Considering Comics

News flash: Webcomics Artists are Interested in Nerdy Esoterica

2009-11-01T21:39:00.000-05:00

Randall Munroe maps character interactions in Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, 12 Angry Men (check it out at full size).

Ryan North google analyzes the number of U's used in the phrase "excuse me, princess!"

David Malki! has an index of Supernatural Collective Nouns.

Jeph Jacques collects his thoughts on the state of webcomics.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2009-10-25T18:13:00.002-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of reading "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick (copyright 2007). This book wraps itself around several forms of media and self-identifies as "not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

I would also say that this book falls into several genres: historical fiction, mystery, and young adult novel. The upside of all this mish-mash is an excellent way to spend an hour or two, immersed in hand-drawn illustrations and compelled by several competing intrigues found in the plot.

If I was to offer any criticism, I would say that the writing is strong but not especially noteworthy and that the physical layout of text on the page often left me feeling empty. Often, an entire page of the book contained no more than a sentence or two. If the text was laid out in a particularly artistic fashion, I wouldn't mind, but instead, I often found myself wondering why the physical book wasn't condensed into something smaller than a tome.

Even so, if you have the chance, this is a fun read.

Asterix & Obelix Turn 50

2009-10-22T12:46:00.003-04:00

The comic Asterix & Obelix turns 50 years old on October 29, 2009.

However, recent reviews of the comic are mixed. The original writer, René Goscinny, died in 1977. Since then, many critics say the writing quality dropped like the strength of Asterix when he runs out of magic potion.

This criticism is heaped on Uderzo, the original artist, who also took over scripting after the death of his colleague. Now in his 80s, Uderzo is also hanging up his spurs, and passing his work to three (as of yet unannounced) younger artists.

While the quality of the comic may be in question, it is still a financial success. The last collection sold millions of copies.

You can read more from the BBC here.

The End of Archie, Betty, and Veronica?

2009-10-06T11:49:00.004-04:00

Archie, the red-headed step child of newspaper comics, is finally moving beyond his high school antics. For those of you who missed it, Archie married Veronica back in August 2009 (issue #600). Whether or not we liked this choice, we can agree that the gag-a-day newspaper strip finally embraced a storyline with permanent consequences.

But wait, what's this? In Archie #603, available next month (November), Archie will also be marrying Betty. No, he's not a polygamist. Archie is getting a chance at an "It's A Wonderful Life" storyline where he sees the eventualities created from both choices.

So maybe Archie isn't really changing yet. Interestingly enough, the NY Times reports that Jughead is the third most popular choice for Archie's permanent beau. We'll know that Archie is becoming a truly modern comic when this happens. Until then, I'm guessing we'll read the same old story for a long time to come.

Humans, get a freaking grip on yourselves

2009-08-31T14:38:00.011-04:00

@warrenellis so I got this phone call from Joe Quesada and it was just the sound of him rubbing himself with money and now I am confused

@the_murphy #disneybuysmarvel #humansfearchange

Nick Main There are companies that Disney doesn't own?

If aren't a comic fanling and weren't sitting next to one at breakfast this morning, you might have missed the announcement that Disney will be purchasing Marvel comics. And count yourself blessed because the fanlings are throwing their shit in the air and fantasizing how Mickey Mouse will come into their homes, pry open their long boxes, and castrate Wolverine with pink, princess ribbons.

Humans! This is a corporate transaction. If, in a few months, there are editorial directives from on high, they'll be policy changes- no one is going to be replace Ghost Rider with Goofy. Besides, Marvel doesn't need any help in undermining their characters by putting them into terrible, cartoony, out-of-place contexts.

If you're a glutton for punishment or camp, click on The Hulk. It's a cheery CD of children's songs about a character who loses control of his emotions and kills.

EDIT: Oh, but if you'd like some serious commentary on what this could mean for both companies, obviously, you should head over to The Beat.

Ravi Comics.com

2009-08-17T18:33:00.005-04:00

Hi, all.
Sorry I haven't been posting for some time now. Here's the reason why:
ravicomics.com

Enjoy!

EDIT by Shawn: If you've never read any of Ravi's comics before, here's my warning / sales pitch: Ravi has the sense of humor of a blasphemous 5-year old. His comics will dig into your gut, crawl their way up to your brain and root around until they find the part of you that is also a blasphemous 5-year old. They'll then tickle that 5-year old until he cries, but your brain will be pulped in the process.

Collected Links

2009-08-13T19:21:00.001-04:00

(via @CBCebulski) The Submission Guidelines for every Comic and Manga Publisher in the Universe

(via Warren Ellis) A Gross of Goblins

(via Comics Alliance) The 5 Circles of Baffling Web Comic Hell

(via @mollycrabapple) Conversation about She-Hulk and the upcoming series Strange Tales

(via @ryanqnorth) Interview with Ryan North by cbr

I'd also like to point you to Chris's review column at Comics Alliance, which you should be reading already. Also, my own short fiction can now be found at shawnmain.net. You know, in case you were wondering.

Direct Market Continues to be Schroedinger's Cat of the Comics Industry

2009-08-04T19:51:00.003-04:00

Comics Alliance's lead blogger, Laura Hudson, just put up a great essay on the continuing demise of the direct market. Go give it a read now if you've yet to see it.

I wish I had the historical background (or the time to look up the relevant info) to compare this to the previous publishing extinctions like the end of the pulp novel era or the, for all practical purposes, death of short story magazines, because I've got a hunch there are going to be a lot of parallels between those and what we're going to witness in comics over the next decade or so. Just like we still see short fiction magazines today, we'll still have periodical-length comic books with us for a while, but they're going to become an ever-dwindling portion of the market, a curiosity read by only the most devoted and nostalgic fans.

Recent circumstances for me have led to me switching from someone who usually waited for trades to someone who now, for the first time on any kind of regular basis, is making a weekly stop to the comic store to pick up the week's new releases. And, to be perfectly honest, as a reader I found my previous approach much more satisfying. So I'm not exactly going to be shedding tears if the trade paperback becomes the standard method of release for new comics material.

But the point raised in the piece that's really got me thinking is what this is going to mean for comics publishers trying out new talent. To jump back to a comparison, it used to be that writers trying to establish themselves would start out getting short stories published and then work their way up, but with the increasingly diminished role of short stories today that's often no longer the case. Without weekly comics as a proving ground for new artists and writers, are companies going to be willing to take a chance on publishing a new graphic novel, perhaps equivalent to 4-6 issues in length, from otherwise unknown creators? Is the web and competitions like Zuda going to become the new proving ground? Or are risk-averse publishers going to hold on tight to established creative talent whose names sell books and lean more heavily on them for material?

Also, I'm going to encourage anyone reading this to jump in with comments on Comics Alliance as you see fit. To keep up to date with the site's articles, you can follow either the Twitter feed and/or the Facebook group.

