Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02032013

(Kickers Inc. #4 1986.  Image stolen from Comic Vine.)

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 02032013:

"I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided enough is enough. Everyone tells me social media has the potential for creating social change never seen before in human history. Okay, then I’d like to test it by seeing if social media can cut off the flow of money from DragonCon to accused child molester (and the convention’s co-owner) Ed Kramer, who has been using the 150K+ a year he receives each year from DragonCon to avoid trial and manipulate the justice system to allow him free reign to prey upon children, even while under supposed house arrest. All you have to do is publicly declare you will never attend DragonCon again as long as Edward Kramer profits from the convention."  -Nancy A. Collins. 

• Happy Superbowl Sunday everybody!  I hope that as we all pull our guts up to the Bonanza super bar of shiny new television commercials, with a small helping of football for desert, we will all remember the true spirit of Superbowl; smashing one another's heads in all for the love of points.  Points everybody!  Just like money but worthless!  Personally, I love the American tackle football.  Like the great Al Bundy, I served my country playing high school football.  I remember it well.  Mainly due to the concussions and a knee that alternates between discomfort and pain 24 hours a day.  Football!  But the Superbowl is most often the worst football game you will see in any given year.  This late in the season most of the best players can barley walk and the starters are determined by which guys are not seeing double at gametime.  So maybe the commercials really are the best part.  Personally, I'm hoping to see this commercial staring Francis.  From what I've heard, Volkswagen chose a lame commerical where a white actor dude speaks Rasta instead.  But maybe during the pre-game show or somewhere in the evening we'll get to see Francis and all our favorite YouTube stars on our big flat screen TVs because the last thing I want to see on my television is professional actors.   (Apparently, the Francis version aired during American Idol this week.  That ain't bad.  I reckon a few people still watch that show.)  Anyway... Go Steelers!
• And don't worry everybody.  Francis may be a celebrity now but he's still angry.  Never sell out Francis!

• People.  The great J. Chris Campbell, fourth sexist man in comics, has a new comic/art book he is ready to sell to you in paper and/or digital.  You need to go get that thing accomplished. 
• Grant Morrison had a birthday this week.  He's 53 now.  In Stan Lee years, that's 28.  Remember back when I was doing a series of articles re-examining Morrison's The Invisibles.  Well, I will get back to that.  As soon as possible.  Hang in there.  My life is a living hell challenging. 
• Fred Hembeck also had a birthday.  Dang I loves me some Fred Hembeck. 
• Ashley Holt, fourth best hair in comics, posted another one of his words and picture things that you enjoy so much as you read then hate him at the end for being more clever than you. 
• You had me at Dreadstar. 
• Remember when I mentioned that new Shonen Jump thing last week?  Well, Joe McCulloch has broken down the genetic code of every panel of the sucker.  (I told ya One-Punch man was the business.)

• So that Paperman cartoon there sure made a lot of people blow a load.  It's alright I guess. I wouldn't call it a "groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques" or anything.  Seamless is not a word I'd use.  Groundbreaking?  I mean, you people are aware of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli right?  Don't get me wrong.  The cartoon is nice.  I like the part where Aladdin sits down beside the kid with the balloon.  I just think some of us spend so much time watching movies with video game animation that we feel like we've seen the face of God when we see moving line art. 
• Alec Longstreth on not going to Angouleme. (I don't know how to do those triangle letter hat things.) 
• Bart Beaty on yes going to Angouleme.  (I can't even pronounce it.)
• Hey everybody, won't you just shut up and go read this interactive experimental flash comic thing Pat Lewis drew for Mark Waid's website.  Super cool. 
• Holy cheese biscuits.  Go look at what Brad McGinty drew. Brad done did it again! 
• How much of your life have you spent lying around wishing Morrissey would beat the crap out of Robert Smith?  All of it?  Well here ya go.  Courtesy of Josh Latta.  He lives to serve. 
• People.  Last week, professional wrestler and WWE Champ CM Punk was forced to hand over his belt to a B movie actor.  It sucked.  There was never a doubt in my mind that it would not happen, but it still sucked.

• My good friend Paul McDonald wrote a book about Star Wars.  You can pre-order it now. 
• Okay James.  It's been over a month now.  You can start posting your strip again.  We get it.  Hah hah.  Good one. Now, get back to the comic strip please. 
• Look, I'm as sad about Young Justice being canceled as anyone but Teen Titans Go is gonna be a lot of fun. 
• How Bill Mantlo created the 80s. 
• People, people, people!  Eric Canete posted some new commissioned art this week. 
• Gabby Schulz drew some cute wittle cuddly wuddlies.  And then he went to the hospital. 

(I think it's A-Okay to laugh at Macaulay Culkin and his pals because I'm positive they are laughing at all of us.)

• We just want to tell you that all men are garbage. 
• Shaenon Garrity on some solid webcomics. 
• Tom Spurgeon on some digital comics news. 
• Panel Patter on the Mini-Comic Of The Month Club.  
• Hourly Comics Day happened again and The Beat rounded up a bunch of them.  Eleanor Davis did it and posted it here. 
• Every year when the color of the year is announced I change my blog colors to match it just to see if anyone notices.  They never, ever notice.  I don't think I'll do it this year because I don't really like that color. 
• No talks about Josh Simmons.
• So yeah.  Your comics collection can still totally land you in jail in America. (Maybe don't name your files "incest comics".)

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from DC database.)
...is on hiatus because I did not read any new comics this week.  The comics shop nearest video came store that happens to sell comics is on the other side of a snow and ice storm from my house.  The weather is so bad that I could have gone to watch live professional wrestling Saturday and did not.  Ice people.  Ice.  My feet are cold.  I did read a 100 or so pages of volume one of the DC Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold though.  And it is great.  These comics are written by Bob Haney and he is crazy.  Crazy!  This is a book that features Metamorpho and the Bat-Hulk and neither of those are the strangest things in it.  Get this.  There is a story in here where Batman has emotions about a woman.  A woman people!  Crazy man.  Crazy.
But hey.  Just because I did not make it to a comics shop and I don't have any plastic money for Comixology at the moment does not mean we can't talk about a new comic.  Here, go read this.  Dave Cooper everybody.  Actually, I think that comic is from last year sometime but who cares?  I promise you it's better than anything you could have found in a comic shop this (or almost any) week.

• And finally... My favorite Superbowl was the one where The Incredible Hulk murdered the Chicago Bears.

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

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

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

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

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

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

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01272013

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

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 01272013:

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

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

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

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

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

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

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

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

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

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

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

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

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

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01202013

(Image of a historically and scientifically correct flying gorilla stolen from The Golden Age.)

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 01202013:

“I had no idea the world really looked like this, with such infinite clarity. It looks like a modernist photo or a hyperreal film, everything in focus everywhere. Everyone kept saying ‘oh, do you see the leaves now?’ but the first thing I saw was not the leaves but the people. People, individuated, each with brilliant faces and expressions at gaits, the sun streaming down upon them. I couldn’t help but smile. It’s much harder being a misanthrope when you can see people’s faces.”   -Aaron Swartz

(Just like Bachman-Turner Overdrive.)

• The Fluke minicomics and zine fest in Athens GA is one of my favorite shows.  Earlier this week they had registration for the first 60 tables and they all sold out in one day.  Not bad.  But don't fret none G.  They held back a few tables and have a waiting list so you should probably look into that right now.  The show is April 6th.  You are going to have so much fun buying me a beer.  I can't wait!
• People.  Paul Pope's Battling Boy looks great.  I'ma gonna need one of those. In related news, EW still exists. 
• Rob Clough talks to Charles Forsman about the Oily and the subscription model publishing. 
• And because he is Rob Clough he also reviewed a bunch of minicomics. 
• Kate Beaton explains what all the youngs need to know about going to art school and or teaching themselves art.  The most important take away to remember is that yes, young impressionable artist, yes you should totally steal a copy of Photoshop. 
• Annie Koyama at Meanwhile.
• Warren Ellis says don't worry, everything is fine.  Trust him.  He has an accent. 

• Paul Gravett read some interesting comics last year. 
• How to help Peter David get back to Peter Daviding. 
• The Comics Reporter did another digital/web/non-paper comic round up. 
• Sigh. 
• One of the benefits of being late with this week's Parade-O-Links is that I can squeeze in a link to The Comics Reporter's Five For Firday post.  It's my favorite game show. 
• I like Ann Nocenti and I like Katana a lot more than is rational so I'm gonna want this comic but then my local comic shop (which is really a video game store) is not going to have it and then I'll be sad but then latter I'll probably buy it at Cavalier Comics over in Wise, VA  or maybe at a comic book convention or maybe on eBay.  (Katana talks to her sword people.  She talks to a sword.  Shhh... she thinks her husband is in it.  Katana is is teh cray cray.)
• The thing that most makes me furious about this Platinum nonsense is that I've been calling Steven Spielberg for 20 years and not one meeting.  Not one damned meeting Steven! 
• Hang in there true believer. 
• Are you people watching the best show on TV?  Are you watching Boyd Crowder Junkie Exploder Justified?  You should.  My man Walton Goggins is the business y'all. 
• The Christopher Reeve version is the correct version. 
• Obviously. 
• This Joe Kubert comics explains every detail of how comics are were made. It's all in the high-powered arc lights.
• Chris Sims talks about Batman and guns and guns and Batman.   

• This super pretentious sounding Autoptic show in Minneapolis sounds like it will certainly be a thing that happens in August.  I think every town in the United States should have its own indie comics and zine festival once year.  At each show, one creator will be selected through a series of vicious and violent challenges.  Then, at the end of the festival season, all of the selected creators will be dropped on an island and forced to fight to the death.  This will not be televised.  The sole surviving creator will draw a minicomic of the event and send one copy back to mankind by bottle.  
• Awww Lil Bub wolled awound on duh cowmics and wuz so cute with its willte curly tongue and its wittle kitty face. 
• Robert Newsome's talking and music thing was good this week.  Liked that song about monkey Godzooky or whatever it was.  And also, he talked about wrestling again. 

• Heavy Metal, Gasoline Alley and other things are burning in hell.  I have not listened to this one yet but I'm gonna assume the boys use the F word a lot. 
• I just pray this thing sells well enough that Boom will do a follow up where Finn and Jake from Adventure Time read Dave Sim's faxes as printed out of BMO's butt.  (Dave Sim is so the Ice King.)
• So the way I make this Parade-O-Links each week is that I have this online checklist creator thing to make a list, and I just paste in interesting things I see all week.  And this week, I pasted in bunch of stuff about Robert Venditti.  The comics people, they like to talk to Robert Venditti.  I like talking to him too.  He's swell and good at the thinking and talking.  Comics Vine talked to him about X-O Manowar.  Then they talked to him some more about Demon Knights.  Then io9 talked to him some more about Demon Knights.

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Archonia.)

...was a lot of trouble to figure out.  We had a big snow storm this week that kept me from the local comic shop (which is actually a video game store and which is actually not local to the town where I live but is in the town where I work).  I finally made it to the shop on Saturday but did not see a lot of interesting books.  My pal Robert Venditti's first issue of Demon Knights came out this week.  I wanted that comic.  I read a bit of the Cornell run and thought it was okay, I like the Demon and I like all of Venditti's comics so I had the shop order me a copy and add it to my "list" as soon as it was announced.  But, like clockwork, the shop did not get Demon Knights 16.  They are not so great at getting the comics I want. They still have not gotten any copies of Superior Spider-Man.  Not one single time have they had X-O Manowar on the week it came out.  (Which is the only reason it has not been my BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK so far.)  Oh well, the rural life is hard.  So the comics I got were bATMan #16 and All-New X-Men #6.
Batman was okay.  Just okay.  Snyder and Capullo are very good at making Batman comics but I'm disappointed with this "Death of the Family" story. It's just not for me.  It's gross.  It's disgusting.  It is horror and it feels more like Snyder doing his impersonation of a horror movie than it does something fresh or imaginative.  Snyder's big long Owl story was more of a mystery thriller and I thought he nailed it.  He understood all the beats and the pacing.  The pacing feels really rushed in this Joker thing.  It's like he's using Grant Morrison hyper speed style.  It works for Morrison because Morrison is telling Silver Age madness.  It does not work for horror.  This issue is mostly a house of death traps comic where Batman goes through his rogues gallery like going through bosses at the end of video game levels.  Which is exactly what Grant Morrison did better just recently in Batman Inc.  There is no time for anything to resonate in this.  Beating Clayface should be bigger.  Beating Mr. Freeze should be bigger.  Seeing your main foes and the Joker arranged as a royal court at the end should be bigger.  It's too many oh my god moments without any time for the audience to say oh my god.  It's not scary if the audience does not have time to scream.
All-New X-Men was very good.  The best of the series so far.  All of the set up was ironed out in issues 1 through 5 so now we get to see Bendis do what he does best.  Write people talking on and on and on.  And it's great.  That is what the X-Men do between funerals. This issue has two things going on.  Kitty Pryde teaching Jean Grey how to be Jean Grey and Wolverine trying to teach Cyclops not to be Cyclops.  And no sight of a villain until you hit the last page.  A very good X-Men comic but I'm not going to give it my BEST designation.
Nope, THE BEST NEW SINGLE PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK was my daughter's delivered by mail subscription copy of Life With Archie #26.  Written by Paul Kupperberg with art by Fernando Ruiz, Pat Kennedy and Tim Kennedy.  There is so much to love about this comic.  For one thing, it cost $3.99 (less by subscription) and has two full length comics in it.  That is the same price as bATMan and All-New X-Men.  Plus it is a very comfortable magazine size.  And I love the cheap paper.  It smells great.  Hate that glossy crap.  For those that have not read Life With Archie, it is an elseworlds kind of thing where Archie has two possible futures.  In one, he marries Veronica and in the other he marries Betty.  The two comics are surprisingly different and together they provide a lot of soap opera story lines.  In just this issue Kevin Keller (the much hyped gay war vet character) is running for Senate, Kevin's husband is going through physical therapy after getting shot, Veronica is starting her own business, Archie is starting work as a record exec,  Moose is dealing with drama in his job as Mayor and  Reggie and Betty are having problems with their reality show.  And that is just in the Veronica half of the book!  I've said this before but I love it when things happen in a comic book.  Kupperberg is moving a huge cast trough two comics at the same time.  I'm impressed. 

• And finally... if Boogie can do it, you can do 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.