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 09112016.
"DJ Z, I suffer with you my friend." -Jeff Hardy.
- Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links. My name is Shannon and I'll be your host. I was driving east on Alternate 58 this morning behind the limousine of Nathan Stanley and under the golden rays of the warm September Appalachian sun when I remembered that, while file under other was on "hiatus", we lost one of the pillars of Bluegrass and American music, Doctor Ralph Stanley. Growing up a few miles from where Ralph Stanley lived it was easy to take the man for granted. He was just kind of always around. You'd see him play at the fair. You'd see him play at the UMWA rallies. He literally performed at my summer camp one year. When my employer was looking to set up shop in Southwest Virginia, it was Ralph Stanley that Senator Warner and the county called upon to welcome and entertain the suits and ties. In some small way, I guess you could say I owe my paycheck to Ralph Stanley. His legacy will be a part of this region and this country as long as the mighty Clinch River flows.
- Alan Moore has announced that he has about 250 pages of comics left in him and then he will retire from comics. Moore is probably the most influential English language genre comics writer of the past 40 years. He could never write another word and that would not change. He doesn't owe comics anything. If you want more Alan Moore comics, just go read the one's you've missed or re-read the ones you've loved. Despite the wizard beard, Moore is really not that old. He was a very young man when he started knocking out masterpieces. I hope he has a great many years ahead of him enjoying whatever it is he chooses to do. And guys, 250 is a lot of pages.
- A lot of us comics folks are thinking about pal of comics Tim O'Shea and his family this week. The Comics Reporter has the details. Tim has been a real champion of comics, minicomics and self-publishers throughout the years. He's one of those "I probably would have stopped making comics without his kind words" kind of folks. We need 100 more of him. We wish all the best for Tim and his family.
- Last weekend cosmic abomination DragonCon happened (again) in Atlanta, GA. Adam and Shawn Daughhetee of the Dollar Bin went there for the first time and lived to tell the tale. They compare DragonCon to HeroesCon a bit which, are two things totally worlds apart. HeroesCon is a a comic book convention. DragonCon is that time that Hunter S. Thompson and Zardoz drank an Atlantic Ocean sized vial of LSD and tiger adrenal gland then went to the Creature Cantina in Star Wars but only the Creature Cantina was the size of the Titanic. Every year. Repeat. Totally different things.
- Guys. I just love Tarzan so much. (Link stolen from The Comics Reporter.) Speaking of Tarzan, like I do, I read a lot of Tarzan comics this summer. It's been a summer ritual since... I learned to read. I read a lot of Joe Kubert Tarzan comics this summer and bought a lot of the Marvel "Lord of the Jungle" comics. I almost have the full Marvel run now. The 28th issue of the Marvel series was one of the first comic books I ever owned so Tarzan has and will always be a big part of what makes me me. A big part of my brain is thinking about Tarzan junk most of my waking and sleeping hours. It's weird. I know. So, of course I saw the new movie. I really liked it. It was my favorite movie of the summer. I really hope they make more movies with that Tarzan and Jane.
- A lot of talk this week about the death of comics and whether or not it is dead and if it is just Professor X dead or is it Uncle Ben dead and who is to blame and is Soylent Green people or are people Soylent Green and if I use the F word more than you is my argument more valid than yours even though my argument is absolutely Donald Trump wrong on all of my historical references and should all of our best cartoonists just start making their comics with sidewalk chalk then post videos of them on YouTube but then get upset about that too because YouTube secretly won't let you make any money off videos anymore if you have dirty words in your side walk chalk comics and Kickstarter stopped being crowd funding the second it replaced the publisher's marketing department and Amazon really already killed publishing anyway and the music industry is deader than comics and it's just an illusion that it exists because, again, YouTube, and if it can happen to comics and music then it can happen to video games, and, in a way, it's already happening to movies, I mean, do you really think the movie theater chains are thrilled about you guys binge watching Stranger Things and eating microwave popcorn, and if you'll DVR and watch your favorite TV shows later it sure as hell won't take a TV exec long to figure out that you'd probably also pay for it in advance and most of what we really love will be pre-order anyway because comics isn't special, comics just is always the first in line for the firing squad, and about how we probably already lost this war and we need to just assimilate and get over ourselves because I'm literally wearing a t-shirt right now that I pre-ordered, while listening to digital music that was pre-ordered then downloaded, and I literally have a book beside my keyboard that was pre-ordered and as soon as I get through typing this I'm literally going to play some video games that I pre-ordered and maybe what you're calling death is just the new way of living and... You wanted everything for free so you stole it. Now you have to pay in advance for it to even exist. Money always wins folks.
- And now it's time for the return of...
THE BEST NEW NEWISH COMIC BOOK I READ THIS WEEK
I've been a big fan of Rich Tommaso for years and years but She Wolf might be his work for which I am the most excited. Guys, I'm stupid for werewolves and wolfmans. I've watched a lot of werewolf movies and read a lot of werewolf comics but Tommaso is on to something really fascinating here. He's using a waking nightmare form of narrative where he can tell this story from a both metaphysical and material world point of view at the same time while also fluctuating between the present and ancient folklore from panel to panel.
Tommaso is letting the narrative take off in multiple directions within a single page and it is allowing him to really stretch his legs as an artists. I've always loved Tommaso's drawing and character designs but with this comic he's being really ambitious with the motion and fluidity of his cartooning. It's a major break from the conservatism and the obsession with the old fashioned that we've seen in indie comics over the past 20 years. Plus, he draws a balls out penis dangling Satan that can't be beat. I can't wait for the next issue.
This issue also features some great pinups by Chuck Forsman, Brandon Graham, Brian Level, Tom Neely, Eraklis Petmeza and my favorite one (below) by Patrick Dean.
- And finally... Playstation made some announcements this week. Let's see how our ol' pal Francis feels about them.
- Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
p.s. I write comics. Do you make comics? Maybe you should hire me to write comics.
p.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 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.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. Yeah, I do Instagram too. I guess it's a law or something.
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