Archive for December, 2005
2005 Year-end Google zeitgeist
Here are Google’s lists of top ten most popular searches for the entirety of 2005.
So what does it say about the human race as a whole that under the News section, there were more searches on Janet Jackson than there were for Hurricane Katrina?
Dave Sim writes Showgirls
No, not the movie adaptation. Still, it’s a pretty weird news story that I missed earlier. Apparently, woman hatin’ Dave Sim is writing a limited series for Howard Shum’s Gun Fu comic. Titled Gun Fu: Showgirls Are Forever, the book is described thusly:
“Gun Fu: Showgirls Are Forever #1 will be released in March 2006 and is published by Image Comics. The story is set in 1941. France has succeeded in setting the world record for the quickest surrender to Nazi Germany without putting up a fight. Nazi-collaborating French showgirls are on a secret mission to attack a neutral United States. Cheng Bo Sen is a Hong Kong cop and British secret agent. He also speaks hip-hop which no one seems to notice.”
Um, yeah.
Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this. I’m not a big Sim fan, but it still seems like an odd choice.
2006 Day Prize Nominees announced..
This year Bob decided to break down nominees into subcatagories- Digest, Best Short Story, Mini-Comics, Comics, Square Comics(?) & Trade Paperbacks. But only one will win the top prize. Among the noms- Sorrel which I hope wins. Probably the pick of the litter and is a great snapshot of a creator coming into his own. Word on the street is Top Shelf might be interested in Justin’s stuff. Icecreamlandia was also great but lacks that bitter diatribe against women. (this is Sim after all) Panel:Myth didn’t get nominated but did get put in a submissions listing at the bottom. Completely missed it the first time(Sorry Chad) but Point Pleasant’s up for the award as well (fellow Panel contributors Steve Black & Dan Barlow). I don’t know if Pussy Galore should be on there but it’s nice to have been nominated.
Richard Case whereabouts
So back when I started reading Grant Morisson’s Doom Patrol, I quickly fell in love with the artwork of Richard Case. Over the years, I acquired an original page of his art (from a Shade: The Changing Man issue) and a sketch of Robotman in my con sketchbook. But then it seemed that he disappeared from the comics field altogether. I’d often wondered what happened to him, and assumed that he had moved on to greener pastures (movies, video games, or commercial art.) Well, perusing Mike Wieringo’s blog today, I found the answer:
“When I first moved to North Carolina to join what became ARTAMUS STUDIOS, along with such talented folks as Richard Case, Jeff Parker, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, John Lowe and several others…Eventually everyone moved on from the studio. Several of our number went out west. Some left the comics industry altogether…Until, at the end, when it was just Rich Case and myself… and Rich decided that moving to the video game industry was more stable for him and his family than freelancing in comics (and who can blame him…. he’s right).”
Sadly, another great comics artist lost to a different industry. But more power to Richard. I’ve said it many times before, I really don’t understand why any artist would want to try and make a living in the comics field.
Monday Morning “Guess the Artist”
Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly morning. Call it a special edition Monday Afternoon edition of Guess the Artist, if it helps you sleep better at night.
We’re featuring a pin-up again, and hopefully an easy one. Guess away.
(click images to scale like a spider)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005)
A couple of fast ones for y’all..
I love year-end lists. Love them as sometimes the good stuff passes me by. Here’s a good one to expand your collection. I’ve found I own half the Rock listing already. Pitchfork has some good list(s) where they go around and ask different pros,critics, and musicians their’s. Best and Worst of 2005. My fav is the writer’s assessment of ‘My Humps’.
Another ballsy year for the Bush in two fold. I was shocked he actually came out and basically stated (paraphrasing here)’Yah, so I knew we based the invasion on bad intel. They were still asking for it anyway.’ Also to come out is that he authorized many a wire tap. So when is this ass-hat getting impeached?? Geesh. Between all the f’ed up policy and losing an entire American City (so long Mardi Gra) coupled the scary environment news, I’ve gotta take a break from commondreams. It’s just too depressing.
It’s News to Jumbo: part II
Going home for ‘Will’-mas I was handed a copy of the Kenton Times (sorry, they’re archives are spotty). An article was folded so’s I could read about Monty’s balls. Monty will paint your balls for money. Oh yes, gently blowing on them with an airbrush then oiling them up with a brush. Prepping them till finally the piece is released… to the new owner. If you’re nice he might show you his balls, they’re incased behind glass y’know…
Seriously though I grew up near Monty. He was that one art student that threw my art teacher a bone. A ray of hope in a sea of banal impetuous redneck brats. He was my first exposure to illustration/comics industry as he was a production/editor for Dark Horse (for ten years 1988-98). He would do some fill in’s and ghosting badly drawn panels here and there. He once brought some Matt Wagner Grendel pages to my class. He quit Dark Horse in 1998 to come back to Jumbo. He launched his (unfortunately titled) ArtBall buisness to an unsuspecting Collecter’s market in ’98. I laughed at the premise for a good hour but seriously he’s got to be living like a king out there. The Artball’s go from $500 to $2500 a pop. He does them steady- 4 to 5 pieces a week. With a eye for intricate detail that rivals Chris Ware.
AA Weekend Covers
It’s simple. Every weekend, I treat you to two covers, one that’s simply Awesome, and one that purely sucks Ass.
AWESOME
(click to enlarge)
Books of Magic #54 (November 1998) by William Michael Kaluta.
