Browsing Blurbs

Nov 1

More Girl Talk: It Could Be Worse

Posted by Chris Eckert

Last time I probably spent too much time rebutting Colin Smith’s review of The Ultimates and extrapolations about its creators and publisher made from a single comic book. I said people needed to look at things in context. I want to make something clear: no one can tell anyone else what to be offended by. [...]

Sep 7

Imaginary Stories

Posted by Jamaal Thomas

This is going to be a quick one. I’ve been thinking about canon, alternate takes on Marvel/DC properties, cultural ownership and the artificial rules of storytelling in fictional storytelling over the last couple of days. I’m still working through some ideas on the latter two, but I want to spend a little time on the [...]

Jul 27

Fan Service – Setting the Table

Posted by Jamaal Thomas

“Writers don’t do stories specifically to piss off fans. Writers write stories about which they feel passionate and invested. As a reader, you’re entitled to one thing and one thing only: a reading experience in exchange for your purchase. And if you like that reading experience, the expectation is that you’ll come back for more. [...]

Jun 24

I Am Pretty Sure Marvel Mislabeled Fear Itself: Immortal Weapons #2 as Iron Man 2.0 #6

Posted by Chris Eckert

Iron Man 2.0 #6 came out this week, the second part of the book’s tie-in to Fear Itself. And by tying into Fear Itself, I mean that Nick Spencer really wanted to write an Iron Fist/Immortal Weapons series, and I guess all of the editors were so busy coordinating a summer crossover that he snuck [...]

Jun 9

FBB EXCLUSIVE: WATERMARKED IMAGES OF UPCOMING DC RELAUNCH COVERS!

Posted by Chris Eckert

It’s Thursday morning and DC is still parceling out its Big Relaunch News, with 48 of 52 books officially announced. I’ve been keeping track of them in a Google Spreadsheet! The only books left unannounced as those in the Superman Family, which is obviously being saved for tomorrow. Given their weird press junket (USA Today, [...]

Jun 6

DC Editors Say the Darndest Things

Posted by Chris Eckert

DC has been issuing press releases left and right lately, hyping up their Big Overhaul in September. I’m sure their press department is working like mad, but some really goofy things have slipped out as a result. For instance! On the subject of the oft-delayed Batwoman #1: It’s very important in several different ways [...] [...]

Feb 8

Offered With Minimal Comment: Marvel Premiere #1

Posted by Chris Eckert

Comic Book Hippies were really getting it from all sides, weren’t they?

Feb 5

Offered With Minimal Comment: Brother Power the Geek #2

Posted by Chris Eckert

I’ve been in hardcore research mode for some upcoming BHM posts, and wanted to share this panel I came across. It illustrates an overlooked cost of corporate monoculture: modern labor protesters have only giant inflatable rats to rent. What happened to the Peace Missiles?

Jan 28

Top Ten Pamphlets Bought in 2010 Not Named Daytripper of the Year: Part Two

Posted by Jamaal Thomas

We celebrate New Year’s all month long at Funnybook Babylon. Here’s more of the top ten pamphlets of 2010 not named Daytripper. 6) Amazing Spider-Man #630-633: “Shed” (Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo, Emma Rios: Marvel Comics) “Shed” was the highlight of a great year for the Amazing Spider Man title, as the long-running Gauntlet plotline (in [...]

Dec 17

To Those That Served: Funnybook Babylon Salutes the Creators of Supergirl #1-59

Posted by Chris Eckert

Sterling Gates’s about-to-conclude Supergirl run — twenty six issues plus two annuals — is a respectable tenure on any Big Two comic these days, but for Supergirl this is an achievement comparable to Dave Sim’s 300 issues of Cerebus! In the thirty three issues prior to Gates’s run, the Girl of Steel had to put [...]

Oct 25

We Felt This One Was More Urgent – ASTONISHING PHOTOS INSIDE!

Posted by Chris Eckert

I’ve spent entirely too much time on a post I hope to have up on Tuesday, but in preparing it I stumbled upon something amazing. Hoping to find photos of that scary looking Chapel cosplayer that went around to signings with Rob Liefeld back in the 1990s, I dug up the copy of Extreme Studios [...]

Aug 1

A Letter from Superboy #26: Fandom Still Pays

Posted by David Uzumeri

From Superboy #26 And they say Geoff Johns doesn’t do long-range planning.

Jul 29

Prelude to Number Crunching: A Heroic Skyline Reused

Posted by Chris Eckert

While working on another sales analysis post, I started writing a brief aside about Marvel’s Heroic Age Pedestal Variant Covers. You’ve probably seen them, they all follow the same template:

Jul 15

FBB EXCLUSIVE! DC Announces New Title Spinning Out of Superman #701

Posted by Chris Eckert

Amazingly enough, I don’t think this sequence even cracked the Top Three for things that bothered me about this issue!

Apr 18

Why Won’t People Stop Swiping Mark Millar?

Posted by Chris Eckert

There’s already been plenty of coverage elsewhere of Mark Millar’s hissyfit about getting his idea of Vampires vs. Superheroes “swiped” by the X-Offices. I think Mark’s onto something: just as he introduced the concepts of gay superheroes and “a superhero comic set in the real world”, I see no reason to think he didn’t also [...]