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 01292017

(American Flagg! #10 1983.  Cover by Howard Chaykin.  Stolen from My Comic Shop.)

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 01292017.

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." - President Ronald Reagan

• 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 Chinese New Year.  To quote the last prophet of the 90s Keanu Reeves, "whoa".  What a week huh?  Just a week ago when we last spoke we had just seen the inauguration of a new President in these United States and inspiring marches all around the world.  Since then,  every day has been a series of events that were never supposed to be possible. There are millions of Americans and millions and millions around the world right now who are scared.  Their lives are uncertain.  Their future is uncertain.  I have my own fears of course.  Everything is fragile. A politician or an executive I've never met could end my livelihood with the stroke of a pen.  But I'm a white man in America so my fears are those of inconvenience and folly compared to those of different birth country, skin tone or religion.  I don't know much about anything but here is what I know about Muslims. Here is what I know about refugees.  For about four years my next door neighbors were a Muslim family.  They were refugees from Bosnia. If you walked by their house you wouldn't have known they were Muslim.  The father was an auto mechanic.  You'd see him outside working on cars or playing with his kids.  I thought he was Italian at first.  The mother was a brunette.  She was quite but polite and generous.  Most of my interaction was with the kids.  They were always outside playing and my daughter played with them all the time.  The kids had blond hair and blue eyes.  They could have passed for my kid's siblings. They had a trampoline and my daughter would want to bounce with them every day. If you were around enough you'd begin to notice the accent and that the parents spoke to the children in Bosnian.  You'd hear the kids playing games counting in Bosnian.  You'd notice that they had a pit for roasting lamb.  If you were around long enough to notice the lamb pit you'd probably be invited over to enjoy the feast.  They were generous beyond measure.   If they were eating popsicles you had a popsicle.  If the father and his cousins were drinking beer you had a beer.  The father fixed my car for free multiple times.  He loaned me tools.  He loaned me his lawnmower.  They were as good neighbors as I've ever know.  One time we were over for dinner at their house.  I think it was a holiday for them.  They had a lot of family over.  But, then again, it was like that every Sunday there.  They served lamb, beers and strong Turkish coffee.  They had a huge gold embossed painting of Mecca on the wall in the dining room.  I asked the father if he had ever been there.  He laughed.  He said that no, he had never been because he could not give up his beer.  This was a man, an auto mechanic who worked hard for his family.  He loved God and he loved beer.  What's more American than that?  Picture him in your mind.  Out in his yard after a long day of work at the garage working on another car either for extra money or as a favor to a friend.  He's got his blue mechanic's shirt on. It's untucked and his belly shows a little.  The kids are playing in the back yard.  The mother comes out onto the front porch to call them all in for super.  There he is drinking his beer and taking care of his family.  The American Dream.  And he was a Muslim refugee.  

• Look, I'm super liberal but the New York Times and the UN can stick it up their asses.  Will out of touch adults always make bad decisions that belittle and alienate the people they need most and should serve most?  Probably.
• "We are all going to die" or "save us Doctor Manhattan".
• Hold freedom close. 

• Chris Schweizer talked about storytelling with Jerzy Drozd. 
• Also, Schweizer has a Patreon now. 
• Wrestling zine heavyweight champ Robert Newsome of The Atomic Elbow has a piece on Paste about the new DDT Universe streaming service. 
• Speaking of Robert Newsome, Athen Georgia's finest minicomics and zine fest had its registration yesterday and sold out fast.  So, I mean, I guess this news post is worthless to all you longstapler jockeys that might want a table but there's no reason every dang one of us can't go to Fluke on April 29th and have a fine time. 
• The Dollar Bin podcast is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.   This week's podcast features America's most hugable cartoonist J. Chris Campbell interviewing Adam.  The whole world is upside down I tell's ya. 
• The bad news is that the Steelers are out of the playoffs.  The good news is that world champ sports cartoonist Rob Ullman will be starting a regular gig with DK Pittsburgh Sports. 
• I haven't watched that new Archie TV yet show but Abbey Coleslaw did and that's good enough for me. 
• And finally, Francis has a problem with taking the easy way out...

• 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.

HeroesCon 2013 Charlotte NC USA with Henry Eudy

(HeroesCon stolen from HeroesCon.)

