file under other

Detective Comics 1068 (2023)

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 20:43:00 +0000

All you really need to know about this comic book is that it features The Batman fighting a Wolfman. My favorite literary genre is Fights a Wolfman. And the drawing is incredible. These are probably the best drawings of The Batman fighting a Wolfman that I have ever seen. And I’ve seen multiple! I have seen and heard some criticism that this run of comics is slow and boring and I’d like to know what comics you guys are reading where someone fights a Wolfman that are better than this?

Before we get into the scoring, I wanted to talk a little bit about how great Evan Cagle’s covers are. When I first considered using a scoring system here at file under other, I considered giving the covers their own score but I gave up on the idea because of variant covers. I do not have any opinions about variant covers worth getting into but it’s hard for me to rate a book based on its cover when there are six variants out there that I may have never seen. Nevertheless, I have seen Evan Cagle’s covers and they are great. Literally, the reason I got back into buying Detective Comics.

All right, on with the scores. This is a comic with two stories by two creative teams so we will judge them separately.

“Half a Chance in Hell”

Writing: Ram V. I think Ram V is great and other than Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc. stuff, this is probably my favorite Batman run since the Legends of the Dark Knight series started in 1989. This feels like that stuff. It feels stand-alone. I truly have no idea if it has any connection to the current DC Universe or not. And that’s fine! I love what Ram V is doing here. And did I mention there is a Wolfman! Score: 4.5

Drawing: Ivan Reis & Rafael Albuquerque. Rafael Albuquerque has been killing it on this book. I might get that fight scene with the Wolfman as a back tattoo. I would give this a perfect score but the art is split between two artists so there is some inevitable inconsistency. Score: 4.5

Coloring: Danny Miki. A little dark for my tastes and it can get a bit muddy but it works well enough with the story. Score: 4

Lettering: Ariana Maher. White letters in red boxes. Do not like. Score: 2

“A Tune That Listens Back”

Writing: Simon Spurrier. I like the idea of this. Jim Gordon PI with a sidekick. I just do not care about the sidekick. Score: 3

Drawing: Dani. Is there a word for this style? Alex Maleve, D. G. Chichester… you know. It’s like Frank Miller’s blacks without Klaus Jenson’s lines against photocopies of pictures of buildings. I do not care for it. Score: 2

Coloring: Lee Loughridge. It’s the Lynn Varley style that works with Batman. It still works. Score: 3

Lettering: Steve Wands. This one is very text heavy. Wands is doing a lot of work here but there is that one panel with yellow letters in a red balloon. No thank you. Score: 2

Total Score: 3.125 out of 5 Shanos.

Love always. Your best pal ever,

Shano

Action Comics 1051 (2023)

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 13:34:00 +0000

I should have talked about this one before I talked about the new Superman No. 1 but I didn’t and we’ll just all have to learn to live with that. But yeah, this comic book is the real beginning of the new “status quo” for Superman and, in effect, the DC Universe as a whole. “Dawn of DC”. Queue “Also sprach Zarathustra”. I was excited for this comic book. Not because I like re-launches, (I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM) but because I’m excited to see Superman and the gang spend some time doing super stuff on planet Earth after a year or so on War World.

The new status quo and cast is fine. I like them and I like this comic"s tone. I have talked before about how much I hate this whole thing being so dependent on Lex Luthor. I am sick to death of Lex Luthor but I will spare y’all a rant. This time.

This comic has three stories by three different creative teams so we will score them individually.

“Speeding Bullets, Part I”

Writing: Phillip Kennedy Johnson. I like PKJ just fine and I appreciate what he is trying to do here. I cannot help but hold the whole relaunch thing against him a little though. Score: 3.5

Drawing: Rafa Sandoval. Sandoval is very good. Especially at the big Bryan Hitch style splash pages. Faces are not his strength though and this one has a lot of faces. Score: 4

Coloring: Matt Herms. A bit muted for my tastes but the reds are red and the blues are blue so good enough. Score: 4

Lettering: Dave Sharpe. Minus two stars for using colored lettering. Score: 3

“Home again Part One”

Writing: Dan Jurgens. This one is a stroll down retconned memory lane with long time Superman creator Dan Jurgens. I like his stuff. Never the best. Always adequate. This one covers some of the Johnathan Kent youth that the series had previously decided to skip over. The potential is there for this to be the most interesting story Superman comics have to tell but it is a backup feature so don’t get too excited. Score: 4

Drawing: Lee Weeks. It’s Lee Weeks. Lee Weeks is great. Score: 4

Coloring: Elizabeth Breitweiser. Again, a bit muted for my tastes. Score: 3

Lettering: Rob Leigh. It’s fine. Score: 3

“Power Girl in Head Like a Whole”

Writing: Leah Williams. So Power Girl is a psychic therapist now? It is clever but there is very little meat on these power bones. Score: 3

Drawing: Marguerite Sauvage. It is pretty but I’m not a huge fan of pretty. This is supposed to be a Doctor Strange type story where anything you can imagine could happen but all the drawings are just faces and bodies against color backgrounds. If you take the text away, and there is a ton of text, there is nothing much there. Score: 2

Coloring: Marguerite Sauvage. I hate when the rendering is colored. Hate it. Always have. Always gonna. Score: 0

Lettering: Becca Carey. Green letters in black boxes. White letters in red boxes. I hate it. Score: 1

Total Score: 2.875 out of 5 Shanos.

Love always. Your best pal ever,

Shano

The Amazing Spider-Man 21 (legacy 915) 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 17:32:00 +0000

About a week ago our little kitty cat named Carnie started acting sick. She did not have the energy she would normally have. Carnie is a small shorthaired cat with the white tuxedo chest and white paws. She is the softest cuddliest cat in recorded human history. She is the sweetest happiest little cat and is our old boy cat, Booger’s, girlfriend. He licks her head. It is adorable.

By Wednesday, she had stopped eating so Thursday I left work to take her to our vet. When I got there, I noticed there were not any cars. At first, I thought it was my lucky day and that there would be a short wait. Friends, it was not my lucky day. When I went to the door, I noticed a sign on the door that said the vet was closed until further notice. I called my wife and she checked Facebook and found out that our vet had died.

Our vet is dead.

So, I went to the closest open vet that I could find on Google maps. That vet examined Carnie for about ninety seconds and gave her a shot for nausea and an antibiotic. That vet charged me $175.00 that I did not have frantically pulled together the $175 from those phone apps that float you money until your next payday.

By Saturday, Carnie still was not eating. So I took her to a different vet. A not dead vet. And hopefully a vet that would not charge me $170 for nothing. This vet instead charged me $326.77 to tell me that our beloved kitty cat has FIP and that it is fatal. She did give carnie a steroid and some antibiotics so Carnie is now eating. That is great! Until that medicine runs its course and she probably dies. New vet said that there is a treatment that works well for FIP but they did not have any since it is not FDA approved. They said they would try to get some from a medical school.

So, right now, we can only hope that 1) the vet gets the medicine 2) we can somehow miraculously afford it and 3) none of our other cats develops this illness.

Apparently, FIP starts with the coronavirus and then mutates into FIP. So it is very likely that all of our cats had the coronavirus. Honestly, it is very likely every cat on this planet had the coronavirus. We just have to hope that Carnie is the only one of our cats where it developed into FIP.

If you would like to help finance our kitty cat’s treatment, you can email me or DM me through twitter.

Alternatively, if you are a person that believes in capitalism and thinks that our sick cat should pull herself up by her kitty cat bootstraps then you can support her through capitalism.

I have been reading Spider-Man comics since 1978. Well, that is not true. I was a little kid in 1978 and could not even read but I could beg my parents and grandparents to buy me the Spider-Man thing off the spinner rack at the Piggly Wiggly. So, I’ve been following my close personal friend Spider-Man’s adventures through six decades now (using sports math where you can claim to have done something for more years than you were actually alive it you hit the tail end of one decade and the start of another).

Here in the two thousand twenties decade of my friendship with Spider-Man we find ourselves in the Zeb Wells run of The Amazing Spider-Man. Wells started his Spider-Man in medias res jumping six months into the future from the previous run and leaving what happened in between a mystery. Friends, I HATE THIS. Continuity jumps work in a single movie or a single television show where things are resolved by the end. They do not ever work in an ongoing serially published periodical soap opera comic book series. It was a complete failure and disaster when DC decide to launch its New 52 five years in the future. The six months here is not a bad, but it’s bad enough. It has been a real slog trying to get through these past months of comics with nothing explained and Peter Parker’s life ruined AGAIN but this time without explanation.

Nevertheless, in this issue, finally, finally, finally, Mr. Wells and company are going to allow us to know what has been going on. At least that is what the hype box on the cover tells us. Short answer is; Remember that weird dude in The Amazing Spider-Man 894 that showed up just as Peter and Mary Jane were working everything out and going to start a new life together? Me either. But, it’s him, it’s that weird dude. Tune in next month true believers!

All right, let’s score this sombitch.

Writing: Zeb Wells. Zeb Wells is a good writer. The bulk of being good at writing Spider-Man is just understanding his voice and the voices of the supporting cast. Beyond that, it is just soap opera so don’t make a mistake too big (Clone Saga, Mephisto) or do anything lame like jump the story six months into the future. Doh! Score: 2

Drawing: John Romita Jr. penciler. Scott Hanna inker. John Romita Jr. draws this comic book. He is one of the best half dozen give or take artists to draw Spider-Man. It’s fine. Score: 4

Colors: Marcio Menyz. The colors in John Romita Jr. books are always good. Y’all notice that right. Do you think JR Jr picks his colorists or that they just bring their best work when they get his pages? Score: 4

Lettering: VC’s Joe Caramagna. It’s fine. It’s computers. I could read the whole thing but it doesn’t add anything to the experience. Score: 3

Total Score: 3.25 out of 5 Shanos.

Love always. Your best pal ever,

Shano

The Amazing Spider-Man 20 (2023)

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 17:04:00 +0000

This is a fill-in issue with a "guest" creative team. It serves absolutely no purpose other than keeping things on schedule. There is no plot worth mentioning. There is one moment that matters to the characters. It's half a page. Peter Parker expresses to Black Cat that he's finally ready to move on from Mary Jane (again) and be more committed to her (again). I get it. Ongoing Marvel comics are soap opera. Soap opera is mostly filler. But soap opera can also be good. Friends, this is not good. Writer Joe Kelly does a respectable job trying to at least keep things funny but he's getting less than zero help from artist Terry Dodson. At no point now, or at any previous point in his career that I'm aware of, is Terry Dodson going to give you any cartooning. These are just drawings. These are pinup or sketchbook drawings of the characters in cool poses. He's good at that. But he's not going to give you any storytelling. He's not going to do anything to help make those Joe Kelly jokes land. It's just a bunch of drawings.

All right, let's fire up the Shaometer and rate this hunk of crap.

Writing: Joe Kelly. You're better than this Joe. Score: 2

Drawing: Terry Dodson penciler. Rachel Dodson inker. This comic has exactly one panel with an attempt at drawing a background. Said background is the ground. The ground is covered in snow. There are a couple of cars in it and a hint at what might be a building so we can assume that this story took place on something sort of like planet Earth. Other than that, the backgrounds are just vague shapes rendered in the coloring to imply trees. Score: 1

Colors: Terry Dodson. I like Dodson’s color palette choices and you'd almost respect the fact that the colorist is doing all the narrative heavy lifting and trying to create the illusion that these pinup poses exist in some world where things have shapes and colors. Almost, that is if we could ignore the fact that the lazy penciler and the hard working colorist are the same person. Score: 2

Lettering: VC's Joe Caramagna. It's fine. Score: 3

Total Score Average: 2 out of 5 Shanos

Love always. Your best pal ever,

Shano

Superman 1 (2023)

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 17:02:00 +0000

I love Superman. I feel like the people that made this book love Superman too and they want to present a best version of Superman that can draw in readers that don't know they need to love Superman. I don't know if you can reach those imaginary readers through a comic book though. Maybe your readers are who they are and you should just try to make a good comic book? I don't know. I'm not actually an employee of a massive international technology and communications corporation. It's not my job to know. I'm just a dude reading a comic book and I can apprectiate the attempt here. I appreciate the intention. The execution? Eh, it's not for me.

Part to Superman's new "status quo" for this seires and the new re-launching/re-branding of the DC Universe, "Dawn of DC" is that most of the planet has forgotten who Superman is except for those closest to him and also Lex Luthor. Because of course Lex Luthor. In this comic, Lex Luthor knows that Superman can hear him so he is constantly talking to Superman. He is constantly in Superman's head. Friends, I hate this idea. Friends, I am sick to death of Lex Luthor. Frients, I am sick to death of dualtiy in story telling and I'm so very very over this idea that Lex Luthor is the moon to Superman's sun. I HATE that they've decided that these two dudes have to share their lives' stories for eternity. I HATE that Superman has to always be thinking abou this jerk and that we always have to check in on what Lex is doing. Friends, I know what Lex Luthor is doing. Every second of every day I know Lex Luthor is plotting to destroy Superman. Every day of every year since 1940. I get it. He's a jerk. Can we please move on. I like George Lucas movies as much or more than most people but there are narative themes other than duality we can explore. LIke, for example, Superman punching bad guys in their faces. I can't get enough of that one! More of that please!

Alright, let's fire up the old Shaometer and and rate this sucker. Each category is rated on a scale of one to five Shanos.

Writing: Joshua Willaimson. This reads like a movie pitch. It's fine. Whatever. Score: 3

Drawing: Jamal Campbell. A little too Terry Dodson for me and the women are all the same woman. There is a scene where it took me a few panels to figure out that the reason Lois was wearing glasses was because she was a different character. Score: 3

Colors:Jamal Campbell. Every panel looks like an Adam Hughes cover. Not for me. At least it doesn't look like it was colored with a turd. Score: 2

Lettering: Ariana Maher. It's fine. I could read the whole thing and my eyes don't hurt. Score: 4

Total Score Average: 3 out of 5 Shanos.

Love always. Your best pal ever,

Shano

Action Comics 577, 1986

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 13:45:00 +0000

I read just this Superman by Keith Giffen. Supes has to deal with a vamper. It’s not great. Did Superman pull his trunks up to his chest or are his ribs in the Phantom Zone. I don't know why blogger or my phone scrunched that cover photo down. I don't care enough to learn how to fix it. The future is stupid. Things used to work. You got up, you did things, things worked, it was great. The past, like before 2007, was a Golden Age. Anyway, Superman right?

Back? Maybe?

