Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05192013

(Iron Man #49 cover by Gil Kane.  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. wrestling during the week weeks ending 05052013 05122013 05192013:

 "No one will ever have your life, so tell me what it feels like." -Grant Morrison. 

• Hello brothers and sisters.  Thanks for dropping by.  This is going to be a long weird rambling Parade-O-Links.  I write these things here and there during fleeting moments of free time then try to edit them together over the weekends.  My past few weekends have been busy.  One of my kids had pneumonia.  I was busy with work and got stuck working extra hours.  You know.  Regular life stuff.  It happens.  So, this Parade-O-Links is a combination of what should have been three separate posts.  Some of this news is old news but, in a way, these posts act as an archive or diary of my comics life so I'm leaving the old stuff in.  Thanks in advance for reading what may be a mess.  They can't all be winners.

(Left to right:  Brian Marcus, Supergirl and Jeremy Massie.  Image stolen from Cavalier Comics facebook page.)

• This month started off with another Free Comic Book Day.  I've come to think of FCBD as a holiday.  Maybe the best holiday.  Unlike other holidays, FCBD does not cost me hundreds of dollars.  I get to take my kids out for a free stack of comic books paid for by the fine comic book retailers of America.  Thanks comic books shops!  Thanks to Cavalier Comics of Wise VA specifically.  Usually, I will try to hit more than one comic shop on FCBD but this year my kids were sick so we kept things simple.  The crowd at Cavalier seemed to be pretty strong.  Maybe the most crowded I've seen it on a FCBD.  More ladies and children than I had noticed before.  My kids and I got everything we wanted from the FCBD selection and picked up a few other comics and toys. It was a very good Saturday morning. On the drive to and from the shop, we listened to a mix CD I made of James Kochalka's kid friendly songs.  (Or, basically the James Kochalka songs that don't have curse words in them.  Neigh Neigh and Woo Woo is one of my kids' all time favorite songs.)  I think their were around 50 comics this time.  My kids and I picked up around 40.  I've only had time to read a few of them.  Maybe I'll find the time to talk about those comics soon.  My mom read the Walking Dead comic and liked it.  
• The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is over.  This is most likely because I can't stand the word "Graphics" and I put a curse on it when I was a boy.  Sorry.  (It makes me think of skin graphs.  Shiver.)

• AOL, a company that once made money by mailing people "free" compact discs... apparently still exists.  But worst of all they murdered the entire staff of  Comics Alliance.  (We've not seen the bodies, but trust me, they are dead.) And it was the worst kind of murder.  Death by brand management.  In an exclusive Wall Street Journal interview, top AOL assassin "brand manager" Susan Lyne paused from chewing on the flesh of Chris Sims long enough to swear that she would personally murder every comics blogger in North America by the end of the fiscal year.   This my friends is what your death will look like. The last thing you will ever see. 

• Iron Man 3 came out a while back.  I guess it's a big deal and all.  Jim Rugg drew an Iron Man thing here.  I still have not seen it but I can already tell you that what I like most about it is that it does not have a subtitle and that the words "rise of" and/or "rises" are not in the title.  Iron Man was pretty much my favorite thing on Earth (other than Star Wars) when I was 13.  I sure knew a lot about how to make a billion dollars in the international box office when I was thirteen.  In fact, I look at the whole pop culture world right now this instant and it looks exactly like the posters on my bedroom wall when I was thirteen.  However, my tastes in movies and music started to get a bit weird when I turned 17 so get ready for some crazy stuff in 2017 ya'lls.

(The greatest drawing of all time.)

• Dean Trippe recently drew the greatest drawing of all time.  Wil Wheaton mentioned it here.  I don't know if you can see this or not because maybe facebook hates you but here is a process video thing of the greatest drawing of all time. 
• Mike Dawson drew the 100% true history of Wham!
• Tom Spurgeon went to Stumptown and wrote 100,000 words about it. 
• Doctor Venom and Cobra Commander had this crap figured out 30 years ago. 
• There is an increasing amount of good indie and alternative stuff on Comixology.  Maybe you should look into finally getting one of those computers. 
• This Infinite Corpse thing is looking good.  Some of my fave comics peeps are already in there. 
• Unless you’re Scott Kurtz. Seriously. Fuck that guy.
• Paul Pope draws books. 
• Ed Kramer, still creepy, still gross.  If you see me at a con someday, buy me a drink and ask me about Dragon Con.  

• We are all going to die. 
• I'm sad to see that Demon Knights is coming to a close.  I like that comic for several reasons.  It has Jack Kirby's The Demon it.  It's not a super hero book but it is a team book.  And mostly because Robert Venditti writes good comics.  The book has been getting better and better.  Bummer. 
• Pfft.  That's how I make sandwiches. 
• Writing about super hero comics is easier.  You don't have to explain what they look like.  They look like super hero comics. 
• Writing about this sort of thing takes a bit more work.  Because, well Jesus, just look at it. 
• Real text message from my future ex-wife on the occasion of our fifteenth wedding anniversary this past Friday.  "Thanks asshole.  I don't want to hear from u or see u today.  Got it?! GOOD!"
• Go look at these rad robot benches J. Chris Campbell made. 




• Diane Nelson now has a new guy to whom she must explain just what the F exactly she had to do with Harry Potter. 
• DC Comics Entertainment thanked Grant Morrison for carrying them around on his back for the past 20 years by making some cookies with comics are painted on them. 
• Chester Brown had a birthday recently.  Chester Brown is the best.
• I don't know.  It's hard to say really.  But in the whole of this life I've loved maybe two women.  I married one of them.  And the other, I never even held her hand.   
• Ya know Ike, if only you could get rid of all the actors.  Animation! You could pay to have someone draw the characters in!  That's genius.  Oh, if only you had access to to a movie studio THAT WAS MUTHERDUCKING BUILT ON ANIMATION!
• Adams only seems to have once really gone soft-porn.
• The great Howard Chaykin on the great Carmine Infantino. 
• I think one thing the older generations had over us was the ability to unashamedly hate someone.  We really need to work on that.  We can all do better.  Each of you, I'm calling you out, all of you, you need an enemy.  Focus!  What can you do today to make an enemy?  Maybe you have to turn heel.  Maybe you need to slap some random Eisner nominee in the mouth at your next con.  Seriously people.  When was the last time you saw someone freak out and flip a table in artists alley.  We can do better. 
• I am done with you and I feel awful. 
• Remember last year when I told you that history would mark those Kevin Keller comics as the most important comics of 2011?  I continue to be right.  Same as always. 
• Maybe you should go to Spartansburg and check out Ashley Holt's hair art. 
• New hockey comics from Rob Ullman. 
• Hateball tour 1993 Athens GA USA. 
• If you are into manga then I guess you already know about this. 
• Speaking of manga.  Sports Illustrated continues to be the leading source of comics journalism in all the world. 
• Okay, listen: I agree with the words up above that happened to make sense, but -
• Jon. Fucking. Hamm. Is. Not. A. Nerd.
• "This wasn't a fight between Star Wars fans and Doctor Who fans with lightsabers and sonic screwdrivers drawn," 
• I'm now going to type some words that may or may not make sense and may or may not be part of a cosmic spell to make the Earth's core rotate in the opposite direction every third Tuesday-  Derek Ballard is going to be drawing a Shia Labeouf written comic.   (Derek Ballard is the real deal ya'll.  This comic will be great.)
• Ballard also wrote about every comic he read in April.
• Hayhurst had been patrolling nightly for about a year before his mother saw him on TV and found out about her son’s alter ego. He said she was “a bit shocked” but accepted his nighttime gig.
• I got your voice repeating endlessly.
• Could you guide me in?
• Could you smother me?

• That time Batman stopped murder with pants.
• But still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you!
• I only got my name I only got my situation.
• I just need my number and location.
• Never ever listen to the fans.  Only listen to the customers. 
• And maybe your mother. 
• But that's it.
• Generation X is sick of your bullshit.
• Please send him an email. 
• If you live long enough you'll see all the tyrants sainted.  No one gets to sound clever by agreeing with history. 
• When you walk in the room everything disappears.
• When you walk in the room it's a terrible mess.
• And finally...Peter was such a loving dog.

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.

Take your kids to Free Comic Book Day 2010.

It must be spring because another Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 1st.  It's a big deal in my household.  My daughter's and I can't wait to go get some free comics.  You know what's better than free comics?  Nothing.  Nothing is better than free comics.  If you are fully functional nerd then you don't need me to tell you about it and I'm sure you are already planning on going to your local comic shop but I do want to yell at parents out there for  a second.  So...

HEY PARENTS!!!  Take your kids to get some free comics already.  Yeesh.  They deserve it.  However, make sure you pay attention. A lot of the companies use FCBD as a way to bring in young readers and they make some great books for kids.  Other companies use it as a way to promote their new properties to the already existing comic shop customer.  Translation, those comics are for grown ups. (And are usually terrible.)  So, pay attention.  It's just like going trick and or treating at Halloween folks.  You need to check the bag before you give little Cody his treats.  (Also, it might be a good idea to wear reflective clothing.)

To find your nearest comic shop you need to click here.

Other clicking you need to do is to go to the Wide Awake Press website and read their FCBD anthology.  It should be ready to read on Saturday and features a lot of my most favoritest people in comix.  Check it out. The preview video is at the top of this post. Scrolly with your finger and lookie with your eye balls.

Happy Free Comic Book Day everyone!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

FCBD for the Indie Hipster

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow so I wanted to mention a few things my minicomics lovin' pals should be on the look out for.

The Candy or Medicine FCBD book will be in an impressive amount of shops. You can see the list here. I'm fortunate enough to already have a copy and it is a good little introduction to this great minicomic anthology series.
I've already mentioned the WAP FCBD book here but I'll remind you again that you can download The Ancient Age for free this Saturday. Brad McGinty posted some samples and they look great.
I think my pal Jeremy Massie will have a FCBD sample version of his upcoming graphic novel at a couple of stores. His publisher, Alterna, is going to have an 80 page FCBD book that you should be able to find at your nearest comic shop and I assume it will have some samples of Jeremy's book. You can check out a preview here.

If I had the time and money to drive the kids to Charlotte I would go visit Heroes Aren't Hard to Find to check out their staggering list of guests for free.

And of course, there are the books from all the other publishers to look for. I have not had the time to check out the main FCBD site to study what will be available but I'm always happy with whatever I can get for free from Fantagraphics, Dawn & Quarterly and Top Shelf. You can check out the list here. I personally am desperate for the free Love and Rockets and Nancy books but I kind of doubt I find them in my area. So, if you see them in your store, grab a hand full and mail me one. I'll send you something cool back in return. Honest!

I always look forward to FCBD. It started the same year my oldest daughter was born and I've taken her every year. Even when she was a baby. I don't always get every book I want but she is always happy to have new comics and she will go back to them over and over and enjoy them for weeks, months and years. If you have kids and don't take them out for free comics then, well, I really just don't have any hope for you. I don't know how you can live with yourself. I hope your kids will forgive you. Someday.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

WAP FCBD "The Ancient Age" preview.

My pals at Wide Awake Press have posted a preview video of their upcoming Free Comic Book Day offering which you can read here on May 2nd. I'm a big fan of the theme and some of my favorite people are in it so I'm pretty excited. Find our more here.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

CANDY OR MEDICINE #3 edited by Josh Blair

Candy or Medicine Vol. 3 edited by Josh Blair.

http://www.candyormedicine.com/home.html

16 page black and white quarterly minicomic anthology.

Available for $1.50 here.

Josh Blair is doing an admirable job keeping this minicomics anthology going and it is getting better with each issue. Blair has an open solicitation policy so the quality of material could go either way from issue to issue. Volume three in particular is pretty strong. Not Mome or Kramers Ergot strong but pretty strong for a 16 page mini that sells for one buck in person and a dollar fifty online.

There is a charming and well drawn four pager by Eric Myers (sampled above) and a funny four page gag/adventure story by Colin Tedford. I'm also happy to see a nice one pager from Dan Taylor. There are a couple of juvenile pages that didn't do anything for me but that seems to be a constant in even the best anthologies. Like I said before, a thing like this could go either way. So far it has been on the right track and the quality has been at least strong enough to make me curious about the next issue. I think if Josh put together a best of book once every year or so that it would be a very good minicomic.

Josh also included the FCBD sampler which you can preview for yourself right here. It's not as strong as Vol. 3 but will give you an idea of what Candy or Medicine is all about and it has a fun FCBD themed cover that I like a lot. If you saw me at HeroesCon I may have given you a copy. If I didn't, that was because they were good looking little books and they went fast.

Don't forget that Josh is always looking for submissions. If you've got a few pages lying around or in the works then drop him a line.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith