tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84073052011-12-14T20:51:15.852-06:00Reviewing comics that aren't exactly new any more (and occasionally some that are).Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.comBlogger1001100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1124026457814545772005-08-14T08:34:00.000-05:002005-08-14T08:34:17.866-05:00

Ok, I'm going to try this again. I'm pretty well eased into my new job, but as I've eased in I've also realized that I will have a lot less free time than I used to. I still read lots of comics and still want to let people know about some good back issue finds out there so I'm going to try to give some time back to this site. The format is going to change a little and I won't have as in depth of

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1118461248479199782005-06-10T22:40:00.000-05:002005-06-10T22:40:48.486-05:00

Lately reviews have been sparse. I realize this. There's a couple of reasons for this. First, I haven't had a lot of spare time to write reviews. Second, I haven't been reading as many comics as I wished I had time to. Third... well, there isn't much of a third really other than me being lazy, but that's just a given.I've been extra busy since I took on a new position at my company about two

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1116087095226550322005-06-02T15:20:00.000-05:002005-06-02T15:21:51.580-05:00

Chuck Dixon's work has quite a following, although I've never been able to figure out why. Some of his stuff is decent, but for the most part everything I've read by him has been either painfully average or boring. With Robin III, Chuck manages to move away from both of these negative attributes but in the process manages to make a story heavy on the cliches.Robin is on the outs with his dad

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1117119350254919912005-05-26T10:11:00.000-05:002005-05-26T10:11:16.800-05:00

Can anyone say "padded"? I know you can. Let's all say it together... PADDED! My biggest pet peeve with modern comics is the feeling that stories are getting drawn out more and more for no other reason than it's the thing to do. Marvel has been the most guilty party as of late with their making every story arc 6 issues so it'll fit in a trade, but DC has also been responsible for their fair share

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1116086975999480552005-05-18T10:30:00.000-05:002005-05-18T10:31:23.726-05:00

A lot of people hate this title and a lot of people love it. I fall into the "love it" category, but I love it for what it is--a big, dumb, fun superhero book. If you're looking for intricate storytelling, plotting that constantly keeps you guessing, or deep character analyzations you're going to be firmly planted in the "hate this" camp.In this arc you get the opportunity to see Batman and

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1114983913180116302005-05-12T12:06:00.000-05:002005-05-12T12:07:00.350-05:00

Man, Kurt Busiek used to really, really suck as a writer, didn't he? After reading the Spider-Man / X-Factor crossover miniseries by him and now this four issue mini, I'm starting to wonder if the 90's Busiek is the same person as the recent writing genius of this millennium that everyone has fallen in love with. It's really quite amazing how terrible some of his old stuff is that it's sad and

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1114868164547304662005-05-10T15:14:00.000-05:002005-05-10T15:15:18.020-05:00

I'll admit it, I love Elseworlds stories. Not quite enough to buy them at full price, but I scour the bargain bins for them! Any time I see an Elseworlds I haven't read somewhere on the cheap, I snatch it up as fast as humanly possible. The novelty of having an established superhero in a role outside of the one he/she usually takes on appeals to me, which is probably good for DC since that means

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1114984119252228112005-05-05T11:46:00.000-05:002005-05-05T11:46:56.576-05:00

Throughout most of Paul Jenkins run of this iteration of Spectacular Spider-Man I've found myself either let down by the story arcs or baffled by the illogic of many of the character interactions. With this arc, Jenkins steps away from writing (except for issue 27) in order to let some of the events from the Sins Past story arc in Amazing Spider-Man be addressed. I didn't read Sins Past so I

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1114549345650257292005-05-01T10:10:00.000-05:002005-05-01T10:10:34.850-05:00

When Marvel did their big "X-Men: Reloaded" thingermabob last year I knew that in the glut of crap that was going to be dumped on the shelves there would probably be a title or two that turned out to be good. Two of those, Astonishing X-Men and District X I have been reading and thoroughly enjoying. The only other new title from the Reloaded event that I took a chance on was Nightcrawler's solo

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1114264412427250442005-04-30T10:01:00.000-05:002005-04-30T10:02:20.020-05:00

Do you like pulpy storytelling? Do you like 50's and 60's sci-fi serials? Do you like noir-ish narration? Do you like horribly average art that is from the late 90's but looks like it's from the late 80's? You do? Then you'll love this 4 issue mini series from Dark Horse comics.The Territory is the story of a man who is constantly in search of his ever elusive and ever changing love, Scarlett...

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1113748183276158292005-04-28T22:05:00.000-05:002005-04-28T22:07:06.856-05:00

The only experience I've had with Deadpool has been the one mini-series, The Circle Chase, that I read a while back along with the currently running Cable and Deadpool series. As far as I know, Agent X was to be the successor to Deadpool's long running ongoing series, but it wasn't to star Deadpool but instead was focused on a character that was very, very similar to the much loved

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1113748019732161342005-04-26T15:53:00.000-05:002005-04-26T15:55:23.626-05:00

Steve Niles has, in recent years, made quite a name for himself with all of the horror comics he's been writing for IDW. With Fused we have the opportunity to see some of Niles' work pre-IDW fame, and in doing so we can see that it wasn't all that great. Actually, I can't blame the lackluster nature of this mini solely on Niles since there were more than a few other factors that led to the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1113577891231210682005-04-23T09:10:00.000-05:002005-04-23T09:28:57.706-05:00

