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 #240

Superior Spider-Man #1 — Writer: Dan Slott;  Art: Ryan Stegman You know how some books have an intriguing concept or creative team on paper, and then in practice turn out to be not so good? Well, thankfully this comic is the opposite: an idea with the potential to be really stupid, but that in execution turns out to be surprisingly effective. I’m assuming that at this date spoilers aren’t necessary to sketch the situation: Otto Octavius, Dr. Octopus, was dying and figured out a way to imprint his brain waves on Peter Parker (and vice versa), in effect switching minds … Continue reading

Posted in New Comics, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CBG:RIP

When the magazine The Comics Buyer’s Guide announced that it had ceased publication this week, few comics fans blinked. Some might have noted that its last issue was #1699, indicating a long history, but it hadn’t stood out on the newstand for years. It fell to writers like Heidi MacDonald at The Beat to explain what The Comics Buyer’s Guide had meant to fans in the ’70s and ’80s, in a eulogy here; former editor John Jackson Miller offers a more detailed history here, while longtime comics and TV writer mark Evanier adds a few thoughts here. I know how … Continue reading

Posted in Comics History, News and Events | Tagged | Leave a comment

Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #239

As a special end-of-year feature, we’re reviewing every single comic published this week! (Of course, since it’s a holiday week, there were only eight books, but still….): Amazing Spider-Man #700 — Writer: Dan Slott;  Pencils: Humberto Ramos;  Inks: Victor Olazaba There’s also a 16-page “Spider Dreams” story by J. M. DeMatteis, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Sal Buscema (an art team that turns out better than you might think), and an 8-page “Date Night” story with Spider-Man and the Black Cat, written by Jen Van Meter and with very cute, painted art by Stephanie Buscema, plus a 7-page letter column (with answers … Continue reading

Posted in New Comics, News and Events, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #238

OK, people, there were a ton of decent books this week — a holiday bounty partly because there will be only a handful for next week (although Amazing Spider-Man #700, and Avenging Spider-Man #15.1, the next chapter in the story after that, will both be out) — so let’s get to them. Marvel’s many relaunches lead the pack; I had my doubts about Marvel Now!, but have to admit that reshuffling the creative teams and starting from scratch led to (a) a lot of satisfying conclusions to the old runs, and (b) a lot of intriguing beginnings to the new … Continue reading

Posted in New Comics, News and Events, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #237

All-New X-Men #2 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Pencils: Stuart Immonen;  Inks: Wade von Grawbadger New Avengers #34 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Art: Mike Deodato Two by Bendis, a beginning and an ending. The X-Men is the second issue, and after all the set-up of the first it actually takes off and offers an intriguing look at the teenage X-Men, brought from the past by a dying Beast to try to talk sense into the current Scott Summers. This is the very definition of “high concept,” of course, but, eye-rolling aside, it works very well — what fan can … Continue reading

Posted in New Comics, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment