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Some random thoughts on that Man of Steel movie. It needed more trumpet.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:33:00 +0000

I only go to about one movie a year so I may as well ramble about it a bit. I saw the most recent movie version of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman, Man of Steel. I saw it on Saturday June 15 and wrote the notes below the next day but I am just now making the time to sit down and edit it.

SPOILERS. This is not a review. This is just me rambling about some of the things this movie made me think about. If you still plan to see the movie, don't read this.

I liked it a lot. I thought it was a very good science fiction movie. It had a lot of elements and scenes that I enjoyed very much the first time I saw them in other science fiction movies. I think director Zack Snyder and writer David S. Goyer must be as big fans of David Lynch's Dune movie and the Star Wars films as I am.
I have a theory that this whole movie was an evil experiment. What happens when you feed a 15 year old 12 ounces of Robitussin and make him watch Dune, Heavy Metal and the Star Wars movies then give him $225 million to make a movie? Of course, feeding a 15 year old that much Robitussin would be unethical so they brought in Zack Snyder.
And, with that joke, I'm not just poking fun at Snyder's movies for being immature. I'm just saying that his movies, Watchmen etc. look the way the world looks to a 15 year old. Or the way a 15 year old wants to see the world. They look, sound and are paced like video games.
Which makes total sense to me. The only part of our culture not currently aimed at 15 year olds are the parts aimed at three year olds.
The movie is loud and fast paced. Lots of SWOOOSH and BADOOOOOOOOMMMM! I think they got that right. I think it had to be SWOOSH and BADOOOOOOMMM after Superman Returns turned Superman into weird emo stalker who fathered a kid with a teenage girl. Gawd Superman Returns was bad. But yeah, this movie had to be a video game. That's what these things are now. And it's a good video game. It's not totally for me. I like for things to make visual sense. I like to actually see the movie ya know. I like for shots to be in focus and for the camera to not jerk around like the operator is having a seizure. But his is just how action movies are now and I can't complain it away. I grew up with big Panavision Technicolor movies. Better than reality! Now they look like video games. As fake as fake can be. It is what it is.
And despite being super loud, fast and violent- this movie has what, four on screen deaths? Jor-El, Supermom, Zod and Kevin Costner? Was that it? We see a small town and a major city devastated but we don’t see many on screen deaths. These are video game deaths where the numbers ring up in the top left corner of the screen but you don’t stick around to see the bodies. Or maybe some guys died in that one helicopter? There are assumed deaths when some aircraft gets BADANNNNGGGGED out of the sky. But for the most part, this film is as bloodless as an 80s G.I.Joe cartoon. But still PG-13 for some potty mouth?
And Superman kind of sucks at protecting the city. He could have like flown away or something. But, it’s so fake I don’t even care. It just video game dudes throwing each other through video game buildings. It doesn’t mean anything.
But wait, there is one fantastic magnificent wonderful thing about this movie being a video game; there was very little slow motion. Maybe no slow motion? No “bullet time”? Could it be, could it be! Could this be a post The Matrix superhero movie without a “bullet time” shot? Thank you Jesus! Please God let us never see a “bullet time” scene ever again!
Another reason these things have so much simulated hand held shaky camera, lense flares and out of focus backgrounds is because of the now 20 or so year old notion that making these things look like a documentary makes them more real. It doesn’t. Stop it. This is a movie where the main character wears a rubber suit. This is not a documentary. Stop it.

Strange that a super advanced race from outer space all wear underwear bodysuits made out of the same basketball rubber Spider-Man uses to make his costumes.
Seriously, Spider-Man came out in 2002. Can we get a new idea for superhero costumes please? Here is a thought, not basketball rubber.
So yeah, I basically hate Superman’s costume. The colors are ugly. He looks stiff and uncomfortable. Probably because his junk is hanging out. This is why the trunks were great. This is why you need the trunks. Without the trunks, it’s just a man in a rubber unitard and a man in a rubber unitard is like a male dog standing on its hind legs. All you see is penis.
I liked Krypton. That weird metal tech on all their communication devices was weird though. If everything is grey on your Kryptonian floating TV things then I bet their cartoons sucked. Good thing Kal got sent to Earth where we have color TVs.
Krypton looked like the Star Wars prequels. Jor-El’s dragonfly pony thing was straight out of the prequels. Superman 1978 was very much what you get when you make a Superman movie after Star Wars. This is what you get when you make a Superman movie after the prequels.
Lots of Jack Kirby in this movie. Asgard and Fourth World all over that Kryptonian armor.
When Zod and the other baddies are sent to the Phantom Zone they are sent there in penis pods.
Pete Ross says dick splash.
Lois Lane says dicks.
Amy Adams says dicks.
Amy Adams is very pretty.
I was surprised they put that head condom thing on Adams.

Jesus. Jesus is all over this thing. And I'm okay with that. I'm a big fan of JC. It would be nice just once to get through one of these super hero movies without a Jesus Christ pose shot though. Jor-El- “Son, you can chose to save mankind, you know, like that Jesus guy did.” Superman- “Okay God, I mean Space Dad. I’m not going to say out loud what my choice is, I’ll just float away like I’m on the cross and then you and the audience will know what my choice is. Bye Space Dad!” So much Jesus stuff. Jesus is the result of the Immaculate Conception. Superman is the result of an illegal non-genetically predetermined conception. The movie is really focused on making sure we know that Superman is 33 which would be the age Jesus was when crucified. There are "act of God" and "gift from God" lines about young Clark. Every word Kevin Costner says. A scene in a church with a preacher. Leap of faith. Superman allowing the ~~Romans~~ humans to arrest him before being sacrificed to the Kryptonians. It is heavy handed but it kind of works. It works because of the twist. The set up is that Superman is going to sacrifice himself. Jesus loves us so much he dies for us. The twist is that Superman loves us so much he lets his whole race and whole planet die for us. It's God choosing man over all the angels. Zod is Satan saying, no thanks, I'd much rather you chose the angels.
But it also falls a bit flat because there is never a second where you think Superman might actually choose Krypton. The entire movie hammers free will over and over. Both Jonathan Kent and Jor-El repeat time and time again that the whole point of Kal-El/Superman is choice. That he is not bound by Krypton’s laws of genetic predetermination. That he could chose the man he wanted to be. And despite all that hammering, there is never a second when you think he might chose Krypton. And maybe that's just the weight of 75 years of Superman. Superman just does not allow Earth to be wiped out. It's a noble effort on Snyder and company's part. They get that about Superman. That he's a hero because of his choice. His choice not to, ya know, fry us all with his heat vision and rule the planet. His choice to serve. They get that, and they give it the hard sell but there is never a second where we think he won't chose us. He's Superman. It reminds me of Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. That movie gives Jesus’ choice the hard sale. Over and over Jesus fights against the path God has given him. But we still know he's going to get up on that cross. He's Jesus.
Speaking of Jesus Christ Pose. Soundgarden. I wondered going into this thing if Snyder was going to pack it from end to end with pop songs the way he did Watchmen. He didn't. Thank God. But we did get some Soundgarden. The Avengers had some Soundgarden too. Is Soundgarden like anti-flop mojo or something? And I guess I could be an apologist and say that yeah, if Superman is thinking about his past, yeah, 20 year ago Kansas teen Clark Kent would have totally been listening to Soundgarden.
This movie is almost void of humor. And ya know what. I’m totally fine with that. I’m over the summer blockbusters having to have X amount of dumb pop culture reference jokes. Leave that junk for the talking animal movies. I only heard two chuckles out of the audience. One was the female solider saying Superpants is hot (which you’ve already seen in the TV spots). The other was a shot where Supes has trashed a truck driver’s truck rather than fight him. I bet the truck driver would have rather been punched than to have his livelihood destroyed. It seemed a bit out of this Clark Kent’s character but it is totally the kind of dick move Silver Age Superman would have pulled. Silver Age Superman being in the Dick Hall of Fame.
This movie is void of romance. There is one kiss but it more of Lois just kissing Superman because he just saved her and he is standing there in clothing where you can see his genitals than it is romance. And I’m totally cool with this thing not having Hollywood formula romance shoved into it. I don’t need to see actors chew on each other’s faces. Two things I only enjoy existing if it is my mouth doing them; kissing and eating. And I do both with my eyes closed.

But it does have plenty of sexual subtext. Macho sexual subtext. A standard sci-fi trope is to explore what happens when culture rejects sexuality. The answer is always that society needs super macho sexuality. Most often it means that society needs super macho sexuality in the form of hairy chested heroes from the super macho sexy planet Earth. See Buck Rogers. In this movie, Krypton has replaced natural sexual reproduction with some sort of gene manipulated pod babies. But Jor-El, is Russell Crowe and Russell Crow is going to make his babies the old fashioned way. The sexy way. Law be damned. So this Superman is a representation of sexy time. Only sexy time can same us. The movie is very much about macho sexuality versus order and conformity. Will Clark Kent live in secrecy and pretend to be normal or will he reveal his fabulous self to mankind and fly around in his rubber suit with his package showing? The battle between Jor-El and Zod is not good versus evil. It is law and order versus macho sexy time. Zod is law and order. Zod is doing exactly what Kryptonian genetic law created him to do. But Jor-El, he just can’t keep himself from bringing sexy back. Zod is all, “I’m right and I’m more macho because I’m a warrior and I will destroy anything for the good of Krypton!” But Jor-El is all, “I’m more macho because, well for one thing, I’m Russell Crowe and I have an Australian accent. Two, just look at my hair. Three, I broke the rules and had real sexy time sex with my wife for the first time in generations. And then, just to top it all off, I delivered that baby myself! And did you even see me fly on that dragonfly horse in my rubber underwear?”
And then Superman gets to knock off both of those guys in the Sexy Hunger Games by having his chest hair reject the confines of his rubber underwear. Is it weird that we see Superman’s chest hair while he’s in costume? It’s weird isn’t it?

Speaking of sex. Superman is not just Jesus he is also Dune’s Paul Atreides. In Dune, Paul is the product of a forbidden conception. His mother was supposed to only bare her Duke husband a daughter because the bloodlines are manipulated and controlled. This results in a more than human child. It also results in the death of the father. Dune is all over Man of Steel. Jor-El is Leto. Zod is both Barron Harkonnen and sexy Feyd by way of Sting. “I WILL kill him!” Paul sides with the Fremen. SuperPaul sides with the humans. The baddies even look like they are wearing the stillsuits from the David Lynch Dune. Those head condom things are their respirators.
This movie loves the United States Military. And that’s okay. Our annual alien invasion movies usually glorify the military so it is to be expected. But it causes a bit of a thematic cock block. This movie is desperate to play up the idea that mankind will turn on and reject the alien Superman or that they will slice him up. Parts of this movie want to be The X-Files. Part of it wants to be E.T. But in that story, the military has to be the bad guys. Not here. About as bad as get is just kind of curious and formal. Yeah, I know they shoot some bullets at Supes at one point but it does not carry much weight. Mankind never really has a bad reaction to Superman. Another attempted twist that fails.
I liked the “you are not alone” bit. For about two minutes, the movie got to stick with one theme and just be a sci-fi movie.
In some parts, the scale of this movie seems very small. Look at the military stuff again. This movie would have you believe that the entirety of the US armed forces from grunt to scientist to pilot to general is made up of about a dozen people. Kansas, Metropolis, the arctic, the control room, the desert base, the helicopters, the big plane… it’s the same handful of dudes in every scene. Again it’s like an episode of G.I. Joe.
And why did the military let Lois on that plane? Or the scientist dude for that matter? Couldn’t anyone push in that Kryptonian flash drive?
And speaking of the Kryptonian flash drive- Is Jor-El gone? That thing got exploderated right. If he was in the flash drive is he gone for good? He was in Zod’s ships because he designed them but those ships are gone right? He was not in the scout ship because it predated him. Supes puts him in the scout ship by inserting the Kryptonian flash drive. But with the drive exploderated, is he gone for good? Or would he still be in that scout ship? I’m thinking that scout ship is the fortress of solitude in sequels but will Russell Crowe be prancing around it?
One thing I like about this movie is that it did not mention Lois Lane’s father or any military background for her character. If there is one thing in all of Superman lore that I do not give a since solitary crap about it is Lois Lane’s Thunderbolt Ross knock off father.
I thought the main cast was very good. Cavill, Adams, Shannon, Crowe, Costner and Lane were all very good. I don’t care how old they try to make Diane Lane look she is still hot. There is no off switch on Lane’s hotness. Costner was perfect casting. I thought Crowe and Shannon both did a good job of not going too far over the top. Cavill did not have a lot to work with. Most all of the character’s growth happens in flashbacks where he either does not speak or is played by a different actor. There are only a few scenes where he gets to have any kind of human interaction. Mainly with Lois. I thought he was just right in those. In what few lines Cavill has where he speaks in costume to humans he uses that same calming tone and cadence that Christoper Reeve used as Superman. No point in trying to improve upon perfection.
Where is Jimmy Olsen? Why couldn’t any of the throw away Daily Planet staff have been Jimmy Olsen? Why couldn’t that blogger guy be Jimmy Olsen? If you want your summer movies to have humor, Jimmy Olsen could have been that.
I don’t mind Lex Luthor being out of this. If they had used Lex it would have been boring evil corporate billionaire Lex. I’m sick to death of that Lex. Funny Gene Hackman Lex could have added a lot to this, or really any movie, but they don’t write that character anymore. Hollywood is incapable of pulling if off now. A lost art.
Perry White and the entire supporting cast were flat. No dimensional. They could have just been called military humans and civilian humans. Which is a shame. You never really get to see Superman through the humans' eyes in this thing. You never get to see the wonder.
The movie really could have used more interaction between Superman and citizens. It’s really just Lois and the military. He could have saved a kid or something. Let us see this thing through a child’s eyes for a second. Again, where is Jimmy Olsen?
I thought the score was good. Much better than most of these movies. Our heroes don’t get theme songs anymore. I blame Danny Elfman and his boring Batman music everyone has been imitating for over 20 years now. Why don’t our heroes have memorable themes you can hum anymore? Why don’t they get trumpets? Are all the trumpet players dead? I miss the trumpets. But that main theme they play when Superman does important things in Man of Steel is pretty good though. I had it in my head for the rest of the day. But now, a day later, I can’t remember it at all. It needed more trumpet.
I saw people talking about Superman going through the Earth’s core. Did that happen? He just flew from the bottom of that beam to the top of it. He didn't fly through the core. If he flew through the core he would have came out at the other death laser thing and not have been shown flying to it from a mile away.

Jonathan Kent’s death was pretty dumb. Not that he died. The Kent’s die by like, what, page two of Superman’s original origin? I get that he was going to die. Sacrifice etc. etc. But the death was dumb. Jonathan being the leader and saving others was great. But Clark just watching him die was dumb. I can think of about 50 ways Clark could have saved him without anyone noticing and that's without even looking at my copy of DC Showcase Presents Superman Volume 1.
I get that Superman killing Zod was a major no no for some people. Because Superman would never kill! Except for that time the totally murdered Zod and the other Kryptonians in Superman II back in 1980. I don’t have an issue with the idea of it. They were building to it for two hours. Zod killing Jor-El. Zod swearing to kill Jor-El’s son. All the talk about good deaths or whatever. I was surprised in the way it happened though. Not surprised at Supes killing Zod to save humans. Just surprised at the execution because, I’m sure Supes could have just turned them both away from the humans without snapping his neck. But that’s silly nitpicking on a movie about a guy wearing a rubber suit. Yeah, sure, Superman should not kill. But this is not Superman. This is video game Superman and video game Superman killed that dude dead. 1980 Superman killed, 2013 Superman killed... sometimes F'd up stuff happens y'alls.
This is a comic blog. Am I supposed to talk about how this movie relates to the comics? Well, it doesn’t. And I don’t care. It’s a movie about a dude in a rubber suit. It’s not comics. The only way in which I care about the relationship between these movies and comics is that I want the creators to be respected and get paid. Superman has been beyond comics for more than 60 years now. Yes Superman is a comic book character. Yes he is best as a comic book character. But we don’t get to own him anymore. He had already been assimilated by radio, movies and TV before my father was born. Siegel and Shuster themselves had already re-invented Superman a few times before my father was born. Kind of futile for me to bitch about how it doesn’t match up with “my Superman”. There are lots of Supermans. Plenty for everyone. This was just a movie about one of them. I liked it.

*Images stolen from Action Comics No. 1 and Superman No. 1. By Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

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 now. I guess it's a law or something.

HeroesCon 2013 Charlotte NC USA with Henry Eudy

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:46:00 +0000

(HeroesCon stolen from HeroesCon.)

Hello brothers and sisters. Your pal Shannon here. I was not able to attend America's Most Beloved Comic Book Convention this year so I'll hand things over to America's Most Beloved Eudy. Take it away Henry!

*****

HEROESCON: WALKING HALF THE FLOOR WITH HENRY H. EUDY (a retrospective)

So, last year I went full tilt HeroesCon. I got a table, I went to the Drink and Draw, I did the Art Auction, I slobbered all over the Jaime Hernandez panel, I got a sketch from Dave Cooper, I did McGintyfest, I got good and drunk every night, never more so than at the Dead Dog Party where I cornered Roger Langridge and bored him with my analysis of Bowie, Brian Eno and the importance of dream symbolism. I came out of those three days like Charles Bukowski stumbling away from a bare knuckle brawl with Frank Stallone, full of ham sandwich and Schlitz and victory. I did HeroesCon and I did it hard.

This year, I remained more sober. I spent just five slim hours on the convention floor and, shame of shames, never even made it all the way across the great width of this show beast. But here's what I saw and thought, in my mostly disqualified experience and opinion:

(Image stolen from Major Spoilers. That girl is not Henry Eudy. He has brown hair.)

More so than any other year I can remember, the focus this year was almost totally on the customer, the guest, the attendee. Not to say Heroes isn't always focused on the people of the con, the show's great reputation is rightly built on the expansive friendliness of Shelton Drum and company, but this year it was stunning how many novel amenities were made for the great many. Firstly, the show was at least twice the size of previous years. The space the con inhabited was truly immense. Like, if you stood at the far end of one side, the other wall was obscured by clouds or something. Huge. Because of this, the aisles were super wide, it was incredibly easy to traverse without bumping against those idiots who bring their entire collections on those stupid pull carts or having to rub up against the kings of terrible body odor or getting trapped behind the gaggle of pervs taking snapshots of nipple slip Dazzler on your way to a $9.00 hot dog. The freedom of mobility was wonderful. But it had it's costs, more about that later. Other public friendly stuff included a concession area with tables and chairs aplenty that reduced the chances of dangerous nacho crashes while on the hoof and placing the Art Stage in the very center of the floor with a semi-circle of chairs for an open-mouthed audience to sit and watch a myriad of Dark Phoenixes get created right before their eyes.
As a customer, I never felt more comfortable on the floor. It was actually relaxing, strolling from place to place as opposed to an anxiety filled walking of the nerd gauntlet. My hat is tipped and, in fact, totally off my head for the magnificent efforts of the best people in the comics business. These little touches made a great many people overjoyed with the show.

(Jim Steranko with Shelton Drum. Stolen from Heroes facebook page.)

Now, on to the costs of all that mobility. When you're trying to sell and show your comics, especially if they are small, personally constructed comics that no one has ever heard of, you're like a bear in a stream full of running salmon. You just gotta hope you can get your paw in there often enough to scoop up a few of those slippery people who just might dig what you got on the table to make wading in the river worth it in the first place. So, when the river gets wider but the salmon count stays the same, it's a lot easier for the swimmers to just keep on swimmin' instead of having a look at your all panda retelling of The Canterbury Tales in mini-comic form. And that's what seemed to be happening every time I stopped to ask a pal, "So, how's it going?" What was great for the customer was not so great for the cartoonist, crouched behind his little clump of what felt like an increasingly deserted Indie Island. It was just too easy for the walkers to build momentum and rush on by, which is what seemed to be going on the small sliver of Saturday that I was there to observe and give high fives to bros.

(Patrick Dean knocking out a masterpiece. Stolen from Heroes facebook page.)

Even so, spirits seemed universally high everywhere I went. Economics ain't the whole burrito and the energy was still electric. The best times I spent that afternoon were bouncing across the aisles to visit with dudes like Patrick Dean, Robert Newsome, J. Chris Campbell, Duane Ballanger and Joey Weiser, guys from FLUKE. I missed this year's FLUKE and getting to hee and haw it up with these fellas really brought my spirits up. Patrick Dean especially sells everything too damn cheap for how beautiful he makes it and I took full advantage by giving him $5.00 bills for stuff that makes my eyes super happy. J. Chris gave me some super good art advice and also a nice across the table choke for free. All those guys are super.

An aisle down from the FLUKE party was my pal and past and future SPX table mate, Christian Sager along with Kelly Williams, the long bearded brushist that I much admire. These guys have a project called The Cabinet which is soon to be out in fabulous book form and my brains filled up with exclamation points looking over Kelly's originals for that tome. Across from there was Mike Freiheit with whom I tabled next too last year. Mike has a great new book called Monkey Chef and I made him accept my money for it because, dammit, he deserves money for the great stuff he makes. Right next to him was Matthew Smith of the Simon Says series. I thought I had good tabs on Matthew but he had about six new issues that I had never laid eyes on. What a powerhouse. So then, next to Matt was a guy who is on my list of top three best cartoonists in the biz right now, Benjamin Marra. It's all about Night Business and that collection of American Psycho drawings for me. Marra is making comics other people forgot how to make. He's a genius and a great American. Right about then I became really aware that, like sand through the hourglass, so were the days of our lives. This thing was about to close and I had better hurry up and meet a famous guy.

