Two-Dimensional: Indie Comics Every Day

The Trouble With Blogging

2005-07-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

After a few weeks of blogging, and many many more weeks of avoiding blogging, I have realized a few things:

1) Blogging is hard. I knew that, of course, but one doesn't realize how hard it is until they're trying to do it, and especially to do it daily.

2) The more I interact with internet fandom, the less I like comics.

I was going to write a lot more on that subject, but I think that's what it boils down to. In short, I am currently rethinking my strategy. I'd like to get this blog going again. But the daily schedule I set for myself was much too much for me, and there are certain aspects of the blogging community that simply will not work for me because of that. I also have no desire left to keep up with the controversies, squabbles, demands, and trends in the internet fandom, which I find to be viscious, nearsighted and petty. (I refer mostly to the messageboard communities and not to the excellent blogs I continue to link to.) Most of all I don't want to be half-assed in my writing on this site. After some years of writing (in various locations) for mainstream-oriented sites as a sort of liason to the margins, you end up developing a certain "take-your-medicine" attitude that noone finds appealing, least of all me. It's probably time to admit that I'm tired of banging my head against the wall and that I'm writing for myself or for noone, or for however many like-minded souls are interested in discussing indie comics, not as a subset of or alternative to the mainstream, but in isolation. I'm thinking of a total redesign of the site and a more essay-oriented periodic format. I might also consider introducing other topics- while I don't want to make this into a "what did I eat for breakfast today?" blog, I did always have in mind introducing some flexibility of subject matter.

More soon.

The Eisners Are Here..

2005-07-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

Only a quick look at the winners list..

Best Short Story:
"Unfamiliar," by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, in The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft (Dark Horse Books)

Just the idea of these two working together should get an Eisner. Nice to see Dark Horse taking so many categories this year. If only the other non-Big-2 comics publishers were so lucky. Not to mention the other women.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot):
Eightball #23: "The Death Ray," by Dan Clowes (Fantagraphics)

Indisputable. Certainly the best superhero comic I read last year. Time will tell, but I think it's one of the best single issues I've ever read.

Best Serialized Story:
Fables #19-27: "March of the Wooden Soldiers," by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC)

On my To-Read list for quite a while now but I've never quite picked it up.

Best Continuing Series:
The Goon, by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)

Even though it's not my pick, I'm happy with this. Very entertaining comic.

Best Limited Series:

DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

Meh. I know people who flipped for this, and all, but how could it NOT be WE3?

Best New Series:
Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Fesiter (WildStorm/DC)

Again not what I would have picked, but. Okay.
Every time I conclude that Vaughan's used every trick in his bag, he comes out with another good idea. Excellent mix of politics, police beats, and fantasy.

Best Publication for a Younger Audience:
Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker and Scott Morse (DC)

I'd like to see more competition in this category. But this would still win.

Best Humor Publication:
The Goon, by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)

Good choice.

Best Anthology:
Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, edited by Diana Schutz and David Land (Dark Horse)

Really? Chris Ware's cover comic alone on McSweeny's #13 should have won it for them.

Best Digital Comic:
Mom's Cancer, by Brian Fies

Not familiar with this.

Best Graphic Album-New:
The Originals, by Dave Gibbons (Vertigo/DC)

I enjoyed this more for the pleasure of seeing Gibbons' artwork again than for much else. It would make my top ten, maybe. I thought Suspended in Language was a deserving choice, but most of my favorites were not nominated.

Best Graphic Album-Reprint:
Bone One Volume Edition, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)

We all expected Bone to get this, and it's right in the spirit of the Eisners. But for my money the book of the year was LOCAS.

Best Archival Collection/Project:
The Complete Peanuts, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

This should be true for a long time to come.

Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material:
Buddha, vols. 3-4 by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)

Absolutely, and I hope this inspires more people to check this out.
I call Epileptic for this slot next year.

Best Writer:
Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC); Runaways (Marvel)

Vaughn has grown on me. I'm not really a fan of Y:The Last Man, to the constant consternation of the dozen or so people that have tried to pass it on to me. But Ex-Machina and Runaways are good, classic serials, and Vaughn has a good grasp of how to do a monthly. Not much heft to it, but fun reads.

Best Writer/Artist:
Paul Chadwick, Concrete: The Human Dilemma (Dark Horse)

YESSSSSSS!!!! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. This is a guy who knows how to make a great comic. Wonderfully skilled artist with great layouts, and a very thoughtful and heartfelt writer. I'm impressed that he has continued to stick with the Concrete project for so long and how it has continued to pay off in spades, story-wise. With a truly drastic plot development that will change the direction of the series for good, I am very excited for more CONCRETE.

Best Writer/Artist-Humor:
Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); Kyle Baker, Cartoonist (Kyle Baker Publishing)

Yes and yes. Baker continues to put out beautiful work seemingly effortlessly (which any conessiour of comedy will tell you is the secret to Making It Funny - lots of hard work made invisible). Interesting that they left off BIRTH OF A NATION and THE BAKERS from this list, both of which I like even better than the above comics. Very interesting indeed.

Expect to see Kyle Baker back at the Eisners next year for NAT TURNER, although not in this category.

Best Penciller/Inker (tie):
John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Planetary (WildStorm/DC); I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun (Humanoids/DC); Frank Quitely, WE3 (Vertigo/DC)

Hooray for both. I think they're both amazing, although I would give the edge to Quitely for WE3. He did some seriously innovative stuff for a book as mainstream as it was.

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art):
Teddy Kristiansen, It's a Bird... (Vertigo/DC)

Meh. It was attractive enough, but when I think Multimedia I still think David Mack.

