Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02052021

 (The Overwhelming Motörhead Rock Commando July 1980.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week weeks ending 02052021. 

• Hello sisters and brothers and undecided others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shano and I'll be your host.  Remember over a month ago when fired up the file under other machine and I was going to start posting these things again?  Me either. 
• No one close to me died since our last episode so, progress. 
• Marvel and DC superheroes trend on the social meeds every day but it's rare when the comics trend and even rarer when a specific comic book trends so when it does you know it's either going to be misogyny or racism.  Immortal Hulk #43 decided to go with the racism this go round.  Everyone makes mistakes but racism is almost never a mistake and there are some mistakes you don't get to make if Disney is paying you. 
• In dumb comics movie click bait news: Nah, that's just stupid. 
• Speaking of things that are not comics, that HBO Max deal has finally added the greatest DC Comics based TV show of all time, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  Check it out heathens. 
• I just got a phone call from my close personal friend Doctor Fauci and he gave me some great news.  America's most wholesome cartoonist, Josh Latta, has a new book out.  Suck on that 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease.
• Well, it's finally happened.  Ashley Holt has finally gotten so sick of your bullshit he's left the country.  This country has two Carolinas and neither one of them were good enough for our man Ashley.  Good luck Germany! 
• Do you guys read the comics?  I read the comics.  What comics do you guys read?  Maybe respond in the comments.  LOL HAH HAH HAH no one is ever going to respond in the comments.  Maybe twitter though.  I've been reading a lot of oddball late 80s stuff lately like post-Crisis Suicide Squad and the pre-Grant Morrison* Doom Patrol.  (With the intention of going through the Morrison stuff again afterwards because I'm obsessed with that Doom Patrol TV show.)  Been reading lots of comics with characters in brown and orange costumes in stories where they go into cold war era made up jungle islands. That was a weird period in comics, before DC thought these things had value, before the movies, when they were just like, "well, all these non-primary color characters are never going to catch on so we may as well dump them in a team and kill one of them off every issue".  Fun stuff. I recommend you go to Ollie's and buy the first few trade paperbacks of both series for about $3 each.
• Speaking Doom Patrol, you guys have watched the first two seasons of the TV show now right?  It's the best right?  What do you want to see in the 3rd season?  I want Doom Force.  

• And speaking of other things that are not comic books, sure, yeah, I like WandaVision just fine.  I like it better when they don't explain things for the normies.  I don't want the normies to have anything else.  They have sports.  That's enough. I think showing us the MCU "real world" outside of Westview as a catastrophic mistake for the show.  Those scenes are poorly written and poorly acted and just look like low budget television.  The stuff of Wanda's creation inside Westview, which is supposed to be low budget television looks fantastic.  Just, spare us the MCU please.  
• My MCU ranking goes as follows 1) The ones where Iron Man plays AC/DC. 2) The ones where Captain America takes his shirt off. 3) WandaVision.
• That Vision "content" you really wanted. 

• If I hadn't been trapped in the Trump version of Westview for the past year I might have given you guys a list of my favorite comics from 2020 and I probably would have mentioned Jeremy Massie's Holler.  You can get on board with the 3rd issue now. 
• Current reigning defending best at drawing on Earth, Brad McGinty, recently did the cover of We Do What We Want 2. It's great and the magazine is a lot of fun.  The magazine has an article where Gerard Way talks about his The Real Ghostbusters toys.  I didn't make that up.  For real, if you like the things that are the good things then you will enjoy this magazine.  Also, if you like the things that are rad you will like this High on Fire t-shirt Brad did for the Holy Mountain Printing folks. 
• The great Annie Koyama is leaving escaping  changing her relationship with comics.  Our man Rob Clough weighed in on her impressive legacy. 
• Related, Ed Kanerva and RJ Case are also fleeing pursuing their future endeavors. 
• 24 Hour Comics Day went down again and I read a lot of the comics but when I think about it, most of what I saw were from the folks I follow on twitter and Instagram that are already posting comics weekly or more frequently in that format so, really, the day just felt like any other day in my social media feed.  A lot of folks have really mastered Instagram's 10 photo limit for posting comics in a reader friendly cell pad pod phone environment.  I'm thinking about folks like the world's most dangerous man Henry Eudy, your dad Mike Dawson, that lady at the petting zoo Lisa Hanawalt , your favorite teacher Mayday Trippe, that dude you used to work with Gabby Schulz, that dude on the bus Josh Bayer, that dude you know who has transcended flesh and draws with his mind now Patrick Dean and so many more just killing it every day.  I salute you doers of things. 

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Malarkey #5 by November Garcia available at Birdcage Bottom Books

This is a great looking minicomics sized collection of comics with bigfancycomics production.  These are mostly diary style comics with a few more ambitious art comics pages to mix it up.  Garcia's color stuff is really interesting.  Like that fantastic cover where it looks like it's raining what could be bubble gum or guts depending on how dark your day was. Thematically this issue is dealing with, well, kind of 2020 in a nutshell.  Death and the plague and how you just have to deal with it.  I think we call can relate.  Also, there are jokes. 

• Before we go we'd better check on our boy Francis and make sure he's okay.

• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp 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 01112017

(Star Wars issue 106.  Cover by Cynthia Martin.  Image stolen from Rebel Scum. )

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week weeks ending 01/11/2017.

"Look, I don’t have time for this." - Steve Ditko.

• Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon and I'll be your host.  I've been away for a bit.  Well, I've been right here.  I've just been busy.  September through November is my busiest time of year at work.  Then after that holiday and family stuff took over.  Family first right?  But 2017 will be a big year for file under other.  2017 is an anniversary year so more on that down the road. 
• So, here we are.  My head and my heart are in knots.  I appologize in advance that this Parade-O-Links will be short on comics.  That's not comics' fault.  It's my fault.  I'm dealing with some things.  I'll get better.  For the 2nd time in the last five Presidential elections the person that received the largest amount of votes will not be our next President.  It happens.  Some people are concerned.  And with good reason.  Imagine the riots in the streets if two out of five Superbowl Championships were handed to the team with less points.  The last time this happened we invaded the wrong countries and went to war for fifteen years. So... good luck?  Look, our democracy failible.  Our democracy is fragile.  It's scary.  But one of the main reasons these United States have been safe from tyranny is that every four to eight years we have the peaceful removal and replacement of our top leader.  So whether your candidate won or lost, remember, this is temporary.  Maybe. 
• And by Maybe I mean please remember that Vladimir Putin circumvented Russia's constitution and appointed himself Prime Minister and then President after having exceeded Russia's term limits.  Again, democracy is fragile.
• Kompromat. 
• Don't take democracy for granted.  It can end.  Democracies end.  Some times by force and sometimes by will.  Sometimes they get pissed away.  

• Friends.  This isn't a political blog but I'm reporting to you live right now from the Unites States of America and this is just the world around us right now.  I know a lot of very smart people discourage artists, creative types and well, basically anyone that would like to attain employment at some point, to keep the political opinions off social media because it could be held against you and cost you gigs.  I get it. I get it.  But if we live in a country where you have to be afraid to speak your mind then we've already lost.  And personally, I don't want to work for or with people that don't respect my opinion. My mind, my glorious freaking mind, is exactly WHY you SHOULD want to work with me.  And if you're paying  me to shut up then you're wasting your money.  

 

• Guys.  I just need to take a moment to say that this webpage is doing some weird things with font that and alignment that are driving me crazy but I just don't have the patience to figure out right now.  Sorry.

