Category Shelby Peterson

Shelby Peterson, Editor, Designer
shelby@retcon-punch.com

Location: Chicago

History With Comics: While the X-Men will always hold a special place in her heart, Shelby’s first love was Batman. Between Michael Keaton and Kevin Conroy, she fell hard. Like many, her first graphic novel was The Watchmen in college, followed by a handful of the Batman must-reads. Fast forward to last year: Shelby discovered the awesomeness of the DC universe through Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern Rebirth and Blackest Night. She once again fell in love with a comic book character, but this time it was Neil Gaiman’s Morpheus from his Sandman series, and now all her thoughts are translated into 8 or 9 panels per page with the occasional 2-page spread.

New 52 Favorites: Batgirl, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batman

Other Favorite Comics:

Aug 21 2012

The Vault – Superhero Makeup Looks

The Retcon Punchers spend an awful lot of time looking for ways to celebrate our nerdy obsessions. This means a lot of time sunk into scouring Etsy, Deviant Art, Think Geek or whatever. Sometimes we see things so great we just have to share them… and then clutch them fiercely to our collective chest. Throw it in The Vault.

Website: Makeup By Siryn

Who Would Love This: Comic geeks, makeup geeks, looking awesome geeks

Price: NA

This Vault is a little different from most; there’s no product for sale. But I am so in love with Siryn’s comic-themed makeup looks, I had to feature her here. This is her Ice themed look (remember Ice, Guy Gardner’s ladyfriend?), and I adore it. It’s maybe a little much for everyday wear, but it’s such a great way to capture a character without doing a full costume; how fun would it be to do a look like this to go out dancing? She’s done a ton of different hero looks, as well as makeup reviews and the like.  My favorite look has got to be Wonder Woman; it’s pretty, I can see the influence, and it’s basic enough that I could potentially wear this to work. Time to find me some golden eye-liner.

Aug 21 2012

Birds of Prey 12

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Birds of Prey 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Shelby: Why do we form teams? Is it to seek the support of others? Is it to accomplish big tasks more quickly? Is it to bring together different skill sets in order to solve more kinds of problems? These have to be at least some of the reasons why Black Canary decided to form a team to do some good in Gotham, but she has obviously made some mistakes in choosing her roster. You know that guy in the group who just won’t play ball with the plan and forces everyone to do things his way? Well, imagine that guy is an eco-terrorist metahuman holding you and the rest of the world hostage to do what he wants, and you can begin to see the dilemma Black Canary has on her hands.
Continue reading →

Aug 20 2012

Green Lantern Corps 12

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 11, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Patrick: “Don’t trust the authority.” It’s a theme that runs rich through the Green Lanterns mythos. And it’s not just the Guardians you can’t trust. Your mentors (Sinestro, to a lesser extent Abin Sur), your peace keeping force (the Alphas), even your greatest heroes (“Halallax” – which is what Shelby and I like to call Hal when he was infected with the yellow): everyone’s out to get you. For a series with such anarchist underpinnings, Green Lantern Corps has an unshakable belief in the fundamental goodness of their group. This issue kicks both of these conflicting ideas into high-gear.

Continue reading →

Aug 17 2012

Batwoman 12

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Batwoman 12, originally released August 15th 2012.

Shelby: Oh, the life of a superhero, balancing personal relationships by day and caped ass-whupin’ by night. I have a hard enough time balancing office drone by day, nerd by night, so I don’t know how Kate Kane manages. She is beginning to fall into the classic (and seemingly inevitable) trap all heroes face: your loved ones assume you are sneaky and selfish, going out every night and keeping secrets, when in fact you are working harder than anyone to keep your loved ones safe. Kate starts on this downward slope as J.H. Williams and W. Haden Blackman begin a new arc, again with stories nestled within each other. At least this time it looks like everything is happening in the same chronological order.
Continue reading →

Aug 16 2012

Green Lantern 12

Today, Peter and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Peter: Geoff Johns has singlehandedly changed the Green Lantern Universe. Everything we know and love about that particular universe, with it’s own expansive mythology, he created. He has taken Green Lantern books to new heights with stories like Rebirth, Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, and the War of the Green Lanterns. Now he is poised to turn it all on it’s head again. Everything we know about the Green Lanterns, the Guardians, Hal Jordan, Sinestro and everyone else is coming crashing down out of the sky.

