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Extra Issues – Osamu Tezuka pt. 5: Black Jack

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Black Zack and his 7 year old android daughter Charlotte continue our six part series on the works of Osamu Tezuka.

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Comics covered in this episode:
– Black Jack

Topics discussed:
– Is Black Jack more successful as a long-term series of individual stories than Astro Boy?
– Who’s Euthanasia Guy?
– How much can Zack neglect his podcast duties before Charlotte finally snaps (and demands a raise)?

Next up, we’re concluding our six month series covering the work of Osumu Tezuka:
6. Message To Adolf & Phoenix

You can our other Marvel Comics podcast on Comic Book Herald at mymarvelousyear.com

Music for Extra Issues is credited to FM Skyline.

You can support Extra Issues via Patreon for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/mymarvelousyear

My Favorite Graphic Novels of May 2026

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This month’s new graphic novels features 6 that make it inside my 20 favorite books of the entire year, including a new #1! Sign up for the newsletter version to also see how I voted in this year’s Eisner awards!

To get these picks sent directly to your mailbox every month, sign up here for free.

To see the full year’s list, check out the best comics of 2026 (updated monthly!). [Read more…] about My Favorite Graphic Novels of May 2026

Criminal Comics Reading Order

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In 2006, comics creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips launched Criminal via Icon Comics (Marvel’s creator-owned Vertigo-esque publication imprint that ran for about a decade). The duo had previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed 24 issues of Sleeper set in DC’s Wildstorm Universe, and each had a strong reputation just shy of comics superstardom. Phillips was likely most well-known for Marvel Zombies (no disrespect to his decade of Vertigo work!), while Brubaker was fresh off “The Winter Soldier” saga in the pages of Captain America.

The following year, Criminal would win the Eisner Award for best new comics series (one of three the title has earned all time), and Brubaker and Phillips were on their way to the most respected, consistent creative collaboration of the entire 2000s. Though Criminal went more or less on hiatus following 2011, the series returned in 2018 (or 2019 depending on your math) and is kicking out great graphic novels 20 years after starting. Plus, as I write this, the Amazon Prime TV adaptation of the work is well underway. [Read more…] about Criminal Comics Reading Order

Spider-Man Noir Comics Reading Order

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Fans of Spider-Man Noir, aka “The Spider,” aka “Voiced/Acted by Nicolas Cage,” are most likely to have fallen for the crime-noir version of Spidey via Into the Spider-Verse or (if you’re like me) the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions video game where Noir was one of the four playable dimensions (alongside Amazing Spider-Man classic, 2099, and the Ultimate Universe). There’s not an especially deep comics history beyond those adaptations, but as always, the story does start in Marvel Comics, and I’ve put together a guide to all the Spider-Man noir comics!

The Spider-Man noir comics are set in an alternate Marvel Universe (Earth-90214) and the stories begin in the early 1930s during The Great Depression. Some great comparative 1930s noir reading here would be Dashiel Hammet’s Red Harvest (inspiration for the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.

Likewise, if you just want the best noir comics in the game, check out Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal!

[Read more…] about Spider-Man Noir Comics Reading Order