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.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — The past few years have been interesting for readers of Valiant's characters in the far-flung future of the 41st century. The status quo has been upset, children have turned on their parents, and the sky has literally fallen. Rai #4 from Dan Abnett, Juan Jos Ryp, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe continues these developments.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Hoo boy, once I started thinking of things I like and don’t like, the floodgates really opened up, giving us seven items on this week’s list, an all-time high! With that in mind, I’ll stop rambling here and get right to the comics things I liked and didn’t like this week.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — We’re starting a new feature today called Small Press Preview, which is exactly what it sounds like…a preview of the many many small press comics that reach out looking for reviews or other coverage. Sooo, the goal here is to showcase one of these projects every Friday, to share pages and process art and pitches and anything else small press creators would like to share.
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — I am, as the very nature of this piece implies, hyped for Dragon Hoops, the new original graphic novel from writer/artist Gene Luen Yang. Due out March 18 from publisher First Second, the book is a memoir, tackling the common tension between sports and comics through the lens of Yang’s life.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — One week is an accident, two weeks is a reason for a conern, and three weeks is officially a trend. Thankfully, this is just the second week I’ve been a bit late posting my comics things I liked and didn’t like from the past week. So, go ahead and be concerned but don’t call this a trend just yet.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — I’ve got a feeling these intro paragraphs are going to keep getting shorter and shorter. But we’re back again with another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-Read Project! This week I’m tackling one of my favorite issues in the series and we’re introduced to my favorite character in the book. With that said, let’s get into the issue!
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — Perhaps more than other forms of narrative fiction, comics has a penchant for reflexive meta storytelling. Comics that are built around a story of making comics, including portions of that comics-within-comics, but also integrating the fictional world of the comic within the comic as a kind of real place. The first two issues of Olympia from Tony Pires, Curt Pires, Alex Diotto, Dee Cunniffe, and Micah Myers do this beautifully by introducing us to a kid whose comic book hero, Olympian, unexpectedly crash lands in front of him. It plays with ideas of imagination, paying homage to Jack Kirby along the way, utilizing the old school comics framework as a second layer for storytelling. Olympia #3 is something different entirely.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Hey hey hey hey hey, welcome to the weekly feature that I ripped off (concept-wise, from the nation’s best national basketball reporter, Zach Lowe). This week there were three total comics things I liked and didn’t like. There might have been more, but, as you’ll see in a second, I was a bit more out of touch with comics this week than usual.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — Once again – I’m just kidding I’m not going to start every one of these articles off like that. Though I can’t say I wasn’t tempted! But we’re back for another installment in the Wic + Div Re-read Project. I think I solved my spoiler conundrum and have decided that I’m just going to be talking spoilers for previous issues as we go forward. I know that seems logical, but I didn’t want to alienate people who haven’t read the series from reading some of these earlier articles. However, I quickly realized it’s nearly impossible to talk about this week’s issue without getting into the shocking cliffhanger from last week so… here we are.
Read MoreBy 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!
Read MoreBy Toren Chenault — If you haven’t been paying attention to the world, President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iranian General Qasim Soleimani. He was also impeached a few weeks ago. In Australia, more than half a billion animals have been killed by unstoppable wildfires. Around the world, pro democracy protests continue in places like Colombia, Spain, and Hong Kong. And here in the states, a battle for the Democratic nomination continues as reports say that Bernie Sanders possibly, maybe, or not at all, told Elizabeth Warren that he didn’t think a woman could win the preside
Read MoreBy Harry Kassen — Welcome back to another year of Comics Anatomy. I want to thank everyone for making the first year so great and for coming back this year. We’ve got some exciting new things coming up in 2020 that I think are pretty cool, but we’re going to kick things off with an article about one of my favorite books to come out since I’ve been reading comics — A Walk Through Hell.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — Fairy tales, myths, and legends tend to use allegory and fantastical settings in order to easily convey universal truths and moral lessons to children in entertaining and often educational ways. They cover everything from simple practical lessons of “don't got into the woods alone” to fanciful ideas of why the Sun will come up tomorrow. Those in the latter camp tend to fall apart under scrutiny, but those in the former often have some baring on modern life. Such that we have people analyze and deconstruct many of the fairy tales to further glean understanding, and retell them in modern parlance, giving us interesting works from everyone from Angela Carter to Catherynne Valente.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Welcome back to the weekly feature that I ripped off (concept-wise from the nation’s best national basketball reporter, Zach Lowe). This week there were four total comics things I liked and didn’t like, including a new book that has been on fire through two issues, a book about creating fire, and more.
Read MoreThe opening line for The Wicked + The Divine also accurately describes my feelings for this re-read, and I mean that in the best way possible. This marks my fourth (maybe fifth?) complete re-read of the series. Inspired by Zack’s recently completed Saga Re-Read (which you should totally check out, both the comic and the articles), I figured I’d fill this new re-read article gap here on Comics Bookcase and travel through my personal favorite comic series of all-time, sharing my journey along the way.
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy Harry Kassen — As anyone who’s read my last Get Hype article can tell you, I love two things in these. Cheating the format a little, and being a real egghead about it. So when I say that I’m very excited for The Omega Men Deluxe Edition, that probably makes perfect sense. It’s probably pretty clear that I’m a big fan of Tom King at this point, and this series with Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo, Jr., and Pat Brosseau (and many others) may be the one I’m most excited to see get the hardcover treatment.
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