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 13:34:00 +0000

Am I back? Are you back? Where were we? Does it matter?

The lost con photos: HeroesCon 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 20:34:00 +0000

(My kids running the Crooked Finger Press table. Rich Tommaso on the right .)

So... I was recently (in the year 2021) trying to find some old photos and realized that I never posted this con report from 2014. So here it is, I don't think it's even finished but after seven years I may as well let it fly. Enjoy.

In the long ago days of June 20th through June 22nd 2014, thousands of comics enthusiasts gathered together in Charlotte NC for America's most beloved comic book convention, HeroesCon.
I've been an exhibitor at HeroesCon many times in the past but this year would be different as I would be taking my family with me. I had told my 12 year old daughter Kassidy that if she finished a full length minicomic that I would print it up and take it and her with me to Heroes Con. She met the challenge so we decided to make a sort-of family vacation out of the trip to Charlotte.
We left for Charlotte on the Wednesday before the show. Usually, I would just make the four hour drive down from southwest VA the morning of the first day of the show and spend the weekend in a sleep deprived fog. I gotta say that driving down well in advance is great and a major stress reliever.

(The hotel hallway was very long. I walked to the end to make sure that it was real. When I got there I found an old man in a bed. He looked like my grandfather. It was full of stars.)

As this was a family trip we decided to stay south of downtown in a more family friendly hotel. And by family friendly, I mean a hotel with a swimming pool. I like the hotels in downtown Charlotte fine. The beds in the Westin are super nice. But none of those hotels have swimming pools. Last I checked the Westin did not even have free wifi. Hell, the Westin does not even have free parking included with the price of your room. Kids, they need swimming pools and wifi.
We stayed at a Residence Inn and it was super nice. The room was huge with a full kitchen, couch, bar, desk etc. The hotel had swimming pool, weight room, hot tub and a gas fire pit. Loved it. I would miss getting drunk with pals in the Westin lobby but I wouldn't miss it enough to give up the hot tub and the fire pit.

(Planet Snoopy at Carrowinds is totally related to comics and therefore should of course this photo should be in a HeroesCon report.)

I've been to Charlotte many times but the only thing I've ever done there is go to the convention center and some surrounding eateries. We didn't want this trip to be just about sitting at a comics show so we let the kids pick out something to do the day before. We ended up choosing Carowinds. I was super happy with that choice because I love roller coasters so very much. My youngest daughter, Alana, is 7 so this was her first amusement park visit where she was tall enough to ride all the fun rides. She had a fantastic time. The first thing she said at the end of almost every ride was "can we ride it again?" My wife and older daughter also had a nice time but I think they would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had not been 96 degrees that day. It was hot. Not gonna lie. It was super hot.

(I grew a tail. You know who else has a tail? Rocket Raccoon and Rocket Raccoon is in comics therefore of course this photo belongs in a HeroesCon report.)

(My understanding is that this is a photo of a giant stuffed dinosaur dressed up as Spider-Man. Relevant!)

(Obligatory we-are-in-the-Carolinas-so-here-is-a-picture-of-Dale-Earnhardt's-car picture.)

(The Crooked Finger Press booth. Also known as Shannon Smith's table on Indie Island as ran by Alana Smith and Kassidy Smith.)

(Kassidy Smith shows off her first full length comic Hula-Hoop Girl.)

(Best bros forever.)

(Patrick Dean, Shannon Smith (a.k.a. me) and Brad McGinty.)

(These are happy people waiting in lines.)

(Brad McGinty talking to a dude in a luchador mask because comics.)

(Kids could bounce under Spider-Man's crotch.)

(Patrick Dean and Henry "our most beloved" Eudy.)

(Alana decided to get in on the act and sell some pony paintings.)

(My daughter is now a T.A.R.D.I.S. Thanks a lot HeroesCon.)

(We out Scoob.)

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03162021

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 19:36:00 +0000

(Wonder Woman #46 April, 1951. Cover by Irv Novick. Stolen from Bully, The Little Sutffed Bull. You guys know Bully was/is kinda the best a comics blogging and tweeting right?)

"I mean, let’s face it. Hollywood swarms with just the sort of people who gave us shit for reading comics as kids. These mountebanks now make bank off this stuff. Who says irony is dead, right?" - Howard Chaykin

Hello sisters, brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shano and I'll be your host. This one is late. I accidentally daylight-savings-time set my clock back two days. Happy Sunday on Tuesday! Treat yourself to some pie!

There are comics that artists that excite us, there are artists that inspire us and there are artists that trigger puberty. The great Frank Thorne has left us. Known for Red Sonja and being generally great at boobies, Thorn was also a known wizard. Please mourn him accordingly.
What else can I say, Captain America is gay. What else should I write, get ready for bro fights.
You guys keep up with the comics over at The Nib right? Mike Dawson has really been killing it throughout this pandemic.
Speaking of online comics, Box Brown has been doing the Lord's work with Legalization Nation.

Young Adult Heavy Metal? I hope they shelve it right beside Young Adult Beaver Hunt.
The Comics Journal has a new co-managing editor. Good luck!
File Under Mullets.
If you had "Luke Cage is a Cop" on your End Times BINGO card then congrats on your new Huffy 10-speed bike.

NEW* COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

(*And by new I mean comics that came out maybe a couple of months ago?) So, good news folks. I finally went to the comic book store and got a big stack of comics. I picked up DC's Generations Shattered and Generations Forged for a few reasons. First of all I like Dan Jurgens and Robert Venditti's DC work. Secondly I like these Crisis style time/dimension hoping stories and nobody does them better than DC. It's a real Injustice (pun intended) that Marvel beat DC to the big screen with the time and dimension hoping. DC has been better than Marvel at this stuff all the way back to the Silver Age when Gardner Fox started it. Thirdly, these comics have Kamandi in them. I will buy anything with Kamandi in it.

I guess Generations was originally going to be a longer and bigger event basically ending the New 52/Rebirth versions of the DC Universe before launching 5G or G5 or whatever it was going to be before Dan DiDio was fired. Before DC was de-DiDio'd? G5 got hosed and Death Metal took off so instead of the big finale, Generations seems to be the transition between Death Metal and Future State until DC finally begins again again again with Infinite Frontier. That's a lot. Forget you read all of that and just pretend that this Generations thing is one self-contained time hoping team-up story because it kind of is. And that's probably a good thing. These two 80 page comics together and by themselves make a really nice read. They read more like a couple old school summer Annuals than a mega event crossover and that's very much a positive.

Jurgens, Venditti and Andy Schmidt did a good job with the writing. These things can be a mess when you have a huge cast of characters on multiple planets during multiple eras but it reads smooth and was easy to follow despite that fact that I haven't read a single panel of Death Metal and I'm a solid year or more behind on most of the DC line. The art is stellar too. There are too many artists for me to type without having to break our my wrists braces but it's most of DC's heavy hitters; Hitch, Chang, Doran, Romita Jr. Reis, Morales etc. etc. I usually give DC a lot of crap for not being able to get one penciler to finish a comic but on a multi planet multi timeline deal like this I think the jam format is a lot of fun. It's neat to read through these and play guess the artist from page to page then go back to the index to see if you were right. Again, there is really no justification that a single penciler can't knock out a single issue of The Flash or whatever but in these 80 page giant style deals it's neat to see them mix it up. And I would say everyone delivers. These are good looking books. They'll make a great collection eventually.

What makes this different from Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, No This Time For Real Last Crisis etc. is that instead of treating each era of DC comics as its own planet this one looks at DC comics history as one linear universe, or "Linearverse", where some of the major characters age and deal with time differently. So instead of 1939 Batman being a different character from 1986 Batman, they're the same dude again but just stretched out over decades....? Maybe. So, everything is canon again. Kind of like the Hyperverse Grant Morrison and Mark Waid talked about but instead of the universe map looking like a map it looks like a electrocardiograph now? Look, I'm not saying it makes sense. What I'm saying is that it has Kamandi in it and Kamandi is awesome. I recommend.

OLD COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

Normally when I talk about old comics I'm talking about stuff from the 70s or 80s but I'm catching up on the Nick Spencer era Amazing-Spider-Man comics and it's hard for me to call these new when they are going on four years old. The Dan Slot run was so long it took me a while before I was ready to get back into Amazing Spider-Man so the issues piled up on me. I've been catching up over the past few weeks and, friends, these comic books are not good. I kinda hate them. And I'm sad I let the pile up this ling before reading them because I probably would have stopped buying them a couple of years ago. This stuff is for babies. This is like those early 2000 Spider-Man comics where Marvel was trying desperately to be all-ages and get some Schoolastic book fair sales or something. These are worse than the Howard Mackie and John Byrne Spider-Man comics. The writing is on the level of a mid 80s DIC cartoon. The art is in that all-ages desperate style where every expression seems to be aping the the Disney Aladdin cartoon. Not the first one. The 2nd one that was made for TV and Homer was the Genie. Friends, these comics are not for me. Anyone want a big stack of Spider-Man comics?

And finally, our man Francis is a.w.o.l. this week so let's fire up the way back machine to the summer of 2019 when our man Boogie 2998 visited his hometown. It's also my hometown. Should I break Kayfabe and explain my Boogie/Francis connection? Nah, I'll just let you make up your own version. I'll tell ya what, if anyone actually asks me on the twudders, I'll explain it to them in DM.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp gum every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. Maybe if 100,000 of you follow me there I'll be as famous as the average Cambodian teenager with a milk ring collection.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03072021

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 20:54:00 +0000

(Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14. August 31, 1982. Cover by John Romita Jr. with John Romita Sr.)

Hello sisters, brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shano and I'll be your host. How are you doing? How was your week? I'm okay. I have a headache but it's not raining so I won't complain. I'm in a state of spring fever anticipation. The sun is out. The sky is blue. The mud is starting to dry. I'm anxious for it to be spring but it is still cold AF and we all know that it's not safe to do things when it is cold. Your limbs could snap off. But it should get warm and maybe we'll get a vaccine and maybe we'll get that stimulus and then, who knows, comics con season is right around the corner right? Everything will get back to normal right?
Wrong. Better luck next year Comic-Con.
WandaVision ended the way all MCU movies end, with digital cartoon versions of the characters flying around shooting energy beams at each other. It was fine. Eh, better than fine. It was emotional. I think that's the strength of TV. Your talented actors get several weeks to engage the audience and make the audience care about them so when you finally get to the digital cartoon battle at the end the stakes are higher. This is certainly the most emotionally invested I've been invested in live action Marvel since Howard the Duck and Tim Robbins got on that ultralight aircraft. I thought the series was great with fantastic performances by Olsen, Bettany, Hahn and Pariss. Unlike movies, TV shows work, often in spite of their writing, on the strength of their cast and this show worked. I'm sad it's over. Also, I'm a little surprised it's over. I was surprised to see it promoted as the series finale and not just the end of Season 1. I guess these MCU Disney+ shows are all just miniseries? That's a bit disappointing. I'd honestly prefer if they stayed with this format even if they never made another movie. Some folks were even more disappointed with the finale. While the series as a whole exceeded expectations the finale could not live up to promises real and imagined. Marvel will get a pass on those imagined expectations. Going in, I expected that maybe this series would be the backdoor to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the multiverse or any number of possibilities. Marvel didn't owe us any of that specifically. But there were promises the show made that it either didn't stick the landing on or just totally forgot to make the attempt. You can't bring in an actor from a film franchise you purchased and not understand that your audience will expect a payoff. You can't tease a Luke Skywalker level cameo and it just be one of your lead actors in different makeup. Well, you can. And they did. But don't be coy when your audience is upset about it. You've got 82 years of Marvel comics history to pull from so don't let lack of ideas be your downfall. Teasing us has been a profitable business model for 13 years but the audience is eventually going to call your bluff.
I think the one thing we can all agree on is that it was a catastrophic misstep not to end the series with the white "Vision Quest" Vision strutting down a city street to the sound of Queen's "One Vision".

I also watched this week's episodes of the DC shows, Superman & Lois and The Flash. I thought Supes and Lois was slow and boring. The Flash was more interesting but tedious. The simple truth of television is that the show works or doesn't work depending on if the audience connects with the cast. That's really it. The Flash's cast has proven it can return viewers despite comically bad writing. Can Supes & Lois overcome it's writing? Probably not for me. I've got episodes of The Savage Dragon to watch on Peacock.
A lot of this week's "comics discourse" was centered around NFT and CryptoArt. I'll post a link explaining it clearly as soon as a find one. As it relates to comics, the question is, how bad is this going to exploit and screw the comics artist and which comics artists can be the first in line to be exploited and screwed. Same as always. Rinse repeat. I don't understand it but it reminds me of one Saturday afternoon at a comic book convention in the late 90s. I was a dealer at the time. I remember standing up and looking at where all the business in the room was happening. I looked at where cash was changing hands. At that moment it was trading cards. There was a moment where comics trading cards were very hot. And it in that moment it hit me right between then eyes. Comics were over. At least as they had existing. We had people in a room full of comics, ignoring the comics and handing over cash for a piece of cardboard that delivered a tiny glimpse of the comic. We had put the delivery mechanism over the art. The 90s comics boom ended. We've never gotten back what we lost. Will NFT destroy.... the internet? Capitalism? We can only hope! Will it help destroy the environment? Yeah, probably.
Some cartoonists dream of getting rich, others just want the literal torture to stop.

Jason Horn has launched a new Patreon for his space comic "Settle" and it look super rad. I'm in.
Jason has also been posting some neat DC comics house ads on the twudder so give him a follow if you know what's good.
File under Wrestling: This is not comics or zines but it stuff you can read with your eyeballs. I probably read more wrestling than I watch. Remember in The Lost Boys when Grandpa Barnard Hughes explained that he didn't need to watch TV because he had the TV guide. I'm kind of the same way with television wrestling. I'll skip the shows then read about them the following day to see if anything interesting happened and then I'll check out those specific matches or segments on YouTube or the streamings. Colette Arrand has been responsible for most of the best wrestling writing online in recent years and now Arrand is the editor over at fanbyte so "business is picking up".
I'm sure you guys are smart and follow Patrick Dean right? He's getting better and better at drawing with his eyeballs. It's only a matter of time before he can shoot art directly from his mind into our minds.
In other comics/zines/Fluke organizers dudes from Georgia news, Robert Newsome broke his arm. Look how happy it made him. Maybe we should all break our arms. I'm sure he'll be fine but that's no reason not to go buy some of his quality zines.
Let's check in on our Carolina Man abroad and see how well Germany is adapting to Ashley Holt.
More Dorkin is more good.
I too am a sucker for a wacky cover and a Dave Letterman cameo.

