Punisher War Journal #14 — Writer: Matt Fraction; Artist: Scott Wegener This title’s been all over the map since its inception — weird, since it’s had the same writer, but the tone has varied enormously. Sometimes, it’s skating close to satire, as here, and that’s probably its best bet (the “serious” Punisher-as-Cap storyline got bogged down and sputtered out in near-incomprehensibility). Fraction likes super-villains — his “Stilt-Man wake” story was probably the best of this series so far, even though you had to kind of squint to ignore all the little continuity impossibilities — and this tale, following an insane … Continue reading →

My question is not about a comic, so to speak, but The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I have the five magazines containing Stephen King’s Gunslinger. I was trying to get them appraised, but could not find them anywhere online. Do you know what they are worth? They are in fair condition. Thank you. Robert Happy to help, Robert: the Professor has fond memories of F&SF, because he discovered a whole stack of them (and Galaxy, and some others he can’t remember now) in a friend’s basement in the late ’60s, and got hooked and eventually got a subscription … Continue reading →

jawad_4lyfe asks: Hi Do you know the oldest Spider-man comic book?,and is the punisher an vrey important comic or is not the important in the comic book industry? Well, first of all, jawad, you need to learn what we in the professor biz call “editing,” because otherwise people will think that you’re either (a) in third grade or (b) drunk, and then won’t answer your questions. The Professor, though, is willing to take a shot: First, assuming you’re talking about the guy named Peter Parker, the oldest Spider-Man story is in a comic called Amazing Fantasy #15, with a cover … Continue reading →

Countdown Arena #1 (of 4) — Writer: Keith Champagne; Penciller: Scott McDaniel; Inker: Andy Owens Surprisingly entertaining, and the first post-52 book that manages to make the alternate-universes deal interesting. Monarch wants to gather an army of super-folks, and so collects a bunch of different versions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. to battle it out in his arena to see which will make the cut, and which will just end up dead (so, you have the prospect of, say, three Batmen versions simultaneously fighting one another and trying to survive while attempting to outfox their omnipotent host). Since none … Continue reading →

OK, kids, there were a lot of books that were good enough to read, but not to buy, this week, so let’s go to the Lightning Round: The Sword #3 — Creators: The Luna Brothers Better than the second issue, with plenty of smoothly-told action (and startling violence); I really should be buying this (this is what happened with Girls, too — I’d waver on the series depending on particular issues, and then when the plot heated up and got good again I’d have to scramble to reacquire all of the earlier episodes). The setup so far seems a little … Continue reading →