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 07222013:
"No company has ever created a comic book, or a character, on its own -- for that you need the creativity of individuals. I know you know this, but... sometimes we forget. Sometimes there are very enthusiastic consumers who will excitedly name the holder of a trademark but have no idea who sat behind a desk or a drawing table in 1966 and just let their imagination wander.
Maybe it's not too late to change that." -Sean Howe.
- Hey brothers and sisters. My vacation was great. Thanks for asking. The kids and I went to Atlanta GA to visit family and have some fun. We went to White Water, Zoo Atlanta, The Varsity, saw the Braves play the Reds and had a wonderful time not working. We used to live in Atlanta but this was my first visit in a few years. A lot has changed. There are several new massive shopping centers directly across the street from the old massive shopping centers which are now empty. My old Buckhead stomping grounds have changed a lot. I can't believe the Chick-Fil-A on Piedmont is closed. We went to Oxford comics. It was the same as ever. In fact, their little indie comics section had a lot of the same comics that were sitting there the last time I was in the store about five years ago. But yeah, a great time was had by all. This was my first week off from work that did not involve a hospital in a long long time. So that was nice.
- Thanks to the trip to the zoo, my kids and I are kind of obsessed with the pandas now. Not long after we were there one of the pandas had some baby pandas. It was a big deal.
- Comic-Con happened. Again. Congrats to all the Eisner winners and nominees and everyone else on Earth that could use a little congratulating.
- I didn't go to Comic-Con but I did get this copy of Essential Nova for less that five dollars.
- Big news at the show was that the most obvious no-brainer in all of movie history has finally been decided upon by the geniuses at Warner. The Batman and Superman characters will be in a movie together. (Now if we can just get Jaws and Orca in the same movie.) This of course ramps up speculation on who should play Batman. There is only one correct answer to that question. Walton Goggins will play both Batman and the Joker. Debate over. Get on with your lives.
- Speaking of cons, I'll be at Rob-Con in Bristol TN this coming weekend. Come see me. You can pay me cash money to draw things for you. The show is in a neat old arena and last year the place was packed. Great deals on comics and toys. Fun! You like "Fun!" right? I tell ya, I've spent a lot of time studying the pros and cons of work, fun and soul crushing depression and I gotta say, fun wins every time.
(Image stolen from Brad Tuttle and made aware to me by The Comics Reporter.)
(Don't tell J.K. Rowling!)
- Who owns the Man of Steel? Increasingly, I'm beginning to believe that it may really be Lex Luthor.
- I'd like to encourage you guys to listen to my favorite podcast that I listen to every Friday morning.
- Another podcast is The Dollar Bin. They recently talked to America's most adorable and beloved
cartoonist in exileillustrator Ashley Holt. In this discussion, Holt dares to suggest that at some time in your life you may reach a point where you may have had all the Batman that you will ever need. I doubt it. But everything else Ashley says is spot on. - Also, Ashley Holt murders birds. Kills 'em dead.
- I'd like to take a moment to post a recent photo of Diane Nelson.
- That was a recent photo of Diane Nelson. I stole it from Newsarama. I did not read the article. But I bookmarked the picture of Diane Nelson. It seemed important. She looks very happy. I hope to one day know the kind of joy she seems to hold in her heart. I want to know what kind of happiness could fill a heart so full that one's eyes sparkle with the power cosmic. (It's Harry Potter's magic!)
- This post at The Comics Reporter about a new Eleanor Davis book from Fantagraphics made me happy because she's pretty great. I've probably seen most of what will be in that book already but I don't think I own much of it on paper so I look forward to it. Also, this line jumped out at me; "After a while I realized that sort of ephemeral, small, fluid voice is basically all I need -- I suspect I'll never do a graphic novel, I'll never have a cohesive style or a thesis or any major theme to my stuff". That statement was refreshing to me. Comics spent a decade or two so obsessed with the graphic novel. As if your value as a cartoonist was entirely dependent on the quality of your 250 to 600 page graphic novel. I'm just over graphic novels. All graphic novels did for comics was cut our best cartoonists output down to one book every six years. And that is terrible. Die graphic novels die.
- Hey everybody, go read Rich Tommaso's Dry County at Study Group. It's great.
- Sexy time with Jack Kirby.
- “I'm also still the god of Rock and Cock, of course.”
- And finally... I've been playing some games lately.
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.
p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too now. I guess it's a law or something.
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