Stray Bullets

Departures

November 17, 2020 // 0 Comments

So I’ve still got a buncha funnybooks here that I read while I was on blog vacation, and a bunch more that I’ve read since, and I don’t know which ones are which anymore, but I’ve got a buncha categories to put ’em all into, starting this week with… DEPARTURES All good things must come to an end, and that includes funnybook series. In the last few months, we’ve had a few of the good’uns say goodbye, so I thought I should maybe devote a column to [...]

Xeens and Things: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

June 11, 2019 // 1 Comment

So it’s time to get back to the funnybooks. After two weeks of talking movies, I’ve got a nice little backlog piling up, including the conclusion of Heroes in Crisis, the beginning of the end for Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design, and new issues of Stray Bullets and Criminal. But first, the comic I enjoyed most from the last two weeks… The Green Lantern 8 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp Y’know, just about any issue of this book is likely to be filled with ridiculous [...]

THE LIST, Part Two

February 26, 2019 // 3 Comments

So last week, we looked at the first half of The List. All the comics I’m currently reading on the regular, alphabetical by title, with a discussion of why I’m reading it, and whether it’s a “keeper,” a book that goes into the permanent Nerd Farm collection, or whether it’s something that I’ll read once and then put aside to sell at some future date. Which brings up an interesting thing that happened after last week’s column: I got feelers from people [...]

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 [...]

Tales of Gods and Space Cops

November 20, 2018 // 2 Comments

So we’ve managed to get behind a bit on the funnybook reviews of late, what with Halloween and Stan Lee’s passing and all that. And though this breaks with my usual response to that sort of thing, I think I’m just gonna hit the highlights of the last few weeks, starting with two big corporate spandex books that have caught my fancy… Mister Miracle 12 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads The biggest miracle of this book is that it has, more or less, a happy ending. Scott Free [...]

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. [...]

A Lesson in Quality: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

July 3, 2018 // 1 Comment

So last week was, as so many of them are, a damn fine week for funnybooks. But this was a particularly good week, one that saw the release of what might just be my four favorite current comics. And while none of them quite managed to earn that elusive five-star rating… If that’s not a hook for this week’s column, I don’t know what is… Kill or be Killed 20 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser The latest Brubaker/Phillips joint draws to a close [...]

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 [...]

The Spice of the Funnybook Life

March 27, 2018 // 3 Comments

So I’ve often said that we’re currently in a new Golden Age of Funnybooks. Not in terms of sales, sadly. But very much in terms of content. We still have a ways to go, of course. There are significant holes in the range of stories being told in comics form. We need more romance, more kids’ comics, more… I dunno. More of anything that would attract a mass audience. But there’s a wider variety of quality material out there now than there’s been at any point in [...]

Funnybook Heart of Darkness: What Would It Take to Make You Stop Reading Comics?

January 30, 2018 // 13 Comments

So a reader asked me, recently, what it would take to get me to stop reading comics. It’s an interesting question, and one that I hadn’t really thought about much. I mean, that’s like asking what it would take to get me to stop watching movies. Or reading novels. Or breathing. Why would I do that? It doesn’t make sense to me. But I gave it some thought, and the first thing I came up with was “Poverty.” Because funnybooks are kind of expensive as entertainment mediums [...]