HeroesCon 2010 report.

(Mike Mignola exclusive stolen from the HeroesCon blog.  I would post photos of my own but I forgot batteries for my camera.)

I had a really great time at this year's HeroesCon.   I am still creatively energized but physically exhausted by the show.  I go into these shows with four goals; 1) expand my audience as a cartoonist/writer, 2) expand file under other's audience, 3) expand my network of comics pals and 4) have a good time with my existing comics pals.  I totally exceeded my expectations on three out of four of those goals.

As Shannon Smith cartoonist/writer/self-publisher I had a great weekend.  Possibly my best ever.   My Indie Island table stayed pretty busy.  It was never crazy but it was steady.  I kept expecting a lull during which I would I could leave my table and check out the rest of the show but the lull never came.  It was steady open to close both Friday and Saturday.  I sold a lot of books and did a good amount of sketches.  I'm not saying that I had customers lined up to the back of the room but the folks that did pull out the cash usually bought multiple items.  My Brush & Pen book just keeps on selling.  I need to knock out another one of those suckers immediately.  I had a good amount of repeat customers.  I was worried about that because I missed last year but folks remembered me.  That's very nice.  Thanks comics buying pals!  Hope you liked the books.  I also had a handful of copies of the Shiot Crock book I edited and contributed to on hand.  I did not really promote it or anything.  The copies I had were really just for contributors but I did show it to a lot of folks and the response was really great.  I'll post a more official announcement about the book soon. I also had a one pager in the Dollar Bin's new anthology that debuted at the show.  I was very happy with how it turned out. 

As Shannon Smith file under other critic guy I was very busy.  I had a lot of folks bring by books to submit for review and a lot of folks come by that just wanted to say hi and talk about comics.  Lots and lots of positive feedback about file under other as well as some interesting ideas I may or may not ever have time to look into.

As far as expanding my network of comics pals goes, I should have done a lot better.  I was just too busy.  I had a long list of folks whom I wanted to say hit to but I only managed to scratch off a few names.  It was just too busy.  Several of my favorite cartoonists were sitting right there on the same beach of Indie Island and I did not manage to even look at their books or say hi.  Soooo many guests.  Oh well.  Next year.

As far as hanging out with my pals goes everything was great.  Most of my pals were right there on the same chunk of Indie Island.  Rob Ullman, J. Chris Campbell, Josh Latta and Brad McGinty were nice enough to let me follow them around and even crash in their room.  I had a nice dinner with those fellas along with Ben Towle. Later on we met up with the Dollar Bin gang and a bunch of other folks to watch a bunch of cartoons that Brad had made.  That was a knee slappin' ha ha funny good time.  I also got to hang out with Patrick Dean, Robert Newsome, Sally Bloodbath and a bunch more of my favorite folks I've met through Fluke.   Everything was super laid back and fun.  Everything just took care of itself all weekend.  No stress.  No worries.  The hardest thing I had to do all weekend was show up.  So thanks guys.  I really appreciate it.

Extra super mega thanks to Shelton Drumm, Dustin Harbin and all the HeroesCon gang for having me as a guest.  Everything was so smooth that I really did not need any assistance but every time I did interact with the Heroes Con staff I was treated like a king.  Thanks team HeroesCon!

Random links I found or was sent:

Some thoughts from Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.  I got to speak with Tom a little as the strolled through Indie Island.  Such a nice guy.  Some of my pals got to hang out with him a bit Saturday night.  I'm totally bummed that I had to leave early and missed that.  Tom gave me and the Shiot Crock book I edited a mention.  Thanks!

The Comics Reporter's collective memory list.

Photos and report from Michael Neno.

Jamie Cosley's mini report.  Jamie was on my list of folks to go say hi to but every time I went by his table he was pretty busy.  Next time.

Ben Towle has one, two, three reports.  I  sat a few tables down from Ben.  Love his books and follow his blog so it was really cool to be able to have a nice quick dinner with him and other pals.   I plan on making a request at my local library for them to stock his new Amelia Earhart book.

Comics Worth Reading: Day 1.  Day 2.  Wrap up. Johanna Draper Carlson is another name on my list of folks I would have liked to have said hi to but failed.

The Beat: Part 1.  Part 2. Part 3.  I actually did manage to say hi to Heidi so that was cool.

AdHouse has a Flickr set up and a report.  Chris Pitzer is another name I failed to check off my say-hi-to list but I did get a look at Joey Wieser's new Cavemen in Space book.  Really nice.  Joey came over and say hi all by himself so I did not have to do any work at all to check him off my list.  Hooray.

Second Period's tumblr has some photos.

Pink Kryptonite has field report full of words.

John Kivus has a bunch of good stuff here.

Henry Eudy's report.

Rob Ullman's haul. (I'm jealous of a couple of things there.  I hear those Nathan Sorry books are good.)

Josh Latta has posted a report which contains the best photo of the show.  

Rich Barret has a report up.  I don't know if I met Rich or not but I sure did hear a lot about how good his Nathan Sorry comics are.

Roger Langridge has a post up.  Scroll down below it to see some awesome Muppet/Thor art. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Sign up to be in Shiot Crock 16.

I will be editing the next edition of "The Comics Journal Message Board's unofficiall anthology" known as Shiot Crock. If you make comics, maybe you want to be in it.

Here are the details so far...

Shiot Crock 16 will look a lot more like a standard graphic novel than previous editions. As always, it is open to anyone that wants to send in junk.

What to submit?

Subject= anything.

Page count= 1 to 24.

Format = The final printed pages will be 6.625 x 10.25 so your live art area will be about 6 x 9. The book will be black and white. You can submit via email or mail me one paper copy of each page. If you email, it has to be a 300 dpi tiff or jpg in a zipped file. If you snail mail me, it needs to be on paper not much bigger than 8 1/2 x 11 because my scanner is small. As long as you are sending normal comics pages, I only need one copy of each page.

Now for the wacky stuff. If you want to do non-normal comics, pages, prints, oragami or objects-- for that you will need to send me as many copies as we have contributors so that number will be calculated later. These items will be packaged with the final book but will not actually be IN the final printed book. Basically, the final product will be a traditional looking graphic novel collection packaged with whatever odd goodies people want to add.

