Shelfbound

In honor of our recent meditation on nostalgia, we present out-of-context panels to provide comfort and succor: — If Batman is worried, you should be worried. — It’s fun to scream this after delivering a toast at a wedding. — Superman puts on sunglasses– YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! — Man, who were Prisoners 0000001-0034136? — What if- and [...]

“As children we made a complete circle in some way I don’t understand even now. I think that, if we agree to go ahead, we’ll have to try to form a smaller circle. I don’t know if that can be done. I believe it might be possible to think we’d done it, only to discover–when [...]

The Royal Historian of Oz #1 Written by Tommy Kovac Illustrated by Andy Hirsch “Can’t you make up your own characters, and your own made-up crazy-ass fantasy world? At least then people wouldn’t want to kill us.” I’m no particular fan of Oz. Sure, I saw the big movie growing up and liked it well [...]

DOGBERT VS. WOLVERINE “Logan, I’ve called you into my office today to talk about your job performance…” “Perhaps you have the wrong idea.  Let’s try to focus on your strengths.” “I’m not telling you that you can’t do that, but I’m not telling you that you can.” “Look, I’m not going to care more about [...]

Critical Mass Written and Illustrated by Garret Izumi One of my favorite things about traveling is visiting unknown comic book stores.  I can always find something new, whether it’s a locally-produced comic or a secondhand book I’ve never heard of.  Six years ago I was in Chicago visiting Smitty and bought Critical Mass on a [...]

Smitty and Dixon are self-avowed lifelong fans of comics (y’know, in case you’re joining us for the first time).  But they wonder how people are introduced to comics, and on occasion will be bringing you Habit Forming, a column that looks at a comic and asks: “What if this was somebody’s first?”  Today, it’s X-Men [...]

Back in 1992, Shelfbound was a four-page fanzine typed up, stapled, and distributed by hand each week to tens of comic book fans on Saturday afternoons. Smitty and Dixon–back then signing as N.W. Smith and HmD–were already hard at work bringing you witty, cogent dissections of new releases and old favorites. To celebrate the upcoming [...]

THE INVISIBLES VS. THE UNCANNY X-MEN When clubbing  you must locate an appropriate venue: Dane and Lord Fanny begin their evening at a fetish club.  There is nudity and cursing.  The Invisibles are in their element. Jean Grey and Scott Summers go to a disco.  There is partial nudity and implied drug abuse.  The X-Men [...]

Vimanarama Written by Grant Morrison Illustrated by Philip Bond Look, finding true love is difficult under normal circumstances.  These are not normal circumstances: Ali is getting ready to meet the girl of his dreams.  He hopes.  His father has arranged a marriage to the young Sofia but Ali has yet to meet her.  Before all [...]

Doom Patrol was Grant Morrison’s second ongoing series after the brilliant Animal Man, and is probably his most consistently bizarre work. Now before you say, “Smitty, I think all Grant Morrison comics are bizarre,” let me stop you.  You are wrong.  Morrison’s work is often big, complex, idea (and sometimes drug) fueled, sure. His comics [...]