Category: Comics

Screenshot from the trailer for Swamp Thing, where a swamp is covered in dry ice fog as the titular Swamp Thing carries a scantily-clad Barbeau through the moist forest

A Plant for the 21st Century: Swamp Thing (1982) on 4K from MVD

By Orrin Grey • August 18th, 2023

Swamp Thing takes a lot more swings at being “crowd-pleasing” than anything Wes Craven had worked on in the past.

Feature Story

Whatever Knows Fear

By Orrin Grey • May 23rd, 2023

The uncanny history of Marvel’s muck monster.

Mind Palaces

A scene from Dune shows the silhouette of a man looking out across a vast expanse of organized troops in a desert landscape.

Honor Among Adaptations

By Maddi Chilton • May 4th, 2023

A faithful adaptation can be satisfying, but an unfaithful adaptation can be invigorating.

The Heavy Pour

Several monstrous costume pieces hanging in a booth at New York Comicon, including masks for Scream's Ghostface and Jason's hockey mask from the Friday the 13th franchise.

The Monsters We Make

By Sara Clemens • December 13th, 2022

As storytellers, the monsters we make are so often just mirrors.

Casting Deep Meteo

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Taxonomy of Monsters

By Levi Rubeck • November 9th, 2022

Barry Windsor-Smith is a veteran of superhero comics, and as such, knows that you can’t title a book Monsters without a menagerie of such.

The Atlantis Bestiary

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • August 15th, 2022

Every once in a while, we stumble upon a true treasure.

Gamer’s Handbook of the Marvel Universe

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • July 11th, 2022

Make ours Marvel (circa 1988)!

The Heavy Pour

Detail of a red brick wall hand-drawn in colored pencil.

What to Do for Dinner

By Sara Clemens • June 7th, 2022

Some people make decisions like *that.*

Two panels of a larger comic strip in which a rich man is served a plate of ice cream while a fool takes notice.

A Fool’s Cap and a Plate of Ice Cream

By Peter Newell and Sara Clemens • May 11th, 2022

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit!

I Played It, Like, Twice...

Versus Mode: Batman: The Animated Series – Rogues Gallery x Sinister Six

By Orrin Grey • April 5th, 2022

To be honest, at the time I played Rogues Gallery, I had never so much as heard of Sinister Six. Once I had played them both, though, the startling similarity of their concepts was enough to make me briefly wonder if they shared a designer.

Exploits Feature

What We Never Saw

By Orrin Grey • January 31st, 2022

Where the Saw franchise didn’t go, but maybe should have.

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A close-up portrait of Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein, wearing futuristic green goggles and her Green Lantern uniform. Green beams of light shine from her ring. She is smirking.

A New Kind of Green Lantern Story

By Harry Rabinowitz • January 25th, 2022

A murder mystery at its core, Far Sector interrogates the idea of a peaceful society while delivering on action, intrigue, style and heart.

The Heavy Pour

I Know You Are but What Am I?

By Sara Clemens • January 10th, 2022

Little Sara sends a message to an old pal.

The Heavy Pour

A bird's-eye view of the 2021 New York Comic Con show floor.

Return with the Elixir

By Sara Clemens • November 10th, 2021

Dispatches from a post-pandemic New York Comic Con.

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A comic book panel showing a labyrinthine cluster of buildings, with a focus on a small figure entering an archway while saying "one more time."

ShortBox Indie Sampler

By Harry Rabinowitz • November 3rd, 2021

When it comes to short, complete comics, the indie section is king.

The Heavy Pour

Medusa

By Sara Clemens • September 30th, 2021

A retelling.

Exploits Feature

Tomie

By Yussef Cole • August 31st, 2021

She is the fantasy and the nightmare, all at once.

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An imitation of the cover from Days of Future Past where a character protects another.

Disaster Comics for My Disaster Self

By Harry Rabinowitz • August 4th, 2021

3 Absurd and Wild Comics for an Absurd and Wild Summer

The Heavy Pour

An illustrated Gillian Anderson in bed with David Duchovny and Chris Carter based on the iconic photo.

