comics

CW Cooke is a comic book writer living in the Kansas City area who has been working in comics since 2007. He has been published by Action Lab, Big Dog Ink, Viper, Bluewater, Arcana, and Devil’s Due Entertainment with his creator-owned series Solitary. He is a featured writer for Project-Nerd Publishing with two new series, Clock Puncher and Barrens, both scheduled for release in early 2016. He has successfully Kickstarted his series Solitary and helped successfully Kickstart the series Barrens.

Cooke, along with Sean Demory and Scott Novosel, will share their experiences successfully using

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is the single best movie in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The exploration of friendships and trust was stunningly well done.  Friendships betrayed over ideals, history forgotten in new circumstances, and the risk you inherently take in opening your heart to someone—and not a hint of romance to cloud the issue!  Combined with brilliant performances, adrenaline-packed action sequences, and world-changing scope, this is just the best MCU movie to date.

Of course, it doesn't exist in a vacuum, so be sure to watch the first Captain

I love superhero comics, but I must confess, I don't like a lot of contemporary superhero comics. The trend has overwhelmingly become oriented towards grim and serious. There are some terrific, well done stories, full of high imagination and smart storytelling, but there's a distinct lack of whimsy and unabashed optimism.

Jeff Smith, mostly known for his critically acclaimed comic Bone, wrote and drew Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, a sort of reboot mini-series of Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family that eschews the grim, "adult" cynicism of most contemporary superhero comics. His

I think of myself as a counterculture aficionado. But somehow I was oblivious to the existence of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For until I read the masterful graphic memoir Fun Home and became interested in Bechdel’s other work. The strip originated in 1983, published in alternative newspapers across the country, but the characters didn’t start recurring until 1987. From then it evolved into “half op-ed column and half endless, serialized Victorian novel” as Bechdel describes it.

Unfortunately it is not actually endless. When I found out the strip went on hiatus in 2008 so Bechdel

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days follows New York City superhero Mitchell Hundred as he decides to retire when he realizes he can effect real change by becoming Mayor of his city.

The story flashes back on Hundred during his days as a civil engineer (before he became a superhero), and how his survival after an extradimensional explosion gives him a new power. After the explosion, Hundred can communicate with and command machines, he becomes known as masked hero, “The Great Machine.” While it seems like typical superhero fare, writer Vaughan and artist Tony Harris work together to create a