Archive for May, 2008
There is a Dr. Sketchy’s starting up in Columbus and you’re all invited. What is Dr. Sketchy’s? It’s a drawing session with a liquor licence that’s what. Part camp, part art school minus *Rose (shudder).
First started up in Brooklyn by the lovely Molly Crabapple n’ company.
I’ve been secretly hoping another burlesque troupe would materialize to take up the mantle. That lady is Viva Valezz.
The first session starts up Saturday, July 12 from 5-8:00 p.m. at East Village Food/Bar in the Short North!
Get your pads and pencils ready.
Pre-purchase your spot here, or pay at the door.
*for the CCAD kids. Probably the only worthless drawing sessions I ever had were with Rose. She had three crappy short poses and two crappy long poses. Imagine drawing your mom naked. Yeah. Now imagine drawing her naked for nearly four years straight. I always drew the scar in.
It’s about freaking time but I read in the alt weekly’s that Cafe Bourbon Street bought the liquor licence and space next door. Expanding their space for the better. Or not. It could be like some other horridly laid out bars I’ve seen shows in here in town. It’s too late for American Music Club and the Mudhoney show. Both of which I would have loved to of gone too if they weren’t playing in a glorified hallway. The Mudhoney show coming up Tuesday is pitch perfect except for the venue sucking. Damn I miss Little Brothers.
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Has anybody else been catching the hilarity of NBC4 on the Square? It’s been a laugh riot watching the cameramen try to give the illusion of a hopping downtown scene that doesn’t exist. The Columbus ‘Square’ has one obnoxious street corner of Times Square style screens and glitter. Nothing they can block off for events or shows outside the building like the Today Show. If they didn’t have that screen, you’d see homeless folks peeing on the window. People on their way to work or the courthouse. I’m wondering how long this will all last.
I almost forgot, the Tori Amos anthology I’m in got solicited in May’s Previews. Do you like Ted McKeever, Dame Darcy, and David Mack? Do you want to help pay off my credit card debt? This book’s got a sampling from across the industry devide. Clocking in at a whopping 480 pages from Image Comics! ..and available in softcover, hardbound and a fancy limited slipcase leatherbound edition. If you’re going to San Diego, and you are a Tori fan.. I would suggest you find the book signing. Hint,hint.Here’s the ordering info..
Comic Book Tattoo. coming in July from Image Comics.
The trade is around $30. Hardbound is $50. Limited slipcase edition is $150. Format is 12x12in.
Diamond Order Nos.:
SC: MAY08 2163
HC: MAY08 2164
Ltd. Ed. S/N HC: MAY08 2165
ISBN:978-1597070850
The Tori fan blog has more postings about it. Previews and stuff. Unfortunately I can’t post any samplings of my stuff from it online.
I’m proud to announce the first volume of No Formula (Diamond Order Code: JUN083849) will be hitting the shelves in August from Desperado. Tony Goins and I have a story in it which originally ran on The Chemistry Set and also in Panel:Luck. You can read the official press release from the pals at the Chemistry Set.
Andy picked this week’s subject: Darkseid! Tim McClurg gets to pick next week’s character.
Here are this week’s entries from our fellow PANEListas:
Steve Black (work in progress):
Brent Bowman:
Use the comments section to show some love.
Sorry for the lateness, we here at Ferret Central are still recovering from the Memorial Day weekend. Here’s a black & white piece to get synapses firing:
(click image to babysize)
(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, 10/15/2007, 10/22/2007, 10/29/2007, 11/5/2007, 11/12/2007, 11/19/2007, 11/26/2007, 12/3/2007, 12/10/2007, 12/17/2007, 12/24/2007, 12/31/2007, 1/7/2008, 1/14/2008, 1/21/2008, 1/28/2008, 2/4/2008, 2/11/2008, 2/18/2008, 2/25/2008, 3/3/2008, 3/10/2008, 3/17/2008, 3/24/2008, 3/31/2008, 4/7/2008, 4/14/2008, 4/21/2008, 4/28/2008, 5/8/2008, 5/12/2008, 5/19/2008)
Friend of the Ferret and comic blogger Alan David Doane is selling a bunch of comics to help defray the expenses of his wife’s car repair. Drop by and see if there’s anything that tickles your fancy.
I reckon I can talk about this now … I’m part of the writer’s group for Dream 13, a local indie horror flick. Dream 13 is a series of short films which will all fit together into a feature-length project. It’s kind of like the old Saturday-morning serials … except with more rape and murder.
