Panel Vision - Art of the Prank

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It’s April Fool’s Day, which usually means a day of disbelieving anything you see on the Internet but I’ve elected to celebrate the holiday a different way.  Rather than a fake review I’m looking back at one of my favorite super villains of all time through the lens of one of his few starring roles: Oswald Loomis- The Prankster.  Created in 1942 by Jerry Siegel and John Sikela, Prankster is one of the few non-powered villains in Superman’s rogues gallery and a proud member of the joke-themed villain cadre alongside the likes of The Trickster and the Joker. 

He’s been through a number of iterations, starting off as a cartoonishly fat character who’d go after Superman using deadly practical jokes and gags.  He also got somewhat re-imagined for the New 52 era but neither of those are the Prankster I’ve chosen to focus on today.  No, instead I’ll be looking at the Prankster of Superman #660 from 2007, written by Kurt Busiek with art by Mike Manley and Bret Belvins, color by Lee Loughridge, and letters by Rob Leigh. 

Astro City #27 Review

I take a look at the latest issue of Astro City in my review that Kurt Busiek doesn't want you to see (I assume he doesn't anyway, he tweeted about something about it I am told) check it out over on All-Comic.com http://all-comic.com/2015/astro-city-27/

Jupiter's Circle #4 Review

Jupiter's Circle is Mark Millar's attempt at a Watchmen style prequel to his previous series Jupiter's Legacy (which I already looked at over on Front Towards Gamer.)  Check out my latest review of Jupiter's Circle #4 over on All-Comic.com

http://all-comic.com/2015/jupiters-circle-4/

Panel Vision - Astro City #24

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: apes on comics sell comics.  This week we take our first look at the strange comic staple that is Astro City.  Astro City is the product of the combined might of comic powerhouses Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross.  The trio came up together in the mid-90s with Astro City as their breakthrough title before Busiek and Ross went on to produce the groundbreaking Marvels mini-series.  Astro-City is a weird comic in that it doesn’t really rely on a solid cast of characters to tell its stories.  Instead the emphasis is on the location, as the name implies, and using it as sort of a loose canon pastiche of superhero tropes.  The book mainly draws from the bronze age for inspiration but is essentially a free for all grab bag of ideas thrown together to tell stories with superheroes in a superhero universe where fighting crime and brawling aren’t necessarily the focus.