Archive for October, 2007
thanks,
Tom
SPACENIGHT – ROM TRIBUTE SHOW
Ok, the last thing I’ll say on this whole Craig Yoe douchebaggery (to borrow a great phrase from Tony)…
1) Even IF he were the GREATEST artist THAT EVER LIVED, that’s STILL a pretty arrogant, shitty thing to say about how everyone else sucks and they shouldn’t be allowed into SPX and they’re RUINING the show. I mean, seriously, where do you get off? How about coming down off your ivory tower and joining the rest of us unwashed masses, your highness?
2) If art is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of comics (as one guy on that TCJ thread posted, writing is “a distant second”) then go to any one of a thousand little art galleries across the country and buy yourself some pretty prints and recruit people for your magazine. Save your soul the unbearable, crushing pain of having to look at bad zines at SPX. I can’t believe at this point in the evolution of comics, we’re still having this debate over which is more important, art or writing. (hint: individual tastes may vary, but they’re BOTH important in making a great comic)
3) SPX (or SPACE or APE) are not going to get RUINED!!! because newer, less seasoned artists are trying to get a handle on their craft. That’s the WHOLE POINT of shows like that! I can’t speak to the other two, but the quality of work at SPACE has been consistently getting better and more impressive over the last 5 years that I’ve been attending. Talk about raising the bar, there are folks doing amazing comix these days that were unheard of in the small press circles just a few short years ago. And I was overwhelmed at SPX at the number of good looking, interesting, unique books that I didn’t even know where to start. No creator (artist or writer or musician or whatever) is going to become better by practicing their craft in a vacuum. You have to put yourself out there, take the sting of the criticisms, expose yourself to what others in your field are doing, and come out a better artist because you’ve picked up new tips and tricks, new insights, new methods, or just simply new inspiration.
4) Natural selection weeds out the really bad artists. SPX is EXPENSIVE! Trust me, no sane creator is going to shell out those table fees, hotel costs, gas, food, parking, and other miscellaneous costs just to sit at a table for two days and not sell anything. Unless they’re independently wealthy, and/or mentally unstable, and/or masochists, most of the “shitty” artists are going to either a) decide shows like this are not for them, or b) work to get better for next year.
The end.
Just picked up a copy of Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now #1 at the store. Written by yours truly, adapting Cory’s short story, “Anda’s Game”. Interior art by Esteve Polls, cover by Sam Kieth. Gotta hand it to IDW, they’ve got great production values, as always. The cover has a nice glossy treatment on the computer screen, making it pop.
I did a quick read-through and compared it with my script, and it was quite faithful. There’s one tiny lettering mistake (different balloon shape than I intended) but overall they did a good job of cramming in all the text without obscuring the art by much. My only complaint with the book is that the colors are a bit muted and dark, but that’s just me being nitpicky.
Comic Pants already has a short but favorable review up.
“A thought-provoking story, with great looking visuals by Polls, and the usual high production quality from IDW make this one to check out.”
“If you do a book at Image you aren’t paying for Todd McFarlane’s balls.” –Erik Larsen
From this interview explaining some of the misconceptions about how the Image business model works.
This was my first time at SPX, period. I’ve attended and exhibited at SPACE many times and visited MoCCA twice, but SPX was brand new to me so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a lot of thoughts at the show and on the long drive home, but a lot of questions too. Some of that changed on Monday morning when I read this post from Craig Yoe on The Comics Journal message board:
“just back from spx. good times. but, on the other hand, real bummed by all the crapola, just got a very few books. what to do? get a megaphone, show up and yell “learn to draw!!!”? or what about spx or mocca or ape sponsoring an alternative alternative comics convention in addition to their regular shows that’s juried. or a “rock concert festival” type approach where, say 25 good cartoonists show, sell and talk about their work. or…?!?
but, why are the people who can draw attracted to superheroes or animation. in addition to some artists liking those forms it’s money i suppose. yes, why is the quality of these alternative shows so dreadful? maybe it IS because they let anyone who can find their way into a kinkos in the show. and, folks, badgering me and handing me a free bookmark with more shitty art on it ain’t gonna do it . i’m not gonna buy your shitty-assed poor dead tree. LEARN TO FUCKING DRAW!!!!!”
It’s currently 8 pages long and still growing. I thought long and hard about what he wrote. At first, I was stung. No one wants to feel like they’re stinking up the joint with their crappy comics, and I was worried I must have looked like an idiot. But then I remembered that Yoe stopped at my table once, looked at several books for a decent length of time, and then stopped by a little while later for a second look. I don’t think he would have stopped for a second look at something he thought was total garbage, so I’m hoping he saw at least something in my work that showed promise even though he didn’t buy anything.