So what does happen to all of the wreckage and damage that is caused by superhero battles. I can't count the number of times that Magneto has destroyed New York, the X-mansion has been blown up, or that some giant villain has decimated building upon building throughout a city. You always get to see the battles, but never the aftermath... until now, or I suppose more acurately, until 1989.As

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112538126875476352005-04-21T12:55:00.000-05:002005-04-21T12:55:54.733-05:00

It's so hard to find anything unique or insightful to say about titles that are already regarded as classics. Honestly, if people don't already know about this series by now then they can't really call themselves comic fans. Alan Moore, for what it's worth, is easily one of the greatest comic book creators in my mind. Nearly everything that I've read which was written by him was nothing less

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1113577799088720642005-04-17T09:45:00.000-05:002005-04-17T09:45:19.736-05:00

Supreme Power is one of my favorite current running series and is, in my opinion, one of the best comics being published at the moment. There are a lot of other people that feel the same way, but then there's also the other extreme that hates it with a vehemence that is hard to rival. I've rarely seen an opinion in the middle ground. Either you think it's a fascinating reimagination of the JLA

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112827780907145442005-04-16T11:03:00.000-05:002005-04-16T11:04:45.053-05:00

A black and white mini series... from Marvel? It blew my mind just as much as it must be blowing yours right now. In all of my experience reading Marvel comics, this is the first mini series that I've seen from them in black and white. There may be others out there somewhere, but I've never ran across them. Marvel went out on a limb in more ways than just the black and white art. This is

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112472595104816642005-04-13T11:25:00.000-05:002005-04-13T11:25:48.216-05:00

When I first read the solicits for this series, I was very intrigued. New York City is populated by robots and this series would tell the story of some of its residents. I wanted to preorder the series, but I just didn't have the extra money to spare at the time. Fortunately, I came across all six issues on ebay recently for $1.00 plus shipping for a grand total of a little more than $3.50.

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112827722784184292005-04-10T00:35:00.000-05:002005-04-10T00:35:36.646-05:00

This 3 issue mini series was simply atrocious. Really, it doesn't deserve a full review because I would hope to God above that no one would actually go out of their way to buy and/or read this... ever. Just to give you a notion as to how bad it is, let's look at all of the negative attributes associated with this mini. It was created by Rob Liefeld. It was pencilled by one of Liefeld's

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112472530177397042005-04-05T11:15:00.000-05:002005-04-05T11:21:16.130-05:00

So who hasn't wanted to create a robot version of him/herself? Maybe it's just me, but I've always wanted to be a robot or at least have my brain put into a robot so I can live longer than this frail, human body of mine will let me. I'm sure you've all wanted to time travel as well, right? Besides being a robot, traveling back in time is another thing I'd love to do since there are many, many

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112062823741746972005-04-03T09:19:00.000-05:002005-04-03T09:20:39.433-05:00

The first Dead @ 17 miniseries was an interesting read simply because of the unique art style. It was a simplistic, brightly colored, manga influenced style that was easy on the eyes. Even though the story was somewhat muddled, it was fun enough to read for the art and combination of high school drama, coming back from the dead, and zombie fights. Blood of Saints continues the story of Nara

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1112062905238262712005-04-01T12:15:00.000-06:002005-04-01T12:17:35.320-06:00

I gave up on comics almost completely during the 90's and didn't return until after the turn of the millennium. Once I picked up X-Men again, so much had changed that I didn't know about. For a while Wolverine didn't have his adamantium skeleton. There was some big "Magneto War". Genosha was now a mutant safe-haven lorded over by Magneto. Really, I had missed out on a lot, but then again I

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1111241280482923552005-03-30T10:01:00.000-06:002005-03-30T10:07:20.093-06:00

I bought this five issue miniseries for one reason and one reason only--Sam Kieth's name was attached to the project. The anticipation of being able to see his art on a creater owned and created property once again had me drooling from the moment I read the solicitations many, many months ago. As each issue came in, I looked fondly at the cover and put it away in my to read box, waiting for the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1111241014038197922005-03-26T07:10:00.000-06:002005-03-26T07:12:15.110-06:00

Usually when I think of J.M. DeMatteis' writing style, I think of the camply Justice League and comedy. I wouldn't usually associate DeMatteis with Vertigo and a story exploring existentialism, but that's exactly what you get in Mercy, a Vertigo prestige one-shot from the early 90's. Once I finished it, I could understand why DeMatteis does a lot of comedic writing as opposed to serious stuff--

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110304908953469922005-03-24T11:15:00.000-06:002005-03-24T11:17:14.146-06:00

Sometimes you have to wonder why some titles are released. I often find myself wondering why Marvel releases half of the crap they do every month, and after reading this "gem" I find that Marvel has been churing out useless crap for a long time now. Ok, so that's not really a revelation I just came to. I've known they've been putting out crap for a long time because I somehow end up finding a

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110844483829759692005-03-19T08:25:00.000-06:002005-03-19T08:26:10.523-06:00

