John McCrea

Q: I'm interested in Hitman as a character in the larger DCU, and "the area of Gotham so bad that Batman doesn't go there," because Batman is a dude that has paid multiple visits to a planet literally called Apokolips. -- @kingimpulse A: For those of you who haven't been following the War Rocket Ajax podcast, Matt and I have been spending the entirety of 2014 ranking every single comic book story ever on a master list from the best (Amazing Spider-Man #33) to the worst (Identity Crisis). Last week, we finally got around to Hitman, and while it eventually fell between The Dark Knight Returns and Impulse #3, the conversation that we had about it involved me mentioning that Tommy Monaghan lived in a section of Gotham called "the Cauldron," which was so thoroughly lawless that they didn't even really notice when No Man's Land swept through. There's a pretty obvious reason why it went down that way, of course, but the more I thought about your question, the more I realized that it's the core of Hitman's complicated relationship with the universe where it's set, which is one of the best things about that comic.

  We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art E

Q: What's your favorite final issue of a comic series or run? -- @supergeekmike A: Back when I was working at the comic book store, my friend Scott once told me that if I really wanted to know what a series was all about, all I had to do was read the first issue and the last issue. Admittedly, this is the same friend who told me that I really ought to start reading Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose, but he had a good point. On those rare occasions in comics where someone can actually build to a last issue, that's where everything about the series can come together. And the results can be pretty great.

On sale now from Vertigo is Ghosts #1, a new anthology one-shot produced specifically for the Halloween season. The book features new work from Gilbert Hernandez, Al Ewing & Rufus Dayglo, Paul Pope & David Lapham, Neil Kleid & John McCrea, Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham with Victor Santos, Mary H.K. Choi & Phil ...

So, what's the deal with Darick Roberston & Garth Ennis's The Boys? Is it a gross-out superhero parody, the book that "out-Preachers Preacher?" Is it a more straightforward narrative, an examination of how power corrupts? Is it a rocking action movie where hard men fight men with hard skin? Is...

The recent trend of creator-owned digital anthology projects is well documented, and now another name can officially be added to the rapidly growing list. David Lloyd, co-creator and artist of V for Vendetta, is launching his own digital imprint, Aces Weekly...

More than a few of your favorite Marvel and DC Comics creators have projects that you may not have heard of, depending on how closely you follow their careers. In creator-owned comics, they get to go wild and create a story that springs entirely from their own brow, and I love seeing the results of that...

In this week's Deadpool #49.1, writer Daniel Way and artist John McCrea brought readers Deadpool: The Musical, a rousing romp through the Merc with a Mouth's history meant to catch new readers up before next month's big 50th issue. Of course, pulling off a musical in a completely visual medium might seem difficult, but Way and McCrea were able to pull it off by setting the dialogue to popular son

Around this time of year, I like to get into the Halloween spirit by reading through a few spoooooky comics, and one of the stories that always makes it into the stack is a two-part story from DC's Hitman called "Dead Man's Land." Of course, I don't need much of an excuse to read Hitman...