The lost con photos: HeroesCon 2014

(My kids running the Crooked Finger Press table.  Rich Tommaso on the right .)

So... I was recently (in the year 2021) trying to find some old photos and realized that I never posted this con report from 2014.  So here it is, I don't think it's even finished but after seven years I may as well let it fly.  Enjoy. 

In the long ago days of June 20th through June 22nd 2014, thousands of comics enthusiasts gathered together in Charlotte NC for America's most beloved comic book convention, HeroesCon.
I've been an exhibitor at HeroesCon many times in the past but this year would be different as I would be taking my family with me.  I had told my 12 year old daughter Kassidy that if she finished a full length minicomic that I would print it up and take it and her with me to Heroes Con.  She met the challenge so we decided to make a sort-of family vacation out of the trip to Charlotte.
We left for Charlotte on the Wednesday before the show.  Usually, I would just make the four hour drive down from southwest VA the morning of the first day of the show and spend the weekend in a sleep deprived fog.  I gotta say that driving down well in advance is great and a major stress reliever. 

(The hotel hallway was very long.  I walked to the end to make sure that it was real.  When I got there I found an old man in a bed.  He looked like my grandfather.  It was full of stars.)

As this was a family trip we decided to stay south of downtown in a more family friendly hotel.  And by family friendly, I mean a hotel with a swimming pool.  I like the hotels in downtown Charlotte fine.  The beds in the Westin are super nice.  But none of those hotels have swimming pools.  Last I checked the Westin did not even have free wifi.  Hell, the Westin does not even have free parking included with the price of your room.  Kids, they need swimming pools and wifi.
We stayed at a Residence Inn and it was super nice.  The room was huge with a full kitchen, couch, bar, desk etc.  The hotel had swimming pool, weight room, hot tub and a gas fire pit.  Loved it.  I would miss getting drunk with pals in the Westin lobby but I wouldn't miss it enough to give up the hot tub and the fire pit. 

(Planet Snoopy at Carrowinds is totally related to comics and therefore should of course this photo should be in a HeroesCon report.)

I've been to Charlotte many times but the only thing I've ever done there is go to the convention center and some surrounding eateries.  We didn't want this trip to be just about sitting at a comics show so we let the kids pick out something to do the day before.  We ended up choosing Carowinds.  I was super happy with that choice because I love roller coasters so very much.  My youngest daughter, Alana, is 7 so this was her first amusement park visit where she was tall enough to ride all the fun rides.  She had a fantastic time.  The first thing she said at the end of almost every ride was "can we ride it again?"  My wife and older daughter also had a nice time but I think they would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had not been 96 degrees that day.  It was hot.  Not gonna lie.  It was super hot.

(I grew a tail.  You know who else has a tail?  Rocket Raccoon and Rocket Raccoon is in comics therefore of course this photo belongs in a HeroesCon report.)

(My understanding is that this is a photo of a giant stuffed dinosaur dressed up as Spider-Man.  Relevant!)

(Obligatory we-are-in-the-Carolinas-so-here-is-a-picture-of-Dale-Earnhardt's-car picture.)

(The Crooked Finger Press booth.  Also known as Shannon Smith's table on Indie Island as ran by Alana Smith and Kassidy Smith.)

(Kassidy Smith shows off her first full length comic Hula-Hoop Girl.)

(Best bros forever.)

(Patrick Dean, Shannon Smith (a.k.a. me) and Brad McGinty.)

(These are happy people waiting in lines.)

(Brad McGinty talking to a dude in a luchador mask because comics.)

(Kids could bounce under Spider-Man's crotch.)

(Patrick Dean and Henry "our most beloved" Eudy.)

(Alana decided to get in on the act and sell some pony paintings.)

(My daughter is now a T.A.R.D.I.S.  Thanks a lot HeroesCon.)

(We out Scoob.)

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03072021

 

(Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14. August 31, 1982. Cover by John Romita Jr. with John Romita Sr.)

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 03072021.

