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Writer: Gordon McLean Artist: Caio Oliveira December 2019, Action Lab The superhero genre is a cavern almost completely excavated of anything of value. It is very difficult to discern any glimmers of gold left in the dark. So much of the material, with its parameters of good against evil, superpowers, ritualised combat, and fetished costumes, has
Writers: Ed Brisson and Jonathan HickmanArtist: Rod ReisMarvel Comics, November 2019 This title is refreshing. There is a breezy fun to New Mutants #1 that has not been seen in Marvel Comics’ often-grinding X-Men titles for many years. The New Mutants are a junior superhero team – “junior” in the sense that all of the characters
Writers: Melchor Sapiandante, Matthew Perez, Chris Massari Artist: Ryan Cody AHR Visions, 2017 At a bar called “The Call Up” (appropriately so for a location which causes the main characters to come together), an assassin closes in on his target, only to find that he is the target of a second assassin. The second assassin
DC Comics, November 2019 Writer: Tom King Artist: Mikel Janin This image caused a stir on Twitter on 21 November 2019: The reason for the controversy? In Batman #50, which we reviewed some time ago https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/2018/06/11/batman-catwoman-married/ , Batman and his former enemy Catwoman were to get married. They didn’t: Catwoman stood Batman up at the altar.
In October 1939, Marvel Comics #1 was released by American comic book publisher Timely Comics – the very first publication by Timely Comics, which eventually went on to become Marvel Comics. The issue featured what with the benefit of hindsight was the first comic book antihero, the Sub-Mariner, also known as Namor. (There is a tedious argument that Namor was published
Writer: Calico Davies Lead Artist: David Moreno Inker: Alex Bermudez Independently published, November 2019 For the past two decades at least, the large American publishers of superhero comics have been shifting the bulk of their publications to suit a much older demographic that what we would have been part of up until the late 1980s.
Writer: James Stimpson Artist: Liana Reccione The List is a weird concoction. Santa, so the tradition goes, keeps a list of who is naughty and who is nice. This is a story of the Santa who deals with the naughty people. Salvatore is a former British commando who has taken to drinking and punishing people
Eulogies do not ordinarily include a prayer for vengeance. This one does. Vertigo Comics was one of three imprints which American publisher DC Comics launched in and after 1993. The others, Paradox Press (1994-2001) and Helix (1996-1998), did not last long. But with the direction and oversight of editor Karen Berger, Vertigo Comics thrived. The
Writer / Curator: Tony Fabro Published on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threepanelcrimes/ 2017-present Recently we received this message by way of our Contact Us page https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/contact-us/ : I write a webcomic called @threepanelcrimes on instagram. It’s a different crime story told each week in just three silent panels. We’ve been going for almost two years now and have just
Orange Cone Productions, February 2018 Writer: Travis Gibbs Artist: Felix Novara Two bickering low-level criminals pushing a ruined, shot-up car along a desert road, with four corpses arranged in the back seat, sounds very much like the opening sequence of a Quentin Tarentino motion picture. And indeed, this story could be the origin tale of
Image Comics, September 2019 Writer: Chris Dingless Artist: Matthew Roberts Unless the memory of it is shoved in our faces, we tend to forget the salve with civilisation offers. Civilisation, opportunity, health, and social mobility are part of a journey, and in the context of colonialism, invariably had a nasty beginning. This comic looks at
Creator: Hikaru Nakamura Kodansha, September 2006-present Your reviewer recently visited Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, in the south-east of the United Kingdom. Thousands of luminous stained glasses windows tell Biblical stories in sequential panels. A visit to the Chapel of St Eugene in the Cathedral’s ancient crypt is just as reminiscent of manga and other types
Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Pepe Larraz Graphic Designer: Tom Muller Marvel Comics, August 2019-September 2019 Most of the Internet comic book community appears to be calling these titles HoX/PoX, because the two comic book series are meant to be read intertwined. We adopt the same nomenclature. HoX/PoX is a limited series published by American comic
Comics Experience / Source Point Press 2019 Writer: Glenn Møane Artist: Tirso Llanetta (Online review copy) Martin Amis’ novel London Fields has a pastoral title, but is concerned with murder, theft, betrayal and other dirty deeds in 1980s London. Do not similarly be fooled by the romance-themed title and cover art of The Love She
