24 Hour Comic: A Documentary

The 24-hour comic started in 1990 as a creative exercise Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics) posed to his friend Steve Bissette as a speed challenge. The goal is for an artist to create 24 pages in 24 hours. Since then, it’s become a day for cartoonists to gather, stretch their talent, and commiserate....

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Hero-A-Go-Go!: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters & Culture of the Swinging Sixties

Review by KC Carlson For some reason, the 1960s suddenly descended upon the Carlson household over the last few weeks. Johanna has been binge-watching DVDs of Doctor Who (the earliest Doctors, of course). And the recently released Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD from Time Life...

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Kiss Him, Not Me! Volume 11

I was disappointed with Kiss Him, Not Me! volume 11 because it didn’t have enough of what I read the series for. I like the fan behavior and the various goofy activities the cast engages in for their love of anime and related pop culture. This installment, instead, is all ridiculous action sequences....

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Batman and Harley Quinn on the Big Screen

The next DC original animated film release is Batman and Harley Quinn, which is coming to home video August 29. If you want to see it before then, you can rent or purchase (which is renting longer-term) a digital copy on August 15, or you can visit a participating theater on August 14. As they’ve previously...

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Hero-A-Go-Go!: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters & Culture of the Swinging Sixties

Review by KC Carlson For some reason, the 1960s suddenly descended upon the Carlson household over the last few weeks. Johanna has been binge-watching DVDs of Doctor Who (the earliest Doctors, of course). And the recently released Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD from Time Life...

Read More

Kiss Him, Not Me! Volume 11

I was disappointed with Kiss Him, Not Me! volume 11 because it didn’t have enough of what I read the series for. I like the fan behavior and the various goofy activities the cast engages in for their love of anime and related pop culture. This installment, instead, is all ridiculous action sequences....

Read More

Batman and Harley Quinn on the Big Screen

The next DC original animated film release is Batman and Harley Quinn, which is coming to home video August 29. If you want to see it before then, you can rent or purchase (which is renting longer-term) a digital copy on August 15, or you can visit a participating theater on August 14. As they’ve previously...

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Mimi Pond’s Followup to Over Easy Due in August

I quite enjoyed the time capsule autobiography of Mimi Pond’s Over Easy, her story of working in a cafe with some colorful characters during her time in art school. Due in August is The Customer Is Always Wrong, a followup with more “tales of the fascinating sleaze-ball characters that surround young...

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Samaritan: Veritas #1

Samaritan: Veritas #1 is a followup to The Tithe, an eight-issue 2015 series that’s part of a bigger world Matt Hawkins is building. And you’ll find out about them if you read this first issue, since there are footnotes, that unloved comic-book helper, included. Don’t get me wrong, this works perfectly...

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Sam Kieth’s Zero Girl Returns to Print

Sam Kieth was famous for his unique art style and quirky visions, with his work on The Sandman, Epicurus the Sage, and his own The Maxx, before I started reading those kinds of comics. Zero Girl thus may have been the first of his work I read. It was originally a five-issue miniseries from the Wildstorm...

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A Suggestion to Improve Comic Pre-Orders

There are many many comics being offered every month through comic shops. The ordering catalog I’m looking at right now has over 640 pages, for goodness’ sake! That means that there are many many titles, the trend of which currently seems to be to pick a single word when naming them. As someone who...

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Low Point for Women in Comics Reprinted

Coming this September, a collection of comics best known for big breasts and body paint costumes. Jim Balent’s run on Catwoman is being reprinted. He started as artist on this series relaunch in 1993, inked by Dick Giordano (although Balent inked his own covers), then Ande Parks and others. The stories...

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Lots of Swordfighting Likely in Wonder Woman/Conan Team-Up

Dark Horse has announced that they will be publishing a six-issue Wonder Woman/Conan miniseries this fall. Best of all, it’s by creators familiar with the Amazing Amazon. Gail Simone writes and Aaron Lopresti draws “an adventure unlike anything seen before — a collision of legends.” Our tale begins...

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DC Super Hero Girls: Out of the Bottle

The latest digital comic featuring the DC Super Hero Girls (following Past Times at Super Hero High) has particular interest for comic fans. Out of the Bottle has released five installments so far, each 20 screens for 99 cents. In this story, written by Shea Fontana (who’s done the other DC Super Hero...

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DC Super Hero Girls Get a Lego Movie

The DC Super Hero Girls have two animated movies, Hero of the Year and Intergalactic Games, and a Lego toy line. Now they’re mashing them together in a new original animated film, Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain. When Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Bumblebee, and Katana suddenly realize they...

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Batman and Harley Quinn Original Animated Movie Gets Release Date

The next DCU original animated movie, Batman and Harley Quinn, was first teased on the previous release, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. Now comes box art, trailer, and a release date. Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue (a.k.a. the Floronic Man) embark on an ecological quest to save the planet — and, unfortunately,...

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iZombie Season 3 Announced for Blu-ray and DVD

iZombie is a lot of fun, with some great performances, and I’m glad to hear there are already plans for a fourth season. In the meantime, all 13 episodes of season 3 will be available on DVD and Blu-ray (via the Warner Archive, as with Lucifer) on October 3 as iZombie: The Complete Third Season. Rose...

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Boom! Studios Gets More Movie Money

Back in 2013, Boom! Studios signed a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox Film, following that up in 2014 with a similar deal with 20th Century Fox TV. Fox must have liked what it saw, since now, the studio has announced a strategic investment in the comic book publisher, acquiring “a significant minority...

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A Visual History of Catwoman’s Costumes

These are always fun! This history of Catwoman’s costumes below is tied to the 25th anniversary of the Batman Returns movie, which starred Michelle Pfieffer in a radical reinvention of what previously was most often a purple dress (and potentially influenced by the 1960s TV show outfit). The black catsuit,...

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Baltimore Comic-Con Announces New Industry Awards, the Ringos

Now we know why the Baltimore Comic-Con let go of the Harvey Awards last fall after hosting them for ten years. The convention is launching its own award program, the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, aka the Ringo Awards. They’re aiming for “an annual celebration of the creativity, skill, and...

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Watch Adam West on Powerless for a Limited Time

When NBC cancelled superhero sitcom Powerless, they did so with some episodes left unaired. One of those featured an appearance by the recently departed Adam West. Now DC has posted that episode, “Win, Luthor, Draw”, to its YouTube channel for a limited time. In this episode, the city is being attacked...

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The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase

I stumbled across this spin-off novel based on The Librarians TV series by accident. I enjoy the show well enough, so I gave it a try, although I generally have low expectations of TV adaptations. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that no one seems to put much attention into them. I was wrong. The...

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Best Graphic Novels of 2016

I know, it’s completely ridiculous timing, but while continuing to import old posts into the new version of the site, I realized how much I enjoyed looking back at my yearly roundups, which I last did in 2013. So here, for future reading, are my top ten graphic novel picks for 2016. Because ranking...

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Golden Kamuy Volume 1

My favorite type of manga is shojo romance, but the extent to which I enjoyed Golden Kamuy volume 1 shows how valuable it can be to break out of one’s usual reading patterns. This historical action-adventure by Satoru Noda was a thrilling introduction to a pair of intriguing characters. Sugimoto, a...

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A Perfect Manhattan Murder

It’s a wonderful thing when the third installment of a mystery series is even better than the previous books. Nic and Nigel Martini have returned in A Perfect Manhattan Murder. (They first appeared in Murder With a Twist and took on Hollywood in Killer Cocktail.) This time, they’re back in New York,...

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