Best Coloring:
Dave Stewart, Daredevil, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Six, Captain America (Marvel); Conan, BPRD (Dark Horse); DC: The New Frontier (DC)

Laura Martin (formerly DePuy) should always take this category. She's been head-and-shoulders above the rest for the last several years.

Best Lettering:
Todd Klein, Promethea; Tom Strong; Tom Strong's Terrific Tales (ABC); Wonder Woman (DC); Books of Magick: Life During Wartime; Fables; WE3 (Vertigo/DC); Creatures of the Night (Dark Horse)

Todd Klein is very deserving. One of the best and most distinctive in the business. Too bad this is all the ABC comics could take this year.

Best Cover Artist:
James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); Green Arrow, Batgirl (DC)

Hell yeah. Beautiful covers. Well deserved.

Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition:
Sean McKeever (A Waiting Place; Mary Jane; Inhumans; Sentinels)

I don't understand giving this particular award to a guy writing a half dozen Marvel titles. I thought the point was to draw attention to an unknown, not to someone whose books automatically get the Marvel Shelfing Treatment. There are so many truly little-known writers and artists who could have benefited far more from this award. I'm not knocking Sean McKeever's work, I just think he's in the wrong category this year. A few years ago, when he was just doing The Waiting Place, maybe, but not now.

Last year Derek Kirk Kim took this award for his Same Difference collection. Other past winners include Dylan Horrocks, Jason Shiga, and Alex Robinson.
One of these things is not like the others...

Not much to say about the rest, except that Seth certainly deserves the design award for the Peanuts reissues . Congratulations to all the winners. They're all very talented. I can't very excited about such a mainstream list... But I'm sure the vast majority of people who read about the San Diego con for the lastest Infinite Crisis news are complaining about how UNmainstream it is, and so it has been and so it shall be. And I curl up in my bunker with all the comics for which there is no room in the Direct Market stores and think less and less about the so-called Comics Conversation.

Top Shelf's Massive $3 Sale!

2005-03-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Good deal! I know I will be doing some ordering today....

(found via BAD SIGNAL)
**************
Hey Comics Fans,For the next ten days -- from Sunday March 6th thru Tues March 15th -- Top Shelf is having its biggest web sale ever.

When you visit the site, you'll find over 90 graphic novels and comics on sale, with fifty titles marked down to just $3 (!), twenty titles marked down to just $1 (!), and a slew of other key titles just slashed!

All we ask is that you hit a $30 minimum on sale and/or non-sale items (before shipping). It's a great opportunity to load up on all those graphic novels you've wanted to try, but just never got around to picking up. Get 'em while supplies last!

Please note that this sale is GOOD for "direct market" retailers as well, and comic book shops will get their wholesale discount on these sale prices. Certain minimums apply, so retailers please email us for details.

http://www.topshelfcomix.com
*******************

Here are some of the marked-down titles that I'm interested in picking up, or particularly recommend:
Big Clay Pot -- $12.95 --> $3.00 (US) - Diamond: STAR12266 -
Jennifer Daydreamer #1 -- $4.95 --->$3.00 (US) - 60 pages, Comic Book, Diamond: NOV022770 - ADD TO CART Jennifer Daydreamer #2 -- $4.95 --> $3.00 (US) - 84 pages, Diamond: DEC032722
K Chronicles: What a Strange Strip -- $12.95 --> $3.00 (US) - Diamond: STAR16399

Not $3, but marked down nonetheless:
2 Sisters -- $19.95 --> $14.95 (US) - 336 pages, Diamond: APR042947
American Elf (softcover) -- $29.95 ---> $19.95 (US) - 520 pages, Diamond: MAY042960 - American Elf (hardcover) -- $49.95 --->$39.95 (US)
Bighead -- $12.95 ---> $9.95 (US) - Diamond: AUG043100
Blankets (softcover) -- $29.95 ---> $24.95 (US) - Diamond: STAR19060
Bop! -- $9.95 --->$7.95 (US) - 88 pages, Diamond: STAR20107
Creature Tech -- $17.95 ---> $14.95 (US) - 208 pages, Diamond: STAR17873
Less Than Heroes -- $14.95 ---> $9.95 (US) - 152 pages, Diamond: APR042942
Lowlife -- $12.95 ---> $9.95 (US) - 112 pages, Diamond: STAR13579
The Mirror of Love -- $24.95 --->$19.95 (US) - Diamond: OCT032748
The Mirror of Love (signed) -- $49.95 --->$29.95 (US)
Owly (Vol 1): The Way Home -- $10.00---> $7.95 (US) - Diamond: JUL043246
Voice of the Fire -- $26.95 ---> $19.95 (US) - 336 pages, Hardcover, Diamond: JUN032566 Voice of the Fire (signed) -- $49.95 --->$39.95 (US)

Coming next week to a shop near you...

2005-03-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

My comics picks for March 9:
VIMANARAMA #2 (OF 3) (MR) $2.99
BLUE MONDAY PAINTED MOON #4 (Of 4) (MR) $2.99
STREET ANGEL #5 $2.95
Concrete Human Dilemma #3 (Of 6), $3.50

Could be worth a look : NO MAN'S LAND Gn vol 1

Three hotly anticipated miniseries installments - good week for me.

I've got to warn people reading CONCRETE not to look at the current Previews if you want to be surprised. I came across a plot development there that, although it's not entirely unexpected due to heavy foreshadowing, I would really rather not have known about ahead of time. Usually the descriptions in Previews are so vague that it can't really spoil anything, but the cover in this case is clear enough. I should know better, spoiler-phobe that I am.

