Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02282021

(Convergence: Superman #2. May 6, 2015. Cover by Lee Weeks.)

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 02282021.

• 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.  I'm still getting back in the groove of "blogging".  I'm not 100% decided on when I should post these things.  Friday is probably the most logical day if I want people to actually read them but Sunday feels better.  I like the idea of you, dear reader, sitting in your favorite chair wearing your bath robe and slippers with your feet propped up on your dog "Honeycomb Salad" reading this on a Sunday morning.  I can see the waves of steam coming from your "#1 Step-Parent" coffee mug.  You still have bed head but it's working for you.  You look happy.  You look at peace.  You smell terrific.  Have you been working out? 
• We may as well get WandaVision out of the way since it's the only thing on Earth that matters. This week's episode was great but maybe a little too great?  I can't think of any other TV show that has presented an episode that so neatly gift wraps everything the audience has asked for  and hands it to them prior to the finale.  I still kind of wish the show had never broke kayfabe and was still recreating a different chapter of TV history each week.  I still hate every second  S.W.O.R.D. is on screen and I knew the boss, Whiteguy McSuburbs, was a no good dirty liar.  See, even the parts we don't like conform exactly to our expectations.  Maybe the other shoe drops next episode?  There are certainly a few more questions to answer and a few more twists left.  SPOILERS Did y'all notice which of the recurring cast were not wandering around Westview during the flashback where Wanda came to town?  

• Since comic books don't even exist and only super hero TV shows matter, let's talk about TV's other floaty character with glowing read eyes.  A new Superman TV show pilot, Superman & Lois,  premiered this week.  This is our fifth live action Superman TV show in the past eighty-three years.  I think that's more than C.S.I. (Unless you count Without a Trace and Cold Case.  Then Supes has some catching up to do.)  I don't watch much broadcast TV so normally I'd be checking this show out two or three years from now on streaming but I actually watched this thing in real time with the rest of the CW watching world.  I enjoyed it.  I like the tone of the show and I think Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch make a great Clark and Lois.  I think the kid playing Frodo has potential too. I really appreciate that Hoechlin and Tulloch are adults.  Ever since Superman Returns cast a nine year old as Lois Lane I've been warry of these things. I think the show kneecapped itself by [SPOILERS] starting with a funeral though.  The overall tone of the show is upbeat and hopeful but the funeral kind of forces the cast to mope around before we get a chance to see their default settings.  Lois really only gets one comical scene with a vending machine where she gets to act like Lois before putting on the funeral time sad face.  Maybe the cast will get a chance to outshine the script as this thing proceeds.  And that script?  Hoo boy.  Look.  This is a CW show so you just have to accept that it's going to be soap opera.  It's not for everyone.  If you're not into teen dance parties/bonfired/charity balls and each scene ending with a contemplative stare followed by a hard cut to commercial then stick with WandaVision. This show still exists in the shadow of the Snyderverse Superman.  There is a sepia tone filter over the whole thing and the Super spandex under armor still has that grim dark tone to it.  We're still missing the trunks so Superman looks like a dog standing on his hind legs. But, for a few minutes at the beginning of the show, we get a full color flashback scene with a real Superman costume.  A moving picture homage to the cover of Action Comics #1.  That was pretty great. 
• As I said earlier, comics don't even exist.  To prove this, CW/DC/Warner followed up the premier of Superman & Lois with a behind-the-scenes featurette where the producers of the show along with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee talk about how they are all geniuses who thought up every thing on the show all by themselves without the help of 83 years of comic book creators.  Over and over again they brag about how the concept of this show, Superman and Lois married with children, has never been done before.  Comics don't even exist and that's why the producers and Johns and Lee make the big bucks.  Except comic books do exist.  Superman and Lois Lane have been getting married for decades. In maybe the best Superman comics of all time, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorrow?",  (Superman #423 and Action Comics #583) Alan Moore's Lois and Cark are married and have a son named Jonathan. (Clark is going by Jordan in that one so that's where Jordan comes from for those keeping score.)  Superman and Lois have been in-canon married since 1996.  And they've had an in-canon son since "Convergence: Superman" #2 from 2015 where Dan Jurgens made superpowered son Jonathan a part of the current ongoing DC Universe.  Oh, but Shano, the genius producers put a new twist on it!  In the new TV show they have two kids! Not so fast imaginary person that isn't really arguing with me, John Byrne gave Supes and Lois two kids in "Superman & Batman: Generattions" in 1999.  And my point isn't that TV shouldn't steal from comics.  No TV, please, please steal from comics.  Comics are better than you.  But don't put together a TV feature about your brilliant game changing new idea when you know damn well that comics has already done this and that you should be giving the comics creators the credit they deserve.  Especially you Geoff Johns and Jim Lee.  You have no excuse.  One of you jerks better buy Dan Jergens a new house. 
• In other moving pictures of Superman news, it appears that a Ta-Nehisi Coates written Superman movie is in the works and that it might be the black Superman a lot of us have been wanting to see at least since Grant Morrison's Multiversity.  I'm optimistic but I hope they don't rush it.  We've had four Superman movies since 2006 with the Zack Snyder Justice League about to drop in a few days.  I'm worried that there won't be much appetite for a new big screen Superman.  It's like the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies.  They weren't terrible, Everyone was just full up on Spider-Man in that moment. Maybe if we get through this plague and back to the communal non-butter-liquid-popcorn topping trough we'll be ready for a fresh Superman. 
• I hate to linger in the world of moving images when comics are always vastly superior but I do have to link to this Zack Snyder redemption piece if for no other reason than for you guys to see that Warner continues to be wrong in almost every situation.  The two hour blockbuster died when you fools gave one of those Tolkien movies the Oscar.  
• In our final, I promise, DC Comics related link of the week, they're playing thrash metal during musical chairs now so I can't even keep up well enough to know what any of this means. 

• I think I mentioned the new Stan Lee biography last week.  This week, Marvel great Roy Thomas provides a rebuttal.  I don't know Roy. Sure, old dudes' memories are suspect but the pages don't lie and a whole lot of the pages seem to have been written by a name that rhymes with Snack Derby. 
• Speaking of the guy that created everything of value in US history, there is a new podcast that digs into Jack "The King" Kirby. 
• Here's a neat article on another great American author, no, not Hemingway, it's our man J. M. DeMatteis and his great American masterpiece "Kraven's Last Hunt". 
• As soon as either this plague ends or the government gives me that money they owe me I"mma hit a comic store and dig through the long boxes for some weird junk like this. 
• Our man Benjamin Marra had an informative inside baseball chat with filmmaker Craig Zahler. 