Continue reading →

Aug 14 2012

Batman and Robin 12

Today, Peter and Shelby are discussing Batman and Robin 12, originally released August 8th 2012.

Peter: Batman and Robin started off great. It had elements of mystery novels, sprinkled with a little bit of full-tilt action. This book pushed the envelope from its inception, dealing with depressive, repressed childhoods, political boundaries, and killing people with two fingers. This lead to a fantastic story arc, with interesting villains and character analysis. Recently, the ideas that are being explored are very interesting, and would have served this book well, if only they had been better executed.
Continue reading →

Aug 9 2012

Batgirl 12

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Batgirl 12, originally released August 8th, 2012.

Shelby:  I am no stranger to the feeling of being unable to put a book down. There are some authors out there whose stories get their hooks in your brain; as you read, you reach a point of no return, a point that leaves you still reading at 2:30 AM on a work night because you just HAVE to know what happens next. Luckily for me, Batgirl is doled out in little bite-sized portions once a month, otherwise I would quickly reach that point. This title is so good, I can’t tear my eyes away. 

Continue reading →

Aug 8 2012

The Vault – Haly’s Circus Print

The Retcon Punchers spend an awful lot of time looking for ways to celebrate our nerdy obsessions. This means a lot of time sunk into scouring Etsy, Deviant Art, Think Geek or whatever. Sometimes we see things so great we just have to share them… and then clutch them fiercely to our collective chest. Throw it in The Vault.

Website: DC Collectibles

Who Would Love This: Fans of vintage posters and signage, lovers of secret nerd art, trapeze aficionados

Price: $19.95-$34.95

I have obviously browsed the DC Comics official store on occasion, and while I’ve always found things I like I have never been blown away by an item that I feel I need to have. They have recently expanded their line of high-quality prints, however, and these change everything. Once again, I have found the kinds of posters that, from afar, don’t look like anything other than faux-vintage hipster wall art. Look again and you’ll see it’s actually faux-vintage hipster nerdy wall art, and I eat that shit up. I think the Flying Graysons poster here might be the best, and would look great with the Beware Crime Alley propaganda poster, but the Kandor, Themyscira, and Coast City travel posters would look pretty sharp together, too.

Aug 6 2012

Dial H 4

Alternating Currents: Dial H 4, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Dial H 4, originally released August 1st, 2012.

Drew: I’m not a fan of origin stories, or really the starts of narratives in general. They often require large exposition dumps to make everyone’s personalities, means, and motivations clear to the audience. One of my favorite ways authors avoid cramming that much exposition into the beginning of a story is to start in medias res. Sure, the whys of the situation aren’t always clear — or even what exactly is going on — but that creates curiosity, a genuine interest in learning more, which almost never happens when we’re just given bare-faced facts with the understanding that this will be important later. Writer China Mieville has taken this tack to the limits of my curiosity in Dial H, delivering three months of questions without any real answers, leaving us floating uncomfortably in a confusing sea of possibilities. With this issue, we finally start getting some answers, helping the events of the previous three fall into place with surprising ease. Continue reading →

Aug 3 2012

Swamp Thing 12

 

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Swamp Thing 12, originally released August 1st, 2012. This issue is part of the RotWorld crossover event. Click here for complete RotWorld coverage. Not caught up on Swamp Thing ? No problem! Get up to speed with our video Cram Session.  Also, we’ve got Animal Man 12 coverage, supplying commentary on the first half of this story.

Shelby: I love seeing heroes working together. I don’t mean like in Justice League, on an established team (also, they aren’t really working  together anyway); I’m talking about the almighty Crossover Event. Swamp Thing and Animal Man’s Rotworld isn’t a traditional comic crossover, with multiple books dealing with the same issue and borrowing characters. Snyder and Lemire have instead told the opposite sides of the same story, and now those two halves have finally come together so seamlessly I had to check the cover multiple times to remember which title I was reading.  

Continue reading →