Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01112017

(Star Wars issue 106.  Cover by Cynthia Martin.  Image stolen from Rebel Scum. )

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 weeks ending 01/11/2017.

"Look, I don’t have time for this." - Steve Ditko.

• 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've been away for a bit.  Well, I've been right here.  I've just been busy.  September through November is my busiest time of year at work.  Then after that holiday and family stuff took over.  Family first right?  But 2017 will be a big year for file under other.  2017 is an anniversary year so more on that down the road. 
• So, here we are.  My head and my heart are in knots.  I appologize in advance that this Parade-O-Links will be short on comics.  That's not comics' fault.  It's my fault.  I'm dealing with some things.  I'll get better.  For the 2nd time in the last five Presidential elections the person that received the largest amount of votes will not be our next President.  It happens.  Some people are concerned.  And with good reason.  Imagine the riots in the streets if two out of five Superbowl Championships were handed to the team with less points.  The last time this happened we invaded the wrong countries and went to war for fifteen years. So... good luck?  Look, our democracy failible.  Our democracy is fragile.  It's scary.  But one of the main reasons these United States have been safe from tyranny is that every four to eight years we have the peaceful removal and replacement of our top leader.  So whether your candidate won or lost, remember, this is temporary.  Maybe. 
• And by Maybe I mean please remember that Vladimir Putin circumvented Russia's constitution and appointed himself Prime Minister and then President after having exceeded Russia's term limits.  Again, democracy is fragile.
• Kompromat. 
• Don't take democracy for granted.  It can end.  Democracies end.  Some times by force and sometimes by will.  Sometimes they get pissed away.  

• Friends.  This isn't a political blog but I'm reporting to you live right now from the Unites States of America and this is just the world around us right now.  I know a lot of very smart people discourage artists, creative types and well, basically anyone that would like to attain employment at some point, to keep the political opinions off social media because it could be held against you and cost you gigs.  I get it. I get it.  But if we live in a country where you have to be afraid to speak your mind then we've already lost.  And personally, I don't want to work for or with people that don't respect my opinion. My mind, my glorious freaking mind, is exactly WHY you SHOULD want to work with me.  And if you're paying  me to shut up then you're wasting your money.  

 

• Guys.  I just need to take a moment to say that this webpage is doing some weird things with font that and alignment that are driving me crazy but I just don't have the patience to figure out right now.  Sorry.

• Enough about the future/end of the free world.  Let's talk about me. I recently drew a four page comic about "Handsome" Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie" Man Valiant and Magnet Man having a monster truck sumo battle for Brien Wayne Powell's Boogie Jam 4Ever. It's great.  You should buy seven copies.  Brien also has what has to be one of the longer running ongoing webcomics about Magnet Man and the Boogie Woogie Man's adventures over at Boogie Jam Online.  I've got some other wrasslin' comics in the works but they are top secret so you will have to wait to find out about them. (Or, ya know, just ask me.)
• Speaking of the word "handsome".  Does the way Taylor Swift pronounces "handsome" weird anyone else out?
• 2016 was a rough one for a lot of us.  It was a rough one for the world.  A lot of people have it worse than I do and I can be pretty miserable. There's a solid chance that tomorrow I'll wake up and my county's schools and hospitals will still be standing.  That's not true everywhere. So many have lost so much.  We focus on the death's of famous people because those folks are like our shared extended family.  There is a commonality there that we can empatize with.  I may know know you but if I know you loved David Bowie then I can understand how much it hurt a year ago when he left us.  You may not know me but if you loved Prince then I can tell you about how I bought my first guitar because of him when I was 15 and that I picked out a white one because of Purple Rain. Carrie Fisher meant so much to so many of us around the world.  She was the first girl I ever wanted to marry. She never stopped inspiring.  We need a million more of her.  Especially now. Comics also lost a lot of great ones. We will press on.  Forward.  Forward.  But don't forget. How could we?

• Those of you have been reading file under other for a while know that I usually end these posts with a video from our youtube pal Francis.  I hate to break internet kayfabe but Francis is just a character.  The man behind Francis is Steven Williams, also known as boogie2988.  I grew up in the same small town, watchin' cartoons and readin' comics at the same library.  He was a year behind me in school but I've know him since pre-school. He's a sweetheart and was always the funniest guy in the room. This past year he received one of the highest honors you can receive in video games without actually making them. I'm proud of ya' Boogie.  Ya done good.  Saint Paul High School represent!
• And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC comics I READ THIS WEEK recently.

