Grovel

Graphic novel reviews

Author Archive

Batman: Battle for the Cowl

By Andy • Mar 16th, 2010 • Category: 2009, 4 stars, 4 stars, 4 stars, Batman, DC Comics, Daniel, Tony, Daniel, Tony, Review, Superhero, Titan Books

Batman: Battle for the Cowl is something of a bridging book. The Batman that generations of fans know and love – the alter ego of Bruce Wayne – has disappeared, presumed dead, after the events of Batman R.I.P. This has thrown Gotham City into turmoil, as everyone from the smallest of crooks to the maddest [...]



Chimpanzee Complex, The 2: The Sons of Ares

By Andy • Mar 9th, 2010 • Category: 2009, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars, Chimpanzee Complex, The, Cinebook, Marazano, Richard, Ponzio, Jean-Michel, Review, Science fiction

The mystery deepens in this second of three Chimpanzee Complex books, written by Marazano and beautifully illustrated by Ponzo. Having been tricked into a mission to Mars, Helen Freeman finally completes the first half of her journey and finds more mysterious space heroes from the past – this time Russian Cosmonauts – still alive and [...]



Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D., The

By Andy • Mar 7th, 2010 • Category: 2010, 4 stars, 4 stars, 4 stars, Anthology, Fantagraphics, Literary, Review, Romance, Science fiction, Shaw, Dash, Shaw, Dash, Thriller

Dash Shaw seems set to become a name to be reckoned with in comics, with top-name publishers like Pantheon and Fantagraphics queuing up to publish his work. He made his name with short stories, published in anthologies like MOME. This book collects a selection of these together for the first time, alongside storyboards for some [...]



Betelgeuse 1: The Survivors

By Andy • Feb 28th, 2010 • Category: 2009, 4 stars, 4 stars, 4 stars, Betelgeuse, Cinebook, LEO, LEO, Review, Science fiction, Worlds of Aldebaran, The

LEO’s Aldebaran series started off on an incredible high, then petered off towards the end. This was arguably because it didn’t finish – while the characters resolved their conflicts, the over-arching mystery surrounding the Mantris, and the unusual flora and fauna of Aldebaran, remained well and truly up in the air (and out to sea).
What [...]



Troublemakers, The

By Andy • Feb 16th, 2010 • Category: 2009, 4 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars, Action, Crime, Fantagraphics, Fritz B-Movie Collection, Hernandez, Gilbert, Hernandez, Gilbert, Review, Thriller

Gilbert Hernandez has created himself a wonderful opportunity with the Fritz B-Movie Collection, which started with Chance in Hell and carries on with this, The Troublemakers. The premise of the series is that each book is a film, starring (to a greater or lesser extent) Rosalba “Fritz” Matinez, an actress character from his epic Love [...]



League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The: Volume 3 – Century #1 (1910)

By Andy • Feb 9th, 2010 • Category: 2009, 5 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars, Knockabout, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The, Moore, Alan, O'Neill, Kevin, Review, Science fiction, Thriller, Top Shelf

If Black Dossier had you fearing that Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen might be coming off the boil, Century: 1910 will set your mind at ease.
The first of three books spanning the fictional agents’ adventures in the 20th century – though Black Dossier falls into this camp too, of course – [...]



Batman: The Cult

By Andy • Feb 7th, 2010 • Category: 1991, 3 stars, 4 stars, 4 stars, Batman, DC Comics, Horror, Review, Starlin, Jim, Superhero, Thriller, Titan Books, Wray, Bill, Wrightson, Bernie

While Batman’s universe is crammed full of heroes with special powers, Batman’s popularity must be at least partially accounted for by his normality. This isn’t a man who’s been sent from another planet, bitten by a radioactive spider or bombarded with gamma rays. Batman is just an ordinary guy. Albeit an ordinary guy who just [...]



League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The: Volume 2.5 – Black Dossier

By Andy • Feb 3rd, 2010 • Category: 2007, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The, Moore, Alan, O'Neill, Kevin, Review, Science fiction, Thriller, WildStorm

The third instalment of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen brings us into the 1950s. After winning the Second World War, the British government was usurped by a new party called Ingsoc, bringing a socialist dictator (Orwell’s Big Brother) into power. The remnants of Mina Harker’s League (last seen fighting Verne’s [...]



Booth

By Andy • Jan 29th, 2010 • Category: Preview

John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865, believing him to be a tyrant. Booth is a dramatisation of the days running up to the murder, which charts Booth’s thoughts, actions, motives, and arguments with those around him, as he travels towards his date with destiny.
Written by the historian C. C. Colbert (a pseudonym of [...]



Prime Baby

By Andy • Jan 28th, 2010 • Category: Preview

From the creator of American Born Chinese and The Eternal Smile comes a story of sibling rivalry. There can be little to hit a child as hard as the arrival of a little brother or sister, but Thaddeus takes the arrival of his sister particularly hard. As she turns from baby to toddler, Thaddeus’s worst [...]