Trevor Writes

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...

Because everybody loves lists! This was supposed to be a Top 100 of my favourite comics of all time but I crumbled under such a daunting task. Mostly, it had to do with me not actually having finished all of the long running comic series that I love so much (for example, the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko/John Romita run on Amazing Spider-Man is one of my all-time favourite comics, but I've still only read half of those 100 issues). Perhaps I'll take a crack at that All-Time list another day. But for now, here's a something a little easier. My 50 favourite comics from 2010 to now. I didn't get into buying and reading comics via single issue until the end of 2011, and I probably didn't have a decent-to-large pull list until 2013 or so, so the list will be geared more-so towards the last couple years, this I admit. And there's still dozens of comics on my imaginary Must Read list that were published this decade. Some of this decade's noteworthy comics that I haven...