Archive for November, 2006
New OGN line from DC to target the tween girl crowd called MINX. Read it on some feed on LJ. I guess it’s been in the works for a couple of years. I hope it takes off. Thrilled as it means all new Jim Rugg art in a graphic novel.
I’m absolutely loving NBC’s Heroes. They’ve done a fantastic job so far of developing the characters, the mysteries, and the “universe” of the story. Each episode advances the overall story arc, fills in the backgrounds of the characters, and unlike Lost, manages to answer a few questions instead of constantly introducing new ones.
The online heroes “graphic novel,” on the other hand, is a complete and utter waste of electrons. Then again, considering it’s an “Aspen Comics” production, would you expect otherwise? The character vignettes are complete throw-aways, adding less than nothing to the show’s storyline or the characters’ background and depth. And the art. Oh god, the art. Michael Turner clone/wannabe Micah Gunnell makes my eyes bleed. Check out this astounding bit of anatomy from chapter 8 of the online comic…I think it’s supposed to be a representation of the character Simone Deveaux, played by actress Tawny Cypress:
Are you kidding me? Look at that torso! Look at that waist! Her friggin’ leg is thicker than her waist.
Ugh. Such lousy art on such a high profile project just makes me sad.
It’s time once again for the 2006 Bankies, Mid-Ohio Con Edition! These awards recognize the good, the bad and the ugly from each convention.
Steve Rubell Award for achievement in the field of Hosting: Dara Naraghi, for setting up the pre-show party.
Goin’ Places Award: Panel, for the flossy passport-themed book.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince award – to our own Andy Bennett, for hooking up his iBook and providing the music at the party during the breaks in Poophouse’s set. Despite a power surge that nearly caused his external hard drive to crash – and some impromptu tech support — DJ B3NN3TT recovered and brought teh rock.
Burnin’ Down the House award – to Ian and the rest of the Poophouse Jug Band (http://www.myspace.com/poophousereilly) for providing the energetic live music at our “Unmasked” pre-con party Friday night. You guys actually got comic book fans to dance! In a bar full of people! Now that’s an accomplishment.
Urban Ninja award (or: Poor Convention Center Security award) – to Twisted Gate Entertainment (http://www.twistedgate.com) publisher Ray Scott for actually managing to spend the night inside the convention center, sleeping in a hallways above the convention floor. Damn impressive, and a funny story to boot.
Obi Wan and Yoda Annikin Award: McGurr, McClurg, Kish, Barlow, and all those who all definitely there in spirit.
Saucer of Milk Award: Craig Bogart. “That guy is like *two* clones of Jango Fett.”
Heather Locklear Award for best cameo: Tony Goins. No table, but still there.
Lighting My Cigar With Someone Else’s $100 Bill award – to the inconsiderate jerk (or jerks) at the pre-con party who stacked two plates full of the free appetizers we’d provided for everyone, only to take a half-bite out of one piece and discard the rest with their dirty napkins thrown on top. What a waste.
Little Florence Nightingale award – to the little girl (who couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old) who heard Dara coughing while she was walking past his table with her family, and came up to offer him a cough drop. Talk about sweet!
Big Pimpin’ Award: Sean McKeever, who had a full table all to himself, often populated by a posse.
Lose Your Cool, Lose Your Sale Award: the dealer who stood at his booth screaming profanities into his phone while Craig stood there with a stack of comics to purchase. Craig left the books there since he didn’t want to give my money to an obvious @$$hole.
Sometimes I Doubt Your Commitment to Sparkle Motion Award: Low traffic in general at the show. Traffic at the show was either feast or famine. Sunday being the worst. Good weather or parking fees? Don’t know what was holding `em back. When conventioneers have the time to look around tables or close up: that’s a crappy show.
Talky McTalk award, Part 1 – to DC/Vertigo editor Bob Schreck, for being one of the chatiest guys I’ve ever met. Even the simplest fan exchanges turned into 15 minute conversations.
Talky McTalk award, part 2 – to DC/Vertigo editor Bob Schreck, for being open, approachable, and attentive to all of us aspiring comics creators who dropped by for portfolio reviews and advice. He didn’t brush off anyone, imparted much wisdom, and took the time to talk to everyone in full. Bravo!
Why Buy The Cow? Award: Mike Dolce, who gave Tony two copies of his book Sire for free. It’s really pretty good, check it out at http://www.mikebooks.com.
Paris Hilton Award for achievements in the field of over-exposure: Catwoman. We counted at least three different women wearing different Catwoman costumes at the show: the purple Jim Balent version, the gray Animated Series version, and a black Darwyn Cooke version.
Put That Away! Award: To twink Green Lantern, for reminding us once again why Batman wears his drawers outside his tights. It’s so no one can see the outline of his junk.
Baba Wawa Award: Pam Bliss, who prepared for her Barbara Walters interview by getting choked up while telling about one special National Lampoon cartoon she saw as a kid.
Come And Knock On My Door … Please Award: Apparently Larry from Three’s Company was really trying to mack on the `82 Playboy model at the bar the other night and we missed the whole sad display.
You’re Killing Comics award: Part 1: Lack of variety at the show. No Manga/Japanese shwag dealers, no Top Shelf. Tom cries. But hey, you can get a novelty t-shirt. Whoopey friggin’ do!
You’re Killing Comics award: Part 2: To booking that dork who won the I wanna be a superhero show. Maybe a worse sin than having the remainder cast from Three’s Company.
You’re Keeping Comics Alive award – to Jubal Faircloth, attending his first comic con as an “industry pro,” who despite the small crowds and general lack of interest towards small press comics, was still excited and cheerful. Nice job on your book, and here’s to seeing you at SPACE in 2007.
