What do you do with a kid who has spent all of his life (and twenty-eight volumes of manga) witnessing his dad cut down everyone he challenged, and who challenged him?  If you’re Satsuma samurai Togo Shigekata, you start training the boy to become a warrior worthy of his father.  Given the circumstances, it actually […]

I wasn’t expecting much from this spinoff of the Paul Pope graphic novel it shares part of its name with.  After all, it’s only co-written by him with a couple of people I’ve never heard of providing additional writing and the art.  JT Petty and David Rubin, as co-writer and artist (respectively), actually do wind […]

As Jason Aaron’s returned to creator-owned work after the excellent “Scalped,” I should’ve been really excited about this title.  However, in all of the solicitation text and previews I read about “Southern Bastards” I never really got a good sense of what it was about.  Yes, I was planning on  buying it because of Aaron’s […]

If you go into this expecting a particularly brutal kind of slasher movie, then I guess you’ll be satisfied.  Mike Wolfer takes over full scripting duties from Garth Ennis with this second volume, and tries expanding on the mythos and reach of the title creatures.  This is done through the machinations of an unsavory trader […]

While a new volume of “B.P.R.D.” is always a reason to get excited, this one promised to be something special.  Not only was it going to involve the organization taking the fight to ZinCo after all these years along with this latest incarnation of the Black Flame, but the setup for this was handled expertly […]

The first volume of “FBP” wound up being a comic that I wanted to like.  This second one pretty much misses the mark.  As the latest round of cutbacks hit the organization, Adam, Rosa, and Cicero head up to Nakeet, Alaska, to assist in the shutting down of research facility.  Said facility happens to be […]

Even as I become more disillusioned with the college-otaku core of this title, the characters keep me coming back for more.  Take the last volume:  It ended on an interesting cliffhanger as hardcore otaku (and series mainstay) Madarame found himself in the Genshiken club room again with Saki, the girl he’s had a crush on […]

Sometimes, it’s pretty easy to tell why certain creators took on a particular project.  Take Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, still tearing it up on Marvel’s “Daredevil,” and their take on Dave Stevens’ creation “The Rocketeer.”  Inspired by the pulp fiction heroes of the 30’s and 40’s (as well as Bettie Page), Stevens had can’t-catch-a-break […]

After putting out over 110 mostly excellent issues of “Ultimate Spider-Man,” there should be no doubt that Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley work really well together.  While they’ve collaborated on a few projects outside of that title, nothing they’ve done yet has managed to equal that legendary run.  That holds true for their work […]

After a certain point in the first volume, this title’s twists started working against my expectations and I came to enjoy its story of superhuman combatants in WWII.  Having got the setup out of the way, writer Kieron Gillen sets about adding further complications for all sides in the war.  The volume is effectively split […]