We talk to Matt Wilson, writer of Copernicus Jones and co-presenter of the War Rocket Ajax podcast about robot noir, Doctor Doom and his new book, The Supervillain Handbook.

The inaugural issue to the new era for ‘Star Wars’ brought to us by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons.

This new series is brought to us from the same team responsible for the ‘Star Wars: Legacy’ comic book series, John Ostrander (writer) and Jan Duursema (artist).

The New 52 hits UK newsagents with an anthology featuring Justice League, Action Comics and Green Lantern.

I have to admit I was never the greatest fan of Tintin comics or the classic animated series, but even a casual knowledge of them makes it obvious this film does a disservice to both.

The relaunch of DC Comics’ entire line as ‘The New 52’ has generated sales, it’s generated discussion, and put DC firmly in the spotlight. One of the big talking points, though, has been that something has gone very wrong with its depiction of women.
It didn’t help DC’s case that they launched two books in the [...]

The future has arrived. And it spells doom for the remnants of our favourite band of mutants.
‘Ultimate Comics: X-Men’ #1 is the latest series in the relaunching of the Ultimate Comics universe, and in the aftermath of the events of ‘Ultimatum’ and ‘Ultimate Fallout’, this is a very dangerous backdrop for mutantkind.
Due to Magneto’s attack [...]

You know, as a comic book fan, this is one of the most exciting times  to ever strike the industry.
No matter what side of the fence you fall on – whether Marvel, DC, or indie – there’s plenty of stuff to enjoy right now.
DC has relaunched their entire brand, Marvel is relaunching their Ultimate Comics [...]

‘Ultimate Comics: Captain America’ is a story distinctly shaped by the politics and sentiment of a post-9/11 America.

At long last, ‘Action Comics’ #1 is here. Which is something, considering the last time that legitimately could be said was in 1938.

It has been a rough few years for Marvel’s Ultimate Comics range.

‘Justice League’ #1 comes across like the prologue of a novelization of a terrible, terrible movie.

As a first issue for the new DC universe, ‘Justice League’ #1 is unexpectedly understated.

A reasonable compromise between the simplistic entertainment of Batman video games, the pop art spectacle of the 1960s TV show and Nolan’s more adult approach.

Kirkman and Liefeld. It’s an indie comic dream come true.

I have been catching up on my comic book reading. And by ‘catching up’ I mean that I’m finally getting around to reading some comics that I’ve had my eye on for a while but for whatever reason (work, kids, time, zombie apocalypse) haven’t had a chance to get to.
I used to love the Ultimate [...]

Is the status quo of an unmarried Clark and Lois in the DC reboot all that it seems?

‘Knight of Vengeance’ is very good work, a beautifully assembled comic that just happened to leave me cold.

Green Lantern is a briskly entertaining and enjoyably broad superhero flick that doesn’t seem to know quite which audience it’s aiming for.

Following on from INJ Culbard’s excellent graphic adaptation of Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’, SelfMadeHero return to Lovecraft’s work with a selection of seven of his most famous tales, adapted by an excellent line-up of creators.
The stories adapted in this first volume (a second is promised) are those which laid the groundwork for Lovecraft’s [...]

Great Odin’s Raven! Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Thor’ is remarkably uncompromised.

The first issue of the Marvel revival of Mark Waid’s much-missed Eisner winning detective series features sharp dialogue, nice art and easily understandable characters

I’ve always had a great fondness for Clive Barker. He’s the same age as my mother, a bit of trivia which always made him seem like the super-cool gay uncle I never had. His work has always sat somewhere between horror and fantasy, while being more humane and creative than 99% of the output in [...]

Jarringly, it’s nearly eight years since I posted a breathlessly enthusiastic review of Vertigo’s Human Target on this site. I’ve just been revisiting the series for an upcoming encyclopaedia of comics from Salem Press: it also happens to be coming out again in a new set of trade paperbacks. When I wrote that review I [...]

Asterisk introduces Obelisk to his girlfriend.

