Category Archives: Dynamite

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The Changing Role of Woman In Comics

February 2, 2015 John G M Burke Leave a comment

Hey Poppers

In a recent article by Sam LeBas (@comicsonice) and Will Brooker (@willbrooker) about the sexism in comics at Talking Comics. The article talks about how sexism is still present and woman still have to struggle for their place in the comics industry. But with the percentage of woman readers hitting a high of 46.67% according to Market research more and more woman are enjoying comics. Also with superhero and comic properties showing up all over the place from movies, TV, clothing and video games and trying to capture a larger audience. Woman will becoming more and more interested in the world of comics may decide to enter the comic book world.

The is a really great article and if you feel the same way as I do. That no matter the sex of the writer and/or artist it is a good story and art the a real comic fan wants. Not who rights or draws the book.

Please go over to Talking Comics and have a read.

Source: Talking Comics

COMICS, Dynamite

Comic Review: Bad Kitty

October 17, 2014 John G M Burke Leave a comment

Bad Kitty: One Shot

Publisher: Dynamite/Chaos

Writer: Jay Spence

Artist: Carlos Rafael

Colors: Marcelo Pinto

Letters: Marshall Dillon

Ok before I start, Marshall Dillon!?. If you know anything about TV history the name is famous. Look it up. Well is you lazy it would be from Gunsmoke.

Now on with the review.

The book starts out with the introduction of our protagonist, Kathrine. Kathrine seems to be your regular nice little girl with a small problem. Kathrine has a split personality and that other person, Kitty is not a very nice person. We see this in one panel as Kitty smashes a toy car into the face of a boy she is playing with. Bad Kitty.

After years of doctors and medication Katherine has managed to keep Kitty from making appearances. Katherine has become a police detective. Katherine and her partner, big cop with mustache are looking for Domiko(the bad guy). Well they are getting to close, car goes BOOM with Katherine inside and we cut to the hospital. Guess who comes back? If you guess it Kitty, give yourself a cookie.

Now Kitty is pissed and why is she pissed? Because who ever dropped those hand grenades on her car messed up her hair. That is right folks don’t F up her hair because Kitty has access to guns. That ladies and gents it where I am going to leave it. You want to know what happens go and get the book. Do it. I think you will like it.

The story by Jay Spence is well done and would fit well into the TV movie of the week if they still did that. Maybe on Syfy except with out any dam sharks. Is this out of the world writing, no. But for a one shot story it is quick to set up and has action is fast and violent. The book does play out like a TV special with the hopes of becoming a regular series. That is the problem. One shot means a self contained story. A start, middle and a end. Bad Kitty does not deliver on the ending. I really think that Jay and/or artist Carlos Rafael are hoping for a pick up.

The art work by Carlos Rafael is good. It does have the look of a artist from South America or Europe. I like his style even though it is not my regular flavor. I could get use to seeing his stuff more often. Yes Katherine does have cat like eyes. Who know we may see more of this Kat?

So in the end I give Bad Kitty a 3.95 pops out of 5.

Remember comics are to be enjoyed. Not destroyed.

LLAP/POBS

John G M Burke

Boom Comics, COMICS, DC, Dynamite, Icon Comics, Image, Marvel

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2014

May 3, 2014 John G M Burke Leave a comment

So Free Comic Book Day has come and passed. Did you go out and get your free books? Did you spend some extra cash at your local store and help keep them open and bringing you great books every week. All over the world, well the ones with comic book shop celebrated the joy and fun of comics. My local shop was packed with people coming to take advantage of the free books and picking up back issues up to 50% off cover price. Variant covers were also 50% off so if your thing was variant covers then you could get some great deals. The other great thing was seeing family’s coming to the store and sharing the fun of getting some comic books. As you can see from my photos and crappy ones at the things were going great.

Overall Free Comic Book Day was a great success and with my retailer keeping the sales on all week I should be able to get some more books later in the week. Man, my pile of books is getting way to big. I have to find some time to catch up.

Boom Comics, Cartoons, COMICS, Cosplay, DC, Dr Who, Dynamite, Game Of Thrones, Kickstarter, Marvel, MOVIES, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steam Punk, Super Heros, T.V., The Walking Dead, Video Games, Zombies

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2014

April 28, 2014 John G M Burke Leave a comment

Hey Poppers

Well another year has come and gone and this years Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2014 was bigger, longer and packed with more media guest from TV and film. More artist, writers, creators from some of your favorite comics, web series and authors. Also a large group of independent comic book creators and artist. The venue also keeps expanding with a large tented area to hold more panels and events. Also there is a good chance you have to battle some weather conditions. This year a small snow storm. Hey that is spring in Alberta. I spent the weekend walking the floor, seeing panels and talking to comic creators. Each year the amount of cosplayers continue to grow both with the amount of people coming out dressed up and creating amazing costumes. In the coming weeks I will be posting some the great work created by some really artistic people. Every aspect of the pop culture was represented at the show. Not only were your regular cosplayer making the rounds. Young and old came out to show their love for everything that revolves around the geek culture. Attending this year was three of the top cosplayer out there today. Lindsay Elyse, Monika Lee, Jessica Nigri. I got my picture with Monika Lee and I have to say is pleasant, fun and made everyone that came to see her feel very comfortable.

Among the media attending were Sean Astin(Lord of the Rings, Goonies, TMNT), Michael Beihn(Terminator, 24, The Rock), Bruce Campbell(Evil Dead, Burn Notice), Bill Paxton(Aliens, Agents of Shield, Big Love), Sigourney Weaver(Alien, Aliens, Avatar), Matt Smith(Doctor Who,Clone) and Karen Gillan(Doctor Who,Oculus,Guardians of the Galaxy. So many more to list but to find out more head over to my podcast, The Pop Culture Cafe’s Podcast.