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Once again I am apologizing to you for not having read any new comics this week.  I still have not made it to the comics shop.  I hope our good man Brian at Cavalier Comics hasn't thrown my pull list in the trash but there's still a plague going on, it's been raining and the goddamned government still hasn't given me that money they owe me. 

Nicholas Burman over at TCJ still reads the comics and writes about them though.  The most interesting comic I saw reviewed this week was probably the Savage Pencil collection he wrote about. 

As for me, I read a lot of Spider-Man comics this week. I'm getting caught up on the Nick Spender run.  I can't say that I care for it.  The jokes are pandering way to hard to an audience that isn't going to look away from Tik Tok long enough to read these comics and the art is nothing special.  They can't all be winners.  

I'm still on my orange, yellow, brown and green costume bullshit with my ongoing read throughs of Suicide Squad, Doom Patrol and the Vision and Scarlet Witch mini-series and related Avengers comics. One of the Vision and Scarlet Witch issues features guest star Power Man (Luke Cage to the youngs) celebrating what appears to have been the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Always classy Quicksilver celebrates MLK Jr. Day by calling black humans and black Inhumans "dusky skins" so, I'm gonna call this one a swing and miss. 

Look friends, I know a lot of you might be interested in the first two Vision and Scarlet Witch serieses because of WandaVision so let me warn you, they are not good.  I'm not saying don't read them,  They are interesting and there is a surprising amount of stuff in the WandaVision show from those comics, I'm just saying don't expect quality.  Personally, I tend to be anti-quality in most things. I'll take weird over quality 99 out of 100 times and these comics are weird AF.  The full Steven Englehart. Just don't go into these things thinking that you are going to come out the other end a better person. 

• Before we leave, it looks like our man Francis was too busy to make a video this week so instead we'll check in on his distant cousin (by marriage) Boogie and see what's up on the Yoo Tubs and the Tick Clocks. 

• 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 12302012

(Image stolen from The Visual Exegesis.)

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 12302012:

“Spider-Man is such a whiny loser.” - Stephanie Meyer.

• This week was Stan Lee's 90th birthday.  I guess that's as good a week as any to kill (sort of but not really)  the most popular character he ever co-created.
• It was also Chris Ware's birthday this week and he is now half as old as Stan Lee.  
• Today (December 30th) is my daughter Alana Grace Smith's birthday.  World's greatest 6 year old.  
• Valerie Gallaher on why imaginary deaths carry so much weight. 
• Death in comics is not that big of a deal.  Grant Morrison was killed by a werewolf and he is A-Okay now. 
• Bald F#(%ing Eagles. 
• For no reason at all, I'd like to take a moment to say that Jim Starlin's comics are fantastic. 
• I always marvel at pictures of Brain Chippendale's studio. 
• RIP Werewolf Jones. 
• Robert Newsome has made it though Christmas alive and brought us another music and talking podcast thing. 

• Just one more day of American Elf.  (Unless Kochalka decides to do more.  Because, ya know, it's creator owned and everything and he could just wake up tomorrow and draw some more.  And that would be fine.) 
• Bully's next 365 day feature will be coloring books.  That should be fun. 
• Look people, I already talked about this last week but I'm going to go ahead and recommend  command you to buy Patrick Dean's most recent comics because he is already working on new stuff and I don't want you to get behind. 
• Here's another reminder to go to The Comics Reporter and scroll through to read all of Tom Spurgeon's great Holiday Interviews.  This week was another solid bunch and I see one with Rob Clough is up now.  I'll read it as soon as I finish typing this. 
• I had not looked at Sophie Crumb's sketchbook in a while.  Let's do that. 
• Be careful who sees your doodles. 

• Stuff I got for Christmas:  A Doctor Who t-shirt.  DC Showcase Presents The  Brave and the Bold volume one in a package labeled "from Bat-Mite".  (I bought that one for myself, used off eBay for a few dollars.  I'm Bat-Mite.)  Some clothes.  Some money.  My kids got a lot of fun things including Legos and video games and the new Batman Lego video game.  I've had fun but I'm very tired with my daughter's birthday left to go before the new year.  

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Newsarama.)