• Hello sisters, brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shano and I'll be your host.  How are you doing?  How was your week?  I'm okay.  I have a headache but it's not raining so I won't complain. I'm in a state of spring fever anticipation.  The sun is out.  The sky is blue.  The mud is starting to dry.  I'm anxious for it to be spring but it is still cold AF and we all know that it's not safe to do things when it is cold. Your limbs could snap off.  But it should get warm and maybe we'll get a vaccine and maybe we'll get that stimulus and then, who knows, comics con season is right around the corner right?  Everything will get back to normal right?
• Wrong.  Better luck next year Comic-Con. 
• WandaVision ended the way all MCU movies end, with digital cartoon versions of the characters flying around shooting energy beams at each other.  It was fine.  Eh, better than fine. It was emotional.  I think that's the strength of TV.  Your talented actors get several weeks to engage the audience and make the audience care about them so when you finally get to the digital cartoon battle at the end the stakes are higher.  This is certainly the most emotionally invested I've been invested in live action Marvel since Howard the Duck and Tim Robbins got on that ultralight aircraft. I thought the series was great with fantastic performances by Olsen, Bettany, Hahn and Pariss. Unlike movies, TV shows work, often in spite of their writing, on the strength of their cast and this show worked.  I'm sad it's over.  Also, I'm a little surprised it's over.  I was surprised to see it promoted as the series finale and not just the end of Season 1.  I guess these MCU Disney+ shows are all just miniseries? That's a bit disappointing.  I'd honestly prefer if they stayed with this format even if they never made another movie. Some folks were even more disappointed with the finale. While the series as a whole exceeded expectations the finale could not live up to promises real and imagined.  Marvel will get a pass on those imagined expectations.  Going in, I expected that maybe this series would be the backdoor to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the multiverse or any number of possibilities.  Marvel didn't owe us any of that specifically. But there were promises the show made that it either didn't stick the landing on or just totally forgot to make the attempt.  You can't bring in an actor from a film franchise you purchased and not understand that your audience will expect a payoff.  You can't tease a Luke Skywalker level cameo and it just be one of your lead actors in different makeup.  Well, you can.  And they did.  But don't be coy when your audience is upset about it.  You've got 82 years of Marvel comics history to pull from so don't let lack of ideas be your downfall.  Teasing us has been a profitable business model for 13 years but the audience is eventually going to call your bluff. 
• I think the one thing we can all agree on is that it was a catastrophic misstep not to end the series with the white "Vision Quest" Vision strutting down a city street to the sound of Queen's "One Vision". 

• I also watched this week's episodes of the DC shows, Superman & Lois and The Flash.  I thought Supes and Lois was slow and boring.  The Flash was more interesting but tedious.  The simple truth of television is that the show works or doesn't work depending on if the audience connects with the cast.  That's really it.  The Flash's cast has proven it can return viewers despite comically bad writing.  Can Supes & Lois overcome it's writing?  Probably not for me.  I've got episodes of The Savage Dragon to watch on Peacock. 
• A lot of this week's "comics discourse" was centered around NFT and CryptoArt.  I'll post a link explaining it clearly as soon as a find one.  As it relates to comics, the question is, how bad is this going to exploit and screw the comics artist and which comics artists can be the first in line to be exploited and screwed.  Same as always. Rinse repeat. I don't understand it but it reminds me of one Saturday afternoon at a comic book convention in the late 90s.  I was a dealer at the time. I remember standing up and looking at where all the business in the room was happening.  I looked at where cash was changing hands. At that moment it was trading cards.  There was a moment where comics trading cards were very hot.  And it in that moment it hit me right between then eyes.  Comics were over.  At least as they had existing.  We had people in a room full of comics, ignoring the comics and handing over cash for a piece of cardboard that delivered a tiny glimpse of the comic.  We had put the delivery mechanism over the art.  The 90s comics boom ended.  We've never gotten back what we lost.  Will NFT destroy.... the internet?  Capitalism?  We can only hope!  Will it help destroy the environment?  Yeah, probably. 
• Some cartoonists dream of getting rich, others just want the literal torture to stop. 

• Jason Horn has launched a new Patreon for his space comic "Settle" and it look super rad.  I'm in.
• Jason has also been posting some neat DC comics house ads on the twudder so give him a follow if you know what's good. 
• File under Wrestling:  This is not comics or zines but it stuff you can read with your eyeballs.  I probably read more wrestling than I watch. Remember in The Lost Boys when Grandpa Barnard Hughes explained that he didn't need to watch TV because he had the TV guide.  I'm kind of the same way with television wrestling.  I'll skip the shows then read about them the following day to see if anything interesting happened and then I'll check out those specific matches or segments on YouTube or the streamings.  Colette Arrand has been responsible for most of the best wrestling writing online in recent years and now Arrand is the editor over at fanbyte so "business is picking up".
• I'm sure you guys are smart and follow Patrick Dean right?  He's getting better and better at drawing with his eyeballs. It's only a matter of time before he can shoot art directly from his mind into our minds. 
• In other comics/zines/Fluke organizers dudes from Georgia news, Robert Newsome broke his arm. Look how happy it made him.  Maybe we should all break our arms.  I'm sure he'll be fine but that's no reason not to go buy some of his quality zines. 
• Let's check in on our Carolina Man abroad and see how well Germany is adapting to Ashley Holt. 
• More Dorkin is more good. 
• I too am a sucker for a wacky cover and a Dave Letterman cameo. 

NEW COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

I still haven't made it to the comic shop but I'm working my way through a two foot high stack of books, comics and zines I've bought online during the plague. This week I read "The Burning Hotels" a memoir by Thomas Lampton from Birdcage Bottom Books. This auto-bio comic shows the cartoonist dealing with a lot of stuff.  On the surface it's about returning home and taking a closer look at your roots but it's also about divorce, autism, North Carolina, Appalachia, being a cartoonist, making the book itself and dealing with all of that during this very real and current pandemic.  It feels very of the moment and reads as if Lampton first considered each word as it was put on the page.  There is some neat drawing but I would say that Lampton's strength is in iconography.  This characters work as symbols more than drawings.  The art is working as a part of the writing though and that's the goal.  Or at least it should be the goal.  The result is more design heavy than drawing heavy.  There are art comics that are expression heavy and there are art comics that are design and function heavy.  This book is that latter.  My only complaint with the book is that Lampton changes font sizes from panel to panel. I'm sure it was a matter of presenting each panel at its best ratio to work with the rest of the page but I'm loosing my eyesight so I had to work at some of the panels.  

OLD COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

I think I'm through with my Vision and Scarlett Witch run for now.  I finished the original two miniseries and the related West Coast Avengers stuff.  Not great comics but weird enough to finish.  I might go back to the "Vision Quest" story next (John Byrne's white Vision) but I'm going to take a break from the Wandaverse and finish up some other things.  I'm still on my orange, brown and green hero books Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad.  I've also been re-visiting Jim "the most successful creative mind in Hollywood history" Starlin's Dreadstar. I was a big fan of the ongoing Epic comic when I was a kid but I've started at the beginning before the beginning and the beginning before that, "The Metamorphosis Odyssey" and Marvel Graphic Novel #3.  Those comics look very different than the ongoing Epic series.  For one thing, they are mostly painted.  Even when they are black and white.  It's simply the difference between late 70s early 80s adult comics magazines and 80s monthly direct market baxter paper comics.  Great stuff if you are into hardcore sci-fi fantasy. This stuff has been collected a few times.  If you want to star with the earliest stuff then the Dynamite collection "The Beginning" has that covered. 

• And finally, Francis is sick of carrying your ass. 

Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp gum 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.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  Maybe if 100,000 of you follow me there I'll be as famous as the average Cambodian teenager with a milk ring collection. 

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02212021

  (Vision and Scarlet Witch #12 1986. Cover by Richard Howell and Joe Sinnott.)

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 02212021. 

• Hello sisters and brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shano and I'll be your host.  I still want this to be an every week thing but things are things and times are times and I mean, half the country is frozen and the other half is waiting in line for the cure or the sedative or their $2,000.  Sometimes I start these things and just abandon them.  One minute I'm in the zone giving you "THE CONTENT" you need to feel alive and the next I'm just... what do I even do?*
• (*I have a job, a family, a bunch of pets and several guitars.  That's what I do.)  
• Looking at that Vision and Scarlet Witch cover up above.  Man, the 80s were wild AF right?  "At last! The moment you've been waiting for! BIRTH!"  And inside the issue is titled, "Double sized climax!"  Don't we all want to see Vison have a double sized climax? 
• Speaking of Vision and Scarlet Witch because, let's be honest, that's all that matters now in comics/tv/Earth/Milky Way, this week's episode of WandaVision gave us what it was obviously going to give us but it still felt like a surprise.  Years of giving us Easter eggs with a wink and a nudge and then forgetting about that stuff forever has given Marvel the ability to show us what they are doing with a very hard, literally visible on screen, wink and a shove and we're still like, "I don't know guys, it might still be Mephisto and not the lady with a similar name to one of the primary characters from Wanda's comics history."  And part of it is that the first two waves of the MCU were very much THESE ARE MOVIES AND THEY ARE THEIR OWN THING AND NO WE DON'T ACTUALLY READ THOSE COMICS SO SUCK IT NERDS but now it seems that we are firmly in the Bongwater Age of Marvel Comics. They used a Jim Starlin idea and it became the most successful movie of all time so anything goes I guess.  Still, they're going the full Steve Englehart now and I never thought they'd go that far.  This is deep cut Bill Mantlo territory we're getting into now and I'm more excited about how weird it might get than anything we've seen in the movies.  
• Also, it still might be Mephisto. 
• And Dottie's gotta be somebody too right?
• And which one of these people is Agatha's cat? 
• And Franklin Richards is in that basement somewhere too right?
• Guys!?

• In our continuing coverage of WandaVision and only WandaVision, last week's episode was the one we've all been waiting for where we get to see the characters dressed up as the comic book characters they are based on for Halloween.  They went with homemade costumes which reminds me to remind you that, like most things, Patrick Dean did it first and did it better. 
• We lost S. Clay Wilson. His work isn't for everyone but I loved the way he drew. 
• And Si Spencer.  Death is the worst. 
• Imagine getting to work with the sum total of the creative output of thousands of people over 83 years and you decide to shoot the thing in sepia tone. 
• My pal Robert Venditti has made a lot of great comics over the past decade.  If I had done a better job of posting here at file under other I would have told you about how great his Hawkman run was. He has a new comic out soon called Tankers and they made a promotional video that you guys just have to see.  It's the probably the best comics promotional video I've ever seen.  I'd just post it here but I couldn't figure out how so just pull the link of their twitter post. 
• When not riding around in a tank, Robert Venditti is also writing some new Superman comics that should hit a very specific sweet spot for a lot of us.  Another thing I would have told you about if I was better at "blogging" is that Rob has knocked out a lot of great Superman comics over the past few years through the DC digital stuff, the Walmart giant books and a really great short run on Justice League.  This should be good stuff. 
• In other "my pals make good comics" news that I would have mentioned if I were better at this, our man Rob Ullman continues to make great sports comics over at DK Sports. 
• How every classic super hero looks to me if they don't have their trunks. 

