comics

The Death of a Star

About a month ago, I received an electronic missive bearing some ill news for me and my artistic kin. Star Clipper, a locally owned and operated St. Louis comic store, announced that it was going out of business.

When people first found out, it was like a massive outcry that spread throughout the St. Louis community. In the days after the announcement, people flew into the store in droves. Some, as one might expect, came as carrion birds, coming in search of a bargain from the still warm body of the store. Most, however, came as a surge of healing hands to apply pressure to the wound in the hopes of staving off death until a miracle could occur to save Star Clipper’s life. Sadly, while their intentions were noble, it would do little good in this case. Star Clipper was closing its doors for good in the very near future, and the Delmar Loop would never be the same as a result. Read Full Article

Review | Empowered by Adam Warren

Every reader has at least one book or series that can best be defined as a “guilty pleasure.” You don’t read it because everyone else did, or because it’s intellectually stimulating, or even because you might want to recommend it to others. You read it simply because you like it, it makes you laugh, and maybe gives you a cheap thrill.

However, every once in a while, a guilty pleasure can surprise you. It becomes something more than what it was in its origins, something deeper than what you thought it was capable of being. This was my experience with Adam Warren’s Empowered, a graphic novel series published through Dark Horse Comics.

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Review | Sky Doll by Barbara Canepa & Alessandro Barbucci

For the last week I have been knocked out with a relatively short-lived but vicious cold, confining me to a world where the only entertainment to be had was whatever was in arms reach. So, after watching a few movies and indulging in a little of the twelve day Simpsons marathon (oh, the nostalgia!), I started rifling through the books on my shelves. From that venture I rediscovered an old favorite from about four years ago, Sky Doll by Barbara Canepa & Alessandro Barbucci, so I decided to give it a review for old times’ sake.

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Review | Proof by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo

So, for part five on my ongoing series about the changing face of Image I’m going to discuss a series that, combined with the discovery of Chew, made me give Image a second chance.  To make a horrible pun, it’s Proof that Image has more to offer than beefed-up superheroes.

Proof, written by Alex Grecian and illustrated by Riley Rossmo, is a series that was first described to me as a combination of Men in Black and X-Files, with the part of Mulder being played by a sasquatch named John “Proof” Prufrock.  Read Full Article

The Changing Image of Image (Comics)

For the longest time I had a slight prejudice against anything produced by Image Comics.  It wasn’t because of any particular creator, character or event, but mainly because most Image creations seemed the same to me, or at least they weren’t shockingly different than most of the other comic creations out there.  True, they tended to dwell on a darker breed of superhero with more muscles and less realistic proportions, but they were still your typical superhero stories.  Battles were fought, villains defeated, and the status quo maintained, nothing Marvel and DC didn’t do or didn’t do better. Read Full Article