Donny Cates

Criminals, Aliens, Barns, and Pygs

January 22, 2019 // 3 Comments

So we’ve got some reviews to catch up on this week, which means… Funnybooks. In Review. Are Go. Batman 62 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads I bought this comic because it was pink. Pink! Inside and out! That’s a bold color choice for a Batman comic, and I thought I should support that. But I also bought it because of Professor Pyg. He’s one of my favorite Batman villains. One of the last truly great Batman villains, I think, to be introduced to date. I like Pyg. He’s [...]

Pain and Beauty: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!

December 4, 2018 // 2 Comments

So here we are again, leading off with some corporate spandex that I just can’t quite quit… Heroes in Crisis 3 by Tom King, Lee Weeks, and Clay Mann. I remain torn on this book, but the sheer quality of the writing keeps bringing me back. And I’m really glad of that, because this issue is quite good. It shows us Sanctuary before the murders, revealing something of how the place worked, and digging deeper into why some of the patients were there. Lagoon Boy, for instance, seems [...]

Great Adventures and Grand Designs

July 31, 2018 // 0 Comments

So I’ve got a great big stack of funnybooks sitting here waiting for my attention. Which I suppose means that… CAPSULE REVIEWS ARE GO!! Fantastic Four #1 Preview Spotlight Give-Away Thingie by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli The new Fantastic Four comic is launching next week, and I’m glad to hear that the book’s coming back. FF is, as I’ve said more than a few times, my favorite super hero comic, so I’m psyched that it’s getting a relaunch. That said, [...]

A Month of Wednesdays

May 8, 2018 // 2 Comments

So while I kept going off and talking about other stuff, funnybooks kept coming out. Weird how they do that. But that means the review stack’s gotten tall. There’s a whole month of Wednesdays sitting there, waiting for my attention. And THAT means it’s time for a quick round-up of all the stuff I’ve read in the last month (or at least everything that’s given me something to talk about). CAPSULEREVIEWSAREGO!!! Xerxes 1&2 by Frank Miller Let’s get one thing [...]

Rednecks and Dumbasses: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

April 3, 2018 // 0 Comments

So it was kind of a short funnybook week for me last week. But I think I might be able to turn that into a column anyway… Redneck 11 by Donny Cates and Lisandro Estherren This is one of those issues that makes things come into focus. Redneck has, to a large extent, been about an intense blood feud between our hero– actually, let’s say protagonist— vampire clan and the Landry family. It’s a long-standing issue, and I’ve understood it as I’ve read along, [...]

Two Weeks in the Funnybook Life

February 6, 2018 // 1 Comment

So last week, my attempt to answer a reader question turned into a discussion of my reading preferences, and why I generally prefer indie comics over work-for-hire stuff. This week, I thought I’d continue along the same lines, and take a look at every new comic I’ve read in the last two weeks. Not because it’s been a particularly great time for funnybooks. In fact, it’s been anything but. Few of my real favorites came out in the last two weeks, and in their absence I [...]

Tales of Gods and Lesser Folk: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

November 28, 2017 // 0 Comments

So I haven’t done a decent round of funnybook reviews in a while. Let’s take care of that now… Batman: White Knight 2 by Sean Murphy I liked the second issue of this book quite a bit. That may have just been because Sean Murphy took a potshot at the more modern versions of Harley Quinn in favor of the classic… …which is an opinion I can wholeheartedly get behind. “Cheerleader with a bigger rack” does a pretty good job of explaining why I’m not a fan of [...]

Jokers, Gods, Heroes and Madmen

October 24, 2017 // 0 Comments

So we’re getting ready for a little Halloween vacation here on the nerd farm, and that means we’ll be keeping it brief this week, as we play a little catch-up with the Funnybooks of October… Mister Miracle 3 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads Two things struck me as I read this issue: One, Tom King’s use of narrative quotations from Jack Kirby’s original Mister Miracle as a sort of greek chorus, responding to the more dour goings-on of this series, has the air of mockery [...]

Black Mondays and Other Savagery

October 3, 2017 // 0 Comments

My continued fascination with things other than comics just keeps putting me further and further behind on reviews. So let’s play a bit of catch-up, shall we? FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!! Black Monday Murders 7 by Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker Every issue of this book seems to feature at least one scene of pants-filling terror. Not of the kind that haunts me afterward, mind you. But in the reading, there’s always some terrible something going on, a scene or an act that’s [...]

Independents’ Day

July 4, 2017 // 0 Comments

So in spite of the hatchet job I performed on that new Defenders comic last week, I really do think that, in terms of content, we’re living in a new funnybook Golden Age. The work-for-hire stuff trundles along, solidly average with occasional moments of greatness. But in the ranks of independent comics (which is to say, comics owned by their creators rather than a Faceless Corporate Overlord (TM), things are as exciting as they’ve ever been, with more great books coming out than I [...]

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