Hello brothers and sisters.  Your pal Shannon here.  I was not able to attend America's Most Beloved Comic Book Convention this year so I'll hand things over to America's Most Beloved Eudy.  Take it away Henry!

*****

HEROESCON: WALKING HALF THE FLOOR WITH HENRY H. EUDY (a retrospective)

So, last year I went full tilt HeroesCon. I got a table, I went to the Drink and Draw, I did the Art Auction, I slobbered all over the Jaime Hernandez panel, I got a sketch from Dave Cooper, I did McGintyfest, I got good and drunk every night, never more so than at the Dead Dog Party where I cornered Roger Langridge and bored him with my analysis of Bowie, Brian Eno and the importance of dream symbolism. I came out of those three days like Charles Bukowski stumbling away from a bare knuckle brawl with Frank Stallone, full of ham sandwich and Schlitz and victory. I did HeroesCon and I did it hard. 

This year, I remained more sober. I spent just five slim hours on the convention floor and, shame of shames, never even made it all the way across the great width of this show beast. But here's what I saw and thought, in my mostly disqualified experience and opinion: 

(Image stolen from Major Spoilers.  That girl is not Henry Eudy.  He has brown hair.)

More so than any other year I can remember, the focus this year was almost totally on the customer, the guest, the attendee. Not to say Heroes isn't always focused on the people of the con, the show's great reputation is rightly built on the expansive friendliness of Shelton Drum and company, but this year it was stunning how many novel amenities were made for the great many. Firstly, the show was at least twice the size of previous years. The space the con inhabited was truly immense. Like, if you stood at the far end of one side, the other wall was obscured by clouds or something. Huge. Because of this, the aisles were super wide, it was incredibly easy to traverse without bumping against those idiots who bring their entire collections on those stupid pull carts or having to rub up against the kings of terrible body odor or getting trapped behind the gaggle of pervs taking snapshots of nipple slip Dazzler on your way to a $9.00 hot dog. The freedom of mobility was wonderful. But it had it's costs, more about that later. Other public friendly stuff included a concession area with tables and chairs aplenty that reduced the chances of dangerous nacho crashes while on the hoof and placing the Art Stage in the very center of the floor with a semi-circle of chairs for an open-mouthed audience to sit and watch a myriad of Dark Phoenixes get created right before their eyes.
As a customer, I never felt more comfortable on the floor. It was actually relaxing, strolling from place to place as opposed to an anxiety filled walking of the nerd gauntlet. My hat is tipped and, in fact, totally off my head for the magnificent efforts of the best people in the comics business. These little touches made a great many people overjoyed with the show.

(Jim Steranko with Shelton Drum.  Stolen from Heroes facebook page.)

Now, on to the costs of all that mobility. When you're trying to sell and show your comics, especially if they are small, personally constructed comics that no one has ever heard of, you're like a bear in a stream full of running salmon. You just gotta hope you can get your paw in there often enough to scoop up a few of those slippery people who just might dig what you got on the table to make wading in the river worth it in the first place. So, when the river gets wider but the salmon count stays the same, it's a lot easier for the swimmers to just keep on swimmin' instead of having a look at your all panda retelling of The Canterbury Tales in mini-comic form. And that's what seemed to be happening every time I stopped to ask a pal, "So, how's it going?" What was great for the customer was not so great for the cartoonist, crouched behind his little clump of what felt like an increasingly deserted Indie Island. It was just too easy for the walkers to build momentum and rush on by, which is what seemed to be going on the small sliver of Saturday that I was there to observe and give high fives to bros.

(Patrick Dean knocking out a masterpiece.  Stolen from Heroes facebook page.)

Even so, spirits seemed universally high everywhere I went. Economics ain't the whole burrito and the energy was still electric. The best times I spent that afternoon were bouncing across the aisles to visit with dudes like Patrick Dean, Robert Newsome, J. Chris Campbell, Duane Ballanger and Joey Weiser, guys from FLUKE. I missed this year's FLUKE and getting to hee and haw it up with these fellas really brought my spirits up. Patrick Dean especially sells everything too damn cheap for how beautiful he makes it and I took full advantage by giving him $5.00 bills for stuff that makes my eyes super happy. J. Chris gave me some super good art advice and also a nice across the table choke for free.  All those guys are super. 

