The Return of Rom

This is old news, but it was something easy to miss: Rom the Space Knight returned to comics in Skybound's "Energon Universe" of reimagined Hasbro properties. ROM #1 was originally released back in June as a hidden extra in the M.A.S.K. #1 blind bag, but if you don't go in for gimmicks like that or even read new, physical comics, then you had to wait until August before it was available separately, as a digital issue. Or like me, you waited until September, because you didn't realize it had been released.

Rom as presented in this issue is a bit of a mystery. His body is rusted and worn looking. He says he hasn't encountered a Dire Wraith in a long time. He doesn't remember what his Neutralizer is for when he finds it. He has a kind of organic cloak creature he calls "Carpet" that reminds me of a similar creature in the revival of the science fictional revival of Prophet. His story seems most closely tied into Void Rivals, which makes sense because that series takes place in space, but I haven't read that one.

While it's hard to say with just one story, this felt like at least they were trying at least to homage the Marvel series of 1979-1986 in the treatment of the character unlike the IDW series of 2016 that seemed trying to create a completely new version.

We are told Rom will appear in future issues of Void Rivals, so I guess we'll find out.

Elections and Comics

I'm as glad to be through the election (and the donation request texts and commericals) as much as anybody, but it seemed a good excuse to look back at comic book intersection with elections. I'm talking fictional ones here, not comics on candidates or "get out the vote" PSAs.

Most of the these are going to relate to presidential elections, likely because there are more dramatic stakes. What better place to begin than Prez #1 (DC, 1973) which starts with a young man named Prez winning the highest office in the land and getting into adventures once he's in office. It was written by Joe Simon and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti and is predicated on the notion of a Constitutional amendment lowering the age for eligibility for office (which may have been inspired by the 1968 film Wild in the Streets). The upshot is a teenager gets elected, and who better than an earnest and idealistic kid from Middle America whose mother even named him “Prez” ‘cause she thought he’d be President one day?

Over at Marvel, Howard the Duck ran for president in 1976 on the All-Night Party ticket. Here's the Special Bullpen Note announcing it :

The storyline accompanying this fan club campaign was by Gerber and Colan. Ultimately, a scandal over a (fake) photo of Howard in the bathtub with his girl Beverly, tanked his candidacy.

These were just the first two comic book candidates. Steve Rogers would run in the alternate universe of What If? #26 (April 1981) by Barr and Trimpe/Esposito. Lex Luthor runs for president and wins beginning in a oneshot called Superman: Lex 2000 #1 (2001) by Loeb and Harris. Most recently, Loki ran in a 2016 4-issue miniseries Vote Loki written by Christopher Hastings.

In the realm of elections other than presidential, Suicide Squad (1987 series) had a nearly year-long arc written by Ostrander and Yale leading up to issue 22, published on election day 1988. In this story, Cray, a Senator up for re-election and his crony blackmail Reagan and Amanda Waller with revealing the existence of Task Force X, unless they use the Suicide Squad to take out his opponent!

Ultimately, Cray gets assassinated himself by Deadshot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the Suicide Squad's existence is made public. How's that for an election day surprise?

Nocturnals Darkly

Nocturnals: Darkly Part One which crowdfunded early this year has been going out to backers. I got mine last week. This is a new Nocturnals story that follows the events of Sinister Path. It will ultimately be in three parts, presumably each crowdfunded. Here's an interview with Brereton on Comics Beat about the series.

For those of you that didn't get in on the campaign, Bud's Art Books has pre-orders up for the hardcover which is supposed to be in stock (appropriately enough) on Halloween.

No digital edition available, as yet. Maybe they'll be one when it's all done?

Regicide

 Regicide is a dark fantasy series by writer Patrick Kindlon and artist Ludovic Lalliat published by Image. The ad copy often seems to compare it to "Dracula meets Berserk," and possibly that will become more relevant as the series goes on, but from the 3 issues available now, I definitely see the Berserk part, but I would otherwise liken to things like the film Viy or the novel Between Two Fires.

Mihas, a hulking peasant farmer in Wallachia, Romania, is ordered by the elders of his village to accompany the mysterious, metal-masked Doru on mission to kill the king. Their mission is complicated by the various demons that they will encounter along the way, hiding among humanity. 

Mihas reminds me a bit of Hellboy or the Goon; he's a working stiff sort of guy that relies on his own strength to get by. Lalliat's scratchy artwork is perfect for the gritty violence is brutal and the monstrous grotesqueness of the demons. 

