Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 04282017

(The Savage Dragon #34 1996.  Cover by Erik Larsen.  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. during the week ending 04282017.

"The takeaway here, as I see it, as that there is no lack of customers for periodical comics, and there’s no lack of passion and energy for the format, and that there is no indication that “casual” readers won’t be interested in purchasing periodical comics (A big chunk of those “Saga” readers, like the “Sandman” wave that happened two decades before, are not normal and traditional “Wednesday Warriors”, yet there are still stoked to buy periodical comics!) – but that Marvel (and DC, largely) have harmed their own sales and chased their own customers away. There’s a problem when I sell 160 “Saga” and 16 copies of “ASM”… but this is problem of Marvel’s making over the accumulation of time." -Brian Hibbs.

• Guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys!!!  The world is spinning at 1000 miles per hour and we are all going to die!  The future's so bright I gotta wear a radiation suit!  Doomed!  Doomed!  What can save us?  Comics?  Don't be ridiculous.  Of course not.  Nothing will save us.  There is nothing left to do but, ya know, whatever you feel like doing I guess. Me?  I'm going to go to the Fluke Mini-Comics and Zine Festival in Athens GA this Saturday, April 29th.  It's going to be great.  Robert Newsome, Patrick Dean and other people will be there.  Other people!  Come find my table.  I probably won't be at said table.  I'll be walking around blabbing my mouth off about professional wresting or guitars or some other nonsense but that's okay.  Just leave a huge stack of cash on my table and take whatever you want.  It's gonna be great I tells ya.  I can't wait to hear about how great you think I am.  Thanks in advance! 

• Hey.  Are you super depressed about the world and clinging to comics as your chance for escape and/or inspiration?  Well good news, comics are super depressing too!  One of the things about comics currently giving me the sweet sweet butt hurt is Marvel's new "Digital Edition" policy.  To explain why this bothers me so much let's go back to my tender youth, way back to the year 2012 when the first The Avengers movie was on the big screen and the Avengers vs X-Men (AvsX) miniseries was on the comics stands.  At that point about the only mainstream comic I was reading was Savage Dragon but my daughter was just getting into comics.  She liked The Avengers movie ans she loved old X-Men comics so we bought AvsX.  It came with something that was new to me, the Digital Edition codes.  You could redeem these codes and read the comic you bought online or on your cell pad pod phone. You could also link your Marvel account up with a Comixology account and read them in the Comixology app.  It was around this time that the family first got cell pad pod phones so my daughter and I really dove into the Comixology app thanks to the digital codes.  The best thing was that I could buy the paper comic (because I'm an old man who loves paper) but my kid could read the same comic digitally without me buying two copies.  This.  THIS.  THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE PREVIOUS TEN YEARS got me back into going to the comic shop, starting back a "pull list" and buying ongoing Wednesday floppy comics again.  My daughter and I bought stacks of them.  And thanks to the digital codes we could read them anywhere any time.  And if the last comic we read made us curious about something we could pull up related issues on the Comixology app and buy those too!  (You can't do that anymore by the way.  Amazon killed the store feature in the Comixology app because they hate making money or something.  Again, always be super depressed.)  So yeah, it was good times.  It was a brilliant offering from Marvel and I spent years yelling at other publishers to follow suit.  Only Dark Horse tried.  DC offered a version where the comic with a digital code costed more.  That was stupid and awful and embarrassing for everyone.  But the Marvel deal was good and like all good things some stupid jerks would eventually decide to make it go away.  Recently Marvel has replaced their Digital Editions with a digital code where YOU DO NOT GET THE COMIC YOU PAID FOR.  Under the previous system, if you bought five Marvel comics in one week you got a code for each of those five comics you paid for. Now, you do not get the comic you paid for.  Instead each week's shipment of Marvel comics all have the same three promotional comics.  So, if you bought five Marvel comics, you just got three digital comics, none of which are the comic you paid for.  Let me say that part again; in the past, if you bought 100  Marvel comics you got 100 digital comics.  Today, if you buy 100 Marvel comics in one week you get three digital comics.  The digital comics in question are generally the first issue of something that has recently been collected in a trade paperback.  So these comics are not a promotional tool for you to buy more digital comics, or to return to your comics shop and add a comic to your "pull list".  These are comics promoting you to by a trade paperback. Or, to put it another way, if you are a regular Marvel customer, these are comics you already own. This my friends, is a situation I refer to as total bullshit. So, here's the thing;  Marvel, I love you.  I love your nutts.  You are a big part of my life.  For years and years.  Stop making it so hard to be your customer. 
• Sigh.
• And again with the Marvel... Let me just say this as open advice for all creators; Take risks.  Be bold.  Shake things up.  Challenge your audience.  But remember, if you have to explain it, you probably already failed.  And, more importantly, remember that you do not get to tell your customers how they should feel about it. 
• Again with the Marvel part 3;  Every time I read an article like this it occurs to me that we are just one Disney executive saying, "Wait, we still publish paper comic books?" on a conference call away from the whole freaking  business being tossed into the crapper or the top characters licensed out to the highest bidder.  A publisher that is not Marvel now publishes the Frozen comics.  If Marvel can't be trusted to make money off the Frozen phenomenon why would you trust them to be able to make any money off Ant-Man or Doctor Strange?  Because they did six decades ago?  Good luck with that answer on the next investors call. 
• Also, FDR Democrat Steve Rogers forever. 
• Can there still be good news in comics?  Can there still be something to get excited about?  Yes.  Yes there can.  I'm excited about Alterna Comics' new line of newsprint comics for several reasons.  For one thing, they're gonna be super cheap with a $1.50 cover price.  And one of the series, Amazing Age, is created by pals Jeremy Massie and Matthew David Smith.  I checked out that comic in its original webcomic form and liked it a lot.  Those bros are the solidest of bros so I'm excited for what I believe is going to be a breakout book appealing to a new audience that may have missed their other stuff.   And, arguably most importantly, Smith has confirmed that the newsprint in his comp copies smells great.  The books start rolling out next week.  I'm not familiar with many of the other creators but at $1.50 I'm sure to check them out. 
• Hey.  Do you like comics?  Do you like guitars?  Do you like comics that are guitars?  I recently built a Stratocaster using the Carmine Infantino drawn issues 14 and 15 of the original Star Wars comics.  It's probably the coolest guitar on Earth.  Maybe you wanna check it out. 
• When it's time to comics we will always comics hard.
• It was twenty five years ago several days ago Sergeant Malibu told his band to play.
• Tom Scioli's new Princess webcomic is pretty rad.  Also, that Transformers vs. G.I.Joe The Movie comic he made is bonknanners. 
• Ain't no party like a wizard battle party cause a wizard battle party don't stop until one of them dies and the other wizard creates a hyper sigil making people focus on the number of rapes in the other wizard's comics instead of their valuable contributions to the medium. 
• And finally... Francis gave up candy for your sins.

• 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 01232017

(Captain America #344 1988.  Cover by Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom.  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. during the week weeks ending 01232017.

"Brutal. The guy likes being the top of the heap and he likes staying there. He’d be an all-term president and probably serve as vice president and most of the cabinet too. Except secretary of agriculture. Bane has no interest in where his food comes from. Only that it’s hit when it arrives. Or someone will pay." -Chuck Dixon on what President Bane would be like.

• 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.  Last week was pretty crazy huh?  But here we are.  We made it.  Most of us.  Saturday was an inspiring day.  Millions of people around the world making their voices heard.  Millions standing together.  I didn't march anywhere.  I took care of my two daughters though so that has to count for something right?  I'm not a woman (spoiler) but I am a dad and I tell you this, kids notice.  Kids notice when women or minorities create their favorite comic books, cartoons, music, movies and video games.  They notice when people stand up for themselves or others or for what they believe in.  They notice when people march for a cause.  They notice and it shapes their reality.  The reality where it wasn't impossible no longer exists the second they see the one where it is possible. Much thanks to all of those that fight the good fight.  It's bigger than you know. 

• Lots of talk this week about "breaking into comics".  I guess everyone on twitter had the same new year's resolution to finally get their act together and get paid to make comics.  There were some good tips in there and some decent jokes.  I recommend Robert Venditti's testimony on the subject.  I don't know how to group tweets together or whatever but you can find his story of how he "broke into comics" on his twitter feed.  He has what I think is an ideal comics career; mainstream work with multiple publishers as well as creator owned work.  Read his story for yourself but the short version of how he built that career is that he 1) worked hard and 2) he put himself and his work in physical proximity to world of publishing.  You might make it with either one of those two things but I doubt you make it without doing both.  Especially the work.  Even if you get lucky, and fool your way in, without the work, it will catch up to you.

• The Dollar Bin's Adam Daughhetee and company are making a documentary on comics creators that will include Laura Martin, Sanford Greene, Van Jensen, Joey Weiser, Andy Runton and others.  The production blog has started here. 
• Now you can easily make sure that everyone you know is aware of your feelings about Josh Latta. 
• You comics folk are all reading Grant Morrison's The Savage Sword of Jesus Christ in Heavy Metal magazine right?
• Bane creators support Trump.  I'm pretty sure Chuck Dixon has supported all the Republican presidents.  I support Chuck Dixon Punisher and Batman comics but was kinda bummed out by Chuck Dixon Green Arrow comics.  I vote against Chuck Dixon Green Arrow comics.
• Whenever the question is "where have I seen/heard that before" the answer is always comics. 
• I bet the average day for cartoonist Shia LaBeouf is a lot different than most cartoonists. 
• ABPN.  Always be punching Nazis. 
• And finally, our man Francis bids a fond farewell to 2016...

