Random Mainstream Meltdown 12022013

 Hey bra bras and grl grlls.  Let's take a look at this huge stack of mainstream print comics so that I can put them in a box and never think about them again.  Can we do that?  Together?  Right on!  Let's do it!

Harley Quinn #0

By Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and 17 artists.

Published by DC Comics and sold for $2.99.

This is my daughter's comic book but I read it and liked it a lot.  It might be my favorite DC Comic since the launch of the New 52.  I don't know who's idea it was but instead of starting the new Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti written Harley Quinn ongoing series with a standard #1 they decided to kick things off with a jam comic using more than a dozen different artists.  I like jam comics.  They are fairly common in indie comics and usually a lot of fun.  Less common in mainstream comics.  In fact, in mainstream comics they are almost always a disaster.  Even Grant Morrison could not pull it off when he tried it in The Invisibles.  Total mess.  But Conner and Palmiotti stick the landing.  One of the great things about the Harley Quinn character is that you can go into an absurd comedy idea like Harley having a mental conversation with two comic book writers and say, oh yeah, she would totally do that.  Harley would totally sit around and imagine what it would be like if 17 different artists drew her comic book.  Of course she would.  So with almost every page of the book, Harley is imagining her own comic book drawn by a different artists and arguing with Conner and Palmiotti about their writing.  It is funny.  Conner and Palmiotti deliver the jokes but more importantly they let each artist cut loose.  Or maybe they don't.  Maybe the artists just drew whatever they wanted then Conner and Palmiotti put the words in later to tie it together.  Maybe they "wrote" it the way Stan Lee "wrote" comics.  Either way, I'm very impressed.  I love the tone of the thing.  Conner and Palmiotti are taking shots at the artists.  Taking shots at those that can't meet deadlines.  Taking shots at big boss man Jim Lee himself for recycling art.   There is more joy and love for comics in this book than I've seen in any of the post New 52 DC books with exception maybe of Ame-Comi Girls which is another Palmiotti project.  My favorite bits are Stephane Roux's Mad Men parody and Darwyn Cook's cartoon retelling of Conner and Palmiotti's real world wedding.  (As seen in the panel posted above which I declare to be DC Comics panel of the year.)

I'm sold on this book.  Sing me up for Harley Quinn #1.  (My daughter will make me buy it either way.)  I've said for a year or so that the best comic DC publishes is/was Palmiotti's Ame-Comi Girls.  With it canceled Harley Quinn looks to be the most fun comic in the DC line. 

The Walking Dead #114.

By Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and some other people.

Published by Image Comics and/or Skybound Entertainment whatever the duck that is.  Sold for $2.99.

I have not read many The Walking Dead comics in the past several years.  I think I'm about 100 issues behind.  I saw this comic at my local comic book shop video game store and they had it for a dollar off.  Maybe they over ordered it or something.  I guess this comic was supposed to be some big deal new story line start or something.  It didn't feel like a new start or anything.  Nothing was explained.  I recognized maybe half of the characters and got the jist of what was going on but I couldn't recommend this comic as a starting point for a new reader.  This comic is soap opera so it really doesn't matter where you start.  You either want to get familiar with the characters and you will either care about them enough to buy another issue or you wont.  Of course, the ones you care about will probably die.  Just like a soap opera.  

I like Kirkman well enough.  The dialog is believable.  Like a good wrestling match, each character gets their spots.  

The thing that surprised me most about the comic was how poorly it was produced.  I like Adlard's pacing but his drawing is very uneven. Lots of lazy close ups without backgrounds.  And look at that last close up of Rick.  All of the sudden his right eye is a quarter inch below the left and his eyes are about four inches apart.  Did the character get so angry that he became deformed?  That's some minor league art right there.  Say what you will about Marvel and DC but I don't think that would fly in one of their books.  

The lettering is also very amateur.  The negative space between the computer text and the computer drawn balloons is inconsistent from panel to panel and even within the same panel.

I shouldn't notice crap like that.  It should not be a distraction.  But it is.  Skybound should have the money to aim a little higher. 

Savage Dragon #192

By Erik Larsen and some other guys.

Published by Image Comics.  Sold for $3.99. 

Is Savage Dragon now the longest ongoing print comic by the same creator?  Does Love and Rockets count?  Love and Rockets has been around longer but they change volumes and formats and move from character to character.  Savage Dragon has been Savage Dragon for 192 issues.  But this one sees some big changes.  I won't spoil the whole thing for ya but it looks like starting with issue 193 Dragon's son will be the star of the comic.  He's pretty much been the star for a couple of years now but 192 makes it official.  I like ongoing periodical comics and like for characters to go on and on and change but one of the things that makes Savage Dragon so much fun for me is that Larsen is not afraid to make huge changes.  If this were a Marvel or DC comic book  property change would mean bringing in new talent to re-tell the stories you already knew.  A constant re-mixing of the greatest hits.  Larsen doesn't care about hits.  He just does what he wants and pushes it as far as he can without losing so many readers that he can't afford to keep publishing.  I wish we had a dozen more Erik Larsens. 

Daredevil #32 and #33.

By Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Jason Copland and some other folks.

Published by Marvel Comics.  Sold for $2.99 each.

I'm gonna admit that I missed the Mark Waid era Daredevil bandwagon.  That is super lame on my part because I think Waid is one of the best and Daredevil is one of my favorite characters.  But the book started during a time when I did not live near a comics shop and the video game store that now sells comics was not open yet.  So I missed the first issues and then I think I just conceded to the idea of eventually buying the trades on eBay.  But I went ahead and picked up 32 and 33 because they had the Marvel Monsters in them.  Werewolf by Night, Frankenstein's Monster, Satana, The Living Mummy and Zombie.  These characters are so much fun to see in action as drawn by Samnee and Copland with Javier Rodriguez's fantastic colors.  And I like the story.  Waid puts Daredevil on a search that leads him to the woods of Kentucky.  I like any time Daredevil, Spider-Man or Batman get to swing from trees.  Throw in some monsters and you've got an instant classic.  Oooh, and one of these comics even has wisecracking Doctor Strange.  Every superhero comic should be this good.  Marvel better cancel this one quick before the other creators start feeling bad about themselves.  

The Sandman Overture #1

By Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III and some other dudes. 

Published by DC Comics/Vertigo.  Sold for $4.99.

Hey guys, did you guys notice this comic book was edited by Karen Berger.  You know, that lady that quit Vertigo a while back.  I imagine it went something like this..

Neil Gaiman: "Hello.  Superstar writer Neil Gaiman here.  I'm calling to talk with Karen Berger about my new Sandman series."

DC Entertainment: "Um, Mrs. Berger left.  I'll get the new Vertigo editors on the line."

Neil Gaiman: click...buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DC Entertainment: "Mr. Gaiman?  Mr. Gaiman?  Oh dear lord someone call Karen Berger!"

I have to admit that I totally missed the Sandman phenomenon.  I was right there.  I saw the whole thing go down.  I was at the station, I just missed the train.  I was the exact target audience of the initial The Sandman series.  I was in college, in a rock band, fingernails painted black,  weekly comic shop guy, listening to music made by guys wearing Sandman t-shirts, living with people that read the comic, dating girls that looked like characters in the comic... I don't know.  I just missed it.  I've owned the 1st The Sandman trade paperback for years and have never made it more than 10 pages into the thing.  And I actually like Neil Gaiman's novels.  I also lived with dudes that were super into Dungeons and Dragons and I've never played that game for a second either.  I just don't know. I'm kinda dense sometimes. 

But enough about me.  Let's talk about a comic book I did read, Promethea.  And J.H. Williams III drew the crap out of Promethea so when I see J.H. Williams III is drawing some fantasy stuff I buy that thing.  Well, at least one issue anyway. 

And Williams delivers.  Every page is a home run.  Mesmerizing stuff.  All your favorite heavy metal album covers rolled into one comic.  I have no idea what is going on but who cares?  The only bad thing is some jarring ad placement.  Lots of ads breaking this thing up.  All the more reason to never buy another issue and wait for the trade paperback on this one. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

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

Random Mainstream Meltdown 07172012

Hey pals.  Why don't we talk for just a second about some random mainstream monthly periodical floppy comics that are lying about my house?  Yes, let's do that thing.

The Walking Dead #100 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and a bunch of other people.  Published by Image Comics.  $3.99.

So this comic is the biggest deal ever or at least since back in the days when comics sold in the millions.  Apparently it sold out of it's initial print run of close to 400,000 copies in a day or so.  Whoopeee!  When I was in the local comic shop  video game store that sells comics, I bought one and the bro dogger at the counter told me that there was a guy waiting at the door at their other (bigger) store and that he bought every copy.  Okay!  Suck on that recession!

I had not read any Walking Dead in a long time.  I found out about the comic through the book store market and the 1st thing I read was the 2nd trade paperback.  (Full disclosure:  As a book store manager I got a comp copy of the 2nd trade paperback for free.  It sat on my shelf for a few years before I read it because horror ain't my bag bro.  When I finally read it, I liked it but did not feel the need to catch up.  The the TV show came along and wango bango pow here we are.)  

I think that is how a lot of pre-TV show fans discovered the comic.  (Not through my long comp copy story but through the book store market.)   

I've talked about this a little bit before but to me the thing that is interesting about The Walking Dead phenomenon is that it really came from a different place.  Not a superhero comic.  Not a Marvel or DC comic.  Not even a color comic.  Not a comic the direct market pushed at first.  And its audience, which has become a television audience as well, has never really been the comics audience.  It is the horror audience.  And that audience is astounding.  That audience is huge.  That audience is the cute girls that read Sandman in the 90s and 00s, the spastic kid that drew Johnny The Homicidal Maniac in his high school notebook, the 20 something dude waiting in line for the midnight showing of Saw 37, the 30 something rockabilly dude with three different tattoos of monster themed hot rods, the 40 something lady reading 50 Shades of Grey....  That audience has a lot of buying power.  

Looking through this 100th issue of the comic I was very interested in the advertising in the comic.  It is not the ads you see in comics.  These are ads for horror related things for the horror buying customer.  That is smart.  I don't know who the credit for that goes to but someone in The Walking Dead/Image family knows which side gets the butter.  And I'm not going to go crazy patting Kirkman on the back for his amazing industry changing brilliance.  This is still genre fiction.  It is still a franchise about running away from zombies.  But yeah, let's at least give Image a high five for realizing that there are customers out there for more than just one genre.  That nerds come in many colors and costumes.

The comic itself is okay.  Part of the reason I bought it was because when I picked it up it felt really thick.  I was expecting something substantial.  But, reading it felt slight.  Not a lot happens in this thing.  It is mostly talking.  Or yelling expletives. And then some really brutal violence.  Like ya do.  I probably don't need any more of this comic in my life.  I enjoy the TV show plenty.  That is probably good enough for me.  But I'm not the horror fan audience that buys zombie toys and comics.  And apparently that audience is big enough that they don't need me.  Enjoy it folks. 

Earth 2 #3 by James Robinson, Nicola Scott and a whole bunch of other people.  Published by DC Comics.

I don't have much more to say about this comic than I said about issues 1 and 2 in my recent New 52 post.  I like it.  It is good.  Or, it's about as good as a DC Comic where you are establishing a new team made up of ancient characters can be.  Which is to say, it is about a million times better than Justice League.  I don't have this comic on my "pull list" or anything but so far I've bought all three issues.  The Nicola Scott art is what keeps me coming back.  Very solid.  I enjoy it.  And that Robinson guy is a okay too.  This Alan Scott Green Lantern is probably the first Green Lantern I've cared about on the page since Grant Morrison was writing JLA or since James Robinson was writing JSA.  Either way, the point is, this is the first DC team comic I've cared about in many many years.

Adventure Time #5 by Ryan North, Mike Holmes, Paul Pope, Georgia Roberson, Chris Roberson and a bunch of other people.  Published by Kaboom.

I wanted to write a longer review about the Adventure Time comic book series as a whole but I'm busy/tired/insert-excuse-here so we will just talk about the most recent issue.  I think it is the best so far anyway.  My family owns three copies of this comic.  I have the Dave Cooper HeroesCon variant cover (thanks Peagler's) which I happen to think is the undisputed current front runner for 2012 cover of the year.  My oldest daughter wanted the Eleanor Davis cover.  I think it is a close second for 2012 cover of the year.  And my youngest daughter had to have her own copy and she picked out what I think is the standard cover.  Which, is a pretty great cover too.

The comic is great.  The whole series is great.  I was a little worried with issue 1 because it was a bit too much like the TV show but by the time we get to issue 2 the collected cartoonist are cutting loose and having fun.  I think issue 5 is the best.  The main story is probably the least ambitious of the series so far but a slight cut back on action allows for a lot more laughs.  There is a part where BMO is talking about making a cupcake and says "I make baking".  My kids and I have been  calling the act of cooking "make baking" ever since.  "I love eating baking!" yells Jake.  Haw!  Comedy gold I tells ya.

This issue has a back up story by one of my favorite cartoonists, Paul Pope.  My five year old loves that story.  The art is off model but the dialog is perfect and Pope is playing around with some pretty far out ideas for a kids comic but it seems like the less sense these things make the more hilarious my kids think it is.

This comic has been so good.  Five issues in I can tell you that this comic has forced me to make more trips to comic book shops this year then I probably did in the past three years combined.  My kids demand to get this comic as soon as it comes out.  I've not been in this much of a hurry to get the next issue of a comic since I was buying Transformers, GI Joe and Star Wars off the spinner rack.

Marceline and the Scream Queens #1 by Meridith Gran, Jen Wang and a bunch of other people.  Published by Kaboom.

This is a solid comic.  Not quite as fun as the Adventure Time series but close.  The main thing dragging down the main story in this comic is that it is part one of a longer story and feels like it has a lot of set up.  I mean, the set up is super simple.  It's the same setup you have read a dozen or so times in various Archie comics where they put together a rock tour and rival characters have to get along to make it work.  That is if you have read that story in various Archie comics as many times as I have.  If not, then sorry for the spoiler.

There is nothing holding back the Jen Wang backup story though.  The art and lettering are great and the story does a perfect job of summing up in just eight pages everything that makes Marceline such a fun character.

Again I'm too insert-excuse-here to scan my own comics so I stole images from other websites.  Remember kids, whenever you steal you should link to the people you stole from.  Both on the net and in real life.  Here are the people I stole from for this post:

Comics Alliance

What Culture

Super Podcasto Magnifico

Moresay

Thanks comics bros I don't know!

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 06242012

(Pic of Doc from GI Joe stolen from tumblr stolen from GI Joe as viewed through the magic of Netflix.)

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 06242012:

• HeroesCon! As I type this, (Friday night with one Old Fashioned, one Manhattan and three celery sticks crammed with peanut butter) HeroesCon in Charlotte NC is still going on and I'm sure my bestest pals are living it up and having a fine time.  (I've already seen photo evidence on twitter.)  Everything I've heard about the show so far sounds like big attendance and good sales.  I'm hearing good sales reports from dealers and that is probably the most important thing for the longevity of a mainstream show like this.   I could not attend this year but you can see my HeroesCon pre-show report here.   Sometime this coming week I'll put together a report (with help from an on location pal).  If you have pics or your own report that you would like for me to link to then send me the link.  In the meantime, you can catch a lot of great stuff on twitter under the #heroeson hashtag. 
• Oxford American had an interview with Brad McGinty as well as a great comic by Brad about moving up north.  And mayonnaise.  I miss Brad since he moved up north and I don't even live where he used to live either. 
• The year 1977 was pretty rad. 
• Comic books continued to burn in hell.
• Box Brown told us something we did not know. 
• Cake looked like a lot of fun.  I wanna go one year so you Cake people keep at it okay? 
• Gabby Schulz recently updated his website.  I think he is one of the best five or so living cartoonists in North America.  I want you to give him your money.
• Speaking of Schulz-  you probably want to go ahead and buy me a copy of this. 
• Rich Tommaso also updated his website.  After you give Gabby Schulz all your money I'd like for you to go earn some more money then give that to Rich Tommaso. 
• People!  People!  People!  Tom Spurgeon has been going through the comics he read and enjoyed during the 80s.  These short articles have been fantastic.  Some of the comics he talks about are some of my 80s faves but most of them were the comics I had only heard about and therefore coveted because I did not have access to them.  I don't really have a way to link to them because Tom is not real big on using tags, (he does not use tags at all) so, you probably just need to go to The Comics Reporter and just hunt for them.  Tom has been posting a lot of short reviews lately so that's cool.  Or, just go ahead and read the entire site.  Trust me, you do not have anything better to do.
• Grant Morrison is now a part of something called the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  I wonder if killing the Queen in The Invisibles was taken into consideration? 

• Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Chippendale's studio. 
• I'd like to announce that I'm willing to write the crap out of Daredevil right now. 
• Super short reviews:  I read Harbinger #1 and X-O Manowar #2 from Valiant and I really liked them.  
• DC has a new reader survey up.  I took it.  It was short and easy.  You should take it even if you don't read DC comics because the survey really does seem targeted at wanting to know what YOU want.  And I really want people to know what I want.  I mean, have you read this website?
• Hey, could you buy this for me and my daughter?  Thanks!
• Joey Weiser's Monster Isle has floated under the Wide Awake Press umbrella of webcomics. 
• Paul Pope + Adventure Time = happy. 
• The Walking Dead is a very big deal.  But it is not an unprecedented deal.  It was not that long ago that creator owned titles from Image were handing Marvel it's ass.  From 1992 to 2002 Image had more top selling books than Marvel did.  But then Marvel and DC flooded the shelves with event comics and dominated the sales charts with nonsense for the past decade.  So the idea that Image would regain the top of the charts is a big deal but what is interesting to me is how The Walking Dead got there.  The big difference for me between the Dead and the Image comics of the 90s is that The Walking Dead really found its audience after it made its way to trade paperback.  It was really through the book stores that The Walking Dead collections took off.  It is a book that took off and got noticed by Hollywood in spite of the direct market.   And its formula for success is in stark contrast with Marvel, and specifically Joe Quesada, who seem to have an out right contempt for the trade paperback and/or graphic novel.  Lessons to be learned. 

• And lastly, let's talk about NASCAR again.  What if 5.3 million people watched the Batmobile win a professional motorsports race and no one in comics noticed?  That's right, as I mentioned last week, NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race driving a car painted up to promote The Dark Knight Rises.  And he did not just win, he dominated the race leading the most laps.  That means that for three or four hours, the 5.3 million people that watched the race on television plus the 82,000 people in attendance were mainly looking at a Batman symbol moving at over 190mph.  And it's bigger than that.  The victory was the main story on ESPN's Sportscenter for two days.  (For the nerds: Sportscenter is kind of a big deal.)  And this is not like a TV commercial or some viral intronet horsepoop that you just ignore.  This is the thing people tuned into watch.  So, Time Warner successfully got their Batman movie promotion in front of millions of eyes over a two or three day period.  And no one in comics noticed.  I just find it a little odd.  Does the comics blogosphere only cover the Batman related news the Time Warner PR department sends them?  The comics blogosphere sure goes crazy when they get some Marvel or DC PR about some sports related comic book thing that one one reads.  I don't have answers but the thing did raise some questions.  And I'm not trying to knock the hustle of any bloggers or or comics "journalists".  I love those guys/gals.  I'm not even sure I have a point.  I guess if I had a point it would be something like, dang, comics coverage is very myopic.  But ya know what nerds, that car looked awesome and I enjoyed it.  Your loss. 

(Destro, Major Bludd and the Barroness watch as Xamot and Tomax demonstrate some sort of robot baby device developed by M.A.R.S.  Stolen from J. Chris Campbell's twitter feed.)

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.

file under fundraiser UPDATE #3

Hey pals.  The fundraiser is still in action.  Check out the fundraiser updates 1 and 2 here. 

So far the fundraiser has raised a lot of money for PayPal, eBay and the United States Post Office. So, ya know, don't go crying to me about the economy.  I've done my part.  I wanted to post a quick update about a few graphic novels I have on sale for absolutely punch you in the mouth and make you shut up dirt cheap prices.  All three of these are good books.  I enjoyed them a bunch and you will too.  (Unless you are like, stupid or something, or maybe you can't read.  I don't know.  It's your call pal.)

Here are the links so get ta clickin':

The Walking Dead Vol. 2

Y: The Last Man Vol. 1

Fables: Wolves

I'm also taking original digital color commissions now.  You might want to check that out also unless you just hate quality and goodness.  Again, it's your call pal.

Thanks bunches!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith