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I'm Cathy Leamy, an East Coast cartoonist and blogger on comics, pop culture, and design. Check out my comics! They tend to be about me.
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Monday, September 6, 2010
GladRags and Greenblooded are spreading the word!
Neat menstrual news, people! GladRags, my favorite makers of cloth pads, are now offering my minicomic Greenblooded for sale on their website (read their review!). Now you can get a copy of my cartoon intro to eco-friendly feminine products AND buy some for yourself at the same time!
I’m also September’s Monthly Friend on the GladRags Gab blog! LET’S HEAR IT FOR MY UTERUS! Check out the rest of their blog for cool links, advice, and more writing on sustainability and other green topics.
In all seriousness, I really can’t say enough good things about GladRags. They were the ones that introduced me to the world of cups and pads and healthier ways of ladyliving, way back in the day, and their pads are still the ones I use every month. Kudos to them and the work they do!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Comic: MERMAIDS.
So this is the year I finally got to hit the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. HELLA BONKERS YOU GUYS. The creativity (and exhibitionism!) behind the costumes bowls you over. That and the two hours of standing in the hot New York summer sun. We cooled down afterwards by going to the dark theater of the carny-style sideshow.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
This Sunday: Mass Market DIY craft fair!
What’s up this Sunday? A craft fair!
Come on over to Mass College of Art’s Pozen Center on Sunday, June 27 for Mass Market, a DIY flea market with art, jewelry, bookbinding, baked goods … and comics! I’ll be there hawking my minicomics along with a few other pals from Boston Comics Roundtable. 11am-5pm, $1 entry fee, 621 Huntington Avenue (Longwood stop on the MBTA’s Green E line). See you there!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Comic: UNPLUGGED.
If you’ve never seen the Harry Potter-themed band Harry and the Potters do a live show, you’re missing out on one of life’s greatest delights! Why not watch the documentary We are Wizards online for free and get a flavor of it?
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Maine Comics Arts Fest - fun times for all!
Convention season rolls on, and last weekend this lucky kitty got to be one of the exhibitors at the second Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, Maine!
This show has been such a great addition to the comic show schedule, with its focus on indy creators, its outstanding organizing crew, and its setting in a fun-as-hell city that I love exploring.
What were some of the best parts?
- Meeting cartoonist Betsey Swardlick - the one behind those hilarious werewolf stories I picked up at MoCCA - and finding that aaah! Now she has a new comic with those stories reprinted and a completely new one! Swear to God my wallet got whiplash at that table.
- Hearing the strange "ding" of a bell all day long and eventually discovering that it was a little silvery shell-shaped bell on Jen "Mermaid Hostel" Vaughn’s table
- Finding a comic with an absolutely bonkers premise and running around all day telling people about it. "YOU GUYS it’s the American Revolution but instead they have battles of the bands aaaaah that’s so awesome". Check it out here: Paul Reveres
- Boggling at the bizarre sheet of fog that sat just beyond the convention center, still as a brick wall. If I’d taken a shot for every time someone said "Hey wasn’t there some Stephen King story? About fog?", I would’ve had a big drunken Sunday.
- Spending the day surrounded by so many awesome and creative people doing what they love, and spending the weekend ambling around a funky city. MeCAF creators - next year, make a weekend out of it! The art museum is free on Friday nights!
Once again, huge kudos to Rick and the Casablanca Comics organizing crew for putting together a fantastic weekend. Count me in for next year!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
This Sunday: Maine Comics Arts Festival
Fun times this weekend in Portland, Maine! Come to Portland’s Ocean Gateway this Sunday, May 23, for the Maine Comics Arts Festival - meet loads of comics creators and buy loads of cool stuff to read! I’ll be there selling my minicomics (including the latest, my all-ages story Reggie & Brian and the Lousy Nickname), and my pals from Boston Comics Roundtable will be selling our group anthologies Inbound and the shiny new second issue of Outbound.
The festival also includes a full day of free workshops on Saturday, May 22, and a gallery show of original comics art in the Portland Public Library’s Lewis Gallery.
Come and check out the festival on Sunday from 10am - 5pm - admission is $5, and kids 12 and under get in free. Catch you there!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Good finds from MoCCA Art Fest 2010
Another year, another MoCCA Art Fest, and another pile of comics to pore over on the bus ride home. Panels from some of my favorites of this year’s batch:
Pat Lewis’ Cragmore, the tale of a billionaire’s brush with death and how he avoids ending up in the Devil’s hands. Pat’s art is beautifully polished, and the story unfolds into weird little turns that always surprise me. The whole graphic novel will be available this summer; in the meantime, buy volumes 1-3 from Pat’s online store or read the first 20 pages for free.
Man, Bill Roundy’s journal comic The Amazing Adventures of Bill makes me want to live in New York! Or at least visit it more often for drinks. Bill was selling issue #12 of the print minicomic collection of this comic, but you know what? You should plunk down cash and buy his massive paperback book of strips from 2003-2008. It’s worth it for the bonus newsletters included in the back.
I’m usually the sourest jerk about 24-hour comics, but Chris Brown’s My Goddamn Upstairs Neighbor made me chuckle, especially the fun way he used the panel borders.
Dan Mazur is a local pal from Boston Comics Roundtable, but did you know that he’s also the king of sadness? His latest minicomic The Way it Crumbles is a heartbreaking tale about capitalism, exploitation, innocence lost, and the Keebler elves.
The Roundtable’s New England buddies Trees and Hills have been turning out anthologies left and right, and MoCCA saw the debut of their newest, Play. I liked Colin Tedford’s exploration of an alternate version of Twister, which seemed like it would be tee-hee-touchy-feely and actually turned out pretty thought-provoking.
Between Being Human and the Kitty Norville series, I’m on a slightly embarrassing werewolf kick lately, so no surprise that I zeroed right in on the Center for Cartoon Studies minicomic anthologies Werewolf! and Werewolf!! (available on the I Know Joe Kimpel site). And what a treat - both of them had hilarious little stories by Betsey Swardlick, who cracked me up a few MoCCA’s ago with her minicomic Poor, Poor Angsty Hungarian. I wanna see more of these two little vegan werewolves! Hope there’s a Werewolf!!! in the works.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Reggie and Brian all-ages minicomic - now on sale!
Who’s ready for some fishing fun!
My new all-ages minicomic Reggie & Brian and the Lousy Nickname is now available for sale online! Seashores, boats, waves, more English fishermen than you can shake a stick at, and one stinky nickname that gets stuck to poor Reggie. Can merman buddy Brian help him to shake it? Find out inside! $3.50 gets you 20 pages of seaside storytime:
And check out my comics page for other fun cartoons and minicomics - autobio wacky scrapes, metal concerts, women’s health, and plenty more.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
MoCCA Art Fest 2010 and a new all-ages minicomic!
It’s MoCCA time! This coming weekend is the annual NYC indy comics celebration MoCCA Art Fest. I’ll be there along with my pals from Boston Comics Roundtable, and I’ve got something new!
I’ll be debuting my new all-ages minicomic, Reggie & Brian and the Lousy Nickname. The crew of fishermen all have nicknames, but when the fishing boss picks one for young Reggie, it’s definitely not appreciated! Can his little merman pal Brian help him ditch it? Pick up a copy and find out!
I’ll also be selling the usual array of minicomic awesomeness, from autobio fun (Geraniums and Bacon) to menstrual 411 (Greenblooded). Check out the Boston Comics Roundtable area, too, for the newest issue of the sci-fi serial anthology Outbound and our recent anthology hit Inbound 4: A Comic Book History of Boston.
And if you’re in the Boston area and can’t make it down to NYC, head to the waterfront this weekend for the ever-expanding Boston Comic Con and say hi to other members of the Roundtable, pals from Agreeable Comics, and other hometown and out-of-town creators.
Look for Reggie and Brian to be available for purchase online soon, and hope to see you at MoCCA!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Join me for some upcoming conventions
The official start of spring is nearly here, and with it comes the comics convention season! I’ll be bopping around a few shows from now through the summer. Hope to see you at one of them!
March 20: Boston Zine Fair (Cambridge, MA)
-- This show is a mini zine fest in collaboration with Whitehaus Family Record’s Blastfest music celebration. Come for the comics and DIY, stay for the rocking out.
April 10-11: MoCCA Art Fest (New York, NY)
-- The classic indy comics show has a new timeslot this year and a ridiculously neat guest list. And if you decide to stick around the Hub instead, stop by Boston Comic Con, also being held that weekend!
May 23: Maine Comics Arts Festival (Portland, ME)
-- I’m so looking forward to the sophomore showing of this event (the first one last year was a well-organized blast). This year, the festival will expand to include a Saturday dedicated to panels and workshops. Can’t wait!
July 18: New England Small Press Assembly (NESPA) (Warwick, RI)
-- The first time for a new Northeast con! EAST COAAAAST!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Love is green
Like Minnie the Minx, spend Valentine’s Day with the ones you love.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
This Thursday: Inbound #4 creator talk and signing!
Let’s rock this New Year with a local comics event!
On Thursday, January 21, join Boston Comics Roundtable at 7pm at Porter Square Books for a (free!) talk by some of the writers and artists behind Inbound #4 - A Comic History of Boston.
Come and learn about comics creation - we’ll be talking about working from a script, using thumbnails, creating cartoon versions of famous historical people, and more. I’ll be speaking about thumbnails and going from drafts to the final version of my burlesque theater story "The Old Howard". You can expect me to say "James Michael Curley" about 40 times.
And come to just hang out! Say hi to New England comics creators and fans and pick up a signed copy of Inbound #4 of your very own. (And take the opportunity to enjoy some book shopping and coffee from a great independent bookstore!)
WHERE: Porter Square Books, 25 White St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
WHEN: Thursday, January 21, 7pm (free event!)
WHO: Boston Comics Roundtable and writers and artists from Inbound #4
Sunday, December 6, 2009
This Saturday: Comicazi Con! Also, comics parties are awesome
’Tis the season for buying comics! This Saturday, come on by the Comicazi Con in Somerville’s Davis Square - I’ll be there selling my minicomics and (seasonal bonus) holiday cards!
Boston Comics Roundtable will also be there, selling our new anthology Inbound #4: A Comic History of Boston as well as books and minis by BCR members. One-stop holiday shopping!
WHERE: Saturday, December 12, 10am-4pm
WHEN: George Dilboy VFW, 371 Summer St, Davis Square, Somerville, MA
DETAILS: Admission fee $4, hosted by Davis Square comics shop Comicazi
Comics parties!
Fun times this weekend with two release parties for New England comics! Boston Comics Roundtable held a coffeeshop party to celebrate Inbound #4 as well as the opening of an exhibit of original Inbound #4 art at Cambridge’s Atomic Bean Cafe (on display now - stop by and see it!). I’m always amazed by how many people manage to squish into that place, and the coziness was a very welcome escape from the snow clumping down outside.
Afterwards, a bunch of us made our way over to Somerville’s Hub Comics to hang out with a few buddies from our northern pals Trees and Hills, in town to promote two new books: their group anthology Shelter and Marek Bennett’s Nicaragua Comics Travel Journal. Two dogs and a ukelele on the premises - always a guarantee of good times. Pick up Trees and Hills’ comics if you get the chance - you’ll never meet a nicer bunch of comics activists.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Inbound #4 is now on sale!
They’re here! The Boston history comics are here!
Boston Comics Roundtable is thrilled to announce that Inbound #4 is now on sale! This special book-length issue of our comics anthology is packed with dozens of stories from Boston history, brought to you by the minds and pens of local creators.
Including me! This is the one with my comic about Boston’s burlesque theater, the Old Howard, as featured on Radio Boston. If you’ve only heard the radio drama version, you’re missing half the story! The full comic has much more - MORE strippers! MORE hot dogs! MORE Sammy Davis Jr.! Pick up a copy of Inbound #4 to get the whole scoop.
And if you’re in the Boston area yourself, come and hang out with us! We’re celebrating the book’s release this Saturday, December 5, from 4-6pm in Central Square’s Atomic Bean Cafe. Meet comics creators from around New England and see original art from Inbound #4!
Inbound #4 is now available for purchase on the Boston Comics Roundtable website, in Boston-area comic shops, and at a bunch of upcoming Boston-area holiday and craft fairs. BUY IT. LOVE IT. BOSTON IS AWESOME.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Comics! Space Cabby and Boston history comics
I drew Space Cabby for Dave’s Space Cabby collection! If you’re not familiar with Space Cabby, all you need to know is right there in his name. He’s a CABBY. In SPACE. There you go! And if that’s not enough, every Sunday Dave’s blog highlights one of the guy’s stories … IN SPACE!
And now for some comics a bit more down to Earth: Boston Comics Roundtable’s upcoming Inbound anthology of Boston history stories is now available for pre-order! Get your name on the list for over a hundred pages of historical awesomeness: the Great Molasses Flood, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Athenaeum’s most infamous book, and my story about Boston’s world-famous burlesque theatre. $12 plus $3.50 shipping and handling - order yours today!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
On the air with me and Boston Comics Roundtable!
Hey Boston, you’ve got comics on your radio!
Last week, 90.9 WBUR (Boston’s NPR affiliate) invited Boston Comics Roundtable to be interviewed on their weekly show Radio Boston. The episode’s theme was "Literary Boston", tying in with that weekend’s Boston Book Festival.
We talked about the Roundtable and about our upcoming fourth issue of our comics anthology, Inbound - the issue devoted to stories from Boston history. They love the concept of comics set in Boston, and we love talking about our creative work, so it was a blast all around!
You can listen to the entire program on Radio Boston’s website. The BCR interview begins just after 40:00.
As a bonus, the WBUR team and Boston Comics Roundtable joined forces to put together a little radio drama based on my story from Inbound #4, "The Old Howard". Kudos to Braden Lamb for adapting the comic for the radio, the BCR for voice talent, and WBUR for sound effects! And extra solid gold kudos to WBUR for assembling an online version including graphics from the original comic - check out the YouTube clip below (narrated by me!).
This is an abridged version - the actual comic is four pages long and includes so much more awesomeness. Strippers! Censors! Hot dogs! James Michael Curley! Godalmighty, you guys, Boston is just the coolest, except for the times when they’re knocking down funky parts of town to put up office buildings.
Want to read more? Stay tuned for the release of Inbound #4, coming later this fall! Boston Comics Roundtable is accepting pre-orders for this book - visit the website to send in your order, to sign up for our news mailing list, and to see preview art.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Radio Boston interviews Boston Comics Roundtable!
We’re on the air!
This week’s Radio Boston show on 90.9 WBUR has the theme of "Literary Boston", and it includes an interview with Boston Comics Roundtable! We’ll be talking about Boston-based comics and the upcoming fourth issue of our anthology Inbound, which will be a special extra-large edition devoted to tales from Boston history.
And as a bonus, the show will include a short radio drama based on my story from Inbound #4, "The Old Howard"! Thrill to the true story of the rise and fall of Boston’s own burlesque theater!
Catch the show: "Literary Boston" will air on 90.9 WBUR at 1pm on Friday, October 23, and again at 1pm on Saturday, October 24. After the Friday airing, the show will be available for download on the Radio Boston website.
You can also get a sneak preview of the radio drama on Radio Boston’s blog, complete with visuals from the comic itself (and me narrating with my best "NPR voice")!
Inbound #4 is slated for release later this year. Read more about it on the Inbound #4 website, where you can also sign up for email announcements about the project or pre-order the book. This one is jam packed full of awesomeness!
Monday, October 19, 2009
This weekend: Boston Comic Con!
Are you in the Boston area? Are you into comics?
If you’re shouting "Yeah!", then come on by this weekend for Boston Comic Con - bargain reads, guest artists, and more! I’ll be there with local comics posse Boston Comics Roundtable, selling our anthology Inbound and minicomics by our members.
Come by, say hi, and buy a few comics!
Where: Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA
When: Saturday & Sunday October 24-25, 10am-5pm
Admission: $10 each day
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
One last trip to *Planet Wifey*, and one guest stint on *Sordid City Blues*!
Slip into the orbit of Planet Wifey one more time, and check out some incredible news! Things will never be the same!
And with this earth-shaking chapter, my part in telling the tales of Planet Wifey draws to a close. Thanks to Clarence and PW herself for inviting me to join in on this project - it’s been a fun trip! I’m looking forward to reading whatever Clarence works on next (like this), and most of all I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of that great big news!
Meanwhile, in another orbit of the internet, webcomics guy and all-around cool fella Charles Schneeflock Snow has tapped me and writer Daniel Barlow for a guest strip in his webcomic Sordid City Blues. Check out the results in "I Owe You Everything"!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
News flashes!