(Karl Rove on the far left working out a strategy with his young male assistant on how to best complete his complete run of Legion of Super Heroes. Image stolen from Adam Daughhetee.)

The only great cartoonist on my mind was Pete Bagge. Hate was a cornerstone for me as a young man who loved comics but was sick to death of superheroes. I think a lot of that stuff was supposed to be making fun of goateed, flannel draped white kids. But as a goateed, flannel draped white kid, I couldn't have identified more. So, it was a minor big deal to meet Bagge to tell him I loved Hate and hated everything else, to praise him for his Weirdo years and shake his hand. And I did all that and it felt good.

(Evan Dorkin and Pete Bagge. Stolen from The Beat.)

So that was my few hours at HeroesCon this year. The least amount of time I've spent on the floor in over five years. Still, I had an amazing time and I loved every second of it. I guess I didn't realize I had so many friends in comics until they were all under one huge roof. Thanks to everybody for the good times.

-Henry Eudy, America.

(That time Henry Eudy was murdered by J. Chris Campbell. We'll miss him.)

*****

Thanks Henry! You are the best person ~~alive~~ recently murdered.

Now, while I, Shannon Smith, (This is Shannon talking now, Henry is done. He's dead ya know.) didn't actually go to HeroesCon this year, that's no reason why I can't talk about it. In fact, blog law demands that I talk about things which I have no actual personal knowledge. For those of you new to teh intronets, this is how it works.

From most all of the twitter, tumblr, instagram, facebook and myspace posts I've read, this year's HeroesCon was a life affirming zensplosion of joy for thousands of people. (Just kidding. I never looked at myspace.) It seems that ~~fans~~ customers and creators both had a wonderful time. I sincerely hate that I missed it and I hope I get to go next year.

Outside of the spotlight of social media however, in the dark shadows of email and direct messages, I did hear some mixed feelings about about sales. Sketch and commissions were way up and comics sales were way down.

And let me take a moment to clarify what I'm talking about when I talk about comics sales here. I'm not talking about the comics dealers. I love the dealers but I've not had a chance to talk to any of them as I was not there. I'm not talking about the mainstream (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse etc.) creators. Those guys don't usually even bring comics to sell. I'm really just talking about the indie/small press/self publishing guys here. A lot of the folks you would find on Indie Island or in artist alley. For the sake of brevity, I'll just call them small press for the remainder of this post. And by guys I mean boys, girls etc. Those guys are not selling big numbers in the mainstream comics shops. Those guys often depend on comic conventions not only as away to promote their comics but to sale their comics. For the mainstream guys, conventions are, ya know, conventions, but for small press, from swap meet to SDCC, shows are a place to sell books. For a lot of those guys, sales from one convention may determine if they make it to the next convention and in some cases even if they bother to print their next comic. Sales matter.

But those guys are also pretty savvy and I don't think HeroesCon has ever been looked at as a show where a small press guy should expect to earn their rent. Even with Indie Island, it is still a mainstream show. (And Indie Island is a great small press show within a mainstream show. If Indie Island were it's own thing, it would be a very impressive small press show. Dave Cooper, Jamie Hernandez, Pete Bagge, Evan Dorkin... some of my biggest comics heroes have been on Indie Island. So high five Indie Island.) But over the past five years or so, or maybe going back to whenever Indie Island started, I think most of the small press guys have figured out that HeroesCon is not really a place where people go to buy comics. Most of the ~~fans~~ customers at the show have pull lists and buy their comics in shops or online. Or maybe they don't buy comics at all. Maybe they are there for the cosplay and toys. What they are there for is what they can't get in a comic shop or online. And this is a big part of what HeroesCon does so well. The customer is there for that interaction with the creators that you can only get in the con setting. And art. Lots and lots of art. HeroesCon is a sketch show now. Looking through folks "loot" pics, I see more original art, sketches and prints than I see comics or even toys this year.

And like I said before, the small press guys are savvy. Most of the repeat exhibitors have caught on to this and are focusing on selling art now. I've heard from multiple accounts that when checking out Indie Island this year very few of the guys had new comics to sell but many of them had new prints and t-shirts. I heard from several guys that they sold more sketches and commissions this year than ever before.

And that's great! I'm super happy to hear that so many people walked away from HeroesCon with original art by some of my very favorite creators. I'm super duper happy that so many of my favorite creators got paid to draw for three days.

But, that is hard damn work ya'll.

And while I really should not be looking for the downside of guys selling a lot of sketches, I do worry about the comics. And this is not a knock on HeroesCon. HeroesCon is just one example I'm using to illustrate a point I may or may not get to before the end of this post. I'm not even really talking about HeroesCon at this point. I'm talking about the current evolution of how the customer interacts with comics.

My knock is on you. You the comics customer. You've come a long way. You are super smart now. You are aware of the creators and not just the properties. You celebrate the creators. You read their free comics online. You follow them. Like them. Re-tweet them. Re-blog them. You interact with them all over teh intronets. You meet them at conventions. You get your picture made with them. You buy a sketch from them. Maybe you even go get drunk with them. You feel connected to them. You feel like you are a part of their increasing success. You are doing such a great job of fueling the creators' desire to keep making great comics.

But please buy the comics.

Please pay money for the comics.

Everything changes. Comics will change. But there is exactly one Jenga piece that you can't take out of the comics tower. One piece that when you take it out, you may not be able to rebuild the tower again.

Comics.

Please buy the comics.

(A Jawa and Jeremy Massie. Stolen from Animated Trigger.)

Okay, I'll slide the soapbox back to Stan Lee. But before I hit the "Publish" button let me point out some links to some HeroesCon stuff you should check out.

Let's start off with some of my favorite art stolen from teh intronets:

Sandman and The Endless by Patrick Dean.

A bear with sharks for arms by Joey Weiser.

Burt Reynolds playing cards with a lion by Jeremy Massie.

A sexy eight winged fairy thing by Rob Ullman.

Some leather wearin' Disney dudes by Jason Horn. Stolen from Shawn Daughetee.

Captain Marvel by Derrick Fish stolen from Little John.

Catwoman by James Lyle also stolen from Little John.

There was a whole bunch of art I wanted to share here but I can't figure out how to post pics from Instagram. Sorry.
And now some links because that's what I do right?

Christian Sager's HeroesCon report featuring a cartoon reenactment of that time Ed Piskor hung with Karl Rove.
A recap and slides from the Rich Barrett moderated panel on Design & Comics.
The Ben Towle report.
Steranko and "that Hulk cover".
People that are into that Carol Danvers Captain Marvel are SUPER into that Carol Danvers Captain Marvel.
The great Don Rosa stolen from Heather Peagler.
The HeroesCon staff group photos also stolen from Heather Peagler.
MTV Geek is desperate to marry HeroesCon. (Sadly, the state of North Carloina will not recognize that union.)
More of Patrick Dean's HeroesCon sketches. Maybe you have to be Patrick Dean's friend to see those. Maybe you should be Patrick Dean's friend.
Rico Renzi's Instagram is full of great HeroesCon art.
The awesome Jack Kirby characters Chris Sims asked people to draw.
The Beat's coverage of the Valiant panel.
The Comics Reporter talking to Ben Towle and Craig Fischer before HeroesCon.
The Comics Reporter's collective memory archive of HeroesCon links and stuff.
Sterankoing.

The most important thing to take away from HeroesCon is that no matter who you are, no matter where you are, mo matter what you are, Jim Steranko is better than you.

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 now. I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 06062013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:13:00 +0000

(Marvel Comics Index No. 4 Fantastic Four cover art by Jim Steranko who will be at HeroesCon this weekend. Image stolen from Sean Howe.)

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~~ including 06062013:

“That was DC Comics, now we have DC Entertainment. It is a different beast, being run by different people.” -Neil Gaiman.

HeroesCon is happening this weekend in Charlotte NC USA. It is one of my favorite shows. I can't go this year but you should go if you are able. Exile on Plain street has some info on the annual Drink and Draw benefit. And if you are one of those people that likes to eat food then Exile has that covered as well. They also have a list of 10 things to do at the show. My main recommendations are to go check out the art auction and to go to Indie Island and Artist Alley and spend all of the money you have. I specifically recommend that you track down Patrick Dean on Indie Island. I think Dean has put out at least three new minicomics in the past 18 months and they are probably the very best three minicomics that have been put in that time. What I'm saying is that they are good and you should buy them. He is also doing commissions and selling original art a insanely low prices. He's great y'all. Here, check out this Doctor Strange he did for me.

See? Now you are probably jealous of me for having such an awesome piece of art. And you should be because it is great. But don't get down on yourself. You can own art like that too. Cheap! Too cheap. You should be ashamed of yourself for how little you are going to pay for great art on Indie Island. Disgusted. How can you even look at yourself in your two-way camera phone screen?

If you find Patrick then Robert Newsome is probably nearby. I suggest you buy his The Atomic Elbow wrestling zines. Even if you don't like wrestling. Wait, ESPECIALLY if you don't like wrestling. I wrote a thing for one of those so double buy that one.

And if you could find those two guys then you are pretty close to J. Chris Campbell, WAP, Adhouse, Top Shelf, Rob Ullman, Rich Tommaso and a bunch of fine folks ready to sell you fine things.

Here just look at this image I stole from Joey Weiser...

Just go there and throw all your money in the air. Trust me.

(Oh man, that Dungeons and Dragons thing Weiser and the Athens/Fluke put together looks like a lot of fun. You probably want to buy me a copy of that one.)

Another thing I'd do if I were going is carry the short box of comics I've bought that were written by Robert Venditti over the past year and make him sign them all. HeroesCon is his 1st big show just days after his first issue of Green Lantern hits the stands. (Just read it. SPOILERS... it's good.) Rob is a pal so I hate not being able to go and give him a high five for kicking so much ass lately. (And seriously, I would make him sign all my X-O Manowar comics.)

And don't forget Artist Alley. Go there and buy Jeremy Massie's latest and marvel at the weirdness of Battle Babies.

Oh man, I could spend hours going through the guest list and naming off folks I'd suggest you check out but I don't have the time. People. Jim Steranko is going to be at HeroesCon.

Some good looking panels in there too. Ben Towle's music thing should be great.

Somebody come get me!

Alright kids. Let's talk about important grown up stuff. Let's talk about Superman. A couple of months late to the party, Time Warner/DC Entertainment have decided to go ahead and celebrate the 75th anniversary of swindling away Superman from Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. DC is going into this anniversary celebration the way a grown man goes into the grocery store to buy tampons for his wife. Head down. Full of shame and embarrassment. It's either shame and embarrassment or just pure hatred. Because only shame, embarrassment or hatred could allow an art director to sign off on this gawd awful logo. Everything about it is wrong. As Sean Kleeflied points out, they don't even put the numbers together right. There is a razor blade shaped space between the seven and the five that can only be an error. Nothing about that thing is good. Awful. Just look at this 5 on its own...

How can anyone on Earth look at that 5 and not realize that it is a mistake. Why is a huge chunk of it missing? How do you F up a 5? It's like the fifth letter you ever learn to write!

Jeeziz.
In other Superman news, the producers of the new Superman move are desperate for you to understand that Superman is not a comic book character. Because movies about comic book characters have been making billions and billions of dollars so if you are Time Warner the very last thing you want to do is a make a movie about comic book characters.
In other other Superman news, Tom Spurgeon would like to remind you that Superman is a comic book character.
In other DC ~~Comics~~ Entertainment news... they published a comic book where one of my little girl's favorite characters gets her brains blown out the side of her head. There are days when I think taking my kids into a comic book store was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Thank God the Lego versions of these characters can put their heads back on.
And hey, DC, I say these things not because I root against you. I root for you. I want you to be good. Not because I'm a fan. I'm better than a fan. I'm the most important person in your world. I'm the customer.

Hey, remember when the cast of Comics Alliance was murdered? Well they came back! And just like Pet Cemetery they came back weird and scary.
Just kidding. They are still all dead. That was just those wacky kids Tucker and Abhay funnin' us y'all. Tee hee.
Wait what. They are not dead? Comics Alliance is alive? Well, gosh. Congratulations. That Joe Hughes must be really smart at the whole making things succeed and not giving up thing. I mean I guess this is smart. I don't know business but yeah, buying a successful thing from a company that has no intention of using it and keeping that branding going seems to be a safe play. I just kinda get scared when things make sense. Not that it might not work out but, I mean look at me, if things sounds like a good idea to me...

Craft is an ingnorant slut who will leave you to die on a park bench destitute and blind.
Katie and her god-damn drawings.
Biff! Bam! Pow! Comics aren't just for kids anymore because the New York Post is going to occasionally mention them in a video game article. But they are never going to say Bif Bam Pow again because they are super mature and would never say Bif Bam Pow again no mater how Bif Bam Powtacular the video game the post about is.
Ya know what New York Post? Eat a hot bag of Bif! Bam! Pow!
(Not sure why the New York Post doing exactly what every other news/magazine blog does makes me angry. I'm gonna blame it on the vending machine apple fritter I had for breakfast. Sorry. Good luck with your new pop culture blog thing.)
Aw jeeziz. "Dynamic Canvas". F me. Ya know what, go ahead and F up your comics to compete with video games. Video games will win 10000000% of the time.

Please don't tell my kids about this. I'd like to be able to use my computer from time to time.
Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's Zenith is returning to print. I should be excited about this but I tend to agree with David Brothers when he says, "On a basic level, just as a consumer — it sucks. That’s a buck fifty for 400 pages of story, limited to 1000 copies, plus shipping. It’s actually worse than Humanoids’ limited releases of Moebius’s work, I think. If it were a fat TPB or a series of digital collections, basically anything that would result in a wide release, that would be much cooler." See, I, me, Shannon Smith, I AM the target audience for this thing. I'm a Grant Morrison fan. I'm familiar with Zenith but was never able to round up more than a few of the comics. I've wanted these comics for years. I want to give someone money for them. I do NOT want to give someone £100 (about $150) for a hardcover collection of it. Who can afford these hardback things? The second your book costs more than a used DC Showcase or Marvel Essential collection on eBay is the second your book no long exists for me. If you are the person that can afford these hardback things then please give me a job. I'll mow the lawn on your cruise ship or something.
And here is a beautiful looking collection of early Simon and Kirby comics that I can't even afford to be aware of.
Wow. Wouldja just look at panel 3 of page 26. Just look at that thing.
My kids and I watch a lot of the Hub channel. They show better DC/Warner cartoons than the Warner owned Cartoon Network. This new cartoon about a boy that turns into a girl super hero sounds neat. Damn shame they couldn't call he/her She-zam though.
Don't buy the ramen that comes in it's own cup. It's too expensive. Just buy the ramen packs. All you need to do with them is put them in a bowl with hot water and they are ready just as quick as the cup-o-soup kind. Basically, you are just paying extra for a Styrofoam cup you are just going to throw away.
Josh Simmons is selling some original art. I'd love to have some of that stuff.
I really like that Dean Haspiel Batman. Gonna buy the crap out of those comics.
Speaking of Batpants, this Clock King history is fascinating.
"When you're connected to everyone and everything, it'll be the end of privacy, of the dual self. It'll be like a snowflake, and the snowfall is more important than the flake. Everybody will have seen your naked pictures, and nobody will care. There's no terror at all, it'll just be the way things are. It'll change the way that people will look at themselves as an organism, a human organism."
Alan Moore talked to The Believer.

This is a great read about "the Star Wars theater" back in the day.
We are all going to die.
Ashley Holt hates you and your children. But mostly you.
The Star Wars logo most deeply burned into my mind/soul/retinas would be the Marvel version.
A gossip column sees Mark Hamill digging through the trash for cigarette butts and acts like he's some desperate broken man. I see him as a human being fighting the good fight to make himself better by giving up cigarettes. (Because digging through the trash for cigarette butts is an essential part of giving up cigarettes. Really, you can't succeed without that step. And hamburgers. The hamburgers are critical.)

Who killed Vertigo? Obama?
Hearing that the villain in Guardians of the Galaxy will be a lady makes me wonder if this whole big sci-fi super hero blockbuster era is transitioning into it's Willow phase now.
If you are in the Atlanta GA area on June 14th you should go check out Patrick Dean, Jackie Lewis and Justin Colussy-Estes reading some comics.
I liked that new all female line-up X-Men comic well enough. My daughter really liked it. She has action figures of almost all of the characters and the... SPOILER... Dazzler reveal was a big deal for her as she has a bunch of Dazzler comics. She's lucky. When I was a kid all we had was that one Wolverine toy from the Secret Wars line. But it does point to how savvy Marvel is as at reaching out to multiple audiences. On the one hand, it is insane how many X-Men comics there are but on the other, yeah, there totally should be and all girl X-Men. And Brian Wood pulls it off. Oh, and I'll never pass up a chance to mention that Kitty Pryde is the most important of all the X-Men.
Back when I worked at Borders I got to read a lot of those Paul books and, I just don't like them. Sure, there were worse ways I could have spent those lunch breaks but those books left me almost angry with the guy. The cartooning works and they look nice but nothing happens. Those things are like the more boring less edgy diary comics version of an episode of Caillou.
When? Tell me when will the Batman bring the Penguin to justice?
And finally...can an XBox kill a zombie?

Oh, and one more last thing! Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other? It's true! And, I'll probably respond. Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes. It's your intronet. Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

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.

Crime World #4 by David King

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:44:00 +0000

Crime World #4 by David King.

Black and white minicomic. 28 pages.

$3.00 or $1.50 for PDF.

www.reliablecomics.com

The whole reason file under other exists is so that people will send me comics like this so that I can read them. Well, I also enjoy typing very quickly then deleting things. But mostly it's the comics. This comic is real hardcore stuff. It's about crime, cops, criminals, crime cops and crime criminals in a world made of crime. And this not the phony crime you might find on TV or in some Frank Miller comic. This is real crime where the cops say real cop things like...

Hard.

Core.

Real crime cop talk.

Or, maybe cops don't talk like that at all. But they should because it is hilarious. The dialog alone would be a knee slapper but the fact that the words are in balloons that point to King's great little characters with their big childlike heads pushes it on into gut buster territory. (Or maybe it's gut buster province. I get them confused.)

King's comic making skills are top notch. I'm mostly familiar with his webcomics where his drawing and character design really stand out four panels at a time but here, in minicomic form, I noticed just how good he is at setting up and pacing action from page to page. The middle part of the book really moves and when the big chase ends with a standoff it jolts you into the realization that stuff is about to get real.

And by "real" I mean guns and hardcore crime cop stuff.

And by "you" I mean me because I'm the one that read the comic and felt those things that the comic made me feel. But you should read it too and maybe it will make you feel those things as well. Or maybe it will make you feel other things. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about you so I can't guarantee anything about how you might feel when you read a comic book. But if you don't like this one then maybe you are not so bright because this is one of the good ones.

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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05282013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:32:00 +0000

(The Bill Sienkiewicz drawn cover of Marvel Comics Return of the Jedi #1 from 1983. Image stolen from Marvel Comics of the 1980s.)

Return of the Jedi came out 30 years ago this past Memorial day weekend. It was a big deal. I was nine when it came out and it was one of the first movies where I was fully engaged as a fan and a consumer. Probably the first film I remember in my life where there was a tangible nerd culture waiting for the thing. Or at least one that I was old enough to perceive. Sure, I saw Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back in the theater and bought the toys and beach towels but, Jedi was different. By 1983 I was a big boy. I'd been reading the Marvel Star Wars comics for a few years. There was a Lucasfilm Fan Club and I was in it. I had the behind the scenes info. I had the news letter! I had the fan club patches and posters that said "Revenge of the Jedi". All most other people had were the TV commercials in that pre-internet world. It was the first movie I ever had "spoiled". I saw the photo picture book weeks before so I know all about what would happen with Yoda. I remember the first time I saw Luke's green lightsaber like it happened five minutes ago. My brains were blown. I've seen the movie at least a half million times since then. I like it. It is a move with a space ship battle and guys fight each other with laser swords. That is as good as movies get. I honestly have very little use for movies without space ships and laser swords. Blah blah blah, talking words and feelings. Pfft. Jedi, for me is also the end of an era of film making. The last great monster movie with stop motion animation. The last great effects movie with models and practical effects. In a lot of ways, Return of the Jedi was the last PG action movie. There were a lot of kid's fantasy films in the 80s. Most of which got greenlit because of Star Wars success. But those movies were usually safe, puppet driven pieces for little kids. I loved those movies too but they were never Star Wars. Star Wars was space cowboys that shot the bad guys with guns and slashed them with swords. And Jedi was the last of those movies that a kid could go to. After that everything was real bullets and blood and guts. And sex! And curse words! The aliens got nasty and became horror monsters after that. Once PG-13 was out of the box there was no looking back. And all the movies today are still stuck in that same formula that took over after Star Wars went away. They are all either Aliens or Terminator 2. Even Harry Potter and Revenge of the Sith were PG-13. All that changes now is that they look more and more like video games. I'll stick with my puppets and model kits.
Oh, and in the spirit of pretending this thing is a link blog and not just my diary, there is a new making of book about Return of the Jedi.
Here is a really neat piece about the formative days and earliest appearances of what would become Lois Lane.
I've had recurring dreams since I was a boy where I would be digging through an attic or closet and find things like Action Comics No. 1. It seems I should have been tearing holes in the walls.

The Beat spent 24 hours looking at webcomics. I don't have 24 hours to look at webcomics but if I ever do then now I know where to start.
TCAF was a big happy wonderful thing that happened. I can't even afford to think about it. If I start thinking about airfare and hotel prices my checking account automatically kicks in with the overdraft fees. But other people went and took pictures.
Speaking of things I can't afford to think about, Tom Spurgeon has this list of 483,396 things you need to know to get ready for SDCC.

