The word “variant” to comic book fans elicits a wide range of reactions. From excitement and wonder to frustration and disdain. People often forget that there were variants in play long before publishers began over-saturating the shelves with various cover images. Yes, there was the classic Canadian or UK price variant, but I’m talking about the Newsstand vs. Direct Edition
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Given the recent passing of comic book legend Dennis O’Neil, we’re going to take the opportunity to review some of his work, starting with Batman: Death of Innocents – the Horror of Landmines. Written by O’Neil, illustrated by Joe Staton and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz, Batman: Death of Innocents is a 49-page one-shot published by DC Comics in 1996. The
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On Thursday, legendary comic book writer Dennis O’Neil passed away from natural causes. O’Neil began his comic book career at Marvel Comics, where he penned Doctor Strange and Strange Tales. He would later bounce between Charlton Comics, DC Comics, returning to Marvel, and ultimately landing again at DC where he would become the editor of the entire Batman line of
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Welcome back to The Splintering’s Monochrome May event! Today we’re featuring The Flash, THQ’s side-scrolling action game based on the short-lived superhero TV series starring John Wesley Shipp. Welcome to Central City – home to a herd of dastardly ne’er-do-wells known as the Rogues! Led by the maniacal Trickster, villains such as Mirror Master and Captain Cold are terrorizing the
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Welcome back to The Splintering’s Monochrome May event! Today we’re featuring the trade paperback edition of Batman Black and White, the four-issue anthology miniseries published by DC Comics. The individual issues of Batman Black and White included five stories that were eight pages long, and the first collected edition was released in 1998. Each story features the work of a
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Internal documents show that Jawbreakers creator Richard C. Meyer was considered for a Murphyverse writing gig for a mini-series based on The Outsiders.
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On Monday, comic book creator Sean Gordon Murphy announced that DC Comics has greenlit an imprint based on his Batman: White Knight series. Unofficially dubbed the “Murphyverse”, the Gotham-centric books will pick up where Murphy’s Curse of the White Knight series left off, and feature characters including Nightwing, Batgirl, and Harley Quinn. According to Murphy’s announcement, he will be outlining
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Is this particular chapter in the New Year’s Evil collection still worth tracking down over twenty years later? If you find it in your local shop’s discount bin (as I did), then sure. Why not?
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Welcome back to The Splintering’s Jolly Jinglings holiday event! Full disclosure! Today we’re going to look at one of my personal, all-time favorite comics: Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. Written by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant, illustrated by Simon Bisley, and published by DC Comics in 1991, Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special is a gloriously violent one-shot comic strictly intended for mature
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Welcome back to The Splintering’s Jolly Jinglings holiday event! Today we’re tackling a rare example of a Christmas-related superhero game… Superhero games have historically been hit or miss, but Batman has managed to have slightly better luck than many other characters. The 16-bit era was particularly kind to the Dark Knight. There are several solid Batman games on the Super
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Welcome back to the Jolly Jinglings holiday event here at The Splintering! As part of our celebration of the Christmas season, we’re focusing on a host of festive content to get you in the holiday mood. Today, we’re reviewing Superman: Peace on Earth, a 64-page graphic novel published by DC Comics in 1998. Written by Paul Dini (of Batman the
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On Sunday, preorders went live for Stanley Artgerm Lau’s variant cover for the landmark Wonder Woman #750. Lau is renowned for his ability to illustrate stunningly beautiful women, and his patriotic take on Princess Diana of Themyscira is no exception. There are three versions of the art, standard with logos, art-only version with no logos, and a throwback edition. These
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Late last week, DC Comics deleted promotional images from its social media pages after Chinese backlash. The image in question is artwork by Rafael Grampá for Frank Miller’s upcoming graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child, which is scheduled for release on 11 December. The image (which you can see below) displays a young hero of the “bat”
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Longtime comic book artist Tom Lyle has passed away at the age of 66. Though the the cause of death has yet to be announced, Lyle suffered a brain aneurysm underwent surgery to remove a blood clot in September. Lyle was a prolific artist (and sometimes writer) over his career, but he is most well-known for his work with Marvel
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Earlier this week, renowned comic book artist J. Scott Campbell teases out four variant covers for Harley Quinn’s Villain of the Year, a spinoff book featuring a number of the DC Universe’s ne’er-do-wells as they gather at the Hall of Doom for “Villainy’s biggest night.” These variants feature Harley styled in several different outfits sure to make the modern-day Puritan
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If you are a Harley girl fan, then Hot in The City is a must-read. The book is full of blood-spilling action, emotions, and laughs.
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Over the weekend, veteran comic book creator Aaron Lopresti launched a crowdfunding campaign for Garbage Man, a hardcover edition collecting both Garbage Man mini-series originally published by DC Comics. These stories are “creator-owned”, so now Lopresti is putting all of his hard work together in a girthy, 120-page volume of smelly, trashy goodness. Here’s the full plot summary taken from
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Before The Long Halloween, the creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale crafted three Halloween-themed Batman stories for DC Comics’ ongoing Legends of the Dark Knight series. Originally released in the autumn of 1993, 1994 and 1995, these three tales simply titled Fears, Madness and Ghosts would later be collected into a single trade paperback titled Haunted Knight, which has
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Longtime comic book artist Tom Lyle is in a coma after suffering a brain aneurysm. Tomb Raider artist Phillip Sevy broke the news on social media: “So my mentor & friend #TomLyle is in the hospital right now after suffering a brain aneurysm. The doctors are hopeful but he could use all the good thoughts/wishes/etc.” Sevy provided additional information on
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On Tuesday, comic book creator Sean Gordon Murphy held an “ask me anything” session on social media, fielding questions about his projects past, present, and yes- future. In response to a question on his upcoming plans, Murphy indicated that he will crowdfund a project via Indiegogo when he completes his work on Curse of the White Knight for DC Comics.
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There are now multiple reports suggesting that DC Comics may be shutting down its Vertigo Comics imprint. These rumors should come as no surprise to those following Vertigo’s abysmal sales numbers and the controversies surrounding some of the imprint’s creators. Created in 1993, Vertigo was designed as a place for top-tier creators to produce content directed at mature audiences in
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I know we joked about DC dropping Brian Michael Bendis from Superman for April Fools, but this time we’re serious. Honest! A new report indicates that Batman writer Tom King has been removed from DC Comics’ flagship series, with Batman #85 being his final issue. King himself did not make the decision. Assuming writing duties for Batman in 2016, King
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Rob Liefeld’s latest book Major X has been quite a shot in the arm for the comic book industry. Issue 3 of Major X just hit comic store shelves, and like the issues before it, it’s frequently selling out and destined for a second printing. With the direct market struggling, comic book stores closing, and comic industry reports tagging in
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Chilean artist Mr. Genzoman pointed out on social media that DC Comics has censored the late Michael Turner’s artwork in issues #9 and #10 of Giant-Sized Superman. Without beating around the bush, here are the comparison images. Completely flattened out If it’s not evident from the images, the artwork around both Wonder Woman’s and Artemis’ posteriors has been altered –
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Despite a litany of promotional fanfare, DC Comics is ending its costly experiment with Brian Michael Bendis as the writer of both Superman and Action Comics. Bendis will end his run in July, and long-time Superman writer Dan Jurgens will immediately assume writing duties on both books while DC scrambles to find a more long-term solution. Bendis’ take on The
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Many years ago, a close friend of mine and I had deep literary discussion surrounding a single question… Did Garth Ennis hate writing Hitman 1,000,000? What’s Hitman 1,000,000? It was part of the DC Comics crossover event in 1998 titled DC One Million, in which all of the DC heroes interacted with their superhero counterparts from the 853rd Century. Certainly
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A lot of folks like to make hay out of comic book sales numbers every time new information is released. One of the more objective & insightful voices commenting on the comic book industry is Perch, an anonymous comic book shop owner who has appeared on several social media channels including the Larry King and Alterna Comics YouTube channels. Below
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On Saturday 19 January, Third Eye Comics in Annapolis, Maryland will be hosting a signing event for DC Comics writer Tom King (Mister Miracle). In addition to the standard signing, we’ll-wishing and palm-pressing, King has offered to give away free copies of his comics to those government employees furloughed as a result of the partial government shutdown. Annapolis is only
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“Aw, fuuuuuck.” That’s exactly what I belted out the moment I read that Norm Breyfogle had passed away on Monday. It didn’t matter that I was in public, or that I was surrounded by elementary-aged kids (and their parents). You know what? I’m not even really all that sorry, either, because this one stings. Breyfogle was the artist drawing Batman
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On Tuesday, DC Comics released the first details of their upcoming Vertigo title Six Days via an interview with the two writers of the book, Robert Venditti (Hawkman, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corp) and Kevin Mauer (No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden). Six Days is a nonfiction book that recounts
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