Manga and Comic Reviews
This volume begins with a very pleasant surprise: two full-color cast recap pages that introduce you to the main characters and elements of the story and their place in it. While Zoichi and Fuyu need no introduction at this point, the other parts were very welcome in a series where clarity isn’t its strongest suit. […]
The latest volume of “Twin Spica” arrived in the mail last week. This volume continues on in much the same manner as the previous ones, so I really don’t have anything new to say about its contents. What is interesting about vol. 7 is its appearance: this is a much thicker volume than usual. It’s […]
Oh man! “The Viltrumite War!” I remember that sitcom! BEST! COMEDY! EVER! Even if it was moved around for fourteen different timeslots in the three months during the summer of 1987 that it was on. Alright, so while the series’ naming trend of its collected editions is effectively broken with this volume, it still […]
I was telling a friend over the weekend how Vertical’s publishing efforts have reached the point where Dark Horse’s manga used to be for me. In short, they’ve produced such consistently interesting and entertaining works that I’m willing to pick up something from them by an author or a title that I might not be […]
And so, all good things must come to an end. That’s the case with this concluding volume which wraps up its tale of alien entities, evolution and friendship in much the same way that “The Incredible Hercules” did with “Chaos War.” That is to say that it raises the stakes while building on what has […]
We’re going back to the old school for this one. Now when I say “old school” I mean the old school of manga being released in America. Back in the days when series were published one issue at a time. Back when being an action manga set in America was considered a selling point. Back […]
Fortunately for its reading audience, the “breakup” between artist Moritaka and writer Akito only lasts a couple chapters before they reunite to continue their plan to take the manga world by storm. There’s really nothing else to add as, after that speed bump, the series maintains its usual level of quality with this volume. Though […]
The first volume of this series represented a return to form of sorts for writer Mark Millar, in my opinion. While it wasn’t quite as good as his work on “The Ultimates,” it was still miles better than anything else I had read from him last year. This volume, however, doesn’t sustain that trend. Though […]
Now this is odd. Here we have a collection of comics that I think I might have actually enjoyed more if I had read them in single issue form. That’s because while these six issues have an overriding plot, it’s very much a “hunt the MacGuffin” endeavor whose only purpose is to provide a context […]
All good things must come to an end, or — in the case of most Marvel comics these days — pause for a month or two before being re-launched with a new title and direction. Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente’s “Incredible Hercules” saga reaches its conclusion in this volume, and it’s a worthy end. […]