(Super fantastical Eric Canete art stolen from Eric Canete.)
"While everyone at DC is excited by the advent of the newer, slicker Standard Format, we share mixed feelings over this change as we end our weekly association with World Color Press. To our friends in Sparta, thank you for 37 years of loyal reliable service. The "death" of the letterpress also marks the end of an era in comic books. After all, those of us who grew up during comics' Silver Age will miss newsprint." - Michael Eury, "Inside DC" editorial column from most DC Comics with a cover date of April 1992.
- Jay-Z Christmas what a week amIright?! If no one tried to burn you down or blow you up then I guess you had a pretty good week right? High five for staying alive.
- As you read this on Sunday or later on in the future, SPX, the Small Press Expo is at least half way over or already gone. Many of North America's finest and best smelling cartoonists have gathered, sold comics, shared laughs, given awards, accepted awards, turned in tickets for beers, consumed beers and headed back home born again full of all the magical thoughts that have never been thunked before that they will ponder and day dream about at their jobs in North America's finer coffee shops and pizza joints as they pour another cup and cut another slice for you dear reader. For America! Unfortunately, the dark one does rule this world and I was unable to attend this year's SPX. But fear not! My man, your man, our man, Henry Eudy is on the job. As I type this, Agent Eudy is embedded in SPX zone. He is in the heart of SPX. In the very body of comics if you will. He is on the floor, in the aisles, behind the tables, in the restroom with its terrifying hotel art, in the restaurants, in the bars, in the hotel rooms working his way through the world of small press comics like a human colonoscopy. He fears nothing and he sees all. He's taking names and burning off polyps with his lazer eyes. And when he emerges from the bowels of comics, from comics' very sphincter, you dear reader of words and thinker of thoughts will be the first to see what he has to say. Well, actually, I'll probably read it first and then post it. But you will be second. And second is pretty good. Pretty good.
(Image stolen from Henry Eudy.)
- Speaking of comic book shows that I did not go to, Josh Latta went to the Baltimore Comic-Con and it looked a lot like this.
- Writing and drawing comics is easy. Especially when someone already wrote and drew it for you.
- Robot 6 has an interview with Eric Canete. I think the most important goal comics as a whole should currently have is to steal back Eric Canete from animation.
- Super pal Robert Newsome made a podcast. I'm about 20 minutes into it as I type this and I'm enjoying it. Speaking of Robert, how many copies of The Atomic Elbow Issue Three have you bought? Despite what John Lennon told you, just wanting it may not be enough to end war but $5 will get you a copy of The Atomic Elbow.
- Did I already tell you folks about this crazy a$$ art Josh Simmons did for a Reebok ad in Italy? Reebok everybody. Italy. Life is strange people. Life is strange.
- Why is Beyonce emailing me? Doesn't she know I only read Michelle Obama's emails?
- Professor X is a jerk. And also, dead. Again. At what point do Heaven and/or hell just say 'oh F it not his bald cry baby again'?
- Wobama!
- Derik Badman and some other fine people are in Frank Santoro's New Talent Showcase.
- Speaking of Derik Badman, how is it possible that I own Sectaurs comics but I don't own that Dragonlance comic? I have failed you Nerderica.
- Happy birthday (earlier this week) to Ben Towle. Go read Oyster War.
- Speaking of Mr. Towle, check out this review he did of the new Jessica Abel and Matt Madden Mastering Comics book.
- Again with the Ben Towle: dig this amazing process gif he put together.
- Everyone is talking about this young Brad McGinty kid. Here and here and here and here and here and here and everywhere and in some foreign language that uses letters my keyboard does not include! This kid is bigger than Carly Rae Jepsen! People are even doing Brad McGinty cosplay! We here at file under other have never heard of the guy and have never posted anything about him but he seems to be a pretty good cartoonist/animator/print maker/t-shirt maker/hair model and people are going bat poo crazy over his prints and t-shirts. He even makes real fake toys! Who can stop him?!
(Image of some one who may not be Brad McGinty stolen from Shawn Daughhetee's facebook page.)
- The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has announced The Dylan Williams Collection. It sounds pretty great.
- Matt Seneca will not stop until everyone believes that Brendan McCarthy created everything you love. He may be right.
- Geoff Johns is burning in hell. "The box is you Dustin!"
- Remember how I've told you like a half dozen or so times to check out the excerpt Julia Wertz had been posting from her upcoming book? (Which I think debuted at SPX.) Well, she's posted the last page of it so you can go read the whole excerpt now. I liked it.
- They sho is a lot of great stuff you can buy real cheap at Top Shelf right now.
- People, I'm not afraid to say that I kinda love Dale Earnhardt Jr. "You shouldn't waste the years in between." I've watched that video three times.
- I'm all but certain that Chris Sims has kidnapped Tom Batiuk and is forcing him to create Funky Winkerbean strips solely to satisfy his own twisted imagination. It is quite possible that Sims himself is not aware that this is happening.
- Perhaps uncle Perry can explain it for us.
- Jumpin' jimminy Christmas sticks. Look at this Chris Weston art for an Akira movie that is apparently never to be.
- Hey, let's go ahead and ignore the fact that this column is wayyyy too long and add a new ongoing feature that I may or may not ever remember to do again next week in the Parade-O-Links. Let's call it....
THE BEST SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ LAST WEEK
(Image stolen from comicbook.com)
The best comic I read last week might have been Action Comics #0 but that pencil-no-ink-kinda-painterly-style of art they used in that thing makes my stomach hurt. Hate that style. So, we'll say the best print comic I read last week was Animal Man #0 by Jeff Lemire, Steve Pugh and a whole bunch of other people. There is no reason for this comic to exist other than to get Animal Man readers to spend another $2.99. It does not add anything to anything or give you anything you need. If you are me, and I know you are, then you have read Animal Man's origin several times and all the new information has already been alluded to in the current Animal Man series. What you get here is it just being acted out. But it is good. There are a few clever twists on the Animal Man origin story that had not yet been fully played out in the New 52 version of the character. But who cares? All that really matters is that when you match up Jeff Lemire's imagination with Steve Pugh's art the result is gross and creepy in the best way. It's fun. I like it. And, most of the other comics I read this week were Batman comics from the 90s. And they were mostly awful.
- Well, I guess that's about enough of all that. Let's wrap this column up shall we. Oh, what? You say you need some link haiku? You say you can't make it through one week to the next without some link haiku? Oh, alright. I feel ya bro. I feel ya.
- And finally... Well, it turns out that ambulance doesn't have breaks on the mother...
Oh, and one more last thing! Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other? It's true! And, I'll probably respond. Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes. It's your intronet. Have fun!
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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