Those Freakwave comics are a lot of fun. Sure the art and writing are mad but what gets me about them is the color. Just look at those colors.
Dan Zettwoch made a crazy skull rocket.
Geoff Johns got a big send off for leaving Green Lantern. He's not going anywhere though. His desk is probably exactly where it was on the day before that comic came out. On the other hand, all James Robinson, the man that wrote all of Geoff Johns best comics, got was a bit of time to take his dog for a walk. All jokes aside, I cannot overstate how important James Robinson has been to DC comics over the past 20 years. For me personally, I never would have picked up a DC Comic book post 1989 if not for James Robinson, Mark Waid and Grant Morrison. Those guys, along with Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, picked that company up and carried it on their backs out of the 90s and into the new millennium. The "DC Universe" as it has existed for the past decade and all of the good bits that still exist now came out of Morrison and Waid's resurrection of the Justice League and Robinson's resurrection of, well JSA and all the other characters. And don't even get me started on how great Starman was.
I don't know if I mentioned this before or not but back around the same time Susan Lyne murdered the entire staff of Comics Alliance and all of their neighbors, Valerie Gallaher left her editorial position with MTV Geek. I don't know if that is good for her or bad for her but it's good for me because it seems to have resulted in Gallaher writing a lot more for her own blog. I like her writing a lot. (Not just because she said some nice things about my comics once.) She brings a lot to the table. She's worked in and around comics from almost every angle. She's worked in shops, been a comics editor, a comics writer, a writer about comics and an editor of a site that writes about comics (and other nerdy junk). I like that she's not afraid to attack things from multiple angles and play devil's advocate. I read a LOT of teh comics intronets. Most writers, I don't even remember their names. She's one of the good ones. Here is a good read from her about her Cloak and Dagger comic that was not to be.
And yeah I just tried to trick you into reading some positive words about my comics. Look, if you come over to my house after school and eat my pop tarts you just have to accept that I'm going to make you play by my rules when we play Transformers versus G.I. Joe. (I'm the Transformers. Transformers win.)

Erik Larsen has been writing, drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, folding, stapling and mailing a new issue of Savage Dragon every day of the year for 150 years. Give or take.
Here's the thing. Throw your Apple device in the river and go get you an android powered cell pad pod phone. Then you can look at all the cartoon titties and vajayjays you want.
Speaking of titties. Stan Lee is talking to Janette Kahn's boobs isn't he. He is! He can't take his eyes off them. Janette Kahn was great in that first Swamp Thing movie.

Cartoonist Rich Barrett has a new column at Mental Floss where he'll be going over some of the stand out comics from each week along with some news highlights.
Yahoo bought ~~a popular internet port site~~ tumblr. This may or may not destroy comics. Same as everything else I guess. In brighter news, “At the height of its power, the photography company Kodak employed more than 140,000 people and was worth $28 billion. They even invented the first digital camera. But today Kodak is bankrupt, and the new face of digital photography has become Instagram. When Instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012, it employed only 13 people." Oh wait, that's awful. Oh well, we can't all have free internet porn and jobs too. Don't be so greedy.
So before Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer starts going house to house and murdering anyone with more than one week's worth of Sunday funnies, go read this great comic by Boulet about New York. If it's the last comic you ever read then you and comics did okay for each other.

The best cartoon based on a Marvel ~~comic~~ property that has ever existed was Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But it is gone. And now there is a new Avengers cartoon. But you would probably not know much about that since Disney buried it on Sunday morning on Disney XD. Sunday morning is not for watching cartoons. Sunday morning is for sleeping late, watching reruns of Lost in Space on the super station and going to church. Clearly, Disney hates Jesus. Or Marvel. Possibly both. (My daughter stayed home from church to watch the new Avengers cartoon because we are occasionally heathens. I usually will let my kids skip out on things for important TV shows because I never forgave my mother for making me miss part of the the Star Wars episode of The Muppet Show to go to the grocery store. My daughter said the new cartoon was boring. Lots of talking. Nowhere near as good as Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But, we all knew that without even watching it didn't we. I think the important lesson here is that no one should ever make television without first consulting me or my family.)
Seriously, I continue to be confounded by Disney's absolute lack of interest in using those Marvel characters they paid 4 billion dollars for on TV. Yeah, I know about that Joss Whedon show and there is Ultimate Spider-Man, The Avengers and the new Hulk cartoon in the works. But when Disney bought Marvel, Marvel already had 5, capitol F FIVE cartoons on the air or soon to premier. That's not even counting those crazy anime cartoons. Disney cancelled all that stuff and replaced them with inferior shows. But worst of all they bury the Marvel shows in bad time slots on Disney XD. Let me just explain to anyone out there that does not have children... Disney XD is horrible. Every show on there is awful. Every show on there will make you flop on the floor like a fish while you try to decide whether to claw your eyes out or to claw the screen off your TV. AWE. FULL. No one alive does not hate all those shows. They are bad. Any show from Marvel's history of TV cartoons shown at any time would be the best show on Disney XD's schedule. Spider-Woman is better than that garbage. My theory is that there is still a lot of animosity toward Marvel from existing Disney execs. Sure, we'll pay for you to have two or three cartoons. That don't mean anyone is ever going to see them.
Awful.
(p.s. How is there not an X-Men cartoon on TV now. That Wolverine and the X-Men show was really good. Is this just to spite Fox?) Awful.

Who owns Marvelman, or who doesn't own Marvelman.
Bigger on the inside. (I read that comic. I liked it a lot. Fun!)
Eric Canete is the best y'alls. Check out these Teen Titans storyboards he did.
We're all train wrecks and I love you all.
Drawn is shutting down. This gave a lot of people the sads. It also made people say oh dang it all to hell blogging is dead social media killed us all there is no hope find a bridge and jump off. Whatever.
And finally... I guess I'm just not their target demographic.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05192013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 19 May 2013 07:04:00 +0000

(Iron Man #49 cover by Gil Kane. 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.~~ wrestling during the ~~week~~ weeks ending ~~05052013 05122013~~ 05192013:

"No one will ever have your life, so tell me what it feels like." -Grant Morrison.

Hello brothers and sisters. Thanks for dropping by. This is going to be a long weird rambling Parade-O-Links. I write these things here and there during fleeting moments of free time then try to edit them together over the weekends. My past few weekends have been busy. One of my kids had pneumonia. I was busy with work and got stuck working extra hours. You know. Regular life stuff. It happens. So, this Parade-O-Links is a combination of what should have been three separate posts. Some of this news is old news but, in a way, these posts act as an archive or diary of my comics life so I'm leaving the old stuff in. Thanks in advance for reading what may be a mess. They can't all be winners.

(Left to right: Brian Marcus, Supergirl and Jeremy Massie. Image stolen from Cavalier Comics facebook page.)

This month started off with another Free Comic Book Day. I've come to think of FCBD as a holiday. Maybe the best holiday. Unlike other holidays, FCBD does not cost me hundreds of dollars. I get to take my kids out for a free stack of comic books paid for by the fine comic book retailers of America. Thanks comic books shops! Thanks to Cavalier Comics of Wise VA specifically. Usually, I will try to hit more than one comic shop on FCBD but this year my kids were sick so we kept things simple. The crowd at Cavalier seemed to be pretty strong. Maybe the most crowded I've seen it on a FCBD. More ladies and children than I had noticed before. My kids and I got everything we wanted from the FCBD selection and picked up a few other comics and toys. It was a very good Saturday morning. On the drive to and from the shop, we listened to a mix CD I made of James Kochalka's kid friendly songs. (Or, basically the James Kochalka songs that don't have curse words in them. Neigh Neigh and Woo Woo is one of my kids' all time favorite songs.) I think their were around 50 comics this time. My kids and I picked up around 40. I've only had time to read a few of them. Maybe I'll find the time to talk about those comics soon. My mom read the Walking Dead comic and liked it.
The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is over. This is most likely because I can't stand the word "Graphics" and I put a curse on it when I was a boy. Sorry. (It makes me think of skin graphs. Shiver.)

AOL, a company that once made money by mailing people "free" compact discs... apparently still exists. But worst of all they murdered the entire staff of Comics Alliance. (We've not seen the bodies, but trust me, they are dead.) And it was the worst kind of murder. Death by brand management. In an exclusive Wall Street Journal interview, top AOL ~~assassin~~ "brand manager" Susan Lyne paused from chewing on the flesh of Chris Sims long enough to swear that she would personally murder every comics blogger in North America by the end of the fiscal year. This my friends is what your death will look like. The last thing you will ever see.

Iron Man 3 came out a while back. I guess it's a big deal and all. Jim Rugg drew an Iron Man thing here. I still have not seen it but I can already tell you that what I like most about it is that it does not have a subtitle and that the words "rise of" and/or "rises" are not in the title. Iron Man was pretty much my favorite thing on Earth (other than Star Wars) when I was 13. I sure knew a lot about how to make a billion dollars in the international box office when I was thirteen. In fact, I look at the whole pop culture world right now this instant and it looks exactly like the posters on my bedroom wall when I was thirteen. However, my tastes in movies and music started to get a bit weird when I turned 17 so get ready for some crazy stuff in 2017 ya'lls.

(The greatest drawing of all time.)

Dean Trippe recently drew the greatest drawing of all time. Wil Wheaton mentioned it here. I don't know if you can see this or not because maybe facebook hates you but here is a process video thing of the greatest drawing of all time.
Mike Dawson drew the 100% true history of Wham!
Tom Spurgeon went to Stumptown and wrote 100,000 words about it.
Doctor Venom and Cobra Commander had this crap figured out 30 years ago.
There is an increasing amount of good indie and alternative stuff on Comixology. Maybe you should look into finally getting one of those computers.
This Infinite Corpse thing is looking good. Some of my fave comics peeps are already in there.
Unless you’re Scott Kurtz. Seriously. Fuck that guy.
Paul Pope draws books.
Ed Kramer, still creepy, still gross. If you see me at a con someday, buy me a drink and ask me about Dragon Con.

We are all going to die.
I'm sad to see that Demon Knights is coming to a close. I like that comic for several reasons. It has Jack Kirby's The Demon it. It's not a super hero book but it is a team book. And mostly because Robert Venditti writes good comics. The book has been getting better and better. Bummer.
Pfft. That's how I make sandwiches.
Writing about super hero comics is easier. You don't have to explain what they look like. They look like super hero comics.
Writing about this sort of thing takes a bit more work. Because, well Jesus, just look at it.
Real text message from my future ex-wife on the occasion of our fifteenth wedding anniversary this past Friday. "Thanks asshole. I don't want to hear from u or see u today. Got it?! GOOD!"
Go look at these rad robot benches J. Chris Campbell made.

Diane Nelson now has a new guy to whom she must explain just what the F exactly she had to do with Harry Potter.
DC ~~Comics~~ Entertainment thanked Grant Morrison for carrying them around on his back for the past 20 years by making some cookies with comics are painted on them.
Chester Brown had a birthday recently. Chester Brown is the best.
I don't know. It's hard to say really. But in the whole of this life I've loved maybe two women. I married one of them. And the other, I never even held her hand.
Ya know Ike, if only you could get rid of all the actors. Animation! You could pay to have someone draw the characters in! That's genius. Oh, if only you had access to to a movie studio THAT WAS MUTHERDUCKING BUILT ON ANIMATION!

Adams only seems to have once really gone soft-porn.
The great Howard Chaykin on the great Carmine Infantino.
I think one thing the older generations had over us was the ability to unashamedly hate someone. We really need to work on that. We can all do better. Each of you, I'm calling you out, all of you, you need an enemy. Focus! What can you do today to make an enemy? Maybe you have to turn heel. Maybe you need to slap some random Eisner nominee in the mouth at your next con. Seriously people. When was the last time you saw someone freak out and flip a table in artists alley. We can do better.
I am done with you and I feel awful.

Remember last year when I told you that history would mark those Kevin Keller comics as the most important comics of 2011? I continue to be right. Same as always.
Maybe you should go to Spartansburg and check out Ashley Holt's ~~hair~~ art.
New hockey comics from Rob Ullman.
Hateball tour 1993 Athens GA USA.
If you are into manga then I guess you already know about this.
Speaking of manga. Sports Illustrated continues to be the leading source of comics journalism in all the world.
Okay, listen: I agree with the words up above that happened to make sense, but -

Jon. Fucking. Hamm. Is. Not. A. Nerd.
"This wasn't a fight between Star Wars fans and Doctor Who fans with lightsabers and sonic screwdrivers drawn,"
I'm now going to type some words that may or may not make sense and may or may not be part of a cosmic spell to make the Earth's core rotate in the opposite direction every third Tuesday- Derek Ballard is going to be drawing a Shia Labeouf written comic. (Derek Ballard is the real deal ya'll. This comic will be great.)
Ballard also wrote about every comic he read in April.
Hayhurst had been patrolling nightly for about a year before his mother saw him on TV and found out about her son’s alter ego. He said she was “a bit shocked” but accepted his nighttime gig.
I got your voice repeating endlessly.
Could you guide me in?
Could you smother me?

That time Batman stopped murder with pants.
But still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you!
I only got my name I only got my situation.
I just need my number and location.
Never ever listen to the fans. Only listen to the customers.
And maybe your mother.
But that's it.
Generation X is sick of your bullshit.
Please send him an email.
If you live long enough you'll see all the tyrants sainted. No one gets to sound clever by agreeing with history.
When you walk in the room everything disappears.
When you walk in the room it's a terrible mess.
And finally...Peter was such a loving dog.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04282013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

(~~Crazy Cartoon~~ Nutsy Squirrel cover stolen from DC Comics.)

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 04282013:

"There's no easy way to say this, Shannon. You're a crazy cartoon squirrel. You always have been. It's time you knew the truth." -Robert Newsome.

In his occasional Comics Group Think series, Tom Spurgeon asked "In What Ways Does The Culture Of Comics Have An Impact On How Business Is Done?" I answered. As did several smarty pants people. It is worth a read. Bob Temuka's response got me to thinking that, on the bright side, at least it is now easier for we the ~~fans~~ customers to call out the companies when their practices are not so great. If twitter had been around when Jack Kirby was trying to get his pages back from Marvel I think he would have had them in a couple of weeks. Maybe a couple of days. And that in turn would have actually improved the relationship between Marvel and Kirby. And maybe Kirby would have done more work for them. More money for Kirby, more profit for the company and more comics for the ~~fans~~ customers. So, maybe if you do the right thing you win. And maybe if you screw over everyone you lose. But what do I know? I had a banana and a pack of "Toast Chee" crackers for lunch. Food for people so broke they can't even afford their fake cheese flavored food stuffs to have an S and an E on the end.
Oh, and here is the smoking gun.

This article (which I also saw first at The Comics Reporter) about the shuttering of Graphic Smash got me thinking about the early 2000s when there was so much discussion and worrying on the message boards (message boards are how you complained about how you were wronged by entertainment products before twitter and facebook) about the best platform/model for webcomics. And I'm not just thinking about Joey Manley and his subscription based sites. (Shaenon Garrity talks about her experience with that here and it is a must read if you want to walk down webcomics memory lane.) Thank God for people like Manley that said, hey, maybe we should try to figure out a way to get paid. But I'm thinking more about the different webcomics community platforms that came and went. There were so many different platforms that people invested so much time and money into. "This will be the MySpace for Comics!" "This will be the facebook for Comics!" And we were all so frantic to get on board. Oh the horror of all the stalls being filled in the new digital shopping mall before we got ours. I'm sure I created a login for every upstart webcomics platform between 1998 and.... yesterday.

(This is a Star Wars piece by Jack Kirby. It is amazing. I don't know where it came from or why it exists.)

I did a really crazy thing this week. I invested a lot of money into file under other. I've invested a lot of time into this site over the years but not a lot of money. But I felt the need. I felt I had to take action. News came that the film rights to Daredevil had reverted to Marvel and I felt like it was my duty as a citizen of teh intronets to get to the bottom of what actor should play Matt "Daredevil" Murdoch in the next Marvel movie. So, I took a very large business loan and I hired the very best market research group that money can buy to present to you, dear readers, exactly who should play Daredevil. The results are surprising. I hope you appreciate the financial sacrifice my family and I have had to make to bring you this important information.

W. Maxwell Prince talks to The Beat about Comixology's Submit program. There is an increasing amount of neat stuff on there.
Tom Spurgeon wrote 100,000 words on MoCCA and SPACE and most all of them are interesting.
Valerie Gallaher made some predictions on the future of comics. I'm doubtful of some of them but terrified of most.
Sometimes I forget to mention it but comic books do continue to burn in hell.
Drunk Iron Man will always be my favorite Doctor Who.
Martin Pasko's favorite Doctor Who will always be Superman.
Todd Klein's favorite Superman will always be Joe Shuster.
Remember how Time Warner and DC ~~Comics~~ Entertainment didn't acknowledge the 75th anniversary of Superman at all? Well, Wired threw together a brief history of the feller.

People. Have we ever really taken a moment to think about how bizarre it is that not only is there an ongoing TV show adaption of an ongoing comic book but there is a live talk show that comes on after that show where they sit around and talk about that show. Is Walking Dead the most successful comics-to-television project ever? I don't think the '66 to '68 Batman show had a Mike Douglas hosted talk show on after ever episode. (Oh, man that would have been great. Just imagine the cigarettes.) Mad Men has won twelve thousand Emmy Awards and it does not have a post show talk show. I guess my point is this; Dang, The Walking Dead is a big deal.
You guys are keeping up with the ongoing oral history of Marvelman/Miracleman right?
Kids like all kinds of things.
Here is a look at an early Carmine Infantino Charlie Chan comic. I don't know anything about Charlie Chan but the character was apparently a big deal. Decades of movies, TV shows, books and comics. Crazy.
And some Infantino Flash covers.
Whenever I have a major life decision to make, like where do I want to live, I turn to Peter Porker The Spectacular Spider-Ham.
Never read the comments.

(They read the comments.)

That new Nobrow anthology looks pretty good.
Jack Kirby made 200,000 comics. On a single random Tuesday in 1962. And he took that afternoon off to stand in his front yard looking awesome.
Gabby Schulz has posted a few new comics recently. Great stuff.
Patrick Dean has a new comic for sale in his store. "The Grizzly". I'm excited.
Rob Clough covered Jon Lewis' True Swamp.
Rob McMonigal looks at Sara Lindo's Super Lobotomy.
Daryl Ayo talks about that new Mark Millar thing, Jupiter's ~~Children~~ Legacy. I read it too. It was, something. Maybe I'll get around to typing up some thoughts on it.
Indie wrestling fan, writer, promoter and publicist (and possibly other things) Michael "LLakor" Ryan passed away. I did know know him or even really know who he was but I had read some of his things. Here is a great piece he wrote about El Generico. Seriously, go read that. It's like a real super hero origin. And here is a nice thing El Generico wrote about LLakor. You can read the same writers on the internet for years and never even think to pay attention to their names. Pay attention to the guys/gals you like. And maybe let them know. One day they will be gone. So will you.
And finally...I threw the fireball in Ronnie Garvin's face in Charlotte in February of 1987. Now actually, we just did it because I was going on my honeymoon so that way I could get suspended for a couple of weeks.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Oh wait. What? Francis? Oh alright.

Top 10 actors that should play Daredevil in the next Marvel movie.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

It was announced/mentioned this week that yes, the film rights to Daredevil have returned to Marvel. Therefore it's time to get serious about some ~~link baiting~~ fan speculation on who should be the next Daredevil actor. ~~My cat~~ Our crack team of pop culture experts has but together the following list so that you don't have to.

10. That guy from that Homeland show.

Pros: Is a talented actor with red hair and looks exactly like Matt Murdoch.

Cons: Already played Captain America in Band of Brothers.

Likelihood: 4%

9. Louis C.K.

Pros: Has red hair.

Cons: Not a lot of it.
Likelihood: 17%

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Pros: Has red hair. Has is own super hero like race car driver fire suits and helmets. Once won a race in a car with Batman painted on the hood.

Cons: Hollywood could not afford him.
Likelihood: 8%

7. Sheamus.

Pros: Has red hair.

Cons: Sheamus sucks.
Likelihood: 48%

6. Christina Hendricks

Pros: Has red hair. Is Christina Hendricks.

Cons: Not a man.
Likelihood: 73%

5. Prince Harry of Wales.

Pros: Has red hair. Probably has Kung Fu Grip.

Cons: I don't think he is an American.
Likelihood: 2%

4. President Barack Obama

Pros: Irish.

Cons: Not Catholic.
Likelihood: 26%

3. El Generico

Pros: Has red hair. Has superpowers far beyond Daredevil's wildest dreams.

Cons: Apparently no long exists thanks to Vince McMahon.
Likelihood: 4%

2. Patrick Dean

Pros: Once dyed his hair red.

Cons: None.
Likelihood: 100%

1. Walton Goggins

Pros: Best actor on the planet.

Cons: Does not have red hair.
Likelihood: 0%

So there you have it. Do you have thoughts and ideas and opinions? Well, they are wrong. But, you can still share them on the new official file under other message board. Tell us what you think!

(And by us I mean me and imaginary government internet police that monitor this site.)

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04222013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:05:00 +0000

(Superman #423 cover by Curt Swan stolen from wikipedia.)

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 0422013:

"One of the interesting things about the development of the Internet as a tool to have conversations is that the possibility of something taking place is often seen as the same thing as something that actually takes place. It's mistaking the abstraction of an argument as a direct correlative event to something in the real world. If we can argue something is possible, that's all we need to do: a potential bias = a bias, a potential construction by which something might happen = it could have happened and might as well have. It's very multiverse friendly. We should probably stop." -Tom Spurgeon.

