I shouldn’t like the Funko characters as much as I do. They’re almost scarily designed to be perfectly cute, with the giant blank eyes and oversized heads, appealing to all those protective impulses hardcoded in our subconscious. But they are adorable, and now there are three short cartoons with the Marvel characters in Funko style. The first, “Spellbound”, features Spider-Man and Iron Man fighting Loki — and each other, due to some mind control magic. The second, “Bait n Switch”, […]

The DC Super Hero Girls are really growing on me. And I’ve recently rediscovered the fun of building things in Lego. So these three new sets are quite attractive, although there seems to be more dollhouse-style play value than building strategies involved, with the exception of the huge high school set. There’s the Batgirl Batjet Chase, with a Batgirl mini-doll, her plane, a “yellow Kryptomite” (what?), and an “ePad”. The Harley Quinn to the Rescue set includes a cafe with […]

Batgirl Barbara Gordon was created 50 years ago this year, and to honor her history, here’s a rundown of not only Batgirl’s costumes, but the similar heroes Batwoman and Bat-Girl, provided by fun.com. I hadn’t realized just how many versions of her there were! Not bad for someone who exists because the 1966 TV show wanted more female characters. (For more costume histories, here are Wonder Woman, Batman, Spider-Man, The Flash, Captain America, Wolverine, and Superman.)

I watch Dancing With the Stars for two reasons — first, it’s something my mother and I can share talking about, which is nice, and second, I used to dance. (Competed internationally once in college.) Most of the “stars” aren’t really celebrities — heck, I haven’t heard of more than half of them each season — but they do all kinds of interesting costuming and scoring for theme nights. Last night, of course, was Halloween, so there was a nifty […]

On Twitter recently, Melanie Gillman had a terrific breakdown of the latest page from As the Crow Flies. It’s a lovely little lesson in the kind of details artists think about to improve readability. They called the two left, bigger right structure “one of those panel structures you’re Not Supposed To Do in comics” because readers in a left-to-right language may go in that order instead of reading down, then across, as intended. Oh, forgot I wanted to talk about […]

I’m not a fan of the Asgardian comics, those about Thor and his buddies, because I find the mythology overwhelming. But there was one aspect of the Loki: Agent of Asgard run a year or two ago that I really liked, and that was the introduction of Verity Willis. She was created by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett in Loki: Agent of Asgard #2 (cover-dated May 2014), and she’s the perfect best friend for Loki, the god of lies, because […]

I love comics for a whole bunch of reasons, but one of them is seeing creative visions I never would have dreamed of. Take, for example, “Till Her Final Breath”, written by Greg van Eekhout and drawn by Sarah Winifred Searle. It’s about a super-skilled balloon animal competition. What a great idea for visuals! But it’s about more than that — it’s also about generational change and creativity and aging and caring and tradition. And it’s wonderfully drawn, particularly the […]

Marvel has announced yet another cover theme for November, this time promoting “Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM)”. (Is there something in the water on this subject lately?) The following books will feature special variants, as follows and shown below: S (science) – MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR #13 by Joyce Chin T (technology) – SPIDER-MAN #10 by Pasqual Ferry E (engineering) — INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1 by Mike McKone A (art) — CHAMPIONS #2 by Pascal Campion M […]