Comic Book Resources

Everyone's A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces

* Via Heidi I discovered the Graphic Novels Challenge, a site devoted to getting book bloggers and those unfamiliar with comics in general to read and review some select graphic novels of their choosing. It's a great idea and the general first-time reactions are fun to read.

* Sean T. Collins reads the first nine volumes of Invincible and declares: "It's very much not a book about how awesome Invincible is, whereas 90% of corporate superhero comics these days are about how awesome Copyright Man or Team Trademark is." (follow-up links found here)

* Paul Gravett pontificates on "The Atom Style," as exemplified by European artists like Joost Swarte, Daniel Torres and Javier Mariscal.

* Tom Crippen offers a two-part consideration of Alan Moore's Miracleman and wonders if the writer's prose isn't just a little too purple.

* I've avoided the Grand Guginol horror series Hack/Slash up till now, but Curt Purcell makes me wonder if I haven't been missing out on something.

* Herve St-Louis examines how European cartoonists have portrayed and internalized American culture in their work: "It’s an interesting development where American culture has become internalized by current European cartoonists."

* The LA Times joins the growing chorus of praises being sung for The Photographer.

* David Welsh wants to tell you about the manga he just bought.

* Sandy Bilus runs through a number of recently released titles, as does the AV Club.

* Richard Bruton has nice things to say about James Kochalka's latest American Elf collection.

* Craig Fischer climbs into the wayback machine for a look at Unseemly Pictures: Graphic Satire and Politics in Early Modern England, a collection of prints from the 17th century.

* Leif Peng got a copy of the Collected Doug Wright for his birthday (well OK, he treated himself) and is as happy as happy can be.