I'm sure you've heard it by now-- "The internet is the future of comics. Digital comics are where we need to go. Blah blah blah, iPad, blah blah blah Kindle, blah blah killer app." No one quite knows how digital comics are going to work out yet, though there are several different attempts on the market. Manga publishing giant Viz seems more than ready to blaze a few trails, as they've leapt into ...

The comics page isn't just there for telling stories. Sometimes it gets used for commentary on the book, society, or even the comic industry itself. Peter David has used it to take shots at other creators, John Byrne has used it to "fix" other stories, and Grant Morrison has used it to deconstruct comic universes. With the release of this week's "Milestone Forever" #2, Dwayne McDuffie may be using ...

The Wu-Tang Clan has been one of pop culture's most comics-friendly groups since its inception. Method Man adopted Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider as aliases early in his career, and still reads comics. Ghostface Killah christened himself Tony Stark (sometimes spelled Tony Starks or Toney Starks). His debut album was 1996's "Ironman." Ghost even made it onto the soundtrack for Marvel's hit movie ...

After Barack Obama was elected in 2008, talking heads started pushing the idea of "post-racial" America. "Finally!" they shouted. "America is past race!" Exactly what post-racial meant was never all that clear. Was racism over? Were we finally a melting pot? Is it cool to listen to rap in public? Who knows! A few months later, post-racial went from popular buzzword to devalued catchphrase, one ...

Love him or hate him, you can always depend on Grant Morrison to deliver a story that works on multiple levels. This week's "Joe the Barbarian," featuring great art from Sean Murphy, manages to live up to that trend admirably. The titular Joe is a quiet kid with a recently-deceased father, Type 1 Diabetes, and a mom desperate to move out of their house. One late evening when his blood sugar gets ...

In comics, lightning strikes twice. Three times, if you're lucky. Last year, Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura released "I Kill Giants," a seven-issue Image miniseries about Barbara Thorson. If you missed it, you could've had a good day this past May, when the collection was released at a very reasonable sixteen bucks. If you missed that... I just want to say that I understand that we all make ...

Years ago, Salt'n'Pepa sang "Let's talk about sex, baby! Let's talk about you and me! Let's talk about all the good things, and the bad things, that may be!" We talked about the bad things last week. So, yeah, let's talk about the good things now. Generally, people dig sex. It's hardwired into our DNA. Thinking about it, planning to get it, having it, whatever. It's a pretty big deal. This is ...

American war comics, over the past sixty years, have been political in a couple of interesting ways. Back in the '40s and onward, war comics were generally aimed at children, so nuance wasn't even remotely on the radar, and very patriotic and flattering portrayal was the order of the day. Our superheroes, who often wore flags on their chest, fought against racial stereotypes the world over. I ...

Pop quiz, hot shot. Who said this? "I got it mastered, man. In the hood I'm like Plastic Man... stretch!" No idea? What about this one: "I got Spider-Man high, I made Batman fly"? Still no idea? It was rap superstar 50 Cent, on the song "Stretch" from his long-awaited and just-released fourth studio album "Before I Self Destruct." As part of his continued focus on bringing true "aggressive ...

Superman and Wonder Woman have been saving the world with a combination of laser eyes, invisible planes, and colorful costumes for decades, but their predecessors -- the pulp magazine heroes of the early 20th century -- practiced crime-fighting that involved a combination of brains, brawn, and an avalanche of bullets. They were a little more Indiana Jones than Clark Kent, and appeared in novels ...