Tag: graphic novels and comics

1,822 words

What I had actually wanted to review was Edwin Black’s The Transfer Agreement. One hears a lot about the agreement itself, but not much about the book. I guess that should have been a clue. I never got past Chapter Four, what with Jewish author Edwin Black ranting and raving, in his Introduction to the 25th anniversary edition, about how he had been going and would continue to go after all those “special villains” of the “fiscal Holocaust”: “Hate cannot function in a vacuum. Hate needs money to prevail.” You don’t say, pal. (more…)

3,645 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

What, then, of Craig Russell’s graphic art? Enthusiasts of either opera or graphic art will probably find great pleasure in Russell’s Ring. The book — some muddled scenes such as the discovery of the sword excepted — is easier to follow than Wagner’s 16-hour cycle of music-dramas. Admirers of Craig Russell have a 448-page feast before them, while opera lovers are likely to be intrigued to discover how a comic artist presents one of the most famous of all operatic works. (more…)

2,546 words

Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

P. Craig Russell, illustrator
Richard Wagners Der Ring der Nibelungen
Vienna: Cross Cult, 2023
(originally published in English by Dark Horse)

Opera and comic book art have in common that they attract large and dedicated followings, but enthusiasts of the one are probably seldom found among enthusiasts of the other. Most people are either enthusiasts or indifferent to them. (more…)

2,125 words

It’s a rare thing to discover a work of art transposed impeccably across genres. How this can be accomplished has always fascinated me. Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is a great example because it captures not just the substance of Tolkien’s story but its spirit as well. Comic book writer Chuck Dixon and illustrator Gary Kwapisz have recently accomplished a similar feat, transitioning literature into the graphic novel format. (more…)

1,569 words

Other than with the campy television program from the 1960s, you’re probably not going to equate Batman very often with comedy.

Of course, there is ample room for dark humor in Batman stories. The Killing Joke by Alan Moore is great example. But this is not the same thing as comedy, in which the universe itself is funny. (more…)

1,404 words

I saw Black Panther with a friend in Seattle last week. Judging from the reverent silence in the theater — broken only occasionally by our laughter at unintentional bits of humor — it was an all-white audience. The serious tone of Black Panther is a departure from recent Marvel movies, which constantly undercut heroism with ironic humor. But Black Panther is a movie about numinous, magical Negroes, and some things are sacred. God is not mocked. (Unless he is Thor.)  (more…)

3,140 words

Hergé with a bust of Tintin

Translated by Guillaume Durocher

Translator’s Note:

The following are extracts from a speech given by the revisionist historian Olivier Mathieu on 26 October 1990 in Brussels to the Circle of Revisionist Students. Mathieu faced considerable professional and legal persecution for explicating Hergé’s Right-wing roots in an unapologetic fashion. After the Second World War, Hergé was forced to bowdlerize much of his work – stereotypical blacks, greedy hook-nosed Jews, (more…)

2,376 words

A few days ago I came across by chance a Holocaust tale in series of old comic books from the late 1990s.

That is not at all surprising. It is difficult to go through a day without encountering some Holocaust propaganda. If you have functioning eyes and ears, it would be close to impossible to go through a week without encountering any. (more…)

812 words

A. D. Condo and J. W. Raper
Outbursts of Everett True
Introduction by Trevor Blake
Baltimore: Underworld Amusements, 2015

There are many things about Chicago of which I am not proud: our glum acceptance of the ten percent sales tax; liberal North Siders’ wheedling attempts to be “down” with the South Side (while avoiding that part of Chiraq out of pure self-preservation); or our continual reelection of machine politicians, (more…)

3,550 words

The year is 1943, and the matronly harridan Helga von Grimm has a problem. Lampshades made from human skin are “all the rage” in nazi-ruled Europe, and hers has a defect. The imbecile guards at the local concentration camp, where all prisoners are tattooed with swastikas, have mistakenly left tattoo marks on the tanned skin, despite Helga’s specific instructions that they be removed, and now her new lampshade is ruined.

(more…)

6,326 words

In the early 1980s a young German Jew arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp. His name was Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (or perhaps Max Eisenhardt), and he would eventually become, after his escape from Auschwitz, the most powerful Holocaust survivor in history. As leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, as well as an occasional nazi-hunter for the Israeli government, this profoundly unusual Holocaust survivor dedicated himself to protecting those who, like himself, were both different and superior from the intolerance of all those who, like most of humanity, detested their difference and feared their superiority.  (more…)

83:37 / 100 words

Whatever happened to the American Dream? It came true. You’re looking at it. Greg Johnson and John Morgan join Richard Spencer to discuss the universe of Watchmen and what it reveals about modern America, the contractions of liberals, and the implicit “fascist” mentality that underlies Superhero myths.

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6,560 words

Green Lantern
(2011); 114 min.
Director: Martin Campbell
Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern; Mark Strong as Sinestro; Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond  (more…)