The sexual and political ideas in this book are…let me be charitable and say “questionable” at times. But the comic is brilliant. In the issues contained in this collection, Howard Chaykin did things with page layout, visual storytelling, and dialogue, that surprised me. Funny and shocking, sometimes mindless and sometimes profound, and visually overwhelming, it’s a surprisingly complex work, considering what the mainstream companies were coming up with at the time. The “futuristic” setting is dated – unsurprising considering Chaykin was extrapolating from the Cold War Climate of the early 1980s – but it still works, which speaks to the strength of the world that Chaykin constructed. Everything’s dynamic: even when the characters are standing still they look like they could spring into action at any second. Also: it’s got busty women, go-gang violence, illegal basketball games, political intrigue, betrayal, interplanetary travel, Soviet jewelry, and a talking cat who works at a police station. Incredibly complex and powerful comics, American Flagg is the kind of book that rewards re-reading – something I plan on doing sooner rather than later.

I’ve never really understood the appeal of Deadpool. Sure, he’s crazy with a healing factor and teleportation and a vast arsenal of weapons that he is very good at using. But that’s just a bunch of “cool” characteristics; it depends on how you put it together. And in the Deadpool Classic trades, you get to see how it was put together.

I don’t know if I acually like Deadpool, but he’s slooooooowly growing on me. This collection is full of amusing adventures, some of which are quick and easy, some of which are harder. I liked the Typhoid Mary/Daredevil stuff, but the whole “bad guy trying to be good” thing is kind of getting old. I think Deadpool might be more interesting as an amoral mercenary, pure and simple, but I don’t know. This early stuff is good; nothing AMAZING, and I wouldn’t necessarily seek it out, but since my friend’s going to buy it and lend it to me, all I have to do is sit back and wait for it to come to me. That’s something I can handle.

This is a much different show than I was originally expecting from the previews. I was expecting a show about a termally ill high school teacher who resorts to cooking meth to make a living. And yeah, okay, it’s about that, but it’s about a WHOLE lot more than that, too.

It’s about family, and how the people you love deal with illness, and the flexibility of law and the hypocrisy of modern society, and the limits you’re supposed to have on your own morality. Bryan Cranston is freaking brilliant; he’s portraying a man on the edge, wracked with guilt and sickness, and there wasn’t a second that I didn’t believe him. The supporting cast is great, too (Cranston wouldn’t do as good a job without the people to work off of). I love the non-linear storytelling, too: the cold opens of some episodes start off in the middle or at the end of the story, then work their way towards that point, really keeping a heightened sense of drama and mystery. It’s really brutal, though, as you could imagine from the subject matter (drugs, crime, cancer). Definitely not for everyone, but I can’t wait to see where the second season goes.

Super High Me is an interesting and well-made movie about marijuana laws in the U.S., sprinkled with a liberal amount of standup comedy. Doug Benson is a talented comedian and a good person to structure the film around, and although it may seem rough around the edges at times, the off-the-cuff feel made it more endearing to me. I was actually fascinated more by how the dispensaries worked and the clash between state and federal law enforcement. I actually learned more than I thought I would. Funny and informative.

(And no, he does not die at the end.)

Warren Beatty has lived an interesting life, and has crammed more experiences into his seventy years than most people could do in seven hundred. But I don’t know if I like him. Then again, that’s not really the point: this is a warts-and-all biography that not only got me to learn more about the person behind the celebrity, but also got me interested in watching and re-watching his movies. It’s a long book, but generally worth the time and investment. I have a few minor points I could nitpick about: I don’t think an author should be as familiar and crude as his subject when talking about sex, for one thing, and I don’t know if I needed quite as much time spent on Heaven Can Wait when I’m sure Reds could have used some more coverage. But those are minor points. Overall, if you like movies or are interested in the cult of the Hollywood celebrity, then I would definitely recommend this Star. It’s not an earth-shattering book, but it’s definitely an interesting story.

First things first: I love Mike Allred’s style. His 60s aesthetic filtered through 30 years of pop culture developments; his manic, full colour action scenes; his deceptively simple characterization; the way he handles the quiet emotional moments of the characters; and the crazy supporting cast he’s making for Madman. It’s like Metamorpho plus The Bible plus Metal Men plus The Beatles plus Batman plus…plus a million things. He does actual thought-provoking, non-corny existential and existential crises in the midst of mind-blowing action sequences.

