Michel Fiffe

OVERWORD is a series of six essays that chart my fascination with certain comic books and their creators. It’s comics criticism and commentary, as I thoroughly get into the history and context of the subjects. They originally appeared over the span of several months on my Patreon page, where I have written several other posts about my own process and what further inspires me. OVERWORD was a massive undertaking for me and now that I’m on the other side of it, I’m happy I did it. My hopes are that these post are found useful, informative, and, at the very least, entertaining.

1 · TEEN TITANS Part One – My need for colorful, clean-cut super heroics and my habit to hunt back issues in bulk met at the intersection of Wolfman & Pérez. They were the best choice.

2 · TEEN TITANS Part Two – My enthusiasm for the TT franchise was destroyed by troubling story elements but was resuscitated by the excellent Titans Hunt storyline. My devotion never fully recovered.

3 · JSA/ALL-STAR SQUADRON – A Roy Thomas appreciation. Character archaeology as expression, especially to pin a moment in time. This led me to “map reading” info-dumps.

4 · JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA – A Mike Sekowsky & Dick Dillin appreciation. Two underrated workhorses who defined the adventures of the world’s leading superhero group for decades.

5 · QUASAR & SQUADRON SUPREME – I applied new lessons to my immersion into a couple of Mark Gruenwald masterpieces. A positive reappraisal of a cult classic and an unjustly dismissed passion project.

6 · MARK GRUENWALD – Singing the praises of a legendary storyteller by getting to the root of my own obsession.