May 05, 2009
Comic Books
Web Exclusive
House of Mystery was a staple DC anthology of the mid-1950s. Over the years the faces have changed but the premise remains fairly the same: put a bunch of people into a big scary house with plenty of mansards and macabre. This 2008 reboot by Jack of Fables writers Mathew Sturges and Bill Willingham infuses plenty of novel ideas and characters into this rather stale horror trope. The malignant caretakers of the 1968 iteration of House of Mystery, aptly named Cain and Abel, make a quick cameo at the beginning of Room & Boredom. From then on, readers are introduced to the small cadre of patrons that inhabit their strange environs: a bar “at the crossroads of reality.”
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May 01, 2009
Comic Books
Web Exclusive
This fourth JSA volume collects Justice Society of America #19-22, and the Thy Kingdom Come specials Magog, Superman, and The Kingdom. Picking up where part two left off, the Justice Society begins to disintegrate as Gog vows to bring peace to Earth. Some are terrified by this course of events, while many heroes are optimistic, after being healed of their ailments by Gog. Thom Kallor (Starman) is no longer a schizophrenic, Grant Emerson’s (Damage) scarred face is restored, and Sanderson Hawkin’s (Sand) night terrors have ceased. Gog’s helping hand comes with a moral price tag as the old JSA squares off against the new.
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Apr 25, 2009
Comic Books
Web Exclusive
Mark Millar is quickly becoming a pop culture institution (if he wasn’t already there). The creator behind such controversial projects as Kick-Ass, Wanted, War Heroes, Marvel’s Civil War, Ultimates, and Superman: Red Son raises some more eyebrows with American Jesus. Chosen was originally published in 2004 by Dark Horse, but this is a new trade paperback collection from Image Comics. Compared to something like Preacher, it’s a fairly tame pre-apocalyptic tale, seen through the eyes of the pubescent Jodie Christianson (the initials are a dead giveaway).
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DC/Vertigo
Wrttien by Alan Moore
Feb 01, 2009
Comic Books
Vertigo Comics
When British writer Alan Moore took over Swamp Thing in 1983, the title was a formulaic monster comic on the verge of cancellation. DC, thus, gave Moore free reign to revamp the series as he pleased, even though he was largely untested by American comics companies. What Moore ended up creating was way ahead of its time, and his work on Swamp Thing has had an influential impact both on comic writers and the potential of the medium.
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Nov 01, 2008
Comic Books
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
You would think that being the last man on Earth would have some advantages, the obvious one being all the women you could potentially sleep with (unless you were the last man on Earth and gay, now that would suck). But the reality may be much darker than that, if Y: The Last Man is any predictor.
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Nov 01, 2008
Comic Books
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
Islamic terrorists detonate bombs in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. The U.S. government institutes a draft, invades Iran, and sets its sites on Syria.
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Nov 01, 2008
Comic Books
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
Hey Jude, have you heard the tale of Red Rocket 7? Let me take you there. A rising rock star in the mid-’90s, Red Rocket 7 takes the stage at a sold out Portland show. As he strums his first notes a strange scaly Enfinite alien assassin targets him with a laser pistol.
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Nov 01, 2008
Comic Books
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
Jesse Reklaw’s Slow Wave takes readers’ submitted dreams and turns them into four-panel comic strips. Dark Horse collects most of his strips from 1999–2003 in The Night of Your Life, a sturdy, hardbound volume.
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Nov 01, 2008
Comic Books
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
Twenty-five years ago, Mister X was an expressionistic trip for the mind. Dark Horse’s remastered hardcover collection lives up to that legacy.
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