Tag Archives: Len Wein

Spotlight on Slam Bradley

The Dark Knight isn’t the only detective in Batman comics. In fact, having finally read last year’s six-part mini-series Gotham City: Year One, my mind has been on the astounding significance gained by one of the oldest detectives around: Slam … Continue reading

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Spotlight on The Unknown Soldier, 1980-1982

This is the final installment in my overview of Bob Haney’s neglected run on The Unknown Soldier, which ended with a bang. By 1980, this World War II-set comic had turned into a fairly mechanic, well-oiled enterprise. Haney churned out … Continue reading

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2020’s books of the year – part 2

If you read last week’s post, you know I’m doing a countdown of the most Gotham Calling books of 2020. Enjoy!   16. UNDONE BY BLOOD Collected as Undone by Blood or The Shadow of a Wanted Man, the first … Continue reading

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Two-fisted fantasy comics

Lately I’ve been writing mostly about sci-fi for this section of the blog, so I think it’s time to shift our attention to another great adventure genre: fantasy. Fantasy is one of those umbrella genres that covers a massive spectrum … Continue reading

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On the periphery of Batman’s rogues’ gallery

This is Gotham Calling’s 300th post! I usually take these occasions to celebrate the richness and weirdness of Batman’s extensive rogues’ gallery, which includes all sorts of odd criminals, ranging from iconic characters like the Joker and the Penguin all … Continue reading

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Minor but cool sci-fi comics

After the remarkable Ex Machina, Alex Garland has now put together another tense, intelligent science fiction film in the form of Annihilation. The movie feels like a welcome reminder that, even though cinema tends to simplify the dense, heady tales … Continue reading

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Len Wein (1948-2017)

In the same year, we lost Bernie Wrightson and Len Wein, the two creators of Swamp Thing. May you rest in peace and do not come back as a tragic vegetable creature or a patchwork Frankensteinian monster reanimated by Anton Arcane. … Continue reading

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Batman collections for casual readers

You know who Batman is. At least the gist of it. You’ve seen him in books or in films or on television, hopefully at his best. Probably, you’re even familiar with some of his supporting cast and rogues gallery, not … Continue reading

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Elseworlds’ gothic homages

When coming up with alternative takes on Batman – usually as part of DC’s Elseworlds line – many authors have looked for inspiration in classic works of gothic literature and film. The reason this tends to work so well, I … Continue reading

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Awesome Swamp Thing splashes by Nestor Redondo

Taking a break from Batman comics for a moment… Artist extraordinaire Bernie Wrightson deservedly gets a lot of praise for his work on the original Swamp Thing series – a true horror/fantasy classic! – but his successor, Nestor Redondo, did … Continue reading

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