Cost: This will be determined after we get an estimated page count but right now it is looking like about $8 per contributor with an extra 5 or 6 bucks for additional copies. That's right. We will be able to have additional copies.

Sign Up Deadline: July 15ish. Soon after that we will have the final cost and I will give out email and snail mail addresses for the submissions.

Submission Deadline: September 30ish. (With hopes of having the book out by Halloweenish. That may be unrealistic but we have to start somewhere.)

What is in it for you? You get the book. There will be a review thread here where other contributors may or may not give you feedback on your work. The book will be sent to at least a half dozen critics who may or may not give you feedback on your book. If you want extra copies you should be able to get them at a low enough price that if you sell them you will make money.

What you need to post now in this thread to sign up: Name and page count.

Go here to sign up. (Yeah, you may have to set up an account. Life is hard.)

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

You should contribute to the next Shiot Crock.

That's right.  You! You there with your eyes and your hands and your talent and your ink pen and your paper.  You!  You need to make a comic and submit it to Shiot Crock.  Read this and try to figure out how.

Good luck!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Shiot Crock 14 edited by Joe Kletz

Shiot Crock 14 edited by Joe Kletz.
On sale nowhere. You could possibly wrassle a contributor for their copy.
Contributor review thread here.

This is the forth Shiot Crock I have covered here at file under other so I can't possibly go though explaining just exactly what the thing is another time. You can look through the posts here for details.
It has been called the unofficial anthology of The Comics Journal Message board and that probably sums it up well enough.
Joe Kletz edited and assembled this edition as a home binded hardback. The design is simple but cool. The binding is well, home-made-ish. It's not book store ready but when you take into account that Kletz had the challenge of assembling printed pages from many contributors you can forgive it's flaws.

It is kind of a tradition that each Crock comes with some sort of freebie thrown in. These are usually things that were just lying around the editor's house. Mine came with an issue of the Weekly World News. It has a very interesting article on how "You Can Now Write in the 'Fourth' Person". Well it's about time!

It is also the tradition (often not followed) that each contributor write a review of the Crock's contents. This is the forth Crock in which I have appeared so now I will fulfill my civic duty to the minicomic community and review the contents of Shiot Crock 14 in the order that they appear.

The Belgian Pig Fucking Movie by Kurt Beaulieu.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... I really like Beaulieu's crazy huge breasted lesbian musician ladies and their adventures. I like Beaulieu's drawing and his character design. I usually have a hard time making much sense of his stories though. The jokes and language are usually over my head but this one made some sense.

A comic I have chosen to call Hell Yes by Nicole Burch.
This is a one page suicide comedy comic. Well drawn. Well executed. I like it.

A piece I have chosen to call The Continental Op by Mark Campos.
This is a page and a half essay on a Dashiell Hammett character. I've not seen many of the movies from that time or read any of the books so I can't speak to the essay other than to say that I did not mind reading it and felt like he made his case pretty well. It is accompanied by a nice Campos drawing of the character. I like Campos' art so it works for me.

Super Iffy by Yuri Duncan
Not quite super hero parody. Just plain super hero goofiness. It is simple and presented in color. I could do without the computer lettering but I say that about all computer lettering. The funniest thing about the comic is that one of the characters is named "The Mystic Fist".

In Search of the Two-Hole and Bad Joke - No Joke by eric.
If the cartoonist had not bogged down a lot of page space with self-deprecating apologies this would have been a pretty funny contribution. I like eric's drawings well enough and the jokes are pretty funny. (Minus the apologies.)

Some stuff I have chosen to call Some Random Stuff by Cory Fuka.
Oh Fuka. Fuka Fuka Fuka... I'm not sure what to do with this. It's almost a comic. Almost a story. Some random gag photos thrown in for... why? Some random sketchbook stuff? Man, I just don't know...

Joe & Amy by Joe Kletz.
This is a warm little engagement story. I reads more like a love letter to Kletz's wife than a comic aimed at a comic audience but it's a fun read with a few moments of interesting cartooning. I like it a lot and would like to see more longer narratives from Kletz.

Stoolies by Klopner.
I sho nuff love me some Klopner. Love his drawing, inking and the subject matter. This is a tight comedy piece about a bar hook-up. It has the sharp and biting dialog I expect from Klopner. The drawing is flatter than usual but I can see that he is going for more of a straight talking head comic strip style. Not my favorite Klopner comic but I enjoyed it a lot.

Chausie! by Karen Lucas.
I think this comic is a real breakthrough for Lucas. It's the longest sustained narrative I've seen her pull off. It's also the best composed. There are some nice things she is doing with the page layouts and the panel composition. I think I can see some of Klopner's influence on her pages. The biggest breakthrough is in the dialog. She gets inside the character's head and let's the character have a voice. It's some clever and interesting stuff. The drawing is a bit clumsy but there is some confidence in how it is all put together. She really pulls off playing around with panel shape and placement. Good stuff.

Dump by David Robertson.
I could almost just cut and paste one of my previous David Robertson reviews to cover this one. In fact, I will! If Wes Anderson wrote a comic about a wildlife film sound recordist it would be exactly like this two page story by David Robertson. (And I mean that with zero percent snark. I like Wes Anderson.) Robertson's drawing seems rushed but he manages to tell an elaborate story packed with laughs. Except that this one is not about a sound recordist but rather a guy that climbs mountains and puts light bulbs above bird nests. Is there a word for that? This comic is a bit better than other stuff I have seen from Robertson. The drawing is simplified but stronger. I like his pacing a lot and the characters have some great hair.

Mini-Giant Monster Club Awesome Infinitude! by Barry Rodges.
What impresses me about Rodges contributions to Shiot Crock is that he never repeats himself. Each Rodges comic I see has a new drawing style, storytelling style and subject matter. This comic is monster nerd dudes talking monster nerd talk in their clubhouse. What else can I say about that? It's drawn well, lettered well and funny. I like.

Small Bible: The Old Testament by Shannon Smith.
I contributed the same story you can buy here but It is reformatted for this larger book. I won't review my own comic here. You can see what other people thought about it here.

