Comic Picks by the Glick

Manga and Comic Reviews

War Birds

It’s the near future, and wouldn’t you know it but America is involved in another armed conflict in Syria.  The difference this time is that most of the conflict is being done with drones – insect-looking recon machines and humanoid ones doing the actual fighting.  Everything is going just as you’d expect until something odd […]

The Variants: A Jessica Jones Mystery

All things considered, things are going well for Jessica Jones at the start of this story.  Her biggest problems are dealing with caffeine withdrawal and trying to figure out what lipstick to wear for her wedding to Luke Cage.  Then Daredevil drops by, almost begging Jessica to testify on behalf of his latest client at […]

Tatsuki Fujimoto: Before Chainsaw Man 22-26

I was expecting the upward trend in quality represented by the stories presented in the first volume to continue here.  The idea is that Fujimoto was getting better with each new manga he made, right?  “22-26” shows that wasn’t quite the case and the quality of a creator’s work doesn’t follow a straight line.  However, […]

Do A Powerbomb!

Daniel Warren Johnson is one of the best artists in comics.  Full stop.  Not only does he bring a lot of detail to every page that he draws, but there’s an incredible energy to it all as well.  Whether it’s a war-torn science fantasy civilization, heavy metal imagery invading real life, or the heroes of […]

The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

This is a reprint of a two-part miniseries from the 90’s (plus a “Dark Horse Presents” short from 2015), back when Frank Miller could regularly be counted on to produce quality work – whether he was writing or illustrating.  He’s doing the former here, paired up with artistic sensation Geoff Darrow as the two channel […]

Defenders: Beyond

“Defenders:  There Are No Rules” was an entertaining high-concept miniseries from writer Al Ewing and artist Javier Rodriguez that saw the team traveling back in time through the conceptual ages of the Marvel Universe.  It was successful enough that we’re now graced with its follow-up, “Beyond,” that sees Adam “Blue Marvel” Brashear leading an even […]

DC Solicitation Sneaks: September 2023

That’s right, this is going up on a Tuesday night. Why the change? With there not being a direct link to the podcast as part of the blog, there’s a three-day gap every other week now. To deal with that, I’ll be posting things every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and every other Wednesday when a […]

The Heroic Legend of Arslan vol. 17

This is a volume of table-setting as we see lots of different factions getting their affairs in order before the fighting starts.  We check in with Duke Guiscard first as he delights in having found a way to get rid of his brother, the king:  Have the newly captured Princess Irina do it as she […]

Dark Horse Penguin Picks: September 2023

Above-the-Board Recommendation: Innocent Omnibus vol. 1 What we have here is something much rarer than I’d like it to be in solicitations from Dark Horse.  That would be the debut of a new manga series without any ties to film or TV.  “Innocent” is the fictionalized story of Charles-Henri Sanson the executioner for the French […]

Image Advance Arrivals: September 2023

Above-the-Board Recommendation: Black Cloak vol. 1 “Heart in a Box” was an excellent graphic novel that took an obvious premise – a young woman gives up her heart to escape a recent heartbreak and comes to regret the decision – and wrung a genuinely engaging story from it.  It came to us courtesy of writer […]