Johnny Ryan
Quote of the day | Solving the Johnny Ryan mystery
There is nothing he will not joke about and sometimes this is his only way of coping. When our baby was stillborn last October and I was lying in the hospital bed, he said he hoped our next baby wouldn’t be such a fucking wimp. It sounds horrible but at the time I needed to hear something like that a lot more than I needed the greeting cards people kept sending that said our baby was a fucking angel looking down on us. I think he has trouble getting close to people because of this kind of thing, but I’m a bit like that too so I found it reassuring. Of course he did cry too but only for a bit.
— Author and craft artist Jenny Ryan on her husband Johnny Ryan, as quoted in Jesse Pearson’s incredible interview with Mr. Ryan for The Comics Journal. In the course of the wide-ranging and often hilarious interview, Ryan also reveals (I think; I certainly had never heard it before) that his father was an abusive alcoholic.
I’ve spent years enjoying Ryan’s scabrously offensive humor comics like Angry Youth Comix and Blecky Yuckerella, as well as his extravagantly vicious action comic Prison Pit, and I’ve often wondered where his search-and-destroy ethos originated. My wife and I have also suffered three miscarriages, and maybe it’s bizarre to say this, but Ryan’s comics involving the gory slaughter of crying babies are one of the few works of art that really spoke to me about how this experience felt. Thanks to Pearson and Ryan’s jawdroppingly candid conversation, I finally feel like I understand both of these things, at least a little.
- September 26, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | Judge bans note-taking in Michael George trial
Legal
Legal | The judge in the trial of former retailer Michael George banned note-taking in the courtroom on Friday out of concern that two women were sharing information with George’s wife Renee. George is on trial for the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara, and Renee George has been barred from hearing the testimony of other witnesses because she may be called to the stand herself. Also, on Friday a witness testified he had called George’s store at around 5:30 on the day of the murder to ask why an Amazing Spider-Man comic had jumped in value from $5 to $40. Michael Renaud said he spoke to George for about five minutes and that George seemed to be in a hurry to get off the phone; the testimony places him at the crime scene rather than at his mother’s house, where he claimed to be at the time of Barbara’s murder. [The Detroit Free Press]
Conventions | Nearly 5,000 people turned out over the weekend for the second annual Detroit Fanfare, held at the Cobb Center. That’s slightly more than the number who attended the first event at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency, but half what organizer Dennis Barger Jr. had hoped for this year. [The Detroit News]
- September 26, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson
What Are You Reading? with Kevin Colden
Animal Man #1
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Kevin Colden, whose comic work includes Fishtown, I Rule the Night, Vertigo’s Strange Adventures and Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, among others. He’s also the drummer for the band Heads Up Display.
To see what Kevin and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …
- September 18, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
This weekend, it’s SPX
SPX, or the Small Press Expo, returns to the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Bethesda, Md. this weekend.
The show’s special guests include Roz Chast, Jim Woodring, Diane Noomin, Jim Rugg, Ann Telnaes, Chester Brown, Johnny Ryan, Craig Thompson and Matthew Thurber, and fans who attend will also have the opportunity to meet and/or hear from Kevin Huizenga, Anders Nilsen, Jessica Abel, Sarah Glidden, Alex Robinson, Brian Ralph, Mike Dawson, Meredith Gran, Roger Langridge and Julia Wertz, just to name a few. I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that our own Chris Mautner will be attending and conducting a Q&A with Johnny Ryan on Saturday, so be sure to tell him hi for us.
In addition to a lot of great talent, SPX also offers a full schedule of programming and the yearly Ignatz Awards. And a whole lot of new books and cool things will be available at the show:
- September 8, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | Fantagraphics hosts Hernandez Bros. + more at Comic-Con
Love & Rockets New Stories #4
We’re getting down to the wire here, but we still have a couple more pre-SDCC things to share … first up, Fantagraphics sent over their booth and panel schedules, to go along with the massive list of books they’ll debut at the show. A list they keep adding to — check out the SDCC special edition of 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente they’ll have on hand. It’s so limited you can count the number of copies they’ll have on three fingers.
