The Book Review: Batman: Year One
Frank Miller is best know for his DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, but to many his best treatment of Batman is in his story of how it all started, working with David Mazzuchelli. This is where Batman begins.
23 May 2005

The Friday Review: The Losers: Ante Up
Giving a dormant DC action-adventure trademark to a relatively unknown creative team may have been a gamble for Vertigo, but when the chips were down, these guys were definitely ready.
30 April 2004

The Friday Review: Marvels
Nostalgia's nothing new. As Marvel's celebration of its superhuman history reaches its tenth anniversary, Ninth Art looks back on the mini series that helped propel Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek to superstardom, and marvels.
09 April 2004

Paradoxically Speaking: An interview with Lawrence Miles
From learning about Britpop in the brothels of Tangiers, to betting for toenails in a bar in New Orleans, FACTION PARADOX creator Lawrence Miles knows a few things about strange journeys. And that's before you get to the time travel.
05 January 2004

The Friday Review: Sleeper: Out In The Cold
Ninth Art has named it one of the best new series of 2003. Now readers have a second chance to wake up to SLEEPER, with the release of the series' first six issues in a trade paperback collection.
02 January 2004

Winning And Losing: An interview with Andy Diggle
His ongoing series THE LOSERS has helped earn Andy Diggle an exclusive contract with DC relatively early in his writing career. Now Ninth Art talks to the former 2000AD editor about making that well-worn journey from Dredd to Vertigo.
08 December 2003

The Friday Review: Hewligan's Haircut
An early collaboration by two of comics' most pop-sensible creators, HEWLIGAN'S HAIRCUT may have a little too much of the art school about it, but it certainly entertains. Something for the weekend, sir?
28 November 2003

The Friday Review: Watchmen
It's the cornerstone of Alan Moore's reputation, and one of the most popular, successful and critically acclaimed comics ever made. Whether you're reading it for the first time or the one hundredth, Ninth Art discovers that it's still worth watching the WATCHMEN.
21 November 2003

The Friday Review: Stormwatch: Team Achilles
From the Rangers to the Beavers, Micah Ian Wright can claim a stranger pedigree than most new writers, and it shows in his debut series, the politically informed and action packed latest incarnation of STORMWATCH.
17 October 2003

The Friday Review: Squadron Supreme
Classic hero analogues and world-changing supermen; they're familiar staples in today's comics, but Mark Gruenwald's maxiseries was one of the first of its kind. So how does it measure up in the eyes of the modern reader?
05 September 2003

A Little Less Conversation
In Ninth Art's essay series Comic Shop Confidential, self-confessed loather of comic stores Brent Keane explained why he found them such unpleasant places. Ninth Art has sent him back to find out if anything's changed.
29 August 2003

The Friday Review: Supreme: The Story Of The Year
The notion of Alan Moore working on a Rob Liefeld character may be too terrifying for some readers to contemplate - yet in SUPREME, the wary reader will discover that Moore found the perfect vehicle to resume his deconstruction of the superhero.
15 August 2003

Conventional Wisdom: Terminal Fanboy
Ninth Art wraps up its series of convention season essays with a cautionary tale about how conventions can seriously damage your inner fanboy. Brent Keane flashes back to 1996, the year of his first - and last - convention.
28 July 2003

The Friday Review: Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters
Mike Grell's take on Green Arrow is one of the great gritty hero revisions of the late 1980s, recasting the character as a huntsman undergoing a masculine mid-life crisis. But does it still hit the target? Ninth Art takes aim.
27 June 2003

Rage & Responsibility
Brent Keane offers a closer reading of the motivations and heroic impulses of three classic Marvel characters. These guys really are your father's superheroes, but are they their father's sons?
16 June 2003

The Friday Review: Hellblazer: Haunted
The prospect of Warren Ellis on HELLBLAZER may have seemed like a perfect synergy, but Ellis cut short his run following editorial differences, leaving just one major arc behind. Ninth Art gives up this ghost of the series for critical appraisal.
30 May 2003

Passion/Logic = X
The X-MEN movies owe a great debt to the work of Chris Claremont, and his influence can be felt in a host of modern comics and even TV shows like BUFFY. Yet, Brent Keane asks, is it an influence worth being found under?
19 May 2003

The Friday Review: Elektra: Assassin
The combined talents of Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz were always likely to produce something special, but once untangled, is there any substance to their iconic take on Marvel's favourite femme fatale?
02 May 2003

