Check out these panels from DC Comics’ TWILIGHT

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By Zack Quaintance — As keen watchers of my Twitter account are no doubt away by now because I wouldn’t shut up about it yesterday, I wrote a long piece looking at the lost DC Comics sci-fi classic Twilight. Much of this piece was a contemplation of why such a complex, rich, and imaginative comic never took hold as an innovative DC classic of the era, especially given the amount of ambitious and experimental DC material from the time that is now beloved.

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Basketful of Heads #6 - One Hot Panel

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By Zack Quaintance — Saying I’m sitting here reading comics as the world burns is a fun phrase to type, but it’s maybe not the whole truth. I’ve actually been really busy as the world burns! Mostly covering the state and local government reaction to this crisis (because for a day job, I work as a reporter in the state and local government space). While I know this distancing has given plenty of folks more free time as usual, that just isn’t the case for me. I’m beset by more anxiety than usual while being busier than ever.

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ONE HOT PANEL: DCeased Unkillables #2 is stupid and also amazing

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By Zack Quaintance — Folks, for our ONE HOT PANEL this week, I have in fact chosen not one, but two hot panels. You can rest assured, however, that they are both excellent. You see, they just so happen to come from DCeased: Unkillables #2, which is the sequel to last year’s surprise hit, DCeased, which is the DC Universe but techno-zombies. As you are no doubt now aware, it’s all very very dumb. But you know what? It’s also very very amazing.

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One Hot Panel: Young Justice #14...now with more young justice

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By Zack Quaintance — “Jeez, DC Comics sure has a lot of young superheroes just sort of lying around and not doing anything in any regular capacity,”…is what writers Brian Michael Bendis & David F. Walker and artist John Timms must have said when they conceived of the current story arc in the publisher’s youth superhero title, Young Justice. For a few issues now, the story has steadily been pulling in more and more youthful heroes from the publisher’s deep bench — and now we get to see them all together.

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One Hot Panel: Ant-Man #2 with more madcap superhero hilarity

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By Zack Quaintance — I must confess that I don’t often like superhero comics that are trying to be funny. Or rather, trying too hard to be funny. I tend to think of these as books that require really voice-heavy writing to have anything offer. Strip away a couple pithy one-liners, the pop culture references, or whatever else — and these books have pretty much nothing of value. Not for me.

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One Hot Panel(s): Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy #3 rules

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By Zack Quaintance — After adhering to the one panel concept implied by the name of this feature with a post this morning, we are back to packing in multiple panels, as we’ve done every week since these features started earlier this year. The reason the first post adhered to the concept was that book had a double-page splash that just summed up its entire concept so well.

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One Hot Panel: Superman literally smashes the Klan

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By Zack Quaintance — Finally, it’s happening…I’m sticking to the original conceit of these feature and only including a single panel in this spotlight. Why is that? Well, this one is just so good, and not only that, it also just so expertly encapsulates the idea and themes not only behind the book it appears but also the inherent goodness of the character involved.

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One Hot Panel(s): Spoiled with excellent Superman art

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By Zack Quaintance — Welcome back to One Hot Panel, you all, an inexplicably-named feature that shows off our favorite artwork while paying homage for some reason to a Red Hot Chili Peppers album from 1995 (One Hot Minute...natch!). This week, we have several hot panels, by several excellent artists...all of which are from the Superman: Heroes special.

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One Hot Panel(s): X-Men + Fantastic Four #1

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By Zack Quaintance — Intellectually, I keep trying to tone down my excitement whenever one of these new X-Men comics builds (even a little bit) on the ideas that were in this summer’s x-cellent (goddamnit) House of X/Powers of X mini series. It feels unseemly. I’m trying to be analytical here, not gush over the stuff I used to like as a kid coming back now that I’m an adult with (too much?) time on my hands to write about it.

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One Hot Panel(s): Black Stars Above, Frankenstein Undone, and X-Men #5

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By Zack Quaintance — Welcome once again to the weekly feature named after a mostly bad Red Hot Chili Peppers album, wherein we look at some key panels from this past week of comics. Why are we looking at these panels? It could be the art, it could be the dialogue, it could be a major significant happening. It all depends!

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One Hot Panel: Marauders, The Mask, and Wonder Woman #750

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By Zack Quaintance — Hey all, welcome to yet another new (hopefully!) weekly feature for Comics Bookcase. At this point, I’m sure you’ve seen the headline and are wondering, Is the title of this new feature intended to evoke California funk-rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1995 album One Hot Minute, the one that featured Anthony and Flea forging an ill-fated alliance with guitarist Dave Novarro? You bet it is.

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