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Quad Cities USA - Guide to Davenport & Bettendorf Iowa and Rock Island & Moline Illinois
 

Comics And Anime Have Their Own Place Among Fine Art

November 20th, 2023
Comics And Anime Have Their Own Place Among Fine Art

Around seven or eight years ago, I went to my LCS on Wednesday. When I got there, a beautiful woman was there sitting in a chair and the owner was nowhere to be seen. She was in the Quad Cities from Michigan or Minnesota, someplace starting with M, selling coupon books door to door. She had stopped into Mellow Blue to sell whoever was inside a coupon book and because she’d developed a hole in her shoe and Tim had gone to try and fix it. I looked through my pull that week while we talked when she asked “Why do you read comic books?” To really answer that question I have to talk about Art.... Read More

A Stockingful of Commentary On Comics

March 28th, 2020
A Stockingful of Commentary On Comics

Sorry this is coming to everyone so late. I’ve got my normal job, all the side activities I’m involved in and then holiday stuff to divide my time up so small I’m surprised I find any time to sleep at all. This is of course compounded with the comic news cycle being slower then frozen molasses this time of year. Even what few stories I’m seeing aren’t really things I want to discuss at any length (https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12/20/dc-comics-eric-m-esquivel-nightwing-previews/). A writer at DC is being accused of being an abusive creep, which other then saying... Read More

How Far Is Too Far In Comics?

April 1st, 2019
How Far Is Too Far In Comics?

While I was working on my list of comics to order from Previews last month I noticed a surprising change to two Marvel series I was ordering. I was looking over the Marvel catalog section of Previews when I noticed that two of the series I was ordering from Marvel had made a change to the pricing of their War of the Realms mini series and the Avengers tie in issue to the same event. The average comic book is thirty two pages long and averages four dollars per page. For some reason Marvel listed War of the Realms issues three and four where listed in Previews for thirty two pages for five dollars. Normally... Read More

Defenders Under The Sword of Damocles

March 24th, 2019
Defenders Under The Sword of Damocles

On February 18th, 2019 Netflix announced the cancellation of shows The Punisher and Jessica Jones (https://deadline.com/2019/02/the-punisher-jessica-jones-canceled-netflix-marvel-krysten-ritter-jon-bernthal-1202535835/). With these cancellations that marks the end of the Marvel/Netflix Defenders universe of shows. So, I haven’t talked about The Defenders shows in awhile, mainly because shortly after I posted my article about season two of Iron Fist, they canceled Iron Fist and the only thing I could add is that I was looking forward to a season three of Iron Fist and now we weren’t... Read More

Did SAU’s Comics Class Pass Or Fail?

November 19th, 2018
Did SAU's Comics Class Pass Or Fail?

On Saturday October 20th, Saint Ambrose University Library hosted a “Comics Gaming Entertainment” event (https://libguides.sau.edu/c.php?g=838240&p=5987350). I had friends setting up at the event, so I decided I’d pop over and see what was on offer. I’ve never been to Saint Ambrose before, even though a friend of mine spent his college years there. So after finding the library, mostly through luck. I walked into the Saint Ambrose library to see what was on offer that morning. After walking through the front doors the first thing I noticed was five tables set up in the main... Read More

It’s A Crisis For DC

October 26th, 2018
It's A Crisis For DC

In the last two weeks DC Comics has released two comics that have garnered a lot of attention. Just to be safe let’s establish both spoiler and mature content warnings. Two weeks ago was the release of Batman: Damned #1. Which included the first appearance of Batman’s penis, affectionately dubbed The Batawang (not in the comic itself, obviously).  This sparked some controversy, which should have been expected, but is so tiresome. Some retailers got angry that a book, heralded as DC’s first comic in their Black Label line of mature readers comics, but unlike Vertigo these comics... Read More

‘Iron Fist’s’ Second Season Could Be The Best Of All Marvel Second Seasons

September 28th, 2018
'Iron Fist's' Second Season Could Be The Best Of All Marvel Second Seasons

So… let’s talk about season two of Iron Fist. And I don’t want you to think that’s a condemnation of season two. I would go so far as to say that season two of Iron Fist is the best show of all the second seasons of Marvel’s Netflix series. Which came as a big surprise to me, as I’m sure it did to most people. Not that I hated the first season, it just wasn’t the show I expected given the source material. I was definitely expecting more out of season two, mostly because the show runner for season one, Scott Buck, was placed in charge of Inhumans after he... Read More

Mighty Con Was A Pretty Mighty Con

September 6th, 2018
Mighty Con Was A Pretty Mighty Con

On Saturday and Sunday this Labor Day weekend was another Mighty Con. This time no one had to worry about the air conditioning going kaput, because it was held at the QCCA Expo Center which doesn’t have air conditioning. Which is definitely a creative way to address complaints. All kidding aside it was a decent weekend both for the convention itself and on a personal level. I arrived at the con early on Saturday, partly because I was with other people, partly because I had other things going on that day and needed time to get them all done and partly because we were aware that Saturday was... Read More

Comics Should Not Be Censored

August 28th, 2018
Comics Should Not Be Censored

I read an article on Bleeding Cool this week, Image Comics to Publish Censored – And Non-Censored – Variant Covers for CBLDF (https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/08/09/image-comics-censored-variant-covers-cbldf/), which on September 5th, 2018 Image Comics will be releasing a dozen covers of various titles with special covers that will have that cover art both covered with censored boxes and Comics Code Authority boxes and covers without those boxes to raise money for the CBLDF: the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.   The CBLDF is non-profit that focuses on legal battles surrounding comic book... Read More

Anime-Zing Was Fun, If Somewhat Frustrating

August 13th, 2018
Anime-Zing Was Fun, If Somewhat Frustrating

After work on Friday the 13th I drove over to the River Center to pick up my badge and see some friends that were at the convention. I made a quick peek at the dealer’s room to see if what, if any, manga and anime dealers were at the convention this year. They did have a couple, so I looked through their wears and did find a couple series I was looking for. There was the complete series of Kat and Mouse, a Tokyopop original ‘manga’, in that it’s drawn in a vaguely manga style and was published by a company mostly know for publishing manga. My main interest in it was the... Read More