Squee! was a four-issue series by Jhonen Vasquez, published by Slave Labor Graphics, featuring a supporting character from Vasquez’s previous series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. The series focuses on a young boy named Todd Casil, otherwise known as Squee. An introverted and bullied little kid with a less than supportive family, Squee has been forced to mature a bit more quickly than his peers. He is fond of writing, but only receives criticism from his teacher and taunting from his classmates. Any attempts he makes to deflect these hostilities only results in being shoved into the dirt or otherwise further humiliated. Squee’s mother is addicted to some form of pill and spends a lot of time lying around in a nearly incoherent state. She often forgets who Squee is, or that she even has a child. His father, painfully aware of Squee’s existence, loathes the boy and never forgets to mention that he blames Squee for “ruining” his life, claiming that he “hasn’t smiled once since [Squee] was born”. Having little patience for anything Squee says or does, he eventually becomes convinced that Squee is mentally unstable, and by the end of the series, has him committed to the “Defective Head Meat Institute”. Squee also has a grandfather who justifiably believes his children are only waiting for him to die to collect some kind of inheritance. His grandfather claims to keep healthy and young by consuming his children’s first-borns, and subsequently attempts to devour Squee, only to reveal in horrifying fashion that he is in fact a cyborg and quite possibly insane.
Tag: Iron Age
Lucifer V1 (2000’s)
Lucifer was the main character in an eponymous series that ran for 75 issues and the Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot, from June 2000 to August 2006, the entire run of which was written by Mike Carey (this series was preceded by Carey’s work in 1999, The Sandman Presents: Lucifer mini-series). To Carey, the essence of the character was:
We play safe. Most of us do, most of the time… but Lucifer doesn’t know the meaning of safe, and he never bothers to look down at the tramlines. He goes wherever the hell he likes, picks his fights where he finds them and generally wins… following [his] own will and [his] own instincts to the very end of the line, no matter what the obstacles are star.
In the series, Lucifer runs a piano bar (an element introduced in the Sandman story “The Kindly Ones”) called “Lux” in Los Angeles, with the assistance of his mistress, Mazikeen who is a Lilim, one of the race descended from Lilith. Lucifer is portrayed as a sophisticated and charming man, in accordance with the stereotypical gentleman-devil.
Black Panther V5 (2009)
Attacked by the forces of fellow Cabal member Doctor Doom, T’Challa is left comatose. His sister Shuri is trained as the next Panther, with the mantle passing onto her officially after T’Challa awakens from his coma and attempts to recover from his injuries.
In the aftermath, T’Challa loses all of his enhanced attributes given to him by being the panther totem. As a result, he works with his sorcerer, Zawavari, to accumulate a replacement. He has since made a pact with another unknown Panther deity, returning his attributes to an even higher level as well as placing incantations on his body, making himself highly resistant to most magic and mystic assaults. This has all been done in preparation for the imminent battle with Doctor Doom, which culminated in T’Challa rendering all of the processed vibranium inert to give his people a chance to rebuild without their dependence on the element.
DC House of Horror (2017)
An all-new, all-creepy one-shot set in the DC Universe! Martha Kent fights for her life against a creature from a spacecraft that lands in front of her farmhouse. A young woman is possessed by the spirit of a murderous Amazon warrior. The last surviving member of the Justice League faces down a horror beyond imagining. All these and more are what happens when the most exciting new voices in contemporary horror fiction are paired with the talents of some of the greatest artists in the DC firmament! And if that isn’t enough to scare you, there’s Keith Giffen, too.
Animal Castle (2022)
On the Farm all animals were equal. In the Castle some are more equal than others. For fans of the bestselling Stray Dogs and the Eisner Award winning Beasts of Burden comes an animal fable at once familiar and surprising! You may think you know the story, but set aside your assumptions. This animal uprising is unlike any you have read! Nestled in the heart of a farm forgotten by men, the Animal Castle is ruled with an iron hoof by President Silvio. The bull and its dog militia savor their power, while the other animals are exhausted by work, until the arrival of the mysterious Azelar, a traveling rat who will teach them the secrets of civil disobedience.
