Comic Picks by the Glick

Manga and Comic Reviews

New Lone Wolf & Cub vol. 2

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 […]

Battling Boy: The Rise of Aurora West

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 […]

Southern Bastards vol. 1: Here Was a Man

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 […]

Stitched vol. 2

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 […]

Genshiken: Second Season vol. 5

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 […]

The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom

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 […]

Two by Bendis & Bagley

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 […]

Uber vol. 2

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 […]