Welcome to This Ain’t Kansas.
This is our comics blog. Prepare thyself for comic book reviews and commentary (and, occasionally, if we’re feeling ambitious, maybe even a bit of analysis).
Peter Milligan is one of my favorite writers. However, I’ve noticed there is a disturbing lack of writing about his works. Sure, there’s the odd random review here and there, but I haven’t really found a site dedicated to his work. This blog is meant to address this, to a certain degree. It is my mission to write about and review as much of his comics as I humanly can. This may take months or this may take years, given my slow pace of writing. But I aim to give this task my best shot.
My fellow sinister mastermind, Raging Bert, is on a mission, too. While I endeavor to provide write-ups on Milligan’s work, he shall provide you with various other comics-related content. As I understand it, he’s going to begin with some scathing reviews of some sacred cows. What better way to kick off a blog than with some controversy? Albert’s going to make you examine the comics of Chris Claremont in a new light, a light that isn’t guaranteed to present the late-70s/‘80s Uncanny X-Men era in a flattering way. Stay tuned.
We may, at times, also furnish this blog with various other insightful bits of comics-related writings, including reviews of other comics and topical posts or commentary.
Why is our blog titled This Ain’t Kansas.? That was actually the title to the letters column of Shade, the Changing Man when it became a Vertigo series. Shade is perhaps the most iconic of all Peter Milligan’s works. If there is a series that one immediately associates with Milligan, Shade, the Changing Man has to be that series. I always liked how the phrase This Ain’t Kansas effectively communicates, with some sense of sarcasm, the idea that we are in a zone where things are not as they seem, that the world is slightly off-kilter.
That is exactly what we want this comics blog to convey. Welcome, one and all. Welcome.
We don’t necessarily expect you to agree with everything we write, and we are certainly open to the idea of an open forum. Feel free to leave us comments; even if you feel you have nothing to add, it makes us feel all warm and tingly inside to know that somebody besides our moms is reading this.
[Oh yeah, and we resorted to “madnessvest” in our URL because “thisaintkansas” was already taken. The Madness Vest is yet another Shade, the Changing Man reference, in case you’re unfamiliar.]
