“Revelations: The Photographs of Justice Howard” by Schiffer Publishing is more than just a book of photos by an artist. It’s a multidimensional look at the art of photography and tattooing, and how, in the right hands, the two can come together in a beautiful union.

It’s instantly apparent by just looking at the cover of this volume that this is a quality piece of workmanship. The heavy cover stock is beautifully rendered with a tattooed model on the front, laced with vibrant colors, giving us a glimpse of what’s to come.

There are three forwards written in this book, one by an artist and two by “celebrities” featured in this book’s pictures, all paying homage to the photographer, Justice, who also provides a written introduction.

by Chris Delloiacono and Mike Maillaro

This week!

• Royal Rumble Recap

• Where’s Wrestlemania 32?

• Justin Gabriel Quits the WWE

With all the hoopla over the assured blockbuster status of Marvel's upcoming THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, it's easy to forget that another Marvel property is coming to theaters this year as well. Granted, it's a franchise tainted by two previous lackluster releases (three for the purists who pretend the Roger Corman version counts), but Hulk's first two films weren't exactly critical accomplishments, and the big green guy is doing alright for himself in Avengers.

I'd like to say that the Fantastic Four could follow in Hulk's crater-like footsteps, but my confidence level hasn't been high, and this trailer has done little to change that.

Before we discuss that, though, let's take a quick look at the trailer, released today, for FANTASTIC FOUR:

Okay, now, all the non-comics fans only please: What is this movie about?

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Entertainment Weekly has announced:

A Time Lord is coming to the Marvel universe. The studio has cast David Tennant as the major villain in its upcoming Netflix series A.K.A. Jessica Jones. The Doctor Who and Gracepoint star will play Zebediah Killgrave (aka The Purple Man).

The official series description: “After a tragic ending to her short-lived super hero stint, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23) is rebuilding her personal life and career as a detective who gets pulled into cases involving people with extraordinary abilities in New York City. An enigmatic figure from Jessica’s past, Kilgrave’s reappearance will send shockwaves through the former super hero’s world.”

In the Realms-meshed world that lays the landscape for Zenescope's AGE OF DARKNESS, ordinary humans are completely out of their depth. And when a roving band of survivors make it into Wonderland, now ruled over by the benevolent White Queen, Calie Liddle, the Dark Queen sets a task for Calie: kill the humans while they are lost in Wonderland.

Calie's not one for taking innocent lives, but she's left with little choice in the matter. The Dark Queen has a hold over Calie's daughter Violet (Wonderland's Mad Hatter), and Calie is never out of the gaze of the Dark Queen's minion, Joy the Trickster. Will she do what she's told? Will she stand up to the Dark Queen? Calie and the Cat are left without choices in this first of a three-issue miniseries.

Quantum and Woody Must Die #1

Written by: James Asmus

Art by: Steve Lieber

Colored by: Dace McCaig

Lettered by: Dave Lanphear

Cover by: Mike Hawthorne with Jordie Bellaire

Published by: Valiant

Cover Price: $3.99

Note: This is a review of the digital version which can be found on Comixology.

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Summary (contains spoilers): This issue starts in the docks of Baltimore, Maryland.  Two female criminals named the Dominos and their crew attack an FDA truck.  Quantum and Woody arrive on the scene to try and stop them.

For a vinylphile like me theses are marvelous times.

Records are making/have made a comeback. Whether it is because people have finally come to their senses that vinyl records sound superior to any other recorded medium, or because records companies are trying to find a way to make money again now that the people who forsook records for ease and portability have now forsaken that medium for the even worse sound but greater portability of digital file music, and they need something to generate cash flow for them now, they’ve realized that the record faithful have never gone away. We’ve just stood in the shadows, intent on letting the trends go by while we bask in sonic superiority listing to great music spinning on our turntables.

Whatever the real reason the record companies have decided to make LP’s again is really irrelevant. The fact is they are back in the groove again, and I am happy.

Powers (2015-) 1

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Art by: Michael Avon Oeming

Colored by: Nick Filardi

Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos

Cover by: Michael Avon Oeming

Published by: Marvel (Icon)

Cover Price: $3.99

Note: This is a review of the digital version which can be found on Comixology.

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Newsarama has posted the three types of titles that will be part of Secret Wars -  Battleworld, War Zones, and Last Days.  Here's some info on each:

Last Days - 

“What would you do if you learned today was your last day on Earth?” added Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso is a press release. “That’s the question your favorite Marvel heroes are going to ask themselves in their Last Days story lines as they brace for Secret Wars and the end of the Marvel Universe.” 

So, a while back, Robin died, and I bitched about it. I bitched about him dying, even though I had also bitched about comic book characters not staying dead.

Damian Wayne didn't stay dead. And here I am to bitch about it.