• "Lightning Whisperer". 
• Which one of you was asking for more Spawn?
• There's another Stan Lee book. This one recounts the hilarious tale of how he wrote The Wizard of Oz while fighting Orcs in Middle Earth. 
• If you're a colorist and you don't know well now you know about Rico Renzi's Color Jams twitter handle where color peeps from 'round the globe take their shot at re-coloring classic comics art. It's a fun follow even for a guy like me that isn't even sure he likes colors that aren't fiesta red.
• Also from my twitter feed, Aaron Meyers reminded us about the guy that created Venom for $200.

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Normally this is the part of the episode where I talk about the best new comic I read lately but I haven't really read any new comics since the last time we hung out.  There is a plague going on and it is winter and everything is cold and gross and I have not driven to the comic book store in a while now.  Tom McHenry still reads the comics so maybe check that out to fill the void in your soul.  Don't worry, I'm still reading old comics though.  I'm still on my orange and brown costumes kick reading 80s and 90s Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad collections.  I've also been reading Scarlet Witch and Vision centric Avengers comics from the 80s because all that matters is Wanda, Wanda, Wanda.  Guys, we need to have a good long talk about Steven Englehart.  Those comics are bonkers.  There is one issue where the West Coast Avengers beat the Grim Reaper because ol' Reapy calls his black villain partners "Spades" and they get pissed at him for being racist and leave.  The 80s y'all.  It's all worth it though because Vision talks about "making love" to his hot wife even before they get the notion of having kids.  The most important thing to know about Vision is that Vison gets it on.  Also Captain America gives his witch friend, Scarlet WITCH, an old book of Druid spells as a honeymoon present.  What could go wrong?  The fuck were you thinking Steve? 

• And finally, are you afraid to leave your house? Don't worry, our boy Francis is here to tell you how to get rich as a real gamer.

• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp gum 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.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  Maybe if 100,000 of you follow me there I'll be as famous as the average Cambodian teenager with a milk ring collection. 

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302020

(Sensation Comics #104 from August 1951.  Cover by Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs.  Stolen from dc fandom)

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 week weeks months years ending 12312020. 

"Mainstream comics, despite any appearance to the contrary, are enormously socially conservative. And it’s clear to me that I’m a bit of an embarrassment to comics in general and comics fans in particular, who seem to be afraid their girlfriends will find out they might have an erotic thought or two.  I’d suggest they talk and listen to their girlfriends a tad more than they do."  -Howard Chaykin.

• Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets cell pad pod phones and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon and I'll be your host.  It's been... a time.
• Hey Shano where have you been man?  WTF dude?  Holy crap dude?
• Here.  Just here.  And other places.  You know.  Life and stuff.  I mean...  Where were you?  That's the real question. 
• On November 10th of last year, 2019, before the plague, my mother died. Without warning.  Totally fine.  Enjoying retirement.  Enjoying being a grandmother.  Enjoying the house she just re-modeled and moved into a year before.  Enjoying her two little dogs.  Living life then gone.  I haven't talked about it much.  I'm her only child.  My father passed away, also without warning, in 2013 so it was just me with a lot to do.  A lot to take care of.  And then the plague made it all more complicated.  This is not a complaint.  This is just facts.  It's been hard. It's still hard.  2020 has been hard for most of us. 
• My mom was born on August 10th, 1951 in a forgotten world called America. Her name was Sara Jane Stewart.  She had two older sisters and two younger brothers.  She also had an alien family that came to Earth in a spaceship and lived in that spaceship in the woods.  She would pack a lunch for the whole space family and go spend the day with them in the woods.  When she would return home, her normal Earth family would be puzzled as to where all the food went.  But she had already told them.  Her space family ate it.  My mother, Sara Jane, could fly when she was young.  She flew from her house to the library.  Or to the store.  Or to a friends house.  Just wherever it was that a kid in the 50s needed to go, she flew.  No one in the family ever disputed this.  It was always presented as a simple mundane fact of life.  One time I asked her why she stopped flying and she said it was because she got too big.  My mom was a talented artist and musician.  She could make, do or create anything she put her mind to.  She started playing piano for the church when she was a teenager and played there, with the exception of going away for college or vacations, until she died.  She met my dad, David Nelson Smith while she was in college and they got married.  She became Sara Stewart Smith but also went by Sara Jane Smith like the Doctor Who character.  They had a kid.  Me.  The house was always filled with music.  She would play piano practicing for church or some wedding.  She would teach piano to the other kids in town.  I was her worst student.  She would play current contemporary hits and TV themes.  What I remember most is her playing classical music.  I think it was primarily Mozart and Bach.  A little  Rachmaninoff.  She was a the real deal.  A real working musician.  She was a school teacher, a private teacher, played for two churches, a choir director, created holiday programs, played weddings, funerals, high school events, she wrote original music.  Everyone in a three county area probably heard her play piano at some point.  She brought comfort and joy to people.  She played the music for some the most important events of countless people's lives.  She made her part of the world better.  She flew.
• Just a few days after my mother died we lost Tom Spurgeon.  I was still in shock and it just didn't seem real to read that he was gone too. He was a titan.  He was a hero to me.  The Comics Reporter was a daily part of my life. It was my morning newspaper.  In the few times I got to see Tom in person he was so kind and encouraging to me.  And you hear that from so many people.  His death has left a huge void in comics.  No one has put a dent in it and I don't think anyone ever will.  Tom was great on Twitter too.  I found myself going through his old tweets in the mornings when I would have normally been reading The Comics Reporter and one day I just started following everyone he followed.  I just started clicking on all of them.  Tom followed almost everyone that had anything to do with comics.  And I started following them too.  I don't know why.  I guess I wanted to see what it was that he saw when he scrolled through his twitter feed.  Like, if I followed the whole of comics and fused it all together in my brain I'd have some sort of version of what The Comics Reporter would have been on any give day.  I know.  It's stupid.  But I did it.  And it was hard.  Twitter only let's you follow so many people a day.  Tom Spurgeon followed 4,120 people on Twitter.  I think I got most of them.  I think of it as "the whole of comics". I follow "the whole of comics" and it hasn't put a dent into the void Tom left. 
• So... comics.  I don't know guys.  I don't know.  What a strange year for comics.  Some great stuff came out that couldn't be celebrated with the full backing of signings and con appearances.  A lot of crap came out that probably deserved the direct market chaos it suffered.   I read a lot of comics during this pandemic. New comics that cost too much.  Old comics for $1 or less from the clearance bins.  Showcase collections.  Essential collections.  Epic collections. Years long runs of comics on Comixology.  Webcomics.  Comics posted a panel at a time on Instagram.  Graphic novels.  Etc. Etc.  A lot of them were good.  Some of them were great.  Some of them were terrible but I've got room for those too.  Some of them were even worth writing about.  I hope to give some of them their due in the... future?  Real honest to goodness reviews liken in the olden days.  But for now let's talk about...

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK MONTH YEAR PAST SEVERAL YEARS...

Eddie's Week by Patrick Dean.  Published by Birdcage Bottom Books.

Available here.

Eddie's Week by the great Patrick Dean is one of the bright spots of 2020 for me.  I've got a longer review in the works but for now I'll just say that this one of the few comics of the past decade that I've read more than once and I can't wait to read it again.  It's truly everything I want comics to do and be.  Every page fills my heart.  This is the good stuff.  It's the mundane dancing in the rain with the absurd.  Patrick's art is so alive you can hear this thing sigh.  Don't be stupid.  Get a copy. 

• But don't just take my word for it, check out Panel Patter's best of 2020 too.
• So, again with the comics.  Y'all read Savage Dragon lately... Seen any good movies lately... 

• Let's get to what 90% of comics discussion devolves to, movies.  I'm no better than any of you.  I watch the super hero movies.  2020 has been, well there was a damned global pandemic so, movies kinda didn't happen. I don't know if the industry will ever recover.  I think low budget straight to streaming may be the state of the industry for a long time.  I liked the Birds of Prey deal.  I thought Wonder Woman 1984 (or is it really called WW84?) was worse than bad.  It was boring.  The cast was enjoyable enough.  Pedro Pascal really chewed up the screen and if you took out every scene he wasn't in, you'd have a passable episode of the Twilight Zone that would still be dismissed as a rip off of the Wishmaster franchise.  The script is just bad with a couple of side dishes full of wrong.  Hard, hard wrong.  A great cast and director can't always overcome a bad script.  Sometimes a turd is a turd. 
• And before we go, let's check in on our man Francis and see how he's been doing since the last Parade-O-Links.

• Damn.  Shit got real for real. It's been a hell of year.  Hang in there buddy. 
• 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.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  I guess it's a law or something.

The best comics of 2018.

Here are the three best comics from 2018. Brad McGinty’s “Romantic 3D Sci-Fi Nightmare Goes to War No. 2”, Patrick Dean’s “Eddie’s Week” and Josh Simmons’ latest “Jessica Farm” minicomic. Sorry if you wasted your time making a list before I posted this.

A post shared by Shannon Smith (@shannogram3000) on Jan 9, 2019 at 7:06am PST

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 05142017

(Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1  #44 1994.  Cover by Kevin West and Steve Montano.  Stolen from Marvel Database.)

(Side note; That cover makes it look like Yondu is wearing one of Donald Trump's neckties as a belt.  Alternate joke; That cover makes it look like Yondu's little Yondu wears a necktie.)

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 05142017.

"A good artist can save a bad script--a good writer can never save a bad artist.
Thus, it's a collaboration, usually an even split in effort, despite the protestations of the management representative class, who have been sold a bill of goods by a number of writers, and who have a vested interest in the maintenance of the delusion that comic book artists are tools, unfortunately necessary parasites present to illuminate the writer's concept.
Those of us with long term careers, particularly those of us like me, who write their own stuff, draw other people's stuff, and write stuff for other people to draw, know and respect this collaborative balancing act as the genuine reality of our field.
Anything else is smoke and bullshit."  -Howard Chaykin

• 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.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that have ever mothered.  You did it.  You created life.  That's a hell of a thing. Good job. 
• The comics family lost one of its champions recently. Mr. Tim O'Shea has left us after a long and valiant fight with cancer.  I only met Tim in person a time or two but he was just the nicest most sincere guy and he was one of the first people in the comics press to give any sort of attention to so many creators in the small press and self publishing.  I'm going to take the liberty of stealing from Patrick Dean's facebook post about Tim because it sums up my feelings perfectly; "Tim O'Shea was one of the first people to report our early FLUKE mini-comics shows. He and his son would show up, buy some mini-comics and chat with everyone about whatever projects they were working on. At CBR's Robot 6 blog, he wrote a lot of creator focused articles and news items, with a genuine interest in people outside the larger comic companies. He was one of the first people in comics journalism to acknowledge my work and interviewed me a couple of times, to which I felt really touched that somebody cared. Tim cared about a lot of people.  It broke my heart to hear that he was battling the same cancer that took the life of my father eight years ago, and so many other talented people in recent years. From looking at his Facebook support page, By A Landslde, it was obvious that he had a loving family and circle of friends who were with him every step of the way. Tim was a funny, warm and loving fellah. He'll be sorely missed."  Tim's facebook page has become a sort of ongoing memorial and is worth the scroll through if you are in facebookland.  Rest in peace Tim.
• Speaking of our man Patrick Dean, he's been posting some great dream comics recently on his facebook and/or his instagram and/or his twitter.  He's kinda the best ya know. 
• I saw that  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie.  I really enjoyed it.  It's a movie with a talking raccoon so there was around a 100,000% chance I was going to like it.  There isn't much to talk about with the movie though.  The plot is basically a throw away episode of Star Trek you forgot on purpose.  It doesn't really mean anything or move the characters at all.  The only character with an actual arc is Yondu.  Drax is really funny but the movie is about Yondu.  The stuff with Star-Lord's father is just an excuse for a movie and not really any kind of movie that matters.  You don't care who his dad was/is because we've never seen this character before.  There is no emotional weight to the revelation.  It's just, hey Pete, I'm your dad, well... okay then.  And none of that matters because the reason these movies work is because they have likable performers playing colorful characters in front of a background inspired by some of the best creative minds of the past 100 years.  You can't screw that up.  The only way these things can fail is if they come in over budget. I thought the movie looked great.  Certainly the best looking Marvel/Disney movie so far.  I have never ever used drugs for recreational purposes because I am an American and that is illegal but, I'm gonna assume that if tripping balls and rolling into the movie theater is your deal then you would have liked this one.  The soundtrack was fun.  Could have used a few more rockers but it is of course your late 70s early 80s mom's favorite jams so they all had to fit that theme.  I feel like it could have used at least one song by the Statler Brothers. 
• I like to take a moment to acknowledge the creators whenever one of these big comics movies come out;
• The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan
• Give some credit as well to Jim Starlin and Bill Mantlo for creating several of the characters and themes as well as Jim Valentino for the 90s version of the team and to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning for the more recent version of the team that re-launched in 2008.  And don't forget Jack Kirby for being the driving force behind the look and feel of the Galaxy in which the Guardians exists. 
• Star-Lord created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan.
• Gamora created by Jim Starlin.
• Drax created by Jim Starlin.
• Groot created by Jack Kirby, Larry Leiber, Dick Ayers and Stan Lee.
• Rocket Raccoon created by Bill Mantlo and Kieth Giffen.
• Yondu created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
• Nebula created by Roger Stern and John Buscema.
• Mantis created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck. 
• Stakar Ogord (Starhawk) created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema. 
• Ego the Living Planet created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
• Ayesha/Kismet/Her created by Len Wein, David Kraft, and Herb Trimpe.
• Taserface created by Jim Valentino. 
• Howard the Duck created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.
• Cosmo the Spacedog created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
• Charlie-27 created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
• Martinex created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.
• Aleta Ogord created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema. 
• Krugar created by Jim Valentino. 
• Adam Warlock created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
• The Grandmaster created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema
• The Kree created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
• Mainframe created by Jim Velentino and Herb Trimpe.  (Sort of?  Thier version is kind of a version of Vision in the future so... it's complicated.)
• The Celestials created by Jack Kirby.
• The Sovereign are arguably based on the what would be creations of the Enclave which were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.  The movie version seems to go back to Ayesha/Kismet/Her who was created by Len Win, David Kraft and Herb Trimpe.  It's complicated. 
• The Watchers created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
• The Ravagers as seen with Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stalone's character) are basically the original Guardians of the Galaxy so credit Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.  However... they were not called Ravagers until they showed up more recently (I think) so credit that to Sam Humphries and Javier Garron. (Maybe?)  But the idea of the Ravagers as bunch of space pirates may really just have to be credited to James Gunn and the movies. Also complicated. 
• Stan Lee created by Jack and Celia Lieber.
• David Hasselhoff created by Joseph and Delores Hasselhoff.
• Fluke happened since our last "episode". I went.  A great time was had.  By me.  I'm the one that had the great time.  Perhaps others had a great time as well.  I don't know for sure.  I'm not a telepath and I'm kind of self-centered so I don't always catch on to how great or not other people's times are.  I'm gonna talk more about Fluke and about how Patrick Dean's cat just won't stop drinking out of the dogs' bowl no matter how many times it is explained to her but I'm not gonna tell that story right now. I'm going to tell that story in a different post.  Hang in there. 
• Another thing that happened was Free Comic Book Day, also known as FCBD, also known to shoplifters as Saturday.  I went to Cavalier Comics in Wise VA go get my FCBD on.  Cavalier has been my main store for the past several years since I moved back to the Clinch Valley.  This was the store's first FCBD in a new larger location and it seems to have been one of their best years ever.  The checkout line was probably the longest I've seen there.  My pal Jeremy Massie was there with his new comic Amazing Age.  It is part of Alterna's new line of monthlies.  I got all the first issues and enjoyed them especially since they only cost $1.50.  Love the newsprint.  Amazing Age's colors looked really great on that newsprint.  Get yourself a copy before they all sell out. I have not had a chance to read through all of the FCBD offerings but the X-O Manowar comic was good.  I'm excited as always about the 2000 AD comic.  My kids were pretty happy with the selection of books they picked out.  
• Val D'Orazio read Secret Empire 1 so we didn't have to.  I read the Secret Empire FCBD offering and was put to sleep by the color pallet.  
• Have you guys been listening to the Process Party podcast over at Study Group?  I'm checking out the Julia Wertz episode because she's one of our funniest cartoonists and because I'm about two thirds of the way through her book Infinite Wait.  It's good!
• Infinite Wait is one of may great books brought to us by Koyama Press which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year. 
• Side note, I fail to understand how anything can be 10 years old.  I'm a mental eight year old and just can't deal with things like time and change. 
• And finally... Francis doesn't care what the slime does as long as he gets paid. 

