#591 “Promethea”: A mind-bending, life-changing comic

PrometheaFLASHBACK! While Alan Moore and J.H. Williams’ Promethea, published from 1999 to 2005, is not one of Moore’s most remembered works, it’s not because the author wasn’t at the top of his game. Kumar and Emmet find it to be entrancing, even if you don’t buy into the various magical and spiritual elements that Moore built into it.

Also, inevitably, the incorporation of Promethea and other Moore creations into the DC Universe comes up; is it really just a business decision, or is the publisher singling out Moore’s work out of spite? (Originally published April 30, 2018.)

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#748 Elizabeth Sandifer on Netflix’s “Sandman”

Sandman

While Netflix’s Sandman series has gone over well with many fans, not everyone is pleased. This week Emmet talks with comics commentator Elizabeth Sandifer, who has found the series to be vastly inferior to the original comics, and gives us her reasons in a very entertaining and informative way.

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#675 Gaiman’s “Black Orchid” and “The Books of Magic”

This time, two books by Neil Gaiman: Black Orchid, with art by Dave McKean, and The Books of Magic, drawn by John Bolton and other artists. The challenge of Black Orchid can be to simply figure out the backstory, and how Gaiman changed it! The Books of Magic‘s Tim Hunter character is Harry Potter before Harry Potter; coincidence? Kumar and Jordan look at the evidence.

#373 “Sandman”: Waking from the dream

sandmanAs it’s widely regarded as one of the best comic book series of all time, Dana and Kumar try their best to rekindle their love for Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN nearly twenty years after its conclusion, only to find the plotting leaden, the art inconsistent, and the world-building frustrating. Has time stripped the series of its lustre, or are these two jerks just too old for it?

REVIEW: Joe The Barbarian

Written by Grant Morrison.

Art by Sean Murphy.

DC Comics/Vertigo, 2011.

Grant Morrison is a decisive writer in the comics form.  Many people do not like his more experimental works, especially when the narratives get characteristically dense or abstract. Final Crisis anyone? Many people don’t enjoy when he incorporates more esoteric ideas like chaos magic, ceremonial magic, occult philosophy, media theory, surrealism, dadaism, William S. Burroughs, psychedelics, alien abductions, etc. Invisibles reads like an incredible mess if you are not familiar with some of those topics. The same could be said of Doom Patrol. Some of his work doesn’t traffic with these outre ideas or experiments in the form though, and Joe The Barbarian is an example of such a work.

I hate to say that this book is an example of a “restrained” Morrison. What Morrison did was write something that appeals more to the Neil Gaiman fan than the Robert Anton Wilson or William Gibson fan. The pitch mashup I would use is The Goonies meets The Never-Ending Story. It’s a self contained eight issue miniseries that has been published in a nice hardcover. Continue reading REVIEW: Joe The Barbarian

#277 “Daytripper” & Mike Maihack (“Cleopatra in Space”) interview

A double-header episode this week!

First, Tim and Brandon discuss Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba‘s Daytripper. No, it’s not a time travel story (is it a story at all?); it’s a reflection on life and death. Is it fantastic, or trite? Depends on your point of view…

Then, Tim talks to Mike Maihack, the talented creator behind Cleopatra in Space, about motion lines, Web comics as a business, and more.

#266 Jamie Delano: The Accidental Writer

Hellblazer 1Jamie Delano never set out to be a comics writer. His high school friend, a bloke by the name of Alan Moore, was big into comics, but Delano was not a comics reader. It was only at Moore’s suggestion, many years later, that Delano tried out, doing some work for Marvel UK, then landing the job writing Moore’s John Constantine character in the Hellblazer title as it launched in 1987. The rest is history. Delano is nice enough to give some of his time to Tim for an interview.

Jamie Delano’s site

#075 “Y: The Last Man” vol. 2

Y: The Last Man vol 2Good and bad on Y: The Last Man vol. 2: Cycles, and a digression on coincidences in Star Wars. But first, Brandon has an announcement…

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#074 We like this stuff! “100 Bullets” vol 10 and more

Hundred Bullets vol 10We like this stuff! Hundred Bullets: Decayed, Fear Agent vol. 1, Tag & Bink Were Here, and Top 10 vol. 2!

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