The Return of Rick Remender & Matteo Scalera's Black Science...

... is the topic of discussion this week in Thee Comic Column, over there on Joup!

Grant Morrison & Frazer Irving's Annihilator...

...is the topic of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column over there on Joup. Published monthly by Legendary Comics (that's the comics arm of Legendary Pictures, the fine folks who endeared themselves to me forever by releasing The Dark Knight Rises and Pacific Rim) Annihilator's first issue sets up what I'm thinking is going to be one hell of a unique tale by mind-fuck master Grant Morrison, with beautiful art by Frazer Irving, who did some of the creepiest art I've ever seen in both Morrison's Klarion the Witch Boy and the penultimate arc of his Batman and Robin series.

My Suggestions for the Top 5 Graphic Novels Everyone Should Read

This week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup is the 100th edition! To celebrate I've compiled this list - it's not necessarily a list of my favorite five - though it's probably close - but the suggestions I would give to anyone - my mom, your sister, Sister Ray, Billy Joel - whoever on how to break in to comics. Because honestly, I feel these books transcend whatever anyone could expect of them and could all shatter whatever misconceptions keep people from giving the comics/GN's a fair shake.

Stray Toasters!

Bill Sienkiewicz's Stray Toasters is the topic of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup. This book freaked me out as a kid and, honesty, still freaks me out to this day.

Guardians of the Galaxy...

...is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column on Joup. However, this is not a review of the film, so much as an exploration of what this movie means to comics and how time and technology have, specifically in the case of Sci Fi, affected the way we interpret Story.

Nick Cave and 20,000 Days on Earth

image courtesy of meltcomics.com

Last night my wife and I attended the premiere of the new film 20,000 Days on Earth. It is a fictional documentary about Mr. Cave, and probably my favorite film of 2014 (definitely up until this point it is). Read about it on Joup here, where I've also posted Mr. Cave and his Bad Seed's masterpiece And No More Shall We Part as my entry into this week's The Joup Friday Album column.

The Empty Man... and Trees... and The Superannuated Man

image courtesy of ComicBookResources.com

... is the topic of today's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

Come to think of it, I've been so busy I've not posted the last two links for my column here. Let's remedy that now because last week's was Warren Ellis and Jason Howard's awesome Trees:

image courtesy of BrokenFrontier.com

And the week before that was Ted McKeever's new book - which I am in love with - The Superannuated Man!

image courtesy of ImageComics.com

Bernie Wrightson & Steve Niles' Frankenstein Alive, Alive!

image courtesy of comixology.com

Issue #3 of the sequel to Bernie Wrightson's original visual adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel hit the stands this past week and as such is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

Interview w/ Gun Up Paintball Creator Cassidy James

Art by Marco Roblin, image courtesy of the Gun Up Paintball kickstarter page

Is what's on tap at Thee Comic Column over on Joup this week. Hear what he has to say about his book, the Kickstarter and the process of creating the book!

Larry Hama, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green's Wolverine

image courtesy of marvel.wikia.com

is the topic in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup. To me, there are several issues of this creative team's run that really forms the backbone of a great character that, unfortunately, has subsequently been done to death. I still dig the ol' Canucklehead, but there are very few writers who still write the character well - probably mostly because of editorial intervention, which I think tends to play way to big a part in monthly, serialized comics by the big two and often has things beside the story or characters' best interests in mind.

Just sayin'.

Transformers: Regeneration One - The Epic Conclusion

I really hate to see this book go! Seriously, for the record I very strongly dislike the movies. I watched the first one in the theatre and almost had a freakin' seizure from rolling my eyes so much. Hate would probably not be too strong a word. But Simon Furman's run on this, the twenty-years in the making conclusion to his late 80's/early 90's run on the classic Marvel comic is fantastic. It's also the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column over on Joup!

Garth Ennis & Facundo Percio's Caliban

image courtesy of www.geekpr0n.com

... is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, right over here on Joup.

Sequart's Documentary about Chris Claremont's Epic Run on Uncanny X-Men

image courtesy of Marvel.com

...is out and ready to watch. I ordered my copy last night and wrote this week's Thee Comic Column about it. Available on Joup!

The Conclusion to Garth Ennis and Craig Cermak's Red Team...

image courtesy of comixology.com

...was fantastic. I talk more about it in this week's Thee Comic Column on Joup.

Joup Team-Up! Chester Whelks & I Talk Twin Peaks

image courtesy of cogito-ergo-doleo.tumblr.com

The inimitable Chester Whelks recently asked me about doing a two-man article pertaining to the final episode of Twin Peaks for our beloved Joup. This, of course, in honor of the aforementioned 25 Years since Special Agent Dale Cooper entered the Black Lodge. The link below will act as a mason jar of scorched engine oil; click it and you will draw back a crimson curtain. We will be known to you then and ready to talk about our own individual experiences with the series and that massive, massive final episode.

kcoR s'teL

Stray Bullets!!!

image courtesy of comicsalliance.com

The return of David Lapham's Stray Bullets is what's on tap in this week's issue of Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

David Lynch - Twin Peaks 25 Years Later...

So I'm not entirely sure how I missed this. Obviously, if you drop by here at least once in a while you'll see my output is waaay down. So busy. It's work, and it's reaching 412 usable pages in my novel and still going strong (probably about double that when you add exploratory/what's getting tossed or re-worked). Then there's Drinking with Comics. Then there's comics. Today was the return - after 8 years - of David Lapham's Stray Bullets. I woke up at 4:30 AM, got to work by 5:41 AM, left work at about 2:45 PM, drove to The Comic Bug, picked up my pull list, which included the looooooong awaited Stray Bullets #41, which finally gave closure to an 8 year cliffhanger and wrapped up the Hi-Jinks and Derring-Doo phase of the book and saw, also today, the launch of Stray Bullets: Killers #1. Lapham promises it gets better from here. I believe him. I'm really sorry to say good bye to Virginia Applejack though, even if only for an issue. Anyway, more about SB in Thee Comic Column this week on Saturday. For now I brought it up to say I gave myself a day off, came home from the shop, smoked and read my comics. It was nice, oh so nice.

In the interim my friend Chester from Joup sent me this link and I was just blown away. I'm very close to a re-watching of Twin Peaks and this might just be the thing that puts me over the edge.

Larime Taylor's A Voice in the Dark...

image courtesy of tvtropes.com

...is on tap in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column on Joup. Check it out.

Chester Whelks and the Sunday Song Poem

image courtesy of bostonphoenix.com

Okay, for my money this is the strangest, most interesting and actually kind of downright frightening column I've been reading lately. Over on Joup Chester delves into the art and history of the Song Poem. If you - like I - don't know what that is then go here to the inaugural edition of the column and read Mr. Whelks' description, then go through the other four posts (thus far) and acquaint yourselves with... well, madness.

Column 2 Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers

Column 3 Octopus Woman Please Let Me Go

Column 4 The Crime Shows

Garth Ennis & Phil Winslade's Goddess...

image courtesy of trav73.wordpress.com

...is the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup. Read it HERE.