NO-PRIZE LIKE THE PRESENT: This Column is In Continuity

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By Zach Rabiroff — Continuity is a dirty word. Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story contains a quote from the turn of the millennium in which Hollywood executives scoffed at the “Talmudic continuity scholars in Marvel editorial” whose loyalty to “the holy litany of Stan and Jack” made comics impenetrable to anyone outside the Android’s Dungeon. It’s an ethos that has taken firm hold over the past two decades, as a greater commitment to the individual whims of creators and a desire to clean the slate for a new (and potentially imaginary) crop of young readers have combined to make the story of the Marvel Universe something more like credit reading than a sacred text.

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NO-PRIZE LIKE THE PRESENT: The World Outside Your Window

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This is the beginning of an ongoing series about Marvel Comics: the issues, creators, and general zeitgeist that surround a comics company that’s been a part of my cultural scenery for as long as I can remember. It was going to be an opportunity for me to talk about the things I’ve always loved about this particular constellation of characters: the commitment bordering on obsession to the ongoing story of a shared universe; the mixture of soap opera melodrama and unapologetic heroics; the rare but transcendent moments when a writer and artist work together to create something that goes beyond superhero adventure and becomes genuine lasting art.

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June 2020 Comics Solicitations - UPDATED

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By Zack Quaintance — New comics releases started to trickle out again in May 2020, but the industry (and the country) was far from at full strength. With shelter-in-place orders still in effect for many of the largest population centers in the country, even with new comics coming out it was difficult for many readers to get access to them. This is all slowly changing, and the new comics release schedule for June 2020 is reflective of that.

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The Mighty Thor #337 - Classic Comic of the Week

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By d. emerson eddy — When a new creative team takes over a long running property, there are a number of ways they can approach it. Sometimes it's a seamless transition, carrying on some of the plot threads and characters of previous teams, other times it's a complete overhaul of what's come before. Of these latter, some of them live on in memory as near complete reinterpretations of the characters, new ways to think of them, that are absolutely mind-blowing. Among the most long-lived and beloved reinterpretations, we've got Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, Doom Patrol #19, Swamp Thing #140, and Daredevil #227. As well as another of my favorites, The Mighty Thor #337, from Walter Simonson, George Roussos, and John Workman.

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3 comics things I liked and didn’t like, including continuity (!!), a new Animal Man trade, and Strange Adventures REACTIONS

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By Zack Quaintance — One week is an accident, two weeks is a reason for a conern, and three weeks is officially a trend. Thankfully, this is just the second week I’ve been a bit late posting my comics things I liked and didn’t like from the past week. So, go ahead and be concerned but don’t call this a trend just yet.

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