An aisle down from the FLUKE party was my pal and past and future SPX table mate, Christian Sager along with Kelly Williams, the long bearded brushist that I much admire. These guys have a project called The Cabinet which is soon to be out in fabulous book form and my brains filled up with exclamation points looking over Kelly's originals for that tome. Across from there was Mike Freiheit with whom I tabled next too last year. Mike has a great new book called Monkey Chef and I made him accept my money for it because, dammit, he deserves money for the great stuff he makes. Right next to him was Matthew Smith of the Simon Says series. I thought I had good tabs on Matthew but he had about six new issues that I had never laid eyes on. What a powerhouse. So then, next to Matt was a guy who is on my list of top three best cartoonists in the biz right now, Benjamin Marra. It's all about Night Business and that collection of American Psycho drawings for me. Marra is making comics other people forgot how to make. He's a genius and a great American. Right about then I became really aware that, like sand through the hourglass, so were the days of our lives. This thing was about to close and I had better hurry up and meet a famous guy. 

(Karl Rove on the far left working out a strategy with his young male assistant on how to best complete his complete run of Legion of Super Heroes.  Image stolen from Adam Daughhetee.) 

The only great cartoonist on my mind was Pete Bagge. Hate was a cornerstone for me as a young man who loved comics but was sick to death of superheroes. I think a lot of that stuff was supposed to be making fun of goateed, flannel draped white kids. But as a goateed, flannel draped white kid, I couldn't have identified more. So, it was a minor big deal to meet Bagge to tell him I loved Hate and hated everything else, to praise him for his Weirdo years and shake his hand. And I did all that and it felt good.

(Evan Dorkin and Pete Bagge.  Stolen from The Beat.)

So that was my few hours at HeroesCon this year. The least amount of time I've spent on the floor in over five years. Still, I had an amazing time and I loved every second of it. I guess I didn't realize I had so many friends in comics until they were all under one huge roof. Thanks to everybody for the good times.  

-Henry Eudy, America.

(That time Henry Eudy was murdered by J. Chris Campbell.  We'll miss him.)

*****

Thanks Henry!  You are the best person alive  recently murdered.

Now, while I, Shannon Smith, (This is Shannon talking now, Henry is done.  He's dead ya know.) didn't actually go to HeroesCon this year, that's no reason why I can't talk about it.   In fact, blog law demands that I talk about things which I have no actual personal knowledge.  For those of you new to teh intronets, this is how it works.

From most all of the twitter, tumblr, instagram, facebook and myspace posts I've read, this year's HeroesCon was a life affirming zensplosion of joy for thousands of people.  (Just kidding.  I never looked at myspace.)  It seems that fans customers and creators both had a wonderful time.  I sincerely hate that I missed it and I hope I get to go next year.

Outside of the spotlight of social media however, in the dark shadows of email and direct messages, I did hear some mixed feelings about about sales.   Sketch and commissions were way up and comics sales were way down.

And let me take a moment to clarify what I'm talking about when I talk about comics sales here.  I'm not talking about the comics dealers.  I love the dealers but I've not had a chance to talk to any of them as I was not there.  I'm not talking about the mainstream (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse etc.) creators.  Those guys don't usually even bring comics to sell.  I'm really just talking about the indie/small press/self publishing guys here.  A lot of the folks you would find on Indie Island or in artist alley.  For the sake of brevity, I'll just call them small press for the remainder of this post.  And by guys I mean boys, girls etc.  Those guys are not selling big numbers in the mainstream comics shops.  Those guys often depend on comic conventions not only as away to promote their comics but to sale their comics.  For the mainstream guys, conventions are, ya know, conventions, but for small press, from swap meet to SDCC, shows are a place to sell books.  For a lot of those guys, sales from one convention may determine if they make it to the next convention and in some cases even if they bother to print their next comic.  Sales matter.