At the 1988 MidOhio Con, I got to shake hands with Stan Lee; this past weekend’s show actually managed to top that one, making it my own personal best convention both as a fan and since I started self-publishing. I heard a lot of grumbling from other exhibitors about it being slow (and Sunday was completely dead), but Saturday went so well for me that the second day didn’t matter. I rolled out a $14 trade paperback as an experiment, and it actually succeeded, selling well enough to pay for my table and give me some shopping money. I can’t wait to see how it goes at SPACE next year, and I’ll most likely shift to a webcomic/annual tpb model for The Ineffables from here on out. The freakishness factor at this year’s show was actually kind of low (my regular favorite, the bald Nightcrawler, was nowhere to be seen, and that short blonde Aquaman dude was actually walking around dressed as a normal guy at one point), so I only got a few pictures; here are the highlights:
We parked at the wrong end of the convention center, so we came in to an ominously empty, silent cavern of a place that looked deserted. I told my wife that I would ask the guy sitting at the information desk over there for directions. As I walked over, she was saying “er, Craig…”
Oh. Seems I wasn’t wearing my contact lenses that morning. I imagined myself as Mister Magoo, shaking my fist and yelling “why won’t you answer me?!!?”
Here’s a work-in-progress by Andy Bennett, which I promised to post so he couldn’t deny its existence. Now, I’m a big fan of the ‘70s Marvels myself, but it boggles my mind that anyone would ask for a Champions sketch of all things. But hey, who am I to talk, I post loving essays about the Shogun Warriors…
…which brings me to my own fanboy moment for the weekend, meeting the great Herb Trimpe. I think we made a real connection there, notice that arm around my shoulder and his “best wishes” on the sketch. Other people just got “wishes” on their sketches, but he gave me his best wishes.
Here’s that sketch:
A couple thoughts: Herb Trimpe aside, if I were attending the show purely as a comic collector, I’d probably never come back. The dealers had tons of expensive silver age books, and tons of overpriced new stuff that’s probably still on the shelf at the Ogre, but nothing in between. If I was trying to complete a run of a specific series, I wouldn’t have found what I was after. I was hoping to find some Sal Buscema Hulk’s from the late 70s/early 80s, and they weren’t there; likewise any FF between Kirby and Byrne, etc. I did finally have some limited success digging through discount boxes, but those were unorganized and mostly 90s books the dealers hadn’t been able to sell at their own stores over the last decade. Also, the comic dealers themselves seemed outnumbered by guys selling DVD’s and T-Shirts.
At the small press panel, Bob Corby made the remark that 20% of the comic stores on his direct mail list for SPACE fliers have closed in the past couple years. Yikes! Perhaps if comics were aimed exclusively at older readers, eschewed self-contained stories, and featured stories that are heavily continuity-driven, more people might read them and this trend would reverse itself.
Past cons have followed a formula of being really busy at opening time, then slowing down through the day. Perhaps because of the new downtown location, I saw the opposite this time; It didn’t look like the con had opened at 10 a.m., but slowly built as the day progressed. When we returned from the panel at 2:00, I was surprised by the size of the crowd compared to when we left (note for Roger: I’d prefer to be on panels on Sunday, when the crowd on the floor is smaller. Then again, I guess I won’t complain about the exposure in either event).
Quote of the weekend: a guy stopped at my table to look over my books, so I gave him my sales pitch. He said, “I don’t read much, thanks.”
This week’s page is courtesy of fellow PANEList Andy Bennett. Guess away.
(click image to greenify)
(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, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006)
The 8th volume of our well-reviewed small press anthology, PANEL: Travel, debuts today at Mid-Ohio-Con!
Cover by Steve Black.
The pre-show party tonight was quite fun, and we had a great turnout. Thanks to the Poophouse Jug Band for entertaining the crowd, and to my fellow PANEListas Andy, Tony, and Tom for helping out with the party. More details and a full set of pictures later, but for now, here are a few shots:
See you all at Mid-Ohio-Con in a few hours!
I’m hoping for a real good turnout at “Unmasked“, our little pre-Mid-Ohio-Con shindig. The press release has been making the rounds, with coverage on The Pulse and the Mid-Ohio-Con new page, plus Kevin Melrose posted about it on Blog@Newsarama, Beau Smith mentioned it in his Busted Knuckles column, and Tony Isabella’s Tony’s Online Tips column did some name dropping as well.
Sometimes at a show or just in conversation, I get asked what I use when I draw. Well here’s a blog centered around that whole query. Unless you’re an artist, it’s like reading a fishman talking about what bait he uses. But it may be useful to some. Adrian Tomine, Jim Rugg and Bryan O’Malley are some of artists that jumped at me on there.
I’m more of the mind: whatever works. Lately I’ve been using sumi brush & ink for fill-ins and faber castell brush pens for everything else on 2 ply bristol. Mostly because I’ve been in a hurry lately with projects. Constantly having to dip back into the pen gets in the way. I cut the inking in half by doing that. Coloring is a toggle between Painter and Photoshop. Sketching at shows isn’t much different except I’ve been trying these terracotta pencils for tone. They mesh nice with some of the earthtone brush pens.
Check out this New York Times gallery of famous artists interpreting visuals from the new Darren Aronofsky movie, “The Fountain”. Some gorgeous pieces by the likes of Phil Hale, Barron Storey, Jim Lee, and James Jean.
(via The Lint Trap)
From Your Mom’s Basement comes this Jack Chick-inspired spoof that invariably made me think of Craig Bogart:
