Comic Books & Graphic Novels

Collins’s Latest Mystery Depicts Cultural Controversy, Is a First-Rate Read

March 11, 2013
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Collins’s Latest Mystery Depicts Cultural Controversy, Is a First-Rate Read

The comic book industry is in a tough place. Congress is getting set to examine the problem of comic books and how they defile the moral fabric of America’s youth. Angry parenting groups are burning comic books, and the industry is losing money. Enter Jack Starr, the Starr syndicate’s troubleshooter. Whenever trouble rears its ugly head, Jack has to go and take care of it, and Dr. Frederick’s passionate anti-comic-books crusade certainly qualifies. This forms the plot of Max Allan Collins’ excellent new mystery, 'Seduction…

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The Cult of the Shmoo Has Infiltrated the Highest Levels of Government

July 27, 2012
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The Cult of the Shmoo Has Infiltrated the Highest Levels of Government

"Shmoos," he warned, "is the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known."

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Stuck on Pogo

January 10, 2012
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Stuck on Pogo

Stefan Kanfer has warmed my heart with an affectionate article on the cartoonist Walt Kelly, and his comic strip, Pogo, over at City Journal. I share Mr. Kanfer’s enthusiasm. Although Kelly was generally known as a lefty (though not an admirer of the Soviet Union, as Kanfer points out), the charm and sheer achievement of Pogo transcended politics. When I was a kid, vaguely hoping to grow up to be a cartoonist, I pored over his daily strips, and despaired of ever achieving anything like…

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Escape from Supervillainy

November 28, 2011
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Sometimes you need fantasy that's more than leather and lead.

My daughter and I were talking about comics last night, as we tend to do. The particular occasion this time was a nasty, nihilistic bit of business called Wanted, by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, which she and I had read over the break. Yes, we understood that it was supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum version of the "dark/gritty" trend in the last couple of decades in comics -- note that the supervillains wipe out the heroes in 1986, the year of Dark…

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Robert E. Howard’s Puritan Pulp Hero

July 25, 2011
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Robert E. Howard’s Puritan Pulp Hero

I grew up reading both comic books and stories about various pulp fiction heroes.  My favorite in the pulp genre as a kid was Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.  He traveled with his group of highly capable friends and resolved various terrible threats to humanity.  I recently picked one of the Doc Savage stories up in a thrift store and found that, despite the sentimental value, it didn’t hold up all that well.  Other notable entries in that publishing space include The Shadow, The…

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Quote of the Day — The Decline of the Cowboy and the Rise of the Superhero

July 21, 2011
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Quote of the Day — The Decline of the Cowboy and the Rise of the Superhero

That the cowboy has given way to the superhero in the American myth is painfully revealing. It is the siren song of the last frontier, giving way to an overcrowded and dangerous society where the law fails, and only a gift from the storytelling gods can give a man his freedom and let him do what’s right. The Western promised a kind of universal freedom available to anyone who could go out west. The comic book superhero turns freedom into something that is only magically…

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As the Twig Is Bent: European Union Kiddieprop

June 14, 2011
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As the Twig Is Bent: European Union Kiddieprop

By Mike Gray One of the unexpected pleasures of parenthood is reading Brussels propaganda to your children. The material is unintentionally hilarious, and will soon have your progeny shrieking with laughter. Little ones enjoy The Raspberry Ice Cream War, which tells the tale of a group of intrepid youngsters who travel back in time to a barbarous age where there are still sovereign states, and teach the inhabitants to scrap their borders. — Daniel Hannan Just how much of an effect does propaganda have on…

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A Gentle Slice of Sequential Art from Columbus

June 7, 2011
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A Gentle Slice of Sequential Art from Columbus

by Warren Moore One of the neat things about having attended HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC, last weekend was the chance to discover comics I hadn’t read before, placed somewhere outside the mainstream. One that I liked quite a bit is Blink, by a guy who calls himself Max Ink, and both the cartoonist and his creation are based in Columbus, Ohio. His artistic influences include Eisner and Watterson, his musical influences include progressive rock (especially Yes — one story is entitled “Time an a Few…

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Will San Francisco Vote For Antisemitism?

