Time was, you might only ever get a chance to interact with your favorite comics creators if they happened to be attending a con near you, but technology (for better or for worse) has now put them only a few clicks away. Still, some manage it better than others, and we wanted to take a moment to single out those creators that have gone above and beyond with crafting an inviting, entertaining twitter presence. Here it is, our 13 favorite creator twitter personalities of 2013. Continue reading
Today, Spencer and Mikyzptlk are discussing Batgirl 26, originally released December 11th, 2013.
Spencer: “Blood is thicker than water.” This expression is usually used to describe how family has a special connection, how family has an obligation to stick together no matter what. It would be wonderful if that was always the case, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, families can be dysfunctional or abusive, or just go through hard times, and when this happens it hurts all the more because it comes from family; when the people who are supposed to protect us and love us unconditionally hurt us, it’s a special kind of pain. Batgirl’s been dealing with a lot lately, horrific events that would get anyone down, but they’re even more painful because family is involved. Fortunately, at least some hope is on the horizon. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Taylor are discussing Red Sonja 5, originally released November 20th, 2013.
Time makes fools of us all.
-Eric Temple Bell
Drew: I’ve seen this E.T. Bell quote thrown around quite a bit, but it becomes less alluring with its often-omitted second half: “Our only comfort is that greater shall come after us.” It’s clear that Bell is taking a historical perspective — our ideas and actions will someday be looked upon with the same bemusement that we have for the Salem witch trials — but I’ve always been more intrigued by how this plays out in my own lifetime. Time has a history of making us eat our own words, whether it’s doing something we swore we’d never do, giving up something we swore we’d always love, or just making us embarrassed about the people we used to be. A recent piece in the New York Times explained that we’re terrible at anticipating those kinds of changes — we simply can’t fathom that we’ll ever change, even though we always do. I found myself thinking about this quite a bit as I read Red Sonja 5, which finds two former friends battling on the very grounds they swore they would never return to. Continue reading
Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Red Sonja 4, originally released October 9th, 2013.
Shelby: There was a period of time when I used to run on a pretty regular basis. When you’re doing a race, or even just going for a long morning run, there’s comes a point when your brain starts to tell you your body can’t do it any more. Now, brains are great, but sometimes they’re all full of nonsense; they’ll try to trick you to stop doing something that’s hard. There’s a fine line to walk, however, between ignoring your brain’s advice and ignoring your body’s. Once your body starts telling you it really can’t do any more, that’s the point you need to start paying attention, before you seriously hurt yourself. Of course, if your body is telling you it can’t go on because it’s riddled with the plague and you’re going to die anyway, it doesn’t really matter if you over-exert.
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Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Red Sonja 3, originally released September 11th, 2013.
Shelby: Last month things were looking pretty bad for our gal Sonja. The man who was like a father to her was dead at the hands Dark Annisia, the ultimate frenemy. The people she came to defend were dead in battle or dying of the plague. Also, she was actually dying of the plague herself, and sent into exile to die alone. At least she had the promise of fever dreams of her loved ones, dead and gone; there’s always that to look forward to, I suppose.
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Today, Shelby and guest writer Mike are discussing Batman: The Dark Night 23.1: The Ventriloquist, originally released September 4th, 2013. This issue is part of the Villain’s Month event. Click here for our Villains Month coverage.
Shelby: It’s a well-documented fact around the non-existent Retcon Punch offices that I love morally ambiguous anti-heroes. That character who walks the dividing line between good guy and bad guy makes for such an interesting and exciting read. My love of the gray area between good and bad extends to the various shades of good and bad; some good guys are more good than others, some bad guys are more bad than others. With the Justice League dead, this month is going to feature a lot of bad guys encountering bad guys, and as is the case in this issue, no one really wins. Not even the reader, sadly.
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Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Red Sonja 2, originally released August 15th, 2013.
Drew: Finales get all the attention, but I firmly believe that starting a serialized narrative is the much more impressive feat. Each subsequent chapter can build upon the previous ones, but the very first entry must whip a meaningful relationship with the audience out of thin air. This often requires relying on character types that seem almost embarrassing when looked back upon, like bad yearbook pictures, or early blog posts. It’s a strange paradox; we like complex characters, but you can’t achieve that much complexity in 22 pages (or 42 minutes, as the case may be). Character types allow us to make connections with characters quickly, but at the expense of specificity — nobody is exclaiming “that’s so Raven” after the first episode of That’s so Raven. The handoff from those early, type-driven chapters to later, character-driven ones is perilous, but writer Gail Simone handle’s it beautifully in Red Sonja 2. Continue reading
Today, Drew and guest writer Chuck Maa are discussing Batgirl 23, originally released August 14th, 2013.
Drew: Superheroes lead miserable lives. The demands of serialized storytelling require that they are regularly beset by life-altering tragedies, are perpetually unlucky in love, and maybe die once or twice in their career. Month-to-month, it’s exciting, but when you total it all up, the life of your average superhero is unspeakably depressing. Take, for example, Barbara Gordon. Her mother abandoned her when she was a child because of her psychotic brother; her fledgling vigilante career was violently ended when she was shot in the spine; after regaining the ability to walk, she suffered from rather severe PTSD. Oh, and remember her psychotic brother? He grows up to be a serial killer who she now feels guilty of killing. Also, her dad also holds her responsible for killing her brother. Things seemed to be finally looking up for her last month, as she forgot her troubles and went on her first date with a new squeeze, but we all knew it couldn’t last. Continue reading
Today, Scott and Drew are discussing The Movement 4, originally released August 7th, 2013.
Scott: Think about your favorite comic book hero. What do you know about their past? Whether it’s every little detail or just the basics, it’s almost impossible to separate that hero from the event (usually a tragedy (possibly the death of a parental figure?)) that set them on the path to become a hero. In The Movement 4, writer Gail Simone makes time to explore the important events in the lives of a few main characters, while also trying to advance the story she’s established over three issues, and the effect raises some questions. It’s certainly important, crucial even, to develop a character’s past, but when is the right time to do it? And how many characters can you look back at at once? Simone overshoots, but not terribly — she’s not biting off more than she can chew so much as taking too many bites too quickly. It’s a climactic issue for this young series, but presented in a way that isn’t as seamless as previous issues.
Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Red Sonja 1, originally released July 17th, 2013.
Shelby: I love fantasy novels. I’m about half-way through re-reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series in preparation for the final book, and I’m loving every minute of it. Jordan had some interesting ideas about men and women, most of them boiling down to the fact that men and women are actually just all people, and very similar in many ways. It seems like a pretty straight-forward idea, but it’s pretty unique for a genre that may have a worse reputation than comics for its depictions of women. So a fantasy comic book with a female lead known for the least beach-appropriate swimwear in the history of bathing suits seems a risky venture in this day and age, one more likely to appear as the worst kind of dated than anything else. Luckily for us all, Red Sonja is in the ridiculously talented hands of Gail Simone, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.
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