God Comics

2009-07-26T03:03:00.006-04:00

A few months back, I mentioned my excitement -- nay, my child-like glee -- at the web toy, Infinite Monkey Comics. Now shortened to simply Infinite Comic, all you do is type in a word and the algorithm grabs a relevant flickr image and twitter post to generate you a personal comic. I played with this for longer than anyone rightly should and I discovered the secret words that yield the best comics. The key is to choose a word that's charged - a lot of people might have tweets with the word "groceries" but "i need to go buy groceries now" isn't fodder for great comics. Profanity works decently well, so do emoting verbs and intensifiers. But the real secret to getting the best out of the site is to choose words that also require context. "Hate" might give you some interesting tweets, but images tagged with "hate" are going to be fairly homogenous. So which words did I have the most luck with: bleed, fucking, but most especially: god.

Well, now I have a confession to make. I have a bookmark on my toolbar specifically set for Infinite Comic to make me a "god" comic and I've been clicking it one to twenty times a day. Thrilling. Sometimes it fails, but sometimes you get to peer right through people's secrets into something transcendental. And sometimes it's merely hilarious.

Below is a collection of my favorites. I'll note again that I didn't create these. I just typed the word "god" (and occasionally "omg" or "goddess) into the generator. I'm the curator of this exhibit.

http://www.infinitecomic.com

iPhone comics

2009-07-24T11:52:00.006-04:00

Chris talks iPhone comics with Red 5 at Publisher's Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6672059.html?&rid=1290552921&source=title

Full text of interview with Brian and Scott:

http://www.atomic-robo.com/2009/07/23/the-ticking-of-a-digital-clock/

3 Links for Today

2009-07-15T17:19:00.002-04:00

(via NPR's Talk of the Nation) Gaiman talks Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader.

(via @DanSlott) Wally Wood's 22 Panels that Always Work.

(via Scott McCloud) Dylan Horrocks’ Three Tijuana Bibles.

Dollars and Cents.

2009-07-09T09:39:00.007-04:00

Yesterday saw the release of the first issue of Wednesday Comics by DC. And like most of the second-place company's decisions lately, it is both exciting and dissapointing.

Positive: The content is great. DC assembled top-shelf artists to create a stunningly beautiful collection of "Sunday comics" on a weekly basis. The "one page at a time" format creates an interesting storytelling challenge, that each writer seems to rise to in this first issue. It's successful since I want to see where all of these stories are going.

Massive Negative: $3.99 is a terrible price point for this title. Absolutely terrible. As beautiful as the results are, the book is published on oversized newsprint and only 16 pages long. Ideally, this book should boast a $1.99-$2.50 cover price. In the current marketplace this is essentially an experimental title. And If DC wanted to draw new readers in they shot themselves in the foot by pricing it like a big event title (next weeks 48 page Blackest Night #1 is $3.99). Despite the rave reviews of the content, the cost will hurt the in-store sales of this book. And many readers will miss out on one of the more interesting mainstream comic projects of the year.

Two Links

2009-06-25T14:45:00.006-04:00

After seeing it mentioned on The Beat, I wanted to spend the afternoon watching The Maxx, the animated adaptation of Sam Kieth's bizarre and magnificent hallucinatory, superhero comic from the 90s. But mtv.com inserts a commercial between every scene and it was driving me mad. Someday when I have more patience I'll sit down and enjoy.

Instead, I got sucked into The Comics Curmudgeon. The commentary is pretty amusing, but I think a large part of the appeal is seeing other people get as angry at Archie and Beetle Bailey as I do.

Bright Starts.

2009-06-25T14:28:00.009-04:00

Less than a year ago, Murphy commented on a missed opportunity by DC. The success of The Dark Knight film drove new customers into comics stores, looking for new Batman comics. What they unfortunately found was the middle of "Batman: RIP": a densely written, surreal breakdown of the Batman character. I agreed with Chris that despite personally enjoying the arc, it was the furthest thing from a comfortable starting point for new readers. It drew too much from Grant Morrison's previous year of Batman comics and well, basically was a little too Grant Morrison. And on top of that, I never felt Tony Daniel was the right artist for the storyline. In any case, it seemed like a missed opportunity to draw in new readers.

It turns out they missed the mark by a bit under a year, in the form of two of my favorite new releases.

Go buy Detective Comics #854.
Go buy Batman and Robin #1.

The former features Batwoman, a relatively new character getting her long-awaited starring role written by Greg Rucka. The first issue introduces the character, has a Batman cameo to ground it, and sets up her first case. It's engrossing and beautifully illustrated by J.H. Williams III. It's everything an introduction to a comic story should be.

The latter features the new Batman and Robin. It asks for more backstory but that depends on how much the new reader wants to know. The basics are easy. Bruce is gone. Dick Grayson has ascended to the cowl. Bruce's l'enfant terrible Damian is the new Robin. How things got to this point is sort of complicated (and isn't that what Wikipedia and trades are for?) But once you accept the starting point, it's a good one. And it doesn't hurt that it has great (slightly unconventional) artwork, courtesy of Frank Quitely.

Fresh Ink

2009-06-17T19:47:00.002-04:00

Chris is a talented writer, but a poor self promoter. Go check out his weekly Fresh Ink column on Comics Alliance.

Two links

2009-05-21T15:56:00.004-04:00

I've been wasting my afternoon, delighting at TV Tropes and Stupid Comics. The former contains articles like You Fail Biology Forever, Everything's Better With Dinosaurs, and A Wizard Did It. The later collects fantastic and bizarre images, particularly from golden and silver age covers.

EDIT: Also, TV Tropes just led me to this chart, in which you can see both a Robot Lincoln and an Astronaut Vampire. The internet ate my afternoon.

Two links

2009-05-20T00:17:00.003-04:00

(via Laura Hudson, Comics Alliance)
#hawkeyesopoor Twitter meme Hawkeye jokes

(via Kate Beaton)
Hey Oscar Wilde! Artist depictions of literary figures

MoCCAfest 2009!

2009-05-14T02:39:00.004-04:00

MoCCA art festival 2009, June 6-7. Chris and I will have a table (and hopefully I'll have more than just high fives to offer people). If you've never been, it's pretty awesome- lots of small press and minuscule press and minicomics and webcomics and people who get excited by all these things. Accumulating changes have made the museum less inviting this past year, but it remains an institution worthy of support and this is their big annual event, attracting all sorts of guests and exhibitors. There's no master list yet, but exhibitors include: Kate Beaton, Joey Comeau, and Bill Roundy (let me know more names).

http://www.moccany.org/artfest09-main.html

Making A Softer World

2009-05-14T00:30:00.003-04:00

Open Book Toronto made a short documentary about A Softer World, following Joey Comeau and Emily Horne (and Ryan North) as they put together a strip.

