Blog Archives
Breeze Your Way To “Crosswind #1” On The Wednesday Run
We’ve all felt – or seen – the effects of a nasty crosswind:
Passing a tractor trailer on the highway yanks your car violently and you need to jerk the steering wheel in an opposite direction just to keep yourself from running into the culvert at the side of the road. Whew!
Lazily canoeing across the cottage lake while a strong wind blows you off course from the dock you need to get to. How’d I get here?
Watching a Tour de France cycle team ride in single file, switching up leaders from time to time in order to conserve energy for each individual rider. Sweet science.
Experiencing the violent effects when a nasty Chicago hitman crosses paths with a downtrodden Seattle housewife – in a most unusual way!
Wait. What?
That’s the premise behind today’s release of Crosswind #1…and let me emphasize the phrase “unusual way”!
Experience The Magic Of “Pop Gun War Volume 2: Chain Letter” On The Wednesday Run
In a comic book pop culture world where immense crossover events from the big two publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, fill up all the headlines, smaller and cooler and more artful releases can sometimes get a little lost in on the store shelves.
As fun as #DCMetal’s Dark Days: The Forge #1 (DC Comics’ big Batman-centric story) and the Secret Empire series of comics (Marvel’s Hydra-centered summer epic) might be, for a lot of us, it’s the creator-owned stuff that take our fancy.
That’s what we’re here for today: making sure you don’t get blinded from the great stuff when you head over to your local comic book shop on your own Wednesday Run.
Certainly, you don’t want to miss the eagerly anticipated release of Pop Gun War Volume 2: Chain Letter – finally out today!
Dive Deep Into Madness With “The Unsound #1” On The Wednesday Run
It’s Wednesday. New comic book day.
Here in Toronto, Canada, the sun is shining and the clock excitedly ticks down to quitting time when many of us make our weekly pilgrimage to the local comic book shop to grab our fill of the world’s best pop culture, visual storytelling, medium.
While some might be excited about today’s release of the ninth – and concluding chapter of DKIII (finally!), others might be looking for a new read. One that won’t be hampered by regular delays (hopefully!) but is also backed up by a proven artistic team.
And you know that we here at Biff Bam Pop! like our horror.
We like it psychological, and dreadful, and full of monsters, and covens, and secrets, and nasty things that play in the dark.
And hey!
It just so happens that’s what we get today with the release of the first issue of…The Unsound.
How’s that for inspiring dread?!?
Celebrate An Early #WonderWomanDay w. “Wonder Woman Annual #1” On The Wednesday Run
Even if you had your head under a rock, you’d know that there’s a highly anticipated (and finally!) Wonder Woman film being released this weekend!
Early reviews have been positive to absolutely glowing – and that sense of affirmation is just the vaccination that the DC Extended Universe film franchise has desperately needed! With the tent pole Justice League film dropping later this year and the cinematic debut of Aquaman now firmly in production, the Wonder Woman film had a massive pop culture encumbrance to bear on its shoulders.
Indeed, perhaps unfairly, the future of Warner Brother’s comic book universe of films was in absolute jeopardy due to previously dark and critically lackluster movies.
Thankfully, that sentiment is not the same in the comic book world – the wellspring of these globally recognized pop culture icons.
This Saturday, June 3, is appropriately, #WonderWomanDay. Fans around the world will be celebrating the feminist icon with comic book readings, cosplay, theater-goings and much, much more.
But you can get an early start on the festivities today with the release of Wonder Woman Annual #1 – a fantastic introduction to the character for readers of any age!
American Politics Are Out Of This World In ‘Saucer State #1’ On The Wednesday Run
I would have thought we’d have heard something “official” about alien encounters by now.
And by “official” I mean something on social media – from the sitting President of the United States. If anyone were to read government classified material and leak it at 2 a.m. via Twitter, it would be Trump, don’t you think?
But that hasn’t happened. Yet.
Maybe he’s been too busy hiring and firing.
Maybe he’s been too busy with his own office shenanigans.
Then again, maybe that classified material we all think exists – doesn’t after all. And what a major disappointment that would be.
Still, while waiting for that late-night tweet, there’s a government-alien-conspiracy comic book we should all be reading…and the first issue of a brand new volume drops today with Saucer State #1!
Role-Play Your Way To A Fluid “User” On The Wednesday Run
Remember the days when Vertigo Comics was regularly publishing comic book fiction that pushed the boundaries of the art form, giving voice to dozens of burgeoning writers and artists each month that would never have been heard from in mainstream publications?
It was probably the mid to late 1990’s or early 2000’s.
And you were probably in high school or college at the time – and my, oh my, weren’t those the glory days of comic book reading?
It’s a little strange then, that with all the great comics that Vertigo was publishing at the time, a title such as the 2001 three-issue miniseries, User, flew a bit under the radar, even though it won industry awards.
It’s stranger then, that the same title is compiled in a handsome hardcover format by an entirely different publisher (one who has taken up the philosophical mantle that Vertigo Comics once owned), over fifteen years later.
And that the story of User, released (again) today, still resonates!
It’s A Lower Class Bug Out With ‘Bug!: The Adventures Of A Forager #1’ On The Wednesday Run
Hierarchical social categories and comic books.
Status, ruling class, and sub species.
And “King” Jack Kirby.
The theme of social status was the starting point of Kirby’s New Gods comic book title when he strode across the publishing divide, walking away from Marvel Comics and turning his talents and ideas to rival DC Comics.
And boy did he bring ideas and characters that still reverberate nearly five decades later: Darkseid, the Anti-Life Equation, New Genesis, Apokolips, gods, monsters, destiny… and politics.
Not to mention the visionary publishing invention of interlocking titles that constitute one, finite story.
Still, social status was only one of the themes of Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” series of those interlocking comic book titles that included New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Forever People and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olson.
That story of social status continues, with a new generation of great creators in this week’s release of Bug!: The Adventures Of A Forager #1!
Facehug Your #AlienDay With ‘Aliens: Dead Orbit #1’ On The Wednesday Run
We’re told that “in space, no one can hear you scream.”
Here on planet earth, it’s a different story! Screams of fright, horror and joy abound when we’re talking about the Alien film franchise. You know, the one made famous by directors Ridley Scott and James Cameron: Alien in 1979 and Aliens in 1986. They were the first R-rated films that an under-age me needed to see. Well, those two and Canadian classic, Porky’s.
Those two highlight films have spun-off a flurry of pop culture gold that includes five other Alien-centered films of varying quality (two of which enthusiastically co-star the sci-fi classic Predator creature) with a new and eagerly-anticipated film in the horror franchise only a month away from release.
There’s even a day of the year dedicated to the Alien franchise, an unofficial holiday for fans around this planet: #AlienDay is today, April 26! Tweet out those chest-busters!
With pop culture supremacy, of course, come loads of comic books. Appropriately, then, today sees the release of the first issue of a new mini-series…Aliens: Dead Orbit #1, the perfect accompaniment to a day dedicated to everyone’s favourite xenomorph!
Pulp Novels Make For ‘The Greatest Adventure #1’ On The Wednesday Run
I was introduced to Tarzan of the Apes through the Ballantine softcover publications of the Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp classics.
My father had collected and read collected those books during the mid-to-late 1970’s. in the early 1980’s, I found them on the shelf, dusted them off, and stared at the covers for what seemed like forever! The Beasts of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Tarzan Triumphant and Tarzan and the Leopard Men, as well as the others, are remembered very, very fondly.
Those covers by artist extraordinaire, Neal Adams, leapt off the page with thrills, menace and dramatic excitement! They introduced me to pulp adventure and fueled my imagination, leading me towards a burgeoning love of the fantasy and science fiction genres.
They also cemented a common pop culture bond between father and son.
Through Tarzan, other Burroughs classics came to my attention, chiefly, the strange and fascinating worlds of Barsoom and Pellucidar and all the characters that inhabited those continents.
Today sees a childhood imagination rekindled with the intermingling of disparate characters in the pop culture world of comic books.
Of course, that series would need to have the greatest pulp title ever devised…and it does with: The Greatest Adventure #1!
Read the rest of this entry
Britpop & Magic & Comics Makes For ‘The Complete Phonogram HC’ On The Wednesday Run
Music is magic.
Just ask any writer of Biff Bam Pop! Heck, ask just about any reader that frequents these digital pages. This site has a love for pop culture, sure, but there’s an underlying need and desire to listen, to read about, and to share favourite music.
Ask Andy Burns, Editor-In-Chief of Biff Bam Pop! and his ever-lasting love of prog-rockers, Yes. And yes, he was there in New York City last weekend when Yes finally entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Ask Less Lee Moor, resident Managing Editor of this site as well as the Editor-In-Chief of Popshifter. Besides sharing her enthusiasm for all things music in her regular Pump Up The Jam column here on BBP!, you’ll find that she often waxes lovingly for Richard Oakes-era Suede on social media.
Ask me about my love of Modern Life Is Rubbish-era Blur and the gothic-punk brilliance of the Manic Street Preachers seminal Holy Bible album.
These are the bands, this is the music, that we all grew up with – specifically through our formative years.
And that bit of musical magic brings us straight to the excitement of The Complete Phonogram Hardcover, released today.
