Bomb Queen III TPB $14.99 (Image Comics) Written by Jim Valentino and Jim Robinson; art by Jim Robinson.  Go ahead…I dare you to try and tell me that Bomb Queen isn’t one of the coolest, most kick-ass comics on the market today.  I triple-dog dare ya!  Robinson’s sarcastic and caustic Bomb Queen is sheer joy to read.  It simply pulverizes the standard superhero fare.  If you’ve never read the series let me quickly get you up to speed…New Port City is the Bomb Queen’s hometown and superheroes are strictly prohibited there.  BQ is the absolute ruler and doesn’t let anyone forget it.  Her battles with heroes who invade her turf are the highest rated shows on TV and the citizens of New Port City can’t get enough of their lovely Queen and her frequently shredded costume that displays her ample attributes.  Let’s get this straight…Bomb is one mean hottie, not above blowing up an annoying TV host or grabbing a kid to use as a shield.  Hey…wrong place wrong time!   Still, the Shadow Government keeps sending new heroes into the city to try and kill her.  This time it’s paid gun Red Cross who makes the mistake of trying to take out our anti-hero.  Cross will do anything to succeed, even if it means destroying the entire city with a small nuke.  The naïve but very powerful heroine Blacklight will try to intervene to prevent the catastrophe but will soon lead her into conflict with the Bomb Queen herself.   Bomb Queen is edgy, intelligent fun.  Bomb Queen is about as evil as they come and yet you can’t help but be infatuated with her.  She’s so bad she’s good!  This is the third Bomb Queen series and it keeps getting better and better.  Robinson’s art is outstanding…colorful and dynamic but it’s his witty dialog that really pushes this series above so many of its boring brethren.  Strictly for mature readers, though!  Grade A

Back Issue Magazine #26  (TwoMorrows Publishing) Edited by Michael Eury.  TwoMorrows is really one of the best publishers around, period!  For comic fans, especially for long time comic fans, their line of books and magazines are like dying and going to geek heaven.  From Roy Thomas’ longtime fanzine Alter Ego, to the wonderful Jack Kirby Collector, and one of the very best publications, Back Issue Magazine.  Each issue spotlights a different comic’s theme and #26 is a “Spies and Tough Guys” issue that features a Black Widow cover by Paul Gulacy.   The highlight of the issue for me is Dan Johnson’s interview with Gulacy and Doug Moench, the creative team behind one of my favorite comics from the 1970’s Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu.  This title was unlike anything else produced in the 70’s when a title rarely survived more than a couple of years if it didn’t have a guy in a cape.  Moench and Gulacy talk about how the series was developed and their influences.  Evidently, Marvel got the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu character for a pittance and used the yellow menace as a backdrop for their James Bond-esque action/espionage series.  There is also an article about a proposed Nick Fury/Shang-Chi crossover that was to have been done by Moench, Gulacy, and Jim Steranko, but unfortunately the project fell through.   Another great interview is Mike Gagnon’s talk with Howard Chaykin about the now defunct Atlas Comics.  Not the Atlas of the 50’s that would become Marvel, but the Atlas started by former Marvel Comics founder Martin Greenberg in 1974.  Determined to beat Marvel at their own game, Greenberg hired some of the industry’s biggest talents, offering higher pay rates.  But almost as soon as it started, Atlas came crashing down like a house of cards and none of their titles reached beyond four issues.  As a young comic fan, I though I’d be selling those first issues for a gazillion dollars when I was older… Other articles feature a history of James Bond in the comics, the rebirth and death of Eclipse Comics’ Airboy, Michael Browning’s wonderful look at The Suicide Squad, the history of The Black Widow, and much more.  This is one of the most well written magazines around today.  Grade A    

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