NEW COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

I still haven't made it to the comic shop but I'm working my way through a two foot high stack of books, comics and zines I've bought online during the plague. This week I read "The Burning Hotels" a memoir by Thomas Lampton from Birdcage Bottom Books. This auto-bio comic shows the cartoonist dealing with a lot of stuff. On the surface it's about returning home and taking a closer look at your roots but it's also about divorce, autism, North Carolina, Appalachia, being a cartoonist, making the book itself and dealing with all of that during this very real and current pandemic. It feels very of the moment and reads as if Lampton first considered each word as it was put on the page. There is some neat drawing but I would say that Lampton's strength is in iconography. This characters work as symbols more than drawings. The art is working as a part of the writing though and that's the goal. Or at least it should be the goal. The result is more design heavy than drawing heavy. There are art comics that are expression heavy and there are art comics that are design and function heavy. This book is that latter. My only complaint with the book is that Lampton changes font sizes from panel to panel. I'm sure it was a matter of presenting each panel at its best ratio to work with the rest of the page but I'm loosing my eyesight so I had to work at some of the panels.

OLD COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

I think I'm through with my Vision and Scarlett Witch run for now. I finished the original two miniseries and the related West Coast Avengers stuff. Not great comics but weird enough to finish. I might go back to the "Vision Quest" story next (John Byrne's white Vision) but I'm going to take a break from the Wandaverse and finish up some other things. I'm still on my orange, brown and green hero books Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad. I've also been re-visiting Jim "the most successful creative mind in Hollywood history" Starlin's Dreadstar. I was a big fan of the ongoing Epic comic when I was a kid but I've started at the beginning before the beginning and the beginning before that, "The Metamorphosis Odyssey" and Marvel Graphic Novel #3. Those comics look very different than the ongoing Epic series. For one thing, they are mostly painted. Even when they are black and white. It's simply the difference between late 70s early 80s adult comics magazines and 80s monthly direct market baxter paper comics. Great stuff if you are into hardcore sci-fi fantasy. This stuff has been collected a few times. If you want to star with the earliest stuff then the Dynamite collection "The Beginning" has that covered.

And finally, Francis is sick of carrying your ass.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp gum every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02282021

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 10:00:00 +0000

(Convergence: Superman #2. May 6, 2015. Cover by Lee Weeks.)

Hello sisters, brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shano and I'll be your host. I'm still getting back in the groove of "blogging". I'm not 100% decided on when I should post these things. Friday is probably the most logical day if I want people to actually read them but Sunday feels better. I like the idea of you, dear reader, sitting in your favorite chair wearing your bath robe and slippers with your feet propped up on your dog "Honeycomb Salad" reading this on a Sunday morning. I can see the waves of steam coming from your "#1 Step-Parent" coffee mug. You still have bed head but it's working for you. You look happy. You look at peace. You smell terrific. Have you been working out?
We may as well get WandaVision out of the way since it's the only thing on Earth that matters. This week's episode was great but maybe a little too great? I can't think of any other TV show that has presented an episode that so neatly gift wraps everything the audience has asked for and hands it to them prior to the finale. I still kind of wish the show had never broke kayfabe and was still recreating a different chapter of TV history each week. I still hate every second S.W.O.R.D. is on screen and I knew the boss, Whiteguy McSuburbs, was a no good dirty liar. See, even the parts we don't like conform exactly to our expectations. Maybe the other shoe drops next episode? There are certainly a few more questions to answer and a few more twists left. SPOILERS Did y'all notice which of the recurring cast were not wandering around Westview during the flashback where Wanda came to town?

Since comic books don't even exist and only super hero TV shows matter, let's talk about TV's other floaty character with glowing read eyes. A new Superman TV show pilot, Superman & Lois, premiered this week. This is our fifth live action Superman TV show in the past eighty-three years. I think that's more than C.S.I. (Unless you count Without a Trace and Cold Case. Then Supes has some catching up to do.) I don't watch much broadcast TV so normally I'd be checking this show out two or three years from now on streaming but I actually watched this thing in real time with the rest of the CW watching world. I enjoyed it. I like the tone of the show and I think Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch make a great Clark and Lois. I think the kid playing Frodo has potential too. I really appreciate that Hoechlin and Tulloch are adults. Ever since Superman Returns cast a nine year old as Lois Lane I've been warry of these things. I think the show kneecapped itself by [SPOILERS] starting with a funeral though. The overall tone of the show is upbeat and hopeful but the funeral kind of forces the cast to mope around before we get a chance to see their default settings. Lois really only gets one comical scene with a vending machine where she gets to act like Lois before putting on the funeral time sad face. Maybe the cast will get a chance to outshine the script as this thing proceeds. And that script? Hoo boy. Look. This is a CW show so you just have to accept that it's going to be soap opera. It's not for everyone. If you're not into teen dance parties/bonfired/charity balls and each scene ending with a contemplative stare followed by a hard cut to commercial then stick with WandaVision. This show still exists in the shadow of the Snyderverse Superman. There is a sepia tone filter over the whole thing and the Super ~~spandex~~ under armor still has that grim dark tone to it. We're still missing the trunks so Superman looks like a dog standing on his hind legs. But, for a few minutes at the beginning of the show, we get a full color flashback scene with a real Superman costume. A moving picture homage to the cover of Action Comics #1. That was pretty great.
As I said earlier, comics don't even exist. To prove this, CW/DC/Warner followed up the premier of Superman & Lois with a behind-the-scenes featurette where the producers of the show along with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee talk about how they are all geniuses who thought up every thing on the show all by themselves without the help of 83 years of comic book creators. Over and over again they brag about how the concept of this show, Superman and Lois married with children, has never been done before. Comics don't even exist and that's why the producers and Johns and Lee make the big bucks. Except comic books do exist. Superman and Lois Lane have been getting married for decades. In maybe the best Superman comics of all time, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorrow?", (Superman #423 and Action Comics #583) Alan Moore's Lois and Cark are married and have a son named Jonathan. (Clark is going by Jordan in that one so that's where Jordan comes from for those keeping score.) Superman and Lois have been in-canon married since 1996. And they've had an in-canon son since "Convergence: Superman" #2 from 2015 where Dan Jurgens made superpowered son Jonathan a part of the current ongoing DC Universe. Oh, but Shano, the genius producers put a new twist on it! In the new TV show they have two kids! Not so fast imaginary person that isn't really arguing with me, John Byrne gave Supes and Lois two kids in "Superman & Batman: Generattions" in 1999. And my point isn't that TV shouldn't steal from comics. No TV, please, please steal from comics. Comics are better than you. But don't put together a TV feature about your brilliant game changing new idea when you know damn well that comics has already done this and that you should be giving the comics creators the credit they deserve. Especially you Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. You have no excuse. One of you jerks better buy Dan Jergens a new house.
In other moving pictures of Superman news, it appears that a Ta-Nehisi Coates written Superman movie is in the works and that it might be the black Superman a lot of us have been wanting to see at least since Grant Morrison's Multiversity. I'm optimistic but I hope they don't rush it. We've had four Superman movies since 2006 with the Zack Snyder Justice League about to drop in a few days. I'm worried that there won't be much appetite for a new big screen Superman. It's like the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies. They weren't terrible, Everyone was just full up on Spider-Man in that moment. Maybe if we get through this plague and back to the communal non-butter-liquid-popcorn topping trough we'll be ready for a fresh Superman.
I hate to linger in the world of moving images when comics are always vastly superior but I do have to link to this Zack Snyder redemption piece if for no other reason than for you guys to see that Warner continues to be wrong in almost every situation. The two hour blockbuster died when you fools gave one of those Tolkien movies the Oscar.
In our final, I promise, DC Comics related link of the week, they're playing thrash metal during musical chairs now so I can't even keep up well enough to know what any of this means.

I think I mentioned the new Stan Lee biography last week. This week, Marvel great Roy Thomas provides a rebuttal. I don't know Roy. Sure, old dudes' memories are suspect but the pages don't lie and a whole lot of the pages seem to have been written by a name that rhymes with Snack Derby.
Speaking of the guy that created everything of value in US history, there is a new podcast that digs into Jack "The King" Kirby.
Here's a neat article on another great American author, no, not Hemingway, it's our man J. M. DeMatteis and his great American masterpiece "Kraven's Last Hunt".
As soon as either this plague ends or the government gives me that money they owe me I"mma hit a comic store and dig through the long boxes for some weird junk like this.
Our man Benjamin Marra had an informative inside baseball chat with filmmaker Craig Zahler.

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Once again I am apologizing to you for not having read any new comics this week. I still have not made it to the comics shop. I hope our good man Brian at Cavalier Comics hasn't thrown my pull list in the trash but there's still a plague going on, it's been raining and the goddamned government still hasn't given me that money they owe me.

Nicholas Burman over at TCJ still reads the comics and writes about them though. The most interesting comic I saw reviewed this week was probably the Savage Pencil collection he wrote about.

As for me, I read a lot of Spider-Man comics this week. I'm getting caught up on the Nick Spender run. I can't say that I care for it. The jokes are pandering way to hard to an audience that isn't going to look away from Tik Tok long enough to read these comics and the art is nothing special. They can't all be winners.

I'm still on my orange, yellow, brown and green costume bullshit with my ongoing read throughs of Suicide Squad, Doom Patrol and the Vision and Scarlet Witch mini-series and related Avengers comics. One of the Vision and Scarlet Witch issues features guest star Power Man (Luke Cage to the youngs) celebrating what appears to have been the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Always classy Quicksilver celebrates MLK Jr. Day by calling black humans and black Inhumans "dusky skins" so, I'm gonna call this one a swing and miss.

Look friends, I know a lot of you might be interested in the first two Vision and Scarlet Witch serieses because of WandaVision so let me warn you, they are not good. I'm not saying don't read them, They are interesting and there is a surprising amount of stuff in the WandaVision show from those comics, I'm just saying don't expect quality. Personally, I tend to be anti-quality in most things. I'll take weird over quality 99 out of 100 times and these comics are weird AF. The full Steven Englehart. Just don't go into these things thinking that you are going to come out the other end a better person.

Before we leave, it looks like our man Francis was too busy to make a video this week so instead we'll check in on his distant cousin (by marriage) Boogie and see what's up on the Yoo Tubs and the Tick Clocks.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp gum every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02212021

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 16:43:00 +0000

(Vision and Scarlet Witch #12 1986. Cover by Richard Howell and Joe Sinnott.)

Hello sisters and brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shano and I'll be your host. I still want this to be an every week thing but things are things and times are times and I mean, half the country is frozen and the other half is waiting in line for the cure or the sedative or their $2,000. Sometimes I start these things and just abandon them. One minute I'm in the zone giving you "THE CONTENT" you need to feel alive and the next I'm just... what do I even do?*
(*I have a job, a family, a bunch of pets and several guitars. That's what I do.)
Looking at that Vision and Scarlet Witch cover up above. Man, the 80s were wild AF right? "At last! The moment you've been waiting for! BIRTH!" And inside the issue is titled, "Double sized climax!" Don't we all want to see Vison have a double sized climax?
Speaking of Vision and Scarlet Witch because, let's be honest, that's all that matters now in comics/tv/Earth/Milky Way, this week's episode of WandaVision gave us what it was obviously going to give us but it still felt like a surprise. Years of giving us Easter eggs with a wink and a nudge and then forgetting about that stuff forever has given Marvel the ability to show us what they are doing with a very hard, literally visible on screen, wink and a shove and we're still like, "I don't know guys, it might still be Mephisto and not the lady with a similar name to one of the primary characters from Wanda's comics history." And part of it is that the first two waves of the MCU were very much THESE ARE MOVIES AND THEY ARE THEIR OWN THING AND NO WE DON'T ACTUALLY READ THOSE COMICS SO SUCK IT NERDS but now it seems that we are firmly in the Bongwater Age of Marvel Comics. They used a Jim Starlin idea and it became the most successful movie of all time so anything goes I guess. Still, they're going the full Steve Englehart now and I never thought they'd go that far. This is deep cut Bill Mantlo territory we're getting into now and I'm more excited about how weird it might get than anything we've seen in the movies.
Also, it still might be Mephisto.
And Dottie's gotta be somebody too right?
And which one of these people is Agatha's cat?
And Franklin Richards is in that basement somewhere too right?
Guys!?

In our continuing coverage of WandaVision and only WandaVision, last week's episode was the one we've all been waiting for where we get to see the characters dressed up as the comic book characters they are based on for Halloween. They went with homemade costumes which reminds me to remind you that, like most things, Patrick Dean did it first and did it better.
We lost S. Clay Wilson. His work isn't for everyone but I loved the way he drew.
And Si Spencer. Death is the worst.
Imagine getting to work with the sum total of the creative output of thousands of people over 83 years and you decide to shoot the thing in sepia tone.
My pal Robert Venditti has made a lot of great comics over the past decade. If I had done a better job of posting here at file under other I would have told you about how great his Hawkman run was. He has a new comic out soon called Tankers and they made a promotional video that you guys just have to see. It's the probably the best comics promotional video I've ever seen. I'd just post it here but I couldn't figure out how so just pull the link of their twitter post.
When not riding around in a tank, Robert Venditti is also writing some new Superman comics that should hit a very specific sweet spot for a lot of us. Another thing I would have told you about if I was better at "blogging" is that Rob has knocked out a lot of great Superman comics over the past few years through the DC digital stuff, the Walmart giant books and a really great short run on Justice League. This should be good stuff.
In other "my pals make good comics" news that I would have mentioned if I were better at this, our man Rob Ullman continues to make great sports comics over at DK Sports.
How every classic super hero looks to me if they don't have their trunks.

"Lightning Whisperer".
Which one of you was asking for more Spawn?
There's another Stan Lee book. This one recounts the hilarious tale of how he wrote The Wizard of Oz while fighting Orcs in Middle Earth.
If you're a colorist and you don't know well now you know about Rico Renzi's Color Jams twitter handle where color peeps from 'round the globe take their shot at re-coloring classic comics art. It's a fun follow even for a guy like me that isn't even sure he likes colors that aren't fiesta red.
Also from my twitter feed, Aaron Meyers reminded us about the guy that created Venom for $200.

