Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
There are so few mystery comics out there — not thrillers, not blood-soaked serial killer books — and one of the all-time best is The Maze Agency. I gave a brief history of the series back in 2006. The series was created and written by Mike W. Barr. The first artist was Alan Davis, for an ashcan, and once the series started (at the end of 1988), the first few issues were Adam Hughes’ first regular continuing work, inked by […]
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Seeing a note about Time Breakers having one day left in its crowdfunding campaign got me wondering — just how many of the Helix titles have been reborn? Helix was a DC imprint, back when they had lots of those, dedicated to science fiction (loosely applied, as they also had a vampire comic). Wikipedia says it ran 1996-1998, which sounds about right. It’s best remembered these days for launching Transmetropolitan, the future-painted Hunter S. Thompson comic by Warren Ellis that […]
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I don’t read historical manga much any more, as I find not understanding the references off-putting. I gave this a try because a smart editor mentioned to me that it was by Ken Saito, author of The Name of the Flower, which I remembered enjoying when CMX put it out 15 years ago. I’m glad I did, because this setup is intriguing. Tales of the Tendo Family is out next week from One Peace Books. The characters are a bit […]
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Magnetic Press not only puts out graphic novels, they also release art books, and one of them was right up my alley. I’ve mentioned their edition of A Study in Scarlet before, when it was on sale last Thanksgiving. However, I was recently reminded that I was remiss in congratulating the artist, Vincent Mallié, on receiving a Doylean Honor this past January. The honors are awarded yearly by the ACD Society, “a community dedicated to studying and enjoying the works […]
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Out next week, on April 3, is Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #1, the first issue of a five-part miniseries. Per the publisher, Dark Horse, in this story, Usagi and Yukichi rescue a merchant being attacked by bandits, only to discover that the person they rescued is a criminal with a huge reward. Which means the bounty hunters Gen and Stray Dog and others are also after him! As always, the series is written and illustrated by Stan Sakai, with colors […]
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The easiest way to get me to read something new these days is to tell me how much you were influenced by Sherlock Holmes. (This should not surprise my readers.) I found Sheridan Bell and the Vanishing Beast at the recent “Nerd Made: Madison“, put on by Madison Makers Market. It was kind of an arts and crafts fair for geeks. The author, Em Rowene, had a table and explained to me how the main character here, Sheridan Bell, was […]
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The best-known Sherlock Holmes to many folks these days was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC series. It ran 2010-2017 and consisted of 13 episodes (including the historical special The Abominable Bride). There’s even a comic adaptation! However, the series hasn’t been easy to find lately. Of course, there are always the physical discs to purchase (or maybe check out from your library). But the show left Netflix back in 2021. It’s been available on BritBox since then, but […]
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I found the author’s previous Sherlockian work, My Dear Watson, a chore to get through, but this followup took a different approach that I much preferred. In that earlier book by L.A. Fields, the premise is that Holmes and Watson are lovers, and the un-first-named Mrs. Watson knows that. The book then consists of her making jealous remarks about them while retelling great amounts of existing stories and cases. She doesn’t like Holmes much at all, for obvious reasons, and […]
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