Corinne and Suzanne Arrive in Stowe Vermont by Kurt Beaulieu.
More huge breasted crazy ass lesbian musicians. More good. More yayy. We all win.

A piece I have chosen to call Chaos Wizard by Cory Fuka.
Some sort of X-Men meets Dungeons and Dragons girl... this time in color!

What is the Hairiest Thing You Have Ever Seen and a page I have chosen to call Man I'm Bored by Joe Kletz.
Two comedy pages by Kletz. This is the kind of thing I have come to expect from Kletz. Not gosh wow awesome but funny.

The Christian Truth versus The Pluralistic Darkness by Kurt Beaulieu and Sirkowski.
This is my favorite thing in the book. Those huge breasted crazy ass lesbian musicians we all know and love return but this time they are drawn in a manga style by Sirkowski. I really like Sirkowski's drawing and the use of tones and the furrie art is hilarious. And maybe it is because this story features two other ladies that don't speak the way Beaulieu's ladies normally speak but this one makes sense almost 100% of the time. Win, win win! Hooray! I want an all Beaulieu written crazy huge breasted lady book drawn by Sirkowski and a dozen or so other artists. Make it so. Chop chop!


A piece I have chosen to call Crazy Ass Space Art by Cory Fuka.
Fuka provided some full color crazy ass space art. I like it a lot. Don't know what to make of it. Not sure if there is a point. I just think it is cool looking.

You too can join in the fun that is a Shiot Crock. Visit The Comic's Journal Message Board and keep you eye out for the next sign up thread.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

SHIOT CROCK 12 (slight return) edited by Karen Lucas

"What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board. " - from my review of Shiot Crock 11.

I have reviewed Shiot Crock 11 and 13 here at file under other but Shiot Crock 12 seemed to be destined to exist as the rocket firing Boba Fett of minicomics. It was something many people believed to have existed but very few could show any evidence of. Without getting into the sordid details of the thing I will just say that the original version of Shiot Crock 12 never made it's way into my possession I did not expect to ever see it with my own eyes. Enter Karen Lucas who managed to track down most of the contributors and pull together what copies did exist and order re-prints of missing parts and assemble the whole thing into the great big giant book I'm about to review. Karen Lucas should be given some sort of minicomic editor of the year award for this feat. Just stepping up to the challenge was quite impressive but actually pulling it off is some sort of miracle.

The book looks really great. Lucas had to re-format most of the individual minicomic submissions to make them fit in one book and the way she did it looks really cool. A couple of entries had to be placed in plastic sleeves where you pull the little comics out and that gives it this really neat playfulness like those scrapbook coffee table books you see around the holidays (Elvis, Dylan, that Marvel Vault book, etc. you know you've seen them at Borders and B&N). There is a really nice splash page and clever back cover by contributing creator Michael Klopner and it even came with some very nice postcards, a pack of seeds and a little rubber bunny. It's the poor man's McSweeneys.

This Crock is huge. The biggest I've seen with a lot of really nice comics. Since SC 12 was originally a disaster, some of the comics were re-submitted for SC 13 and have already been reviewed. The comics are reviewed here in the order in which they appear in the book. I apologize for not having the time to scan and post art from every single submission. There is no real reasoning as to which comics I posted art for and which I didn't other than just flipping through the thing in the wee hours and scanning some stuff that caught my eye. If I've left you out, send me your latest mini and I'll review it to make it up to you. (Yeah, that's right, I make up for my laziness my making you send me more comics. And Dave Sim thinks he's the evil genius.) I appologize for the quality of the scans. The book is so big I probably would have had to just rip the spine in half to get any good scans. So, without further doo doo...



The Sketchpile by Danno Baker.
It is what it says it is; a bunch of sketches. Not sure how to review them other than to say he draws well, the sketches are cool and if I still rode my skateboard that I might want a sticker of his Mushroom People on it.

Kurt Beaulie's Crazy Huge Breasted Street Lesbians.
That's not the real title of this entry. I think it is untitled but if it needed a title it may as well be called what it is. I've talked about Kurt's comics in previous Shiot Crock reviews. I love his character design and when the comics make sense they are funny and captivating. This story makes sense and has more plot than some of his other stuff I've seen. If he ever collects all these Crazy Huge Breasted Street Lesbians stories in a book I'll buy it.

Kids These Days by Mark Campos.
Campos displays some really lovely drawing in what seems to be a bit of a tribute to Beatrix Potter with with a pretty funny punchline. I really like Campos' drawing and he pulls off the Potter style with ease. This entry is very nicely formatted. It is a minicomic mounted on an illustrated card stock page for easy assembly with the rest of the book.



We Need to Talk by Adam Casey.
I've mentioned Casey here before when I had him on my best of 2007 list. This entry is a four pager that is part relationship gag and part excuse to make space drawings. I like the relationship gag and I love the space drawings. Casey is very adept at breaking things down to their basic iconic image. I'd love to see him do a Silver Surfer comic. Just page after page of cool poses and wacky space backgrounds.

A Flame Expelled by W. Craghead III.
This is pretty much just an illustrated poem. Neither the poem nor the illustrations do much to get me excited.

Friends by Mike Eager and Dave Bradbury.
Another illustrated poem. Not much there. It's just one page long containing a couple of nicely inked angry faces.

Untitled stuff by Cory Fuka.
This entry is part sketchbook entries, part comics and part altered photos. None of it seems to be finished. The sketches are of a baby faced girl with porn star boobs. There is an almost funny page of comics that seems to be about half drawn. There is a page of t-shirt slogan ideas. The two pages of altered photos are the type of thing I would have thought to use as rock show flyers back when I was in college but looking at them now, as a thirty-four year old geezer, are meaningless to me.

This is Still America by George.
This is probably the most ambitious entry in this Shiot Crock. At twenty pages it is longer than most of the pieces I've seen in a Shiot Crock and the story covers a lot more physical and emotional ground than most indie comics of it's length. George's design style is very minimal but each panel is very full. He is creating a well realized and consistent cartoon world here in much the same way Jon Porcellino does in King Kat. Not to say that the style is simple. He is just using a lot of white space and relying on movement rather than a lot of shading. This kind of drawing is a bit challenging for me to follow at times. I really have to study each panel to understand where I am in the narrative. The story jumps around throughout the character's life and dreams and I had a little trouble following it but the emotions are on the nose. There are some great scenes from the main character's childhood full of fighting and crying. I guess part of what confuses me about it is that the main character looks about the same as an adult as he does as a child. I get the feeling this is part of a larger work (I could probably Google and find out) and I like this enough to want to see the rest.

