I’ve been looking for an entry point into Valiant’s titles, given how confusing I find their company foundation stones of reusing characters I never knew and lots of crossovers. The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage #1, next week’s launch of a five-issue miniseries, was much friendlier to me. Plus, I appreciated seeing a female lead (where a big deal isn’t made of her gender) written by a woman, Jen Van Meter. Although a first issue, there are still references to events that […]

I’d never heard of Hollywood Superstars until I got old buddy Nat Gertler’s press release for the new reprint volume. Turns out that it was an abbreviated (only five issues) series that was originally put out by Epic Comics (a division of Marvel) from 1990-1991. It was a comic before its time. There were no superheroes in it (although various action scenes were included). It was an indy comic that would appeal to general audience readers before they were used […]

I was looking forward to sampling this graphic novel, translated from the Italian, on the life of Kurt Cobain, since I didn’t know much about him beyond his hit songs and his marriage to Courtney Love (who doesn’t appear here). Unfortunately, that lack of knowledge was a detriment, since I suspect the book reads much better if you already know most of the facts about Cobain. If you don’t, as I didn’t, writer Danilo Deninotti doesn’t give you all the […]

Not everyone can create a popular six-graphic-novel series that’s the basis for a major motion picture and still being reprinted (this time in color) ten years later. So it’s not surprising that the next book by Bryan Lee O’Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim, has been heavily anticipated. That can be a heavy burden to bear, but I’m pleased to say that Seconds: A Graphic Novel is a terrific read, shaking off the sophomore curse. It’s the story of Katie, a […]

Dashell “Dash” Malone is your typical 1940s private eye. He never has enough money, he’s got a wise-cracking secretary he couldn’t do without, and his latest case involves a mysterious, well-built woman with a secret she won’t share. Only Dash is gay, and he’s distracted from all of the above by not hearing from Johnny, his former con artist lover, for too long. Of course, there’s a murder, and the mysterious woman, Zita Makara, is likely involved. Writer Dave Ebersole […]

I wanted to like Rai #1 more than I did. It had a lot of hooks I found interesting — including a far-future setting, with some clever tech ideas, an intriguing premise, and a sympathetic young woman — but the cold precision of Clayton Crain’s art turned me off. Don’t get me wrong, the images are lovely, but they’re so static, I’m pushed away from them. I’m guessing that they’re digitally painted, and to my eyes, there’s no sense of […]

The fifth issue of Mixtape concludes the series’ first arc. It’s got an excellent concept behind it, one of those ideas that seems so simple but so elegant: What song do you want played at your funeral? The high school kids, already facing the end of the school year, are grappling with the unexpected death of a student. He was a jock, and they didn’t really know (or like) him, but the activities that go through the school affect them […]

The Legend of Bold Riley was a 2012 graphic novel fantasy about a royal seeker of adventure and beautiful girls… only the seeker was a woman. Now Riley is back in a comic book series with the same title written by Leia Weathington and drawn by Jonathon Dalton. Given the series’ episodic approach to storytelling and use of different artists, it fits better, in my opinion, in issues instead of thick books. This first issue, “The Talking Bone”, is drawn […]