Disney Pirates of the Caribbean issues 1 and 2 by Chris Schweizer, Joe Flood and Marissa Louise.  Published by Joe Books LTD.  $2.99.

I didn't know much about this comic going into it beyond the fact that Chris Schweizer was writing it.  I missed the whole Pirates of the Caribbean movie phenomenon at the time the films came bout because my kids were not at the PG-13 age yet.  Those movies came out during a time when I pretyt much only saw talking animal movies.  But, I'm a sucker for any movie with a boat in it so I watched the 1st movie on Netflix recently after I bought these comics at my LCS but before I read them.  I liked the movie a lot.  It had boats in it. 

I loved both issues of this comic.  I think is really lovely from cover to cover. I don't know anything about the publisher Joe Books LTD or why they publish Disney comics instead of a comic book publisher Disney paid billions of dollars for but, the books are as good from cover to cover as anything on the stands and they cost a dollar or two less.  Consider me a fan.  

Schweizer's writing is as great as I expected it to be.  Each comic is a fully realized self contained speedy adventure with a full cast of individually motivated interesting characters.  The character's speech and motivations are consistent with the one film I saw.  The wit is very sharp.  Schweizer doesn't go too many panels without a punchline. 

I was a bit dissappointed to see that Schweizer was not also drawing this book but Joe Flood does a great job.  The design is solid and pleasantly consistent with the Disney Infinity video game style that I love so much.  The real challenge with this book is capturing Captain Jack's mannerism's Flood never drops character.  

The book looks great cover to cover.  Marissa Louise is credited with the colors on the first issue and I'm assuming Flood did the colors himself on the second.  I like the style of both.  My personal preference in colors is for them to be very flat. I don't like colorists that are into rendering. I like flat colors with a bit of that enhance the light and dark of the inks.  That's pretty much the style we see here.  The pallet is a bit brown for my personal tastes but it fits the story, time and location and is consistent with the movie I watched.  Interior and night time scenes are appropriately dark but the characters still pop.  

As I said before, I really don't know anything about Joe Books or these Disney comics yet (I'll look it up eventually) but if they put out 20 more issues of this with Schweizer as the writer I'll be sure to buy them and they'll probably be the first books I read from the ol' pull list any time they come out.  I couldn't find these on Comixology so if you're interested in them I suggest you ask your LCS to snag you some copies. 

• And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad.  Francis made a friend!

• 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. 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.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03282014

(Star Wars issue 103 published by Marvel in 1985.  Cover art by Cynthia Martin.  Stolen from ComicVine.)

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 01052014 01132014 01192014 01222014  03282014

"To hell with every greedhead operator who flocked here throughout history because you wanted what we had, but wanted us to go underground and get it for you.  To hell with you for offering above-average wages in a place filled with workers who’d never had a decent shot at employment or education, and then treating the people you found here like just another material resource—suitable for exploiting and using up, and discarding when they’d outlived their usefulness.  To hell with you for rigging the game so that those wages were paid in currency that was worthless everywhere but at the company store, so that all you did was let the workers hold it for a while, before they went into debt they couldn’t get out of."  -Eric Waggoner speaking on the situation in West Virginia and/or the situations the majority of Americans are living in right this second.

