Trevor Writes

Adventure Time: “Cherry Cream Soda” Season 7, Episode 3 Air Date: November 4, 2015 Root Beer Guy was set up to be one of Adventure Time 's later-series breakout characters, debuting in season five's “Root Beer Guy” (a season highlight in the show's greatest season), but tragically died a year later in season six's “Something Big”, sacrificing himself to save the Candy Kingdom. Root Beer Guy's widow Cherry Cream Soda takes centre stage in her titular episode, which explores one character's grief in a way previously unseen in this series. We've had death and mourning in Adventure Time before (“James”), but not from the perspective of a person mourning the death of a romantic partner; specifically, a wife grieving over her dead husband. The opening four minutes in “Cherry Cream Soda” are among the most quietly sad and thoughtful the show has produced, where we discover Cherry Cream Soda has dreams every night recounting Root Beer Guy's death. C...

Adventure Time: “Varmints” Season 7, Episode 2 Air Date: November 3, 2015 In discussing Adventure Time , we are so far removed from the traditional Saturday morning cartoons of old, shows built around a single premise and status quo, and would spend years building narratives off the same launch pad. Even Cartoon Network's own classic first-wave of shows – Powerpuff Girls , Dexter's Laboratory , Johnny Bravo – functioned this way. You could stumble upon the show while channel surfing and immediately get into the episode, a season one episode or a season five episode working with the same base ingredients. There's a comforting familiarity in a series that doesn't experience drastic changes, generally keeping the premise static throughout the show's entire lifespan. It's a cartoon staple, from the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short films to more adult fare such as The Simpsons . Adventure Time 's narrative progression from episode to episode trac...

Adventure Time: “Bonnie & Neddy” Season 7, Episode 1 Air Date: November 2, 2015 Adventure Time has returned this week from its own five month exile from television, the longest break in the show's five-and-a-half year history. In its absence, we've seen the popularity and critical acclaim of its sister series Steven Universe (created by former Adventure Time writer Rebecca Sugar) reach new heights, now met with the same excited fandom that Adventure Time itself experienced in its early and mid seasons. Now seven seasons in, the veteran Adventure Time can be easily taken for granted, but to fans such as myself, that would be unwise, as this series is still as rich as its ever been. “Bonnie & Neddy” occurs two months after the status-quo destroying sixth season endgame, and the social order in the Candy Kingdom is still weird and broken. After losing the election at the end of last season, Bonnibel Bubblegum (with Peppermint Butler) left the Kingdom to live in...

Kadokawa Shoten / Viz Media 25. Neon Genesis Evangelion (Kadokawa Shoten/Viz Media, 2010-2014, Volumes 12-14) Writer and Illustrator - Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Shortly after Hideaki Anno conceived the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime in 1993, he met with comics creator Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and together they collaborated on a manga adaptation that was set to premiere shortly before the anime to help boost interest in the television series. While the 26-episode series aired in entirety over just six months, the manga - which retold the same story, more or less - ran for nearly 20 years, not completing its run in Japan until 2013 (with Viz publishing the final volume in 2014). Being a mostly faithful adaptation of the greatest anime series of all time pretty much guarantees the manga to be solid as well, but what makes it so valuable to the Evangelion diehards is the little differences that set the manga's version apart. Sadamoto makes this story his own, consistently evoking different...

Valiant Comics 35. Quantum and Woody (Valiant, 2013-2015, #0-12, Valiant-Sized Quantum and Woody #1, Quantum and Woody Must Die #1-4) Writers - James Asmus, Tim Siedell (Valiant-Sized One Shot) Illustrators - Tom Fowler, Ming Doyle, Kano, Wilfredo Torres, Erica Henderson, Joe Cooper, Pere Perez, Steve Lieber Colourists - Jordie Bellaire, Allen Passalaqua, Wil Quintana, Dave McCaig Letterers - Dave Lanphear Quantum and Woody is something of an anomaly in the Valiant library. Not a part of the original Valiant universe, they weren't created until the late '90s during the reviled era set up after video game company Acclaim bought out Valiant and relaunched the entire universe with game-esque comics that they could use as launching points for actual console games. Christopher Priest and Mark Bright accomplished the impossible by actually making a beloved comic under these dubious conditions, the only Acclaim-era Valiant book anyone talks about with any fondness. Even st...

Valiant   45. The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage (Valiant, 2014-2015) Writer - Jen Van Meter Illustrator - Roberto De La Torre Colourist - David Baron Letterer - Dave Lanphear The always reader-friendly Valiant offer up a slightly more challenging story in their five issue miniseries The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage from late 2014. This emotional and spiritual journey penned by Jen Van Meter, follows Dr. Shan Fong (Doctor Mirage), a parapsychologist and supernatural investigator gifted with the ability to speak to the dead. All the dead, except her own late husband, whose recent passing still looms over the grief-stricken Fong. The character previously appeared in several issues of Shadowman but those are not required reading to get into this miniseries, which serves as a solid introduction to her character and backstory. The art seen throughout is a little outside the norm for the Valiant Universe, with frayed sketchwork pencils, with colouring that goes over the lines in...