The Uncanny Duckbear by Ian Harker.
This comic looks and reads just like the title would make you imagine it would. It's packed with jokes and violence. Rabbits beating up emo kids. A robot snow man. Drunk dinosaurs and zombies. And did I mention the violence. I like this comic a lot. It's the exact kind of oddball thing that every anthology should have at least one of. It looks like it was a lot of fun to draw.

MoNo 2099 by Cheese Hasselberger.
Speaking of dinosaurs. Hasselberger provides six well drawn pages of random absurdity. A naked couple deliver their baby in the desert and are promptly attacked by a flying shark which is promptly attacked by a talking dinosaur. What's not to love about that? I mean, really, what more could you ask from six pages of comics?

Note 2 Self by J.M. Hunter.
This item was already reviewed as a part of Shiot Crock 13.

Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen
This is an excerpt from Jensen's graphic novel of the same title published by Alternative. If the original editor had successfully delivered the original Shiot Crock 12 to me within a reasonable time frame I this would have been a preview of the graphic novel and might have encouraged me to buy it. None of that happened. The pages sampled here look pretty good. The drawing and panel composition have the feel of a good newspaper strip and the beats are pretty funny. Each three panel group almost works as it's own gag. I've enjoyed every book I've ever bought from Alternative so I'm sure this book is worth a read.

Lonely by Jess Johnson.
Three pages of interesting psychedelia. If there is a story or a point to it I can't make it out. Nice looking pop art though. Several panels would look great on velvet in the black light room of your friendly neighborhood head shop.

Triomphe L'Oeli by Gavan Kiazawa.
This is sort of an illustrated poetic thingamajig about Kim Jong-Il's eyelash. I can't figure out if it is supposed to be a serious commentary on war and/or consumerism or if it's just supposed to be a joke. In short. I don't' get it.

Super-Heroes in Their Underpants by Joe Kletz.
This is an example of the neat kind of things you will find in a Shiot Crock that you are unlikely to find anywhere else. Kletz provided five index sized printed cards with illustrations of super-heroes in their underpants. It's exactly what it sounds like. One would think that I would be old enough to have outgrown the impulse to laugh at a drawing of Spider-Man in boxers but apparently, I am not.

True Candy by Klopner.
I really, really like these comics but I already reviewed them as a part of Shiot Crock 13.

Hauser and Hawking in Attack of the Space Pope by Rich Koller.
If hastily drawn obscene Terrence and Phillip level humor is what you want in your comics then Koller is your man. The idea of a Space Pope is funny to me but this comic isn't.

The Twins by Chris Kuriata.

This is a longer piece and would be a nice standalone minicomic. Kuriata's drawing and storytelling remind me a bit of Lynda Barry. In the story the main character, Sandra, has ill feelings after her friend has sex with her brother. The friend, named Sara McVowell, is an actress with just enough success to show up on television and haunt Sandra. It's a really interesting story and I like Kuriata's matter of fact style of handling the dialog and situations. McVowell is such an odd name that I can't help but wonder about a link to Sarah Vowell. This story has stuck with me more than any other in the book. I'd love to see more.

I Was Orwell's Dentist by Dan Lester.
I like Dan Lester's oddball comics but this two page story left me confused. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be a serious slice of life bit or a comedy piece. It feels like it may just be two pages from an unfinished work.

Curl Up & Dye by Karen Lucas.
I think I already covered these same pages in my review of Shiot Crock 13. If not, everything I said about the SC 13 entry is mutual for this one.

Fleet Headquarters by Dave McKenna.
This also was already covered in my Shiot Crock 13 review.

Squat Thrust by Mostyn.
I almost think these pages might have some sort of story or point to them. If I stayed up all night and smoked a pound of weed I could probably figure it out. I'm not going to do that. I have children to think about and a job to keep.

It's Delhi Belly by Robertson.
My thoughts on this are almost the same as my thoughts on Dan Lester's story. I'm positive the parts with the doctor and Mr. Hanky are supposed to be funny but the thing is about Crohn's disease so it's not a real laugh riot. I like the economy of Robertson's storytelling. He covers a trip to India and the discovery of the illness in just two pages without it seeming rushed or forced.

The Yellows by Barry Rodges.
Without looking at my own reviews of Barry Rodges in Shiot Crock 11 and 13 I think I probably said that his cartooning and character design are strong. This applies to this submission as well. I think this is my favorite thing I've seen from Rodges. The drawing is really great and there is a lot of motion in the comics. The storytelling is straightforward and easy to follow. Most of all, the gags work. Good old fashioned cartoon physical comedy. Well, the ending is kind of morbid but still, comedy. The piece was originally submitted as a minicomic but Lucas had to re-format. I'd bet the minicomic looked pretty great. I really think Rodges is going to make some really great comics sometime soon. The chops are there. I just want to see him to cut loose on a longer character driven story. (I could say that same thing about most of my favorite minicomics creators.)

Bitchin' Zodiac by Julie Sadler.
This is a neat color collage piece depicting the signs of the zodiac. Not really comics. I don't know enough about this sort of thing to say much more than that I like it.

The Cold Season by Adrian Sanders and Fabio Moon.
This five page story looks reads and feels very polished and comfortable. It has the look of Craig Thompson paying homage to Wil Eisner. It is not so much a story as it is just a moment. A slice of life about two strangers passing on a snowy night but the drawing is very strong and captures the characters thoughts in an effective and not over sentimental way. I would like this a lot more if the balloon lettering had been done in the same style as the author credits.

Untitled by Adrian Sanders and Nancy Ahn.
With Cold Season and this twelve page piece, Sanders proves that at the very least he has a talent for picking good artists. If I had to pick a favorite piece from this Shiot Crock it is probably this one. The story is a commentary on politics and war from the viewpoint of a ten year old emperor. The story is clever but nothing significantly original but the storytelling and the drawing are really nice. I like everything about every page. The pacing, the page layout, the lettering, the drawing, the character design, the inking... I would really like to see more comics from Nancy Ahn. She invokes a lot of what I like about Marjane Satrapi and Joann Sfarr.

