Tom Speelman
The Witch & The Space Boy: Should You Be Reading ‘Alice Grove’? [Sci-Fi Week]
With Should I Be Reading… ?, ComicsAlliance hopes to offer you a guide to some of the best original ongoing comics being published today, and this week we’re focusing on some of the very best science-fiction in comics. Discover the world of tomorrow with Sci-FI Week!
For more than a year, Jeph Jacques' webcomic Alice Grove has been building an intriguing sci-fi world while telling an ambitious, sweeping story about the clash between the past and the future.
Screen & Page: Inside Operation Meteor With ‘Gundam Wing’ [Sci-Fi Week]
To mark Sci-Fi Week on ComicsAlliance, Screen & Page tackles one of the great anime series of the '90s, and the show that brought the world's oldest "Real Robot" franchise to the West: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing!
Enigma The First: How ‘Omega the Unknown’ Was A Comic Out Of Time [Sci-Fi Week]
The first thing you notice about Omega the Unknown, Marvel's short-lived mid-'70s sci-fi series, is its narration. Like most Bronze Age comics, it's densely narrated, but something about this the narrative voice in this work is different; rambling, like a Beat poet. It hops from adjective to adjective, not in the grand carnival barker style of Stan Lee, but like a hepped-up poet taking joy in his words and phrases. Deliberate, but seeming not to be; that's probably the best way to describe the way writers Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes narrated their bizarro epic.
Screen & Page: Brave The Toxic Jungle In ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’
Most anime is adapted from manga, often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and sell it overseas. But what about the anime shows or films that go the other way, adapted from the screen to the page? How do those works hold up, and what changes or stays the same? That’s what Screen & Page aims to explore.
Today, we're looking at the feature film that launched the legendary Hayao Miyazaki's career, and the acclaimed manga that inspired it: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind!
We Can Haunt That Icy Moon Together: Should You Be Reading ‘Southern Cross’?
Ever since Saga set a new standard for indie comics success in 2012, there's been an explosion of American sci-fi comics, many of them from Saga publisher Image Comics. Of these, one of the biggest standouts is Southern Cross, which has created a compelling, dense world with stunning visuals and gripping mysteries in just its first six issues.
Ichigo Kurosaki’s Last Stand: On The End of Tite Kubo’s ‘Bleach’
This past Monday, August 22nd, saw the end of one of the Big Three shonen manga of the 2000s (alongside One Piece and Naruto), and what was at one time one of the most popular shonen titles in the world. Tite Kubo's Bleach published its 686th and final chapter, "Death and Strawberry," in the latest issue of Viz's Weekly Shonen Jump.
In anime and manga circles the reaction has been celebratory, but also somewhat muted. Given that Bleach ran for over a decade, and spawned a highly successful anime, four feature films and many stage musicals, and is still a merchandising and cosplay bonanza, why is that?
The truth is, to most Western fans at least, Bleach overstayed its welcome.
Just Outside of Trolberg: Should Your Kids Be Reading ‘Hilda’? [Kids’ Comics]
Imagine you're a kid, and you and your mom live on the edge of a forest by a mountain. Your mom works from home, so you've got lots to do outside of schoolwork. So what do you do? Well, if you're the curious, blue-haired Hilda, you tromp around nature, drawing and running into trolls, invisible elves, house spirits and all sorts of things. All accompanied by your faithful companion, the reindeer-dog Twig.
BOO Power! Should My Kids Be Reading ‘Johnny Boo’? [Kids’ Comics]
There are a lot of kids' stories about ghosts. There are a lot of kids' stories about friendship. But what if there was a kids' comic about ghosts... who are friends?!? That's what James Kochalka's Johnny Boo books are about and they're delightful, combining simple stories, good lessons, colorful artwork, goofy humor, and ghosts and monsters, to create an appealing series of tales that can be laughed over and read again and again.
Happy To Serve: Should You Be Reading ‘Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma’?
There are so many great comics series to choose from that it’s sometimes difficult to know what to read next. With Should I Be Reading… ?, ComicsAlliance offers a guide to some of the best original ongoing comics being published today.
Have you ever watched an episode of Top Chef or Masterchef and been so blown away by what you see on screen that your stomach starts rumbling? Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma conjures that same feeling through nothing more than gorgeously detailed artwork and solid, informative writing that combines actual cooking education with some of the best traits of action manga storytelling.
Screen & Page: Save The Day With ‘Big Hero 6′
Screen & Page usually looks at great anime that has made the transition to the manga page, but this week we're making another exception, this time for a North American animation that also made the jump to manga, Big Hero 6.
Big Hero 6 is not an anime, and the presence of Japanese characters or an anime-derived aesthetic certainly doesn't make it an anime. But it is the highest-profile Disney animated film to get a manga adaptation, and the first to get its own promotional manga ahead of release. Plus, the title's journey from page to screen to page again --- a journey that never would have happened without the 1990s anime boom --- is fascinating.