Pads & Panels

Title: Fighting American

Publisher: Titan Books

Written by: Joe Simon

Illustrated by: Jack Kirby

Rating:

Review by: Matt Peters

Like the excuse given for a granddad at Sunday dinner, the stories contained within the Fighting American collection are from a different time. That means it’s littered with classic story ideas and stereotypes that are sure to confuse and offend those who are unfamiliar with the entertainment of the era. Compiling the work of two comic book legends, some of these tales are finally being published for the first time ever. Do the Cold War-era adventures of America’s other patriotic superhero deserve a look? (more…)

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Title: Shaun of the Dead

Publisher: Titan Books

Screenplay by: Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright

Adapted by: Chris Ryall

Artist: Zach Howard

Rating:

Review by: Thomas Braaksma

Zombies seem to be eating away at every area of life these days. Television, movies, comics, classic books, video games, “zombie” walks and pub crawls have all infected society. One stand out title was the movie Shaun of the Dead, which took a comical look at an apocalyptic situation.

With The Walking Dead’s extremely successful comic book series and the growing popularity of the zombie genre, it appears the creators of Shaun decided to cash in on some of that zombie money with this 2010 comic book adaptation of the movie. (more…)

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Title: Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie

Publisher: Titan Books

Writer: Commentary by Mark Millar, Contributions from Cast and Crew

Review by: Thomas Braaksma

Spoiler Alert! If the reader has not seen the movie or read the comic and does not want to know everything about it, hold off on Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie. This book will give away a lot of the plot and the differences between the comic and the movie. With that being said, the question at hand is whether after the movie has been viewed is this companion book to the Kick-Ass franchise worth picking up? The answer to that could be yes or no depending on the reader’s commitment to the franchise and their concern for intricate details, down to costumes, the story’s origin, writers’ thoughts and actors’ takes on the material. Creating the Comic, Making the Movie is really for the most die-hard of fans. (more…)

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Title: Lenore : Noogies (Color Edition)

Publisher: Titan Books

Writer: Roman Dirge

Artist: Roman Dirge

Rating:

Review by: Thomas Braaksma

Edgar Allen Poe’s characters have been parodied, re-imagined and of course blatantly ripped off throughout the years. Lenore: Noogies is Roman Dirge’s own Goth-inspired interpretation of one of Poe’s beloved characters from “Lenore” and also a name in “The Raven.” Unfortunately, Noogies takes a character of Poe’s and turns it into a morbid Goth fantasy of childish proportions.

The comparisons between Roman’s Lenore and Poe’s original begin and end right here – with the name and the fact that both of them are dead. Lenore is the “cute little dead girl” that fills the pages of this collection of the first four volumes of Dirge’s comic strip. The book as a whole is a reworked and updated color version of the collected short stories, but the content of the collection deems this update unnecessary. It’s not that Lenore was already at is highest standards, but that there is no need to rework these juvenile, morbid stories of a little dead girl. (more…)

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Title: The Best of Simon and Kirby

Publisher: Titan Books

Writer: Mark Evanier

Review by: John Gustafson

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby are two of the most influential figures in comics, and without their substantial impact on the medium, who knows where the books would be today.

This 240-page hardcover coffee table book The Best of Simon and Kirby features a nice introduction by Joe Simon detailing their history and impact, and essays by Kirby expert Mark Evanier. The book is sectioned by content – superheroes (Captain America, Bucky, Red Skull), science-fiction (Blue Bolt), war, romance, crime dramas, western, horror and humor. (more…)

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