They’ll have a whole bunch of creators at their booth this year, including all three Hernandez brothers, Paul Hornschemeier, Johnny Ryan, Anders Nilsen and many more. Check it out after the jump.
- July 19, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC Wishlist | Pack an extra bag to bring home the goods from Fantagraphics
Love & Rockets New Stories #4
Fantagraphics sent over their list of books debuting at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month, and boy is it packed tighter than my suitcase on vacation day. The publisher will have almost two dozen new books at the show, including the last Mome; new stuff from Michael Kupperman, the Hernandez Bros. and Johnny Ryan; tons of Eurocomics; a Lou Reed/Edgar Allan Poe joint; and more. Check them out:
Love & Rockets New Stories 4 by Los Bros Hernandez: Featuring new stories by Jaime and Gilbert, including new material featuring Maggie set in the present and during her teen years.
Mark Twain’s Autobiography by Michael Kupperman: Probably the one I’ve been looking forward to the most, Kupperman publishes Mark Twain’s “biography” since the day the author/humorist died through last year — including his affair with Marilyn Monroe and his time-traveling adventures with Einstein.
Prison Pit Vol. 3 by Johnny Ryan: More deranged, twisted ultraviolent fun from Ryan.
- July 5, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comic Express raises money, provides comics for kids in Joplin
Comics Express
A group of comic creators have gotten together to create a comic book specifically for the kids in Joplin, who lost their homes after the devastating tornado destroyed around 8,000 buildings in the Missouri town.
Carmen Morais, a former editor for Nickelodeon Magazine, has recruited several cartoonists, designers and editors to help create the comic, titled Comic Express. Contributors, who are donating their time to the project, include Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), Johnny Ryan (Prison Pit), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Mark Martin (Gnatrat) and many more. They’re using the site Indie GoGo to raise funds; the site works much like Kickstarter, where you contribute money and receive rewards based on the amount. Donations of $20 or more will receive the comic book, plus other goodies as the amount increases.
Although they’ve reached their goal to pay for the printing, you can still donate money and receive rewards; any money they raise over their target amount will go to the Joplin Public Schools’ Adopt-a-Classroom Fund to replace classroom supplies.
- June 24, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Kirby: Genesis
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting.
Chris Arrant
If I had $15 this week, I’d start it off by buying Kirby Genesis #0 (Dynamite, $1); I love the idea of world-building from older characters, and Jack Kirby left a treasure trove of ideas even he couldn’t get a handle on completely. I’m interested to see where Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross take this, and I hope with Busiek’s addition it can be more tantalizing than Project: Superpowers was. Second up, I would get the penultimate Secret Warriors #27 (Marvel, $2.99); when this series started I was an ardent reader, but it lost me along the way. For some work-related research I caught up with the series, and since the last Howling Commandos story it’s been going great; I hope Hickman can stick the landing. Third I would get Vertigo’s new anthology Strange Adventures #1 (DC/Vertigo, $7.99); a pricey experiment, but I’m in the mood to get blown away. Lastly would be FF #4 (Marvel, $2.99) – I’m really enjoying what Hickman and Epting have done in the new simply titled series.
- May 24, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Stumptown Comic Arts Awards 2011 winners
His Face All Red
Organizers of the Stumptown Comics Fest presented the 2011 Stumptown Comic Art Awards last night in Portland, Ore.
Nominees were selected by a panel of judges — Michael Allred, Brandon Graham, Laura Hudson, Michael Ring and Jason Leivian — from among the entries submitted earlier this year. Winners were determined by an online vote.