...was Amazing Spider-Man #700 by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, J.M. DeMatteis, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Jen Van Meter, Stephanie Buscema and several thousand other people.  Published by Marvel Comics and sold for the retail price of $7.99.  This comic wins my weekly "The Best Single Print Comic I Read This Week" honor by virtue of being a solid hour or so of entertainment and for being the only comic that came out this week.  Let's talk about what exactly this comic book is as the product that exists in my hands at this moment.  Well, not THIS moment.  I have to set it down to type but, ya know. Having folded and stapled as many comics as I have, I can guess the page count of a book just by holding it.  This sucker is 27 sheets of paper.  Folded in half and stapled that is 108 pages of comics.  52 of those pages are the main story by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.  Which, in this day and age would be considered and epic freaking graphic novel if you took out the staples and gave it a perfect bound spine.  16 of those pages are a back up story by J.M. DeMatteis and Giuseppe Camuncoli.  8 of those pages are a back up story by Jen Van Meter and Stephanie Buscema.  The rest is your cover, back pages, ads, a gallery of the variant covers, a copy of the Spider-Man-day proclamation by the Mayor of New York, a gallery of the covers from all 700 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man and a very long letters column featuring some responses from Spider-Man co-creator Stan "The Man" Lee.
The comic has been received with mixed opinions.
So yeah, this is an eight dollar comic and that is just and insane and absurd thing for a stack of paper to be.  But, I bought it.  I had read Amazing Spider-Man 699 and thought the thing was great comics.  And I loves me some Spider-Man.  I consider Spider-Man to be one of my only true friends.  There is not a point of my life in which I can remember not being aware of and a fan of Spider-Man.  He's just always been there for me.  Thanks Spidey!  So yeah, I paid eight dollars for a comic book.
In defense of that madness, it does contain 76 pages of comics.  So, that's what?  Three comics worth of comics?  Which would cost between nine and twelve dollars normally.  I spend around ten bucks on comics in a normal week.  This week I bought this one eight dollar thing and probably got more out of it than my normal ten bucks so, I'm okay with this thing.  No apologies.
And it feels nice pals.  I loves me a thick comic.  Like the big thick annuals Marvel and DC put out when I was a kid or the 80 Page Giants.  This sucker feels good.  I've said time and time again over the past ten years or so, don't give me five Spider-Man comics a month.  Give me one big thick one.  This comic hints at how right I am and how great that would be.  And now that I think about it, if Marvel could give me this much content for eight bucks every month I'd subscribe or put it on my pull list no questions asked.
Okay, so what happens in this comic and is it any good?  So the hype on this thing is that... SPOILERS ... Peter Parker dies.  Except he totally does not die at all.  He's totally not dead and I don't mean zombie.  The new Spider-Man is just the old Spider-Man with some Doctor Octopus personality added into the mix.  So, he's jerk Spider-Man.  Peter Parker's body.  Peter Parker's powers.  Peter Parker's life.  Peter Parker's memories.  And most importantly, Peter Parker's morals.  That's about 95% Peter Parker.  The real question in all of this is just what part of Peter Parker is dead?  And I think that could be a fun thing for Dan Slott to explore in the upcoming Superior Spider-Man.  I mean, I would.  This is science fiction folks.  This is a story where the hero and the villain swap bodies and or brains.  This is pure silver age comics hijinks and I enjoy it.  High five Dan Slott.  Good idea.  But again, now that you killed half of the swap duo before the standard sci-fi swap-back resolution, where did  that part of the character go and what was it?  His soul?  Is Peter in Heaven?  Does Heaven let you in if your body is totally still in better than human shape and still full of your personality?
And just a few issues into this brain swap, Peter Parker's morals and values have already taken over Doc Ock's own to the point that the villain is now committed to being  a hero and carrying on Spider-Man's legacy.  If Peter Parker's brain waves can flip the switch on Doc Ock in just three issues, by what issue do they just go ahead and push him out altogether?  At what issue does he just become 100% Peter Parker?  I'm guessing that issue will be a comic titled The Amazing Spider-Man #1.
All the fuss about this comic has been about the death of Peter Parker.  Partially because that is the gimmick that Marvel has hyped.  But I read this thing and what I see is the death of Doctor Octopus and Peter Parker carrying on with a minor jerk infection.
But enough speculation, back to the comic as it actually exists.  It's good.  Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos do a good job with this thing.  It feels a bit rushed and the intensity feels turned up to eleven but they are hitting all right notes.  All the right guest appearances are crammed in.  All the right homages to Ditko and Romita are in there.  Peter gets to have a near-death Heaven scene where all the people he thought he failed tell him he done good.  Slott knows what he's doing for sure.  This is a good Spider-Man comic.  And I mean that as more than a good comic with Spider-Man in it.  I mean that it does all the things that make Spider-Man comics good and unique to Marvel and to comics.
And I like Ramos here too.  He's not one of my favorite Spider-Man artists but I like the way he draws Spidey's eyes and  he draws the suit in action very well.  And I gotta say, that the three page sequence where Doc Ock is projecting himself into Peter Parker's memories and we see little boy Doc Ock's head on young Peter Parker's body complete with his Moe Howard hair and goggles it is effective, hilarious and adorable.  One of my favorite things in comics of 2012.  High five Humberto.  If Superior Spider-Man were Spider-Man's body with Doc Ock Moe Howard hair for a head I would buy two copies of every issue.
The coloring on this comic did not make me furious and that's about as nice a thing as I can say about the coloring in a Marvel comic.
So I enjoyed this big eight dollar thing.  Here are some more random thoughts about it in no particular order:

-This is a great jumping off point.  I hate to admit that I kind of like canceled comics.  It gives me an end to work toward as a reader and as a buyer of $1 comics at comic shops and conventions.  I like the idea of having a whole run of a thing to read through.  Not that I'll manage all 700 issues but, in theory.  So yeah, canceling comics is the absolute BEST way to make a reader stop reading a comic.
-I like periodicals and I really hate to see a periodical canceled/re-named/re-numbered just as a gimmick.  And, forget Dan Slott, forget the story, from a publishing stand point, this is a sales gimmick.  I just think there should be more pride in that legacy.   I mean, The Amazing Spider-Man as a periodical outlasted Life Magazine for F's sake.  Gone for a gimmick.
-And theoretically, a new #1 is a good way to get new readers but, would a kid that likes the Spider-Man of the movies, cartoons, toys, video games, t-shirts, lunch boxes, beach towels, etc. want to read a comic about Doc Ock driving Spider-Man's body?  That remains to be seen.  And don't give me a single drop of that 'kids don't read comics anyway' bullshit.  Kids absolutely read comics.
-Was December 26 a very dumb day to release this book?  Who goes to a comic shop to spend money on the day AFTER Christmas?  Well, other than me?  I guess it's good for Marvel in that they get the guaranteed best seller of the end of the year and maybe good for the retailers because it gives people a reason to come in the shop on a normally dead day.  I just think it would have been a bigger deal on, oh, say any other Wednesday of the year.
-The J.M. DeMatteis back up story was weird to me.  Well executed but weird.  Are those characters from the Spider-Man comics?  Was I supposed to know who those guys were and who those Squadron Supreme like dudes were.  I'm confused. Please explain it to me.
-Loved the Jen Van Meter written and Stephanie Buscema drawn back-up.  Mainly for Buscema.  She's great people.  If your comic has a Stephanie Buscema drawn back-up story in it, I will probably buy your comic.
-The cover gallery thing was kind of neat.  I would need a magnifying glass to really appreciate all 700 covers but it is neat to scan through and see the progression of the comic.  I was really shocked to look at it and realize how quickly the Todd McFarlane era started after J.M. DeMatteis's great Kraven story. In my mind I thought those were years apart but it was only three months.  Also, the covers got really awful starting with Civil War.  Ugh.
-Speaking of covers.  I got the standard cover pictured above.  I dig it.  I've spent a fair amount of time looking through all the little pictures to see who everyone is.  I don't see Howard the Duck in there and that kind of bums me out for some reason.  The black suit and or Venom get a lot of attention on the cover taking up all of the black in the the outline of Spidey's eye.  Is the black costume and Venom that big a deal to people?  Really?  I mean, I bought those first black costume and Venom comics right off the spinner rack and I thought they were cool as a kid but in the grand scheme of things, the symbiote costume is like any random Fantastic Four subplot and Venom is a villain with just nothing going on character wise.  Nothing at all.  I guess it makes sense design wise for the cover though.
-I enjoyed the letters pages.  I have no problem with Stan Lee showing up to do his Stan Lee impersonation.  I thought some of the comments from previous Spider-Man contributors and industry folks were neat.  I was disappointed in editor Stephen Wacker's comments though.  His stuff reads as dashed off and uninterested.  Not really up to the weight of the moment at all.  Drink some coffee bro.  You worked hard on the book.  Don't sabotage the thing for yourself.    
-There has been some talk about IF Doc Ock has sex with Mary Jane WILL it be rape?  Jeezis Christmas people.  They had one single smooch in this comic.  One G movie level smooch.  And Doc Ock seems to now be governed by Peter Parker's moral code so, I just don't see him raping people.  I mean, how much in-panel sex did Peter Parker ever have?  He's not Matt Murdock.  Really people?  Can we hold off on freaking out about a thing until it actually happens?  (But yeah, if he and MJ get down with her thinking that he is 100% Peter Parker that will be some gross ehSS right there.  But doesn't that sort of thing happen in at least one new Hollywood movie every Friday?  I don't know.  I don't watch movies.  Not that rape is ever okay.  Not even totally fictional impossible to happen mind swap science fiction rape.  Just say no to rape fiction people.)
-And one last thing about the cancellation of Amazing Spider-Man and the launch of a new title.  This is a gimmick. There is no denying it.  But I'm okay with it.  For one, Spider-Man comics will continue and Peter Parker will be Spider-Man for as long as there is money in the Spider-Man business.  But I'm also okay with it because I feel like Marvel uses gimmicks in an appropriate way for a publisher of comic books to use gimmicks.  Their gimmicks exist to hype and promote their story ideas.  This cancellation and this "death" and all the hype around it serve as a way to promote and bring readers to the end of a story that Dan Slott had been working on for 100 issues give or take.  I feel that the Marvel guys come up with the story first then work on the gimmick to promote it.  Which, is why Marvel, despite their horrific coloring and ridiculous prices, makes better comics than DC.  DC puts the gimmick first and the comics are just an afterthought.  Who writes them, who draws them, and where the story goes does not matter.  The product has to match the marketing.  Advantage Marvel. 