Creator: Dr Machina Independently published, July 2019 This is not our first encounter with the strangeness of Dr Machina. In March 2018 we reviewed Single Cell, the good Doctor’s first foray – https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/2018/03/23/single-cell-review/ . The introduction to this new collection, Scissorwalk, sums up the process: What Dr. Machina has done in the pages of the book you
Writer:Jordan Clark Artist: Vince Underwood The genre of the American superhero, perhaps, has its roots in repulsion. In the 1930s the United States was facing an ideological threat. On 20 February 1939, Madison Square Garden in New York played host to an assembly of twenty thousand Nazi sympathisers, who openly supported Adolf Hitler and the
Writer: Cody Fernandez Artist: Maxi Dall’o Wkd Publishing / IronVerse Comics, October 2019 Crack open your best, cheapest bourbon. Everyone’s favourite hulking, muttering space cowboy returns in Jack Irons #2. We favourably reviewed the first issue back in December 2018 – see https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/2018/12/31/jack-irons-the-steel-cowboy-1-review/. The hook to this title is the droll comedy. The issue opens with
DC Comics, September 2019 Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Artists: Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Andrea Sorrentino, André Lima Araújo Brian Michael Bendis sits in pole position on the grid, as it were – a writer of American superhero comics who has been so successful in generating sales that he was granted a mandate by DC Comics, one of
Writer: Kev SherryArtist: Katia Vecchio Sharply feminist and created with artisanal precision, Warpaint is a profound independent publication from writer Kev Sherry and artist Katia Vecchio. It follows the life of a girl called Selene, from the perspective of her high school friend Sophie Ember, years later, learning of Selene’s death and lapsing into the memories
Writer and artist: Lorena Alvarez NoBrow Press, 2019 Purchased: Dymocks Subiaco, Perth NoBrow Press, purveyors of artisanal graphic novels, describes the writer and creator of Hicotea: a Nightlights Story this: “Lorena Alvarez was born and raised in Bogotá, and studied Graphic Design and Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.” Having read this comic, we assume she was
Writer and artist: Shaun Gardiner Unbound, 2018 “But between those two things there was that divide – a gap, without breadth, but impossible to cross. A place which does not meet a surface. On the other side of the world. Everything. But there swum, beneath the calm surface of his routine, a sensation of profound
Writer: Tini HowardArtist: Nick Robles Black Crown / IGN, February 2019 Purchased: Quality Comics, Perth The cover to this volume is striking. Here in the gloom is a person who resembles a deep sea diver. She is happy, looking directly at us, her head contained in a form of life support, a glowing glass dome
Writer: Jason Doring Artist: Beniamino Delvecchio Independently published, August 2019 Ben (nickname: “Bram”) is a paparazzo who can turn invisible. Tasked by a nudist yoga instructor and fellow paparazzo named Rich, he breaks into a hotel room occupied by a man named Dennis Katz. Katz apparently has a liberally-minded public persona quite different to what
Arbutus Films, October 2019 Writer: John Ward Artist: Juan Romera Writer John Ward was kind enough to send us an advance copy of Scratcher #4, and again we were very pleased to read it. We have previously reviewed the first three issues, and favourably – a click on this link will give you a rundown
DC Comics, July 2019 Writer: Geoff Johns Artists: Gary Frank and Brad Anderson Purchased: Quality Comics, Perth Alan Moore’s the dimly-lit superhero dystopia of the 1986 comic book series Watchmen features a character called Dr Manhattan. Manhattan is a godlike creature, impassive and devoid of humour, bald and physically imposing, who looks down on humanity from
Blackbird Volume 1Writer: Sam HumphriesArtist: Jen BartelImage Comics, 2019Purchased: Quality Comics, Perth Alan Moore’s body of work casts a long shadow. Written for the America’s Best Comics imprint of US publisher DC Comics from 1999 to 2005, Promethea explores a hidden world of magic and symbolism. The protagonist is a goofy school girl named Sophie Bangs who
Frank Quitely: Drawing + SketchesBHP Comics, 2018(Purchased: The Strand Bookshop, New York) Frank Quitely (the pen name for Vincent Deighan) is an internationally renowned comic book artist perhaps best known for his repeated collaborations with fellow Scot, writer Grant Morrison. Mr Quitely has been prolific over the past thirty years. Amongst his portfolio is art