Hello brothers and sisters. Welcome to another ~~late~~ special weekday edition of the Parade-O-Links. I sort of talked around this last week but I'm still trying to find the best way to do this thing. Ideally, a new installment would be up every Sunday morning but my weekends have been booked solid lately. I'm still not sold on the idea of this being a weekday thing but maybe it will have to be. Look, there is almost no stability in my life right now so I'd better not make any promises. Things will happen when they happen. Hang in there.

Last week, April 18th to be exact, marked the 75th anniversary of the debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman and Lois Lane characters and arguably the birth of the comics industry in the USA, one of the main brands upon which the company currently called Time Warner Inc. would be built and decades of profits in toys, clothes, cartoons, theme park rides, TV shows and movies. In light of all that success I was curious to see how the owner of Superman would acknowledge this historic day. They didn't. DC Comics, DC Entertainment and Time Warner Inc. made absolutely no mention of the event. At least not on any of their websites. And, curiously, it was one of the few weeks of the year where there was not any new Superman comics. You could say that what Time Warner did to Superman last week was the opposite of celebrating his creation. I was disappointed. Superman is kind of a big deal and you only get one 75th anniversary. Actually, most things never get a 75th anniversary. Just think of the magnitude of the idea of Superman. How many ideas do you have in your life? How many good ideas? How many of those ideas to you act on? How many of them actually happen? How many of them succeed? How many of them are remembered or make any impact at all? Just in entertainment alone think of all the ideas that have come and gone in the last 75 years. All the comic books, comic strips, radio shows, TV shows, movies, toys, games, electronics, appliances, automobiles, fashion trends, food brands, retail chains, governments, countries... everything. Just think of everything that has come and gone. And there is still Superman. One of the most successful ideas of all time. And how did we treat the guys that gave birth to it?

Superman's "birthday" was celebrated though. At least in Cleveland. And here is an older article about the house where it all happened. Comics Alliance posted some nice Superman art.
Mark Waid and other folks talked on twitter about favorite Superman moments.
Kurt Busiek says that Superman should be in the public domain. I agree.

Steve Bissette gives and example of how trying to do the right thing is actually a thing that is possible and has been done in the past and surprisingly did not bring DC or Marvel to their knees.
Whenever people that actually make money in comics talk about money it is either super encouraging or absolutely soul crushing. Never in between.
The creepy adventures of creepy DragonCon founder creepy Ed Kramer continue to be creepy.

Amazon is making it easier for the indie creator to get her/his work on the Kindle.
Here is a look at some of Carmine Infantino's early Timely work.
I'm excited about this news of new Alternative Comics works by some of my favorite creators.
Here is a look at the cover from Patrick Dean's next comic. Dean all but has this season's Minicomic MVP wrapped up. Let's hope he stays injury free through the playoffs.
Adam Casey exhibited some music themed art.
You can't tie down a banjo man.

"i wrote ithat movie a while back. hard to remember what its about."
Haters just be jealous of Santoro's hair.
It's always a good time to check in on what Eleanor Davis has been drawing.
Ben Towle's Oyster War at io9.
Jim Starlin interviewed at CBR.
The 30th episode of Robert Newsome's talking and music thing.
And finally... contrary to belief, Colt Cobana didn't create Five Dollar Wrestling. I know you all think because he has a "podcast" coming from "live from the studio"... apartment!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04172012

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:11:00 +0000

(One of my all time favorite covers by the late great Carmine Infantino. Notice that you have your "Frazetta Pyramid" but the pyramid is turned on its side. Which, I think says a lot about Infantino's style. Super master level skills with everything tilted and skewed beyond expectations. Just right outside the comfort zone. Full of energy and a subtle edginess. Image stolen from bipcomics.)

Hello brothers and sisters. It has been a while since the last Parade-O-Links. I've been making my little list throughout the days and working on the column but I've just not been able to get the thing together. I'd love to have a new Parade-O-Links up for you every Sunday morning but, my life has been challenging lately. Times is hard. A lot of awful things have happened. We mourn for those we've lost. We pray for those that have had tragedy forced upon them. And, it's sadder each time. You don't really get used to it. It just piles on. Maybe the weight of it makes you stronger and maybe you can carry the burden but the weight is there. Heavier and heavier. But we press on. Ya know, I'm a guy, staying up past midnight writing about a hobby I can not afford to have. But here we are. We press on. I'm reminded of a gym teacher I had at Saint Paul Elementary School. His name was Tom Payne. He was a character. I remember one day, I think it was sixth grade gym class, he stood up and he said, "Kids. Do you want to know what the meaning of life is? All through your life you are going to hear people talk about it. What does it all mean? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life?" He turns around and he grabs a piece of chalk. He writes on the chalkboard. Real big. He writes to huge words. "HAVE FUN."
And I don't even know what that means. I think it's gotta be more than that. But it's not a bad start. Times is hard brothers and sisters. But we press on. If for no other reason that somewhere down the road we'll share some laughs. And to those that try to keep us down...you've got to live with me breathin' baby.

(A panel from one of the issues of Carmine Infantino's water planet story in Marvel's Star Wars. Image stolen from the Jedi Council at theforce.net.)

The great Carmine Infantino passed away earlier this month on April 4th at the age of 87. He was a lot of things in his career. Inker, penciler, designer, art director, editor and publisher. But to me, he was the guy that drew the coolest looking, most exciting Star Wars comics. And to me, when I was a kid, that meant that he had the most important job on Earth. I met him, gosh, close to 10 years ago now, and he seemed to be a sweet man. I had him sign some Star Wars comics and he had a story about each issue. He remembered drawing them, and remembered conversations with Lucasfilm about what could and could not be in them. He seemed to really enjoy the issues that took place on the water planet. They were pre-Empire Strikes Back and were a huge contrast to the desert and sterile space station locations of the first Star Wars film. (Years later we would see a Star Wars water planet and sea dragon type creatures in Attack of the Clones but it was nowhere near as cool as what Infantino did.) That work was a good example of what Infantino was in comics. He took what you gave him, The Flash, Batman, Star Wars etc., and pushed it a bit further. Turned it on its side. Skewed the perspective so that it felt like you were falling into the image. His drawings were like a broken mirror. It felt like if you held the paper the wrong way it would cut you. And those lips he drew on the female characters, you knew if they kissed you it would be fatal. He didn't draw the stuff "on model". He drew it better than model.

Roger Ebert also passed away since last we met here on the Parade-O-Links. When I was a kid, Sneak Previews and At the Movies were a big deal. Most of us just called them "Siskel and Ebert". Other than stuff like Starlog and the TV commercials, Siskel and Ebert was about the only place you could get a look at new movies. The main thing I took from Ebert as a critic and a writer was his enthusiasm. A lot of critical writers hide their enthusiasm if they have any of all. Never be ashamed of what you like. That is just stupid. The notion that you will get closer to the objective truth by denying your personal truth is just idiotic. And always want the things you like to try and be better.
All I knew about Margaret Thatcher I learned from comics and rock music. The lady was ahead of her time. And by that I mean she should be on Fox News right now.
Another non-comics obituary I'd like to point to is that of Mrs. Ann Gregory. She and her family bought the town newspaper from my family when I was just a baby. She would be a great friend to my family and a positive presence in my life. Saint Paul, Virginia is a very small town but reading her obituary I'm struck by how much she accomplished and how many people she reached through her work. Sometimes, here in these hills, here in this valley, you feel like you can't reach beyond the hills to the rest of the world, but she did. Her life was full of honors and titles but none of them were achieved out of ambition. All she accomplished was out of a commitment to the service of others. She was a very impressive person and will be missed.

Congratulations to this year's Eisner Award nominees. I've been paying attention to the Eisner's for a decade or more and this might be the first time where I have a work or a creator that I'm excited about in every category. It's kind of like, dang, they nominated my twitter feed. Are the Eisners getting more savvy in their awareness of indie comics and webcomics or is everything mainstream now?
The winner of comics kerfuffle of the month went to the "Saga saga". First teh intronets thought Apple was banning things because they hate teh gays. Then teh intronets decided maybe Apple did not hate teh gays but only hated boners. Then the CBLDF reminded us that boners are totes legal. But some retailers said, I don't care, I ain't selling boners. Then Comixology came out and said my bad bro, my bad. So now you can read all the boners you want. I guess. Which is kind of where we were before it all started but now a lot more people know about that Saga comic. But it still kinda sucked. Teh intronets everybody! Seriously though, Tom Spurgeon summed up the more important parts of the story here. One of the best things about this issue was that Spurgeon got to talk about boners in, I think, three separate blog posts. So, that was a good week for me in my comics internet reading. "Mostly, though, anyone that interprets the clumsy negotiation of a potentially troubling content policy by a corporate entity as some sort of failure to make sure that the PR image of involved business is treated with some perceived level of demanded respect is a scary person. Fuck that. Question everything. Tiny boners 4-ever." Tiny boners 4-ever indeed.
Boners.
In other news, just last week, I became the owner of a cell pad pod phone for the first time ever. That's right. I have a "smartphone". Mine is an android phone and the Comixology app was the first app I installed. So no Apple store for me. All the boners I want!
Boners.
Speaking of ~~boners~~ Comixology, remember that whole deal where Comixology and Marvel tried to give away over 700 comics to way over 700 people and it all blew up? Well, just like they promised, they delivered this week. I got the comics I wanted easy as pie. Like, ridiculously easy. Like, faster than I could eat my dinner. I did not chose to own all of the comics but I got a lot. A lot people. And I'm loving it. So, boners or no boners, high five Comixology.

(Doctor Who reads comics. Of course. Image stolen from Bleeding Cool.)

The Fluke Mini-Comics and Zine fest took place back on April 6th in Athens, Georgia USA. Sadly, I missed it. I was going to go but things occured. So, I did what any hard working comics blogger would do and I called up the most dangerous man in the world, Henry Eudy on my email phone. (Which does not exist.) Our conversation went like this:

from the desk of file under other, April 3, 2013:

Dearest Bro Duder,

Are you still going to Fluke? I unfortunately cannot go. Again. Due to ~~the horrors of going through a separation/divorce and~~ needing to use my spare time knocking over convenience stores to pay for my kid's braces.

If you are going, would you be interested in writing another con report for file under other for absolutely no reward whatsoever?

If so, please send the following fax to Dave Sim:

"Dear Mr. Sim,

No one has a fax machine anymore therefore you have received this via magic and you are either a wizard, elf or troll. Please forward this fax to Shannon Smith via your magic ways so that he will know whether or not Henry Eudy can write a con report.

Sincerely,

Gloria Steinem"

from the desk of Agent Henry Eudy, April 3, 2013:

I received the following reply by way of it being taped to the topside of a badger that somehow appeared in my living room:

"Dearest sirs,

I can't be bothered to give a damn about your completely insignificant con report. Frankly, if yours truly and my amazingly underrated and misunderstood tracings of women from Vogue aren't the main attraction at a convention, then why bother anyway? It's all too insipid. Probably a woman is behind this. What kind of name is Shannon anyway? Humph. Anyhow, I got tracings to do and rants to write. You two pansies figure this our your own selves."

Graciously yours,

David Albert Sim"

Weird, huh? Plus I think it was all written with old cigarette butts. Anyhow, I am planning on making FLUKE although I already know I'll have to bail out a few hours early to get back home for an prior engagement. Still, I should be able to experience enough for a solid con report. Sorry I won't be seeing you there. Good luck with those robberies and such.

---- H.

Sadly, Agent Eudy's mission was to be aborted due to life events happening. Like they do. But all hope was not lost.

from the desk of Agent Henry Eudy. April 5, 2013:

Hold the phone! I did have an idea for a perfectly good con reporter. I believe all around good guy and fancy beard grower Adam Casey will be at FLUKE. Might make a pretty good Henry H. Eudy replacement, if you ask me.

And so it would come to pass that Adam Casey and his beard would journey to Fluke and record the important details of this most important event. And now, dear reader, you can read the whole thing here.

(Glorp mania takes over Fluke. Image stolen from Shawn Daughhetee's facebook.)

Here is a comic about how it is apparently hard to openly like things if you are a girl. Honestly, this notion has never made any sense to me. I just don't get being insecure about the things you like. And I also just don't get that there have apparently been generations of girls around this world afraid to openly like video games. I guess everyone's perception is different but I thought pretty much every girl on post-industrial electricity having Earth since the Atari 2600 played video games. My high school girlfriend and her little sister both beat my ass at Super Mario Bros y'all. For those of you that do not live in my reality, I offer you both condolences and congratulations depending on which you would prefer.

There have been several of transgendered comics characters before. You people are aware that things happened prior to six months ago right? But, either way, high five transgendered folks!

Do you need things rated on a points scale before you buy them? Or, do you need to look at a points scale after the fact to validate your purchase and in turn your overall value as a human being on planet Earth? Well, congratulations.
Robert Venditti and Van Jensen talk about Green Lantern. (Hey guys, don't forget you promised to have Tomar-Re in every panel. Thanks! Chicken Fish Head Guy forever!)
Ben Towle of Oyster War and many other things was interviewed at Comics Coast to Coast.
Jill Thompson on creating the t-shirt art for WWE's CM Punk.
Another installment of Pádraig Ó Méalóid's Marvelman history is up.
Finally a jihad we can all get exited about.

Above is a picture of the world's happiest illustrator Ashley Holt with his head on a stuffed version of The Demon. I think Ashley had a birthday since our last Parade-O-Links. That's as good a reason as any to post this picture. (But I was going to post it anyway. I think Josh Latta made it.) I believe Robert Newsome also had a birthday since our last P-O-L. And according to the facebook, April 16 was Brad McGinty's birthday. Happy birthday y'all buncha geezers.
Josh Latta: Social Media Queen.
I've never been to MoCCA but I liked this piece Darryl Ayo Brathwaite wrote about it.
How about instead of step 5 we just slash your tires and burn your house to the ground you ignorant douche face?

BREAKING: Producers of the upcoming film adaptation of Dave Sim's Last Girlfriend have announced that the role of the fax machine will be played by Bradley Cooper.
Here's a tip for all you young copywriters: stop sucking so hard.
Tom Spurgeon does some very interesting talking about comics at Deconstructing Comics.
A while back, Tucker Stone (still not dead) talked about Thanos and Judge Dredd and other things. That Thanos comic sure looks weird. Speaking of Thanos, one day earlier this month I was driving down the road listening to a sports talk radio station and I heard a radio commercial for Marvel's Thanos Rising. That happened. I swear to you that I was not under the influence. Speaking of Judge Dredd, I watched that Dredd movie. I liked it a lot. Liked the look of it. Loved the sound design. I could listen to motors and gadgets for hours.
And finally...Iron Man's a drunk ya know.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

The fuo Fluke 2013 report by Adam Casey.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:52:00 +0000

The FLUKE That Was.

Adam Casey here, reporting on behalf of file under other. I can say that I had the best comics (mini or otherwise) in all of FLUKE and that I’m the bestest ever.

Wait. Shannon, I have to write more than that? And be truthful? FINE. Put down the crowbar, I’ll type it out for real.

Yeesh….

Okay, ya’ll, so let’s set the scene: The place? The 40 Watt in Athens, GA. The day? Saturday, April 6th. The purpose? FLUKE.

From this reporter’s perspective, attendance at FLUKE this year was on par with previous years, both in terms of exhibitors and attendees. The lay out was modified slightly from previous years with lack of “end caps” on the rows which anyone who has had to sit in the corner of (i.e. me) can tell you, it ain’t the best seating arrangement to be had.

This year featured an appearance by Chris Schweizer who always had a gaggle of people around his table. I mean ALWAYS. There were less people lined up to kiss the new Pope’s ring on Easter than there were waiting to bask in Schweizer’s awesomeness.

Also present was Rich Tommaso, signing his stellar output of work. Seriously, the guy is a siiiiick cartoonist. That’s right, five “i”s. Deal with it.

Representing the ATL Mafia was Jackie Lewis, Cara McGee, and Catie Donnelly. I might be missing other Atlanta residents, but being from North Carolina, all Georgians look alike. (Sorry. Not Sorry.)

Some people that I know are from Georgia are the organizers of FLUKE, Patrick Dean and Robert Newsome. They are fine and dandy gents (but not dandies. Don’t call Robert that. I learned the hard way.) who put on a stellar show. Robert seemed to be the enforcer, running around making things happen. Tables need adjusting? He’s your guy. Oh, we need more chairs? Robert already has them in his hands. Want to see somebody burn his mouth on some fries from Clocked? Watch Robert eat!

Another Georgian was my tablemate, Jordan Mooney. While not a Georgia native, he now calls Savannah home where he makes the best coffee in Savannah, and maybe all of Georgia at Foxy Loxy. This was Jordan’s first time exhibiting, but you may have traded with him at past shows for his mini-comic The A-to-Z Guide To Dispatching Your Enemies.

Joey Weiser was there with his new slick Mermin color graphic novel from Oni Press along with the Spongebob Comics he has contributed to.

Former Georgian(?)… Indianan? Indian? DAVID YODER, STOP BEING A NOMAD! Anyways, David Yoder was there. His stuff is always a hoot and a half.

South Carolina had representatives in the form of J. Chris Campbell, who was exhibiting with his neat stencil prints, and non-exhibitors Adam and Shawn Daughhetee who graciously gave up their table so Rich Tommaso could sign books. They’re good people.

Indiana native Kyle Starks was at FLUKE with his wrasslin’ graphic novel The Legend of Ricky Thunder. You might have seen this up on Kickstarter, and if you threw money his way, you’ve done so wisely. It’s a sharp book so be on the look out for it.

I’m not certain if he had a table, but Scott Stripling was walking around trading his mini-comics Shock ‘N’ Awww…(about the seedy back stage initiation of Roddy Piper into the wrestling community [and it involves Ric Flair, so I can’t be certain if this did happen, which it may have, but you’re better off not Googling the contents if you get this mini.]) and an untitled one that channels Jack Kirby by way of Brendan McCarthy.

For this reporter, the best deal to be had was the mini-comics from Nora and Price Colussy-Esties, titled We’re Spies?! and Diary Of A Werewolf respectively. At 50 cents a piece, they were a bargain, and they were awesome. We’re Spies?! is more of a chapbook (with two parts completed) whereas Diary is more of an illustrated story and it ends on a cliffhanger. UGH. It’d be okay with me if Price stayed home from school for a day or two so part two can go ahead and be unleashed. I’ll write him a doctor’s note.

Speaking of value, one person had a sign saying that you could pay less with BitCoin. I guess they’re from the Star Trek future or something, in which case, please don’t mess up the time stream. KTHXBI.

All in all, a great show, awesome venue, and neat books down every row. If you’re within driving distance of Athens (and not there for the UGA football game which made parking and eating at area restaurants AWFUL), then I recommend blocking out some time for FLUKE.

Now, shout outs:

Junkman’s Daughter’s Brother

Henry Eudy

And that’s the way it is.

Adam Casey's resume includes being a previous Punt, Pass, and Kick champion of Johnston County, North Carolina, playing with a bunch of vacuum cleaners with the screenwriter of "Pacific Rim", and watching all 7 seasons of The West Wing in one month. He doodles at adamcasey.com and retweets your rebloggings of repins on Twitter at @adamccasey.

Thanks Adam!

For other Flukings about teh intronets, you may want to check out the following links:
Fluke site.
Fluke interviews at The Dollar Bin podcast.
Comics Alliance's Chris Sims on some of the book he picked up.
Box Brown's Fluke poster.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03312013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:37:00 +0000

(Pizzazz October 1978. Stolen from Star Wars 77-80 Collector's Blog.)

"'Why don't you write comics anymore?' I get asked this a lot, so much so that it made sense to me to post something about it. At some point I was no longer a writer. I had, somehow, become a black writer. This perplexed me, considering that, back in the halcyon 80’s, where Marvel was a hotbed of scathing, litigiously un-PC sexism and racism (reference: Rescue Me's potty-mouthed fire house), I was never seen as a 'black writer.' I competed with everybody else, with guys who had much more experience than I, and did the grunt work and odd jobs just like anybody else. Nobody at DC hired me to reboot Green Lantern in Emerald Dawn because I was a black guy, and Fabian Nicieza seemed to not notice or care about my skin color when he approached me to dream up a Power Man/Iron Fist-esque buddy book for his startup imprint Acclaim. Pre-Milestone, the subject just didn't come up. Which isn't to suggest racism did not exist, it surely did, but that, for the most part, my race had nothing to do with the assignments given me (or not as the case may be). Somewhere along the way, Marvel became much more PC and I became inexplicably much blacker." -Christopher Priest stolen from VR Gallaher.

