By Alex Batts — We’re back for another installment of The Wicked + The Divine Re-Read Project, and with this issue, we see our second guest artist of the run and we get an up-close and personal look at a member of the Pantheon that we’ve only heard about in passing, Tara. This issue is relatively self-contained, but it’s one of the most powerful of the entire series. Let’s get into it…
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Today for our newest small press preview, we have a look at a great new YA graphic novel, Breaks 2: Truth and Dare, by creators Emma Vieceli and Malin Rydén. Published by Soaring Penguin Press, this book is as its title implies a sequel to Breaks, Volume One, which was first released in 2017.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — This week, the big story for new DC Comics releases was a tale of two Batman comics (excuse the cliched lead construction). The first was the flagship title: Batman #93, written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Guillem March. Being the flagship title, this is essentially the Batman comic of record, the one that pushes forward the narrative of the Caped Crusader within accepted DC Universe continuity.
Read MoreBy Zach Rabiroff — Continuity is a dirty word. Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story contains a quote from the turn of the millennium in which Hollywood executives scoffed at the “Talmudic continuity scholars in Marvel editorial” whose loyalty to “the holy litany of Stan and Jack” made comics impenetrable to anyone outside the Android’s Dungeon. It’s an ethos that has taken firm hold over the past two decades, as a greater commitment to the individual whims of creators and a desire to clean the slate for a new (and potentially imaginary) crop of young readers have combined to make the story of the Marvel Universe something more like credit reading than a sacred text.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — I think it’s fairly safe to say that the comics market is just brimming with fantastic artists, as capable as they are innovative. As such, we’ve seen an influx as of late in projects that tell a single story or present a series of stories around a singular theme — illustrated by a group of artists doing short work. And today we have a new one of these projects to share with you — Jack the Radio: Creatures.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — This week I wanted to continue to focus on important black voices within comics and specifically spotlight the work of C. Spike Trotman. Often times, you'll see a complete confusion within male and white dominated spaces on how to promote intersectionality, inclusivity, and diversity. In my opinion, often because they're looking at it from a perspective to maintain their power. Trotman, however, with her work and publishing company Iron Circus Comics, makes it look easy. Through hard work and dedication, she's managed to develop a sustainable and successful crowd-funded business model that helps serve a diverse range of creators that are often underserved and not represented within many other comics publishers.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Today marks the return of one of my personal features on the site, Small Press Previews. The selection for today is Like Father, Like Daughter #6, which is currently on Kickstarter. The book — written by Kat Calamia, illustrated by Wayne A. Brown, colored by Lisa Moore, and lettered by Matt Bowers. While there are still seven days remaining on the Kickstarter, the book has already been fully funded, so you can rest assured that this project is happening.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — This past Friday, the comics industry learned of the loss of one of its legends in Denny O'Neil. His influence and legacy across the medium is vast, with rightfully lauded work on Batman, The Question, and Green Lantern/Green Arrow. He worked hard, both as a writer and an editor, to elevate the medium, to push progressive ideas, and ensure that the stories could be considered with maturity and depth. He understood well that social issues and politics could be tackled through comics storytelling and helped comics “grow up” in the '70s and '80s. Though often dark and dealing with difficult subject matter, his work was never what you'd consider “grim and gritty” or an adolescent's idea of maturity. He simply wrote great comics, and through editorial, he helped guide, mentor, and influence many of comics' great creators over the past four decades.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — Welcome back to another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-read Project. This week we continue our journey with the pop-culture gods and embark on a brand-new arc! There are a couple of noticeable changes with this issue so let’s jump right into it!
Read MoreThis is the beginning of an ongoing series about Marvel Comics: the issues, creators, and general zeitgeist that surround a comics company that’s been a part of my cultural scenery for as long as I can remember. It was going to be an opportunity for me to talk about the things I’ve always loved about this particular constellation of characters: the commitment bordering on obsession to the ongoing story of a shared universe; the mixture of soap opera melodrama and unapologetic heroics; the rare but transcendent moments when a writer and artist work together to create something that goes beyond superhero adventure and becomes genuine lasting art.
Read MoreBy Taylor Pechter — ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ … is a phrase that encapsulates the character of John Constantine, also known as DC Comics Hellblazer. Constantine is mysterious and cunning, but also his full oh heart. Many, including his friends, call him a bastard and their accusations are not be invalid. However, he’s not always awful.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — This week we’re launching a pair of new columns, one discussing Marvel Comics and the other DC. This post — as the above headline hopefully makes obvious — is the column dedicated to DC. Later this week, we’ll be publishing our first Marvel column, which will have a different voice who I’m very excited to welcome to the site (but also, congrats to those of you tired of hearing me go on and on and on!).
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — Milestone Media was an important step in the right direction for comics as a whole, with a group of Black creators coming together to carve out a space for their voices and their stories, a space to promote diversity across the medium, utilizing a partnership with a large publisher like DC Comics. I was a bit late to the party, partially because one of the comic shops I regularly frequented then didn't carry any of the line, which I think is fairly telling of a problem in the industry. It wasn't until about a year into the Milestone publishing venture that I read an issue during the crossover with the Superman titles, “Worlds Collide”. I loved it, and I searched out more. Hardware and Icon were my early favorites, but Xombi, Wise Son, and Shadow Cabinet were probably my all time faves. I wanted to spotlight here, though, the book that started it all: Hardware #1, from Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Noelle Giddings, and Janice Chiang.
Read MoreBy Toren Chenault — Black History Month is a time to celebrate. I love being Black, and I love everything about my culture. And I think it’s important to celebrate culture, no matter who you are. I also love comic books and am in the process of writing my first comic. As a future comic creator and as a Black male, I think it’s important to acknowledge the strides we’ve made in the comic book industry when it comes to diversity. See, we still have a long way to go, though. In fact, it saddens me the low number of Black writers and artists I see in mainstream comics today.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — Much of North America, much of the world, is a frayed nerve right now. People were already dealing with the existential threat of a pandemic and a lockdown during the further eruption of police brutality and injustice throughout our countries. Particularly as it comes to the murders of multiple black people across America this past week, sparking rightful protests of systemic oppression. It's not my place to give answers here or wax philosophical on it. Even if it was, I have no answers. Instead, if you're white, I suggest listening to the black people around you. Amplify their voices.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — We’re back with another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-read Project with this week’s issue bringing us to #11, the final issue in the second arc of the series, “Fandemonium”. This issue is a pretty major turning point for the series and so even though all of my articles have contained spoilers due to the nature of the series I’m going to go ahead and give an extra spoiler warning here.
Read MoreBy Harry Kassen — Hello from quarantine. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. Due to the pandemic, and the related economic crisis, some plans I had in place for this column have changed, and I want to explain what the next few months are going to look like. I’ve been really pleased with the little experiment that I began this year, bringing in guest writers to write about things they see in some of their favorite comics.
Read More….this past week reminded me that there's one creator who quite possibly has done more than anyone else in the modern era of comics, Warren Ellis.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Journalism and American comic books have been inextricably intertwined since comics first entered the mainstream American consciousness in earnest in the 1930s. There’s a few reasons why. Journalism’s primary medium at the time was print periodicals, just like comics, and as such, there was a lot of cross pollination between the folks who worked it both, which led to plenty of journalism on the pages of comics. This, of course, is most famously manifested in Superman, with the characters of Lois Lane and Clark Kent.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — New comics releases started to trickle out again in May 2020, but the industry (and the country) was far from at full strength. With shelter-in-place orders still in effect for many of the largest population centers in the country, even with new comics coming out it was difficult for many readers to get access to them. This is all slowly changing, and the new comics release schedule for June 2020 is reflective of that.
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