Martin Skidmore - Review

Ayako

In my mind, a big new (well, new in English – this is from 1973) Tezuka graphic novel is a major comics publishing event. I don’t think I’ve been as excited about reading a new comic in many months.

The first thing that strikes you about this is that it’s a really lovely volume – a large hardback, perfectly printed on thick glossy paper, with a striking embossed two-colour cover. The next thing you notice, without any surprise for anyone who knows Bryan’s work, is that the beauty of the art justifies and all but demands such treatment.

FA on the radio

Podcast of a radio show I did recently, hosted by Tim Hopkins, also starring Al Ewing and Magnus Anderson, all about comics criticism and some about this site.

Flood & Blood Song

Two breathtaking works, both wordless, apart from one brief sequence in Flood: stories of real depth and substance, told in pictures instead of, not as well as, words.

Moving Pictures

I’m not sure how much I liked this WWII occupied Paris story of a museum curator vying with a German officer over what happens to the works of art.

BB Wolf and the Three LPs

The first name in the title will make you think of two blues giants, and the last term sounds musical too – but you’ll probably have also spotted the fairy tale reading.

Batwoman 0

If an issue 0 (why?) has any purpose, surely it is as a promo, to entice us to add this series to our pick-list. Instead, the story deftly blends the idiotic with the dull.

Superf*ckers

For me, one of the most consistently and hugely enjoyable comics of recent years, here collected for your convenience. The premise is simple enough: what if a top super-team were all assholes who hated each other?

Lone Wolf & Cub

This epic series is, for me, one of the greatest achievements in comics. It tells the story of Itto Ogami, who starts as the official executioner for the Shogun. The rival Yagyu clan, who had wanted that high position for themselves, attack his family and leave fake evidence to discredit him. He leaves to walk meifumado, the “road to hell”: to work as a hired assassin in an attempt to amass sufficient resources for revenge.

THUNDER Agents 1

The perfect example of the worst of faux-clever post-Watchmen comics, not least because it’s another rethinking of a gang of old characters that DC bought in.

FA - The Comiczine