Comic Features

Publisher You Should Know: IDW Publishing

There
are so many popular movies with dedicated fan bases; IDW Publishing is
the publishing company to turn to when making them into comics.  The
company managed to establish a large client list despite their lower
level of notoriety (especially when compared to the popular DC and
Marvel companies) after the release of their very first title.  IDW
Publishing has their own original series but also a slew of licensed
titles including Star Trek and G.I. Joe.  This is a look at the history of the company and what they produce.

You Missed That Issue? – Fables #100

Welcome
once again to the “You Missed That Issue?” feature in which we feign
chastisement while recommending the classic comics you might have
missed. From the inimitable Vertigo, we receive Bill Willingham’s brilliant Fables.
One hundred issues is an impressive milestone for any comic and the
occasion is even more auspicious for a series so consistently impressive
as this. So let yourself get excited because there ain’t no party like a
Fables party, because a Fables party don’t quit. Seriously, it goes on for quite a while.

Books to Read from Vertigo – Part 2

The second part of “Books to Read from Vertigo” (that no one demanded) includes titles that are still great despite the test of time. The following titles are all worth a read and all come from Vertigo, the company renowned for horror. Check out Part 1 for more great titles Vertigo offers – with their share of flaws, of course, if you squint hard enough. Vertigo has had a part in many volumes of Swamp Thing, usually working with their partner company DC Comics. Swamp Thing is the tragic saga of scientist Alec Holland, who is turned into Swamp Thing during an explosion at his lab and is able to communicate with nature – or as he calls it, the Green. With a mad scientist villain like Arcane, a fleshed-out and lovable love interest turned wife Abby Holland, and an extraordinarily powerful demon daughter Tefé, this roster of characters is just as enjoyable as the story and the art. The art throughout the series was almost always beautiful enough to be a portrait, even the art from the 80s, which in any other comic may feel outdated. Swamp Thing has aged gracefully with time. The series is going to be rebooted with DC’s new re-launch and will be written by Scott Snyder (writer of American Vampire), but the old series of Swamp Thing will always have wonderful stories and art to admire with legendary guest stars including Batman and John Constantine from Hellblazer.

Bring It or Keep It? – Shingeki no Kyojin

Welcome,
once again, to “Bring It or Keep It?” where we take a look at a foreign
comic and decide whether it should be brought to our shores or kept to
its home nation. This time I’ll be discussing the relatively recent Shingeki no Kyojin,
a Japanese manga by Hajime Isayama. I am told the title roughly
translates to “The Giant’s Charge” and it is an apt title, to be
certain. So, is this winner of the 2011 Kodansha Manga Award ready to
win some awards in the West?

Is Marvel’s Ultimate Universe Too Diverse?

The classic comic book characters were created by straight
white men decades ago.  These writers and artists made stories about white,
straight, mostly male characters because it reflected their own identities and
culture.  However, there has been a
trend in the comic book industry where classic characters are re-invented so
that their ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation is changed to make the
cast more “diverse.”  Maybe comic
books sell better this way, or perhaps the people who work in the industry are
more diverse now, but I’ve noticed one thing about the diversity trend: In
general, only the good guys are diverse.

You Missed That Issue! – Pete the P.O.’d Postal Worker #1

In
another segment of “You Missed That Issue,” we take a look at a classic
comic that doesn’t come from a big name publisher like Marvel or DC and
was overlooked despite its ‘charm.’ Beware of spoilers! This comic is
from Sharkbait Press and is cartoonish violence at its best with a
mixture of insanity making you scared to get your mail in the morning. 

Who
doesn’t hate their job? After numerous dog attacks, uncooperative mail
recipients, and terrible co-workers, Pete the postal worker finally goes
insane. With a permanent grin on his face that would make the Joker
cringe, Pete sets out to deliver the mail with an array of weapons and
unbreakable perseverance to get the mail delivered no matter what.

Affinity Wars – Captain America vs. The Punisher

Affinity
Wars is a comparison of two superheroes’ relevant-to-the-battle
abilities, weaknesses and weapons followed by a play-by-play fight
between the two to determine the winner. Today we have two war heroes
from the Marvel Universe: the Punisher, Frank Castle, and the original
Captain America, Steve Rogers, facing off in a strategic match-up. Steve
Rogers, originally a scrawny but brave soldier-aspiring youth, took
part in a military procedure that led to him being injected by the
“Super-Soldier Serum” (try saying that ten times fast – I can’t). The
serum made his body double in size, quickly going from scrawny to a
six-pack. The serum did not give Roger’s superhuman strength but had
him reach the highest peak of physical prowess humanly possible. He
will never tire, is immune to poisons, has enhanced senses, increased
healing and rarely gets sick. Rogers also has great leadership skills
attained from leading the Avengers and a unique fighting style mixing
together various fighting skills like judo and karate. He was trained
in espionage and battle tactics.

Bring It or Keep It? – Silver Spoon

This time I’ll be taking a look at a comic called Gin no Saji or Silver Spoon, by Hiromu Arakawa. Silver Spoon is a rather new manga series that has thus far only been released in Japan as a weekly serialization in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Unfortunately, I can’t get too far without first providing context of the author’s previous work. For those not aware, Hiromu Arakawa is the author of another manga series called Fullmetal Alchemist, which ran from 2001 to 2010 in Japan and spawned two anime series. The franchise gained massive popularity with its tale of the Elric brothers, two young men who use the strange science of alchemy in a quest to restore the normal bodies they lost when attempting to revive their dead mother. All three incarnations have been released in multiple countries, including the U.S.

Who Would Win – Raven vs. Emma Frost

This is the second of our new versus
feature where we judge two superheroes for their strengths and weaknesses and
pit them against each other in a play-by-play to see who would be the one and
only winner.  This week we have
Trigon’s demonic witch daughter Raven
of the Teen Titans versus the White Queen of telepathy herself, Emma Frost. 

Manga 101 – Seinen Studies Part 2

Continuing from last time, we’re going to take a look at a few more quality seinen manga series. If you missed the first lesson, well, first off, that’s silly –
go read it. Second, seinen manga is how Japan refers to comic books
marketed towards older readers. They often use elements of realism, as
well as more graphic depictions of sex and violence than those series
made for younger readers. With no further need for introduction, let’s
get to the comics.