I was fully expecting the upward trend which started with the second volume to continue here, but that doesn’t quite happen.  Rather, we get a flattening of the quality curve here as Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips take some time to tell side-stories of the “Fatale” universe and show us that Josephine’s “condition” has not […]

(This originally started off as the lead-in text to the next round of “DC Previews Picks.”  Then I got going for a little bit and it wound up too large for that.  So, here you are!) So I skipped out on offering my thoughts on “Man of Steel” after I saw it after being deluged […]

In July of 1986 freelance photographer Didier Lefevre left France to document a Doctors Without Borders operation in Afghanistan.  This was during the time of the Soviet invasion, which not only complicated their journey but also ensured that they’d have their work cut out for them upon arriving in country.  Lefevre took four thousand photos […]

As far as I’m concerned, it’s an ingenious “Why didn’t I think of this?” premise.  Take a doctor whose skills are matched only by his arrogance (like “House, M.D.”) and make his specialty dealing with all manner of supernatural ailments, parasites, and beasts (of the kind that we saw on “The X-Files”).  Right there you […]

I’ve been a suscriber for years and Entertainment Weekly’s latest issue is another one of their “Best Ever” extravaganzas.  Not only are they picking the best movies, books, music, TV shows, and plays of all time, but they’ve also got assorted “top ten” sidebars strewn throughout these lists in question.  They’ve always been a graphic-novel […]

As predicted, now that my expectations have been adjusted to where I’m not anticipating this series to be instant greatness on the level of “Y:  The Last Man” or “Ex Machina,” its charms are a lot more evident.  Chief amongst them is the way Brian Vaughan continues to expand the cast of the series with […]

Continuing on with Brian Wood’s work-for-hire endeavors we come to his take on Dark Horse’s “Conan” series which I’ve also been anticipating.  “Northlanders” was entertaining and even thought provoking at times, but it never really evolved into a must-read series as the stories being told there often felt like on-the-nose metaphors for our current world […]

The title is technically a misnomer as the “first” volume of Brian Wood’s run on this title was his contribution to the “Divided We Fall, United We Stand” crossover a few months back.  Though I’ve been hyped for his run ever since it was announced that he’d be taking over this title, that storyline turned […]

I met up with some friends last weekend.  One of them I hadn’t seen in a couple years and we caught up on some of the manga that had come out since we had last gotten together.  She was surprised to learn that “Blade of the Immortal” had wrapped up in Japan, and we all […]

This represents Greg Rucka’s swan song with the character (and with Marvel for the forseeable future) and I was all set to enjoy it. The third volume ended strongly and with the Avengers being brought in as antagonists, things looked like they were headed to the next level.  Unfortunately that turns out to be a […]