Happy belated Easter Brothers and sisters. And to those of you that don't celebrate Easter, Happy Easter! This Parade-O-Links is firing up the floats a bit late. I had family stuff that was more important than talking about the return of a character most famous for having the panties "accidentally" left off her action figure.
Speaking of panties.
Ooh. That was a bad one. Cheap. Sorry ladies.
Dudes. It is not okay to disrespect the ladies. Or, ya know, people. Don't disrespect people. And the irony here is that the absolute last thing in the world those jerks want if for the ladies to stop dressing up as their favorite characters.
Rob over at Panel Patter voices some concerns that I myself share about the seemingly imminent demise of the RSS feeds. I think I talked about it before but, dang y'all RSS readers are where it's at! You get to read what you like without ads or without being on Facebook. That IS as good as teh internet is ever going to get. This is Tesla sitting there saying 'chords are for bitches y'all, I can just shoot power through the air' and everyone saying, 'nah we'll stick with chords'. (Ads are the chords in my half-assed metaphor. My point is, ads are the worst. This blog has ads on them because I'm saving up for a pack of gum but if you read this in a RSS reader you would be free of the ads.) I'm not sure what individual websites like this one you are reading can do going forward to build an audience in the Facebook and Google only web 3.0 but, for me personally, as a reader of teh intronets, I plan to cling to RSS readers like Charlton Heston's cold dead hands. Just this morning I finally go tall my subscriptions imported into The Old Reader and I like it a lot. I think I'm going to like it a whole lot more than Google Reader. So, not all is lost. And for you comics creators thinking why the capitol F do I care how Shannon reads teh intronets- I'm reading your webcomics through my RSS reader or I'm not reading them at all. Ain't nobody got time for bookmarks.
Oh, and Rob also talked about Oily Comics.

So...cartoonist, animator and hair model Brad McGinty bought the world famous Glorp Gum company. Glorp Gum was okay but it was the free t-shirts that kept us coming back for more. I grew up in the Appalachia mountains so most of the folks around here were poor. I remember most of the little league and t-ball teams just had Glorp t-shirts instead of uniforms. And we loved it! Those t-shirts were great! I'm super excited about this thing because some of the new Glorp t-shirts look a lot like they were created by Brad McGinty himself. And they look fantastic. You can get your free t-shirt with purchase of gum here.
I have really enjoyed Pádraig Ó Méalóid's history of Marvelman over at The Beat. He is up to part 8.
Marvel's WCE wrasslin' comics y'all.
Drew Weing has a tumblr where he posts drawings of Dungeons and Dragons characters. This is what teh intronets are for.
Eleanor Davis in Lone Wolf.
I'm very sad to hear Bruce Timm stepping away from Warner Bros DC comics based animation. A lot of the positives that exist in all of DC's products (TV, comics, toys, lunch boxes, clothing etc.) of the past 20 years are a result of or at least inspired by ideas Bruce Timm put in motion. There is just no way to overstate the impact his character design style has had on, oh just about everything you see with your eyes in comics, toys and animation post 1992. I've voiced some, uh, uneasiness, with the Warner Premier direct to video style currently used in the DC cartoons. I feel the tone of those movies comes from a very cynical place. It is also disheartening to hear that these shows are canceled not because quality or even ratings but because of toy sales. Maybe Timm is getting out while the getting is good. Or maybe he just found something better to do. If we get something where he is more hands on in the look and tone of the project then maybe this ain't bad news.
Speaking of DC and Warner Bros cartoons, Warner has rolled out a lot of great cartoons to Netflix this weekend. My kids have already been watching a lot of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. The Justice League stuff is in there now, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Chowder... I could go on and on.
My favorite Batman anything of all the Batman everything is Batman: The Brave and the Bold but that Adam West Batman was pretty great too. Hotdog phone everybody.

Some people got worked up about "the M word" in Uncanny Avengers issue 5. I read the 1st issue of that comic and did not like it so, I'm not reading issue 5. This concludes my review of Uncanny Avengers issue 5. For a more thorough analysis, I refer you now to The Comix Cube.
You keep posting pics of Girlscouts making comics and I'll keep linking them.
R. Crumb sho does like them reckerds.
If you are in Winston-Salem NC tomorrow, please go run your fingers through Adam Casey's beard for me.
Josh Latta played Expert of Nothing.
And Josh Latta played a bible salesman in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. I bet if that Latta guy made some comics they would be swell.
Jim Rugg everywhere. In the future there will only be Jim Rugg comics.
Dustin Harbin makes it and then tells everybody about it.
Plaid Stallions on growing up Who.
A sample of Jim Steranko's Outland.
Pop Matters on Grant Morrison's recent work at DC.
And The Beat takes a look at Morrison's Action Comics run.
Tucker Stone is not dead.
People. Megan Draper is so pretty.

Robert Newsome of the Second Period Industries Talking and Music Podcast talked to Batmanologist Chris Sims about everything that matters. He also played some music. He also is one of the guys behind...
Fluke is next Saturday! Or this coming Saturday. Saturday week? It's on April 6th y'all. Athens GA. It's probably going to be the best day of your life if you go. Here is a list of talented people that will be there.
I don't talk enough about webcomics so here is Fleen which talks about webcomics the exact right amount.
Patrick Dean is drawing some new comics. Suicide postponed!
Congrats to Pat Lewis and all the other fine Reuben nominees.
And finally... Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03242013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 04:51:00 +0000

(The Avengers #4 from March 1964. The month my Uncle Buddy was born.)

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 0342013:

"Take a lesson from Watchmen and come up with new characters for that stuff. And then go back to Superman and Batman and put the same kind of love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve been putting into all those rape scenes and body mutilations into something kids can read, and adults can also be proud to read because of all the love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve put into it, and make those the “real” versions." -Roger Langridge.

My uncle, Eugene Stewart Jr., passed away this week while on vacation in Mexico. He was a good uncle. A good man. I think everyone that knew him considered him a friend. He had been a lot of things to a lot of different people. Paper boy, delivery boy, small business owner, banker, mayor, golf buddy, poker buddy, son, brother, father and grandfather. His nicknames were Bud and Buddy and he was a good buddy to a lot of people. He took my cousins and I to movies, putt putt, go karts, amusement parks and golfing. He was very sharp and very funny. He loved to laugh. He was one of the only adults that I knew growing up that listened to rock n' roll. He showed me how to play a Van Halen song when I got my first guitar. When I wrecked my car last year, he showed up on the scene out of nowhere, made sure I was okay and did all the talking when the sheriff's deputy showed up. Of course the deputy knew him. Everyone knew him. I was lucky to know him and have him for an uncle.

Eugene Stewart Jr. probably getting ready to help out at the family paper. Several years ago. Saint Paul, VA.

Remember last week when I told you that SPX would sell out instantly? Well, I was sort of right. It would have but it exploderated first. I did not try to register because I"m broke but I watched it through twitter like a blacked out sporting event. SPX handled the ordeal with a lot of class. Because of course they did. And for the record, I come down firmly against curation. Let some other show be TCAF south. Let SPX be SPX. (Well, maybe give former Ignatz winners an early shot at a table.)
We are all very old. I think I had less than ten of those comics when they came out but I think I've read all of them by now.

Those Al Plastino Peanuts comics that might have been.
And more on that from Ben Towle.
Twist the knife. Keep twisting and twisting and twisting and maybe one day you'll forget that there was once a soul where that black thing lives now.
I'm ready to be the next former writer of a very important DC comic. Call me.
Rob Ullman sticks it to the man.
That time Superman punched his pregnant wife into outer space.
There is a new The Atomic Elbow on sale. The first four were great so this one is probably a winner.

Grant Morrison on ending his run on Action Comics. I read it. I liked it a lot. Looking forward to re-reading the whole run as soon as I can find the time.
If you want to get all the books with drawings of penises in them out of the school libraries then you're going to have to take away the notebooks of every 10 to 18 year old boy in America.
One of the standard comment responses you will see whenever someone talks about giving Steve Ditko what is owed to him for Spider-Man is that Ditko would not want the money anyway. Can I just say, that assumption is based on the myth of Steve Ditko. We don't know the reality. And it's not our call to make. It's not the point anyway. The point is that Marvel/Disney should do the right thing. Not the legal thing. The right thing. Do it. They could stack up the money in a big pile like in The Dark Knight and let Ditko come in and burn it all for all I care. Just do the right thing.
George Lucas on Al Williamson.
In one shot of that new Teen Titans Go promo, the girls are wearing bathrobes, Beast Boy is in his underwear and Robin is naked with some mud or something covering his naughty parts. What is going on in Titans Tower?
Thanks to Ben Towle, Adam Daughhetee and everyone else that posted, tweeted, etcetered about fuo and the Parade-O-Links last week. This week's installment is minimal at best but I'm sure you all will understand that there are times you have to step away and put family first.
And finally...we don't pay attention to any of her bullshit rules now.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03172103

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

(Conan #15 cover corrected and improved by juvenile delinquent Patrick Dean. Stolen without permission from the Bizzaro-Wuxtry facebook page.)

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 03172013:

"Curation just isn't in our DNA. How are the kids gonna learn, man? You can't shut em out." -Whoever pilots the SPX twitter account.

Happy belated Birthday to my daughter Kassidy Smith. She turned 11 last Sunday which was why I was too busy to ever post last week's Parade-O-Links. She did the drawing above. Yesterday (actually last Saturday when I started putting this post together) she worked on painting a huge Adventure Time tree house she built and she created a custom case for her iPod touch using multicolored duct tape. Yes, multicolored duct tape is a thing that exists.
So, who wants some free comics? Apparently everyone! So, Marvel and Comixology got together to try and give way over 700 free digital comics to anyone that was paying attention. I'm a big advocate for Comixology. At least since my daughter got the Comixology app on her iPod touch. So I think it was a great move for both Comixology and Marvel. Of course it was going to crash. I got in for a few minutes and you could add about 25 comics to your cart at the same time. I'm sure there were people trying to checkout with hundreds of items in their cart at once. Crash is the only way that ends. The great and powerful Jog talked about the whole deal here and wrote about some other digital offerings. I've checked out Panel Nine a few times but never pulled the trigger on any of it. I'm cheap and busy. I mainly buy and/or redeem digital comics that I can share with my daughter. I don't think the Panel Nine stuff falls in that category. Maybe one day when I grow up and get my own cell pad pod phone I might give it a spin.
And speaking of Comixology- this Submit self publishing deal through their site could be a big deal. I've already added Too Much Coffee Man and Nathan Sorry to "My Comics". I'm excited about it. Lots of potential there for the self publisher. I don't know if it's going to create any self publishing break out starts but you gotta be in the game to win and this is a nice start.
And speaking of digital digitalings- Codes man codes. Bluray codes, comics, codes... I live for the codes! Seriously. If you don't want your codes, don't sell them, email them to me! To pull up my comics and movies on whatever device is closest to me is great for me. My life is a train wreck but it is awesome to be able to watch and read wherever my post crash cadaver lands.
But ya know, paper is still pretty great too. Oh if only there were a way to read paper comic books for free.

I'd like to take a moment to beg you to do things. Do you like file under other? Do you like the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links? I sure do. And I'd like to keep them going. But dang, the way my life is right now, I probably have less than four hours a week not consumed by my job and parenting duties. (And I'm gonna spend one of those watching Justified.) So, it would mean a lot to me to feel like there was a point in spending that time writing about other people's comic books. Especially when the only thing in life that holds any real interest for me other than my kids is the dream of making my own comics. So, hey, um maybe share this website on twitter, or the facebook, or G+, or the tumblr, or the reddit or maybe even the next time you come in contact with one of the flesh humans you might use your talking parts to share the news. I know it sounds pathetic and desperate to ask you to do this but, trust me, I don't know anything about "driving traffic" or "building an audience" or any of that crap. Maybe you do. Maybe you can help.

(The best magazine cover ever stolen from Plaid Stallions.)

If by some miracle I get this posted on time and if by some miracle you got out of bed and read this on Sunday morning... you might still have a shot at getting a table at SPX. Online registration starts at noon. I suspect all the tables will be gone by, oh say... noon. So, good luck. If it is not yet noon when you are reading this, here is the registration walk through. I believe that this will be the registration link. But don't take my word for it. You should have probably already been following SPX on the twudder. It's a great show and I hope to go. I can't afford the table at the moment. One of the kids needs braces so I guess I'll pay for that instead. But I do hope to make the show so good luck getting a table and make sure to bring some cool stuff for me to look at.

(People. I really love this drawing of Speedball by Daniel Spottswood. This is not a news link or anything. I just really like it.)

The cast and crew of file under other wish Kim Thompson all the best. We met him at SPX once and he was swell. Plus, he herded all the cats at the Comics Journal message board for years. I appreciated that. Oh, and comics. Comics are good too. We need Kim Thompson. Get better real soon.
A lot of thoughts were thunked, discussions were discussed and blogs were blogged after the great comics creator Jerry Ordway posted some thoughts on how hard it is to get work in comics at his age. Which is just stupid, because there are probably less than three comics published by DC right now that would not be instantly 200% better if Ordway were either the artist or the writer on the book. The Challengers of the Unknown comics Ordway did last year were, in my opinion, the best looking comics the New 52 has produced so far. With the exception of Capullo's Batman, I think they may be the only comics in the new 52 where the characters have had the same faces in panel five as they did in panel 3 on any given page.
Mark Evanier also had some thoughts on the issue.
And Tom Bondurant said some smart things.
And Gerry Conway, he thinks things too.
Look, there were a ton of links to the Ordway thing. I'm late on this but let me just say Ordway is great and literally, no crap, I have and I will buy whatever you the comics publisher people of the world hire him to draw. Love his stuff. I'm not going to hunt the link but some editor said something to the effect that they could not imagine Ordway drawing all those lines on Superman's current ~~garbage sack~~ costume. There is so much about that statement that is infuriating to me. For one, if the job is to draw stupid lines on a costume then Jerry Ordway will draw the lines and make them look great because the man is going to deliver. Secondly, that's your freaking problem for giving Superman a crap Jim Lee costume. Thirdly, that's just your lack of imagination and CAPITOL F YOU IDIOT you are mentally disabled. If you can't imagine a guy that has delivered at the highest level for 30 years delivering one more time then what the FFFF is wrong with your thinking box and how the FFFF are you in your job? So your customers are going to lose out on great work because of your lack of imagination?
F!

Tumblr is the enemy and must be destroyed at all costs. (But in the meantime, please follow my tumblr.)
Kickstarter will save us all. (Except that it probably won't.)
Those Bill Sienkiewcz New Mutant comics were amazing looking. I had not idea what to make of them when I was a kid but I've been trying to get as many of them as I can find when I dig through the dollar boxes at shops and cons.
Here is a great story about a 60s commercial artist getting hired to do 60s commercial art in the year 2013.
Hey. If you ever get to make a movie about a huge group of characters, all of which were created by one man... please, please, remember to invite that guy to the premier of the movie.

Just above these words is a convention sketch I did of Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant riding a shark in outer space. I always wonder what happens with those con sketches. Well, this one inspired a story in an ongoing webcomic.
That Superman lawsuit that was totally over? Maybe it's not over.
So, like Commissioner Gordon is going to have a cell phone? Alfred rants about Downton Abbey?
I'm typing this while listening to this.
Hey, it's Crogan Adventures comics you can read with your ears!
Check out this super great poster Jost Latta done arted up. You can buy one or twelve. Josh as been knocking out some very impressive Avatards lately as well. You should check 'em out.

This is a bit old now but that Gary Groth interview Tom Spurgeon did was very good.
CGR talked to Ann Nocenti and Louise Simonson because it was women's day or month or something. I like comics by both of those ladies a whole lot. Women? I guess they are pretty okay.
Jamie Hernandez talked to Hazlitt.
This George Lucas art museum thing looks like it could be spectacular. Ziah Grace at Comics Alliance wrote about it here. From what I've heard about Lucas's comics collection, if he put just part of that in there it would be maybe the best comics museum in the US. Maybe? I hope it happens.
New comics from Gabby Schulz boys and girls! Here he returns to the credit union. And here are some comics about the boys in blue. That Schulz, he sure loves the police. Oh no terrorism indeed.
This Kickstarter for some Steve Ditko comics already met its goal but you can still get in on some good stuff.
March MODOK madness!
I'm pretty sure everything in my brains already came from comic books.
That Michael Deforge cover is neat-o mosquito.
There is still a little time to get in on Retrofit Comics subscription deal. If I had any money at all I would. Maybe I'll see some blood this week.

I'm very angry about the cancellation of Green Lantern and Young Justice. I have a lot of cartoon based anger these days. Why does a TV show have to sell toys? See, that's not how TV works- You make good TV that people like then you make your money by selling advertisements. Gumball toys sold = zero. Level Up toys sold = zero. Incredible Crew toys sold = zero. Total Drama Island toys sold = zero. Johnny Test toys sold = zero. And, now is as good as time to point out that Annoying Orange is the worst thing that has ever happened.
I've got a lot of Star Wars based cartoon anger too.
Look I've got two kids. I watch a lot of Disney television. Let me make this perfectly clear to you. This is an indisputable fact. Disney hates cartoons. Don't expect Disney to give you MORE Marvel or Star Wars on TV. Before being bought by Disney, Marvel had 5 cartoons on the air or in the works. Right now they have one with two more on the way. Before being bought by Disney, there was one, very, very, very good Star Wars cartoon on TV with another on the way. Now there are zero. People, have you seen that Jessie TV show? Disney TV shows are awful! What did you expect?
I'm also angry about Google Reader going away. At least 70% of this post came from my Google Reader feed. If RSS really does die then I guess I'll have to start blogging about facebook advertisements.
Not even going to talk about Sullivan's Sluggers.

(Maybe the coolest Spider-Man I've ever seen. And I've looked at Spider-Man every day for over three decades. Drawn by Rafael Grampá. Stolen from Dean Trippe.)

Them Star Wars movies were a-okay.
Back when the kid writing the comics was younger than the heroes' sidekicks.
My God it's full of Kirby.
Astro City is making a return. That is a series I never got into while it was actually happening but later read a bunch of the trade paperbacks thanks to the local library. Good stuff.
Hopefully never.
This Vertigo timeline was very surprising for me. During the time when The Sandman was a phenomenon it seemed like the run lasted forever. Or at least a decade. But I guess it was only really three years.
Ya know. The more I think about it, Jack Kirby might be the only person in the past 70 years of US comics that never read a single word Stan Lee wrote.
POW... SUPERHERO FAN!
Shut up and stop everything. Sal Buscema drew new ROM.
Men, if you’re feeling a bit queasy at the idea of so many beloved characters suffering rape – if you’re feeling creeped out by someone enthusiastically arguing in favour of them being raped because it’s too bad if it upsets you, it’s realistic… Well, hi. Welcome to the world of women.
And finally... Vatican the Gathering? Vatican 360?

Oh, and happy Saint Patrick's day and all that. Totally forgot. (Since it was not Saint Patrick's day when I originally typed all this.)

Oh, and one more last thing! Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other? It's true! And, I'll probably respond. Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes. It's your intronet. Have fun!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03032013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:00:00 +0000

(Image stolen from the Lattaland tumblr.)

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 03032013:

"And the strange thing about that, and the strange thing about the whole strip, is that it’s definitely true. It’s autobiographical, but it’s also fictional. But that means my actual real life is becoming fiction if I am saying lines for the idea of getting a response. So suddenly my strip is autobiographical, but my real life is fictional. [laughs] And then, towards the end, there’s this weird feedback loop too, because I’m putting it up online, and I’m putting it in the newspaper, and I hear responses back from people, and make adjustments to my life based on reader reaction. I mean, that is insane! So I began to feel like I was trapped in some sort of strange dimension where nothing was real. You know it’s like the philosophical question of are you a person, or are you butterfly dreaming they’re a person? Are you a brain locked in a box on some distant planet being fed stimuli?" -James Kochalka.

Achewood Television Trailer One "Hello, world" from therussians on Vimeo.

Let me just cut to the chase pals. The most important thing you are going to get out of this week's Parade-O-Links is that I'm going to tell you to go read the 2nd installment of Tom Hart's book about his daughter, "RL Book 2". You should also read "RL Book 1" if you have not already.
Apparently March 24th is going to be Mini-Comics day. So, go make a minicomic. What's stopping you? (I prefer "minicomic" to "mini-comic". The hyphen is against the minimalist nature of minicomics. And also it is stupid.)
AdHouse presents Jim Rugg's front runner for 2013 cover of the year.
Speaking of Jim Rugg, Faith Erin Hicks told him, Ed Piskor and Jason Lex something they did not know.
Josh Latta takes a look at that book about John K's Ren and Stimpy.
Here is a great story about trading rare records for some R. Crumb art.

Black Pus - 1000 Years from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Sad news from Josh Blair as he announces that Candy or Medicine will come to an end. If you want to make the last issue, the deadline is April 15.
Small Press Expo has moved its registration to March 17th.
Fluke and Autoptic also had press releases which I shared here.
Okay, here is the thing about my twitter feed. Or two things. 1) I follow back almost everyone that follows me. I'm nice. Most of the people that follow me are in or around comics in some way. BUT, when you unfollow me, I unfollow you. 2) Most of what I post here in the Parade-O-Links is stuff I found on twitter. As in, stuff the people I follow have posted on twitter. As in stuff that was not posted by people that have unfollowed me. (Because I wouldn't know because I'm not following them anymore.) Just saying.
Okay 2, Marvel and your representatives that surf teh intronets- I am the customer. The customer does not give a single solitary sack of crap if you met your "metrics" or not. In fact, the word "metrics" makes us HATE YOU. Don't say that crap to your ~~fans~~ customers or in a forum where you should know your ~~fans~~ customers will pay attention to what you are saying. Ever. What we want is for you to give us easy access to books as good or better than your competitors at a price we can afford. That is because we are customers.

Female Super Hero Fan Film from Jesse V. Johnson on Vimeo.

