Author: Graeme McMillan

Posted on

The Comics of June 2025

And this was what I read through in June, a month that saw me busier than the average bear between work and a short (too short!) trip to the Bay Area to see my best friend. For the most part, nostalgia was reigning supreme as it has been doing in the last few months, not least because I finally completed by collection of early 1990s Green Lantern and spin-off books and fully dived into that cosmology. (There’s so much to talk about there, all of it overshadowed by the fact that the writer was later jailed after pleading guilty to possession of child porn. Yeah, I know.)

I also worked through a re-read of Squadron Supreme and its follow-ups — a very strange fan-fic as officially published comic from Marvel in the 1980s, based around the seeming pitch of “What if we published DC characters? And… yeah, that’s it, I guess” — and a bunch of assorted superhero comics of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s; it’s an accidental re-education on the genre’s development and the tricks lost and left behind as tastes changed. Sometimes, I think about wanting to write a really wonky book tracking those shifts in methodology and trickery, in part as a guide to see what could be re-adopted or re-explored, but then I remember that no-one would want to read such a thing.

Anyway: June’s comics looked like this.

  1. Money Shot #s 1-5
  2. Conan the Barbarian (2023) #s 15-16
  3. Avengers (1963) #s 283-285
  4. West Coast Avengers (1985) #24
  5. West Coast Avengers Annual (1986) #2
  6. Superman (1986) #s 7-8
  7. Adventures of Superman (1986) #430
  8. Action Comics (1938) #590
  9. Legion of Super-Heroes (1984) #37
  10. Green Lantern (1990) #9
  11. Albion #1
  12. Action Comics Weekly #601
  13. Superman (1939) #371
  14. Justice League Europe Annual #2
  15. Superman (1939) #391
  16. The Spirit Casebook 
  17. Green Lantern (1990) #s 10-11
  18. Avengers Annual (1967) #16
  19. West Coast Avengers (1985) #25
  20. Avengers (1963) #286
  21. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 501-502
  22. Defenders (1972) #s 46-47
  23. West Coast Avengers (1985) #26
  24. Action Comics (1938) #591
  25. Legion of Super-Heroes (1984) #38
  26. Superman (1986) #9
  27. Adventures of Superman (1986) #s 431-432
  28. Green Lantern (1990) #12
  29. Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1
  30. All-New Venom #7
  31. Defenders (1972) #48
  32. Ghost Rider vs. Galactus #1
  33. Green Lantern (1990) #13
  34. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 503-508
  35. Green Lantern (1990) #14
  36. West Coast Avengers (1985) #27
  37. Defenders (1972) #49
  38. Green Lantern (1990) #15
  39. Imperial (2025) #1
  40. Immortal Thor #s 23-24
  41. X-Men (2024) #s 10-17
  42. Action Comics (1938) #s 592-593
  43. Superman (1986) #s 10-11
  44. Adventures of Superman (1986) #s 433-435
  45. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 509-511
  46. Green Lantern (1990) #s 16-17
  47. Avengers (1963) #287
  48. West Coast Avengers (1985) #28
  49. Defenders (1972) #50
  50. Justice League Unlimited (2024) #8
  51. New History of the DC Universe #1
  52. Uncanny X-Men (1963) #137
  53. Green Lantern (1990) #18
  54. Avengers (1963) #288
  55. West Coast Avengers (1985) #29
  56. Superman (2023) #27
  57. Green Lantern (1990) #s 19-25
  58. Green Lantern Annual (1992) #1
  59. Green Lantern: Mosaic #1
  60. Avengers (1963) #289
  61. West Coast Avengers (1985) #30
  62. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 512-513
  63. HERBIE Infinity Comic #1
  64. Green Lantern: Mosaic #s 2-4
  65. Transformers (2023) #21
  66. Green Lantern: Mosaic #5
  67. Guy Gardner Reborn #s 1-3
  68. Avengers (1963) #290
  69. West Coast Avengers (1985) #31
  70. Fantastic Four (1998) #514
  71. Doctor Who: The Cruel Sea
  72. Avengers (1963) #s 291-297
  73. The Mighty Thor (1966) #s 396-400
  74. Solo Avengers #1
  75. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 515-516
  76. West Coast Avengers (1985) #32
  77. Green Lantern (1990) #s 26-28
  78. Avengers (1963) #s 298-300
  79. Action Comics Annual (1987) #1
  80. Superman Annual (1987) #1
  81. Adventures of Superman Annual (1987) #1
  82. Fantastic Four (1998) #517
  83. Green Lantern (1990) #29
  84. Fantastic Four (1998) #518
  85. West Coast Avengers (1985) #33
  86. Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment OGN
  87. Astonishing Tales #s 1-3
  88. Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1
  89. Mephisto vs. #1
  90. The Last Avengers Story #s 1-2
  91. Mephisto vs. #s 2-4
  92. Hawkeye: Earth’s Mightiest Marksman #1
  93. Avengers: Infinity #s 1-3
  94. Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1
  95. Avengers (1998) #1
  96. Squadron Supreme (1985) #1
  97. Death of the Silver Surfer #1
  98. Fantastic Four (1998) #570
  99. West Coast Avengers (1985) #s 34-37
  100. Fantastic Four (1998) #519
  101. Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #1
  102. One World Under Doom #5
  103. Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1
  104. Runaways (2025) #1
  105. Storm (2024) #s 7-9
  106. Star Wars (2025) #2
  107. Trinity, Daughter of Wonder Woman #1
  108. West Coast Avengers (1985) #s 38-39
  109. West Coast Avengers Annual (1986) #3
  110. Green Lantern: Mosaic #6
  111. Green Lantern (1990) #s 30-31
  112. Guy Gardner (1992) #1
  113. West Coast Avengers (1985) #s 40-43
  114. Squadron Supreme (1985) #2
  115. Fantastic Four (1998) #520
  116. Squadron Supreme (1985) #3
  117. Guy Gardner (1992) #2
  118. All Star Superman #5
  119. Fantastic Four (1998) #521-524
  120. Guy Gardner (1992) #3
  121. Green Lantern (1990) #32
  122. Squadron Supreme (1985) #4
  123. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #s 1-2
  124. Avengers: Loki Unleashed! #1
  125. Avengers: Infinity #4
  126. Avengers: The Origin #1
  127. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2005) #1
  128. Squadron Supreme (1985) #s 5-6
  129. Adventure Comics (1938) #210
  130. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #3
  131. Squadron Supreme (1985) #s 7-10
  132. Green Lantern (1990) #33
  133. Squadron Supreme (1985) #s 11-12
  134. The Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe OGN
  135. Quasar (1989) #13
  136. Green Lantern (1990) #34
  137. Quasar (1989) #s 14-16
  138. Green Lantern (1990) #35
  139. Avengers (1998) #s 2-4
  140. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #4
  141. Avengers (1998) #s 5-6
  142. Avengers/Squadron Supreme Annual #1
  143. Squadron Supreme: New World Order #1
  144. Green Lantern: Mosaic #s 7-8
  145. Avengers: The Origin #s 2-5
  146. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2005) #2
  147. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #5
  148. G.I. Joe (2024) #8
  149. Batman Family #2
  150. Batman Eternal #1
  151. Tom Strong #1
  152. Green Lantern: Mosaic #9
  153. Green Lantern (1990) #36
  154. Guy Gardner (1992) #4
  155. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #6
  156. Marvel 2-in-One Annual (2018) #1
  157. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2005) #s 3-4
  158. Avengers (1998) #s 7-8
  159. X-Factor Annual (1987) #3
  160. The Punisher Annual (1988) #1
  161. Silver Surfer Annual (1988) #1
  162. Aliens vs. Avengers #4
  163. Guy Gardner (1992) #5
  164. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #s 7-10
  165. Fantastic Four (2018) #1
  166. Green Lantern (1990) #37
  167. X-Men (2024) #18
  168. West Coast Avengers (2024) #8
  169. New Avengers (2025) #1
  170. Godzilla vs. Avengers #1
  171. Fantastic Four Fanfare #2
  172. Bring on The Bad Guys: Doom #1
  173. The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #6
  174. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 2-3
  175. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #11
  176. Avengers (1998) #9
  177. Captain America (1998) #1
  178. Iron Man (1998) #1
  179. Guy Gardner (1992) #s 6-7
  180. Marvel 2-in-One (2017) #12
  181. Fantastic Four (2018) #4
  182. Showcase ‘93 #s 1-5
  183. Avengers (2023) #27
  184. The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #s 1-5
  185. Avengers Assemble (2024) #s 1-5
  186. Non-Stop Spider-Man #1
  187. Green Lantern: Mosaic #10
  188. Fantastic Four (2018) #5
  189. Fantastic Four Wedding Special (2018) #1
  190. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2005) #s 5-8
