We Love the City

In previous reviews of The Losers, I’ve pointed out that the series is tailor-made for a film adaptation.  It’s a big-budget action movie on paper, with smart storytelling and strong characterizations by Andy Diggle and killer action cinematography by artist Jock.  It’s an unholy mixture of The A-Team, Oceans Eleven, James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez and…

Nice article about Alan Moore’s upcoming Lost Girls over at Publishers Weekly. It includes the usual “Aaah! Pornography!” exclamations from retailers: Cliff Biggers of Dr. No’s Comics and Games in Marietta, Ga. … says that his store “will be cautious and prudent about how we display and market the book. Every store owner has to…

Most of the One Year Later relaunches have followed a similar pattern: The first issue has been devoted to establishing the new status quo, with plenty of hints and questions as to what happened during the missing year. Consequently, not a whole lot really happened, other than some very exposition-heavy conversations and narratives. Some of…

I meant to write a review of the first issue of the new Blue Beetle series, but never got around to it. But the second issue is much the same, so I can cover it here: It’s very good. Granted, it’s not the original concept: A teenager finds a mysterious object that gives him great…

I’ve been holding out hope for some time that Greg Rucka will be able to do at DC or Marvel what he’s done with Queen & Country at Oni: Write a smart, intriguing, and exciting book with unpredictable plots and well developed characters. He’s tried, I know. Wolverine was interesting, but never quite got off…

Excellent column by Brian Hibbs at Newsarama about DC’s multiple sell-outs and second printings of One Year Later titles. The main point echoes something I’ve always thought: The super comic industry takes some perverse pleasure in sellouts and limited quantities. Their press releases practically crow “This book was awesome! Lots of people loved it! Hot…

Until about a year or so ago, I hadn’t read much, if any, of Warren Ellis’ work. His rise to fame overlapped my time out of comics, so I missed his early Marvel work and his rise to fame with The Authority and Transmetropolitan. (I still haven’t read Transmet, though I have the first volume…

There’s the awesome news that Scott Pilgrim 3 is done. There’s the less awesome news that it probably won’t be out until late may. But then, courtesy of Bryan O’Malley‘s site, we get the awesome news of this awesome postcard he’ll have at the Toronto Con next week:Next, I want to see Scott in a…

My review of Warren Ellis’ Apparat is up over at Popmatters. Quite a good book, with a nice dose of Ellis’ craziness and some fantastic art, particularly from Jose Ryp and Carla Speed McNeil. Warren Ellis’ Apparat project is an attempt to look at what comics might have become if the breadth and depth of…

So J.H. Williams is apparently leaving the relative obscurity of Desolation Jones, Seven Soldiers, and Promethea to draw Batman. It’s not really a big thing. Williams deserves to be a superstar, and if drawing Batman helps, then good for him. But it’s what it symbolizes that’s started to bother me. It’s tremendously unfortunate that an…