Thursday 31 January 2013

A missive to Marvel: Captain Marvel


Dear Marvel,

I have recently heard rumours, via the entertainment website bleedingcool.com, that ‘Captain Marvel’ was facing cancellation, due to its falling below the so-called “kill line” of 20,000 or more sales.

As a female reader (yes, sorry, but I am going to play the gender card) it is not often that I come across a strong character that I can identify with. Carol Danvers is one of those few and far between ladies, she is strong when she needs to be, but human enough for us readers to empathise with her. Not that I need to be telling you that of course, you’re the marvellous folks who saw the vision Kelly Sue DeConnick had, and chose to give her the chance to bring that vision to life.

The humanity that Kelly Sue shows within Captain Marvel, and the way that the character is drawn by the highly talented Dexter Soy, make Captain Marvel one of the top books on my pull list, and the weeks it comes out are a joy, seeing the online love for the character and the book pouring out on Twitter and Facebook.

I for one would be very sad to see Captain Marvel dropped, not least because it would mean one less book I could recommend towards friends who do not currently read comics, especially female friends.

Kind regards

Sarah Bell

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Pull list 30/01/13

This weeks pull list contains:

Emily And The Strangers #1
Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill #1
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #5
Flash #16
Green Lantern Crops Annual #1
Red Lanterns #16
Lot 13 #4
Mara #2
Adventure Time #12

Hopefully there will also be a few back issues of Marceline and the Scream Queens to finish off that limited run, and maybe a treat or two as well...

Sunday 20 January 2013

Joe Hill's The Cape

Joe Hill's The Cape


Author: Jason Ciaramella
Artist: Zach Howard
Colourist: Nelson Daniel
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Writing a review on a book whilst remaining spoiler free isn't easy, even when the book was published in collected form in May of 2012 and virtually everyone you know has read it before.
I'm struggling to come up with words for how good The Cape is, with using overly gushing praise or simply writing a list of adjectives such as awesome, brilliant, stunning...

Suffice to say, The Cape turns the classic 'capes and cowls' superhero genre on its head, subverting the expected in a series on events that repeatedly led to my hand covering my mouth, a shocked expression on my face and more than one muttered expletive.

Howard's art and Daniel's colours mix the youthful exuberance of a young Eric with the broken man he grows in to with a startling grace. Even in the twisted interior of Eric's head there is a dark beauty to be found, if you are willing to look for it.

Saying any more would give too much away, but I can't encourage anyone to read this enough. As the lovely H_Paz on Twitter put it: just say "it was like, woah. But then it got more crazy and I was like, DAYUM. This shit is nuts, read it". I couldn't have put it better myself.