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:

Jun 5 2012

The Vault – Dinosaur Batman iPhone Case

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: Society 6

Who Would Love This: Batman lovers, paleontologists, people with eyes to see how awesome this is

Price: $35.00

This was sent to me by alert reader and dinosaur fiend Taylor Anderson, and I don’t have the words in my vocabulary to describe how awesome this is, other than to just point and say “Look at it!” Don’t have an iPhone? No problem! Society 6 is one of those sites that puts artists’ images on pretty much anything, so you can get this as a t-shirt, art print, laptop skin, etc. And if, for some bizarre reason I can’t understand, you don’t want Batman riding a T-Rex on your phone, there are actually a TON of comic book related images at Society 6 to check out. I only picked this one because….well, just look at it!

Jun 4 2012

Green Lantern Corps 9

Today, Peter and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 9, originally released May 30th, 2012.

Peter: The Alpha War is underway. John Stewart is on trial for murdering a fellow Lantern. Green Lantern Corps is the book that is currently sticking close to Oa and the Guardians. Their secret and mischievous plans to eventually get rid of the Green Lantern Corps may start here, and this could very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Continue reading →

Jun 1 2012

Animal Man Annual 1

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing the Animal Man Annual 1, originally released May 30th, 2012.

Patrick: All good modern-epics have have nearly bottomless backstories: histories that stretch on further than any of the characters can remember. “This has all happened before and it will happen again.” I do not quote the sacred text of Battlestar Galactica lightly; the war between The Rot, The Red and The Green has a history that literally (and necessarily) spans all life on Earth. Ever. We’ve gotten glimpses of this history in Animal Man and Swamp Thing, but this is the first time we’ve gotten an extended look at one of the previous incursions by The Rot. We don’t get the whole picture, but we do get some remarkable personal insight.

Continue reading →

May 30 2012

Cram Session: Batman: Dark Knight 1-8

It can be hard to keep up with all the comics you love. But it’s damn near impossible to keep up with all the comics you’re interested in.

Retcon Punch got you covered.

We read a lot of good Batman books. We also read a lot of bad Batman books. This series falls firmly in the latter camp. It’s aggressively goofy and has more cameo appearances than a Robert Rodriguez movie. The Night of Owls issue was unremarkable, but not a total disaster. Catching up on the eight issues that came before it is totally unnecessary as there’s almost no over-lap in the characters, and a huge writer shake-up between issues 8 and 9. Still, there’s something charmingly dumb about this series, so it’s hard not to pay attention to it.

May 30 2012

Chat Cave: A Gay DC Character

Following Co-publisher Dan Didio’s announcement that a formerly straight DC character was going to be reintroduced as gay, the comics world has been abuzz with guesses as to just who this character might be. While Didio’s comments have ruled out many characters that have already been introduced, that hasn’t stopped folks from expressing who they’d like that character to be. Today, the Retcon Punchers weigh in with their favorite — not necessarily most likely — guesses. Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Drew: I’ve found many occasions to bring this up on this site, but I really think Jason Todd would make a lot of sense as a gay character. In fact, I think his story becomes more compelling if he is gay. Think about it: he’s this incredible exaggeration of the classic younger sibling of an overachiever; he’s always made to feel guilty about every little thing he does differently from the way Dick did things. It’s not a huge leap to think that he may have felt that pressure in his personal life, staying closeted for fear of the way his father (figure) might react. Gay readers may find a great deal to relate to in Jason’s conflict with Bruce, who fundamentally can’t accept him for hard-lined moral reasons (not that I’m comparing homosexuality to murder). Continue reading →

May 29 2012

The Vault – Superhero Snap Suits

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: Thinkgeek

Who Would Love This: Nerdy babies.

Price: $18.99 a piece

I don’t have a baby. I don’t plan on having any in the near future. All my friends and siblings should consider themselves warned, though: once they start having babies, those babies are getting a couple of these. No better way to declare your superhero allegiance than advertising on your child, I always say. I mean, isn’t that the point of having children? To force your own idea and opinions on them as soon as possible, to turn them into little mini versions of yourself so they can hate it, and then grow up to do the same thing?

May 28 2012

Aquaman 9

Today, Shelby and Peter are discussing Aquaman 9, originally released May 23rd, 2012.

Shelby: I have grown to appreciate Aquaman. I used to think he was pretty lame, but I think his character has been fleshed out in recent years. There’s some depth to him now; he’s a man torn between two worlds, and all that. Geoff Johns obviously has some grand ideas for where he wants to take Aquaman; he just keeps doling out his ideas at such a slow pace, I’m afraid there will be a point when my questions so outnumber the answers, I’m just going to get fed-up.

Continue reading →

May 25 2012

Batman: The Dark Knight 9

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Batman: The Dark Knight 9, originally released May 23rd, 2012. This issue is part of the Night of the Owls crossover event. Click here for complete NotO coverage. 

Shelby:  I’m not a regular reader of Dark Knight; like Catwoman I just picked it up for our Night of the Owls coverage. My esteemed colleague Patrick told me that I didn’t need to bother reading issues 1-8 because a) Issue 9 is so insulated from the rest of the story it’s basically a one-off, and b) Issues 1-8 really are not very good. Since I don’t like people telling me what to do, I read all nine issues anyway, and Patrick was completely and totally right on both points.
Continue reading →

May 23 2012

Cram Session: Nightwing 1-7

It can be hard to keep up with all the comics you love. But it’s damn near impossible to keep up with all the comics you’re interested in.

Retcon Punch got you covered.

Being so immersed in the Night of the Owls event makes it kinda hard to imagine that there are fans of the Gotham-verse not reading Nightwing. The series was quick to find a voice, and while it stumbled a bit with some vamping-for-time issues, Kyle Higgins’ Nightwing boldly directs the mood and action of the cross-over with almost as much authority as Batman. If you haven’t been following Dick’s you-can’t-go-home-again story, catch up with our video recap!

May 22 2012

Catwoman 9

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Catwoman 9 originally released May 16th, 2012. This issue is part of the Night of the Owls crossover event. Click here for complete NotO coverage. Not caught up on Catwoman? No problem! Get up to speed with our video Cram Session.

Patrick: Judd Winick’s Catwoman is a morally dubious character that makes poor decisions all the time. And not just poor life decisions (like dressing up like a cat to steal things, or hate-fucking Batman), but tactically shitty decisions that put her life and the lives of her friends in danger. She will occasionally – arbitrarily –  grow a heart, and do something nice for someone, as she does in her Night of the Owls adventure. But there’s nothing under her mask that supports any of this kind of behavior, and no amount of teased backstory is going to change that. Continue reading →