• Enough about the future/end of the free world.  Let's talk about me. I recently drew a four page comic about "Handsome" Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie" Man Valiant and Magnet Man having a monster truck sumo battle for Brien Wayne Powell's Boogie Jam 4Ever. It's great.  You should buy seven copies.  Brien also has what has to be one of the longer running ongoing webcomics about Magnet Man and the Boogie Woogie Man's adventures over at Boogie Jam Online.  I've got some other wrasslin' comics in the works but they are top secret so you will have to wait to find out about them. (Or, ya know, just ask me.)
• Speaking of the word "handsome".  Does the way Taylor Swift pronounces "handsome" weird anyone else out?
• 2016 was a rough one for a lot of us.  It was a rough one for the world.  A lot of people have it worse than I do and I can be pretty miserable. There's a solid chance that tomorrow I'll wake up and my county's schools and hospitals will still be standing.  That's not true everywhere. So many have lost so much.  We focus on the death's of famous people because those folks are like our shared extended family.  There is a commonality there that we can empatize with.  I may know know you but if I know you loved David Bowie then I can understand how much it hurt a year ago when he left us.  You may not know me but if you loved Prince then I can tell you about how I bought my first guitar because of him when I was 15 and that I picked out a white one because of Purple Rain. Carrie Fisher meant so much to so many of us around the world.  She was the first girl I ever wanted to marry. She never stopped inspiring.  We need a million more of her.  Especially now. Comics also lost a lot of great ones. We will press on.  Forward.  Forward.  But don't forget. How could we?

• Those of you have been reading file under other for a while know that I usually end these posts with a video from our youtube pal Francis.  I hate to break internet kayfabe but Francis is just a character.  The man behind Francis is Steven Williams, also known as boogie2988.  I grew up in the same small town, watchin' cartoons and readin' comics at the same library.  He was a year behind me in school but I've know him since pre-school. He's a sweetheart and was always the funniest guy in the room. This past year he received one of the highest honors you can receive in video games without actually making them. I'm proud of ya' Boogie.  Ya done good.  Saint Paul High School represent!
• And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC comics I READ THIS WEEK recently.

Disney Pirates of the Caribbean issues 1 and 2 by Chris Schweizer, Joe Flood and Marissa Louise.  Published by Joe Books LTD.  $2.99.

I didn't know much about this comic going into it beyond the fact that Chris Schweizer was writing it.  I missed the whole Pirates of the Caribbean movie phenomenon at the time the films came bout because my kids were not at the PG-13 age yet.  Those movies came out during a time when I pretyt much only saw talking animal movies.  But, I'm a sucker for any movie with a boat in it so I watched the 1st movie on Netflix recently after I bought these comics at my LCS but before I read them.  I liked the movie a lot.  It had boats in it. 

I loved both issues of this comic.  I think is really lovely from cover to cover. I don't know anything about the publisher Joe Books LTD or why they publish Disney comics instead of a comic book publisher Disney paid billions of dollars for but, the books are as good from cover to cover as anything on the stands and they cost a dollar or two less.  Consider me a fan.  

Schweizer's writing is as great as I expected it to be.  Each comic is a fully realized self contained speedy adventure with a full cast of individually motivated interesting characters.  The character's speech and motivations are consistent with the one film I saw.  The wit is very sharp.  Schweizer doesn't go too many panels without a punchline. 

I was a bit dissappointed to see that Schweizer was not also drawing this book but Joe Flood does a great job.  The design is solid and pleasantly consistent with the Disney Infinity video game style that I love so much.  The real challenge with this book is capturing Captain Jack's mannerism's Flood never drops character.  

The book looks great cover to cover.  Marissa Louise is credited with the colors on the first issue and I'm assuming Flood did the colors himself on the second.  I like the style of both.  My personal preference in colors is for them to be very flat. I don't like colorists that are into rendering. I like flat colors with a bit of that enhance the light and dark of the inks.  That's pretty much the style we see here.  The pallet is a bit brown for my personal tastes but it fits the story, time and location and is consistent with the movie I watched.  Interior and night time scenes are appropriately dark but the characters still pop.  

As I said before, I really don't know anything about Joe Books or these Disney comics yet (I'll look it up eventually) but if they put out 20 more issues of this with Schweizer as the writer I'll be sure to buy them and they'll probably be the first books I read from the ol' pull list any time they come out.  I couldn't find these on Comixology so if you're interested in them I suggest you ask your LCS to snag you some copies. 

• And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad.  Francis made a friend!

• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp 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. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

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

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  I guess it's a law or something.