  191. Green Lantern: Mosaic #11
  192. Non-Stop Spider-Man #2
  193. Captain America (1998) #s 2-3
  194. Astonishing Avengers Infinity Comic #1
  195. Fantastic Four (2018) #6
  196. Non-Stop Spider-Man #s 3-5
  197. Black Widow (2016) #s 1-2
  198. Green Lantern (1990) #38
  199. Astonishing Avengers Infinity Comic #2
  200. Black Widow (2016) #3
  201. Future State: Green Lantern #s 1-2
  202. Green Lantern (1990) #39
  203. Black Widow (2016) #4
  204. Fantastic Four (2018) #7
  205. Captain America (1998) #s 4-5
  206. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #s 1-2
  207. Green Lantern (1990) #40
  208. Guy Gardner (1992) #8
  209. Captain America (1998) #s 6-7
  210. Black Widow (2016) #s 5-6
  211. Green Lantern: Mosaic #12
  212. Captain America (1998) #s 8-12
  213. Fantastic Four (2018) #8
  214. Black Widow (2016) #s 7-12
  215. Astonishing Avengers Infinity Comic #s 3-4
  216. Avengers (1998) #11
  217. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (1998) #s 1-4
  218. Iron Man (1998) #s 2-3
  219. Fantastic Four (2018) #9
  220. Green Lantern: Mosaic #13
  221. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (1998) #s 5-7
  222. Iron Man (1968) #s 201-207
  223. Green Lantern: Mosaic #14
  224. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (1998) #s 8-9
  225. Iron Man (1968) #s 208-210
  226. Avengers (1963) #s 105-108
  227. Green Lantern: Mosaic #s 15-18
  228. Green Lantern (1990) #41
  229. Avengers (1963) #s 109-111
  230. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 10-11
  231. Green Lantern (1990) #42
  232. Avengers (1963) #112
  233. Fantastic Four (2022) #33
  234. Green Lantern (1990) #43
  235. Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #18
  236. Deadpool (2014) #15
  237. Green Lantern Annual (1992) #2
  238. Guy Gardner (1992) #s 9-14
  239. Green Lantern Corps (2011) #0
  240. Fantastic Four (2018) #12
  241. The Darkstars (1992) #s 17-24
  242. Green Lantern (1990) #s 44-45
  243. DC Universe: Trinity #2
  244. Green Lantern (1990) #s 46-47
  245. Fantastic Four (2018) #13
  246. Avengers (1963) #113
  247. Iron Man (1968) #211-213
  248. Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1
  249. Guy Gardner: Warrior #s 17-21
  250. The Darkstars (1992) #s 0, 25-27
  251. Avengers (1963) #114
  252. Justice League (2011) #40
  253. Justice League: The Darkseid War – Green Lantern #1
  254. Fantastic Four (2018) #14
  255. Avengers (1963) #115
  256. Defenders (1972) #8
  257. Iron Man (1968) #214
  258. Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #s 2-5
  259. Green Lantern (2005) #s 1-3
  260. Iron Man (1968) #s 215-217
  261. Void Rivals #s 1-6
  262. Avengers (1963) #s 116-117
  263. Defenders (1972) #9
  264. Fantastic Four (2018) #15
  265. Iron Man (1968) #218
  266. Green Lantern (2005) #s 4-6
  267. Transformers (2024) #s 1-6
  268. Star Trek: Defiant #17
  269. Defenders (1972) #10
  270. Avengers (1963) #118
  271. Fantastic Four (2018) #16
  272. The Beast (1997) #1
  273. Magneto (1996) #1
  274. 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2025
  275. 2000 AD Progs 2439-2440
  276. Star Trek: Defiant #s 18-21
  277. Green Lantern (2005) #s 7-8
  278. Transformers (2024) #s 7-12
  279. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 17-19
  280. Invisible Woman (2019) #s 1-2
  281. Green Lantern (2005) #9
  282. Invisible Woman (2019) #3
  283. Fantastic Four (2018) #20
  284. Iron Man (1968) #219
  285. Empyre: Avengers #0
  286. Empyre: Fantastic Four #0
  287. Invisible Woman (2019) #s 4-5
  288. Green Lantern (2005) #s 10-11
  289. Avengers (1963) #119
  290. Defenders (1972) #11
  291. Transformers (2024) #s 13-18
  292. Energon Universe 2024 Special #1
  293. Iron Man (1968) #220
  294. Action: The Story of A Violent Comic
  295. Green Lantern (2005) #s 12-13
  296. Green Lantern Corps (2006) #1
  297. Assorted Crisis Events #4
  298. We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #s 2-4
  299. You’ll Do Bad Things #s 2-4
  300. Iron Man (1968) #221
  301. The Legendary Lynx OGN
  302. Iron Man (1968) #222
  303. Green Lantern (2005) #s 14-15
  304. Iron Man (1968) #s 222-225
  305. Green Lantern (2005) #s 16-17
Posted on

