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zombiepizzaHalloween is coming and it’s the favorite time for witches, ghosts and everybody’s favorite: zombies. I love the undead, you love the undead, and so does Chris Ulm. But who’s Ulm? He was one of the co-founders of Malibu Comics back in the day, the originator of what became the Ultraverse and co-creator of Rune with Barry Windsor-Smith. He’s now one of the founders of Appy Entertainment, which creates games for the iPhone.

Working from their Secret Worldwide Headquarters, and just in time for Halloween, the Appy boys have released Zombie Pizza. The game has you racing against the clock to make pizzas with disgusting ingredients - brains, guts, bones, eyeballs, etc. Fill the orders fast enough or your undead customers will smash through the restaurant doors and take a thick slice out of your head.

According to Ulm, Zombie Pizza is “a fast-paced, light-hearted horror puzzle game where lightning-quick reactions are all that stand between you and a grisly fate at the hands of the ravenous undead.”

Zombie Pizza is available at the iTunes store for just 99¢, about 1/4 the price of a regular comic book these days.

Click to continue reading Chris Ulm’s Zombie Pizza

Read More | Appy Zombie Pizza via Appy Entertainment


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Webof1Rating: *** 1/2

I began collecting comics in the mid-80s.  I remember that my first issue of Uncanny X-Men was #188 and that my first issue of the Avengers was #250.  My first Spider-Man comic was Amazing Spider-Man #264, but I also received around that time, the premiere issue of the new monthly Spider-Man comic book, Web of Spider-Man.  This all took place during the hype of Spider-Man’s black costume which was featured prominently in this first issue.  The suit was a symbiote, meaning that it was alive and it wanted to fully take over Peter Parker.  In this issue, Peter fights back and we see the famous bell ringing scene that had Peter ripping the costume off of himself.  An homage was made in Spider-Man 3.

Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Web of Spider-Man #1


modokI love comics that stand out from the rack, and I particularly love them when they make me laugh. Out. Loud. M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1 is one of those comics and Ryan Dunlavey is my new favorite Marvel creator. Pitched as a tie-in to Marvel’s Dark Reign event, this one-shot is only tangentially but humorously connected through an opening sequence of phone messages from MODOK to Norman Osborn. I suspect someone in marketing needed a reason to slap a Dark Reign logo on the cover to boost sales. Well, I’m all in favor of anything that’ll sell more copies of things I like.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over 40 years ago, MODOK is a great choice for this kind of comic. He combines two great comic book archetypes: the character with the big head (like Steve Ditko’s The Leader), and the chair based being (like Kirby’s Metron).

And here he’s used for great comic effect in a story that has Osborn sending him to Erie, Pennsylvania to get him out of the way although MODOK thinks that “surely, Erie is the linchpin in the path of total world domination!” It’s also where his family lives and he’s just in time for his high school reunion. Dunlavey also manages to weave in MODOK’s high school backstory, a giant robot fight and abused minions who long for a better life.

Click to continue reading M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1: Ryan Dunlavey

Read More | Ryan Dunlavey Blog

domoIt’s never ever easy to get a job in comics, just like it’s never easy to get a job at Google or Yahoo. It’s always easy to get a job at Borders, but that’s hardly the dream now, is it? So let’s check the help wanted internet and see what’s being offered.

If you love the manga and you don’t mind getting coffee or picking up the dry cleaning for the busy manga executive on the go, Tokyopop just might be your place. They’re looking for a “Personal Assistant, Office of the CEO” who can “support all facets of the CEO’s activities, including administrative areas, business development areas, creative areas, personal and time management areas, and any other areas required by the CEO. In addition, provide phone and meeting support to the SVP as required.” There are a lot of duties, including scheduling and phone management, and you “must be willing to travel frequently to various countries, accompanying the CEO.” As always, I’ll bet one of those countries is Japan. The job is full time, which at Tokyopop translates to 55-60 hours per week.

If you like to read books, look at stuff, keep all your graphic novels in alphabetical order, and “ooh” and “ahh” over shelf porn, there might be something for you in the state of Virginia. Virginia Commonwealth University is looking for a new Department Head at their university library, specifically Special Collections & Archives.

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Tokyopop, VCU, Hollywood & Warner Brothers!


Justice4Rating: ***

A nice improvement from last month’s issue, which I was really disappointed in, but this month we see a nice improvement in the story.  However, still not enough to knock my socks off.  Our story opens up with Hal’s splinter Justice League group recovering from Clayface blowing himself up.  They decide to leave and go interrogate another villain to see what Prometheus is up to.  Following them is none other than Batwoman.  It was announced that Batwoman would be part of this team and she finally makes her appearance.  Things are moving a bit too slow for me.

