Comic Strip Masterpieces #1 — Creators: Various For a buck, you get four-color, oversized, one-page reprints of 14 of the greatest comic strips of all time, including Popeye, Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, and Peanuts, with short historical summaries of each strip and its creator. Sure, it’s basically an ad for the reprint versions of each creation, but it doesn’t matter: this is primal American storytelling, and if you know comics but not about “the comics,” you need this to get an idea of the rich heritage you’re missing. Jonah Hex #25 — Writers: Justin Gray & … Continue reading →

The Vinyl Underground #2 — Writer: Si Spencer; Penciller: Simon Cane; Inker: Cameron Syewart Hipster 20-somethings in London solving occult crimes. Not bad, but it continues to be derivative of early-’90s Vertigo (you get the feeling that the creators grew up reading and admiring those books, particularly Morrison’s The Invisibles and anything by Peter Milligan), and it seems more repetitive than cutting-edge (of course there are scenes of dancing at clubs; of course there are evil skinheads; of course the police detective is a chain-smoking, bald black woman, etc.). It’s readable, but there’s nothing new about it, no “Oh, crap!” … Continue reading →

X-Men: Messiah Complex #1 — Writer: Ed Brubaker; Penciler: Marc Sylvestri; Inkers: Joe Weems with Marco Galli Some really powerful mutant baby gets born — the first since the “No more mutants” thing — and the X-Men go looking for it, only to find that the Marauders and the Purifiers got there first. Now, they have to track it down, in one of those 13-part crossovers that’s going to wind through X-Men, Uncanny, New X-Men, and X-Factor. I mean, OK, whee, and it’s not like Brubaker/Sylvestri is a bad team for this first chapter, but look: Marvel’s charging $3.99 for … Continue reading →

Special Crossover-Fatigue Edition (Countdown/52/Infinite Version): Countdown to Final Crisis #26 — Writers: Paul Dini with Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti;  Art: Scott Kolins At the halfway point, we get a title change and a style change, as the story (at least for this issue) becomes more linear: the Monitors gather, review what’s happened so far, and vow to actually, you know, do something. If you haven’t been buying this, it’s a midseason clip-show summary to get you caught up, but it’s still got portentious dialogue, tons of characters from alternate universes, mediocre art, and six long months to go. Countdown … Continue reading →