• 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 09182016

(2001 A Space Odyssey issue 10.  Cover by Jack Kirby 1977.  Image stolen from Kevin Metz. )

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 09182016.

"Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs - unless good is very, very careful." -Dr. Leonard H. McCoy.

• 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 have to start this episode off with an apology.  I know most of you woke up Sunday morning, got out of bed, shared breakfast with your non-gender specific significant other, read the Sunday funnies then logged on to the internets to read the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links like all good humans do but you were then horrified to find that the Parade-O-Links was not there.  I'm sorry.  I got busy.  And today's Parade will be short.  Let's call it minimal.  That makes it sound more intentional and less like failure.  All I can do is say that I'm sorry and promise that I will always disappoint you frequently.  I spent much of the weekend at the annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion  on the VA/TN state line in Bristol. It was neat. Crowded, but neat.  Lots of hillbilly hipsters.  Hipbillies. Craft beer, craft crafts, foods on sticks,  country and bluegrass upstarts, country and bluegrass legends.  It was a good time.  And look, country music ain't my thing but I appreciate it when it's good and there was plenty that was good.  I recommend it.  The highlight for me was seeing blues legend Buddy Guy perform.  He was fantastic. 

• This weekend the indie comics and small press world turned it's lonely eyes to the Small Press Expo (a.k.a. SPX) in Bethesda, MD.  I didn't go.  I haven't been since they moved to the lotter for their table reservations.  My number just hasn't came up. And, as much as I'd like to attend, September and October are busiest months of the year for me.  But, lots of folks whet and I saw some neat things on the old twudder and instacrack.  I'm sure we'll see some reports roll in this week.  I can't wait to see the best pictures of people cosplaying as the carpet or as those two old horror movie looking architects in that painting everyone takes a picture of.   The Comics Reporter has your Ignatz winners.  I was hoping that Gabby Schulz's Sick would win because it is one of the best comics I've ever read. I hadn't read most of the nominees because minicomics are a wierd regional kinda thing and graphic novels are too expensive. 

• Speaking of comics shows, Adam and Shawn of The Dollar Bin have part 2 of their DragonCon adventure.  Part 2 of their podcast focuses on the comics related part of the convention.  The fact that you can do a podcast on the comics related part of DragonCon shows that the show has improved a lot in recent years.  When I lived in Atlanta, it was just a cosplay show with comics shoved in corner of a basement.  I remember one year when Carmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz, Darth Vader and Chewbacca were crammed into a space in the basement about the size of a Ford Focus while upstairs, in a huge convention room, literal porn stars had 8 foot tables to themselves. But, from listening to The Dollar Bin, it appears that things have improved and that DragonCon may indeed be a show worth checking out for comics enthusiasts and creators. The episode also has a great story about Shawn meeting the great Jim Steranko.  (ABS.  Always be Sterankoing.)
• We are all going to die.

• A lot of talk the past few weeks about Raina Telgemeier's new book Ghosts.  Most of it high praise but a little bit of negativity.  I haven't read it.  I am not a child.  Also, graphic novels = expensive etc.  My comic reading kids kind of jumped from Archie to Kate Beaton and manga before these YA graphic novels were really a thing so that window was missed by my household.  My youngest reads Yo-Kai Watch manga.  I gotta say, it's hard to get them to give american intermediate or young adult graphic novels when they've already been introduced to books that are vastly more visually stimulating.  I've tried.  It's not my fault.

• There are a lot of things I've enjoyed while file under other was on hiatus and I hope to get to a lot of it throughout the rest of 2016. One thing that I've been really pretty lousy about pointing out are the webcomics I enjoy.  Pals Jeremy Massie and Matthew Smith have a new comic online called Amazing Age. They are now up to a 1st issue's worth of pages so it's a good time to check it out for before the next pages roll out.  Page one is here. 

• And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST Pretty Good NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK


Doom Patrol (volume who knows because publishers don't even keep track anymore) issue 1 by Gerard Way, Nick Derington, Tamra Bonvillain, Todd Klein and several other people.  Published by DC Comics.  $3.99

