Comics

Comic books and graphic novels

Mon
04
May

Science fiction meets spy games in Valiant's Dead Drop

Dead Drop #1

Written by: Ales Kot
Art by: Adam Gorham
Cover by: Raul Allen
Colored by: Michael Spicer
Lettered by: VC's Dave Sharpe

Published by: Valiant
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Sun
03
May

Front Lines - Convergence Week 4 (Part 2), Secret Wars 0, Divergence

By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Convergence:  Infinity Inc #1 by Jerry Ordway and Ben Caldwell

Worlds Featured: Metropolis (Pre-Crisis Earth 2) and Atlanta (Hex)

Sat
02
May

Front Lines - Convergence Week 4 (Part 1 of 2)

by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Convergence #4

Summary: This issue starts with Telos explaining what’s going on to Earth-2 Dick Grayson.  Brainiac saved these cities and tasked Telos with terraforming this world for them.  But, Telos needs to decide who would make a strong society worthy of this world.  So he decided to have them all fight it out.   He wraps the paralyzed Dick Grayson in some kind of liquid metal that helps him regain his mobility.  

Fri
01
May

Heathen, a Kickstarter Graphic Novel You Need To See

Heathen by Natasha Alterici -- Back it on Kickstarter!

I love to browse Kickstarter for cool new inventions, clever board games and exciting graphic novels. Recently I came across Heathena new graphic novel project from Oklahoma-based artist Natasha Alterici. After reading the synopsis, I immediately backed her project. I then contacted Natasha to learn more about the project, her interest in comic books, and herself. 

Tell me a little about yourself and how you came to be doing a Kickstarter for this graphic novel project? What drew you, no pun intended, to the comic medium? And who are done of your artistic influences? Your style on Heathen reminds me of Ashley Wood, which isn't a bad thing!

Fri
01
May

Open Mike Night - Fantastic Four #645 & Team America #12

Fantastic Four #645

Tue
28
Apr

Zenescope takes us back to Oz one last time (Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen #1)

One of the things Zenescope is known best for is they have a variety of series that are modern day versions of various classic and fairy tale stories, most notably their Grimm and Oz lines. So, when I heard that Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen was supposed to be a very good jumping on point for Oz, I decided to check it out.

Before I get into the review, I do want to say that one of the early impressions I had about these books was that they had done a lot of cheesecake redesigns for the characters. In fact, when you search for “Zenescope Grimm” on Google, one of the first images that comes up is this: 

Tue
28
Apr

The Longbox Short-List - Week of April 29, 2015

Convergence Multiversity NCBD comic books

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics Shipping This Week

Mon
27
Apr

The Charmed Ones prepare to take on The Old Ones (Charmed Season 10, Issue 7)

Charmed Season 10 #7

Written by: Pat Shand
Art by: Dimat
Cover by: David Seidman
Colored by: Valentina Cuomo
Lettered by: Christy Sawyer

Published by: Zenescope
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Even though I just reviewed Charmed a few months ago, this was supposed to be a good jump on issue for new readers, so I decided to give it another shot.  This story was mostly a stand alone story, though there was a lot here that provided closure to hanging story threads, and a lot of setup for future storylines too.

Sun
26
Apr

Front Lines - Convergence Week 3 (part 2 of 2)

Convergence: Justice League of America #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Chriscross

Sat
25
Apr

Front Lines - Convergence Week 3 - (Part 1 of 2)

DC Comics Convergence Critical Blast Review Front Lines

Convergence Week 3 by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

This week, we have Pre-Crisis Gotham City, New York City (Kamandi), Gotham City (Red Rain), Central City (Tangent), Durale (OMAC), and Pre-Crisis Legion Metropolis as our combatants...though I will say up front, you don’t get to see much of these characters in many of the tie-ins.


Convergence #3 by Jeff King and Stephen Segovia

Fri
24
Apr

Marvel Teams Up With Telltale Games

Very interesting news posted by Gamespot this morning:

Today during a special event in San Francisco, Telltale Games and Marvel Games announced a partnership for a new game due out in 2017.

The event is ongoing; we'll have more details on the new game as they become available.

