I have yet to play “Bioshock Infinite,” “Saints Row IV,” “GTA V,” or “Assassin’s Creed IV,” but if I had to pick my game of the year right now it would be “The Last of Us.”  Not only was it a beautifully rendered post-pandemic world where the new brutality required to survive was brilliantly integrated […]

I’ve enjoyed Bryan Talbot’s previous two volumes a great deal, but there was always something holding them back in the end.  Where the first one was a tightly plotted, intelligent thriller, it wound up tossing those attributes with a climax that has more in common with the films of Schwarzenegger’s 80’s heyday.  The second volume […]

The characters of the Marvel Universe are a diverse and flexible bunch.  This is to the point where if a writer wanted to, they could tell a pretty straightforward genre story with the right one.  Garth Ennis has told war stories with Nick Fury, Bendis and Brubaker have done legal thrillers with Daredevil, the latter […]

I have a pretty good idea of how this new original graphic novel came about.  Either Mike Mignola or someone at Dark Horse realized that with the current schedule of “Hellboy in Hell” there wasn’t going to be a new “Hellboy” collection coming out this year.  So Mignola calls up Duncan Fegredo and now we’ve […]

The reason this is coming so late is because I somehow missed this when it showed up on Diamond’s weekly shipping lists.  There was this nagging thought on my head, “When is this volume going to come out in paperback?” that I didn’t get around to checking out until this week.  Imagine my surprise when […]

At this point there’s very little to say about this series beyond the familiar refrain that it continues to provide a great example of the minimum standard of quality a superhero title needs to have in order to survive in this market.  Waid and artist Chris Samnee (with guest artist Michael Allred in this volume) […]

This stands as one of the most gloriously stupid things I’ve ever read in my life!  If you consider that a recommendation, then your next step should be clear.  However, if you don’t then whatever I say next won’t likely change your mind in the slightest.  So let me say that this series begins with […]

This may be a stand-alone graphic novel, but it’s an indispensable read for anyone who has been following the series so far.  Two stories are being told in this volume:  One involves Winston Taylor relating the genesis of the first “Tommy Taylor” novel through his journals.  The other is the actual story of the book […]

Greg Rucka has been away from the creator-owned game for too long.  While I’ve enjoyed his superhero work on titles like “Detective Comics,” “52,” “Wolverine,” and “The Punisher” (except for that last volume) it’s his work apart from that genre that has been the most memorable.  If you’ve never read either volume of “Whiteout” or […]

While the pairing of writer Scott Snyder and artist Jock made “Batman:  The Black Mirror” something that was certainly worth a look, the collection’s other artist was an unknown quality.  I liked Jock well enough that the thought of having an unknown named Francesco Francavilla handle the in-between chapters didn’t sound all that appealing.  My […]