Comic Book Candy

It's been two weeks since Chicago's third C2E2 convention ended, which has given me enough time to decompress, edit photos, and reflect on the show as a whole. Though results may vary, it is safe to say the show was a success. With the official number of 41,000 being thrown around, attendance was up from last year, great news for vendors and organizer Reed Pop. I missed the first year of the show where it was held in a far-too-large space at McCormick, and each year since it has been in a different hall. This  year it had the goldilocks room (not too big, not too small) which allowed the layout a little more breathing room. Aisles were much wider, and though there were still bottlenecks of traffic, it was normal convention congestion and not "they underestimated the crowd" congestion. The organizers provided generous space for celebrity signing lines, and though this made sense for a day like Saturday, it made small lines look extra sad during the rest of the show.

Season 8 puts Buffy through the ringer  Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40 Publisher: Dark Horse Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: Georges Jeanty Warning: This review includes ample SPOILERS. There's no pussyfooting around the ramifications of Season 8. I've just finished BTVS #40, the final issue of the ongoing series of comics dubbed Season 8, and I am pretty bummed to see this story come to an end. Since I am a rather late comer to the Buffy franchise, this is the first time that I have finished anything within the Buffyverse without having something to immediately follow. I didn't have to wait months between seasons, or years between the end of the show and the beginning of the comic. I didn't even have to wait long for the first 30 issues of the comic either; I read those in trade paperback and only recently read the comics issue to issue. A few years ago I would have said that I didn't read the comics because I didn't think they could possibly live up

Here we are, another year older, wiser, and with lighter pockets. Twenty-ten brought a lot of changes to the industry, and this year will surely be remembered as a turning point. All major publishers are now offering an outlet for digital comics, and the growing popularity of the iPad and other digital tablets is a game changer with results yet to be seen. Many months posted lower direct market sales than last year, proving that no industry is recession proof, and that giant crossover events do help individual issue sales after all. Without Blackest Night to make many DC titles “must reads”, sales have slumped, a theory that I myself support considering I dropped all tie in books upon the crossover’s end. The return of Bruce Wayne hasn’t resulted in any shake-ups either, in stories or sales. (It might’ve helped DC if readers did not see this predictable non-event coming). Despite gimmick after gimmick (the new and vague Heroic Age , enough Deadpool titles to rival the X-books, vampi

It is rare, but certain comics can make you feel like you’re reading history in the making. Issues of The Walking Dead can carry that kind of excitement. But will this zombie comic ravenously consume future readers as it does today? With hoards of enthusiastic fans picking it up on a monthly basis, it’s easy to be convinced to read it. Trying to encourage someone to pick up a trade of your favorite finished series is a little trickier. Those comics will never be read or appreciated in the same light as the folks who picked them up issue to issue, and the urgency to read them fades with the years (until a movie or television series goes into production). Elf Quest. Nexus. Grim Jack. Fritz the Cat. Groo. Cerebus. Next Man. Bone. Concrete. “Yeah, I haven’t read it, but I know what it is. Kind of.” These are just a few of the notable independent series that are known mostly by name alone to younger comic book fans. To help encourage new readers to seek out these notorious titles, I’m

Publisher: Dark Horse Artists: Eduardo Barreto, Stefano Gaudiano, Rick Geary, Paul Grist, Joelle Jones, Kano, David Lapham, Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba, Dean Motter, M.K. Perker, Hugo Petrus, and Sean Phillips. Writers: Brian Azzarello, Ed Brubaker, Alex De Campi, Matthew & Sean Fillbach, Jeff Lemire, Ken Lizzi, Chris Offuit, and Gary Phillips. Lettering: Ryan Hill, Tom Orzechowki, and Clem Robins If you like… Criminal, Mister X, 100 Bullets, Stray Bullets, if you take your noir black, no sugar. 2009 was clearly a good year for noir. Enter this black and white compilation of short crime stories  released by Dark Horse back in October. I’ve only recently finished the 13 tales of betrayal, seduction, violence, and of course, crime! Just glancing at a few of the creators involved made me pick this up without hesitation. Here you’ll find noir for every mood: classic, always with a twist ending; stories with confrontational subject matter; morally ambiguous characters galore; th

Here we are on the verge of a new decade, and we’re all burdened with the obligatory self-reflection that comes with the glorified holiday that is New Year’s. For many, the only change that will last is the hangover, and even that will hopefully be short lived. I’ll put aside my other posts for another day, and acknowledge the elephant in the room. Enter the obligatory “Top ______ of the Year” list! Since I’m not a huge fan of overrated milestones, or randomly ranking things, this post may come off more snarky than usual. I promise to be back to my chipper self in about 5 days. And my apologies for the lack of images, I'm in Australia, it's 90 degrees, I'm melting.   (Images Updated, 1/1/10) Enjoy! Top 9 Books of 2009 I Would Pay You to Read 9. Detective Comics Publisher: DC Writer: Greg Rucka Artist: J. H. Williams III I can’t plug this book enough ( previous Detective review ). Batwoman’s days in Detective are numbered, as I’ve already seen promo shots of the