Milligan’s Animal Man run is 6 issues that varies between inspired energy and forced strangeness.

But what of the sweetbread?  What of the buttocks?

One of Milligan’s Bats tales, from issues 452-454 “Dark Knight, Dark City” is mostly just a fun little story.  Once a couple pieces are in place the story is mostly obvious, but Pete does a good job of pumping excitement into each issue.  Alfred gives him an outlet for his literary references, and the flashbacks give him an outlet for his more poetic leanings.

But where is my outlet for my unnecessary need to review everything?

Archaia publishing is the king of painting a pretty picture.  I don’t know exactly how they stay afloat putting out such professional editions of small press stuff, but I respect the dedication to quality and it keeps me picking up books like “Mr. Murder is Dead.”

…Though it doesn’t make the books very good, necessarily.

just click here already

Alan Moore does big picture tongue-in-cheek, literary-influenced comic fiction with his Lovecraft work, or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the positive and negative approaches to comic history with his classic Watchmen or the majority of the ABC line.  But what else does Alan Moore do?  Well he also does comedy.  … This collection of the BoJeffries tales, which were published across several comic collections over the years, is my favorite version of the Moore wit, distilled into a short and sweet compendium of weirdo humor.

Short and Sweet is not something we do well around here

Who knows what caused Ennis to put this together – 6 extreme war stereotypes form a special ops group during WWII times, sent on precious undercover missions purposefully or accidentally.  Ennis wrote 2 3-issue storylines with this troupe and they are, at times, hilarious.  But they’re also one-joke humor, and have the feeling of whimsy – a funny idea that either fulfilled a contract or was expanded to fulfill a publishing schedule…

Who knows why any of us put anything together

If you’ve enjoyed the more tempered, naturalistic stories Brubaker’s worked on (I’d actually include his work on Gotham Central as an example, oddly enough), ‘An Accidental Death’ is a great read…

I am a great read

If you’re a Moore fan, you’ve already read and sung the praises of Halo Jones.  If you’re new to comics or just getting into Moore, I would suggest this as a valid addition to your collection – it’s a good taste of overseas sci-fi and still, however many years on, a pretty bold and original approach to the genre…

If you boldly and originally approach me I’ll give you a nickel.  And a hug.  And a grope.  And a nickel-hug-grope combo, which is all sortsa emotionally confusing.

‘Expendable One’ is all idea and a rush to get to the end.  That’s it’s readable is a by-product.  Burns has some really great concepts and, yeah, they’d make fun films.  But this book is an example of mostly flash and no substance.  If you like popcorn books with crude gags, you can do worse.  But you can also do a lot better…

NOT THAN CLICKING HERE YOU CAN’T

In his Hellboy one-shots, Mignola has, as of late, been freed of the increasingly heavy narrative that’s been building in Hellboy / BPRD titles, and that remains true in ‘House of the Living Dead.’  But what made early Hellboy and makes the current one-shots entertaining is, in part, their brevity, and as such, expanding on the formula for this mini graphic novel ends up feeling like a stunted tale, neither long enough to be affecting or short enough to read leisurely…

BREVITY.  WHAT’S THAT?

Only completists need apply…

AND OTHER INSIGHT HEREIN