A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
Sean Dillon: The first thing that jumps out at you when reading The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos is the title. The art of title making, especially within comics, is an often overlooked practice. Typically, a work will call itself after a central character (Asadora!), location (Redfork), or thematic element (Revenge). However The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos opts to go for a longer title.
[Read more…] about The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos – Review!
Lavender Jack is a comic on Webtoon by Dan Schkade (that’s pronounced “Shkah-dee”) set in the fictional country of Gallery in the early 20th century. The story is moderately ahistorical, most notably with an in-universe war known as the Platinum War, which at this point has only been vaguely referenced, but Schkade does a wonderful job in weaving together a compelling world and narrative.
So, let’s start with a basic summary. Lavender Jack is three “seasons” long, though it is currently on a temporary hiatus to organize the script for the final stretch of the last season, as well as for an authorial health break. It opens in the office of Gallery’s Lord Mayor Quincy Monmouth, reading a detective novel. His peace is abruptly interrupted by Lady Lackshore, an acquaintance and the city’s largest land developer, bursting into the office in a fit. The night before, a masked man broke into her home, beat up her butler—a veteran from the aforementioned Platinum War—and stole damning proof of her corruption before vanishing into the night. And setting her living room on fire with some strange, almost magical power.
However, this masked man is more than some common night robber. To a modern audience, he’s more akin to a vigilante, but more on him in a tick. Apparently, this vigilante, this Lavender Jack as the press has taken to calling him, has struck three times previously, his actions leading to the exposure of the corrupt actions of an upper-class individual and the ruin of their reputation. Lackshore demands that Quincy deal with Lavender Jack immediately before he can do more damage to the ruling class. In response, Quincy calls in his childhood hero and the subject of the book he was reading as Lackshore burst in: Madame Theresa Ferrier, the world’s greatest detective.
This singular action sets off a chain of events that have consequences that are felt throughout the rest of the presently published series.
For now, I’ll keep my description of the comic’s plot sparse to avoid spoiling any of the story’s twists and revelations and instead turn my attention to the characters featuring in this lovely little display.
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It is often said that Watchmen
Few creators agreeing to the Faustian Pact of DC’s 2013 “Before Watchmen” came out of the craven affair smelling particularly clean. In the aftermath of The New 52, DC was riding high on controversial yet conversation-dominating marketing, and before a book ever hit print, a series of prequels for Watchmen felt like a clear form of creative desecration in service of making a buck. This aura was cemented by a series of interviews with Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore, arguably the best comics writer of all time, in which Moore venomously denounced DC’s decision with scathing one-liners like, “I would hope that you wouldn’t want to buy a book knowing that its author actually had complete contempt for you.”
Nonetheless, celebrated writer and artist Darwyn Cooke signed up to write and draw Before Watchmen: Minutemen
Looking back, I suppose that remains the question. Did “Minutemen” and Cooke succeed where the rest of “Before Watchmen” could not? [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? Before Watchmen: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke
It’s a hot night in Gotham City. The kind of night that brings out the darker side in a dark city. But there’s something out there that puts even the most dangerous Gotham citizens to shame.
It’s not Batman. It’s something much worse.
Published from 1991 through 1992 in 3 issues, Batman vs Predator
On the surface, a comic centered on slamming together two popular but dissimilar characters seems like a quick cash grab, and while Batman vs Predator is very much a blockbuster comic, it’s a crossover blockbuster comic done right. One that shows the potential of the high concept. It’s a silly idea. A fanboy dream match played to its full extent and given a dramatic heft that makes you buy into its conflict.
And what’s great about Batman vs Predator is that Batman fights the Predator in it. This is a scientific advantage over almost all other comic books.
From the stop and start history of inter-company crossovers to the thrills of a story created by Dave Gibbons, Andy Kubert, Adam Kubert, and Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh that weaponizes the concept of “Batman with prep time,” to its contribution to the crossover boom that followed, I simply have no other option than to declare Batman vs Predator as humanity’s greatest creation. Or at least the greatest comic book crossover ever.
For over 80 years and a thousand issues, Superman has held a titanic legacy in fiction, using his incredible powers to fight a never-ending battle for truth and justice. He’s been a champion of the oppressed, a reporter, an alien, an immigrant; countless forms that have coalesced over the years into an image that’s practically synonymous with the American myth itself. But what happens when someone takes this icon and its countless forms, and breaks it down to its base elements? And how do those base elements change when they collide with other conflicting plans?
In 2011, DC Comics announced The New 52, a publisher-wide initiative that reset its ongoing continuity and relaunched every title set in the fictional DC Universe. Spearheaded by then-Chief-Creative-Officer Geoff Johns and Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, the initiative was meant to both streamline the company’s superhero line for new readers and give a roster of all-star creatives the opportunity to reshape and modernize the characters as they saw fit. It was here that superstar writer Grant Morrison–fresh off a 7-year run on Batman–and artist Rags Morales would collaborate to bring this new version of Superman to life, crafting a story that celebrates the character’s place in fiction while introducing a more modern, conflicted take on the hero. While the run was widely regarded as a misfire, characterized by the many production and creative struggles that would define the rest of The New 52, it’s also a coda to all of Morrison’s thoughts on Superman, pulling from every iteration of the character to forge an all-new future for the Man of Tomorrow.
[Read more…] about ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison | A New Future For The Man of Tomorrow