Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 03162021

(Wonder Woman #46 April, 1951. Cover by Irv Novick.  Stolen from Bully, The Little Sutffed Bull.  You guys know Bully was/is kinda the best a comics blogging and tweeting right?)

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 03142021 03152021 03162021.

"I mean, let’s face it. Hollywood swarms with just the sort of people who gave us shit for reading comics as kids.  These mountebanks now make bank off this stuff.  Who says irony is dead, right?" - Howard Chaykin

• 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.  This one is late.  I accidentally daylight-savings-time set my clock back two days.  Happy Sunday on Tuesday!  Treat yourself to some pie!

• There are comics that artists that excite us, there are artists that inspire us and there are artists that trigger puberty.  The great Frank Thorne has left us. Known for Red Sonja and being generally great at boobies, Thorn was also a known wizard.  Please mourn him accordingly. 
• What else can I say, Captain America is gay.  What else should I write, get ready for bro fights. 
• You guys keep up with the comics over at The Nib right?  Mike Dawson has really been killing it throughout this pandemic. 
• Speaking of online comics, Box Brown has been doing the Lord's work with Legalization Nation. 

• Young Adult Heavy Metal?  I hope they shelve it right beside Young Adult Beaver Hunt. 
• The Comics Journal has a new co-managing editor.  Good luck! 
• File Under Mullets. 
• If you had "Luke Cage is a Cop" on your End Times BINGO card then congrats on your new Huffy 10-speed bike. 

NEW* COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

(*And by new I mean comics that came out maybe a couple of months ago?)  So, good news folks.  I finally went to the comic book store and got a big stack of comics.  I picked up DC's Generations Shattered and Generations Forged for a few reasons.  First of all I like Dan Jurgens and Robert Venditti's DC work.  Secondly I like these Crisis style time/dimension hoping stories and nobody does them better than DC. It's a real Injustice (pun intended) that Marvel beat DC to the big screen with the time and dimension hoping.  DC has been better than Marvel at this stuff all the way back to the Silver Age when Gardner Fox started it. Thirdly, these comics have Kamandi in them. I will buy anything with Kamandi in it. 

I guess Generations was originally going to be a longer and bigger event basically ending the New 52/Rebirth versions of the DC Universe before launching 5G or G5 or whatever it was going to be before Dan DiDio was fired.  Before DC was de-DiDio'd? G5 got hosed and Death Metal took off so instead of the big finale, Generations seems to be the transition between Death Metal and Future State until DC finally begins again again again with Infinite Frontier.  That's a lot.  Forget you read all of that and just pretend that this Generations thing is one self-contained time hoping team-up story because it kind of is.  And that's probably a good thing.  These two 80 page comics together and by themselves make a really nice read. They read more like a couple old school summer Annuals than a mega event crossover and that's very much a positive.  

Jurgens, Venditti and Andy Schmidt did a good job with the writing.  These things can be a mess when you have a huge cast of characters on multiple planets during multiple eras but it reads smooth and was easy to follow despite that fact that I haven't read a single panel of Death Metal and I'm a solid year or more behind on most of the DC line.  The art is stellar too.  There are too many artists for me to type without having to break our my wrists braces but it's most of DC's heavy hitters; Hitch, Chang, Doran, Romita Jr. Reis, Morales etc. etc.  I usually give DC a lot of crap for not being able to get one penciler to finish a comic but on a multi planet multi timeline deal like this I think the jam format is a lot of fun.  It's neat to read through these and play guess the artist from page to page then go back to the index to see if you were right.  Again, there is really no justification that a single penciler can't knock out a single issue of The Flash or whatever but in these 80 page giant style deals it's neat to see them mix it up.  And I would say everyone delivers.  These are good looking books.  They'll make a great collection eventually. 

What makes this different from Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, No This Time For Real Last Crisis etc. is that instead of treating each era of DC comics as its own planet this one looks at DC comics history as one linear universe, or "Linearverse", where some of the major characters age and deal with time differently.  So instead of 1939 Batman being a different character from 1986 Batman, they're the same dude again but just stretched out over decades....?  Maybe.  So, everything is canon again.  Kind of like the Hyperverse Grant Morrison and Mark Waid talked about but instead of the universe map looking like a map it looks like a electrocardiograph now?  Look, I'm not saying it makes sense.  What I'm saying is that it has Kamandi in it and Kamandi is awesome.  I recommend. 