In my attempts to expand my reading to publishers and formats outside of the periodical form of comics from the big four, I ordered a slew of books from Top Shelf when they had a big sale a couple of weeks ago. This book was one of the books in my order.Beach Safari is definitely a different type of story. The first third of the graphic novel focuses on a rabbit, a self-aware and humanesque

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110304820047194742005-03-15T19:05:00.000-06:002005-03-15T19:07:46.503-06:00

It's impossible for a comic publisher or comic imprint to always put out quality material. Sooner or later it's bound to happen that something will slip through that just doesn't work or can't live up to the lofty standards set by other titled put out in their prescence. Skin Graft is one of Vertigo's few failures. From start to finish, it's at the same time a mess of a story and a case study

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110844636417668552005-03-14T18:34:00.000-06:002005-03-14T18:35:41.650-06:00

There was so much hype surrounding this Wolverine arc that I almost decided not to read it simply because hyped up projects from Marvel are usually horribly contrived, really dumb, or a combination of the two. I've also never been a huge Millar or Romita, Jr. fan so that also was a turnoff for me, but since I had preordered the issues blindly (I kept forgetting to drop the title, but I finally

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110163557856774942005-03-13T09:25:00.000-06:002005-03-13T09:28:40.833-06:00

Peter David never ceases to amaze me. Back in my younger years when I was a huge Trekkie (or Trekker or Trekkette or Trekzombie or whatever they go by now) I would love reading David's Star Trek novels, as well as his Star Trek comics for DC. When I gave up on Star Trek (about the time Deep Space Nine ended and Voyager was the only thing Trek out there) I also lost touch with David's work. I

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1110304739384110532005-03-09T11:33:00.000-06:002005-03-09T11:35:50.956-06:00

I know, I'm really, really late coming to the party, but I finally read Identity Crisis. With all of the controversy in the reviews and the screaming fanboys on message boards, I couldn't bring myself to read it until after it all settled down. It took a while, but I finally felt comfortable to sit down, invest some time, and read all the way through Identity Crisis. After getting done with it

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109535637690028672005-03-05T07:45:00.000-06:002005-03-05T07:47:11.233-06:00

This four issue mini series is a complete and utter waste of time. There is nothing even remotely engaging, unique, or even interesting to be found throughout the entire course of the story, which is nothing but re-hashed superhero cliches.So the government was paying to have a top secret weapon made, but then no longer wanted it so it fell into the hands of bad guys. In order to sell it to

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109535446941371952005-03-03T12:07:00.000-06:002005-03-03T12:09:52.206-06:00

DC's recent focus on many B-level characters and the gritty, grungy areas of the DCU is a welcome thing if you ask me. As much fun as it is to read about the JLA and Batman and Green Lantern and all the top tier characters, I am also very attracted to reading about the "lesser" superheroes. This, DC's third volume of Manhunter, is one of the better DC titles out there, in my opinion.Unlike your

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109606666957852782005-03-01T10:14:00.000-06:002005-03-01T10:16:46.743-06:00

I pre-ordered this back when it was first solicited since the solicitation made it sound pretty interesting. I remember that when I got it in my monthly shipment that I intended to sit down and read it, but somehow it got stuck into a stack of back issues that got moved into my comics storage room. I recently found it as I was going through putting some comics away and sat down to give it a

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109183557114107832005-02-28T10:54:00.000-06:002005-02-28T10:56:35.316-06:00

The death of Superman created quite the buzz when it happened. I know I was sucked into the gigantic, title spanning story arc. Knowing that the Man of Steel would perish created so much anticipation in my mind, not because I hated Superman or anything, but because I was so curious as to how something like that could happen. How would it happen? Would it be someone in his already vast rogues

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109183473089489082005-02-25T10:21:00.000-06:002005-02-25T10:24:46.436-06:00

There's been so much talk about this series, as well as its sequels, that I figured it was about time that I gave it a look. Oddly enough, I have a hard time finding what all of the rave reviews are about. This isn't a bad series at all, but it somehow feels like the story isn't as polished as it could be. The art, on the other hand, is a unique and intersting style that I haven't really seen

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1109183380784709612005-02-23T13:02:00.000-06:002005-02-23T13:05:59.890-06:00

So the first CrossGen title I sat down to read comes to a close with these issues. Sadly, it ends just as it was at its best. These last seven issues are easily the best of the entire run. The differing characters were all embroiled in interesting subplots. The main plot, involving the coming of the Negation forces, was building up a strong head of steam. JeMerick is finally starting to have

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1108830008877723812005-02-19T10:19:00.000-06:002005-02-19T10:20:08.880-06:00

This is a big chunk of issues to review, but when I think about it, over the course of these 14 issues, there really wasn't any large thematic changes or writing changes or and other series shattering changes. These 14 issues are simply the continuing space opera of Sam, his allies, and his Saurian foes. Chuck Dixon writes the entire arc so there is a consitency in the characters and writing

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1108478054030797092005-02-15T08:32:00.000-06:002005-02-15T08:34:14.033-06:00

I'd read all the praise for this series on the various comic review websites scattered around the vastness of the internet, but I'd never been able to get a hold of this series (or any of the Dead @ 17 stuff for that matter) since I don't have a comic shop in my local area. I get all of my new comics through online preorder so if I miss a series that ends up getting a lot of critical acclaim,

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1108226654775578332005-02-12T11:33:00.000-06:002005-02-12T11:36:53.306-06:00

