Martin Skidmore - Review

Showcase Presents Our Army At War 1

I think this is the earliest material DC have reprinted in a Showcase volume – it starts in 1952. I guess this is partly because that’s where the series started, but the fact that it doesn’t look Golden Age must have helped the decision – the standard style for war comics doesn’t seem to have changed so much, and bar the odd racist exaggeration of the Japanese enemies, a lot of this would hardly look out of place today.

2000AD 2011

The 2000AD Xmas special proves to be not so much special as, by and large, a fatter regular issue.

Comic Creators: A League Table

Since this was hugely unpopular but caused exciting debate when I first did this in the print FA back in 1989, I’m repeating the exercise…

Death Note

There are gods of death watching over this world. They each have a notebook, in which, when any name is written, that person will die. One of those gods of death, in search of entertainment, drops a notebook into the human world.

The Playwright

This is much closer to being a character sketch than a (graphic) novel – not too much happens, there are no substantial crises, and so on. This is not in any sense a bad thing, since it’s one of the most incisive and profound character portraits I’ve seen in comics.

House of Mystery Halloween Annual 2

I was looking for a ‘give it a go’ buy for the week, and this caught my eye. Pete Milligan, Mike Allred – yeah, surely worth a try.

The Return of Bruce Wayne

All credit to Grant for the way he has played Batman’s death. Yes, he gave us some ‘he really is dead’ stuff in the wonderful Final Crisis series where Batman and Darkseid kill each other, with Superman carrying the clearly dead body. However, he also ended the series with a clear statement that he isn’t dead, that he is now somehow lost in the depths of the past.

Turn That Page!

There is one unique thing about the experience of reading comic books that I’ve not seen discussed a great deal. Books have pages, the same as comics, but they don’t work the same way.

American Vampire 9

I sometimes struggle to see the point of Vertigo. I guess it wants to be seen as DC’s serious, arty line, far from the superheroes, for intelligent adults, equating to indie graphic novels. Trouble is, it always seems to me to be kind of like a DC comic but with more violence and swearing and stuff like that, and rarely any more genuine intelligence or substance, mostly just the trappings of those kinds of values.

The Comix Reader 1

This is a 24-page tabloid newsprint comic, mostly in colour, for £1, seeking the old underground spirit. A noble aim, and I am all for the format and price, but is it any good?