New Comics

Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #255

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Phil

Optic Nerve #13 — Writer/Artist: Adrian Tomine Tomine’s been publishing these comics through Drawn and Quarterly for almost 20 years, and even though he’s grown famous (he’s “New Yorker cover artist Adrian Tomine” now), he still manages about one a year. This, like the others, is very accomplished straight-ahead storytelling, with no fantasy, superheroes or other gimmicks. His precise panel layouts, carefully-constructed architecture and intense focus on character — especially the myriad small flaws that make us all wince when we see them in others, or ourselves — make him overlap with Daniel Clowes in a lot of fans’ minds. However, he’s … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #254

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Phil

Like last week, there were a bunch of first issues released this Wednesday, so let’s start with those: The Invincible Haggard West (Battling Boy preview) — Creator: Paul Pope For $2.99, this offers 32 pages of full-color Pope art, involving a jetpack-equipped hero defending kids against creepy mutants in a crumbling urban setting. It’s both a self-contained story and a setup/sneak peek at Pope’s new graphic novel series, Battling Boy, due out in a few months, but hey: reread this paragraph’s first sentence, and that’s all you need to know to understand why this is easily my book of the … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #253

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Phil

Lots of first (and a couple of second) issues out this week, so let’s start with those: Ghosted #1 — Writer: Joshua Williamson;  Art: Goran Sudzuka A very rich old guy breaks a criminal mastermind out of jail, to put together a team to enter a haunted house that’s about to be torn down, and bring back a real ghost from it. High-concept but kind of low execution, since if you poke at the plot it starts to unravel like a cheap blanket (if he’s that rich, why break the mastermind out in a bloody prison break? There are lots … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #252

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Phil

Sergio Aragones Funnies #8 — Creator: See if you can figure it out…. Aragones had back problems and needed surgery a couple of months ago, so it’s been a while since an issue of this comic came out. This new one is a treat — there’s the usual mix of finely-detailed, just-perfect drawings: a one-page intro talking about the hospital stay, a couple of one-page gags, a couple of intricate puzzle pages, an eight-page western (people forget that Aragones created and wrote DC’s Bat Lash, and knows his way around the history of the Old West; this tale starts out about … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #251

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Phil

Astro City #1 — Writer: Kurt Busiek;  Art: Brent Anderson A new Astro City is always cause for celebration: Busiek and Anderson (plus Alex Ross on the covers) have been telling tales of this book’s title town for almost 20 years, and they’re always clever, human explorations of the superhero genre, packed with interesting characters and situations. Busiek’s been sick for the last few years, and unable to work on a comic as labor-intensive as this one — so the fact that this is a new ongoing series is good news, both for him and for us: check out the … Continue reading →

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