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 02142013:
"Case in point: the legal language on both sides re an ongoing relationship after the settlement is signed. The gist: the Siegels won’t say anything bad about DC. The Siegels agree to make public appearances at DC’s behest, where they will then praise DC. They won’t make any other public appearances or say anything about Superman or the case without DC’s written consent. If they want to publish a biography, Time Warner gets first dibs so it can control whatever goes in print. If anyone asks the Siegels about Superman or the case, they will refer the questioner to DC. When Superman goes into the public domain, they are the only people in the world who can’t do anything with the character. You want to understand how Joanne Siegel could turn away millions of dollars? That’s it, right there." -Jeff Trexler on the sad end to the legal fight for Superman.
THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK
(Image stolen from Comics Alliance.)
...was My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #3 by Katie Cook, Andy Price, Heather Breckel and several other people. Published by IDW. I'm still catching up on my comics reading after multiple snow storms kept me from the comics shop. I've torn through a good pile of comics in the past week and I enjoyed this one as much or more than any of them. IDW make really solid comics. Almost too good. The paper is way too good. The art and writing are better than they need to be. All they had to do to get me to buy two copies of this thing for my daughters was put My Little Pony on the cover. Thankfully it is actually a comic I can read and enjoy. There is a lot to chew on in this thing. The story is dense. The layouts are dense and have a gag in every panel. All those characters crammed into an actual plot and Katie Cook pulls it off. This is a comic where the ponies are off on a quest to save something or other from scary black ponies and the Pinkie Pie pony just happens to be carrying around costumes of herself and the other ponies. Pinkie Pie dressed up in a giant Pinkie Pie costume is funny people. And Andy Price is nailing this stuff. Every panel crammed full of laughs. Imagine if licensed kid's comics from your youth were good. This is that comic.
"Case in point: the legal language on both sides re an ongoing relationship after the settlement is signed. The gist: the Siegels won’t say anything bad about DC. The Siegels agree to make public appearances at DC’s behest, where they will then praise DC. They won’t make any other public appearances or say anything about Superman or the case without DC’s written consent. If they want to publish a biography, Time Warner gets first dibs so it can control whatever goes in print. If anyone asks the Siegels about Superman or the case, they will refer the questioner to DC. When Superman goes into the public domain, they are the only people in the world who can’t do anything with the character. You want to understand how Joanne Siegel could turn away millions of dollars? That’s it, right there." -Jeff Trexler on the sad end to the legal fight for Superman.
- Happy Valentines Day brothers and sisters that care about that kind of thing. I hope your day gives you everything you want but only 15% more than you deserve. (Don't be greedy.) It is still Ash Wednesday as I'm typing this. I loves me some Jesus. I'm going to try to give up french fries and negativity for Lent. The french fries are because I need to lose some weight. The negativity is because I need to lose some negativity. I'll still be honest. If something is garbage, I'm gonna tell you it's garbage. Facts is facts y'all. But I'm going to try to be more upbeat about the potential of things. And this going to be very hard without my french fries. I loves me some french fries people. The fries are going to be harder to give up than the negativity.
- Loyal devoted readers of the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links may have noticed that today is not Sunday and that I never posted a new Parade-O-Links this past Sunday. Sorry. I just couldn't do it. I tried. Most of this Parade-O-Links was compiled and/or written before last Sunday but I did not get the the post up. Time was not on my side. The Rolling Stones are liars. But, that's okay because that was the past and it is gone and now is the now and because the now is after the past, the now gets to includes some other interesting things that happened after the past. Let's get to those things. Shall we y'all?
- So. Positivity right? What happened in comics last week? Oh yeah, Time Warner/DC Comics stuck it to the Siegles and the Shusters again. And again. Well, there goes my whole giving up negativity for Lent thing. Dang you to heck comics!
- But hey, don't let the fact that wife of Superman's creator went to the grave living under the threats of an army of lawyers funded by a bazillion dollar international corporation ruin your Valentine's Day. I mean, they still make Superman comics after all. Heck, Grant Morrison (the best Superman writer since Alan Moore ended Superman in 1986) still writes Superman comics. Oh wait, he's not gonna do that anymore. He talked to CBR a bit about the whys and hows of his departure. "I think the best thing that it's done ultimately is to get rid of that weird emo Superman that was around for a long time. He was constantly fighting against using his powers and was kind of angst-driven. There are so many great characters in comics that are angst-driven that we don't need Superman to be one was well." Indeed. Die emo Superman die. And hey, don't get down about Grant Morrison not writing Superman. Time Warner's
DC Comics"content creators" can always hire some guy that is actively trying to deny gay and lesbian Americans the same rights other human Americans have. Yeah, that's gonna work out great right? (Dear DC, I'm ready to be the next replacement writer on your online comic, print comic, whatever. Holla at me y'all.) - And speaking of creators leaving. How about that Don Rosa exit letter? "Why I Quit." Hoo boy, a laugh riot that one.
