‘Angel’ flashback: ‘After the Fall’ Issues 1-8 (2007-08) (Comic book reviews)

Seeing the success of “Buffy” Season 8 and learning that Brian Lynch’s pitch for an “Angel” “Season 6” lined up closely with his plans before the TV show was canceled, Joss Whedon launched “Angel: After the Fall” in 2007. Although it makes some of IDW’s previous work hard to fit into the continuity, it goes

‘Angel’ flashback: ‘Blood & Trenches’ (2009) (Comic book review)

In his first entry in the Buffyverse, comics legend John Byrne delivers the quintessential vampires-and-war saga, “Angel: Blood & Trenches” (March-June 2009). Previous stories had touched on this idea. In the novel “Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row” (2000), vampires feast on soldiers in World War II and the Watchers’ Council sends

‘Angel’ flashback: ‘Angel vs. Frankenstein’ (2009-10) (Comic book reviews)

While Joss Whedon himself brought Dracula into the Buffyverse with “Buffy vs. Dracula” (“Buffy” 5.1), comic-book legend John Byrne brought another Universal Monster into the fold with two “Angel vs. Frankenstein” comics – “Heir” in October 2009 and “Fragments” in October 2010. Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is the backstory for the monster, who calls himself Frankenstein

‘Jurassic Park’ flashback: IDW’s ‘The Devils in the Desert’ (2011) (Comic book review)

It’s been the inclination of most “Jurassic Park” comics that old characters and new dinosaur species are the key to success. But the opposite approach – new characters and old dinosaur species – has produced the best comics, first with Topps’ “Return to Jurassic Park” Issues 5-8 and more recently with IDW’s four-issue “The Devils in