Comic Book Stores vs. Superhero Shops

2005-03-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

Alan David Doane is talking about the difficulties of finding comic book shops with full offerings of books from across the spectrum, what he refers to as a "full-service" stores. This as opposed to "Superhero Shops" or "Marvel/DC Stores" which neglect the full range of genres as well as publishers available.

I am fortunate at the moment to live in Boston, where there are two fantastic comic book shops and several more merely good ones. But for most of my comic-collecting life I was not so lucky. I have to say that the majority of places I have lived in had very few stores that carried few if any small press books and no independents at all. The majority of shops that I've seen will have a single rack of solid Marvel/DC comics, a few Image titles, and if they're especially adventurous, a Dark Horse title. These are the stores primarily staying afloat through the latest craze of MagicPokemonHero cards, where you have to climb over a table of RPG players to get to a sad stack of comics in the back. That's the reality of non-urban comic collecting, and in many cities it doesn't get much better. Maybe those stores manage to turn a profit on comics-related items, but the variety for sale still runs all the way from A to B. DC's Vertigo line, though I appreciate its existence, is not a replacement for the many, many independent comics fighting for shelf space, and losing.

At those times when I was trying to maintain a comics habit with such limited availability I would usually have to throw myself on the mercy of whoever was behind the counter, via the dreaded "Special Order". I'm sure we've all had to resort to this from time to time. I frequented a shop in Illinois that was actually pretty good about ordering comics for me, on a by-request basis of course. Where independent publishers lose out in this situation is that these comics have to be selected sight-unseen by the customer, generally on recommendations from critics or via the internet. So while it was possible for me to keep up with universally praised titles, fairly safe bets, there was no way for me to even lay eyes on the kind of titles that I stumble over every week at Million Year Picnic but wouldn't have chanced ordering sight unseen in podunk USA. And so these titles tend to die on the vine, passed over by customers who will never have a chance to buy them. It's true that the internet has increased the availability of all sorts of products, but never underestimate the power of examining a product in your own hands, particularly a comic book.

So let me lavish some praise on my favorite comic book shops, and maybe if you're ever in Boston you can take a look at what I would consider the ideal for the direct market. First the aforementioned Million Year Picnic, which has the best selection of comics I've seen yet. Foreign editions, vintage collections, small press, minicomix, you name it, they carry it. The other store I frequent in town is Comicopia, which has an great selection of graphic novels featuring titles mainstream, independent, and manga. Another store I have to mention is Star Clipper in St. Louis, Missouri, an oasis of quality in a desert of full-service comic book stores. They've moved their store recently but I trust the selection is excellent as always.

I maintain a link in my sidebar menu to a listing of Indie Friendly Stores for the purpose of finding more full-service shops, but it might be slightly outdated at this point.

What are your favorite full-service comic book stores?

Panel #20 - Hey, Wait.

2005-03-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

Hey, Wait by Jason. The first American release by the brilliant cartoonist from Norway just breaks your heart. Nearly wordless, this OGN shows Jason's masterful storytelling abilities at their best. I also think Shhhhhh and The Iron Wagon are pretty great, but this is the one that will stick with you.

2005 - A pretty good year.

2005-03-01T14:48:00.000-05:00

(Yes, I know it's March. It's nice to run down upcoming projects sometime other than December/January for once.)

Best project so far in 2005:
Epileptic, by David B.
I also loved DAISY KUTTER (Viper Comics) and VIMANARAMA (Vertigo)

My Top 10 most anticipated projects of 2005, in no particular order:
1. DESOLATION JONES (Wildstorm/DC) - The Warren Ellis/JH Williams continuing series begins in May. DC Comics gets at least $3.95 monthly from me for the forseeable future.
2. TRICKED (Top Shelf) - Alex Robinson's new graphic novel. Also looking to pick up the reissue of BOX OFFICE POISON with spiffy new cover design. I have all the singles, but I'm finally gonna cave.
3. EMBROIDERIES (Pantheon) - Marjane Satrapi's follow-up to PERSEPOLIS focuses on the love/sex lives of young Iranian women. Should be fascinating.
4. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? (Pantheon) - I love Jason. They just can't translate this stuff fast enough for me, I'm gonna have to learn Norweigan.
5. THE THREE PARADOXES (Fantagraphics) - Big OGN from Paul Hornschemeier, my favorite new writer/artist of the last few years.
6. AEIOU or ANY EASY INTIMACY (Top Shelf) - Jeffrey Brown brings us the last of the "girlfriend trilogy".
7. LOST GIRLS (Top Shelf) - Finally the series by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbe is completed and collected into a big-ass hardcover, coming next fall.
8. THE QUITTER (Vertigo) - OGN from Harvey Pekar, stories from his early life drawn by Dean Haspiel.
9. CONAN AND THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR (Dark Horse) - P. Craig Russell draws it, I'm buying it.
10. GLIMMER (Oni Press) - Fantasy epic by Ted Naifeh, of COURTNEY CRUMRIN and the much-beloved-by-me HOW LOATHSOME.

Also looking forward to:
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (Oni)
SCREAM QUEEN (Ho Che Anderson) (Fantagraphics)
BLUESMAN (Absense of Ink)
GIRLS (Luna brothers) (Image)
THE FOUNTAIN (Darren Aronofsky, Kent Williams)(Vertigo)
ICE HAVEN (Daniel Clowes, collected from Eightball) (Pantheon)
"Rusty Brown" - ACME NOVELTY FACTORY (Chris Ware) (Fantagraphics)
Brownsville (NBM Publishing)
FIRST LADY (Patrick Neighly/Stephen Buell) Mad Yak Press
IRONCLAD PETAL (Lea Hernandez) (Cyberosia Publishing?)
WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WET THE BED (Liz Prince) (Top Shelf)
THE TICKING (Renee French) (Top Shelf)
MNEMOVORE (Vertigo)

Some great projects that will be continuing or completing this year:
-CONCRETE: THE HUMAN DILEMMA
-KABUKI: THE ALCHEMY
-OPTIC NERVE
-PLANETARY
-AGE OF BRONZE
-EX MACHINA
-LOVE AND ROCKETS (always.)
-FINDER (READ THIS RIGHT NOW)
-BLUE MONDAY: PAINTED MOON
-two marvel comics by creators of tv shows that i loved: ASTONISHING X-MEN and SUPREME POWER
-STRANGEHAVEN (i know this will never finish but it's still gorgeous)

So what did I forget?

