By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

 With World War Z pulling in big numbers at theaters and The Walking Dead returning for a fourth season on AMC in October, it’s easy to overlook the medium that incubated the zombie phenomenon: Comic books.

The zombie as a concept arose in West Africa, and shambled…

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

If you’ve never read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and only seen the movie, you may be missing out.

I certainly was, until DC Comics began adapting Stieg Larsson’s popular thriller into graphic novel form (in two parts). And I still remained shrouded in ignorance of the full impact of the novel after reading TGWTDT Volume 1, which offered little more in the way…

Kim Thompson, long-time co-publisher at Fantagraphics, died today. Here's the release from Fantagraphics:

Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson died at 6:30 this morning, June 19. "He was my partner and close friend for 36 years," said Gary Groth.

Thompson was born in Denmark in 1956. He grew up in Europe, a lifelong comics fan,…

This site has been around since the late '90s, and has been called many things: "Captain Comics site." "The Board." "The Round Table." "The Forum." "The Website." Usually most of these have been preceded by "Captain Comics' ...", but not always -- Legionnaires have often just used shorthand with each other.

When I was forced to make some changes recently -- Ning stopped supporting our chosen design -- I threw together a masthead that reads as you see it above. I chose "Round…

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Has Man of Steel made you hungry for more Super-stories? Then read on, for the five essential Superman graphic novels, in reverse order:

5. Superman: Red Son ($17.99) is a play on words; as every Super-fan knows,…

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Can Man of Steel save Superman?

It’s odd to think that a strange visitor from another planet, with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, would need any saving. And in comic-book sales, the Man of Tomorrow is holding his own: The Superman franchise is probably DC Comics’ third-most-popular, after Batman and Justice League.

But from a movie…

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Two graphic novels set in the past jumped out at me recently, and when I checked the credits I knew exactly why they were so good.

The first is Fury Volume 1: My War Gone By (Marvel, $21.99), starring Nick Fury – not the one in the Avengers movie,…