Comics

Hope. I think that’s a quality in short supply this year. I mean, we all know that COVID-19 isn’t going to be here forever, but the strife the whole world has to endure until it runs its course or we develop a virus is pretty harrowing. School starts for me …

Exploration requires a special type of courage. To even want to go to a place where there are no definites, no assurances, or protection is a risk that a lot of us – including myself – simply don’t want to undertake. That’s a measure of greatness that, at least, I …

There is something pure and noble in the act of helping others. As I stand upon the edge of going back to school next week, I am filled with discouragement as I still have had no direction in how I am going to teach my students for the upcoming new …

If there’s anything I appreciate, it’s a pure, pleasant surprise. I mean, I don’t spend all my time looking at the comic solicits. Every now and then, one slips past my radar. I experience a momentary disappointment in myself when that happens, but if it does, and the comic is …

You know why I love Star Trek comics? Because they have such a flexibility and freedom to explore new aspects of the franchise that are unable to be examined in a television or film environment. Comics are a medium that offer so many possibilities that virtually any type of story …

Tragic characters are the ones we feel for the most. The definition of a tragedy is something that could have been avoided, but the tragic character is a noble one possessed of many virtues, yet has a single flaw that will prove his undoing. Looking over the character choices in …

Good heroes aren’t expressions of characters’ own wants or desires. Anyone who seeks glory of self-adulation isn’t a hero – they’re self-aggrandizing narcissists. That’s not good character-creation because, in the end, that type of character is self-defeating. Heroes can have egos, but in the end, they do what’s necessary for …

Shock. Yeah, that’s what I’m looking at this week. I want a title that’s going to absolutely shock me out of my willing suspension of disbelief. I want something to read that’s going to just floor me. You know why? I just learned that CCO, Publisher and President of IDW …

I think a shared experience of this pandemic that people can relate to is when you get a day of absolute, complete and utter boredom. You see the same things every day, get into a socially distanced routine when you go out to get supplies; or your temper flares as …

It seems to me that the notion of “the common good” is one that is under-appreciated in our modern times. I think it’s a relevant notion for when we talk about comic heroes because heroes, even non-powered ones, step up because they perceive an injustice in their world that requires …

It’s Canada Day! I’m on vacation. So, I’m looking for something to go along with easing my gravity chair back in the garden under a canopy while drinking a beer. Because I can. That’s what’s great about Canada: we have freedom, popularly governed by a belief that it’s something that …

You can’t plan everything in life, you know? I mean, you can set favourable conditions, work things towards your advantage, but life just has a way of surprising you. Sometimes for the worse, to be sure, and I think we’re all experiencing some of that now, but also, life just …

Adaptability is the theme for this week’s run. Let’s be proud of ourselves for making it to this point. It hasn’t been easy and even if it doesn’t seem like we have come very far, but we have. Things are slowly starting to open up but we still haven’t got …

I want to feel an entertainment that’s comforting. When you’ve had a rough week, that’s not too much to ask, right? I mean, comics can do that so easily. Thirty-odd pages is just enough to pick you up by giving you a taste of the full story and over time; …

A wise friend of mine just said that he still believes in the power of comics – our new mythology, to teach us the difference between right and wrong; to uphold the standards and ideals that we were taught to keep us on the enlightened path to peace and success. …