The Chronicles of Conan Volume 2: Rogues in the House And Other Stories
Oct22

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 2: Rogues in the House And Other Stories

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 2: Rogues in the House And Other Stories     By the time that issue #9 of Conan the Barbarian came along, writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith had settled into being a very tight team indeed.  The difference between The Garden of Fear and that now primitive-seeming debut issue is vast, both in artwork and storytelling. Here Thomas (as he was to become increasingly adept at doing) adapts one...

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The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant And other Stories
Oct06

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant And other Stories

  The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant And other Stories   As with most Robert E.  Howard fans of a certain age, I came to his most famous creation—Conan of Cimmeria– through the astonishingly successful Lancer paperbacks of the late sixties and early seventies.  It doesn’t matter that most of we hardcore fans now would never look at those volumes, textually unsound as they are.  And in many cases the reason...

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Superior… It’s Not.
Jul21

Superior… It’s Not.

Superior… It’s Not.     I really have to start paying attention to what is going on in the world of comic books again; either that, or just stop recommending them.  Because if Mark Millar’s Superior is what is being considered good work at the moment, then I’ve been doing a great disservice to some of my acquaintances who tend to mock any adult who admits to reading them. “Comics have grown up in the last twenty years”, I’ve been...

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American Splendor: Another Dollar
Aug20

American Splendor: Another Dollar

American Splendor: Another Dollar   The very first copy of Harvey Pekar’s underground comic book American Splendor came out in the States in January of 1976.  Of course it was several years later before I had any inkling that someone was doing something new in what had seemed to be exclusively a world of costumed heroes and stand-up punch-trading.  Back in those days, wherever I was living at least, it was hard enough to get your...

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Life Affirming: The Walking Dead
Mar23

Life Affirming: The Walking Dead

Life Affirming: The Walking Dead     For the past couple of months I’ve been living vicariously through the aftermath of a Zombie Apocalypse, courtesy of Rick Grimes and his fellow cross-country-travelling and changing group of determined survivors.  And of course courtesy of Robert Kirkman, the very talented writer and creator of Image’s series of graphic novels The Walking Dead. I’m a latecomer to the phenomenon that Kirkman...

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The DC Comics Encyclopaedia – The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the Expanded DC Universe – Updated and Expanded
Jan11

The DC Comics Encyclopaedia – The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the Expanded DC Universe – Updated and Expanded

The DC Comics Encyclopaedia The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the Expanded DC Universe Updated and Expanded   When I saw my brother rolling up the street in a fork lift truck I wondered what the devil he had on the end of it.  As it turned out it was my Christmas present, the massive and updated 2009 edition of what is pretty much as ‘definitive’ a book as you’re likely to get on the costumed heroes and heroines of the DC...

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