Comic Book Features

Radio Silence is a fun webcomic about some intense, passionate musicians, an introverted keyboard player, and their manager, who is the mature adult of the group.

No matter who writes him, Daredevil has always been a character who’s possessed a sense of moral superiority over everyone else.  Even when it’s clear to the reader that he’s in the wrong, Matt Murdock still believes that his actions ascribe to a greater moral good.  It’s for this reason ...

Maybe we don’t look to pin up art first when looking for examples of transformative female creators but that might also be okay, because when you ask most anyone who exemplifies the best of what pin up art can offer, Amanda Conner’s name will be at, or near, the top of every list.

Though Superman hasn't always been the most popular superhero (these days, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine and heck, probably Iron Man and a few other Avengers most likely outpace him in that department), he was the first superhero, and superhero comics as they exist today wouldn't without Superman. Even beyond the blatant knockoffs that cropped up in the wake of his immense popularity shortly after his debut (issues of his comics routinely sold in the millions throughout the forties), Superman can be pointed to as either a direct or indirect inspiration for nearly every superhero that followed. The entire field of superhero comics, the most dominant form of sequential art in American comic books, exists because of Superman.

Despite flaws with the art, Blue Valkyrie is a fresh superheroine and a great representation of trans women. It's heart-felt, action-packed, and tackles social issues head on. Give the comic a read, support trans women creators and characters in comics, and let's make the comics world a more diverse, awesome place! Believe me, it's worth it.

Since then, Punisher has remained a viable character and maintained a consistent publishing presence, though his heyday of carrying multiple books and making routine guest appearances in all corners of the Marvel Universe are long behind him. And, really, that's for the best: on his own, the Punisher is a compelling character. A shattered soldier, driven to extremes by the death of his family. He's a Batman who eschews the theatricality of a costume and has no qualms about killing bad guys, and that type of character can be engaging and entertaining. But Punisher works less well as a protagonist in a shared superhero universe. Put him side-by-side next to guys like Daredevil or Captain America, and everyone gets watered down: the Punisher doesn't kill anyone (because the heroes won't let him), and the heroes look like idiots for not capturing this guy who willingly operates so far outside their usual "no killing" code.

The really special thing about Jillian Tamaki’s illustrative and written works is the ability of each to convey feelings of sadness, nostalgia, regret, happiness, friendship, betrayal; an overall very melancholic approach to her cartooning and illustrating craft.

If you know fantasy artist Aly Fell from his pin up work, think again, he’s worked on covers for Heavy Metal and in recent times he’s done a cover for Buffy. It’s his work on the former that led to him working on an Elizabethan thriller The Shadow Glass, a mini-series that he’s writing and drawing for Dark Horse. Aly took time out of his busy schedule to talk to PopOptiq about The Shadow Glass, his career, and drawing women.

A look at the X-Men crossover never happened featuring the mutant villains The Upstarts.

Like Darth Vader #16, this issue picks up on threads left over from "Vader Down", helping make that crossover feel more like a part of the overall narrative and not just a one-off stunt. It also features Sana Starros, the character introduced as Han's wife in the series' second story arc, which also helps add to the impression that these issues are part of a larger whole, and not just a series of self-contained stories.