From the world of comics J. Scott Campbell, Nick Bradshaw, Terry Dodson, Keven Eastman, Ray Fawkes, Mark McKenna. Again the show had many of the top name in comics both artists and writers. I had the pleasure of talking to Pat Shand from Zenescope Comics about the world of Grimm Fairy Tales and creating strong female leads. I had a great conversation with George Wassil about Oh Hell. George was excited about the world he help created and I am happy to help him spread the word. Go by and check out Kickstarter and help out if you love independent creators. I had a small chat with Nick Bradshaw and what do two Canadian boys talk about first, not comics but the amount of snow each side of the country gets the most. Eh!

The Calgary Expo once again put on another great show. This is my 3rd year I have gone and the show gets bigger and better. Better organize and each day you can see how the people in charge make changes to make it run smoother. The volunteers deserve a great deal of thanks. These people spend long days making it pleasurable for us all. I did unfortunately see one poor girl getting harassed at our wait to get into the Doctor Who panel. I finally had to go over and tell the guy to leave her alone and if he wanted to complain go to the higher ups. That incident pissed me off. But overall the general public were great.

So much to see and do. That is the catch at such a big con, so much to see and no time to see it all. In my option that makes a great con. I took in the Greg Rucka panel that was such a great experience on writing not just for comics but anything at all. The Doctor Who panel was the high light of the whole con for me and the Corral was packed with some many coming to see their Doctor.

Finally two things that really made this years Calgary Expo really stand out. The first was talking to a guy from Calgary, I am from Edmonton and the two cities have a great and long rivalry. But for use it was just two guys that love the world of comics. The memories of our youth and the memories that were created because of that medium. The days of the old musky smell of the books. The simple joy of those books long ago and the chance to share that joy with someone like yourself, no matter where they come form.

The last and most important for me. I found a book that help create my love of comic books, Sci-Fi, and the world of fantasy. When I was a young fellow the book that I read again and again. That sparked my imagination, my love of art and my youthful dreams of living among the stars, Star-Lord by John Byrne, Terry Austin and Chris Claremont. I almost passed by this book. But I had to have it in what ever condition. I asked the seller if I could open it and take a look and he agreed. Opening the first page brought me back to happier times and smell of those old pages made my problems of my world disappear. Once again it was me and Star-Lord flying around the universe. Seeing that book again help me capture a very special and happier time for me.

So, Calgary Expo. Thank you. You help this old man feel like a young kid again.

Great show.

COMICS, Dynamite, Uncategorized

BADASS #1: Review

January 29, 2014 John G M Burke Leave a comment

BADASS #1 (4)

Publisher: Dynamite Comics

Writer: Herik Hanna

Artist: Bruno Bessadi

Colors: Gaetan Georges

So what do you get when you take a little of Deadpool, Bullseye, Hit Girl and a little of 1960’s Batman TV. You get a bouncing baby BADASS.

Herik Hanna and Geatan Georges brings to the pages of this Dynamite Comic the crazy, funny and violent world of sociopath Dead End. Dead End has a talent and that talent is killing and he loves his job. The reader first gets to meet Dead End as he is not really enjoying his meal at a out door cafe. Most people would enjoy seeing family’s and couples have a good time but Dead End is disgusted by it. Here comes in the ingredient of Bullseye as Dead End using a coin to ricochet off a car and hitting a waiter in the eye. The car then plows into the happy people killing a few and making Dead End very happy.

In a sequence of flash backs we get to see the young Dead End. His struggle at High School being bullied and picked on by the kids. Being laughed at and getting the shit kick out of him. The little hint of Deadpool makes it’s appearance as the young Dead End is being consoled by the school nurse and instead of taking out his angry at the bullies he attacks the school nurse verbally. The reader is shown the beginnings of the sociopath to come.

So you maybe asking where do we get the mix of Hit Girl comes into the cooking pot. Well my fellow comic reader our sociopath pays a visit to a very large green dragon and his clan, The Green Dragon Clan. After giving a nice humorous speak(Deadpool) Dead End sets out to kill every member of the clan. Looking like Hit Girl, Dead End dances and slashes his way thru all the clan. Killing each member in a bloody and messy way. In the end killing the dragon by setting his inside on fire. Oh yummy, fried dragon.

Herik Hanna throws together all these different characters to created a interesting new happy, smart ass, lunatic, psycho to hopefully fill in the need for more senseless death and destruction. I enjoyed the flash back to Dead End’s childhood. The story moves along a good pace and with the hints of Dead Ends past it makes you want to pick up a few issues to see more of his background.

Artist Bruno Bessadi does a wonderful, pleasing work. The action sequences are excellently drawn. Look hard enough you can see some great details down in those panels. If you are get squish mess at the sight of exploding pimple well the skip a page the high school flash back.

So I have to say I enjoyed BadAss #1. The humor of our anti-hero if funny but not Deadpool funny but good. Though this a book about a lunatic the violence was not as bad as some books I have read. To me that is a good thing because you do not have to exploding body parts to make a good action comic.

So in the end I give BadAss #1 3.5 pops out of 5.

Oh yeah the 1960’s Batman TV aspect. Amadeus Kitty!?! Come on now, you can not tell that this character would not fit there. Maybe we will see some Batnip later?

This is book 1 of 4 so I would get it if you have the extra cash and looking for something a little different.

Remember comics are to be enjoyed. Not destroyed.

LLAP/POBS