The winners are:
Best Artist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red
Best Writer: Aaron Renier, The Unsinkable Walker Bean
Best Cartoonist: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour
Best Letterer: Johnny Ryan, Prison Pit #2
Best Colorist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red
Best Publication Design: Michael DeForge, Spotting Deer
Best Anthology: Studygroup 12 #4, edited by Zack Soto
Best Small Press: I Want You #2 by Lisa Hanawalt
Best New Talent: Michael DeForge
Reader’s Choice: Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk by Ben Costa
Director’s Choice: The Sixth Gun, by Brian Hurtt and Cullen Bunn, published by Oni Press
- April 17, 2011 @ 11:03 AM by JK Parkin
Crack that whip!: Johnny Ryan’s “Mark + Gary Forever”
How’s this for a Valentine’s Day treat? In the slash-eriffic vein of Tom Neely and Igloo Tornado’s Henry & Glenn Forever — the surprise-hit minicomic that reimagined musclebound hardcore-punk progenitors Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and Glenn Danzig (The Misfits) as a happily cohabitating couple — comes Prison Pit troublemaker Johnny Ryan’s latest strip for Vice magazine, “Mark + Gary Forever.” For the New Wave-impaired, that’s Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and synthpop icon Gary Numan, united by their shared sense of futuristic weirdness — and now, in Ryan’s comic, L-O-V-E. In a story drawing heavily from their biggest hits, “Whip It” and “Cars” respectively, Mark and Gary have a lovers’ quarrel over Gary’s profligate spending. Will they patch things up? Are they not men? Are “friends” electric? The answers to these questions and more await you at the link — and at the big Henry & Glenn Gang-Bang group art show and book signing at Los Angeles’ La Luz de Jesus Gallery this coming Friday, featuring contributions (some old, some new!) by the whole Igloo Tornado gang, plus Ryan, Jordan Crane, COOP, Kaz, Steven Weissman, Bald Eagles and many more. It’s the only way to live!
- February 14, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Altcomix Assemble!
Wow: Cold Heat cartoonist and Comics Comics blogger Frank Santoro went to Los Angeles, and all he got was this wondrous photo of him and a gaggle of the greatest alternative comics creators on the West Coast. From left to right, you’re looking at Johnny Ryan (Prison Pit, Angry Youth Comix), Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Ron Regé Jr. (Yeast Hoist, Against Pain), Jordan Crane (Uptight, What Things Do), Sammy Harkham (Crickets, Kramers Ergot), and Santoro. I haven’t seen this kind of star power packed into one picture since Crumb, Ware, Clowes, Tomine, and Buenaventura straddled the cliffs of France like comic-book colossi.
- February 1, 2011 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Infestation #1
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Graeme McMillan
If I had $15 to spend at the comic store this week, the first thing I’d grab would be Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s New York Five #1 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99), the follow-up to New York Four (obviously), their contribution to the much-loved-by-me-at-least Minx imprint. Really, almost everything else pales into comparison, but I’ll also go for IDW’s Infestation #1 ($3.99, which I was convinced came out last week), the fun opener for the zombie crossover that’s about to go across their licensed line for the next few months. My superhero fix for the week comes from Paul Cornell and Pete Woods’ always-entertaining Action Comics (#897, DC Comics, $2.99), which pits Lex and the Joker against each other, and Age of X: Alpha #1 (Marvel Comics, $3.99), which starts off another reality-altering timequake or something for the X-Men. I’m not expecting much from this, to be honest, but Mike Carey has proven me wrong before…
- January 25, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
The Sixth Gun
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Jim Zubkavich, writer of the Image Comics series Skullkickers and a project manager at UDON Entertainment.
To see what Jim and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click the link below.
- January 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Create your own comics drawn by Johnny Ryan
Via Flog comes word that a new iPad application will help you make your own comics, with art by Prison Pit creator Johnny Ryan.
The kid-friendly app Comixer was created by the editors of the now defunct Nickelodeon magazine and allows you to mix and match various panels written by Robert Leighton and drawn by Ryan. The app costs $2.99 in the iTunes app store.
- December 29, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Smile
Happy holidays and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Caanan Grall, creator of the webcomic Max Overacts and the Zuda strip Celadore.
To see what Caanan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
- December 19, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin