Category Archives: Graphic Literature

Masufumi Yamamoto’s The Manga Guide to Relativity

J.J.S. Boyce wrote this for Sleeping Hedgehog. Ohmsha’s Manga Guide series – with expert English translations courtesy of No Starch Press – has consistently shown its ability to do everything an introductory textbook aims to do, achieving maximum interest and … Continue reading

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Gail Simone’s Villains United

I mentioned at the end of my review of two of Gail Simone’s Secret Six collections that I was “going to lay hands on a copy of Villains United — I want the back story on this bunch.” Well, I … Continue reading

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Gail Simone’s Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, and Secret Six: Unhinged

Gail Simone’s “Secret Six” is actually the third superhero team under that name. The first two were really, truly heroes; this group, not so much. They are, in fact, all bad guys from the DC Universe, some recycled from other … Continue reading

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Frank Tieri, J. Calafiore, and Jack Purcell’s Batman: Gotham Underground

The problem with a story arc like Gotham Underground is that, by itself, it doesn’t really get to go anywhere. Instead, it’s tied into and supports the continuity of a larger limited series/crossover event/superhero throwdown, and as such what happens … Continue reading

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Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens’s Nightwing: Year One

The words “Year One” when applied to the title of a DC Comics series carry with them tremendous responsibility. Batman: Year One was a seminal event in superhero comics, and a worthy bookend to The Dark Knight Returns. Robin: Year … Continue reading

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smoky man & Gary Spencer Millidge’s Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman

I have a confession to make up front, one that’s not likely to endear me to this book’s intended audience: I’m not a huge Alan Moore fan. Sure, I adored the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series and early Swamp … Continue reading

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Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales, and Michael Bair’s Identity Crisis

Every year on my dad’s birthday, I include in his gift a complete comic mini-series, in graphic novel form, of some old favourite of his from either the DC or Marvel universes. Like me (and most men who were once … Continue reading

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Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Baltimore: or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

In the darkest days of World War I, Lord Henry Baltimore, then a Captain in the English Army, watches his men fall in battle. Himself injured, he barely fights off a nocturnal predator, and in doing so, unleashes the unholy … Continue reading

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Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, and Grant Morrison’s John Constantine: Hellblazer: Rare Cuts

Twenty-three years ago John Constantine sprang from the fertile imagination of Alan Moore to become a part of The Saga of Swamp Thing. Two years later, in 1987, Jamie Delano was approached by Vertigo editor, Karen Berger about giving Constantine … Continue reading

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Eddie Campbell’s The Black Diamond Detective Agency

I suppose we’re all suckers for some things. I tend to love nineteenth-century American life depicted with a gritty realism. I have a soft spot for beautifully executed graphic novels, whether the style is loose and painterly or tight and … Continue reading

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