By Neil Gaiman and P Craig Russell Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was a very important book in my development as a comic book fan, but I never really kept up with any of the spin-offs or extras that came out after the series itself ended. I read the last Gaiman-written Sandman…
By Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg I’ve been reading comic book superheroes for a long time now. An unrelated fact is that I trained as a scientist (I have a PhD in biochemistry). In all that time, I have never had a problem with the use of science in superhero…
Simon Pegg is one-third of the creative team (along with Jessica Hynes nee Stevenson and Edgar Wright) of Spaced, my favourite sitcom. He's the same age as me, we attended the same university at the same time (I was a scientist, however, and so our paths would never have crossed),…
Written by Bill Willingham, with illustrations by Steve Leialoha Fables has been a great comic book since the first issue, so I was looking forward to Willingham's prose story set in the Fables universe. It concerns characters we haven't seen in the comic book: Bo Peep and Peter Piper, and…
Punisher #1–5 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena After Garth Ennis' incredible run on the Punisher, albeit outside the Marvel universe proper, I'm amazed anyone would want the job of writing a continuing series about the character, which is perhaps why it has been handled by newer, hungrier writers. Matt…
Justice League Of America #27, 28, 30–34 by Dwayne McDuffie and various artists Embarrassing confession: I've never really read any of the Milestone books. I might have skimmed an issue here and there, but I didn't get into any of the comics. I know, I know: I'm a bad person;…
Detective Comics #846–850 by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen I wasn't too impressed with the character of Hush – the only reason I read the two trades collecting the story of Bruce Wayne's long-lost childhood friend Tommy Elliot we've never heard of before who has returned with a grudge against…
American Vampire #1–5 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King In a time when libraries in the UK face a difficult future, I just want to reiterate how much I love my local library. The sheer number of graphic novels and collections of comic books I've read via my…
By Justin Cronin One of the great things about the internet: it was because of an item I skimmed on io9.com that led to me picking up this book. I hadn't heard of the author before, and I'm not a great fan of reading hardback books, but I was intrigued…
Batman Confidential #17–21 by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire I was tempted to label the writer as 'Author Not Important', which is not a slight on Nicieza's abilities but because the reason to read this book is the wonderful art of Kevin Maguire. His rendering – detailed but with strong…