In stores this month is Spawn Compendium Volume 1, a gargantuan tome collecting the first fifty-ish issues, marking the 20th anniversary of Spawn's creation. At 984 pages, this collection may even be as heavy as the subject of Todd McFarlane and his most popular creation. Marty McFly heavy. It's a metaphor. When the series debuted it was an amazing success, becoming the highest-selling ...

Like some lucky readers out there, I got a Kindle Fire for the holidays. It was a complete surprise, especially considering that I didn't ask for one, and didn't even really want one. Despite all the good news I'd heard about the Comixology app, my tactile orientation made it hard for me to get along with the idea of digital comics, but being so poor I only bought maybe a dozen comics last ...

On shelves now is the first issue of Dynamite's Lord of the Jungle, the beginning of a brand-new retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs' original "Tarzan of the Apes" story. Promising a more faithful interpretation of a story that's been retold several times in several mediums, Dynamite is hardly entering into new territory. Tarzan is one of the most enduring fictional characters of all time, and ...

Now on shelves is Captain America and Bucky: The Life Story of Bucky Barnes, a hardcover collection by Ed Brubaker, Marc Andreyko and Chris Samnee detailing the untold origins of Captain America and Bucky Barnes. Bet you thought you already knew those origins, didn't you? And now, post Fear Itself, with Steve Rogers resuming the Captain America mantle and Bucky presumed dead (but actually ...

Good crime comics used to be so hard to find. After the Comics Code Authority spelled doom for the genre after their heyday in the '40s and '50s, they virtually disappeared from the medium for decades. Thanks to the efforts of creators like Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke, Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Azzarrello and the inimitable David Lapham and books like xxxx, the 2000s saw a resurgence in noir ...

Dealing with characters in a historically accurate environment can be tricky. Origin stories for villains with vague, unspecified pasts can be pretty hard to pull off, too. Typically, unsuccessful forays are quickly sloughed off in continuity sheddings, relegated to "imaginary story" status, and brushed away as interesting, but non-canonical, non-essential chunks of ignored lore. That's ...

Mmmm... election season. The time of year when total fabrications and superstitions are tossed through the air like footballs at photo shoots. When absolute morons strut handed-down opinions around like they can actually form thoughts, and people who say things really were better in the 1950s aren't openly laughed at and informed that they're just racist. Local elections are just behind us, ...

Batman's Rogue's Gallery is a twisted trip through the darkness and horror of modern life; for every anxiety that plagues us, there's a Batman baddie to personify it, accumulating the most impressive array of villains in comics. And standing out like a knife glinting in the darkness is the Joker. With a new metamorphosis in the works in the 52 and the HC edition of The Joker: A Visual History ...

If a stranger offered you a briefcase containing a gun, 100 completely untraceable bullets, and incontrovertible evidence identifying the person responsible for the worst thing that's ever happened to you, and the promise of full immunity for your retribution, would you take it? The mysterious man in question is Agent Graves, and he and his briefcase full of hot flaming death are the center ...

Thudding onto shelves everywhere this week is Kamandi Omnibus Volume 1, a hardcover collection of the first twenty issues of Jack Kirby's massive post-apocalyptic epic adventure. Under-appreciated in its time, the classic series has a chance to find a new audience thanks to Kamandi's recent appearances in Wednesday Comics, Countdown, and Final Crisis. But informed readers already know that the ...