Nov 03, 2010 Comic Books Web Exclusive

Deservedly back in print after several years, Reneé French's The Ticking is damned clever and well done. There's a certain fragility in both the art and the story that belie reader expectations: a deformed boy whose mother passes in childbirth could be played so many ways, most of them poorly and stereotypically. More

Nov 03, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

Like the shark documentary it's named after, this collaboration between Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg and Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart reveals a frightening menace lurking beneath a placid surface. The dulcet finger-picked acoustic guitar in "Song for the Greater Jihad," for instance, is suddenly severed by what sounds like a vicious power tool More

Nov 02, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

1988's Big Thing is widely regarded as the worst Duran Duran album. But similar to Notorious, released two years earlier, the music on Big Thing sounds better now than it did 20 years ago. More

Nov 02, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

Now that we're a few decades out from the often terrible but always fun musical landscape of the 1980s, it's easier to get some perspective on some of the era's biggest bands and biggest releases. More

Nov 01, 2010 Comic Books Web Exclusive

One of the Vertigo Crime original hardcovers, A Sickness in the Family sets a compellingly creepy mood. The focus is on the Usher family, who may look normal and even enviable on the surface, but cracks in the family facade offer a view at selfishness, philandering, corruption, and disappointment. More

Nov 01, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

Modern music is just as guilty of setting the stage for a mega ’80s comeback as are the artists who defined the era. The synthesizer has pushed its way back to the top of the mix and so it makes—musical—sense for the instrument’s masters to give things another go. More

Oct 29, 2010 Comic Books Issue #33 - Fall 2010 - Interpol

The hook of Superman: Earth One is that although both Clark Kent's teenage adventures in his hometown of Smallville and his early years as Superman in Metropolis have been well chronicled, the time period between those two has been left largely unexplored. More

Oct 29, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

This has been a banner year for San Francisco's Fresh and Onlys: a U.K. tour with Deerhunter, an invitation (via Matt Groening) to play All Tomorrow's Parties, festivals in New York and Big Sur, and a rapid succession of 7" records that have been selling out as fast as labels can release them. Ending the year with Play it Strange and a November tour with Clinic puts a fine feather on their 2010 hat. More

Oct 28, 2010 Music Web Exclusive

Much like their synth guru forefathers, Hot Chip write and arrange music that was meant to be remixed by people who were born to make us dance. Although they've released three consecutive critically acclaimed records, Hot Chip albums as beginning-to-end complete musical statements are—frankly—overrated. More