Telltale has also published a blog post about this announcement, though it doesn't offer much in the way of specifics.

"Announced this evening in San Francisco, we're excited to reveal an all-new partnership with the incredible team at Marvel Entertainment. We'll be teaming up on the development of an upcoming Telltale game series project set to premiere in 2017!"

Source: Gamespot

Thu
23
Apr

Open Mike Night - Runaways Vol. 1 & the Iceman Controversy

By Mike Weaver and Mike Maillaro

Runaways Vol. 1 - Pride and Joy

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan
Art by:  Adrian Alphona

Published by: Marvel

 

Thu
23
Apr

DC Super Hero Girls: Message Received

DC Super Hero Girls

UPDATE (7-7-15): The official website for DC Super Hero Girls is now up and running with full character bios! Head on over to dcsuperherogirls.com to check it out!

DC couldn't have picked a better time to make this announcement. Whether it was planned to do it now, or they saw an opportunity and seized it; it's genius.

On the heels of fans raging about the lack of Black Widow on Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise, DC announced they would be creating an entire line of merchandise and media dedicated to young girls.

DC Super Hero Girls is a new effort to nurture the growing female audience and invest in the future of their strong female characters.

Tue
21
Apr

The Longbox Short-List - Week of April 22, 2015

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics Shipping This Week

I'm going to preface this week's column by saying this is one of the weakest comic weeks I've had in a long time.  Very few books jumped out at me as MUST TALK ABOUT!  And even the few I did, were real stretches.  The only book that I am real excited about is Uncle Scrooge #1...

Mon
20
Apr

Style Trumps Substance in Spy Caper Scarlett Couture

Scarlett Couture Des Taylor Titan Comics Critical Blast

SCARLETT COUTURE is a book that gets your attention through its stylish designs, eye-popping colors, and an overall unique approach. Many of the panels appear to be animation cels overlaid with blurred photo backgrounds that were then flattened to give the piece an overall unified appearance.

Mon
20
Apr

Blast of the Week - Daredevil on Netflix

Mike Maillaro: Welcome to Blast of the Week.  Each week, the Critical Blast staff will post our thoughts about various entertainment and media topics.

This year's topic is Netflix's Daredevil series!

Sun
19
Apr

Front Lines - Convergence Week 2 - (Part 2 of 2)

By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

 

Convergence: Justice League International #1 by Ron Marz & Mike Manley

Summary:The Justice League International (Blue Beetle, Red Tornado, Martain Manhunter, Captain Atom, Fire, and Ice) were trapped in the dome.  Most of them have lost their powers, but they continue to protect an unappreciative Metropolis from threats like Metallo.  The dome comes down, and several heavy hitters from Kingdom Come arrive to challenge them.  

Sat
18
Apr

Front Lines - Convergence Week 2 - (Part 1 of 2)

by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Fri
17
Apr

Open Mike Night - The Punisher Meets Archie & Archie Vs Predator

By Mike Weaver and Mike Maillaro


The Punisher Meets Archie

Written by: Batton Lash
Art by:  John Buscema and Stan Goldberg
Published by: Archie and Marvel

Wed
15
Apr

Super Powers, Shoestring Budget: The Posthuman Project Appeals Despite Flaws

The Posthuman Project Director Kyle Roberts superhero indie film

THE POSTHUMAN PROJECT is an idea we've seen before, any number of times with varying degrees of success, with outings like X-MEN and GEN-13. In this particular version of the trope, the teens are a group of Oklahoma high school kids nearing graduation. To celebrate, they're going to climb a mountain. Denny Burke (Kyle Whalen) is still recovering from falling off a mountain, in a freak accident which also saw his father disappear.

All is not as it seems, however, as Denny and his beleaguered brother, Archie (Collin Place), meet their long-lost Uncle Billy (Jason Leyva), and his unusual offer. Soon enough, the Burke brothers, joined by their friends Adam (Josh Bonzie), Lisa (Alexandra Harris) and Gwen (Lindsay Sawyer) pile into the SUV and drive off to conquer Mount Dominick, which Uncle Billy now owns.

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