Parasocial (Image Comics) Written by Alex de Campi Art by Erica Henderson The other day, I was looking over the upcoming DC Comics solicitations and realized something. I am old now. I just looked at the covers, the blurbs for stories they were announcing, the lead-ups & preludes to the next big event, and I thought, “Boy, am I tired.” I know part of this is that the writers that are up and coming in comics right now are, for the first time, my age or younger than I am. It was an inevitable point I would reach one day, but experiencing it is still strange. Having grown up reading comics w ..read more

Monica (Fantagraphics) Written & Illustrated by Daniel Clowes When I think of the great indie comics creators from my younger days, I typically think of three names: Charles Burns (Black Hole), Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), and Daniel Clowes (Ghost World). Each artist has a distinct style, and their personality comes through in all their work. The common theme between them all is a bleak look at humanity. Clowes’ work, in particular, focused on the alienation of Generation X, whose identities were tied to ironic nostalgia and difficulty being vulnerable with othe ..read more

Carmilla, The First Vampire (2023) Written by Amy Chu Art by Soo Lee Of all the “classic” monsters, vampires have just never clicked for me. I’ve seen many different takes on vampires from multiple cultures, but I’ve never found them particularly scary. I think part of this is that the vampire has shifted in the culture from being a strange, animal-like predator to either a fetishistic totem of erotic fiction or a metaphor for Other-ed groups we’re meant to empathize with. When that happens, the monstrous fades, and they become just a storytelling trope. I stay open to new takes on vampires ..read more

Klaus (2016) Reprints Klaus #1-7 Written by Grant Morrison Art by Dan Mora So many origin stories have attempted to explain Santa Claus’s roots. I just reviewed a middling Netflix animated film a few weeks ago, also titled Klaus, that provided its own explanation. I’ve always been a fan of writer Grant Morrison and their genre-reinventing work in comics. From devouring their run on JLA in the 1990s to going back through their catalog to read Animal Man and more modern work, like Seven Soldiers and Morrison’s extremely engrossing Batman work, I am a fan. Not an uncritical one, though. Some of ..read more

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volumes One & Two (2014) Reprints (V1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-7 and Raphael One-Issue Micro-Series  (V2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 8-11, Michelangelo One-Issue Micro-Series, Donatello One-Issue Micro-Series, and Leonardo One-Issue Micro-Series Writing and Art by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird I won’t go over the backstory of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came to be. That is a well-trod path you can find in various forms online. Instead, I want to share my first encounters with these characters in animation and comi ..read more

So many books and so little time in life to read them, but today we have some you should add to your To Be Read list. Also, we take a journey into the harsh & surreal landscape of Iceland along with a Danish priest out to tame the people and the land. Ariana and Seth are sharing some book recommendations as well as talking about the newly released Danish film Godland ..read more

I’m a Virgo (Amazon Prime) Written by Boots Riley, Tze Chun, Whitney White, Marcus Gardley, and Michael R. Jackson Directed by Boots Riley When I saw Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You years ago it didn’t click with me. That was weird because so much of the underlying themes of the film meshed with my own beliefs. On reflection, having watched and loved I’m a Virgo, I think this has to do with the conflicting structures of film vs. television. There was so much to the world Riley was creating in his film that never got the time it needed to breathe, so that the audience could fully feel the im ..read more

Supersworn Pre-Alpha Designed & Written by Ben Adams You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here. Read part four of our Supersworn actual play here. Once again, I used Mythic GM Emulator 2ed tools to set up this session along with Starforged’s built-in Start of Session move. That latter move generated this for me: “Unforeseen aid is on the way or within reach.” I got this at the start of the last session in the context of a comic book adventure; I interpret this as another hero guest-starring. I had a list of names and randomly picked one: The Forever Kid. So a ..read more

Supersworn Pre-Alpha Designed & Written by Ben Adams You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here. Read part three of our Supersworn actual play here. Before I started this Supersworn series, I decided to delve into Tana Pigeon’s The Adventure Crafter and see if I could incorporate elements into this. It has worked really well. The Adventure Crafter has the solo player organize a list of Themes in order of priority for their game: Action, Mystery, Tension, Social, and Personal. Then, to create a plot point, you roll to determine the Theme and then roll a d100 to ..read more

Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby (2017) Reprints Mister Miracle #1-18 Written by Jack Kirby Art by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, and Vince Colletta Of all Jack Kirby’s DC Comics creations, Mister Miracle (along with Darkseid) has resonated the most with fans and those who would write the comics in the future. It makes sense because Mister Miracle’s comic was the most straightforward superhero book of all the titles Kirby wrote & drew for the company. The character’s design is familiar to capes & tights fans with its use of primary and secondary colors (red, yellow, green) but also different, pa ..read more