Hellboy Reading Order (by publication): Every last issue

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By d. emerson eddy & Zack Quaintance — So, we recently read Hellboy. All of it. Every single issue within the Mignola-verse, as it were, including Hellboy (obviously), the many (many) B.P.R.D comics, and all the auxiliary books that really flesh out the main continuity, including Abe Sapien, Witchfinder, Lobster Johnson, Crimson Lotus, Koschei the Deathless, Rasputin, and The Visitor (and maybe more that I’m forgetting, too). You can follow our escapades with all of this on Twitter, although the best resource is easily this page.

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A Love Letter to These Savage Shores: A brilliant creative team with a unique cultural perspective

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By Jarred A. Luján — If you’ve been anywhere near me for the past year (or, really, most other folks in comics), you’ve probably heard ranting and raving about a book called These Savage Shores, and now…it’s ending. Yes, the final issue of this great series — These Savage Shores #5 — arrived yesterday, and I think this is the most emotional reaction I’ve ever had to a book finishing up...a strange blend of complete excitement to read it and utter dread knowing there isn’t a #6. I received a review copy in the service of writing this very article and still had to kind of hype myself up to read and finish it. I am, however, glad I did, because it’s a perfect ending, by the way. 

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Why are HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X two series?

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By Garrett Rooney — House of X and Powers of X, the recently-concluded series that launched a new era of X-Men comics, are a complicated pair of interconnected stories. While they are clearly telling one larger story, Jonathan Hickman has chosen to tell us that story by breaking it into two separate six-issue mini-series that are mostly released on alternating weeks. This is somewhat unusual, because you really can’t appreciate either of these series alone. In fact, in the back of each issue of HoXPoX (for brevity I will be referring to the overall work as HoXPoX going forward, and the individual books as HoX or PoX), you’ll find a reading order that makes it very clear that you are intended to read the issues in a particular intertwined order, “two series that are one” as it says.

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5 Things to Watch for at NYCC 2019: Marvel, DC, Saga, and more!

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By Zack Quaintance — If you’re reading this the day it posts (Wednesday, October 2!), chances are I’m currently en route from Washington, DC, to New York City, headed for my first ever New York Comic Con. Yes, I’m going for my first time this year after having spent the bulk of my adult life living out west and actively avoiding cross-country air travel. How times have changed.

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The Road to HoX/PoX: A Story of Unity and Trust

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By Jamie Grayson — In the recent 'two-series-that-are-one' combo of House of X and Powers of X, writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva tackle many complicated subjects, including alternate futures and pasts, reincarnation through parallel timelines, and the fate of a newformed utopia. But behind all that high-concept, flashy blockbuster business lies one key concept — unity, built upon mutual trust.

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Stumptown Comic: Finding the Thorns in Rose City

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By Taylor Pechter — A missing girl, a run-in with MS-13, gambling debt...these things are a regular part of the life of Dex Parios, the private investigator at the heart of the Stumptown comic. Dex runs the aptly named Stumptown Investigations in Portland, Oregon. First seen in comics from writer Greg Rucka, artist Matthew Southworth, and colorists Lee Loughridge and Rico Renzi, the series has now been adapted for television. With more attention surely coming, now is a great time to take a closer look at the original comic series from Oni Press. 

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Brubaker and Phillips’ The Fade Out: Old Hollywood’s Dark Side

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By Taylor Pechter — Hollywood is one of the touchstones not just of cinema, but of all of American Culture. And while we might know more than we ever have about what happens there today thanks to constant coverage in the lead-up to big blockbusters, that was not the case during the Golden Age of Cinema. The 12-issue Image Comics series The Fade Out chronicles a search for truth in Hollywood after a young starlet is found dead in a screenwriter’s apartment following a wild night. 

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The Return of the Justice Society – DC’s First Family

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By Jack Sharpe — The Justice Society of America (JSA) is the first family of DC Comics. They were the first major team set up in the DC Universe, and their influence is felt even today through characters like the Flash and Green Lantern. Ever since Flashpoint (a 2011 event that seemed to reboot DC continuity),  this team has been missing from the main DC Universe. Incarnations of the team appeared in the Earth 2 comics – but the legendary team from the WWII era was no more in the main DCU.

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Who is the Arkham Knight? A Look at Detective Comics Newest Villain

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By Alex Batts — A familiar foe recently joined Batman’s rogues gallery in the comics: The Arkham Knight. This character was first introduced to the broader Batman mythos in the final chapter of Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham video game franchise via the 2015 release of Batman: Arkham Knight. Though many fans immediately deduced the characters not-so-secret identity well before the game’s official release, the character design and Arkham Knight mantle was excellent, making it something worth introducing to the main Batman continuity….

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Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits – What Rock Bottom Feels Like

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This melancholic song excerpt is what closes out the story Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits, collected in Hellblazer #41 - #46. Dangerous Habits is also the debut story written by now-comics legend Garth Ennis with art by William Simpson. In it, John Constantine is dying. Having just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer thanks to his addiction to cigarettes, how will he spend his last moments in the land of living?

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Age of X-Man Round-Up: Waiting for the Other Shoe To Drop

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By Allison Senecal — Rude of Marvel to announce the Hickman Era of X-Men before Age of X-Man even hits its climax. But I still believe most of these creative teams have something interesting to say with their series, so I’m hanging in there, but it has taken the wind out of X-Man’s sails a bit. We’re officially over the hump though, and May should be real exciting.

I haven’t addressed this before, but at this point I can reasonably say that all of these series should read fine on their own in trade once this is over. If a bigger event isn’t your thing, maybe a little AU side-trip to a slice of Nate Grey Heaven will be.

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Doom Patrol Comics Guide, Part 3

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By @Kimota1977 — Welcome back for the third and final installment of the Doom Patrol Comics Guide. With the remainder of the series, I am not going to make recommendations on runs to read. The more recent Doom Patrol series have lasted two years or less, and should really just be read in their entirety.

That said, – let’s see what they did to our favorite group of strange heroes after they said their last goodbyes….

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Thanos and Captain America in Infinity Gauntlet: How one moment celebrates two iconic characters

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By Jarred A. Luján — Thanos has a special place in my weird, comicbook nerd heart. When I was 13, a friend lent me an Infinity Gauntlet trade...and it blew me away. That comic was the first one I remember that showed superheroes losing—definitively. While that doesn’t exactly keep by the end of the book, watching so many iconic heroes fall to this ambitious, lovestruck purple alien was really a shock to me, and I was…

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Doom Patrol Comics Guide, Part 2

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By @Kimota1977 — Welcome back to our Doom Patrol Comics Guide. You can click here to read the Doom Patrol Comics Guide Part 1, or you can forge ahead with us now, inching closer to the present day. Anyway, the modern era of the Doom Patrol began in 1987 with a revitalized series from the same creator of the Bronze Era team - Paul Kupperberg…

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