Review

Osamu Dazai’s novel No Longer Human is considered a masterpiece of Japanese Literature. It looms large in Japanese culture the same way Albert Camus’ The Outside does in France or Dostoyevski’s books do in Russia. The book has been adapted into movies, TV series, anime and manga, but for horror manga-ka Junji Ito to adapt […]

(DC Comics, creative team: Scott Snyder, Jorge Jiminez, Alejandro Sanchez, Tom Napolitano) This book is terrible. Let’s start there, so there’s no misunderstanding about what’s happening here. In this issue, the amassed forces of an evil goddess who created everything, an army of goons at the command of Lex Luthor and the will of pretty […]

(Image Comics, creative team: Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowles) The basic premise of a group of childhood friends sucked back into the magical and often deadly activities of their childhood is well-bolstered here by a story of struggle between two of their number. Working together for a singular plan, everything hinges on the ability […]

=(DC Comics, creative team: Tom King, Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Brad Anderson, Clayton Cowles) There has been nothing wrong with the previous five issues in this series. Superman, at his core, has been doggedly doing his Superman thing, hell bent on saving a single child, abducted by some alien warlord. Here’s the thing: writer Tom […]

(Dynamite Entertainment, creative team: Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, Eric Gapstur, Roshan Kurichiyanil, Rebecca Nalty, Ariana Maher) If you’re looking for a fresh start for the storied British super spy, this issue #1 gives you a thoroughly developed inquiry from insurance investigator Brandy Keys. What’s that, you say? You have no idea who Brandy Keys is […]

(IDW Publishing, creative team: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Stephen Thompson, Charlie Kirchoff, Neil Uyetake) There is a whole lot happening in this issue, with thrilling spaceborne action, well-earned emotional payoffs for things that have bee developed through previous issues. As this storyline draws nearer to the circumstances of the 1979 motion picture, you can see […]

(Marvel Comics: creative team: Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho, Rain Beredo, Clayton Cowles) Three of the most powerful and accomplished mutants in the world fight four very unexpected and frankly embarrassing new characters and it does not go the way you expect at all. The counter-cultural intentions of the casting for […]

In the opening pages of Jeff Lemire’s excellent new comic, Family Tree, we are introduced to Loretta. She’s a single mom with two kids. The youngest, Meg, is precocious and inquisitive, while the oldest, Josh, has a knack for getting in trouble. Loretta has to leave work early to get Josh from school, who just […]

I have to admit that I have been a pretty big fan of BOOM! Studios new take on the classic Whedonverse characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The characters feel very much like they did in the late ’90s, but with the added benefit of, you know, cell phones. Plus, Willow starts out […]

 Deep in the South, there’s a place in the Bayou where even the leviathan gators will not venture. Moving silently through the muck and the grime, they watch as three men desperately attempt progress to a place more dangerous than any bump in the night. The stow where She stirs, waiting for the foolish […]

Another month, another couple first issues, plus a big European collection roundup. In this case, the big European collection is Humanoids reissuing Metabarons artist Juan Giménez‘s solo collection called The Fourth Power. Sera And The Royal Stars issue one by Jon Tsuei, Audrey Mok, Raúl Angulo, Jim Campbell, and Tim Daniel: A Persian-influenced swords and […]

In the aftermath of World War II and the Nuremberg Trials, the collective deem that justice has been served to the victims of the Holocaust and strive to move on emotionally and politically.  One man, however, armed with his dead wife’s lipstick, takes up arms in a war-torn Europe to hunt down ex-Nazis and personify […]

Raina Telgemeier is the Children’s Laureate of Graphic Novels. Her books are the bestselling graphic novels in America because they matter to children. Guts is her latest and continues her streak of stories that explore childhood fears and anxieties. Guts is about stomach trouble and fear of illness. It starts with young Raina and her […]

Something is wrong with Emma’s baby, Roslin.   The new mother struggles with the infant who screams incessantly, comparing her beloved daughter’s piercing cries to a slaughtered cow’s death rattle.  Determined to keep up with the appearances of a happy housewife, Emma continues with her daily expectations, growing more and more exasperated with her dismissive husband […]

No Guns Life by Tasuku Karasuma is a new twist on the hardboiled detective story – the hero has a literal GUN for a head. That’s right, Juzo Inui is a cyborg ex-soldier who was augmented during the war into a literal walking weapon. Now that the war’s over, he makes a living as a […]

Kousuke Oono‘s The Way of the Househusband is about Tatsu, a feared Yakuza who has left the life to devote himself to his new career woman wife. She works as a designer and he’s committed himself to being the house husband. He doesn’t do crimes, street fights or murders anymore, but that doesn’t mean he […]

I feel kinda bad putting new issues of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and The Life And Death Of Toyo Harada next to a stone cold classic of French science fiction, but c’est la vie. Druillet’s The Night Druillet’s The Night: “Death…everywhere, Death with its garland of glistening rot…” Created as a response to his wife […]

On Wednesday, Marvel Comics released Marvel Comics Presents #7, most notable for featuring the latest chapter of The Vigil, the serialized story in which Wolverine meets a young girl named Sylvie, waits until she grows up, and then has sex with her, producing a daughter named Rien who has been pulling big prices on eBay […]

The future is now. With space travel advancing to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, the technology for discovery advanced faster than the infrastructure could keep up with it.  While violence is thriving and corporations are preying upon the disenfranchised, one unexpected victim of the new status quo is the postal service…and mailmen are about […]

Everyone is either in a storm currently or will be in one someday… This article is to be accompanied by this face-melting track:   Murder Falcon is heavy metal injected into the comic book medium, with rumors circulating that the ink was infused with the shredded vocal cords of long-haired outcasts and meant to be […]