Into the Longbox

Let's carry on with Part II of my year in review. Now we get on to favorite writers, mini-series, events and favorite series. I have also started to read more graphic novels, so I now have a category for that as well. Favorite Writer of 2020 Dan Slott - Fantastic Four (Marvel) - I may be telegraphing my pick here, but I loved the Fantastic Four book so much this year. I am biased because it is my favorite super hero team, but Slott has infused some of the old with the new. Clearly he has a reverence for these characters and it comes through and how he has brought back old, classic feeling tales of the four. He has the voices for everyone and I am glad to see that not only has he progressed Ben Grim and Alicia's relationship, but also that of the Franklin children as well. There are a lot of characters now, but he juggles those relationships well here. I was not convinced with him on this book at first, but he's turned me around. What can I say? Honorable Mention: Chip Zdars...

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a crap year. I don't think I have anything else to say that could more accurately capture that. Instead of focusing on all of that, let's get to my Best and Worst List of 2020. There was a pause in the comic industry at the beginning of the pandemic and then things picked back up. So even in the industry it was unprecedented. In trying to think back on this year with my old man brain, I will try to summon up my memories to capture them here. I do know that my reading of Marvel Comics has continued to go up, while the number of DC titles have diminished to only really sticking with the Trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Outside of Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, I'm out of DC for now. I continue to read more and more independent comics from the other companies such as Image, IDW, Boom!Studios, TKO Studios etc. I even found myself funding a number of Kickstarter projects this year to support black creators. This year, I even ...

Wonder Womaaaaaaaan I really don't want to be doing this.  I loved about three-fourths of the first movie. I was looking forward to this movie. Even after all the delays due to COVID or Warner Brothers itself. What I got was a movie that I actively disliked. In the following paragraphs, I will go into more detail. I will warn you, there are going to be massive spoilers. I can't talk about what I didn't like without giving some explicit examples. Let me start off by talking about the things I did actually like about this movie. The first ten minutes with young Diana is pretty great. We get to see how beautiful and picturesque Themyscira is. Seriously, why can't we spend more time here? These have the best shots of the movie each time. Lil' Diana is pretty precocious. I like that they are trying to set up the themes that will be essential to Diana's journey. As with each time she steps into the role, I still really like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I feel like you c...

I really meant to post this a lot sooner. I honestly can't tell you how I first learned about  TKO Comics , the publishing company. I think it was one of those targeted ads that appeared on Facebook. We all know that Facebook knows us better than we know ourselves.  What really caught my attention was that at the beginning of the pandemic, they said that they were giving 50% of the proceeds from your purchase to a local comic book shop of your choosing. I thought this was an amazing and very generous idea. For those that don't know, the comic book industry has razor thin margins, so something like a pandemic will absolutely wreck havoc with the comic book shops, which are all independent. I looked at the talent that they gathered for these books and saw that I legitimately wanted to get over 80% of them, so I took the plunge and purchased a few, while also making sure it was going to help some of my favorite comic book shops. What further interested me, was the diversity and i...

If only they had called it the "Right Guard". Just for my own personal amusement because I am 12. When I first heard that this movie was being adapted from the comic series of the same name, I was excited. Then I promptly forgot all about it until Netflix alerted me to it. It was more because life got in the way than anything else.  Needless to say, this movie is pretty great. Is it faithful to the comics on which it is based? I don't know. I read the series when it came out in 2017. For me, that is a long time in comic book years. I remember broad strokes at best. However, I do know that I liked it and I am a huge Greg Rucka fan. If nothing else, I'm glad he was able to get another one of his properties adapted into film. The TV show, Stumptown is another one of his properties. I'll give my thoughts on that show at a later time. Anyway, the movie. It stars Charlize Theron. I love her transition into action star over the past few years. She's very good at it. ...

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends posted about how some me X-Men graphic novels were free on Amazon Prime. Specifically, the collection called 'Mutant Genesis', which gathers the first 7 issues of the Jim Lee run on X-Men in the early 90's. I thought, "Wouldn't this be a fun experiment? How does 2020 Kevin feel about this comic almost 30 years later?" I will tell you, what an experiment it was. There is some stuff that now in retrospect is pretty problematic. Other stuff I simply forgot. While I was reading this, I took down some quick notes to spur my discussion. If you're looking for a plot synopsis, you won't get that here. With that being said, the format of this will be different than my normal reviews. I will type up each of my "hot take" notes as I saved them on my phone while reading. Then I will give more context to them. It's not like I was going to write full sentences each time. If this works out well, maybe I will do...

Welcome again, dear readers. I realize it's been a while since I did this because of what is going on in the world (Pandemic). If you haven't been here before, here's the deal. I take a terrible picture of a panel in a comic book with my phone that is funny to me while I am in the middle of reading. Then I pass along those savings..I mean, fun to you. To make it funnier, I just show the panel completely devoid of any context.  Then I goof on it because I love. Who cares what was happening at that moment!? This time we have a real treat. It is probably one of my favorites because this is from the late 70's and it gives you a window into what was hip then. This particular gem is from Fantastic Four #168. To keep MY mouth fresh, I prefer a minty flavor. Spearmint of course because Peppermint is a tool of the devil. Look, I may not be an expert in family dynamics, but I don't think if my sibling teased my spouse about not getting any from ME, my go to would be, ...