The Nine Scratch n' Sniff Circles of Protestant Heaven by Cynthia Seagren and Casey Casein.
If there is anything different about this and their entry in Shiot Crock 11, I can't seem to find it.

The Lonely Felllows by Stephanie Silver.
This twelve page entry exhibits some really lovely drawing and neat characters. The story is about a bird befriending a whale. The drawing and story have the feel of a children's book but the dialog is just edgy enough to give mom and pop a chuckle. It reminds me a lot of James Kochalka's kids stuff like Peanutbutter and Jeremy. It's a really neat idea and I would love to see more of these characters.

A-Symmetricl O-Possum by Shannon Smith.
This was my entry. I made it specifically for Shiot Crock but by the time SC 12 finally happened I had already printed it in various ways and places so it's old news to me now. You can read what other folks thought about it here. Thanks to Karen Lucas for re-formatting my tiny foldie mini to fit this nice big book.

The Cloud by Dan Taylor.
I discovered Dan Taylor's comics a year or two ago through Comicspace and really like his stuff. Any anthology would be better for having his work in it. This story is a neat little play on old fashioned morality tales. It has the feel of a series of standalone newspaper gags linked together to tell a story. Taylor's craft is really top notch. The drawing, the inking, the tones, the lettering... it's all it's all really dead on. I really should just drop everything and go buy some of his comics right now.

Stamp Thing by Vertov.
I'm really not sure what to make of this. I read it and re-read it. There is some drawing, a lot of stamping, some cut out text and other things. (Maybe it is all stamps. I can't tell for sure. The little bodies look like they were drawn.) I guess this is collage comics. A lot of different elements creating a fairly unified vibe. I got a guess at what the message is but I'm not entirely sure. There should be some sort of Fort Thunder hotline number where a counselor can explain art comics to confused readers.

Training Facilitator by the unknown minicomic submitter.
I think it is perfect for the spirit of Shiot Crock that the last comic in the book would be from someone who did not put their name in the comic. Maybe the original editor knew the name of the creator but I prefer to imagine the thing just showed up in the mail with no credits or return address. The story is really just a begining to a story. Several characters are introducing themselves at the beginning of some weird "re-integration" training. There are some really cool character designs here. Each character gets their own panel to introduce themselves and the panels would work nicely as weirdo trading cards. I wish there was more to it than just the introductions. Unknown minicomic submitter where are you?

So... in conclusion, I think it is a really solid anthology. There are several misses but the hits are pretty awesome. I expect to see several of these foks make some great comics somewhere in futureland.

Click here to see what some of the other contributors thought about this Crock.

I think the deadline for the next Crock is sometime soon. You can find out more here.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get a paragraph break to look right on blogger. The paragraphs look prefect in "preview" and then when I post the thing some are squished together and some are wayyyy apart. If you know what the heck is wrong with blogger then let me know. Thanks.

Michael Klopner's WONDERFUL SUMMER

Wonderful Summer by Michael Klopner

klopner94@aol.com
24 pages. Black and white with color cover. Magazine sized. 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

I've been aware of Klopner's comics for a while and I really like his stuff. I've previously covered his comics in my reviews of Shiot Crock 11 and 13. His entry in SC 11 was a superhero parody with some interesting erotic elements but it was his relationship based stuff in SC 13 that made me a fan. This book is a magazine sized mini and the format works well with Klopner's art. Klopner uses big thick blacks and around twelve panels per page so I couldn't imagine this stuff looking that great at a smaller size without breaking up the panels and thus breaking up the pacing.

Wonderful Summer contains a fair deal of relationship based stuff similar to the True Candy strips I liked so much in SC13 but the book as a whole is mixed bag. The book is made up of five stories and some filler. If there is a unifying theme it is nihilistic characters embracing and reveling in a lurid world. Even the most amicable characters in the book express an interest violence and perversion.

The first story, Blood Brothers, is a hard case crime noir super hero punk mash up kind of thing. It has a neat juxtaposition of styles with the detective being drawn thick and sleek and the costumed baddies being quite gritty but the story is the least imaginative of the book.

The next item is a one pager called Blue Thong that cuts right to the chase with sex in the first panel. (Sampled above. Well, minus the first panel.) This is more representative of the almost instant character development Klopner is capable of. Right away you feel you know these characters and their background. It also exemplifies that wet lurid inking style I like in Kopner's comics.

The next few pieces, Frankensteins & Mirrors, Dark Coitus and Charlotte are underground rawness meets rockabilly meets post modern punk nihilism. (Don't you just hate reviews where the writer can't think of the words to describe something so they say it's one thing "meets" another thing? Me too.) These stories deal with some very depraved yet believable characters and their extreme sexual fetishes. They are right on the brink of being over the top but Klopner's dialog and humor hold it together. Charlotte is the most ambitious of the these stories. It is a Twilight Zone kind of story about a pedophile haunted by one of his victims. The twist is that the ghost does not want revenge but instead wants a playmate. It is sick and twisted yet clever and Klopner manages to pull it off as a complete story in just eight pages.

(Click the image to enlarge. Seriously, it's a really nice page.)

The last piece in the book is a three pager called Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. This is my favorite piece in the book. This is another story where we start with sex in panel one but it is the most positive and least violent story in the book. It's not much more than a simple day in the life of two young lovers but it's packed with all the elements I like so much in Klopner's comics; the thick wet inks, bold character design, a sexy femme fatale, rock references, clever dialog, racy pillow talk... but this short tale also allows the characters to show some vulnerability and depth not present in the rest of the book. In this story, the most dangerous element is not sex or violence but the two characters feelings for each other. The drawing and page layouts in this story are very nice and once again, Klopner manages to cover a lot of space in a few pages. I would gladly buy a big thick book of this kind of material and I hope he is working on more stories like it.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

SHIOT CROCK 13

(*Fat kitty not included.)