June 4, 2011
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Will San Francisco Vote For Antisemitism?

“Intactivists” – the term Left-wing radicals who want to ban circumcision in San Francisco call themselves – exposed their antisemitc heart in the latest round of their campaign material. Come November, San Francisco voters will decide whether or not circumcision will remain a legal medical practice when they vote on the “MGM Bill,” promoted by homosexual activist Lloyd Schofield. While the legality of such a measure, were it to pass, is highly questionable, one thing that isn’t is how this bill exposes the radical Left’s…

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“Thor”: Norse Mythology Mediated by Christianity

May 16, 2011
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“Thor”: Norse Mythology Mediated by Christianity

By Lars Walker I think it’s generally agreed that I’m the conservative blogsphere’s go-to guy for all matters Norse, so I felt a sort of civic duty to see the movie Thor this weekend, and to let you know what I thought of it. Briefly put, it’s pretty good. Considered on its own terms, as a fantasy/comic book/special effects actioner, it succeeds extremely well. It doesn’t scale the heights of Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, but I’d rank it somewhere near the top. Kenneth…

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Science Fiction Authors Pick (What They Regard As) The Best SF

May 16, 2011
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Science Fiction Authors Pick (What They Regard As) The Best SF

By Mike Gray You have to wonder how much these writers’ opinions were shaped by their politics, religion, and/or philosophical beliefs: It requires little sophistry to consider Daniel Defoe’s immortal Robinson Crusoe as a metaphor for a man stranded on an alien planet. Crusoe is an exile, and exile has proved a perennial theme within the genre of science fiction. Of all its great themes, lingering on the fringes of comprehension is Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon (1882-1950). Stapledon was an exile, his childhood spent…

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Prose & Poetry Update

May 1, 2011
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Prose & Poetry Update

Did you ever wonder if you’re on the right path, if your career reflects your true self? While you sip your morning coffee and gaze at that stack of paperwork on your desk, here’s a few literary quotes concerning the “true self” on which to meditate. “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” - Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter “He remembered that she was…

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Fun and Games a Goofy, Violent Romp — And That’s OK.

April 18, 2011
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Fun and Games a Goofy, Violent Romp — And That’s OK.

Fun and Games, by Duane Swierczynski. Mulholland Books, available in June 2011. by Warren Moore Duane Swierczynski is known both for his work in crime fiction and writing for comic books. In his new novel, Fun and Games, he seems to combine elements of both, giving us a loud, pulpy textual equivalent to a summer action movie, with elements of both Quentin Tarantino and Richard S. Prather. It’s a book destined to be a guilty pleasure, but the pleasure is definitely there, and that’s a…

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H. G. Wells’s “The Chronic Argonauts” to See Publication

March 24, 2011
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H. G. Wells’s “The Chronic Argonauts” to See Publication

By Mike Gray . . . . as a graphic novel, we hasten to add. The short story “The Chronic Argonauts” (1888) was Wells’s first foray into time travel fiction and is very different from his famous The Time Machine (1895): This brief story begins with a third-person account of the arrival of a mysterious inventor to the peaceful Welsh town of Llyddwdd. Dr. Moses Nebogipfel takes up residence in a house sorely neglected after the deaths of its former inhabitants. The main bulk of…

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TAC Fiction Review

November 21, 2010
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TAC Fiction Review

Thanksgiving is around the corner. I’d love to get your thoughts or suggestions for stories or poems concerning the upcoming “day of Thanksgiving and Praise,” as Abraham Lincoln referred to it. Before the holiday arrives, enjoy the offerings below. This week’s short story selections includes “Local Talent,” a bit of original fiction from W.S. Moore, III. Moore’s short story is an intriguing noirish exploration of a hustler practicing his “craft.” Also linked below is “The Gentleman Thief,” a short story from “the winner of the…

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"Culture is the expression of the guiding philosophy of the day."—Murray Rothbard
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