One Panel Per Day #19: One from across the pond...

2005-02-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

From Lost Girl, by English artist Nabiel Kanan. You may know Kanan from his Negative Burn contribution "Exit". Lost Girl is both a portrayal of an English girl learning to navigate the treacherous waters of adolescence, and a mystery story with an undercurrent of real physical danger. I never heard much about this GN when it came out, but it's one of those books that I came across while browsing and really sucked me in. This particularly striking image really made me want to know more about this girl and what's going through her head. Nuanced and understated, this is a nice introduction to Kanan's work.

OPPD #18: What's Michael?

2005-02-25T15:51:00.000-05:00

From What's Michael, which is sometimes referred to as the Japanese version of Garfield, only actually funny. Artist Makoto Kobayashi is clearly *very* familiar with cats and their ways, and his renderings of Michael and company strike the balance between cartoony-funny and uncannily realistic. Even though Michael and his human caretakers are Japanese, the humor translates wonderfully. A great manga for people who don't read manga much (like myself).

OPPD #17: Poison Elves

2005-02-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

Fellow I met at a local comics thing told me Drew Hayes has been having health problems this year, and for that reason his comic has been coming out pretty erratically. Now, I haven't read new issues of Poison Elves in a few years, but I still have all my I, Lusiphurs and a couple old trades and I still enjoy them from time to time. Desert of the Third Sin is great fun, and so is Traumatic Dogs. Honestly he can't draw girls for shit, but I generally ended up liking the female characters anyway, so: forgiveable. You really read the comic to see what stage of mental decay Lusiphur's in now, anyway. So, best wishes to Drew, hope he's back up to full strength and putting out comics again soon.

Speaking of erratic -- this blog. Not so much every day. Working on it. More content soon (and actual responses to comments!) Getting some comics scanned in soon, that will be helpful.

Surprise! 9/11 is controversial.

2005-02-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

Book choice proves divisive; Sept. 11 satire required reading for new students.

In short, Lafayette College hands out In the Shadow of No Towers and, for balance, some Bush transcripts to incoming freshmen, controversy results. Sort of like putting two spiders in a jar and shaking it until they fight, i.e. the Crossfire method. The college's claimed intention is to provoke "intellectual discussion" but as usual the discussion is more on their choice of required material than on "defining the American Identity" (the purpose of the initiative).

The sadder thing about this is, In the Shadow of No Towers simply isn't very good. People don't want to say this too loudly, because there simply isn't any definitive artistic statement on that terrible day at this point and we're feeling that lack right now. I'm not going to go into my criticisms of Shadow (I wrote about it here when it was released, and my opinion has become somewhat more negative since then), I just think it's a minor work from a gifted artist. It's been lifted up as some sort of definitive statement, maybe because of Spiegelman's New Yorker and Pulitzer connections, to the degree that it's already making its way to the college cirricula. But honestly, if they wanted to give students a thought-provoking statement in a comics format, they could have selected This is Information. What they were probably going for was polemic, which is more in keeping with our current political climate, in a format that seems novel/current enough (Bam! Pow! Comics!) to invite innocent academic scrutiny.

Anyway, read the article.

OPPD #16: Tyrant

2005-02-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

From Steve Bissette's Tyrant, which although it only put out 4 issues is still talked about in indie circles (mine, at least). People were hopeful for a long while that more issues would see print, especially since Bissette claimed to have drawn several more. I was never clear on what halted the series, if there were financial considerations or personal reasons, or if the project was simply too ambitious to be supported by the 90's market. The goal of the series was to portray with harsh realism the life of a dinosaur from birth to death. With the naturalistic horror of Swamp Thing behind him, I had high hopes for Bissette's labour of love. Too bad. We did get 4 beautifully illustrated issues out of it, at least.

Zombie News Blogging (stuff from this week)

2005-02-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

I like that. Zombie news. News returned from the dead, dug up and released, harassing passers-by. Film at 11.

Newsarama - Greg Rucka *not* writing Queen and Country? Their headline worried me for a minute, but it's only a mini-series, the third "Declassified", which will be written by Antony Johnston and will follow Nick Poole on an earlier mission. That's ok. But... - Rucka, listen here. You know that guy, the one who started out making excellent crime noir miniseries and went on to a succesful creator-owned genre series, then got tapped by the big 2 to write company property projects, and wrote more and more projects until he was practically writing everything, and started neglecting his own strengths and spread himself too thin and generally annoyed everyone in the process? Don't be that guy. Ok?

Thought Balloons found it first - http://www.sincitythemovie.com/ *boggle*

More Thought Balloons - Ashley Wood sketchbook due in April from IDW.

The Comics Reporter, which aside from its usual excellent coverage has a particular interest in newspaper editorial cartoons, drew my attention to this List of the top 10 British editorial cartoons of all time. Too bad you gotta be a Brit to vote on them. Some related commentary is here.

Comics 212 reminds us that The Beguiling's Ebay comics charity auction project for Southeast Asian Tsunami victims (through Red Cross) is coming to the last rounds, with artwork by DAVE SIM & GERHARD, CHARLES VESS & JEFF SMITH, and SETH. Go to it.

