Tag Archives: Boom

Raising Hell

by Darren Burr
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The King is dead, er, alive, er, dead. Long live the King!

Many people say, and I’m not one to argue, that what started as a brilliant franchise became watered down after a number of sequels that failed to reach the dizzy depths that were plumbed by the original Hellraiser. ‘Oh we have such sights to show you’ became a jaded phrase. Having said that, I seem to recall I really liked the eighth and final movie, and feel it was much maligned in later recollections. Or maybe it was the seventh. Anyway, moving on… We lived through Marvel’s abortive attempt at Clive Barker’s derived characters in the Razorline family of titles, which again contained a small number of gems but fell Read more »

Indies Of The Year

by Darren Burr
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Indies Of The Year

Without a shadow of a doubt, the best offering of the smaller companies has to be Elric: The Balance Lost, produced by Boom, featuring not only the return of the title’s namesake, but an entire host of beings who all carry the position of the Eternal Champion. As a long-term science-fiction reader who has yet to actually read all of the dozens of Michal Moorcock books that the genius produced, this is a treat. Regular readers will know just how much I adore seeing long-lost characters returning to the fore (so hurry up Archie with your Mighty Crusaders relaunch), and unlike previous escapades into comics, this is a Moorcock tale Read more »

Hits Of The Year

by Darren Burr
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Uncanny X-Force #19 and meet teh newest hero on the block - Apocalypse!

So is it me, or have comics actually got better this last year? Despite having one week a month when I am not that excited about the shipping list, overall I have to confess that I think this has been one of the better years in recent memory. DC, after a dismal start with the entire Flashpoint event, but the DCnU started as a resounding success. Admittedly, at present all of the titles have a very similar feel to them, to a fault. Yet so did Valiant when it started, and some of the titles are really striking out well. Stormwatch for example. Marvel on the other hand have acquitted Read more »

A Night At The Opera

by Darren Burr
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Farscape Ongoing #23 The secret of the Delvians.

I have a friend who is an absolute Star Wars devotee, however he is not so much a follower of the Dark Horse comics, having read most of the material in the originals novels. While I like Star Wars on the big and little screens, I too do not really follow the comics out of habit. I dip in now and again, mainly for the trades. I do however possess a grand passion for space opera, and recently I found myself pondering a lack of such stories. Upon a few moments consideration, I realised that this is not entirely true. Indeed, there are no grand operas of note of the Read more »

Rinse And Blow Dry

by Darren Burr
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The Rinse #1, a modern day Noir

Now I am not traditionally a fan of ‘simple’ crime comics. There are not enough people in spandex beating each other up or cosmic concepts designed to blow your mind and make you think big, really really big, for my tastes. Even I need a break sometimes however, and with Fear Itself, Flashpoint and the DC Explosion – I mean the DCnU, (sorry, bit of a timeslip there); it is nice to take a break from world shattering events and inter-related story lines that take a year just to reveal the events of a day or two, and look at the far more normal world. Boom, as reliable as ever, Read more »

You’re Spoiling Me!

by Darren Burr
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Elric The Balance Lost #1 from Boom

Ever had one of those weeks where you discover a comic that seems like it has been written specifically for you? Whether it’s the chosen cast of characters, the art or the subject matter; or more likely a combination of all three; you simply know that when the writer sat down, he or she had you specifically in mind. This week, I have been lucky to be so gifted. Twice, all at once! After a couple of months where although there were many series that gained my interest, there were none that gave me that tingle, none that I knew I would place in my ‘never sell this on eBay Read more »

Sorrows and Joys

by Darren Burr
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Sorrows and Joys

Just as reality swings from side to side in the comics worlds, as Age Of X has finished and Flashpoint commences; so to does reality swing up and down in, well, reality. It was with regret that I heard yesterday that the excellent Human Target TV series has been dropped by Fox. There has been some discussion on the inter-webs whether the addition of the two female characters Mrs Pucci and Ames strengthened the series or detracted from the first series’ dynamic. As fun as the first series was, if I can add my four-penneth, then I have to say they added greater conflict and more subtleties to the show, Read more »

Malignant Man

by Darren Burr
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Malignant Man

As always, I am an eager shopper when it comes to Boom’s new releases, but I must confess that despite an attractive cover, I waited a little while before fully reading Malignant Man. It was the first few pages; I put the comic down before reading any further. Truth be told, the subject matter hit too close to home. The title opens with a man awaiting his results regarding his cancer. The results were not good, and then the story reveals that the cancer in question is a brain tumour. In the past year I have a friend who was diagnosed with exactly the same, in an inoperable position; and Read more »

New Universes And Old

by Darren Burr
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New Universes And Old

Well, now we have seen the crop of Stan Lee’s new titles from Boom! – Soldier Zero, The Traveller and StarBorn, the first of which reaches its third issue today. Now we can see how the three titles fit together and the general shape of this new universe. It all seems to centre around a hostile alien race and their human allies, a team of time-travelling metas who embody different scientific forces, obviously leading up to the first crossover event, however far away that may be. I will be happy if that is far in the future, three titles is hardly an expensive layout for a corssover, but I hope Read more »

Bad Company

by Darren Burr
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Bad Company

With all the fashionability of vampires post-Twilight and post-Vampire Diaries, I almost gave Boom’s ‘Dracula – In The Company of Monsters’ a miss. Until of course I noticed it was written by the fabled Kurt Busiek, who rarely disappoints. So after a mad-dash search through the shelves for the first two issues, I am now eagerly awaiting todays third issue. You know what is so good about this title? There’s a complete absence of fangs in the first issue, simply a good air of mystery and a good serving of moral dilemmas. Read more »