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Noir has been a part of comics since the beginning of the medium. It has waxed and waned in popularity since its heyday in the 1930s and 40s, but there’s usually at least once book being published in the genre. At Baltimore Comic-Con this year, three noir comic creators were brought together to discuss what it means to them and how they use it in their work: Christy Blanch, Brian Azzerello, and John K Snyder III. This was a highly interactive panel, taking lots of audience questions (one of my favorite aspects of Baltimore Comic-Con). Enjoy! ...

As I was looking at the programming guide to see which panels I was going to attend, I saw The Liberty Brigade. The idea of using a bunch of old, out of copyright characters from the Golden Age of comics sounded very interesting. Then I saw that Mark Waid was the editor. Waid is practically an Encyclopedia Britannica when it comes to Golden Age comics, so that meant I had to see just what this was about. Well, the panel revealed that this graphic novel ( currently being funded via Kickstarter), was even more interesting than it seemed from its description. Take a look: ...

One of my favorite things about walking around the floor at Baltimore Comic-Con is getting to discover new and interesting series. As I walked around on the first day, I ended up striking up a conversation with Marty LeGrow about Miraculous (a French kid’s show licensed to Netflix in America), Ninja Turtles, voice actor Rob Paulsen, adults enjoying ostensibly kids’ fare, and, eventually, the comic she writes and draws, Toyetica. I found the world of Toyetica so interesting, that I asked Ms. LeGrow if we could chat about it: ...

Tom King is a very popular man at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. I’ve been following him since he first showed up in artist alley around 2011 with his prose novel A Once Crowded Sky. As he was picked up by DC Comics and has proven his mettle on Grayson and now with a popular run on Batman, his popularity has grown along with his talent. So I was lucky to get a few minutes to interview him today as soon as the Baltimore Comic-Con opened its doors. We spoke about how Tom King sees Batman and touched on some points from early in his run on Batman. (A run we’ll be covering here on the site after I’m done with the Baltimore Comic-Con coverage) King preferred an audio-only interview, so have a listen below and enjoy! ...

Once again I’ll be covering Baltimore Comic-Con, bringing you lots of photos, panel videos, and interviews. I’ve got some great interviews I’m hoping to get lined up over the next few days. So, remember to check back often over the next few days as I post coverage from the convention. If the past few years are any predictor, there’ll be new content appearing every day for the next few weeks as I get the videos and photos edited together. Also, due to my attendance at the award show on Saturday, there probably won’t be any posts Saturday. (Unless I’m able to preschedule one tonight) ...

This weekend I upgraded Comic POW! to use https (which I probably should have done long ago), but the front page images are currently a little messed up. I think it may be a cache issue from Cloudfare, but I’m not sure. I’ll be investigating over the next few days to try and figure it out. Update: checking the Firefox Console output shows that it’s trying to block the “loading of mixed content” and that it is definitely related to some sort of cache, either online, on the browser, or a combination of the two. I’m going to give it a day or two to see if it resolves itself. ...

https://youtu.be/OWzs9QKvCWs We LOVED Chew here and I’ve been waiting and waiting for Rob or John to announce a new project. Well, Rob’s Farmhand is out so I decided to take a look at that first issue. Here are the images used in the video:

I discovered Brandon Sanderson just a year ago via a Humble Bundle that featured ebooks and audiobooks of both his Cosmere and non-Cosmere works. I very quickly fell in love with his story-telling and have slowly worked my way through his Cosmere novels. What separates his fantasy books from a great deal of the fantasy out there is that the magic systems are routed scientific principles are not unlimited. As a contrast, take J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. There isn’t really anything that gates anyone’s magical power. It’s simply a matter of learning more advanced spells. Sure, you have to learn the right incantations and poses, but it’s not even as complex as the hand movements in The Magicians. In Sanderson’s popluar Mistborn series, the character have to ingest metals to gain certain powers. The metals are used up by using magic and there are consequences to over-using them. Additionally, each power has an equal and opposite power and many of the physical powers obey Newton’s Laws. This sets up higher stakes than unlimited magic systems. In Warbreaker the magic system involves ingesting the souls of others, leaving them drab, both emotionally and chromatically. It’s an exciting universe. ...

Starting in college and continuing in the following decades I’ve slowly been learning that women have a completely different experience of the world. I thought I understood the struggle women had compared to men; at the highest level, being expected to be successful as both mothers and career women without a social support system. But as the years went on and I was exposed to more and more women-created content - articles, blog posts, comedians, etc I discovered there was a whole experience based upon avoiding verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse from men. An experience I had no idea existed, but which women were initiated into by other women in their lives; things to say and do to avoid becoming a victim. Mostly because they are in a system that rarely recognizes them as victims. So I was not as surprised as some men claim to be on Twitter and Reddit that women had finally had enough culminating in the current moment where some powerful men have been toppled by a history of sexual abuse. (EG Weinstein) It’s clearly this moment that Kelly Sue DeConnick was tapping back in 2014 when she first started Bitch Planet, putting her ahead of the current moment, but as I’ll discuss, also a little behind because of the slow nature of releases for the book. ...

When Dan introduced me to Chew it was the odd premise that convinced me to give it a shot. The entertaining introductions to the powers and the prologues that have the reader wondering how it’s going to tie into the issue’s content intrigued me. (As did Guillory’s unique art style) But the biggest point in Chew’s favor was the fact that it had a finite end. Writer John Layman knew it was a 60 issue story and, as he reveals in the third Smorgasbord collection, he knew the ending he wanted right at the beginning. The fact that it would end raised the stakes because it meant no one was safe, no one had to be saved for generations to come. And, as I would discover, the fixed ending allowed Layman to engage in the kind of tight plotting that often eludes the never-ending comics. I’d like to explore this a bit further before delving into Chew’s themes. ...