Darwyn Cooke preview pages

2009-04-24T00:28:00.004-04:00

(via The Beat)

I'm not nearly as familiar as I should be with Darwyn Cooke or Richard Stark novels he's adapting, but there's 21 pages of preview up at IDW and daaaamn, this shit is gorgeous.

http://www.idwpublishing.com/previews/parker/

Act-i-vate Exhibition

2009-04-23T16:09:00.002-04:00

"The Evolution of the Concept of the Superhuman"

2009-04-23T14:20:00.002-04:00

Earlier today, Jess Nevins (comics annotator extraordinaire) launched into a history lesson on his twitter account, tracing the history of the superhuman. Fantastic.

http://twitter.com/jessnevins

Infinite Canvas Tour

2009-04-23T14:16:00.003-04:00

I just came across youtube videos, which attempted to capture my favorite part of NEWW, the Infinite Canvas Room. It's highly imperfect and was taken in the middle of the weekend rather than the end, but nevertheless fun to watch.

Warbot in Accounting

2009-04-15T20:49:00.002-04:00

http://www.nuklearpower.com/warbot/

New Site Design

2009-04-13T17:17:00.003-04:00

After a lot of wrangling and teaching myself dreamweaver, our fairy detective webcomic has a site design.

Comics after newspapers

2009-04-13T17:14:00.002-04:00

Ryan North makes a couple hopeful predictions about usage of the word "comics" in a post newspaper world.

http://qwantz.livejournal.com/107040.html

2009 Eisner Nominations

2009-04-07T15:57:00.003-04:00

The 2009 Eisner award nominees have just been announced. I wish I could comment on the list, but am embarrassed by how few of the entries I've actually read.

It's interesting to notice that three nominees:
Wondermark: Beards of Our Forefathers, by David Malki (Dark Horse) (Best Humor Publication),
MySpace Dark Horse Presents, edited by Scott Allie and Sierra Hahn (Dark Horse) (Best Anthology)
Fishtown, by Kevin Colden (IDW) (Best Reality-Based Work)
were originally webcomics, but receive nominations only as printed material. Either the judges found a dramatically different experience reading Wondermark online from reading it in print or the digital comics category is so robust that nominees from other categories can't compete in it (that's how I'll choose to interpret). Last year, a Myspace Dark Horse Presents work won digital comics, while Haspiel's Immortal was nominated as a webcomic, but not as print comics this year (although I was heartbroken at the lack of color in the floppies).

And because I can link to them (and will sit down now to read), here's the best digital comics nominees:
Bodyworld, by Dash Shaw, www.dashshaw.com
Finder, by Carla Speed McNeil, www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics/#/finder/
The Lady’s Murder, by Eliza Frye, http://theladysmurder.elizafrye.com
Speak No Evil: Melancholy of a Space Mexican, by Elan Trinidad, www.theoryofeverythingcomics.com/SNE/
Vs., by Alexis Sottile & Joe Infurnari, www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/2008/12/08/story-18/

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20716

Confessions of a Superhero

2009-04-05T20:21:00.002-04:00

Confessions of a Superhero is a 2007 documentary, depicting the desperation on Hollywood Boulevard. It goes deep into the troubled lives of four costumed performers.

Happy Belated Birthday to Shawn

2009-04-03T00:00:00.014-04:00

Last year, I hoped to surprise Shawn by creating a comic based on a short-story he wrote long ago. However, I did not have the ability to create what I pictured. Now that my digital art skills have reached the pupae stage, I decided to give it a shot. Yes, the text is crammed. and you'll have to zoom in to read it. Yes, my drawings still look like a demented six-year old's. Still, I feel proud in saying, "Happy Birthday Shawn."

Titans of Small Town

2009-03-26T14:54:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but on April 11th Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Chris Hastings (Dr. McNinja), and Chris Onstad (Achewood) will be in Brooklyn for "a kickass one-night webcomics gallery." $20

http://roflcon.org/2009/03/25/dinosaur-comics-dr-mcninja-achewood-titans-of-small-town/

My New Favorite Toy!

2009-03-26T10:10:00.004-04:00

Infinite Monkey Comics might just be the pinnacle of human achievement. All you do is pick a keyword or two and from the seething, primordial chaos of twitter and flickr, the randomizer makes you a comic (in the vein of ASW). Go on, try it. I expect to be old and gray by the time it ceases to astonish and delight me.

A few of mine: God, orgasm, succeed, lies, truth, fury, fuck, Shawn Main

NEWW Photos

2009-03-25T14:04:00.007-04:00

Having failed to collect my thoughts about the thoroughly thrilling Webcomics Weekend, I'll instead link to other people's photos from it.

Specifically, check out Jayson Eliot's collection from the infinite canvas room or these images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Highlight of the weekend. Wish I'd brought a camera to capture the whole room.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=neww&m=tags&z=t&page=1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62711467@N00/sets/72157615771933244/

Wednesday Comics

2009-03-25T13:53:00.002-04:00

“The concept is that we are trying to recapture the spirit, format, and sense of enjoyment that people had form reading the Sunday comics that arrive in newspapers every week.” - Dan DiDio, newsarama

This summer, DC will put out 12 weekly enormous broadsheet comics that need to be unfolded like a newspaper to be read. 16 pages each telling the story a different character (some popular, some obscure), each written by a different writer (the names of top talent are being bandied about). It's an interesting experiment in form from a company that's been lagging behind on innovation of late.

"So, let me get this straight: Good creators, making stand-alone stories about good characters in a format that'll allow for experimentation in the form that hasn't been seen since the days of Little Nemo In Slumberland? DC may just have made a significant grab for the comic win of the year." -Graeme McMillan, io9

Muppets Comic

2009-03-25T13:29:00.005-04:00

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=2275&disp=table

Boom! Studios releases a Muppet Show comic today, created by Roger Langridge. CBR has an 11 page preview. More information about the mini-series can be found here.

This was obviously created with a lot of love, but I always have mixed feelings about re-hashes that read more like tributes and don't bring anything new to the table. I'm worried this suffers from "in the box" thinking. If I were Boom! Studios, I would've gathered every artist with an interest in the property and had them each do a short piece to create a massive anthology style work. 4 issues of 22 Langridge pages feels like something that exists only for the fanboy and fangirl completists.

Why I like webcomics, a NEWW recap

2009-03-24T10:40:00.004-04:00

I don't write much, it's not my greatest skill. I feel that is a necessary precursor to my attempt to convey an important idea through the written word. Maybe I'll audio record my ideas and attach that at the end.

I just got back from New England Webcomics Weekend. I really like webcomics. A lot. I read 63 different comics online. Ugly Hill ended, bringing that number temporarily down until I added FreakAngels. I will certainly be going through the promotional materials from NEWW and adding a few more to that number. While at NEWW, I had some great conversations with creators, conversations that led me to realize why webcomics are so important to me. Here's my thoughts from two, each with their own insight.