The reason I struck through the word "best" in the header above is because I think I only read one new comic this week and calling a thing the "best" when you only sampled one of them is kind of silly.  But it's a pretty good comic.  I enjoyed it. I should enjoy it because the thing is pretty much made for me and/or my offspring. I'm a 90s Grant Morrison acolyte and this thing is essentially a tribute to Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and Invisibles but made for current teens like my kids.  It's kind of like The Batman Adventures version of Morrison's Doom Patrol.  And I think it's perfect that DC has put Gerard Way in charge of this thing and this Young Animal line of comics because Grant Morrison may have very well invented Gerard Way.  Some of the youngs might not know about this but, in the 90s, we had rock star comics creators.  No, they were not comics creators that were actual rock n' roll performers, but they were creators that carried themselves, portrayed themselves and were treated much like rock stars.  The Image guys were like west coast American rock stars.  They had expensive cars, they hung out with rappers and sports stars and did TV commercials.  But the DC Vertigo creators were the cool UK rock stars with the black leather jackets, combat boots and tight shiny pants. Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison were the prototype for Gerard Way.  He is their dream become manifest. He is a literal rock star making comics.  Which, also gives me a chance to repeat one of my favorite jokes; "How do you break into comics?  Become moderately successful in any entertainment field other than comics, then ask." 
And please don't think I'm dismissing Gerard Way here.  He's doing good work in this comic.  He has history with Morrison and has clearly done his homework.  All the right references and hints and teases are there.  This comic feels like the Netflix re-boot of your favorite old TV show.  It's mostly a new cast but they brought back enough of the old faces to make it feel like a family reunion.  There are panels where my Grant Morrison-fan reflexes kicked in and my "hey, they're ripping off Morrison" alert went off and I had to remind myself that it is supposed to do that.  
Derington's art is fine enough.  Kind of a stripped down kid friendly version of what you would have expected to see in a 90s Doom Patrol.  A Philip Bond or Cameron Stewart might have been a better fit but it's okay.
My fourteen year old daughter likes My Chemical Romance.  She's in the high school band and they play one of their songs.  She want's to read this comic.  Grant Morrison, your creation has succeeded. 

• And finally... Francis likes a girl that's like a cheeseburger. 

• Remember pals, life is hard.  Read comics every day, chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until your 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 03242013

(The Avengers #4 from March 1964.  The month my Uncle Buddy was born.)

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 0342013:

 "Take a lesson from Watchmen and come up with new characters for that stuff. And then go back to Superman and Batman and put the same kind of love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve been putting into all those rape scenes and body mutilations into something kids can read, and adults can also be proud to read because of all the love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve put into it, and make those the “real” versions."  -Roger Langridge.

• My uncle, Eugene Stewart Jr., passed away this week while on vacation in Mexico.  He was a good uncle.  A good man.  I think everyone that knew him considered him a friend.  He had been a lot of things to a lot of different people.  Paper boy, delivery boy, small business owner, banker, mayor, golf buddy, poker buddy, son, brother, father and grandfather.  His nicknames were Bud and Buddy and he was a good buddy to a lot of people.  He took my cousins and I to movies, putt putt, go karts, amusement parks and golfing.  He was very sharp and very funny.  He loved to laugh.  He was one of the only adults that I knew growing up that listened to rock n' roll.  He showed me how to play a Van Halen song when I got my first guitar.  When I wrecked my car last year, he showed up on the scene out of nowhere, made sure I was okay and did all the talking when the sheriff's deputy showed up.  Of course the deputy knew him.  Everyone knew him.  I was lucky to know him and have him for an uncle. 

Eugene Stewart Jr. probably getting ready to help out at the family paper.  Several years ago.  Saint Paul, VA.

• Remember last week when I told you that SPX would sell out instantly?  Well, I was sort of right.  It would have but it exploderated first.  I did not try to register because I"m broke but I watched it through twitter like a blacked out sporting event.  SPX handled the ordeal with a lot of class.  Because of course they did. And for the record, I come down firmly against curation.  Let some other show be TCAF south.  Let SPX be SPX.  (Well, maybe give former Ignatz winners an early shot at a table.)  
• We are all very old.  I think I had less than ten of those comics when they came out but I think I've read all of them by now. 
• Those Al Plastino Peanuts comics that might have been.  
• And more on that from Ben Towle.
• Twist the knife.  Keep twisting and twisting and twisting and maybe one day you'll forget that there was once a soul where that black thing lives now. 
• I'm ready to be the next former writer of a very important DC comic.  Call me. 
• Rob Ullman sticks it to the man.  
• That time Superman punched his pregnant wife into outer space. 
• There is a new The Atomic Elbow on sale.  The first four were great so this one is probably a winner. 
• Grant Morrison on ending his run on Action Comics.  I read it.  I liked it a lot.  Looking forward to re-reading the whole run as soon as I can find the time. 
• If you want to get all the books with drawings of penises in them out of the school libraries then you're going to have to take away the notebooks of every 10 to 18 year old boy in America.
• One of the standard comment responses you will see whenever someone talks about giving Steve Ditko what is owed to him for Spider-Man is that Ditko would not want the money anyway.  Can I just say, that assumption is based on the myth of Steve Ditko.  We don't know the reality.  And it's not our call to make.  It's not the point anyway.  The point is that Marvel/Disney should do the right thing.  Not the legal thing.  The right thing.  Do it.  They could stack up the money in a big pile like in The Dark Knight and let Ditko come in and burn it all for all I care.  Just do the right thing.
• George Lucas on Al Williamson.   
• In one shot of that new Teen Titans Go promo, the girls are wearing bathrobes, Beast Boy is in his underwear and Robin is naked with some mud or something covering his naughty parts.  What is going on in Titans Tower?
• Thanks to Ben Towle, Adam Daughhetee and everyone else that posted, tweeted, etcetered about fuo and the Parade-O-Links last week.  This week's installment is minimal at best but I'm sure you all will understand that there are times you have to step away and put family first.  
• And finally...we don't pay attention to any of her bullshit rules now.