Whoa, brace yourselves for lots of news!
Boston Comics Roundtable has a brand spankin’ new website! Head over to www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com and check out the handiwork of designer and illustrator Shelli Paroline - nice job, Shelli! Look for tutorials, discussion, and art from Roundtable members as the site continues to grow.
And keep an eye on that space for news of the upcoming fourth issue of Inbound, the Boston Comics Roundtable anthology. Kudos to everyone who attended our fundraiser in August! Thanks to the "Fastest Artist" improv-style competition, I can finally say I’ve seen a drawing of Danny Devito wrapping Christmas presents at the Crucifixion. At last. This fast-approaching next issue of Inbound will be packed with tales from Boston history, including a story by me about a very special and, sadly, vanished site in Boston entertainment. Spoiler alert! It features ladies without many clothes on.
And who else is up to something new around here?
- Chris Sims and Eugene Ahn are rocking your ears with their comics and pop culture podcast, War Rocket Ajax - high-profile guests and hours of hilarious commentary.
- The Kevin Church empire expands with two new comics: She Died In Terrebonne (noir mystery) with artist T.J. Kirsch and The Loneliest Astronauts (cosmic dickishness) with artist Ming Doyle
- Planet Wifey writer Clarence has revealed his latest fiction project: Savage Negro, unfolding daily into action
- Dr. K is kicking it old school with Blackhawk Wingsday. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Blackhawk!
- Meanwhile, Andrew delves into the suckier pits of comics history with his Nobody’s Favorites series. Don’t you even bring up Power Pack, Andrew. I’ll find you.
- And once you hit the weekend, the comics don’t stop! Party with Mike Sterling’s Sluggo Saturdays and Dave’s Space Cabby Sundays!
Friday, August 21, 2009
An extended trip to Planet Wifey!
A few spins around and we’re back in the orbit of Planet Wifey! Catch up on all the antics: fun and games around the house, Twitter-based romance with a Star Trek bonus, squirrels who mean business, gorgeous guest art by Chris Piascik, and the first two parts of how Clarence met Planet Wifey! Woooo!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Event! August 20 - WILD INK, a Boston Comics Roundtable fundraiser
Come and hang out with Boston’s cartoonists!
Our local crew of comics creators, Boston Comics Roundtable are hosting a fundraiser night to benefit the fourth issue of our comics anthology, Inbound!
Come on over to P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville, MA, on Thursday, August 20 for a night of caricatures, sketch battles, raffle prizes, and live music from the band Rotary. The fun starts at 9pm (doors open at 8), tickets are $12 at the door, and the event is 18+. [ press release with details ]
Inbound #4 will be devoted to stories of Boston history - strange tales, naughty memories, and inspiring characters galore. It’s going to be a rock solid collection of fun reading, so join us at P.A.’s Lounge and help make this issue happen!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NOW ON SALE: Greenblooded, an introduction to eco-friendly feminine hygiene
It’s here! My newest minicomic is available for purchase online!
A good read for ladies and fellas alike, this nonfiction mini gives you the rundown on more eco-friendly approaches to handling your period. It covers the basics of several alternative products, the facts of the menstrual cycle, greener disposables, and discussion about why this is an important issue. 12 pages, $2, good for teens and up!
This has been a bit of a departure from my usual autobio-based storytelling, and I’ve enjoyed the heck out of it. I’d like this project to start conversation, so if you have feedback, corrections, advice, or funny stories of your own, please share them with me!
And if you’re looking for more fun stuff to read, skip on over to my comics page for a list of my other print minicomics and some web-only stories!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Reminder: MoCCA Art Fest 2009 in NYC this weekend!
Don’t forget - this weekend is the annual MoCCA Art Fest in New York City! 11am-6pm Saturday and Sunday at the 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Streets. Look for me and my new comics!
Also this weekend is the birthday of Sir Tom Jones. 69 years young, ladies! Celebrate by watching this video and chucking your panties at the monitor.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
This weekend: MoCCA Art Fest and NEW COMICS!
It’s that time of year again!
This weekend is the annual MoCCA Art Festival in New York City, and that means it’s time for some new comics! Come on by my table and check out the debut of my new minicomic, Greenblooded: An introduction to eco-friendly feminine hygiene!
This comic is an educational effort, straying a bit from the autobio wackiness I typically write. It’ll give you the basics on greener ladyproducts with plenty of background on the menstrual cycle and the environmental impact of handling it. If you like ladies, if you are ladies, if you just want to learn more about an issue that’s usually kept on the hush-hush, pick up a copy and start the conversation! If you can’t make it to MoCCA, look for the comic to be on sale on this website next week.
Update: This comic and others are on sale online! Check out my comics page!
This weekend will also see the debut of two new Star Wars fanbooks from the group that brought you Harvest is When I Need You the Most (with even more creators this time)! Look for Only What You Take With You and And Don’t Forget the Droids, including a two-page story by me! It’s about R2D2. That little guy’s made of awesome.
Forget this coming weekend - do you want to read some comics right now? Then check out the latest trip to Planet Wifey, where black girls rock!
And never mind comics - are you hankering for up to 140 characters of rockin’? Good news for you, then - I’m now on Twitter under @metrokitty. Look for comics updates and plenty of disgusting medical facts.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Maine Comics Arts Festival: Conventions done right
This past weekend, I had an absolutely lovely time attending the Maine Comics Arts Festival. A bunch of pals from the Boston Comics Roundtable and I made the trek up north for the one-day show, where we peddled our wares and hung out with comics buddies and luminaries like Trees and Hills, Becky Cloonan, Kean Soo, and plenty of others.
I’m blown away by the fact that this was the festival’s first time around. Rick of Casablanca Comics and his team made the event run so smoothly and with such organization that I’d think it’d been going for years. I’d like to break down what I thought was successful, to take away for other events.
Organization
- The MeCAF crew set up a main festival website and a blog, which they kept updated constantly with fresh information. I knew that if I had any questions, the blog would be a reliable resource. It was very easy to find directions and instructions.
- They sent plenty of alert emails to participants with festival details and reminders.
- The contact information for MeCAF organizers was convenient to find, and they responded quickly to questions.
Support
- On the festival day, staff wore the bright orange festival T-shirts, and their name badges clearly showed the word "STAFF" (guests’ badges said "GUEST"). They circulated and frequently checked in about anything that they could do to help.
- Free coffee! Good God, have you found the way to my heart.
- MeCAF staff arranged for lunch by taking sandwich orders and payment in the morning and dropping off the goods at your table midday. I was so relieved not to have to abandon my table.
- Prior to the festival, the organizers set up deals with local hotels for special convention rates. This saved cash and worry about having to look up hotels in the area.
Kid-friendliness
As BCR member Alexander Danner points out, the place was flooded with kids and their parents - way more than any of us anticipated. I think my sales wound up lower than usual as a result, since all of my comics are geared for older audiences (I had to shoo a lot of little fingers away from I Survived GWAR), but I’m happy to shrug this away to celebrate kids just lovin’ on comics and bringing new blood and energy into the scene.
- Cheap admission for adults and free admission for kids under 12. This made the event an affordable outing for a whole family. I can’t remember how many times I’d talk to the adults and they’d say "I’m just here with our little budding artist - talk to her!"
- A fun, colorful, and easy-to-read promotional poster
- An all-ages creator as a high-profile guest: Kean "Jellaby" Soo
Social opportunities
In addition to putting on the show itself, the MeCAF crew provided some great get-togethers for the creators to meet and mingle.
- On Saturday night, they held a reception party over on an island in the bay. Taking a ferry to hang out with other comics creators? Pretty cool. Open bar and free appetizers? I’m now your BFF for all time.
- Following the show, they also held an afterparty at a bar within walking distance of the festival. I couldn’t make it to this, but I loved the idea of a wind-down hangout.
Attractions
My weekend in Maine ended up being flat-out fun and pretty to look at. Some of that was intentional from the MeCAF crew and some was just a side result of the locations, but in any case, I walked away having enjoyed where I’d been and actively looking forward to the next show. This is a factor in my choosing conventions - what else can I do while I’m there, and will the space be comfortable?
- The convention center offered plenty of natural light, walking space, and a lovely view of the water.
- The reception party was held at a classy inn - a very warm and welcoming space (which would have had a great view too if the fog hadn’t camped out in the city that day).
- Portland itself turned out to be a walkable city with plenty to do and funky shops and eateries. I helped out Maine’s economy way too much this weekend via cool handbags, comics, and tricked-out fries.
Again, I can’t get over how well-organized and on-the-ball the MeCAF crew turned out to be. My whole experience at this con was effortless and very enjoyable. Here’s hoping this will be the first show of many!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Sunday: Maine Comics Arts Festival
If you like indy comics and you like Maine, come on up to Portland this Sunday for the Maine Comics Arts Festival! It’s a full day with a huge list of comics creators and great selection of workshops and discussions. Look for me and plenty of Boston Comics Roundtable members as well as our pals from Trees and Hills!
Where: Ocean Gateway in Portland, Maine
When: Sunday, May 17 10am-5pm
Details: $5 admission (free for kids under 12)
If you’re a city kitty like me and don’t have a car, the Amtrak Downeaster train runs from Boston’s North Station to Portland with trains leaving at 8:50am and 11:10am and returning at 3pm and 8pm.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Promo: Inbound #3 and Planet Wifey!
It’s here! Check out the brand-new third issue of Inbound, a comics anthology by the buckets of creative talent at the Boston Comics Roundtable! 72 pages about love and relationships from local creators: You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll admire the zombies and dinosaurs. If you’re new to Inbound, catch up with the bundle deals on our back issues (issue #2 has a story by me!).
In the mood for more comics? Hop on over to Planet Wifey, where peeps are gettin’ hiiiiiiigh.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Promo: Planet Wifey - Sexy When Mad (and more!)
Take a trip to Planet Wifey, where the consequences of lost luggage are sexy!
And if you’re looking for more reading awesomeness, check out The Chronicles of Solomon Stone, the face-kickingly cool adventures of the World’s Greatest Half-Vampire Private Detective (brought to you by Chris Sims, Matthew Allen Smith, and Benjamin Birdie!
Still looking for more? Pop on over to (postmodernbarney.com) for the heartache of Uncomfortable Plot Summaries. Sick burn, Hollywood.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Comics events for April 4-5 - Party! Convention!
Plenty of comics news today!
Inbound #3 release party this Saturday
Boston Comics Roundtable is celebrating the brand-new third issue of our comics anthology Inbound! Come hang out with Boston comics creators and check out a coffeeshop exhibit of original artwork!
where: The Atomic Bean Cafe, 902 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA (between Harvard and Central Squares, where Mojo Records used to be)
when: Saturday, April 4, 2009 7-9pm
Boston Comic-Con this weekend
Stop by the Boston Comic-Con this weekend to stock up on comics and meet local creators (including members of Boston Comics Roundtable and Trees and Hills). I’ll be there hawking my comics - hope to see you there!
where: Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA
when: Sat-Sun April 4-5, 2009 10am-5pm ($10 admission fee)
Fall into the orbit of Planet Wifey
Belated shout-out for the latest Planet Wifey! Go check it out - it involves bras and squirrels.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Scrooge Down Under
And it was after three o’clock in the morning
and I found this story about Scrooge McDuck going walkabout with a shaman in the Australian outback
whaaaaaaaaaat
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is blowin’ my mind, guys.
In other news, bop on over to Planet Wifey for everything you need to know about Clarence buying sneakers!
And a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mike Sterling!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Promo: Planet Wifey - Kangaroo Smackdown
Check out the newest strip at Planet Wifey, where you can learn all about wailin’ on kangaroos.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Captain Haddock Party: REVENGE
Captain Haddock
is a man on a mission
Friday, February 13, 2009
Promo: Planet Wifey now in orbit
Start the Valentine’s Day lovin’ a day early - check out the debut strip of Planet Wifey, a webcomic with writing by Clarence Smith Jr. and art by me! Look for a new trip to Planet Wifey every other Friday.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Vintage Beano Party: The Potato Marriers
Everybody we know loves to read The Beano! ’Cause it was made of 100% coked-up crazy.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Promo: I Saw You ... Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections
Check this! The Craigslist-inspired comics anthology I Saw You... is finally out and in bookstores near you! It’s packed like a sardine can full of excellent indy comics creators, including a one-page comic by me. You’ll know it. You’ll love it. It’s about colonoscopies.
Kudos to Julia Wertz for bringing the book together. Look for it in bookstores or order a copy online!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Arisia 2009 - now with added Boston Comics Roundtable content!
If you’re a Boston-area geek looking for a weekend of nerdpartying, come on over to Cambridge this Friday to Arisia, New England’s largest sci-fi and fantasy convention!
This year’s comics panels include appearances by members of the Boston Comics Roundtable. If you’re interested in learning more about indy comics in Boston and our current/upcoming projects, this is the place for you!
To prep for the weekend, why not have a refresher on stuff geeks love, the worst comic this guy owns (NSFW), the entire run of The Prisoner, or the classic geek hierarchy?
Monday, December 8, 2008
This Sunday: Comic show in Davis Square
If you’re in the Davis Square area this Sunday (December 14), come on over to a comic show!
Comicazi will be hosting the Comicazi-Con and Bad-*ss Christmas Bazaar at the Dilboy VFW in Davis Square. 9am-3pm, $3 admission (includes free comic and toy). Get ready to buy loads of comics! And come and say hi to the Boston Comics Roundtable - we’ll be there selling copies of our anthology Inbound and minicomics by our members!
BeaucoupKevin.com has a lovely flyer for the event.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hooray for the Boston Zine Fair 2008!
We had a ZINE FAIR. And it was AWESOME.
Boston Zine Fair 2008 has come and gone already, and it left a big pile of stuff to read in my living room.
This was my first year of helping to organize the fair. I was pretty nervous - we were dealing with a sack full of new factors: different location, different time of year, a two-floor layout instead of a single floor, and a new group of organizers.
But the fair came together, and I ended up having a blast. Loads of tablers came in from all over New England and beyond, and the fair wound up being crammed full of creativity and dozens of points of view. Fair attendees got the chance to sign up for membership in the Papercut Zine Library, get a sneak preview of the newest issue of Boston Comics Roundtable’s anthology Inbound, pick up the latest Trees and Hills collaboration Seeds, and buy/swap for plenty of other zines, comics, and books.
And me, I managed to sell a pretty decent number of comics, I got to hang out with creative friends all day, I attended some mind-opening workshops, and I drank a lot of coffee (Dunkin Donuts REPRESENT). Woo!
I also learned that there was a freaking skeleton on the second floor, Charlie Cards can be used for devious purposes, Newbury Street keeps going after it hits Mass Ave, and Jay is actually a ninja. The more you know, people!
I’d also like to give a huge thumbs up to a couple of great Trees and Hills creators: Anne Thalheimer, who led a fun crafts workshop and shared thoughts on her approach to crafting (including a "zero discard" policy for her new effort My Monster Hat); and Marek Bennett, who led an inspiring workshop and discussion on comics and education/activism. Marek has posted notes from his talk over on his blog - it’s worth the read.
Cool finds of the zine fair!
- An issue I was missing of Matt Reidsma’s High Maintenance Machine
- Several instructional books from Microcosm Publishing
- A mini about a monster from Dan Mazur
- Seeds, the latest anthology from Trees and Hills
- A handful of feminist zines from Learning to Leave a Paper Trail
- The Star Wars fanbook Harvest is When I Need You the Most, which I saw at the fair but didn’t actually pick up until about a week later because I’m a forgetful doofus
I enjoyed the fair so much (and I’m not the only one), and I’m really looking forward to the next one and doing more to grow this excellent Boston alt-media event.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
This weekend: Boston Zine Fair!
The Boston Zine Fair is this weekend!
Come and check out the crazy array of zines, comics, crafts, and more! Dozens of tablers and a great lineup of workshops are waiting for you this weekend just around the corner from Kenmore Square in Boston. And look for the second issue of the Boston Comics Roundtable anthology Inbound, making its debut at this event (with a nine-page story by me)!
Where: 601 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
When: 10am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday, September 20-21 2008
Admission: Free!
Check out the Boston Zine Fair website for full details including directions and the workshop schedule. Hope to see you there!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Comic: Sounds of Doctor Who
(You can support the Brattle Theatre and help them to keep bringing fine programming like "Genesis of the Daleks" to the big screen! Click here to find out how.)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Boston Zine Fair 2008 seeks vendors!
