Back in 2001, a yesterday that is suddenly over twenty years in the past and an entire lifetime ago, Marvel Comics readers were treated to a surprisingly special title featuring — yet decidedly not featuring — Spider-Man. The cool concept here was that they would tell stories about people in Spider-Man’s orbit, or more specifically […]
I grew up in the 1980s, in the lengthening shadow of the Vietnam War and well before the days of mobile phones and the Internet. I was deeply into action movies and adventure fiction at a time when a booming entertainment sub-genre had been established around the mythology of The ‘Nam. Not specifically war storytelling, […]
Have you ever noticed that in Korean crime movies, there’s a shit ton of street fighting with blades and blunt objects, but a distinct lack of gunplay? When guns actually do come into action, it’s a shocking moment and generally game-changing. This is markedly different from their Chinese brethren, which have made a signature of […]
Some of the first crime stories I experienced were from the venerable private eye genre; in fact the acknowledged granddaddy to the mystery story, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders In The Rue Morgue is as much a P.I. story as anything. Oh, and Consulting Detective is just super British-y for Licensed Dick, I shit you not, […]
There are more sub-genres in crime fiction that you can quantify, and there’s one wonderfully ADHD little crime-action love child that when done right, is sublime. It’s a ridiculously over the top premise, usually crime-related and played half-straight/half-surreal, with insane action, absurd humor and runaway pacing. There’s usually a race against the clock element that […]
“I heard you help people that need it.” Wow, that line got me. Lines like that get me in general, I mean I’m a softie and I accept that but this time it was a real gut punch. It wasn’t even the line, or the entirety of the panel, but the moment and all those […]
Hey Kids, Comics! That’s how they got you, back then. Wire spinner racks eternally in need of oiling, lurking in the backs of gas stations and corners of supermarkets, that lurid tin sign a pimp’s cap complete with feather; HEY KIDS, COMICS! Those comic book covers were eye-level to their target audience, precision-built with weapons-grade […]