OPPD #15 : War of the Worlds

2005-02-17T15:59:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to do updates in the morning, but the gods of chaos did not cooperate with me today. I'm so tired. To continue the Alan Moore theme from yesterday, here is my favorite panel from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen II).

Zombie news-blogging to follow.

OT: baby's first meme

2005-02-16T16:07:00.000-05:00

Well, Little Terrors threw it to me, so I'll give it a go. I think it's been passed to everyone by now, though.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:
Not many. 100 or so. I am a cro-magnon collector obsessive, i.e. I buy cds. And records. Occassionally needing to give blood/organs to do so.
2. The last (few) CDs you bought were:
The Arcade Fire, Funeral; Nick Cave, Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues; Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken; a couple mid-period Neil Young albums, further back the Fiery Furnaces and Franz Ferdinand.
3.Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. (mostly just listening to a lot lately, in my case)
1. 5 years, Bowie
2. It's Alright Ma, I'm only Bleeding; Dylan
3. The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton, The Mountain Goats
4. Farewell Transmission, Songs: Ohia
5. Mt. Saint Helens, Mirah

Promethea - I am going to miss this comic (OPPD 14)

2005-02-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

In honor of the last issue of Promethea coming out today, here's an image from the Kabbala journey section, during the heaven issue ("The Serpent and the Dove", issue 23). If you look closely (enlarge by clicking on the image) you can see a number of interesting images in here, including a shot of the WTC in lower right.

Promethea is my favorite of Alan Moore's comics work, which is not to denigrate his other works which are always brilliant and occassionally genius. But this book is the most invested with meaning to me right now, and it seems to have a lot of meaning to Moore as well. It is a "difficult" work, esoteric, odd, intricate, not inclined to explain its directions or interests and expects you to keep up with it as it explores the cosmos. Moore has always had cosmic/spiritual/psychic journey aspects to his work and characters who tend to close themselves off from the common world, either physically or just mentally, to explore the inner space. I'm thinking here of Swamp Thing's journey through the universe after his "death" on Earth, Dr. Manhattan's trip to the moon, and William Gull's "dissection" passage in From Hell. Promethea is almost entirely a spiritual journey, and even when she's not journeying through the afterlife or the immateria she is progressing through her stages of being to reach the ultimate stage of being. The ingenious part of the last segment of Promethea is the buildup to Apocalypse, which is genuinely frightening, versus what it really leads to, which is a kind of throwing open of all the doors, tearing down all the walls, a general opening of everything and everyone to the universe, to the All. It's almost the inverse of those earlier characters, who closed themselves off to explore the horrors of their singleness, that Promethea opens herself up to all humanity, and them to each other. I think this is Moore's wish to share with us what he has learned through his magickal studies, how we can infer that he has grown over the years. It's beautiful.

And the artwork, good god, the art. Beautiful, dazzling stuff, just unlike anything comics has seen before. I'm already seeing other books incorporating what Moore and Williams did with panel borders, with the center(staple) space, with color themes and stylistic themes to signify place or time. I think we'll find this to be a milestone series probably most of all in its artwork, and credit to Moore, J. H Williams, Jeromy Cox (gorgeous colors. wow.), Mick Gray (great inker), and Todd Kline's lettering (excellent as usual).

There's an excellent Promethea annotations website that most usefully zooms in on aspects of the artwork and symbolism used in the series.

OPPD #13 : Dirty Plotte

2005-02-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

One of the dream sequences from Dirty Plotte, by Julie Doucet. Probably my favorite, because I love Nick Cave, and I love how it comes out. Nick brings her up on stage, swings her around by the legs for awhile, then plays a dirty trick on her and runs away. Huh? The dream sequences are always very interesting and highly symbolic in this book, without losing their more surreal elements. Lots of people draw out their dreams but it's harder to really tap into that. There should be some new comics from Julie Doucet this year. Hopefully.

On a dream-related tangent, I also really like Slow Wave, an online comic where the cartoonist illustrates submissions from the readers where they describe their dreams. It usually turns out better than it sounds.

Yes, I went to Millarworld...

2005-02-14T10:14:00.000-05:00

So the blokes at Millarworld came up with this -- The Cheaper Comics Manifesto. I think it got shot down pretty quickly, but it deserves a look.

I have to agree that such a change would not necessarily draw new readers to comics, but merely change the way current comics readers spend their money. But what of that? What would that mean for independent comics, which are almost always more expensive than mainstream comics, which is frequently an excuse for why retailers don't stock them and mainstream readers do not buy them? What about encouraging readers to try out new titles by lowering prices? What about retaining readers who might have dropped out altogether with the chance to find a new title they might like better? And what about, as Greg comments below my "Link Pondering" post, encouraging kids to try out comics by giving them something they can afford? Perhaps if publishers tried out some cheaper books for specific markets (not a one-shot once in awhile, but as an ongoing policy), they could entice some new readers, or in the case of small press, bring over some readers from manga or the mainstream.

But are there in fact ways of lowering prices? I doubt we would ever go back to newsprint entirely, but what about supermarket newsprint titles, or preview titles, for a buck? More likely, how about smaller comics, pocket-sized comics, for lower prices? Or would it actually be more expensive to change means of production that have become rather set in stone at this point? What about incorporating ads into some books that currently have none? (I would NOT like this myself, but it's an option). One thing that makes this rather doubtful on the independent publishing side is that there is already a system for publishing and selling comics in a cheaper format. They're called zines, and nobody buys them.

More thoughts on this later.