The dates for this year's Boston Zine Fair have been announced!
This year's zine fair will be held on September 20-21 in a new location: Art Institute of Boston's building at 600 Newbury Street, Boston.
We're looking for vendors to make this a fantastic event: zine makers, comics creators, writers, artists, and anyone interested in independent publishing. Registration is open and table space is cheap! Go to BostonZineFair.org to learn more and to register to table at the fair.
Want to learn more about zines? Read the Wikipedia writeup, or if you're in the Harvard Square area, stop by the Papercut Zine Library and check out their enormous selection.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Inbound - a new comics anthology from Boston, now on sale!
Fresh hot comics straight from Boston!
Inbound has arrived! This is the first issue of a new comics anthology by the Boston Comics Roundtable, and it is a gem. It's packed full of a variety of cool stories (Astronomers! Plague! Can openers!) and features a stunning cover by the crazyskilled Shelli Paroline. This is the first issue of many - look for a story by me in issue #2!
$7.95 an issue for some rock-solid New England quality! You can buy Inbound on the Boston Comics Roundtable website or in Boston-area comics shops including Million Year Picnic and Hub Comics.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Geraniums and Bacon #5! Now on sale!
It's here, everyone!
The fifth issue of my minicomic Geraniums and Bacon debuted at last weekend's MoCCA Art Festival, and now it's available for sale online!
This one's 20 pages of black and white comic awesome: decrepit expired Halloween pumpkins, medieval English mecha, bra shopping, and Kitty's completely unneeded trip to Filene's Basement's Bridal Sale!
$2 dollars gets you all this and more, so pick up your copy today!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
MoCCA 2008: The awesomeness goes to 11
Another year, another MoCCA art fest!
This year, we had a posse: me, Charles, and the rest of the Boston Comics Roundtable. All of our tables clustered like a New England colony out in the wilds of New York City. We're pilgrims in an unholy land!
And we brought some amazing goods to trade with the natives. I debuted the latest Geraniums and Bacon, Charles sold out of his two collections of Sordid City Blues, our pals sold out of the Star Wars fan comic Harvest is When I Need You the Most, and the Boston Comics Roundtable hit the ground running with the first issue of our new anthology, Inbound (now available for sale online). Rock solid!
The sun didn't like us and kicked out some fierce upper-90's heat. We skated through most of it due to our table sitting directly underneath a ceiling fan, but the inevitable struck on Sunday: a fire alarm and evacuation of the building. Kudos to the poor firefighters in their pounds of full-body protective gear.
I love the amazing selection of indy comics every year at MoCCA. It's like strolling into a walk-in treasure chest. It can be overwhelming, though. You risk the coolfinder's anxiety: "There could be hidden gems that I'll never see again at every single table! I must examine all of them! Wah!" Coming in as a creator, too, is a different level of social fun. You get to meet up with rarely-seen friends from around the country and immediately swap your latest creations, like little kids trading Halloween candy.
The social kept on flowing in the afterhours. We hit the Friday party at Rocketship, got copious drinks with new and old buddies, and laughed our heads off at karaoke. Comics geeks rock out like you'd never believe. And comics geeks shout out too: I had great times running around with or just running into Ed, Kevin, Birdie, Neilalien, Gina FirstSecond, Bill Roundy, Joe Rice, Mildly Astonishing Mike, the Satisfactory Comics crew, the Trees and Hills gang, Bully the Little Stuffed Bull and his human pals, and the Karaoke All-Stars. Not to mention dozens of other people I'm totally blanking on because my weekend was filled to bursting with comics and no sleep and gin and tonics. Take my word that they are all made of awesome as well.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Coming soon: Geraniums and Bacon #5
It's coming! Are you ready for this?!
Geraniums and Bacon issue #5!
This one's got something for everyone!
BRAS!
BRIDAL GOWNS!
BUDDHISM!
The next issue of Geraniums and Bacon will be debuting at the upcoming MoCCA Art Fest in New York City on June 7. Come by my table on the upper floor and get yourself a copy!
And in the meantime, catch up on the awesomeness by ordering issues 1-4!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Iron Man: Random links and random thoughts ... built in a cave
Grab-bag of Iron Man awesomeness
Spot Tony's MIT class ring
FAA's regulations on alcohol and flying planes
Newsarama: Iron Man sequel planned for April 2010
Tony Stark will make you feel ... like a customized Lego figurine
Comics Worth Reading conversation: What Iron Man comics should I pick up?
Pandagon: Pepper and Tony = Jeeves and Wooster
And my own two cents on it
I can't get over how much I enjoyed Iron Man. I mean two screenings in just the opening weekend enjoyed it. Regret not sneaking into another showing immediately after the first one enjoyed it. And I've never been an Iron Man fan in my life, though I had a good time reading the first Essential collection a few years ago.
The movie was just a lot of exhilarating fun, and Tony Stark was the kind of bright, fast-talking, arrogant-but-can-back-it-up character I just like spending time with. It's the same mindset I have in reading Starman and the Vampire Files novels for the sake of spending time with Jack Knight and Jack Fleming. It's not so much that I like the plot, but damn, I just like this guy's company, and I'll put up with a surprising amount of bad story to hang out with the guy. Plus it doesn't hurt that Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is total hot sauce.
Johanna had a good observation about the contemporary feel of the movie. The sci-fi in it comes off to me as pretty believable and pretty achievable. I live in a world where a buddy of mine has the internet in his pocket and my mom thinks about buying an electronic picture frame that cycles through digital photos.
On the level of fun-as-all-hell standalone summer movie, this flick was aces. But when I think on some of its themes or the overarching trends of current movies, I get a little less gleefrenzied.
The movie has no real women characters except for the everything-gopher secretary (admittedly awesome and indispensable), and if we're being generous, the one bangable reporter who shows up in a few scenes. Women are just there to get Tony's coffee and drive him through warzones and sexydance in his private jet. The movie's kinda like a James Bond film on Red Bull, so it's understandable. But when you look at the overall trend of hey-ladies-no-hero-movies-for-you, it's frustrating that there's no female counterpart movie to balance it out. You could show this flick to a Boy Scout troop and they'd walk off completely pumped about making robot kits and growing up to go to MIT like Tony Stark. What do I show to the Girl Scout troop?
It also frustrates me that Tony works to make up for years of warmongering by building ... a super-awesome warsuit. Yes, I can spin this by pointing out that it's the tool he needs to zip around the world and put a stop to misuse of Stark Technologies, but still: super-awesome warsuit. Tony Stark wants to make the most of his life as Yensin urges him to do, but I didn't once hear anyone suggesting the Alfred Nobel route of compensating for a career of industrial destruction.
I'd also like to see someone with more cultural analysis chops than I have explore how this movie fits in with the American cult of the individual and how the USA often opts to go it alone in international conflict. Maybe they could also touch on the USA's military-industrial split personality: with the left hand (Stane), we'll sell you the explodies, and with the right hand (Stark), we'll come back and smash you for using them. And they might have a few words about the storytelling of replacing the original yellow peril villain with a burlap peril villain. You could wring a entire doctoral thesis out of this movie in the right frame of mind.
Monday, April 21, 2008
So long to the Long Box
Sad clouds overhead today for the closing-up-shop of Dave's Long Box, one of the funniest comics blogs out there. The guy is one of the greats, and though I'm happy that he's still writing elsewhere and has more up his sleeve to come, it's still a bummer to see the end of the blog that brought us Airwolf: the Adjective, Boob War, Dude Looks Like a Lady Week, and The S.H.I.E.L.D. Powerpoint presentation.
Oh hey Dave? If you're looking for something else to do, you could always go back to writing The Velvet Marauder. Just puttin' that out there. 'Cause it's made of awesome.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Things of beauty
The art in the latest Perfect Stars is exquisite.
Bruno 9Li creates astounding ink drawings.
Dishfuls of Doodles' wares are delightful.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thoughts on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
To me, reading League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier was like reading an issue of Wallpaper*.
Wallpaper* is stunning to look at. The colors and design are rich and immersive, and the writeups touch on a variety of locations and pieces. But the end result of reading the magazine is me poring over a list of places I will never see and furniture I will never own. It's beautiful, but a bit hollow and unsatisfying.
And that's how I felt reading The Black Dossier. It was an exquisite catalog of pointers to stories that I will never actually get to read. The pastiche was hilarious and convincing, the artwork was striking, and the ideas were fascinating. But on page after page I found descriptions of amazing tales - Orlando's life story like a bullet point list, Fanny Hill's new escapades in synopsis form, postcards with throwaway references to adventure, casefiles summing up dramatic episodes in quick bland paragraphs. It was a frustrating tease, high on concept but not that high on actual realized content.
The book is a great success as a literary exercise, though. It has loads of fodder for thought and speculation, and it has some amount of content and resolution for the series characters. The Lovecraft/wodehouse short story cracked me up (and reminded me of the old story collection Scream for Jeeves), and I enjoyed all of the references to the Big Brother government (especially the bizarre naughty minicomic).
But ultimately, I would trade the massive list of literary plotbunnies for even just a few of the fully-realized stories themselves. What would it be like to see an immortal gender-changing warrior learn to fly in World War I dogfights, for example? A single-sentence mention of that concept just doesn't do it for me.
In other news: I've been away for a bit on vacation. Pictures to come shortly, glad to be back.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Diary comic typos
This morning's thought topic: Typos in diary comics.
On the one hand, they're an honest reflection of the creator, and they can give the work a touch of down-to-earthiness. You could even go as far as arguing on the side of wabi-sabi and the beauty of small imperfectations making the work more real and less plastic or artificial.
On the other hand, they still come off to me as less "intentional imperfectation" and more "I couldn't be bothered to copyedit my stuff." Damn, people - if you're going to the trouble of printing your work in a perfectbound book and distributing it to a wide audience, you obviously care enough about the contents to treat the artwork with love and make it shine. Why not take a few minutes and tend to the text as well?
I'm torn. I can't stand typos in professionally printed work. They jar my reading experience and speak to a lack of attention to detail. But the book I'm reading really is a diary comic - it's a reproduction of a sketchbook journal. So the typos are not just easily-tweaked type boxes; they are part of the original art. Then why not fix the typos in Photoshop when the art is being scanned and manipulated for the reprinted version? But then the work would not be entirely authentic. Argh! I'm turning in circles here. Maybe I'd have more tolerance if this comic weren't completely peppered through with misspellings. Man, this cartoonist can't spell for beans.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Linkage: Jenny the Military Spouse
Via Journalista: Check out the comic strip Jenny the Military Spouse, carried by The Stars and Stripes with strips available online. Man, reading the archives is taking me back to my military brat childhood. That is a big pile of terminology I haven't heard in years.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
This weekend: SPX (where sadly I won't be)
The Small Press Expo is going down in Maryland this weekend, and I'm the saddest kitty on the block that I couldn't be there.
If you're there or if you're at home and want to read along, check out The Beat's ongoing coverage.
And if you're there, look for my friends from the Boston Comics Roundtable selling loads of minicomics and creations from New England talent. And you can pick up a copy of Geraniums and Bacon or I Survived Gwar for yourself!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Friday Night Fights are not fully dressed
Who's on board for fighting tonight? Why, it's ABBY CHASE. And HER GIRLS.
Are you woman enough for this?
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Division X Reporting for Duty
Ladies and gentlemen, sharpen your pencils and take notes: George Harper of The Invisibles is teaching you HOW IT'S DONE.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Fear the Panther
Oh, I'm sorry, Mephisto, did you have something to say to Black Panther? I'm afraid it may have to wait.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Yay for Comics: Scutmonkey
I love finding comic stories from completely different perspectives, especially when they have a bit of an educational edge to them. So I am both learning and laughing my ass off at Scutmonkey, one student's minicomics about medical school. The first paper issue appears to be sold out, but the site offers loads of online storytelling: surgery, OB/GYN, types of med school students, and more. Recommended!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Fu on You
Tonight, The Big Book of the '70s brings it on home ... TO YOUR FACE!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Tiegel Brings It
Did someone order a pizza? And by "pizza" I mean "utter smackdown"? Because Hitman's Detective Tiegel is serving them up fresh this evening.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
promo a-go-go
So much is going on!
Friends of Lulu has an anthology (with a cartoon by me)!
Friends of Lulu has released their new comics anthology, The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff. This book is bursting with great talent and female cartoonists of all kinds ... including me! Pick up a copy and check out my four-page short comic on neckties (and get a sneak preview on the anthology's MySpace updates page). If you're going to the San Diego Comic Con, look for the Friends of Lulu booth, where the book will be on sale; otherwise, you can order a copy from their website.
Marek has a blog!
Cartoonist and comics activist Marek Bennett has a blog: http://marekbennett.blogspot.com. Check out this guy's adventures in comics in New Hampshire and his own comic strip Mimi's Doughnuts, which is a delightful read!
Satisfactory Comics has a blog!
Check out this new blog by Mike and Isaac, the jam-masters behind Satisfactory Comics and a number of other collaborative and experimental comics: http://satisfactorycomics.blogspot.com. And take a look at the comics themselves - they're fun stories with surprising amounts of layers to peel and explore.
Trees & Hills has an anthology!
Trees & Hills, the comic group for creators in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Western Massachusetts, has released a new anthology, the Field Guide. This thing is 52 pages bursting with mad cartooning skills - order a copy on their site!
Sordid City Blues is on sale in Cambridge!
The first print volume of Charles Schneeflock Snow's webcomic Sordid City Blues is available for sale at my favorite comic shop, Cambridge's Million Year Picnic. If you're in Harvard Square, stop in and pick it up!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Tokyo Sac Kick
What day is it? Friday!
What time is it? FIGHTIN' TIME!
Today's nads destruction is brought to you courtesy of the lovely and underrated Vertigo Pop: Tokyo!
Edit: I am on the crustiest internet cafe browser in the world right now and I can't tell if that image is loading. If it's not, my apologies! I'll fix it when I get back to civilization.
Edit: Image repaired. Wow, that was embarrassing.
Edit: DELAYED FIGHTING ACTION!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
promo: MoCCA Art Fest this weekend, June 23-24
This coming weekend is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Art Festival in New York. I am very excited for this - the exhibitor lineup looks fantastic, and it's a great chance to socialize with comics creators and readers and pick up some excellent reads.
I'll be there at a table hawking copies of Geraniums and Bacon and I Survived Gwar. Come and visit, and buy some comics!
Details:
When? June 23-24, 2007, 11-6 both days
Where? Puck Building (293 Lafayette at Houston), New York City
Website? http://www.moccany.org/artfest-main.html
Friday, May 25, 2007
Friday Night Fights: Jack Knight's Innermost Thoughts
Why I love Jack Knight, example #153: Thinking about 1960's consumer items while battling henchmen baddies and hunting for his clothes at the same time.
From Starman: Night and Day
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Boston Globe blurb on comic stats
This small stats blurb from last Sunday's Boston Globe interested me.
Assuming that these stats are reliable, four of the top-selling comic collections in New England that week were manga. The only Western comic was one that is tied to a recent multi-million dollar feature film.
Admittedly, I know jack all about the publishing industry and sales stats. But as a comics reader and customer, I'm inclined to yell "Preach it" for Dirk Deppey's commentary on the purchasing appeal of manga versus Western comics. When I heard good things about Antique Bakery and Paradise Kiss, I looked up Volume 1 in the bookshop and started reading. When the X-Men film came out and a friend asked me where to begin reading the X-books, I was completely stymied. What was the correct order? Which were the bad writers to avoid? Which stories required reading other Marvel stories to understand? I still don't know the answer to this question.
Monday, March 26, 2007
new! Geraniums and Bacon issue 4!
It's here, everyone! The newest issue of my minicomic, Geraniums and Bacon! This one's the travel issue: Boggle at what Kitty and pals do when luggage goes missing! Explore Dublin on a solo trip! Crush on public TV travel writer Rick Steves! Plus travel snaps, Milo Mercury and Ginger, and more! 20 pages of good times!
Check out a sample short from this issue: We're Gonna Have a Rick Steves Party Tonight!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Friday Night Fight Club!
Bahlactus puts out the challenge!
The Beano answers!
Sorted!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
this weekend, March 24-25: Boston Zine Fair!
Do you like zines and minicomics? If you do, make time this coming weekend (March 24-25) to visit the Boston Zine Fair, the annual event for small press, self-publishers, and anyone interested in expressing themselves. I've attended this for several years now and every time it's more packed and even more full of amazing writing and artwork.
I'll be there hawking my minicomics, including the brand spanking new issue of Geraniums and Bacon (soon to be for sale on this website)! Come on over, say hi, and get yourself a copy!