Despite this content, the story isn't grim, though. Doru has an acerbic tongue and is constantly irritated by his bumpkinish assistant. There are also humorous story elements like their visit to Orasul Supunere ("City of Submission"), a form word-rejecting religious settlement, turned something like a modern BDSM club, complete with leather outfits for the townsfolk.

If you enjoy dark fantasy with a bit of humor and heroes battling a series of strange demons, then you will dig this.

Horror Hosts

I've been meaning to check out this book. The whole multi-media phenomenon of horror hosts is interesting to me. Those horror-themed employers of terrible puns, making fun of (or perhaps having fun with) whatever B-movie or vintage horror film their program was showing that week. They likely reached their greatest exposure in hosting B-movies in late night or Saturday afternoons or various local (or later cable) TV stations, and even more recently on the internet. The internet tells me the first of these was Vampira in Los Angeles from 1954-55, but the first I encountered was Zacherley (on a cheap VHS tape). Well, perhaps the first I saw was Commander USA, but he doesn't really fit the standard mold.

At least one of these TV horror hosts, Elvira, made it into comics, but comics had its own horror host history, predating Vampira. The Black Witch (MLJ) first appeared in 1942 and the Man in Black (Harvey) in 1945. Probably the most iconic of comics' horror hosts are the three "GhouLunatics" from EC Comics. starting with the Crypt-Keeper in 1950, who ultimately broke out into TV and film.

The horror host tradition was perhaps suppressed by the arrival of the comics code but came roaring back in the Bronze Age. DC's Cain, Abel, and the Three Witches are only the most famous of their many hosts. I believe Marvel only had one hosted horror title, Tower of Shadows, but it had two hosts: Digger and Gravely P. Headstone. Warren Magazine's Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie hosts of the books bearing their name got an earlier start (1964 and 1966, respectively) thanks to not being bound by the code.

So where did the horror host get started? Radio. The witch Old Nancy hosted The Witch's Tale (1931-1938). Probably a big influence on their groaner, ghoulish pun style was Raymond, host of the popular Inner Sanctum Mysteries from 1941-1952.

De Camp's Pusadian Cycle

 

Lately, I've been furthering my exploration of L. Sprague de Camp's fantasy work, with the Novarian novels, but I've also dipped into some of his earlier Pusadian series. It has sort of a similar relationship to the Howard's Hyborian Age stories that de Camp's Krishna novels have to Burroughsian Sword & Planet. That is, it's an attempt to do the same thing more "realistically" or at least in a concerted and methodological sort of way. For instance, de Camp uses current (to the 1950s) understanding of geologic change to inform his design of his landforms, and more rigorously derives his imagined countries and their names from Greek myth (mostly).

Whether any of that is necessary, every reader will have to decide for themselves, but I appreciate the thought behind it, at least. I also appreciate the less "standard fantasy" sort of setting. It's mostly a Bronze Age level of technology, with iron being the bane of magic.

I discovered that a number of the older Pusadian stories published in the pulps are available on the Internet Archive:

"The Eye of Tandyla" (1951)

"The Owl and the Ape" (1951)

"The Stronger Spell" (1953)

"The Hungry Hercynian" (1953)

"Ka the Appalling" (1958)

Character Design References in Batman: The Caped Crusader Season 2

Batman: The Caped Crusader, the Prime Video animated series, contains a number of plot elements, and characters drawn from the long history of Batman comics, and also a number of homages or references to films. One of these that drew my attention were the classic film references in the designs of the characters. 

Here are ones I noted or was able to find reference to on the internet:

Eddie "Ridder" Nygma reminded a lot of people, including myself, of the sort of criminal tough guys played by James Cagney, but he really most resembles Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death (1947).

Mr. Zero (the original name for Mr. Freeze) resembles Peter Lorre's character in Mad Love (1935).

The Joker is a clear homage to Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (1928).

Rita's flying suit resembles the outfit of Commado Cody from Radar Men from the Moon (1952).

Thorn, the alter ego of Rose Canton, evokes the femme fatale performances of Rita Hayworth.

The Return of the Marvel Masterworks

 

Marvel cancelled the Marvel Masterworks line of reprints with Defenders vol. 10 in 2025 due to declining sales. The line had always had a fitful history, though. In ran from 1987-1993, then went dormant. It was revived in 1997 with pop art style covers by designed by Comicraft, but this version ended in 2002. In 2003, a new trade dress was arrived at (differentiating Atlas era, Golden Age, and regular Marvel) and this version carried through until the end.