Don't misunderstand. Of all the characters in comics to die, Robin -- that is to say, the Damian Wayne incarnation of that character, not the Jason Todd one -- had the best chances for a "Get out of Death Free" card. His mother, after all, was Talia al Ghul, which makes his grandfather Ras al Ghul, who's total "thing" is his regular resurrections via the Lazarus Pit. A dip, a dunk, and voila: Robin Reborn, no muss, no fuss.

But that would have been too easy.

By Mike Weaver and Mike Maillaro

Maillaro:  This week’s column we are going to focus on two “funny” books: The Tick and Groo.  Personally, I think comedy is much harder to write than drama.  Comedy is real hard to find the right balance between clever and silly.  

I saw the following news story over at Newsarama:

Mickey Mouse is returning to comics - and we don't mean Marvel.

IDW Publishing announced Wednesday that the California-based company is launching Disney Comics, a new line of comics featuring Disney's anthromorphic animal characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It all begins in April with Uncle Scrooge #1, with a Donald Duck series in May and Mickey Mouse in June. September will see IDW resume publication of the long-running Walt Disney's Comics and Stories series with issue #723.

Asked by Newsarama Wednesday afternoon why a Disney Comics line is licensed out to another publisher and is not kept under the Marvel/Disney roof, Marvel declined to coment.

Word association time: what’s the first thing you think of when someone says “Cinderella?” I’d bet the top two answers would be “glass slippers” and “Disney.” The animated classic has been entertaining generation after generation for more than half a decade. What you might not know is that the famous theatre duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II created their own stage musical version just a couple of years later, but it didn’t actually play the gilded stages of Broadway until…2013! That seems completely ludicrous! The thing is, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was actually created specifically for television. It aired on March 31, 1957, on CBS, starring Julie Andrews as Cinderella. It was absolutely huge, drawing approximately 60% of the American television audience then. It has since been remade twice for television, perhaps most notably in 1997 with Brandy and the late Whitney Houston as Cinderella and The Fairy Godmother, respectively, airing on ABC.

Lots of big happens from the House of Ideas today.  After months of teasers, this afternoon Marvel Editors Tom Brevoort and Alex Alonso had a press conference at Midtown Comics in New York City to spill the beans on Secret Wars.

Some of the highlights of the Press Conference included:

- Some background on the Secret Wars events.  Apparently, Jonathan Hickman had pitched it to Marvel even before he had started working on Fantastic Four.  So everything Marvel has done in the last few years has been done through the intent of moving towards Secret Wars (including Avengers Vs X-Men, Age of Ultron, Axis, and Original Sins).

- They also called this the most coordinated event Marvel has ever done...though I am not sure how much of a ringing endorsement that is.  Original Sins had a major plot point happen off panel...

This week:

• Macho Man Goes into WWE Hall of Fame

• Where’s Alberto Del Rio?

• Royal Rumble Predictions

• And More!

In a Best Supporting Actor category this year that pits Hulk against Hulk (Edward Norton vs. Mark Ruffalo), the true giant to beat may be Robert Duvall, who was nominated by the Academy for his performance as Judge Joseph Palmer in this gripping, emotional drama, THE JUDGE.

The story from director David Dobkin and screenwriter Nick Schenk plays on the popular trope of the big city professional doing his job in small-town America. In this case, it's Robert Downey Jr. who portrays Hank Palmer, a hotshot lawyer who specializes in defending rich clients who are completely guilty. When he is notified of his mother's death, he travels back to his home town in Indiana, where old tensions still exist between himself and his estranged father, who is also the town judge.

Welcome to the first edition of The Longbox Short-List.  Each week, I am going to be posting my recommendations for the best comics to buy each week.  Just a warning, I make these picks BEFORE I actually read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.

You can find the comics shipping next week at this link.

Raw Reactions (Episode from January 19th, 2015)
Mike Maillaro and I are going to be doing a weekly wrestling column called Cheap Pops starting this Wednesday. I wanted to get out ahead of it and offer some brief commentary about this week's Raw. Hope to "see" you all later in the week.

Raw hasn't been particularly entertaining the past few months. Wrestlemania season is off and running, though, do things have picked up a bit, The Legends Reunion each January is always a lot of fun. Let's take a quick look hour by hour.

Hour One
Pretty typical opening mess of a segment. Fifteen minutes of talking with HHH, Lesnar, Rollins, Cena, etc. Only real thing coming out of it was Cena wrestling again tonight to try and bring back Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan. Do we really need idiotic melodrama like this? Cena failed last week, of course he's going to win this one.

From Newsarama:

Press Release

What can you get for a dollar? How about the Marvel Universe? Today, Marvel is proud to present TRUE BELIEVERS – a new line of comics debuting exclusively in comic shops this April. Printing the first chapter of popular series for the suggested retail price of $1 – TRUE BELIEVERS is the perfect way for readers interested in trying out some of Marvel’s most popular titles in history without breaking the bank.