I'll also be sharing a table with pal Charles, who will be selling the first print volume of his webcomic Sordid City Blues. Stop by and check it out!
What: Boston Zine Fair (official website)
When: March 24-25, 10am-6pm both days
Where: Massachusetts College of Art, Pozen Center (621 Huntington Ave, Boston; MBTA Green 'E' line, Longwood stop; more directions here)
Hope to see you there!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
upcoming: Geraniums and Bacon #4
Currently hacking away at the latest issue of my minicomic Geraniums and Bacon. Coming soon, issue 4: the travel issue! Wish you were here!
Keep an eye on this blog or join the comics mailing list for further news!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
For you to buy: Sordid City Blues, volume 1
Are you looking for slice-of-life comics? Good news!
The first volume of my pal Charles' webcomic Sordid City Blues will be available in print format in early March. It's currently up for pre-order, so go and get your name in for a copy!
SCB is great fun to read - it goes from relationships to religion to rock'n'roll, and then there are pretty girls and a chapter about skeeball. Something for everyone!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
comic: Medical Terminology
Saturday, December 16, 2006
comic: The Paper Mirror
I'm still thinking about DC's upcoming Minx line and the reaction to the gender makeup of its creative teams (i.e., not many women for an imprint aimed at young girls).
From a business sense, there's nothing wrong about this. DC isn't building some FUBU girlpower collective. Their goal is to get girls to buy DC comics, full stop.
Good creators can build stories about people who aren't like them. Men can write about women (Whiteout), women can write about men (Finder), $apples can write about $oranges, and so on. And DC has hired some great creators for this venture.
At the same time, I wonder about Minx's potential lack of paper mirror moments, especially for an audience who really needs them. Sometimes only the people who've been there can really capture the mood and, maybe even more importantly, the details. Hacker movies sporting fakey Hollywood OS, on-location tales with incorrect or mishmashed backgrounds - the devil's in the details, and when the details are wrong, my conviction in the story falters and sometimes I even feel disrespected. "Hey, I'm glad that me and my kind are such great story fodder for you guys - now could you take five minutes to actually talk to one of us and get some facts about what we're really like?"
Friday, December 1, 2006
minxing
After reading the blog discussion about DC's new girl-oriented imprint Minx, I still have just one thought jumping out.
I wish it were all about this minx.
That's right, Minnie the Minx, keepin' it old school Beano-style!
If some kindly publisher ever turned out Essential collections for characters from The Beano, I would be short a lot of cash the following day. I suspect that reading that comic throughout my whole childhood was a major factor for how I turned out today. Hell, I know it's what got me into drawing comics.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
dracula's essentials, part 2
As you saw previously, I recently finished reading Essential Tomb of Dracula, volume 1 and discovered that it's all about the macking and smacking. We already covered the smacking.
What does that leave? That's right, MACKING.
These vampire hunters and vampire victims are lovers, not fighters, baby!
Damn right they're not fighters. You should see how often they fail at taking down easy enemies, or how many times they fall for "Hey, come on into this dark alley for a second."
Except for Blade, that is. Him and his battlin' jodhpurs.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
dracula's essentials, part 1
I finally finished wading my way through another Marvel brick, Essential Tomb of Dracula, volume 1.
I learned that the Dracula comic is all about two things: macking and smacking.
Today's highlights: SMACKING!
I guess it's expected. Dracula is horror, not superhero fiction, so instead of some dude in tights blasting plasma rays from his hands, you just get old-fashioned backhanding.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's highlights: MACKING!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Cliche Clinic: The Stressful Situation
All this talk of Heroes and Cliché Bingo brings up something I've had bubbling in the back of my head for a while. In general, I'd like to be more positive and proactive, critiquing constructively instead of just hurking up gripes and snark. If what we're seeing is crusty overused cliché, what could storytellers substitute to make it more fresh and interesting?
So, Cliché Clinic! I'd like to tackle the "my superpowers in action" scene. You know the one - the stressful situation where Our Heroes put things on the line and save others (or even themselves), maybe by using their powers for the first clumsy time, or maybe by admitting Spider-Man 2-style that they can't deny their own heroism. It often ends up something like this:
- Thwarting a bank or convenience store robbery
- Saving someone from a fire
- Saving someone from being hit by a car
- Preventing a mugging
- Reacting to an attempted sexual assault
When I wrote this list off the top of my head, I didn't intend for most of it to mirror how Heroes has been unfolding, but it turned out that way. If you count their online comics, they've even done "save people from a fire" twice. That's a clichébag and a half.
So what are some alternatives? What different stressful situations could be applied and not feel overused? Help me build this toolbox! Please add your own ideas in the comments section below if you'd like to join in.
Possible non-cliché situations :
- A balcony collapses during an overcrowded party
- Choking victim
- Very hot liquid spilled
- A child does not make it onto the subway train car with its parents before the doors close
- Heavy homewares come falling down off the shelves at Home Depot
- A car driver becomes sick at the wheel
- Waking up during surgery
- Someone's clothing gets caught in the gears of an escalator
- Workplace violence situation in a white-collar cubicle farm
Monday, September 4, 2006
Comic: Switzerland
Monday, August 28, 2006
let's pass the hat, everyone
I finished reading Phoenix: Endsong
and now I would like to start a fundraiser
to buy a shiny new magazine for this guy's lightbox
one with more than one woman in it
and a little bit less pornface this time.
Monday, July 24, 2006
the cover most likely to
A bit of odd Invisibles synchronicity ... or a lift ... or nothing related at all.
Cover of The Invisibles, volume 2, issue 6:
Advertisement from the back of The Books of Magic, just over a year later:
Or I could do the usual and just blame it on aliens.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Comic: Whole Lotta School Still
And yet I keep entertaining the idea of grad school. What the heck?
SCHOOL: "Aw, you come back to me, baby, I won't hurt you so much this time, you know I love you."
ME: "Awright, honey, just this once more!"
Saturday, June 24, 2006
alerts and webcomics
Promo!
If you're hooked on blog carnivals like I am, you'll be psyched to hear about the new Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans, organized by Ragnell. The deadline for submissions for the first edition is June 29.
Webcomics!
I'm also getting increasingly hooked on webcomics, which is great considering how many excellent examples are out there. The comedy of it is that even though I work in IT and spend most of my day on the internerd, often it still takes my finding the comics in tree-corpse format to appreciate them. Here are a few I've enjoyed lately.
Achewood
Exhibit A. "I do like time like I was
pluggin' the meter" is the best thing I've heard in ages.
Dinosaur Comics
Exhibit A. Bought the collected edition at
MoCCA, kicked myself for having known about it for years but not getting around to diving in.
The Amazing Adventures of Bill
Exhibit A. I picked up the print version of this
strip at MoCCA and laughed the whole subway ride back to the hostel. Aces!
Perfect Stars
Exhibit A. This is like my
Velvet Goldmine of comics (and not just because the Exhibit A strip stars Oscar Wilde). Rich
artwork!
Linkbloggage!
One fan's customized action figures of the Invisibles
Coming soon: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
The Boston Police Department has a blog.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
mocca artfest 2006
I attended MoCCA Art Fest last weekend. What a time! Beautiful weather and comics as far as you could look. This was my first time there, and it was a bit overwhelming. So much going on, so much talent and self-expression crammed into one small place, and from the plain building exterior, you'd have no idea that it was happening. I get the impression that a lot of New York is like that.
I met and met up with dozens of cool people, including Kevin, Neilalien, Chris, Ed, GinaFirstSecond of First Second Books, Jim, Miriam, Colleen, Keith Knight, Bill, and so many others it makes my brain bleed. I also walked away with a ridiculous amount of comics. I'm stocked through next year and beyond!
I saw an emphasis on the handmade and handcrafted: silkscreens and Gocco works and hand-printed minis and illustrations, real objects of lovingly created art. It's a pleasure to see these works in this era of mass-manufactured everything. This must be how William Morris felt.
And unrelated to the art fest, I stood in line for ages to meet Grant Morrison in person at comic shop Forbidden Planet. Woo! I ended up meeting some nice people in line, to boot, and got to see mock-luchadors roam the sidewalk promoting Nacho Libre.
In other observations, I officially have only one smile. That's it! One! I look through my photos and they might as well be Photoshopped. I'm like that one girl that BoingBoing featured a while back. That does it, I'm scheduling some mirror time to work on some new smiles. It's at the point where other people remark, "You can tell Kitty's happy because she's squinting." This must change! Maybe I'll be like the guy in Men Behaving Badly, the time when Gary explains how roommate Tony had him rate his smiles to figure out which looked the best.
A final recommendation: when in New York, crash at Manhattan Inn Hostel, right downtown and much cheaper and more entertaining than normal dull hotels.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
See you at MoCCA this weekend
Coming up this weekend in Manhattan: MoCCA Art Festival! This is my first time hitting this cartoons and comics fiesta, and I'm really looking forward to it.
If you're there, hit me up for a free Geraniums and Bacon sampler issue! I'll be giving away a minicomic with shorts from G&B issues 1-3 and oh crazy! sneak preview material from this year's upcoming Geraniums and Bacon #4!
Hope to see you peeps in New York!
Saturday, March 25, 2006
u for underwhelming
It's funny that the latest post on the blog Creating Passionate Users discussed Intermittent Variable Reinforcement, the training of behavior through inconsistent rewards. Kathy Sierra uses it to describe the behavior of constantly checking email in hopes that you'll be rewarded with new messages. Sometimes you get them, and sometimes you don't, and you repeat the behavior, like a slot machine player.
It reminds me of how I felt watching V for Vendetta yesterday. It was a thoroughly inconsistent experience, with poor writing, cheesy dialogue, and clumsy messages, and I kept thinking "Why am I still sitting here watching this?", but then something fantastic would emerge (the Valerie sequence, a nifty fight scene, a clever line, a breathtaking visual) and I would go right back to sitting through the chaff and hoping to be treated to another good bit.
On a related note, I would like a love bomb. Why do creators keep cluttering up perfectly good stories by jamming in a romantic subplot? Why don't they think we can identify with characters whose motivations aren't romantic in nature? I would love to see more movies about people driven by curiosity, a sense of adventure, the need to create, a rebellious streak against conformity, a passion for anything beyond their own personal interests, but instead I always find myself mired in movies where people act based on romance and sweethearts. I saw V for Vendetta looking forward to people confronting a stifling fascist hierarchy, but instead the movie was more about one particular man and Evey's passion for him, which completely undercuts the whole theme of empowering ordinary people and making government less about following one specific person. I feel like I see that over and over in movies: "scientific curiosity" swapped out for "trying to get the girl back" (The Time Machine, which I still can't believe I saw), struggles for independence watered down with lovey subthreads and "you touched my stuff" personal motivation (Braveheart), and so on. It just gets old, and it makes me want to hurl a love bomb right at the screen.
Monday, February 6, 2006
essential doctor strange!
I finally finished slogging my way through Marvel's Essential Doctor Strange, Volume 1. That was surprisingly dense! You really get your money's worth of story with these Essential collections.
This was completely trippy stuff. After reading several volumes of the usual Marvel superheros-punching-things stories, it was a treat and an utter headtrip to read these stories. Spellcasting, astral projection, alternate worlds, interdimensional baddies, and Doctor Strange striding into the middle of it all like the take-charge guy in a big silly cape that he is.
The collection has its share of bizarre mystic "F*@% Yeah!" moments. Not many other comics would have situations where the hero has to astrally lead his own incapacitated body out of the baddie's fortress. AWESOME!
Plus the occasional moments where it's just not worth it to bust a few Crimson Bands of Cytorrak when you can just bust some heads:
And the strange little side bits like this, when things in the world went topsy-turvy due to malevolent influences:
I enjoyed the hell out of the first half or so, but after a while, it felt a bit repetitive. There's only so many times you can watch Doc Strange point his hands and boom "By the toecheese of Tarragon!" before you start hankering for a bit more. With stories on such a cosmic scale, the writers kept having to up the ante, and after a while it felt a bit Authority-esque with the stream of successively larger baddies.
For one moment I thought that story was going to take a typical Stan Lee turn and Doctor Strange was going to have all kinds of real-world problems:
But I think the editorial smackdown must've landed, because this segued into a different story, and a few issues later, Doc was back to being above it all. Financial issues are so bourgeois.
And, of course, there's got to be a girl, even if it's a twisty-haired one from another dimension.
Look at those heels! Even in faraway dimensions, women's shoe design is lame.
I'll tell you this about Doctor Strange stories - they're really not big on girls.
What few women there are, they're either in need of rescuing or they're completely evil biotechs. Of course, I'd probably be a bit biotechy too if writers kept calling me a "female" all the time. "Woman" isn't a copyrighted word, guys! Feel free to use it!
These being old-school Marvel, there was a fair amount of meta-silliness to the comics. I kind of miss that these days. You'd never see a panel like this on the cover of a NuMarvel comic:
Or these kind of interior credits:
Or this cover blurb:
Or this storyline, which, as Sweet Toasty Jesus is my witness, I have got to find:
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Comics artist Seth Fisher has died
Aw, NO. Today's bad news is that comics artist Seth Fisher has died.
This is such a loss. He had a strange style unique in comics - there was nobody like him. He did a lot of work, but to me, he's always going to be "the guy who drew that one disco bit in The Big Book of the 70's and "the guy who illustrated Vertigo Pop! Tokyo." Those have a special spot in my heart.
Monday, January 23, 2006
lex luthor is love
I am an efficient kitty and smack two birds with one Photoshop.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
in the year 3000
Out-of-context panels from Archie 3000:
Oh, Reggie! You don't have to wait until 3000 to be true to your heart. You come up to Massachusetts, fella, they've got your back.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Fill-in City Blues
Go and check out pal Charles' webcomic Sordid City Blues - the page for Monday, January 16 is a fill-in piece guest-created by me!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
visualized
I read an interesting little blog called information aesthetics, and a short while back they posted on the "emotional wardrobe", clothing that responds to the wearer's body through sensors and translates changes through light displays.
Every single thing in my head wraps back around to comics, because when I read this, the first thing I thought was, Oh man! That's just like that issue of that sci-fi Archie book Archie 3000, when Veronica bought the synthesizer that let her change her outfit using her thoughts!
And because it's an Archie comic, naturally, hilarity ensues: Veronica's outfit synthesizer starts to respond to her emotions as well. Comedy gold!
I only ever bought three issues of Archie 3000, but man, it wrecked my head. That was one strange comic.
Monday, December 12, 2005
new! Geraniums and Bacon issue 3!
It's here! The latest issue of my minicomic Geraniums and Bacon is now available! Pick up a copy and gawk at Kitty's true confessions: adult ed addiction, inappropriate thoughts, ethical grooving, and more! Plus fun stories, quirky cartoons, and new adventures with Milo Mercury and Ginger - 20 pages of rock-out fun!
Here's a sample short from this issue - Miss Manners' Guide to Ethical Grooving!
Get your copy today with the power of Paypal!
Thursday, November 10, 2005
rant fiesta
Spotted in Young Avengers issue 8, a full page of art devoted to a Daily Bugle article on the regrouping of the title team.
But if you look down at the text to read the article, and why wouldn't you, when they've printed it at a fully readable size and they've made this page the first page of story content in the issue, you find that it's just filler, greeked text to simulate an article.
So sloppy, especially when you look back at page 1 of issue 1 and see that a similar newspaper article page sported genuine written text and not just greeked filler.
Come on, creative teams. It'd take you ten minutes to come up with phony article text, and readers wouldn't focus on it that much. The greeked stuff stands out more for its lack of effort. And listing the byline as "Lorem Ipsum" is not a clever inside joke, it's just irritating.
* * *
Spotted before the absolutely loveable and crazy Wallace and Gromit movie, a trailer for Disney's latest feature, Chicken Little. Apparently (and I say this not having seen the film, so there's your caveat), the title character's father is a widower. Another dead/missing Disney mother? Seriously, should there be an Animated Women in Refrigerators website for these ladies?
* * *
Dear enlightened modern parents: Please stop bringing your under-12 children to the live show of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Really. Love, Kitty
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
it's milk ... to the EXTREME!
Brought to my attention by Veg Blog, it's just what the world needs: Marvel branded Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes.
Apparently, each drink is "specially fortified to match the Super Hero's super powers." Not clear on exactly what that means ... according to the nutritional information, you'll get your Spidey powers by downing a combo of low fat milk, no fat milk, cellulose gel, cocoa processed with alkali, and acesulfame polyunsaturated fatty acid. My Spidey gag reflex is tingling!