• My new years resolution is to get paid to write comics or to write about comics.  Do you know how I can make that happen?  Because honestly, I don't have a clue.  But I'd like to give it a try.  Let me know if you know how.  I've been writing about comics for over ten years now.  What you've seen of my writing has been dashed off.  It has been writing done on lunch breaks, on conference calls and way past bed time.  I've turned down a lot of opportunities over the past 5 or so years because I did not have the time but I'm ready to make the time.  I can do more.  Much more.  I have near infinite ideas but I can't take the time away from my kids and my day job to make them happen.  Unless!  Unless, there was some money involved.  So, what I'm saying is, are you a comics website, magazine, publisher, etceraer?  I am ready for you to pay me to write great things for you.  
• And finally... Happy New Year!  May your new year be filled with good fortune, good health, love and much synth trumpet. 

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 10072012

(According to Wikipedia and other things on teh intronets, Vampire Tales #2 came out in October of 1973.  "NEW! SATANA".  According to my mom, I came out in October of 1973 also!  But she could be wrong.  I honestly don't remember much before 1975.  Image stolen from Comic Megastore.)

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 10072012:

"When the book came out," Brunner said, "Stan finally got a hold of it, and he wrote us a letter saying, 'We can't do God. You're going to have to print, in the letters column, a retraction, saying this is not the God, this is just a god.' Steve and I said, 'Oh, come on! This is the whole point of the story! If we did that retraction of God, this is meaningless!' So, we cooked up this plot — we wrote a letter from a Reverend Billingsley in Texas, a fictional person, saying that one of the children in his parish brought him the comic book, and he was astounded and thrilled by it, and he said, 'Wow, this is the best comic book I've ever read.' " Englehart had a Christmastime layover in Dallas, and mailed it from there, ensuring a proper postmark. "We got a phone call from Roy, and he said, 'Hey, about that retraction, I'm going to send you a letter, and instead of the retraction, I want you to print this letter.' We printed our letter! We later found out that Jim Starlin was in New York at that time, up in the Marvel offices, and he was reading the Doctor Strange fan mail, and he was the one who actually saw the letter, believed it was the real thing, and gave it to Roy, who gave it to Stan." -Marvel shenanigans as detailed in this excerpt from Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.

(Birthday thing Sam Henderson posted on my facebook page.  I laughed.  That Sam Henderson is great.)

• The most important news of the week was that it was my birthday on Saturday.  I'm sure you sent me something nice but I understand that it may be late what with the whole Columbus day postal holiday and all.  It's cool.  I'll be sitting by the mailbox on Tuesday morning.  Boy, it sure is gonna be great.
• But seriously tanks for all the well wishes on teh twudder and teh bookface etc. etc.  I do appreciate it. 
• I have just finished up what is the busiest time of year at my job.  So, I'll go ahead and apologize about how this post is going to be a bit short and leave out some regular features.  Sorry. 
• This post was created while listening to this.  Maybe you wanna check that out.
• Hey, did you know that it is October?  It's true?  So that means that those sexy guys I've never met over at Wide Awake Press are posting a bunch of fall demonic holiday and/or horror themed art called Halloweirdos.  You should probably go buy 31 computers so that each day's art can be your wallpaper on one of each of those 31 computers.
• The great Mike Hoffman talked about Tarzan and the trouble with being human beings that are not Tarzan.  You should read it.  I do not agree however with his notion that we should put Tarzan to rest.  I tend to think that we should make ONLY Tarzan.  I tend to think that with any new idea we have we should ask ourselves, is this Tarzan?  And if it is not Tarzan it should be abandoned and condemned.
• Vote early.  Vote often.  Vote C.O.B.R.A.
• Joey Weiser's Mermin is coming out in hardback from Oni.  It is in Previews now.  That is cool.
• Hey kids!  Learn to draw the Gary Panter way!
• Am I the only one that thinks Mike Luckovich looks like he probably jumped out of his car and bashed someones' head in at a red light on the way to the interview?  Beetlejuice!  I'm sure it's just me.

 (Image stolen from Eleanor Davis.)