Well, Clover Press who I know from their American Comic Strip Library collections have picked up the line, and they are relaunching with a crowdfunding campaign going on now.

These volumes will complete Tomb of Dracula, continue the Simonson run on Thor and the Claremont run on X-men, and start a Super-Villain Team-Up series. In addition to bringing back the two previous cover variants, they are adding a cool Clover Press cover.

Next Level Doom Patrol and Legion

 Last week, I checked out 2 books from DC's "Next Level" initiative (Next Level apparently being where you go once you are All In. I wonder where DC will go next with these marketing phrases?). Both were ok, but I definitely liked one better than the other.

Doom Patrol by writer Darcy Van Poelgeest and artist Niko Henrichon has Vertigo vibes, not in the sense of the specific Doom Patrol iteration that was a Vertigo founder, but more just the feel of Vertigo titles. Honestly, it feels feels even more like the Doom Patrol TV series with its grounded, sort of sadsack weirdos Doom Patrol, the character designs, and the characterization of Negative Man, though it doesn't really borrow any specific character bits or plot elements from that series (so far). The Doom Patrol is broke and have started a low-rent heroes-for-hire business to stay busy and pay bills. A job to find a missing cat immediately gets weird, because of course it would.

I thought this was ok. It was well done, but it felt like things I had seen before in a way that keeps me from being enthusiastic about it.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, Joshua Williamson and Hayden Sherman do a bit more re-imagining. The basic character origins are the same, but the 30th Century is now a time that has outlawed superheroes and Superboy is sort of an underground figure, looked up to by young outsiders who might run afoul of the Persuaders, law enforcement that gets people re-educated. The story starts with RJ Brande having been murdered, and Brainiac 1 of 5 and Tenzil Kem are investigating his murder and what it has to do with super-powered individuals. The new designs are modern but remind me a lot of latter era Moebius and a bit of 80s comic sci-fi (like Garcia-Lopez's designs in Twilight and Star Raiders). Think oversized jackets with stuff on them and knee pads. 

This is definitely the more intriguing premise of the two issues for me. It already seems better than the last Legion reboot.

Mignola's Lands Unknown

I confess that while long being a Hellboy fan, I sort of lost interest in the series with its innumerable spinoffs sometime in the 2010s. Since then, I haven't been paying a lot of attention, so if I saw Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown when it came out, I mischaracterized it as yet another of those Hellboy things and didn't pay much attention.

Well, as I recently found out, I was wrong. Bowling with Corpses is, in fact, the start of a whole new shared universe: the Lands Unknown. So, far Mignola has been primary creator on two of graphic novels: the aforementioned title and Uri Tupka and the Gods with a sequel to that one, Uri Tupka and the Devils coming in November. Ben Stenbeck has contributed the two-issue series, Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man. I've read all of these available now, but I'm going to focus the rest of my discussion here on Mignola's two graphic novels, as they are the most unified in scope and tone (though that's no slight on The Skinless Man).

Found this on Reddit where someone had put the locations mentioned on the map

The Lands Unknown is a fantasy world with a feel in some respects similar to Dunsany's imagined East or Lovecraft's Dreamlands, but less Orientalist and more Middle and Eastern Europe and West Asian than those.  It's a polytheistic world where the gods have (perhaps) left, but the Devil is still around. The stories are inspired by folktales and legends from a number of lands. In the anthology, Bowling with Corpses, one of the tales seems pretty clearly derived from a tale in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. This serves to enhance the folkloric effect that Mignola and crew seem to be going for.

Uri Tupka and the Gods is about a theologian, branded a heretic, who sets out to find the gods. Along the way, he encounters strange and deadly things, including the interference of the Devil. The best I can describe it in high concept is sort of Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath meets Viy.

I liked both of these quite a bit. It's good to see Mignola back doing art again. I'm looking forward to next installment of Uri Tupka's travels.

The Crisis Companion

 

Recently, TwoMorrows released The Crisis Companion by Kevin Miller. This is an in-depth look at Crisis on Infinite Earths, its antecedents, its concept, how it plays out issue by issue, and its legacy. Given my ongoing reread of the period of Crisis's publication on my other blog, I was very interested in getting this as soon as I could.

I haven't had a chance to read it in depth yet, but overall, I'd say it looks quite good. At 250 pages there is a lot of detail, and just from browsing it, I've already learned interesting details like how the decision to kill Supergirl was made.

I enjoyed Miller's speculation on how elements of the Crisis story may be metatextual commentary on Wolfman's feelings about writing it. This sort of literary theorizing I liked a lot. I was less pleased with his swipe at the "overly long" "Trial of the Flash" arc wherein he suggests it is the cause "in no small part" of Flash's decline in sales since its inception in 1959. I share his opinion that "Trial" is overly long, but Miller provides absolutely no evidence that sales of Flash declined more precipitously in the years between April of 1983 and June of 1985.  A cursory search online suggests that in fact its sales declined by a greater amount between 1980 and 1982 than 1983 to 1984.  Regardless, absent evidence I'm forced to conclude that either Miller was making a joke that just appears as a statement of fact or he's just being slack about providing the evidence for his claims.

This issue aside and even with a limited read, I think it's a fascinating work and worth adding to your collection if you are a DC or 80s comics history fan.

DC Omnibuses in 2027

Last week, DC dropped their omnibus release slate for the first half of 2027 and there is a lot of good stuff, or at least stuff I'm interested in.

Biggest for me is Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Vol. 3 (June 8). While the best of Ostrander's Suicide Squad material is probably in the earlier volumes, this was series I followed from the beginning, and I've been looking forward to having it all in omnibus format for some time.

After that one, I'm not sure what would be next on my list, but the contenders for that spot definitely include The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp Omnibus (May 11), Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld (May 18), and Jonah Hex by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray Omnibus Vol. 1 (June 8). Probably the fact that we're actually getting an Amethyst omnibus has me most excited for that one, but the actual content of Green Lantern and Jonah Hex I am more looking forward to revisiting.

The third tier for me but still likely buys are Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Omnibus Vol. 1 (June 1), Wonder Woman: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 (March 2), and Batman by Doug Moench Omnibus Vol. 1 (April 13).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

 I caught Spider-Man: Brand New Day last weekend. It's of course the 4 in the joint Sony/Cinematic Marvel Universe Spider-Man series, following up on No Way Home's ending that had everyone forgetting Peter Parker thanks to a spell by Doctor Strange. 

Without going into explicit spoilers, I will say that despite the title reference to more modern Spider-Man comics, it made me think of Bronze Age Spidey comics as we have this happen:

And we get a subplot that may have been loosely inspired by this infamous arc:

Anyway, I enjoyed the film. I feel like it's one of the best of recent Marvel efforts, though that's perhaps damning with faint praise. In general, I think this Spider-Man series in one of the strongest of the CMU, even if it perhaps doesn't include any of the very the best films of the franchise.

My only quibble with it is in regard to the initial portrayal of Sadie Sink's mystery character--but I can't say more on that without spoiling the reveal.

Film Flashback: Dragon Inn (1967)

During a Criterion sale earlier this summer, I picked up Dragon Inn, a 1967 Taiwanese wuxia film directed by King Hu. I had seen Hu's Come Drink with Me (1966) from Shaw Brothers Studio and liked it so I decided to give this one a try. 

The titular Dragon Gate Inn is in sparse populated border area in northwest 15th-century China. There, three martial artists become involved in a plot by the power-hungry eunuch, Cao Shaoqin, and his ruthless Eastern Depot agents to assassinate the exiled family of a minister who was framed for treason and executed.

Hu's desert setting, design of the inn, and framing of the landscape recall Hollywood Westerns and perhaps Italian ones. His approach to fight choreography and fight scenes are swift and close quarters, at least until the final battle, more like Japanese chanbara films of the era than the wirework and dance like choreography of a lot of wuxia.

The toning of down of some (some!) of the eccentricities of the wuxia genre, and the Western style setup of a group of competent strangers defending an isolated location against the badguys makes this a good "gateway" wuxia to show someone new to the genre.

DC in the Early 80s

 Over on my other blog, I've been chronicling the week-by-week offerings of DC Comics from January 1980 cover dates to the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths in December, 1985 (cover date March 1988). I thought it would be interesting to compare the titles being published at the beginning of that period and those published at the end as an indicator of the change DC experienced over this period. 

