By Alex Batts — Having reached the end of the first arc of The Wicked + The Divine, it’s now time to jump into the second arc! This week we’re taking a look at The Wicked + The Divine #6, paying close attention to the direction the story will take after the bombastic events of the first arc. Let’s get into it!
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreThe fantasy series Reaver returns with its second arc, The Grim After, here in Reaver #7 with a bit of a change in tone and approach. This world takes a low magic stance similar to something like Robert E. Howard's Conan, but the first arc was rife with intrigue and backstabbing as a band of pressed men were forced to save the world. More or less. It's definitely more involved than that, but I highly recommend that everyone check out the first volume, Hell's Half Dozen. Reaver #7 dials it back to a more personal level, following Essen Breaker.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — It’s been about a month since we started this new Small Press Preview feature, and I think it’s safe to say that this is a hit. We’re getting a pretty steady stream of submissions from rising comics creators with truly interesting work to share. And, at the same time, I am selfishly getting to check out artists to potentially collaborate with and keep an eye on in the future. Everyone wins!
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — So, for anyone who has been living under a rock (first of all, why would you live there), I should not that Emerald City Comic Con, which was to take place this weekend, was postponed due to fears related to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Nasty stuff, and limiting gigantic gatherings of people so near to what was essentially ground zero for this in the United States was the right move.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — This week saw the release of a new magical series, Strange Academy #1, from Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles…which sits just ahead of another major superhero new book, Strange Adventures from the Distinguished Competition. Now, I’ve seen commenters online taking a cynical view (shocker!) of all of this, suggesting that Marvel fashioned the title and timed the release to muddy the waters here, which is a bit of a shame and a disservice to this series because on its own merits it's pretty damned good. I especially enjoyed the work here of Humberto Ramos, who may well be delivering some of the most beautiful artwork of his already historic career.
Read MoreWe’re back! We’ve reached the final issue in the first arc (Faust Act) of the series and it’s a monumental one. No need to drag this intro out, so let’s get on to the issue!
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — I've been very impressed by the output from Vault for some time now. I said as much in a previous review of The Plot. There's just something about the creators and projects for the publisher that seem to push the boundaries of genre and comics storytelling. They're beautiful and lovingly crafted stories that are endlessly readable and enjoyable, that call you back to experience again to discover new little elements that you might have missed the first time, wonderfully rewarding reading a series again. And then there's Black Stars Above #4. I know I'm going to find more on a reread, but just a first experience of this issue has been revelatory. This comic is transcendent.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — This was a weird week for news — both comics and in the wider world — with two very major things dominating the various cycles. That’s why I have an abbreviated set of things I liked and didn’t like down to three, which to be fair was the original number this feature started with but once again this site is whatever I want it to be and all rules are flexible.
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — In the time between when we got this preview artwork and when we schedule the post, our next comic — The Hated #1 by writer David F. Walker, artist Sean Damien Hill, colorist Mx. Struble, and letterer Becca Carey — reached its funding goal on KickStarter! So, we’re not able to help push toward the finish line as we first intended, but that doesn’t mean this comic isn’t still worth supporting and getting a hold of.
Read MoreBy Jed McPherson — World building is difficult. If you scrimp on the details your world feels hollow and empty. You go too heavy, and you may as well be writing a Dungeons and Dragon’s source book. Now, if you’re working on a series set in the real world, you can cheat it a little. After all, we all live in the real world — it’s familiar. But for fantasy and sci-fi, you’ve got to do the work.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — When I was five years old, I drowned. I was on a houseboat cruise and slipped going down the ladder that connected the top and lower decks. Luckily one of the other people saw it happen, as I hit my head on the deck as I went in the water. I don't know how long I was out, but I awoke coughing later on land, covered with a sheet, with astonished paramedics thinking that the resuscitation had failed. Suffice it to say, I have a strong aversion to boats and open water to this. Even in film and video games, I get uneasy in underwater settings. So for me, Plunge #1 from Joe Hill, Stuart Immonen, Dave Stewart, and Deron Bennett has an added hook to spook.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — This was a weird week, in that I saw all a lot of chatter on social media about how comics news was going down...but I struggled a little bit to figure out what that news was. Generally, this means there’s either a controversy or a new Big 2 event that slipped right by me. Anyway! I was over here having a week of my own, and, as always, there were things I liked and didn’t like.
Read MoreBy Taylor Pechter — Justice is a word that can be defined and analyzed in many ways. In the broad definition, it is the quality of being just or righteous, or moral rightness. It’s this conflict of moral righteousness that is the focus of JSA: Black Reign. Written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Don Kramer and Rags Morales, inked by Keith Champagne and Michael Bair, and colored by John Kalisz, Black Reign focuses on the ideological conflict of action versus reaction in terms of justice and how it is served.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming! I took a skip week last week (no, it definitely wasn’t because Matt Reeves dropped our first look at the new Batsuit last Thursday and I spent the rest of my night losing my mind…I have no idea what you’re talking about), but I’m going to do my best to keep those skip weeks to a minimum. Promise. With that said let’s go ahead and jump into this week’s issue!
Read MoreBy 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.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Since launching our first ever small press preview last week, there’s been a suprisingly robust reaction to the idea. Although I suppose, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. I’ve known for a while there is a veritable sea of excellent comics being made outside the direct market, primarily coming to us from crowd-sourcing platforms such as KickStarter.
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