- Look, let's take a deep breath and think about Don Rosa, Jerry Siegle and Joe Shuster. Let's think about what kind of "lessons learned" we can take away from this. Here's what I get out of it. Let's say you want to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist. If you live in the United States of America and you have talents, skills or, worst of all, ideas, you need to take all of that and put it in a box. Now, find a cave. You need to go to the deepest darkest part of that cave and dig a hole. Somewhere between three and six feet deep depending on the density of the ground. Put that box in that hole and cover it up. Now, leave the cave. Go find a nice park. Maybe it has some pigeons or ducks you can feed. Sit down on a bench. Now, here is the tough part, but remember, you said you wanted to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist. Now, I want you take a pen, pencil or knife and jab yourself in the eyes. I know that is a major commitment to the dream but you want the glory right? Now, live the rest of your life broke and blind on that park bench. Congratulations, you are a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist! Enjoy the pigeons and ducks.
- Dang. This sucker went south quick didn't it. Hang in there brothers and sisters. We can turn this ship around. You know what I like to do when I need to bask in the radiance of happiness and joy? I like to go to Lattaland. Surely, Josh Latta will have some nice things for us to look at. That guy loves him some Valentine's Day cards.
- Oh, and speaking of Valentine's Day cards. If you need to take care of some last minute bidness then look no farther than J. Chris Campbell's free Valentine Card you can print out. Unless of course you don't have a printer. In that case, sorry, there's always Saint Patrick's Day.
- And speaking of love and stuff, Robert Newsome's most recent music and talking thing was full of all the best (and/or worst) love songs ever. I'm listening to it right now.
- Oh, and another thing that makes me happy when I'm thinking about sad things like dead/blind/broke creators (and/or how my wife kicked me out of the house and Valentine's is gonna suck) ... is monsters. Wouldja just look at Patrick Dean draw them monsters!
- We all love Sergio Aragones. Except for jerks.
- And we love Girl Scouts making comics!
- He was born nasty.
- Jog talked about why he is Jog and what makes him Jog and what makes Jog him.
- People! Would you just look at that H. G. Peter Wonder Woman art! The best I tells ya.
- Okay, I don't even have an opinion on this Eddie Campbell piece but it's a good read. I mean, go read it for sure but if you end up wasting a couple of days of your life writing an internet blog post rebuttal to the thing or lose your job because you spent a whole week arguing in comments threads, don't blame me. Comics is dangerous y'all.
- In a shocking turn of events it has been revealed that Fredric Wertham was not just a jerk bag but he was also a lying jerk bag.
- Hey kids, The Ink Panthers are back!
- And Comic Books continue to Burn In Hell.
- Gary Groth tells us something we did not know.
- Jill Thompson on a wrasslin' podcast. And speaking of Jill Thompson and wrasslin', she has an interview in the most recent issue of The Atomic Elbow. You should buy that.
- "For your info.. she jumped on his shoulders/ blocked bullets and broke his neck… and yes his tongue slobbered on her XXXXX. That’s ANT bro. Are you serious? In the following panel.. where she is running…Ant don’t run bra."
- Again, dear
DC Comicscontent creators, I am also ready to write Green Lantern for you. I go hard son. Get at your boy. - I never get tired of happy Bill Mantlo pictures.
- Did I mention Gabby Schulz's hourly comic thing in my last Parade-O-Links? Well, here it is again anyway because it is great.
- The anniversary of the great Jack Kirby leaving this Earth was last week. You should seriously go look at all these great posts about his animation career.
- Don Heck yeah!
- My Delores is still around. I see her in Food City from time to time but I'm afraid to make eye contact. Her husband weights 300 pounds.
- Since it's Valentine's Day, let's see what Chris Sims has to say about love. He's an expert on love right? Or maybe it's comics.
...was My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #3 by Katie Cook, Andy Price, Heather Breckel and several other people. Published by IDW. I'm still catching up on my comics reading after multiple snow storms kept me from the comics shop. I've torn through a good pile of comics in the past week and I enjoyed this one as much or more than any of them. IDW make really solid comics. Almost too good. The paper is way too good. The art and writing are better than they need to be. All they had to do to get me to buy two copies of this thing for my daughters was put My Little Pony on the cover. Thankfully it is actually a comic I can read and enjoy. There is a lot to chew on in this thing. The story is dense. The layouts are dense and have a gag in every panel. All those characters crammed into an actual plot and Katie Cook pulls it off. This is a comic where the ponies are off on a quest to save something or other from scary black ponies and the Pinkie Pie pony just happens to be carrying around costumes of herself and the other ponies. Pinkie Pie dressed up in a giant Pinkie Pie costume is funny people. And Andy Price is nailing this stuff. Every panel crammed full of laughs. Imagine if licensed kid's comics from your youth were good. This is that comic.
- And finally... I'm Black Canary you're Green Arrow. When I hop on my bike it means let's go.
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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