(Transmetropolitan issue 4. Cover by Frank Quitely 1997. Image stolen from Cover Browser.)
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 0925201610062016.
"Sometimes the most handsome ones end up being Draculas." - Norm Macdonald.
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. This is another late (or early depending on perspective and other nonsensical false realities) parade-o-links. I can't blame it on anything cool like going to see Buddy Guy this time. Mid September through mid November is the busiest time of the year for me at work and at home so... gotta put the paycheck and the kids first. Also, today is my birthday so love me.
Hey! It's October! Happy Halloween month everybody! I loves me some October. As I said, it's a busy time for me but I've got a lot of neat stuff in the works that will roll out this month. Keep file under other open on your computer or cell-pad-pod-phone and just keep hitting refresh constantly for the next 25 days.
Can we take a few moments to promote my friends? Of course we can. Have I ever told you guys about Brad McGinty and the fantastic t-shirts, patches, stickers and gum the produces for The Glorp Gum Company? No? Well let's correct that immediately. Brad has a whole new line of Halloween related stuff you have to check out right now. I've already gotten the Kong shirt and the Terror shirt. I wore the Terror shirt to the store yesterday and the Mayor stopped me in my tracks asked me for my t-shirt's autograph and gave me the key to the city. My kid already stole the new patches from me and sewed them on her jacket. We are so ready for Halloween thanks to Glorp!
Another person I know that does things you can exchange money for is Robert Newsome, EIC and publisher of The Atomic Elbow. The Atomic Elbow has been my absolute favorite quarterly professional wrestling zine for years now. I recommend you buy all the issues but especially want to point out the latest collection that is on sale now. I got mine in the mail a short while ago and it's really great. Now, maybe you don't follow wrestling and you're thinking the book may not be for you. Well, the neat thing about The Atomic Elbow is that most of the articles are not about current wrestling nonsense. Most of the articles are about the writer's personal experiences and adventures in and around (and sometimes not even that close to) the world of wrestling and wrestling fandom. It's a great zine with a lot of great writers. Honestly, the subject matter is least important thing about it. Oh, and sometimes it has comics.
Guys. Look, things are weird for Superman but I wouldn't wish my problems on that poor sucker. He couldn't handle what's going on inside my head for five minutes.
When I was a little kid I was super jealous of the kids in the UK that got to read WEEKLY Star Wars comics that I didn't know existed. Weekly, that's like, multiple times each month!
Speaking of Star Wars, we're counting down the days to the new movie episode... Rouge One. (I will not mention its subtitle because it is stupid and awful.) Apparently the toys for the new movie came out last week and a lot of my pals had a lot of fun hunting them but I wouldn't know anything about that because all any of the stores in my area had were dusty old Constable Zuvios. I'll just go ahead and get this off my chest right now; I love Star Wars. Go ahead Disney, make Star Wars movies. Go crazy. I'll watch them. That said, it is a terrible idea for them to break up the current episode 7 through 9 "saga" with this standalone movie. The average movie goer just can't hold multiple sets of characters in their heads. This is that Fantastic Beasts movie coming out sometime between Harry Potter 7 part 1 and Harry Potter 7 part 2. During the first Star Wars trilogy, fans had six years to get invested in a set of characters. Then we lived with those characters for decades. Then we got the prequel characters, which were, with a few exceptions, some of the same characters we were already invested in. We got invested in those characters for six years as well then they carried on in cartoons, comics and video games. Then The Force Awakens comes and it's this new cast to get invested in. And it was great. The cast is great. But now, one year later, whoops, whole new cast, whole new time period, whole new everything. Here's the thing. Every time I saw The Force Awakens there were multiple annoyingly audible people in the audience asking who Luke was supposed to be. The people, the people are stupid. I totally expect half the audience at Rogue One to spend the the whole movie annoyingly audibly asking why Rey is calling herself Jyn now and where are Poe and Finn. I mean, hell, I wonder where Poe Dameron is in every movie I watch.
Yeah, that last bullet point was hundreds of words to set up video of Kylo Ren saying "Outer Space!"
Matt Furie talked about that time one of his characters was appropriated by some internet weirdos related to some political thing that is apparently going on in America now.
Here is your most recent Marvel Universe scorecard. Tune in next week for a completely different yet remarkably similar new status quo.
Lots of changes in the Marvel and DC "universes" while file under other was on "hiatus". I'll get too them soon and share some thoughts. Short version is I really enjoy that new Superwoman comic. Phil Jimenez is one of my faves.
Adventure Time is ending... two years from now.
Not even linking to the Adventure Time story because, again, two years from now.
I regret to announce that I'm retiring from comics 60 years from now. Everybody get your tributes ready.
Another thing I'm not even going to link to is the notion that it took some of you buffoons out there 75 years to figure out an Amazon character might like ladies.
Hey. Let's see what those crazy kids from The Dollar Bin have been up to. It looks like they finally got around to posting their reports on this summer's HeroesCon. Part 1. Part 2.
Apparently the new Luke Cage show on Netflix broke teh intronets or whatever. I've been too busy to check it out but I look forward to it. I thought Alias was uneven and a bit of a slog. You really only needed to watch the episodes that had evil Doctor Who or Luke Cage on them. I've been fond of Luke Cage ever since those 1984 Bill Sienkiewicz ads convinced me that I needed to pick up Power Man and Iron Fist. But even without Iron Fist, I'm going to watch that show anyway because it has one of the most attractive women in human history on it.
And now ladies and gentlemen...
THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC I READ THIS WEEK recently.
Midnight of the Soulissue 1 by Howard Chaykin with Jesus Aburtov and Ken Bruzenak. Cover by Chaykin Published by Image Comics. $3.50
This book actually started a while ago while file under other was on "hiatus" but I wanted to talk about it and I'm way behind on my giant stack of "pull list" comics and haven't ready any of the real new books from the past few weeks so let's talk about Midnight of the Soul. Guys, ya'll know Howard Chaykin is the best right? I feel like maybe some of you don't know this. Well, he is. He's one of my all time favorites and luckily me for me he's been very proficient over the past few years. You guys have read Black Kiss IIand Satellite Sam right? You guys do read adult comics right? I mean, look, if you are a children, it's okay if maybe you didn't read Howard Chaykin's adult comics. But, if you're an adult and you don't read Chaykin then... do you even comic bro?
Midnight of the Soul is a gorgeous book. Fantastic art and storytelling by Chaykin. No one draws alcoholism and eyebrows better than Chaykin. The colors by Jesus Aburtov are a bit more technically ambitious than I prefer but the pallet is just right. The main thing for a colorist on a Chaykin book is to get the lipstick shimmer right and I think Aburtov nails it.
The comic is about a former WWII soldier who helped liberate a concentration camp. It's the 50s now and he's home trying and failing to make it as a writer. His book is set in a world where Hitler won and no one is buying it. Like most Chaykin comics, he finds out his lady is mixed up in some dirty sexy time business and it all goes to hell from there. Alcoholism, sex, infidelity, murder and Nazis. Everything you'd want in a comic right? If you like hard boiled fiction you probably already bought these comics. If you don't then what's wrong with you?
And finally... Francis has a special message for the Grim Reaper.
Remember pals, life is hard. Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your dead.
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