Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 09232012

(Marvel's Star Wars No. 96.  One of my favorite covers of my entire life by the wonderful Cynthia Maritn who had a birthday this week.  Image stolen from Comic Vine.)

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 09232012:

“To me, the Queen can't help who she is any more than anybody else can. I’m more of a nihilist to be honest, none of it means anything to me. This is an object that will in fifty years be lying on a table in a flea market. I don't have kids, it's going nowhere. So to me, I don't attach all those values to it, and again maybe that's a class thing you know, I’m starting to see more things in terms of class all the time.  I still feel the same way I do about the monarchy, the class system, about everything I’ve ever written, about everything I will write. So the idea that it doesn't change anything, that people can be so wound up by something that has no effective meaning in the world kinda says it all to me.  

It's okay because it's no biggie, honestly you're not buying into anything - because you can't. By your intrinsic nature, who you are and where you were born, you can't buy into that system. They don't get it, you know, we'll never buy into it. We're the common people, as Jarvis Cocker said, and they'll never understand that." -  Grant Morrison, MBE 2012 planet Earth. 

• Hello brothers and sisters of teh intronets.  I'd like to thank you all for returning once again to the Parade-O-Links.  I'm thinking about you right now and I'm wishing you well.  I know you have some big ideas.  Some things you would like to do.  And I am rooting for you.  I know you can do it.  Maybe today is the day you get just a little bit of it done.  Maybe you lay off the twitter a little.  Maybe you cut back on the XBox.  Maybe you spend one less night at the bar each week.  Maybe you lay down the cell pad pod phone and step outside and clear your head.  Maybe this week you make some progress.  Start small.  Realistic goals. One thing at a time.  You can do it.  I can't wait to see it. 
• SPX.  The Small Press Expo was a big deal last weekend.  By all accounts it was mankind's finest moment of the past thousand years give or take.  Our man Henry Eudy brought in another home run of a report for file under other.  I have read a great many fine posts about SPX this week and I do believe that all of them are indexed here at The Comics Reporter.  I also recommend The Dollar Bin's post show report.   "...the manga kids with their big-eyed foxes and spiky haired heroes, the boob and fart crowd, the high arters, the too weird to live, the too strange to die, the lonely bedroom autobio-bot, the cutesy and the gruesome, the middle finger and the plea for understanding, the genuinely funny and the sharply snide, the total mess and the delusional dreamer, the boring and the insipid and the occasional truly unique. I felt like the floor was full of wonders and I felt like cartooning was the greatest."  God bless us comics. 

 (Josh Latta image stolen from Bibliodiscoteque.)

• Bibliodiscoteque has posted a sound track for Josh Latta's Rashy Rabbit.  This is perfect timing because just this week, Josh posted the final page of his most recent Rashy Adventure so now you can read all of Dropin' Anchor while you listen to that rad soundtrack.  The story starts here.
• I'm gonna use the word variations of the word "rad" a lot in this thing.  Buckle up. 
• Rob Clough took an intensive look at Project Romantic because of course he did.  Jimminy Christmas people does the man have to come to your house and slap the Honey Boo Boo out of you before you will wake up and see the bounty of comics this man carries on his shoulders?  Oh, and he also talked about Joe Sacco. 
• Dave Sim is gonna slap your gift horse in its mouth and teach it to read the Bible, the Torah and the Koran before you even have any idea if he is happy or sad.  By the time you finish making sense of any of that, Fantagraphics will have published two more volumes of Love and Rockets.  Would someone please just buy Dave Sim a telephone?
• Ya know what.  Don't even get into that above link.  Instead go read this interview that Matt Seneca did with Ben Marra.

(Image stolen from Molly Crabapple's tumblr.)

•  There is a very solid chance that Molly Crabapple had a more interesting week than you did.  Actually, let's be honest, every week of Molly Crabapple's life is probably more interesting than mine or yours. Gotta admire a lady that gets up in the morning and go gets her some protest.  I love the smell of civil disobedience in the morning.  Makes me fell poetic.  You know where I'm heading with this don't ya brothers and sisters?  That's right folks, put on yer poetry boots, it's link haiku time. 