Personal assessments aside, I just don’t think I agree with him. At SPX there were a lot of top tier publishers like Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, AdHouse Books and Top Shelf that were selling the cream of the crop. Excellent stuff on those tables, and easily the best of the show. Then there were some less visible but still excellent publishers like Sparkplug, PictureBox Inc and Bodega and they also had some really solid offerings. And then there were some top notch artists like Tom Neely (“The Blot”), Roger Langridge (“Fred the Clown”), Jon Lewis (“True Swamp”), the whole Partyka crew (Shawn Cheng, Sara Edward-Corbett and Matt Weigle), the Closed Caption Comics collective, and the Critical Citadel group. All still very talented and putting out great art. The abundance of Ignatz nominations in that group bears this out well. After that you had the rest of us. Artists and cartoonists of all shapes and sizes and levels of ability, peddling everything from free, tiny, crappy stapled minis to beautiful books with good art, high production values and full color covers. The variety was quite incredible and a joy to experience, even with the garbage that was on some of the tables.
Yoe seems to be arguing that the presence of this group of amateurs is just ruining shows like SPX and, by extension, a real danger to comics. At some point I believe he makes the assertion that the presence of so much of what he considers garbage is polluting the art form and actually keeping more talented artists away from shows and away from trying comics altogether. That seems like a real stretch to me.
Overall, his opinions just seem horribly elitist and he keeps hammering away at this notion that comics is Serious Business and everyone better clean up their fucking act. I’m not even sure where he gets some of his ideas. For example, he seems to assume that everyone who had a table at SPX thinks of their work as equal to every other exhibitor. That’s a really stupid thing to think, and I sure as hell didn’t feel like that. My table was in the same section as Tom Neely’s and Sparkplug Books’ and I know that their stuff is a zillion times better than my own. Hell, I was in the same room with Kim Dietch and there is no way I think I’m anywhere near his level. I would never assume that just because I could come up with the table fee and that Tom Neely could come up with the table fee that somehow we were standing on equal ground artistically.
Second, he goes on at length about how absolutely no one at SPX that is not somehow already working for Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly can draw. And he extends that by asserting that none of these amateurs can or will accept any kind of criticism. I can’t speak for others, but I know I have a lot of weaknesses as an artist and there is a long way for me to go before I am even semi-decent. I’ve never thought I was above criticism, and in fact I have always sought it out and welcomed it. I would always rather have someone be brutally honest with me about what’s not working in my comics than to be gladhanding me and telling me I am the greatest. Lots and lots and lots of people looked at my comics at SPX (and at SPACE, many times in the past) and then put them down and walked away without buying. I wasn’t angry, upset, hurt or full of judgment at all. I just figured they didn’t like what I was doing, they were looking for something different, or they didn’t think I was very good. It’s not a big deal, and I understand my limitations. And on the few occasions when someone at a show has offered me some constructive criticism, I have been grateful for it. Like I said, I know I can always get better as an artist.
Finally, he seems to have some real anger toward those he thinks are just crapping it out. In one sense, I agree. I don’t want to pay even $1 for some stapled piece of shit someone drew on their 15 minute break at the secondhand bookstore. And yes, at SPX there was a little bit of that and for some reason those creators seem absurdly proud of what they had done. Or not done. But you know, it really doesn’t piss me off that much. I’m not losing sleep over it. I just walk past that stuff and look for something better. No big deal. I don’t think that stuff is ruining SPX or SPACE or MoCCA or Fantagraphics or comics in general, and I sure as hell don’t think that it’s scaring away other talented artists from trying to make a comic.
I think shows like SPACE, MoCCA and SPX are a great thing. I like the juxtaposition of the kings of the field, like Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly, with the up and coming minor leaguers and the little guys that are doing it for the love and the fun. After all, as was mentioned abundantly in that message board, it is more or less impossible to make a living doing non-superhero comics. There is just no money in the indie scene, and even artists like Tomine, Clowes and Burns are doing illo work for magazines in order to earn a livable income. If anything, Yoe’s hardass approach, demanding total sacrifice for some sort of goal that won’t pay the rent, buy clothes, put food on the table, put gas in the car, and provide health insurance seems even more likely to scare away new artists then a few shitty minis at some small press shows.