Here is part three of that Marvelman history thing The Beat has been running.
Neil Cohn dissects Eddie Campbell's "rules" with some interesting info on how your eyeballs work.
Hey look, it's Julie Doucet.
The Comics Reporter interviewed the great Richard Sala. (My daughter really wants a sequel to Cat Burglar Black.)
Robert Newsome's latest talking and music thing has a fun interview with a guy from a possibly fictional place called "Britain". I learned some neat things about "British" television and "sport". (Also known as "sports".)
Okay 3, I made a note to share with you some links to some things Sean T. Collins wrote about webcomics. They were good things worth reading. But now, all I can find when I search for it is a huge red cloud with the word "vorpalizer" in the middle of it. Down below it are words that may be good but they are scrunched down there and it makes my head hurt. So, ya know, I tried. I tried.
Sean T. Collins also wrote a thing about the latest issue of Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated. I can read that because it is on Wired. You can too. I will add that Morrison's Batman got screwed at a lot of points along the way. Probably not intentional screwing but just bad timing. For one, right from the start he got screwed by coming starting hid run at a time when 100% of the hype was focused on the Frank Miller/ Jim Lee ~~catastrophe~~ All-Star Batman. Then he had to carry DC comics on his back has he swam through the river of fire that was 52, Final Crisis and Flashpoint. Then once he was finally doing his thing for real with Batman Inc. he got shut down by the New 52 and had to re-start the thing nine or ten months after the newness of the New 52 had worn off. Being vastly successful is hard y'all.

But enough about Grant Morrison, let's talk about Grant Morrison...

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Newsarama.)
...was either going to be Uncanny X-Men #2 or Batman Incorporated #8 because they were the only new comics I read this week. Uncanny X-Men was good. I'm enjoying these Bendis X-Men comics a lot and thanks to those digital codes that come with them, my daughter is enjoying them on her iPod touch thing. Those Bendis X-Men comics seem to come out like, every day so it has already been an impressive run. The best X-Men comics I've read since Grant Morrison's New X-Men. But this issue of Uncanny was just talking so we will go with Batman Inc. #8 by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, Nathan Fairbairn and several other people as the best comic of the week.
Also, because it was the best comic of the week.
Chris Burnham gives us 22 pages of super cool post Moebius/Quitely/McCarthy super hero punch up with the flying and the zooming and the whoosh and the crash and the bizzap and the boom and even some bam sok whap. Burnham keeps enough detail in each panel to make it feel like the characters are real enough to bleed but his anatomy looks like it was taken from action figures so his fight scenes always have poses just a few lines away from being comical. Right on the edge where I like it. There will come a day when you can't buy a monthly Batman comic drawn by Chris Burnham and that will be unfortunate.
And while Jason Master's line is not as funky and cool as Burnham's he does a good job keeping the storytelling style in place during in his fill in pages.
The story is a continuation of the war between Batman and Talia al Ghul that Morrison has been building for about six years now. There have been some bumps in the road. Some major distractions. Batman died. The whole DC Universe died. The New 52 happened. Batman Inc. was on hiatus for about nine months and then before it could build it's momentum up, issue #3 was delayed by the horrible shooting in Aurora, Colorado. But by issue five or six, things were falling back in place and it has become clear to me, that Batman Inc. is the best comic DC is publishing. Scott Snyder's Batman got to hold that title for a year or so and it will probably retake it when Morrison is gone but right now, at this moment, this is as good as DC gets at making comic books.
Morrison and crew give us so many great moments in this comic. This comic is Robin/Damian Wayne's comic book and everyone else is just supporting cast. We get Damian flying in bat Iron Man armor. We get Damian taking out little kids because he's a little kid and he can do what Dick and Gordon can't. We get Damian schooling the other Robins on how what is really at stake with this villain because only he understands this villain. Because she's his mom. And, we get little kid Damian fighting a giant grown up cloned version of himself. Most of which takes place in one amazing 20 panel page.

SPOILERS!

Duh.

And he dies.

C'mon people. If you had been reading the comic you knew he was going to die. And if you were not reading the comic then, bug off, why would you possibly care? And yeah, it is lame that DC chose a publicity stunt over letting the timing of the death be a surprise but, welcome to mass entertainment. It sucks okay. Of course it sucks. It sucks that something that was building for six years became a press release. It sucks that a character that does the one thing mainstream comic book characters never do, grow, will be remembered as that day everyone went on twitter rants against DC. Yeah. It sucks.
But it does not change a single line or single word on the page in what is a perfectly good Batman comic book full of running and jumping and punching and fighting.
The kid was always going to die. For a lot of reasons. For one, it's Grant Morrison's character. Sure, other writers gave Batman his son but Morrison made this character. And dealing with this character has been much of what Morrison's Batman has been about. And like Aztek, Morrison was never going to leave this character for other writers to screw up. And Batman just can't have a son forever because the reader always wants the story where the next generation takes over. And Batman is never going to let the next generation take over. He's Batman. Or as Morrison himself explained, "what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?"
So as far as comics deaths go, I feel this is a good one. The PR cheapened it but it's a good death. It does suck because Damian was a lot of fun, but it's a good death.
And it does raise some interesting questions. This comic specifically is full of images of a child being beaten and eventually killed. It also shows a child beating up children. It is harsh. Super hero comics have always had that weird history of children in violence. Children reading about children in violence. But the world is violent. Super hero comics are still mostly unrealistic adults fighting unrealistic adults. In weird costumes. In the real world, children shoot and kill children on the streets of Chicago. Children are forced to fight as soldiers in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of children are fighting as soldiers right now. This is who we are as a race right now in the year 2013 on planet Earth. As parents, the human race has failed. We are the bad parents fighting each other and forcing our children to fight and die in our battles. Batman's failure here is our failure. Batman's whole life is about stopping crime but he just can't stop punching people. And Batman tries desperately to keep his son from the violence but the son was born into this violence. Batman's violence. Our violence. The children suffer for the parent's sins. It's sad and it's harsh but that's who we are and that's who Batman is.
I'll miss Damian. He had a pet cow and liked to play with his pet kitty cat. He was alright.

And finally... She don't leave the house is what I'm tryin' to say.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

SmallPressIndieMinicomicZine Festival news.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:04:00 +0000

(This image is not from a comics festival. I googled "flea market" and it came up. I thought it was funny. This is because I am dumb.)

Hey kids, let's look at some news on some minicomic, small press, zine, independent, artsy fartsy ~~swap meet~~ festivals.

(Also not a pic from a comic show.)

The fine folks at the Fluke Mini-Comics Festival in Athens, GA have a press release. Here it is:

12th ANNUAL FLUKE MINI-COMICS FESTIVAL – APRIL 6th, 2013

This year’s FLUKE Mini-Comics Festival, sponsored by Bizarro Wuxtry, The Crogan Adventures, Anthony Fisher, Flagpole Magazine, Inch-High Button Guy, Sequential Artists Workshop, and Top Shelf Productions will take place on Saturday, April 6th at The 40 Watt Club, 285 West Washington Street, Athens GA from 11:00 AM until 6 PM. Admission for the public is $2.00 per person.

EVENT SPECS

Exhibitor table spaces for FLUKE 2013 are now sold out. It is possible that a very small number of additional exhibition spaces will be made available. Those wishing to obtain one of these potential spaces should watch for an announcement on FLUKE’s website.

FLUKE’S SPONSORS

With gratitude, we acknowledge our sponsors.

Bizarro Wuxtry (http://www.wuxtryrecords.com/bizarro.html)

Athens’ downtown comics shop boasts a staggering array of alternative comics and zines, as well as a friendly and extremely knowledgeable staff. There are also lots of toys, models, cards, clothes and vintage delights to enjoy as well. Peter Bagge once featured the store in an issue of “HATE,” and has referred to it as “the funkiest business establishment I have ever seen.”

The Crogan Adventures (http://croganadventures.blogspot.com/)

The Crogan Adventures is a historical fiction graphic novel series by cartoonist Chris Schweizer featuring the exploits of the fictitious Crogan family throughout the last three hundred years, whether its members be pirates, foreign legionnaires, or soldiers in the American Revolution. The Crogan Adventures is published by Oni Press.

Anthony J. Fisher, Freelance Artist, Inc.

Anthony Fisher is the owner and creative director of Anthony J. Fisher Freelance Artist Inc., which has served various national, Fortune 500 and international companies. He specializes in brand and logo design, print promotional material, package design, photography, illustration, cartooning and Web design.

Flagpole Magazine (www.flagpole.com)

Athens’ alternative weekly is a much loved and used source of information on local music, film, art, food and politics, all delivered with a real sense of ownership and advocacy for our fair city.

Inch-High Button Guy (http://www.facebook.com/InchHighButtonGuy)

Inch-High Button Guy produces the finest original designs in buttons for any occasion, available in a variety of sizes and styles. The buttons are available at Bizarro Wuxtry and at special events.

The Sequential Artists Workshop (http://sequentialartistsworkshop.org)

The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) is a non-profit organization based in Gainesville, Florida dedicated to the prosperity and promotion of comic art and artists, offering instruction in comic art, graphic novels and visual storytelling. SAW’s mission is to nurture and educate tomorrow’s generation of visual storytellers, to support creative investigation, exploration and excellence in cartooning and comic art, and to promote literacy in sequential and comic art in today’s culture.

Top Shelf Productions (www.topshelfcomix.com)

Since 1997, Top Shelf Productions has produced a wide range of handsomely designed craft comics. Based in Marietta, Ga. with offices across the country, their catalog includes work by Craig Thompson, Andy Runton, James Kochalka, Bob Callahan and Spain – plus many more.

FLUKE’s STATEMENT OF PURPOSE / MISSION

FLUKE is a mini-comic festival that has been organized by Athens-area comic artists, underground publishers and their enthusiasts since 2002. Conceived as a venue for the discussion and exchange of timely ideas related to mini-comics, ‘zines, and other independent publications, FLUKE is not a large comic convention or merchandising-saturated extravaganza. This isn't to say we don't like our share of stuff—'cause we do. However, we have kept the organization of the event as simple as possible to ensure that it remains focused on work and ideas rather than merchandising.

Hoo boy. That sure was a press release wasn't it? I think I saw somewhere, probably twitter, (of course it was twitter) that them Fluke boys plan to release an exhibitor list sometime soon as well. You should probably just book mark the Fluke website and hit refresh on it about every 15 minutes between now and April 6th. I should be on that exhibitor list. I plan to make the show. I mean, I could get drone attack killed on the way to McDonalds this afternoon but I plan to go. I reserved a table, requested off from work and made an appointment to sell blood for gas money so it should work out. (Unless I get droned. Don't get droned.)

(Probably not a pic from a comics show. Well, maybe.)

Them northern folks that are putting on that Autoptic show in Minneapolis, MN also have a press release. It goes something like this.

Autoptic Applications are now open!

That's right, you can now apply to be an exhibitor at our inaugural Autoptic event, this August in Minneapolis, MN. Since this is our first year and because we want to make sure that we have exhibitors we're all excited about, this year we will be jurying the applications. Applications are open to any and all artists, so please don't hesitate to apply. Once the open application period ends March 31st, the Autoptic organizers will vote on all applicants and send out notifications in late April.

Head over to our application page and apply today! All applicants who apply by March 31st will be notified of the status of their application by April 15th. If you have any questions about the application or curation process, feel free to contact us at info@autoptic.org

Thanks a ton and see you in August!

I know that Jamie Hernandez guy is scheduled to be at Autoptic so that's pretty rad. I had a dream last night that I was at some huge comic-shop-going-out-of-business and/or comic-blogger-planning-their-suicide-and-clearing-out-their-garage sale and I bought a long box full of Love and Rockets comics for about $10. That's about as good as my dreams get.

(I have no idea what that is.)

Well, I hope to see you at a SmallPressIndieMinicomicZine Festival sometime soon. Unless the drones get you first.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

(Seriously. You guys should google image search "flea market" and "swap meet". Good stuff.)

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02242013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:38:00 +0000

(Image stolen from Comic Vine. Possibly drawn by Herb Trimpe or Don Heck?)

"Now I guess you’re all wondering where I fit into this; please allow me to explain. For an awful long time I’ve been worrying about Billy Batson. Billy, as you know is a grand boy, and I feel he is not being given a break. In other words, a chance to grow up. I went along to old Shazam and told him my worries, and between us we’ve decided to give Billy the chance to settle down. In order that this might be achieved, I shall soon be returning my powers to old Shazam and changing into the character of Billy Batson for the last time. This will give this grand lad a chance to develop into the type of citizen that I know you’ll grow into.

Naturally we couldn’t leave the door of the world wide open for evil – hence Marvelman of whom I feel you’re just busting to know more. What could be better than to ask him to say a few words to you. It’s all yours, Marvelman:" -Captain Marvel.

The Daytona 500 takes place this afternoon (if you are reading this on Sunday 2/24/2013). Danica Patrick will start in the pole position as the 1st woman ever to do so in an NASCAR race. My prediction is that the winner will be the 1st car to cross the finish line.
My pal Robert Venditti has been named as Geoff Johns' successor as writer on Green Lantern. That's a big gig and I think Rob will be a perfect fit. He talks about it here. I'm a big fan of all of Rob's comics and X-O Manowar is easily one of the top 5 ongoing super sci/fi punch up comics of the past year. Rob is a talented writer but, more importantly, he works hard at it and delivers. It seems like it was just yesterday that he was announced on X-O, then came Demon Knights and now Green Lantern. By this time next year, Superman will be writing comics about Robert Venditti.
But don't take my word for it. Let's take a look at what the real WWE Champion CM Punk is reading.
The X-Men are pretty intense, y'all.
I loved all the X-Ladies and Claremont told some great stories. And they hold up. My daughter is super into all that old junk.

Check out this great Rob Ullman hockey comic at Yahoo Sports.
Wow. Look at this huge Judge Dredd index. I'm a novice when it comes to Dredd. I've never had much access to those comics but the FCBD editions of 2000AD and the new IDW series have me right on the brink of conversion.
Yeah. That James Jean kid? He draws real good.
This John Porcellino post about moving really hit me in the feelings box.
Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has started a tumblr. I'll make sure to have him added to the prayer list on my church's bulletin.
That Ant-Man switch plate might be the first thing I've ever seen on Etsy that seemed worth the price. (Of course with the exception of all your wonderful comics you sensitive cartoonist cry babies.)
This article about an indie wrestler is not at all comics but it does depict a lot of the horrors one sees in the freelance life, the artist life and, at this point, just trying to make a living in the United States today.
No.

Big scans of Kirby's crazy Argo art.
Speaking of Argo. I guess the Oscars are happening sometime? I don't know anything about any of those movies. Whenever their comics adaptions make it to the dollar boxes at the next comic shop I go to, I'll let you know what I think.
"Also anyone out there who feels they may have screwed me or stolen from me in the past (a very small subset, but still...) this is an excellent time to get your conscience completely cleared at a steep discount. 25 cents on the dollar. These prices will not last!"
That Autoptic show in Minneapolis in August is going to have Jamie Hernandez. That's something.
You can submit your comics to SPX's tumblr if that's the kind of thing you think you'd like to do.
Tom Spurgeon wrote a thing about a Justice League book that costs $24.99.
I enjoyed this look back at the Death of Superman for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I'm not yet burnt out on 90s nostalgia. For another, it gives me a good excuse to link to these words I wrote about Batman getting his purple bathrobe stolen.
And by "good excuse" I just mean that it made my brains think of a thing and then I did that thing.
That time I followed Victor Cayro on the facebook.

This Patrick Dean comic perfectly sums up my Valentines Day. (Only I'm not named Tom and I did not wake up with a lady beside me on February 14th.)
And also, Patrick Dean is ready to sell you some fantastic things.
I wonder if he kept his shirt on?
Alphabots y'all. Alphabots.
That Neal Adams kid is very interesting.
This series on Marvelman at the beat is a great read.
"It’s like Grandfather’s axe — a new handle and a new blade, it might be a new axe, but it still belongs to grandpa." -Gerry Conway

Dave Sim talks about Dave Sim as only Dave Sim can.
I wouldn't call these "rules". More like tastes and preferences. But yeah, most modern lettering and balloon placement is awful.
1.2 million years watching porn.
Retrofit is currently taking subscriptions.
Jeremy Massie's All My Ghosts is coming to print soon. That's a nice cover.
Look. A man that has most likely sexually assaulted young boys owns 34% of DragonCon and if you put money into DragonCon you are putting money into that man's hands and the hands of his lawyers. Sure, DragonCon can issue a release blaming it all on the system and say that they can't do anything but the fact remains- Your money is going to Ed Kramer. I'm not placing judgement. Do what you want. Just know what you are doing. The DragonCon board is in a tough spot for sure. I just know that you, the customer, the patron etc., get to decide where you spend your money.
That crazy CF comic on The New York Times site.
You could write for Rob Liefled.

THE BEST SINGLE ~~NEW~~ newish PRINT COMIC I READ ~~THIS~~ last WEEK

(Image stolen from Sequential Smart.)

...was Batman 17 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and a bunch of other people. I'm still behind on my comics due to a whole bunch of boring reasons but we'll talk about Batman today and hopefully catch up on some other things between now and next Sunday. I had written previously about how I was disappointed in this Death of the Family storyline. That was mainly in relation to the previous Snyder/Capullo Batman comics from 2011 and 2012 which I thought were as good or better than anything in super hero comics. My main beef with Death in the Family has been the pacing. That it did not feel big enough and things seemed rushed. This is a horror story and there has not been a lot of time to scream. Of course, this story is bigger than just the Batman comic. It is a crossover event. I however have read only the Batman comics. And I won't apologize for that. As the customer, it is not my burden to read the other comics and figure it all out. Maybe there would have been more weight to Death of the Family for me if I had read all of the other Bat family member's adventures but I just could not afford to do that. But let's just forget about all that altogether and look at this one singe comic, Batman 17.

It is a very good Batman versus Joker comic book. Maybe one of the best. But I don't know, I've not read them all. The real guts of this comic is mostly talking and it is the culmination of the 73 year long philosophical argument between Batman and the Joker over what they mean to each other and what they would be without each other. Two insane guys saying 'yeah but at least I'm not as crazy as you' for 73 years. And it's great. I think Snyder and Capullo are pushing this thing just a bit further than it's been pushed before. I think they may have pushed it as far as it can go. This comic is the natural evolution of this story into a horror comic. But it can't go all the way off the deep end because it is still a Batman comic. Greg Capullo's art is gross and freaky and horrific but it is still stylized and Batman still has that larger than life chin because it is still a Batman comic. Snyder's writing pushes the characters right to the edge but not over because it is still a Batman comic. It points out the limitations of what you can do with a seven decade old children's character that dresses up as a bat and fights crime. But for at least a few panels, I thought they might just cross the line.

SPOILERS

To push the Joker beyond where he's been before, to make him "real" whatever that means, the threat has to be "real". Or at least movie "real". Hannibal Lecter "real". Or Gwyneth Paltrow's head in a box "real". So the whole gimmick of this thing has been about faces. Faces representing masks. Snyder's Joker has litterally taken off his mask by removing his face then putting it back on. It's gross but it makes the point that the mask or secret identity never mattered. The lesson is that the Joker IS the Joker and the point of this whole campaign of horror is to teach Batman that Batman IS Batman and his desire to maintain some hind of human normalcy by working with the Bat family will either bring him down or bring them death. Maybe both. So, for the big climactic issue of this thing we have Batman tied to a chair at the head of a dinner table with all the Bat family in attendance. But all of their faces are bandaged. And before each of them is a big covered platter. What is on those platters?! What's in the box?! Well, obviously, it is their faces. Obviously, the Joker has carved off the faces of Robin, Batgirl, Batman's son, Nightwing and that other guy no one cares about.

And for a panel or two I thought they might let Snyder go there. I thought they might just do it.

But, this is a Batman comic. Of course their faces have not been removed. It was just a sick Joker joke. Batman gets out of it and the Batman family will carry one. But the horror of the thing does have weight. We see relationships changed. We see the Bat family rethinking whether or not they want to hang out with Batman anymore. We see characters in a different place than they were when the story started and that is about as "real" as we can ask a Batman comic to be.

But what if he had cut their faces off? What if the crossed that line into adult comics. Into Marshall Law or Judge Dredd? I think you could pull it off. Bruce Wayne's top doctors sew the faces on, plastic surgery etc. and the status quo could be resumed. But it would be hard to deal with. Something like that and you are damaged goods mentally in a way that future writers would have to deal with for years. It's like the death of Jason Todd. It was super gross that they let fans kill a character but the real problem with Jason Todd's death is that every writer after it happened that wanted to use the Joker had to deal with it. Again and again and again. For 25 freaking years. The Joker was no longer the Joker. The Joker was the guy that killed Jason Todd. And that's why I think it was best for Snyder and Capullo to not to cross that line. But for a few panels, they had me.

And finally... Yes, that's right I'm judging you. Look at me. Me. I'm judging you.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02142012

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

(All-New Batman The Brave and the Bold #16 cover by Rick Burchet. Image stolen from DC Database.)

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 02142013:

"Case in point: the legal language on both sides re an ongoing relationship after the settlement is signed. The gist: the Siegels won’t say anything bad about DC. The Siegels agree to make public appearances at DC’s behest, where they will then praise DC. They won’t make any other public appearances or say anything about Superman or the case without DC’s written consent. If they want to publish a biography, Time Warner gets first dibs so it can control whatever goes in print. If anyone asks the Siegels about Superman or the case, they will refer the questioner to DC. When Superman goes into the public domain, they are the only people in the world who can’t do anything with the character. You want to understand how Joanne Siegel could turn away millions of dollars? That’s it, right there." -Jeff Trexler on the sad end to the legal fight for Superman.

Happy Valentines Day brothers and sisters that care about that kind of thing. I hope your day gives you everything you want but only 15% more than you deserve. (Don't be greedy.) It is still Ash Wednesday as I'm typing this. I loves me some Jesus. I'm going to try to give up french fries and negativity for Lent. The french fries are because I need to lose some weight. The negativity is because I need to lose some negativity. I'll still be honest. If something is garbage, I'm gonna tell you it's garbage. Facts is facts y'all. But I'm going to try to be more upbeat about the potential of things. And this going to be very hard without my french fries. I loves me some french fries people. The fries are going to be harder to give up than the negativity.
Loyal devoted readers of the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links may have noticed that today is not Sunday and that I never posted a new Parade-O-Links this past Sunday. Sorry. I just couldn't do it. I tried. Most of this Parade-O-Links was compiled and/or written before last Sunday but I did not get the the post up. Time was not on my side. The Rolling Stones are liars. But, that's okay because that was the past and it is gone and now is the now and because the now is after the past, the now gets to includes some other interesting things that happened after the past. Let's get to those things. Shall we y'all?

So. Positivity right? What happened in comics last week? Oh yeah, Time Warner/DC Comics stuck it to the Siegles and the Shusters again. And again. Well, there goes my whole giving up negativity for Lent thing. Dang you to heck comics!
But hey, don't let the fact that wife of Superman's creator went to the grave living under the threats of an army of lawyers funded by a bazillion dollar international corporation ruin your Valentine's Day. I mean, they still make Superman comics after all. Heck, Grant Morrison (the best Superman writer since Alan Moore ended Superman in 1986) still writes Superman comics. Oh wait, he's not gonna do that anymore. He talked to CBR a bit about the whys and hows of his departure. "I think the best thing that it's done ultimately is to get rid of that weird emo Superman that was around for a long time. He was constantly fighting against using his powers and was kind of angst-driven. There are so many great characters in comics that are angst-driven that we don't need Superman to be one was well." Indeed. Die emo Superman die. And hey, don't get down about Grant Morrison not writing Superman. Time Warner's ~~DC Comics~~ "content creators" can always hire some guy that is actively trying to deny gay and lesbian Americans the same rights other human Americans have. Yeah, that's gonna work out great right? (Dear DC, I'm ready to be the next replacement writer on your online comic, print comic, whatever. Holla at me y'all.)
And speaking of creators leaving. How about that Don Rosa exit letter? "Why I Quit." Hoo boy, a laugh riot that one.
Look, let's take a deep breath and think about Don Rosa, Jerry Siegle and Joe Shuster. Let's think about what kind of "lessons learned" we can take away from this. Here's what I get out of it. Let's say you want to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist. If you live in the United States of America and you have talents, skills or, worst of all, ideas, you need to take all of that and put it in a box. Now, find a cave. You need to go to the deepest darkest part of that cave and dig a hole. Somewhere between three and six feet deep depending on the density of the ground. Put that box in that hole and cover it up. Now, leave the cave. Go find a nice park. Maybe it has some pigeons or ducks you can feed. Sit down on a bench. Now, here is the tough part, but remember, you said you wanted to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist. Now, I want you take a pen, pencil or knife and jab yourself in the eyes. I know that is a major commitment to the dream but you want the glory right? Now, live the rest of your life broke and blind on that park bench. Congratulations, you are a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist! Enjoy the pigeons and ducks.

Dang. This sucker went south quick didn't it. Hang in there brothers and sisters. We can turn this ship around. You know what I like to do when I need to bask in the radiance of happiness and joy? I like to go to Lattaland. Surely, Josh Latta will have some nice things for us to look at. That guy loves him some Valentine's Day cards.
Oh, and speaking of Valentine's Day cards. If you need to take care of some last minute bidness then look no farther than J. Chris Campbell's free Valentine Card you can print out. Unless of course you don't have a printer. In that case, sorry, there's always Saint Patrick's Day.
And speaking of love and stuff, Robert Newsome's most recent music and talking thing was full of all the best (and/or worst) love songs ever. I'm listening to it right now.
Oh, and another thing that makes me happy when I'm thinking about sad things like dead/blind/broke creators (and/or how my wife kicked me out of the house and Valentine's is gonna suck) ... is monsters. Wouldja just look at Patrick Dean draw them monsters!

We all love Sergio Aragones. Except for jerks.
And we love Girl Scouts making comics!
He was born nasty.
Jog talked about why he is Jog and what makes him Jog and what makes Jog him.
People! Would you just look at that H. G. Peter Wonder Woman art! The best I tells ya.
Okay, I don't even have an opinion on this Eddie Campbell piece but it's a good read. I mean, go read it for sure but if you end up wasting a couple of days of your life writing an internet blog post rebuttal to the thing or lose your job because you spent a whole week arguing in comments threads, don't blame me. Comics is dangerous y'all.
In a shocking turn of events it has been revealed that Fredric Wertham was not just a jerk bag but he was also a lying jerk bag.
Hey kids, The Ink Panthers are back!
And Comic Books continue to Burn In Hell.
Gary Groth tells us something we did not know.
Jill Thompson on a wrasslin' podcast. And speaking of Jill Thompson and wrasslin', she has an interview in the most recent issue of The Atomic Elbow. You should buy that.

"For your info.. she jumped on his shoulders/ blocked bullets and broke his neck… and yes his tongue slobbered on her XXXXX. That’s ANT bro. Are you serious? In the following panel.. where she is running…Ant don’t run bra."
Again, dear ~~DC Comics~~ content creators, I am also ready to write Green Lantern for you. I go hard son. Get at your boy.
I never get tired of happy Bill Mantlo pictures.
Did I mention Gabby Schulz's hourly comic thing in my last Parade-O-Links? Well, here it is again anyway because it is great.
The anniversary of the great Jack Kirby leaving this Earth was last week. You should seriously go look at all these great posts about his animation career.
Don Heck yeah!
My Delores is still around. I see her in Food City from time to time but I'm afraid to make eye contact. Her husband weights 300 pounds.
Since it's Valentine's Day, let's see what Chris Sims has to say about love. He's an expert on love right? Or maybe it's comics.

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Comics Alliance.)
...was My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #3 by Katie Cook, Andy Price, Heather Breckel and several other people. Published by IDW. I'm still catching up on my comics reading after multiple snow storms kept me from the comics shop. I've torn through a good pile of comics in the past week and I enjoyed this one as much or more than any of them. IDW make really solid comics. Almost too good. The paper is way too good. The art and writing are better than they need to be. All they had to do to get me to buy two copies of this thing for my daughters was put My Little Pony on the cover. Thankfully it is actually a comic I can read and enjoy. There is a lot to chew on in this thing. The story is dense. The layouts are dense and have a gag in every panel. All those characters crammed into an actual plot and Katie Cook pulls it off. This is a comic where the ponies are off on a quest to save something or other from scary black ponies and the Pinkie Pie pony just happens to be carrying around costumes of herself and the other ponies. Pinkie Pie dressed up in a giant Pinkie Pie costume is funny people. And Andy Price is nailing this stuff. Every panel crammed full of laughs. Imagine if licensed kid's comics from your youth were good. This is that comic.

And finally... I'm Black Canary you're Green Arrow. When I hop on my bike it means let's go.

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.

Your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links is gonna be late this week.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

So yeah. I've got most of your links worked up for ya but I've not had a chance to finish it and I have some business to handle so it may be Monday or later before I get this week's Parade-O-Links up. I'm sure you will press on in spite of this unbearable hardship and sorrow. One of the factors in this delay is actually a good thing. I got a computer! My computer died a long time ago so most of file under other has been created on whatever laptop I could use at whatever free moment I had to work on it. But not anymore. I own a computer. For the first time in a long, long time I will also be able to install Photoshop (fingers crossed) and start finishing up some comics. I'm pretty excited about that. But first I gotta get this computer all set up and figure out how to use it. Then I gotta take care of some other business. And also, I'm tired. So the Parade-O-Links will happen when it happens. But don't fret none G. It's gonna be alright.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02032013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

(Kickers Inc. #4 1986. Image stolen from Comic Vine.)

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 02032013:

"I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided enough is enough. Everyone tells me social media has the potential for creating social change never seen before in human history. Okay, then I’d like to test it by seeing if social media can cut off the flow of money from DragonCon to accused child molester (and the convention’s co-owner) Ed Kramer, who has been using the 150K+ a year he receives each year from DragonCon to avoid trial and manipulate the justice system to allow him free reign to prey upon children, even while under supposed house arrest. All you have to do is publicly declare you will never attend DragonCon again as long as Edward Kramer profits from the convention." -Nancy A. Collins.

Happy Superbowl Sunday everybody! I hope that as we all pull our guts up to the Bonanza super bar of shiny new television commercials, with a small helping of football for desert, we will all remember the true spirit of Superbowl; smashing one another's heads in all for the love of points. Points everybody! Just like money but worthless! Personally, I love the American tackle football. Like the great Al Bundy, I served my country playing high school football. I remember it well. Mainly due to the concussions and a knee that alternates between discomfort and pain 24 hours a day. Football! But the Superbowl is most often the worst football game you will see in any given year. This late in the season most of the best players can barley walk and the starters are determined by which guys are not seeing double at gametime. So maybe the commercials really are the best part. Personally, I'm hoping to see this commercial staring Francis. From what I've heard, Volkswagen chose a lame commerical where a white actor dude speaks Rasta instead. But maybe during the pre-game show or somewhere in the evening we'll get to see Francis and all our favorite YouTube stars on our big flat screen TVs because the last thing I want to see on my television is professional actors. (Apparently, the Francis version aired during American Idol this week. That ain't bad. I reckon a few people still watch that show.) Anyway... Go Steelers!
And don't worry everybody. Francis may be a celebrity now but he's still angry. Never sell out Francis!

People. The great J. Chris Campbell, fourth sexist man in comics, has a new comic/art book he is ready to sell to you in paper and/or digital. You need to go get that thing accomplished.
Grant Morrison had a birthday this week. He's 53 now. In Stan Lee years, that's 28. Remember back when I was doing a series of articles re-examining Morrison's The Invisibles. Well, I will get back to that. As soon as possible. Hang in there. My life is ~~a living hell~~ challenging.
Fred Hembeck also had a birthday. Dang I loves me some Fred Hembeck.
Ashley Holt, fourth best hair in comics, posted another one of his words and picture things that you enjoy so much as you read then hate him at the end for being more clever than you.
You had me at Dreadstar.
Remember when I mentioned that new Shonen Jump thing last week? Well, Joe McCulloch has broken down the genetic code of every panel of the sucker. (I told ya One-Punch man was the business.)

So that Paperman cartoon there sure made a lot of people blow a load. It's alright I guess. I wouldn't call it a "groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques" or anything. Seamless is not a word I'd use. Groundbreaking? I mean, you people are aware of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli right? Don't get me wrong. The cartoon is nice. I like the part where Aladdin sits down beside the kid with the balloon. I just think some of us spend so much time watching movies with video game animation that we feel like we've seen the face of God when we see moving line art.
Alec Longstreth on not going to Angouleme. (I don't know how to do those triangle letter hat things.)
Bart Beaty on yes going to Angouleme. (I can't even pronounce it.)
Hey everybody, won't you just shut up and go read this interactive experimental flash comic thing Pat Lewis drew for Mark Waid's website. Super cool.
Holy cheese biscuits. Go look at what Brad McGinty drew. Brad done did it again!
How much of your life have you spent lying around wishing Morrissey would beat the crap out of Robert Smith? All of it? Well here ya go. Courtesy of Josh Latta. He lives to serve.
People. Last week, professional wrestler and WWE Champ CM Punk was forced to hand over his belt to a B movie actor. It sucked. There was never a doubt in my mind that it would not happen, but it still sucked.

My good friend Paul McDonald wrote a book about Star Wars. You can pre-order it now.
Okay James. It's been over a month now. You can start posting your strip again. We get it. Hah hah. Good one. Now, get back to the comic strip please.
Look, I'm as sad about Young Justice being canceled as anyone but Teen Titans Go is gonna be a lot of fun.
How Bill Mantlo created the 80s.
People, people, people! Eric Canete posted some new commissioned art this week.
Gabby Schulz drew some cute wittle cuddly wuddlies. And then he went to the hospital.

(I think it's A-Okay to laugh at Macaulay Culkin and his pals because I'm positive they are laughing at all of us.)

We just want to tell you that all men are garbage.
Shaenon Garrity on some solid webcomics.
Tom Spurgeon on some digital comics news.
Panel Patter on the Mini-Comic Of The Month Club.
Hourly Comics Day happened again and The Beat rounded up a bunch of them. Eleanor Davis did it and posted it here.
Every year when the color of the year is announced I change my blog colors to match it just to see if anyone notices. They never, ever notice. I don't think I'll do it this year because I don't really like that color.
No talks about Josh Simmons.
So yeah. Your comics collection can still totally land you in jail in America. (Maybe don't name your files "incest comics".)

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from DC database.)
...is on hiatus because I did not read any new comics this week. The ~~comics shop~~ nearest video came store that happens to sell comics is on the other side of a snow and ice storm from my house. The weather is so bad that I could have gone to watch live professional wrestling Saturday and did not. Ice people. Ice. My feet are cold. I did read a 100 or so pages of volume one of the DC Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold though. And it is great. These comics are written by Bob Haney and he is crazy. Crazy! This is a book that features Metamorpho and the Bat-Hulk and neither of those are the strangest things in it. Get this. There is a story in here where Batman has emotions about a woman. A woman people! Crazy man. Crazy.
But hey. Just because I did not make it to a comics shop and I don't have any plastic money for Comixology at the moment does not mean we can't talk about a new comic. Here, go read this. Dave Cooper everybody. Actually, I think that comic is from last year sometime but who cares? I promise you it's better than anything you could have found in a comic shop this (or almost any) week.

And finally... My favorite Superbowl was the one where The Incredible Hulk murdered the Chicago Bears.

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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01272013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:54:00 +0000

(The Avengers #89 cover by Sal Buscema who celebrated a birthday this week. Image stolen from Steve Does Comics.)

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 01272013:

"Your archaic view of creatives is part of what keeps jobs of this industry undervalued. Congratulations, you’ve officially locked out a great percentage of talented, friendly, hard working creatives who would originally have had great interest in attending your convention." - Jordie Bellaire.

Jeezziz people. So much bitchin' and moanin' and crying this week. The twitter blew up with "should I quit the comics?" Why don't the comics love me? Why won't the comics buy me a sub sandwich and rub my feet? Why do the comics love other people so much and not return my emails? Boo the ducking who. Here's the thing about making comics. It's just making comics. Get some paper and a pencil and go crazy. Stop when you don't feel like doing it anymore. Then maybe later, start making them again. Or not. There are all kinds of things that people that don't make comics do that seem to be totally rewarding. I mean, some people can watch the crap out of some TV. I hear about people getting famous for watching TV every day. Or maybe you could play video games. That would be super rewarding right? Maybe join a guild or something. And when you walk the street, people will step back and say, "There goes a video game player. That person is contributing to society!" Or maybe movies might be your thing? You could pay your money and be a part of the magic. Become a fan of a franchise. Argue on twitter with lesser movie watchers about how stupid their opinions are. Or maybe sports is where it's at. I hear that if your favorite team wins the Super Bowl you you get to feel good about yourself for a solid 18 hours. I mean why make art at all? Why make anything? Why do anything? Why express yourself in any way? What's the point? Why create a tangible thing that could be enjoyed by tens of peoples? Just sit down, shut up, plug into your cell pad pod phone and die. Or not. It's just comics. You don't kneed anyone to justify it. Do you think the average grandma gives a singe solitary F if someone thinks she should stop working on puzzles or knitting? Do you think my dad gives a single solitary F if someone thinks he's not getting as many turkeys as he used to when he goes hunting? You know when you stop a thing? When you don't feel like doing that thing any more. And then, maybe later, you might feel like doing it again. And that's okay too. Artists don't retire. They just die. There ain't no rules to this thing and the seat belts are just for show. Anyone that thinks there are rules in art is a coward. It's just comics. It doesn't owe you anything. The guy that created Spider-Man lives out of a freaking hotel room. And he still makes comics. It's just comics.
My dear faithful loyal can't-live-without-it readers will have by now noticed that I frequently post videos featuring Francis and Boogie2998. What you may not know is that both of those guys are one guy named Steven Williams. I grew up with Steven. His mom ran the head start. We were on the drama team together in high school. He graduated the year after me. He's super smart. Super funny. But most of all he's a really good guy. So, I'm super excited that he is featured in Volkswagon's new commercial that will hopefully be shown during the Super Bowl. I think that before this, the closest anyone from my town ever came to fame was the time the Daily Show showed up to make fun of the next town over for selling their Christmas lights. I don't know how these things work but the video below is a "pre-release" video. Whatever that means. But, do me a favor, watch it and hit the "like" button about thirty times. Thanks.

I'm writing this while listening to this so any thing that does not make sense should be blamed on Robert Newsome.
Apparently, one day this week was open mouth kiss a colorist day or something.
Speaking of color, Jim Rugg stumbled upon the amazing discovery that comics colored on a lighted screen and presented on a lighted screen are brighter than those on paper.
Look. You have probably already don this, but if not, just go read that Rob Liefled script. Trust me. Abbey Coleslaw did a pretty good parody of it, but honestly, the real thing is funnier.
Here are some freaking staggering photos of early 1900s Paris. Now I get why Paris was such a big deal.
"Abbey Coleslaw" is cheap and I'm bigger than that. Usually. Just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention.
RIP Skummie.
There is going to be another movie about Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange. What? You want a link for that? Google people. Google.

Shonen Jump relaunched their website and, I guess, the way I understand it, maybe, it is that it now has the comics in English on the same day they come out in Japan? Or something that means a lot to people that read Shonen Jump. Anyway, I can't keep up with it but, I did go through the sampler and it was a lot of fun. That One-Punch Man is genius. Oh, and in Japan, they only have 48 weeks in a year. Which is terrifying. (And probably not true. Joey Weiser totally explained it to me but pretending that there are only 48 weeks in Japan is way funnier. For me. I'm laughing for you. I carry a heavy load.)
Speaking of manga, the Comics Reporter leads me to believe that this will be something.
So, you can read most of Kyle Baker's creator owned comics online. Right now.
Josh Simmons has a tumblr. Not safe for ~~work~~ anywhere.
Oh, and Patrick Dean has one too. It's just the best.
People. You can read Howard the Duck newspaper strips online. Until you can't anymore.
Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag. I'm not dating Danica Patrick. This guy, was probably a sophomore in high school when Danica was posing for FHM. Oh man I bet his friends hate his guts.
Have I ever talked to you people about Star Wars? I like Star Wars. They are my favorite wars. My pal Paul McDonald likes Star Wars a lot. So much, he wrote a book about it. He recently wrote about the passing of his mother as, literally, only he could.
Oh, and again with the Star Wars. J.J. Abrams? Well, alright.

"The only good news is, out of it all, ya beat the hospital. Lets see ‘em collect your bills now!"
"But, to repeat, I STILL don't know how long the book is. No idea. Conservative guess, it could be another 200 pages -- maybe 300."
Comics blogging up-and-comer Gary Groth talks about EC Comics.
Jog talks about Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss 2 as all good comics types should. (I'm ashamed to say that I have not read it yet. Other than some online previews I've never laid eyes on the thing. It's not exactly filling up the racks of rural American comic shops and Wal-Mart was fresh out. My plan was to try and pick up a bunch of them during the coming con season but I'll probably break down and get it off eBay when I get my tax return. I dream big.)
Ed Kramer. DragonCon. And really bad lousy journalism. Sigh. I just can't. I just can't even get into this story or the pathetic "journalism" exhibited by the many comics websites that have covered it, but, let me just say this- you can totally hit up wikipedia and check the bare minimum facts of your story before you hit the "publish" button. Hell, maybe even read some of the articles from your own website or newspaper first. Seriously people... THE MAN STILL OWNS 34 #[](%ING PERCENT OF DRAGONCON! HE IS PROFITING OFF TEENAGERS DRESSING UP AS FIONA AND CAKE AND WALKING IN THEIR PARADE! Gah.
Last weekend the HeroesCon folks threw a minicon in Charlotte. And from the look of these photos, it was great.
The Dollar Bin wants you to vote for things.
I like Microcosm Publishing. Let's take a look at their catalog.
Ya know, those Barbie comics were pretty good. For, ya know, comics about a doll. I see them in the dollar bins from time to time and get them for my girls. The like 'em and wish there were more of 'em.
Chris Sims says that The Batman ain't down with the guns. But don't take Chris Sims word for it, let Chris Sims tell you about it.

(Image stolen from... I don't know where actually. Forwarded to me by a friend at work. Hi Keenan.)

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Comic Vine.)
...was X-O Manowar #9 by Robert Venditti, Trevor Hairsine, Brian Reber and a bunch of other people. This comic, like the previous eight issues and most of the Valiant books I've seen so far is quality from cover to cover. Great cover art, nice book design, bold logos that jump out from the comic racks, nice production, nice editorial material, nice house ads, high quality art, colors, letters and writing. A very good comic. I love the X-O Manowar series and how Venditti has handled it as a sci-fi and historical mash up rather than a super hero book. I'm a sucker for sci-fi and when you hand your space Visigoth a crazy energy sword thing it is going to be hard to lose me. And while Venditti could probably just tell the artist to draw 20 odd pages of swords and explosions and space smashing and I would probably be okay, the story is really moving and the characters/entities involved are making some unexpected choices along the way to keep it interesting. Is that what good drama is? Maybe? I was just an English minor so they never showed me the full back of tricks. This particular issue may the best yet. (Although those first four were really strong.) After I put this issue down I felt like it had been non-stop action. X-O faces off against some bad alien dudes in some similar armor so the stakes seemed higher. But when I flip back through it I realize that this thing covers a lot of ground. There is a lot of dialog and exposition moving the story from one phase into what will be the next story arc but it did not feel like set up. It just felt, like, um, you know, entertaiment. And nerds, you know what I mean right? You know how comics publishers will set up their big story arcs for months with hype and ads but feed you garbage filler in in the issues leading up to it? No filler her. And that's a big part of what I have liked about all of Venditti's work so far is that almost every panel moves the story. And this artist, Trevor Hairsine, he's pretty good too. I like his work here a lot. He's got some Neal Adams moments in there that are very cool. Right up there with Cary Nord. And that is another great thing about these books. Even though there have been three artists in just 9 issues the art has been consistent. Not saying the guys all draw the same but saying the quality, tone and overall look of the book has been consistent. And when you consider, that DC can't even get one artist to complete one full issue of a lot of their books, I really appreciate that consistency. Editorial at Valiant apparently knows what they are doing.

And finally... a good crowd has gathered to wish our superhero well.

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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01202013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:41:00 +0000

(Image of a historically and scientifically correct flying gorilla stolen from The Golden Age.)

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 01202013:

“I had no idea the world really looked like this, with such infinite clarity. It looks like a modernist photo or a hyperreal film, everything in focus everywhere. Everyone kept saying ‘oh, do you see the leaves now?’ but the first thing I saw was not the leaves but the people. People, individuated, each with brilliant faces and expressions at gaits, the sun streaming down upon them. I couldn’t help but smile. It’s much harder being a misanthrope when you can see people’s faces.” -Aaron Swartz

(Just like Bachman-Turner Overdrive.)

The Fluke minicomics and zine fest in Athens GA is one of my favorite shows. Earlier this week they had registration for the first 60 tables and they all sold out in one day. Not bad. But don't fret none G. They held back a few tables and have a waiting list so you should probably look into that right now. The show is April 6th. You are going to have so much fun buying me a beer. I can't wait!
People. Paul Pope's Battling Boy looks great. I'ma gonna need one of those. In related news, EW still exists.
Rob Clough talks to Charles Forsman about the Oily and the subscription model publishing.
And because he is Rob Clough he also reviewed a bunch of minicomics.
Kate Beaton explains what all the youngs need to know about going to art school and or teaching themselves art. The most important take away to remember is that yes, young impressionable artist, yes you should totally steal a copy of Photoshop.
Annie Koyama at Meanwhile.
Warren Ellis says don't worry, everything is fine. Trust him. He has an accent.

Paul Gravett read some interesting comics last year.
How to help Peter David get back to Peter Daviding.
The Comics Reporter did another digital/web/non-paper comic round up.
Sigh.
One of the benefits of being late with this week's Parade-O-Links is that I can squeeze in a link to The Comics Reporter's Five For Firday post. It's my favorite game show.
I like Ann Nocenti and I like Katana a lot more than is rational so I'm gonna want this comic but then my local comic shop (which is really a video game store) is not going to have it and then I'll be sad but then latter I'll probably buy it at Cavalier Comics over in Wise, VA or maybe at a comic book convention or maybe on eBay. (Katana talks to her sword people. She talks to a sword. Shhh... she thinks her husband is in it. Katana is is teh cray cray.)

The thing that most makes me furious about this Platinum nonsense is that I've been calling Steven Spielberg for 20 years and not one meeting. Not one damned meeting Steven!
Hang in there true believer.
Are you people watching the best show on TV? Are you watching ~~Boyd Crowder Junkie Exploder~~ Justified? You should. My man Walton Goggins is the business y'all.
The Christopher Reeve version is the correct version.
Obviously.
This Joe Kubert comics explains every detail of how comics ~~are~~ were made. It's all in the high-powered arc lights.
Chris Sims talks about Batman and guns and guns and Batman.

This super pretentious sounding Autoptic show in Minneapolis sounds like it will certainly be a thing that happens in August. I think every town in the United States should have its own indie comics and zine festival once year. At each show, one creator will be selected through a series of vicious and violent challenges. Then, at the end of the festival season, all of the selected creators will be dropped on an island and forced to fight to the death. This will not be televised. The sole surviving creator will draw a minicomic of the event and send one copy back to mankind by bottle.
Awww Lil Bub wolled awound on duh cowmics and wuz so cute with its willte curly tongue and its wittle kitty face.
Robert Newsome's talking and music thing was good this week. Liked that song about monkey Godzooky or whatever it was. And also, he talked about wrestling again.

Heavy Metal, Gasoline Alley and other things are burning in hell. I have not listened to this one yet but I'm gonna assume the boys use the F word a lot.
I just pray this thing sells well enough that Boom will do a follow up where Finn and Jake from Adventure Time read Dave Sim's faxes as printed out of BMO's butt. (Dave Sim is so the Ice King.)
So the way I make this Parade-O-Links each week is that I have this online checklist creator thing to make a list, and I just paste in interesting things I see all week. And this week, I pasted in bunch of stuff about Robert Venditti. The comics people, they like to talk to Robert Venditti. I like talking to him too. He's swell and good at the thinking and talking. Comics Vine talked to him about X-O Manowar. Then they talked to him some more about Demon Knights. Then io9 talked to him some more about Demon Knights.

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Archonia.)

...was a lot of trouble to figure out. We had a big snow storm this week that kept me from the local comic shop (which is actually a video game store and which is actually not local to the town where I live but is in the town where I work). I finally made it to the shop on Saturday but did not see a lot of interesting books. My pal Robert Venditti's first issue of Demon Knights came out this week. I wanted that comic. I read a bit of the Cornell run and thought it was okay, I like the Demon and I like all of Venditti's comics so I had the shop order me a copy and add it to my "list" as soon as it was announced. But, like clockwork, the shop did not get Demon Knights 16. They are not so great at getting the comics I want. They still have not gotten any copies of Superior Spider-Man. Not one single time have they had X-O Manowar on the week it came out. (Which is the only reason it has not been my BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK so far.) Oh well, the rural life is hard. So the comics I got were bATMan #16 and All-New X-Men #6.
Batman was okay. Just okay. Snyder and Capullo are very good at making Batman comics but I'm disappointed with this "Death of the Family" story. It's just not for me. It's gross. It's disgusting. It is horror and it feels more like Snyder doing his impersonation of a horror movie than it does something fresh or imaginative. Snyder's big long Owl story was more of a mystery thriller and I thought he nailed it. He understood all the beats and the pacing. The pacing feels really rushed in this Joker thing. It's like he's using Grant Morrison hyper speed style. It works for Morrison because Morrison is telling Silver Age madness. It does not work for horror. This issue is mostly a house of death traps comic where Batman goes through his rogues gallery like going through bosses at the end of video game levels. Which is exactly what Grant Morrison did better just recently in Batman Inc. There is no time for anything to resonate in this. Beating Clayface should be bigger. Beating Mr. Freeze should be bigger. Seeing your main foes and the Joker arranged as a royal court at the end should be bigger. It's too many oh my god moments without any time for the audience to say oh my god. It's not scary if the audience does not have time to scream.
All-New X-Men was very good. The best of the series so far. All of the set up was ironed out in issues 1 through 5 so now we get to see Bendis do what he does best. Write people talking on and on and on. And it's great. That is what the X-Men do between funerals. This issue has two things going on. Kitty Pryde teaching Jean Grey how to be Jean Grey and Wolverine trying to teach Cyclops not to be Cyclops. And no sight of a villain until you hit the last page. A very good X-Men comic but I'm not going to give it my BEST designation.
Nope, THE BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK was my daughter's delivered by mail subscription copy of Life With Archie #26. Written by Paul Kupperberg with art by Fernando Ruiz, Pat Kennedy and Tim Kennedy. There is so much to love about this comic. For one thing, it cost $3.99 (less by subscription) and has two full length comics in it. That is the same price as bATMan and All-New X-Men. Plus it is a very comfortable magazine size. And I love the cheap paper. It smells great. Hate that glossy crap. For those that have not read Life With Archie, it is an elseworlds kind of thing where Archie has two possible futures. In one, he marries Veronica and in the other he marries Betty. The two comics are surprisingly different and together they provide a lot of soap opera story lines. In just this issue Kevin Keller (the much hyped gay war vet character) is running for Senate, Kevin's husband is going through physical therapy after getting shot, Veronica is starting her own business, Archie is starting work as a record exec, Moose is dealing with drama in his job as Mayor and Reggie and Betty are having problems with their reality show. And that is just in the Veronica half of the book! I've said this before but I love it when things happen in a comic book. Kupperberg is moving a huge cast trough two comics at the same time. I'm impressed.

And finally... if Boogie can do it, you can do it.

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.

Your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links is gonna be a little late.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:21:00 +0000

Hang in there buddy.

It's gonna be okay.

We're gonna look back on this and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Trust me.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01132013

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:00:00 +0000

(Image of a John Romita drawn Marvel Presents cover stolen from The Comics Reporter.)

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 01132013:

"Warner Communications bought National Periodicals about six years ago, and all of the lawsuits between Siegel and Shuster and National predated us by about 20 years. However, putting legalities aside, the simple fact remains that Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created a very popular comics character, they may have created a whole comics industry by doing so, and Warner or National has a moral obligation to take care of two destitute creators of what became an industry." -Former Warner executive Jay Emmett as reported by Steve Gerber in 1975.

The Siegel family, heirs of Superman's co-creator Jerry Siegel, lost a major court battle to Time Warner. At least since 2008, Time Warner has used the ongoing legal battle as an excuse to not give Superman's creators much of anything. I'm trying to look on the bright side and say, well at least, this should expedite Time Warner paying what they owed before that 2008 ruling. It is honestly over my head. I just want Time Warner to do the right thing. Not the legal thing. The right thing. Tom Spurgeon has some thoughts here. Jeff Trexler explains it all here.
The Beat linked to this fascinating article which includes the late Steve Gerber's article on National/DC/Warner's sordid history of treatment of Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Looking at artists work areas never gets old. Especially when the photo set includes Jack Kirby's desk.
Speaking of Kirby, and we always will, here are some unpublished Devil Dinosaur pages with the added bonus of taking a look at what it might have looked like if Stan Lee had put some words on those pages Kirby wrote and drew.
Are you a hot young artist/writer ready to take over the world as a freelancer? Well, don't read this article by John Ostrander. I had the honor of giving Ostrander a ride to the airport once. Such a nice and selfless guy sitting there listening to my nonsense. Of course, he may very well have been afraid for his life since I was focused more on asking him questions than I was on the Atlanta traffic. But, forget how nice Ostrander is. Ostrander is good. Ostrander's comics are very good. Forget Grimjack and all of his DC and Marvel work and just his work on Star Wars alone will eclipse most writers' careers. Do you think you are a better writer than John Ostrander? You are wrong. Do you think you are smarter, more talented, or that you will play the game better than Ostrander? You are wrong. Does Shannon Smith own action figures of characters you created? You are not better than John Ostrander so that article should be a wake up call. Comics is hard y'all.
Jim Shooter reconsidered at the Hooded Utilitarian. 1978 to 1987. Dang, I gave that guy a lot of my lunch money.

I posted file under other's (you know, me) "best of" comics list... for 2011.
Josh Latta interviewed at 9 Sense. (At around the 50 minute mark.)
Congratulations to Eleanor Davis on winning a medal from The Society of Illustrators. I'm going to assume that the winner was selected while the society sat around a table that looked just like this.
Oh and here is another good comic Davis recently posted on her tumblr.
I liked this Matt Seneca moving gif comic thing.
Hey! Everybody! Richard Sala drew the Doom Patrol!
The UK version of the Marvel Star Wars comics series was apparently an amazing weekly sci-fi fantasy anthology thing including Guardians of the Galaxy and other junk. I think I need to have those.

The Comics Reporter continued the holiday interview series this week. I particularly enjoyed this interview with Mark Waid. It got me thinking about the 90s. Without looking through wikepedia or my long boxes, when I think of the 90s, there were really only four writers of super hero comics where you bought the comic for the writer; Grant Morrison, James Robinson, Kurt Buseik and Mark Waid. Maybe Matt Wagner too but I never thought of his stuff as super hero comics. (Even when it clearly was.)
Bully went down in the vault to dig up some historical records explaining the details of The Beast's time travel plan in today's All-New X-Men.
CBR has a good interview with Jon Lewis about True Swamp, the 90s and other things I like.
Goodbye Comics Buyers Guide. Sad times.
There is a new Gabby Schulz comic up. I'm beginning to suspect that Schulz may not be happy about a few things.
Patrick Dean also has some new comics up.
People. El Generico has signed with the WWE. Now, if you don't care about wrestling then this news will mean nothing to you. But, I don't care who you are. Do yourself a favor and witness the No Hands Space Flying Tigersault!

So, at some point this week a popular TV show (aren't they all, they're on TV right?) that I don't care about did a thing making fun of a situation that does not actually exist. I'm not linking to it.
Some comics I've never read are burning in hell.
I'm listening to Robert Newsome's talking and music podcast as I type this. So far, mostly black/death/whatever-they-call-it metal this go round... but wait, then there's a Morrisey song. Teh intronets is like a box of chocolates.
Speaking of Robert Newsome, I got my copy of The Atomic Elbow Issue No. 4 in the mail this week and it is great. For you comic book types there is an interview with Jill Thompson, an article by Chris Sims and there are comics in it. Comics fans like comics right?
And speaking of wrestling, back in The Atomic Elbow Issue No. 3 I had an article in there about the time I went to meet Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant and see some wrestling. I have now posted that article, along with some photos, on my personal blog-a-thing.
In other news about me, the new season of Justified started this week. I was pretty happy about that. I can see some Boyd Crowder fan art in my future. Oh, and also, on Thursday night, my dad got me an Italian sub sandwich from this place called Giovanni's in Saint Paul, VA. It was real good.

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Marvel.)
...was a digital comic I read on Comixology. Maybe I need to re-think the title of this feature. I went to my LCS (local comic shop that is actually a video game store) on Wednesday thinking I would buy Superior Spider-Man because, ya know, I had asked them to get me a copy and because it's kind of a big deal but, nope, they did not have any copies. So then I cried and flopped around in the parking lot like that fish at the end of that Faith No More video. Later, I was at home reading teh intronet because my life is a joke and I saw Rob from Panel Patter talking on the twitter about how he was reading Superior Spider-Man on Comixology. Therefore, I had no choice but to go read it on Comixology myself. How could I not?!? Self control? Pfftt!
And... SPOILERS it was very good. I really like this Ryan Stegman guy. His action scenes are equal parts Greg Capullo and Joe Kubert which is fine by me. And the talking scenes, especially the dinner scene with MJ, are pure Howard Chaykin. I mean, look at Mary Jane's dress. The only place women dress like that is in a Howard Chaykin comic book. And all things being equal, I would honestly prefer if most comics artists were just lifting from Chaykin all the time. Slott's writing is near perfect for a Spider-Man comic. Doc Ock as Spider-Man is just as funny as I thought it would be. The comic is kinda PG-13. A few more drops of blood and one more boob shot than I would prefer in a comic I'd like to be able share with my kid. But, we can't have it all can we? You can't have the joy of Howard Chaykin dresses and the joy of sharing a comic with your child. The big reveal at the end is exactly what I thought it would be and I think it will be straight up neat-o to see how it plays out.

And finally...you all loved to cheer for your superheroes.

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.

11 comics I liked in 2011: Parts 6 through 11

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Smith) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:45:00 +0000

(Image stolen from Gabby Schulz.)

Hi friends. Real talk time. As you may have noticed, it is now the year 2013. In the way back time of late 2011 and early 2012 I decided to post a series of eleven comics I liked from 2011. I failed. Now, I know you did not come here to read my excuses so I'll just be brief and say that 2012 was an awful year for me. Some major life disrupting things happened which easily could have made me walk away from file under other and comics in general. But, so far, I have stuck it out and clung to comics by my pinkie nails. But I just could never get my 2011 series of posts together. Largely because those awful things that happened have physically put me in a different location from where many of those 2011 comics are. Not way far or anything. I could go dig them up. But my available time to reflect on those books just never matched up with my physical proximity to them. Excuses, excuses.

All that said, in the way back time of late 2011 and early 2012 I did pick out 11 comics that I liked and wanted to talk about. But at this point, in the year 2013, I admit defeat and give up on my idea of long focused individual posts and now give you a list. And I kinda hate lists. But here we are.

These comics are presented in no particular order. I don't really think the idea of "best" has a lot of place in art. It's not a sport. We don't have points or a playoff system. It's all relative to the individual's tastes. And also relative to the fact that comics are very expensive and there are certainly a lot of works out there that won't be on this list just because I never got to read them.

First off, let's start with links to the five comics I did manage to talk about:

Josh Latta's Rashy Rabbit Droppin' Anchor

Ben Towle's Oyster War

Brad McGinty's Wysteria

Life With Archie

The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold

And now, comics 6 through 11:

Old Timey Hockey Tales

By Robert Ullman and Jeffrey Brown.

On sale for $6 here.

I picked this up from Ullman at SPX in 2011 and I've kept it close at hand since then and re-read it several times. First of all it is a WAP book and therefore looks great and is perfectly produced. Great design. Quality cover and paper stock. Quality colors on the cover and end papers. Exactly what I want and enjoy in a minicomic. I've read minicomics long enough that I am no longer impressed by crazy screen print, crazy cut, silk screen wacky covers. I like them to be tight and solid. I like them to be exactly like this.

I also like for my minicomics to have guys like Rob Ullman and Jeffrey Brown in them. Two very different creators. Very different in the way they draw and tell stories but it works well together creating nice tone shifts that break up the book in a positive way. I'm only a casual hockey fan but each story works as its own thing and had me hungry for more.

The webcomics of Rich Tommaso. Sam Hill, Dry Country, Vikings End and more.

Back in 2009 ish Rich Tommaso started what he called a "one-man publishing house". Basically, he started posting a lot of comics online and they were/are great. In 2010 (I think) he started what would become the 2012 Sam Hill book. That comic continued into 2011 which was when I actually read most of it. In 2011 he also started Dry Country. (And a bunch of other things if I remember correctly. Vikings End etc.) The point is, Rich was really killing it with the webcomics in 2011. More than I could keep up with and all of it exceptional. Unfortunately, the nature of webcomics today is that they move around and get collected in different ways. Well, unfortunate only in that it makes it harder for me to find old links. Rich's website has changed from Web of Comics to Recoil. Dry Country is currently over at Study Group. Sam Hill can be purchased as a real hold it in your hands paper book over at Fantagraphics.

Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and several other people.

I talked about the 1st issue 2011's New 52 Animal Man at length here. I liked it well enough but Travel Foreman really blew me away in the following issues. Easily some of the most exciting art I saw in 2011. But sadly, Foreman did not keep up the pace and fill in artists came in during 2012. The art remained strong but was inconsistent and lacked that magic of those first few Foreman issues. Now the comic is mired in a crossover. But for a few months, it was really something.

Not My Small Diary #16 edited by Delaine Green and featuring dozens of indie comics and zine wonders.

Not My Small Diary is an ongoing themed diary anthology. This sixteenth volume is made up of two thick minicomics filled with transportation themed stories. Comics and stuff by Donna Barr, Robyn Jordan, Dave Kiersh, John Porcellino, Liz Prince, Noah Van Sciver, Julia Wertz and many more. I like diary comics but I think I like them best in Not My Small Diary. All those little bits from all those different voices. Seeing the world through so many different eyes, pens and brushes all in one place. More than worth the cover price.

Paying For It by Chester Brown.

Chester Brown is one of my favorite cartoonists and his previous full length book, Louis Riel, is my favorite book so I had a lot of anticipation built up for Paying For It. A lot of people did. There was a lot of controversy about Paying For Its subject matter and how Chester Brown handled it (and how he had a clear and heavy handed agenda) but it never bothered me. To me, the book is a comedy about a man who has Blake Edwards movie awkwardness every time he tries to interact with living humans. It's a drawn anthropology journal about having sex presented by a cartoon version of a man that does not seem like he'd be all that good at shaking hands. (He rides a bicycle to go find prostitutes! That is funny people.) I thought it was riveting, fascinating and all those other words critics use for "I liked it lots". I particularly liked Brown's interactions with Seth, Joe Matt and Sook-Yin Lee. At the 2011 SPX I had the pleasure of meeting Chester Brown and he was one of the nicest people I've ever met. And totally capable of shaking hands.

Sick. A webcomic by Gabby Schulz.

No other comic in 2011 was affective to me as Gabby Schulz's Sick. The thing is brutal. Almost every panel is a body blow and some of them rattled my jaw. The story is about the horrors being sick without insurance in the good ol' US of A. I actually have health insurance but my family has experienced a lot of illness over the past 5 or so years and I've spent way too many awful nights in hospitals. Even with insurance, it is terrible. Sick captures all of the worst thoughts and fears of sitting in the hospital or lying in bed thinking that death would be better than what the next few minutes will hold. And as brutal as the comic is, it is also enjoyable. I know that sounds odd. But Schulz is a very funny cartoonist. He is attacking these horrors with scorn and cynicism but there is a layer of humor on most of it. He is pointing out the absurdity of it. Routine matter of fact things we have to go through in the US just to ~~receive~~ purchase a moment of human decency and assistance. You have to laugh at it or you'll probably just end it all.
I would tell you to check it out for yourself but Sick is not currently online. (It kinda is but not officially.) The comic was successful enough that Schulz ended up with bandwidth issues and had to take it down. But the good news is, at least as I understand it from reading one of his blog comments, that he is working on a print version. Whenever that happens, it will be essential reading.

Well, that's 2011 for ya. Sorry it took so long. I'll try to get to 2012 sometime before we all die.

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.