OPPD #12: La Perdida

2005-02-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

From La Perdida, >the lost girl<, by Jessica Abel. The whole book is beautifully and intricately illustrated. This is one of the few panels I could find that's open like this one. Abel is a very skilled short story writer (see Artbabe) and her first long-form is lovely. I'm a little impatient with the thriller aspect of it, because the social aspects are much more interesting - the American expat in Mexico City trying to get in touch with her Mexican roots, falling in with some "authentic", but not-so-nice, locals, meeting other expats who seem to socialize only with each other... the poverty of Mexico, the beautiful art and architecture, the difficulties of getting along in a country where you barely know the language.. this stuff is fascinating to me. The kidnapping plot is extraneous. But I'm eager to see where she takes it in this last issue coming up.

Link Pondering.

2005-02-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

Interesting article on CBC - "Hey Kids! No Comics!"

RESPONSE TANGENT: Considering that the vast amount of shelf space in this country is devoted to superhero comics, and that the audience for superhero comics is shrinking, and that the children's audience for superhero comics has disappeared right along with the superhero comics for children, maybe it's time to do something radical, like admit that superhero comics as a genre are inherently meant for children. By virtue of the very same conventions that define the genre, such as dressing up in costumes, secret identities, superpower origin stories, and the like. Perhaps if we made superhero comics for children, with youthful mentalities, and made adult comics for adults, in any genre we like, then there will be comics for everyone to read.

Of course this will never happen. Not while Marvel, DC, and others are struggling to have it both ways by producing superhero comics injected with adult themes, which are supposed to appeal to both groups but actually satisfy neither. They make their content mainly, or only, in one kid-appeal genre, and try to retain fans as they age by including increasing levels of sex/violence, plot convolutions, and psychological complexity that a kid's not necessarily going to be interested in. Rather than saying to Billy - "Hey! You like those Teen Titans? Here's a whole rack of superhero books just for you!" - and saying to slightly-older William - "You want some more, huh? Have some crime fiction, horror, or sci-fi comics like these!" - they're telling everybody to buy the same stuff stretched 16 ways: superhero crime fiction, and superhero horror, and superhero sci-fi, in other words, clumsy bastard offspring that are occassionally almost accidentally great and most often deformed and useless. And because of these companies' stranglehold on the distribution system, and retailers' strange reluctance to shelf alternatives when they are produced (like DC's vertigo books and the occassional stabs at children's comics), your ordinary kid and your ordinary adult look at the shelves and see nothing to read - and increasingly, the reading population becomes a crowd of immature adults and cynical kids.

I support real adult comics and real kids comics equally. I probably end up talking about adult comics more often because I have no children and there just aren't as many kids comics of similar quality. Which the article articulates nicely, even though I think they're pointing the finger at the wrong culprits. Creators are simply following, even as they're bending, the rules already enforced by publishers and retailers. A naturally all-ages book can only come to pass when genre fiction gets back its boundaries and individual books are freed up to just, y'know, tell a good story. When we have real adult books and real kids books, I think a great book can cross over on its own, and also someone who can enjoy both mature reading and kid-at-heart fun gets the best of both worlds. I do think we need to generate more of both sides, kids and adults comics, in a simultaneous process, to empty people out of that crossbreed middle ground.

Don't know if I'm making much sense there. Just something I'm pondering.

One Panel Per Day #11 : Clumsy

2005-02-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

Clumsy, by Jeffrey Brown. It's easy to dismiss the crudeness of his artwork, but the more you look at it, the more you realize it's a put-on. As a general strategy I'm not sure what I think of that, but in this first OGN it works perfectly. Clumsy is a raw portrayal of a love affair written and drawn immediately after its end, and the artwork perfectly conveys the jumble of emotions that the artist clearly needed to work through at the time.

Reading it, I see so many familiar moments, one that bring back happy memories and others that make me smack my forehead and think, oh yeah, what was I thinking? Brown portrays himself as alternatively smitten, sweet, demanding, bullheaded, and insecure, and includes all/most of the ups and downs of a love affair in a more down-to-earth fashion than, say, Blankets. Not as beautiful as Thompson's celebrated volume, of course, but an immediate, intimate and wrenching depiction of another real-life relationship.

One Panel Per Day #10

2005-02-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

Clockwork Angels, by Lea Hernandez. She's better known for her collaborations like Killer Princesses (with Gail Simone), but I really enjoy her "Texas Steampunk" releases from Cyberosia publishing. They're very much in the shojo tradition of comics, which is appropriate considering she worked for many years on American releases of Japanese manga. Lots of pretty dresses, but also venom, violence, and strangeness (and if you don't think that describes Japanese girls' comics, you've never read anything by CLAMP, have you?). Anyway, there are two of these so far, Cathedral Child and Clockwork Angels, and the next volume has been in the works for quite some time. Find more about Hernandez and her other project Rumble Girls at her website.

Because I Have the Attention Span of a Gnat: Next Week's Comics

2005-02-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

Comics 2/16 (which is the next time I can get to the shop, so obviously the more important date)

Ocean #4 (Of 6), $2.95 - Yes, it is slow. But I am still interested. And the covers are fabulous.
Promethea #32, $3.95 - Cue the excited jumping around and clutching comic to chest, while everyone else looks at me strangely, saying, "didn't that end already?"
Ex Machina #8, $2.95- We'll see.
Queen & Country Declassified Vol 2 #1, $2.99- My crush on this series continues.

And also, ok, some books coming out today.
Vimanarama #1 (Of 3), $2.95 - Thank Jeebus for Grant Morrisson. This looks really cool.
Stray Bullets #36, $3.50- Still going strong.
Berlin #11 - Underappreciated
Ojo #5 (Of 5), $2.99- Weird and unhappy young girl sorts out her issues through an encounter with scary monsters. No, Keith hasn't done this before.

