Manga and Comic Reviews
Things haven’t been going well for Pamela Isely as of late. Where she was once Queen Ivy, connected to the Green and with limitless power over plant life, she has now been shorn of her godhood by being placed back in a normal body to preserve her mind. Despondent over the loss of the power […]
Tony Daniel has shown he’s a hell of an artist over the years, whether he’s working on superhero titles like “Batman” or creator-owned joints like “Nocterra.” Now he’s doing the writing and art for his latest creator-owned venture and the result is an overstuffed mash-up of bog-standard character types, half-assed amalgamation of fantasy and real-world […]
Writer Dan Abnett and artist I.N.J. Culbard’s original “Wild’s End” series was a fun amalgamation of “The War of the Worlds” and “The Wind in the Willows.” You had anthropomorphic animals trying to fend off an invasion of sentient alien walkers that ran for three volumes before reaching a decent enough stopping point. “Beyond the […]
Mary the Multi-Monster. The Tripper. Persona. Crab Louie. Kid Curious. The Divider. They weren’t A-or-B-List heroes, but they were the ones who stepped up when The Ledgerman threatened to pull all of Star City into his own word. For their trouble, they were able to live the best versions of their lives for a little […]
We learned a lot about Seiko’s history last time in a way that actually went a good deal towards humanizing her, fifteen volumes in. Even if mangaka Shuzo Oshimi doesn’t seem to want to explore the obvious role that mental illness has had on this character’s life, her character feels more understandable here, which isn’t […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Minor Threats vol. 2: The Fastest Way Down “Minor Threats” has become something of a minor success for Dark Horse, having already spawned two spinoff miniseries and now this proper follow-up series. The hope is that “The Fastest Way Down” can keep the momentum going, and I think it has a decent chance […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Ultimate X-Men vol. 1: Fears & Hates Of all the titles in the current lineup of “Ultimate” comics, this is the one that appears to deviate the most from what you’d expect. Not just because of the softer, almost manga-esque look writer/artist Peach Momoko brings to it, but because she’s also bringing in […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: The Forged vol. 3: The Abaddon Strike There are collected editions of series where I’ve put their first issues in this spot when they were originally solicited. There’s also a new collected edition of a series whose first volume I did a podcast on with John. So why am I giving the Above-the-Board […]
I hope everyone enjoyed reading lots of words about a manga from Shin’ichi Sakamoto last week, because I’ve got more to say about another series of his that also launched last year. “#DRCL” is arguably the more successful, as it managed to snag an Eisner Award nomination for “Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material – […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Scalped Omnibus vol. 1 Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse left his reservation years ago to escape the dead-end life he thought it represented. Now he’s back to show everyone there what he’s learned in the intervening years. There’s more to his story as he reconnects with old friends, enemies, exes and throws in with […]