• Eleanor Davis is very good at making comics.  Here, go read this now.  It was great wasn't it?
• Heather Peagler takes a look at B.P.R.D.
• I just can't even.  I just don't... sob.  Oh well, alright. 
• The New York Art Book Fair looks like parent teacher day at Monster High.
• I'd like to take a minute to tell you people something from my heart.  Because, I feel like at this point we are family.  It is really hot where I'm sitting right now.  I'm kinda sweating. 
• Love and Rockets are burning in hell. 
• And another thing that I feel like I can share with you because, well, I feel like we are friends and that I can trust you.  My mouse is not working that great.  I don't have my regular mouse pad right now and this is not working out at all.  Now, you tell me.  Should I try to use the touchpad on my laptop or just smash the laptop on the ground?  Leaning toward smash but I'm open to suggestions. 

• There were bunches and bunches of reports from Morrisoncon and it sounded like it was a very unique and enjoyable experience.  I have not heard one single report about Dan Didio saying something horrible, insulting and inhuman so that right there might make Morrisoncon a once in a lifetime event.  I enjoyed this piece that covered some of The Invisibles based discussion.  A lot of the post show hype was centered on Multiversity.  They had me at Frank Quitely. 
• “I sometimes feel like a puppet.”  Me too Stan.  Me too. 
• More real talk people.  Just between me and you.  Now, you can garnish an Old Fashioned with orange peel, orange slice, a cherry or a lemon.  Me, I just use it all.  I use all of it.  All.  Of.  It.  And look.  You can use use club soda.  That is okay.  Hell, I've used ginger ale.  It's good.  Ginger ale is good people. Don't be embarrassed. 
• Professor Towle breaks down some kid's picture books for us. 
• Everywhere I look it's Brad McGinty this and Brad McGinty that.  Look at my Brad McGinty.  My Brad McGinty is 7G.  Oh yeah?  Well my Brad McGinty is 4H.  Well Brad McGinty you buddy.  Brad McGinty you right in your face!
• Those Dollar Bin kids reviewed a ton of stuff from SPX. 
• That big Avengers punching X-Men thing wrapped up this week.  I have not read the last issue but my daughter has.  She said it was really good.  She was really into that whole event thing.  She's 10 and I figure the stars aligned for her to be into it.  She was already super into the X-Men and then the Avengers movie blew her mind so she ate this thing up.  Before she read the last issue, she told me that she hoped that Hope kills Cyclops.  That's my girl!
• And finally... I'm getin' my heart back together again.  Or something like that.

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 09302012

(Mike Allred's cover for the 40th anniversary issue of Ms. magazine stolen from Ms. magazine.)

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 09302012:

“No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.”  Edgar Rice Burroughs.

• Former WWII US Army Signal Corps Cartoonist Stan Lee (real name Victor von Doom) announced this week that he has acquired and implemented the technology to live for another 90 years.  This triggered the UN to hold a special session where Benjamin Netanyahu used a cartoon bomb to illustrate the the danger an immortal Stan Lee presents to the world.  One time Lee collaborator Steve Ditko declined to comment on the matter but asked reporters if any of them would be kind enough as to fill his ice bucket.  (The man lives in a hotel.)
• As you read this, Grant Morrison MBE and friends are either in the last throes of Morrisoncon or knocking down another Red Bull and unleashing themselves upon Las Vegas.  It has been very popular with the current class of young snotbag haters* to try and build themselves up by tearing down the image Grant Morrison has crafted for himself over the past couple of decades. Go ahead and and tear apart his interviews.  Tear down the man.  Death to all heroes before they disagree with you or let you down.  It's good fun and you snotbags crack me up for sure.  But I like Grant Morrison's comics a lot.  Grant Morrison's Batman, Superman, JLA, X-Men, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Seaguy, The Invisibles, The Filth, Flex Mentalo, Arkham Asylum, Sebastian O, Kill Your Boyfriend, Marvel Boy, Seven Soldiers and WE3 are good comic books.  Damn good comic books.  I like 'em.  High five Grant Morrison.  
• Speaking of class prejudices, former school teacher turned creator of the world's most expensive small print run minicomic/zine J.K. Rowling just can't shut up about class either.  
• The alt comics Mount Rushmore stood up and posed for a picture for Rolling Stone and mustered up about three quarters of a smile between the four of them.  Apparently some of the youngs had their feelings hurt by some of the things Gilbert Hernandez said.  Look on the bright side youngs, any minute now your youth will be squandered and gone.  People younger and better looking than you will think you are a joke.  It's gonna be great!
• Howard Chaykin.  Matt Fraction.   Satellite Same.  Tumblr.  Go. 
• If you have not already then you are going to wanna go ahead and read this Wild Dog comic.  
• Daryl Ayo wants you to think about the things that he thinks about before you go crazy and end up in a very dark and gross place.  Don't worry.  It's not hard.  He will walk you through it. 
• Carter Scholz tells us all about Dal Tokyo. 
• Whooo hooo weeeeee!  Just go look at that Toth art. 
• A new Josh Simmons minicomic?  Yes please. 

• Spandexless on The End of the Fucking World. 
• Lots of SPX videos are showing up.  I liked this one with Adam Casey.  Don't ya just want to take Henry Eudy home and hug him and squeeze him until he dies?  And here is a post SPX exit interview with our man Eudy and Rich Barrett. 
• Chris Schweizer cares about his comic shop experience.  So do I. 
• Amulet and the Legion of Super Heroes are burning in hell. 
• The Ink Panthers finally ran out of things to talk about.  So they talked about comics. 
• Don't mess with the Libertarian party.
• You can read Kid Mafia right now for free.  It's fun. 
• This is what the inside of my brain looked like from about 1977 to 1985...

• The 70s got kinda of rough. 
• Seth Peagler took an advanced look at the huge crazy Chris Ware Building Stories thing. 
• Oh man this DC comics New 52 timeline.  Yeesh.  So, Batman trained and ruined three Robins in about 4 years?  Well okay. 
• "Dan DiDio has gone on record, and this is the same man that said Gotham Central would never be cancelled as long as he was there, telling people what a great book Gotham Central was, but it never made any money.  Well, take a look at your trade sales! That book has made nothing but money as a trade. What I’m now being told is, ”lt was never worth anything to us anyway.”So, you know what? They can stop selling the Batwoman: Elegy trade and stop selling the Wonder Woman trades and everything else I’ve done, because clearly I’ve not done anything of service and those guys aren’t making any money off me."
• Cheers was not a comic book.  It was a sitcom but much of what drew people to it was the heavy presence of nostalgia and sentimentality.  Kinda like comics.  Anyway, it was great and this is a very interesting oral history about it. 
• I wrote a few hundred thousand words about Batman comics from the 90s. 