• My kitty cat Choo Choo died a while back but this is the first time I've posted since then.  I still miss her.  She was the best cat.  She loved me like crazy.  She talked to me and played games with me.  She would play hide and seek with me.  Death is stupid.  One day, probably after I die (I will never die) I will murder Death.  I will murder Death dead and no one will shed a tear for that jerk.  
• I started this post months ago then things happened.  Look, I know you don't wanna know my bizness so I won't go into it.  I'll just say that almost everyone in my family has been hospitalized since Thanksgiving of last year.  So, I've been busy.  It has sucked.  Feel sorry for me.  Thanks.  Whatever.  Most of this post was written in the way back times so it will be old news to you. Also, whatever.  Look, I don't know why I didn't hit the "publish" button on this sometime back in January.  I just didn't.  Sorry.  Whatever.  Hang in there and maybe I'll get back to regular updates with more recent news.  Maybe.  Whatever. 
• Hi frequent readers.  Some of you may have noticed that I often (almost always) post videos with no explanation.  Some times that is because there is no explanation.  They are just dumb videos I liked.  Other times, they are there for a very specific reason but I want you to guess what it is.  Like, it's this game you and I are playing but only I know we are playing the game.  That way, I always win.  Sorry.  But today I want to post a video and tell you exactly why I posted it.  Below is a video from Blake Werts where he talks about minicomics.  It is great for a lot of reasons.  Werts is charming and has that cool accent.  Also, it's about minicomics and I love minicomics.  Blake shows off a bunch of physical copies of some fascinating rare comics.  (As well as some that are not rare but just too expensive for me.)  He does a very good job of making sure the viewer gets a chance to see these comics and put faces with names.  But what I like most about the video is that he is not talking to you and I the comics reader.  As someone who normally makes videos about records, he is talking to an audience that does not necessarily know anything about minicomics.  I feel like we need more of that.  We get too insular and sometimes forget how to talk to people that don't already speak the language of comics.
• And here is a follow up if you enjoyed that one. 
• Speaking of minicomics... yes, put a price on the dang things!
• Did I tell you guys about this big anthology of minicomics that I'm in that is on sell at Amazon?  Well, I am.  Go buy it.  I bought it.  I like it. It's very nice. 
• Hey guys, it's time to go register for the Fluke Minicomics and Zine Festival in Athens, GA USA.
• Oh man, sorry pals.  Fluke registration filled up in just a few hours.  Dang, I probably should have mentioned that in the bullet point up above these words.  I might be a jerk. Hey, don't cry.  They have a waiting list. I personally DID register for Fluke.  I hope to make it.  I missed the past two years.  It's going to be tight to fit that trip in since it is the day before Easter but I'm working on an elaborate plot to make my children believe that the Easter bunny has been kidnapped by Robert Newsome and the only way I can set things right is to go to Fluke.  Again, I might be a jerk. 
• Robert Newsome has a new issue of The Atomic Elbow out. 
• Josh Latta did some talking words on The Busy Creator Podcast.
• Finally a New Yorker cartoon that made a lick of sense to me.  
• Patrick Dean is the best.  Go read these comics.  Also get super excited about the privilege you will have of buying Patrick Dean comics from Recoil. Also, you can be Ant-Man.  Always be Ant-Man. 
• Brad McGinty has a bunch of super rad new shirts and stuff.  I just got a shirt and those patches.  You seriously will not believe how awesome those patches look until you hold them in your hands and look at them with your eyeballs. 
• My pal Jeremy Massie now has two issues of his All My Ghosts comic up on comixology.  You should buy and read it.  
• In a move that was surprising only in that it took this long to announce, Disney has finally made it official that they will move the Star Wars license from Dark Horse Comics to Marvel in 2015.  A date that is not all coincidental as the first Disney Star Wars movie is scheduled for 2015.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I'm a big Star Wars fan and in my own personal connection to Star Wars the Marvel Star Wars comics from 1977 to 1986 are second only to the films themselves.  Marvel did a great job with those comics but they were made years ago when Marvel was an entirely different company and there is no reason to expect that any of the people that made those great comics will be involved with the new Marvel Star Wars comics.  There is also the fact that Dark Horse has done a good job with the line as well.  And that is where one of my main concerns lies.  I would hope that talents like John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, for example,  would be welcome in Marvel's Star Wars line.  That is Marvel's loss if they are not.  And the fans' loss too I guess. 