Grant Morrison doing some more work with the JLA. How can that ever be a bad thing? That's exactly what I thought until reading this arc. I think I might have appreciated this story more if I knew anything about the Ultra-Marines, but I didn't. I also didn't really know anything about the mini universe that the JLA are trapped in for the first issue. Combine this with only a casual knowledge

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1107705883251853072005-02-11T14:56:00.000-06:002005-02-11T14:59:22.413-06:00

I know this title is aimed at a younger audience, and at times this can detract from the story, but for the most part I find that I've been enjoying this series even with its many faults. The New X-Men series might be a hard one to jump into as there are a lot of dangling plot lines, tons and tons of characters, and a population of characters that were unknown in the X-Universe before the second

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1107705759654819412005-02-08T10:01:00.000-06:002005-02-08T10:04:01.173-06:00

Grant Morrison, frankly, I believe is one of the best writers in the modern comics world. Everything he touches is usually unique, interesting, and boundary defying. Sometimes it gets to be a little much, though (see the first volume of the Invisibles), but the majority of the time he's money. We3 is no exception. I was enthralled throughout the short run of this three issue miniseries and

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1107370483179547172005-02-07T12:01:00.000-06:002005-02-07T12:05:44.626-06:00

Almost the entire run of The Outsiders so far has been great in my book... up until the three issue run with the guest appearance by America's Most Wanted's John Walsh. What was the point of including him in this arc? There really wasn't a need for him in my opinion and it lead to some forced moments. On top of that the art took a definite step in the wrong direction. Carlos D’Anda put

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1107622028898385162005-02-05T10:45:00.000-06:002005-02-05T10:47:08.896-06:00

This 100 page black & white graphic novel is my first experience with Oni Press, and while I liked the overall presentation of this book, the story was definitely lacking. The art, however, was very good in some spots, but somewhat dodgy in other areas. It almost felt like this book was rushed or wasn't given a whole lot of thought before it was published and frankly, it definitely isn't worth

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1107367307980422582005-02-02T11:58:00.001-06:002005-02-02T12:03:39.583-06:00

I don't read Hulk comics and I don't read Fantastic Four comics. Neither has ever been all that appealing to me. Sure, I enjoyed the Hulk movie and I'll go see the Fantastic Four movie, but as comics, neither has ever really managed to get my attention enough to read them. So why did I buy this mini series? Especially since it cost me $3.50 an issue? For a guy that usually buys tons of stuff

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1106841985538175222005-01-30T13:55:00.000-06:002005-01-30T13:56:51.856-06:00

After the mildly disappointing first arc, I found this 7 issue run much more enjoyable. We learn a little more about all of the characters, which was something that was lacking in the first arc. All we knew then was that Sam had a sigil and was in the army. Roi was a living hologram. JeMerick was slightly superpowered but you didn't know exactly to what extent or why. Zanni was a runaway wife of

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1106587500266363732005-01-26T13:45:00.000-06:002005-01-26T13:47:21.640-06:00

Let's get this out of the way now, Andy Diggle writes action like you'd see in an intelligent Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Not that there is such a thing as an intelligent Bruckheimer movie, but I think it makes my point. Throughout his run writing The Losers, Diggle has given us action scene after action scene and managed to tie them all nicely together with a plot that wasn't too dumb to make any

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1106059910747605552005-01-22T09:17:00.000-06:002005-01-22T09:19:17.450-06:00

In Crossgen's heyday, you'd hear so much online talk and even talk in some of the comic shops about how awesome this new publisher was. They were tapping new genres. Each title was beautiful to look at. Their little interconnected universe was something to behold. Even after hearing all the positive talk, I never could bring myself to dive in, mainly because I didn't want to pick up a series

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1106059782265807432005-01-20T11:58:00.000-06:002005-01-20T11:59:11.940-06:00

Sam Kieth, 99% of the time, can do no wrong by me. His truly unique artistic style and unusually odd storytelling can hardly be matched by any other artist/writer in the medium. Any time a new Kieth project is announced or comes out, I'm intrigued. When Scratch was first solicited, I couldn't wait for it to come out. Kieth writing and drawing a tale about a boy werewolf in a small village--cool.

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1105798308685022422005-01-18T09:53:00.000-06:002005-01-18T09:54:51.860-06:00

The more I read from Dezago's Tellos universe, the more I like it. The characters are all likeable, the tales are fun little fantasy romps, there's enough interconnectedness between stories to make fans happy yet it's not continuity laden, it's all ages and still fun (which is very hard to pull off), and you get to read about talking animals. How could anyone not love all that is Tellos? Well,

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1104805690401134012005-01-17T10:25:00.000-06:002005-01-17T10:26:25.543-06:00

What can I possibly say about this title that hasn't already been said by someone else, or a hundred someone elses for that matter. If you're a comic book fan and you haven't heard of Watchmen by Gibbons and Moore, then you might want to go out and buy the trade paperback and read it asap before someone finds out you haven't. I know I went long enough without reading it. In the 15 or so years

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1105906162227527382005-01-16T14:09:00.000-06:002005-01-16T14:09:22.226-06:00

So why is it again that I waste my money on Austen written X-titles? Oh yeah, because I'm an X-whore. I wish I could somehow break myself of the attachment I have to the X-Men because it would save me a ton of money every month, but alas I just can't bring myself to quit buying them. I always figure that when a title starts it'll get better with time. I kept thinking that throughout the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1105798230893016472005-01-15T08:06:00.000-06:002005-01-15T08:12:48.563-06:00

For those of you who subscribe to this site via RSS, I have a new feed. Please use this feed instead of the old one as this will be a more efficient and usable feed as compared to the last one. The new feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BTTCR Thanks!

