Author Archives: Phil

About Phil

With 40 years of experience in comic reading, collecting and reviewing, English Professor Phil Mateer has an encyclopedic mind for comics. Feel free to ask Phil about storylines, characters, artists or for that matter, any comic book trivia. He will post your questions and answers on the AABC blog. His knowledge is unparalleled! He is also our warehouse manager, so if you are looking for that hard to find comic book, ask Phil!

Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #319

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Phil

This week offers the last of the DC Convergence titles — which would mean less work for me next week, except that now all the Secret Wars tie-ins are in full bloom. Otherwise, there’s new work by Neil Gaiman, Walt Simonson and Alan Moore, plus a few other books. Let’s see: Convergence #8 — Writers: Jeff King and Scott Lobdell;  Pencils: Stephen Segovia, Carlo Pagulayan, Eduardo Pansica and Ethan Van Sciver;  Inks: Five different guys;  Colors: Peter Steigerwald Convergence: Action Comics #2 (of 2) — Writer: Justin Gray;  Pencils: Claude St-Aubin;  Inks: Sean Parsons;  Colors: Lovern Kindzierski and Hi-Fi Convergence: Detective … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #318

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Phil

Next-to-the-last week for Convergence, but now Marvel’s Secret Wars tie-ins start this week (although there’s no issue of the main title); in addition, a ton of indy books came out, from Optic Nerve to Wytches to Lumberjanes to Powers, so let’s dive in:  Convergence #7 (of 8) — Writers: Jeff King and Scott Lobdell;  Pencils: Aaron Lopresti;  Inks: Mark Morales;  Colors: Peter Steigerwald Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #2 (of 2) — Writer: Marc Andreyko;  Art: Carlos D’Anda;  Colors: Gabe Eltaeb Convergence: The Flash #2 (of 2) — Writer: Dan Abnett;  Art: Federico Dallocchio;  Colors: Veronica Gandini Convergence: Green Lantern … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff Bought #317

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Phil

Another week of Convergence, plus the next Secret Wars (just the second issue of the main title; Marvel’s tie-ins to it aren’t starting until next week), the revelation of who Lady Thor is, and a bunch of other Marvel and indy books that stood out. As with last week, all the Convergence titles also feature a different preview of one of DC’s June titles, so read through the reviews to see which new-book appetizer appears where: Convergence #6 (of 8) — Writers: Jeff King and Scott Lobdell;  Pencils: Ed Benes and Eduardo Pansica;  Inks: Ed Benes, Trevor Scott, Scott Hanna … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #316

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Phil

We start to get the second issues of all the Convergence mini-series this week, and I’m even more impressed with Chip Kidd’s alternate-cover designs (with the #2’s the “other halves” of the #1’s), and the way the original artists of the cover images are given prominent credit.  DC’s including eight-page previews of their post-Convergence new and returning titles, a different one in every book; check the reviews here to see which preview can be found in which title.  Meanwhile, the other comics companies haven’t been idle: Marvel’s got Secret Wars #1 and a new Squirrel Girl, while new issues of … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #315

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Phil

We’re halfway through with Convergence: this is the last week of “new” titles, with the second issues of all the two-part tie-ins starting next week. Let’s check them out, and then tackle the rest of the week’s offerings…. Convergence #4 (of 8) — Writer: Jeff King;  Pencils: Stephen Segovia;  Inks: Seven different guys;  Colors: John Starr with Peter Steigerwald The main title gets a lot more linear this issue, with an actual plot that begins to tie everything together: the Earth-2 heroes, fleeing Telos, have ended up in The Warlord’s dimension of Skartaris, where the evil wizard Deimos is trying … Continue reading →

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