First, in talking with Brad Guigar about the spiraling death of the newspaper industry, I wondered if any other creative art has used the internet to such success as webcomics. iTunes works, yes, but creators didn't come up with that, and there is still a corporate barrier to entry for any new musician. Webcomics creators and the community have been having the conversation about how to make money off of this for over a decade now. There are so many webcomics creators, and between them, they have tried every method of money making that I've heard conceived. So, if any industry is going to give up the analog ghost and join the digital world, they would do very well to look at what various webcomics have done. The Webcomics Weekly crew have talked about this, I'm not coming up with anything new in this insight. It hit me pretty hard though, now having all these creators in the same room, that when talking about what someone has done, you could find them, ask them, and have them tell you that micropayments didn't work for them or that working with a syndicate was a dead end or whatever their experience was. NEWW was infinitely valuable for this, and I hope we do it again.

My second insight, and the one that is more about my personal values, is a specific relationship I see between webcomics and capitalism. Many many people before me have talked about the relationship between art and capitalism, and the full history of art for money. In talking with Chris Yates, I realized that I like that webcomics are free. Not just because everybody likes free stuff, but because the focus and creation of the comic is mostly separate from the question of how to make money off of it. To restate: as far as I can tell, the question of how to make money from webcomics comes AFTER and is secondary to the question of how to make a good comic, how to make good art. I like this. I wish that all art was mostly like that, that creators were able to focus on making something beautiful or funny or touching or sad or whatever first, and then figure out how to survive doing it in a capitalist economy. There are many artists of all mediums doing this, but in webcomics, it appears to me to be the norm. I think that's why I want to be part of the webcomics community, and I hope that doesn't change.

Audio recording:
http://tr.im/ccnewwmp3

Google #1

2009-03-19T22:23:00.003-04:00

At work today, I Googled "considering comics." Nowadays, our blog is coming up as item #1 under this search. This is new. This is exciting. I'm going to go eat a crayon to celebrate.
-Ravi-

Laughing out loud - contemplative sigh edition

2009-03-16T09:59:00.004-04:00

Sometimes the goal of a comic isn't to make you laugh, these strips today didn't, but I liked them and wanted to share:

XKCD - Alternative Energy Revolution
Subnormality - Shoveling
BoaSaS - Call it what you will

Saturday Morning Watchmen

2009-03-05T13:09:00.002-05:00

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797

I realize this is parody, but it breaks my heart by becoming the thing it seeks to mock.

PDF as gateway

2009-03-04T12:35:00.003-05:00

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/02/in-which-an-electronic-version-of-sunken-treasure-goes-on-sale.html

I won't belabor a retelling of the story you can simply read, but here's the short version: Wil Wheaton releases a novel through Lulu print on demand. Decides to also release a $5 pdf of book. Pdf sales quickly match physical sales. Then physical book sales increase as well.

Lock grandpa in the attic, giving it away free (or cheap) online is an entirely viable business strategy.

Comic Journaling

2009-03-03T23:12:00.004-05:00

Every once in a while, I make a comic image to journal a special moment my life. Often, I create these memoirs during my graduate classes, and I hear my classmates snickering over my shoulder. Not surprisingly, I seem to be regarded by my colleagues. I just wish I knew in what way I was regarded.

Who Wants to Watch the Watchmen?

2009-02-26T17:37:00.003-05:00

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/watchmen/

Early reviews of Watchmen are mixed, to say the least. I've been avoiding paying too close attention because I don't want my palate spoiled, but yet I still feel like I've been battered back and forth between high and low expectations. I've settled now, at the eleventh hour, to a calm expectation and hope. I expect to ignore the soul of the book. I'm not hoping for it to be good. What I hope is that it will do well enough and be intriguing enough to lead a million non-comic book readers into stores to pick up the original.

I'm going to shank Jim Davis

2009-02-25T01:06:00.004-05:00

http://www.gocomics.com/lifeaccordingtogarfield

Just when Garfield Minus Garfield (Feb 23 was not about me, Chris!) had me wondering if there really was something to Jim Davis, he has to go and turn crap into schmaltz.

I want to see this fail epically. I want Garfield to be the cited reason for newspapers failing. I want websites to crash because they've linked to Garfield. I want the world to discover Garfield at Large books harbored a dormant flesh-eating bacteria and have the apocalypse squarely sit on Davis's shoulders, so that our huddled, paranoid, Mad Max shanty towns of the year 2013 become known as Davisvilles.

You're destroying the known world, Jim Davis. The robots are coming for you.

Bit of modern comics history

2009-02-22T15:29:00.004-05:00

Colleen Doran tells the story of meeting Neil Gaiman back in 1989 and being offered the chance to illustrate Sandman.

Not much to the tale, but it's hard not to coo at their work and I always find it comforting to be reminded that such a staggering work as Sandman was really just built on the backs of casual meetings between peers.

I continue to heart Dinosaur Comics

2009-02-18T21:12:00.001-05:00

http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001411.html

DC actually capitalizing on anticipated movie success?!?!

2009-02-18T18:38:00.002-05:00

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/02/dcs-after-watchmen-whats-next-promotion/#more-4163

Chris and I have often questioned the editorial decisions going on at DC, even when we've enjoyed their results. However, this one seems like something everyone can appreciate. Counting on Watchmen to bring an influx of comics outsiders in to stores, DC is putting out $1 special editions of other, more literary genre pieces: Swamp Thing #21, Planetary #1, Transmet #1, Preacher #1, and... uh... Identity Crisis #1. Everyone raises their eyebrow at that last one as not quite sitting on par with the others, but DC is welcoming non-readers with very open arms for a change and this is highly commendable.

Thor Conquers All... Dangnabit.

2009-02-15T00:35:00.005-05:00

This is going to be hard to resist

2009-02-11T18:55:00.001-05:00

http://webcomicsweekend.com/

Lawyers in a Superhero Reality

2009-02-11T12:04:00.001-05:00

SuperLawyers #1 - watch more funny videos

The Dollar Auction

2009-02-06T20:34:00.002-05:00

Have you ever heard of the dollar auction? It's where I auction off a $20 bill, but the second place bidder also needs to pay their bid, though they get nothing. Apparently, it can result in a bidding war easily reaching hundreds of dollars, as the top two are no longer bidding to gain money, but are locked in and merely trying to lose the least money. It's a fascinating example of the irrational escalation of commitment. Humans, huh?

Anyways, I was at New York Comiccon all day.

Laughing Out Loud Returns

2009-02-05T15:45:00.006-05:00

http://www.boasas.com/?c=1068

http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2009-02-04

http://www.wetherobots.com/2009/02/05/a-nice-quiet-dinner-at-home/

http://www.octopuspie.com/2009-02-04/254-going-downtown/ - note the typeface of the last word in the last panel, that is what got me giggling

To restate the point of 'Laughing Out Loud':
I read a lot of webcomics daily, and these are individual strips that made me laugh out loud today as I was reading them. Enjoy.

Lego NY

2009-02-04T18:51:00.004-05:00

I open a forward from my parents and see it's "I LEGO N.Y." So I roll my eyes, but click through to be polite. And much to my surprise, it's not something cheesy like the skyline cast in legos, but tiny abstractions of bits of everyday, reduced down to their basic shapes and colors. Nothing profound, but worth spending a minute on.

