JOHN BYRNE

When I first became seriously interested in comics, John Byrne was at the top of my favorite artist list. He drew many of the classic “new” X-Men books, and was the artist on that series when it first became massively popular. The stories Byrne drew (and co-plotted along ...

I'm not sure where I first heard of Li'l Abner. Maybe some bits and pieces in a Comic Review Magazine or something.

The Shmoo was a character on the old Flintstones cartoons I used to watch, and Lena Hyena had shown up on the movie Who Framed Roger ...

Little Amy is the cutest and sweetest little girl in the post-apocalypse. Of course, her adorable personality seems to attract the strangest of characters from a top hat wearing stranger, happy dolls, white rabbits, Sherry the living doll, Eloise, and Eustace.

This is a mature comic because it deviates from ...

Last year for Black History Month I profiled Black Panther, the first black superhero (see that newspost here). This year I’m sticking with the black comic character theme with a mini-history of Chuck Clayton, one of the first non-white characters in Archie comics.

These days Chuck is an established ...

Cast of an obscure 1970's science fiction flick. Current whereabouts unknown

One of the challenges…and maybe one of the greatest pleasures…of creating a series is populating it with a cast of heroes. I know I spend many weeks or months tinkering with characters and deciding who they ...

Jane Alexander, Butcher Boys

That happens to be a line from one of my favourite albums, a combination CD/graphic novel from an obscure now-defunct South African hip hop group.

I think it’s pretty easy to understand how a South African group would come to that conclusion. When I ...

It had been years since I donned my black cocktail dress to spend an evening listening to one of my favorite writers, and that is exactly what I did on Saturday night. The scene was set in Long Beach at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center and I was excitedly waiting ...

After spending three hours reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman in a public library on Friday afternoon, I ran into the most marvelous sculpture on display while taking a stroll through West Hollywood Park. The shiny, white sculpture was based on two popular and beloved comic book superheroes, Batman and ...

Apparently the difference between “terror” and “horror” was first expressed by writer Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), who said that Terror is the dread and apprehension about something happening, while Horror is the actual encountering the frightening thing.
Maybe this is what they mean when they talk about “suspense” vs. “horror”. Have ...

Summary:
Amar the Barbarian mindlessly fights for his life is a barren snowy wasteland against viscous orkish foes, and he LOVES it. The trouble is, he doesn't even know he's caller “Amar” yet, that comes later… Something really big and strange is about to change in his life ...