Fantastic Four

Vacationing with Thingbeard

November 5, 2019 // 2 Comments

So the nerd farm has been officially shuttered up of late for our traditional Halloween vacation. Which means we not only haven’t had time to write anything, we’ve barely had time to read any funnybooks, either. Normally, we’d just post a picture with the headline “Gone Fishin'” or some such. But his week saw the release of a comic that made us so happy we had to at least say a few words on its behalf… Fantastic Four: Grand Design 1 by Tom Scioli First of [...]

Batawangs and Other Things: NSFW Edition!

September 25, 2018 // 3 Comments

So the biggest funnybook news of last week was that we saw Batman’s pee-pee. And since that’s the case, I figured we might as well get that out of the way first, before I give in to the temptation to sell that book for some outrageous price on the interwebs… Batman: Damned by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo I’ve dutifully shared the cover of this book, as per usual, but let’s just cut to the chase and get to the image that’s got everybody talking: Yep. [...]

The Comics That Made Me, Part One

August 21, 2018 // 7 Comments

So we have the social interwebs even out here on our remote nerd farm, and – as happens from time to time on the sociable netbooks – we got tagged on one of those “post 10 of your favorite whatevers” things. Now (being a huge dork), I love lists. And since this one was “post the covers of 10 funnybooks that made an impact on you, and that you still enjoy today,” I decided to answer it on the nerd farm’s own Facetube page. Which means that those of you who follow us there [...]

Cosmic Schmaltz: The Fantastic Four Returns

August 9, 2018 // 0 Comments

So after a slight delay, we’re back with… Something I couldn’t have written before yesterday anyway… Fantastic Four 1 by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli So, yeah. Yeah, this book. About that… I didn’t enjoy it. It’s not… BAD, per se. (Or it’s not AWFUL, anyway.) I didn’t HATE it. But I didn’t enjoy it. I kind of thought I wouldn’t, honestly, after the preview they released a couple of weeks back. I gave the first page [...]

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, [...]

The Weird and the Wonderful: Some Alternative Picks for the Fantastic Four Relaunch

April 24, 2018 // 5 Comments

So we were talking about the upcoming Fantastic Four relaunch down at my local funnybook store recently. Which, yeah, if you haven’t heard… They’re relaunching Fantastic Four this summer, in a new series by Dan Slott and Sarah Pichelli. And that… …was what we were talking about. I made the off-hand comment that I will, of course, be giving it a shot, but that Slott and Pichelli wouldn’t have been my first pick for the creative team. One of my buddies kind of [...]

Fantastic Four Re-Mix, Part Seven: The Trial of the Thing!

April 1, 2018 // 0 Comments

So it’s been a while since we did any Fantastic Four Re-Mix. A full year, in fact. What can I say? I hit a snag in the plot and let myself get tripped up on it. And I’ve always felt just slightly silly doing these things, anyway, so it seemed better to just wander off. But I re-read the earlier chapters recently, and realized that I liked them quite a bit. That lead me back in, and I had enough story left to tell that I decided to unsnarl my plot and keep going. (And then, of [...]

Two Blind Men Describing an Elephant: The Current State of the Fantastic Four

March 6, 2018 // 3 Comments

So there’s been a bit of talk in funnybook circles lately about the Fantastic Four. It seems that big-time movie deals are in the making (if they don’t run afoul of monopoly laws and the like), and certain some-would-say-irrational proclamations from certain some-would-say-irrational Marvel Comics executives concerning the team may soon be rescinded because of it, leading the funnybook-making peons to start the long walk back to having an FF comic. Meanwhile, across the country at [...]

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 [...]

Funnybook Heart of Darkness: If You Could Only Have Ten Comics, What Would They Be?

December 19, 2017 // 3 Comments

So I know I promised the second part of our look at Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes this week, but well… There’ve been some technical difficulties. I had that column almost entirely written, but it was lost in a hard drive malfunction, and I don’t have time to recreate it tonight. So instead, I thought I’d plug in a question a friend asked last week on social media that completely distracted me for two or three days: If you could only have ten single [...]