The Next Stop Is Arguello

One of the things I realized when revisiting San Francisco for the first time in more than a decade — and only for the second time since I lived here, I think — was how much the city hasn’t changed compared to the period from 2002 through 2008 when I called it home; I came back with my headspace very much informed by what happened when I went back to Scotland after more than a decade, and found it so different from what I remembered (and expected) that it left me uncomfortable and adrift. The same was surely true of SF, I was convinced, steeling myself for that off mix of disappointment and confusion that I’d felt in my home country. But it… wasn’t…?

That’s not entirely true; there are certainly parts of the city that aren’t the same, and many of the places that formed core landmarks and memories of my city as I lived in it way back when just aren’t there anymore. (Park Chow, how I miss you…!) But I was consistently surprised by how many are, how entire neighborhoods have so many of the same stores and places to eat, how so much of the architecture hasn’t changed in all this time. I went back to the first neighborhood I lived in when I moved to the city (to the country), and it felt as if almost no time had passed; it wasn’t just that my old apartment building was unchanged, but the restaurants and stores around the corner were the same, and the laundromat where I’d spend Sunday afternoons was still open. I walked up and down Clement Street, the mix of Asian markets and restaurants I killed so much time in seemingly strangely intact, with places like Green Apple, Hamburger Haven, and The Bitter End all still there too. How did this happen? I thought to myself. Shouldn’t most of these places have disappeared by now?

I took the same buses (and MUNI trains!) around the city as I did when I lived here, unconsciously knowing exactly where to catch them and what numbers of buses to go for; when I rode on them, the announcements of the next stops sounded like poetry I’d learned years ago that was resurfacing in my head, and the view out the window looked entirely familiar. I went downtown and wandered the streets around where I used to work, and that looked the same, as well, more or less. (Downtown SF, I realized, felt like downtown Seattle to me now that I have more familiarity with the latter city; that feels like an insult, in a way, but one that’s not undeserved.)

It felt good, going back. Better than I’d expected, and a trip that made my head buzz with thoughts and possibilities and nostalgia in a way that felt welcome and filled with potential, instead of melancholy like my Scotland revisit. It felt like something necessary, in some inexplicable, welcome way.

Posted on

Mid-Century Man

I had this realization, the other day, of my age. I joke about being old, some random old man, past it and the wrong generation to get insert whatever reference here, but the truth of the matter is, I don’t actually feel old, most of the time; in my head, I still feel like I did back when I was in my 30s, as if I emerged into some sense of personality and existence at some point, some definition of maturity and just… stayed there. The birthdays mount up, the body slows down and aches more, but for the most part, I still feel like I’m thirty-something, not 50 years old.

And then I was talking to the kid about the Transformers; he’d made some reference to Autobots and I was trying to explain to him about Transformers and how much I’d loved them as a kid — and also, amusingly, what their whole deal was, because he didn’t actually know; he was aware of the bits that had turned into online memes and gags, but the actual context, what they were beyond robots that screamed dumb things and maybe turned into other things, was beyond him. As I was doing this, and he was responding in a way that was both amused and just confused, I realized: all this shit came from 40 years ago. When I was the kid’s age, 40 years ago was the Second World War.

Later that day, I was listening to Billy Bragg — because, again, I am an old man etc. — and his song “Mid-Century Modern” came on; it’s a song about, in part, realizing that you’re not the young firebrand anymore, and that subsequent generations have moved on and evolved past your progressive politics. That’s something I’ve thought about a lot, about the need to keep challenging your preconceptions and beliefs because culture shifts and you should shift with it.

The surprise for me was in the name of the song, and specifically the term “mid-century.” I’m mid-century now, literally: a century is 100 years, and here I am at 50. The things I grew up with, the music I still listen to, were three or four decades old — that’s the distance between my youth and the 1950s and ’60s, which seemed like ancient history at the time. The older you get, the more time flattens, and expands; the more you realize what your perspective looked like years ago, and how wrong you were.

Posted on

Fool Me Twice

I have to ask: is everyone else getting as many spam texts as I am pretending to be recruiters that want to talk about getting you a new job? For the past few weeks, I’m getting three or four of them a day, and they’re all pretty much the same: variations on “Hi, I’m [made-up name here], a recruiter for [made-up company here]. I’m really sorry to just text, but we have an opening that I think you’d be perfect for,” and then a description of a job that I am almost certainly not only not a good fit for, but in most cases, not even vaguely in the same line of work as. Day after day after day, they come in, and that’s been the case for awhile now.

There’s probably some kind of study to be done in the format and subject of spam messages and phishing hoxes. What does it say about where we all are now that trying to get you work is the topic that the spammers have decided is most likely to lure people in and get them to reveal information about themselves? (Nothing good, I’m sure; people are so desperate for gigs that they’d fall for this kind of thing?) What made the Nigerian Prince who wanted to share his wealth fall out of favor? It can’t just be that everyone collectively wised up and started making jokes about it — we were doing that when those messages were still coming in.

There was a point where the spam texts used to be far more vague that I was fascinated by. They’d come into your inbox with these entirely meaningless messages like, “Hey, are you still up for that thing Saturday?” and I’d immediately think, I don’t recognize this number and I am never up for anything on Saturday, who could even fall for this? before realizing that the answer was “people with active social lives, not like you, you loser.” But I loved how empty and low-effort those messages were. “Wanna get coffee?” Nope, never. If you know me, you’d know that. “I’m going hiking this weekend, can you recommend some trails?” was one of my favorites.

Now, though, it’s job offers. On the one hand, I appreciate the flattery aspect of the whole thing: Oh, this is a job you think I’d be perfect for? That’s so nice! Thank you! I also just end up worrying about the recruiting industry if these kinds of texts are in anyway representative of what it’s actually like out there, and all the recruiters are actually very apologetic people chosing entirely the wrong people for these positions and then telling them via text. Whatever happened to email? Am I just too old now?

Of course, there’s also the horrifying possibility that I’m the only person receiving these kinds of messages and they’re not spam. What if I really am ideal for all these jobs, and I’m just deleting each and every text thinking it’s fake? What kind of life am I passing up by not agreeing to be the head of an advertising and branding agency that specializes in pet food?!?

