Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04282013

(Crazy Cartoon Nutsy Squirrel cover stolen from DC Comics.)

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 04282013:

"There's no easy way to say this, Shannon. You're a crazy cartoon squirrel. You always have been. It's time you knew the truth."  -Robert Newsome.

• In his occasional Comics Group Think series, Tom Spurgeon asked "In What Ways Does The Culture Of Comics Have An Impact On How Business Is Done?"  I answered.  As did several smarty pants people.  It is worth a read. Bob Temuka's response got me to thinking that, on the bright side, at least it is now easier for we the fans customers to call out the companies when their practices are not so great.  If twitter had been around when Jack Kirby was trying to get his pages back from Marvel I think he would have had them in a couple of weeks.  Maybe a couple of days.  And that in turn would have actually improved the relationship between Marvel and Kirby.  And maybe Kirby would have done more work for them.  More money for Kirby, more profit for the company and more comics for the fans customers.  So, maybe if you do the right thing you win.  And maybe if you screw over everyone you lose.  But what do I know?  I had a banana and a pack of "Toast Chee" crackers for lunch.  Food for people so broke they can't even afford their fake cheese flavored food stuffs to have an S and an E on the end. 
• Oh, and here is the smoking gun. 
• This article (which I also saw first at The Comics Reporter) about the shuttering of Graphic Smash got me thinking about the early 2000s when there was so much discussion and worrying on the message boards (message boards are how you complained about how you were wronged by entertainment products before twitter and facebook) about the best platform/model for webcomics.  And I'm not just thinking about Joey Manley and his subscription based sites.  (Shaenon Garrity talks about her experience with that here and it is a must read if you want to walk down webcomics memory lane.)  Thank God for people like Manley that said, hey, maybe we should try to figure out a way to get paid.  But I'm thinking more about the different webcomics community platforms that came and went.  There were so many different platforms that people invested so much time and money into.  "This will be the MySpace for Comics!"  "This will be the facebook for Comics!"  And we were all so frantic to get on board.  Oh the horror of all the stalls being filled in the new digital shopping mall before we got ours.  I'm sure I created a login for every upstart webcomics platform between 1998 and.... yesterday.  

(This is a Star Wars piece by Jack Kirby.  It is amazing.  I don't know where it came from or why it exists.)

• I did a really crazy thing this week.  I invested a lot of money into file under other.  I've invested a lot of time into this site over the years but not a lot of money.  But I felt the need.  I felt I had to take action.  News came that the film rights to Daredevil had reverted to Marvel and I felt like it was my duty as a citizen of teh intronets to get to the bottom of what actor should play Matt "Daredevil" Murdoch in the next Marvel movie.  So, I took a very large business loan and I hired the very best market research group that money can buy to present to you, dear readers, exactly who should play Daredevil.  The results are surprising.  I hope you appreciate the financial sacrifice my family and I have had to make to bring you this important information. 
• W.  Maxwell Prince talks to The Beat about Comixology's Submit program.  There is an increasing amount of neat stuff on there. 
• Tom Spurgeon wrote 100,000 words on MoCCA and SPACE and most all of them are interesting. 
• Valerie Gallaher made some predictions on the future of comics.  I'm doubtful of some of them but terrified of most. 
• Sometimes I forget to mention it but comic books do continue to burn in hell. 
• Drunk Iron Man will always be my favorite Doctor Who.
• Martin Pasko's favorite Doctor Who will always be Superman. 
• Todd Klein's favorite Superman will always be Joe Shuster.
• Remember how Time Warner and DC Comics Entertainment didn't acknowledge the 75th anniversary of Superman at all?  Well, Wired threw together a brief history of the feller. 
• People.  Have we ever really taken a moment to think about how bizarre it is that not only is there an ongoing TV show adaption of an ongoing comic book but there is a live talk show that comes on after that show where they sit around and talk about that show.  Is Walking Dead the most successful comics-to-television project ever?  I don't think the '66 to '68 Batman show had a Mike Douglas hosted talk show on after ever episode.  (Oh, man that would have been great.  Just imagine the cigarettes.)  Mad Men has won twelve thousand Emmy Awards and it does not have a post show talk show.  I guess my point is this; Dang, The Walking Dead is a big deal.
• You guys are keeping up with the ongoing oral history of Marvelman/Miracleman right?
• Kids like all kinds of things. 
• Here is a look at an early Carmine Infantino Charlie Chan comic.  I don't know anything about Charlie Chan but the character was apparently a big deal.  Decades of movies, TV shows, books and comics.  Crazy. 
• And some Infantino Flash covers. 
• Whenever I have a major life decision to make, like where do I want to live, I turn to Peter Porker The Spectacular Spider-Ham.
• Never read the comments. 

(They read the comments.)

• That new Nobrow anthology looks pretty good. 
• Jack Kirby made 200,000 comics.  On a single random Tuesday in 1962.  And he took that afternoon off to stand in his front yard looking awesome. 
• Gabby Schulz has posted a few new comics recently.  Great stuff. 
• Patrick Dean has a new comic for sale in his store.  "The Grizzly".  I'm excited. 
• Rob Clough covered Jon Lewis' True Swamp.
• Rob McMonigal looks at Sara Lindo's Super Lobotomy. 
• Daryl Ayo talks about that new Mark Millar thing, Jupiter's Children Legacy.  I read it too.  It was, something.  Maybe I'll get around to typing up some thoughts on it. 
• Indie wrestling fan, writer, promoter and publicist (and possibly other things) Michael "LLakor" Ryan passed away.  I did know know him or even really know who he was but I had read some of his things.  Here is a great piece he wrote about El Generico.  Seriously, go read that.  It's like a real super hero origin.  And here is a nice thing El Generico wrote about LLakor.   You can read the same writers on the internet for years and never even think to pay attention to their names.  Pay attention to the guys/gals you like.  And maybe let them know. One day they will be gone.  So will you. 
• And finally...I threw the fireball in Ronnie Garvin's face in Charlotte in February of 1987.  Now actually, we just did it because I was going on my honeymoon so that way I could get suspended for a couple of weeks.

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

Oh wait.  What?  Francis?  Oh alright.

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 06242012

(Pic of Doc from GI Joe stolen from tumblr stolen from GI Joe as viewed through the magic of Netflix.)

Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 06242012:

• HeroesCon! As I type this, (Friday night with one Old Fashioned, one Manhattan and three celery sticks crammed with peanut butter) HeroesCon in Charlotte NC is still going on and I'm sure my bestest pals are living it up and having a fine time.  (I've already seen photo evidence on twitter.)  Everything I've heard about the show so far sounds like big attendance and good sales.  I'm hearing good sales reports from dealers and that is probably the most important thing for the longevity of a mainstream show like this.   I could not attend this year but you can see my HeroesCon pre-show report here.   Sometime this coming week I'll put together a report (with help from an on location pal).  If you have pics or your own report that you would like for me to link to then send me the link.  In the meantime, you can catch a lot of great stuff on twitter under the #heroeson hashtag. 
• Oxford American had an interview with Brad McGinty as well as a great comic by Brad about moving up north.  And mayonnaise.  I miss Brad since he moved up north and I don't even live where he used to live either. 
• The year 1977 was pretty rad. 
• Comic books continued to burn in hell.
• Box Brown told us something we did not know. 
• Cake looked like a lot of fun.  I wanna go one year so you Cake people keep at it okay? 
• Gabby Schulz recently updated his website.  I think he is one of the best five or so living cartoonists in North America.  I want you to give him your money.
• Speaking of Schulz-  you probably want to go ahead and buy me a copy of this. 
• Rich Tommaso also updated his website.  After you give Gabby Schulz all your money I'd like for you to go earn some more money then give that to Rich Tommaso. 
• People!  People!  People!  Tom Spurgeon has been going through the comics he read and enjoyed during the 80s.  These short articles have been fantastic.  Some of the comics he talks about are some of my 80s faves but most of them were the comics I had only heard about and therefore coveted because I did not have access to them.  I don't really have a way to link to them because Tom is not real big on using tags, (he does not use tags at all) so, you probably just need to go to The Comics Reporter and just hunt for them.  Tom has been posting a lot of short reviews lately so that's cool.  Or, just go ahead and read the entire site.  Trust me, you do not have anything better to do.
• Grant Morrison is now a part of something called the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  I wonder if killing the Queen in The Invisibles was taken into consideration? 

• Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Chippendale's studio. 
• I'd like to announce that I'm willing to write the crap out of Daredevil right now. 
• Super short reviews:  I read Harbinger #1 and X-O Manowar #2 from Valiant and I really liked them.  
• DC has a new reader survey up.  I took it.  It was short and easy.  You should take it even if you don't read DC comics because the survey really does seem targeted at wanting to know what YOU want.  And I really want people to know what I want.  I mean, have you read this website?
• Hey, could you buy this for me and my daughter?  Thanks!
• Joey Weiser's Monster Isle has floated under the Wide Awake Press umbrella of webcomics. 
• Paul Pope + Adventure Time = happy. 
• The Walking Dead is a very big deal.  But it is not an unprecedented deal.  It was not that long ago that creator owned titles from Image were handing Marvel it's ass.  From 1992 to 2002 Image had more top selling books than Marvel did.  But then Marvel and DC flooded the shelves with event comics and dominated the sales charts with nonsense for the past decade.  So the idea that Image would regain the top of the charts is a big deal but what is interesting to me is how The Walking Dead got there.  The big difference for me between the Dead and the Image comics of the 90s is that The Walking Dead really found its audience after it made its way to trade paperback.  It was really through the book stores that The Walking Dead collections took off.  It is a book that took off and got noticed by Hollywood in spite of the direct market.   And its formula for success is in stark contrast with Marvel, and specifically Joe Quesada, who seem to have an out right contempt for the trade paperback and/or graphic novel.  Lessons to be learned. 

• And lastly, let's talk about NASCAR again.  What if 5.3 million people watched the Batmobile win a professional motorsports race and no one in comics noticed?  That's right, as I mentioned last week, NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race driving a car painted up to promote The Dark Knight Rises.  And he did not just win, he dominated the race leading the most laps.  That means that for three or four hours, the 5.3 million people that watched the race on television plus the 82,000 people in attendance were mainly looking at a Batman symbol moving at over 190mph.  And it's bigger than that.  The victory was the main story on ESPN's Sportscenter for two days.  (For the nerds: Sportscenter is kind of a big deal.)  And this is not like a TV commercial or some viral intronet horsepoop that you just ignore.  This is the thing people tuned into watch.  So, Time Warner successfully got their Batman movie promotion in front of millions of eyes over a two or three day period.  And no one in comics noticed.  I just find it a little odd.  Does the comics blogosphere only cover the Batman related news the Time Warner PR department sends them?  The comics blogosphere sure goes crazy when they get some Marvel or DC PR about some sports related comic book thing that one one reads.  I don't have answers but the thing did raise some questions.  And I'm not trying to knock the hustle of any bloggers or or comics "journalists".  I love those guys/gals.  I'm not even sure I have a point.  I guess if I had a point it would be something like, dang, comics coverage is very myopic.  But ya know what nerds, that car looked awesome and I enjoyed it.  Your loss. 

(Destro, Major Bludd and the Barroness watch as Xamot and Tomax demonstrate some sort of robot baby device developed by M.A.R.S.  Stolen from J. Chris Campbell's twitter feed.)

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.