Pride of Baghdad Writer: Brian K. Vaughn Artist: Niko Henrichon Publisher: Vertigo/DC Comics Freedom! Terrible, terrible freedom! Pride of Baghdad is no Lion King. What it is will surely break your heart in ways no Disney film will ever be able to. That being said I’ll bet some sea bottom scuttler in an Armani suit is at this very moment trying to option this wonderful story so it will be commercially palatable for the vapor brains schnoggling their way through the mall. Seeping out of some executive producer’s office...

Arriving on Saturday at Planet Comicon I see two five year old boys, one costumed as Batman and the other trailing him as Superman. Up ahead at the door is an adult Heath Ledger-type Joker smoking a cigarette. I point the boys out to Angie, my wife and smile at the parents walking behind them and nod at the boys. “World’s Finest.” Angie says to the boy dressed as Batman. “Look, The Joker’s right there. Are you going to kick his butt?” Batman squares his little shoulders and snarls”Yeah!”...

Transmetropolitan Writer-Warren Ellis Artist: Darrick Robertson Publisher: DC Comics This is a series that puts the “dis” in dystopian. What sick road are the likes of the Koch brothers, Fox News and The Tea Party taking us down? It is the road to ruin and that’s where Spider Jerusalem dwells. Spider is the natural heir to journalists who use words like blunt instruments of savagery. He is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in a grave new world where science has only streamlined the horror and made it deliverable to the...

Wanted Writer: Mark Millar Artist: D.G. Jones Publisher: Top Cow Let’s see the hands of those of you familiar with the term “irreality”. It’s a phrase coined by Phillip K. Dick. the king god of screw with your perceptions science fiction. If you’ve seen Bladerunner or A Scanner Darkly you have an approximation of what he can do with words. Irreality is the creeping feeling that all you know of the world you exist in is only an illusion. It is, at best, badly made stage sets held up by rickety chicken...

A Contract With God Writer and Illustrator: Will Eisner Published by: W W Norton and Company Did you know you can tell stories in comics other than opening cans of hyper-powered whoop-ass and blowing up things real good? Really. I love the costumed crime fighter myth but recently it was brought to my attention that people enjoy graphic stories with a more tangible human struggle in its pages. American Splendor was mentioned by an erudite clever young man and I agreed. Next day people I’m among the shelves and find A Contract...

FreakAngels Written by:Warren Ellis Illustrated by: Paul Duffield Published by: Avatar Press I remember a film from the early 60′s called Village of the Damned. It was British and was science fiction short on effects but long on story. Adapted from The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, it tells the story of a group of children born in the same village at the same time and all of them have these weird eyes and can do horrifying unexplainable things with their minds.  Each child is individually scary but as a group they...

Secret Six-Unhinged Writer:Gail Simone Artist: Nicola Scott Publisher:DC Comics The writer with some of the biggest balls in comics may very well be a woman. Gail Simone is rocking this series and now I have a new favorite title.  Awhile back she wrote Wonder Woman and of late in this very column I lamented the loss of her skills on that book. I wondered where she went. I found a copy of Unhinged at the library when I looked at the cover and recognized Deadshot in the foreground. He happens to be one of my favorite Batman villains...

The Rocketeer Writer and Artist: Dave Stevens Published by: IDW Publishing Nothing zings my heart and makes my blood race like the art deco futurism of the 1930s. A stubby winged, long cowled plane with bulbous wheel covers and a gorgeous dame who really knows how to almost not wear silky perfumed underthings and oh yes, a flying man in a finned helmet whooshing through the sky are the things of great romance to me. By now a good many of you must be thinking, “He’s going on about The Rocketeer“. Yes. Yes I am. In...

Our Army At War: War Is War Writer: Mike Marts Artist: Victor Ibanez Cover artist: Joe Kubert Published by DC Comics No month reviewing war comics is complete without the iconic soldier from my childhood Sgt. Rock and, of course, Easy Company. I think I liked Sgt. Rock so much because he looked just like my Uncle Bill except Rock is way beefier. The last time I saw my Uncle Bill he was pretty much withered away by exposure to Agent Orange (Dioxin). He was exposed to it during his tour of duty in Vietnam as a combat engineer....

Written by:Fabien Vehlman Art by: Sean Phillips Published by: BOOM! Studios Translated by: Dan Heching So many of you have likely pondered the inevitable question; why didn’t somebody just kill Hitler’s mangy syphilitic ass and save us all a butt load of trouble? Seriously. It’s not that hard to do. If you wanna slag an asshole that asshole can be slagged. I mean really. Are suicide bombers such a new innovation? No. They are not. So his squidgy existence is a mystery that baffles even those of us who spend...

Starman Writer: James Robinson Art: Tony Harris Published by DC Comics Legacy. This is what Robinson’s Starman has to offer that touches me. I must be on my third or fourth read of this excellent title and it still gives me shivers of delight and glows of warmth. Nobody in their right mind no matter how cool he is would want to be Batman or even know him. He’s an obsessed dick. His parents were murdered in front of him. He’s a kick-ass creature of the shadows, self-made in the fires of his will and plagued by...

The Walking Dead Written by: Robert Kirkman Illustrated by: Charlie Adlard Published by: Image Comics Here we are. It’s Halloween week and I’ve been saving up to do this one. It’s been quite some time since I’ve read a comic book series that has got me as involved in the story as this one has. There were many times I would sit there howling, “No! This is wrong! So wrong! Kirkman, you heartless bastard. You magnificent heartless bastard!” Then realizing it was 3 AM think it’s time for...

If you had come up to me at any point between 2003 and now to ask me what my favorite comic was, The Walking Dead would have been my immediate response.  I’m a big fan of post-apocalyptic dramas and stories with dark twists.  Add to that my love of zombies and the undead, and you’ve got a fangirl from the get-go.  Finally, the moment millions of readers and I have been waiting seven years for is here: The Walking Dead is coming to TV!  With my Walking Dead background, I will be very excited to see how AMC will...

Preacher Written by: Garth Ennis Artist: Steve Dillon Covers by: Glen Fabry Publisher: DC/Vertigo In a month of Halloween tinged articles on comics, I would be woefully remiss if I didn’t cover at least one of the Vertigo titles. To me and my weird-ass friends, Preacher is king shit of edgy supernatural stories containing serious philosophical implications bordering on the downright heretical. Oh how this book dances a Vatican rag. Oh my…Jesse fucking Custer. If the collateral damage wouldn’t be so horrific,...

Pigeons From Hell Writer: Joe R. Lansdale (adapted from Robert E. Howard) Artists: Nathan Fox and Dave Stewart Publisher: Dark Horse Comics First off, really cool and intriguing cover. A mass of pigeons taking off in the dusk to form a skullish visage over a dilapidated mansion. Hmmm…let’s crack this one open and see what’s inside. Ahhh. It’s a classic haunted house story. Every Halloween has to have at least one of those. A car full of young folks arrive at the Blassenville Mansion in the middle of a...