October 28, 2014 Johanna Books About Comics 3 comments

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

You’ve likely already heard of Jill Lepore’s The Secret History of Wonder Woman, since there was an impressive profile last month at The New Yorker that summarizes many of the key points. This book, though, goes into great depth with new discoveries about the life of William Moulton Marston, her creator. Early on, Lepore lays out her premise clearly. She traces Superman’s roots to science fiction, Batman to the hard-boiled detective, and Wonder Woman to “the feminist utopia and to […]

October 27, 2014 Johanna PR: What Not to Do One comment

PR: What Not to Do: Forget to Tell Us What the Reprint Book Is About

I’m really glad we’re living in a golden age of comic reprints, with all kinds of terrific books and strips easily available. However, too many times, when announcing a new reprint project, publishers assume readers already know about the comic. I know those decision-makers are familiar with how great the project is, or presumably, they wouldn’t choose to republish it, but particularly when you’re reprinting something from more than five years ago, there’s a whole generation of potential customers that […]

October 27, 2014 Johanna Image Comics One comment

The Wicked + the Divine #5

written by Kieron Gillen; art by Jamie McKelvie The first storyline of The Wicked + The Divine concludes in this issue. And it’s terrific. Midway through, I found myself a little lost, but everything clears up nicely here. The various characters have sorted themselves out for me, or maybe I found them clearer when seeing how each acts when events all come to a head. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, since this is the ending, […]

October 26, 2014 Johanna Television Reviews Leave a comment

Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise

Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise is now available on DVD. The special only runs 22 minutes, but there are tons of extras. Like the previous Robot Chicken DC Comics Special, the show is a string of random gags executed using Mego-style superhero dolls. The jokes range from annoyances of daily life (sequences in a coffee shop) to bizarre postulations (such as Lex’s “Sexx Luthor” high school band). As I’d expect for the Adult Swim audience, there’s […]

October 26, 2014 Johanna Comic News 2 comments

Diamond Drops Preview Catalog Price Next Year

As of January 2015 — the system works two months ahead, so that’s the earliest they can change — the Previews monthly comic store ordering catalog will be $3.99 a copy instead of the current $4.50. Diamond is promoting this reduction as making the price the same as “the cost of a comic book.” I think that says more about rising comic prices than Diamond decreases, but then, I have long-standing qualms about being asked to pay money to buy […]

October 26, 2014 Johanna Comic News One comment

Resident Alien Returns With Sam Hain Mystery

I’ve been enjoying the Resident Alien series written by Peter Hogan and drawn by Steve Parkhouse. It’s published by Dark Horse, and it’s the story of an alien trapped on Earth. He takes the form of a crotchety old retired doctor, Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, but he finds himself drawn into solving a murder mystery in the first volume, Resident Alien: Welcome to Earth! The story continues in the second volume, The Suicide […]

October 26, 2014 Johanna Other Publishers One comment

Critical Hit #1-2

New publisher Black Mask Studios is gradually building its slate of titles. Some of the ones I’ve seen so far have been horror, so not my thing, but I was intrigued by Critical Hit, written by Matt Miner and drawn by Jonathan Brandon Sawyer. Although it’s apparently a sequel to a series I’ve never seen called Liberator, I didn’t feel left out. [Note: I’ve since been informed that Black Mask is doing a lot more than horror — it was […]

October 25, 2014 Johanna Movie News One comment

View Monsters University Cartoon “Party Central” by Joining Disney Movies Anywhere

The new Monsters University cartoon “Party Central” was originally supposed to run with The Good Dinosaur, a Pixar movie moved to November 2015. The MU short ran instead with Muppets Most Wanted. (Strangely, the short got a PG rating, when the two Monsters movies are G.) Now, to drive more signups for its Disney Movies Anywhere service, Disney has made the full short available to those who download their iPad/iPhone app. Here’s a trailer: My favorite gag: the code names […]

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