Comic World News | Pull List

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

7 Days to Fame #2

Also: Super-Scary Monster Show, Necromancer, Captain America, and The Legion of Super-Heroes

7 Days to Fame #2 (After Hours Press)
Written by Buddy Scalera; Illustrated by Dennis Budd
It sounds like the most gimmicky premise on the planet: a reality show on which people commit suicide. Something that gimmicky has got to be bad, right? There�s no story there, just shock value, right? Wrong. 7 Days to Fame isn�t about the show. It�s about the show�s host and producer. It�s about how they�re affected by accidentally stumbling across this outrageous concept for a show and having it become wildly successful. There�s certainly commentary here on TV viewers and where our culture�s voyeuristic tendencies might be taking us, but the observations are so wrapped up in and disguised by the characters, that you�re too engrossed in the story to ever feel preached at. Honestly� this is a good, good comic.

The Super-Scary Monster Show: featuring Little Gloomy #3 (SLG)
Written by Landry Quinn Walker; Illustrated by Eric Jones
This comic has slipped past me so far due to a title that�s unfortunately very similar to Steve Niles and Butch Adams�s excellent Very Big Monster Show, which was also a light-hearted look at classic horror monsters. It also unfortunately features a cute, little goth girl as its lead character. Not that there�s anything intrinsically wrong with cute, little goth girls, it�s just that there�s so darn many of them that I wasn�t exactly pulled towards another comic about one. That�s too bad for me though, because in dismissing it unread, I�ve been missing out. It�s a cute comic that avoids becoming annoying by being really, really funny. Little Gloomy may not be an entirely original concept for a character, but then again the whole idea behind Super-Scary Monster Show is to have fun with conventional, familiar horror characters. Not �make fun of� them. That�s a distinction that needs to be made. This isn�t parody; there�s no mean spirit here. Walker and Jones are obviously very fond of characters like Frankenstein, mummies, werewolves, Cthulhu, and cute, little goth girls. And their comic is effective in inviting you to share and celebrate that affection with them.

The Necromancer #4 (Top Cow)
Written by Joshua Ortega; Illustrated by Francis Manapul
This series continues to prove itself a dark, straightforward horror story, spiced with good, honest (as opposed to overly dramatic) teen angst. There�s no tongue, and there�s no cheek. If Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been more like this, I would�ve been more inclined to watch it.

Captain America #14 (Marvel)
Written by Ed Brubaker; Illustrated by Steve Epting
�The Winter Soldier� story ends just as darkly and emotionally as it began. I�m not gonna spoil anything if you haven�t read it yet, but you need this when it comes out in a trade paperback collection. Best Captain America story ever.

Legion of Super-Heroes #14 (DC)
Written by Mark Waid; Illustrated by Ken Lashley and Adam DeKraker
My favorite issues of ongoing super-hero books are the wind-down issues after a long, draining story arc. Chris Claremont used to dedicate an entire issue to the X-Men playing baseball or something like that. Maybe he still does, I don�t know. Anyway, it�s where a lot of the character-work is done. You find out more about characters in their quiet moments than you do when they�re fighting alien invaders or trying to save the world from a would-be tyrant. And that�s what this issue is. It�s full of good stuff like the long-awaited debut of Shrinking Violet and her confrontation with the Invisible Kid who may or may not have lied about her early in the series. Lightening Lad and Saturn Girl struggle with figuring out the Legion�s direction now that Cosmic Boy has taken a leave of absence, and we also get to see the �dark side of fandom,� which � surprisingly � is in the story itself and not in the letters pages that are once again presented and responded to in comics form by members of the Legion. There�s humor, drama, and even some fisticuffs. The perfect issue.