• 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.

Maybe you should go to the SC Comicon this weekend.

Hey you.  How's it going?  You busy this weekend?  Maybe you should go to the SC Comicon in Greenville, South Carolina.  A lot of my favorite people are going to be there.  Also, there will be comics there. You like comics right?  I've never been to this show but I hear it's really great.  Every year I say to myself, stop being such an a-hole and go to SC Comicon.  And then I fail. I won't be there this year because I'm going to take my kids to see adults in minimal clothing sweat on each other.  Professionally!  But, I will be there in spirit and also on paper as a new gag comic I drew will be in Comic Stars #6 debuting at the table of our most beloved The Dollar Bin.  The comic should be rad.  It has a cover by Patrick Dean.  Ya'll know Patrick Dean right?  He's kinda the best.  

So yeah, go to Greenville and buy comics.  Tell Neal Adams that I said that Superman miniseries he did last year was bonkers.  You like it.  You love it.  You want more of it.

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 09112016

(G.I.Joe issue 15 cover by Mike Zeck and John R. Beatty.  August 1986.  Image stolen from yojoe.com )

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 09112016.

"DJ Z, I suffer with you my friend."  -Jeff Hardy.

• 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 was driving east on Alternate 58 this morning behind the limousine of Nathan Stanley and under the golden rays of the warm September Appalachian sun when I remembered that, while file under other was on "hiatus", we lost one of the pillars of Bluegrass and American music, Doctor Ralph Stanley.  Growing up a few miles from where Ralph Stanley lived it was easy to take the man for granted.  He was just kind of always around.  You'd see him play at the fair.  You'd see him play at the UMWA rallies.  He literally performed at my summer camp one year.  When my employer was looking to set up shop in Southwest Virginia, it was Ralph Stanley that Senator Warner and the county called upon to welcome and entertain the suits and ties.  In some small way, I guess you could say I owe my paycheck to Ralph Stanley.  His legacy will be a part of this region and this country as long as the mighty Clinch River flows. 
• Alan Moore has announced that he has about 250 pages of comics left in him and then he will retire from comics.   Moore is probably the most influential English language genre comics writer of the past 40 years.  He could never write another word and that would not change.  He doesn't owe comics anything. If you want more Alan Moore comics, just go read the one's you've missed or re-read the ones you've loved. Despite the wizard beard, Moore is really not that old.  He was a very young man when he started knocking out masterpieces.  I hope he has a great many years ahead of him enjoying whatever it is he chooses to do.  And guys, 250 is a lot of pages. 
• A lot of us comics folks are thinking about pal of comics Tim O'Shea and his family this week.  The Comics Reporter has the details.  Tim has been a real champion of comics, minicomics and self-publishers throughout the years.  He's one of those "I probably would have stopped making comics without his kind words" kind of folks.  We need 100 more of him.  We wish all the best for Tim and his family. 
• Last weekend cosmic abomination DragonCon happened (again) in Atlanta, GA.  Adam and Shawn Daughhetee of the Dollar Bin went there for the first time and lived to tell the tale.   They compare DragonCon to HeroesCon a bit which, are two things totally worlds apart.  HeroesCon is a a comic book convention.  DragonCon is that time that Hunter S. Thompson and Zardoz drank an Atlantic Ocean sized vial of LSD and tiger adrenal gland then went to the Creature Cantina in Star Wars but only the Creature Cantina was the size of the Titanic.  Every year.  Repeat.  Totally different things. 
• Guys.  I just love Tarzan so much. (Link stolen from The Comics Reporter.)  Speaking of Tarzan, like I do, I read a lot of Tarzan comics this summer.  It's been a summer ritual since... I learned to read.  I read a lot of Joe Kubert Tarzan comics this summer and bought a lot of the Marvel "Lord of the Jungle" comics.  I almost have the full Marvel run now.  The 28th issue of the Marvel series was one of the first comic books I ever owned so Tarzan has and will always be a big part of what makes me me.  A big part of my brain is thinking about Tarzan junk most of my waking and sleeping hours.  It's weird.  I know.  So, of course I saw the new movie.  I really liked it. It was my favorite movie of the summer.  I really hope they make more movies with that Tarzan and Jane. 
• A lot of talk this week about the death of comics and whether or not it is dead and if it is just Professor X dead or is it Uncle Ben dead and who is to blame and is Soylent Green people or are people Soylent Green and if I use the F word more than you is my argument more valid than yours even though my argument is absolutely Donald Trump wrong on all of my historical references and should all of our best cartoonists just start making their comics with sidewalk chalk then post videos of them on YouTube but then get upset about that too because YouTube secretly won't let you make any money off videos anymore if you have dirty words in your side walk chalk comics and Kickstarter stopped being crowd funding the second it replaced the publisher's marketing department and Amazon really already killed publishing anyway and the music industry is deader than comics and it's just an illusion that it exists because, again, YouTube, and if it can happen to comics and music then it can happen to video games, and, in a way, it's already happening to movies, I mean, do you really think the movie theater chains are thrilled about you guys binge watching Stranger Things and eating microwave popcorn, and if you'll DVR and watch your favorite TV shows later it sure as hell won't take a TV exec long to figure out that you'd probably also pay for it in advance and most of what we really love will be pre-order anyway because comics isn't special, comics just is always the first in line for the firing squad, and about how we probably already lost this war and we need to just assimilate and get over ourselves because I'm literally wearing a t-shirt right now that I pre-ordered, while listening to digital music that was pre-ordered then downloaded, and I literally have a book beside my keyboard that was pre-ordered and as soon as I get through typing this I'm literally going to play some video games that I pre-ordered and maybe what you're calling death is just the new way of living and... You wanted everything for free so you stole it.  Now you have to pay in advance for it to even exist.  Money always wins folks.
• And now it's time for the return of...

THE BEST NEW NEWISH COMIC BOOK I READ THIS WEEK

She Wolf issue 3 by Rich Tommaso.  Published by Image Comics. 

I've been a big fan of Rich Tommaso for years and years but She Wolf might be his work for which I am the most excited.  Guys, I'm stupid for werewolves and wolfmans.  I've watched a lot of werewolf movies and read a lot of werewolf comics but Tommaso is on to something really fascinating here. He's using a waking nightmare form of narrative where he can tell this story from a both metaphysical and material world point of view at the same time while also fluctuating between the present and ancient folklore from panel to panel.  

Tommaso is letting the narrative take off in multiple directions within a single page and it is allowing him to really stretch his legs as an artists.  I've always loved Tommaso's drawing and character designs but with this comic he's being really ambitious with the motion and fluidity of his cartooning.  It's a major break from the conservatism and the obsession with the old fashioned that we've seen in indie comics over the past 20 years. Plus, he draws a balls out penis dangling Satan that can't be beat.  I can't wait for the next issue. 

This issue also features some great pinups by Chuck Forsman, Brandon Graham, Brian Level, Tom Neely, Eraklis Petmeza and my favorite one (below) by Patrick Dean.

• And finally... Playstation made some announcements this week.  Let's see how our ol' pal Francis feels about them. 

• 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.