By Justin Wood

In the second chapter of Dark Horse's new collected trade of Alex Di Campi's supernatural series Semiautomagic, the heroine Alice Creed throws some semi-fourth wall shade on Neil Gaiman's classic series Sandman. It's a cheeky throw-away line; a "this ain't your daddy's supernatural horror adventure series" jab. Now, as a comic that clearly draws a lot of obvious influence from Gaiman's critically adored comic series, as well as its brothers and sisters like Hellblazer, the dig comes off more as an affectionate ribbing rather than taking legitimate potshots, but the moment stood out to me. While spiritually indebted to Vertigo's supernatural lines from the early 90's, Semiautomagic never brushes the feet of Gaiman's best remembered work. That said, having read dozens of original monster slaying adventure comics, silly name and all, Semiautomagic is the closest thing I've read that might deserve to take a few swings at Dream's exhaustingly praised legacy.

By Dustin Cabeal

If you have any interest in this series, don’t bother watching this first episode. It’s the type of first episode which is more of a self-contained story and is being used to poorly set up the next episode which will be what the show really is about. There are only three details that you need from this episode, and I’m willing to bet money that at least two, if not all three will be mentioned in the second episode. The first detail is that “Bloodivores” are people with a genetic mutation due to the side effect of a drug that cured some unnamed disease. If they don’t get blood, like a vampire, they go crazy and will attack people, like a vampire. Our main character is framed for murder along with his three friends and sentenced to death which is faked. Even if you buy it for a minute the preview next time, along with basic logic, tells you that they’ll be alive and fighting monsters or some shit.

By Justin Wood

Sometimes a book comes along to make you appreciate this visual medium. A reminder of the talent and skill goes into books, sometimes completely unappreciated, the kinds of choices being made by artists that are misattributed or unconsciously ignored. T.I.T.S, curiously, did that for me. Despite being a writer and artist myself, it made me reevaluate the real impact the choices of an artist have on how stories are experienced in ways that are separate from the creative choices of the writer. It's not because T.I.T.S was particularly meaningful or imaginative in its choices, but rather because it took me till halfway through the book to finally realize that it had nothing going on in the writing department but was disguised by some pretty decent art.

By Shanel Kamara

The first thing that came to mind when I saw the promotional picture for this anime was a cardboard Amazon box or more specifically the Amazon robot known as Danbo. The next thing to spring to mind was how cute the opening song was. Although the style of animation is different to that of Bananya, I thought the premise was very similar. Both series have a cat theme, all the characters originate from somewhere in space, and people are unable to see or detect them. 

By Laramie Martinez

Last Friday I sat down with my girlfriend to watch Luke Cage, Netflix’s most recent series in the quadfecta that is The Defenders. Now, I wasn’t the biggest Luke Cage fan going into this series. Don’t get me wrong; I was excited, but that excitement came from watching the others series Netflix has put out. I liked Daredevil, and Jessica Jones was even better, so my enthusiasm was coming from a place of wanting to see another great TV show rather than excitement about seeing a character I loved on TV. Now I wasn’t completely ignorant; I had read a few Heroes for Hire, and I was impressed when he showed up in a crossover or two. He was more like a historical figure for me, the Jack Johnson of comics. Historical and important, but not really fleshed out.

By Tyson Jones

The world of comics is ever changing. New books get greenlit, series get canceled, and every now and then we see a death…or a death gets retconned. So, it’s more than likely that you, as a reader, will miss something you might really enjoy. There’s no shame in that. It’s a busy industry, but that’s why I’m here: to spotlight a series you might like that maybe slipped under your radar. That’s especially true for the six-issue mini-series, Legends of Tomorrow by DC Comics. Sharing the name of the third DCWverse live-action series, Legends of Tomorrow focuses on four of DC properties that should be familiar to older fans, telling either origins or new tales featuring classic characters. In this particular book, Firestorm, Metamorpho, Sugar & Spike, and The Metal Men get their stories told.