Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12212013

(Masters of the Universe No. 46 (UK) .  Stolen from James Eatock.)

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 12212013:

"Cartoon Network gravy train is a bit closer to those little handcarts where you pump the handle up and down and roll down the track behind the gravy train. It's a cool replacement for a lame dayjob, but from what I've been told the pay's about the same. All things considered, I'd rather be back in the David Heatley days than wait for Adventure Time/Regular Show/Steven Universe to save us all." -Sean T. Collins.

• Merry Christmas everybody.  And if you don't celebrate Christmas then, Merry Christmas!  And I don't mean that to be antagonistic or as a way to try and convert you to my religion.  I mean it exactly for what it is.  A greeting in the tradition of the customs in which I was raised and live.  It means that I wish you and yours good health, good fortune, merriment and joy this season.  If you or anyone from any culture, language or faith would greet me with well wishes in your own custom I would accept it graciously and appreciate your kind thoughts.  Respecting the customs of another human being does not mean that you embrace those customs or that you have been submissive to them.  I just means that for about a half a second, you mustered up the human strength to be polite to someone that was trying to be polite to you.  It's pretty easy.  Shalom.  Merry Christmas. 
• Robert Newsome over at Second Period Industries has prepared some Christmas music for you to download and enjoy.  Also, he let The Robot host his most recent podcast and it is a little bit scary. 
• It is the holidays so that means the Holiday Spurge is rolling out his holiday interview series faster than I can read them.  So far I have very much enjoyed the Paul Pope and Sean Collins/Joe Mculloch interviews. 
• I don't know that I've ever read an Ed Luce comic but the stuff in this Rob Clough piece looks interesting. 
• Chip Zdarsky has a hilarious hobby and this Sex Criminals cover is magical. 
• Frank Santoro put together a list of best of lists from 2006 to 2012 because that is the kind of thing Frank Santoro does. 
• Sparkplug could use your patronage. 
• It is ridiculous how good Boulet is. 
• The great Sam Henderson talked to CBR. 
• This week, a great many comics folk learned how to spell LaBeouf. I think the guy stealing from a Picturebox about page is twice as strange as him stealing from a comic to make a movie.  We give people Academy Awards for stealing from a comic to make a movie.  (Seriously people, Diablo Cody straight up used the Dan Clowes/Terry Zwigoff screenplay from Ghost World to write Juno and they gave her a freaking Oscar!  Of course Shia LaBeouf would steal.  The Academy practically commands you to!  Jeez-Its people.)
• This is literally the first best of list I've read this year where I thought, yeah, some of that stuff is pretty good. 
• Fluke really is awesome and it will also be on April 19th at the 40 Watt next year. 
• I hope someone is keeping score.  I'm starting to lose track. 
• I'm hopeful that all of Pussy Riot will be freed and will be able to live normal quality lives. But the only way I'll watch the Olympics is if Pussy Riot plays the opening ceremonies.  (After which, I will immediately stop watching the Olympics.)
• And finally..."ones for guns, I know at one, and the other's for whenever you're shootin' off your guns you can say whatever you want". 

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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12232012

(EC Johnny Craig parody cover by the great Ben Towle stolen from the great Ben Towle.)

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 12232012:

"I know I was initially extremely perplexed by the entire endeavor, and then pretty quickly disappointed to see that they were doing this dramatic once-in-a-lifetime move, this unique opportunity to refurbish their whole line and orient it towards appealing to new readers and, rather than seeking out kids, or female readers, or casual readers, or the manga or YA audiences or even just people who grew out of the sorts of '90s-era Marvel/Image comics DC ended up publishing, they had instead set their sites on people who played the Batman: Arkham Ayslum videogames. 

And that's a big, lucrative market; maybe big enough to make the pursuit of it ultimately worthwhile. But it still perplexes me that rather than trying for a transmedia approach, trying to align their comics line with the many successful cartoons they've had on Cartoon Network and, before that, Fox in the last, God, 20 years or so now, from Batman: The Animated Series to Justice League and Teen Titans to Young Justice and The Brave and The Bold and those cute little shorts they're doing now, they instead leaned hard towards the sort of aesthetic and storytelling of those Arkham videogames, the upcoming Justice League-by-way-of Mortal Kombat game Injustice, and, to a certain, lesser, extent, Smallville. 

The "New 52" basically just makes me sad and exhausted at this point."  - J. Caleb Mozzocco.

