Howard Chaykin

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 [...]

…And the Rest! CAPSULEREVIEWSAREGO!!

November 27, 2018 // 0 Comments

So I thought we’d try something a little unusual this week. Normally, I drone on and on about the funnybooks I like the best. But I read tons of stuff, and sometimes I skip over the stuff I like, but don’t love. Which means it’s high time I talked about some of that stuff… Joe Casey and Ian Macewan’s MCMLXXV (that’s 1975 for those of you who’ve forgotten your Roman Numerals) ended its three-issue run recently, and I really enjoyed the ride. It’s [...]

Hell is Other Super Heroes, and Other Uplifting Funnybook Tales

October 2, 2018 // 4 Comments

So we’ve got a big new corporate spandex cross-over to talk about this week, and for once it looks like it might not completely suck! Let’s get right to that, then. FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!! Heroes in Crisis 1 by Tom King and Clay Mann Tom King’s work is very concerned with trauma. Post-Traumatic Stress, in particular, figures prominently in Mister Miracle, and to some extent Omega Men and Batman as well. And that makes sense; considering his military background, I’m [...]

The Comics That Made Me, Part Two

August 28, 2018 // 2 Comments

So this week we’re right in the middle of doing the dorkiest thing possible: making a list of funnybooks we like! The idea (taken from a social media challenge thing) is to make a list of ten comics that had an influence on me, and that I still enjoy reading today. I covered the first half of that last week, with comics from my childhood and adolescence. And we’re wrapping it up this week with stuff from high school and beyond… BOOK SIX: SWAMP THING Alan Moore took over Swamp [...]

What’s Past is Prologue: Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes, Part One

December 12, 2017 // 5 Comments

So I recently stumbled upon a file I’d downloaded years ago, and tucked away on my hard drive for posterity: Twilight of the Superheroes, a proposal for a 12-issue mini-series, by Alan Moore. The great DC Comics crossover that never was! Written in 1987, before the Watchmen deal went sour, this is the work of a younger and perhaps even slightly naive Moore, drunk with the newfound freedom to insert adult themes into super hero stories, and still of the belief that he could work with DC to [...]

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 [...]

Mage Returns, Chaykin Offends, and Fudd Gets Serious: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

July 18, 2017 // 1 Comment

So I’m feeling a bit tuckered out tonight. Not horribly so, but enough that I just don’t have much to say in the way of catchy titles and clever introductions. Let’s just get this show on the road. Mage: The Hero Denied 0 by Matt Wagner So wow. Matt Wagner’s finally had enough life experience to write the third volume of Mage. For anyone not familiar with the series, Mage is Wagner’s mythic auto-biography. He interprets the events of his own life through the lens [...]

Divided States and Secret Empires

June 20, 2017 // 2 Comments

So I’ve been distracted from the funnybooks here lately, but some interesting stuff’s been happening. Secret Empire continued to cause controversy with its very existence. But first, one of comics’ most enduring creators has been accused of some pretty nasty stuff with his newest series. Just FYI, the discussion of that book is going to get a bit ugly, and a bit NSFW. So, you know… Trigger warning, spoiler warning, suggested for mature readers, etc. You have been warned. [...]

The Spectacle of It All

April 28, 2015 // 0 Comments

So last week was a good week for funnybooks. But, as sometimes happens, life has gotten in the way of me discussing them in my usual depth. So this’ll have to be quick. And, since the four books I’ll be covering are also real pretty to look at, I figured I might as well pick one really spectacular image from each, and share those. Some of them will be SPOILERY, while others… Well, okay. All of them are going to be a bit SPOILERY. But some more than others. Consider yourself [...]

Dork Awards 2014, Part Three: Best Funnybook

January 25, 2015 // 0 Comments

And here we are, back for the final installment of the 2014 Dork Awards. I have to admit, much as I wanted to avoid this thing getting repetitious, it still got away from me. Between the previous categories, and all the reviews of these books I’ve written over the course of the year, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’ve said all this stuff before. Ah, well. Such is the way of the year-in-review column, I suppose. So, that little warning out of the way, let’s get this [...]