• For those of you keeping score at home, I listened to Robert Newsome's latest podcast while typing this blog post. 
• People, people, people.  I've had a challenging week.  It is not your fault but I'm afraid you are going to be collateral damage.  I know this is going to break your little black hearts but I just don't have a link haiku or Best Single Print Comic I Read Last Week in me for this week.  I'll try to make it up to you next week.  Speaking of next week, my birthday is Saturday, October 6th. Here are some things you can do for me for my birthday.  Spread the word.  Share, like, tweet, re-tweet, tumble etc. this blog or any of the other nonsense I'm involved with.  I appreciate it.  
• And finally... Good?  Bad?  Grant Morrison is on the side that gets the butter.

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

*"Snotbag haters" is TM Tom Spurgeon.  Used without permission. 

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 07152012

(Brad McGinty sticker image of Bradwick J. McGinty as portrayed by Brad McGinty stolen from Brad McGitny.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 07152012:

• The big news in comics this week was and is Comic-Con.  I don't really have any thoughts on that.  I would love to go some day.  I have a lot of pals there and I hope that it has been everything they want and need it to be.  But, for me, I just can't afford it and I try not to waste too much time thinking about things I can't afford.  In a few years when my young adult erotic graphic novel series, Fifty Shades of Avenging Vampire Slaying Zombie Spider Honey Badger Bear High School, is a huge crossover phenomenon... I'll let my publisher pay my way to Comic-Con.  In the meantime, I'm sure the world's greatest comics blogger has covered or linked to everything worth covering or linking too. 
• One small little Comic-Con thing though:  The Eisner's.  Comics Reporter has the winners listed.  Looks like Daredevil and the Jim Henson library had big nights.  I'm happy to see that James Kochalka, Evan Dorkin, Craig Thompson, Mark Waid and Tom Spurgeon won just because I'm a fan of their work.  I would have liked to have seen team Archie win something.  I think history will eventually recognize Life With Archie as one of the more important comics of 2011.  I have not read enough of the nominated titles to really deserve to have an opinion though.  Hell, I've not even read Habibi and I love Craig Thompson.  Comics is very expensive yo.
• Oh, one more little Comic-Con thing.  Fantagraphics announced a digital comics partnership with Comixology which will begin with Love & Rockets. This a big deal for me.  I've never had much look accessing Love & Rockets through the direct market.  In fact, I don't think I've ever bought a Love & Rockets related anything through the direct market.  I've had to find it comic conventions or but it online.  To be able to buy the next Love & Rockets digitally the same day it comes out will be a nice option to have. 

(Battle Zoo stolen from Battle Zoo.)

• And then one morning Brad McGinty woke up and exploded teh intronets and made Battle Zoo.   Battle Zoo!  The comic you have been waiting for all my life for free on teh introwebnets! 
• I wrote reviews for the DC New 52 comic books Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Green Arrow, Justice League, Challengers of the Unknown, Demon Knights, Batwoman, Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and Earth 2.  You can read it here. 
• Julia Wertz has finished her new book and it will come out from Koyama Press in the fall.  She has been posting bunches of random sneak peaks on her site and it looks to be pretty great.  I think I've read all of the Fart Party stuff that was online as well as Drinking at the Movies and I liked them plenty.  She is very funny and never shys away from going all in on a joke.  Which is rare in auto bio work.  Hell, it's rare in comics period.  The new work seems to have a more unified theme than the previous stuff.  At least from what I've seen.  Wertz recently had an interview at Words Away and she has been posting some fascinating photo essay things about abandoned communities, shipyards and things.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, maybe you want to go subscribe to her website/blogg/rss /etc.
• Sarah Morean is reviewing minicomics at a thing called Indie Reader.  If you make minicomics, maybe you want to send her one. 
• People just will not shut up about this Jim Rugg notebook sketchbook thing.  Peeps that have seen it have reported that it made their brains go all exploded. AdHouse only printed a few so you probably want to go buy one right now. 

(Stan Lee and Matthew Roldan stolen from This is me, is that you?)

• How do you like your hearts?  Personally, I like my hearts warm.  Here, go read this HeroesCon report and get your heart all warmed up.  I had seen some pics of the cute little fella in the report but I did not know the story.  You might want to have some tissues ready before you click this link.
• And speaking of HeroesCon, this kickstarter for a documentary ends Monday.  I'd like to see it so maybe if you have a couple of bucks to spare you might consider backing it. 
• Hey look at that Ben Towle Oyster War t-shirt.  Go buy me one!
• Hey look at J. Chris Campbell t-shirt.  Go buy me one!
• Hey look, Atomic Elbow is having a contest.  I might enter it myself. 
• Robert Venditti talked to Comics Alliance about The Surrogates: Case Files and digital comics.
• Heather Peagler reviews Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder. 

(Image stolen from Mike Dawson.)

•  "I think it’s always worth remembering, for all of the air-time and media attention the Tea Party receives, they still ended up nominating a Massachusetts moderate with absolutely no ideological core as their next Presidential candidate."
• Comic books are now burning in a brand new hell with a new number 1!  Just like comics! ("I think Alan Moore smokes enough pot that he's watched the Lion King.")
• Oh, and Mary Poppins is totally a Time Lord. 
• Heidi MacDonald has been writing about comics since before she was born.  I think she is just plain super.  A pillar I tells ya.  One of those "without whom..".  Bravo and here's to many more.  
• My pal Jeremy Massie has started his first new full length graphic novel since The Deadbeat.  I'm excited. 
• Mini-Comic Of The Month Club?  Yep, that sounds pretty great to me.
• The list of the final Xeric.  The Xeric was certainly a swell thing and past lists have been a who's who of folks to watch out for.  

(Image stolen from bandcamp.)

• He goes James Kochalkalaka boom.
• You can read now read all of Josh Latta's A Rabbit in King Arthur's Food Court here as a full color webcomic.  And it looks great.  Just scroll to the bottom and find the 1st page.  (You do know how to use teh intronets right?)   You can also buy his full color book that has that Rashy Rabbit story and more. 
• A group called the Naive Project hopes to raise money for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation through the magic of comic art. 
• Do you know about The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Reduxe Edition?  You should. 
• According twitter, Drive Thru Comics is a place you can read some rad looking comics digitally.  Maybe.  I've not had time to dig through it yet but I'm excited about the possibilities. 
• Gotta go raid on Tuesday. (You sonsabitches.)
• And finally:  The world is nothing but a big gimmick isn't it?

