Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302020

(Sensation Comics #104 from August 1951.  Cover by Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs.  Stolen from dc fandom)

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 week weeks months years ending 12312020. 

"Mainstream comics, despite any appearance to the contrary, are enormously socially conservative. And it’s clear to me that I’m a bit of an embarrassment to comics in general and comics fans in particular, who seem to be afraid their girlfriends will find out they might have an erotic thought or two.  I’d suggest they talk and listen to their girlfriends a tad more than they do."  -Howard Chaykin.

• Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets cell pad pod phones and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon and I'll be your host.  It's been... a time.
• Hey Shano where have you been man?  WTF dude?  Holy crap dude?
• Here.  Just here.  And other places.  You know.  Life and stuff.  I mean...  Where were you?  That's the real question. 
• On November 10th of last year, 2019, before the plague, my mother died. Without warning.  Totally fine.  Enjoying retirement.  Enjoying being a grandmother.  Enjoying the house she just re-modeled and moved into a year before.  Enjoying her two little dogs.  Living life then gone.  I haven't talked about it much.  I'm her only child.  My father passed away, also without warning, in 2013 so it was just me with a lot to do.  A lot to take care of.  And then the plague made it all more complicated.  This is not a complaint.  This is just facts.  It's been hard. It's still hard.  2020 has been hard for most of us. 
• My mom was born on August 10th, 1951 in a forgotten world called America. Her name was Sara Jane Stewart.  She had two older sisters and two younger brothers.  She also had an alien family that came to Earth in a spaceship and lived in that spaceship in the woods.  She would pack a lunch for the whole space family and go spend the day with them in the woods.  When she would return home, her normal Earth family would be puzzled as to where all the food went.  But she had already told them.  Her space family ate it.  My mother, Sara Jane, could fly when she was young.  She flew from her house to the library.  Or to the store.  Or to a friends house.  Just wherever it was that a kid in the 50s needed to go, she flew.  No one in the family ever disputed this.  It was always presented as a simple mundane fact of life.  One time I asked her why she stopped flying and she said it was because she got too big.  My mom was a talented artist and musician.  She could make, do or create anything she put her mind to.  She started playing piano for the church when she was a teenager and played there, with the exception of going away for college or vacations, until she died.  She met my dad, David Nelson Smith while she was in college and they got married.  She became Sara Stewart Smith but also went by Sara Jane Smith like the Doctor Who character.  They had a kid.  Me.  The house was always filled with music.  She would play piano practicing for church or some wedding.  She would teach piano to the other kids in town.  I was her worst student.  She would play current contemporary hits and TV themes.  What I remember most is her playing classical music.  I think it was primarily Mozart and Bach.  A little  Rachmaninoff.  She was a the real deal.  A real working musician.  She was a school teacher, a private teacher, played for two churches, a choir director, created holiday programs, played weddings, funerals, high school events, she wrote original music.  Everyone in a three county area probably heard her play piano at some point.  She brought comfort and joy to people.  She played the music for some the most important events of countless people's lives.  She made her part of the world better.  She flew.
• Just a few days after my mother died we lost Tom Spurgeon.  I was still in shock and it just didn't seem real to read that he was gone too. He was a titan.  He was a hero to me.  The Comics Reporter was a daily part of my life. It was my morning newspaper.  In the few times I got to see Tom in person he was so kind and encouraging to me.  And you hear that from so many people.  His death has left a huge void in comics.  No one has put a dent in it and I don't think anyone ever will.  Tom was great on Twitter too.  I found myself going through his old tweets in the mornings when I would have normally been reading The Comics Reporter and one day I just started following everyone he followed.  I just started clicking on all of them.  Tom followed almost everyone that had anything to do with comics.  And I started following them too.  I don't know why.  I guess I wanted to see what it was that he saw when he scrolled through his twitter feed.  Like, if I followed the whole of comics and fused it all together in my brain I'd have some sort of version of what The Comics Reporter would have been on any give day.  I know.  It's stupid.  But I did it.  And it was hard.  Twitter only let's you follow so many people a day.  Tom Spurgeon followed 4,120 people on Twitter.  I think I got most of them.  I think of it as "the whole of comics". I follow "the whole of comics" and it hasn't put a dent into the void Tom left. 
• So... comics.  I don't know guys.  I don't know.  What a strange year for comics.  Some great stuff came out that couldn't be celebrated with the full backing of signings and con appearances.  A lot of crap came out that probably deserved the direct market chaos it suffered.   I read a lot of comics during this pandemic. New comics that cost too much.  Old comics for $1 or less from the clearance bins.  Showcase collections.  Essential collections.  Epic collections. Years long runs of comics on Comixology.  Webcomics.  Comics posted a panel at a time on Instagram.  Graphic novels.  Etc. Etc.  A lot of them were good.  Some of them were great.  Some of them were terrible but I've got room for those too.  Some of them were even worth writing about.  I hope to give some of them their due in the... future?  Real honest to goodness reviews liken in the olden days.  But for now let's talk about...

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK MONTH YEAR PAST SEVERAL YEARS...

Eddie's Week by Patrick Dean.  Published by Birdcage Bottom Books.

Available here.

Eddie's Week by the great Patrick Dean is one of the bright spots of 2020 for me.  I've got a longer review in the works but for now I'll just say that this one of the few comics of the past decade that I've read more than once and I can't wait to read it again.  It's truly everything I want comics to do and be.  Every page fills my heart.  This is the good stuff.  It's the mundane dancing in the rain with the absurd.  Patrick's art is so alive you can hear this thing sigh.  Don't be stupid.  Get a copy. 

• But don't just take my word for it, check out Panel Patter's best of 2020 too.
• So, again with the comics.  Y'all read Savage Dragon lately... Seen any good movies lately... 

• Let's get to what 90% of comics discussion devolves to, movies.  I'm no better than any of you.  I watch the super hero movies.  2020 has been, well there was a damned global pandemic so, movies kinda didn't happen. I don't know if the industry will ever recover.  I think low budget straight to streaming may be the state of the industry for a long time.  I liked the Birds of Prey deal.  I thought Wonder Woman 1984 (or is it really called WW84?) was worse than bad.  It was boring.  The cast was enjoyable enough.  Pedro Pascal really chewed up the screen and if you took out every scene he wasn't in, you'd have a passable episode of the Twilight Zone that would still be dismissed as a rip off of the Wishmaster franchise.  The script is just bad with a couple of side dishes full of wrong.  Hard, hard wrong.  A great cast and director can't always overcome a bad script.  Sometimes a turd is a turd. 
• And before we go, let's check in on our man Francis and see how he's been doing since the last Parade-O-Links.

• Damn.  Shit got real for real. It's been a hell of year.  Hang in there buddy. 
• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're 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.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  I guess it's a law or something.