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 01202013:
“I had no idea the world really looked like this, with such infinite clarity. It looks like a modernist photo or a hyperreal film, everything in focus everywhere. Everyone kept saying ‘oh, do you see the leaves now?’ but the first thing I saw was not the leaves but the people. People, individuated, each with brilliant faces and expressions at gaits, the sun streaming down upon them. I couldn’t help but smile. It’s much harder being a misanthrope when you can see people’s faces.” -Aaron Swartz
(Just like Bachman-Turner Overdrive.)
“I had no idea the world really looked like this, with such infinite clarity. It looks like a modernist photo or a hyperreal film, everything in focus everywhere. Everyone kept saying ‘oh, do you see the leaves now?’ but the first thing I saw was not the leaves but the people. People, individuated, each with brilliant faces and expressions at gaits, the sun streaming down upon them. I couldn’t help but smile. It’s much harder being a misanthrope when you can see people’s faces.” -Aaron Swartz
- The Fluke minicomics and zine fest in Athens GA is one of my favorite shows. Earlier this week they had registration for the first 60 tables and they all sold out in one day. Not bad. But don't fret none G. They held back a few tables and have a waiting list so you should probably look into that right now. The show is April 6th. You are going to have so much fun buying me a beer. I can't wait!
- People. Paul Pope's Battling Boy looks great. I'ma gonna need one of those. In related news, EW still exists.
- Rob Clough talks to Charles Forsman about the Oily and the subscription model publishing.
- And because he is Rob Clough he also reviewed a bunch of minicomics.
- Kate Beaton explains what all the youngs need to know about going to art school and or teaching themselves art. The most important take away to remember is that yes, young impressionable artist, yes you should totally steal a copy of Photoshop.
- Annie Koyama at Meanwhile.
- Warren Ellis says don't worry, everything is fine. Trust him. He has an accent.
- Paul Gravett read some interesting comics last year.
- How to help Peter David get back to Peter Daviding.
- The Comics Reporter did another digital/web/non-paper comic round up.
- Sigh.
- One of the benefits of being late with this week's Parade-O-Links is that I can squeeze in a link to The Comics Reporter's Five For Firday post. It's my favorite game show.
- I like Ann Nocenti and I like Katana a lot more than is rational so I'm gonna want this comic but then my local comic shop (which is really a video game store) is not going to have it and then I'll be sad but then latter I'll probably buy it at Cavalier Comics over in Wise, VA or maybe at a comic book convention or maybe on eBay. (Katana talks to her sword people. She talks to a sword. Shhh... she thinks her husband is in it. Katana is is teh cray cray.)
- The thing that most makes me furious about this Platinum nonsense is that I've been calling Steven Spielberg for 20 years and not one meeting. Not one damned meeting Steven!
- Hang in there true believer.
- Are you people watching the best show on TV? Are you watching
Boyd Crowder Junkie ExploderJustified? You should. My man Walton Goggins is the business y'all. - The Christopher Reeve version is the correct version.
- Obviously.
- This Joe Kubert comics explains every detail of how comics
arewere made. It's all in the high-powered arc lights. - Chris Sims talks about Batman and guns and guns and Batman.
- This super pretentious sounding Autoptic show in Minneapolis sounds like it will certainly be a thing that happens in August. I think every town in the United States should have its own indie comics and zine festival once year. At each show, one creator will be selected through a series of vicious and violent challenges. Then, at the end of the festival season, all of the selected creators will be dropped on an island and forced to fight to the death. This will not be televised. The sole surviving creator will draw a minicomic of the event and send one copy back to mankind by bottle.
- Awww Lil Bub wolled awound on duh cowmics and wuz so cute with its willte curly tongue and its wittle kitty face.
- Robert Newsome's talking and music thing was good this week. Liked that song about monkey Godzooky or whatever it was. And also, he talked about wrestling again.
- Heavy Metal, Gasoline Alley and other things are burning in hell. I have not listened to this one yet but I'm gonna assume the boys use the F word a lot.
- I just pray this thing sells well enough that Boom will do a follow up where Finn and Jake from Adventure Time read Dave Sim's faxes as printed out of BMO's butt. (Dave Sim is so the Ice King.)
- So the way I make this Parade-O-Links each week is that I have this online checklist creator thing to make a list, and I just paste in interesting things I see all week. And this week, I pasted in bunch of stuff about Robert Venditti. The comics people, they like to talk to Robert Venditti. I like talking to him too. He's swell and good at the thinking and talking. Comics Vine talked to him about X-O Manowar. Then they talked to him some more about Demon Knights. Then io9 talked to him some more about Demon Knights.
...was a lot of trouble to figure out. We had a big snow storm this week that kept me from the local comic shop (which is actually a video game store and which is actually not local to the town where I live but is in the town where I work). I finally made it to the shop on Saturday but did not see a lot of interesting books. My pal Robert Venditti's first issue of Demon Knights came out this week. I wanted that comic. I read a bit of the Cornell run and thought it was okay, I like the Demon and I like all of Venditti's comics so I had the shop order me a copy and add it to my "list" as soon as it was announced. But, like clockwork, the shop did not get Demon Knights 16. They are not so great at getting the comics I want. They still have not gotten any copies of Superior Spider-Man. Not one single time have they had X-O Manowar on the week it came out. (Which is the only reason it has not been my BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK so far.) Oh well, the rural life is hard. So the comics I got were bATMan #16 and All-New X-Men #6.
