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I try to go into these books without any foreknowledge about the particular volume. It’s all too easy when researching to end up coming up against the opinions of others and I’d rather form my own opinions before potentially incorporating the views of others as I write these posts. In the case of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century, this was not a good idea at all. I’d previously read volumes 1 and 2 and they seemed to follow one another in terms of narrative. In this case, on the other hand, you’re best off consulting a reading order. I spent a large chunk of the narrative profoundly confused about what was going on because between each of the three vignettes it was assumed the reader had read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier and the Captain Nemo trilogy. Additionally, when collected, all the text story portions are placed serially at the end, but they take place within the timeline of the comic portion. Luckily, while it made for a poor reading experience not to know this, Comic POW! is not a review site, and the missing information did not prevent me from noting the themes present in the narrative.

We don’t often consider single issues here at Comic POW! We prefer to look at story arcs and completed series to get a better feel for what the author and artist were trying to accomplish. However, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some comics’ first issues to predict where we think it might be going and see how that compares with where the series actually goes. This series is called “At the Beginning” and it’ll usually be for series right as they are starting up. ...

Walking around Artist Alley one sees so many neat and bizarre ideas for comics. When I saw the art and title for Cleopatra in Space, I had to speak with Mike Maihack. After hearing what it was about and the story of how it came about, I had to share it with you guys, so we did an interview: https://youtu.be/fMfz_L4qx1E

Once again I spoke to creators at Square City Comics about the neat books they have coming out of their local, indie studio. Once again, they did not fail to impress me with the creativity that can be found right in my backyard. https://youtu.be/JJyM_iY2V3Q Square City Comics can be found, unsurprisingly, at http://www.squarecitycomics.com And their current Kickstarter, Sensus Obscura, can be found here. As of the time this article went up, there are 18 days to go. ...

Every year I check in with AZ Powergirl. She always has some new and interesting photos and merch since the previous year. However, this year, when I asked what she was up to, she dropped a huge surprise on me. https://youtu.be/LGrqcFOdT9o And here’s the portrait shot I mentioned in the video: AZ Powergirl at Baltimore Comic-Con 2016 AZ Powergirl can be found on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Comics might not contain music, but music can be a big part of comics. This panel discusses all the ways music intersects with comics - inspiration, background noise to help the writers, and as the subject of comics themselves. https://youtu.be/0xv3_OIE6Bo This is another one of those panels I wish lasted longer. Here are some topics I wanted to bring up: Had Amy Chu heard of or read Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor and did it inform her musician-based comics. What they thought of the soundtrack that accompanies Kyle Higgins’ C.O.W.L. How the music writers felt about the parallels between the fact that despite only a few possible chord progressions we have so many creative songs and the fact that there are only like five story archetypes, but we still have such fabulous stories in comics.

Diversity in media and comics might be controversial on the Internet, but at Baltimore Comic-Con 2016 it was the most highly attended panel (not counting the celebrity panels). A segment of the writing staff from Pop Culture Uncovered led a panel discussing diversity in comics: where do we stand now and what can we do to fix it? It was not only the best attended panel, it was also the most interactive. People really have a yearning for comics to catch up to society in terms of demographics and storylines. But, as discussed in the panel, this is easier said than done - at least among the Big Two who are owned by large corporations and not as nimble as the indie comic companies. ...

Out of tragedy was born an all ages book to help both kids and adults deal with tragedy. Join me in my discussion with Ryan Fisher about his comic, Torchlight Lullaby, and whether we underestimate the ability of kids to deal with heavy emotions. https://youtu.be/l8vGof-snK4 If that interview has you jonesing for more Torchlight Lullaby, then head on over to his website: http://www.torchlightlullaby.com torchlight-lullaby-cover torchlight-lullaby-forest-golem torchlight-lullaby-intruding-in-the-real-world

I’m jumping ahead to the ultimate costume contest winner because I have nearly 1000 photos to go over for the costume contest main post and I didn’t want to hold up all the rest of the Baltimore Comic-Con 2016 content. There will be a future post with some video and photos of all the contestants. There will also be a post for non-contest cosplay as the final post for the event. ...

Kevin Eastman is responsible for creating the characters that ended up in the cartoon show I was obsessed with as a kid. I spent every dollar I could find on the toys. I saw all three of the 1990s movies. Later, as an adult, I learned it had been a comic book that was set up as a parody of Daredevil and other comic tropes. So it was a no-brainer that I had to attend this spotlight panel. ...