Dark Horse - FA Online

‘Kill the Umpire’, the 45-Years-Later Sequel: Warren, Dark Horse, and Creators’ Rights

To establish ownership of his copyright, author Ken Gale creates a sequel to his Creepy story from 1979.

Conan: Isle of No Return 1

You know where you are with a Conan comic.

Does anyone bother reading anthology comics any longer? Dark Horse appear to think so, and credit to them for attempting to bolster what’s never been a particularly popular format, in the US at least. Most of the names here appeared in the original DHP when it first appeared many years back, giving this comic an aura less of a new series than of a title that’s been temporarily out of action.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight books 6 & 7

There were opportunities and difficulties in continuing Buffy as a comic series, and there are all kinds of interesting effects both from those and from putting a TV writer in charge of something that used to be a TV show.

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever 2

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder is an excursion into the realms of gothic western. The western seems to be making a comeback, but it’s been infected by zombies and lycanthropes and invariably sultry witches. Why is this? Maybe it’s because it’s an era that already carries mythic overtones. Maybe it’s the looming, shadowed landscapes. Maybe it’s crass commercialism.

BPRD: Plague of Frogs

I am by now a total Hellboy fan, and that extended quickly to Mignola’s world, especially when I fell for Guy Davis’s artwork. Having said that, this 400+ page hardback book is not a very coherent volume.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever 1

Regular readers will have gathered that I am now hooked on Mignola’s Hellboy universe. This title is set in the late 19th Century, in which Grey travels to Utah on the trail of someone, for reasons not yet given; but I guess the main point of interest here is the art. John Severin is now 89, which makes him as far as I know the oldest artist still working in comics.

BPRD: Hell on Earth: Gods 1

I admitted the other day that I had never read Hellboy before, so you won’t be surprised that I was unfamiliar with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense spin-off. Actually, I don’t feel a great deal more familiar with them after reading this, since none of them appear until the final panel.

Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead 1

Strange confession time, before I start this: I have never read a Hellboy comic. I’ve seen and enjoyed both movies, and I’ve always liked Mignola’s art, so I can’t explain this. This two-issue series seemed a good way to sample it.

Archie Firsts

This is a handsome hardback, with good reproduction, containing reprints of early Archie stories; a precursor to an already announced series of Archive volumes collecting Archie strips chronologically.

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