Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 03312013:
"'Why don't you write comics anymore?' I get asked this a lot, so much so that it made sense to me to post something about it. At some point I was no longer a writer. I had, somehow, become a black writer. This perplexed me, considering that, back in the halcyon 80’s, where Marvel was a hotbed of scathing, litigiously un-PC sexism and racism (reference: Rescue Me's potty-mouthed fire house), I was never seen as a 'black writer.' I competed with everybody else, with guys who had much more experience than I, and did the grunt work and odd jobs just like anybody else. Nobody at DC hired me to reboot Green Lantern in Emerald Dawn because I was a black guy, and Fabian Nicieza seemed to not notice or care about my skin color when he approached me to dream up a Power Man/Iron Fist-esque buddy book for his startup imprint Acclaim. Pre-Milestone, the subject just didn't come up. Which isn't to suggest racism did not exist, it surely did, but that, for the most part, my race had nothing to do with the assignments given me (or not as the case may be). Somewhere along the way, Marvel became much more PC and I became inexplicably much blacker." -Christopher Priest stolen from VR Gallaher.
- Happy belated Easter Brothers and sisters. And to those of you that don't celebrate Easter, Happy Easter! This Parade-O-Links is firing up the floats a bit late. I had family stuff that was more important than talking about the return of a character most famous for having the panties "accidentally" left off her action figure.
- Speaking of panties.
- Ooh. That was a bad one. Cheap. Sorry ladies.
- Dudes. It is not okay to disrespect the ladies. Or, ya know, people. Don't disrespect people. And the irony here is that the absolute last thing in the world those jerks want if for the ladies to stop dressing up as their favorite characters.
- Rob over at Panel Patter voices some concerns that I myself share about the seemingly imminent demise of the RSS feeds. I think I talked about it before but, dang y'all RSS readers are where it's at! You get to read what you like without ads or without being on Facebook. That IS as good as teh internet is ever going to get. This is Tesla sitting there saying 'chords are for bitches y'all, I can just shoot power through the air' and everyone saying, 'nah we'll stick with chords'. (Ads are the chords in my half-assed metaphor. My point is, ads are the worst. This blog has ads on them because I'm saving up for a pack of gum but if you read this in a RSS reader you would be free of the ads.) I'm not sure what individual websites like this one you are reading can do going forward to build an audience in the Facebook and Google only web 3.0 but, for me personally, as a reader of teh intronets, I plan to cling to RSS readers like Charlton Heston's cold dead hands. Just this morning I finally go tall my subscriptions imported into The Old Reader and I like it a lot. I think I'm going to like it a whole lot more than Google Reader. So, not all is lost. And for you comics creators thinking why the capitol F do I care how Shannon reads teh intronets- I'm reading your webcomics through my RSS reader or I'm not reading them at all. Ain't nobody got time for bookmarks.
- Oh, and Rob also talked about Oily Comics.
- So...cartoonist, animator and hair model Brad McGinty bought the world famous Glorp Gum company. Glorp Gum was okay but it was the free t-shirts that kept us coming back for more. I grew up in the Appalachia mountains so most of the folks around here were poor. I remember most of the little league and t-ball teams just had Glorp t-shirts instead of uniforms. And we loved it! Those t-shirts were great! I'm super excited about this thing because some of the new Glorp t-shirts look a lot like they were created by Brad McGinty himself. And they look fantastic. You can get your free t-shirt with purchase of gum here.
- I have really enjoyed Pádraig Ó Méalóid's history of Marvelman over at The Beat. He is up to part 8.
- Marvel's WCE wrasslin' comics y'all.
- Drew Weing has a tumblr where he posts drawings of Dungeons and Dragons characters. This is what teh intronets are for.
- Eleanor Davis in Lone Wolf.
- I'm very sad to hear Bruce Timm stepping away from Warner Bros DC comics based animation. A lot of the positives that exist in all of DC's products (TV, comics, toys, lunch boxes, clothing etc.) of the past 20 years are a result of or at least inspired by ideas Bruce Timm put in motion. There is just no way to overstate the impact his character design style has had on, oh just about everything you see with your eyes in comics, toys and animation post 1992. I've voiced some, uh, uneasiness, with the Warner Premier direct to video style currently used in the DC cartoons. I feel the tone of those movies comes from a very cynical place. It is also disheartening to hear that these shows are canceled not because quality or even ratings but because of toy sales. Maybe Timm is getting out while the getting is good. Or maybe he just found something better to do. If we get something where he is more hands on in the look and tone of the project then maybe this ain't bad news.
- Speaking of DC and Warner Bros cartoons, Warner has rolled out a lot of great cartoons to Netflix this weekend. My kids have already been watching a lot of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. The Justice League stuff is in there now, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Chowder... I could go on and on.
- My favorite Batman anything of all the Batman everything is Batman: The Brave and the Bold but that Adam West Batman was pretty great too. Hotdog phone everybody.
- Some people got worked up about "the M word" in Uncanny Avengers issue 5. I read the 1st issue of that comic and did not like it so, I'm not reading issue 5. This concludes my review of Uncanny Avengers issue 5. For a more thorough analysis, I refer you now to The Comix Cube.
- You keep posting pics of Girlscouts making comics and I'll keep linking them.
- R. Crumb sho does like them reckerds.
- If you are in Winston-Salem NC tomorrow, please go run your fingers through Adam Casey's beard for me.
- Josh Latta played Expert of Nothing.
- And Josh Latta played a bible salesman in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. I bet if that Latta guy made some comics they would be swell.
- Jim Rugg everywhere. In the future there will only be Jim Rugg comics.
- Dustin Harbin makes it and then tells everybody about it.
- Plaid Stallions on growing up Who.
- A sample of Jim Steranko's Outland.
- Pop Matters on Grant Morrison's recent work at DC.
- And The Beat takes a look at Morrison's Action Comics run.
- Tucker Stone is not dead.
- People. Megan Draper is so pretty.
- Robert Newsome of the Second Period Industries Talking and Music Podcast talked to Batmanologist Chris Sims about everything that matters. He also played some music. He also is one of the guys behind...
- Fluke is next Saturday! Or this coming Saturday. Saturday week? It's on April 6th y'all. Athens GA. It's probably going to be the best day of your life if you go. Here is a list of talented people that will be there.
- I don't talk enough about webcomics so here is Fleen which talks about webcomics the exact right amount.
- Patrick Dean is drawing some new comics. Suicide postponed!
- Congrats to Pat Lewis and all the other fine Reuben nominees.
- And finally... Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
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