Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 06242012:
- HeroesCon! As I type this, (Friday night with one Old Fashioned, one Manhattan and three celery sticks crammed with peanut butter) HeroesCon in Charlotte NC is still going on and I'm sure my bestest pals are living it up and having a fine time. (I've already seen photo evidence on twitter.) Everything I've heard about the show so far sounds like big attendance and good sales. I'm hearing good sales reports from dealers and that is probably the most important thing for the longevity of a mainstream show like this. I could not attend this year but you can see my HeroesCon pre-show report here. Sometime this coming week I'll put together a report (with help from an on location pal). If you have pics or your own report that you would like for me to link to then send me the link. In the meantime, you can catch a lot of great stuff on twitter under the #heroeson hashtag.
- Oxford American had an interview with Brad McGinty as well as a great comic by Brad about moving up north. And mayonnaise. I miss Brad since he moved up north and I don't even live where he used to live either.
- The year 1977 was pretty rad.
- Comic books continued to burn in hell.
- Box Brown told us something we did not know.
- Cake looked like a lot of fun. I wanna go one year so you Cake people keep at it okay?
- Gabby Schulz recently updated his website. I think he is one of the best five or so living cartoonists in North America. I want you to give him your money.
- Speaking of Schulz- you probably want to go ahead and buy me a copy of this.
- Rich Tommaso also updated his website. After you give Gabby Schulz all your money I'd like for you to go earn some more money then give that to Rich Tommaso.
- People! People! People! Tom Spurgeon has been going through the comics he read and enjoyed during the 80s. These short articles have been fantastic. Some of the comics he talks about are some of my 80s faves but most of them were the comics I had only heard about and therefore coveted because I did not have access to them. I don't really have a way to link to them because Tom is not real big on using tags, (he does not use tags at all) so, you probably just need to go to The Comics Reporter and just hunt for them. Tom has been posting a lot of short reviews lately so that's cool. Or, just go ahead and read the entire site. Trust me, you do not have anything better to do.
- Grant Morrison is now a part of something called the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. I wonder if killing the Queen in The Invisibles was taken into consideration?
- Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Chippendale's studio.
- I'd like to announce that I'm willing to write the crap out of Daredevil right now.
- Super short reviews: I read Harbinger #1 and X-O Manowar #2 from Valiant and I really liked them.
- DC has a new reader survey up. I took it. It was short and easy. You should take it even if you don't read DC comics because the survey really does seem targeted at wanting to know what YOU want. And I really want people to know what I want. I mean, have you read this website?
- Hey, could you buy this for me and my daughter? Thanks!
- Joey Weiser's Monster Isle has floated under the Wide Awake Press umbrella of webcomics.
- Paul Pope + Adventure Time = happy.
- The Walking Dead is a very big deal. But it is not an unprecedented deal. It was not that long ago that creator owned titles from Image were handing Marvel it's ass. From 1992 to 2002 Image had more top selling books than Marvel did. But then Marvel and DC flooded the shelves with event comics and dominated the sales charts with nonsense for the past decade. So the idea that Image would regain the top of the charts is a big deal but what is interesting to me is how The Walking Dead got there. The big difference for me between the Dead and the Image comics of the 90s is that The Walking Dead really found its audience after it made its way to trade paperback. It was really through the book stores that The Walking Dead collections took off. It is a book that took off and got noticed by Hollywood in spite of the direct market. And its formula for success is in stark contrast with Marvel, and specifically Joe Quesada, who seem to have an out right contempt for the trade paperback and/or graphic novel. Lessons to be learned.
- And lastly, let's talk about NASCAR again. What if 5.3 million people watched the Batmobile win a professional motorsports race and no one in comics noticed? That's right, as I mentioned last week, NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race driving a car painted up to promote The Dark Knight Rises. And he did not just win, he dominated the race leading the most laps. That means that for three or four hours, the 5.3 million people that watched the race on television plus the 82,000 people in attendance were mainly looking at a Batman symbol moving at over 190mph. And it's bigger than that. The victory was the main story on ESPN's Sportscenter for two days. (For the nerds: Sportscenter is kind of a big deal.) And this is not like a TV commercial or some viral intronet horsepoop that you just ignore. This is the thing people tuned into watch. So, Time Warner successfully got their Batman movie promotion in front of millions of eyes over a two or three day period. And no one in comics noticed. I just find it a little odd. Does the comics blogosphere only cover the Batman related news the Time Warner PR department sends them? The comics blogosphere sure goes crazy when they get some Marvel or DC PR about some sports related comic book thing that one one reads. I don't have answers but the thing did raise some questions. And I'm not trying to knock the hustle of any bloggers or or comics "journalists". I love those guys/gals. I'm not even sure I have a point. I guess if I had a point it would be something like, dang, comics coverage is very myopic. But ya know what nerds, that car looked awesome and I enjoyed it. Your loss.
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.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.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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