Over the weekend I got to be on set while Episode 11 was shot. No, we’re not that far along. They’re shooting out of order.
It’s been a major departure from comic books. Indie comics are usually made by one guy, or four at the most. In this, I’m one of three writers. It’s been quite a process to meld our different voices into one project. I guess you’ll all get to judge how well it works.
Working with two other writers has challenged the way I approach my craft. This is the first time I’ve really gotten to see other writers at work, and I’ve been comparing and contrasting my skills with theirs. I get a lot of feedback from them. I’ve found that I am capable of getting inside a character’s head and figuring out what makes them tick — but I often don’t bother to. I often go straight for the pulp.
I rely on my comics background a lot for this. I actually did some rough storyboard sketches for Dream 11. There’s one low-angle shot that I suggested that I think will turn out really well. I’ve had to change my dialog style a lot, though. You can get away with long lines of dialog on the comics page. From a real person, however, a long line often sounds fakey.
This weekend, I also I had the opportunity to watch lines I wrote spoken by real people. If you have ever wondered why an artist made a particular choice, just wait until you see your stuff interpreted by an actor. It is simultaneously exhilarating and humiliating. Yesterday I saw an actor say “So what?” — a throwaway line in my mind — and turn it into the linchpin of the whole piece.
So what was I doing on set? My official title was “grip.” I fetched things, I moved things, I cleared things. I held things. Most of the time I held a reflector to bounce sunlight on people’s faces, filling in the shadows. That’s a good job for a writer.
(In this photo, I’m peering over the reflector at Zack Starr and Tiffany Arnold. Photo by Frighty McGee)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mid-Ohio-Con to Merge with Ohio Comic Con
The New Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 Scheduled for October 4-5 in Columbus, Ohio
Monday, May 19, 2008 – Columbus, Ohio GCX Holdings LLC announced today that it has reached an agreement to merge Mid-Ohio-Con with Ohio Comic Con. The new Mid-Ohio-Con will bring together the best that both conventions have to offer with respect to special guest list, programming, schedule, venue, and organizational teams. Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 will take place on the weekend of October 4-5 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.
“I couldn’t be more excited about this development,” said James Henry, Managing Director of GCX Holdings, which recently acquired Mid-Ohio-Con. “I strongly believe that Mid-Ohio-Con and Ohio Comic Con will be far better together than they would be separately. This combination is a great outcome for everybody involved, including our creative guests, retailers and other exhibitors, and especially the loyal fans who have attended Mid-Ohio-Con year after year.”
“We are very happy to be combining Ohio Comic Con with Mid-Ohio-Con,” said Teresa
Colegrove, Co-Founder of Ohio Comic Con and Packrat Comics. “Our primary goal in forming Ohio Comic Con was always to ensure that there was a great convention in our home state, and we’ve certainly accomplished that with the combination of our two events. We have lots of new ideas that we’re looking forward to contributing to this year’s Mid-Ohio-Con.”
“I’m certainly pleased to see this combination take place,” said Roger Price, Founder of Mid-Ohio-Con. “Our new team has a lot of energy and enthusiasm as well as innovative ideas and I’m look forward to working with them on this year’s event. We’ve just launched our new web site and stay tuned in the coming weeks for news about additions to our guest list for Mid-Ohio-Con 2008, as well as some exciting new additions to our programming schedule.”
About Mid-Ohio-Con
Now entering its 28th year, Mid-Ohio-Con is one of America’s longest-running and most
successful pop culture conventions. Each year, Mid-Ohio-Con brings fans of all ages together with leading comic book writers and artists, film and television creators and stars, as well as publishers and retailers from across the nation. Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 will be held on October 4-5 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center at 400 North High Street in Columbus, Ohio.
About Packrat Comics
Established in 1993 by Jamie and Teresa Colegrove, Packrat Comics is a family owned and operated full-service specialty comic shop with two locations serving central Ohio. Working with local schools to promote comics as both an art form and educational tool, Packrat Comics strives to provide its community with a fun, family-friendly atmosphere where children of all ages can enjoy this wonderful medium. Packrat Comics can be found online at www.packratcomics.com.
Saturday morning I woke up around 6:00 a.m. in a tent in the middle of the woods, rolled over to grab my cell phone, and called work to tell them I quit.
Everyone should get a chance to do that once in their life.
We were on an impromptu camping trip (the Bigfoot expedition being a couple weeks away still) at some park whose name I didn’t bother to remember*. We hung out on a beach, took a three hour boat trip around a lake, and wasted plenty of time around a campfire.
Late in the afternoon I took the kids to a playground near the campsite. Some surly guy about a decade older than me was there with three of his own children acting like he was having the worst time of his life. The youngest, a boy, kept telling everyone for no apparent reason, “I’m not a wimp!” I suspect dad was a little too hard on the kid… At one point while we were watching our kids play he looked over at me and said, “I remember a time not too long ago when the women would have to be doing this.” I responded with a smile, “I don’t.”
I didn’t get invited to the guy’s campsite for a late night card game, but that’s okay; he seemed to be a grade-1 asshole.
Later that evening while the missus and her sister took the kids for ice cream, I sat on a grassy slope watching the sun go down over the hills across the lake while my MP3 player went through a few selections from a Black Crowes concert (an acoustic Jealous Again, Waiting Guilty, and a twelve minute long cover of my favorite Dead tune, Sugaree, from 8/01/06). When I returned to the campsite they still hadn’t made it back, so I cued up Miles Davis’ On The Corner and stared at the fire until their car pulled in.
More staring at the fire making small talk until everyone finally turned in.
*The night we got there I went into the park’s restroom at the end of the lane from our campsite. My two-year old followed me to “help”, because, well, that’s what two-year olds do. When she entered the room she let out a piercing shriek and ran away, yelling “It’s got eyes! It’s got eyes!”
The rest of the weekend, I referred to the place as “Edvard Munch Park.”
This comic gave me nightmares when I was nine years old. I literally hid under my covers because of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #28.
The villain so prominently featured on the cover is Carrion, who is no less than a flying corpse with super-powers. He represents an element of the Spider-comics that have made them my favorites since I was a kid: the mystery villain. From the Green Goblin’s first appearances to the Jackal, Green Goblin III, Hobgoblin, the Rose, to the present day Menace and Jackpot, Spider-Man readers frequently get to play a game of “guess the mystery-villain”, wherein a recurring nemesis’ shocking true identity is concealed for a number of months while the readers get to play guessing games and wager on the ultimate revelation of the villain’s identity. I really dig the mystery villains– the Jackal story was my introduction to Spider-Man, and Carrion is an extension of that original clone story.
Amazing Spider-Man #149 ended with Parker’s college professor, Miles Warren/The Jackal, coming to his senses and sacrificing his own life after cloning everyone in sight as part of a bizarre plot to punish Spider-Man for his perceived role in Gwen Stacy’s death. Carrion haunts this series for several months before actually confronting our protagonist, and the story ultimately concludes with the revelation that Carrion is a clone of Warren that was overcooked in the lab because Warren had left the oven on before he died, full of the original model’s loathing for Parker but unaware of the Jackal’s ultimate change of heart and sacrifice. (This origin was later retconned all to hell and back, but we’ll ignore anything published after 1992.)
I didn’t know any of this yet when I read this issue; all I saw was that a friggin’ flying corpse was attacking Peter Parker! The total creepiness of Carrion’s premise and his physical appearance was bad enough, but what adds the final element of horror to the issue is that Carrion attacks Peter Parker as Peter Parker, the human side of the character the reader identifies with rather than the fantastic figure we project ourselves onto; he seems in the reader’s mind to be as vulnerable as any of us would be if a friggin’ flying corpse was attacking!
This was another of the comics that the neighbor kid owned and I only got to read when he was feeling generous. I tried tracking it down years later, only to discover that it was a tough book to get my hands on. What gives? Oh, waitaminnit…
My fondness for the character of Carrion and the effect this issue had on me was only reinforced when I finally caught up with this issue and saw that Frank and writer Bill Mantlo had done such an incredible job of scaring the bejeezus out of me with those four pages that I thought the entire issue revolved around them.
The reviews are trickling in on my IGOR movie prequel and so far they’ve all been positive:
Dave Baxter at BrokenFrontier.com:
“Naraghi puts forth some highly amusing and sincerely funny short stories that stand 101% on their own as clever, superbly told tales, and artist Bond simply does what he does best and the comic looks gloriously like fine-tuned animation on paper.”
Don MacPherson at EyeOnComics.com:
“The book is accessible, entertaining and well-paced.”
Dan Grendell at ComicPants.com:
“If this is any indication of what the movie’s going to be like, I think we’re in for a treat.”
But the best part of the day was when Wendy and Hanna came home this afternoon, each with a copy of IGOR that they had purchased at The Laughing Ogre, and asked for my autograph. It was very heartwarming. It’s nice to have finally written a book that Hanna can read and enjoy. I need to do more kid-friendly projects…