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 03032013

(Image stolen from the Lattaland tumblr.)

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 03032013:

"And the strange thing about that, and the strange thing about the whole strip, is that it’s definitely true. It’s autobiographical, but it’s also fictional. But that means my actual real life is becoming fiction if I am saying lines for the idea of getting a response. So suddenly my strip is autobiographical, but my real life is fictional. [laughs] And then, towards the end, there’s this weird feedback loop too, because I’m putting it up online, and I’m putting it in the newspaper, and I hear responses back from people, and make adjustments to my life based on reader reaction. I mean, that is insane! So I began to feel like I was trapped in some sort of strange dimension where nothing was real. You know it’s like the philosophical question of are you a person, or are you butterfly dreaming they’re a person? Are you a brain locked in a box on some distant planet being fed stimuli?"  -James Kochalka.

Achewood Television Trailer One "Hello, world" from therussians on Vimeo.

• Let me just cut to the chase pals.  The most important thing you are going to get out of this week's Parade-O-Links is that I'm going to tell you to go read the 2nd installment of Tom Hart's book about his daughter, "RL Book 2".  You should also read "RL Book 1" if you have not already.  
• Apparently March 24th is going to be Mini-Comics day.  So, go make a minicomic.  What's stopping you?  (I prefer "minicomic" to "mini-comic".  The hyphen is against the minimalist nature of minicomics.  And also it is stupid.)
• AdHouse presents Jim Rugg's front runner for 2013 cover of the year. 
• Speaking of Jim Rugg, Faith Erin Hicks told him, Ed Piskor and Jason Lex something they did not know. 
• Josh Latta takes a look at that book about John K's Ren and Stimpy. 
• Here is a great story about trading rare records for some R. Crumb art. 
Black Pus - 1000 Years from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.
• Sad news from Josh Blair as he announces that Candy or Medicine will come to an end.  If you want to make the last issue, the deadline is April 15.
• Small Press Expo has moved its registration to March 17th.
• Fluke and Autoptic also had press releases which I shared here. 
• Okay, here is the thing about my twitter feed.  Or two things. 1) I follow back almost everyone that follows me.  I'm nice.  Most of the people that follow me are in or around comics in some way.  BUT, when you unfollow me, I unfollow you.  2) Most of what I post here in the Parade-O-Links is stuff I found on twitter.  As in, stuff the people I follow have posted on twitter.  As in stuff that was not posted by people that have unfollowed me.  (Because I wouldn't know because I'm not following them anymore.)  Just saying. 
• Okay 2, Marvel and your representatives that surf teh intronets-  I am the customer.  The customer does not give a single solitary sack of crap if you met your "metrics" or not.  In fact, the word "metrics" makes us HATE YOU.  Don't say that crap to your fans customers or in a forum where you should know your fans customers will pay attention to what you are saying.  Ever.  What we want is for you to give us easy access to books as good or better than your competitors at a price we can afford.  That is because we are customers.
Female Super Hero Fan Film from Jesse V. Johnson on Vimeo.

• Here is part three of that Marvelman history thing The Beat has been running.  
• Neil Cohn dissects Eddie Campbell's "rules" with some interesting info on how your eyeballs work.
• Hey look, it's Julie Doucet. 
• The Comics Reporter interviewed the great Richard Sala. (My daughter really wants a sequel to Cat Burglar Black.)
• Robert Newsome's latest talking and music thing has a fun interview with a guy from a possibly fictional place called "Britain".  I learned some neat things about "British" television and "sport".  (Also known as "sports".)
• Okay 3, I made a note to share with you some links to some things Sean T. Collins wrote about webcomics.  They were good things worth reading.  But now, all I can find when I search for it is a huge red cloud with the word "vorpalizer" in the middle of it.  Down below it are words that may be good but they are scrunched down there and it makes my head hurt.  So, ya know, I tried.  I tried. 
• Sean T. Collins also wrote a thing about the latest issue of Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated.  I can read that because it is on Wired.  You can too.  I will add that Morrison's Batman got screwed at a lot of points along the way.  Probably not intentional screwing but just bad timing.  For one, right from the start he got screwed by coming starting hid run at a time when 100% of the hype was focused on the Frank Miller/ Jim Lee catastrophe All-Star Batman.  Then he had to carry DC comics on his back has he swam through the river of fire that was 52, Final Crisis and Flashpoint.  Then once he was finally doing his thing for real with Batman Inc. he got shut down by the New 52 and had to re-start the thing nine or ten months after the newness of the New 52 had worn off.  Being vastly successful is hard y'all. 
• But enough about Grant Morrison, let's talk about Grant Morrison...