Maintaining a thirty-four year streak of doing things that do not make sense, I have decided that the first new review for this new mini-comic review blog will be dedicated to a project that may not be a mini-comic. I'll start off with the inevitable question: what is a Shiot Crock? To answer, I'll just quote myself:

"What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board."

So, Shiot Crock is more of a collection of mini-comics than a mini-comic itself. It is a pretty exclusionary project. You can't buy one unless you buy one of the contributor's copies. So, why review a project that you the reader can't go out and buy? Well, most of the contributors do make mini-comics that they would be happy to sell you and I hope this review will provide a tiny glimpse into their work. Another great thing about Shiot Crock is that many contributors submit works they would not put anywhere else. Not to say that these are tossed off failed projects they had laying around (which may be the case for some) but that because these contributions are not intended for a large audience, the creators are free to try things they may not do for an anthology or even their own mini-comics. In short, Shiot Crocks can be filled with lots of weird stuff you wont see in other places.

This current volume includes 17 contributions from 15 different creators. I could have quickly populated this blog with a lot of reviews by giving each story its own entry but I feel it is more appropriate to look at the project as a whole. My copy of SC 13 arrived in a large white envelope containing two attractive packages. One a splatter painted manilla envelope and the other a gift wrapped book.
I let my daughter tear open the gift wrapping. She was very excited. I was excited too. Getting presents in the mail is just about as much fun for one day as anyone deserves to have.

Inside the manila envelope is a very nice collage of art from all the contributors that Karen Lucas put together, a smaller splatter painted envelope containing a cool Shiot Crock magnet and a mini-comic which I assume was a carryover from the failed Shiot Crock 12. Inside the gift wrapping is Shiot Crock 13 itself.
This edition is edited by Klopner and he did a fantastic job taking all the home made elements and putting it together in a very attractive and fun presentation. Every anthology should come with this many cool things to check out and read through. Klopner did more than just bind together all the submissions. He created nice little title pages for each story using the contributor's art and created a very nice cover depicting a cute comic girl appropriately reading her Shiot Crock on the toilet. Huge complimentary declarations to Klopner for making this thing a pleasure to look through and own.

I will now touch on each contribution in the same alphabetical order in which they are presented. I apologize for the poor quality and selection of scans but I did not want to break the spine and it takes a while to scan that many images so, actually, I take my apology back. It was hard work.

Kurt Beaulieu

Kurt Beaulieu presents four pages of crazy street lesbians with giant boobs. I really like his drawing style and the comics are funny. His art and narrative style are a bit abstract so I always have to re-read each panel but the comics have so much personality that the re-read is a pleasure and not a challenge. I really like Beaulieu's comics and if someone re-launched Weirdo and asked me to edit the thing he would be one of the first people I would think of.

M. Campos

Campos contributed six pages of what he calls "near misses and never happens". There are two really nice pages from a WWII biographical comic he apparently gave up on but show a lot of promise. There is a nice psychedelic page and the page sampled above that would both make a great posters or t-shirts if colored. There is a funny one page comic strip in which the jokes deliver but art looks a bit unfinished. I really like Campos drawing style and subject choices and would love to see some longer books so I will keep my eye out.

Lou Copeland

Copeland profiles the "Great American" Davy Crocket in the style of educational comics but with the cyborg bears, astronauts and robots that school materials of yesteryear were afraid to document. Copeland's art is very good and the comic is funny. I'm dying to see the next episode of Great Americans which promises a profile of KC & The Sunshine Band.

J. M. Hunter

Here we have two submissions from J.M. Hunter but they are a part of a series. One is a full mini-comic called Not 2 Self and the other is in the Crock book itself and is substantial enough to be a second mini-comic and I assume it will be. Hunter's art is very aggressive with thick blacks and angry young characters jumping out from the panels. At first look I thought it was a bit over-the-top and bordering on sloppy but the more I thought about it I realized that the art is well suited for the story as well as it's target audience. Hunter's character design is strong. I really like the "goth pixie". The dialog seems to bank on profanity but it was not that long ago that I was an angry young man and was a part of plenty of conversations that sounded like this. Stylistically, this is not the type of comic I would make or maybe even the type I would buy but I don't suggest Hunter make any drastic changes. The continued existence of Oni and SLG publishing proves that there is an audience for this type of art and storytelling. My only advice would be the same advice a publisher gave me a while back, that there is nothing wrong with his craft that drawing 100 pages of comics wont fix. Good advice for anyone.

Kletz
Kletz provides a well crafted fight between Lockjaw from the Inhumans and Ace the Bathound. An idea so simple and genius I can't believe I've never seen it before. Very nice.
Klopner

Not only did Klopner do a very good job editing this Crock but he also provided my favorite comics of the project. His first contribution is called Sapphire Bullets. The first time I read one of Klopner's minis (a year or so ago in SC 11) I really liked the look of the book but thought the sexuality was a bit over the top. In Sapphire Bullets there is still a lot of sexual content but it feels more natural. The sexual content is consistent with the characters and, as unbelievable as the actions may be, they do seem to work in this world where these characters live. The dialog is sharp and I love the art style. Klopner's second submission is a collection of newspaper styled strips called True Candy. This second set of comics is my favorite of the book. I love the premise of a painter and a cartoonist living together as lovers and the comedy that follows. I love the characters and, there is no better way I can think of to say this but, I love the way Klopner draws the ladies. Sexuality is a big part of these strips as well but is handles in a clever enough way for these strips to work in an alternative paper format. I just wish there were more papers out there that would take a chance on this type of strip instead of running the same nationally syndicated strips all the other alternative papers run. (I'm pointing at you Creative Loafing!)

Dan Lester

Dan Lester presents a comic strip adaptation of the Turkish film The Man Who Saved the World aka Turkish Star Wars. I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan but I had never heard of this movie. At first I thought that Lester had invented the thing. If that were the case, this comic would have to be one of the oddest things ever. I did some googleing and found out that the film is real. Therefore, Lester's comic is no the oddest thing ever, but rather an adaptation of the oddest thing ever. Adapting this work to comics is a great exercise and results in a fun read.

Lucas

Karen Lucas offers up a few slice-of-life moments from a beauty shop. "Curl Up and Dye" is a clever title for the collection. The moments and dialog are funny and accessible. Her flat drawing style is charming and works well for this style of story telling. She uses thick blacks to give the pages a little punch and even uses black balloons and white lettering which makes the balloons a neat part of the panel composition. I can't guess if that was her intention but it works.