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1105733098537465892005-01-14T14:04:00.000-06:002005-01-14T14:05:14.230-06:00

For almost the entirety of this series run, I've been disappointed by the majority of the storytelling. The intial arcs where Spidey took on Venom and Doc Ock were readable, but really came down to being throwaway tales. Then there was the arc that was supposed to be tied into Avengers: Disassembled, but really didn't have much to do with it at all. In this arc Spidey turns into an actual

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1104805494692749612005-01-09T21:23:00.000-06:002005-01-09T21:27:22.330-06:00

Lex Luthor--probably one of the most well know DC villains, if not the most well known (it's probably a toss up between Lex and The Joker). He's given Superman more grief than could be imagined. He's a diabolical mastermind that's bent on bringing the man of steel to his doom. He wasn't this evil when he was young, though, was he? Maybe something in his childhood turned him into the person he

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1104805411396811782005-01-05T15:03:00.000-06:002005-01-05T15:04:39.236-06:00

Claremont, why do you do this to me? After reading through your work on X-treme X-men, Uncanny X-men, and Excalibur over the last year or two, I've brought myself to the conclusion that you've completely lost all of your storytelling abilities and then I pick up Mekanix because it looked interesting (not knowing it was written by you), read it, and come away from it feeling satisfied. Why did

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1103928509544056252005-01-04T10:06:00.000-06:002005-01-04T10:09:02.396-06:00

The 10 issue Tellos maxiseries was a very enjoyable all ages fantasy romp, so I figured I might as well give some of the one-shots that followed the series a chance. This is the first that I've gotten around to reading and it is planted firmly in the same vein as that of the original series. This one-shot focuses on one of the lesser used characters from the actual series, Rik the fox. Rik was

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1103983692874917222005-01-03T13:54:00.000-06:002005-01-03T13:53:54.963-06:00

Many comics bloggers have spoken very highly of Top Shelf as one of the top tier independent comics publishers. I've never actually had a chance to read any of their output, but took a chance on buying a few of their books when they had their big Christmas sale a couple of weeks ago. Cicada has the pleasure of being my first sampling of what Top Shelf has to offer. Cicada is a very dreary and

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1103230287369436242004-12-24T16:15:00.000-06:002004-12-24T16:15:25.903-06:00

Going into this 4 issue mini from DC's Vertigo imprint, I figured from the title it would be about the changing of the millennium that so many people were dreading back in the late 90's. In actuality, it really doesn't have anything to do with the changing of the millennium. Really, I don't know what the title has to do with the content of the series at all, but whatever. This odd title

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1103230395479046672004-12-22T16:00:00.000-06:002004-12-22T16:00:55.716-06:00

Deadpool is one of those cult Marvel characters that every Marvel comic nerd loves, but is pretty much unknown to the mass market reader. Being a big X-title fanatic, you'd figure I'd know a ton about this character, but besides the occasional appearance in X-Force when I was reading it in the early 90's and the current Cable/Deadpool series, I haven't had any exposure to the character. Since

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102652124585982012004-12-15T14:37:00.000-06:002004-12-15T14:38:47.183-06:00

Superman has been a character that, for the most part, I've been able to enjoy over time. There are times that I don't like the character or at times he'll bring up bad memories, but for the most part I find a well written story involving the Man of Steel and his supporting cast is usually fun to read. Rucka, in this six issue run, takes the focus away from the fun aspect of Superman and

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102652256637770022004-12-14T12:02:00.000-06:002004-12-14T12:03:01.186-06:00

Before I got around to reading this wonderful title, I was tainted by having watched the movie adaptation. The movie was only a so-so action picture so I wasn't too keen on reading the material it was based upon... that is until I found out it was written by Alan Moore. More than 90% of the time, Moore's stuff turns out to be wonderful. The other 10% of the time it turns out to only be ok. No

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102789182342157812004-12-12T21:00:00.000-06:002004-12-12T21:00:58.463-06:00

Who the hell lets stuff like this get published? I can say with tons of confidence that this four issue mini series is one of the worst that I've read in a long time, and by long time I mean years. I couldn't even bring myself to do more than skim the final two issues it was so bad. *Sigh* Where do I start in describing the suckiness? First off, this isn't the G.I.Joe that most of us know.

