Whatever Happened to the Rose of Versailles Plans?

As I’ve been looking back at manga I’ve enjoyed over the past few years, I realized that there was a much-anticipated project announced two and a half years ago that has yet to appear. As part of their appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con(TM) in 2015, Udon Entertainment announced that they would be...

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Two Days Left to Apply for MoCCAFest 2018!

One of my favorite reasons to visit New York City is the MoCCA Arts Festival, held every spring by the Society of Illustrators (formerly the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art). This year it’s taking place on April 7-8, 2018, but applications to table close December 31, so if you’re interested, apply now!...

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More Archies/Monkees Art, Exclusive Cover

I previously talked about the Archies meeting the Monkees, which will happen in The Archies #4, due out January 17. That post has images of the variant covers along with the art inspirations used. Now come two more art releases. First is an exclusive variant cover available only through Monkees.com...

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The Art of Harley Quinn

I had no idea, when I posted preview pages from The Art of Harley Quinn, just how huge this book was! It’s almost the size of a TV tray! All the better to show off the art pieces within in glossy color. It’s not just pretty pictures, though. There’s a foreword by Paul Dini, character co-creator, with...

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The War Bride’s Scrapbook

As she did with The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, Caroline Preston has created a visual history of a woman who never existed but whose life is enlightening. The War Bride’s Scrapbook portrays how Lila found herself married after knowing Perry only a few weeks. The daughter of a status-seeking Virginia...

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Lego DC Super Heroes Movies Continue With the Flash

Continuing the line of home video animated movies featuring Lego DC Super Heroes from Warner Bros. Animation, they have announced Lego DC Super Heroes: The Flash, coming this spring. Here’s the description: Reverse-Flash (Dwight Schultz) manipulates the Speed Force to put the Flash (James Arnold Taylor)...

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Marvel’s Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King Coming Next Month

Just in time for the Black Panther movie in February, Insight Editions will be releasing Marvel’s Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King: The Complete Comics Chronology (written by Dennis Culver) next month. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Jack Kirby and...

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Reindeer Boy

What an adorable Christmas trinket! Cassandra Jean‘s Reindeer Boy is wonderfully weird. As a little girl, Quincy thought she saw a little boy with horns under her Christmas tree. Now, as a teenager, she meets Cupid, a gorgeous young man with a full set of antlers. He charms the town and introduces them...

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Faith Erin Hicks Has a Novel Coming in 2019

One of this site’s favorite creators, Faith Erin Hicks, will be stretching her creative muscles with a young adult novel. That’s prose, not drawn, but given the title, I suspect it will be of interest to her fans. Roaring Brook Press will release in February 2019 the 336-page Comics Will Break Your...

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Annie Goetzinger Passes Away

NBM, publisher of her works in English, has announced that Annie Goetzinger has passed away. She created comics in France since the 1970s, but her first work brought to the U.S. was Girl in Dior, a fantasy biography that played to her strengths and background in fashion design. I had the pleasure of...

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Teen Titans Comes to Blu-ray in January

Under a press release titled “Warner Archive Collection Continues Commitment to Super Heroes on Blu-ray” comes the news that Teen Titans: The Complete First Season will be available on Blu-ray on January 23. (It was previously released on DVD a decade ago.) The 13-episode season is priced at $21.99,...

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Marvel Cutting Titles – Good for Retailers?

I found these two articles, both posted today on The Beat, rather interesting in their juxtaposition. First is a list of the many books that Marvel is cancelling, since their big Legacy (aka “please, old, habitual fans, come back to us so we can all pretend the world isn’t changing!”) initiative has...

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ComicMix Sued by Dr. Seuss

I hadn’t checked in with the news/column aggregation site ComicMix in a while. It appears they’re just running press releases these days, as all of their columnists — who used to include Mike Gold, Martha Thomases, Michael Davis, and Denny O’Neil, among others — have posted what look like farewell pieces...

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Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

You can’t go home again. We learned that Thanksgiving 2016 when these four Gilmore Girls mini-movies first dropped on Netflix. Now, they’re available on Blu-ray or DVD for non-subscribers or those who’d like to watch without an internet connection. Ten years later, Stars Hollow is as wacky as ever,...

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Luke Cage: The Complete First Season

Luke Cage is the first Marvel Netflix series I’ve had the chance to see, thanks to them sending me a copy of the Blu-ray release of the Complete First Season. As we meet him, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is an ex-con reduced to working menial under-the-table jobs for cash. He’s clearly capable of a lot more,...

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Top Ten Graphic Novels for Kids 2017

This year, I was honored to be one of the judges putting together the “Top 10 Graphic Novels 2017” list for School Library Journal (since I blog for their Good Comics for Kids site). Here is their list of this past year’s top ten (with links to my reviews where I’ve covered them). Brave by Svetlana...

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The Wendy Project

One of the more unusual releases this past year uses the well-known story of Peter Pan to explore survivor’s grief. The Wendy Project is written by actress/screenwriter Melissa Jane Osborne and illustrated by Veronica Fish (Archie). Its black pebbled cover and rounded corners give it the feel of a sketch-filled...

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SP Baby Volume 1

I thought the short, silly SP Baby would be a fun read. After all, I liked the similar Flower in a Storm, which also combined romance with comedy violence. But SP Baby never came together for me. I should have paid attention to the creator. Maki Enjoji was also responsible for Happy Marriage?!, a silly,...

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First Year Out: A Transition Story

This is the hardest kind of review to write. First Year Out: A Transition Story means well and supports a great cause, but it’s not very good comics. Sabrina Symington’s graphic novel covers key events in the first year of Lily’s life as a woman. She goes through laser hair removal to lose her beard,...

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Steven Universe Getting a Full Season 1 DVD Set

Now maybe I will understand all the gem-related fan art I see on Twitter! Steven Universe, created by Rebecca Sugar, is about a little boy who lives with three magical aliens, the Crystal Gems — Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst. Steven’s mother was Rose Quartz, who left him her gem. There have been five...

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Freedom Fighters: The Ray Now Available on CW Seed

The animated series Freedom Fighters: The Ray now has six episodes (most only six minutes) available on the CW Seed digital network. It opens in a post-apocalyptic-looking Nazi-controlled city, a prequel to the recent superhero TV show crossover Crisis on Earth-X. (Similar to the way Vixen was a cartoon...

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Sleepless #1

I’m going to give one of those backhanded compliments. Sleepless, a new fantasy comic by Sarah Vaughn (Alex + Ada) and Leila del Duca (Shutter), was interesting enough to overcome my antipathy towards the genre. I know there’s nothing wrong with fantasy stories — and goodness knows I understand why...

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Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story is exactly what it says, in comic strip form. It’s charming and insightful and adorable. Debbie Tung’s comics are deceptively simple, mostly one-pagers of standard panels, but her self-figure is so cute and relatable. She uses dot eyes and a few lines...

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Astra Lost in Space Volume 1

I had hopes for Astra Lost in Space, based on the premise, about a class trip set in the future with space travel. When an accident occurs, the group of students has to figure out how to survive and get back home. It’s a classic setup with lots of promise for character development and exciting adventures....

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Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, Its Values, and How to Change Them

Larry Gonick’s latest book, due out next month, is Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, Its Values, and How to Change Them, written by psychology professor Tim Kasser. He studies people’s “materialistic values and goals for money, possessions, and status” and the relationship between them and well-being....

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