OLD COMICS I READ THIS WEEK

Normally when I talk about old comics I'm talking about stuff from the 70s or 80s but I'm catching up on the Nick Spencer era Amazing-Spider-Man comics and it's hard for me to call these new when they are going on four years old.  The Dan Slot run was so long it took me a while before I was ready to get back into Amazing Spider-Man so the issues piled up on me.  I've been catching up over the past few weeks and, friends, these comic books are not good.  I kinda hate them.  And I'm sad I let the pile up this ling before reading them because I probably would have stopped buying them a couple of years ago. This stuff is for babies.  This is like those early 2000 Spider-Man comics where Marvel was trying desperately to be all-ages and get some Schoolastic book fair sales or something.  These are worse than the Howard Mackie and John Byrne Spider-Man comics.  The writing is on the level of a mid 80s DIC cartoon. The art is in that all-ages desperate style where every expression seems to be aping the the Disney Aladdin cartoon.  Not the first one. The 2nd one that was made for TV and Homer was the Genie.  Friends, these comics are not for me.  Anyone want a big stack of Spider-Man comics?

• And finally, our man Francis is a.w.o.l. this week so let's fire up the way back machine to the summer of 2019 when our man Boogie 2998 visited his hometown.  It's also my hometown.  Should I break Kayfabe and explain my Boogie/Francis connection?  Nah, I'll just let you make up your own version. I'll tell ya what, if anyone actually asks me on the twudders, I'll explain it to them in DM. 

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 05192013

(Iron Man #49 cover by Gil Kane.  Stolen from Cover Browser.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. wrestling during the week weeks ending 05052013 05122013 05192013:

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

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

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

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

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

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

(The greatest drawing of all time.)

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

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




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

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

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02242013

(Image stolen from Comic Vine.  Possibly drawn by Herb Trimpe or Don Heck?)

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 02242013:

"Now I guess you’re all wondering where I fit into this; please allow me to explain. For an awful long time I’ve been worrying about Billy Batson. Billy, as you know is a grand boy, and I feel he is not being given a break. In other words, a chance to grow up. I went along to old Shazam and told him my worries, and between us we’ve decided to give Billy the chance to settle down. In order that this might be achieved, I shall soon be returning my powers to old Shazam and changing into the character of Billy Batson for the last time. This will give this grand lad a chance to develop into the type of citizen that I know you’ll grow into.

Naturally we couldn’t leave the door of the world wide open for evil – hence Marvelman of whom I feel you’re just busting to know more. What could be better than to ask him to say a few words to you. It’s all yours, Marvelman:" -Captain Marvel.

• The Daytona 500 takes place this afternoon (if you are reading this on Sunday 2/24/2013).  Danica Patrick will start in the pole position as the 1st woman ever to do so in an NASCAR race.  My prediction is that the winner will be the 1st car to cross the finish line. 
• My pal Robert Venditti has been named as Geoff Johns' successor as writer on Green Lantern.  That's a big gig and I think Rob will be a perfect fit.  He talks about it here.  I'm a big fan of all of Rob's comics and X-O Manowar is easily one of the top 5 ongoing super sci/fi punch up comics of the past year.  Rob is a talented writer but,  more importantly, he works hard at it and delivers.  It seems like it was just yesterday that he was announced on X-O, then came Demon Knights and now Green Lantern.  By this time next year, Superman will be writing comics about Robert Venditti. 
• But don't take my word for it.  Let's take a look at what the real WWE Champion CM Punk is reading. 
• The X-Men are pretty intense, y'all.
• I loved all the X-Ladies and Claremont told some great stories.  And they hold up.  My daughter is super into all that old junk. 
• Check out this great Rob Ullman hockey comic at Yahoo Sports. 
• Wow.  Look at this huge Judge Dredd index.  I'm a novice when it comes to Dredd.  I've never had much access to those comics but the FCBD editions of 2000AD and the new IDW series have me right on the brink of conversion. 
• Yeah.  That James Jean kid?  He draws real good. 
• This John Porcellino post about moving really hit me in the feelings box.  
• Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has started a tumblr.  I'll make sure to have him added to the prayer list on my church's bulletin. 
• That Ant-Man switch plate might be the first thing I've ever seen on Etsy that seemed worth the price.  (Of course with the exception of all your wonderful comics you sensitive cartoonist cry babies.) 
• This article about an indie wrestler is not at all comics but it does depict a lot of the horrors one sees in the freelance life, the artist life and, at this point, just trying to make a living in the United States today. 
• No.
• Big scans of Kirby's crazy Argo art.
• Speaking of Argo.  I guess the Oscars are happening sometime?  I don't know anything about any of those movies.  Whenever their comics adaptions make it to the dollar boxes at the next comic shop I go to, I'll let you know what I think. 
• "Also anyone out there who feels they may have screwed me or stolen from me in the past (a very small subset, but still...) this is an excellent time to get your conscience completely cleared at a steep discount. 25 cents on the dollar. These prices will not last!"
• That Autoptic show in Minneapolis in August is going to have Jamie Hernandez.  That's something. 
• You can submit your comics to SPX's tumblr if that's the kind of thing you think you'd like to do. 
• Tom Spurgeon wrote a thing about a Justice League book that costs $24.99. 
• I enjoyed this look back at the Death of Superman for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, I'm not yet burnt out on 90s nostalgia.  For another, it gives me a good excuse to link to these words I wrote about Batman getting his purple bathrobe stolen. 
• And by "good excuse" I just mean that it made my brains think of a thing and then I did that thing.
• That time I followed Victor Cayro on the facebook.

• This Patrick Dean comic perfectly sums up my Valentines Day.  (Only I'm not named Tom and I did not wake up with a lady beside me on February 14th.)
• And also, Patrick Dean is ready to sell you some fantastic things. 
• I wonder if he kept his shirt on?
• Alphabots y'all.  Alphabots. 
• That Neal Adams kid is very interesting. 
• This series on Marvelman at the beat is a great read. 
•  "It’s like Grandfather’s axe — a new handle and a new blade, it might be a new axe, but it still belongs to grandpa."  -Gerry Conway
• Dave Sim talks about Dave Sim as only Dave Sim can.
• I wouldn't call these "rules".  More like tastes and preferences.  But yeah, most modern lettering and balloon placement is awful. 
• 1.2 million years watching porn. 
• Retrofit is currently taking subscriptions. 
• Jeremy Massie's All My Ghosts is coming to print soon.  That's a nice cover. 
• Look.  A man that has most likely sexually assaulted young boys owns 34% of DragonCon and if you put money into DragonCon you are putting money into that man's hands and the hands of his lawyers.  Sure, DragonCon can issue a release blaming it all on the system and say that they can't do anything but the fact remains-  Your money is going to Ed Kramer.  I'm not placing judgement.  Do what you want.  Just know what you are doing.  The DragonCon board is in a tough spot for sure.  I just know that you, the customer, the patron etc., get to decide where you spend your money.  
• That crazy CF comic on The New York Times site. 
• You could write for Rob Liefled. 

THE BEST SINGLE NEW newish PRINT COMIC I READ THIS last WEEK

(Image stolen from Sequential Smart.)

...was Batman 17 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and a bunch of other people.  I'm still behind on my comics due to a whole bunch of boring reasons but we'll talk about Batman today and hopefully catch up on some other things between now and next Sunday.  I had written previously about how I was disappointed in this Death of the Family storyline.  That was mainly in relation to the previous Snyder/Capullo Batman comics from 2011 and 2012 which I thought were as good or better than anything in super hero comics.  My main beef with Death in the Family has been the pacing.  That it did not feel big enough and things seemed rushed.  This is a horror story and there has not been a lot of time to scream.  Of course, this story is bigger than just the Batman comic.  It is a crossover event. I however have read only the Batman comics.  And I won't apologize for that.  As the customer, it is not my burden to read the other comics and figure it all out.  Maybe there would have been more weight to Death of the Family for me if I had read all of the other Bat family member's adventures but I just could not afford to do that.  But let's just forget about all that altogether and look at this one singe comic, Batman 17.  

It is a very good Batman versus Joker comic book.  Maybe one of the best.  But I don't know, I've not read them all.  The real guts of this comic is mostly talking and it is the culmination of the 73 year long philosophical argument between Batman and the Joker over what they mean to each other and what they would be without each other.  Two insane guys saying 'yeah but at least I'm not as crazy as you' for 73 years.  And it's great.  I think Snyder and Capullo are pushing this thing just a bit further than it's been pushed before.  I think they may have pushed it as far as it can go.  This comic is the natural evolution of this story into a horror comic.  But it can't go all the way off the deep end because it is still a Batman comic.  Greg Capullo's art is gross and freaky and horrific but it is still stylized and Batman still has that larger than life chin because it is still a Batman comic.  Snyder's writing pushes the characters right to the edge but not over because it is still a Batman comic.  It points out the limitations of what you can do with a seven decade old children's character that dresses up as a bat and fights crime.  But for at least a few panels, I thought they might just cross the line.

SPOILERS

To push the Joker beyond where he's been before, to make him "real" whatever that means, the threat has to be "real".  Or at least movie "real".  Hannibal Lecter "real".  Or Gwyneth Paltrow's head in a box "real".  So the whole gimmick of this thing has been about faces.  Faces representing masks.  Snyder's Joker has litterally taken off his mask by removing his face then putting it back on.  It's gross but it makes the point that the mask or secret identity never mattered.  The lesson is that the Joker IS the Joker and the point of this whole campaign of horror is to teach Batman that Batman IS Batman and his desire to maintain some hind of human normalcy by working with the Bat family will either bring him down or bring them death.  Maybe both.  So, for the big climactic issue of this thing we have Batman tied to a chair at the head of a dinner table with all the Bat family in attendance.  But all of their faces are bandaged.  And before each of them is a big covered platter.  What is on those platters?!  What's in the box?!  Well, obviously, it is their faces.  Obviously, the Joker has carved off the faces of Robin, Batgirl, Batman's son, Nightwing and that other guy no one cares about.

And for a panel or two I thought they might let Snyder go there.  I thought they might just do it.

But, this is a Batman comic.  Of course their faces have not been removed.  It was just a sick Joker joke.  Batman gets out of it and the Batman family will carry one.  But the horror of the thing does have weight.  We see relationships changed.  We see the Bat family rethinking whether or not they want to hang out with Batman anymore.  We see characters in a different place than they were when the story started and that is about as "real" as we can ask a Batman comic to be.

But what if he had cut their faces off?  What if the crossed that line into adult comics.  Into Marshall Law or Judge Dredd?  I think you could pull it off.  Bruce Wayne's top doctors sew the faces on, plastic surgery etc. and the status quo could be resumed.  But it would be hard to deal with.  Something like that and you are damaged goods mentally in a way that future writers would have to deal with for years.  It's like the death of Jason Todd.  It was super gross that they let fans kill a character but the real problem with Jason Todd's death is that every writer after it happened that wanted to use the Joker had to deal with it.  Again and again and again.  For 25 freaking years. The Joker was no longer the Joker.  The Joker was the guy that killed Jason Todd.  And that's why I think it was best for Snyder and Capullo to not to cross that line.  But for a few panels, they had me.

• And finally...  Yes, that's right I'm judging you.  Look at me. Me.  I'm judging you.

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 01272013

(The Avengers #89 cover by Sal Buscema who celebrated a birthday this week.  Image stolen from Steve Does Comics.)

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 01272013:

"Your archaic view of creatives is part of what keeps jobs of this industry undervalued. Congratulations, you’ve officially locked out a great percentage of talented, friendly, hard working creatives who would originally have had great interest in attending your convention." - Jordie Bellaire. 

• Jeezziz people.  So much bitchin' and moanin' and crying this week.  The twitter blew up with "should I quit the comics?"  Why don't the comics love me?  Why won't the comics buy me a sub sandwich and rub my feet?  Why do the comics love other people so much and not return my emails?  Boo the ducking who.  Here's the thing about making comics. It's just making comics.  Get some paper and a pencil and go crazy.  Stop when you don't feel like doing it anymore.  Then maybe later, start making them again.  Or not.  There are all kinds of things that people that don't make comics do that seem to be totally rewarding.  I mean, some people can watch the crap out of some TV.  I hear about people getting famous for watching TV every day.  Or maybe you could play video games.  That would be super rewarding right?  Maybe join a guild or something.  And when you walk the street, people will step back and say, "There goes a video game player.  That person is contributing to society!"  Or maybe movies might be your thing?  You could pay your money and be a part of the magic.  Become a fan of a franchise.  Argue on twitter with lesser movie watchers about how stupid their opinions are.  Or maybe sports is where it's at.  I hear that if your favorite team wins the Super Bowl you you get to feel good about yourself for a solid 18 hours.  I mean why make art at all?  Why make anything?  Why do anything?  Why express yourself in any way?  What's the point?  Why create a tangible thing that could be enjoyed by tens of peoples?  Just sit down, shut up, plug into your cell pad pod phone and die.  Or not.  It's just comics.  You don't kneed anyone to justify it.  Do you think the average grandma gives a singe solitary F if someone thinks she should stop working on puzzles or knitting?  Do you think my dad gives a single solitary F if someone thinks he's not getting as many turkeys as he used to when he goes hunting?  You know when you stop a thing?  When you don't feel like doing that thing any more.  And then, maybe later, you might feel like doing it again.  And that's okay too.  Artists don't retire.  They just die.  There ain't no rules to this thing and the seat belts are just for show.  Anyone that thinks there are rules in art is a coward.  It's just comics.  It doesn't owe you anything.  The guy that created Spider-Man lives out of a freaking hotel room.  And he still makes comics.  It's just comics.
• My dear faithful loyal can't-live-without-it readers will have by now noticed that I frequently post videos featuring Francis and Boogie2998.  What you may not know is that both of those guys are one guy named Steven Williams.  I grew up with Steven.  His mom ran the head start.  We were on the drama team together in high school.  He graduated the year after me.  He's super smart.  Super funny.  But most of all he's a really good guy.  So, I'm super excited that he is featured in Volkswagon's new commercial that will hopefully be shown during the Super Bowl.  I think that before this, the closest anyone from my town ever came to fame was the time the Daily Show showed up to make fun of the next town over for selling their Christmas lights.  I don't know how these things work but the video below is a "pre-release" video.  Whatever that means.  But, do me a favor, watch it and hit the "like" button about thirty times.  Thanks.
• I'm writing this while listening to this so any thing that does not make sense should be blamed on Robert Newsome. 
• Apparently, one day this week was open mouth kiss a colorist day or something. 
• Speaking of color, Jim Rugg stumbled upon the amazing discovery that comics colored on a lighted screen and presented on a lighted screen are brighter than those on paper. 
• Look.  You have probably already don this, but if not, just go read that Rob Liefled script.  Trust me.  Abbey Coleslaw did a pretty good parody of it, but honestly, the real thing is funnier. 
• Here are some freaking staggering photos of early 1900s Paris.  Now I get why Paris was such a big deal. 
• "Abbey Coleslaw" is cheap and I'm bigger than that.  Usually.  Just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention. 
• RIP Skummie. 
• There is going to be another movie about Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange.  What?  You want a link for that? Google people.  Google. 

• Shonen Jump relaunched their website and, I guess, the way I understand it, maybe, it is that it now has the comics in English on the same day they come out in Japan?  Or something that means a lot to people that read Shonen Jump.  Anyway, I can't keep up with it but, I did go through the sampler and it was a lot of fun.  That One-Punch Man is genius. Oh, and in Japan, they only have 48 weeks in a year.  Which is terrifying. (And probably not true.  Joey Weiser totally explained it to me but pretending that there are only 48 weeks in Japan is way funnier.  For me.  I'm laughing for you.  I carry a heavy load.)
• Speaking of manga, the Comics Reporter leads me to believe that this will be something. 
• So, you can read most of Kyle Baker's creator owned comics online.  Right now. 
• Josh Simmons has a tumblr. Not safe for work anywhere.
• Oh, and Patrick Dean has one too.  It's just the best. 
• People.  You can read Howard the Duck newspaper strips online.  Until you can't anymore. 
• Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag.  I'm not dating Danica Patrick.  This guy, was probably a sophomore in high school when Danica was posing for FHM.  Oh man I bet his friends hate his guts. 
• Have I ever talked to you people about Star Wars?  I like Star Wars.  They are my favorite wars.  My pal Paul McDonald likes Star Wars a lot.  So much, he wrote a book about it.  He recently wrote about the passing of his mother as, literally, only he could. 
• Oh, and again with the Star Wars.  J.J. Abrams?  Well, alright. 
• "The only good news is, out of it all, ya beat the hospital. Lets see ‘em collect your bills now!"
• "But, to repeat, I STILL don't know how long the book is. No idea. Conservative guess, it could be another 200 pages -- maybe 300."
• Comics blogging up-and-comer Gary Groth talks about EC Comics. 
• Jog talks about Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss 2 as all good comics types should.  (I'm ashamed to say that I have not read it yet.  Other than some online previews I've never laid eyes on the thing.  It's not exactly filling up the racks of rural American comic shops and Wal-Mart was fresh out.  My plan was to try and pick up a bunch of them during the coming con season but I'll probably break down and get it off eBay when I get my tax return.  I dream big.)
• Ed Kramer.  DragonCon.  And really bad lousy journalism.  Sigh.  I just can't.  I just can't even get into this story or the pathetic "journalism" exhibited by the many comics websites that have covered it, but, let me just say this- you can totally hit up wikipedia and check the bare minimum facts of your story before you hit the "publish" button.  Hell, maybe even read some of the articles from your own website or newspaper first.  Seriously people... THE MAN STILL OWNS 34 #[](%ING PERCENT OF DRAGONCON!  HE IS PROFITING OFF TEENAGERS DRESSING UP AS FIONA AND CAKE AND WALKING IN THEIR PARADE!  Gah.
• Last weekend the HeroesCon folks threw a minicon in Charlotte.  And from the look of these photos, it was great. 
• The Dollar Bin wants you to vote for things.  
• I like Microcosm Publishing.  Let's take a look at their catalog. 
• Ya know, those Barbie comics were pretty good.  For, ya know, comics about a doll.  I see them in the dollar bins from time to time and get them for my girls.  The like 'em and wish there were more of 'em.
• Chris Sims says that The Batman ain't down with the guns.  But don't take Chris Sims word for it, let Chris Sims tell you about it. 

(Image stolen from... I don't know where actually.  Forwarded to me by a friend at work.  Hi Keenan.)

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Comic Vine.)
...was X-O Manowar #9 by Robert Venditti, Trevor Hairsine, Brian Reber and a bunch of other people.  This comic, like the previous eight issues and most of the Valiant books I've seen so far is quality from cover to cover.  Great cover art, nice book design, bold logos that jump out from the comic racks, nice production, nice editorial material, nice house ads, high quality art, colors, letters and writing.  A very good comic.  I love the X-O Manowar series and how Venditti has handled it as a sci-fi and historical mash up rather than a super hero book.  I'm a sucker for sci-fi and when you hand your space Visigoth a crazy energy sword thing it is going to be hard to lose me.  And while Venditti could probably just tell the artist to draw 20 odd pages of swords and explosions and space smashing and I would probably be okay, the story is really moving and the characters/entities involved are making some unexpected choices along the way to keep it interesting.  Is that what good drama is?  Maybe?  I was just an English minor so they never showed me the full back of tricks.  This particular issue may the best yet.  (Although those first four were really strong.)  After I put this issue down I felt like it had been non-stop action.  X-O faces off against some bad alien dudes in some similar armor so the stakes seemed higher.  But when I flip back through it I realize that this thing covers a lot of ground.  There is a lot of dialog and exposition moving the story from one phase into what will be the next story arc but it did not feel like set up.  It just felt, like, um, you know, entertaiment.  And nerds, you know what I mean right? You know how comics publishers will set up their big story arcs for months with hype and ads but feed you garbage filler in in the issues leading up to it?  No filler her.  And that's a big part of what I have liked about all of Venditti's work so far is that almost every panel moves the story.  And this artist, Trevor Hairsine, he's pretty good too.  I like his work here a lot.  He's got some Neal Adams moments in there that are very cool.  Right up there with Cary Nord.  And that is another great thing about these books.  Even though there have been three artists in just 9 issues the art has been consistent.  Not saying the guys all draw the same but saying the quality, tone and overall look of the book has been consistent.  And when you consider, that DC can't even get one artist to complete one full issue of a lot of their books, I really appreciate that consistency.  Editorial at Valiant apparently knows what they are doing. 

• And finally... a good crowd has gathered to wish our superhero well.

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.