Comic Picks By The Glick

A podcast devoted to Tokyopop. Now here's something I'd never thought I'd be doing when I started podcasting.

Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris' political/sci-fi series wraps up and comes off very well in retrospect.

Yes, I really do think we could stand to get more crazy series from Europe like this brought over here.

My take on a phenomenally talented artist whose writing... well, at least it's getting better.

New volumes of "Peepo Choo," "Nightschool," and "Empowered" are out, so I decided to talk about them all here.

Kenichi Sonoda's "magnum opus." In the sense that it's his best work, and that it involves lots and lots of guns.

X-men + crossover + collected editions = podcast!

This week I talk about the first Warren Ellis comic to get a movie adaptation, and then offer a post-mortem on the imprint it came from.

"Crossed," "Old Man Logan," and "The Dark Tower: The Battle of Jericho Hill." One of these I really liked. The other two... not so much.

Or: Manga from people who aren't Japanese. Grab yourself some popcorn and a drink, this one's a monster.

They're full of epic, ambitious sci-fi superhero action, and a few examples of how NOT to tell a story in a multi-title crossover.

Much better than you'd expect from something that's the licensed spin-off of a licensed spin-off.

I almost called this one "The Blackcast." Then common sense intervened.

If you want to see how art can truly trump writing, here's your answer.

Because not only can I not stop talking about this series, we've seen a lot of it this year as well.

In a move that should surprise no one, I talk about another comic book character who has a movie coming out this weekend.

In which I call robot BS on Naoki Urasawa's update of the classic Tezuka Astro Boy story.

In which I ask YOU to save Hiroki Endo's "Eden: It's an Endless World," because I sure as hell doubt that Dark Horse will.

You could say that this movie-tie-in-cast was almost two years in the making...

This time, I hope the movie is as good as the comic.

All I can say is that I hope the movie is more enjoyable than its source material.

Prepare yourself for twenty minutes of me gushing over how great this series is... because it's true.

I celebrate 50 podcasts by embracing sobriety and talking about another great comic adapted into an okay TV show.

I don't think this imprint is long for the world, but there's been some decent stuff published so far.

This take on the descent of Christ's bloodline is ultimately flawed, but still a fascinating and compelling read.

"Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Box" and "Astral Project:" Two titles that had interesting ideas, but didn't successfully execute them.

The ten best (and then some) of last year.

And to finish off the year, here are my thoughts on one of the best writers working on American comics today.

Last time it was a man, this time I talk about one of the most exciting female talents working in manga today.

WE LIVE AGAIN!!! And to celebrate -- here's a podcast about one of the most exciting talents in manga today.

Almost in time for Veterans' Day -- my thoughts on the genre that Ennis keeps coming back to time and time again. (Sorry about the delay. My computer has been giving me crap all week and I've finally bludgeoned it to the point where it'll go on the internet, but keeps throwing system errors at me.)

And now for a series, and a creator, that should have been around much longer than they were.

In which I drag the NPFOM crew into a discussion on some of the more noteworthy Star Wars comics published by Dark Horse.

Just so you know, Marvel's "Annihilation" and DC's "Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War" are as good as you've heard.

Volumes 15-21 show that even a flawed "BotI" arc is better than most series' best efforts.

It's not perfect, but it does feature one of the best-written superheroes ever in comics.

My not-so-long-awaited thoughts on Azzarello and Risso's signature series.

In honor of the one year anniversary of this podcast, the No Podcast for Old Men crew come over and discuss Azzarello and Bermejo's "Joker." Yeah, not only is this late, but it's not the "100 Bullets" podcast I promised. That's been done and will be up in due time. In the meantime, I picked up a metric assload of comics from Comic-Con and am in the process of reading through them all. I'll see if I can post the full list at some point, but I'm likely to get several podcasts out of the stuff I picked up over the last five days.

The life of Japan's greatest swordsman gets reimagined as a Shonen Jump manga restaged as art. Wait, it's actually good! When this was originally recorded, I had no idea what I'd be doing for the next podcast. Then I spent the last week re-reading all of Azzarello and Risso's "100 Bullets" in preparation for the release of the final volume this week. Just thought I'd let you all know what's coming next...

Wanton violence against the undead, knives to the eyes, cannibalism and pie! What more could you want from a comic? And yes, this should've been up last week, but due to unforgivable personal circumstances it wasn't. My bad. Look for the "What I've Been Reading" post tomorrow or on Sunday, depending on whether or not I get a chance to upload it from AX.

The bricks in question being "MW," "Apollo's Song," and "Ode to Kirihito," listed in ascending order of excellence.

Stephen King's signature work gets an enjoyable series of prequels that still could've and should've been even better.

For those of you who weren't scared off by the title, you're bound to find something to interest you in my look at highbrow manga.

In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, I talk about everyone's favorite X-Men character this week.

And we're back! This week I'm talking about X-Men and the build-up and follow-through of "Messiah Complex."

Cops. Superheroes. Bendis. Oeming. It's as good as you've heard. Click on the link for the full story.

No, it really couldn't have been anything else this week. Comics' "Citizen Kane" gets its due here.

Did you know James Cameron has a favorite manga? Well now you do, and this is it.

He's the creator of "Azumanga Daioh" and "Yotsuba&!," two series well worth your time. That said, after we did the podcast, I came home and found some things out. Corrections/updates to the podcast follow after the break. First off, Kiyohiko Azuma is really a guy. It's been generally assumed that because he draws really cute stuff and has a first name ending in the "-ko" suffix (usually reserved for girls) that "he" was really a "she." That's not the case, and we should've found this out before we did the podcast. So, my bad. *does the "my bad" dance* The other thing is that Yen Press has only acquired the rights to volume six of "Yotsuba&!" Finding this out certainly diminishes some of the excitement that I had while recording the podcast, but there's some fun to be had in speculating why it's the only volume they've announced. I'm betting that either Azuma or Media Works (the company that publishes the series in Japan) is gunshy about licensing out the series again after the debacle that their relationship with ADV Manga turned into. So, they're only giving Yen rights to that one volume (plus the previous five, which I hear they're negotiating with what's left of ADV Manga for the rights to use their translations) to see how this shakes out. Or, it could be that with what the economy the way it is, Yen is just putting out volume six to see if it'll still sell. I can't fault them for thinking like that, but I think they'll be pleasantly surprised once the volume is released. The series inspires a certain... "fervor" among a lot of anime and manga fans on the internet (there's a reason Yotsuba is one of the many mascots of 4chan) to the point where even if they've already read scanlations online, they'll pick up the print version because they love it that much. Anyway, even if it does turn out to be just one volume, more "Yotsuba&!" is a good thing no matter which way you look at it. And if Yen Press does drop the ball... then I'll just go back to hoping that Dark Horse picks it up.

"Soon" turned out to be 96 hours later, but here are my thoughts on Garth Ennis' other classic series.