I don't know what's my favorite aspect of this - the names (Wolverine Fierce Caramel!), the art (Spidey crotch cam!), or this glowing testimonial from the website:
"Your brand guys have really captured the essence of our property in your packaging and product."
- Former Marvel Executive
You tell 'em, Former!
If these drinks really want to be true to the Marvel brand, though, they should repackage the drinks under new titles every year or so and put the Wolverine fortification in all of the drinks. That should do it.
Monday, October 17, 2005
a farewell to rampage
Fanboy Rampage is closing up shop after two years of hilarious blogging. Hats off to Graeme for a great time and many awful, awful memories. I never thought I'd be sad to see a day when I couldn't read snarking about FMK and buying three copies of something. Rampage has broken my head. You see a crazy lady huddled in the corner of the train station yelling "Kurt wins!", that's me. Pat me on the head and throw me a spare Street Angel, willya?
Sunday, October 2, 2005
essential iron man!
I don't usually tend to pick up the Marvel "Essential" series, but I've already chomped my way through many of the graphic novels at the library, and now I'm going through the remainders. Plus, I just like to know things. Everyone in Blogistan goes on about genius drunkie Tony Stark and his fighting robot suit, and I feel like a kid at the grown-ups' table. "What? What? I wanna know!"
Essential Iron Man Volume 1 samples stories from early in Iron Man lore, back when he was still a highlight in comic Tales of Suspense. Right off, the old-school Marvel break-the-internet-in-half promo copy sucks me in: "Watch his awesome approach! Listen to his ponderous footsteps as he lumbers closer ... closer ... for today you are destined to encounter - - the invincible IRON MAN!" Cripes! That's solid gold hyperbole with a chaser of SAT vocab. AWESOME.
The premise of Iron Man is also primo old-school material. Science genius millionaire playboy Tony Stark (played by Errol Flynn) develops revolutionary transistor-based military weapons, which will be used in Vietnam. On location on the jungle outskirts, he stumbles across a booby trap, takes life-threatening shrapnel in the chest, and is kidnapped by guerrillas. Forced to create weaponry for the enemy, he secretly creates a robot suit to artificially keep him alive and to enable him to go all jackbooty on his captors. Which he does. Cue return to America, return to military R&D, and a new Marvel-brand tragic and secret nature ("No one can ever know that I wear this hidden iron chest plate to keep me alive!") and matching secret identity as Iron Man, Fighter of Baddies and/or Commies! Take that, gangsters and Reds!
Eventually, the story acquires more of a supporting cast in the form of a cute girl and hapless buddy, and that's when it turns into a Stan Lee mad lib:
Hero: "How could $female ever love a man with $ailment? She'd be better off loving $schlubby_guy_buddy."
Female: "Why doesn't $hero love me? Sob!"
::insert a few scenes of beatin' on peeps, saving lives::
Caption: "He's the most tragic hero EVAR!!!11!"
Seriously, I liked the original premise behind Iron Man, but didn't anyone back then notice that it was turning out exactly like the other Stan Lee comics of that era: Daredevil, Thor, and so on? Hero has fights, maintains unrequited love with girly girl, ends issues with the obligatory "I'm so tragic" panel? Then again, years from now, people will probably look back and say that about our pop culture. "Didn't those fools notice that all their movies were pretty much all the same movie? Volcano and Dante's Peak, Deep Impact and Armageddon?"
Iron Man also gets his own cheesy Yellow Peril techno-villain in this volume. Enter ... the Mandarin!
I enjoyed the cameos by other Marvel greats: Angel, Hawkeye and the Black Widow, the Avengers. Shared universes like that play havoc with tragic heroes' woes, though. Actual Iron Man quote: "Nobody can help me! Nobody can repair my damaged heart! Nobody can guarantee how much longer it will keep beating! Nobody can ever know the torment felt by Iron Man!" Meanwhile, he's a member of the Avengers, where his teammates are a Whitman's Sampler of gods and science genius types, and he lives in the same world as the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and god knows who else. You're telling me he can't find someone to teleport/magic/science-ify that piece of shrapnel out of him? Mm-hmm. I'd buy it if it were written more as "Tony Stark is a stubborn SOB with an ego the size of Maryland and wants to prove that he can fix himself." That kind of pride-failing is more convincing than "rich bastard with robot suit surrounded by super-super types has woeful pity party every night."
Saturday, August 20, 2005
breakfast with the JLA: issue 140
JLA #140, March 1977: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter"
Breakfast: Buttered toast and blueberries. Mmm.
Sadly, another jump in my collection, so I'm unlikely to find out what happened to Bates and Maggin. I'll just assume they made it home safely.
The plot for this issue was long ("A new double-length thriller"), and I pretty much stopped caring about four pages in. Scary foe Manhunter shows up, unleashes whup-ass. He kidnaps Green Lantern, who, instead of resisting, folds like a travel brochure. Blah, blah, fighting, capture, Manhunter turns out to be new at the job and actually working for some other guys, escaping, and so on.
Green Lantern confesses his immense guilt: he accidentally blew up a planet. His bad! A group heads out to the closest surviving planet to investigate, and they find the residents hassling a Green Lantern Guardian and a governor who is drawn like a bad ethnic caricature. Checking things out, Superman, Batman, and company visit the dead planet's remaining moon and end up in a Nonsense Fight with a one-eyed dragon thingy called a "Magnosaurus".
In the most weird-ass logical leap possible, Batman adds 1 + 1 and gets Toronto, apparently. He sees that the space monster has a neck and therefore must have arteries leading to a brain, and so he tries strangling the monster. Swinging around on the batwhip makes him notice that the moon they're on is still in its orbit, even though its parent planet was supposedly destroyed. And then - seriously - disbelieving the monster makes it vanish, and they realize that the planet is still out there but invisible. And, uh, the whole thing was a plot by the Manhunter society to discredit the Green Lantern Guardians, mumble mumble. And then it ends. That's it.
Ah, I wish I cared more, but it mainly came off as a flimsy plot to act as coat hanger to a few fight scenes.
The sci-fi aspects of this story - the alien planet, the battle with the Magnosaurus - remind me of a conversation I had recently. Buddy of mine had just seen Revenge of the Sith and was immensely frustrated by the underachieving science fiction in the Star Wars universe. Why did so many beings in it have first and last names, just like we do? And why were so many of the beings humanoid or bipedal? Where was the truly alien stuff? These creatures evolved on completely different planets - shouldn't they show a bit more physiological and cultural variety?
I felt the same way reading this story. The aliens speak the same language as the members of the Justice League and look just like a green version of Fred Christ's followers in Transmetropolitan - human with a tiny tweak. The Magnosaurus looks like a dragon with one eye. Batman's great detectively thoughts make all kinds of Earth-based assumptions about arteries and brains, though the monster comes from freaking outer space. I guess you don't come to JLA looking for really imaginative sci-fi. These issues are really more about the punching things.
Oh snap, Superman!
I'd happily read a comic about the Mighty Meat Snack.
Best Quote: "Now just lay my friends down, and we'll get out of Bruce Wayne's shrubbery!"
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
fan art: yay for luther
Fan art of Luther from Sordid City Blues. Hooray for web graphic novels!
Sunday, August 14, 2005
the power cosmic which is my birthright
Magical Techie Dean's comic collection turns up the most mind-bending weirdness possible:
What If Ben Parker's Nephew Was Galactus?
I am absolutely speechless, except for the fact that I really want to irritate all my friends by talking like Galactus all day now. "Verily, which among you mortals wishes to partake in the cosmic fried cheesesticks which shall imminently be upon the plate of Kittylactus?"
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
swipe-tacular
So I was reading the local alternative paper, and I stumbled across an advertisement featuring an illustration that seemed strangely composed and vaguely familiar.
And I stared at it for a moment, thinking, That looks like a drawing I've seen before. Like that girl's fist is oddly posed, like she should be holding something in it. Like that's actually Natalia Kassle holding a big knife in Danger Girl.
Yup. And there's a tinge of further irony given that Natalia looks like she's wearing a swipe/homage copy of Honey Ryder's swimsuit-and-knife ensemble from Dr. No. But it's not like Danger Girl was ever passing itself off as much more than fun genre-based homage and pastiche, and at least all of its art was original (as far as I can tell, anyway).
I can't believe I spotted a Danger Girl swipe cold like that. I haven't looked at the series in months at least. Man. Sometimes I really wish I could harness my memory powers for good or for profit rather than for just comics and movie quotes.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
comic reviews: another library haul
Spoiler alerts! I like talking about the specific details.
Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank
Written by Garth Ennis. Art by Steve Dillon.
Fast summary: The Punisher shoots a bunch of people. Also featured: his neighbors, mobsters, copycat killers, and the cops assigned to his case.
So, we've got a tough guy on a mission, a family matriarch who dispatches a nearly indestructable bully boy and who ends up dying in a house fire, an unlucky and disrespected cop, an enemy who loses limbs and suffers head scarring, a young guy whose face is severely mutilated and who creates an identity out of it, and a massively fat man who squashes someone to death.
This all seems strangely familiar.
Seriously, though, even if it is a bit of a Garth Ennis remix, it's a really funny read. I laughed the whole time, especially at the wannabe Punisher-inspired vigilantes. The supporting cast of neighbors in the Punisher's building were a nice touch; they made the story oddly accessible in a "yeah, I suppose that's what I'd do if my neighbor were a murdering vigilante" kind of way. I'd probably give him a nod and say "Keep on punishing!" too.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Batman: Black and White, Volume 2
Written by a whole ton of folks. Art by a second ton.
Fast summary: Anthology of Batman-centric stories. Laughs, tears, punching things, being the World's Greatest Detective.
A collection of black and white shorts about Batman, this book had its ups and downs. I'm in the "Batman is deadly serious, you there stop laughing" camp, so the comical shorts that poked fun at the guy or that put Bruce in silly situations mostly just irritated me. Not that I'm going to get all Byrne-style irate and demand worshipful respect, though. If you're into campy Batman, this collection has some stories you'd like. Happily for me, it also had stories in the vein of super-stern, super-stoic Batman. Not to mention a bunch of stars: Warren Ellis, Gene Ha, Kyle Baker, Tim Sale, Mike Mignola on cover art, and so on. Paul Pope knocked out a surprisingly cool short about Batman's early years, and Paul Din provided an adorable Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy tale set in Arkham Asylum. Definitely worth reading (though a bit uneven, but I feel that way about pretty much all anthologies).
Memorable quote - Paul Pope's Alfred, providing first aid: "Pardon me for saying so, sir ... but for someone in your profession ... isn't your first broken nose a little like losing your virginity?" I would so love to hear Michael Caine record this and have it mixed into a song a là "My Name is Michael Caine" by Madness. It would be the weirdest frigging thing ever but it'd be on constant loop in the Kitty house, I'll tell you that.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Sunday, July 31, 2005
comic reviews: the library haul
My local library has reopened. I'm back to scarfing down their graphic novels like Pez.
1602
Written by Neil Gaiman. Art by Andy Kubert
Fast summary: The Marvel Universe centered around London of 1602.
What an intriguing story! It was a fun read, and not bad for a not-quite-What-If-What-If story. I would've liked to have seen more actual historical figures, though.
The art did the trick, with some really outstanding spots (like Daredevil's sonar power). Overall, though, it came off as a bit too shiny and colorful for my taste. Also a bit too modern for the 17th century - Cyclops' glasses, the X-Men's fighting costumes, and Doom's outfit felt very out of place.
I liked the twists on played-out characters. Regular Nick Fury? Eh. 1602 Nick Fury? Oh, I like this guy. And I would happily read an ongoing series about 1602 Daredevil. Hell, I'm tempted to take a look at the upcoming sequel just to see if he has another starring role. I felt that the story suffered a bit from having too many characters featured, though. The multiple storylines were great, but did we really need Bruce Banner, or Toad?
By the end of the story, the whole thing wound up seeming a bit too one-to-one - plenty of story development, surprises, and red herrings, but nothing really unpredictable. I know it was meant to be "the Marvel Universe started too soon", and in that it was successful, but still. Really predictable. Of course Doom will end up scarred, and Banner will become the Hulk, and Peter will be bitten by the spider. But what did I expect? It's like reading an Arthurian story and complaining that things fall apart for the guy in the end. Still a very enjoyable read, though.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Batman: Detective 27
Written by Michael Uslan. Art by Peter Snejbjerg.
Fast summary: In 1939, Bruce Wayne does not become Batman; instead, he joins a secret government group of detectives and must thwart big-time catastrophe.
First off - damn, that's some lovely art. When Peter Snejbjerg is on, he's on!
The story, though ... ehhh. It was the opposite of 1602: plenty of historical cameos, but not much of a story to ground them. It was a mystery, but there just seemed to be too many roundabout red herrings and twists. This guy's a baddie, wait, he's not, this guy's a traitor, ah, no, he's not, we think it's this guy behind everything, but oh psych, it's this other guy, and so on.
I just didn't see the point. It's a fun Elseworld exercise to see how Bruce Wayne's life would change if he took Path A (be a detective for a secret government agency) instead of Path B (become Batman, boot criminal ass), but then it's not a Batman story any longer. It's a completely different story with the same names, and it's right up there with Alternate Universe fanfiction ("An AU where Obi-Wan Kenobi is a young midshipman in the service of Horatio Hornblower, if you know what I mean!").
... and then at a comic show I found a copy of Gotham by Gaslight, and I groaned at how similar it felt to Detective 27 (except for the fact that Bruce does become Batman in this one). Someone out there in the bloggysphere once complained that Batman was nothing but origin story, and the more Batman comics I explore, the more I'm inclined to agree. I really want to read more Batman stories, but constant remixes of the same single story get pretty old after a while.
And I'll tell you this: if I never see another historical character, especially Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyze Batman, I will be the happiest kitty on my block. It's such a clumsy way of adding historical gravitas and validating the writer's take on Batman. It reminded me of when I watched the first episode of The Sopranos and the first episode of Six Feet Under. It's good storytelling when you write characters with motivation and psychological depth and twists. It's poor storytelling when you then add characters skilled in psychoanalysis just so they can speechify about all that depth. Show, don't lecture!
That Mike Mignola did some damned good art for Gotham by Gaslight, though.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Thursday, July 14, 2005
ECB - it's on now!
Fear has a new name, and it's the East Coast Bloggaz! Best not step to us, or we'll dispatch you post-haste.
Monday, June 27, 2005
breakfast with the JLA: issue 123
JLA #123, October 1975: "Where on Earth am I?"
Breakfast: Half a grapefruit, toast and jam
In this issue, actual JLA writer Cary Bates accidentally steps on the Cosmic Treadmill, gets transported to the the homeworld of the Justice Society of America, develops superpowers, puts on an attractively bikini-cut costume, and becomes a villain. Meanwhile, other writer Elliot S! Maggin tries to follow by taking the Treadmill and ends up on the JLA homeworld, where he can't do jack.
Sweet Jesus, it's a Mary Sue fiesta. I don't know whether to hate it outright or to appreciate it for its balls-out approach to writer insertion. I have to admit, it's refreshingly honest compared to the usual Mary Sue stories I come across ("Jayne Darkflower, American transfer student at Hogwarts and Draco's secret lover, by Jane Smith").
At least now I know whom to blame for all of the cheesy slang. Damn you Maggin!
The characters actually toss around some fairly risqué chatter here. I counted one "Bulldinky" and two "Freakings," plus this crack on Aquaman:
"Wonder why old Flipper's late -- maybe found himself a lady porpoise with a pair of dynamite fins?"
Yes, because I really needed the mental image of heroes gettin' all Smoove B with undersea creatures. It wouldn't be the first time, though.
The inevitable "please demonstrate the heroes' powers" fight scene turned up, showing a typical combo of boldfaced catch-up exposition and superhero ass-kissing (thank you, Howling Commandos, for sensitizing me to this. YAY).
"There you go, Wildcat. Wish I had that karate prowess of yours!"
"Your utility belt mini-torch ain't a tinker toy either, Robin!
Suddenly, we find out that poor Cary Bates is actually being manipulated by the Injustice Society of the World (though the sign in their lair says "Injustice Society of America"). DA-DA-DAAAAHN! They look like they mean business: the Wizard, the Gambler, the Huntress (the villain one, not the midriffy one), the Icicle, the Shade, ... and the Sportsmaster? Ah ha ha ha! He looks like the kind of guy they let on the team because his dad bought them a superhideout and all the Bugles they could eat.
