Gotham Central, Case by Case: IN THE LINE OF DUTY

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By Bruno Savill De Jong — “Could we leave the Bat out of this for now?” Detective Marcus Driver mutters these words to Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen as the three discuss the death of his partner, Charlie Fields, at the hands of Mr. Freeze. It’s a phrase which hangs over all of Gotham Central, like the Bat-Signal perched atop the police headquarters, or the squadroom’s clearance-board which Fields wrote “the Bat” onto, wishing to incentivize the department into action.

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Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #1 - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — I've mentioned before my love of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, spotlighting a number of different works falling into those genres, but I've neglected to focus on another genre that I love that tends to be overlooked. In honour of the release of Pulp, I wanted to start on some of my favourite westerns and stories that incorporate western conventions to show something new. I tend towards the weird westerns, but there's something existentially fulfilling about the barren expanse, where hard, driven individuals have to eke out an existence on the frontier against regular threat of lawlessness. Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears by Garth Ennis, Clayton Crain, and Joe Caramagna straddles that divide between straight-up western and supernatural thriller built on a superhero legacy.

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The Wicked + The Divine #15: Wic + Div Re-Read

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By Alex Batts — Once again, we return to this… another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-read Project. This issue features the incredibly talented Stephanie Hans as guest artist, and the story in the book takes a closer look at the character of Amaterasu. Let’s get into it…

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Brokenland No. 2 - SMALL PRESS PREVIEW

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By Zack Quaintance — We’re back today with a new small press preview (after some time off from the feature), and I’m absolutely thrilled that it is Drew Morrison’s Brokenland No. 2, a comic that tackles introspective environmental comedy with a style of artwork that is among the most striking I’ve seen on Kickstarter in some time.

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A Look at Bitter Root, the New Eisner-Winning BEST CONTINUING SERIES

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By Ariel Baska — The Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series this past weekend at SDCC was given to a series that is endlessly rich in storytelling, and imbued with the power of history and allusion - Bitter Root. Make no mistake. It is one hell of an action-packed story that draws you into the fray from the word go, and flies from frame to frame, almost popping off of the page with Sanford Greene’s animated style. At the same time, the series is very intentional about interweaving into a monstrous mythology with a monstrous history only now emerging in the consciousness of the zeitgeist. The weave is so fine that to pick apart the layers entirely would be folly, but to understand the texture of the thing, I feel I have to point out a few.

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X-Factor #24 (1986) - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — Inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame this past weekend during the SDCC @ Home ceremonies was legendary comics writer and editor, Louise Simonson. Simonson's was one of the voices for mutants and Superman while I was growing up in the '80s and '90s and has lauded runs on Power Pack, New Mutants, X-Factor, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Steel. She brought an apocalypse to the X-Men and helped kill a man of steel and replace him with a quartet of imposters. Among my favorites of her work is X-Factor #24 with Walter Simonson, Bob Wiacek, Petra Scotese, and Joe Rosen.

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BLINDSPOTS: Bendis and Mack's Daredevil - Wake Up

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By Wesley Messer — Everyone has media blindspots — TV we haven’t watched, movies we haven’t seen, and, for readers of this site (myself included), comics we haven’t read. In fact, there are many classic comics that I haven’t read, sometimes not even a single issue. That’s where this new series comes in — it’s called Blindspots, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: me making an effort to fill in my classic comics blindspots.

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August 2020 Comics Solicitations - UPDATED

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By Zack Quaintance — It’s been especially difficult this summer to keep track of what is coming out and when. You can blame that on a mix of things, including the distribution stoppage, DC Comics moving off of Diamond Distributors (which the entire industry has used for decades), and just the general chaos of the world taking mental space from remembering these sort of things. With that in mind, we’ve compiled as best we can a set of August 2020 Comics Solicitations.

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March: Book One - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — The United States lost a civil rights leader and all around political hero in Congressman John Lewis on Friday. He was one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders who helped change the landscape of America. By all accounts, he was a good man, a kind man, beloved by his colleagues and constituents, who fought tirelessly for equality, equity, and to ensure that every citizen is afforded their human, political, and constitutional rights under U.S. law. All with a humility and determination that is only ever exhibited by the best of us. If anyone can be said to have been righteous, it was John Robert Lewis. To celebrate his life, understand his sacrifices, and gain more knowledge of history, there's his three part autobiography, March, from John Lewis, Andrew Ayden, and Nate Powell.

