Welcome! Historia is a brand new bi-monthly series that will be examining The Amazing Amazon’s rich history. The feature will span the war-haunted Golden Ages in which she was forged, through the sweeping currents of The Silver Age, the shifts of The Bronze Age, the trials of The Dark Age, all the way to The Renaissance and The Prismatic Age of the modern century. We’ll be looking at and discussing the various influences and archetypal antecedents that underlie the Wonder Legend, the power of the conceits it upholds, the politics of the whole enterprise, the terrifying nature of myths and narratives, and how the character and property have changed, evolved, or even regressed. What is this curious little experiment that began under a polyamorous polymath psychologist that became an icon of the feminist movement and a vital corporate symbol? Let’s dig in. [Read more…] about Wonder Woman Historia Part One: Conception
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Previously On #98: How Many X-Men Books Can A Line Support? Plus, Watchmen S2 Reactions
This week on “Previously On,” I analyze the “right” number of series for the X-Men’s “Dawn of X,” and celebrate the peaceful euthanasia of the shockingly great HBO Watchmen.
Best Comics Ever: The Road to Empyre – Marvel’s 2020 Cosmic Event!
Beginning with Marvel Comics #1000, and more directly with the 2019 Incoming #1, Marvel Comics began building to a cosmic war event, with Empyre #1 launching in April 2020. The event promises to bring the Avengers and Fantastic Four together against a cosmic Kree and Skrull threat that connects back heavily to Marvel Cosmic stories told since the publisher’s earliest days.
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[Read more…] about Best Comics Ever: The Road to Empyre – Marvel’s 2020 Cosmic Event!Marvel Year Nineteen: 1980 Pt. 2
Marvel comics of 1980. Dark Phoenix Saga! The worst idea in Avengers history!
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[Read more…] about Marvel Year Nineteen: 1980 Pt. 2Set Boundaries, Keep Them: Colleen Doran’s Comics Profile & Chronology
Teen Titans Spotlight #19 – 1985
Early in her career, Colleen Doran did some fill-in work on the legendary Wolfman/Perez run of Titans. And while it’s just the one issue, it’s hard to imagine that the work didn’t either inform something in the young artist or else reinforce it.
Even in the 80s, Perez was famous for his layouts and his expressive faces. And to be sure, the artist does a fine job of replicating both of those things here, but what I find most fascinating is in the way she departs from Perez’s established formula.
Note how in Perez’s illustrations, the face is made “soft” by giving half circles to describe Starfire’s apple cheeks. See also how her eyes are enormous and high up, showing that she’s innocent, intelligent, and curious.
Now, look at Doran’s. She gives the subtlest hint of the cheeks through her use of laugh lines around the mouth and distorting the lay of the top lip. Then she makes your eye focus on those tiny details by downplaying the nose until it’s just nostrils. See how she keeps the eyes higher, but she puts them further back in the head by using that little divot shape. This not only ads realism, but it scales back the innocence rather than remove it entirely. Even at rest, Colleen’s face feels capable of closing up just like that.
It’s that balance between Perez’s masterful cartooning and a classic illustration/printmaking that we’ll see again and again.
[Read more…] about Set Boundaries, Keep Them: Colleen Doran’s Comics Profile & Chronology