Two Links for the Evening

2009-02-03T21:57:00.007-05:00

Shrodinger is the source of entirely too much humor. Click the link for the alternate endings. I recommend you check out the rest of Steve Wolfhard's lj as well.

And I'm loathe to admit how sexy I think this A Softer World is:

Hourly Comic Day

2009-02-03T18:34:00.003-05:00

It had been my intention to post about this before it happened, but alas.

February 1st (as the event would appear to go) sees artist folks keep an hourly comic journal of their activities. The various results can be found here. I've got to admit I found the results from last year a little more interesting on average. The 1st this year, being a Sunday and the day of super bowl, resulted in a lot of people spending the day on their asses, watching television. The results, nonetheless, are entirely worth scouring.

Ice Cream

2009-01-30T16:06:00.002-05:00

Monster

2009-01-30T13:29:00.001-05:00

Instructions by Neil Gaiman

2009-01-27T18:52:00.002-05:00

I've been listening to Gaiman read The Graveyard Book and was reminded of this piece, which is full of practical advice for the traveler.

Congratulations, Gaiman

2009-01-26T22:30:00.003-05:00

Gaiman wins Newbery award for The Graveyard Book.

Read his tale on learning about it on his blog or read his practically minute by minute account of how it's caused him to get dragged around the country on his twitter account or better yet watch Gaiman himself read the book in video from his book tour.

Special on Dr. Manhattan

2009-01-23T18:44:00.007-05:00

Dammit. Just when I've steeled myself against any possible frustration by assuming I'll hate the film, evocative material like this has to be released and renew my sense of hope. More pre-bonus material at The New Frontiersman.

The Butter Smuggler

2009-01-22T23:15:00.007-05:00

Joe Decie does a strange and hypnotic little webcomic, Here's What I Drew Today, that's not so much autobiography as an outpouring of his brain. If you're intrigued by minimalism and comics that let you peer into someone's mind, it might appeal to you. Either way, the comic to the left, from TopShelf's webpage, made me giggle, cringe, and later I couldn't get the thought of it out of my head.

The Guild

2009-01-21T18:34:00.003-05:00

I tend not to be a huge fan of gamer humor, but I do get excited about independently produced, internet distributed projects and The Guild is a pretty nifty series. The acting might be inconsistent, the plot contrived, and the leetspeak crowbarred in, but Codex (writer and star, Felicia Day, also from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) and Clara (Robin Thorsen) are phenomenal in their authentic awkwardness.

More on Diamond Policies

2009-01-21T12:54:00.007-05:00

Robot 6 rounds up more reactions and predictions about what the new Diamond threshold will do for publishers and direct market retailers.

Comics Reporter gets a few interviews on the subject.

Lying in the Gutters offers a very readable explanation of the difference between the threshold increase now and the one in 2005.

I don't want to weigh in too heavily because I'm entirely an outsider at this point (if only someone who ostensibly contributes to this blog could weigh in with the perspective of a small retailer... if only), but I do want to point out that Diamond isn't acting to crush the dreams of hopeful cartoonists. They're making a business decision. It can be hard and sobering to face the economic realities of art and it's frustrating when you're more interested in the suffering fringe than the relatively robust mainstream, but economy can't support everyone. Perhaps, small press publishers will band together and create a separate distribution service loosing Diamond's virtual monopoly. Perhaps, everyone will flee into the burgeoning graphic novel market or turn their businesses online.

Some will adapt. Some will be causalities. Things will change. That's the reality.

Mr. Tusks Sends Mail

2009-01-21T01:47:00.003-05:00

One of three things has happened here:
1. Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics) received the greatest piece of fan mail ever
2. Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics) is living an episode of the Twilight Zone in which the things he writes become real and haunt him
3. (and by far the most likely) Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics) has been receiving missives from a tiny, tinily-troubled elephant and writing true crime nonfiction in the deceptive form of sprite-based dinosaur fiction in an effort to secretly disseminate important information about the impending collapse of Tiny Towne, Tiny Towne Island.

Our prayers are with Mr. Tusks and his towne, Ryan.

Benny Hill

2009-01-20T23:08:00.005-05:00

This is far funnier than it any logic dictates it should be: The Benny Hillifier

Insert a youtube clip and it will be sped up and played against Yakety Sax. I'll leave the more inappropriate uses aside and offer this example: Conan the Barbarian

http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier

New Diamond Policies

2009-01-19T16:56:00.004-05:00

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/01/19/new-diamond-policies-expected-to-have-massive-effect/

Heidi talks with some publishers and has analysis. Small press people predict doom and gloom. This will decidedly shift the direct market landscape.

EDIT: Joe Nozemack makes a few interesting points.

The Middle Future of Comics is Here!

2009-01-16T23:09:00.004-05:00

I think Shawn has firmly established what comics will be to come!
I now present a project I am about halfway done with. This is part I of IV. The Roman Numerals make it classy and the last speech balloon is the title of the work.

It's Not the Size of the World You Build, It's How You Use It

2009-01-16T22:18:00.003-05:00

Final Crisis 6 came out this week, and it feels as though it's slipping back into the same concerns I had when the series started. There's so much going on, so many storylines each getting a page at a time before they disappear and perhaps reappear for one more page this issue, that it's not pleasurable to read. I applaud Morrison for his ambition, but he's so built up in telling this complex story of interwoven events and their effect on the world that the small stories, the little pieces of life that make a tale worth reading, end up getting lost.

The apocalyptic world-changing events going on in Final Crisis are most interesting to me when they're shown in-depth through the eyes of the characters experiencing them, as in some of the tie-in books DC's put out. Some of which Morrison wrote, including one-shots like “Resist” and “Submit”, others including Geoff Johns' Rogues Revenge and Greg Rucka's Revelations. I'm not saying these books have floored me, but I am saying I enjoyed them more than the central title, which I have to feel is not the goal DC is setting when it puts these books out. Same for Marvel's last two big events, Civil War and Secret Invasion. The tie-ins running in Marvel's regular books always had more time to focus on the issues the event was created to focus on but never had the time to discuss because it's throwing information at you the entire time. It's like reading Final Crisis or Secret Invasion is akin to reading about the history of World War II in a chapter in a high school history textbook, whereas the tie-ins are like watching Band of Brothers or reading Catch-22 (these are generous comparisons not meant to actually compare on quality, merely on scope of story). You need the background in the first to appreciate the second, but there's no way you can actually get a deep, interesting story from the textbook.

This'll be cross-posted over at www.holdreset.com, which will get a real update before the end of the month. I swear.

Your Vagina is Haunted.

2009-01-15T18:17:00.003-05:00

Chris Sims reviews what could be the most terrible comic ever written, Tarot #53, but, as he says:

"And yet, it is beautiful in its purity. It is, in two sentences, everything that Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose is about. It’s why I read the book. Because every now and then, it gets so bad, so unrelentingly stupid, that is somehow loops back around to become brilliant for eleven words.

You have to get out of here. Your vagina is haunted.

