How Batman Almost Fought Osama bin Laden

Back in 2006, Frank Miller–the cartoonist behind Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, as well as 300 and Sin City–announced that he would be writing and drawing a graphic novel for DC Comics called Holy Terror, in which Batman would take on al-Qaeda and face Osama bin Laden. (“Superman punched out Hitler,” he said at the [...]

Emanata: Superman Vs. America? Nah

It’s worth getting the story of how this whole mess started straight: one of the half-dozen backup features in this week’s Action Comics #900 is a one-off, nine-page story, written by David S. Goyer (who’s writing the screenplays for the forthcoming Superman and Batman movies) and drawn by Miguel Sepulveda, with the unpromising title “The [...]

The Comic Book Club: Action Comics #900 and The Mighty Thor

This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Douglas Wolk, Evan Narcisse and Graeme McMillan talk about Action Comics #900 and The Mighty Thor #1.

The First Superhero Comic Book Hits #900

When the debut issue of Action Comics, cover-dated June 1938, introduced Superman, it became the first superhero comic book as we know it. Action has been appearing more or less monthly ever since–and sometimes more than monthly. (It was actually weekly for most of 1988.) This week, Action Comics #900 comes to comics stores, making [...]

Emanata: Howard Chaykin, Time and Time Again

In a 1987 conversation with Kim Thompson, the exceptional cartoonist Howard Chaykin declared that he wanted to get out of comics: “I would like very much to stop drawing, because I don’t do it out of love, I do it out of labor. I don’t want to continue making my living from motor skills.”

The Comic Book Club: Dark Horse Presents and Hate Annual

This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Douglas Wolk, Evan Narcisse and Graeme McMillan talk about the first issue of the relaunched Dark Horse Presents anthology and Peter Bagge’s Hate Annual #9.

Manga Revolution Apparently Over: Tokyopop to Shut Down

Remember the time, a few years ago, when it looked like manga was going to totally take over American comics? Probably not happening anytime soon: Tokyopop announced on Friday that it’s shutting down its American publishing operations at the end of May. (A German office handling global rights will remain open.)

Emanata: Journey Into Mystery Returns

The official number on the front cover of this week’s issue of Journey Into Mystery is #622, but it’s effectively the first issue of a new series by Kieron Gillen and Dougie Braithwaite. It’s yet another event-driven revival of an old title, the kind of trademark-protecting gesture that big publishers have to do all the [...]

The Comic Book Club: The Eisner Nominees We Missed

This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Evan Narcisse, Douglas Wolk, Matt Peckham and Graeme McMillan talk about a handful of books that were nominated for this year’s Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards that we didn’t review when they were [...]

‘Kick-Ass’ Writer, ‘Watchmen’ Artist to Collaborate

Mark Millar–the comics writer who co-created Kick-Ass and Wanted as comics before they turned into movies, and has lately been working on a cluster of comics at various publishers under the loose umbrella of “Millarworld”–was the central figure of Kapow Comic Con, held this past weekend in London. Millar announced four new comics projects, Comic [...]

Emanata: Notes on This Year’s Eisner Nominees

The nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards–effectively the comics business’s Oscar’s–were announced Thursday night. (The actual award winners will be announced at this July’s Comic-Con International in San Diego.) Half the point of making a short-list of award nominees, of course, is to get people to argue about what’s on them and [...]