~~THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK~~

Normally this is the part of the episode where I talk about the best new comic I read lately but I haven't really read any new comics since the last time we hung out. There is a plague going on and it is winter and everything is cold and gross and I have not driven to the comic book store in a while now. Tom McHenry still reads the comics so maybe check that out to fill the void in your soul. Don't worry, I'm still reading old comics though. I'm still on my orange and brown costumes kick reading 80s and 90s Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad collections. I've also been reading Scarlet Witch and Vision centric Avengers comics from the 80s because all that matters is Wanda, Wanda, Wanda. Guys, we need to have a good long talk about Steven Englehart. Those comics are bonkers. There is one issue where the West Coast Avengers beat the Grim Reaper because ol' Reapy calls his black villain partners "Spades" and they get pissed at him for being racist and leave. The 80s y'all. It's all worth it though because Vision talks about "making love" to his hot wife even before they get the notion of having kids. The most important thing to know about Vision is that Vison gets it on. Also Captain America gives his witch friend, Scarlet WITCH, an old book of Druid spells as a honeymoon present. What could go wrong? The fuck were you thinking Steve?

And finally, are you afraid to leave your house? Don't worry, our boy Francis is here to tell you how to get rich as a real gamer.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp gum every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02052021

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 02:28:00 +0000

(The Overwhelming Motörhead Rock Commando July 1980.)

Hello sisters and brothers and undecided others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shano and I'll be your host. Remember over a month ago when fired up the file under other machine and I was going to start posting these things again? Me either.
No one close to me died since our last episode so, progress.
Marvel and DC superheroes trend on the social meeds every day but it's rare when the comics trend and even rarer when a specific comic book trends so when it does you know it's either going to be misogyny or racism. Immortal Hulk #43 decided to go with the racism this go round. Everyone makes mistakes but racism is almost never a mistake and there are some mistakes you don't get to make if Disney is paying you.
In dumb comics movie click bait news: Nah, that's just stupid.
Speaking of things that are not comics, that HBO Max deal has finally added the greatest DC Comics based TV show of all time, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Check it out heathens.
I just got a phone call from my close personal friend Doctor Fauci and he gave me some great news. America's most wholesome cartoonist, Josh Latta, has a new book out. Suck on that 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease.
Well, it's finally happened. Ashley Holt has finally gotten so sick of your bullshit he's left the country. This country has two Carolinas and neither one of them were good enough for our man Ashley. Good luck Germany!
Do you guys read the comics? I read the comics. What comics do you guys read? Maybe respond in the comments. LOL HAH HAH HAH no one is ever going to respond in the comments. Maybe twitter though. I've been reading a lot of oddball late 80s stuff lately like post-Crisis Suicide Squad and the pre-Grant Morrison* Doom Patrol. (With the intention of going through the Morrison stuff again afterwards because I'm obsessed with that Doom Patrol TV show.) Been reading lots of comics with characters in brown and orange costumes in stories where they go into cold war era made up jungle islands. That was a weird period in comics, before DC thought these things had value, before the movies, when they were just like, "well, all these non-primary color characters are never going to catch on so we may as well dump them in a team and kill one of them off every issue". Fun stuff. I recommend you go to Ollie's and buy the first few trade paperbacks of both series for about $3 each.
Speaking Doom Patrol, you guys have watched the first two seasons of the TV show now right? It's the best right? What do you want to see in the 3rd season? I want Doom Force.

And speaking of other things that are not comic books, sure, yeah, I like WandaVision just fine. I like it better when they don't explain things for the normies. I don't want the normies to have anything else. They have sports. That's enough. I think showing us the MCU "real world" outside of Westview as a catastrophic mistake for the show. Those scenes are poorly written and poorly acted and just look like low budget television. The stuff of Wanda's creation inside Westview, which is supposed to be low budget television looks fantastic. Just, spare us the MCU please.
My MCU ranking goes as follows 1) The ones where Iron Man plays AC/DC. 2) The ones where Captain America takes his shirt off. 3) WandaVision.
That Vision "content" you really wanted.

If I hadn't been trapped in the Trump version of Westview for the past year I might have given you guys a list of my favorite comics from 2020 and I probably would have mentioned Jeremy Massie's Holler. You can get on board with the 3rd issue now.
Current reigning defending best at drawing on Earth, Brad McGinty, recently did the cover of We Do What We Want 2. It's great and the magazine is a lot of fun. The magazine has an article where Gerard Way talks about his The Real Ghostbusters toys. I didn't make that up. For real, if you like the things that are the good things then you will enjoy this magazine. Also, if you like the things that are rad you will like this High on Fire t-shirt Brad did for the Holy Mountain Printing folks.
The great Annie Koyama is ~~leaving escaping~~ changing her relationship with comics. Our man Rob Clough weighed in on her impressive legacy.
Related, Ed Kanerva and RJ Case are also ~~fleeing~~ pursuing their future endeavors.
24 Hour Comics Day went down again and I read a lot of the comics but when I think about it, most of what I saw were from the folks I follow on twitter and Instagram that are already posting comics weekly or more frequently in that format so, really, the day just felt like any other day in my social media feed. A lot of folks have really mastered Instagram's 10 photo limit for posting comics in a reader friendly cell pad pod phone environment. I'm thinking about folks like the world's most dangerous man Henry Eudy, your dad Mike Dawson, that lady at the petting zoo Lisa Hanawalt , your favorite teacher Mayday Trippe, that dude you used to work with Gabby Schulz, that dude on the bus Josh Bayer, that dude you know who has transcended flesh and draws with his mind now Patrick Dean and so many more just killing it every day. I salute you doers of things.

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Malarkey #5 by November Garcia available at Birdcage Bottom Books

This is a great looking minicomics sized collection of comics with bigfancycomics production. These are mostly diary style comics with a few more ambitious art comics pages to mix it up. Garcia's color stuff is really interesting. Like that fantastic cover where it looks like it's raining what could be bubble gum or guts depending on how dark your day was. Thematically this issue is dealing with, well, kind of 2020 in a nutshell. Death and the plague and how you just have to deal with it. I think we call can relate. Also, there are jokes.

Before we go we'd better check on our boy Francis and make sure he's okay.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302020

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 03:46:00 +0000

(Sensation Comics #104 from August 1951. Cover by Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs. Stolen from dc fandom)

"Mainstream comics, despite any appearance to the contrary, are enormously socially conservative. And it’s clear to me that I’m a bit of an embarrassment to comics in general and comics fans in particular, who seem to be afraid their girlfriends will find out they might have an erotic thought or two. I’d suggest they talk and listen to their girlfriends a tad more than they do." -Howard Chaykin.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets cell pad pod phones and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. It's been... a time.
Hey Shano where have you been man? WTF dude? Holy crap dude?
Here. Just here. And other places. You know. Life and stuff. I mean... Where were you? That's the real question.
On November 10th of last year, 2019, before the plague, my mother died. Without warning. Totally fine. Enjoying retirement. Enjoying being a grandmother. Enjoying the house she just re-modeled and moved into a year before. Enjoying her two little dogs. Living life then gone. I haven't talked about it much. I'm her only child. My father passed away, also without warning, in 2013 so it was just me with a lot to do. A lot to take care of. And then the plague made it all more complicated. This is not a complaint. This is just facts. It's been hard. It's still hard. 2020 has been hard for most of us.
My mom was born on August 10th, 1951 in a forgotten world called America. Her name was Sara Jane Stewart. She had two older sisters and two younger brothers. She also had an alien family that came to Earth in a spaceship and lived in that spaceship in the woods. She would pack a lunch for the whole space family and go spend the day with them in the woods. When she would return home, her normal Earth family would be puzzled as to where all the food went. But she had already told them. Her space family ate it. My mother, Sara Jane, could fly when she was young. She flew from her house to the library. Or to the store. Or to a friends house. Just wherever it was that a kid in the 50s needed to go, she flew. No one in the family ever disputed this. It was always presented as a simple mundane fact of life. One time I asked her why she stopped flying and she said it was because she got too big. My mom was a talented artist and musician. She could make, do or create anything she put her mind to. She started playing piano for the church when she was a teenager and played there, with the exception of going away for college or vacations, until she died. She met my dad, David Nelson Smith while she was in college and they got married. She became Sara Stewart Smith but also went by Sara Jane Smith like the Doctor Who character. They had a kid. Me. The house was always filled with music. She would play piano practicing for church or some wedding. She would teach piano to the other kids in town. I was her worst student. She would play current contemporary hits and TV themes. What I remember most is her playing classical music. I think it was primarily Mozart and Bach. A little Rachmaninoff. She was a the real deal. A real working musician. She was a school teacher, a private teacher, played for two churches, a choir director, created holiday programs, played weddings, funerals, high school events, she wrote original music. Everyone in a three county area probably heard her play piano at some point. She brought comfort and joy to people. She played the music for some the most important events of countless people's lives. She made her part of the world better. She flew.
Just a few days after my mother died we lost Tom Spurgeon. I was still in shock and it just didn't seem real to read that he was gone too. He was a titan. He was a hero to me. The Comics Reporter was a daily part of my life. It was my morning newspaper. In the few times I got to see Tom in person he was so kind and encouraging to me. And you hear that from so many people. His death has left a huge void in comics. No one has put a dent in it and I don't think anyone ever will. Tom was great on Twitter too. I found myself going through his old tweets in the mornings when I would have normally been reading The Comics Reporter and one day I just started following everyone he followed. I just started clicking on all of them. Tom followed almost everyone that had anything to do with comics. And I started following them too. I don't know why. I guess I wanted to see what it was that he saw when he scrolled through his twitter feed. Like, if I followed the whole of comics and fused it all together in my brain I'd have some sort of version of what The Comics Reporter would have been on any give day. I know. It's stupid. But I did it. And it was hard. Twitter only let's you follow so many people a day. Tom Spurgeon followed 4,120 people on Twitter. I think I got most of them. I think of it as "the whole of comics". I follow "the whole of comics" and it hasn't put a dent into the void Tom left.
So... comics. I don't know guys. I don't know. What a strange year for comics. Some great stuff came out that couldn't be celebrated with the full backing of signings and con appearances. A lot of crap came out that probably deserved the direct market chaos it suffered. I read a lot of comics during this pandemic. New comics that cost too much. Old comics for $1 or less from the clearance bins. Showcase collections. Essential collections. Epic collections. Years long runs of comics on Comixology. Webcomics. Comics posted a panel at a time on Instagram. Graphic novels. Etc. Etc. A lot of them were good. Some of them were great. Some of them were terrible but I've got room for those too. Some of them were even worth writing about. I hope to give some of them their due in the... future? Real honest to goodness reviews liken in the olden days. But for now let's talk about...

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS ~~WEEK MONTH YEAR~~ PAST SEVERAL YEARS...

Eddie's Week by Patrick Dean. Published by Birdcage Bottom Books.

Available here.

Eddie's Week by the great Patrick Dean is one of the bright spots of 2020 for me. I've got a longer review in the works but for now I'll just say that this one of the few comics of the past decade that I've read more than once and I can't wait to read it again. It's truly everything I want comics to do and be. Every page fills my heart. This is the good stuff. It's the mundane dancing in the rain with the absurd. Patrick's art is so alive you can hear this thing sigh. Don't be stupid. Get a copy.

But don't just take my word for it, check out Panel Patter's best of 2020 too.
So, again with the comics. Y'all read Savage Dragon lately... Seen any good movies lately...

Let's get to what 90% of comics discussion devolves to, movies. I'm no better than any of you. I watch the super hero movies. 2020 has been, well there was a damned global pandemic so, movies kinda didn't happen. I don't know if the industry will ever recover. I think low budget straight to streaming may be the state of the industry for a long time. I liked the Birds of Prey deal. I thought Wonder Woman 1984 (or is it really called WW84?) was worse than bad. It was boring. The cast was enjoyable enough. Pedro Pascal really chewed up the screen and if you took out every scene he wasn't in, you'd have a passable episode of the Twilight Zone that would still be dismissed as a rip off of the Wishmaster franchise. The script is just bad with a couple of side dishes full of wrong. Hard, hard wrong. A great cast and director can't always overcome a bad script. Sometimes a turd is a turd.
And before we go, let's check in on our man Francis and see how he's been doing since the last Parade-O-Links.

Damn. Shit got real for real. It's been a hell of year. Hang in there buddy.
Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

The best comics of 2018.

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 13:49:00 +0000

Here are the three best comics from 2018. Brad McGinty’s “Romantic 3D Sci-Fi Nightmare Goes to War No. 2”, Patrick Dean’s “Eddie’s Week” and Josh Simmons’ latest “Jessica Farm” minicomic. Sorry if you wasted your time making a list before I posted this.

A post shared by Shannon Smith (@shannogram3000) on Jan 9, 2019 at 7:06am PST

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05142017

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 14 May 2017 04:00:00 +0000

(Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 #44 1994. Cover by Kevin West and Steve Montano. Stolen from Marvel Database.)

(Side note; That cover makes it look like Yondu is wearing one of Donald Trump's neckties as a belt. Alternate joke; That cover makes it look like Yondu's little Yondu wears a necktie.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the ~~week~~ weeks ending 05142017.

"A good artist can save a bad script--a good writer can never save a bad artist.
Thus, it's a collaboration, usually an even split in effort, despite the protestations of the management representative class, who have been sold a bill of goods by a number of writers, and who have a vested interest in the maintenance of the delusion that comic book artists are tools, unfortunately necessary parasites present to illuminate the writer's concept.
Those of us with long term careers, particularly those of us like me, who write their own stuff, draw other people's stuff, and write stuff for other people to draw, know and respect this collaborative balancing act as the genuine reality of our field.
Anything else is smoke and bullshit." -Howard Chaykin

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that have ever mothered. You did it. You created life. That's a hell of a thing. Good job.
The comics family lost one of its champions recently. Mr. Tim O'Shea has left us after a long and valiant fight with cancer. I only met Tim in person a time or two but he was just the nicest most sincere guy and he was one of the first people in the comics press to give any sort of attention to so many creators in the small press and self publishing. I'm going to take the liberty of stealing from Patrick Dean's facebook post about Tim because it sums up my feelings perfectly; "Tim O'Shea was one of the first people to report our early FLUKE mini-comics shows. He and his son would show up, buy some mini-comics and chat with everyone about whatever projects they were working on. At CBR's Robot 6 blog, he wrote a lot of creator focused articles and news items, with a genuine interest in people outside the larger comic companies. He was one of the first people in comics journalism to acknowledge my work and interviewed me a couple of times, to which I felt really touched that somebody cared. Tim cared about a lot of people. It broke my heart to hear that he was battling the same cancer that took the life of my father eight years ago, and so many other talented people in recent years. From looking at his Facebook support page, By A Landslde, it was obvious that he had a loving family and circle of friends who were with him every step of the way. Tim was a funny, warm and loving fellah. He'll be sorely missed." Tim's facebook page has become a sort of ongoing memorial and is worth the scroll through if you are in facebookland. Rest in peace Tim.
Speaking of our man Patrick Dean, he's been posting some great dream comics recently on his facebook and/or his instagram and/or his twitter. He's kinda the best ya know.

