Chamber Four

While doing a little background research for my “I Loved This Book When…” essay about The Martian Chronicles I discovered, through a Google Image search, a wealth of covers from various editions of the book. Hardly a surprising finding, considering the book was first published in 1950 and has been widely read ever since. But [...]

I loved Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles when I was a 7th grade dork. The title alone was like chum dropped in dork-infested waters.

A substantial library of both classic and contemporary releases from each company are available for download, but none of it was written, drawn, inked, colored, or lettered to be read one panel at a time on a small screen. Graphic storytelling today is complex and involved, and in most cases the page is crafted to be irreducible.

It’s not the novelty of “cinematic comics” that makes Silverfish such an exciting read, though; any comic that uses wide panels and dramatic visuals can make the same claim. Urgent pacing, realistic (if supernaturally tinted) danger, and a bold visual style set Silverfish apart in a field flush with predictable plots and flat characters.

This is the seventh and final installment in our Best Books of 2009 series. Read the other six here. AKA, The Aaron Block Awards For My Favorite Comics of 2009, Presented By Aaron Block Rather than pretend to claim any kind of comprehensive look at the best comics of the past year, I thought I’d [...]

Introducing our new webcomic Books I Would Read… If I Could Read by Aaron Block. Check back regularly for more issues, or (soon) read more by clicking The Back Page on the navigation bar. If you have a hard time reading the web post version, you can download the .pdf below. This week: A Moveable [...]

Authors: Various DC Comics, 2009 Best ebook deal: not available Editor’s Note: Due to the number of authors and artists who contribute to this series, there is no ratings table for this work. Aaron has said it deserves a 10 in the Entertainment category, however. Before I review Wednesday Comics, DC’s new weekly series, I’d [...]

Here’s part 5 of our Literary Beach Books series. Find the other parts here. Like Eric, I’ve never read at the beach. I am easily distracted by rocks and shells and washed-up jellyfish, so all of my beach visits have found me walking around, swimming, and walking around some more, with precious little time to [...]

Authors: Grant Morrison and Philip Bond Vertigo, 2008 Best ebook deal: Not Available C4 Ratings…..out of 10 Language….. 9 Entertainment….. 10 Depth….. 7 Visual Style….. 7 Grant Morrison and Philip Bond’s “Kill Your Boyfriend,” originally published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint in 1995 and reprinted (again) last October (likely to capitalize on Morrison’s recent high-profile [...]