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102651949784620342004-12-11T10:40:00.000-06:002004-12-11T10:43:03.663-06:00

It's refreshing to go back and read something put out by Marvel and not dealing with superheroes. It's just too bad that you have to look to Marvel's UK division to find the majority of the non-superhero titles. This four issue miniseries was one of four Frontier titles that were put out by Marvel UK. I haven't read the other three, but after looking at the ads for them and reading this one,

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102015340020201292004-12-10T21:22:00.000-06:002004-12-10T21:24:56.286-06:00

Anyone who even remotely likes the X-Men at all have pretty much been going ape over this new series written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassiday. As for me, well, it's not nearly as interesting as Morrison's New X-Men run, but it sure as hell beats the crap out of Austen's X-Men and Claremont's Uncanny X-Men & Excalibur. The one thing that I don't understand about this series is the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102366157610417182004-12-08T13:50:00.000-06:002004-12-08T13:52:05.226-06:00

Huh, and to think that I always thought Frank Castle went on his crazy revenge-fest because some mafia members killed his family. I suppose that is part of the reason, but in Born Garth Ennis explores Frank's days in Vietnam and the dirty pact he agrees to with some enigmatic dark being. This 4 issue mini starts off by letting you get to know Frank and the men he commands. Most of the people

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1102015253409483672004-12-07T10:00:00.000-06:002004-12-07T10:00:09.856-06:00

I want to believe that this arc was more than just a vehicle for Mike Turner to draw a teenage girl in a bunch of different outfits, but I'm having a hard time doing it. Every issue it seemed that Turner made it a point to showcase Supergirl in some new type of attire for the teen boy crowd to drool over (I don't understand why anyone would drool over a drawing, but I've had conversations with

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1101904893836595452004-12-06T15:47:00.000-06:002004-12-06T15:48:18.243-06:00

I'm coming to the party a little late as this is my first experience with manga. Just about everyone and their mother have been reading manga the last few years, but I've never jumped into it, mainly because I have plenty of traditional, American styled comics to read in my collection. When DC decided it was going to start a manga imprint, however, I thought I might as well give this format a

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1101872512304735902004-12-02T14:00:00.000-06:002004-12-02T14:01:04.286-06:00

There are two things that I really, really like about this series and neither of them really have too much to do with the actual story... well, they do, but they play minor roles. These two things are the lack of "arcs" and the use of reference boxes. Do you remember reference boxes? It seems like so long since I've seen a new comic come out that uses them. They're those neat little boxes

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1101397721445945972004-11-29T14:35:00.000-06:002004-11-29T14:36:04.823-06:00

Kieth Giffen's art is definitely a unique style. I liked how he used it in the Lobo: Infanticide mini, so I went out and found this 4 issue mini series he did for Image in 1993. The same style of art can be found here, but it feels a little less focused. As much fun as his art is, sometimes it is extremely hard to figure out exactly what is going on in a scene or what a progression of panels

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1100274084082082462004-11-26T10:17:00.000-06:002004-11-26T10:16:22.503-06:00

Ummm..... holy shit was this one dark tale. I felt dirty just reading it, yet I couldn't stop myself from reading more and more of it. This is definitely a tale of horror, but not such horrors as werewolves, zombies, or vampires. No, this is a horror story because it is very possible that there are people actually like this in our world. This is the story of a mother and her family. She is

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1101237255259109142004-11-24T11:13:00.000-06:002004-11-24T11:12:25.886-06:00

Towards the end of the 90's Image was finally starting to find their own niche after their intial line of superhero and titilation titles bottomed out. They started to open up to many new projects that were off of the beaten path in the hopes that they'd hit some new markets. Witchfinder was a 3 issue miniseries from 1999 that probably went unnoticed by most of the comic readers of the time,

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1100279684928782982004-11-23T13:38:00.000-06:002004-11-23T13:38:55.050-06:00

With all the hype surrounding this series after the $.25 #0 issue I decided I should pick this series up. Besides, I wanted to branch out a little beyond the usual Marvel and DC titles that I regularly pick up. So, is this iteration of Conan worth the hype? Hell's yeah! Interestingly enough, I usually talk mostly about a series' story most and touch on the art just a little bit, but this time

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1101153550282206982004-11-23T09:28:00.000-06:002004-11-23T09:29:25.616-06:00

I have yet to read anything by John Byrne that has impressed me. It seems like everything he writes (and draws) is simply average. It's never totally bad, but it's never very good either. Before I even delved into this series, I was guessing that the combination of this being a John Byrne project AND it being a high concept project, I was probably in for a whole lot of sucktacular reading. Damn

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099968293376408242004-11-15T22:25:00.000-06:002004-11-15T22:25:11.610-06:00

Who would have thought that a series about a mutant cop in a town of mutants would be as interesting as this? I didn't. I figured that this would be yet another subpar title that Marvel simply churned out to get X-title completists to shell out more cash. Oddly enough, the first couple of issues really hooked me in that this story was just as much about mutants as it was about forming

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1100382798728731692004-11-13T15:50:00.000-06:002004-11-13T15:53:18.726-06:00

Let's get this out of the way now: this is easily one of the worst Batman stories I have ever read (it ranks up there in suckdom right alongside the City of Light mini). I cringed as I read almost every page because it wallowed in so much crap. Gerard Jones attempts to tell a story of a rock star that has captivated the world over and use it as a critique on how rock music is bad. Rock music

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1100321661807827272004-11-12T22:53:00.000-06:002004-11-12T22:54:21.806-06:00

Ugghh... there's a reason why some comics never make it to the big publishers and are published by independents instead, and that's because they suck. This 4 issue mini is a perfect example of a horribly generic indie title. So there's this priest who turns into a generic "dark wolf" superhero and fights a league of devil worshipers. The only way to kill the devil worshipers is to rip out their

