Author Archives: Phil

Archie #601 — Writer: Michael Uslan;  Pencils: Stan Goldberg;  Inks: Bob Smith This is part two of the six-part “Archie Marries Veronica” story — and, yes, it’s an Elseworlds tale, set after the cast has been through both high school and college (try explaining that to civilians: “Well, it’s not real. Yes, I know none of them are ‘real…’”). It’s also, so far, utterly predictable: he proposes, there’s a little “You’ll always be my best friend” scene with Betty, they get married, he joins the Lodge company and becomes a competent-but-overworked executive, and, at the end of this issue, Veronica … Continue reading →

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 — Creators: Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez 100 pages of new Hernandez Bros. art, in a trade package with great production values, for $15 — that’s always going to be worth it, yes? They split the pages: Jaime offers the second half of Maggie, Penny Century and others in a superhero… well, “romp,” I guess, although it turns out to be a little more serious than that; Gilbert has two stories, neither with any of his “regular” characters; one’s an 8-pager about a high-school girl who (of course) ends up in a sort-of soft-core porn … Continue reading →

Models, Inc. #1 (of  4) — Writer: Paul Tobin;  Pencils: Vicenc Villagrasa;  Inks: Terry Pallot and Vicenc Villagrassa This has mostly received attention for its backup story (8 pgs. by Marc Sumerak and Jorge Molina) featuring “fashion icon” Tim Gunn, A.I.M. and a suit of Iron Man armor.  It’s not bad as a typical Marvel celebrity suck-up story, less rushed and more logical (and with better art) than the Obama or Colbert ones, and not quite as whorish as, say, Uri Geller in Daredevil. The main story is a modern take on the more-serious, soap-opera-y Silver Age version of Millie … Continue reading →

Strange Tales #1 (of 3) — Creators: Paul Pope, Nick Bertozzi, John Leavitt, Molly Crabapple, Junko Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, M. Kupperman, Peter Bagge, Nicholas Gurewitch and Jason Pope does an Inhumans/Lockjaw story (plus the cover); Bagge and Kochalka each contribute Hulk tales; Ryan does the Punisher (plus a rundown of “Marvel’s Most Embarrassing Moments”);  Shaw does Doctor Strange; Kupperman offers a Namor story;  Bertozzi does Modok;  Mizuno and Jason contribute Spider-Man bits. For $5, you couldn’t possibly have this much fun anywhere else; some of it’s just weird, but much of it is laugh-out-loud funny, and … Continue reading →

Mystic Comics #1 (of 1) — (Vision story/22 pgs.) — Writer/Artist: David Lapham …Plus two seven-page Vision stories from the Golden Age, from Marvel Mystery Comics #14 and 16 (the Dr. Fate-y mystic-avenging Vision, of course, not the Silver Age robot).  These retro issues, celebrating Marvel’s 1940s titles, have been rising or falling on the strength of their art, and here Lapham delivers a tight, attractive-looking retelling of the Vision’s origin. The reprints, with their bright colors and bold, young-Jack-Kirby energy (from 1941!), manage to convey some of the excitement of what it was like to be a kid reading … Continue reading →