His big strong heart drives

Benghazi is in a trap
Orange face self deport

• Radiohead's "Creep" came out 20 years ago this week.  That video above is not "Creep".  What do you want from me?  I'm not Casey Kasem. 
•  “Maybe I’m stupid for using cheesecake to answer questions about psychiatry and quantum physics but it gets me through the fucking day.” 
• Neil Gaiman and a letter from a scared actress. 
• Don't hug me I'm scared. 
• I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again but it is so very hard to give DC Comics my money. 
• Box Brown was interviewed at YandP.tv whatever the flapjacks that is.  He talked about his Andre The Giant book he's been working on.  I saw a bit of that in Atomic Elbow and it was radtacular.  Can't wait to see him pull that off. 
• Jared Cullum has a new book out under the Wide Awake Press banner.  It looks swell. 
• Patrick Dean is it people.  I. T.  It! I could use a few dozen page of new Patrick Dean comics in my life.  
• The great and terrible Grant Morrison spoke to NewStatesman about some things.  Ya know.  The weather and such. 
• Do you think this is a game?!

• Durn tootin varmits are burning in hell.  Wait.  What?  That new Chris Ware thing was not really at the show?  Just a few copies?  See, this the difference between Pantheon and the real small press publishers.  The small press publishers would have been hand water coloring each panel in the parking lot and had the book ready when the doors opened.  Just sayin'. 
• That new Julia Wetz book looks swell.  I liked Drinking At The Movies a lot.  The sample I've read from this seems more focused and, well, ya know, better. 
• Jim Rugg.  Wow.  I'm sure there is a pill one could take that would prevent someone from deciding to spend that much time on a project like that.  But I'm glad that Jim Rugg is not aware of that pill. 
• Have I talked about we draw comics?  It could be a thing. 
• That xkcd thing everyone lost their mind over was the most boring game I have ever played.  It honestly made me angry.  Not even going to link to it.  Instead, I give you this. 
• Well folks, I thought we would never see the day where Brad McGinty did not do something for me to link to.  But, that day is.... not today!  Brad drew the Shaper of Worlds for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Reduxe Edition blog.  Like ya do.  Love that blog. 

(New contender for best comics panel ever stolen from Comics Alliance.)

• Robert Newsome does things.  He made another podcast.  It is good.  I listened to it twice in one day.  For realzies.  And he made some stickers. 
• You had me at Human Fly. 
• The name "Fanboy Buzz" kinda makes my stomach hurt but I'm gonna let it slide because Ann Nocenti is the best and I can't get enough of Harvey Tolibao.  
•  "I am Rossmom, after all, why think I would do anything else?"
• "But he was born in Mexico ... and had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this." -  Words anyone with any self-respect and an IQ somewhere above Play-Doh would never say.
• My birthday is coming up on October 6th.  
• Oh, and for the record, I am very much on the side of comics shows being like flea markets.  Oh, if only they could be MORE like flea markets.  

THE BEST SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ LAST WEEK

...was not a print comic.  I bought a bunch of new comics Saturday but my daughter has taken them from me.  Apparently she needs to know what is new with Marceline and Thong Cyclops more than I do.  So, let's go with a digital comic.  Let's go with The Surrogates Case Files #2 by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele.    

I talked about the first digital issue of this series a while back.  The short version is that it is a sci fi police procedural.  I would not call it a prequel to The Surrogates because the stories stand on their own but they do take place earlier in Greer's career.  This issue is has a lot to chew on.  The character set up work was handled in the first issue so Venditti gets to play more with the interactions between Greer and his more experienced partner Townsend.  I'm really enjoying the pacing of this series and how Venditti is able to just let the dialog roll more than he could in the The Surrogates and Flesh and Bone.   Not a lot of action for Weldele to show off with but he more than makes up for it with the character "acting" in all the drama bits.  This is a very strong team in a genre that I'm a sucker for and want more of.  I'm also really into Venditti's X-O Manowar but I've not been able to find the latest issue yet.  

• And finally... I saw Molly in the crowd and I yelled right out loud, I said Molly ain't you proud well damn your eyes!

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.