Halfway between Amber & Ebony
Claire Napier
Body Horror & Bloody Violence: Should You Be Reading ‘Inuyashiki’?
Gantz creator Hiroya Oku's excellent, self-interrogating, painfully observed comic Inuyashiki is about a salaryman who discovers he has powers: flight, combat, the ability to heal, technological control at the speed of thought. What does he do with it? A teenager with a troubled home life also has these enhancements. What does he choose to do? Inuyashiki: it's nothing to do with InuYasha.
Last Gasp Hopes to Bring the Lessons of ‘Barefoot Gen’ to Schools and Libraries Via Kickstarter
The Barefoot Gen for Schools and Libraries Kickstarter is a two-pronged attack on complacency — three, if you count the example it sets in itself. Aiming to 1) get classic comic literature into classrooms and 2) educate American children about the tragedy in their nation’s debt to Japan, Last Gasp is running a campaign to print four thousand hardcover copies of Nakazawa Kenji’s Barefoot Gen. Nakazawa lived through the devastation of Hiroshima in 1945, and thirty years later he turned his experiences into a story about a little boy who lives an ordinary life — and then keeps on living, when all ordinariness disappears, and his peers and family fall victim to atomic warfare.
The Walking (Super) Man: Reading Jiro Taniguchi Through the Filter of Clark Kent
Jiro Taniguchi’s The Walking Man is a quiet delight, full of poetic, solitary gentleness and the space between things. Collected in English in a very beautiful padded hardcover by Ponent Mon, it tells the story of a man with a pleasant face who takes neighborhood walks... and that’s the whole book. You should read it, and reflect on it; it's well worth your time. For my part, I couldn’t help but look at it through culture-tinted spectacles. I read it and I thought of Superman, the whole way through.
The Craving For Organic Connection: Ray Fawkes Talks ‘Junction True’
Take the "bald journo in the dirty cyberfuture" of Transmetropolitan, take out the aggro and the orange, and center the story on his desire to please a woman --- a woman who wants, with elegant refinery, to dominate him --- and that's Junction True. In this technorganic near-future, there's... a process that's available, for those who really want to commit to the dom/sub bond. It's dangerous. It's illegal. It's what they want.
ComicsAlliance spoke to Ray Fawkes, who wrote the script for artist Vince Locke, about some of the decisions that went into his creative process.
Back Off, Dad, I’ll Dress How I Like: Dracula vs Lilith in ‘Tomb of Dracula’
Tomb of Dracula came out of Marvel between 1972 and 1979: start date, one year after the CCA let up on vampires. This was a year after Hammer’s increasingly psychological Karnstein Trilogy wrapped up with Twins of Evil, and the same year (obviously) that the studio released Dracula AD 1972. While Christopher Lee grew ever more dissatisfied with what he saw as his Dracula’s creep towards absurdity, Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman (along with Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin and Gardner Fox) created a Gothic masterpiece in the comics; a soap opera that doubled as a perfect and precise character study. Dracula’s got problems, and he’s at the root of every one.
Kelly Sue DeConnick Leaves ‘Captain Marvel’, To Fans’ Chagrin!
Sad news for those who loved Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel tenure: the end is in sight.
“Captain Marvel” has been a number of people. Only two of them, Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau, have been women, and only one of those has been blessed with such auspicious circumstances: when Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel, her title benefited from both a new, quite obviously more considered costume, and a woman writing the adventures, with a social media platform that permitted no obstacles. Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel inspired the Carol Corps: when you’ve got your own highly visible, economically dedicated grassroots fan club, you have arrived.
Irene Koh & Mariko Tamaki on IDW’s ‘Casey & April': Alone in the Desert, Alone in the Car
This Wednesday, IDW will put out the first issue of Casey & April: a miniseries that takes April O'Neil and Casey Jones out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' supporting cast, and sends them on a road trip of love. Bringing Mariko Tamaki in to script on a huge, established franchise, and giving Irene Koh a chance to reprise her joyful turn on Batgirl's Secret Origins, makes this book a real prospect for excitement. I spoke to both ladies--alarming them at first with lewdness and high nerdery, but I think they warmed to me eventually. Dig in, and enjoy the exclusive preview afterwards!
What Made Hugo Pratt’s ‘Corto Maltese’ A Great Gift to Comics?
On this day in 1927, Hugo Pratt was born. This was a boon to a great many people.
The people who knew and loved him, of course. Those who benefited from his contributions to his community, the economy, and so forth. But notably, too, a more diffuse population: those who love to look. Those who love to look at skillful, clever linework. Those who love visual storytelling and adventure. Those specifically who love to look at comic books. And those who like to look at men. Hugo Pratt scribed and sired Corto Maltese, and Corto Maltese…
‘Wolverine: Top Secret’ Takes That Lovable Grump To The Prom
In 1994, X-Men: The Animated Series was still going strong, and X-Men comics were buoyant. Things were going pretty poorly for Wolverine on both counts; season three of the cartoon began with his delicate ex returning as Lady Deathstrike and moved quickly into the Phoenix Saga, whilst March brought the wedding of Scott and Jean into the pages of X-Men. That poor sad gravelly muscle beast! Marvel took pity on him, I suppose, and farmed out publication of Francine Hughes’ Wolverine: Top Secret. It’s a novel. It’s for young readers. The first chapter is called Chapter 1: The Prom.
The ‘A-Force’ Experience: A Perplexing Read for a Lapsed True Believer
A-Force is an alternate reality limited series that's a part of the current Marvel Comics crossover event, Secret Wars. Written by G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett and drawn by Jorge Molina, it's been greatly anticipated due to its pile-up of Marvel's best and lesser-known female superheroes, leading many to believe that it would be an all-women adventure.
At first it seems like an island full of women, and then it seems like an island full of superheroes. It’s neither. It’s not. This is no Themyscira.