So now, a few days after the show, I feel really energized by SPX, and more excited than ever to draw and make comics and above all work hard at getting better. I sold between 35 and 40 of my books and traded or gave away another 20 to 25, so that’s a lot more Spudd in some interested reader’s hands. I’ve already gotten a couple of emails from folks who bought my stuff and the correspondence has been helpful so far.
So if by having a demanding full time career as a librarian, spending as much quality time as possible with a wonderful wife who means the world to me, hanging out with friends whenever I can, and doing the best possible job I can drawing comics and pictures in what little free time I have remaining is infuriating, pointless, and ruining art, then I guess I am guilty. That won’t stop me from doing it, and I’m never ever crapping it out or mailing it in, so that’s that.
Those are a few of my thoughts. I’ll have some more personal reflections by this evening on my own blog so check ‘em out.
Good god almighty, it’s done! I just resized the last graphic and typed up the last sentence for the 14 intro pages that will be preceding each of the stories in the Lifelike graphic novel. Tomorrow morning I’ll e-mail everything to IDW and breathe a sigh of relief. Tomorrow night I’ll drink a celebratory adult beverage, and crash into bed.
By the way, check out the swank ad IDW will be running in the back of their November and December books:
Some really awesome posts on the show.
via the Comics Reporter..
“17. Much of crowd at this show was very attractive, a point that should be made often and loudly. This extends to many of the creators as well, both male and female, and not just in comparison to what most people in comics look like either. I don’t know how else to put this — whatever your preference, there was some grade-A tail on display, in extremely close proximity to social lubricants and hotel rooms, and you crazy kids should be out there ticklin’ and slappin’ and makin’ it happen.”
Other one’s I enjoyed..
Steve Hamaker
Raina Telgemeier
Liz Bailie
Dean Trippe
Thoughts Dara & Matt?
If Friday has notoriously been a slow day, why haven’t they gotten the hint and move it to a Saturday/ Sunday slot?
*on a related note, APE has announced that their show next year is moving to November.
Back on October 1, Tom wrote this short but precise post right here on our blog about what’s wrong with the Best American Comics anthology.
“2007 sees absolutely zero content from the mainstream world. I’m not asking to include an excerpt from Civil War, but damn people.”
I just read Heidi MacDonald’s longer essay on this same subject over at The Beat. And she echos Tom’s complaints. BAC has become an elitist, narrowly-focused art snob haven. Heidi’s main beef with the The 2007 volume – edited by Chris Ware – is that it only includes “realism” at the expense of, you know, storytelling.
“While I enjoy wallowing in the misery and pointlessly of the Real, the problem here, I think is that the history of great literature is full of the UNREAL and that’s what missing from The Usual Suspects. Like I said, it’s not that there’s anything in this volume (unlike last year’s odd batch) that doesn’t belong, it’s just that it’s all so, so real.Ware arranges the contents as a journey from non fiction to fiction, but by the end we’ve only gotten to Dan Zettwoch’s account of the historical Louisville Flood. Whoa, buddy, easy there – that’s just one step removed from Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer !”
It’s an excellent essay, and she makes some great points. I consider myself a fan of a wide variety of works within the comics field. There’s a time and a place for the silly escapist thrill of Hawkman, and a need to have works like Maus and Jimmy Corrigan to offset the superhero domination of the American comics market. But in the world of BAC, there’s no middle ground. It’s all navel-gazing, angst-filled autobiographic realism. No room for the likes of Concrete, Hellboy, Criminal, Bone, Grendel, Ex machina, Y, or DMZ. I like this particular quote from heidi:
“Stan Sakai and Sergio Aragones are national goddamned treasures. Any club that won’t have them, I don’t want to be in.”
It’s too bad that with the rising popularity and acceptance of graphic novels and the sequential art medium, the divide between “art” comics and “mainstream” comics keeps growing, and the polarizing of the comics field leaves a lot of great works lost in the no man’s land in between.
“The Menagerie,” a two-part Star Trek Original Series event, will play on the big screen Nov. 13.
Theaters at Lennox 24 and Easton Town Center will show the two-part episode, according to StarTrek.com.
“The Menagerie” was the only original two-parter in the original series. It shows Spock hijacking the Enterprise to deliver the ship’s previous captain, Capt. Christopher Pike, to Talos-IV. Talos-IV is a forbidden planet; visiting it carries the death penalty.
“The Menagerie” was born as a way to reuse footage from Star Trek’s original pilot, which featured Capt. Pike and a whole different Enterprise crew. Spock was the only character to make it from the original pilot to the actual series. The Nov. 13 “Menagerie” has been digitally remastered, including new CGI special effects and the orchestral re-recording of the show’s theme music.
Animated Kirk wishes it was one of his episodes, but he’s going to man up and support it anyway.
Ok, back to sequential art. Try your hand at this page:
(click image to gangsterize)
(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, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007)
November will be a time to hit Gallery Hop for me. Which is rare, because Columbus only has a handful of galleries worth a damn. One of them is the Mahan. Cleveland based artist Derek Hess helps kick off the Mahan Gallery’s reopening on November 3rd. Mahan’s brand new local is at 717 N High St (near Buttles & High).
Not in time for the Hop: Coming in November is Jack Earl (my cousin-in-law) to the Sherrie Gallery. His work floats between pop-surrealism and sculpting likenesses of my Uncle Roy. Roy’s became one of his iconic figures that pops up in the diarama’s, busts, and figurations he does. The piece to the right is one of his. He rarely does Columbus so this will be a treat. If you’re really in luck you’ll get to meet Farlie who’s a real trip. Kind of hard to live up to a guy who has pieces in the Smithsonian and the Columbus Museum of Art.
The drive down to Bethesda took about 7 hours yesterday. Saw a couple of interesting things on the way:
- A fully panted barn which served as an ad for BarnArtist.com
- A lighted sign outside a doctor’s office just off the highway that advertised the urologist’s business, with huge lettering that read Vasectomy.com
- A convoy of insanely long open bed trucks carrying these huge propeller looking things that must have been 60 or 70 feet long. My best guess is they were props for wind turbines. Pretty cool.
Ok, on to the show. First of all, big thanks to friend and fellow Panelist Matt Kish for helping me unload the car and carry the books to the convention hall. I’m not sure what I was expecting at the show, but the more I looked around the more I’m convinced that SPX is just a larger version of SPACE. Sure, there are bigger name creators, and the big name indy publishers like AdHouse and Drawn & Quarterly set up here, but the vibe and crowd and mix of creators is very much like SPACE. There are small hand-crafted minis, silkscreened covers, but also more mainstream indy books. Not that any of this is bad, just different than what I was expecting.
Friday was pretty slow, as expected. In fact, from 2 pm (when the show opened) till around 5 or 6, the only people checking out the tables seemed to be the other exhibitors. I finally made a few sales after 5 when attendees started to trickle in. I hope today will be better.
Ok, my fanboyish moment of yesterday: I stood in line to get my copy of the Bone one volume edition signed (as well as Hanna’s vol. 1 of the Scholastic color reprint of Bone.) He was only signing from 7-8 and asked for a $10 donation to the CBLDF, which is cool. Anyway, Jeff was very friendly, chatting with all the fans. When I got up to the table, he looked up at me and said “you look familiar…” I mentioned that I’m also from Columbus and that we had chatted briefly several years ago when he came out to a couple of the informal “comic creator drink ups” at The Char Bar. He remembered rtight away and asked me how my comic projects were going, so naturally I told him about the Lifelike graphic novel coming out in December. He proceeded to do a little Bone sketch in my book, with the inscription “Best of luck with Lifelike!” I don’t normally get “starstruck”, but I have to admit that whole encounter was pretty damn cool. And Jeff is one of those comic creators that I respect for their amazing talent, work ethic, and body of work.
Ok, gotta go setup for today’s show. Catch y’all later…
It’s a sad thing when science outpaces science fiction.
I’m reading a collection of Larry Niven short stories, including one called “The Alibi Machine.” In it, home teleportation machines have become as common as telephones. Niven carries the telephone metaphor pretty far: You “dial” to get to a new location, and you have to transport to an airport to go “long distance.” The teleporters are called “displacement booths.”
The story — as will become apparent — was written in 1973. It centers on a person using a displacement booth to nip in to a location, commit a murder, then beam out without being caught. Teleporting away from the scene is considered the perfect alibi.
It would have been the perfect little sci-fi myster, except for one thing: Larry Niven didn’t reckon on a little thing called Caller ID.
Curses, foiled again.
Finally my eyes can stop bleeding red and black: Brawl#1 is on the shelves begining tommorow. One of many web to print stories from the Act-I-Vate gang. The crazy fun of Dean Haspiel’s Billy Dogma which in my mind is the new Madman. In fact, I’m digging it more than the current Madman. Also in the issue is Panorama, which I haven’t checked out. I stare at the screen so often at work and home that honestly I can’t read many comics on the web. Especially if it’s over a couple of pages worth.