I saw that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie. I really enjoyed it. It's a movie with a talking raccoon so there was around a 100,000% chance I was going to like it. There isn't much to talk about with the movie though. The plot is basically a throw away episode of Star Trek you forgot on purpose. It doesn't really mean anything or move the characters at all. The only character with an actual arc is Yondu. Drax is really funny but the movie is about Yondu. The stuff with Star-Lord's father is just an excuse for a movie and not really any kind of movie that matters. You don't care who his dad was/is because we've never seen this character before. There is no emotional weight to the revelation. It's just, hey Pete, I'm your dad, well... okay then. And none of that matters because the reason these movies work is because they have likable performers playing colorful characters in front of a background inspired by some of the best creative minds of the past 100 years. You can't screw that up. The only way these things can fail is if they come in over budget. I thought the movie looked great. Certainly the best looking Marvel/Disney movie so far. I have never ever used drugs for recreational purposes because I am an American and that is illegal but, I'm gonna assume that if tripping balls and rolling into the movie theater is your deal then you would have liked this one. The soundtrack was fun. Could have used a few more rockers but it is of course your late 70s early 80s mom's favorite jams so they all had to fit that theme. I feel like it could have used at least one song by the Statler Brothers.
I like to take a moment to acknowledge the creators whenever one of these big comics movies come out;

The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan
Give some credit as well to Jim Starlin and Bill Mantlo for creating several of the characters and themes as well as Jim Valentino for the 90s version of the team and to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning for the more recent version of the team that re-launched in 2008. And don't forget Jack Kirby for being the driving force behind the look and feel of the Galaxy in which the Guardians exists.
Star-Lord created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan.
Gamora created by Jim Starlin.
Drax created by Jim Starlin.
Groot created by Jack Kirby, Larry Leiber, Dick Ayers and Stan Lee.
Rocket Raccoon created by Bill Mantlo and Kieth Giffen.
Yondu created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
Nebula created by Roger Stern and John Buscema.
Mantis created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck.
Stakar Ogord (Starhawk) created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema.
Ego the Living Planet created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
Ayesha/Kismet/Her created by Len Wein, David Kraft, and Herb Trimpe.
Taserface created by Jim Valentino.
Howard the Duck created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.
Cosmo the Spacedog created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Charlie-27 created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
Martinex created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
Aleta Ogord created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema.
Krugar created by Jim Valentino.
Adam Warlock created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
The Grandmaster created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema
The Kree created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Mainframe created by Jim Velentino and Herb Trimpe. (Sort of? Thier version is kind of a version of Vision in the future so... it's complicated.)
The Celestials created by Jack Kirby.
The Sovereign are arguably based on the what would be creations of the Enclave which were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The movie version seems to go back to Ayesha/Kismet/Her who was created by Len Win, David Kraft and Herb Trimpe. It's complicated.
The Watchers created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
The Ravagers as seen with Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stalone's character) are basically the original Guardians of the Galaxy so credit Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. However... they were not called Ravagers until they showed up more recently (I think) so credit that to Sam Humphries and Javier Garron. (Maybe?) But the idea of the Ravagers as bunch of space pirates may really just have to be credited to James Gunn and the movies. Also complicated.
Stan Lee created by Jack and Celia Lieber.
David Hasselhoff created by Joseph and Delores Hasselhoff.

Fluke happened since our last "episode". I went. A great time was had. By me. I'm the one that had the great time. Perhaps others had a great time as well. I don't know for sure. I'm not a telepath and I'm kind of self-centered so I don't always catch on to how great or not other people's times are. I'm gonna talk more about Fluke and about how Patrick Dean's cat just won't stop drinking out of the dogs' bowl no matter how many times it is explained to her but I'm not gonna tell that story right now. I'm going to tell that story in a different post. Hang in there.
Another thing that happened was Free Comic Book Day, also known as FCBD, also known to shoplifters as Saturday. I went to Cavalier Comics in Wise VA go get my FCBD on. Cavalier has been my main store for the past several years since I moved back to the Clinch Valley. This was the store's first FCBD in a new larger location and it seems to have been one of their best years ever. The checkout line was probably the longest I've seen there. My pal Jeremy Massie was there with his new comic Amazing Age. It is part of Alterna's new line of monthlies. I got all the first issues and enjoyed them especially since they only cost $1.50. Love the newsprint. Amazing Age's colors looked really great on that newsprint. Get yourself a copy before they all sell out. I have not had a chance to read through all of the FCBD offerings but the X-O Manowar comic was good. I'm excited as always about the 2000 AD comic. My kids were pretty happy with the selection of books they picked out.
Val D'Orazio read Secret Empire 1 so we didn't have to. I read the Secret Empire FCBD offering and was put to sleep by the color pallet.
Have you guys been listening to the Process Party podcast over at Study Group? I'm checking out the Julia Wertz episode because she's one of our funniest cartoonists and because I'm about two thirds of the way through her book Infinite Wait. It's good!
Infinite Wait is one of may great books brought to us by Koyama Press which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year.
Side note, I fail to understand how anything can be 10 years old. I'm a mental eight year old and just can't deal with things like time and change.
And finally... Francis doesn't care what the slime does as long as he gets paid.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04282017

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 04:00:00 +0000

(The Savage Dragon #34 1996. Cover by Erik Larsen. Stolen from Cover Browser.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 04282017.

"The takeaway here, as I see it, as that there is no lack of customers for periodical comics, and there’s no lack of passion and energy for the format, and that there is no indication that “casual” readers won’t be interested in purchasing periodical comics (A big chunk of those “Saga” readers, like the “Sandman” wave that happened two decades before, are not normal and traditional “Wednesday Warriors”, yet there are still stoked to buy periodical comics!) – but that Marvel (and DC, largely) have harmed their own sales and chased their own customers away. There’s a problem when I sell 160 “Saga” and 16 copies of “ASM”… but this is problem of Marvel’s making over the accumulation of time." -Brian Hibbs.

Guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys!!! The world is spinning at 1000 miles per hour and we are all going to die! The future's so bright I gotta wear a radiation suit! Doomed! Doomed! What can save us? Comics? Don't be ridiculous. Of course not. Nothing will save us. There is nothing left to do but, ya know, whatever you feel like doing I guess. Me? I'm going to go to the Fluke Mini-Comics and Zine Festival in Athens GA this Saturday, April 29th. It's going to be great. Robert Newsome, Patrick Dean and other people will be there. Other people! Come find my table. I probably won't be at said table. I'll be walking around blabbing my mouth off about professional wresting or guitars or some other nonsense but that's okay. Just leave a huge stack of cash on my table and take whatever you want. It's gonna be great I tells ya. I can't wait to hear about how great you think I am. Thanks in advance!

Hey. Are you super depressed about the world and clinging to comics as your chance for escape and/or inspiration? Well good news, comics are super depressing too! One of the things about comics currently giving me the sweet sweet butt hurt is Marvel's new "Digital Edition" policy. To explain why this bothers me so much let's go back to my tender youth, way back to the year 2012 when the first The Avengers movie was on the big screen and the Avengers vs X-Men (AvsX) miniseries was on the comics stands. At that point about the only mainstream comic I was reading was Savage Dragon but my daughter was just getting into comics. She liked The Avengers movie ans she loved old X-Men comics so we bought AvsX. It came with something that was new to me, the Digital Edition codes. You could redeem these codes and read the comic you bought online or on your cell pad pod phone. You could also link your Marvel account up with a Comixology account and read them in the Comixology app. It was around this time that the family first got cell pad pod phones so my daughter and I really dove into the Comixology app thanks to the digital codes. The best thing was that I could buy the paper comic (because I'm an old man who loves paper) but my kid could read the same comic digitally without me buying two copies. This. THIS. THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE PREVIOUS TEN YEARS got me back into going to the comic shop, starting back a "pull list" and buying ongoing Wednesday floppy comics again. My daughter and I bought stacks of them. And thanks to the digital codes we could read them anywhere any time. And if the last comic we read made us curious about something we could pull up related issues on the Comixology app and buy those too! (You can't do that anymore by the way. Amazon killed the store feature in the Comixology app because they hate making money or something. Again, always be super depressed.) So yeah, it was good times. It was a brilliant offering from Marvel and I spent years yelling at other publishers to follow suit. Only Dark Horse tried. DC offered a version where the comic with a digital code costed more. That was stupid and awful and embarrassing for everyone. But the Marvel deal was good and like all good things some stupid jerks would eventually decide to make it go away. Recently Marvel has replaced their Digital Editions with a digital code where YOU DO NOT GET THE COMIC YOU PAID FOR. Under the previous system, if you bought five Marvel comics in one week you got a code for each of those five comics you paid for. Now, you do not get the comic you paid for. Instead each week's shipment of Marvel comics all have the same three promotional comics. So, if you bought five Marvel comics, you just got three digital comics, none of which are the comic you paid for. Let me say that part again; in the past, if you bought 100 Marvel comics you got 100 digital comics. Today, if you buy 100 Marvel comics in one week you get three digital comics. The digital comics in question are generally the first issue of something that has recently been collected in a trade paperback. So these comics are not a promotional tool for you to buy more digital comics, or to return to your comics shop and add a comic to your "pull list". These are comics promoting you to by a trade paperback. Or, to put it another way, if you are a regular Marvel customer, these are comics you already own. This my friends, is a situation I refer to as total bullshit. So, here's the thing; Marvel, I love you. I love your nutts. You are a big part of my life. For years and years. Stop making it so hard to be your customer.
Sigh.
And again with the Marvel... Let me just say this as open advice for all creators; Take risks. Be bold. Shake things up. Challenge your audience. But remember, if you have to explain it, you probably already failed. And, more importantly, remember that you do not get to tell your customers how they should feel about it.
Again with the Marvel part 3; Every time I read an article like this it occurs to me that we are just one Disney executive saying, "Wait, we still publish paper comic books?" on a conference call away from the whole freaking business being tossed into the crapper or the top characters licensed out to the highest bidder. A publisher that is not Marvel now publishes the Frozen comics. If Marvel can't be trusted to make money off the Frozen phenomenon why would you trust them to be able to make any money off Ant-Man or Doctor Strange? Because they did six decades ago? Good luck with that answer on the next investors call.
Also, FDR Democrat Steve Rogers forever.

Can there still be good news in comics? Can there still be something to get excited about? Yes. Yes there can. I'm excited about Alterna Comics' new line of newsprint comics for several reasons. For one thing, they're gonna be super cheap with a $1.50 cover price. And one of the series, Amazing Age, is created by pals Jeremy Massie and Matthew David Smith. I checked out that comic in its original webcomic form and liked it a lot. Those bros are the solidest of bros so I'm excited for what I believe is going to be a breakout book appealing to a new audience that may have missed their other stuff. And, arguably most importantly, Smith has confirmed that the newsprint in his comp copies smells great. The books start rolling out next week. I'm not familiar with many of the other creators but at $1.50 I'm sure to check them out.
Hey. Do you like comics? Do you like guitars? Do you like comics that are guitars? I recently built a Stratocaster using the Carmine Infantino drawn issues 14 and 15 of the original Star Wars comics. It's probably the coolest guitar on Earth. Maybe you wanna check it out.
When it's time to comics we will always comics hard.

It was twenty five years ago several days ago Sergeant Malibu told his band to play.
Tom Scioli's new Princess webcomic is pretty rad. Also, that Transformers vs. G.I.Joe The Movie comic he made is bonknanners.
Ain't no party like a wizard battle party cause a wizard battle party don't stop until one of them dies and the other wizard creates a hyper sigil making people focus on the number of rapes in the other wizard's comics instead of their valuable contributions to the medium.
And finally... Francis gave up candy for your sins.

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Maybe you should go to the SC Comicon this weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:19:00 +0000

Hey you. How's it going? You busy this weekend? Maybe you should go to the SC Comicon in Greenville, South Carolina. A lot of my favorite people are going to be there. Also, there will be comics there. You like comics right? I've never been to this show but I hear it's really great. Every year I say to myself, stop being such an a-hole and go to SC Comicon. And then I fail. I won't be there this year because I'm going to take my kids to see adults in minimal clothing sweat on each other. Professionally! But, I will be there in spirit and also on paper as a new gag comic I drew will be in Comic Stars #6 debuting at the table of our most beloved The Dollar Bin. The comic should be rad. It has a cover by Patrick Dean. Ya'll know Patrick Dean right? He's kinda the best.

So yeah, go to Greenville and buy comics. Tell Neal Adams that I said that Superman miniseries he did last year was bonkers. You like it. You love it. You want more of it.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01292017

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 05:00:00 +0000

(American Flagg! #10 1983. Cover by Howard Chaykin. Stolen from My Comic Shop.)

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." - President Ronald Reagan

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. Happy Chinese New Year. To quote the last prophet of the 90s Keanu Reeves, "whoa". What a week huh? Just a week ago when we last spoke we had just seen the inauguration of a new President in these United States and inspiring marches all around the world. Since then, every day has been a series of events that were never supposed to be possible. There are millions of Americans and millions and millions around the world right now who are scared. Their lives are uncertain. Their future is uncertain. I have my own fears of course. Everything is fragile. A politician or an executive I've never met could end my livelihood with the stroke of a pen. But I'm a white man in America so my fears are those of inconvenience and folly compared to those of different birth country, skin tone or religion. I don't know much about anything but here is what I know about Muslims. Here is what I know about refugees. For about four years my next door neighbors were a Muslim family. They were refugees from Bosnia. If you walked by their house you wouldn't have known they were Muslim. The father was an auto mechanic. You'd see him outside working on cars or playing with his kids. I thought he was Italian at first. The mother was a brunette. She was quite but polite and generous. Most of my interaction was with the kids. They were always outside playing and my daughter played with them all the time. The kids had blond hair and blue eyes. They could have passed for my kid's siblings. They had a trampoline and my daughter would want to bounce with them every day. If you were around enough you'd begin to notice the accent and that the parents spoke to the children in Bosnian. You'd hear the kids playing games counting in Bosnian. You'd notice that they had a pit for roasting lamb. If you were around long enough to notice the lamb pit you'd probably be invited over to enjoy the feast. They were generous beyond measure. If they were eating popsicles you had a popsicle. If the father and his cousins were drinking beer you had a beer. The father fixed my car for free multiple times. He loaned me tools. He loaned me his lawnmower. They were as good neighbors as I've ever know. One time we were over for dinner at their house. I think it was a holiday for them. They had a lot of family over. But, then again, it was like that every Sunday there. They served lamb, beers and strong Turkish coffee. They had a huge gold embossed painting of Mecca on the wall in the dining room. I asked the father if he had ever been there. He laughed. He said that no, he had never been because he could not give up his beer. This was a man, an auto mechanic who worked hard for his family. He loved God and he loved beer. What's more American than that? Picture him in your mind. Out in his yard after a long day of work at the garage working on another car either for extra money or as a favor to a friend. He's got his blue mechanic's shirt on. It's untucked and his belly shows a little. The kids are playing in the back yard. The mother comes out onto the front porch to call them all in for super. There he is drinking his beer and taking care of his family. The American Dream. And he was a Muslim refugee.

Look, I'm super liberal but the New York Times and the UN can stick it up their asses. Will out of touch adults always make bad decisions that belittle and alienate the people they need most and should serve most? Probably.
"We are all going to die" or "save us Doctor Manhattan".
Hold freedom close.

Chris Schweizer talked about storytelling with Jerzy Drozd.
Also, Schweizer has a Patreon now.
Wrestling zine heavyweight champ Robert Newsome of The Atomic Elbow has a piece on Paste about the new DDT Universe streaming service.
Speaking of Robert Newsome, Athen Georgia's finest minicomics and zine fest had its registration yesterday and sold out fast. So, I mean, I guess this news post is worthless to all you longstapler jockeys that might want a table but there's no reason every dang one of us can't go to Fluke on April 29th and have a fine time.
The Dollar Bin podcast is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. This week's podcast features America's most hugable cartoonist J. Chris Campbell interviewing Adam. The whole world is upside down I tell's ya.
The bad news is that the Steelers are out of the playoffs. The good news is that world champ sports cartoonist Rob Ullman will be starting a regular gig with DK Pittsburgh Sports.
I haven't watched that new Archie TV yet show but Abbey Coleslaw did and that's good enough for me.
And finally, Francis has a problem with taking the easy way out...

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01232017

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 00:20:00 +0000

(Captain America #344 1988. Cover by Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom. Stolen from Cover Browser.)

"Brutal. The guy likes being the top of the heap and he likes staying there. He’d be an all-term president and probably serve as vice president and most of the cabinet too. Except secretary of agriculture. Bane has no interest in where his food comes from. Only that it’s hit when it arrives. Or someone will pay." -Chuck Dixon on what President Bane would be like.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. Last week was pretty crazy huh? But here we are. We made it. Most of us. Saturday was an inspiring day. Millions of people around the world making their voices heard. Millions standing together. I didn't march anywhere. I took care of my two daughters though so that has to count for something right? I'm not a woman (spoiler) but I am a dad and I tell you this, kids notice. Kids notice when women or minorities create their favorite comic books, cartoons, music, movies and video games. They notice when people stand up for themselves or others or for what they believe in. They notice when people march for a cause. They notice and it shapes their reality. The reality where it wasn't impossible no longer exists the second they see the one where it is possible. Much thanks to all of those that fight the good fight. It's bigger than you know.

Lots of talk this week about "breaking into comics". I guess everyone on twitter had the same new year's resolution to finally get their act together and get paid to make comics. There were some good tips in there and some decent jokes. I recommend Robert Venditti's testimony on the subject. I don't know how to group tweets together or whatever but you can find his story of how he "broke into comics" on his twitter feed. He has what I think is an ideal comics career; mainstream work with multiple publishers as well as creator owned work. Read his story for yourself but the short version of how he built that career is that he 1) worked hard and 2) he put himself and his work in physical proximity to world of publishing. You might make it with either one of those two things but I doubt you make it without doing both. Especially the work. Even if you get lucky, and fool your way in, without the work, it will catch up to you.

The Dollar Bin's Adam Daughhetee and company are making a documentary on comics creators that will include Laura Martin, Sanford Greene, Van Jensen, Joey Weiser, Andy Runton and others. The production blog has started here.
Now you can easily make sure that everyone you know is aware of your feelings about Josh Latta.
You comics folk are all reading Grant Morrison's The Savage Sword of Jesus Christ in Heavy Metal magazine right?
Bane creators support Trump. I'm pretty sure Chuck Dixon has supported all the Republican presidents. I support Chuck Dixon Punisher and Batman comics but was kinda bummed out by Chuck Dixon Green Arrow comics. I vote against Chuck Dixon Green Arrow comics.
Whenever the question is "where have I seen/heard that before" the answer is always comics.
I bet the average day for cartoonist Shia LaBeouf is a lot different than most cartoonists.
ABPN. Always be punching Nazis.
And finally, our man Francis bids a fond farewell to 2016...

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.

p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01112017

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:41:00 +0000

(Star Wars issue 106. Cover by Cynthia Martin. Image stolen from Rebel Scum. )

"Look, I don’t have time for this." - Steve Ditko.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. I've been away for a bit. Well, I've been right here. I've just been busy. September through November is my busiest time of year at work. Then after that holiday and family stuff took over. Family first right? But 2017 will be a big year for file under other. 2017 is an anniversary year so more on that down the road.

So, here we are. My head and my heart are in knots. I appologize in advance that this Parade-O-Links will be short on comics. That's not comics' fault. It's my fault. I'm dealing with some things. I'll get better. For the 2nd time in the last five Presidential elections the person that received the largest amount of votes will not be our next President. It happens. Some people are concerned. And with good reason. Imagine the riots in the streets if two out of five Superbowl Championships were handed to the team with less points. The last time this happened we invaded the wrong countries and went to war for fifteen years. So... good luck? Look, our democracy failible. Our democracy is fragile. It's scary. But one of the main reasons these United States have been safe from tyranny is that every four to eight years we have the peaceful removal and replacement of our top leader. So whether your candidate won or lost, remember, this is temporary. Maybe.

And by Maybe I mean please remember that Vladimir Putin circumvented Russia's constitution and appointed himself Prime Minister and then President after having exceeded Russia's term limits. Again, democracy is fragile.

Kompromat.

Don't take democracy for granted. It can end. Democracies end. Some times by force and sometimes by will. Sometimes they get pissed away.

Friends. This isn't a political blog but I'm reporting to you live right now from the Unites States of America and this is just the world around us right now. I know a lot of very smart people discourage artists, creative types and well, basically anyone that would like to attain employment at some point, to keep the political opinions off social media because it could be held against you and cost you gigs. I get it. I get it. But if we live in a country where you have to be afraid to speak your mind then we've already lost. And personally, I don't want to work for or with people that don't respect my opinion. My mind, my glorious freaking mind, is exactly WHY you SHOULD want to work with me. And if you're paying me to shut up then you're wasting your money.

Guys. I just need to take a moment to say that this webpage is doing some weird things with font that and alignment that are driving me crazy but I just don't have the patience to figure out right now. Sorry.

Enough about the future/end of the free world. Let's talk about me. I recently drew a four page comic about "Handsome" Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie" Man Valiant and Magnet Man having a monster truck sumo battle for Brien Wayne Powell's Boogie Jam 4Ever. It's great. You should buy seven copies. Brien also has what has to be one of the longer running ongoing webcomics about Magnet Man and the Boogie Woogie Man's adventures over at Boogie Jam Online. I've got some other wrasslin' comics in the works but they are top secret so you will have to wait to find out about them. (Or, ya know, just ask me.)

Speaking of the word "handsome". Does the way Taylor Swift pronounces "handsome" weird anyone else out?

2016 was a rough one for a lot of us. It was a rough one for the world. A lot of people have it worse than I do and I can be pretty miserable. There's a solid chance that tomorrow I'll wake up and my county's schools and hospitals will still be standing. That's not true everywhere. So many have lost so much. We focus on the death's of famous people because those folks are like our shared extended family. There is a commonality there that we can empatize with. I may know know you but if I know you loved David Bowie then I can understand how much it hurt a year ago when he left us. You may not know me but if you loved Prince then I can tell you about how I bought my first guitar because of him when I was 15 and that I picked out a white one because of Purple Rain. Carrie Fisher meant so much to so many of us around the world. She was the first girl I ever wanted to marry. She never stopped inspiring. We need a million more of her. Especially now. Comics also lost a lot of great ones. We will press on. Forward. Forward. But don't forget. How could we?

Those of you have been reading file under other for a while know that I usually end these posts with a video from our youtube pal Francis. I hate to break internet kayfabe but Francis is just a character. The man behind Francis is Steven Williams, also known as boogie2988. I grew up in the same small town, watchin' cartoons and readin' comics at the same library. He was a year behind me in school but I've know him since pre-school. He's a sweetheart and was always the funniest guy in the room. This past year he received one of the highest honors you can receive in video games without actually making them. I'm proud of ya' Boogie. Ya done good. Saint Paul High School represent!

And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST ~~NEW~~ semi-recent ~~COMIC~~ comics I READ ~~THIS WEEK~~ recently.

Disney Pirates of the Caribbean issues 1 and 2 by Chris Schweizer, Joe Flood and Marissa Louise. Published by Joe Books LTD. $2.99.

I didn't know much about this comic going into it beyond the fact that Chris Schweizer was writing it. I missed the whole Pirates of the Caribbean movie phenomenon at the time the films came bout because my kids were not at the PG-13 age yet. Those movies came out during a time when I pretyt much only saw talking animal movies. But, I'm a sucker for any movie with a boat in it so I watched the 1st movie on Netflix recently after I bought these comics at my LCS but before I read them. I liked the movie a lot. It had boats in it.

I loved both issues of this comic. I think is really lovely from cover to cover. I don't know anything about the publisher Joe Books LTD or why they publish Disney comics instead of a comic book publisher Disney paid billions of dollars for but, the books are as good from cover to cover as anything on the stands and they cost a dollar or two less. Consider me a fan.

Schweizer's writing is as great as I expected it to be. Each comic is a fully realized self contained speedy adventure with a full cast of individually motivated interesting characters. The character's speech and motivations are consistent with the one film I saw. The wit is very sharp. Schweizer doesn't go too many panels without a punchline.

I was a bit dissappointed to see that Schweizer was not also drawing this book but Joe Flood does a great job. The design is solid and pleasantly consistent with the Disney Infinity video game style that I love so much. The real challenge with this book is capturing Captain Jack's mannerism's Flood never drops character.

The book looks great cover to cover. Marissa Louise is credited with the colors on the first issue and I'm assuming Flood did the colors himself on the second. I like the style of both. My personal preference in colors is for them to be very flat. I don't like colorists that are into rendering. I like flat colors with a bit of that enhance the light and dark of the inks. That's pretty much the style we see here. The pallet is a bit brown for my personal tastes but it fits the story, time and location and is consistent with the movie I watched. Interior and night time scenes are appropriately dark but the characters still pop.

As I said before, I really don't know anything about Joe Books or these Disney comics yet (I'll look it up eventually) but if they put out 20 more issues of this with Schweizer as the writer I'll be sure to buy them and they'll probably be the first books I read from the ol' pull list any time they come out. I couldn't find these on Comixology so if you're interested in them I suggest you ask your LCS to snag you some copies.

And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad. Francis made a friend!

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.

p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 10062016

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 04:00:00 +0000

(Transmetropolitan issue 4. Cover by Frank Quitely 1997. Image stolen from Cover Browser. )

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 0925201610062016.

"Sometimes the most handsome ones end up being Draculas." - Norm Macdonald.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. This is another late (or early depending on perspective and other nonsensical false realities) parade-o-links. I can't blame it on anything cool like going to see Buddy Guy this time. Mid September through mid November is the busiest time of the year for me at work and at home so... gotta put the paycheck and the kids first. Also, today is my birthday so love me.

Hey! It's October! Happy Halloween month everybody! I loves me some October. As I said, it's a busy time for me but I've got a lot of neat stuff in the works that will roll out this month. Keep file under other open on your computer or cell-pad-pod-phone and just keep hitting refresh constantly for the next 25 days.

Can we take a few moments to promote my friends? Of course we can. Have I ever told you guys about Brad McGinty and the fantastic t-shirts, patches, stickers and gum the produces for The Glorp Gum Company? No? Well let's correct that immediately. Brad has a whole new line of Halloween related stuff you have to check out right now. I've already gotten the Kong shirt and the Terror shirt. I wore the Terror shirt to the store yesterday and the Mayor stopped me in my tracks asked me for my t-shirt's autograph and gave me the key to the city. My kid already stole the new patches from me and sewed them on her jacket. We are so ready for Halloween thanks to Glorp!

Another person I know that does things you can exchange money for is Robert Newsome, EIC and publisher of The Atomic Elbow. The Atomic Elbow has been my absolute favorite quarterly professional wrestling zine for years now. I recommend you buy all the issues but especially want to point out the latest collection that is on sale now. I got mine in the mail a short while ago and it's really great. Now, maybe you don't follow wrestling and you're thinking the book may not be for you. Well, the neat thing about The Atomic Elbow is that most of the articles are not about current wrestling nonsense. Most of the articles are about the writer's personal experiences and adventures in and around (and sometimes not even that close to) the world of wrestling and wrestling fandom. It's a great zine with a lot of great writers. Honestly, the subject matter is least important thing about it. Oh, and sometimes it has comics.

Guys. Look, things are weird for Superman but I wouldn't wish my problems on that poor sucker. He couldn't handle what's going on inside my head for five minutes.

When I was a little kid I was super jealous of the kids in the UK that got to read WEEKLY Star Wars comics that I didn't know existed. Weekly, that's like, multiple times each month!

Speaking of Star Wars, we're counting down the days to the new movie episode... Rouge One. (I will not mention its subtitle because it is stupid and awful.) Apparently the toys for the new movie came out last week and a lot of my pals had a lot of fun hunting them but I wouldn't know anything about that because all any of the stores in my area had were dusty old Constable Zuvios. I'll just go ahead and get this off my chest right now; I love Star Wars. Go ahead Disney, make Star Wars movies. Go crazy. I'll watch them. That said, it is a terrible idea for them to break up the current episode 7 through 9 "saga" with this standalone movie. The average movie goer just can't hold multiple sets of characters in their heads. This is that Fantastic Beasts movie coming out sometime between Harry Potter 7 part 1 and Harry Potter 7 part 2. During the first Star Wars trilogy, fans had six years to get invested in a set of characters. Then we lived with those characters for decades. Then we got the prequel characters, which were, with a few exceptions, some of the same characters we were already invested in. We got invested in those characters for six years as well then they carried on in cartoons, comics and video games. Then The Force Awakens comes and it's this new cast to get invested in. And it was great. The cast is great. But now, one year later, whoops, whole new cast, whole new time period, whole new everything. Here's the thing. Every time I saw The Force Awakens there were multiple annoyingly audible people in the audience asking who Luke was supposed to be. The people, the people are stupid. I totally expect half the audience at Rogue One to spend the the whole movie annoyingly audibly asking why Rey is calling herself Jyn now and where are Poe and Finn. I mean, hell, I wonder where Poe Dameron is in every movie I watch.

Yeah, that last bullet point was hundreds of words to set up video of Kylo Ren saying "Outer Space!"

Matt Furie talked about that time one of his characters was appropriated by some internet weirdos related to some political thing that is apparently going on in America now.

Tucker Stone is one of my favorite writers/podcasters about comics. He went to SPX and wrote about some of the books he checked out.

Here is your most recent Marvel Universe scorecard. Tune in next week for a completely different yet remarkably similar new status quo.

Lots of changes in the Marvel and DC "universes" while file under other was on "hiatus". I'll get too them soon and share some thoughts. Short version is I really enjoy that new Superwoman comic. Phil Jimenez is one of my faves.

Adventure Time is ending... two years from now.

Not even linking to the Adventure Time story because, again, two years from now.

I regret to announce that I'm retiring from comics 60 years from now. Everybody get your tributes ready.

Another thing I'm not even going to link to is the notion that it took some of you buffoons out there 75 years to figure out an Amazon character might like ladies.

Hey. Let's see what those crazy kids from The Dollar Bin have been up to. It looks like they finally got around to posting their reports on this summer's HeroesCon. Part 1. Part 2.

Apparently the new Luke Cage show on Netflix broke teh intronets or whatever. I've been too busy to check it out but I look forward to it. I thought Alias was uneven and a bit of a slog. You really only needed to watch the episodes that had evil Doctor Who or Luke Cage on them. I've been fond of Luke Cage ever since those 1984 Bill Sienkiewicz ads convinced me that I needed to pick up Power Man and Iron Fist. But even without Iron Fist, I'm going to watch that show anyway because it has one of the most attractive women in human history on it.

And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC I READ THIS WEEK recently.

Midnight of the Soul issue 1 by Howard Chaykin with Jesus Aburtov and Ken Bruzenak. Cover by Chaykin Published by Image Comics. $3.50

This book actually started a while ago while file under other was on "hiatus" but I wanted to talk about it and I'm way behind on my giant stack of "pull list" comics and haven't ready any of the real new books from the past few weeks so let's talk about Midnight of the Soul. Guys, ya'll know Howard Chaykin is the best right? I feel like maybe some of you don't know this. Well, he is. He's one of my all time favorites and luckily me for me he's been very proficient over the past few years. You guys have read Black Kiss II and Satellite Sam right? You guys do read adult comics right? I mean, look, if you are a children, it's okay if maybe you didn't read Howard Chaykin's adult comics. But, if you're an adult and you don't read Chaykin then... do you even comic bro?

Midnight of the Soul is a gorgeous book. Fantastic art and storytelling by Chaykin. No one draws alcoholism and eyebrows better than Chaykin. The colors by Jesus Aburtov are a bit more technically ambitious than I prefer but the pallet is just right. The main thing for a colorist on a Chaykin book is to get the lipstick shimmer right and I think Aburtov nails it.

The comic is about a former WWII soldier who helped liberate a concentration camp. It's the 50s now and he's home trying and failing to make it as a writer. His book is set in a world where Hitler won and no one is buying it. Like most Chaykin comics, he finds out his lady is mixed up in some dirty sexy time business and it all goes to hell from there. Alcoholism, sex, infidelity, murder and Nazis. Everything you'd want in a comic right? If you like hard boiled fiction you probably already bought these comics. If you don't then what's wrong with you?

And finally... Francis has a special message for the Grim Reaper.

Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.

p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09182016

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 20:47:00 +0000

(2001 A Space Odyssey issue 10. Cover by Jack Kirby 1977. Image stolen from Kevin Metz. )

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 09182016.

"Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs - unless good is very, very careful." -Dr. Leonard H. McCoy.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. I have to start this episode off with an apology. I know most of you woke up Sunday morning, got out of bed, shared breakfast with your non-gender specific significant other, read the Sunday funnies then logged on to the internets to read the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links like all good humans do but you were then horrified to find that the Parade-O-Links was not there. I'm sorry. I got busy. And today's Parade will be short. Let's call it minimal. That makes it sound more intentional and less like failure. All I can do is say that I'm sorry and promise that I will always disappoint you frequently. I spent much of the weekend at the annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion on the VA/TN state line in Bristol. It was neat. Crowded, but neat. Lots of hillbilly hipsters. Hipbillies. Craft beer, craft crafts, foods on sticks, country and bluegrass upstarts, country and bluegrass legends. It was a good time. And look, country music ain't my thing but I appreciate it when it's good and there was plenty that was good. I recommend it. The highlight for me was seeing blues legend Buddy Guy perform. He was fantastic.

This weekend the indie comics and small press world turned it's lonely eyes to the Small Press Expo (a.k.a. SPX) in Bethesda, MD. I didn't go. I haven't been since they moved to the lotter for their table reservations. My number just hasn't came up. And, as much as I'd like to attend, September and October are busiest months of the year for me. But, lots of folks whet and I saw some neat things on the old twudder and instacrack. I'm sure we'll see some reports roll in this week. I can't wait to see the best pictures of people cosplaying as the carpet or as those two old horror movie looking architects in that painting everyone takes a picture of. The Comics Reporter has your Ignatz winners. I was hoping that Gabby Schulz's Sick would win because it is one of the best comics I've ever read. I hadn't read most of the nominees because minicomics are a wierd regional kinda thing and graphic novels are too expensive.

Speaking of comics shows, Adam and Shawn of The Dollar Bin have part 2 of their DragonCon adventure. Part 2 of their podcast focuses on the comics related part of the convention. The fact that you can do a podcast on the comics related part of DragonCon shows that the show has improved a lot in recent years. When I lived in Atlanta, it was just a cosplay show with comics shoved in corner of a basement. I remember one year when Carmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz, Darth Vader and Chewbacca were crammed into a space in the basement about the size of a Ford Focus while upstairs, in a huge convention room, literal porn stars had 8 foot tables to themselves. But, from listening to The Dollar Bin, it appears that things have improved and that DragonCon may indeed be a show worth checking out for comics enthusiasts and creators. The episode also has a great story about Shawn meeting the great Jim Steranko. (ABS. Always be Sterankoing.)

We are all going to die.

A lot of talk the past few weeks about Raina Telgemeier's new book Ghosts. Most of it high praise but a little bit of negativity. I haven't read it. I am not a child. Also, graphic novels = expensive etc. My comic reading kids kind of jumped from Archie to Kate Beaton and manga before these YA graphic novels were really a thing so that window was missed by my household. My youngest reads Yo-Kai Watch manga. I gotta say, it's hard to get them to give american intermediate or young adult graphic novels when they've already been introduced to books that are vastly more visually stimulating. I've tried. It's not my fault.

There are a lot of things I've enjoyed while file under other was on hiatus and I hope to get to a lot of it throughout the rest of 2016. One thing that I've been really pretty lousy about pointing out are the webcomics I enjoy. Pals Jeremy Massie and Matthew Smith have a new comic online called Amazing Age. They are now up to a 1st issue's worth of pages so it's a good time to check it out for before the next pages roll out. Page one is here.

And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST Pretty Good NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Doom Patrol (volume who knows because publishers don't even keep track anymore) issue 1 by Gerard Way, Nick Derington, Tamra Bonvillain, Todd Klein and several other people. Published by DC Comics. $3.99

The reason I struck through the word "best" in the header above is because I think I only read one new comic this week and calling a thing the "best" when you only sampled one of them is kind of silly. But it's a pretty good comic. I enjoyed it. I should enjoy it because the thing is pretty much made for me and/or my offspring. I'm a 90s Grant Morrison acolyte and this thing is essentially a tribute to Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and Invisibles but made for current teens like my kids. It's kind of like The Batman Adventures version of Morrison's Doom Patrol. And I think it's perfect that DC has put Gerard Way in charge of this thing and this Young Animal line of comics because Grant Morrison may have very well invented Gerard Way. Some of the youngs might not know about this but, in the 90s, we had rock star comics creators. No, they were not comics creators that were actual rock n' roll performers, but they were creators that carried themselves, portrayed themselves and were treated much like rock stars. The Image guys were like west coast American rock stars. They had expensive cars, they hung out with rappers and sports stars and did TV commercials. But the DC Vertigo creators were the cool UK rock stars with the black leather jackets, combat boots and tight shiny pants. Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison were the prototype for Gerard Way. He is their dream become manifest. He is a literal rock star making comics. Which, also gives me a chance to repeat one of my favorite jokes; "How do you break into comics? Become moderately successful in any entertainment field other than comics, then ask."
And please don't think I'm dismissing Gerard Way here. He's doing good work in this comic. He has history with Morrison and has clearly done his homework. All the right references and hints and teases are there. This comic feels like the Netflix re-boot of your favorite old TV show. It's mostly a new cast but they brought back enough of the old faces to make it feel like a family reunion. There are panels where my Grant Morrison-fan reflexes kicked in and my "hey, they're ripping off Morrison" alert went off and I had to remind myself that it is supposed to do that.
Derington's art is fine enough. Kind of a stripped down kid friendly version of what you would have expected to see in a 90s Doom Patrol. A Philip Bond or Cameron Stewart might have been a better fit but it's okay.
My fourteen year old daughter likes My Chemical Romance. She's in the high school band and they play one of their songs. She want's to read this comic. Grant Morrison, your creation has succeeded.

And finally... Francis likes a girl that's like a cheeseburger.

Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.

p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09112016

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 04:00:00 +0000

(G.I.Joe issue 15 cover by Mike Zeck and John R. Beatty. August 1986. Image stolen from yojoe.com )

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. I was driving east on Alternate 58 this morning behind the limousine of Nathan Stanley and under the golden rays of the warm September Appalachian sun when I remembered that, while file under other was on "hiatus", we lost one of the pillars of Bluegrass and American music, Doctor Ralph Stanley. Growing up a few miles from where Ralph Stanley lived it was easy to take the man for granted. He was just kind of always around. You'd see him play at the fair. You'd see him play at the UMWA rallies. He literally performed at my summer camp one year. When my employer was looking to set up shop in Southwest Virginia, it was Ralph Stanley that Senator Warner and the county called upon to welcome and entertain the suits and ties. In some small way, I guess you could say I owe my paycheck to Ralph Stanley. His legacy will be a part of this region and this country as long as the mighty Clinch River flows.
Alan Moore has announced that he has about 250 pages of comics left in him and then he will retire from comics. Moore is probably the most influential English language genre comics writer of the past 40 years. He could never write another word and that would not change. He doesn't owe comics anything. If you want more Alan Moore comics, just go read the one's you've missed or re-read the ones you've loved. Despite the wizard beard, Moore is really not that old. He was a very young man when he started knocking out masterpieces. I hope he has a great many years ahead of him enjoying whatever it is he chooses to do. And guys, 250 is a lot of pages.
A lot of us comics folks are thinking about pal of comics Tim O'Shea and his family this week. The Comics Reporter has the details. Tim has been a real champion of comics, minicomics and self-publishers throughout the years. He's one of those "I probably would have stopped making comics without his kind words" kind of folks. We need 100 more of him. We wish all the best for Tim and his family.
Last weekend cosmic abomination DragonCon happened (again) in Atlanta, GA. Adam and Shawn Daughhetee of the Dollar Bin went there for the first time and lived to tell the tale. They compare DragonCon to HeroesCon a bit which, are two things totally worlds apart. HeroesCon is a a comic book convention. DragonCon is that time that Hunter S. Thompson and Zardoz drank an Atlantic Ocean sized vial of LSD and tiger adrenal gland then went to the Creature Cantina in Star Wars but only the Creature Cantina was the size of the Titanic. Every year. Repeat. Totally different things.
Guys. I just love Tarzan so much. (Link stolen from The Comics Reporter.) Speaking of Tarzan, like I do, I read a lot of Tarzan comics this summer. It's been a summer ritual since... I learned to read. I read a lot of Joe Kubert Tarzan comics this summer and bought a lot of the Marvel "Lord of the Jungle" comics. I almost have the full Marvel run now. The 28th issue of the Marvel series was one of the first comic books I ever owned so Tarzan has and will always be a big part of what makes me me. A big part of my brain is thinking about Tarzan junk most of my waking and sleeping hours. It's weird. I know. So, of course I saw the new movie. I really liked it. It was my favorite movie of the summer. I really hope they make more movies with that Tarzan and Jane.
A lot of talk this week about the death of comics and whether or not it is dead and if it is just Professor X dead or is it Uncle Ben dead and who is to blame and is Soylent Green people or are people Soylent Green and if I use the F word more than you is my argument more valid than yours even though my argument is absolutely Donald Trump wrong on all of my historical references and should all of our best cartoonists just start making their comics with sidewalk chalk then post videos of them on YouTube but then get upset about that too because YouTube secretly won't let you make any money off videos anymore if you have dirty words in your side walk chalk comics and Kickstarter stopped being crowd funding the second it replaced the publisher's marketing department and Amazon really already killed publishing anyway and the music industry is deader than comics and it's just an illusion that it exists because, again, YouTube, and if it can happen to comics and music then it can happen to video games, and, in a way, it's already happening to movies, I mean, do you really think the movie theater chains are thrilled about you guys binge watching Stranger Things and eating microwave popcorn, and if you'll DVR and watch your favorite TV shows later it sure as hell won't take a TV exec long to figure out that you'd probably also pay for it in advance and most of what we really love will be pre-order anyway because comics isn't special, comics just is always the first in line for the firing squad, and about how we probably already lost this war and we need to just assimilate and get over ourselves because I'm literally wearing a t-shirt right now that I pre-ordered, while listening to digital music that was pre-ordered then downloaded, and I literally have a book beside my keyboard that was pre-ordered and as soon as I get through typing this I'm literally going to play some video games that I pre-ordered and maybe what you're calling death is just the new way of living and... You wanted everything for free so you stole it. Now you have to pay in advance for it to even exist. Money always wins folks.

