Phonogram: The Singles Club #7 (of 7) — Writer: Kieron Gillen;  Art: Jamie McKelvie, Nikki Cook, Becky Cloonan, Andy Bloor and Sean Azzopardi The conclusion of this series, a look at one night in a club from the perspectives of multiple characters (most from Gillen’s previous Phonogram book, Rue Brittania), and it’s been a perfect little gem: insightful, funny, heartbreaking, and stuffed with observations on British pop song history and the immense power of music. The (almost) wordless first story is the standout, and ends the book on an up note, but the others are good too (Becky Cloonan classes … Continue reading →

Daytripper #3 (of 10) — Creators: Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba I see McDonald’s was offering a Super Bowl deal: 50 Chicken McNuggets for $10. That might actually sound attractive as a one-time thing, but what if it was available every day? What if it was the only thing on their menu? What does this have to do with Daytripper? Well, the first issue was about a twentysomething stuck in neutral, who has a small-scale epiphany and then dies randomly and senselessly. Kind of depressing, sure, but the Ba/Moon art, and the window into South American culture, balanced that out … Continue reading →

Milestone Forever #1 (of 2) — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie;  Art: John Paul Leon, Mark Bright and Romeo Tanghal The Leon art is a framing sequence wrapped around the main story penciled by Bright, and that stars Icon, Rocket, the Blood Syndicate, Static and a few others — it’s a fun callback to the early Milestone stories, when the imprint’s urban pizzazz was a breath of fresh air, and McDuffie had a Jim Shooter-like creative control over the whole line that brought all the titles together and gave them a consistent, edgy voice. The only criticism here is with the covers, … Continue reading →

Scalped #34 — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: R. M. Guerra Ghost Rider: Heaven’s On Fire #6 (of 6) — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: Roland Boschi Wolverine: Weapon X #10 — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: C. P. Smith Three books by Jason Aaron, who’s very close to being mainstream comics’ Next Big Writer, and while I didn’t actually buy any of them, I wouldn’t make fun of you if you did — they were all entertaining. Scalped was his breakthrough book, a high-concept noir mashup — 100 Bullets on the rez, all hardscrabble lives and casino-fueled menace — and now, three … Continue reading →