Batman: The Brave and the Bold Returns in Scooby-Doo Movie

I really liked the version of the Batman we saw in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He was strong and courageous and could be scary, but only in keeping with his mission for justice. And everyone involved with that cartoon had a sense of humor about it, whether it was satirizing what the Batman franchise...

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Comic-Con HQ Video Channel Calls It Quits

Too many options, not enough people willing to pay for specialty video entertainment. Comic-Con HQ, the subscription video channel that launched last summer from Lionsgate and the company that runs the San Diego Comic-Con, has shut down. At least when it comes to selling direct to customers. If you...

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DC Super Hero Girls: Out of the Bottle: The Conclusion

I previously talked about how much I liked the premise of DC Super Hero Girls: Out of the Bottle, with its emphasis on creativity and character revelation. Written by Shea Fontana, it’s about having to stop comic book drawings come to life, with the girl heroes facing off against first, versions of...

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The Witch Boy

Molly Knox Ostertag presents a timely tale in a fantasy setting. She previously illustrated Shattered Warrior, but I believe this is her first long-form work both writing and drawing. The Witch Boy shows us how the teenage Aster doesn’t fit in. In his family of magicians, girls are witches and boys...

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How Much Support Can a Shop Give a New Publisher These Days?

You’ve likely seen the piece where Jim McLauchlin complains about not being able to buy a new comic by a friend when it came out. “Wednesday, September 27 was release day for Fu Jitsu #1 from Aftershock Comics. Not the biggest of debuts, but hey—it’s written by Jai Nitz, who’s a buddy.” Now, the entire...

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Generations

Generations is the first graphic novel by Flavia Biondi translated from Italian to English, and it’s a strong debut. Matteo ran away from home three years ago to Milan, but now he’s slinking back to his small country town to live with his grandmother and his three aunts. He’s embarrassed that his life...

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Hi-Fi Fight Club #1

Hi-Fi Fight Club is Lumberjanes meets Empire Records with a strong overlay of first girl crush and a sprinkling of Scooby-Doo. It’s 1998 New Jersey, and 16-year-old Chris has her first job at the record store Vinyl Mayhem. She’s uncertain and worried about what’s cool, but since everyone she works with...

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Slam!: The Next Jam #2

When comic art works well, sometimes it becomes invisible, making it easy for readers to concentrate on the events of the story. When it doesn’t work, though, the comic falls flat, and readers may not even realize why. I liked the first Slam! series, written by Pamela Ribon and illustrated by Veronica...

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A Particularly Timely Panel From Bombshells United

The panel below is from Bombshells United #6 (digital version), art by Luciano Vecchio, written by Marguerite Bennett. The story involves Wonder Woman vs. Clayface, who represents “land and blood” bigots. I thought this statement, My shame is that I could not know compassion for those unlike me… not...

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Giant Days #32

In our world of prolonged adolescence, it’s refreshing to read a comic about people having to grow up. (I’ve said before that this is one of the many things I like about Giant Days, that it’s “exploring what it means to be an adult and take care of yourself”.) Previously, Susan, Esther, and Daisy set...

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Lumberjanes Special Collection Coming in March

Next spring, a Lumberjanes book collection will reprint the three special issues they’ve released so far: Beyond Bay Leaf (2015) by Faith Erin Hicks and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell turns a night stargazing into a quest to help a ghost pony. Makin’ the Ghost of It (2016) had two stories: the one by Jen...

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Additional Fence Variant Cover Announced

Last month, I wrote about the upcoming Fence, a series by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad debuting from Boom! next month. At the time, they had announced two covers, one by the series artist and one by watercolorist Kevin Wada. (Both are visible at that link.) A new variant has now been made available...

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Batman vs. Two-Face

This 72-minute sequel to Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is a blast to watch but kind of a mess if you stop and think about it. So, in that way, Batman vs. Two-Face is faithful to the original 1960s Batman TV show inspiration. It was wonderfully nostalgic to again hear Adam West as Batman, although...

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Kodansha Brings Tokyo Tarareba Girls to Print

I’m glad that digital distribution makes it easier for companies to bring certain manga titles to the English language market, but as a fogey, I have to admit I much prefer reading a book to flicking pages on my tablet. So I was glad to hear Kodansha announce that one of their digital series I was particularly...

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GL Jessica Cruz Joins DC Super Hero Girls Comics

Coming next week is the first issue of a new digital DC Super Hero Girls comic. Spaced Out is notable for introducing an existing DC character into the group: Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. Here’s the description: Meet Super Hero High’s newest student… Jessica Cruz! Being the new kid is tough, but life...

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Well, That Was Quick: Librarians Comic Ends With Issue #4

The first issue of The Librarians comic, spinning out of the TV show, came out a month ago. Now comes the chance to order the fourth issue of the series (Diamond code OCT17 1484), which has been labeled its last. It’s due out December 13 and the plot description could describe just about any episode...

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The Question of the Absentee Father

The Asperger’s Mystery series by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen continues in fine form with its fourth volume (following The Question of the Felonious Friend). Samuel, a young man on the autism spectrum who runs an investigative business called “Questions Answered”, finds the case in The Question of...

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The Baby-Sitters Club: Dawn and the Impossible Three

Raina Telgemeier set a high bar when she adapted four Baby-Sitters Club books into graphic novels between 2006 and 2008. The books have refreshed Ann M. Martin’s stories for a new generation, particularly once they were reissued in color. So it’s no surprise that the publisher wanted to extend the series...

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Justice League: The New Frontier Commemorative Edition – Blu-ray Review

We were thrilled to get a copy of the recent re-release of the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier. The Commemorative Edition came in a gorgeous steelbook (see pictures below) and added a new featurette, “Retro Action Cool: The Story of Darwyn Cooke”, which we were eager to see. (The studio,...

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Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Movie Dies

I was looking forward to seeing Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, the movie that opened Friday about the guy who created Wonder Woman and his unusual family life. Then a few things happened. The movie did not do at all well. According to Tom Flinn, it “crashed and burned, averaging just $600 per...

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Warning Label

I’ve enjoyed just about all of Thom Zahler’s comics — Love and Capes, Time and Vine, Long Distance — so I don’t know why I haven’t yet talked about Warning Label, his new digital release. It’s available to read, in its entirety (so far), at Line Webtoon. The format’s a little odd, a series of single...

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The New Mutants Trailer Emphasizes Horror

Fox, determined to continue exploiting the X-Men property in visual media, has not only launched a new TV series about running from the government when your kids turn out to be mutants (The Gifted), but the studio is preparing a movie for April, The New Mutants. And the trailer just became available....

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Constantine Animated Series Coming to CW Seed in 2018

The Constantine series was the first comic-book TV failure of the current era, with the series only running 13 episodes on NBC from 2014-2015. It was an odd choice in the first place for such a safe network, since it was about a conflicted, foul-talking demon fighter who could be as bad as the evil...

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Final Volumes of Cute Viz Manga: Love Stage!! 7, Honey So Sweet 8

A couple of cute and fluffy romance manga series from Viz have recently wrapped up their runs. (The publisher provided review copies.) Love Stage!! Volume 7 This is yaoi, not shojo, but the emphasis on goofy misunderstandings and ridiculously dramatic incidents makes it similar to that genre. For example,...

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Master Keaton Volume 12

And so the Master Keaton series ends, with one big story that takes up the last eight chapters of volume 12, wrapping up all the themes Naoki Urasawa (Pluto, 20th Century Boys) has been exploring throughout. But first, four chapters remind us of some of the character basics. In the first two, Keaton...

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