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Newsarama.)
...was either going to be Uncanny X-Men #2 or Batman Incorporated #8 because they were the only new comics I read this week.  Uncanny X-Men was good.  I'm enjoying these Bendis X-Men comics a lot and thanks to those digital codes that come with them, my daughter is enjoying them on her iPod touch thing.  Those Bendis X-Men comics seem to come out like, every day so it has already been an impressive run.  The best X-Men comics I've read since Grant Morrison's New X-Men.  But this issue of Uncanny was just talking so we will go with Batman Inc. #8 by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, Nathan Fairbairn and several other people as the best comic of the week.
Also, because it was the best comic of the week.
Chris Burnham gives us 22 pages of super cool post Moebius/Quitely/McCarthy super hero punch up with the flying and the zooming and the whoosh and the crash and the bizzap and the boom and even some bam sok whap.  Burnham keeps enough detail in each panel to make it feel like the characters are real enough to bleed but his anatomy looks like it was taken from action figures so his fight scenes always have poses just a few lines away from being comical.  Right on the edge where I like it. There will come a day when you can't buy a monthly Batman comic drawn by Chris Burnham and that will be unfortunate.
And while Jason Master's line is not as funky and cool as Burnham's he does a good job keeping the storytelling style in place during in his fill in pages.
The story is a continuation of the war between Batman and Talia al Ghul that Morrison has been building for about six years now.  There have been some bumps in the road.  Some major distractions.  Batman died.  The whole DC Universe died.  The New 52 happened.  Batman Inc. was on hiatus for about nine months and then before it could build it's momentum up, issue #3 was delayed by the horrible shooting in Aurora, Colorado.  But by issue five or six, things were falling back in place and it has become clear to me, that Batman Inc. is the best comic DC is publishing.  Scott Snyder's Batman got to hold that title for a year or so and it will probably retake it when Morrison is gone but right now, at this moment, this is as good as DC gets at making comic books.
Morrison and crew give us so many great moments in this comic.  This comic is Robin/Damian Wayne's comic book and everyone else is just supporting cast.  We get Damian flying in bat Iron Man armor.  We get Damian taking out little kids because he's a little kid and he can do what Dick and Gordon can't.  We get Damian schooling the other Robins on how what is really at stake with this villain because only he understands this villain.  Because she's his mom.  And, we get little kid Damian fighting a giant grown up cloned version of himself.  Most of which takes place in one amazing 20 panel page.

SPOILERS!

Duh.

And he dies.

C'mon people.  If you had been reading the comic you knew he was going to die.  And if you were not reading the comic then, bug off, why would you possibly care?  And yeah, it is lame that DC chose a publicity stunt over letting the timing of the death be a surprise but, welcome to mass entertainment.  It sucks okay.  Of course it sucks.   It sucks that something that was building for six years became a press release.  It sucks that a character that does the one thing mainstream comic book characters never do, grow, will be remembered as that day everyone went on twitter rants against DC.  Yeah.  It sucks.
But it does not change a single line or single word on the page in what is a perfectly good Batman comic book full of running and jumping and punching and fighting.
The kid was always going to die.  For a lot of reasons.  For one, it's Grant Morrison's character.  Sure, other writers gave Batman his son but Morrison made this character.  And dealing with this character has been much of what Morrison's Batman has been about.  And like Aztek, Morrison was never going to leave this character for other writers to screw up.  And Batman just can't have a son forever because the reader always wants the story where the next generation takes over.  And Batman is never going to let the next generation take over.  He's Batman.  Or as Morrison himself explained, "what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?"
So as far as comics deaths go, I feel this is a good one.  The PR cheapened it but it's a good death.  It does suck because Damian was a lot of fun, but it's a good death.
And it does raise some interesting questions.  This comic specifically is full of images of a child being beaten and eventually killed.  It also shows a child beating up children.  It is harsh.  Super hero comics have always had that weird history of children in violence.  Children reading about children in violence.  But the world is violent.  Super hero comics are still mostly unrealistic adults fighting unrealistic adults.  In weird costumes.  In the real world, children shoot and kill children on the streets of Chicago.  Children are forced to fight as soldiers in Africa.  Hundreds of thousands of children are fighting as soldiers right now.  This is who we are as a race right now in the year 2013 on planet Earth.  As parents, the human race has failed.  We are the bad parents fighting each other and forcing our children to fight and die in our battles.  Batman's failure here is our failure.  Batman's whole life is about stopping crime but he just can't stop punching people.  And Batman tries desperately to keep his son from the violence but the son was born into this violence.  Batman's violence.  Our violence.  The children suffer for the parent's sins.  It's sad and it's harsh but that's who we are and that's who Batman is.
I'll miss Damian.  He had a pet cow and liked to play with his pet kitty cat.  He was alright. 

• And finally...  She don't leave the house is what I'm tryin' to say.

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 02142012

(All-New Batman The Brave and the Bold #16 cover by Rick Burchet. Image stolen from DC Database.)

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 02142013:

"Case in point: the legal language on both sides re an ongoing relationship after the settlement is signed. The gist: the Siegels won’t say anything bad about DC. The Siegels agree to make public appearances at DC’s behest, where they will then praise DC. They won’t make any other public appearances or say anything about Superman or the case without DC’s written consent. If they want to publish a biography, Time Warner gets first dibs so it can control whatever goes in print.  If anyone asks the Siegels about Superman or the case, they will refer the questioner to DC. When Superman goes into the public domain, they are the only people in the world who can’t do anything with the character.  You want to understand how Joanne Siegel could turn away millions of dollars? That’s it, right there."  -Jeff Trexler on the sad end to the legal fight for Superman.

• Happy Valentines Day brothers and sisters that care about that kind of thing.  I hope your day gives you everything you want but only 15% more than you deserve.  (Don't be greedy.)  It is still Ash Wednesday as I'm typing this.  I loves me some Jesus.  I'm going to try to give up french fries and negativity for Lent.  The french fries are because I need to lose some weight.  The negativity is because I need to lose some negativity.  I'll still be honest.  If something is garbage, I'm gonna tell you it's garbage.  Facts is facts y'all.  But I'm going to try to be more upbeat about the potential of things.  And this going to be very hard without my french fries.  I loves me some french fries people.  The fries are going to be harder to give up than the negativity.
• Loyal devoted readers of the Other Comics News Parade-O-Links may have noticed that today is not Sunday and that I never posted a new Parade-O-Links this past Sunday.  Sorry.  I just couldn't do it.  I tried.  Most of this Parade-O-Links was compiled and/or written before last Sunday but I did not get the the post up.  Time was not on my side.  The Rolling Stones are liars.  But, that's okay because that was the past and it is gone and now is the now and because the now is after the past, the now gets to includes some other interesting things that happened after the past.  Let's get to those things.  Shall we y'all?
• So.  Positivity right?  What happened in comics last week?  Oh yeah, Time Warner/DC Comics stuck it to the Siegles and the Shusters again.  And again.  Well, there goes my whole giving up negativity for Lent thing.  Dang you to heck comics!    
• But hey, don't let the fact that wife of Superman's creator went to the grave living under the threats of an army of lawyers funded by a bazillion dollar international corporation ruin your Valentine's Day.  I mean, they still make Superman comics after all.  Heck, Grant Morrison (the best Superman writer since Alan Moore ended Superman in 1986) still writes Superman comics.  Oh wait, he's not gonna do that anymore.  He talked to CBR a bit about the whys and hows of his departure.  "I think the best thing that it's done ultimately is to get rid of that weird emo Superman that was around for a long time. He was constantly fighting against using his powers and was kind of angst-driven. There are so many great characters in comics that are angst-driven that we don't need Superman to be one was well."  Indeed.  Die emo Superman die.  And hey, don't get down about Grant Morrison not writing Superman.  Time Warner's DC Comics "content creators" can always hire some guy that is actively trying to deny gay and lesbian Americans the same rights other human Americans have.  Yeah, that's gonna work out great right?  (Dear DC, I'm ready to be the next replacement writer on your online comic, print comic, whatever.  Holla at me y'all.)
• And speaking of creators leaving.  How about that Don Rosa exit letter?  "Why I Quit."  Hoo boy, a laugh riot that one.  
• Look, let's take a deep breath and think about Don Rosa, Jerry Siegle and Joe Shuster.  Let's think about what kind of "lessons learned" we can take away from this.  Here's what I get out of it.  Let's say you want to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist.  If you live in the United States of America and you have talents, skills or, worst of all, ideas, you need to take all of that and put it in a box.  Now, find a cave.  You need to go to the deepest darkest part of that cave and dig a hole.  Somewhere between three and six feet deep depending on the density of the ground.  Put that box in that hole and cover it up.  Now, leave the cave.  Go find a nice park.  Maybe it has some pigeons or ducks you can feed.  Sit down on a bench.  Now, here is the tough part, but remember, you said you wanted to be a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist.  Now, I want you take a pen, pencil or knife and jab yourself in the eyes.  I know that is a major commitment to the dream but you want the glory right?  Now, live the rest of your life broke and blind on that park bench.  Congratulations, you are a world famous American comic book creator or cartoonist!  Enjoy the pigeons and ducks.
• Dang.  This sucker went south quick didn't it.  Hang in there brothers and sisters.  We can turn this ship around.  You know what I like to do when I need to bask in the radiance of happiness and joy?  I like to go to Lattaland.  Surely, Josh Latta will have some nice things for us to look at.  That guy loves him some Valentine's Day cards.  
• Oh, and speaking of Valentine's Day cards.   If you need to take care of some last minute bidness then look no farther than J. Chris Campbell's free Valentine Card you can print out.  Unless of course you don't have a printer.  In that case, sorry, there's always Saint Patrick's Day. 
• And speaking of love and stuff, Robert Newsome's most recent music and talking thing was full of all the best (and/or worst) love songs ever.  I'm listening to it right now.  
• Oh, and another thing that makes me happy when I'm thinking about sad things like dead/blind/broke creators (and/or how my wife kicked me out of the house and Valentine's is gonna suck) ... is monsters.  Wouldja just look at Patrick Dean draw them monsters!
• We all love Sergio Aragones.  Except for jerks.  
• And we love Girl Scouts making comics!
• He was born nasty. 
• Jog talked about why he is Jog and what makes him Jog and what makes Jog him. 
• People!  Would you just look at that H. G. Peter Wonder Woman art!  The best I tells ya. 
• Okay, I don't even have an opinion on this Eddie Campbell piece but it's a good read.  I mean, go read it for sure but if you end up wasting a couple of days of your life writing an internet blog post rebuttal to the thing or lose your job because you spent a whole week arguing in comments threads, don't blame me.  Comics is dangerous y'all. 
• In a shocking turn of events it has been revealed that Fredric Wertham was not just a jerk bag but he was also a lying jerk bag. 
• Hey kids, The Ink Panthers are back!
• And Comic Books continue to Burn In Hell. 
• Gary Groth tells us something we did not know. 
• Jill Thompson on a wrasslin' podcast.   And speaking of Jill Thompson and wrasslin', she has an interview in the most recent issue of The Atomic Elbow.  You should buy that. 
• "For your info.. she jumped on his shoulders/ blocked bullets and broke his neck… and yes his tongue slobbered on her XXXXX. That’s ANT bro. Are you serious? In the following panel.. where she is running…Ant don’t run bra." 
• Again, dear DC Comics content creators, I am also ready to write Green Lantern for you.  I go hard son. Get at your boy. 
• I never get tired of happy Bill Mantlo pictures. 
• Did I mention Gabby Schulz's hourly comic thing in my last Parade-O-Links?  Well, here it is again anyway because it is great. 
• The anniversary of the great Jack Kirby leaving this Earth was last week.  You should seriously go look at all these great posts about his animation career. 
• Don Heck yeah!  
• My Delores is still around.  I see her in Food City from time to time but I'm afraid to make eye contact.  Her husband weights 300 pounds. 
• Since it's Valentine's Day, let's see what Chris Sims has to say about love.  He's an expert on love right?  Or maybe it's comics. 

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Comics Alliance.)
...was My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #3 by Katie Cook, Andy Price, Heather Breckel and several other people.  Published by IDW.  I'm still catching up on my comics reading after multiple snow storms kept me from the comics shop.  I've torn through a good pile of comics in the past week and I enjoyed this one as much or more than any of them.  IDW make really solid comics.  Almost too good.  The paper is way too good.  The art and writing are better than they need to be. All they had to do to get me to buy two copies of this thing for my daughters was put My Little Pony on the cover. Thankfully it is actually a comic I can read and enjoy.  There is a lot to chew on in this thing.  The story is dense.  The layouts are dense and have a gag in every panel.  All those characters crammed into an actual plot and Katie Cook pulls it off.  This is a comic where the ponies are off on a quest to save something or other from scary black ponies and the Pinkie Pie pony just happens to be carrying around costumes of herself and the other ponies.  Pinkie Pie dressed up in a giant Pinkie Pie costume is funny people.  And Andy Price is nailing this stuff.  Every panel crammed full of laughs. Imagine if licensed kid's comics from your youth were good.  This is that comic.

• And finally... I'm Black Canary you're Green Arrow.  When I hop on my bike it means let's go. 

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.

Into the Supercontext part 64: IAMTHEINVISIBLEFIRETHATWORKSINSECRET

(Images stolen from Pah, Funnybook Babylon and A Moment of Morrison.)

IS ALL NOW LOVE.

"IT ALL TURNS OUT IN THE END"

"Things are catching fire now.  Osiris has left the building.  The Cross is deserted.  No Bosses except Level Bosses.  Get out of my room, Dad!  Horus is here; in the form of two uncanny, indestructible 12-year-old twins from Burma.  In the forms of the Anti-Capitalist riots in London and Seattle.  In the form of Keanu in The Matrix.  In the form of Edger kids rejecting the drugs of the Spectacle, spoiling for a fight.  My generation called these highly-charged solar winds "punk" the last time they rode in on the 22-year sunspot cycle.  This is a good time for change and novelty.

I've shown you mine.  Now show me yours.

I anticipate fireworks."

Grant in excelis.

Glasgow, Aquarius 2000.

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.