Batman was okay. Just okay. Snyder and Capullo are very good at making Batman comics but I'm disappointed with this "Death of the Family" story. It's just not for me. It's gross. It's disgusting. It is horror and it feels more like Snyder doing his impersonation of a horror movie than it does something fresh or imaginative. Snyder's big long Owl story was more of a mystery thriller and I thought he nailed it. He understood all the beats and the pacing. The pacing feels really rushed in this Joker thing. It's like he's using Grant Morrison hyper speed style. It works for Morrison because Morrison is telling Silver Age madness. It does not work for horror. This issue is mostly a house of death traps comic where Batman goes through his rogues gallery like going through bosses at the end of video game levels. Which is exactly what Grant Morrison did better just recently in Batman Inc. There is no time for anything to resonate in this. Beating Clayface should be bigger. Beating Mr. Freeze should be bigger. Seeing your main foes and the Joker arranged as a royal court at the end should be bigger. It's too many oh my god moments without any time for the audience to say oh my god. It's not scary if the audience does not have time to scream.
All-New X-Men was very good. The best of the series so far. All of the set up was ironed out in issues 1 through 5 so now we get to see Bendis do what he does best. Write people talking on and on and on. And it's great. That is what the X-Men do between funerals. This issue has two things going on. Kitty Pryde teaching Jean Grey how to be Jean Grey and Wolverine trying to teach Cyclops not to be Cyclops. And no sight of a villain until you hit the last page. A very good X-Men comic but I'm not going to give it my BEST designation.
Nope, THE BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK was my daughter's delivered by mail subscription copy of Life With Archie #26. Written by Paul Kupperberg with art by Fernando Ruiz, Pat Kennedy and Tim Kennedy. There is so much to love about this comic. For one thing, it cost $3.99 (less by subscription) and has two full length comics in it. That is the same price as bATMan and All-New X-Men. Plus it is a very comfortable magazine size. And I love the cheap paper. It smells great. Hate that glossy crap. For those that have not read Life With Archie, it is an elseworlds kind of thing where Archie has two possible futures. In one, he marries Veronica and in the other he marries Betty. The two comics are surprisingly different and together they provide a lot of soap opera story lines. In just this issue Kevin Keller (the much hyped gay war vet character) is running for Senate, Kevin's husband is going through physical therapy after getting shot, Veronica is starting her own business, Archie is starting work as a record exec, Moose is dealing with drama in his job as Mayor and Reggie and Betty are having problems with their reality show. And that is just in the Veronica half of the book! I've said this before but I love it when things happen in a comic book. Kupperberg is moving a huge cast trough two comics at the same time. I'm impressed.
Batman was okay. Just okay. Snyder and Capullo are very good at making Batman comics but I'm disappointed with this "Death of the Family" story. It's just not for me. It's gross. It's disgusting. It is horror and it feels more like Snyder doing his impersonation of a horror movie than it does something fresh or imaginative. Snyder's big long Owl story was more of a mystery thriller and I thought he nailed it. He understood all the beats and the pacing. The pacing feels really rushed in this Joker thing. It's like he's using Grant Morrison hyper speed style. It works for Morrison because Morrison is telling Silver Age madness. It does not work for horror. This issue is mostly a house of death traps comic where Batman goes through his rogues gallery like going through bosses at the end of video game levels. Which is exactly what Grant Morrison did better just recently in Batman Inc. There is no time for anything to resonate in this. Beating Clayface should be bigger. Beating Mr. Freeze should be bigger. Seeing your main foes and the Joker arranged as a royal court at the end should be bigger. It's too many oh my god moments without any time for the audience to say oh my god. It's not scary if the audience does not have time to scream.
All-New X-Men was very good. The best of the series so far. All of the set up was ironed out in issues 1 through 5 so now we get to see Bendis do what he does best. Write people talking on and on and on. And it's great. That is what the X-Men do between funerals. This issue has two things going on. Kitty Pryde teaching Jean Grey how to be Jean Grey and Wolverine trying to teach Cyclops not to be Cyclops. And no sight of a villain until you hit the last page. A very good X-Men comic but I'm not going to give it my BEST designation.
Nope, THE BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK was my daughter's delivered by mail subscription copy of Life With Archie #26. Written by Paul Kupperberg with art by Fernando Ruiz, Pat Kennedy and Tim Kennedy. There is so much to love about this comic. For one thing, it cost $3.99 (less by subscription) and has two full length comics in it. That is the same price as bATMan and All-New X-Men. Plus it is a very comfortable magazine size. And I love the cheap paper. It smells great. Hate that glossy crap. For those that have not read Life With Archie, it is an elseworlds kind of thing where Archie has two possible futures. In one, he marries Veronica and in the other he marries Betty. The two comics are surprisingly different and together they provide a lot of soap opera story lines. In just this issue Kevin Keller (the much hyped gay war vet character) is running for Senate, Kevin's husband is going through physical therapy after getting shot, Veronica is starting her own business, Archie is starting work as a record exec, Moose is dealing with drama in his job as Mayor and Reggie and Betty are having problems with their reality show. And that is just in the Veronica half of the book! I've said this before but I love it when things happen in a comic book. Kupperberg is moving a huge cast trough two comics at the same time. I'm impressed.
- And finally... if Boogie can do it, you can do it.
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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