It’s December again which means another month of year end list and pontificating. Cosmo kicked things off with his best new character list yesterday, now it’s time for the ten best new series. Continue reading This Years Finest 2016: The Ten Best New Series
Tag Archives: Jeff Parker
Comic Convo: Future Quest #1
Cosmo: This past Wednesday DC revived their Hanna-Babera properties in a grand manner. Except for Scooby-Doo, these characters have been pretty much neglected by DC of late. Not anymore as DC unveiled the first in a series of new titles: Future Quest. From the start it had bold ambition: uniting diverse characters from across the Hanna-Barbera stable under the aegis of the dynamic collaborators Jeff Parker, Evan “Doc” Shaner & Jordie Bellaire. Expectations were pretty high for this debut, yet, Parker, Shaner and Bellaire were able to meet them. Continue reading Comic Convo: Future Quest #1
Indubitable Issues and Pull List (05/18/16)
LOOKING FOR BOOKS TO BUY THIS WEEK?
LOOK NO FURTHER.
HERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.
Tyler’s Recommendations …
Sabrina #5“Another book plagued by delays, but it is SO good! Artist Robert Hack has a style all his own, and it provides such a wicked atmosphere for the sixties period piece. After last issue’s shocking events, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen to our beloved white-haired teen witch.”
Continue reading Indubitable Issues and Pull List (05/18/16)
This Year’s Finest 2015: The Best Single Issues
Comics in their essence are a serialized art form. We might discuss arcs and runs, trading waiting and so on, yet , most comics are still centered on the experience of reading individual chapters parceled out over a (typically) monthly basis. With this in mind, I offer my third annual list of the year’s most memorable single issues.
I start with my choices for the two very best:
Sandman Overture #6 by Neil Gaiman & J.H. Williams III: Dream’s cosmic journey across a universe (or two) came to a stunning conclusion in this issue. The issue contained several callbacks to Gaiman’s classic work, yet not none of them felt like self-serving fan service. Instead they enriched even further the fascinating personalities of the Dream Lord and his siblings. At the same time, Gaiman offered a story where the stakes were huge. Williams more than ably met the challenge of Gaiman’s script handing in page after page of stunning art. His detailed, imaginative work defied any traditional sense of page layouts, spilling the action in all directions. Rarely have words and pictures blended so well to create a truly emotional experience on an epic scale. For more, read Cosmo’s staff review.
Continue reading This Year’s Finest 2015: The Best Single Issues
Indubitable Issues
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LOOK NO FURTHER.
HERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.
Dean hulks up for…
Secret Wars: Battleworld #2
Unexpectedly this first anthology issue was very good. I am really enjoying most of the Secret Wars tie ins and so far Battleworld is one of the best. Join issue #2 for what is guaranteed to be a good time. If nothing else buy it for this amazing James Stokoe variant!
Many, Many, Many, Dope Ass Exclusive Hellboy & The BPRD 1952 #1 for The Hero Intiative
You can now buy ONE OF ONE specially designed covers for Hellboy & The BPRD 1952 #1 to benefit the Hero’s Iniative. For the next ten weeks, Dark Horse will be auction off ten exclusive covers on e-bay to bid on from some of the comics best and brightest artists. Which artists you ask? Let’s see we have; Mike Mignola (naturally), Bill Sienkiwicz, John Cassady, Rafeal Albuquerque, Chris Samnee, Francis Manipul, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Garbiel Hardman, Riley Rossmo, Jenny Frisson, Chris Burnham, John McCrea, Ben Templesmith, Art Baltazar, James Harren, Skott Kollins, Scott Koblish, Jeff Lemire, Michael Avon Oeming, Jeff Parker, Paolo Rivera, Todd Nauck, Darick Robertson, Michael Walsh, Javier Pudilo, Sina Grace, Phil Hester, Tom Raney, Mike Norton, Max Fiumara, Tim Seely, Ty Templeton, Jim Valentino, Clayton Crain, Jim Zub & WAY WAY MORE
More details in the press release below Continue reading Many, Many, Many, Dope Ass Exclusive Hellboy & The BPRD 1952 #1 for The Hero Intiative
Indubitable Issues
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LOOK NO FURTHER.
HERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.
Patrick wishes there was more of…
Convergence: Shazam #2
It’s the Shazam comic that we all wished actually existed in the real world as an ongoing but sadly, will only be for two issues in it’s present state. Still, you gotta take what you can get
Indubitable Issues
LOOKING FOR BOOKS TO BUY THIS WEEK?
LOOK NO FURTHER.
HERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.
Dean bets on the Dark Horse…
Past Aways #2
This is not your ordinary time travel book. Mix the beautiful mind of Matt Kindt with the fun cartoony style of Scott Kolins and you get a uniquely fun adventure story. Stay tuned for my review on Past Aways #2 today.
Jeff Parker & Travel Foreman Taking Over JLU
Jeff Parker of Aquaman, Convergence: Shazam, Flash Gordon, Thunderbolts & Hulk will join artist Travel Foreman of Animal Man, Birds Of Prey, The Imortal Iron Fist & Dr. Spectrum will be taking over DC Comics JLU title in July of 2015. More details at CBR
Convergence: Hawkman #1 Review
by Jeff Parker, Timothy Truman
I was losing all hope in Convergence to deliver anything memorable, but this issue changed my mind.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl are trying to keep “Gotham” in one piece after being trapped inside a mysterious dome and working at a Natural History Museum in their civilian guises. In order to inspire hope to the city that heroes are looking out for them, Shayera reveals herself and Carter as the Hawk duo. Meanwhile, other Thanagarians have been working in secret to find a way out of the dome at the risk of civilians. Just when the Hawks begin to consider working with the Thangarians, Telos announces that the competition has begun and each city must fight the others for survival.
Hawkman is a character that by all rights SHOULD be cool but has become overly-complicated and unexciting during the last few decades. Jeff Parker manages to craft a compelling adventure for him and Hawkgirl as space cops with bird wings, having them stand as strong characters by literally having them exist in a bubble. Compared to Superman or Green Lantern, the Hawks could be boring. Likewise, even mentioning their millennia long reincarnated love-life would be a death sentence. “Space cops with wings” is perfectly sufficient as a premise for both characters.
Timothy Truman’s pencils are a good match for the story, giving a nice retro feel to how he renders the Hawks. The book feels like a 60s-70s DC book from its heyday, while the cityscape is drawn as a grand playground for the flying characters.
Overall: I’m slightly annoyed that so many of these tie-ins took place in Gotham City, as though any other locale is too boring. Also Telos’ fight-to-the-death game has the potential to derail even the most promising tie-in to service the larger narrative. There is enough material here to fill 2 issues, but I’m not interested in seeing the Hawks fight vampire Batman, the Tangent Central City, and whatever the hell Durvale is.So far both of the tie-ins I’ve bought had a mostly text back-up page explaining more of the character’s history, but I find these hard to follow and detract from the story I just read.
“Convergence Hawkman” is a decent throwback story, with some intrusive elements weighing it down.
Rating: Poor, Fair, Good, Great, Excellent