• Who knew that when comics finally got its own mainstream celebrity comedy slow motion trainwreck it would be Shia LaBeouf?  (UPDATE:  Not really an update.  When I started this post Shia was still new news.  Old news now.  But one of the things interesting to me about the whole deal is that Shia is a guy that makes comics.  His biggest moment in the public eye however is playing a character that was created by Marvel Comics.  Spike/Buster Witwicky was created by Marvel for the comics and the TV cartoon.  Not by Michael Bay, Hasbro or any of the companies Hasbro bought the Transformers toys from.  But despite the fact that Marvel created most all of the characters of any value in the Transformers franchise, they don't get a penny for anything from those movies.  They don't get a penny for the Witwicky characters they created.  But Shia does.  So yeah, Shia LaBeouf, bane of the comics world, probably has made and will make more money off those characters Marvel created than anyone at Marvel ever did or ever will.  Shia is currently worth about $25 million.  But hey, at least we got that week or two where people in comics got to feel superior to the millionaire.  Comics everybody.)
• Hey guys, guys, guys.  Do you like looking at things that are funny and great?  Well Patrick Dean has a new tumblr where he gives you illustrated cosplay ideas. 
• Also, that wrasslin' book Patrick Dean did the cover for is out. 
• Matt Fraction wrote about alcoholism and drug addiction.
  Julia Wertz also talked about (and drew about) her issues and other things at Narratively.  And, there is going to be a Fart Party Omnibus. 
• The Doctor Who comics are moving from IDW to Titan.  I'm kinda bummed about that. I thought the IDW Doctor Who books were pretty good.  I don't know that I've ever held a Titan comic in my hands. 
• Yeah, sure, give Bill Finger a Google doodle.  Also, go read that Ty Templeton comic.
• I'd like to take second to point you in the direction of the Punching the Clock webcomic.  Mainly to point out that Jeff Manley is back on the comic after being away due to some family health issues.  I like Manley's style, he's a sweetheart of a guy and he works really hard at comics, family, life etc.  Good to see him back at it. 
• I wish all history could be delivered in a one panel Rob Ullman cartoons. 
• I feel your pain Mike.  But on the bright side, at least it's not Jessie.
• "I have learned never to engage with people I don’t already know, as you will likely be wasting hours of your time arguing with some political zealot."  Um, well, good luck avoiding the human race.  I mean, I guess it gives you more time to draw and color insane looking comics so... 
• “...the business in the direct market [the comics shop market] is a much stronger model and try as we might, we have not been able to make the comics newsstand model work for years, I don’t think anyone has.”
• That new Miracleman comic costs way too much and I'm super, super, extremely pissed that it did not come with the digital code at that price but... it's always good to hear that people are going to get paid.   
• Must have Howard Chaykin blanket now!
• I really like this Ryan Andrews comic that The Comics Reporter pointed out earlier this week.  Reminds me of Josh Simmons and Gabby Schulz.  
• This is a world where people cheer when someone gets health insurance. 
• Never stop turning the knife.  Never let them catch their breath.  Never stop kicking them until they stop trying to get up. 
• We are all going to die.
• Also dead, the internet. 
• Some good advice on 2000AD's submissions page.  "THE FIRST PERSON TO SPEAK SHOULD ALWAYS BE ON THE LEFT."
• I want to marry the Baxter Building. 
• Can't we just let this be the next Fantastic Four movie?
• One man's space garbage is another man's gold. 
• Here is a neat look at Kirby's 2001. 
• Retrofit has posted its lineup for its next subscription run.  Remind me try to get on board that as soon as I get paid.  (Especially since it was my new year's resolution.)  Rob at Panel Patter talked about Retrofit's digital expansion. (UPDATE:  I did subscribe.)
• I wanted to share a link to the interview Chris Sims had with Mark Waid but that giant transitioning link box thing at the top of Comics Alliance's webpage made me so angry I just gave up on finding the link.  The future is stupid. 
• I enjoyed this Paul Pope interview at TCJ.  I'm a big Paul Pope fan but I have not yet read Battling Boy.  I keep bidding on it on eBay and losing. Comics are very expensive. 
• So, that Alan Moore interview.  First of all, it is not an interview.  It is an essay.  Or, several essays.  And I think I'm done with Alan Moore's essays.  Alan Moore is a great comics writer.  Is, as in still IS a great comics writer.  As in, despite often acting like he is retired from comics, he is still writing new contemporary genre comics.  And he is still very good at it.  But I'm through with the essays.  Let me know when someone draws them as comics. 
• There was that day my pal Robert Venditti was mentioned in the USA Today for being a part of the new team on The Flash.  No big deal. 
• Comics art from the collection of HeroesCon founder Shelton Drumm is on exhibit about 45 minutes from my house.  I need to go to that!
• I'm excited that the powers that be have finally decided to take our money for a home video version of the Batman TV show.  I'm also excited that I can already watch the show every Saturday night at 7 PM on MeTV. 
• Listen, we're all *possibly* Frank Sinatra's son.
• And finally... I don't wanna live in a world without Nintendo.

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 03222015

(Star Wars issue 103 published by Marvel in 1985.  Cover art by Cynthia Martin.  Stolen from ComicVine.)

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 weeks month months year ending 03282014

"To hell with every greedhead operator who flocked here throughout history because you wanted what we had, but wanted us to go underground and get it for you.  To hell with you for offering above-average wages in a place filled with workers who’d never had a decent shot at employment or education, and then treating the people you found here like just another material resource—suitable for exploiting and using up, and discarding when they’d outlived their usefulness.  To hell with you for rigging the game so that those wages were paid in currency that was worthless everywhere but at the company store, so that all you did was let the workers hold it for a while, before they went into debt they couldn’t get out of."  -Eric Waggoner speaking on the situation in West Virginia and/or the situations the majority of Americans are living in right this second.

• Hello brothers and sisters of teh intronets and welcome back to Your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon Smith and I'll be your host as we get through this thing called life, electric word life and that means forever and that's a mighty long time but I'm here to tell you, there's something else... comics.
• "Dear Ms. Smith,  When will the Parade-O-Links return?  I miss it so much.  Since you stopped posting it, I've given up on comics and become a highly successful business person.  Ted Cruz wont' stop asking me for money.  It's a living hell.  Come back. Where are you?  I'll hang up and listen."  First things first, I'm not a lady.  Second things second, WHERE ARE YOU?  Next question.
• Hoo boy.  So, lots of people had beef with a variant cover for a Batgirl comic book having a drawing of the Joker doing Joker things to Batgirl. There are a lot of different points of interest in this story.  I thought it was really cool for the creative team (including the artist that drew the thing) to come out and say we don't think this one works for our book and would like it pulled.  I also thought it was cool for DC to say, well, okay.  That's just basic politeness and professionalism and points out the fact that maybe we would not have as many of these issues if the creative teams driving a book would have more input on the cover options than some marketing bro that picks out what cover theme DC will use to flood the shops with that month.  But I'm no the target audience for this stuff.  Variants don't mean anything to me.  Actually I'll say they are a pain in the ass because they make it a lot harder for me to remember if I already bought that comic or not.  More often than not, when faced with that confusion I buy zero comic. As far as the cover itself;  well, it's a horror cover.  It think it would have been fine on the Snyder/Cappulo Batman comic because that comics is absolutely a horror comic and the Joker absolutely does that kind of stuff to people in that comic.  Worse actually.  Batgirl, on the other hand is not a horror comic.  As best I can tell, it is a comic about college aged kids and their cell phones.  (Yes, I actually read it.) I can't really speak to the gender driven discussions that the cover triggered.  I'm a dude.  I've seen people say the cover is everything from the glorification of violence against women to a straight up rape fantasy.  I look at it and I see the Joker with a hostage and he is putting his red smile on the hostage.  Like the Joker does.  Like the Joker has done.  Like the Joker will do again.  I don't see blood.  There isn't any red on the Joker's hands or clothes.  My first thought was that it was paint because Joker has been painting smiles on hostages faces for a while, with, you know, paint.  He also did that in a wildly successful movie.  Another thought was that it might be lipstick because... the Joker is a clown standing right beside the hostage with red lipstick on his face.  I've talked to folks about this and they say it is blood because it looks like blood.  Well, okay.  I've also heard that it is blood because it is the Killing Joke Joker and that Joker was bloody.  Sure.  But I don't look at that and see rape.  And part of that is I just don't see the Joker as a sexual being. Look, it's a scary cover.  The Joker in his most recent film appearance and the past... decades of comics is a horror monster.  But that's the thing about art, the viewer does not have to justify their interpretation.  And that's the thing about capitalism, the customer gets to say I don't want that thing.  
• Fans cry and complain and occasionally get their way then the other fans cry and complain that those fans took away what they wanted because everything seems to be a zero sum game and we are all insane ridiculous babies.  Fans get crapped on.  Don't be a fan.  Be a customer.  The customer is always right. 
• And finally... I don't wanna live in a world without Nintendo.

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.