Reviews

Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #304

Love and Rockets: New Stories #7 — Creators: Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez It’s hard to describe just how vital Love and Rockets and the Hernandez brothers were to comics in the ’80s: the magazine lasted for 50 issues over 14 years, from 1982 to 1996, and for a long span every new installment was a leap forward: you could just see them growing in confidence and ability, until both Gilbert’s Palomar stories (set in a Mexican village, with a large cast of characters but focusing mostly on the mayor, Luba, and her many daughters and lovers) and Jaime’s Locas ones … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #303

The Goon: Once Upon a Hard Time #1 (of 4) — Writer/Artist: Eric Powell Powell toggles between two modes for this title: edgy, Harvey Kurtzman-like slapstick, and grim, dark-as-night horror. The grim, in ascendance during the last mini-series, reaches full force here, as a drunken, grieving and dangerous Goon kills a couple of people (who deserve it), rips an arm off one of his friends (who doesn’t, although he has a couple of extra to spare), and spirals down into a revengeful, suicidal haze. Depressing as hell, but very very well done, with Powell’s art and script telling an efficient, … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #302

The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (of 1) — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Artists: Marcus To and Paulo Siqueira;  Colors: Dave McCaig and Hi-Fi This is expensive ($7.99) but also awesome — more than just a guidebook, it’s a 34-page story spotlighting the Batman: L’il Gotham characters (who turn out to be from Earth-42), plus Kamandi (Earth-51), whose story summarizes the history of alternate Earths in the DC Universe since “Flash of Two Worlds,” plus the Batman from the Atomic Knights timeline (Earth-17), plus the Legion of Sivanas and other tie-ins to the other “Multiversity” books Morrison has been producing; these all make … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #301

Powers #1 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Art: Michael Avon Oeming;  Colors: Nick Falardi Groo: Friends and Foes #1 (of 12) — Story/Art: Sergio Aragones;  Words: Mark Evanier;  Colors: Tom Luth Burning Fields #1 (  of 8  ) — Writers: Michael Moreci and Tim Daniel;  Art: Colin Larimer; Colors: Joana LaFuente These are the week’s first issues that caught my eye — although two of the three are relaunches, not debuts. Powers, for example, has been around for well over a decade — but it’s going to be a TV series starting in March (on the Playstation Network, so good … Continue reading

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Phil’s Reviews: Stuff I Bought #300

We should probably note a couple of anniversaries this week: as you can see, this is my 300th “Stuff I Bought” review post; the first came out the week of January 5, 2007, which was when the AABC blog began — so that’s an eight-year anniversary for it, too. That very first review is no longer on the site (it had some kind of coding problem that was screwing things up, if I remember correctly, and had to be erased), but there’s a link to the second week’s reviews here.  If you’re wondering why it’s the 300th review but I’m … Continue reading

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