Amazing."

Thor Watches Over Scotland

2009-01-15T18:06:00.006-05:00

Burglar Scared Off By Man in Thor Costume

As Peter Sagal said on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me: "That must be, in the many thousands of years of human experience, recorded and un, the single most satisfying thing to ever have happened... Sometimes it really is just your day."

3 More Then I'm Done

2009-01-14T23:42:00.009-05:00

Here's three more (1, 2, 3). Click on the images to read. All are mediocre, but they were fun to create.

Godot

2009-01-14T23:16:00.003-05:00

Sigmund Freud in the Uncanny Realm of the Unconscious!

2009-01-14T11:26:00.004-05:00

via Mind Hacks
This is the most beautifully mad comic I've read in quite some time. Sigmund Freud, in the motif of 1950s sci fi with a hefty dose of Kirby at his most bizarre, struggles with the death urge in the zone of repression. Excuse me... "ALONE IN THE ZONE OF REPRESSION, SIGMUND FREUD FIGHTS AN ENEMY HE CANNOT SEE!" It's such a strange concept executed so adeptly that it truly needs to be seen to be believed.

I was essentially unfamiliar with the work of Hans Rickheit until being introduced to this comic. Chrome Fetus Comics contains more of his work and it's as haunting as it is poetic. Truly down-the-rabbit-hole beautiful.

Comiccon Gadget

2009-01-14T11:20:00.002-05:00

http://www.mapyourshow.com/shows/mys_v4_01/mys_v4_01.cfm?SHOW_ID=NYCC09

Floor plan and exhibitor search for the New York Comiccon. Hopefully, armed with this, I'll be able to avoid the dreadful fate of so many hapless young fanboys who found themselves trapped for hours in a maze of golden age comic book sellers and overenthusiastic jedi.

Awesomest

2009-01-13T17:17:00.003-05:00

I don't know who Jason Forrest is or what this has to do with war photography, but I'm posting this because 1) it's animated, 2) it contains both vikings and giant robots, and 3) Nicole said it reminded her of me.

Someday I may get back to more than just link posting. Don't hold your breath.

I assume she said that because it's so badass.

Stay on target

2009-01-13T12:44:00.001-05:00

Doonesbury, 1/13/09

Cerebus: A Diablog

2009-01-12T22:46:00.003-05:00

Dave Sim's Cerebus is one of those epic works, like War and Peace or anything by Neal Stephenson, that I really want to have read. I just don't want to read it. I have an appreciation for its role in the history of comics and I'd like to see first hand the spiraling descent into madness that I understand Dave Sim to be. But clocking in at 6,000 pages, the work is daunting when I know I'm not actually going to enjoy much of it.

But I'm motivated to give it a try now as Laura Hudson and Leigh Walton start their weekly issue-by-issue analysis at Cerebus: A Dialog. Even handed and aware, it's a thoroughly interesting read, but lacks any introduction explaining why Cerebus was such a compelling work. Start with the wikipedia entry, pick up the hefty first volume, and read along.

The Recently Deflowered Girl by Edward Gorey

2009-01-11T14:29:00.003-05:00

via The Beat via Joey deVilla via someone on LJ via Edward Gorey and Mel Juffe in 1965

The Recently Deflowered Girl, an etiquette guide

Love

2009-01-11T02:38:00.006-05:00

This is me messing around with some photos and Comic Life and seeing what happens. It might be leading towards a new project. It might get taken down in the morning when I decide I hate it. My time will tell.

Comic Life really would be a joy of a program if it didn't make such damn ugly word balloons.

Faces of creators

2009-01-10T00:46:00.005-05:00

“I consider Graphic NYC, the upcoming book project that www.NycGraphicNovelists.com is based off of, to be a kind of ‘New Comics Journalism’, combining New Journalism with comics history, and Seth’s lush photography. I’ve been ready to bring a little something new to comics journalism for a while, and this is it.”

For some months now, photographer Seth Kushner and comics journalist Christopher Irving have been crafting portraiture of New York based comics creators. The book looks to be stunning not only for the sweep of its coverage, but for the sheer beauty of the images.

I'll need to track down a copy of the book, but in the mean time, enjoy some of Kushner's photography within.

History! Hot damn!

2009-01-09T02:10:00.009-05:00

Continuing tonight's theme of celebrating comics geeks dedicating themselves lovingly to a single niche: Kate Beaton, who at 6:34 pm asked her livejournal audience for suggestions for historical figures to write about and by 11:01 pm had finished 3 comics. Hot damn! I'd never even heard of Isambard Kingdom Brunel or Ada Lovelace. Now I want to go bury my face in history books.

Thanks, Andi.

UPDATE: They's more. I'm linking because I love the Catherine the Great strip, but after this you're on your own.

Comics, Medicine

2009-01-09T01:11:00.004-05:00

I'm not the sort to squee, but I can certainly appreciate some high class geekery and damn does Polite Dissent bring it.

I came across the site whilst wikipedia-ing House and delighted in reading reviews of the actual medicine. Then, as I continued clicking, I was thrilled to realize the site was primarily devoted to a critique of the depiction of medicine in comics. This goes way beyond the 10th grader in physics asking, "Where does the hulk's extra mass come from?" It's easy to dismiss this all as overreading fantasy fiction, but when Bendis has a scientist explain the human genome as "It's what makes us... us" then all suspension of disbelief flies out the window.

Of course, special attention is paid to the golden age hero, The Black Terror, super-pharmacist. I'd also recommend the Best and Worst Comic Book Science of 2008 Awards.

xkcd, I salute you

2009-01-06T00:35:00.003-05:00

This is a truly noble endeavor. Get this comic into the hands of everyone who understands the value of the metric system enough to want to use it, but isn't a scientist and hasn't worked in a laboratory and thus has never actually gotten beyond thinking "a yard is like a meter."

Bill Roundy Summarizes Christmas

2008-12-18T10:57:00.004-05:00

Buttersnatch Preview #2

2008-12-12T00:29:00.001-05:00

The next several pages of Lord Buttersnatch's Fairy Detective Troop are up. I'm calling this a preview since we're not yet into the meat of the story, but Adrien has some amazingly lovely artwork, depicting the crumbling fairy capital of Arcadia City.

New material (Act I, scene I) here

or

Start at the beginning

I Love Dinosaur Comics

2008-12-11T19:03:00.002-05:00

Zombies v. Vampires

The Economy

2008-12-09T12:45:00.003-05:00

Still trying to figure out what happened to the economy?

This American Life told it best here and especially here.

But for those of you who prefer everything in the form of crudely drawn comics, then have I got the powerpoint slide show for you.

A Softer World

2008-12-09T01:39:00.009-05:00

I forget about A Softer World for a couple months and then I catch up and I wonder how I ever let it go. It manages to channel the bleakest sense of humor of anything I've ever seen. It's not dark, not morbid, but bleak, mournful, resigned. It's like the soldiers in the trench, cracking jokes about catching crabs. The world is ending and the meaninglessness of it all is laid bare, so you might as well fart.

