SPX 2017 Photo Gallery

As always, I had a fabulous time at the 2017 Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s my favorite show of the year for the diversity of content and the chance to visit with friends old and new. This year, I even got to be part of two episodes of Heidi MacDonald’s hotel room podcast, along...

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Plain Janes to Be Reprinted With New Sequel

The Plain Janes, by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, was the first release from the DC Minx graphic novel line aimed at young women. That line lasted less than two years, although Janes, the story of girls engaging in guerrilla art, did get a sequel, Janes in Love. Now, Publishers Weekly reports that...

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Arrow: The Complete Fifth Season

In Arrow: The Complete Fifth Season, as we pick up from last year, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is mayor. Black Canary (Katie Cassidy) and Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) are both dead, and Oliver has no problem, it seems, continuing to kill people. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), who’s walked away from...

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“Clean” Media: A Debate Between Desire and Copyright Law

I’ve been thinking lately about the concept of “clean” media. As I understand it, it’s shorthand for work with “acceptable” levels (i.e., not much) sex, violence (although in America, this is less of a worry), and bad language. I’ve already hit on one problem with this concept: who defines what’s acceptable?...

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Marvel Mangaverse Collection Coming a Decade or So Too Late

In the current Previews catalog is a listing for the Marvel Mangaverse Complete Collection, a 400-page $34.99 paperback that reprints comics originally published from 2000-2002. Here’s the solicit: East meets West as your favorite heroes are reimagined in hyper-kinetic style! It’s a new dawn as the...

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Wizard World Delays More Shows, Announces 2018 Plans

Wizard World has had an uneven year. Although they announced a few months ago that they were adding new shows for later this year, those plans have changed. The announced Wizard World Comic Con shows in Biloxi, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; Peoria, Illinois; Springfield, Missouri; and Winston-Salem,...

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They’re Making a House With a Clock in Its Walls Movie!

The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs may be the scariest thing I read as a kid. First published in 1973, it’s the story of Lewis Barnevelt, an orphan sent to live with his uncle in a creepy old house. Lewis hears ticking in the house’s walls and eventually discovers that his uncle practices...

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Win After Hours Volume 1!

While finally trying to organize the review stacks, I realized that I have an extra copy of After Hours, the quietly atmospheric yuri manga about young women djs. So I’m giving it away! To enter to win this contest, leave a comment below telling me your favorite manga starring a young woman. A winner...

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How Many Flaming Birds Do You Want to See? Marvel Variant Covers in December

When all else fails, bring back a beloved “no, really, they’re dead for real and always” character. Marvel, as part of its Legacy initiative to beg for those old fans who still have the habit of dropping too much money at the comic shop weekly to come back, is putting out Phoenix Resurrection: The Return...

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Giant Days #30

Reviewing a good, consistently enjoyable continuing series is hard. There aren’t any creative changes to rave or rant about and no big events in which to hide word count as plot description. Nevertheless, Giant Days remains an immensely readable, goofily funny soap opera about three British college...

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Top Shelf to Publish Carolyn Nowak, Ignatz Winner

Leigh Walton, Marketing Director for Top Shelf, tweeted the following Goooood morning http://pic.twitter.com/bAzOGlKG1a — Leigh Walton (@leighwalton) September 23, 2017 Which says Top Shelf will be publishing Carolyn Nowak‘s debut comics collection Girl Town in fall 2018. Nowak won the Ignatz Award...

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Iron Circus Announces New Educational Comic About Getting High

Today on Twitter, Iron Circus Comics announced an upcoming educational graphic novel. They’re the publisher of Poorcraft: The Funnybook Fundamentals of Living Well on Less, which may be the most useful and practical informative graphic novel I’ve ever seen, so I’m paying attention, even though the subject...

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The Flash: The Complete Third Season

Review by KC Carlson The third season of The Flash has some great moments, to be sure: “Duet” (the musical episode), “Invasion!” (the Flash’s chapter in a four-way crossover of DC TV shows with Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl), and the SFX tour de force starring Grodd that was “Attack...

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Sabrina TV Show to Take More Horrific Direction

The CW, pleased with the delayed viewing figures and growing fan base for Riverdale, is looking to create a companion TV show based around Sabrina the teenage witch, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Riverdale showrunner (and Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer) Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and producer...

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Wizard World Madison 2017 Briefly, in Pictures

I hadn’t realized how busy this weekend was going to be — with a Doctor Who group meeting, brunch with a college roommate I haven’t seen in a decade, church activities, and my mystery book club — so I was only able to make a flying visit to this weekend’s Wizard World Madison on Friday afternoon. (I...

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Next DC TV Crossover Announced

The crossover among the DC TV shows Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow last year apparently did well enough that they’re doing another one. (Supergirl was part of last year’s, but that show’s involvement was minimal. That will change this year.) “Invasion!” featured the invading alien Dominators...

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Pizzeria Kamikaze Coming Back to Print

Pizzeria Kamikaze was a fascinating concept for a graphic novel, first issued back in 2006 by Alternative Comics. It was illustrated by Asaf Hanuka from a story by Etgar Keret. (The same story inspired a movie the same year, Wristcutters: A Love Story.) BOOM! Studios has announced that their Archaia...

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Fence: An Interview With C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad

Coming in November from BOOM! Studios’ BOOM! Box imprint is Fence, a new comic book series aimed at the growing audience for sporting boys’ love stories. This teen soap opera set in the world of competitive fencing is the first comic from both writer C.S. Pacat (the Captive Prince novel series) and...

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A Few Good SPX Mini-Comics

Quick notes, because I have to get ready for the second day of SPX 2017, but I have had a chance to read a few comics so far. Reading comics at a convention? I know, normally there’s no time, but it was so nice, being in the same hotel as the show, to sneak away yesterday when the crowds got heaviest,...

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2017 Ignatz Award Winners

The winners of the 2017 Ignatz Awards were announced tonight at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland. The Ignatz is a festival prize, with winners determined by voting by those who actually attended the show today. The ballot is created by a jury of five people; this year those members were...

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Supergirl: The Complete Second Season

Big changes took place between Supergirl‘s first season (which aired on CBS) and the second one. With the move to the CW network came some cast changes, a new set for the DEO organization scenes, and a new direction for several of the characters. (The studio, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, provided...

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Everyone’s Getting Married Volume 6

Everyone’s Getting Married continues as an enjoyably soapy romantic read. Since I last checked into the series by Izumi Miyazono, newscaster Ryu has been co-hosting a show with his ex, the married woman he had an affair with and who convinced him marriage is a sham and something to avoid. His girlfriend...

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Idol Dreams Volume 4

Idol Dreams is coming back! The last installment came out (in English) just about a year ago, and volume 4 is due out November 7. (It can be ordered now through your local comic shop with Diamond code SEP17 2079.) It’s the story of a lonely, reserved office worker who magically becomes a 15-year-old...

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Is This the Biggest Manga Ever? Death Note All-in-One Has Huge Page Count

Out now is the super-sized Death Note All-in-One Edition. That’s 12 volumes’ worth of manga, 2400 pages, in one binding and a matching silver slipcase. Death Note was first released in English from 2005-2007. It’s the story of a high school student who meets a shinigami, a god of death, and so anyone...

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Professor Marston & the Wonder Women Makes Fun of the Comic

I don’t really blame Elizabeth Marston — when you sum up the premise of Wonder Woman like that, as people have done throughout the years, it does sound a little crazy. In this clip from Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, in theaters on October 13, Dr. William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) explains...

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