One Panel Per Day #9: Changers

2005-02-09T09:43:00.000-05:00

A panel from Changers (book 1) by Ezra Clayton Daniels. There just aren't enough sci-fi comics out there, and certainly not enough like this. It combines elements of time travel, bioengineering, and evolutionary science in a very interesting way, and I especially love the "future history" segments describing both the technological and social changes in the far, far future. I also like the greenish color scheme. Check it out at Dream Chocolate Confections.

And what is a Blog for, if not Poaching News from Other Websites?

2005-02-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

Weekly news-poaching:

Apparat 2: Can't say I'm surprised considering the first round didn't come off the way it was planned, with a staggered publishing schedule instead of all in the "fifth week". Ellis is being cryptic about it right now, but I expect it will be 5 new titles instead of continuations of the first batch. Would be nice if he kept some/all of the artists, though.

From the Comics Reporter : Gary Panter is selling 100.1 Drawings through his website, and only his website, a book of original art produced by his Custom Drawing method : they were based on a group of words given him through the website. The example on this ordering page is "conflict/harmony/same/vat". I'm gonna order this myself when I get up the money.

Sequential Tart : Jessica Abel's La Perdida will release the final issue this month, and I refrain from commenting on its tardiness. The Tarts have a nice interview with Abel here.

Comic book Resources : So there's gonna be a Scott Pilgrim movie. I don't get too excited about comics-to-film, because, y'know, I have the comic. I don't need a movie. It is not inherently better to make a film than a comic, and I don't feel that need to validate my hobby. Etc etc posturing etc. I am kind of tickled that Edgar Wright wants to do it, though, because I loved Shaun of the Dead and maybe it will lead to The Funny. So ok. And Brian Lee O'Malley could make a bucket of money, and that would be nice too.

Essay-link from Flipped: "Exploring the Manga Holdouts - What are they waiting for?" We were all saying the same thing about indie comics, what, ten years ago? David Welsh isn't having much more luck answering it now. Although manga is increasingly overcoming one of the main hurdles (shelf-space, thanks to the major booksellers, is becoming available) both manga and indie comics have the problem of no set entryway, right now, in the year 2005. Awhile ago we could point to Akira and Maus and we all had a common reference point. What would it be now? But I don't suppose manga publishers are the ones fretting over the lack of crossover between mainstream American comics and manga considering their sales figures...

OPPD #8: In Which I Coin the Phrase, "to SIP"

2005-02-08T09:55:00.000-05:00

SIP: 1. (n.) A black-and-white independent comic book by Terry Moore, published since 1993 and sold in countries around the world. 2. (v.) To carry on a story well past its limitations, jumping the once-interesting characters through interminable hoops to explain why they haven't evolved or developed in ten years and to keep the story from progressing to any sort of conclusion. 2a. (v) To pick up and drop plot threads at a fantastic rate while maintaining a semblance of a "long-term plan".

This is why phonebook editions are awesome. Pick up the first two phonebooks of Strangers in Paradise, which are terrific. Beautifully drawn, heartfelt, and well-told aside from the attempts at noir. Ignore the rest, which are unnecessary aside from the pretty artwork, and hope that Moore will eventually move on to a new project.

I love Planetary, but this is still funny.

2005-02-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

Found on Sore Eyes:

http://www.capvsbats.com/Parodies/planetary22.htm

I've commented before that there is a limit to how much and how many mysteries can be stretched out over the course of a story before the readers get restless and frustrated.. But I happen to like all of the Planetary character tributes, they're usually inventive and interesting and give a sense of how our pop mythologies fit together in our cultural headspace.

And the issue parodied here (#22) left out the best part, which was the increasing creepiness of Elijah Snow, and the eyes. Ow. Owowowowow.

For Mature Readers Only

2005-02-07T14:04:00.000-05:00

I wrote this little essay for a zine project that never came to pass last year. Hate to see it sitting there unused, so here it is:

*************
For Mature Readers Only

As a female comic book fan I’m often asked about unpleasant encounters with territorial fanboys. Honestly, I had more trouble buying my electric guitar than I’ve ever had buying comics. But there is one occasion that stands out, although the conflict was not with a fellow customer but with the proprietor:

I was 13, 14 years old and just coming out of my X-Men phase, slipping into my Vertigo habit instead of dropping comics altogether like all my old trading buddies. One day I come into the only shop in my small town and I can’t find my comics. No Sandman. No Sin City. No sign of them anywhere. I approached the counter and innocently asked the owner where to find my comics. And for the first time I heard what would become a regular chorus in my comic-collecting career – we keep THOSE comics behind the counter. Baffled, I tried to persuade him to look through his disorganized stack for the latest installment of A Dame To Kill For, but apparently he couldn’t be bothered. Even with no signage or official policy he could refuse to sell me a “mature readers” book until I was old enough (16? 18? 21?) while selling The Killing Joke and other violent superhero-themed titles to boys my own age with no problems. Of course he lost my business for the next 5 or so years I lived in that area, when I had to travel over an hour to get to a decent shop that at least shelved those comics behind a glass case instead of completely out of sight. But I never forgot that guy, nor did I forget that a few years later his shop closed its doors for good.