The Friday Review: Sandman: The Kindly Ones
As Vertigo celebrates its tenth anniversary, Ninth Art looks back on one chapter of the book that remains the imprint's biggest critical and commercial success. Do you remember your dreams? You'll remember this one.
04 April 2003

Learning To Drive
Plenty of people were watching the WATCHMEN, but were any of the creators who followed paying attention? The tremors from WATCHMEN are still being felt today, but Brent Keane is still waiting to see the book's promise fulfilled.
24 March 2003

Doomsday In Smallville
Is it time to bring down the curtain on Superman? The success of the WB's SMALLVILLE suggests that there's life in the old icon yet, even if DC has been struggling to find it.
24 February 2003

The Friday Review: The Authority: Under New Management
One of the defining comic books of recent years, THE AUTHORITY became a victim of its own notoriety. With a relaunch approaching, Ninth Art looks back on two stories from the first volume's creative teams.
21 February 2003

The Friday Review: The ABC Warriors: The Black Hole
Nihilism, psychodrama, intolerance, and huge blazing gun battles. Ninth Art looks back at a robot comic that won't bring you an ounce of shame, featuring Pat Mills at his razor sharp best, and a stunning career debut from artist Simon Bisley.
17 January 2003

The Friday Review: Punisher: Circle Of Blood
Brush away the holiday gloom with a burst of gunfire and a splash of blood. Ninth Art looks back on a book borne out of 80s politics that, though a victim of editorial interference, still holds its own as a classic.
27 December 2002

Thumbnail: Jim Lee
In the second of Ninth Art's creator profiles, Brent Keane looks at the career-so-far of the creator most associated with the Image movement; an artist whose great talents seem to have been largely lost to the boardroom.
25 November 2002

The Friday Review: The Invisibles: Say You Want A Revolution
As the final volume of Grant Morrison's unruly epic hits stores, Ninth Art goes back to the lighting of the fuse with the very first volume. It's the perfect place to join the Invisibles. If, y'know, you're into that whole 'linear' thing.
15 November 2002

The Friday Review: Daredevil: Born Again
The Bendis/Maleev run on DAREDEVIL is enjoying great critical and commercial success - but BORN AGAIN is the story that really established the complexities of the character - and the story that many fans hold up as the definitive DAREDEVIL tale.
25 October 2002

The Dredd Generation: Children Of The Revolution
In the final part of Ninth Art's look back across twenty five years of premiere British anthology comic 2000AD, the fans get their chance to reflect on what the magazine meant to them - and offer their assessment of where it stands today.
14 October 2002

The Dredd Generation: The New Breed
In the third part of our celebration of 2000AD's 25th anniversary, Ninth Art talks to some of the series' recent crop of 'art droids' - Frazer Irving, Jock and Boo Cook - about their own efforts to make their mark on the magazine.
09 September 2002

The Dredd Generation: Heirs To The Throne
Continuing our celebration of 2000AD's 25th anniversary, Ninth Art spoke to former editor Andy Diggle and SINISTER DEXTER creator Dan Abnett about their work and their experiences working on 'The Galaxy's Greatest Comic'.
22 July 2002

The Friday Review: The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones
Survivor; stewardess; soldier. It's been an eventful life for Halo Jones. Ninth Art checks out another classic Alan Moore yarn from the vaults of 2000AD.
12 July 2002

The Friday Review: Skizz
A young child meets and befriends a strange alien who has crash-landed on our world. But this is no average ET tale. Ninth Art catches up on Alan Moore and Jim Baikie's classic 2000AD strip.
28 June 2002

The Dredd Generation: Founding Fathers
In the year of 2000AD's 25th anniversary, Ninth Art spoke to some of the magazine's most famous creators - Pat Mills, Alan Grant and John Wagner - about their memories, their regrets, their creations and their influences.
17 June 2002

We Are Glass
From flashbacks to footnotes, it seems the comics reading audience is too used to being spoonfed its stories. Brent Keane wants his expectations confounded - and his Grant Morrison undiluted.
20 May 2002

Comic Shop Confidential: Unwanted Conversations
In the final part of our series on comic shop culture, Brent Keane makes a return visit to his local stores after more than a year away, and discovers it's all exactly as bad as he remembers - or in some cases, worse.
01 March 2002

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