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 07012012

(Stan Lee and Shelton Drum at the HeroesCon Art Auction stolen from Heather Peagler.)

Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 07012012:
(Warning:  For some reason, the spell check thing for this post just ain't a gonna work at all.  I click it and nothing.  Click. Nothing. Click.  Nothing.  So, get ready for some bed spleeling and werse typoes.)

• Again with the HeroesCon!  You can read the official file under other 2012 Heroes Convention report here and the pre-show report here but if that won't fill you up then here are a bunch of swell things to look at:
• The Comics Reporter's link index.
• The Heroes Online blog. 
• Heather Peagler from Exile on Plain Street has the most intensive sets of photos I've seen so far.  Day 1.  Day 2.  Day 3.  Drink and Draw.  Art Auction.  You can love or hate Stan Lee but Heather's pics from the Art Auction of Stan Lee with Shelton Drum are indisputably heartwarming.  HeroesCon is basically a party that Shelton Drum throws for comics and to have Stan Lee at that party is, well, as it should be.  
• The Beat.
• Bleeding Cool.
• Ben Towle- Part 1.  Part 2. 
• Brian Ralph.
• There is a Kickstarter for a documentary about the show.
• Josh Latta is the John Waters of HeroesCon and the Ricki Lake of my heart. (And some more Latta pics here.)
• Ashley Holt's semi-annual suicide note. 
• Dustin Harbin's report.  And, photo set. 
• Mathew D. Smith. 
• Rich Barrett. 
• Jimmy Aquino. 
• Whole E. Crapsticks!  Wouldja look at all that Roger Langridge art. 
• 90% of what I like about HeroesCon happens on Indie Island so can we all just give Rico Renzi a round of applause for continuing to make that a thing that exists?  Thanks Rico!
• And here is what is probably the best report of them all just because the guy had never been before and clearly went in expecting to hate it.  (Spoilers:  He loved it.)

(Pic of Henry Eudy at HeroesCon stolen from Josh Latta.)

• Over at The Kirby Effect there is very detailed three part behind the scenes look at the "Failure to Communiate" between Jack Kirby's drawn pages and Stan Lee's scripting.  It's big enough that I honestly have not made it trough all of it yet. (That darn job of mine.)  But sometimes I stick stuff in here as a reminder to myself. 
• Joe Sacco has a new book you might want to buy me a copy of. 
• Comic books... still burning in hell.
• Rob Clough talks about periodicals (a.k.a. comic books).  I love 'em.  I wish I could afford them and I wish I had access to them.  Good for folks that do.  High five. 
• Eleanor Davis was sent here to crush your soul. 
• #80 IN A FOUR-ISSUE LIMITED SERIES

• I've been reading the New 52 Superman title and it has had some enjoyable moments thanks to George Perez but it has mostly been a mess.  Perez confirms the obvious editorial cluster#[](% that has turned what should have been a homerun into ground out at first.  The Perez Superman issues are not that bad.  Like I said, they have moments.  The great thing about them for me is that they are dense and a lot of action happens.  I really like it when things happen in a comic book.  Which, is surprisingly rare.  My ten year old daughter enjoyed those Perez issues and even said she liked them better than Morrison's Action Comics because more stuff happened in them.  The weak parts have been the messiness and inconsistency of the plots from issue to issue. I'll blame that on editorial and not on Perez.  Perez was making a very nobel attempt at placing these very old characters in a world contemporary to our own and giving them motivations and personalities and all those things we like characters to have.  But DC kept pulling the rug out from underneath of him.  Oh what could have been.  If you as a publisher of comics will not trust the great George Perez to deliver a good Superman comic without changing his work to fit your editorial mandated universe, well, then you suck at publishing comics and probably should not be in charge of it.  The same George Perez that helped give you this which saved you from losing a whole generation to Chris Claremont's X-Men and was turned into this and made you jerks a $#!? load of money.  Yeah.  That guy.  When that guy goes up to the plate, you let him swing whatever bat he wants and you sit down, shut the F up and enjoy the homerun. 
• And finally ladies and gentlemen... The Human Fly!

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.

The 2012 HeroesCon report from Henry Eudy

The following report on Heroes Convention 2012 was provided by Superman's real best pal Henry Eudy.

DAY 1:

This was my third time showing at Heroes Con and on my previous two experiences the Friday portion of the show has tended to be slow and meandering with only a few intrepid souls bothering to flip through a minicomic or part with a dollar. Not so on this 30th Anniversary, however. The aisles and arteries of the convention floor were vibrantly pumping comics people all about for opening day. I somewhat suspect these were the wisest of the convention goers who were sagely getting their purchases and visits in before the onslaught of the Stan Lee leviathan set in and cemented the walking space with clumsy, lumbering bodies and their various backpacks, strollers and wheeled suitcases. Anyhow, thank goodness for these people because they came and shopped and chatted and, from the people I talked with anyway, made that first day the most profitable Friday most of us had experienced. As the day closed, I came out without having met Jaime Hernandez or Dave Copper as I had planned but I did come out with a wad of cash and a golden sunshine feeling in my heart that this was going to be a super great Heroes Con, probably one for the books.

(Dean Trippe's friends Batman and son stolen from Dean Trippe.)

As the convention hall shut down, many of us made our way to the pizza aroma infused arboretum across College Street to do some drinkin' and drawin' in whatever order seemed to work out best. Husband and wife tag team, Seth and Heather Peagler conducted the Drink and Draw ceremonies and some pretty incredible work found its way onto a drink coaster and then into the art collections of some generous patrons who gave the resulting cash for Parkinson's research. Much like last year, it was a great deal of fun and a worthwhile excuse to down flagons of ale.

After a few hours of the ol' drink and draw, myself and some fellows ventured over to the Westin hotel to join the already in progress bacchanal that was advertised as McGinty Fest. Ostensibly a venue to admire and celebrate the animation and artwork of the much lauded Brad McGinty, the fest instead was more of an outlet for closeted rock god cartoonists to play Rock Band and sing songs by Queen. We did manage to watch one McGinty short and had a dramatic reading of a truly terrible Spider-Man comic before things went back to straight up rocking. Somewhere along the way Robert Newsome and Patrick Dean discovered and ancient scroll in an adjacent conference room that seemed to explain the ancient rites of NASCAR. Unfortunately, none of us could decipher the runes and so the spirit of Dale Earnhardt was not raised that night and made to sing Night Ranger.

(McGintyfest pic stolen from Ben Towle.)

DAY 2:

Saturday was exactly what everyone expected, an onslaught. Piles and piles and piles of people queued up from the rafters to the parking decks to get a glance at the great grandpappy of Marvel comics. I had some real wonders whether all those extra people would be willing to drop some cash on comics about farts printed on copy paper stolen from various day jobs when they had already laid out $200 to high five a 89 year-old man and squeal "EXCELSIOR!!" Turns out some did but a lot of the extra attendees took their Stan Lee experience as 'nuff said and shambled out of the convention center without the benefit of a satchel full of minicomics. All in all, despite the extra traffic, I moved about as much product as in previous years on a Saturday. It was satisfying but not an overabundance of sales or visitations.

I joined J. Chris Campbell in a first time exploratory journey of making stuff on the Art Stage in front of the peeping eyes of the passing masses. Despite my nervousness at the thought of drawing on a large scale in a very public arena, the act itself ended up being really fun and gratifying. J. Chris turned out a super amazing Neatobot painting that ended up being featured front and center directly behind the auctioneer's head at that night's Art Auction. My Adventure Time drawing also made the Art Auction, which was pretty cool, but no one bothered to put their head in front of it.

As the crowds thinned out, I finally slipped out in the last hour of the show and met Jaime Hernandez, for my money, the Greatest Cartoonist in the World. As you might expect from the Greatest Cartoonist in the World, he was incredibly nice and chatted and sketched for everybody in his line. I talked to him about Maggie and Ray and the last few pages of the Love Bunglers and dumped my heart out on the table. He said "Thanks." That's the Greatest Cartoonist in the World, y'all.

(The "Greatest Cartoonist in the World" meets the fans. (Special guest star Robert Newsome's chin.)  Stolen from Brian Ralph.)

With the hall closing up, we weary bunch sought out some dining holes, ate our fill and then crossed back over to the Westin once more for the Art Auction. Some really amazing work was on display including a Popeye #1 cover recreation by Roger Langridge that made me want to bash my head in at the sight of its beauty, a triptych of exotic, arty, sexy ladies by Falynn K that was sold for less that a song before a crusty crowd of Spider-Man fans and a truly amazing Mad Men painting by Brian Stelfreeze that will haunt my dreams forever. The big happenings there were when Stan Lee himself came sauntering down the aisle and personalized a painting by Phil Noto and when a Mark Brooks Phoenix piece sold for just under 10 grand. I ended the night with a little small talk in the Westin bar and called it a day. And a pretty good day at that.

(Brian Stelfreeze draws Joanie stolen from tumblr.)

Day 3:

Stan Lee was back in action on Sunday but perhaps the crowds were hyperboled out because not so many crowded the aisles as on Saturday. Still, there was a healthy throng and that last minute impulse to dump out pocket money was in full effect. I did way more sketches on Sunday than in any other day of the convention and actually sold out of a few products by late in the day. There were a lot of great panels over the weekend that I earnestly wanted to attend but the only one I made was first thing Sunday afternoon, a Heroes Discussion Group of the Love and Rockets New Stories with the aforementioned Greatest Cartoonist in the World, Jaime Hernandez in attendance. I sat on the front row, stared intently at Mr. Hernandez and absorbed every word that came out of his mouth. It was an amazing, electrifying experience and I thanked moderator Andy Mansell over and over for making it possible. I came back to the convention floor with super comics mojo flowing all through my veins.

Sunday is the day I finally allow myself to get out from behind the table and buy some honest to goodness comics from the great people around me. I started with a whole armful of stuff from table neighbor Mike Freiheit. Apparently organizer Rico Renzi had sat us nearby one another so we could get all friendly and, dang if it didn't work. I really love that guy's work. I also picked up some minis from adjacent SCAD student Ian Jay and my buddy Tait Howard. I got several items from Matthew Smith but totally lost out on his table mate Benjamin Marra who left early to catch a plane. My local Charlotte pal, Eraklis "Herc" Petmezas had a new sketchbook out that I got gratis although I argued a little. It's hard to fight buddy to buddy pricing. Purposely I waited on buying Jackie Lewis' Play Ball until I could buy it from her direct and tell her how really great she is, which happened. I also got the Beasts and Babes mini that she, Erin Gladstone and Cara Mcgee had at FLUKE but that I had missed.

Speaking of FLUKE, I got Patrick Dean's newest Big Deal issue which is six kinds of beautiful and eight kinds of strange. Patrick just makes good stuff and that's all. Man, it was so enlivening to have Josh Latta back in the genuine Southeast. Naturally I bought a copy of the new colorized Rashy Rabbit book and asked for the most perverse, filthy, wrong sketch Josh could work up. I won't elaborate, but he didn't disappoint.

(Pic of mint in package double bird variant Josh Latta stolen from Lattaland.)

When I made my very first minicomic and brought it to Heroes Con back in 2008 and showed it around, the guy who was the nicest, who took the time to look over my work and give me feedback and encouragement was Ed Piskor. Ed had just finished the first volume of Wizzywig in '08 and I've kept track of the story throughout. So, I was super pleased to be able to buy the hardcover fruit of his labors at this show. Right near Ed was Adhouse Books, Chris Pitzer and Jim Rugg. Dammit, they had the most amazing single item I bought all weekend: a 48 page spiral notebook of Rugg's incredible ballpoint pen drawings. Ah! I swooned over that book. I believe only 300 were printed and, oh yeah, one of them became my own.

So, the day ended, the show ended, everybody was beat. We tore down our displays, packed up and ambled over to the Heroes Aren't Hard to Find shop for a hell of an after party. Getting to hobnob with your comic heroes is pretty great and just getting loaded in one of the country's best shops is pretty great on it's own too. I'm pretty sure I drunkenly talked to Roger Langridge for way longer than he was interested but, geez, he's so danged polite it never showed. 

(Robert Langridge sketch stolen from Healther Peagler.)

I didn't actually have the nerve to bother Jaime but it was certainly surreal to just glance over and see him eating pasta salad in a parking lot. The staff at Heroes is amazing and those guys were STILL working as I was trying to sober up enough to drive home. Seth, Rico, Bridgit, Matt, Brent, Justin, Shelley, big daddy Shelton and an amazing cadre of volunteers worked crazy hard to make the best show on Earth and, as I finally did call it a day, I really and truly felt the rapturous joy of their success. One for the books, my friends, one for the books.

-Henry Eudy

Visit Henry's website here.

Follow Henry on twitter here.

Thanks Henry!

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.