Kaluta is an amazing illustrator, and has produced hundreds of comic and novel covers. I had a hard time picking out a sample cover from the run he did on Books of Magic, but I think what made this one stick out is that it’s a fairly unusual composition for him. His covers tend to be wall-to-wall illustrations, featuring dozens of story elements and images arranged in a symmetric pattern. However, I love the starkness of the background on this one, focusing all your attention on the 3 figures and their unusual movement. Love it.
ASS
(click to enlarge)
Ultimate Spider-man #29 (February 2003) by Mark Bagley.
You know, it’s not that I dislike Bagley’s art. I think he’s a very solid storyteller, and I’m very impressed with his speed and work ethic. I happen to think his style is rather, well, plain, but that’s a matter of taste on my part. However, the covers he does for the Ultimate Spider-man book are just…what’s the word…booooooooooooring and ugly. Seriously, I could have picked from a dozen other covers with almost the same exact generic Spider-man pose. No action, no story, no backgrounds, no sense of design. And despite the good anatomy he displays in his interior work, the covers are just bizarre and ugly. And the coup de grace, that hideous computer coloring that looks like a bad 80s airbrush t-shirt you’d get at the fair. No thanks.
(previous weeks: 12/3/2005, 12/11/2005)
2006 Eisner Awards Judges
Next year’s Eisner Awards judges have been named.
“Christopher Allen, managing editor for ComicBookGalaxy.com. He has written for The Comics Journal, MoviePoopShoot.com, NinthArt.com, and other websites…
John Gallagher, cartoonist, self-publisher, and award-winning designer. Under the Sky-Dog Press banner, John has written and illustrated his online and printed graphic novel series Buzzboy since 1998…
Nisha Gopalan, comics editor at Entertainment Weekly…
Robert Randle, purchasing brand manager for Diamond Comic Distributors…
Robert Scott, owner/operator of Comickaze Comics Books and More in San Diego.”
Looks like another good cross section of comics book pros and insiders.
Kiss from a rose
Here’s another lonely heart from the Other Paper classifieds. I’m not sure if she’s looking for one of us or not:
POISON IVY-ESQUE SF, 26 looking for Batman, SM 25-35 to paint Gotham green. D/D and Dork free a must!
She references Batman, but she doesn’t want a dork? Is she looking instead for a geek or a nerd? Is Dork a typo? Does she literally want Batman? And does “D/D” stand for “drug/disease” as it usually does, or is she talking about Dungeons and Dragons?
Wholly Craft: consignment store shout out
This one’s mainly for my Columbus peeps. There’s a new “urban crafts” consignment store in Clintonville that deserves your patronage, especially if you’re looking for last minute unique gifts. Wholly Craft is located on 3171 N. High St. and accepts new items for consigment from local artists/craftsmen. In addition to weird and funky hand-made cards, books, clothing, etc., they also carry the full line of Ferret Press and PANEL comics and zines! In fact, they’re already sold a few issues, including one of my BigCityBlues CDs.
There’s also an article in the SNP this week about the store and owner Olivera Bratich (although they misspelled her name.) Anyway, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and check out her store. Remember folks, supporting fellow artists and creators can only lead to good karma.
Truth in comics, part 4
(btw, if you hadn’t noticed alrteady, all images in this series were found at one time or another on SomethingAwful.com, I certainly don’t mean to imply any sort of ownership on my part)
More on webcomics
(Wow, the webcomics quotient of this blog has shot up significantly in the last couple of months…)
So speaking of digital comics, a couple quick links:
On the self-serving side, I wanted to remind you that the new storyline in my Lifelike comic has reached its mid-point this week. It’s called “Art/Life” and explores a topic familiar to most of you. (And thanks again to Matt and Ione for the great save when it came to naming one of the lead characters.) Oh, and while you’re there, feel free to click on a couple of the ads on the site. That’s how poppa gets paid.
Also, looks like marvel is once again making several of their recent issues available for free on the web, in their entirety. You can read Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1, Captain America #1, She-Hulk #1 (volume 1), and an episode for Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius on Marvel’s “Digital Comics” site.
The Marvel stuff, unfortunately, could still use a lot of work in the file preparation and quality. The images are very pixelated, which just means someone was too lazy or inept to format the files properly. Hopefully they’ll work the kinks out of their process soon.
Very un-comic oriented:
I’ve recently discovered that my brother has a blog.. and it’s kinda lame. Love the guy but damn. ‘Boy Band’ dreams?? I hope he was kidding. In case you’re curious check it out.
More on webcomics: I found this roundtable discussion on webcomics (thanks comicsreporter). It’s a great overview of the ‘industry’ which sprung up from hobbists into a potential market for cartoonists. I’m starting to see their potential as a way to get the work out there (and maybe make some $$$ doing it) Also a good draw for people to keep checking back to you site.
Skydiver survives face-fall into asphalt parking lot
Not comics related, but I thought it was interesting enough to share. So this 21 year old woman, Shayna Richardson, was making her first solo skydiving jump when her chute failed. She deployed her reserve chute, but it didn’t open all the way.
She hit the ground face first going about 50 MPH.
She didn’t know it at the time, but she was also pregnant.
She and the baby both survived.
“She broke her pelvis in two places, broke her leg, lost six teeth and now has 15 steel plates…Four surgeries and two months later, Richardson said she and the fetus are doing fine.”
Man, talk about cheating death!