Culture

As you may have recalled, Ridley is actually one those big comics fans in Hollywood and spent a while writing comics for Wildstorm, including a run on the Authority, the mini-series Razor's Edge: Warblade, and The American Way. The latter is a book that really deserves to be on more comics reading lists—an 8 issue mini-series drawn by Georges Jeanty and Karl Story that has similar themes to Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier about the cold war and superheroes, but treats them with a much harsher view. The book follows the government's development of the Civil Defense Corps, a pr-driven team of superheroes introduced in the early 60s, and the turmoil that stem from the first African-American member in the Civil Rights era. A lot of comics mini-series have tried to be "the Next Watchmen" and The American Way is one of the few series that takes that tired "What if superheroes really existed???" idea and gives it a take based on the real world and not the imagined one.

Few stories have been as entertaining to cover from a financial skullduggery aspect as the saga of Platinum Studios, a long running con game of a company that cheated a bunch of creators out of their creations while coasting on the success of the first Men in Black film, which it had published in comics form. Founded in 1997, it developed a ton of comics for years without publishing anything while hoping for salvation from the Cowboys and Aliens. I wrote a long history of the company's bizarre penny stock antics here but the short version is that this business plan never works:

So, your waistline (and gastrointestinal tract) has recovered from the Super Bowl.  You're sick and tired of the weather.  You seek another diversion.  Well,...

While the odds are still low on him showing up to fulfill his duties as Grand Prix winner, Bill Watterson is slightly less reclusive of late than he has been for most of the 19 years since he quite Calvin and Hobbes. For instance he has drawn the poster for the film STRIPPED, a documentary about comic strip artists which also features an interview with Watterson. The piece is billed as Watterson's first cartoon in 19 years (he's shown a painting since then, a contribution to Project Cul-de-sac.)

In one of his last interviews, longtime Batman artist Jerry Robinson spoke with "BatmobileHistory.com" about the origin of the Batmobile: BatmobileHistory: Starting with Detective Comics #27, when Batman started, the design of his car varied wildly...but then in Batman #5, the design with the bat mask and roof fin appeared . . . Was there a specific origin or inspiration for that design? It's really the first superhero car...

Pioneering comics journalist Bhob Stewart has passed away after a lingering illness. His website is here, but tributes are piling up on his FB...

While walking around the 'hood recently, I'd been noticing that Baoguette, the gourmet banh mi outpost on Lexington opposite the Armory, was ominously closed;...

How does gender break down for some of the more popular "indie" graphic novels versus mainstream graphic novels vs the average? And it's clear, there's a difference. Taking 17 various graphic novels (and if folks add suggestions in comments, I'll be happy to add upon this) I looked at men and women who were fans in the United States. I tried to stick to actual graphic novels, or books that have been long out of print and thus a complete graphic novel is how it's now consumed.

David Brothers is one of the most accomplished writers-about-comics around, a blogger who recently moved into the industry himself as a member of the...

Because nothing says love like Armstrong. Hope you're having day with your loved one, and if you don't have a Valentine...remember, love yourself and...

fear

BAD FOR YOU is a new book by Scott Cunningham and Kevin Pyle that illustrates extremes of, well, overprotectiveness, the nanny state and people...