So here are the DC publications in January of 1980 (cover date April 1980):

In this list, superhero titles share the stands with war, horror, Western, Sword & Sorcery, and science fiction titles. These make up over 40% of the total offerings. Batman and Superman titles make up over 50% of the 15 superhero comics.

In lists to follow, ongoing titles are in black, new ongoings are in green, limited series in blue, and series that were cancelled from one list to the next are in red.

Here are the publications in July of 1983 (cover date October 1983), halfway between my chosen start and end points:

Ten of the 1980 titles are no more, and 7 of those cancelled titles were non-superhero books. Only House of Mystery remains of the old horror line. Still, it isn't a complete shift to superheroes. Of the new titles we have Sword & Sorcery (Arak) and high fantasy (Amethyst and Arion), war (Blackhawk), and horror (Saga of the Swamp Thing). I suppose Omega Men could be considered a science fiction or at least space opera book of a sort, too. What is definitely disappearing is anthology books, though. G.I. Combat and House of Mystery are the only two left.

Limited series, a relatively new phenomenon, account for 4 of the current series (I miscolored Ronin).

Now, let's take a look at the comics being published in December of 1985 (cover date March 1986):

Sixteen of the series in 1980 are now gone, and those include Wonder Woman and World's Finest with runs back to the Golden Age, and Flash, that ushered in the Silver Age. Teen Titans, the Outsiders, and the Legion of Super-Heroes join Batman and Superman in the ranks of heroes with multiple books, though theirs exist to capitalize on the different tastes of the direct market. The Tales of books are also both reprint series.

Of the new titles in the '83 list, only the superhero or superhero adjacent titles (Swamp Thing and Omega Men) are still around. Of 31 ongoing titles, only 7 are non-superhero books (not counting the genre-straddling Omega Men).

Limited series are even more common than in '83 as are licensed books. There are two ongoing series (Star Trek and V) of licensed properties.

Return of the Avatar

 My daughter has been rewatching Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, so it was serendipitous when I saw the news the other day that the sequel film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was going to be released to Paramount+ later this month!

I've known about the upcoming film for some time that fills in some of the period between the series A:TLA and The Legend of Korra, but I was expecting it in October, because that was its original release date. Speculation on the internet suggests this moved up release date had to do with the film getting leaked to the internet back in April. It's unfortunate that this may have led to the cancelling of the release to theaters, but an earlier date is welcome.

Here's the final trailer for the film:

Another Reminder You Should be Reading Flash Gordon

I've praised Dan Schkade's on-going run on the Flash Gordon comic strip on King Feature's Comics Kingdom (and apparently still in some newspapers), but I felt like I should do so again. It's really good, so I don't want you to forget it.

Historically, those that followed Raymond on the strip have stuck to the formula of fantasy adventure in exotic locales. Some of the early authors also mimicked the Raymond strips frequent love-triangle melodrama, but that seems to have fallen away in later years. What came in instead though is a tendency to use only the sandbox of the Raymond years as canon rather than the interplanetary adventures of creators than followed.

Schkade's follows the sticking to Mongo approach and seems to stick mostly with a "Raymond years only" canon, though there are occasional nods to later writers and to Flash in other media beyond the strip. What Schkade adds that no one else has (outside of some of the comic book versions) is a further depth to the world. The various rulers of Mongo have their own motivations and political aspirations that made them allies against Ming, but rivals in the post-Ming world. Ming has a backstory and point of view that makes him understandable if no more commendable. As in the strip above, we get the point of view of someone who follows him.

Schkade does this without changing the essential nature of the strip from fast-paced adventure. It's a worthy addition to Flash Gordon's storied history, and I hope it gets collected in a physical format one day.

Things I've Watched Recently on Crunchyroll

 I've been on a fantasy anime kick, so I've been checking out some shows (beyond Frieren, which I have already been enjoying) in that genre.

Sentenced to Be a Hero (2026) is based on a series of light novels by Rocket Shōkai. It tells the story of Xylo Forbatz, a former knight, now member of Penal Unit 9004. He and the rest of his misfit unit were executed for various crimes then raised with (apparently, it isn't entirely clear) low level superhuman abilities. They are at the forefront of humanities war against the Demon Lords who spread fungal-like Demon Blight. Forbatz's life gets more complicated when a Goddess, Teoritta, binds with him, the Goddesses being a limited resource human's use to bind with warriors to create a formidable fighting team.

The series has an interesting concept and characters and a lot of action. There's only one season available now, but hopefully there will be a second.

