Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
It’s 1938, and Rollo (Cork Hubbert) dreams of making it to Hollywood. The good-heartedness underlying the slapstick goofiness is summed up early on, as Rollo, when told his dreams of making it in Hollywood are “just too big”, responds, “There’s no dream too big, and no dreamer too small.” He gets a chance when he becomes one of 150 little people rounded up to play munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Under the Rainbow purports to show what happens when […]
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If you’ve been attracted by this gorgeous cover, reminiscent of some of the great creators of indy comics such as Jaime Hernandez and Adrian Tomine, feel free to jump in — you don’t need to have read the first issue to appreciate this detailed exploration of the malaise of young urban life by Ethan Rilly. (Although if you have, you’ll be impressed by how much the artist has refined his style since then.) Francis is a legal assistant with insomnia […]
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Reviews by KC Carlson Following up the first half of the week… Batman #1 Upfront: Writer Scott Snyder is just coming off a fan-favorite run of Detective Comics. Penciller Greg Capullo has been drawing acclaim for his work at Image Comics — mostly on Spawn-related titles. And Bruce Wayne is Batman. Perhaps you heard about that. I knew I was going to love this new Batman run when I saw “the building that looked like Batman” in just panel two […]
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Be prepared. This manga by Takashi Murakami is not so much the “heartwarming” tale it’s been promoted as; the word I’d use is “heartbreaking”. It’s still worth reading, but I found it emotionally wringing, something I kept thinking about long after finishing the book. Stargazing Dog begins with a Titanic-style “everyone winds up dead” scene, as officers investigate an abandoned car with two dead bodies inside, a man and his dog. Yet it’s surprisingly tranquil, opening with gorgeously drawn dragonflies […]
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Since the next DC Universe original animated movie, Batman: Year One, is due out next month, promotion has started with the release of this video clip, showing Batman (Ben McKenzie) interrupting Carmine Falcone’s (Alex Rocco) dinner party. I thought the shadow effects were neat. Batman: Year One will be released October 18 at a list price of $24.98 for the Blu-ray Combo Pack (with DVD and digital copy). New this time around is the opportunity to download-for-purchase online a week […]
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Renaud Dillies’ dreamlike meditation on creativity and finding value in life is not understood so much as succumbed to. Charlie the Mouse is a writer and guitarist, and as the book opens, he’s telling us how wonderful his solitary life is. It comes across as protesting too much, as though he’s trying to convince himself as well as us. His town is preparing for a Carnival, and that event draws him out of his garret to interact with a giraffe […]
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I enjoyed early-60s Jane Fonda in Sunday in New York so much that I figured I’d pick up another of her mainstream sex comedies when Warner Archive had a sale. Any Wednesday was made three years later (1966) than the previous, and accordingly, Fonda is now playing not a virgin, but a mistress. But first, she’s a kind of babysitter for art, a gallery employee sent to accompany paintings rented for ritzy parties. There she meets “business tycoon” John Cleves […]
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Reviews by KC Carlson Birds of Prey #1 Upfront: One of my favorite “modern” DC concepts, going way back to its Gorf/Chuck Dixon origins. Have mostly enjoyed every issue of of all the various BoP series. If you’re a Birds of Prey fan, run like the wind away from this. It’s Birds of Prey in name only. Although it promises four characters on the cover, only two appear inside — Black Canary and a character named Starling, who’s supposed to […]
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