Our story moves over to Paris where Congorilla and Starman Mikaal Tomas are battling it out with two Z level characters named Penny Dreadful and Arak.  Both are working for Prometheus and Arak confesses to assisting Prometheus in the killing of the gorillas in Africa and kidnapping Congorilla’s gorilla friend, Malavar.  Congorilla is ready to kill them, but Starman stops him.  Penny kills Arak for betraying Prometheus and Mikaal kills Penny as she tries to kill Congorilla.  Mikaal is ashamed that his deceased lover Tony would not have approved of what he just did.  Congorilla comforts him, but also states that the trail for Prometheus has gone cold.

Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Justice League: Cry for Justice #4


BatmanRobin5Rating: *** 1/2*

Another great issue in Grant Morrison’s run on Batman and Robin.  The issue picks up right where we left off in the previous issue with Red Hood and Scarlet confronting the new Batman and Robin.  Some very cool dialogue between the current Robin Damian Wayne and the second one The Red Hood Jason Todd.  It’s funny.  Even though I’m on the side of Batman and what he stands for, the Red Hood makes a good point when he says that after killing all of these criminals, they will think twice before setting foot in Gotham. 

Damian is being his normal arrogant self here, and decides to try and take Jason out, but Jason proceeds to catch him and ram his face into the ground.  Batman not being too happy about that, returns the favor.  Scarlet grabs Damian in retaliation and holds him at knife point.  Batman backs off of the Red Hood and allows them to escape as they need to turn the Penguin over to police.

Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #5


Spider-Man608Rating: ***

Since I read the amazing (no pun intended) Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, I’ve been looking forward to more Spider-Man stories focusing on the Spider-Man story the Clone Saga.  In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, we saw the premiere of the character called Raptor who has a grudge against Ben Reilly.  He blames Ben for the death of his family and he’s out for revenge.  Since Peter obviously looks like Ben, Raptor has set his sights on Peter.

Our story begins with Spidey battling it out with the relatively new super-villain Screwball.  I wasn’t reading Spider-Man back then so this was my first introduction to the character.  I like this character.  A perfect modern character that uses the Internet in order to get that “celebrity” status that comes with it if you can get people to watch your videos.  Peter tries to use his photos of the fight to try and sell them to Ben Urich at Front Line.  Raptor whose name is Damon Ryder shows up to the offices of Front Line to confront Peter.  Ryder calls Ben and hands Urich an old newspaper clipping of the fire that occurred at his house that resulted in the deaths of his family.  A sketch of the suspect matches that of Peter’s face. 

Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #608


adventurecomicsAfter a month that saw Disney gobble up Marvel, Paul Levitz step aside at DC, and Jack Kirby’s heirs opening up a copyright reclamation project, it’s kinda nice to slide into October where leaves are dropping faster than Wizard employees. There’s lots of great stuff for your weekend pleasure. From Art Spiegelman and Julie Schwartz to Carl Barks and Jim Aparo and even Evan Dorkin. It’s nice to curl up on a blustery fall day with some warm links. Enjoy!

Julie Schwartz and Forry Ackerman: Once upon a time, they teamed up and almost got some poor kid kicked out of comic book convention. Sort of. This is from the current issue of Guy H. Lillian III’s fanzine, Challenger, which also boasts an NSFW sketch by Wally Wood and the story behind it that involves the artist Kelly Freas. Fans with Bat-walkers who wear Superman Depends may remember Lillian as a long-time DC Comics letterhack from the 1970s.

Carl Barks: In 1976, there was a comic book convention in Boston called Newcon. Among the guests: Carl Barks, John Stanley, Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko, Dick Giordano, Mike Kaluta, Gil Kane, and Bob Overstreet. Cartoonist Bill White was there and met Barks. Says Bill, “I asked him for a drawing of one of the Duck family. He said he was sorry, but recently the Disney company had revoked his rights to draw the Ducks.” Go Team Disney!

DC Field Trip: The letterer Todd Klein took a trip to DC Comics to explore their logo archives, the comic book equivalent of an archeological dig. Needless to say, he found good stuff.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Julie Schwartz, Carl Barks, Jim Aparo & Evan Dorkin


SadChildrenPictures For Sad Children is a dark-humored web comic written and drawn by John Campbell. You either love it or hate it, but it always rates highly at the Is It Funny? website. I think it’s hysterical - it’ll never run side-by-side with Blondie and Beetle Bailey, and that makes me love it even more.

Click to continue reading Pictures For Sad Children by John Campbell


JSA31Rating: *** 1/2*

A big improvement from the previous issue.  Our story continues with the aftermath of a rogue group of B-level super villains attacking the Justice Society of America.  The group was designed by a still unseen leader who hired specific super-villains capable of matching up against each member of the JSA .  Also, the All-American Kid was taken over by a mysterious force that made him stab Mr. Terrific.  Angered by the situation at hand, Magog and WildCat go at each other and we start from there.

The fight is broken up by the new Dr. Fate and he informs the team that blood is needed to save Mr. Terrific’s life.  Everyone is to donate as Fate will change everyone’s blood to match that of Terrific’s blood.  The All-American kid is interrogated by several JSAers.  The kid swears that he didn’t do it even though a video shows him doing it. 

Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America #31


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