November 2010
17 posts
5 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Powr Mastrs Vol. 1
Powr Masters Vol. 1
Writer/Artist - C.F.
Publisher - PictureBox. $18 USD
Naive in the best possible way, C.F.’s Powr Mastrs captivated me over a year ago when I bought this volume based only on word of mouth. I hadn’t seen a single panel and from the elaborate logo and no-nonsense pricing and credits below, I thought maybe I was in for a stern sword-and-sorcery epic. And yes,...
3 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews DC 1st Issue Special #3...
1st Issue Special #3
Writer - Bob Haney
Artist - Ramona Fradon
1st Special #4
Writer - Robert Kanigher
Art - John Rosenberger and Vince Colletta
Publisher - DC Comics (1975)
Not that anyone cares besides me, but one of my many goals, just ahead of getting a girlfriend and paying off my Visa balance, is to read and review some obscure DC series. I reviewed the first couple issues of this a...
2 tags
So I Had a Chocolate Chip Bagel AND a Jelly Donut...
…and wanted to write some jittery, unfocused thoughts on comics. I left the office late and there were leftovers from our monthly breakfast thing, and they would have been stale by morning, so…
By the way, who brings McDonald’s breakfast burritos to one of these? Weird, right? Yes, I ate one.
Thor #615 & #616 - the bar was set pretty low for me to enjoy this one. It really...
1 tag
Midweek eBay Auctions Update
I’ve got some auctions ending in a few days on eBay, and quite a few heavily-discounted items still have no bids, so you have a chance to get some great graphic novel reading at low prices in the next few days. Titles include:
Astro City (complete set of all 57 comics) by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell Godland (complete TPB set) by Joe...
1 tag
ADD Update
No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I’ve been doing a little non-comics writing these past few days, posted at my personal blog. Click over to read: * My report (with pictures) on a local book fair appearance by James Howard Kunstler, who signed copies of his new book The Witch of Hebron (highly recommended) and performed a reading of three scenes from the novel. * My...
4 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Jack Kirby's OMAC: One...
Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps
Writer/Penciler/Editor - Jack Kirby
Inkers - Mike Royer, D. Bruce Berry
In the curious but arguably appropriate newsprint under hardcover DC format, this short-lived late ’70s Kirby DC project (eight issues) is a potent mix of wild ideas, headlong storytelling, and kitschy Kirby phrasing that nonetheless feels like a long walk for a short day at...
ADD's eBay Auctions Now Live!
Right now I have some items up on eBay, softcover and hardcover graphic novels and comics, at pretty steep discounts. Titles include Hellboy (both softcover and the hardcover Library Editions) Godland (both softcover and the hardcover Celestial Editions), Gotham Central, Buffy Season 8, Achewood HCs, From Hell, JLA Deluxe HCs, and more. If you’re looking for hours of great comics reading...
2 tags
1 tag
EW Covers The Captain America Movie
Entertainment Weekly sent along their newest issue, #1127, which cover-features next year’s Captain America: The First Avenger movie. Longtime EW go-to comics guy Jeff Jensen writes the article, which looks at the approach to the film and features some good quotes from lead actor Chris Evans, who played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, although he looks so different in Cap that...
4 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Wonder Woman #603 & 604
Wonder Woman #s 603 & 604
Writer - J. Michael Straczynski
Pencilers - Don Kramer and Eduardo Pansicca
Inker - Jay Leisten
Publisher - DC Comics
Whatever new phrase has replaced “hot mess,” well, this series is it. Although, I guess something has to be more compelling to follow to be a true hot mess, right? These two issues continue JMS’ first WW arc,...
6 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Four Color Fear
Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s Editor - Greg Sadowski Publisher - Fantagraphics Books. $29.99 USD
I might have reviewed this book a little differently a week or two ago, but in ramping up to Halloween I’ve been watching a number of horror films, new and old. And one realizes that there are few differences between this installment of the Friday the 13th or Final...
October 2010
58 posts
3 tags
Reproductive Rights and Wrongs
No, this is not about sex, as much as you might wish it was. Over at Comics Comics, Tim Hodler considers two methods of reproducing old comics for today’s readers. This is an issue I have been thinking a lot about recently, actually because of one of the books Hodler mentions. I think up until a few years ago, I would have preferred the “Theakstonized” approach of upping the...
2 tags
TWC News with ADD [102810]
* Avoid the Future interviews cartoonist Kevin Huizenga: “The inner compulsion I have is to put together something with a kind of complex structure, with some complex arrangement of things that surprises me, or makes me feel like my favorite comics do.” More in the link. * At Yet Another Comics Blog, Dave Carter runs down 10 random things about comics. Pay special attention to...
2 tags
TWC News with ADD [102710]
* Jim Lee talks to Publisher’s Weekly on the occasion of his 20th year making comics. His ultra-slick-but-still-kinda-awkward style has never been my cuppa, but I have to give him credit for running the imprint responsible for bringing me some of my favourite comics of all time, like Warren Ellis’s Stormwatch, The Authority and Planetary, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s...
3 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Young Lions
Young Lions
Writer/Artist - Blaise Larmee
Self-published. $10 USD. http://cometscomets.blogspot.com
I’ve had this gem for a few months now, always turning up somewhere around the house or in my backpack. I guess I was hoping for that perfect time to review it, when the book had fully crystalized for me. Finally, I realized that wasn’t going to happen, and that’s fine.
Young...
4 tags
Christopher Allen Reviews Thirteen Going On...
Thirteen Going on Eighteen
Writer/Artist - John Stanley
Publisher - Drawn & Quarterly
Artists come and go, and one can never tell who will have lasting impact and who will drift into obscurity. Those listening to the radio in the early ’90s may be surprised that Rivers Cuomo has long outlasted Alanis Morrissette, and sold more records than Jewel. Sometimes an artist who helped define...
2 tags
TWC News with ADD [102510]
* At The Comics Journal blog, Jared Gardner thinks about the transition from floppy comics to hardcover serial editions, as we’ve seen with Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library and now Seth’s Clyde Fans. * This is kind of Inside Baseball, but what the hell, it’s an amusing read about one of the hazards of reviewing comics: Johanna Draper Carlson recounts trying to ignore PR...
2 tags
Brubaker, Fraction, and A Comment on The...
My recent mention of The Fan-Fiction Age of Superhero Comics (and a link to my first post on the subject, back in 2007 — boy, superhero comics have generally sucked for years now, huh?) generated this comment from reader Felicity Walker: “The Fan-Fiction Age” is a good name for how I feel about a lot of recent comics. Surprisingly enough, I think part of why modern comics feel...
