(Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 #44 1994. Cover by Kevin West and Steve Montano. Stolen from Marvel Database.)
(Side note; That cover makes it look like Yondu is wearing one of Donald Trump's neckties as a belt. Alternate joke; That cover makes it look like Yondu's little Yondu wears a necktie.)
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 weeks ending 05142017.
"A good artist can save a bad script--a good writer can never save a bad artist.
Thus, it's a collaboration, usually an even split in effort, despite the protestations of the management representative class, who have been sold a bill of goods by a number of writers, and who have a vested interest in the maintenance of the delusion that comic book artists are tools, unfortunately necessary parasites present to illuminate the writer's concept.
Those of us with long term careers, particularly those of us like me, who write their own stuff, draw other people's stuff, and write stuff for other people to draw, know and respect this collaborative balancing act as the genuine reality of our field.
Anything else is smoke and bullshit." -Howard Chaykin
"A good artist can save a bad script--a good writer can never save a bad artist.
Thus, it's a collaboration, usually an even split in effort, despite the protestations of the management representative class, who have been sold a bill of goods by a number of writers, and who have a vested interest in the maintenance of the delusion that comic book artists are tools, unfortunately necessary parasites present to illuminate the writer's concept.
Those of us with long term careers, particularly those of us like me, who write their own stuff, draw other people's stuff, and write stuff for other people to draw, know and respect this collaborative balancing act as the genuine reality of our field.
Anything else is smoke and bullshit." -Howard Chaykin
- Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that have ever mothered. You did it. You created life. That's a hell of a thing. Good job.
- The comics family lost one of its champions recently. Mr. Tim O'Shea has left us after a long and valiant fight with cancer. I only met Tim in person a time or two but he was just the nicest most sincere guy and he was one of the first people in the comics press to give any sort of attention to so many creators in the small press and self publishing. I'm going to take the liberty of stealing from Patrick Dean's facebook post about Tim because it sums up my feelings perfectly; "Tim O'Shea was one of the first people to report our early FLUKE mini-comics shows. He and his son would show up, buy some mini-comics and chat with everyone about whatever projects they were working on. At CBR's Robot 6 blog, he wrote a lot of creator focused articles and news items, with a genuine interest in people outside the larger comic companies. He was one of the first people in comics journalism to acknowledge my work and interviewed me a couple of times, to which I felt really touched that somebody cared. Tim cared about a lot of people. It broke my heart to hear that he was battling the same cancer that took the life of my father eight years ago, and so many other talented people in recent years. From looking at his Facebook support page, By A Landslde, it was obvious that he had a loving family and circle of friends who were with him every step of the way. Tim was a funny, warm and loving fellah. He'll be sorely missed." Tim's facebook page has become a sort of ongoing memorial and is worth the scroll through if you are in facebookland. Rest in peace Tim.
- Speaking of our man Patrick Dean, he's been posting some great dream comics recently on his facebook and/or his instagram and/or his twitter. He's kinda the best ya know.
- I saw that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie. I really enjoyed it. It's a movie with a talking raccoon so there was around a 100,000% chance I was going to like it. There isn't much to talk about with the movie though. The plot is basically a throw away episode of Star Trek you forgot on purpose. It doesn't really mean anything or move the characters at all. The only character with an actual arc is Yondu. Drax is really funny but the movie is about Yondu. The stuff with Star-Lord's father is just an excuse for a movie and not really any kind of movie that matters. You don't care who his dad was/is because we've never seen this character before. There is no emotional weight to the revelation. It's just, hey Pete, I'm your dad, well... okay then. And none of that matters because the reason these movies work is because they have likable performers playing colorful characters in front of a background inspired by some of the best creative minds of the past 100 years. You can't screw that up. The only way these things can fail is if they come in over budget. I thought the movie looked great. Certainly the best looking Marvel/Disney movie so far. I have never ever used drugs for recreational purposes because I am an American and that is illegal but, I'm gonna assume that if tripping balls and rolling into the movie theater is your deal then you would have liked this one. The soundtrack was fun. Could have used a few more rockers but it is of course your late 70s early 80s mom's favorite jams so they all had to fit that theme. I feel like it could have used at least one song by the Statler Brothers.
- I like to take a moment to acknowledge the creators whenever one of these big comics movies come out;
- The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan
- Give some credit as well to Jim Starlin and Bill Mantlo for creating several of the characters and themes as well as Jim Valentino for the 90s version of the team and to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning for the more recent version of the team that re-launched in 2008. And don't forget Jack Kirby for being the driving force behind the look and feel of the Galaxy in which the Guardians exists.
- Star-Lord created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan.
- Gamora created by Jim Starlin.
- Drax created by Jim Starlin.
- Groot created by Jack Kirby, Larry Leiber, Dick Ayers and Stan Lee.
- Rocket Raccoon created by Bill Mantlo and Kieth Giffen.
- Yondu created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
- Nebula created by Roger Stern and John Buscema.
- Mantis created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck.
- Stakar Ogord (Starhawk) created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema.
- Ego the Living Planet created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
- Ayesha/Kismet/Her created by Len Wein, David Kraft, and Herb Trimpe.
- Taserface created by Jim Valentino.
- Howard the Duck created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.
- Cosmo the Spacedog created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
- Charlie-27 created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
- Martinex created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
- Aleta Ogord created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema.
- Krugar created by Jim Valentino.
- Adam Warlock created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
- The Grandmaster created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema
- The Kree created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
- Mainframe created by Jim Velentino and Herb Trimpe. (Sort of? Thier version is kind of a version of Vision in the future so... it's complicated.)
- The Celestials created by Jack Kirby.
- The Sovereign are arguably based on the what would be creations of the Enclave which were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The movie version seems to go back to Ayesha/Kismet/Her who was created by Len Win, David Kraft and Herb Trimpe. It's complicated.
- The Watchers created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
- The Ravagers as seen with Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stalone's character) are basically the original Guardians of the Galaxy so credit Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. However... they were not called Ravagers until they showed up more recently (I think) so credit that to Sam Humphries and Javier Garron. (Maybe?) But the idea of the Ravagers as bunch of space pirates may really just have to be credited to James Gunn and the movies. Also complicated.
- Stan Lee created by Jack and Celia Lieber.
- David Hasselhoff created by Joseph and Delores Hasselhoff.
- Fluke happened since our last "episode". I went. A great time was had. By me. I'm the one that had the great time. Perhaps others had a great time as well. I don't know for sure. I'm not a telepath and I'm kind of self-centered so I don't always catch on to how great or not other people's times are. I'm gonna talk more about Fluke and about how Patrick Dean's cat just won't stop drinking out of the dogs' bowl no matter how many times it is explained to her but I'm not gonna tell that story right now. I'm going to tell that story in a different post. Hang in there.
- Another thing that happened was Free Comic Book Day, also known as FCBD, also known to shoplifters as Saturday. I went to Cavalier Comics in Wise VA go get my FCBD on. Cavalier has been my main store for the past several years since I moved back to the Clinch Valley. This was the store's first FCBD in a new larger location and it seems to have been one of their best years ever. The checkout line was probably the longest I've seen there. My pal Jeremy Massie was there with his new comic Amazing Age. It is part of Alterna's new line of monthlies. I got all the first issues and enjoyed them especially since they only cost $1.50. Love the newsprint. Amazing Age's colors looked really great on that newsprint. Get yourself a copy before they all sell out. I have not had a chance to read through all of the FCBD offerings but the X-O Manowar comic was good. I'm excited as always about the 2000 AD comic. My kids were pretty happy with the selection of books they picked out.
- Val D'Orazio read Secret Empire 1 so we didn't have to. I read the Secret Empire FCBD offering and was put to sleep by the color pallet.
- Have you guys been listening to the Process Party podcast over at Study Group? I'm checking out the Julia Wertz episode because she's one of our funniest cartoonists and because I'm about two thirds of the way through her book Infinite Wait. It's good!
- Infinite Wait is one of may great books brought to us by Koyama Press which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year.
- Side note, I fail to understand how anything can be 10 years old. I'm a mental eight year old and just can't deal with things like time and change.
- And finally... Francis doesn't care what the slime does as long as he gets paid.
- Remember pals, life is hard. Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend. Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.
