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 #212

Fables #112 — Writer: Bill Willingham;  Pencils: Mark Buckingham;  Inks: Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy and Dan Green In a week that’s a holiday gift to readers — after what’s turned into a great year for comics, there were at least a dozen noteworthy ones just this Wednesday — Fables gets first position this week because it’s a Christmas story, of sorts. While we check in with most of the current subplots (but not the one involving Bufkin, Willingham leaving his fate, literally, hanging), the main thread involves Rose Red and a story about hope, taking its structure from A Christmas … Continue reading

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It Came From the Back Room #38

Standard recap: I’m slowly going through AABC’s one-million-plus back-issue room, restocking the boxes on the sales floor and pulling stuff to sell as discount/overstock/special items (these are featured at the discount racks at the west end of the store for two weeks after each post, and then go to the discount racks on the east end of the store for a few weeks, and then disappear into our warehouses, so get them while you can). I’m going through the alphabet backwards (don’t ask), and at my speed (especially with the school semester in full gear), this amounts to a two-year … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #211

The Defenders #1 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Penciller: Terry Dodson;  Inker: Rachel Dodson This is Marvel’s latest attempt to revive this franchise, a best-seller in the ’70s and ’80s but not particularly successful since then, and Fraction’s using leftover plotlines from Fear Itself to do it (specifically, the Nul character who possessed the Hulk, now loose in our world and threatening to break the universe). The core group of Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer and Namor are there, with the Red She-Hulk substituting for Bruce Banner, and Iron Fist thrown in (presumably because Fraction likes writing him). As with Iron Man … Continue reading

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It Came From the Back Room #37

Standard recap: I’m slowly going through AABC’s one-million-plus back-issue room, restocking the boxes on the sales floor and pulling stuff to sell as discount/overstock/special items (these are featured at the discount racks at the west end of the store for two weeks after each post, and then go to the discount racks on the east end of the store for a few weeks, and then disappear into our warehouses, so get them while you can). I’m going through the alphabet backwards (don’t ask), and at my speed (especially with the school semester in full gear), this amounts to a two-year … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #210

Dark Horse Presents #6 — Creators: Peter Hogan/Steve Parkhouse;  Carla Speed McNeil; Evan Dorkin/Jill Thompson;  Fabio Moon;  Neal Adams;  Howard Chaykin;  Andi Watson As always, this anthology delivers considerable quality for its $8 price, with stand-alone stories from Watson (Skeleton Key), Moon, and Dorkin/Thompson (their stellar Beasts of Burden) supply the meat, while chapters of ongoing serials from the others provide the side dishes — ten stories in all, 80 high-gloss pages of squarebound goodness, making this the Thanksgiving treat of the week. Fantastic Four #600 — Writer: Jonathan Hickman;  Art:  Steve Epting/Rick Magyar;  Carmine di Giandomenico;  Ming Doyle;  Leinil … Continue reading

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