nothing Better 3: Great Expectations Part 1

I was concerned, when I talked about the Kickstarter to publish this series installment, that I would have lost track of the story, given the time since I’d last read it. (The first collection, No Place Like Home came out in 2007; the second, Into the Wild, in 2009.) That wasn’t a problem. While there’s...

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Comics Are Not Normal: Poor Publishing Practices Standard for the Industry

Sometimes, those of us paying close attention to the comic industry forget that the way things are done may not be normal. The comic business is unusual in a lot of ways: the huge number of SKUs (product items) released every week, the way self-publishing isn’t looked down on, the preponderance of work-for-hire...

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Kickass Theron Atomic Blonde a Comic Book Movie!

Charlize Theron has a movie opening in July that’s been getting a lot of buzz recently because they just dropped the following restricted (red-band) trailer: She’s a sexy spy in this action thriller, and the Atomic Blonde trailer is heavy on fight scenes and girl/girl sex to get the adrenaline pumping....

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MoCCA Arts Festival My First Con of the Year

My convention year kicks off with the MoCCA Arts Festival, held April 1-2 in New York City by the Society of Illustrators. That’s less than a month away! The show will be held in Metropolitan West, located on West 46th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, while programming (a small but quality list...

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Boomerang Streaming Service Coming for Animation

I applaud Warner Bros. for embracing the streaming market. For those who can’t or won’t pay inflated cable TV prices, Warner has created services like FilmStruck (by TCM) to bring content to subscribers directly. Now they’ve got one for animation fans. Boomerang (also the name of one of their cartoon...

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Raina Telgemeier Is the Most Important Comic Creator of the Current Age

Why not state the obvious? Brian Hibbs’s yearly BookScan sales review column is now up, looking back at the top-selling graphic novels of 2016 through the bookstore market. The obvious fact is this: of the top seven, six are by Raina Telgemeier (and the seventh, Dork Diaries, isn’t a comic). Between...

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