• Jumpin' Jimminy Christmas Balls everybody.  It's almost that time.  Santa is on his way.  Unless you were bad.  Remember what uncle Buckaroo says boys and girls, "don't be mean".
• To kick this sucker into the holiday spirit I recommend you go to my pal Robert Newome's internet word posting location and download the Christmas song collections he made for you.  Not just one, but two!  Fifty fantastic songs  to get your Christmas party started. 
• And speaking of my pal Robert Newome, he done ready edited up and printed a new issue of his The Atomic Elbow wrestling zine for you to read and cherish.  This issue, number four for the fans of counting things, contains an interview with one of my favorite comics artists/cartoonists/writers/illustrators and wrestling gear designers Jill Thompson.  And some thing from Comics Alliance's Chris Sims.  And comics!  And other things.  Other things people!

(Image of a small boy choking a professional wrestler to death stolen from xpxi.com.)

• Here is a great article about one of my fave wrasslers, Danile Bryan, visiting a young boy who is battling cancer.  Watch the video too.  It's pretty great. I'm gonna use the word great a lot today.
• Since it is "the holidays", North America's greatest comics blogger Tom Spurgeon has started his series of holiday interviews.  He's up to number 6 as I type this.  I've read every word of the first 5 and they were great.  You really need to do yourself a favor and read them.  Even if you are not familiar with any of the subjects, Mr. Spurgeon, does a great job of getting at the unique perspectives that make each of his subjects interesting and each of the interviews relative to the year in comics that is coming to a close.  The Spurge gots big brains y'alls. Go read that stuff.  Now, the Spurge can't be bothered with silly intronet devices like labels and tags so I don't have one specific link to give you that will allow you to read just the interviews.  I suggest you just go to The Comics Reporter and use that little wheel thing in the middle of your mouse to scroll down until you see them all.  Easy as fruit cake. 

• Maybe, possibly, apparently, Marvel will take back the Star Wars comics line.  What's funny is that Marvel originally got the Star Wars rights for free.  Absolutely free!  This time it only cost them 4 billion give or take. (Yeah, I know, not really, but still.)  Anywho, really the only goal I have in my pathetic life is to write a Star Wars comic so, hey Marvel, you lookin' good!  Won't you shoot me an email baby?
• It's not too late to make your Maakies Christmas ornaments. 
• That time Spider-Man took out the President. 
• BPRD is burning in hell.  (Seneca's Grant Morrison impersonation is not that great.  The secret to a good Morrison impersonation is that every sentence has to sound like a question.)

• Alan Moore talked up some words at The Guardian. 
• Jeremy Massie draws Ray Bradbury. 
• One of the great things to do this time of year is go to Lattaland and check out all the great Avatards the great Josh Latta has posted recently.  Great!
• Batman gets a lot of ouchies. 
• Kate Beaton gave us a new authentic re-telling of the Cinderella story. 
• Eleanor Davis gave us a lovely story of an absolutely gross inside out nekid fox. 

(American Elf strip stolen from American Elf.)

• People I've been wanting to talk for a while about James Kochalka ending his American Elf strip.  The short version of the story is that I am sad that is happening.  It's been a part of my daily routine for years.  But I'm just being selfish.  I wish him the best.  Here is an interview about it at Seven Days.  And here is another at Robot 6. 
• Hey look, it's a new Not My Small Diary. 
• The world did not end.  Unless it did.
• A bunch of people re-imagined a Sonic Youth album cover and Henry Eudy's Love and Rockets version was the best.  (And also, in my notes to remember that for this blog post, all I wrote was "sonic rockets" and it worked like a charm.  Good job brains!)
• The great and terrible cosmic Mickey God. 

THE BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

...was Patrick Dean's Big Deal Comics & Stories Issue #12 "A Weekend at the Atwood".  And it's one of the best new print comics I've read all year.  For one thing, Patrick Dean drew it and he is just the best people.  Love every single panel.  For another thing, Patrick Dean wrote it and he is just the best people.  Love every single line.  This comic is about a ghost convention at an abandoned motel.  It turns out that ghosts really need a break from living people getting all up in their business all the time so they like to party it up in abandoned places from time to time to get away from it all.  One of the things I love about Dean's comics is the huge casts and all the distinct dialog we get from each character.  And hearing all these ghosts vent about their causes of death and the tedium of their hauntings is hilarious. "AVENGE ME! AVENGE ME! AVENGE ME! But does anyone ever avenge me?  Nope."  There are also some great gags about ghosts messing with "ghost hunters" and tapping out a morse code saying "Kiss my balls".  Good stuff.  And yeah it's all about ghosts and dead people issues so it's kind of morbid but it's fun.  Ghosts is people too ya know. 

I also read Dean's Big Deal Comics and Stories #11 "Sometimes I Think About You at Night" this week and it was just as good or better than #12.  I gave the advantage to #12 because it was newer, longer and a bit funnier but #11 might be the best Patrick Dean comic I've read.  Maybe.  I'd have to go back and re-read the whole bunch to make sure.  But it is great.  It shows another ensemble cast dealing with the anxiety of sleeping alone at night after having a relationship fall apart.  Heavy stuff but still, hilarious.  This is a comic where a giant wears the roof of a grain silo as a hat.  It does not get much better than that.  My suggestion is that you go to Dean's store and buy all his comics.  It will be the smartest thing you do this or next year.  Oh, and one more thing you should do is go "like" the Big Deal Comics facebook page.  Dean has been posting lots of great strips and stuff there. 

• And finally...Merry Christmas everybody!  Even if you don't celebrate Christmas I still wish you all the best.  Love and food and warmth and all that good stuff we all deserve.  Thanks for dropping by.

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12092012

(Best comic cover ever?  Image stolen from Diversions of the Groovy Kind.)

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 12092012:

"AMC made a serious play for DMZ but DC Comics is not interested in seeing a DMZ TV show, it seems, as this was just one of many great opportunities they shut the door on. It makes no sense for me or my agent, or anyone else, to invest time in trying to adapt my Vertigo work. It’s just not going to be allowed. It’s tough for me to accept that, but I have, and that’s the biggest reason The Massive is not a Vertigo book. It’s a real shame, because something like that can really change a creator’s life, and that of his or her family’s." -Brian Wood.

• "Ultimately it shows the retail community that, all of their pretty words to the contrary, DC Entertainment really doesn't care about any of our businesses. DC Comics, under Paul Levitz, always and unflinchingly had our backs, but that left us 38 months ago when Paul was removed from the company.  In that time, DCE has abandoned most of the policies that made it a great publisher in the first place -- walking away from creators (like Alan Moore's wishes on "Before Watchmen"), from imprints (the slow Warner's strangulation of Vertigo appears to have finally chased out Karen Berger), and now from the Direct Market."  Brian Hibbs on the past few weeks of Time Warner/DCs jerk bag shenanigans.
• Speaking of Karen Berger skipping out on jerk town. 
• So maybe we should all just support indie comics instead.  Right?

• So let's just get into it right?  Let's just lay out some stuff I think maybe you should support.  Consider this a Christmas shopping guide thing or whatever.  Here we go:
• Eleanor Davis has  a new comic.  I ain't even read it and I know it's great. 
• So does Sally Bloodbath.  Just look at that man.  Looks great right?
• Erich Orchard is always ready to draw the crap out of some stuff you need the crap drawn out of. 
• Here's a kickstarter from a friend of a friend.  The people, they love the kickstarter right?
• If you won't help SAW then who will you help?  Jerks?  You like helping Jerks?  WTF?
• And just look at all these great comics Patrick Dean has for sell.  If I had any money at all I'd send him some.
• And just look at this.  Surely you have an uncle, father or grandfather that could use some Rob Ullman drawn good girl art to keep them from just ending it all.  If I had that Dejah Thoris drawing hanging on my wall I'd make sure to never die. 
• And look at this bat poo crazy thing Josh Simmons drew.  How many mainstream comic artists are as brain smashingly terrifying as Josh Simmons?  None of them.  And you can buy his stuff. 
• And if you and yours don't have Josh Latta drawn Avatards by now then there is a solid chance that ever being cool just ain't in your cards. 
• And look at this mind exploderating t-shirt, sticker and other stuff deal brodogger Brad McGinty has.  The only way that deal could be more intense is if Brad came to your house and strangled you to death with the t-shirt.  (Federal Trade Commission frowns on that.)  And don't you even dare show up at your relatives Christmas dinner if you don't have some McGinty holiday cards for them.
• And I do things to ya know.  My kids like to eat too!  Cat food ain't cheap y'all!
• The point is, there are plenty of ways for you to get rid of that awful poisonous money that haunts your waking life that do not involve giving it to Time Warner and Disney.  There is plenty of good stuff out there folks.  Do you have teh intronets?  Check into it.  (Says the guy who later in this post is going to talk about  6 "big two" mainstream comic books he bought.)

• Dang.  Batman used to just kill people.  Made for shorter stories. 
• The horror. 
• Pal Robert Venditti talks about taking over Constantine.  One day he will write every comic and my "pull list" is going to be very expensive. 
• A very metal and electronica edition of Robert Newsome's podcast. 
• Apparently, Charles Schulz was a human being and capable of being attracted to attractive women.  (I suspected as much.)
• Gary Panter is burning in hell. 
• The Beat went a podcastin'. 
• The hipster dad went to the Jack Davis exhibit.  You should too. 

• James Kochalka talked about Super F*ckers and stuff with Chris Sims.  Kochalka's American Elf strip has been hinting that he might quit soon.  I'll be very sad about that.  Oh also, I listened to Kochalka's new album and liked it a lot. 
• Rob Clough talks about Julia Wertz new book.  I really wanna buy that thing.  I also really want a  haircut and some shoes where the soles are not falling off. 
• Forbidden Planet talks about Rich Tommaso's new book.  I really want to buy that one to.  There was a time when I think I owned all of Tommaso's stuff but he got very proficient in the past few years and I got very broke. 
• Aline Crumb at ICv2. 
• Ya know what?  I'm not even gonna link to that awful comic and its unfunny rape joke that people have been talking about.  Nope. 
• This will end in tears.  And blood. 
• Matt Fraction on John Lennon. 
• Hey kids!  Let's go shopping with Mario Hernandez.  "They stick a lot old stuff in between the new stuff so I always look for the brown spines."

BEST NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from iFanboy.)

...was as hard one to chose but I'll go ahead and go with Action Comics #14 by Grant Morrison, Brad Walker, Rags Morales, Sholly Fisch, Chris Sprouse and a whole bunch of other people.  All-New X-Men #3 was solid but I hate Marvel's colors so very very much.  Avengers #1 was awful.  Just awful.  Green Arrow #15 was okay.  Animal Man #15 was solid but I'm way past ready for this whole B list super hero crossover thing to be over with.  I even picked up Arrow #1 which is a tie-in with a TV show I have not even seen.  What?  I like Mike Grell.  Deal with it.  But yeah, Action Comics was better than all of those.  So, throughout this whole Grant Morrison Action Comics thing, the art has been a mess.  It has ranged from wretched to wonderful.  This issue is in between.  Over a year into this thing Morales and Walker have finally gotten close to settling on one face for Superman.  Close.  Not there.  Close.  And the story is all over the place.  And the stories in these things have been all over the place all along.  Grant Morrison non-linear storytelling gone off the rails.  Or, maybe not so much.  Maybe it has all been a part of Morrison's master plan.  Or maybe, he decided that since he's leaving the book he'd better figure out a way for the thing to make sense before he leaves.  And, that way is the 5th dimension.  See, the bad guy, who has been the secret bad guy since issue #1 (and who is totally not  Mxyzptlk) has been attacking Superman throughout multiple times and space.  Which, has been confusing.  But it has allowed Morrison to tell a much wider ranger of Superman stories than he normally could have in 15 issues.  It's like having 30 or so random stories from the Silver Age thrown together in no particular order.  And when your multiple art teams can't even make the character's faces look the same from one panel to the next, it can be a challenge getting the reader to go along on that roller coaster ride.   It's been an insane mess but I like it and now, without a safety net, Morrison is trying to bring it all together.  In this issue in particular we get a lot of neat things.  We get to see Harry Potter Clark Kent and Hermione Lana Lang go to the prom. We get Superman in a crazy Days of Future Past world.  We get Superman have a nice long heart to heart with Space Aunt May.  And best of all (and this is why this is the best new print comic I read this week) we get the secret origin of Mister Mxyzptlk.  And in the back up story we get another solid Sholly Fisch re-telling of that same Mxyzptlk story all over again but with better art.  Sholly Fisch is solid folks.  Have I told you about The All-New Batman The Brave and The Bold.  And Chris Sprouse does a nice job as well.  And... the colorists get to use more than just brown and grey which makes this better than every comic Marvel has published since, what, Civil War?

• And finally... Francis walks us through the new You Tube changes.  Apparently, You Tube would prefer if we never watched videos on You Tube again.

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

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.