Archive for June, 2006
Sunday at Comfest (a quickie report)
Another gorgeous day.
Great sales, we even surpassed our Saturday numbers.
Since I was up till 2 AM last night (and got in plenty of drinking at the festival too) I opted for an alcohol-free, mellow day today. Caught my coworker’s band (Black Cat Revival) at the Off Ramp stage. Took some pictures around the park. Took a nap behind the booth (aka passed out from exhaustion for a little bit.) And had several great people watching (and interacting) experiences.
Thanks to Tom, Andy and Tony for helping out at the booth today. And big thanks to Andy, Tony, and Jess for help with the tear down and haulin’ the crap back to the cars. We were out by midnight, smooth and easy.
Pictures and a write up of the festival sometime on Monday or Tuesday. I promise.
And now, time to go crash.
Enter the ‘tude’ or ‘The Circus has arrived!’
Riot Media has opted to go online with their comic. I guess they were as disheartend by the Diamond hydra as the rest of us. As far as the guts go, the carpet truly does not match the drapes. I only had cover duty on this one. Don’t know who did the actual comic but it looks awfully clean given what they were going for. Brought to you in ripin’ Tude vision. I’m just happy something saw the light of day. (the $$$ was nice too.)
Saturday at Comfest (a quickie report)
The weather was warm and sunny.
It was gorgeous.
We sold lots of books.
Saw The Fabulous Johnson Brothers on the main stage, and Jamnesia closing the night down on the jazz stage. Also: Sean, Andy, and Tom helped out big time with the booth, Andy and Tom did sketches, there was lots of great people watching, topless women, bought a book of poetry from local writer Is Said, and my friends hung out behind the booth till 1:30 AM.
It was a good day.
(Pictures coming soon.)
Friday at Comfest (a quickie report)
It rained.
A lot.
We sold close to zero books.
Because it rained. A lot.
When the rain finally let up in the evening, the humidity was so bad all the display copies of our books were warped.
But the crowd was out in full force at night, I caught several bands (including the all-girl rock quarter Giganta, who did indeed bring teh rock,) and got to hang out with lovely Wendy and Hanna.
So all’s good.
I finally got the chance to read the run (to date) of Frank Espinosa’s Rocketo. Wow, he really nailed that sense of wonder that’s been missing from superhero comics since Kirby left. Reminds me of that thrill I’d get reading Flash Gordon or a Fantastic Four comic. My only complaint, which is knit-picking, is sometimes the art is completely unreadible and the bizarre word balloons. Moments where all sense of structure evaporates and I know he can do structure. I still highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t checked it out. If handled right this could be the next great kid’s comic, ala Bone.
Speaking of Kirby, I picked up the new Gaiman Eternals yesterday. It’s almost made up for the horrid horrible 1602. I’m loving the Berry/Romita Jr. combo and the story so far is going somewhere.
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DC writer (Scooby Doo) Vito Delsante announced on his Pulse column last week our new upcoming collab Stuck. Part of the Chemistry Set webcomic group. Currently I think we’re going live with it in August. The group’s going to pimp the hell out of it in San Diego. Oh the excitement!
It’s been nuts lately so I didn’t get to print off this poster I did for the Panel booth. I smell. Anyway, reminding y’all that the local music fest Comfest begins tommorow! Located in Goodale Park in the Short North. The festival runs till Sunday. Band’s I’m likely to check out are Brainbow, the Kyle Sowashes, the Sun. Maybe the Tough & Lovely. The girl’s amused by the band name Necropolis but I dunno. Whatever everything’s free except for what’s in our booth. Thought about doing caractures or temp tattoos. But I suck at likenesses and don’t even know what’s involved in the temp tattooing. We’ll see.
Way Back Machine
Because I kind of enjoyed it, and because no one else (here) is doing it: more reviews of some of my old comics as I enjoy them in a warm bubble bath. My mission is doubly important because judging by most discussions (and even what I see over at the wonderful Dave’s Long Box), it seems few of us have memories of these books stretching back before the late eighties. This is unacceptable since these books were obviously so much better back in the day (damn kids and their comics these days…). There was a time when pre-corporate Marvel rightfully ruled the Earth and Batman wasn’t defined by Frank Miller and Tim Burton, before made-for-tpb publication was the model and stories could be sophisticated yet accessible to any reader. And, oh yeah, they sold a gazillion times better than they do in the present day, too, so they must have had something going for them.
My first few entries will cover the books that are among my earliest childhood memories, beginning with:
Man-Thing #5
First, just look at that killer Mike Ploog cover: the “shambling, mindless mockery of humanity” has dug a grave for a dead clown, preparing to lower him in while shocked witnesses observe from the background. The Vertigo cover hasn’t been made that equals the creepiness of this image. Ploog could easily match Bernie Wrightson for this sort of bizarre horror illustration when the task called for it, and this particular cover is a favorite of mine.
(In case anyone doesn’t know: Wrightson was, at this same time, working on DC’s Swamp Thing, a character with an identical origin and premise. As both characters debuted on exactly the same month, it’s obvious who was ripping off whom: they were both ripping off the Hulk. Or maybe Frankenstein. I dunno, actually. While DC’s character went off on retro-gothic adventures, however, Marvel’s went on some characteristically 1970’s head-trippy storylines, so there are actually few similarities between the two.)
Anyway, this was 1974, so the story is obviously going to be some simplistic, kiddie-safe material that kept comics as a storytelling medium stagnant for the next couple decades until a more discriminating market abandoned the comics code. Let’s see, after the main character is introduced, we move to page three…
…wherein a clown wanders into the swamp, puts a gun to his head, and kills himself. Man, that’s quite a downer to begin your story with. Rather than leaping in at the nick of time to save Pagliacci, our hero (?) wanders off into the swamp with his corpse, some part of his dim brain sensing that it needs to be put in the ground.
Outside the swamp, we meet a couple of hippie kids named Richard and Ruth. Picture Shaggy and Daphne hooking up and wandering into a 70’s horror comic; these two were recurring protagonists, bumping into the erstwhile Ted Sallis on a regular basis. They witness an altercation between some carnies; a female aerialist is upset over a missing clown; the owner, a guy named Garvey, and the strongman Tragg are glad to be rid of him. A triangle between the woman, the clown, and the owner is suggested; before long she enlists the aid of Rich and Ruth to search for the little guy, as the sinister owner and strongman tail their car in the distance.
The trio thinks they’ve found their quarry when they see the clown sitting at the edge of the swamp in the center of a mysterious spotlight. He doesn’t respond to their calls, instead wandering into the bog. Fearing something is wrong with him, they follow. Meanwhile, behind them, Tragg and Garvey encounter the clown in an entirely different fashion:
Two points about this page: 1) That panel with the clown sitting in the road as the car approaches, surrounded by a circle of light? More creepy stuff. 2) Observe that car crash, which is depicted in one panel, not three pages. Pay attention, JMS and Bendis.
Everyone converges in the swamp, where the Man Thing hands Tragg his head in another of those unfair comic book fights I enjoy so much. After the creature decides how long he intends to hold the strongman’s head under the water, the fight is interrupted when the clown’s ghost rises to put a halt to the proceedings. The issue ends on a cliffhanger: the clown intends to make those present reenact the drama of his own life, portraying those who abused him and those he loved. Spectral figures will judge what his fate in the afterlife should be. Here’s the creepy clown ghost:
As a kid, I actually had the Power Records comic & LP version of this story, which was rewritten to make that last scene a happy ending. I wish I could read it again to see just how much revision had to go into that sanitized presentation.
David Choe’s jail drawings
This quote says it all…
David Choe got arrested for punching out an undercover detective in Tokyo in December of 2004. Then he spent four months in solitary confinement in a Japanese prison. Deprived of his usual drawing and painting tools, David improvised materials out of whatever he could scrape together in his tiny cell, including soy sauce and his own urine.
Definitely not work-safe. This one is soy.. I hope. They say he went thru a brief Christian phase in the clink but he got better. (well, that depends on your version of ‘better’)
One movie to entice them both…
If the rumors pan out, the 30 Days of Night movie will accomplish something Wendy and I have joked about for a while: a reason for both of us to go see a movie due to our respective geeky obsessions. On my part, it’s a comic book adaptation. On her part, it may star Josh Hartnett.
Now if only they’d cast Gina Gershon in it…holy crap, that would be a triple threat of guilty pleasures.
(yes, you may use the comments section to make fun of our respective B-list actor obsessions…but only if you identify your own shameful celebrity crush)
It’s She-Hulk’s A$$ Week at Marvel Comics!
It was a relatively light week for me last week at the comic store; I left with only three books, two of them being Marvels (Two-Gun Kid #1 and Civil War #2). Assuming my purchases were a random sampling of Marvel’s offerings that week, I believe I’ve noticed a theme:
Of course, this isn’t news to anyone who reads comics, and for good reason. I can’t tell you how many times I’m working on a page of cartooning and realize that what I need to balance out a composition is a giant butt staring the reader in the face.
I have no moral or philosophical objection to pornography, and have certainly done my share in the past to support the Lion’s Den in my community. But c’mon, somewhere there’s a wanker lurking in a darkened corner of his mother’s basement gazing lovingly at an assortment of cartoon butt, and I’d prefer not to be associated with him just because I walk into a comic store. I have to take these home and sit down with them next to my wife, and she’s usually got Faulkner or something, so I don’t want to cringe too much when she looks over to see what I’m reading. If I’m in an adult bookstore, I’m not looking for comics; likewise, if I’m in a comic store, I’m looking for something more like this:
I’m told this bears a striking resemblance to the new Rawhide Kid, but I haven’t read that yet.
Monday Morning “Guess the Artist”
Two Green Lantern pages in two weeks? Is this the start of a theme? Who knows…in the meantime, guess away at today’s artist.
(click image to visit alien worlds)
(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, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006)
Hey Kids, (indy) Comix!
Volume 7 of our anthology is now available for purchase via the website. Panel: Luck features the work of 9 creators on 6 stories, coming in at 48 pages. Each book comes with one of several different stenciled covers and fortune cookie slips. Go on, you know you wanna’.
(above: coming soon.. Act_I_Vate 2007 calendar. pic by samuriphotog)
MOCCA wrap-up 2006.
As far as how well or how bad one did seems to affect one’s perspective on the show. O’Malley sold thru everything he had in 3 hours. Some were saying the show was slow. Judging from the reports, it’s a nice snapshot of the changes happening in the industry. The slow collapse of the direct market and the continuing penetration of graphic novels. Particularly targeting the tweens and young adult. This being the one show I’d like to table at in the near future. It sound’s like one giant party regardless of attendance. Here are some of my favorite articles/posts from about last week’s show. Swimming in pics. Thanks to Kish for scoring me a Spigot mini by Farel Darymple.
Dave Roman
Dean Haspiel
Draw!
The Beat
and one of the best scanned minis in recent memory by Nikki Cook