DUET 8 (TRIO 1): Teddy Kristiansen

Just as you were settling into the rhythm of this whole "me and Sean Witzke talking about SOLO twice a week" thing, we hit you with the sucker punch: this time we brought along the comics internet's reigning champion, Joe McCulloch, to ride shotgun on all you poor unfortunates. It's the Teddy Kristiansen issue of the series this time around, which I think I make a convincing case of painting as the "black metal issue" -- but as ever, your opinion is the true test. So go read up.

DUET 6/DUET 7: Jordi Bernet & Mike Allred

These two issues were where SOLO really took off, and, perhaps not coincidentally, Sean Witzke and I wrote what I think are two of the best pieces we've done together about them. Click the links for hard looks at Spanish smut-meister Jordi Bernet's opening salvo of mainstream Americomics and retro-weirdo Mike Allred's defiant 48-page masterpiece, as you like 'em.

Oh yeah, and if you're a Comics Alliance commenter who doesn't run a website I've previously attested to a great fondness for, you can fucking blow me, for realz. Idiots like the ones commenting over there are THE reason I'm glad my writing never reached the widest audience that it could have.

Whew. And now, let's all relax with a nice girl-bending-over drawing.



There, that's the stuff.

DUET 5: Darwyn Cooke

Me and Sean Witzke's Solo train keeps a'rolling, today with a look at the late DC anthology's Darwyn Cooke spotlight issue. Man, if only you knew how hard it was for us to keep the tone civil when we were writing this thing in the wake of the Watchmen 2 announcements! Anyway, despite the comic in question's artist being a washed up hypocrite, we try to give what really is one of the better issues of the series a fair shake, so go check it out if you've a mind.

Back In Action

... and just like that, I'm back stateside. Didja miss me? Probably not, considering plenty of stuff with my name on it still managed to appear, as if by magic, while I was gone.



Chief among these things is the first four installments of "Duet on Solo", the long awaited third collaboration between myself and Sean Witzke. This time we went all out with a 12-part series re-examining DC Comics' 2004-06 anthology comic Solo, which is probably the closest superhero comics have come to art for art's sake since I've been alive. As always, Witzke brings the knowledge and the funny, and I kinda dither around trying to describe the art. Tim Sale, Richard Corben, Paul Pope, Howard Chaykin! Read up!

There's also TWO new episodes of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, the internet's only podcast about comics, for your listening delectation. I only appear on the first of these (episode four), but the boyz did just fine holding things down without me in their Garth Ennis/Dark Knight spectacular, I think. Go lend an ear.