Clandestine Critic Tumblog

DC comics for February 2010: Joe The Barbarian #2, drawn by Sean...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:04:40 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: Joe The Barbarian #2, drawn by Sean Murphy. This is the new mini-series by Grant Morrison.

DC comics for February 2010: this is the cover for Human Target...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:37:53 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: this is the cover for Human Target #1, by Lee Bermejo. DC are launching a new series on the back of the new television series, despite the previous comic book series not succeeding.

DC comics for February 2010: this is a really nice cover by...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:32:33 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: this is a really nice cover by Amanda Conner for Gen13 #34. It’s cheeky yet has an arresting power.

A digression: this is part of a wallpaper that Paul Duffield...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:57:37 +0000

A digression: this is part of a wallpaper that Paul Duffield created for FreakAngels, the free online comic written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Duffield updated every Friday. Even though you can buy trade collections of the book, the entire archives still remain free. There is no excuse not to read it. The fact that it is entertaining and smart and engaging also help.

DC comics for February 2010: I really like the cuteness in this...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:29:59 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: I really like the cuteness in this cover, with special guest Crazy Jane. This is for Doom Patrol #7 by Matt Clark.

DC comics for February 2010: I love the sense of joy in this...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:35:23 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: I love the sense of joy in this cover. It exudes a zeal for life that is quite infectious. This is the cover for Superman #697 by Cafu.

DC comics for February 2010: it would be a nice world where...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:40:18 +0000

DC comics for February 2010: it would be a nice world where Frank Quitely could do a monthly comic on time. We don’t live in that ideal world, so we have to make do with his covers. This is for Batman and Robin #8.

I’m really happy that Marvel is doing its best to help...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:34:54 +0000

I’m really happy that Marvel is doing its best to help push Agents of Atlas. This image is the four covers for the mini-series Avengers Vs. Agents of Atlas, collected together into the original single image, drawn by Humberto Ramos.

Comic Book Collection: PVP (or Player Vs. Player) is a...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:14:06 +0000

Comic Book Collection: PVP (or Player Vs. Player) is a successful webcomic by Scott Kurtz. He has been doing it almost daily for many years now (he scaled back to five days a week) and has provided a wealth of free entertainment. It is a story about the characters in a computer magazine; essentially a sitcom with lots of geek references to computer games, films, comic books and other things, and with an element of the fantastic (one character is Troll, who is actually a blue troll creature, and there is a talking cat). The first comic book series was new material in the form of a 22-page comic book (I loved the parody issue of The Matrix), before it became a series reprinting the online strip in published form. As is traditional with long-time fans, I don’t think it’s as funny as it used to be (although Kurtz has improved in his writing and drawing skills, and is more ambitious with the storylines) and no longer buy all the individual issues, but the webcomic still continues to be a daily dose of entertainment for me. The image is a collection of the cast of main characters.

A post on Bleeding Cool about ComICA made me aware of this...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:10:01 +0000

A post on Bleeding Cool about ComICA made me aware of this image: the X-Men drawn by James Jean, which is very cool indeed.

Comic Book Collection: I never imagined that Garth Ennis would...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:17:20 +0000

Comic Book Collection: I never imagined that Garth Ennis would write The Punisher but now I can’t imagine a Marvel universe where he hadn’t. The 12-issue series, called Welcome Back, Frank, by Ennis and Steve Dillon under the Marvel Knights imprint, was brilliant and hilarious; the success led to a 37-issue ongoing series that never reached the giddy heights of that first story, before Ennis to Frank Castle to another league in the series under the Max imprint. I don’t know where the image comes from, but it is the picture that comes to my head when I think of Dillon drawing Punisher.

Alex Ross: his interiors are static but his covers can be quite...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:34:49 +0000

Alex Ross: his interiors are static but his covers can be quite something. This is for Astro City: The Dark Age Book 4 issue 2 (yeah, the title is way too long).

Is it me, or is JH Williams III actually getting better? You...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:06:20 +0000

Is it me, or is JH Williams III actually getting better? You know how the interviews with writers always have the line, ‘[the artist] is doing the best work of his career’ and you can smell the desperate hype bullshit coming off the screen? In the case of Williams, the hype is justified. He is doing phenomenal work on Detective Comics; this is the cover for issue 862.

Dark Horse comics for February 2010: time for the latest Usagi...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:10:56 +0000

Dark Horse comics for February 2010: time for the latest Usagi Yojimbo cover by Stan Sakai (issue 126). As usual, it’s great. Am I repeating myself?

Dark Horse comics for February 2010: Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:49:28 +0000

Dark Horse comics for February 2010: Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 8 has suffered a dip in entertainment of late, but it can still produce a nice cover. This is for issue 32, the cover drawn by Jo Chen, and it has a nice sense of wonder to it.

War Rocket Ajax is a relatively new podcast about comics and pop...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:56:12 +0000

War Rocket Ajax is a relatively new podcast about comics and pop culture, hosted by Chris ‘The Invincible Super-Blog’ Sims and Eugene of the People You Don’t Know podcast. It is well put together, funny, irreverent, has great guests and is very enjoyable. It also has its own art for each episode, provided by Rusty Shackles; the image is the art for episode 12, which tickled me because of its homage to the classic Uncanny X-Men cover.

Comic Book Collection: The Pulse was a short-lived series (14...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:43:25 +0000

Comic Book Collection: The Pulse was a short-lived series (14 issues) that was basically the integration of Jessica Jones, the former superheroine/private investigator lead character in the superb Marvel Max series Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, into the mainstream Marvel universe as she becomes a special consultant to The Daily Bugle, mainly in the field of superheroes. It never fully gelled as a series, but there was enough to make it interesting while it lasted. The image is the cover to issue #8, by Mike Mayhew, which is just Jessica Jones on her own, quite fitting given the nature of the series.

Comic Book Collection: Promethea was originally seen as...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:01:01 +0000

Comic Book Collection: Promethea was originally seen as ‘Alan Moore’s Wonder Woman’ but soon became something with a much larger scope and ambition, as Moore took the reader on a tour of magic. With JH Williams III being ably to draw anything and make it look amazing, it was truly magical (pun intended), as we followed the Sophie Bangs become Promethea, a metafictional character with magical power over the real world, a journey through magic, and the end of the world (or at least the ABC line of comics). The image is the cover to the first collection by Williams.

This is the Alan Davis sketch variant cover for Siege: The...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:03:26 +0000

This is the Alan Davis sketch variant cover for Siege: The Cabal. I don’t have any interest in the current machinations of the Marvel universe, but this is a nice cover.

Comimc Book Collection: Preacher was like nothing else coming...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Comimc Book Collection: Preacher was like nothing else coming out. Garth Ennis created the perfect vehicle for his unique storytelling sensibility, allowing him to cover religion, America, cowboys, over-the-top violence, outrageous perversity, humour, love, loyalty (with even a cameo for Bill Hicks). He was joined in this journey by the excellent Steve Dillon on art, perfectly capturing every moment. I’d been reading Ennis’ work from his Hellblazer run, but it was this brilliant run that made me an Ennis fan for life. The image is the cover to the first trade paperback, done (as were all covers) by Glenn Fabry.