Dave McKenna

This is an erotic space comedy romp in the Star Trek universe that would fit well in any better issues of Heavy Metal. McKenna's art is fantastic. Perfect tone on the ladies leggings and shine on their boots. If there is one thing I wont deny my inner nerd it is fun sci-fi like this. I could read pages and pages of this sort of thing and I was sad when it ended.

Dominique McKie

I really like this comic about the Scottish Legend of the Selkie. McKie's drawing is simple but efficient and has a lot of charm. It made me want to have my own Selkie. So cute! The comic is well executed with a few nice splashes of color.

Kim McKie

Kim McKie presents "The Adventures of Staple Boy" which is exactly what it sounds like. A cute exercise in minimalism.

Rod McKie

I had to read Rod McKie's silent comic "Dia De Los Muertos" a couple of times to make sure I understood the story. This is not bad thing. McKie's art is strong enough to merit a second or third reading. The truth is, I always have this problem with silent comics. I like the dreamy effects of the tones and the odd appearance of the grown-ups.

David Robertson

If Wes Anderson wrote a two page comic about a wildlife film sound recordist it would be exactly like this two page story by David Robertson. (And I mean that with zero percent snark. I like Wes Anderson.) Robertson's drawing seems rushed but he manages to tell an elaborate story packed with laughs in just two pages. Impressive.

Barry Rodges

Barry Rodges' "The Life and Times of Edward Nooney" is a well crafted four page study of the comic form. Each page shows Nooney in progressive ages of his life with each of the four seasons providing the background. At each age Rodges used thought balloons to show the character visualizing snapshots of random memories. The idea is very clever and well executed. Each page is a nice stand alone piece but I believe it would work even better if all four pages were presented together as four panels on one page. It would have to be a pretty big page to do it justice so it probably would not work for a Shiot Crock submission. Rodges drawing and character design are very strong.

Shannon Smith

The final contribution is three pages of self-obsessed auto-bio nonsense from some jerk named Shannon Smith.

For more crocktacular crockness, visit the Shiot Crock 13 review thread at The Comics Journal's message boards.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

SHIOT CROCK 12

I never actually got my copy of Shiot Crock 12 so it will not be reviewed here but for the sake of continuity, here is a link to the Shiot Crock 12 thread on The Comics Journal's message board. WARNING: This thread contains much profanity and gnashing of teeth. Of course for those not embittered by their lack of crock, the thread may be comedy gold.

http://www.tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?t=148

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

SHIOT CROCK 11

NOTE: This is a re-post of my review of Shiot Crock 11 which was originally posted on my main bloggy blog back on 3/12/2006. I post it here now for archival reasons since File Under Other will be devoted to mini-comics and because I just recieved Shiot Crock 13 in the mail yesterday. SC 13 will be my first official review for this site. That should happen sometime next week. Shiot Crock Issue 11 was shipped out last week and I was lucky enough to get a copy. What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board. This issue of Shiot Crock is collected in an awesome box much like the old rekerd box sets of yester year. Much standing up and clapping for Lou Copeland for putting this thing together. So far, I've made everyone who has been to my house look at it and I plan on taking it to Fluke in Athens (April 1st) and showing it off there.
For my contribution to the box, I made an extra-mini edition of Brush and Pen. It came out pretty good and I think I like the size better than the digest size in which Brush and Pen had been previously printed.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was this cool origami frog. It looked so cool that I debated for several days if I would open it or not. Then when I finally got the nerve to unfold it, I could not find it. I asked my wife, "Have you seen that cool frog that came with my Shiot Crock box?". She replied, "It hopped up on the bookcase in the kitchen." I finally unfolded it to find a cool little comic (about a frog) my M. Campos. Its a very well drawn and designed comic in a perfect size and format for this project. Very cool.
Beserkotron by David Robertson is very well produced. I like the art and the cover. The dialog is good and the characters are interesting but the story goes a bit long. Lots and lots of panels but I wouldn't necessarily recommend changing anything. It works and Robertson is obviosly having fun telling the story he wants to tell and drawing the things he wants to draw. This is what mini-comics should be, a story about something you are interested in (in this case, kids making fighting robots) that no one else is creating or publishing, so, you make it yourself and hope it finds its audience.
The Punch 'Ems by Joe Kletz is another well produced mini. It is a superhero parody much like Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot or Mystery Men. I like the characters, especially Donkey Punch and Hendrix-Bot Mark III. The art and story work well in the mini-comic format. The pages are not too busy and the pacing is good. The intro says Kletz considers this a one-shot but I would not mind seeing more.
Approximately 1/5 of 'the Iwerks Commemorative Dinner' is a pretty ambitions mini-comic. It is in a long skinny strip comic format and has very nice hand made binding and (what appears to be) a hand colored cover. This is a nice comic to buy and if I saw it in a store it would jump out at me and I'd want to own it. That being said, I found the comics themselves to be a bit intimidating. And I don't really mean that in a bad way. Its hard to explain. I'll put it this way, I love Chris Ware's comics. I think he is a genius. But if I just wanted to sit down and relax, I'd grab a Daniel Clowes comic before I'd grab the Chris Ware comic. Like Ware, Rodges comics take a bit more participation on the part of the reader. To make a long story short, this is exactly the type of comic, that I read once and don't really 'get' but later get drawn back to and read over and over again. I know, I don't make any sense. Sorry.