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The Wicked + The Divine #14: Wic + Div Re-Read

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By Alex Batts — After a brief hiatus, we’re back with another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-read Project. This issue artist Jamie McKelvie and colorist Matthew Wilson are back on art duties as we take an in-depth look at one of the most secretive members of the Pantheon, Woden. Let’s get into it…

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DC DIGRESSION: Dark Nights - Death Metal is a raucous college-town bar band playing covers

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By Zack Quaintance — The musical metaphors are too easy with DC Comics’ big summer event, Dark Nights: Death Metal. You can call it an encore to the first event — Dark Nights: Metal — a simple echo of ideas, inflated to new volume to give the audience more of the things they’ve cheered all along. Or, perhaps you can call it a sophomore album, a tricky followup to an earlier success that needs to check similar boxes while also going in new, stimulating directions.

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Frostbite #1 - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — After a week of ridiculous heat and humidity where I live, the temperature has finally dropped a bit to more reasonable levels. The humidity is still present, but we're not hitting the mid-40s Celsius. The trade-off, though, is some extreme weather patterns, thunderstorms, tornado warnings, and potential hail. Those last two left me scratching my head, but hey, what makes any sense any more in 2020?

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Black Hole and Beyond: Lifting Off with steady growth

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By Toren Chenault — Last week, was the biggest week in Black Hole Comics and Entertainment’s short history, for a few reasons. The main one is obvious: our short story contest winners were announced. That was exhilarating, and I get giddy as hell when cool things happen for creatives, especially when they feel seen. But also, last week was the first time we had more than two pieces of content out on the website in a week. Our contest announcement, an interview with comic writer Lonnie Nadler, and an original short story from one of our launch writers.

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NO-PRIZE LIKE THE PRESENT: Force Works (Except When It Doesn't)

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By Zach Rabiroff — Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara’s X-Force may or may not be the valedictorian of the Dawn of X line, but it’s certainly the most improved student. From its humble beginnings as a somewhat perfunctory entry in the new era of X-Men comics — a healthy, harmless dose of gratuitous violence for those put off by the heady sci-fi meanderings of Jonathan Hickman’s work — it has grown into one of the strongest and most interesting ensemble books coming out of Marvel. Against the odds, a book that seemed to be about blood and guts turns out to be full of heart.

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North Wind #1 - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — It's ridiculously hot here right now. 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), not including the humidity. We've thankfully got air conditioning, but it's little comfort when there are rolling brownouts or you're a little furry beast with no sweat glands. Although muggy humid summers aren't abnormal here, the heights the temperatures are reaching are, especially as they're reaching to higher latitudes. It just brings to mind yet another struggle we have underlying all of the other current problems surrounding us. There are some stories out there promoting current proactive activism, some exploring what's going on while a dramatic change occurs, and others set long after the “apocalypse” hits.

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Hey, let's read SWAMP THING by Alan Moore & Stephen Bissette (UPDATED 7/9)

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By Zack Quaintance — We’ve all got classic comics blind spots — books that are considered comics cannon (if such a thing exists) that for whatever reason (or a host of reasons), we simply haven’t read. This is true in spite of our knowledge of or love for the comics medium. I know I certainly have mine. And I also know that the only way I am able to consistently read my blind spot comics is by committing to it (publicly!) and keeping a steady schedule….

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Comics Anatomy Charity Commissions: FROM HELL

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By Harry Kassen — Hello everyone and welcome back to Comics Anatomy. To those who read last month’s article: thank you, and I hope you found it interesting. Last month was a request based on a giveaway I ran last year (very overdue) and this month begins the Comics Anatomy Charity Commissions. For this article I’ll be writing about From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, as requested by fellow critic Sean Dillon.

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InSEXts #1 - CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK

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By d. emerson eddy — As Pride Month is coming to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to spotlight an LGBT+ series that probably flew under the radar, Insexts. There hopefully will one day be more of this book, but it was a story about two women trying to navigate the restrictions of society in the tail end of Victorian England. Also transforming into humanoid insects, torrid affairs, and lycanthropy. It began with Insexts #1 from Marguerite Bennett, Ariela Kristantina, Bryan Valenza, and Troy Peteri.

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July 2020 Comics Solicitations - UPDATED

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By Zack Quaintance — The new comics market is (very slowly) starting to stabilize, and as such, it’s becoming easier to get a handle on what comics are coming out when from which publishers. That’s why this month, we’ve been able to add some new publishers to our July 2020 Comics Solicitations piece, which is an effort to create one centralized place to reference what is coming out and when (what a novel idea!).

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