But those guys are also pretty savvy and I don't think HeroesCon has ever been looked at as a show where a small press guy should expect to earn their rent.  Even with Indie Island, it is still a mainstream show.  (And Indie Island is a great small press show within a mainstream show.  If Indie Island were it's own thing, it would be a very impressive small press show.  Dave Cooper, Jamie Hernandez, Pete Bagge, Evan Dorkin... some of my biggest comics heroes have been on Indie Island.  So high five Indie Island.)  But over the past five years or so, or maybe going back to whenever Indie Island started, I think most of the small press guys have figured out that HeroesCon is not really a place where people go to buy comics.  Most of the fans customers at the show have pull lists and buy their comics in shops or online.  Or maybe they don't buy comics at all.  Maybe they are there for the cosplay and toys.  What they are there for is what they can't get in a comic shop or online.  And this is a big part of what HeroesCon does so well.  The customer is there for that interaction with the creators that you can only get in the con setting.  And art.  Lots and lots of art.  HeroesCon is a sketch show now.  Looking through folks "loot" pics, I see more original art, sketches and prints than I see comics or even toys this year.

And like I said before, the small press guys are savvy.  Most of the repeat exhibitors have caught on to this and are focusing on selling art now.  I've heard from multiple accounts that when checking out Indie Island this year very few of the guys had new comics to sell but many of them had new prints and t-shirts.  I heard from several guys that they sold more sketches and commissions this year than ever before.

And that's great!  I'm super happy to hear that so many people walked away from HeroesCon with original art by some of my very favorite creators.  I'm super duper happy that so many of my favorite creators got paid to draw for three days.

But, that is hard damn work ya'll.

And while I really should not be looking for the downside of guys selling a lot of sketches, I do worry about the comics.  And this is not a knock on HeroesCon.  HeroesCon is just one example I'm using to illustrate a point I may or may not get to before the end of this post.  I'm not even really talking about HeroesCon at this point.   I'm talking about the current evolution of how the customer interacts with comics.

My knock is on you.  You the comics customer.  You've come a long way.  You are super smart now.  You are aware of the creators and not just the properties.  You celebrate the creators.  You read their free comics online.  You follow them.  Like them.  Re-tweet them.  Re-blog them.  You interact with them all over teh intronets.  You meet them at conventions.  You get your picture made with them.  You buy a sketch from them.  Maybe you even go get drunk with them.  You feel connected to them.  You feel like you are a part of their increasing success.  You are doing such a great job of fueling the creators' desire to keep making great comics.

But please buy the comics.

Please pay money for the comics.

Everything changes.  Comics will change.  But there is exactly one Jenga piece that you can't take out of the comics tower.  One piece that when you take it out, you may not be able to rebuild the tower again.

Comics.

Please buy the comics.

(A Jawa and Jeremy Massie.  Stolen from Animated Trigger.)

Okay, I'll slide the soapbox back to Stan Lee.  But before I hit the "Publish" button let me point out some links to some HeroesCon stuff you should check out.

Let's start off with some of my favorite art stolen from teh intronets:

Sandman and The Endless by Patrick Dean.

A bear with sharks for arms by Joey Weiser.

Burt Reynolds playing cards with a lion by Jeremy Massie.

A sexy eight winged fairy thing by Rob Ullman.

Some leather wearin' Disney dudes by Jason Horn.  Stolen from Shawn Daughetee.

Captain Marvel by Derrick Fish stolen from Little John.

Catwoman by James Lyle also stolen from Little John.

There was a whole bunch of art I wanted to share here but I can't figure out how to post pics from Instagram.  Sorry.
And now some links because that's what I do right?

• Christian Sager's HeroesCon report featuring a cartoon reenactment of that time Ed Piskor hung with Karl Rove. 
• A recap and slides from the Rich Barrett moderated panel on Design & Comics.
• The Ben Towle report. 
• Steranko and "that Hulk cover".
• People that are into that Carol Danvers Captain Marvel are SUPER into that Carol Danvers Captain Marvel. 
• The great Don Rosa stolen from Heather Peagler.
• The HeroesCon staff group photos also stolen from Heather Peagler.
• MTV Geek is desperate to marry HeroesCon.  (Sadly, the state of North Carloina will not recognize that union.)
• More of Patrick Dean's HeroesCon sketches.  Maybe you have to be Patrick Dean's friend to see those.  Maybe you should be Patrick Dean's friend. 
• Rico Renzi's Instagram is full of great HeroesCon art. 
• The awesome Jack Kirby characters Chris Sims asked people to draw. 
• The Beat's coverage of the Valiant panel. 
• The Comics Reporter talking to Ben Towle and Craig Fischer before HeroesCon.
• The Comics Reporter's collective memory archive of HeroesCon links and stuff. 
• Sterankoing.

The most important thing to take away from HeroesCon is that no matter who you are, no matter where you are, mo matter what you are, Jim Steranko is better than you.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too now.  I guess it's a law or something. 

11 comics I liked in 2011: Parts 6 through 11

(Image stolen from Gabby Schulz.)

Hi friends.  Real talk time.  As you may have noticed, it is now the year 2013.  In the way back time of late 2011 and early 2012 I decided to post a series of eleven comics I liked from 2011.  I failed.  Now, I know you did not come here to read my excuses so I'll just be brief and say that 2012 was an awful year for me.  Some major life disrupting things happened which easily could have made me walk away from file under other and comics in general.  But, so far, I have stuck it out and clung to comics by my pinkie nails.  But I just could never get my 2011 series of posts together.  Largely because those awful things that happened have physically put me in a different location from where many of those 2011 comics are.  Not way far or anything.  I could go dig them up.  But my available time to reflect on those books just never matched up with my physical proximity to them.  Excuses, excuses.  

All that said, in the way back time of late 2011 and early 2012 I did pick out 11 comics that I liked and wanted to talk about.  But at this point, in the year 2013, I admit defeat and give up on my idea of long focused individual posts and now give you a list.  And I kinda hate lists.  But here we are.

These comics are presented in no particular order.  I don't really think the idea of "best" has a lot of place in art.  It's not a sport.  We don't have points or a playoff system.  It's all relative to the individual's tastes.  And also relative to the fact that comics are very expensive and there are certainly a lot of works out there that won't be on this list just because I never got to read them.

First off, let's start with  links to the five comics I did manage to talk about:

Josh Latta's Rashy Rabbit Droppin' Anchor

Ben Towle's Oyster War

Brad McGinty's Wysteria

Life With Archie

The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold

And now, comics 6 through 11: 

Old Timey Hockey Tales

By Robert Ullman and Jeffrey Brown.

On sale for $6 here. 

I picked this up from Ullman at SPX in 2011 and I've kept it close at hand since then and re-read it several times.  First of all it is a WAP book and therefore looks great and is perfectly produced.  Great design.  Quality cover and paper stock.  Quality colors on the cover and end papers.  Exactly what I want and enjoy in a minicomic.  I've read minicomics long enough that I am no longer impressed by crazy screen print, crazy cut, silk screen wacky covers.  I like them to be tight and solid.  I like them to be exactly like this.  

I also like for my minicomics to have guys like Rob Ullman and Jeffrey Brown in them.  Two very different creators.  Very different in the way they draw and tell stories but it works well together creating nice tone shifts that break up the book in a positive way.  I'm only a casual hockey fan but each story works as its own thing and had me hungry for more.

The webcomics of Rich Tommaso.  Sam Hill, Dry Country, Vikings End and more. 

Back in 2009 ish Rich Tommaso started what he called a "one-man publishing house".  Basically, he started posting a lot of comics online and they were/are great.  In 2010 (I think) he started what would become the 2012 Sam Hill book.  That comic continued into 2011 which was when I actually read most of it.  In 2011 he also started Dry Country. (And a bunch of other things if I remember correctly.  Vikings End etc.)  The point is, Rich was really killing it with the webcomics in 2011.  More than I could keep up with and all of it exceptional.  Unfortunately, the nature of webcomics today is that they move around and get collected in different ways.  Well, unfortunate only in that it makes it harder for me to find old links.  Rich's website has changed from Web of Comics to Recoil.  Dry Country is currently over at Study Group.  Sam Hill can be purchased as a real hold it in your hands paper book over at Fantagraphics.

Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and several other people.

I talked about the 1st issue 2011's New 52 Animal Man at length here.  I liked it well enough but Travel Foreman really blew me away in the following issues.  Easily some of the most exciting art I saw in 2011.  But sadly, Foreman did not keep up the pace and fill in artists came in during 2012.  The art remained strong but was inconsistent and lacked that magic of those first few Foreman issues.  Now the comic is mired in a crossover.  But for a few months, it was really something.

Not My Small Diary #16 edited by Delaine Green and featuring dozens of indie comics and zine wonders. 

Not My Small Diary is an ongoing themed diary anthology.  This sixteenth volume is made up of two thick minicomics filled with transportation themed stories.  Comics and stuff by Donna Barr, Robyn Jordan, Dave Kiersh, John Porcellino, Liz Prince, Noah Van Sciver, Julia Wertz and many more.  I like diary comics but I think I like them best in Not My Small Diary.  All those little bits from all those different voices.  Seeing the world through so many different eyes, pens and brushes all in one place.  More than worth the cover price.

Paying For It by Chester Brown.

Chester Brown is one of my favorite cartoonists and his previous full length book, Louis Riel, is my favorite book so I had a lot of anticipation built up for Paying For It.  A lot of people did.  There was a lot of controversy about Paying For Its subject matter and how Chester Brown handled it (and how he had a clear and heavy handed agenda) but it never bothered me.  To me, the book is a comedy about a man who has Blake Edwards movie awkwardness every time he tries to interact with living humans.  It's a drawn anthropology journal about having sex presented by a cartoon version of a man that does not seem like he'd be all that good at shaking hands.  (He rides a bicycle to go find prostitutes!  That is funny people.)  I thought it was riveting, fascinating and all those other words critics use for "I liked it lots". I particularly liked Brown's interactions with Seth, Joe Matt and Sook-Yin Lee.  At the 2011 SPX I had the pleasure of meeting Chester Brown and he was one of the nicest people I've ever met.  And totally capable of shaking hands.

Sick.  A webcomic by Gabby Schulz.

No other comic in 2011 was affective to me as Gabby Schulz's Sick.  The thing is brutal.  Almost every panel is a body blow and some of them rattled my jaw.  The story is about the horrors being sick without insurance in the good ol' US of A.  I actually have health insurance but my family has experienced a lot of illness over the past 5 or so years and I've spent way too many awful nights in hospitals.  Even with insurance, it is terrible.  Sick captures all of the worst thoughts and fears of sitting in  the hospital or lying in bed thinking that death would be better than what the next few minutes will hold.  And as brutal as the comic is, it is also enjoyable.  I know that sounds odd.  But Schulz is a very funny cartoonist.  He is attacking these horrors with scorn and cynicism but there is a layer of humor on most of it.  He is pointing out the absurdity of it.  Routine matter of fact things we have to go through in the US just to receive  purchase a moment of human decency and assistance.  You have to laugh at it or you'll probably just end it all.
I would tell you to check it out for yourself but Sick is not currently online. (It kinda is but not officially.)  The comic was successful enough that Schulz ended up with bandwidth issues and had to take it down.  But the good news is, at least as I understand it from reading one of his blog comments, that he is working on a print version.  Whenever that happens, it will be essential reading.

Well, that's 2011 for ya.  Sorry it took so long.  I'll try to get to 2012 sometime before we all die.

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 01062013

(Chris Ware covering The New Yorker stolen from the The New Yorker.)

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 01062013:

 "This has been a struggle in comics. You deal with a lot of different egos, not only egos but failings of human character and behavior. It's a real struggle to uplift. The people that I try to uplift... I'm not some kind of cop, or a superhero, trying to make people better. I care about people, I care about my community, I care about comics way too much to focus only on myself. We live in this curious time right now, we have the DIY tools to only care about yourself, to only pimp yourself, to only hype yourself and your work. I spend an inordinate amount of time hyping other people, basically curating a life of my influences, the things that I like."  -Dean Haspiel.

• Happy new year brothers and sisters!  Here is hoping this year is better for all of us than we deserve.
• "Best of" time of year is upon us people.  Here are the "best new single print comics" that I read each week in 2012 (when I remembered to).  I'm still finishing up my best of 2011 list but I hope to get one up for 2012 soon.  
• Tucker Stone named 19 best comics of 2012.  
• Rob at Panel Patter listed some best minicomics.  
• Forces of Geek had Josh Latta list off some stuff in their run down.  
• Ben Towle posted a solid three pages of goodness from 2012.  
• Patrick Dean was a part of Robot 6's year end thing and showed off a page in progress from his next comic.  Also, Patrick Dean used to draw this own t-shirts. 
• The Beat has its annual year end survey up. 
• Tom Spurgeon at  is The Comics Reporter and he posted 50 positives for 2012.  Tom has also been increasingly hilarious on twitter lately-  "putting final touches on Sunday's feature "11,427 comics negatives for 2012"  Make sure you also scroll through The Comics Reporter site to read all of the holiday interviews.  That Haspiel interview was something. 

• For several hours on Friday of this week, Rob Ullman was the most famous cartoonist in the United States.  For those of you that don't follow sports and are too lazy to click that link, the short version of the story is that multiple sports and news websites picked up on New York Jets' head coach Rex Ryan showing off a tattoo of his wife wearing his quarterback's jersey.  Then, some upaid intern that knows how to use google image search journalist figured out that the tattoo looks a lot like Rob Ullman's good girl sports babe art.  I do follow sports and when I first saw the headline on ESPN I just knew the tattoo would look like Rob's work without even clicking the link.  You can get your own drawings of Rex Ryan's your wife wearing your favorite sports jersey here. 

(Image stolen from Rob Ullman.)

• Some lucky kids got to go check out some Jack Davis art at the Georgia Museum of Art.
• Congratulations George Lucas.  You sell off Star Wars, give the money to charity then get engaged to a  lovely lady 20 years younger than you and filthy rich.  You have won. 
• Cavemen were super into animation.   Personally, I think it is more likely that they were just drawing a full and literal impression of what the creatures did.  Kind of like that thing Grant Morrison talks about how if you did all the same drugs he did you could see your whole past trailing behind you all the way back to the big bang.  Or something. 
• Every once in a while we have to remember to go see what Jeff Bridges has been drawing about lately. 
• Robert Newsome's talking and music podcast went up a day late this week and in the 24 hours or so that I had to wait I almost ended it all thinking it would never happen.  Now I know how your dog feels every time you leave the house.  But high five Robert because it was literally the only weekly podcast I listen to that managed to go up this week.  Sad week for ears.

(Here is a pic of Brad McGinty and Josh Latta just because I love those jerks.  Stolen from Josh Latta's facebook.)

• Rob Clough talked about Ed Piskor's Wizzywig. 
• Pals Matt Smith and Jeremy Massie have a new book in the Diamond catalog.  I ordered a copy.  It was probably the first time I've looked through the Diamond catalog in over six years.  Their book is in the As of the indie section.  In that same section, I noticed there were some older Rich Tommaso books listed.  Miriam and 8 1/2 Ghosts.  I highly recommend those. 
• Peter David had a stroke over the holidays.  Here is how you can help him out.  I met him once and he was very nice.  Nicer than he needed to have been while signing my stack of comics.  I like his comics plenty. 
• Chris Schweizer on leaving SCAD Atlanta to focus on making more comics and forming a studio.  Also, go check out Chris' blog and look at those drawings of Stan Sakai and Jeff Smith. 
• I'm not going to loan out my f#(%ing Playstation to Tom,  He's a dick. 

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK...

(Image stolen from ComicVine.)

...was not Avenging Spider-Man #15.1.  That comic is just re-cap and filler behind a cover that hopes to cash in on The Amazing Spider-Man #700 hype.  Nothing in it moves the story or the character and it is really weird that the 1st in continuity appearance of the new Superior Spider-Man would happen in a tossed off point one comic.  It also was not Superman #15.  What a stinking mess.  I really was liking the Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort team on Superman but now they are stuck in a damned crossover.  Which sums up where the New 52 is in the early stages of its second year- death by editorial mandate.  The best comic I read this week could have been Batman Incorporated #6.  Another good Batman comic from Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham but the story does not move very far.  Batman fights his way through a Game of Death building while exposition is shouted at him through and intercom or something.  Good comic but no, I'll give the edge this week to All-New X-Men #5 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen and a whole bunch of other people.  This comic has been a lot of fun so far.  Everything I want in an X-Men comic.  Most of the characters I'd want and all the X-Men drama an X-Men comic needs.  Bendis is perfect for this people.  Dialog on top of dialog is what he is and that is what the X-Men have been since Claremont's best days.  Duh.  Of course he would nail this.  And Immonen is doing some really great work.  So good that you can actually figure out what is going through the 100 shades of brown the colorist is covering all the art with.   And the amazing thing is that this comic has a story.  Original X-Men in the current X-Men world is such a simple and obvious idea that it is great.  But forget all that, the reason that this comic is the single new print comic that I read this week is because, finally, finally, Kitty Pryde gets her moment.  SPOILER  Kitty Pryde being the mentor to the original X-Men in the current X-Men world is a great comics idea.  And I'm telling you people, Kitty Pryde is the most important X-Man of them all.  Seriously.  I will fight you. 

• And finally...he got that ass whippin' straight out of Burke county. 

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 05272012

(Image stolen from Ben Towle's G+ page.)

Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening.  Here are some things if found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 05272012:

• I guess the biggest non Avengers related news in comics this week was that Marvel and DC decided that it was time to make some money off homosexuality.  All I have to say about that is that Life With Archie #16 was a very good comic.

• The great Ben Towle posted a little write-up on Dan Zettwoch's minicomic Tel-Tales on his G+ page.  Zettwoch makes some great looking books with very strong design.  Certainly worth a look if you have not read any of his stuff before.

• In other Ben Towle news, Alpha Books kicked off this week.  This is the third (I think) weekly alphabet art challenge series.  Basically, folks draw characters from books for each letter of the alphabet.  There is already a lot of great art to check it out so you should go do that.  Maybe you should join in.  No shame in being a few letters behind. 

• Eleanor Davis did this and it was pretty great.

• There were a couple of solid new-ish podcasts from new-ish podcasters.  Jim Rugg interviewed Rob Liefeld at Tell Me Something I Don't Know and it is fascinating.  Matt Seneca, Tucker Stone and McCulloch have a new podcast called Comic Books are Burning in Hell.  The first two episodes are a bit of a test flight as the guys figure the whole podcast thing out.  I'll warn ya, it's pretty brutal.  The audio is not great and they have no real format.  It's just three guys talking about comics they have read.  And it is not comics they all have read so that eliminates a lot of chances for real discussion.  But these cats are three of the better writers-about-comics in all of the introwebs.  They don't need a lot of format to keep my attention.  There is a lot of knowledge between those three brains and a lot of what they talk about are comics that I have not yet had a chance to read.  I could feel my known comics universe expanding as I listened.  But again, it is pretty brutal.  These guys are intensely opinionated and they all like to use a machine gun barrage of F bombs to illustrate their viewpoints.  Much of the discussion leans toward the negative so listening to it is a lot like putting your brain in an I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I contest with Albert Einstein and Don Rickles.  But my brains is pretty strong so I think I can handle it for an hour a week.  If these guys hold themselves to just 5% of the quality level they demand from the comics creators they talk about then I'm betting this will soon become one of the better comics podcasts. 

• In other Tucker Stone news-  dang, this thing looks like a lot of fun.  

• This is kind of old but cartoonist, animator and Curly Hair Pageant Grand Champion Brad McGinty has a bunch of cartoons up that I did not notice until this week.  The outer space one is very funny.  Oh, and a thing called McGintyfest is going to happen at HeroesCon? What?

• A new issue of the professional wrestling zine Atomic Elbow is available.  I just got mine in the mail and it looks pretty great.  It features a couple of illustrations from cartoonist Box Brown.  I have not read it yet but I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed the 1st issue.  I suggest you try to get both issues.  I spent most of the past decade intentionally ignoring professional wrestling so I'm only familiar with a small part of the subject matter but the writing is strong enough that I don't care. 

• Apparently Josh Latta's next Rashy Rabbit will be a 64 page color special.  Can't wait.
• Rob Ullman has new comic that he is "serializing on the ol' blog in advance of printing it up as a mini-comic". It looks really great. You can read the 1st installment here.

• Rob Clough continues to almost single-handedly carry the burden of minicomics criticism.  This week he also took a thorough look at the state of kids comics.  

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things.  (I sure used the word "lot" a lot in this piece.)  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.