Comicsphere: Nowhere Girl by Justine Shaw

I am what is called a meta-textual reader — I just read the book I am reading, I read every single thing that is associated with it and then continue outwards and ever outwards from there. So a fair while back now I found this story called Lazarus Churchyard and through that discovered this guy [...]

Comicsphere: Freakangels Friday: Interlude

So, today there was something a little different being offered in stead of the Freakangels webcomic which is on a one week hiatus. Today Warren Ellis offers us some thoughts on his preoccupations with disaster fiction and the very British influences which have filtered into the story which we are logging on every week to [...]

Comicsphere: Dragon’s Claws

From the moment I saw that first advert for Dragon’s Teeth, as this series was originally to be called I was hooked on the idea. Back when marvel actually had an interest in a unique British market Dragon’s Claws was a stand out title. There was some great stuff that came out of that small [...]

16 Flaws Launched

So, the first two parts of this massive project I am undertaking is up for your enjoyment — I hope you’ll all support me and leave me loads of comments to let me know what you think. I have something like a hundred and sixty characters to introduce you to and each story will be [...]

Underappreciated: American Prayer by Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison is often dismissed as a poet — his lyrics are often ripped apart. Sometimes he was a dick, a drunken clown and a buffoon, sure, but that doesn’t mean all his work was worthless. I owned Lords & the New Creatures, American Night and Wilderness and hey there is work in there that [...]

People Watching: Valerie Solanas

Of the people who went in and out of the doors of The Factory she stands out perhaps most of all. Why? Because she is the woman who shot Andy Warhol. Which bring me neatly to how I heard of her — the film I Shot Andy Warhol. That film was a great portrayal of [...]

Comicsphere: Batman Black And White

Batman and reinvention go together like a horse and carriage or whatever other pair of inseparable ideas you wish to use, hmm, maybe Batman and Robin. I said something similar earlier with works about the character that were operating under the same kind of mission statement: to reimagine the world of Gotham’s Dark Knight.
Anyway this [...]

Comicsphere: Red/Tokyo Storm Warning by Warren Ellis

This set of two works collected back-to-back presents two very different types of work which can be read in one sitting and work the palate to a nice effect.
They are both lean just because of the dictates of the format that they were originally produced in and the number of pages that allows the writer [...]

Comicsphere: Freakangels Friday

Ellis once again working to confound the tendency that people have to pigeonhole characters or jump to conclusions about what sort of person they are or the role that they fulfill. Today we see that far from being the flighty delicate creature that some have mistaken her for, after her display of strength last week, [...]

Comicsphere: Stray Bullets 1&2 by David Lapham

The exploration of violence in these two volumes takes many twists and turns. The first volume struck me as being more grounded but both of them have a resonant emotional core that connects with the reader on a very visceral level.
To say that something is filmic is over-used and perhaps misguided when it comes to [...]