Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
A comment in response to my review of Mail Order Ninja brought up an interesting point I wanted to draw more attention to. MON Book 1 is only the beginning of a series, as I noted in the review. However, I reviewed it as a single element, because that was the package I was given. A reader responded “you seem to have an inability to recognize the inertia of character arcs”, telling me I should have more faith in the […]
Read moreI’ve talked about this before online, but I thought I’d capture the core of my position in one location. Many continuing comic fans say, “Continuity is no barrier to readers to new readers. When I was a kid, I loved knowing that there was a bigger universe out there with more stories.” It’s a common thread among those who defend a tight continuity as an attractive element for a superhero comic universe. I’m not sure people realize a key factor […]
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Not to toot my own horn, but I’m feeling much better (after a week of having a cold for the second time in less than a month), and I had a realization that I’m going to share. I wish more of my reviewing experiences could go like it did for Solstice. Here’s many of the things that went right: I was sent the book unexpectedly, and it was already published (so no pressure about asking for it or feeling guilty […]
Read moreAt the Spring 1995 American Culture Assocation / Popular Culture Association national meeting, I presented on the state of online comic fandom using the following paper as a basis. The big three areas at the time were Usenet, CompuServe, and AOL (mainly DC’s then-exclusive content). Times have changed, ten years later, as the centers of online comic fandom (such as they are) have moved today to blogs, web boards, and invite-only mailing lists. This, by the way, was my last […]
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