And now it's time for the return of...

THE BEST NEW NEWISH COMIC BOOK I READ THIS WEEK

She Wolf issue 3 by Rich Tommaso. Published by Image Comics.

I've been a big fan of Rich Tommaso for years and years but She Wolf might be his work for which I am the most excited. Guys, I'm stupid for werewolves and wolfmans. I've watched a lot of werewolf movies and read a lot of werewolf comics but Tommaso is on to something really fascinating here. He's using a waking nightmare form of narrative where he can tell this story from a both metaphysical and material world point of view at the same time while also fluctuating between the present and ancient folklore from panel to panel.

Tommaso is letting the narrative take off in multiple directions within a single page and it is allowing him to really stretch his legs as an artists. I've always loved Tommaso's drawing and character designs but with this comic he's being really ambitious with the motion and fluidity of his cartooning. It's a major break from the conservatism and the obsession with the old fashioned that we've seen in indie comics over the past 20 years. Plus, he draws a balls out penis dangling Satan that can't be beat. I can't wait for the next issue.

This issue also features some great pinups by Chuck Forsman, Brandon Graham, Brian Level, Tom Neely, Eraklis Petmeza and my favorite one (below) by Patrick Dean.

And finally... Playstation made some announcements this week. Let's see how our ol' pal Francis feels about them.

Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09042016

noreply@blogger.com (Shano) — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 17:30:00 +0000

(Marvel Premier Featuring issue 45 from 1978. Cover art by George Perez and Bob McLeod. Image stolen from SellMyComics.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the ~~week month~~ years ending ~~04042014~~ 09042016

"Hear me, arisen Tyrk! In the name of my comrades Sashiel and Barq, I swear vengeance from this moment on... The Man-Wolf is out for your stinking blood!" - Col. John Jameson, The Man-Wolf.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. This is the first Parade-O-Links in quite some time. I know most of you are thinking, "Where has the Parade-O-Links been during this darkest time of my life when I had nothing to live for and teh intronets completely let me down and all my favorite comics were canceled and the antidepressants had bad side effects and my favorite sports teams lost and all of my pets pooped in places I didn't want to clean? Where was the Parade-O-Links when the world stopped turning?!?" Look, friends, pals, I'd love to tell you everything that has happened since the last Parade-O-Links but quite frankly Frank Quitely, I don't remember.
So, let's start fresh. I feel like I have solid memories of life on Earth going back at least to June of 2016 so we'll star there. Fair enough? Good. I'm glad we agree. I appreciate your respect and understanding. And, might I add, you look great today. Fantastic choice of footwear. I'm digging it. Magnificent. I've always said that only the sexiest of the sexiest people read the Parade-O-Links and it's as true today as it was a few seconds ago when I made it up.

(The Jack Tales wall based on Charles Vess art at Southwest Virginia Community College.)

At some point in the epic adventure that is my life, the powers that be in acedemia decided that I am not only a genius and that I smell great but that I am also a comics scholar. I was approached by the Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium to present a workshop on writing for comics and graphic novels. I turned that opportunity yes and put together a powerpoint presentation focused on the differences between writing for prose and writing for comics.

I don't even know what a graphic novel is so these folks are in for a treat.

A photo posted by Shannon Smith (@sandfarmer) on Jun 10, 2016 at 7:00am PDT

Most of the writers at the symposium were pretty up on their plain old writin' words kinda' writin' but they needed to know how to write so that an artist could actually do something with it. A drawing is a hell of a thing to have to write. I bestowed upon them this great knowledge along with a little minicomic full of blank panels so that they could practice writing using thumbnails. I look forward to taking a sip of my cocktail and giving a knowing nod when they all thank me during their eventual Eisner acceptance speeches. I taught for two hours and met a lot of great folks. Sharyn McCrumb was they keynote speaker. I was able to attend her workshop and picked up a lot of neat ideas. Southwest Virginia Community College hosted the event and they have a lot of Charles Vess art on display including a huge brick sculpture based on his design. (I took some more photos of it that you can find on my instagram.) Also, we had lunch. It was a great experience and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Did you guys know that not only am I a comics scholar but I am also a professional comic book writer? This is a true and well established fact. Human beings have paid me to deliver to them words which have then been printed in comic books. Perhaps you've read some of the comics? Perhaps you are a fan? And who isn't? But how hardcore are you? Do you have my earliest work? Did you know that I did some work for the Glorp Gum Company back in the 90s? Hah! You didn't know that did you Mr. Fancypants? It's true. Way back in 1991 the Glorp Gum Company hired me to do some scripting on a new comic book they had in the works. I remember it like yesterday. I was sitting there in my dorm room, freshman year, smelling like teen spirit, listening to my favorite Bronze Vestal Virgin cassette tape ("Double Dead Again 2: Tokyo One Night Only") when the RA came a knockin' on my door to let me know that I had a phone call. I figured it was the usual, some band wanting me to replace their guitar player or whatever, but when I answered the phone it was none other than comics legend John Sourcup. (RIP) I thought the guy was already dead but here he is on the phone offering me a job. Turns out he had read some of my Megaforce fan fiction in Slasher magazine and I thought I was just the guy to help him out with some last minute scripting on the revival of Glorp's comics line. I worked out some dialog for a little eight page skateboarding story called "Safety First Skater Later" that was printed up in the back of Glorp Comics and Stories. Now, most of you are probably familiar with the story of how Glorp debuted the comic at a big skateboarding event and about how all those people and vee jays died. I don't really want to get into all of that. I don't really like to talk about it. I was a big fan of a lot of the pro skaters that died that day... Anyway, as I'm sure you all know from the various TV documentaries, all of the comics were destroyed in the fire. Or so we thought! Friends, life is strange. Years ago, there I am writing for the Glorp Gum Company and then one day, decades later, my pal Brad McGinty buys the Glorp Gum Company! Can you believe that expletive? Sure enough, my friend and yours, Brad McGinty buys the Glorp Gum Company and what does he find when he's digging through the vaults? You guessed it, the only remaining copy of Glorp Comics and Stories on the planet. But wait, it gets better. My man, Brad McGinty, recently fired up the Glorp presses, pulled the lever down from the t-shirt setting to the comic book setting and knocked out a fat stack of Glorp comics that you my friend can pay for and read with your own damned eyeballs. It's a damned hot boiled miracle. I've got to pause for a moment and just let it roll over me...
Whew. I'm back. Ain't that somethin'?
Friends, this is real talk right now. This is serious business. You, and not the collective internet you, but YOU, you right there, with your elbows and other unique characteristics, you can click this link right now and buy Glorp comics. And not just Glorp Comics and Stories! No! Other comics as well! McGinty and fine people of the Glorp Gum Factory have printed up long lost copies of the legendary Moss Rot and Twin Cities Freakout. These are two of the craziest comics I've ever witnessed. Did you even ever imagine you'd have a chance to buy these legendary comics!? On newsprint!?! McGinty printed them on newsprint! Do you guys understand the gravity of the opportunity that Brad McGinty is giving you here? These comics will dunk your donut! You can buy Glorp Comics, Moss Rot and Twin Cities Freakout all for one low price! Or, for multiple individual low prices but that would be kinda stupid.
McGinty done did it again.
Santa Claus is crying himself to sleep wishing he could do for the children what McGinty has done for all of mankind.
Just let it roll over ya.

Another thing I did this summer was take the kids to America's most beloved comic book convention, HeroesCon. I've been going to HeroesCon fairly consistently since about 2004 but this was the first time I went as a regular old customer and not as an Indie Island guest or Artist Alley exhibitor. I just went for good ol' fun and boy oh boy was some good ol' fun had. The show has become enormous but, to its credit, it remains a comics show. Sure, like every other show, it has become infected by the prints epidemic but at least most of the prints at HeroesCon are comics related and on Indie Island the prints are actual original creations and not just sexy Harley Quinn. It's a still a show where you can shop for comics of pretty much any kind. The kind I shop for are the kind that cost 25 cents or less. I bought about as many comics as a grocery store bag could hold for $11. And boy do they smell terrible. Sweet, sweet, mildew how I love you. Pretty sure most of the comics I picked up had bong water spilled on them at least once. Glorious! I love it.

The only new books I picked up were on Indie Island. Rich Tommaso was there with the first issue of She Wolf. I've been a huge fan of Rich's stuff forever and this might be his best work yet. I love this comic. I got the new Atomic Elbow, the latest J. Chris Campbell mini, all of the Glorp comics (have I mentioned the Glorp comics?) and an original Blue Snaggletooth drawing by Patrick Dean. And that's pretty much it. There were a lot of folks there I would have liked to have talked to and picked up their latest stuff but they had solid lines or crowds around them and I ran out of time. And that's cool. I'll pick up their stuff online or at the next show. I'm happy to see their audiences growing. I was just on the convention floor on Saturday and honestly it was a bit overwhelming for me as a customer. There was just so much to look at. My usual con strategy is to walk the floor once before I spend money but by the time I walked HeroesCon I was ready to lie down. My kids picked up some cool stuff. My nine year old got a hand made sword because why not. My fourteen year old picked up some Gravity Falls stuff and some rad buttons and stickers. Thankfully, comics is currently in a place where there are some fantastic female creators working on books accessible to teens and some of my daughter's favorite lady creators were at the show. I think it's the first show where my daughter had specific artists she wanted to seek out. She left the show inspired and literally knocked out a new minicomic in the month following. (More on that in a future post.)

We also checked out the art auction. I was a bit underwhelmed by the art on display. Most of it appeared to be work done on the floor that day as opposed to some of the bigger more ambitious works I've seen there in the past. That said, Jared Cullum's giant Fantastic Four at HeroesCon painting was amazing and as good as anything I've ever seen at the show. It went for around $7,000 bucks if I remember correctly. A lot of my pals are friends with Jared so there were a lot of proud beaming faces in the Westin lobby and bar that Saturday night.

I love these guys. Damned degenerate comics Butch and Sundance. #heroescon2016

A photo posted by Shannon Smith (@sandfarmer) on Jun 18, 2016 at 10:44pm PDT

Speaking of which, the main attraction of HeroesCon for me is getting to hang out with all my pals.

It was super great to see my former Atlanta bro doggers Brad McGinty and Josh Latta (and Erin of course, Hi Erin!). Brad helped me with my first minicomic in 2002 and I've been sharing table space and hotel rooms with Brad and Josh for years now. We all lived in the Atlanta area back in those days but have since all moved to different states so Heroes Con is about the only time we end up under the same roof now.

Also super great to see all my other pals that I see slightly more frequently, Patrick Dean, Robert Newsome, Rich Tommaso, J. Chris Campbell, Duane Ballenger, Rob Ullman, Adam and Shawn Daughhetee, all the Dollar Bin bros, Heather and Seth Peagler and all the HeroesCon staff, my man Jeremy Massie (who I live about 30 minutes from but see at comics shows more than I do in the wild), Matt Smith, all the folks I'm too lazy to list, all the folks I saw but didn't get to speak to but just waved and said "hey man!" to... everyone. Everyone that has every lived. I was super happy to see them and/or missed them terribly.

I'm now the Mayor of Viking Hall and there is nothing you can do about it. #RobCon #Swarm

A photo posted by Shannon Smith (@sandfarmer) on Jul 31, 2016 at 9:17am PDT

I was a guest a RobCon at Viking Hall in Bristol TN, this summer. The show was nice and packed with vendors and cosplayers but suffered some for being scheduled on the same weekend as neighboring Abingdon, VA's big summer festival. I did well enough. Sold original art and comics and my daughter Kassidy sold some art and her new minicomic Idea Box. I'll talk about Idea Box more on file under other once we print up more copies.

Kassidy making art happen. #RobCon #StevenUniverse

A video posted by Shannon Smith (@sandfarmer) on Jul 31, 2016 at 11:55am PDT

Cooks and Books at the Saint Paul farmers market. Drop on by. What's better than reading and eating outside?

A photo posted by Shannon Smith (@sandfarmer) on Jul 30, 2016 at 2:48pm PDT

Because I'm a super successful and popular comics creator in high demand, I had another apperance on the same weekend as RobCon. I was a guest at Saint Paul, VA's Friends of the Library Cooks and Books event. This is an annual fundraiser where area authors and area cooks are set up outside to sell books, eat food and drink wine and beer. It's pretty great. The music was mostly Huey Lewis and the News so that's a major win for any getogether. I did well and the library picked up some of our comics for their shelves.
So, at this point in the post I've typed about a half million words about myself and my friends. It's fine. But maybe you want news? Maybe you want the hard hitting critical analysis of the state of the comics industry at this exact moment? Maybe I'll do that next week. This post was essentially a housekeeping post, we'll get back to the real nitty gritty soon. But before I do I do have to acknowledge the redcent birthdays of comics titans Jack Kirby and Gene Colan. August 26th was also the birthdy of my father David Smith. He would have been 67. He's with me ever day.
And finally... Let's check in on our old pal Francis. Gotta catch 'em all Francis.

Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.

file under other

Detective Comics 1068 (2023)

Action Comics 1051 (2023)

The Amazing Spider-Man 21 (legacy 915) 2023

The Amazing Spider-Man 20 (2023)

Superman 1 (2023)

Action Comics 577, 1986

Back? Maybe?

The lost con photos: HeroesCon 2014

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03162021

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03072021

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02282021

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02212021

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02052021

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302020

The best comics of 2018.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05142017

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04282017

Maybe you should go to the SC Comicon this weekend.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01292017

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01232017

Your best pal ever,Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01112017

Disney Pirates of the Caribbean issues 1 and 2 by Chris Schweizer, Joe Flood and Marissa Louise. Published by Joe Books LTD. $2.99.

And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad. Francis made a friend! Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead. Your best pal ever,Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 10062016

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 0925201610062016.

And now ladies and gentlemen... THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC I READ THIS WEEK recently.

Midnight of the Soul issue 1 by Howard Chaykin with Jesus Aburtov and Ken Bruzenak. Cover by Chaykin Published by Image Comics. $3.50

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09182016

(2001 A Space Odyssey issue 10. Cover by Jack Kirby 1977. Image stolen from Kevin Metz. )

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 09182016.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09112016

THE BEST NEW NEWISH COMIC BOOK I READ THIS WEEK

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09042016

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad. Francis made a friend!

Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC I READ THIS WEEK recently.