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099953343627742672004-11-11T16:40:00.000-06:002004-11-11T16:40:12.410-06:00

If you're at all like me, you've probably wondered what it would be like if, for once, the bad guys actually came out on top. With Empire you get the chance to see what that might be like. Instead of heroes protecting the world, you'll be treated to Golgoth and his merry band of mercenaries ruling the world with an iron grip. Come on, you know you've always sympathized with the villains. Why

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099600617511757852004-11-10T20:00:00.000-06:002004-11-10T19:58:16.343-06:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not a comic book, but to me anime is pretty much a comic book put into motion. It's in the same ballpark so I thought I'd write about it here anyways (besides, most of the people I know who read comics also watch anime). I've seen both Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick, so I'm versed in the world of Riddick, but even for anyone not familiar with the character,

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099968045040173242004-11-08T20:27:00.000-06:002004-11-08T20:40:45.040-06:00

Picking up where the second volume of New Mutants left off, these first issues of New X-Men detail the adventures of two new teams of mutants, the New Mutants and the Hellions. The thing that most obviously stands out to me after reading this arc is that there's a whole crapload of characters to keep track of. In these six issues you're introduced to the six members of the New Mutants, the six

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099597959382795432004-11-05T13:15:00.000-06:002004-11-05T13:23:44.500-06:00

This is the second half of the Wildstorm series from 2001. After reading the first 7 issues, I was hoping that they'd actually touch on the origin of some of the characters, and of the organization as a whole, in these issues. Fortunately, they do, and it helps to flesh out the team a little bit, but as I feared it is simply a case of "too little, too late". Even though the first couple of

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099276979353814102004-11-02T17:38:00.000-06:002004-11-02T17:57:56.263-06:00

I thought it was appropriate that I read something such as Bad Mojo on Halloween. Since I didn't go out, I wanted to read something scary, but not from IDW :-) For some reason IDW's horror titles have been ok, but not spectacular. Anyhow, William Harms brings us a story of 3 men dealing with a witch's curse that was put on one of them. The curse makes it so that one of the men dies during

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099143517136953632004-10-31T09:35:00.000-06:002004-10-31T09:36:17.316-06:00

These seven issues make up the first half of this Wildstorm series from 2001. It wasn't a direct spin-off from the Authority, but it definitely feels weighed down by a shared continuity with other titles. Since I'd never read the Authority, or many other Wildstorm titles for that matter, I felt like I was missing out on all this series had to offer. There seemed to be many references to other

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1099107051844869332004-10-29T22:30:00.000-05:002004-10-29T22:55:00.720-05:00

Superman is one of those characters that you'd think has had every possible story about him told in 10 different ways simply because he's been around so long and been written about so heavily. Superman is also one of those characters that I never really thought about much until I met my girlfriend. It turned out that she was a big fan, even having a Superman tatoo (she was more of a fan of the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098575865330960702004-10-25T19:55:00.000-05:002004-10-25T20:32:38.150-05:00

I'm beginning to find that just about anything from Ait/PlanetLar is going to be a good read and Abel is no exception. This story is one of lies and how they guide our lives (and as much is said in the afterward by Rachel Pollack). It's also a story of two boys, their family, and the town they live in. It's also a story of misdirection. It's also really, really good. The story starts off

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098575588625924532004-10-24T10:34:00.000-05:002004-10-24T10:45:36.213-05:00

This trade paperback, War Drums, from DC collects Detective Comics #790-796 and Robin #126-128 and also serves as the prelude to 2004's Bat-title uber crossover, War Games. Whenever a gigantic crossover comes along in any of the big comic families (X-Men, Superman, Avengers, Batman, etc.) I always wait for the trade. I just never liked the concept of buying a bunch of comics I don't usually buy

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098479505352352732004-10-22T16:04:00.000-05:002004-10-24T10:44:21.443-05:00

Well, since no one has left a comment on this site yet (you can do so by clicking that little link at the bottom of a post that says "Please Comment"), I thought I'd put up something to vote on over the weekend. Maybe this will get some discussion started in the commments! Anyhow, below is a list of comic series that I have sitting around waiting to read. Let me know which you'd like for me to

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098330094325231162004-10-21T14:15:00.000-05:002004-10-21T15:10:10.976-05:00

Is it just a rule that when you write the X-men, you have to do it in such a heavy-handed way that it makes readers want to cry? In this little three issue mini, Joe Pruett managed to cram more text in than Claremont does in six issues. I know, that's quite a feat, but he pulls it off wonderfully, which means that in reading this mini I was horribly bored. This is the story of how Magneto came

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098134109959724332004-10-18T16:35:00.000-05:002004-10-18T16:39:24.723-05:00

These issues make up the end of 2002-2004's iteration of the Weapon X series. Oddly enough, over the last few years this has actually been my favorite of the myriad of X-Men comic book series that are out there (outside of Morrison's New X-Men run). For starters, this series has always been about the bad guys, many of them second tier villains that are not seen very often. Adding to that is the

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1098021350989364502004-10-17T08:45:00.000-05:002004-10-17T08:55:50.990-05:00

Since there was such a cliffhanger in volume I, I had to go pull out volume II of my Tellos collection and see how the story ended. With Kindred Spirits, I was again transported to a magical world with talking animals, magic, and a couple of unlikely heroes who have set out to save the entire realm. I'm not going to reveal too much about the plot because if you're anything like me, a story like

