Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
The Spirit Archives Volume 26, the last in the DC Comics reprint series, was due out last week. It didn’t arrive. Today DC released this announcement: Please note that all orders for THE SPIRIT ARCHIVES VOL. 26 HC (AUG08 0190) are cancelled. This item will be resolicited at a later date. According to Amazon, that new due date is June 23. Which will, interestingly enough, put it out AFTER Dark Horse’s tie-in “volume 27”, which is due out May 20. […]
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I like this Osamu Tezuka manga for its entertaining medical craziness. Behind stories of insane, unbelievable surgeries lies a strong sense of morality and justice. (Big thanks to David Welsh, whose contest got these books to me for free.) Black Jack is a rogue surgeon, an unlicensed doctor who refuses to kowtow to the medical establishment. He requests immense fees to accomplish the impossible, such as treating sores that form faces and talk or transplanting a brain to a new […]
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A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody This autobiography is about how Mike Dawson loved the music of Freddie Mercury and moved from the United Kingdom to the United States as a child. As such, I expected Freddie & Me to address in some fashion these topics: Why Queen’s music was so appealing to him How the near-death revelation of Mercury’s homosexuality and his having AIDS affected him The culture clash between England and the U.S. I think those are basic questions most […]
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This has been quite a year for realizing that rules don’t apply. I used to say “I don’t like horror comics”, but I should say, “I don’t like most horror comics”, because I enjoy Parasyte. That’s because the scary element — a body-invading controller — is a perfect metaphor for teenage alienation and discomfort with one’s own body. When alien worms come to possess humans, Shinichi is saved by his Walkman. He uses the cord as a makeshift tourniquet, preventing […]
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I really liked Swingtown. I’m not particularly nostalgic for the 70s, especially not the chemically created clothing fabrics, but I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and for a show that included wife-swapping, the messages were surprisingly positive. But before I get to those, the basics: Swingtown ran from June through September 2008 on CBS. It featured three couples in the summer of 1976: The Millers, played by Molly Parker and Jack Davenport. They married young, just out of high […]
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I enjoyed Faith Erin Hicks’ The War at Ellsmere so much that I wanted to read her previous book. I hadn’t checked it out when it was released last year because I don’t like zombies. Big mistake on my part. Zombies Calling is fun and entertaining. Joss is a geek struggling with college exams and student loans. Her roommates are Robyn, who’s girl-crazy, and Sonnet, a goth who seems a little more comfortable in her own skin than Joss does. […]
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With the movie opening tomorrow (although the reviews are in already, and it’s not looking good), I figured now was a great time to get caught up on my reading of the classic reprint series The Spirit Archives. Volumes 23-25 are the three most recent. Volume 26, the last in the series, is due out next week. It features Eisner’s Spirit material from after 1952, when the original series ended, including work originally published by Harvey and Kitchen Sink. Volume […]
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Got a note today from a manga publisher that I won’t name saying that due to company cutbacks, they would no longer be able to send review copies. That notice is unusual but appreciated. I know times are tight, and I sympathize. I would rather know what’s going on (instead of wondering if someone immaturely took offense at something I said, for example). However, the part I found especially strange was the suggestion that if I was willing to pay […]
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