Dynamite Dan by D. Morris is a simple one page, four panel comic. There is not a lot too it but the one sheet format is good for this kind of project. I like the post-punchline punchline; "Remember Kids to Scrub Behind Your Ears When you Bath!"
Maynard and Willis by Lou Copeland also uses the one-sheet format but is printed on front and back and is a much more detailed comic. The art has a very nice style and the dialog had me cracking up. This comic would have fit in perfectly in my favoritre issues of Weirdo magazine. I'd love to see more.
That Schmuck by Henry Chamberlain is a very well done mini-comic. Chamberlain understands what works in the format and the art, lettering and pacing are perfect. The story is very good as well. This is the type of mini-comic I most enjoy. Short, self-contained stories that work more like a poem than a long narrative. That Schmuck is "A Special Supplement to Alice in New York". I've never read Alice in New York but now I am curious.
God Wrapped Himself in a Baby by M. Allison is another one-sheet format comic. I like the character designs. The art and lettering are great. But, like the Iwerks comics, this may be over my head. It feels like one page out of something bigger. No real beginning or end. I'm curious to see more though. It makes me want to pull out my Dave Cooper comics.
Toenails by Josh Sullivan is a cool little collection of gag comics. Some of the jokes try a bit hard to break the vulgar meter but they are funny. It's the type of comics you feel ashamed of yourself for laughing at. All of the comics are well drawn and I like his inks.
The Circles of Protestant Heaven, Part 1 by Casey Casein and Cynthia Seagren isn't a comic. I'm not really sure what it is. It may be a parody of the free religious 'tract' pamphlets people give out in malls, airports and door-to-door. Or, it may be a reverse Dante's Inferno. Either way, it is interesting but not convincing or funny. (Well, the Bugs Bunny picture is kind of funny but you can't lose with Bugs.) I'm not sure what the intention is. I actually am a believer of Christ and I try to read the good old B-I-B-L-E (yes that's the book for me) on a regular basis so maybe that makes me a bad judge of this item.
The Horrors of Hixville by Ashley Holt and Troy England Evitt III is a neat little folded one-sheet project. I really like the format of it. It is folded into eight squares so you get a cover, a title page and six character pages. Each character page has a very cool color drawing from Holt and a short bio. It's kind of a more mature and detailed adult version of the old Garbage Pail Kids cards. A very neat little item but it feels like a missing part of some bigger project.
Queer Gaspers by K. Thor Jensen is another example of why I love mini-comics. Its the type of story that works better in a mini-comic than any other format. I had to read it twice to really get it. Each page is a full page of art so when you look at two pages side-by-side it looks like there are two of these Gasper things reacting to each other. Nope, I figured out on the second read that it is just one Gasper having an adventure. From what I get out of it, this Queer Gasper, decides to leave the ground and go hang out in the clouds but this does not work so well and he gets sick or dies and ends up back on the ground. I don't know. It's an art comic. (It looks really nice and makes you think. It makes me think about how he did the tones. That's a lot of work if he cut tone paper for all those lines.) I don't know. It made me happy when the little guy made it to the top of the cloud and sad when he fell back down. I liked it. I want more.
Super Iffy by Yuri Duncan reminds me of an old 70's Hulk book I had. The book I had was a little junior chapterbook but every few pages it would have a full page illustration of the Hulk smashing something with a caption saying something like, "The Hulk is angry." Very simple. Very cool. Very fun.
Wrong Answer by Owen Harris is a music CD with a neat illustration and essay attatched. The cd is great. It's like DJ Shadow and Radiohead got sucked into the Tron movie. Computer music isn't really my thing but I enjoyed this CD and will probably make copies for some friends. The artwork is well done and I like the essay as well. Reminiscent of James Kochalka's Cute Manifesto.
This Comic Book Must be Destroyed by Richard DeWylfin shows a lot of talent, range and a twisted sense of humor. I'd like to be able to say I cant' relate to these characters but unfortunately, I've known a lot of these type of geeks and have imagined a lot of these 'what if' situations. This is an absurd comic and I'm not sure how to review it. At first I thought it was sloppy but the guy seems to be able to nail multiple art styles and the storytelling is polished. There is really no way I can describe or explain the thing but the type of folks that read The Comics Journal and submit comics to Shiot Crock (like myself) will probably find it hilarious.
Scenes From Gay Bars by Shane Patrick Boyle is a collection of sketches of what I must assume are scenes from gay bars. Some of it appears to be a comic story but there is no dialog and some of the sketches do not reproduce well at the mini-comic size so it is hard to follow. Several of the sketches are pretty good though. Some of them make me think of Bukowski stories and poems.
Panda & Jess: Jeopardy by Paul O'Keefe is probably my favorite project in the box. The art is very nice. It has a simple self-contained story. The characters are believable and the dialog feels real. It's just a good comic. O'Keefe knows how to use the comics page to stir emotions. I could really see how the two characters felt so separate and alone even though they were sitting side-by-side. My only complaint would be that it is short and that I want more.
Just a Story for a Box by Karen Lucas is a traditional auto-bio mini-comic. Almost too traditional though. It's about a 'first-time' mini-comic creator making their Shiot Crock submission. The thing is so dead-on and true to the first-time mini-comic that I did not think for one second that it was a first-time mini comic. It's too good. I thought it was either a mini-comic veteran doing a study in the art of mini-comic making itself, or a clever attempt from a mini-comic veteran to see if they could trick the Shiot Crock gang. (Right down to the side stapling as opposed to using a long stapler.) However, according to her posts in the review thread, Karen Lucas is a real-life first-time mini-comic creator. All that being said, pretending I don't know anything about mini-comics and pretending I never saw her posts on the message board... I like this comic a lot. It;s one of my favorite comics in the box. I'd like to see more comics from Karen Lucas. (If that is her/his real name.)

This untitled comic from Kurt Beaulieu is in the foldy format that I like to use a lot. One page folded into eight pages of comics. The art is good but the comics did not make a lot of sense to me. Unloved sock hell is kind of funny though. Pete and Earl by Klopner is another superhero parody but more obscene than most. I like the art a lot and some of the jokes are funny but its hard to push the sex jokes farther and farther on each page. It gets repetitive. I'd like to see something else from Klopner though.
Little Cenobites (feat' Little Pinny), and Other Tales by K.D.R McKie is a family made mini-comic. I love this idea. A dad and his two kids put a comic together and all three are very good. This is a great little mini-comic. It really sums up everything I love about the medium. Great little stories in a nice pocket sized package. What more can you ask for? I hope dad and the kids make more of these.

So... that's the box. It's hard to review this many projects at once. I'm sure my opinion will change about several of them as I read them again over the next days, weeks, years. All in all it is an awesome box. It's a shame everyone can't go out and buy them.
Click here to see the review thread and find out what the other artists thought.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith