Tom Taylor – Urbane Turtle

comics, comics criticism, dc comics, marvel, Perspectives, writing

The Urbane Turtle 2021 Year in Review – The Comics

December 30, 2021January 6, 2022 Urbane Turtle

In 2020, in the first couple months of this Urbane Turtle experiment, I posted a Year in Review of some of the various forms of media that got me through a difficult year. I was very explicit that it wasn’t a “Best-Of,” and I did not limit it to any medium.

But after a full year as a semi-professional comic critic, I want to share with you my Top 10 comics from the year that was. There is not much in the way of ground rules for how books qualify for this list. They had to release new issues in 2021. I’ve spent the last 2 weeks catching up on a backlog of releases and am happy to finally share this with you all.

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comics, Random Comic Panel of the Week

Random Comic Panel of the Week #26

April 26, 2021 Urbane Turtle

Seven Secrets #6 (BOOM! Studios, 2020) by Daniele Di Nicuolo, Walter Baiamonte, Ed Dukeshire, and Tom Taylor

comics, comics criticism, dc comics, writing

Nightwing Recommended Reading

March 18, 2021March 19, 2021 Urbane Turtle

After reading through every major Dick Grayson story for my recent piece, it seemed a waste to not to do more with my Nightwing knowledge. And lo, came more content: my recommended reading list of Nightwing comics. Here I tried to capture what I think are the best stories from each major run on the character.

If you recently read Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s fun first issue of their new run and looking to dive into more Nightwing, here are my recommended stories highlighting Dick at his best. I wouldn’t call all of these essential (I don’t think any of Dixon really is) but most are enjoyable or indicative of the creators they represent. Further context and comments below for each one. Most of these stories are available in various collected editions, and I’ve noted the names of those collections. All of them are also included in your DC Universe Infinite subscription.

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comics criticism, dc comics, Perspectives, Uncategorized, writing

Who is Dick Grayson? A Critical Retrospective of Nightwing

March 16, 2021May 11, 2022 Urbane Turtle

I read every issue of Nightwing, every Dick Grayson solo series (including his time as Batman and a super spy) and 100+ issues of Titans and Justice League over the last two months, in search of the answer to one question.

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