Reborn (2016)
Mark Millar & Greg Capullo join forces to create the smash hit sci-fi / fantasy story: REBORN. Where do you go when you die? Not heaven or hell; somewhere else. Somewhere you have to fight to survive. Somewhere the people from the past are waiting for you—the good and the bad.
Sword of Azrael (1992)
Azrael first appeared in the 1992 series Batman: Sword of Azrael as Jean-Paul Valley.
He then became a supporting character in the monthly Batman titles, eventually taking over the role of Batman through the “Knightfall,” “Knightquest,” and “KnightsEnd” story arcs. One of the creators, Denny O’Neil, admitted to having difficulties with Azrael’s transition from villain to hero: “If I’d known he was to become a monthly character, I might have set him up differently … The problem is that I had to turn a bad guy into a real hero, not just an anti-hero or lead. It’s possible to do that, but it’s difficult to retain the original characterization. You almost have to change his personality.”
Star Wars: Rebellion (2006)
Star Wars: Rebellion was released in April 2006. The 16-issue series was a continuation of the series Star Wars: Empire and was presented as a series of miniseries, the first arc having five issues. In 2008, it was paused for six months to give precedence to the The Clone Wars monthly comic only to be officially canceled to make way for the upcoming Star Wars: Invasion comic series.
Gotham by Gaslight (1989)
Gotham by Gaslight is a DC Comics one-shot by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, with inks by P. Craig Russell. The story revolves around a 19th-century version of Bruce Wayne making his debut as Batman just as Jack the Ripper has arrived in Gotham City.
Although it was not initially labeled as such, Gotham by Gaslight is considered to be the first Elseworlds story in which DC Comics characters from alternate timelines or realities are featured in stories outside of the DC Universe canon. While not originally labelled as such, subsequent printings of Gotham by Gaslight have incorporated the Elseworlds logo. It spawned one sequel, Batman: Master of the Future (1991), also written by Augustyn, with art by Eduardo Barreto.
Moebius – Epic Graphic Novels (1987)
The Moebius pseudonym, which Jean Giraud came to use for his science fiction and fantasy work, was born in 1963. In a satire magazine called Hara-Kiri, Giraud used the name for 21 strips in 1963–64. Subsequently, the pseudonym went unused for a decade.
In 1975 he revived the Moebius pseudonym, and with Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and Bernard Farkas, he became one of the founding members of the comics art group “Les Humanoides Associes”. Together they started the magazine Métal Hurlant, the magazine known in the English speaking world as Heavy Metal . Moebius’ famous serial The Airtight Garage and his groundbreaking Arzach both began in Métal Hurlant.] In 1976 Metal Hurlant published “The Long Tomorrow” written by Dan O’Bannon.
Arzach is a wordless comic, created in a conscious attempt to breathe new life into the comic genre which at the time was dominated by American superhero comics. It tracks the journey of the title character flying on the back of his pterodactyl through a fantastic world mixing medieval fantasy with futurism. Unlike most science fiction comics it has no captions, no speech balloons and no written sound effects. It has been argued that the wordlessness provides the strip with a sense of timelessness, setting up Arzach’s journey as a quest for eternal, universal truths.
His series The Airtight Garage is particularly notable for its non-linear plot, where movement and temporality can be traced in multiple directions depending on the readers own interpretation even within a single planche (page or picture). The series tells of Major Grubert, who is constructing his own universe on an Asteroid named fleur, where he encounters a wealth of fantastic characters including Michael Moorcock‘s creation Jerry Cornelius.
In 1980 he started his famous L’Incal series in collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky. From 1985 to 2001 he also created his six-volume fantasy series Le Monde d’Edena, portions of which appeared in English as The Aedena Cycle.
In his later life, Giraud decided to revive the Arzak character in an elaborate new adventure series; the first volume of a planned trilogy, Arzak l’arpenteur, appeared in 2010. He also added to the Airtight Garage series with a new volume entitled Le chasseur déprime.







































































