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1097845465011571852004-10-15T07:48:00.000-05:002004-10-15T08:05:33.366-05:00

Reluctant Heroes collects the first five issues of the Tellos comic book series from Image comics along with the Prelude and Prologue. I originally bought this trade paperback, along with a few other Tellos books for my girlfriend. She really enjoys fantasy styled comics (which there aren't a ton of at the moment since CrossGen folded) and this one looked to be one she could really enjoy because

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1097685271544277282004-10-13T11:34:00.000-05:002004-10-13T11:34:31.543-05:00

With Christopher Reeve's passing, I found that I had a sudden urge to start reading some Superman titles again. Appropriately for the moment, I finally read Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? This story is supposedly the last Superman story, but in actuality it was simply a filler story to fill the last couple of issues of Superman's titles before John Byrne revamped him.

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1097599807885507352004-10-12T11:46:00.000-05:002004-10-12T11:55:51.980-05:00

Oddly enough, after attending a comic book convention on Saturday (at which I bought many a Superman comic), the man who will embody the character of Superman in most people's minds, Christopher Reeve, passed away on Sunday. Most of the time I wouldn't pay attention to a celebrity death, but this time it's different. Mr. Reeve wasn't your stereotypical celebrity. Ever since the horse riding

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1096987123107954082004-10-05T10:34:00.000-05:002004-10-05T10:57:02.996-05:00

I've been a huge Paul Jenkins fan for a while now. He has yet to disappoint me and his work on Sentry and Inhumans are some of my favorite stories of the last few years. Instead of taking superheroes in the more traditional direction, he has always given them a more grounded feel. Werewolf by Night isn't really a superhero tale, but Jenkins still keeps his grounded storytelling tone and also

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1096769034586025092004-10-02T20:49:00.000-05:002004-10-02T21:05:17.620-05:00

This little four issue mini is the first batch of comics I've ever read from now defunct publisher First Comics. My first impression after reading through the beautiful 100+ pages of trippy storytelling is that this really felt like a Vertigo title. It could have just as easily been written by Moore, Morrison, or Gaiman. Instead, I was surprised to see it was written by a freelance technical

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1096560461378817442004-09-30T09:28:00.000-05:002004-09-30T11:07:41.380-05:00

Marvel put out a lot of unneccesary crap in the 90's and this 3 issue mini-series is a prime example of some of that crap. There really is no reason for this series to exist, but I picked it up anyhow because it was written by Kurt Busiek. Yeah, the same Kurt Busiek that's known for NOT writing crap. The premise of this series is treading on "already done this a thousand times over" territory. A

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1096467989973371062004-09-29T09:07:00.000-05:002004-09-29T09:26:29.973-05:00

I got this little two issue series from 1997 in an ebay lot of an assortment of X-Men issues. I figured that since it was a small two-issue miniseries that there wouldn't be a ton of continuity and whatnot that I'd have to know to read it so I picked them out of my back issue "to read" box and dived in. It turns out that these two issues collect 8 of the back up stories that were in early issues

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1096341608054834932004-09-27T22:09:00.000-05:002004-09-27T22:22:26.126-05:00

This set of seven issues consist of the final arc of the Firearm series. These final seven issues are also one long story arc (which actually spans into some issues of Prime, Freex, and Nightman as well) as opposed to most of the rest of the series which were usually "done in one" or low issue count stories. Simply put, this arc has been one of the better arcs I've read in quite a while. It

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1095971662793414102004-09-23T15:29:00.000-05:002004-09-23T15:37:17.093-05:00

This is my first experience with Lobo. I've been a little gun shy to read anything involving him since I remember many people hated anything with him in it back in the 90's. For some reason, I thought he would be like DC version of Wolverine simply by catching a few snippets of how he talked in various promo stuff I had seen with him in it. I might not have been that far off considering Lobo has

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1095867801195015362004-09-22T10:34:00.000-05:002004-09-22T10:46:47.240-05:00

I think there is a reason that if you take two letters in 'nameless' and switch them around you get 'lameness', because that's exactly what this black & white 5 issue mini from Image is. Written by Joe Pruett and illustrated by Phillip Hester, this series felt like a really bad B-movie made into a comic. This series also serves as a perfect example of really poorly done decompressed storytelling

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1095790136706190452004-09-21T13:33:00.000-05:002004-09-22T10:34:33.913-05:00

In the heydays of the 90's every company seemed to be making a grab for the big time. In wanting to start their own universe to compete with Marvel, DC, Image, and Valiant, Malibu created the Ultraverse where all people with super powers were referred to as "ultras". Oddly enough, with this series, the main character is not an ultra. No, instead this title is more of an action/adventure/secret

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407305.post-1095731409461921602004-09-20T19:50:00.000-05:002004-09-20T20:50:09.463-05:00

While cruising around the comic blogosphere, I often read tons and tons of people reviews and opinions on new releases. It seems like everyone has a say on each and every new issue that comes out. What I have yet to find is a blog that looks at back issue comics. Some people, such as myself, are interested in actually buying some of those comics you see sitting in those nice, long, white boxes

Rick Gebhardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15916797529791429382noreply@blogger.com0