Six months ago, I reviewed ‘Superman’ #700, which had the prologue for Grounded, the new story in which Superman decided he needed to connect with ordinary people and so began to walk from the East Coast of America to the West. I quite liked it.

Obelisk ponders Asterisk’s inevitable obsoletion.

This collection falls into that well ploughed furrow of English language comics on both sides of the pond that can be classified as auto-bio.

This collected volume of Eddie Campbell books from Top Shelf features comic strips from the eighties, nineties and the noughties (Is that what that latter decade is called?) And it is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Alan Rinzler, Hunter S. Thompson’s sometime editor, writes a foreword to this book that asks why Thompson isn’t taken more seriously, why the drugs and excesses of his life have overshadowed his achievements as a writer and journalist?
Rinzler’s foreword never directly refers to the content of writer Will Bingley and artist Anthony Hope-Smith’s graphic biography [...]

Lovecraft’s ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ gets a classy graphic novel adaptation from writer/artist INJ Culbard.

‘DC Universe Presents’ is the latest UK title to reprint US comics for the UK newsstand, and with one great story and two quite good ones it represents very good value for your three quid.

‘The Peanuts Collection’ is a wonderfully packaged volume that is a must-have for ‘Peanuts’ fans.

I think the rise and fall of the WildStorm Universe titles (cancelled as of December 2010) tells us something about the role that novelty, rebellion and that nebulous, ‘Wizard’ magazine-backed idea of ‘Hotness’ plays in the comics industry.

Let me be clear from the off, this is a very high quality comic. It’s very well written and exceptionally well drawn.

Comics would be in a healthier state if more fans took a chance on something new. If you agree, then you could do worse than pick up ‘Elephantmen’…

Comics love arbitrary numbering milestones, and if there’s one advantage of a weekly publication schedule it’s that those big numbers roll around four times as fast as they do for US monthlies.

The renaissance in both the quality and the number of war comics which have been available in recent years owes a great deal to the work of Garth Ennis, who has almost single handedly revived the genre.

Yes, fine, it’s not actually about Iron Man, who doesn’t personally appear within its pages, but then ‘Invincible Mandarin Annual’ just sounds a bit silly.

The first real consequence of Marvel’s acquisition of the Marvelman character (assuming that the death of The Sentry, a Marvelman like character if ever there was one, doesn’t count) is the first issue of this six issue series reprinting stories from the 1950s.

The roots for ‘COA’s’ story are admirable: the Orwellian nightmare of ‘1984′ and the Kurt Vonnegut short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’. The problem here is the execution.

The iPad makes e-comics a more viable proposition, but print comics aren’t dead just yet.

A few weeks old this one, but worth a mention now you can read the whole first issue for free online. It’s a new series from writer David Hine, who is doing a lot of DC stuff lately, and artist Shaky Kane, who has a bit of a cult following.
‘The Bulletproof Coffin’ is a remarkable [...]

‘Detective Comics’ #866 marks the return of Denny O’Neil to Batman comics, and it’s cracking stuff.

‘Superman’ #700 marks the launch of a new direction for Superman, under the aegis of J. Michael Straczynski, who’s kept himself busy, but is probably still best known as the creator of Babylon 5.

Superhero team books are a big part of Marvel and DC’s publishing schedules, but does their style of storytelling stand up when taken out of the weekly churn of periodical publishing?

Paul Levitz’s first issue of ‘Adventure Comics’ invokes the Silver Age and has a charm, directness and clarity that most DCU books simply don’t.

Something different this Thursday – our first webcomic. Younger Looking Flesh was written by Eddie Robson and drawn by Ant Mercer, both of the Lancaster creative mafia.
There’s not a huge amount to say about the creative process. It’s about zombies and it’s only two pages long. Just read it. Click here.

Writer Paul Levitz revisits the future of ‘Batman Beyond’ in a story that, in spite of being set in a dystopia, provides an upbeat and refreshing alternative to most of DC’s current books.

Scotland Yard DCI Harker is on a break in Whitby when a mystery novelist, Agatha Fletcher, is murdered at his hotel. Reluctantly, he calls in Critchley, his DS, to solve the murder…