Posted on

Talk About

I’m (more slowly than I’d want) working my way through Bob Stanley’s Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé, with my progress slowed down by a tendency to add songs mentioned to playlists and really try to sit with some of the threads and sounds he’s writing about. (I have a newfound appreciation of Wanda Jackson as a result, if nothing else.)

I’m still stuck on a line from the very start of the book, however, when Stanley makes a stab at defining what makes a pop song — or pop anything, for that matter: “Pop needs an audience that doesn’t know the artist personally,” he argues. “It needs to be transferable.” I read that, and I thought, that’s it.

I love pop, as a concept; I don’t know if that’s something that comes from being British — I always think of “pop” as a concept that’s far more popular for British people than Americans, for some reason — or because I grew up in the 1990s with Britpop and Trip-Hop being all the rage, or even because I went to art school and had that background to deal with. Whatever the reason, I’ve always enjoyed the idea of art created for the masses and the potential it has to shape people’s opinions and change people’s minds; I’ve always been curious about things that shouldn’t have gone mainstream but did, and also things that were purpose-built to sell out and utterly failed as a result. One of the finest joys of pop culture as a whole is the surprise of it all: when the audience en masse doesn’t do what’s expected and what happens afterwards.

Throughout all of this, though, I’ve found myself caught up in how to define “pop” to people who ask for a definition of what, to me, has traditionally been indefinable; “pop” has been something I’ve felt or instinctively understood on a level I struggled to explain. Stanley’s definition comes the closest to something that works for me, even if I think he’s more broad in his thinking than I might be. (I’m a snob in certain ways, I admit.)

It nonetheless touches on the idea that many things can be pop that aren’t immediately obvious; visual artwork or graphic design, for one. Graffiti, for another. Anything that’s a message in a bottle to a world where someone wants to reach a stranger and see what happens.

We’re all pop, deep down, perhaps.

Posted on

Sensurrounded By Pies and Books

Perhaps it’s my job, or perhaps it’s simply who I am, but I think about ways to communicate a lot. I read more than my fair share of newsletters these days, for example, and spend my day — for my job, I promise! — online scrolling through the internet for information. In years past, I practically lived on social media or listening to podcasts, although my fervor for both has dimmed significantly as both spaces became overwhelmed by right wing voices that were more interested in demonizing everyone that wasn’t like them, and profiting from it. (I know a bunch of people who’d disagree with me about that characterization; they’re wrong.)

I think about the voices we put on for our different spaces, and the ways in which people write for newsletters or personal blogs are different from other spaces. The me I am “here” is more digressive, and less definitive than the one I am while working, for example, and less likely to make a cheap joke to close things out. (Well, I hope so at least; bad jokes are ingrained in who I am no matter where, however.) This is the space where the Elliott Smith line about being “not uncomfortable feeling weird” lives, which is fully not something I can embrace in professional spaces.

Different people flourish in these different spaces, to my eye, finding voice in a way they can’t otherwise. I’m fascinated by that — by the empowerment that different formats and outlets provides to different people, and seeing who finds themselves in each new incarnation. I think back to what it felt like doing Wait, What? with Jeff for more than a decade, and how that felt like a different thing to every other way I presented myself online, and how freeing it was; to this day, I recommend podcasting to people whose minds work certain ways because of the opportunities it presents that writing literally can’t.

I read something recently that suggested that the written word was authoritative, whereas the spoken word was conversational, and that the difference is something that needs to be considered more seriously as we move into a post-literate society; it’s an idea that’s been lodged in my mind ever since, as I play with it and try to work out what to do with it.

I don’t believe it fully, of course — social media is written, and inherently conversational and non-definitive, surely — but there’s definitely something to it that I’m trying to unpack. Am I trying to find a way to make my preference (Writing) do something that is better handled in spoken word form? Am I a square peg, trying to find a way to fit into a round hole? And how am I supposed to deal with the very idea of a post-literate society, anyway…?