And the Shade! Oh, Shade, hide your goofy shame! James Robinson has ruined him for me by giving him spooky dignity in Starman. The black bodysuit he's sporting in this issue is mortifying! I want to swap it for a smoking jacket and brandy snifter, and then I want to write him an excuse note. "The Shade can't fight heroes today because he's at the opera being dignified. Love, Kitty."
After a goodies-vs.-baddies fight that turns out to be a sneaky goodies-vs.-goodies fight, the issue ends on a cliffhanger. How can anyone stop superpowerful Cary Bates? This isn't the question that concerns me, though. I just want to know if the next issue will be as wanktacular as this one.
Best quote: "Last one at 'em had an insecure childhood!"
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Reading some comics, hooray for comics
recent comic reads
Bone - This was adorable and exciting at the same time. I'm not usually into epic fantasy quests, but this story was balanced out with plenty of homey, day-to-day situations. Sure, there are dragons and omens and the King of the Locusts trying to bring himself back to life; there are also bar squabbles, markets, cow races, and crushy attempts at love poems. I read the first three books in one sitting and the next three in another. It's engaging!
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - This was a lighthearted read with a simple (and cute!) art style. Lots of fun little continuity points, silly characters, and total gem joycore moments (like how characters' first appearances sport ratings for them - "T for Teen", "Awesome!"). I wasn't a huge fan of the plot, though. I can't get into slacker stories. I usually just end up shouting at the page, "Get off your ass and do something, for God's sake." This was the same source of my irritation about Demo #11, which was so the wrong issue to pick up as an introduction to the series.
You know what I'd rather read? Never mind joycore - I want to see jobcore. I really prefer reading stories about people who do things, who pursue careers. I'm tired of finding not much beyond relationship dramas with incidental jobs, or job stories about temp workers and drudge retail positions. This is why I like manga like Firefighter - stories about people actually doing things, not just complaining about their jobs or kicking around chasing romance.
vacationKitty
Going to Iceland for a week. Anyone want a postcard? Let me know!
Monday, May 2, 2005
cover story
Count me as one of the people who is underwhelmed by the new covers for Frank Miller's Sin City books.
I do like the idea of a uniform trade dress. Now the books look like part of the same series or family. The type and layouts aren't too bad either; it's a change, and they give the books a little bit of refinement, an amusing contrast with the subject matter.
But viewed as a group, they blur together. Especially the first three, above - with the same type treatment, artwork treatment, and shade of red, they could do with more prominent individual titles to set them apart a bit.
This could be just my personal taste talking, but I feel that one of the strongest elements of Frank Miller's artwork is the stylized shapes he creates, almost like sculptures. They are dynamic and they in turn form stunning shapes in the negative space around them. Sometimes they seem to me like snapshots, almost freeze-frames of choreography. And they stick in your head (or at least my head) like retinal afterimages. I've never been a huge fan of Sin City, but there are times when I've been seriously tempted to buy the poster of Goldie's first panel (right). I mean, wow. That's memorable!
So to me, the treatment of the artwork on these new covers removes that dynamic element, flattening the art. The negative space is cropped away, eliminating the movement. The pictures are pretty, but they lack the iconic quality of the previous covers.
Compare the original and the new covers of Booze, Broads, and Bullets, for example:
Also, I feel officially stupid. Can anyone tell me what that is on the cover of the new version of Family Values? I've never read the comic and I can't make out what that image is. Is it a box? Is it someone's clothing?
Edit: One cover image removed and one cover image replaced after it was pointed out that they weren't the official covers. Thanks for the heads-up, Dorian!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
meme-alicious: 100 things I love about comics
I'm usually not a meme person, but this is a bloggy bandwagon that looks like a lot of fun: 100 Things I Love About Comics!
Creators- Grant Morrison
- Sean Philips, especially on Hellblazer
- Paul Grist
- Jhonen Vasquez
- Joe Sacco
- Philip Bond
- Phil Jimenez
- Brian Talbot
- Alan Moore
- Jill Thompson
- Edward Gorey
- Gene Ha
- Brian Michael Bendis
Characters - Daredevil (Bendis era)
- Jack Knight, Starman
- Jack Hawksmoor (Stormwatch edition)
- The Five Swell Guys
- John Constantine
- Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man
- Fade from Blood Syndicate
- The Shade
- J. Scott Campbell's guilty pleasure chicks of Danger Girl
- Jenny Sparks
Comics - Why I Hate Saturn
- The Invisibles
- Dork!
- Finder
- Persepolis
- Peanutbutter and Jeremy
- Stinz: Charger
- Really old Beano annuals that I've read so often I can recite them
- The Misfits
- The Books of Magic
- Sandman
- Action Girl
- Too Much Coffee Man
- Strangers in Paradise: I Dream of You
- Black Panther
- For Better or For Worse
- Power Pack
- Scud the Disposable Assassin
- Skeleton Key
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- Dykes to Watch Out For
- Hellboy
- Dignifying Science
- Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
- The Big Book series
- V for Vendetta
- School is Hell
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath adaptation
- Animal Man
- Sam and Max
- Watchmen
- Peter David's X-Factor
- Issue #1 of The Children's Crusade
- The "Ramadan" issue of Sandman
- The TV issue of Transmetropolitan (especially the "I Hump It Here" bit, hee hee)
- X-Factor Annual #1 - one of the ones that got me into it all
Imprints and Styles and Panels and Things - Milestone Comics
- Indulgent yaoi like Fake
- All the swearing in Bendis' Alias
- Forgotten Vertigo miniseries like Mobfire
- Pleasant surprise comics like Street Angel and Vertigo Pop Tokyo
- Crossovers that poke fun at icons, like the Green Lantern appearance in Hitman
- Barbelith - the satellite and the message board
- The original covers for Sandman collections
- "Wet Jimmy's gourmet assmeats!"
- Letter columns with a personality of their own, like those in The Invisibles and Preacher
- Green Lantern's logo
- Seaguy's masthead (especially the bubble "g"!)
- Characters leaping or flying happily over city rooftops
- Superheros with day jobs
- That weird sooty smudge that used to show up on Vertigo comics' artwork
- Ridiculous complicated and laughable Silver Age plots
- After-school-special-style storylines, like the time that Power Pack encountered teens on drugs
- Public service announcement comics, like the Luke Cage/Storm/Spider-Man comic against smoking
Everything else - The blogosphere
- Million Year Picnic and Comicopia
- Quoting rude catchphrases from Preacher between friends
- Going to conventions and finding primo old-school comics like The Hacker Files
- Ninth Art
- My local library's ridiculously huge collection of comics
- Swapping minicomics
- Reading comics alone in my apartment and yelling like an irritating pantomime audience. "Look behind you, Wolverine!"
- Looking forward to New Comics Day
- Underoos
- Teen Titans animated series theme song
- Reading Italian translations of Wildstorm comics and getting into Planetary as a result
- Loaning out comics to friends
- Blogosphere catchphrases and inside jokes, like "Pal So-and-So" and the infamous FMK thread
- The X-Axis
- Gail Simone's old "You'll All Be Sorry" column
- Sequential Tart
- The absolute thrill of finding a comic you've been seeking for ages
- Vertigo trading cards
- Static Shock, the animated series
- Fanboy Rampage
- Quarter bins
- Advertisements in old comics. It's like pop culture archaeology!
Monday, March 7, 2005
rage against the genre
I feel like the more of them I read, the less I enjoy stories that are explicitly flagged as "genre stories." Stories that stand on their own without needing a defining pigeonhole—I love reading those. But when they're specifically described as a genre story, they often feel to me like the focus is on running through a checklist of conventions rather than coming up with an original, engaging tale. "It's a genre story" comes off as an excuse for predictability and cliché.
Like if someone says "It's noir," then right off the bat I can tell you it'll probably have a city setting; a Dame; a criminal überboss with one or more henchman minibosses who will spar with the hero before the confrontation with the big boss; a protagonist who narrates every second, right down to moments of near-death like something out of Lovecraft; and one of the following plots: Retrieve my stolen thingy, retrieve my kidnapped woman, or somebody gets murdered.
I know a lot of people who really get into genre stories. They definitely have merit. But to me, the genre elements just feel so done before, so tired. Instead of getting excited about the detective meeting the dame, or the chosen one receiving the powerful relic, or whatever, I just end up rolling my eyes and checking off the mental checklist.
The ObComics angle to this is that my genre boredom is why I wasn't the biggest fan of the recent Madrox miniseries. I hate to say this because Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man is my all-time favorite X-character, hands down. Peter David's run on X-Factor was the one that got me into comics. Even Grant Morrison on scripts couldn't get me to buy X-Men regularly, but the minute a friend of mine mentions Madrox guest-starring? I'm shelling out cash. Shameless fangirl!
When I heard about Peter David getting the chance to write a Madrox miniseries, my heart turned over like a pancake. Sweet! His take on Madrox is novel and one that I can relate to: Having the potential to duplicate himself and send his dupes off to do anything in the world, Madrox can't decide what to do with his life, what direction to take. That touches a chord in me.
However, this limitless potential also makes him a candidate to be shoehorned into genre stories for the reason of "that's what he's trying this week." The Madrox miniseries had great characterization, inventive uses for Jamie's abilities, awesome moments of introspection ... and the checklist of predictable genre tropes. The dame, the henchman, mob baddies, guns and kissing, and the chatter of non-stop narration. I really wanted to get into the story more, but most of it felt like a retread of a dozen other stories I'd read before. Nothing felt new.
The miniseries had an open ending with the possibility of more stories in the future. I hope that Marvel's up for this, because I would love to see the character explored further but without the genre baggage, without the hackneyed checklist trappings. I'd like to see stories that are more about Jamie Madrox himself and less supernatural-noir that happens to have Jamie as the protagonist. Jamie love!
Sunday, February 27, 2005
odds and ends
Review of Geraniums and Bacon over at Yet Another Comics Blog. Thanks, David!
Polite Dissent's comments section comes up with the one concept that would actually get me to read a copy of The Mighty Thor. (Click here if you want to know about Thor's early days and get the joke).
shock horror department
I laughed out loud at Sunday's Family Circus today. John must have written something about this in Revelation, I swear. (Edit: Correct link now in place thanks to thrillmer!)
Thursday, February 10, 2005
thinking about comic strips
Reading Websnark on the recent events in the comic strip Cathy, I found myself agreeing with him. Ordinarily I can't stand that strip, but I do have to offer up my props on making such a big change to the whole premise. Nice!
But thinking about comic strips, I realized that I don't dislike Cathy for the content as much as I thought I did. Yes, it's cheesy stereotypical single girl territory - shopping, bathing suits, moaning about being single, overbearing moms, and purses. Maybe I'm not such a fan of this kind of content, but that's like complaining about Tank McNamara because I don't like professional sports.
What irks me more is the repetitive formula approach. It's something I notice especially in Cathy but also in many other comic strips, which could explain why I don't read as many strips these days as I used to. Similar formula setups, similar pacing. Even with completely different characters and premises, many strips have ways of pitching gags that feel boringly familiar.
Formula 1: The list
Panel 1: Character starts narrating a list - observations, possessions, whatever. (e.g. "Three pairs of high heels. Four pairs
of mules.")
Panel 2: List continues.
Panel 3: List continues, possibly to an absurd extreme.
Panel 4: Character makes bumper sticker-esque observation. ("Some people have X. I have Y.")
Formula 2: Squashed idealism
Panel 1: Statement of situation.
"Here we are at the art museum."
Panel 2: Observation.
"Look at all of this culture!"
Panel 3: Idealistic statement.
"What a noble housing of artistic pursuit! Imagine what you could glean about the nature of humanity here!"
Panel 4: Crass counter-statement from second character.
"Dude! I found the room with the naked statues!" First character smacks own forehead.
Somewhere along the line, I became more accustomed to reading longer stories, like graphic novels, or strips longer than four panels with more room for storytelling, like Too Much Coffee Man or Carol Lay's Story Minute. Reading regular gag-a-day strips now feels strange. The pacing is like an EKG readout - setup, punchline spike, setup, punchline spike, setup, punchline spike.
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
breakfast with the JLA: issue 122
JLA #122, September 1975: "The Great Identity Crisis"
Breakfast: A bowl of Total
I'm missing a bunch of issues of JLA, so the next issue for brekkie is 122. Now I'll never find out what happened to the Doodang!
The title of this issue is "The Great Identity Crisis," and the plot involves Dr. Light and messing with super-minds. My jaw hit the floor and I mentally prepared for rape and flamethrowers. Happily, that wasn't the case, but it did drive home something I've thought before. Anyone who says that you can still go back and reread earlier innocent stories and ignore the events of contemporary grim-and-gritty tales? They're talking only to pre-existing fans who've read them before. New readers who have never read the early stories before are inevitably going to have their readings colored by having been first exposed the recent ones. I'm a Jenny-Come-Lately about the JLA. I've read only The Nail, various miniseries, and, of course, Identity Crisis. So whenever I go back and read early issues, I often end up thinking things like 'She's acting pretty happy. Didn't she just get raped recently?'. It's like watching The X-Files seasons 6 and 7 and then going back and watching season 1. It'd be a lame experience watching those early shows and knowing that they spiral down to a scattershot ending and "Hollywood A.D." (Edit: Seasons 7 and up. I blanked out on there being nine seasons, because the last were so poor.)
Anyway, the JLA story is inventive but lame. Dr. Light tricks all of the JLA members into meeting up near Superman's fortress of solitude, where he uses "amnesium" to swap their memories around and mix up their civilian identies (Batman thinks he's Oliver Queen instead of Bruce Wayne, and so on). Aquaman saves all their asses (go Aquaman!) and then there's a huge team-up fight back at the fortress.
What a difference three years makes in writing style! Well, that and different writers. The characters have real personalities now. They use slang and nicknames. Green Arrow says "freaking!"
Way too many epithets in this guy's writing, though. "The Sea King," "the Man with the Ring", "Cowled Crusader", "the Green-Clad Bowman" - give it a rest! Just use their names, for crying out loud. Reminds me of the fanfic pet peeves list that complained about the same thing. It was a slash fan's list, though, and her example involved "The Assistant Director" and "The FBI agent's mouth".
Plot gripes for this story:
1. Once again, the plot hinges on the JLA doing their job suckily. They get mysteriously called to the Arctic, and they never
follow up on who summoned them? Slackers! Gonna hit them with my Total Quality Management stick. Do your damned job!
2. The underlying problem was that they didn't know each others' secret identities. Except, uh, Aquaman saves the day because he does know their identities. Weirdness.
3. Like the previous issue, the story involves an unexpected fight against monsters outta nowhere. I'm calling this a Scorpion Stadium plot twist, after the deus ex machina critique of a bad Dungeon Master technique I read once: "Suddenly, your party is transported to a stadium where you must fight ... GIANT SCORPIONS!"
It was just way too elaborate a plan. If Dr. Light can set up all of these ridiculous snares and gimmicks to take out the members of the JLA, he can just wield a shotgun or something. Listen up, villains: If you can set a trap, you can bust a cap!
"Hey fun boys, get a room!"
Quote of the issue: "A booby trap! And I was supposed to be the booby!"
Bait and Switch Cover Count: 2. Cover shows JLA mourning at Aquaman's grave. Inside story has Aquaman pretending to get killed at Dr. Light's hands, and nobody ever actually finds out about it because he shows up and saves them all shortly afterwards.
This is the best letter column entry ever.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
comic: school
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
going house
House just aired. It looks like a compelling, quirky drama airing on Fox, so I give it about eight episodes, tops.
Gregory House is Spider Jerusalem if he'd gone through med school. He's aggravatingly outspoken and honest, he conspicuously pops pills all the time, he's obligated to work in a place he hates, and he lets everyone know how much he hates it. And yet everyone crows about how he's the best, including people who despise him, and he's gathered his own gang of filthy assistant Houses-in-training. I'm half-expecting to see a scene in a dark bar where House beats a guy down and yells that he's searching for the Truth the Diagnosis.
Let's see how this series turns out. It just aired and already it seems on the knife's edge. Tip the good way and you get quality crazy like madman Alan Shore and Boston Legal; tip the bad way and you get the Adventures of Dr. Mary Sue (okay, Marty Stu), the sympathetic curmudgeon whose greatest flaw is Telling the Truth. At least the American accent Hugh Laurie puts on isn't as grating as I thought it would be.