Radiant (2018) is actually based on a comic by a French creator, but the anime adaptation is by a Japanese studio, and the English translation of the comic is published by Viz in North America. This one is more light-hearted than Sentenced, at least at its start, and reminds me a bit of Naruto. Monstrous, sort of kaiju-type creatures called Nemeses fall from the sky to menace the populace of this world. People can become infected by contact with a Nemesis. Those that survive gain the power to manipulate the energy-source "fantasia" and become sorcerers (as such superhero as magic-user). Noble sorcerers fight to save the world that hates and fears them. The main character, Seth, is a young Sorcerer in training.

I've only watched a couple of episodes of this one, but it's entertaining enough, if not engrossing necessarily. I find it interesting that it's basically a superhero story but in a very (for American audiences) nonstandard superhero setting, something it sort of shares with Sentenced.

Last, but certainly not least is Witch Hat Atelier (2026). This one is based on a Harvey Award winning manga, and from the anime so far, I can see why it was well-regarded. A young girl named Coco with a lifelong interest in magic accidentally casts a spell that turns her mother to crystal. Though it's against the rules, she is taken as an apprentice by a witch named Qifrey (Who has an ulterior motive. He wants information on the outlawed Brim Hats who are the source of the spell Coco cast.) and joins the other apprentices at Qifrey's atelier. 

I'm enjoying the unfolding mystery of witch society and nature of the schism between them and the Brim Hats. The animation on the series is really nice with designs reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. 

Masters of the Universe (2026)

My brother and I indulged in a bit of 80s nostalgia last weekend and took in the new Masters of the Universe movie. We both enjoyed. It's not without its as my brother put it: "It may not be the best Masters of the Universe move you could hope for, but it's probably the best one your likely to get."

The approach the move takes is kind of a fusion of the "social commentary plus affectionate poking fun at its silliness" approach of Barbie with the now default action-comedy of Guardians of the Galaxy. There also seems to be a strain of pure camp reminiscent of Flash Gordon (1980). It's not a bad approach, in theory, but the film can't decide exactly on its message (or at least can't seem to get the plot in place to support it), and its comedy, despite some funny moments, sometimes falls flat or is belabored. Yes, Fisto's name and schtick are funny to adults, but make the joke once and move on!

At times, the film seems to really need you to understand it realizes it's all silly by adding a joke or undercutting a serious bit with a gag. Playing it straight and trusting the audience to know that you were winking at them--or just allowing them to enjoy it whether you were or weren't--seems to be something the filmmakers weren't ready to do. And maybe they're right for 2026, I don't know.

Anyway, I started with the less good part. There are a lot of things I think the film does unambiguously right. The production design is good, more aesthetically pleasing than say Marvel's recent efforts. The action sequences are engaging. Pretty much all the elements of the MOTU mythos you might want to see in a first film are there. It also makes an effort to include a lot of characters, though inevitably there are still some that got left out. Sorry Stratos fans!

The cast is good overall, though some of them have more to do or more interesting to do than others. Leto really shines as Skeletor with a good mix of camp and menace without trying to specifically mimic the cackling Skeletor of the 80s cartoon. 

I would also note that despite at times making fun of the property, it never feels like those involved thought they were better than the material. The jokiness is the same sort of fond/nostalgic jokiness that comes from teens goofing on the cartoons of their youth or from internet memes using Skeletor. They are making fun with MOTU not making fun of it.

The weekend box office results are in, and it looks to have under-performed which is not wholly unexpected. It's not a property younger audiences are going to have a connection to, and honestly the language and adult humor don't make it ideal to use it to introduce kids to MOTU. Like the Dungeons & Dragons movie, though, I think if you're in the group it's aimed at, you're likely to enjoy it.

Have you XNOO?

Have you backed XNOO #1, It's a 276 page "aperiodical" fantasy comics anthology. It features work by several rpg and comic artists, among them Artyom Trakhanov, Goran Gligović, James West, Alexey Gorboot, Stefan Poag, and my frequent collaborator, Jason Sholtis. Here's a sample:

I'm so pleased that it also features the debut of my Land of Azurth comic "The Runaway Shadow" featuring art by comics veteran Mike Kazaleh. You can see a sample of that just above.

Filling out the issue are articles on related topics. My text piece is on comics adaptations of literary Sword & Sorcery characters.

You're going to want to check it out!

Head over to Kickstarter now.