As much as I hate it, don't neglect the alt text.

Robin in the Rye

2008-12-04T21:47:00.003-05:00

I don't know why this exists, but it pleases me greatly.

Who's Feeding Shawn, December 2008

2008-12-04T21:13:00.005-05:00

I'm talking rss and lj feeds, of course. I eat food because of New Jersey medical schools.

Hold the Reset Button, Arlo and Janis, A Softer World, Devil's Panties, Freak Angels, Garfield Minus Garfield, We the Robots, Comic Foundry (r.i.p.), Myriad Issues, Rocketship, The Beat, Warren Ellis, act_i_vate, Doonesbury, Sinfest, Webcomics, Achewood, Calvin and Hobbes, Cat and Girl, Dinosaur Comics, Official Gaiman, Perry Bible Fellowship, Questionable Content, Something Positive, Unshelved, Wondermark, xkcd, and I get email updates (like a savage beast) from The Amazing Adventures of Bill

More on comics v. television

2008-12-04T20:11:00.002-05:00

Tucker Stone has a few ideas about using the creative process behind television as a model for comics. I'd argue that the problem he presents has a lot more to with DC's editorial decisions than comics as a whole, but it's worth a read.

Also, someday soon I'll finally do the post bitching about DC's editorial decisions.

http://www.comixology.com/articles/162/Family-Meeting

Gaiman Explains Things Well

2008-12-02T01:11:00.004-05:00

If you're out of the loop on comics in legal news, then you may have missed the arrest of Christopher Handley. The case is unique because he's not a retailer nor an artist, but a collector jailed because he was found to own materials considered distasteful. The CBLDF is acting as special consultant, but the case is especially tricky to defend because the art contains pornographic images of children and the material described is obscene by virtually all standards of decency. It's the kind of case that has stalwart first amendment advocates asking, "Is this worth defending?"

The answer, of course, is that the question is never,"Is this obscene?" but always,"Why do we have the first amendment?"

I'd go on, but really Neil Gaiman explains why we must "defend the indefensible" better than I ever could. He touches upon the history of censorship (particularly in relation to comics). It's a moving piece and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read it.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html

A Rant About the Place of Comics in This Our Modern World

2008-11-21T12:15:00.006-05:00

As I'm quick to point out, I didn't grow up on comics and until I was involved with the direct market, I never went into a comics store on a Wednesday. So the summer blockbuster "events" of Final Crisis and Secret Invasion came alongside my first exposure to reading new material as it came out.

Well, I've now been out of the direct market for three months and I'm behind on virtually everything I'd been reading except Final Crisis. And my reaction at this point isn't "Good goddess, I need to catch up." It's "damn, Secret Invasion is still dragging out?"

This isn't about cost- I can't even drag my ass to websites to download issues. And you might say quality is to blame, but I used to read them duly and very happily when they were at arm's length.

The real hurdles my interest faces are effort and amount of story. And I think this speaks to something larger underlying the industry and the direct market.

Television serves as an easy analogous comparison to comics, because it's similarly serialized with small chunks of story adding up to a larger narrative. But comics is a niche market, whereas television is big business. What gives?

Now, remember, television and the modern comic book both come out of the 20th century. For decades comic sales were on the magnitude of millions of copies. The explosion of superhero films shows it isn't a matter of interest in the material. People will pay money to see spandex-clad figures punch each other. But Heroes garners 13 million viewers per episode, while Secret Invasion tops charts at 1% of that number.

Well, television is accessible to me at any moment. I don't need to head out to the comics shop and hand anyone money. Hell, with VCRs, TiVo, and streaming video online, I don't even need to plan ahead when I'm going to watch. I'll point out that my alma mater, Midtown Comics, is doing well selling mail order weekly and bi-weekly subscriptions. And Marvel is putting toes in the water towards online distribution. So I think there are fixes to the issues of effort.

But (and this is the "but" I was really building towards), with television, each week I get an entire story or at least a satisfying narrative unit where themes develop and something resolves. Each week. Whole story. With comics, each month I get a scene. For taking time after work to head to a store, shell out $4, I get a snippet of story. 22 pages isn't even 22 minutes.

I think it's no wonder where the direct market stands today: teetering slowly back and forth with the explicit aim of some publishers (and merely the aspiration of others) to serve as an IP farm, selling their characters up the chain to more popular and profitable media. And who is buying comics: the fanchildren who will see their favorite characters through any storm. I don't mean to be dismissive of this group: they're ones with a lot of patience and a lot of interest. And the current strategy of the Big Two is to bleed these loyalists dry: tying together as many of their books as they can and forcing fans to follow a maximum number of titles.

I don't mean to act like a prophet of doom, ranting with a "The End is Nigh" sign on a street corner. I'm just seriously considering what the 21st century has to offer. And, remember, I'm speaking about the place of the direct market. Graphic novels are doing relatively well, selling in book stores, located in libraries and classrooms, and webcomics are a burgeoning field. I don't want to make the ole life blood argument about the direct market, but, simply as an audience member, I'd like to see the medium survive and even thrive.

There's my jumble of thoughts for the day. Maybe tomorrow I'll take the time to unravel them and formulate a list of "What needs to be done."

Until then, may you consume satisfying units of story.

October Sales Figures

2008-11-21T03:21:00.004-05:00

Sales figures are up for October, but no one's quite certain what they mean. The top is rattled a little bit. Series always suffer downward slopes and we're hitting the 2/3 marks for the big events, but the effect seems slightly more dramatic. The surprising news, though, is how well things are going in spite of that, especially for tier 2 and tier 3 books.

As Heidi points out:

Obviously, rising comics prices had much to do with it, but as we pointed out earlier, and Miller affirms, the overall sales on the chart were much higher than in the past, with even the #300 book selling over 4000 copies. In January 2005, the #300 comic sold 679 copies.

Maybe I'm just a goddamn optimist, but it's an exciting prospect to me when more niches can thrive within the already niche market of the comic book.

Lord Buttersnatch's Fairy Detective Troop

2008-11-13T01:13:00.004-05:00

For those who might not know, for a frighteningly long amount of time A.J. Dibble and I have been working on a webcomic entitled Lord Buttersnatch's Fairy Detective Troop. I'll probably be making a slightly louder announcement once the first scene of act one is complete and we're into a bit more of the meat of the story, but if you'd like to peruse the prologue, it can be viewed at www.buttersnatch.com.

Election Cartoons

2008-11-09T12:13:00.003-05:00

In the wake of November 4th, we've been getting a lot of political cartoons that are schmaltzy and, in a way, obvious, while at the same time inevitably eliciting moist eyes at the historicalness of the triumph.

But I've got to say, Tatsuya for the win.

Sandman Live Reading

2008-11-09T02:17:00.003-05:00

Saturday night I attended a live stage reading of two issues of Sandman in honor of the series’ 20th anniversary. The two issues were "Three Septembers and a January", the story of Emperor Norton I of the United States of America, a real historical figure, and "The Golden Boy" based on the DC Comics character Prez, the first teenage President of the United States. I’ll get to some thoughts on the event later, but I wanted to discuss something that happened during the Neil Gaiman Q&A after the reading. In the only question related to the performance, Gaiman was asked whether he’d prefer to live in a country run by Norton or by Prez. And his answer was Norton. He felt that Prez, a gifted, charismatic leader, created in citizens the sense that he could solve all their problems for them. While Norton, on the other hand, would oversee a country where people would have to solve their problems themselves. It highlights the fact that the choice of doing these two issues ties in not only to Sandman’s anniversary, but also to this past week’s election.

Gaiman’s point is something to keep in mind as the U.S. moves forward in the weeks and months to come. It seems like a number of supporters of Barack Obama hold the view that once he steps in, he’s going to solve all our problems. Not all of them do. And I’d be surprised if Obama himself did. There has been a significant change, no question. For the past eight years we’ve had to deal with a leader who created problems and who often created obstacles to our attempts to solve them on our own. But Obama’s a leader, not a magical creature capable of granting wishes. His ability to inspire large numbers of people to get involved may be the greatest skill he brings with him into office, because that’s what it’s going to take to really turn things around. One leader making decisions on his own while everyone else watches and admires him isn’t going to do it. As many have said, what’s going to come is going to take a lot of hard work, not just by the new President but also by everyone who voted for him.

Okay, enough politics. On to the show itself. As I said, the two issues “Three Septembers and a January” and “The Golden Boy” were clearly chosen, as I said earlier, partially for their relevance to current events. “The Golden Boy”, the more relevant of the two, would seem to be a less than ideal choice for the format used. Seven actors sat on the darkened edges of the stage and read their roles as the panels from the comic were projected onto the screen. “The Golden Boy” involves large amounts of narration, delivered by a narrator depicted as a wizened Asian mystic. So this resulted in several pages at a time of only one actor reading narration alone. While the moments of dialogue in between were well done, it’s a curious decision to do “The Golden Boy” rather than an issue that would have meant more interaction between the performers.

The performances themselves had a mixed effect, although this isn’t something I can really lay at the feet of the actors. The otherworldly figures at the core of the Sandman stories have such an image built up around them that there’s almost no way to satisfactorily portray them in a live performance. Delirium and Despair especially I’ve always pictured as having voices so inhuman that they’d probably require some form of electronic enhancement to be convincing. Racheline Maltese, the actress who played both Desire and Delirium, was spot on with Desire, but something was missing from Delirium. I think possibly the only way to correctly pull off the character would be to take Summer Glau, ask her to do something similar to her performance as River in Firefly, and then pump her full of incredibly potent narcotics just as she’s about to perform. And even that might only get you halfway there. Dan Green as Dream himself was good, but it’s hard to step into the role of such an iconic figure and deliver everything that a reader has built up in their minds. The performers excelled more with the other roles. Ollie Wyman’s Emperor Norton was what I thought to be the best execution of a character by any of the actors. And exchanges between Wyman’s Norton and Tom Wayland’s King of Pain, Wayland’s Prez and Dan Green’s Richard Nixon, and Prez and Greg Abbey’s Boss Smiley were the best moments of the performance. And it was these exchanges between characters that really made the comic come alive effectively in a way that I wanted to see more, a sentiment Gaiman himself echoed after the performance. It’s a way of presenting comics I’d never encountered before and I’m not aware if it’s been done extensively anywhere else. But it would be something I’d certainly see again, given the opportunity.

Ravi's New Favorite Webcomic

2008-11-04T14:26:00.001-05:00

I'm really enjoying No Need For Bushido. It's been a while since I've since such a horribly mismatched team, so much humorous fighting, and a decent plot. The only thing I do not like, and in fact hate, are the weird (and rare) interjections by Matrix like characters:

http://www.noneedforbushido.com/

Anti-Comic and Gamer Discrimination

2008-11-04T14:24:00.002-05:00

Christian's still hate gamers... and don't want gamers to feed starving children?

From http://www.giantitp.com/
10/31/2008

As has been reported by a few other gaming blogs and news sites, the Charity Auction at this year's GenCon Indianapolis was held to benefit Gary Gygax's favorite charity, which I will not name here for reasons that will soon become obvious. The fine folks at GenCon raised over $17,000 for this charity, which helps starving children in impovershed areas of the world--only to have that money actually turned down by the charity. The charity refused due to the fact that the money was raised partly by the sales of Dungeons and Dragons materials, which as we all know, puts an irrevocable taint of evil on the filthy lucre that us demon-worshipping gamers might want to use to, say, donate to starving children. Not only is this a slap in the face to every gamer, but it is especially insulting to Mr. Gygax himself, who I understand donated to their cause many times over the years. Plus, I'm sure the children who would have gotten food or clean drinking water with that money would be sort of upset, too.

I bring this story to your attention not simply so that you might let the people at this charity know how you feel (especially if you have donated to it before, as many did in the wake of Mr. Gygax's passing), but so that you would be aware that there is an alternative charity that I would personally recommend (based on our own charitable giving) if you have a desire to donate money to help starving children. Plan USA is a worldwide charity aimed at helping those who live in poverty and/or have suffered from a natural disaster, particularly with monthly sponsorships of individual children. Since the money of D&D players is clearly not welcome at this other charity, I can't recommend Plan USA highly enough to those interested in giving anyway. At least if you choose to donate through them, there's no chance your generous gifts to the starving children of the world will be rejected due to your weekend hobby.

My New Favorite Comic Book Character

2008-11-03T18:28:00.005-05:00

So this past week I read Geoff Johns' Final Crisis tie-in "Rage of the Red Lanterns". What follows is possibly the only enjoyment I got out of it, and therefore once you look at it you should have no need to read it yourself:

In case you were wondering, it's vomiting its own corrosive acid blood. That's the only meaningful (and I use that word with great hesitation) appearance of that character in the entire book (I think it may show up in one other panel). Needless to say, DC clearly needs to give this character (whose name I did not catch, and so I choose to call it "Whiskers the Blood Kitty") its own limited series.

This is the reason I read Cat and Girl

2008-10-31T12:44:00.002-04:00

http://www.catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=670

Give It Up Already!

2008-10-31T04:02:00.005-04:00

I don't normally read the newspaper comics these days (I get my news, like I get my daily comics, online), but whenever I'm around physical newspapers I feel compelled (as if by demonic possession) to read each strip. While I always find myself saying, "Arlo and Janis... fantastic!"the act of reading Ernie Bushmiller and Mort Walker never fails to upset me. I mean, how do these people have jobs? How have they not been stoned to death in the streets?

That's why things like Marmaduke Explained and the Dysfunctional Family Circus delight me so. If the original strips are supposed to speak to the child in me, it's the puerile adolescent that responds. Of course, there's also the brilliant, subtler protests of works like 5-Card Nancy and Garfield Minus Garfield.