** Spoilers **
And oh, S.F.F.! Any show that premieres with the plotline of a tapeworm in the brain and then shows you tapeworm-cam gets thumbs up in my book! And what I didn't know until just now (thank you IMDB) was that Bryan "I rock the X-Men so hard" Singer directed this episode, but only this episode. For future ones, maybe we won't end up seeing infectioncam. (*kitty is sad)
in comics news
I finally broke down and bought the final volume of Fake. Unlike all of the others, this one was sealed in plastic. I suspect I won't be winning any donuts with this volume. Cha-ching!
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
minicomics!
Are you a fan of minicomics and other small press comics? If you are, then swing on by Small Press Swap Meet, a new online clearinghouse for minis, small press, and comic swag. I've got a few of my own minis up there for sale, if you're looking for something fun to read.
total distractions
The guy who played Chainsaw in Summer School has
his own website.
X-Entertainment has a funny review of The Worst
Witch.
Delicious Library has been launched. It
reminds me of the collaborative library database project that my friends
and I were planning: "Project Giles". The big difference is that these
guys actually wrote the code. Our project is still in the "sketched on
legal paper, and then we went bowling" stage.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
breakfast with the JLA: issue 53
JLA #53, May 1967: "Secret Behind the Stolen Super-Weapons"
Breakfast: Cup of tea with lemon, half a grapefruit
The cover shows several members of the Justice League being attacked by their own weapons - Batman getting beaned by a batarang, and so on. This doesn't reflect the story at all, so let's hear it for the first instance of cover art bait-and-switch I've encountered. I'm keeping score.
The actual story involves a machine that can swap items with other items at long distance; "being attacked by their weapons" is actually "finding out that their weapons have been swapped with dummy versions." Detective work and impromptu fighting with non-standard weapons ensue.
That summary makes the issue sound much cooler than it actually is. It's actually a big freaking mess. It reads as though it were written Exquisite Corpse-style, with one guy writing a bit, and then another guy writing the next part without looking at the first part, and then an uninterested guy slapping on an ending. The first part of the plot shows JLA members finding out that their toys have been replaced with useless replicas. Not bad. Then the plot train gets derailed; when they confront the master thief in his lair, he - here it comes - animates stolen folklore statues to fight them while he gets away.
Ignoring for the moment the totally inexplicable animation zappy device - holy crap, I have rarely seen a more blatant citation dropping sequence (and I was an LOEG fan). It's like Foucault's Pendulum for a nickel. The guy might have well have just written "I swear to God I read the following books, no really." Folklore creatures fought include the Doodang from Uncle Remus stories, the Monster of Leeds a/k/a the Jersey Devil, the Ring-Tailed Roarer from Davy Crockett's tales, and Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I know this because each one got a large footnote citation panel, right in the middle of the fight. This on top of allusions to Yehud coins and Minoan bull-leaping elsewhere in the issue. Cripes, just because you get a copy of a Time-Life book on monsters and mythology, you don't have to jam it down my throat.
Once the folkloric ass-booting finishes, the third part kicks in, and you can tell that this guy just doesn't care anymore. Some nonsense about the tool-based heroes starting to disappear because they absorbed radiation from the replicas, and then we find out that these other random guys swiped the switchy device from the original baddie, only they've modified it to freeze people, and just when you think the new baddies are about to triumph, Hawkgirl gets a cool extended action sequence and busts a mace in their ass.
What junk. A lot of potentially neat ideas, but they were slung together like goulash. I liked Hawkgirl, though. She socked a few jaws. Plus she's pretty cute. The fact that "Hawkman" is married to "Hawkgirl" is a bit creepy, though. Pedophile.
Best Quote: "This is like wedging a cork in a bottle! The Doodang will fit in here so tightly -- it won't be able to wiggle out!"
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
kitty's parents rock so hard
Kitty's parents rock so hard
do dahhh, do dahhhh
Brunching in our sweet backyard
la da do dah dayyyy
Kitty's parents rock so hard
do dahhh, do dahhhh
Gave me kick-ass birthday card
la da do dah dayyyy
Kitty's parents rock so hard
do dahhh, do dahhhh
Kitty makes a lousy bard
la da do dah day. Hey!
In other news
Do you like a cappella? Are you in the Boston/Cambridge area? Local singers Integration By Parts are hosting Vocal Band Aid, a benefit concert to support music education in schools. An all-star collection of bands is on hand, and it's for a good cause. Come on by the Somerville Theater (55 Davis Square, Somerville) at 7:00 on Saturday, September 18 for a fun time!
recent comics
Green Arrow: Straight Shooter
This was a fun find at the library. I've never read any Green Arrow before, so this was a nice little introduction to Oliver Queen and the way he works (even if it involves wearing a bright green outfit to be an urban vigilante). The art was clean and the dialogue was snappy, but I wasn't fond of the predictable instances of Disposable Secondary Character syndrome. Two great characters are introduced and then casually offed in this trade, and for what? A story about trolls! What a waste of potential.
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
Kitty on Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze
I finally got around to reading the first trade of the Warren Ellis-written sci-fi craziness maxiseries Global Frequency. As usual I'm about ten hundred years behind the curve.
I love the concept behind it. A massive worldwide network of over 1000 operatives, any of whom could be tapped in without notice to come and deal with insane sci-fi catastrophes. It's like those Puma commercials with the Jamaicans, where Joe Average is having a beer until TAP! Now he's running the relay. So much personal projection potential. That could be me! That is, if I actually had useful skills beyond making granny squares and quoting Law and Order.
And I love the ideas. Warren Ellis reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft. Both offer stories with such mad ideas on cosmic scales of pure ballsy incredibility. The first time I heard about the "an infectious meme gets downloaded through SETI@home" plot, my jaw just about hit the floor. AHH SO COOL! Warren Ellis is the king of pop sci-fi, world-threatening concepts that could easily show up in next month's Discovery magazine. The differing ideas and varying tones of writing are also served by rotating artists, who help to keep the presentation fresh and new.
Overall, however, the execution feels a little too disposable for my taste. An issue opens, the Ellis Device is explored and defused, the issue ends, let us never speak of it again. It's a constant stream of "Monster of the Week" episodes with a new cast every time. I don't have any emotional investment in these people, and I never see any aftereffects. What happens after the Evil@Home meme is destroyed? Will anyone start investigating to make sure that no other Norwegian towns are located on top of crazymines, or training Guardian Angel-style leagues of Le Parkour runners to keep cities safe since the one in issue 6 was successful?
I had similar issues with Ellis' run on The Authority. There was all this talk about more realistic superheros and how actual cities were being destroyed, but after the Ellis Device of that story arc was addressed, we never really saw much of the rebuilding, so the stories never had much resonance with me. Where's the aftermath? Do these people ever get proactive about things rather than just waiting for the next big explody? Maybe in Global Frequency, this is addressed in the next volume and all of this trade is meant to lay the ground. Even so, I don't tend to have the patience for manga-style extended episodic plotting like that.
An additional negative aspect to having a new Ellis Device every issue is the need to explain it, which results in a lot of chatter among people who are meant to be in tight situations. It was great to hear the ideas explained, but so much talking took away from the sense of danger. For example, I would have been more tense if Sita Patel the Le Parkour runner hadn't been constantly accompanied by expository chatter about the bomb she needed to reach.
In short? Definitely an outstanding read, especially if you are a science fiction or cyberpunk fan. My personal tastes lean toward longer stories with more character development and I felt it while I was reading this, but quick pop teases with madcap ideas are also tasty every now and then.
in other news
Thanks to Magical DJ Sileni's colossal skillz, my bike's repaired. Hooray! I spent some nice biking time this weekend zipping around and visiting places like Mount Auburn Cemetary.
Biking in one of the worst biking cities, though, reminded me that I hate everyone and everything. Oh yeah. People who toss lit cigarettes out of car windows. Pedestrians who cross against the light. Bikers who don't wear helmets. Double-parking in the bike lane. Complimentary groin-mashings courtesy of all the potholes on Mass. Ave (read: Ass Ave). Gigantic SUVs. Spotty bike lane markings. Arrrgh, roiling with hatred! I'm gonna take it out on some hapless bystander and get popped in the jaw, I just know it.
Saturday, August 28, 2004
breakfast with the JLA
Through a long backstory, I've come into possession of a stack of old issues of Justice League of America. I'm usually not a JLA reader, but I like to give things a chance (and also give myself the knowledge creds to praise or slag 'em), so I figured I'd read them before jettisoning them on eBay or some other outlet. And I figured I'd read them over breakfast. I need something to read over my toast now that I've finished Learn German in Ten Minutes a Day.
Justice League of America, issue 52 (March 1967)
This issue's title is "Missing in Action -- 5 Justice Leaguers!" This makes it sound cooler than what it actually is: a bunch of quickie stories to illustrate why the entire JLA roster isn't present at every single meeting. Each of the highlighted members is shown embroiled in some sitch that prevents him from returning to headquarters when the JLA emergency call is sent out - namely, fighting some baddies.
My take on this? Irritated! Seriously, it's the freaking Justice League. If the JLA Emergency fire alarm is going off, the problem is probably HUGE. I'd much rather Hawkman and Green Lantern stop mid-fight and (for example) go help prevent Cumbre Vieja from wiping out the Eastern Seaboard than have them ignore their pagers and continue stopping manuscript theft and fighting giant dogs (and not just because Cumbre's resulting tsunami is probably going to take out my house).
I also noticed a trend. In all of the mini-stories, JLA members used this strategy against the baddies:
- Hit them.
- (optional) Tweak things a bit (e.g. coat hands in yellow paint).
- Hit them harder.
Best quote:
"My first move is to pulverise their toe-cubes!"
Best WTF moment:
The Atom can't make it to the emergency meeting because he's in 1783 saving the life of Ben Franklin.
Other notes:
Public service announcement "Countdown on Excellence" taught me the value of a job well done.
Cooper Black used in GI Joe "Capture Hill 79" ad.
Ladies! How can you resist the utter sexiness that is Martian Manhunter?
Please wipe down the Emergency Signal when you're done with it.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
underlining
Anyone else feel a bit bugged by the visible panty lines on the cover of the new comic Manhunter? Can't say I've ever seen tighty-whitey lines on any of the mainstream super menfolk. But maybe that's worse. Now that's got me thinking of things like The Flash wearing some kind of special streamlined super-thong.
In other news, the Boston Center for Adult Education is offering a class on learning to draw manga-style.
Monday, August 16, 2004
for sale or trade: Uzumaki volumes 1-3
I have volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Japanese horror comic Uzumaki. I'm all set with them and I'd like to make them go away now. Anyone want to trade other comics for them? If so please contact me.
Update - they've been claimed. Thank god. I'm a big wussy with an overactive imagination and I want them far away from me.
click for artbomb.net's rundown
in other news
Let's take a look at some of the searches that bring people here.
- john kerry edwards hoyay
- ... ... ... no. Just no.
- photoshop tutorial sauron eye
- Oh yeah, you want the Photoshop "Evil" palette, just under the one with the color swatches.
- kitty the slashtastic
- cha-CHING!
- his cold stethoscope on my breast... erotic exam stories
- ... I think you should move along now
Monday, August 9, 2004
now available: Geraniums and Bacon issue #2!
It's minicomics a go-go with the latest issue of Geraniums and Bacon, now in print! 20 black and white pages of unadulterated good times!
Highlights include:
- The newest writer's aid on the market!
- The latest helpful home cleaning product!
- The nerdiest dream sequence ever!
If you're interested in buying a copy ($1.50 per issue) or swapping for a copy (bring on the zines and minis!), please drop me a line via the minicomics contact form. Copies are also available in the minicomic section of Million Year Picnic. Thanks!
Friday, July 23, 2004
everything's coming up spider-man
I've come to the world of Spider-Man about five hundred years too late - didn't read it when I was a kid, don't read the titles nowadays, everything I know is from reviews and second-hand chatter. The most exposure I've had to Spider-Man was the occasional guest-appearance in Bendis' Daredevil and crossovers with Power Pack (you in the back there - stop laughing). So after having a great time watching Spider-Man 2, I decided to catch up on spider-lore a bit by borrowing Marvel Encyclopedia: Spider-Man from the library.
Conclusion: Godalmighty, I have no idea what they're going to do for the next film, because Spider-Man's rogues gallery is crap. A lizard in a labcoat ... a guy in a rhino suit ... a mobster who hits stuff with his head? Plus I think I'm one of the three people in the western hemisphere who can't stand Venom, so rumors I've heard about the filmmakers not wanting to bring him to the screen are extremely welcome to my ears. But at the same time, he's one of the very few genuinely cool or creepy Spider-villains. What's the alternative - the Vulture? Kangaroo I? Kangaroo II?
And you learn something new every day: Sweet christ on rye, Spider-Man fought a villain named Typeface. No, really. Typeface. A guy who wasn't content just being a disgruntled former sign-maker, he also went and built letter-themed weapons. This is THE SHIT. I want a petition to get this guy in Spider-Man 3. I want to be a member of Typeface's Whiteletter Advancement Team. I want t-shirts.
Ah, in all fairness, they did a great job with Doctor "Check My Manly Shirtlessness" Octopus in Spider-Man 2, and some his original comics content can be shite itself - observe:
Doc in Aunt May near-marriage shocker!
Doc cowers before newly-corporeal Hit-Stuff-With-My-Head Guy!
Anyway. Here, check out a bunch of Doc Ock-related news stories and mini-interviews with Alfred Molina:
Troublesome Doc Ock
Alfred Molina interview: "Maybe I'm just mean inside"
Alfred Molina interview: "I sang. The tentacles just watched on adoringly." (bonus: mentions "middle-age man tits")
Ode to an Octopus: One Girl's Confession of Love
And in completely unrelated news, whinecore band Nickelback is having a Clone Saga of their own ... check this to mock!
Sunday, July 11, 2004
minicomics: part of this nutritious breakfast
Currently working on the second issue of my minicomic Geraniums and Bacon and having a great time. Weather beautiful; wish you were here. Love, Kitty.
If you're interested in issue 1 of Geraniums and Bacon or any of the other minicomics I've been working on, please check out the new minicomics page. Thanks!
in other thoughts
Watching The Blues Brothers is ten times funnier if you pretend that the two leads are agents from The Matrix.
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
fandom and design: when titans clash!
Apart from all of the sweet action and Doctor Octopus' white undershirt, one of the things that really caught my eye in Spider-Man 2 was the opening title sequence. Neat design! I liked how it took what was done in the first movie and built on it, adding Alex Ross illustrations to show "Previously, on Spider-Man."
Wired Magazine ran a bio/interview with Kyle Cooper, the designer of this title sequence (and those of Se7en and Arlington Road, among others). Speak Up had a good discussion going on movie intros a while back, too.
Meanwhile, I'm not having any luck finding out what typeface was used for the text in the Spider-Man titles. Rats. I did find out that Mata was used for the promotional material, but it isn't the same as what's used in the movie itself.
In other news, Jim over at Unqualified Offerings has been writing up a food-for-thought series of spidery analysis blog entries. Worth reading!
And finally, in non-spider chatter, here's a great radio interview with Alfonso "Director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" Cuaron, in which he talks about subtext in PoA, his influences, and contemporary Mexican cinema. He also busts out with the best quote ever:
"Even if they're wizards, ultimately their emotions are very human. And from the get-go, we established that relationship with the actors. For instance, Professor Lupin, played by David Thewlis...we said that he's your favorite gay uncle that does smack."
Hah! Brilliant! :: does a slash canon dance ::
Friday, July 2, 2004
does whatever a spider can!
Some thoughts on Spider-Man 2. The Surgeon General warns: May contain spoilers.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
fandom allsorts
Courtesy of Moon and Serpent, the best Chris Claremont rumor ever:
click to laugh
Street Angel is a hysterical new comic and the darling of comics bloggers all over the place. Check out Grotesque Anatomy's contribution to Street Angel lore:
The Street Angel Squid Contest
The Street Angel Squid Contest Winners
Get your anger on at Fandom Wank!
click to grouse!
Uncanny X-Sprites is cute and up-to-date with recent plotlines:
click to snicker
You too can purchase your own knitted Spider-man costume. It's art!
click to be dorky and support the arts
Anyone out there who hasn't seen "They Fight Crime"? If so, go and take a look.
click to see them fight crime!
In other news
This neck of the woods had a bomb scare yesterday. I was out running errands when I found a part of the street that I needed to visit cordoned off with yellow police tape and peppered with cops and firemen. I asked one for information and he responded with some vague information about a bomb having been found in a box on a table. Suddenly there was a "crump" from over near the area of activity, and the cop piped up with, "Ah, sounds like they detonated it." I tried darting around and pestering others to find out more, but with no luck. The strangest part is that I can't find any information about it from any local news sources. Not even a "Community Alert" from the usually knee-jerk mailing list that sends them out. Odd.
