Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #121

Unknown #1 (of 4) — Writer: Mark Waid;  Art: Minck Oosterveer No superhero tropes for this comic — it’s a Sherlock-Holmesish thriller, if Holmes was a modern woman with amazing deductive abilities who solves crime as a freelance investigator, and has only six months to live because of some tumor. This reminds me of Potter’s Field, in that it has “potential TV pilot” written all over it; in this first issue, we watch her hire a hunky guy as her Watson — rather too conveniently, but the dialogue’s snappy, and assuming that this mini-series resolves the whole “imminent death” thing, … Continue reading

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Ask the Professor #28 — 2 Months' Worth of Questions…

OK, kids, with school about done, the ol’ Professor is finally getting back to the questions that have been trickling in over the last few… er, months. Here’s one from March 5: What happened to pengiun when he was born Now, in fairness to the Professor, there’s not a lot that can be said in response to this question: young Oswald Cobblepot came out in the normal way, took a breath, and there he was. His mother wasn’t frightened by any Antarctic waterfowl while he was in the womb, and he wasn’t bitten by any radioactive penguins or anything — … Continue reading

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Getting off My Duff #16

So the Professor will be done with the act of pedagogy (that doesn’t sound right!) in the next week, and, never one for lethargy, he’ll be back for the summer sorting and pricing and needing room to add more back issues to the sales floor. Phil is always after me to add more back issue boxes. Isn’t 266 boxes with approximately 40,000 comic books on display enough? Quite simply, no it’s not. Which leads me to the deal of the week. As per norm, mention the blog this week and take 20% off your purchase from the selection of back … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Bought #120

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 #1 — Writer: Alan Moore;  Art: Kevin O’Neill Well, of course you should buy this; that goes without saying: it’s a new episode of one of the most high-profile, high-quality series of the ’00s. What makes it worth mentioning is Top Shelf’s handsome package — $7.95 for 84 squarebound pages (74 pages of actual story, plus some text features), with very high production values. There’s a lot of talk in comics retailing about the “satisfying chunk” theory — the idea that comics buyers will buy whatever makes them feel like they’re getting good story … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #120

Irredeemable #2 — Writer: Mark Waid; Artist: Peter Krause I don’t like Waid when he’s in this fan-fiction mode (What if Lois Lane reacted with disgust and betrayal at Clark Kent’s revelation that he was Superman, exposing his identity, driving him away and eventually turning him into an apparent mass murderer? Yeah: what if? I don’t care). The best thing here is the house ad for Waid’s upcoming The Unknown, said to be “in the vein of Ruse,” Waid’s Victorian supernatural-detective series for Crossgen. Yes, more of that, please. Run! #1 (of 6) — Writer: Matthew Sturges; Artist: Freddie Williams … Continue reading

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