There are so many great moments in this collection, from the small moments (the tiny robot with the New York City accent) to the big ones (possibly finding God). And then the twist at the end of this volume? Simply unreal. Love Madman. Love Allred. Love Comics.

As a teenager in the 90s I ended up seeing Jim Carrey’s movie version of The Mask before Arcudi and Mahnke’s version, and they are two VERY different beasts. This Mask is brutal, violent, horrific, and yes, still very funny at times. In the first story, The Mask turns a poor schlub into a creature that is vicious and violent with incredibly poor impulse control, getting revenge on anyone he thinks has done him wrong. Sounds a little like the movie, but this guy goes WAY too far, and what was first a kind of fun revenge tale starts going horribly, messily wrong.

In the second The Mask turns a loose-cannon police officer into a vigilante, and I found this a little easier to enjoy, but that’s kind of the point: it’s someone doing horrible nasty things to people who are generally horrible and nasty, which is easier to stomach than someone taking revenge to terrible extremes. The action scenes are incredibly violent, verging on gory, but made almost beautiful by the art. It’s really interesting to see early Doug Mahnke’s work after falling in love with his work on Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein which was published over 15 years later. He’s developing as an artist as he draws this series, and it is really cool to see the progression from issue to issue. You can tell that it’s his work based on the lines, action scenes, and facial features, but I think I also see a little Richard Corben influence in it as well. It’s not easy to read, but it’s fun in a twisted way, and the art is teriffic. A must-read for comics fans or for people who want to see the twisted mirror image of the movie romp.

I only read this because I had heard that it was really good to look at, and that the story was good for Mark Millar. I am not a Mark Millar fan; he’s written a number of critically acclaimed books, but I only actually like one of them (Red Son), and most of the rest I actively dislike. I wasn’t holding out much hope for it.

Overall I thought 1985 was interesting, and the art was very good, but I honestly felt let down by the story. Marvel supervillains showing up in the real world in 1985 is a great concept, but I don’t think Millar carried it out that well. Seeing villains be villainous is cool, particularly in a world where there’s nobody that can hold them accountable, but there was just so much of it, and it seemed to be there just for shock value or to show off, so the story kind of stalled as we kept seeing another villain killing, maiming, and destroying. The last 3 issues were good, when the story started winding up, I just wish they had trimmed an issue or two out of the series. I think Millar could have gotten the story done more effectively with less issues and fewer “shocking” moments.

I don’t exactly love The Flash, but I like the supporting Flash cast (Jay Garrick the Golden Age Flash, Max Mercury, Impulse), and I like Grant Morrison (less so Mark Millar), so I picked this up for 50% off and gave it a shot. Overall, it’s not bad. There are a lot of cool moments in here, mostly in two Morrison/Millar-style high-concept stories (a suit who swears revenge on The Flash, The Mirror Master’s mind-bending setup), which were both both very cool. I particularly liked one stand-alone story that gave Jay Garrick a chance to shine. There was one issue that was the last chapter in a three-part story with Green Arrow & Green Lantern, set in a courtroom, that fell really flat for me. I could have done without that issue (or maybe it would have read better if they had collected the Green Lantern and Green Arrow stories that preceded it), but that’s a minor nitpick. Overall this collection didn’t make me fall in love with The Flash, but it’s certainly full of some good superhero stories.

This was interesting. Characters from various different walks of life – and even different worlds – visit a mysterious bar, where the price of a drink is a story from your past. The bar is part of a house, the original House of Mystery, somehow plucked up and removed from its original location. The twist – or one of the twists – is that some of the people at the bar can’t leave. They don’t know why, and it’s never explained; they can go wherever they want within the confines of the house, but they can’t escape. Then, enter a mysterious newcomer, who seems to be intimately familiar with the house…

It’s written by the people who bring you Fables & Jack of Fables, which are some of my favourite comics currently being published, so yeah, I was intrigued. The art was very cool; Luca Rossi’s art kind of reminded me of Justiniano, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Plus, there are some amazing guest artists (Steve Rolston, Jill Thompson, and more), who illustrate the stories that the bar patrons tell. I found some of it a little hard to follow, not knowing exactly who Fig was talking to, or who the mysterious “Collective” was, but otherwise the story was very interesting, and I eventually grew to enjoy the mystery. Looking forward to more tales of mystery and horror in the upcoming editions!