Update: Good news - it wasn't actually a bomb. Phew.
Friday, June 4, 2004
it's the little things
I picked up the first collection of Wildcats Version 3.0 a little while back at the library to see what all the hype was about. The guy behind the desk said, "Did you hear that it's been cancelled?" I think I've found out who it is who keeps buying their graphic novels. Seriously, they have shelves full.
So I'm reading along, taking in all the story about CEO Jack Marlowe and his enormous corporation and their plans to buy up just about everything and corner markets and things. And then I got to this panel.
What kind of business card is that? Damn, Marlowe, lay off buying up the accounting firms and multimedia conglomerates and invest in a decent graphic designer. That card looks like it was slapped together in WordPerfect.
The rest of the trade was okay. I'm still baffled by the corporation's product - batteries that never run down. How would they get repeat customers? The company mascot was hideous, too, but I think it had some kind of plot linkage to previous comics that I hadn't read.
Friday, May 14, 2004
smellblazer
Watch and cry:
Constantine movie trailer available for download
After that, head on over to The Ultimate Hellblazer Index to read up on the original John Constantine, the basis for the upcoming film. You could also read this Sailor Hellblazer! crossover fanfic story if you're up for it.
recent comics: haiku review
Green Lantern: Brother's Keeper
Tonight's episode:
A very special Blossom -
I mean, Green Lantern.
Hellboy: Conqueror Worm
Great character piece
With some Lovecraft-esque baddies
And Mike's art? Gorgeous.
But I feel a bit
Like it's warmed-up leftovers:
"Mom! Nazis again?"
ps. I have enabled comments on all previous blog entries now. If you have something to say on any of them, now's your chance. Wahey!
Thursday, May 6, 2004
slightly more free at last
I survived Advanced Typography. I want some kind of badge.
recent comics: haiku review
Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia
Fanwanky excuse
For her to beat down Batman
(Plus some Greek-ish stuff)
Meridian vol. 1: Flying Solo
Spunky, not half bad!
What issue is it on now?
Cancelled? Typical!
A Jew in Communist Prague
Very impressive!
Clean art, convincing conflict -
Wait, that's it? Too short!
Great Teacher Onizuka, vol. 1
Slacker-turned-teacher
Pervs on short-skirted schoolgirls.
Think I'll skip the rest.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
two minutes of manga
Tokyopop announces new Star
Trek manga in the works
Comics journalist Tony Isabella
on manga and the comics industry
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
oh snap update!
According to Neil Gaiman, the news piece about Alan Moore being unhappy about Constantine movie decisions is not entirely true. Yes, Alan's removing his name from the film, but it's because of some frankly rather insulting legal issues involving the LOEG movie - I think he doesn't want to risk being put in that kind of situation again.
This explanation makes more sense to me than the previous one. From what I've read, he really isn't bothered by changes in adaptations of his films at all. Look at the massive changes made in From Hell and League - why would changes in Constantine cause such a reaction?
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
oh, snap!
According to Ain't It Cool, the script and casting for the Hellblazer movie are so bad that John Constantine-creator Alan Moore has asked for his name to be removed from the credits (Moore's beard unavailable for comment). Ha ha ha, damn! Let that be a lesson to you: don't revamp successful English creative properties by making them American, casting prettyboy actors, stripping out most of their original qualities, and resetting the stories in Los Angeles. Are you listening, you folks who are working on the American version of The Office?
This newsflash courtesy of comics blog Fanboy Rampage!!.
In other news, here's another part of the magazine assignment I was working on. Check out the Hot Air travel magazine Japan cover:
click to see Hot Air Japan issue cover
Thanks to the Cool Runnings crowd for their input on this project (they know who they are). IN JAMAICA WE GOTTA BOBSLED TEAM.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
the girl's got class
And the old term ended, and the new term started, and in place of the one big timesink of a course I got ... two lesser timesink courses! Hurrah! :: stabs self despairingly in eyes with Wacom stylus ::
The worst part about procrastination is the mind-whirlwind of regret,
self-confidence, and self-doubt:
Oh no, I did it again. I left all this to the last minute. I won't do that
next time.
But wow! Look at these great ideas I managed to come up with at the eleventh
hour! I rule!
Wait ... would I have come up with them if I'd started my work earlier? What if
I hadn't been in this same mindset at an earlier time? What if that random event
today (seeing that particular color sweater, reading that article, etc.) is what
spurred this great idea, and if I'd started before now, I wouldn't have been
able to come up with it? Do I need to procrastinate to come up with ideas?
Well, in any case, I definitely won't procrastinate on next week's homework.
repeat weekly
media intake
Just finished volume 2 of Fake. I can't put it down - it's really pretty bad, but it's strangely fascinating at the
same time. It reminds me of all sorts of slash fanfic I've read in the past, except that the two guys in this book never get
anywhere beyond kissing, and most slash stories go something like "Paragraph one: the two guys from The Sentinel show
up at the police station for work. Paragraph two: they go at it in the station's supply closet." I've started taking bets in
my head every time Fake gets anywhere near actual action. "Oh, there's some kissing ... let's see, when I flip the
page, will the two obligatory cute kids interrupt, will the one guy back off and say there was a misunderstanding, or will it
be the end of the chapter? ::flip:: Ah, it's the kids! I win a donut."
And maybe this is a manga convention, but I keep running across spelled-out sound effects, like "push" when someone pushes someone else. Weird! It reminds me of the sound effect words I used to see in The Beano when I was a kid. Minnie the Minx would be shown sneaking down the street accompanied by squiggly sound effect lines and the words "sound of sneaking around," things like that. The best ones were always in "Calamity James". Actual example: "uneasy flapping of flowery little drawers!"
In other news, I didn't know I needed it until I found it, but sweet jebus I need a Totoro ear pick.
Friday, January 23, 2004
first thought
Call me cynical, but when I heard that the latest issue of Elektra involves her battling a disease, the first thing I thought was "She's got breast cancer. Greg Horn is going to have a field day with the cover art now."
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
geek, geek, geek senora
Big shout-out to all the fellow geeks from Arisia - damn, that was a good time. Here, have some obscure references that only a handful of people will get:
The Orange Room! Secret Con Rave! Guerrilla Dance Party! The wishbone thing! Coin Operated Boy! Byzantium! Goth Macarena! Foam weapons! Glowsticks! Stripy tights! Not finding coffee anywhere but the gaming room, dammit!
I also learned of the existence of the Man-Faye. Fear him.
And then I came home when it was all over and sat on my ass eating kettle
corn and reading comic books.
The Golem's Mighty Swing - I usually don't like stories about
baseball, but this one about a Jewish exhibition baseball team back in the
early 20th century was riveting.
click to read about this
Jar of Fools - A stage magician down on his luck, his
ex-girlfriend, his elderly mentor, and a con man and his daughter.
Beautiful art from the guy who did Berlin, but I wasn't such a
big fan of the story overall.
click
to read about this
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
rehash browns
According to Newsarama, Marvel is starting up a new campaign called "Marvel Age" which pitches existing characters at younger readers, retelling their original stories "in a modern way."
This sounds fairly similar to what the "Ultimates" line was supposed to do - retell the original stories in a modern way (shedding 40+ years of convoluted continuity and providing outreach to new readers). It sounds like they're anticipating this comparison - in the Newsarama interview, the distinction is drawn between the more mature, cinematic Ultimates line and the new kid-friendly Marvel Age campaign.
Don't get me wrong - I'm in favor of reaching out to new readers. I thoroughly approve of trying to build a new fanbase in their formative stages while they still have many potential years of comic buying ahead of them. But sweet jebus, another retelling of Spider Man? Another relaunch of the Fantastic Four? "House of Ideas", my ass! They've got about five! How many times are they going to rehash, relaunch, and otherwise tool around with the same overused set of characters?
Still, it's pretty sneaky - there's some efficiency in simply reusing the same idea pool over and over again under different campaigns. You get at least a few readers who've never seen it before, and you get the fanboy contingent who will eagerly reread the same stories in hopes of seeing how their favorite characters fare under the revamp. Crafty!
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Comic Books in the Media - Drinking Game
The headline or lead-in is "Splat! Bam! Pow!" or similar.
1 drink
The topic of the article is "Comics aren't just for kids anymore!"
1 drink
Namedrops of Superman or Batman
2 drinks
The article's sole purpose is to plug an upcoming comics-based movie; all other comic-related news will promptly be ignored afterwards.
1 drink
Confusion between comic books and comic strips
1 shot
Bingo buzzwords: Tights, capes, masks, words with the prefix "X-", "graphic novel" (double points if it's misused)
1 shot per word
Friday, July 18, 2003
good league news, sports fans!
This just in from the San Diego Comic-Con International: LoEG Volume 3 is green-lighted. Sweet! Here are the details:
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 3 is a go. Set in 1910, the next storyline will feature Mina Harker heavily, while the remainder of the original team will go to the wayside. The new volume will go back in time to an earlier League, and may, according to artist Kevin O'Neil, travel forward to the 1950's.
Score! Click here to read the article and discussion (hosted by Newsarama).
(although - "Mina Harker"? She goes by "Mina Murray" in the book, guys, and quite deliberately. Quit using the movie as your info source.)
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
cos I'm LXG, I'm dynamite
I went to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tonight. I will now talk at some length. Warning: massive spoilers!
Tuesday, July 8, 2003
a league of one ... enormous scary beard
A neat interview with Alan Moore that focuses more on the man and not as much on his works:
"Give Me Moore", courtesy of the Sunday Herald (Scotland)
And when I say "the man", I mean that tiny portion of him that isn't entirely taken over by his beard and hair. Swear to god, I think it's the beard that's doing the writing nowadays. Alan just follows its commands inbetween holding services for the Sock Puppet God. ... damn, I love this guy.
The film adaptation of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is scheduled to be released this coming Friday. I don't know what to make of it ... they've veered so much from the source material that I expect to be disappointed, but at the same time James Robinson can be a good writer when he needs to be, and it looks like a fun campy action film. And I'm the one person who actually enjoyed Wild Wild West. So maybe this'll be good. Or not. Stay tuned for happy skipping and jumping or else full blathering rants.
Also, a side note to anyone groaning about Tom Sawyer's inclusion in the film as an adult, I have to point out that Mark Twain did in fact go on to write sequels Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective, so there is some literary source to the new version of the character.
Review of Mark Twain's other works
Thursday, June 26, 2003
oh, how cool is THAT!
From Pulse:
MARVEL 1602
Written by NEIL GAIMAN
Illustrated by ANDY KUBERT & RICHARD ISANOVE
CARDSTOCK COVER by Scott McKowen
All's not well in the Marvel Universe in the year 1602 as strange storms
are brewing and strange new powers are emerging!
Comics writing legend & bestselling novelist Neil Gaiman (SANDMAN, AMERICAN
GODS) and Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove (ORIGIN) bring to life a rich new
vision of the Marvel Universe that Gaiman promises is NOT a 'What If"
story. But how do Spider-Man, the X-Men, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, Daredevil,
Dr. Doom, Black Widow, Captain America & more Marvel stars appear in the
year 1602?
Wow. WOW. I'm doing a fangirl dance right now. That is so freaking cool! I
absolutely love this idea. Imagine how many neat takes you could do on the
Marvel Universe by setting them in different time periods?
In sixteen-hundred-and-sixty-six
Cyclops used his optic blasts on Magneto while fighting the Brotherhood of
Evil Mutants ...
... and London burned like rotten sticks.
Monday, May 26, 2003
I'm speechless
Once again, thanks to the Internet, I'm at a loss for words.
The Amazing Adventures of Gambit's Ass
Thursday, May 8, 2003
ohhh, damn, I wish I'd thought of that.
Dr. Moreau bioengineered Rupert Bear and Mr. Toad! Ha ha ha!
Damn, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen kicks ass.
Monday, April 21, 2003
Nurse, while you're at it ...
... please up Mr. Lee's dosage.
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Nurse ...
... please get Stan Lee his meds.
Friday, April 18, 2003
I read a buncha comics recently.
Comments on recently-read comics:
Stinz - Charger: The War Stories - It could just
be my usual interest in WWI talking, but jeeze, this collection had me
absolutely transfixed. You know how the old Superman movie posters had
the tagline "You'll believe a man can fly"? Lemme swipe that: "You'll believe a
centaur can be drafted into the German army to fight in World War I." This
collection is one in a series and follows Stinz Löwhard, a centaur farmer,
through basic training and a few later war stories. Donna Barr does an amazing
job in writing historical fiction, creating believable characters, and building
fantasy societies and species to the point where I'd just nod and say, "Yeah,
that'd be likely." Thumbs up!
Note: I just read more about the series and found out that it's not
specifically set in WWI - it's an unspecified war that combines aspects of
several of them, apparently. Oh. My bad.
Daredevil - Underboss, Out, issues 38-45 - I'm usually the last person on earth to enjoy superhero comics. I like 'em when they have well-developed characters, but more often than not the characters are just cardboard props with powers. "I am Zap Man! I will zap you! *zap*" The exceptions (e.g., James Robinson's Starman) are pretty rare, in my experience. But Brian Michael Bendis is writing a fantastic streak over on Marvel's Daredevil. The gist of the plot is this: Through various crime family drama, the information about Daredevil's real identity (blind lawyer Matt Murdock) has fallen into the media's hands. There's no quick magical fix here - the effects to Matt's legal and superhero careers are still being shown and experienced. The pacing is subtle, the artwork is gloomy and moodsetting, and the dialogue lives up to its reputation.
Oh, and I thought that it was great before reading issues 38-40, which involve a courtroom trial and Matt defending a costumed hero accused of killing a policeman. Then I read those issues and was impressed by the opening and closing arguments and the cross-examination. Damn! I'd pay good money to see a crossover between Law and Order and Daredevil. Really.
Alias - I recently picked up the first two collections of Marvel's Alias collections (no connection to the television show). It's another title written by Brian Michael Bendis and shows Jessica Jones, former superhero turned private investigator, as she works at various cases while barely keeping her own life together. Again with the character development and dialogue that rings true - although I wasn't overly enthusiastic about the actual plots (good buildup, less-than-stellar resolutions), it's the characters that keep me interested. I like Jessica Jones. She reminds me of me a bit, with the turned-up nose and the swearing too much. Not as much with the super strength and the alcoholism, though.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world ...
The new sport of kings is a-coming:
Bar Stool Racing
Saturday, March 29, 2003
all the zinesters in the house say ohhhh
A big shout-out to all of the folks who stopped by my table at Beantown Zinetown today - thanks for purchasing or trading for my minicomics! I've already started to go through the big-ass stack of acquired zines and man, there is some serious talent out there, and it's covering a massive range of subjects.
For anyone who couldn't make it to the zine fair or who just wants to hear more on these minicomics I'm talking about, please check out the Comics page - I've posted a list of comics available for sale/trade (this includes new minicomic versions of issues 1-3 of Between the Lines and the fresh-this-week fourth issue!).
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Minicomics, fanzines, and Between the Lines issue #4!
Hey everyone! Beantown Zinetown, Boston's zine and minicomic convention, is coming up on March 29, 2003 - it'll be running from 11-6 in the gymnasium at Mass. College of Art. I will be there hawking my minicomics, including Geraniums and Bacon, Invitation to Madness, and Between the Lines (now in minicomic format and including the just-finished issue #4!). Please stop by, say hello, and check out all the awesome offerings!
Update: I'm not sure what's up, but the usual BTZT page linked above seems to be temporarily blank. In the meantime, here is another site with information about the zine fair.
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
All I need to know in life I learned from doing the opposite of
Warning: Minor plot-related spoilers.
- Don't have a trademark when you go around killing folks - rose or big flaming initials.
- If some guy gets on your nerves and busts up your trademark killing technique one time ("He made me miss!!!!"), don't go on a vendetta immediately. Revenge is a dish best served cold and all that. Track him and wait until he's asleep in his sensory deprivation tank. Then smack him.
- People maintaining an illusion should not go and blow it all just to get all kung fu with hot chicks in broad daylight. Although I can see the benefits of it (e.g., she might take her shirt off).
- Likewise, people maintaining secrets should not use extremely eyecatching and obvious tools (e.g., canes with BRILLIANT FREAKING RED lacquered handles and little silver faces on them), especially if they plan to use them in both secret and civilian identity and especially if the secret identity involves lots of flailing and running around and shit that's likely to get the tools dropped.
- Namedropping comic book creators' names as an inside joke every time you need a throwaway name gets really fuckin' old after a while.