Glamourpuss #7 — Writer/Artist: Dave Sim I’m not sure why I keep buying this — and it’s impossible to describe — but Sim is one of the great wild talents of comics, and watching him draw high-fashion models crossed with super-hero origin parodies (including, off all things, Steve Ditko’s Mr. A reimagined as “Ms. A”), interspersed with learned discourses on the evolution of realism in comic/newspaper strip cartooning, with namechecks on Caniff, Raymond, Craig Flessel and Lou Fine, just seems like an essential piece of comics scholarship and entertainment. Wolverine #72 — Writer: Mark Millar;  Penciller: Steve McNiven;  Inkers: Dexter … Continue reading →

Back to Brooklyn #5 (of 5) — Story: Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti;  Writer: Garth Ennis;  Art: Mihailo Vukelic Pretty minor-league Ennis, with a tone that’s both overwrought and curiously flat;  almost everyone’s irredeemable, and the only rooting interest/viewpoint character does nothing but survive to tell the tale. Would it be stereotyping to blame the Italian, Palmiotti, for the excesses of this readable but forgettable goombah tragedy? Madame Xanadu #11 — Writer: Matt Wagner;  Artist: Michael Wm. Kaluta Kaluta interior art (wrapped around an absolutely gorgeous cover), and it’s the first of five parts, set in 1940s New York City. … Continue reading →

So, the Professor’s out of school, and only has two weeks’ worth of questions to cover this time. Let’s get to them. First, from May 8: value of Heavy Metal 1977? Short and sweet, eh? Hard to answer, too — since, while the first issue of Heavy Metal was dated April, 1977, the other eight months of that year had issues too. The April one runs about $25 in not-quite-mint condition (some price guides have it higher, but All About has it in stock, and sells it for $25). The later ones from 1977 go for about $10 each, again … Continue reading →

Captain America #50 — Writer: Ed Brubaker;  Pencils: Luke Ross;  Inks: Rick Magyar and Luke Ross Since this is an anniversary issue (although, due to the wonders of reboots and renumbering, next month is an anniversary, too — Cap #600), we get a self-contained lead story, a nice jump-on point explaining the current situation with Bucky as Cap, plus a 15-page summary of Steve Rogers’s career, plus a two-page Fred Hembeck strip — not bad for $3.99. It continues to be a tribute to Brubaker’s creative skills that the upcoming Reborn series, which may or may not feature the return … Continue reading →