Those comics. The “mature audiences” comics, the only comics worth buying to my eyes, especially in the 90’s. The arbitrarily-labeled "adult" books that seemed to consist of anything not in spandex or cartoon format, in other words, any comic your average teenage girl, not to mention adult reader, would want to look at. Those books were always packed away in the little glass case, and even when I could get someone to hand over the titles I wanted, you couldn’t get past that glass, couldn’t reach out and make sense of the piles of titles that for whatever reason had been deemed inappropriate for my eyes. The Invisibles. Preacher. Poison Elves. Strangers in Paradise. These books had not a thing in common with each other, and yet they were lumped in together – along with, to my continuing outrage, outright porn. There’s something wrong with a system that makes no distinction between Bondage Fairies and Stray Bullets, and yet in 90% of the comic book stores you will find the two comics casually shelved together, if they are carried at all.

This wrongheaded thinking is a large part of the reason why you don’t see adults, especially women, reading comics. Sure, there is the invisible legion of lingering junkies like myself who were hooked in childhood and now slink around with their brown paper bags, outlaws of the unwritten rule that comics are for kids and kids alone. But the marketing geniuses at Marvel who want to reel in the disposable cash of indulgent parents by limiting the scope of the medium to a safe and obvious genre like superherodom, these nitwits shut out a reading and spending population that other markets in Europe and Japan have been smart enough to reach out to. The comics industry has been locking up mature adult comics since the Code came into being, and they are crippling the potential of a genuine art form. Only through the hard work of a few brilliant creators have artistically and intellectually mature possibilities shone through. And yet these are the very comics that we have to be “protected” from, for though they keep the industry artistically alive, titles like From Hell do not fit the target audience. And the many readers mature enough to appreciate the artistic achievement of that book must make their way through the aisles of tights and the piles of porn and ask permission to buy it. And while I was willing to wait a few years for this dubious privilege, there are few adults out there willing to wade through the muck to seek these hidden landmarks, the comics sitting inside that case when I was 13 years old, pressing my nose up against the glass and wondering why noone wanted me to be there.

One Panel Per Day #7: Luba

2005-02-07T09:51:00.000-05:00

As I started off last week with Jaimie, it seems only fair to begin today with a panel (ok, two panels, cheater) from Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar, out of Love and Rockets. Some time ago in an Aint it Cool Comics review (scroll down the page) I suggested that Palomar is one of the greatest graphic novels ever made. I still stand by this statement, grandiose as it is.

One Panel Per Day #6: Grickle

2005-02-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

This guy is brilliant. Graham Annable is another one of the new guys coming over from an animation/video game background - worked for Lucasarts, but I forgive him. His artwork is simple, expressive, and hilarious. Like all masterful cartoonists he can establish a character with very little detail- with this panel, you can already tell the setup and who these guys are, even though they're basically stick figures with shirts. His new OGN Stickleback is good, but Grickle is harshly, evily hysterical.

Somewhat Off-Topic: A Real-Life Hero

2005-02-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

Found this morning on One Hand Clapping:

The comics medium is largely obsessed with the actions of a few standout human beings (usually with superpowers) who protect the world from danger. Here's a fascinating true story of a man who really did save the world: Soviet Stanislav Petrov. The man with his finger on the atomic button, a person who I had often tried to picture back before the collapse of the USSR. What sort of person was over there at the ready to launch the missles that would surely start WWIII? How fortunate for us all that Petrov was that man, and that on that day in 1983 he chose not to push the button despite all evidence and training to tell him he should. This is a real hero, the kind I'm much more interested in reading about than people beating each other up.

And I have a sudden urge to watch Dr. Strangelove.

One Panel Per Day #5: Black Hole

2005-02-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

"Shh! There's someone out there! I heard them! Give me the club!"

From Charles Burns' Black Hole #5.
The series took so long to complete that some readers much have dropped out, but every minute of the effort shows. Beautiful, beautiful black-light artwork, and a well-executed sense of creepy dread. It seems to remind me of something, something faint in the past, even though I was never mutated into a lizard-girl by a sex virus in the 70's. The last issue recently arrived and a trade should be on the way.

Let me know how these images are coming through for you people. Should they be bigger? Brighter? Still a bit new with the blogging.

One Panel Per Day #4 : Manya

2005-02-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

From Kris Dresden and Jen Benka's Manya, a lovely little collection of strips that women of all persuasions can easily identify with. I also dig Dresden's strip Max and Lily a lot, and according to her website there's some new projects on the way. Awesome.

What Little I Have To Look Forward To This Week (Diamond Shipping)

2005-02-01T13:39:00.000-05:00

NOV040020 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #2 (OF 6) (MR) $3.50
As usual Chadwick has a fascinating topic to kick around. And nobody else can make "guy standing around thinking about things" comics as interesting to look at as to read, as he can.

DEC041793 SUPREME POWER #15 (MR) $2.99
The most gripping superhero book on the shelves. Ok, faint praise. JMS and Gary Frank are one of the better Artist/Writer teams in the mainstream, just a notch or two down from Morrisson/Quitely - how's that?

Wow, that was brief. Maybe this week I can afford to pick up the Epileptic hardcover, then.

One Panel Per Day - #3

2005-02-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

Martin Wagner's Hepcats - where did this book go? I'm afraid I'll be saying that all too often in this blog. Anyway, artists have been "Funny Animal-ing" serious subjects for as long as cartooning has been a profession, but rarely today are they as effective as in Wagner's dearly departed indie comic. Can we get a trade, please?

You may notice that these first panels are Googled - I've got some scans coming up soon.

One Panel Per Day #2 (bonus)

2005-01-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

After years of efforts from people like myself, Finder is STILL the best comic you're not reading. From Finder: Sin-Eater, by Carla Speed McNeil. View some samples on her website.

One Panel Per Day - #1

2005-01-31T14:46:00.000-05:00

#1 - Thought this would be an appropriate first panel: Jamie Hernandez, from Flies on the Ceiling. Originally appeared in Love and Rockets in 1989.
One Panel Per Day