Creep

By Sara Clemens • May 14th, 2021

Whatever makes you happy. Whatever you want.

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A shadowy figure stands near a mangled bicycle at the edge of the woods while holding a machete.

The Monster in the Woods

By Harry Rabinowitz • May 7th, 2021

There’s something out there, its hungry, and it’s got a taste for kids.

Eyeing Elsewhere

What Happens Next?

By Phillip Russell • April 6th, 2021

Phil’s thinking about the ending of things.

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Urasawa’s Biggest Series

By Harry Rabinowitz • March 2nd, 2021

Naoki Urasawa is kind of a big deal.

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50 Years Later, Superman Defeats the Klan Again

By Harry Rabinowitz • February 10th, 2021

Superman punching Nazis, chucking Klansmen and standing up for diversity has never been this good.

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A Year at a Comics Store

By Harry Rabinowitz • December 28th, 2020

If you ever encounter a good bookseller, be nice to them. Okay? Okay.

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Avatar Forever

By Harry Rabinowitz • December 21st, 2020

Writer Gene Luen Yang understands exactly what made Avatar great, and continues the magic in comic book form.

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Coven Edition

By Harry Rabinowitz • November 13th, 2020

Witchy comic recommendations for our resident hexers.

Beasts & Behemoths and More!

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • September 28th, 2020

Jim Zub is back hanging out with us this week and he’s brought along a couple of comic books, an RPG supplement and a new Young Adventurer’s Guide!

Traces

There’s No Youth Anymore

By Diego Nicolás Argüello • September 28th, 2020

Deadly Class, the thrill of lying to your parents and the fading of freedom.

Zot‘s Utopian Dream

By Grace Benfell • September 14th, 2020

“This world is worth fighting for. It is not dead yet.”

promotional image for the webtoon Love or Hate featuring the three main characters in an erotic embrace.

Digital Fuckery: The Monetization of WebToons

By Amanda Hudgins • September 2nd, 2020

These systems are designed to keep the reader in place, to keep them reading as long as possible and on the same sites, spending currency in the same place.

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Descending Into Yourself

By Harry Rabinowitz • September 2nd, 2020

Iasmin Omar Ata has published a hard and honest debut novel tackling epilepsy, isolation and illness

Self Insert

Quarantine Fics

By Amanda Hudgins • August 10th, 2020

When the entire world is on lockdown, even alternate universes start hitting closer to home.

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The Movement Marches On

By Harry Rabinowitz • August 6th, 2020

Now and then, the privileged and the powerful imply that the “right way” to protest is not to protest at all. John Lewis stands against that.

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The Power of Perspective

By Harry Rabinowitz • July 7th, 2020

The Nameless City is a story about power, privilege and history’s bias. It’s also a story of two kids doing a bunch of parkour.

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The Road to Dawn

By Harry Rabinowitz • June 12th, 2020

On a road trip and in Tillie Walden’s Are You Listening?, the “frontiers” are less about physical locations and more about us.

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Buck Destiny

By Harry Rabinowitz • May 14th, 2020

In Norroway, is destiny something to fulfill or defy?

Feature Excerpt

Sticks and Stones Might Break My Bones But Words Will Never Hurt Me

By Autumn Wright • May 4th, 2020

Marvel’s New Warriors series is an attempt to land the most expensive “how ya doing fellow kids” meme in the history of late capitalism.

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New Kid on Earth

By Harry Rabinowitz • April 9th, 2020

Space Boy Volume 1 proves that – even eons into the future – moving still sucks.

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It’s Just a Game

By Harry Rabinowitz • March 11th, 2020

DIE Volume 1 asks: if your game becomes real, can you still treat it like a game?

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Middlewest and the Scars of Parental Abuse

By Harry Rabinowitz • February 12th, 2020

When you peel back its fantasy veneer, Middlewest Book One is a story of parental abuse and the scars, both literal and figurative, it leaves.