The Silence of Our Friends

Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week our special guest is Ao Meng, who writes about comics for the Daily Texan, the University of Texas newspaper, as well as Novi Magazine.

To see what Ao and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …

*****

Michael May

Planet of the Apes

I’ve read a couple of issues of BOOM!’s Planet of the Apes since the last time I contributed to this feature, and it’s still my favorite monthly series right now. It’s scary how good it is because experience tells me that comics this awesome are too good to be true and don’t last. Not that I have any reason to believe PotA’s going away; it’s just one of those irrational fears you get when you really love something and can’t stand the thought of not having it around anymore.

Something else I read recently was Pilot & Huxley: The First Adventure by Dan McGuiness. I’d never heard of it before and the deceptively simple art didn’t grab me right away, but I grinned and chuckled my way all through this thing. It’s about a couple of kids with an overdue video game rental that–unknown to them–contains the password that activates an alien Weapon of Doom. Unfortunately for the aliens, they don’t remember the password and need the game, so they hire Death to capture the boys, but Death sort of botches the job and sends the pair into an alternate dimension where swamps are made of bees and little girls turn into giant monsters. It…is…awesome.

Tom Bondurant

Aquaman

It may be perpetuating a stereotype to say that this week I read a pretty good issue of Aquaman, but, well … issue #5 was pretty good. Beginning with Aquaman literally dropped into the middle of a desert, it sets up the next big arc (the real reason Atlantis sunk) while serving nicely as a standalone survival tale. Geoff Johns’ script is efficient and well-paced, using a nonlinear narrative to good effect. There seems to be a little more pointed puncturing of Aquaman’s perceived inferiority, which at this point is a little old, so thankfully there’s not a lot. (Johns does get good use out of Aquaman’s telepathic powers, and that’s always nice.) Ivan Reis and Joe Prado’s art is straightforward as ever, conveying both Aquaman’s determination and his world-weariness.

The Fury Of Firestorm The Nuclear Men #5 (written by Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver, drawn by Yildiray Cinar) was also a decent standalone issue, reframing Ronnie and Jason’s continuing struggles with their powers in the context of a global Firestorm network. Specifically, when said network places our heroes in a too-good-to-be-
true planned community — a plot device which by this point should come with a “Ye Olde” prefix — you just know things are going to go horribly wrong. And so they do, but in a well-choreographed way which gives the reader some hope that maybe this time will be different. In other words, despite the predictability, this turned out to be a rather suspenseful issue, infusing the overall storyline with some necessary momentum.

This week I finally got a chance to check out Jeff Parker and Erika Moen’s Bucko, only about eleven months after everyone else on Earth, and just in time for it to wrap up. Still, not surprisingly, I liked this sprightly farce a lot. The combination of Parker’s energetic script and Moen’s endearing art is instantly appealing, and the plot is like “Three’s Company” on acid. (In a good way, of course.) I’m only through the first part, but I’m eager to see the rest.

In other better-late-than-never news, last night I was up late polishing off The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so that my wife and I could catch David Fincher’s adaptation before it leaves the local theaters. The last half of the book took just under three hours to read, and at the risk of spoiling it (even obliquely), I thought the denouement was somewhat anticlimactic. I mean, I liked the book pretty well, but the first half is all about adapting to life on the frozen tundra, the third quarter jumps full-on into the mystery, and the last little bit is an extended wrap-up. I don’t doubt that the new movie will be fairly faithful, but I can’t imagine how the upcoming DC adaptation will deal with some of it.

Brigid Alverson

In Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, Mary Talbot weaves her own growing-up story with that of James Joyce’s daughter Lucia. Tying the two stories together is Mary’s father, who was an eminent Joyce scholar. That meant less to his daughter, of course, than the way he treated her, warm and cold by turns, and sometimes unbearably harsh. Mary’s own story is an engaging tale of growing up in a large family in England after the war; Lucia’s is equally fascinating in a different way, as she led a more artistic and demanding life but was equally frustrated by her father’s needs and prejudices and, ultimately, her own mental illness. The book is skillfully illustrated by Mary’s husband, Bryan
Talbot, and it sits comfortably on the shelf next to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.

Friends With Boys

Mary Talbot grew up in a house full of brothers, and so did Maggie McKay, the heroine of Faith Erin Hicks’s Friends With Boys. In both cases, the boys add a certain madcap energy to the story, constantly fighting and breaking things, but in Friends With Boys, they also bring emotional depth. As the book opens, Maggie is starting high school after years of being home-schooled by her mother—who has just left the family, for reasons that are left vague. Maggie quickly makes friends with a brother and sister, but there’s a strange tension between them and her older brother, and the boys on the volleyball team. Hicks unfurls the backstory slowly, then brings it all to a head with a theft and a fight. While the plot itself is a bit improbable, the characters are well grounded and believable, and overall it’s an enjoyable read.

I also picked up Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant this week. It’s very hit-or-miss—sometimes Beaton makes me laugh out loud, other times the strips make me wish I knew more about Canadian history. Overall, though, there are more yuks than WTFs, and it’s easy to give a “read” recommendation on this one.

Chris Mautner

Mark Twain's Autobiography

Is there something wrong with me? Is my sense of humor on the fritz? Am I becoming too jaded? What could possibly be the reason for my completely “meh” reaction to Michael Kupperman’s latest book, Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010. I mean, I really like Kupperman’s work. I think he’s one of the funniest cartoonists going today. But Twain felt somewhat undercooked to me.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still funny, just fitfully so. I didn’t greet the book with the sort of over the top vocal laughter that I usually do when reading his comics. Perhaps I’ve grown blase. Perhaps I’ve just become accustomed to Kupperman’s style and tics and it’s harder for him to get me laughing. Perhaps he’s better with comics than straight prose. Perhaps I’m just not a fan of all the Mark Twain jokes (I’m kind of not).

Whatever the case, any fears I had that Kupperman’s magic had ceased to charm me were swept away with the latest issue (that’s no. 7) of his regular series, Tales Designed to Thrizzle. Kupperman is back to his usually hilarity here, at least as far as I’m concerned, with a side-splitting parody/mash-up of Inception and Quincy, and a lengthy list of funny names for shower heads (I’m especially fond of “Mrs. Dallospray”). I take it all back. There’s nothing wrong with me after all.

Ao Meng

Spera

I’m actually pretty bad about finding time to go down to my local shops, but my last haul from a few weeks ago was pretty big: I picked up a copy of Josh Tierney’s Spera Vol. 1, mostly to see some choice web cartoonists make their leap from humble RGB to glorious CMYK. I especially loved the contribution from UK-based Nobrow Press mainstay Luke Pearson, whose two-color-on-cream-paper short sat nicely in contrast with the colorful explorations found in the rest of the book. I’m a big fan of adventure comics, and the energy on display here is infectious.

Speaking of adventure comics, Ryan Cecil Smith’s SF Supplementary File minicomics (I’ve only got #1 through #2B) are a whole lot of fun, and are a huge bang for your buck. #1′s contained origin story is a great continuation of that groove Smith’s been riding since the CCC#9 anthology. I really fell in love with the extended three-part #2— a”cover” of a 1979 space opera manga— one of a new trend of risograph comics that, to the best of my limited knowledge, have been sparked off by those noisemakers in the Ryan Sands camp. I also picked up Jonny Negron and Jesse Balmer’s Chameleon #2, which I believe contains the North American debut of Uno Moralez, whose pixel-art nightmares have been the best-kept secret of cartoonist livejournal rings for a couple of years now. Chameleon‘s two editors’s contributions are as on point as always.

Anyways, back to Mr. Smith’s minis— they are absolutely beautiful. They’re not nostalgic as much as interested in the techniques used by previous generations of cartoonists, and how much emotional heavy lifting they were capable of. To use terms from hip-hop, the other great American art form, It’s not quite a sample as much as an interpolation, where a producer or artist will re-record, re-sing and/or re-instrumentalize a melody, usually (but not always) because of sample clearance issues. Another very good interpolation by Kevin Huizenga is in the new Kramers Ergot, his being one of an obscure 1956 Charlton sci-fi short with an unknown writer. Who knows if this “interpolation comics” thing will eventually become another alt-comics trend, but this new type of dialog with comic’s labyrinthine history is incredibly interesting, and tickles a particular bone that classical reprints don’t quite scratch.

Let’s see, I also read The Silence of our Friends, a very readable and a great all-around First Second issue. Nate Powell’s art totally caries the book from it’s Oscar-awards-season material and towards something of real craft. I picked up the new King Kat #72, which is as good as always, but significantly more melancholic than the last issue. As one of the titans of the auto-bio genre, Porcellino’s commitment to the rawness and expression of his work is humbling to see. He’s a true living legend, that one.

Nurse Nurse

Sparkplug Books announced last week that they plan to release a collection of Katie Skelly’s Nurse Nurse minicomics, which she has been creating since 2003. The collection will come out in April, in time for a debut at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Ore. and the MoCCA Festival in New York.

The eight Nurse Nurse minicomics are set in a future where mankind is attempting to colonize other planets, and star the nurses sent to treat the colonies as they become poisoned by the new atmospheres. In particular, the story is about Gemma, a nurse who travels to her new assignment on Venus where a mysterious substance is having an amorous effect on the Venusians … but is it a conspiracy, or just … science?

The 180 page, black and white paperback will retail for $15.

Launched in 2006 as a self-published mini-comic, Campbell continued to produce new installments of Mountain Girl annually for two more years. A fourth installment was thumbnailed but never completed. The comic stars Naga, a savage warrior princess living in a post-holocaust world. The daughter of a tribute of mystic cannibal barbarians, Naga’s story in the Mountain Girl comics shows the brutally muscled and tattooed badass fighting Beaver Gods, Shark Goddesses and other enemies. Thematically it’s similar to Conan or Cavewoman, but Campbell’s cartooning pulls no punches in its depiction of violence and savagery.

Although Campbell hasn’t produced any new Mountain Girl comics in a couple years due to other projects, the artist recently self-published a book containing the three minicomics and the thumbnails for a fourth. Campbell says he has plans to do a “rebooted/revamped” Mountain Girl in the near future.  This exclusive preview today is the first time any full-length Mountain Girl comic has ever been published online. Thanks, Ross!

Animal Man

As the end of 2011 approaches, websites and publications are unveiling various year-end lists and gift guides — so many that keeping up is a challenge. Here’s just some of what’s been released in the past few days:

• The Village Voice shares their list of the best comics and graphic novels of the year, a list that includes several collections of older material, Animal Man, Spaceman, Mister Wonderful and more.

• Comic creators Jim Woodring and Anders Nilsen, along with Thor star Chris Hemsworth, landed in the bottom quarter of Pop Candy’s annual 100 People of the Year list. The rest of the list will roll out all this week.

• The top ten comics list by Joe Gross of the Austin-American Statesman includes Criminal, Journey Into Mystery, Finder and Hark! A Vagrant, and is topped by Love & Rockets: New Stories #4.

• John Lucas at The Straight lists his favorite graphic novels of 2011, including The Cardboard Valise by Ben Katchor, Paying For It by Chester Brown and Habibi by Craig Thompson.

• Multiversity Comics wraps up their various “best of” categories with their list of the best ongoing series of the year.

• Spectrum Culture’s best books of the year list includes Luchadoras by Peggy Adam, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol 1. Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson and Paying for It.

• Justin Giampaoli lists the best mini-comics and small press titles of the year, including The Wolf by Tom Neely, Soldiers of God by Kelly Clancy and The Disgusting Room by Austin English.

• Comic Attack shares a list of their top 15 all-ages comics of the year, which is topped by Reed Gunther.

• Meanwhile, the Good Comics for Kids bloggers, a group that includes our own Brigid Alverson, share their picks for the best all-ages comics. Their list includes Around the World by Matt Phelan, Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol and Bad Island by Doug TenNapel.

• John Hogan, Nathan Wilson, Peter Gutiérrez and Dr. Katie Monnin at Graphic Novel Reporter share their favorites from 2011.

• Johanna Draper Carlson shares her favorites ( and “Noble Failures”) of the year’s manga releases.

• FearNet’s list of favorite horror books of the year includes The Hidden by Richard Sala and The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary.

The Comic Book Fan’s Worst NIGHTMARE!

Jeffrey Brown, Ming Doyle, Michael Kupperman and several other creators have contributed to The Comic Book Fan’s Worst NIGHTMARE!, a mini-comic that highlights the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund‘s current casework. In particular, the comic highlights the case of “Brandon X,” who is facing a minimum sentence of one year in prison for possessing horror and fantasy manga on his laptop computer. His case is expected to go to trial in 2012, and legal expenses are estimated to run around $150,000.

You can read the whole comic on the CBLDF site or download it via comiXology.

Fantagraphics mini-comics

Wouldn’t it be awesome if everywhere you shopped this holiday season offered a minicomic with a $50 purchase? Fantagraphics is doing just that, through their online store. They’ve created 21 mini-comics by a variety of their creators that are available free with the purchase of their “matching” book or books, or for simply purchasing $50 worth of stuff from their catalog.

“I always was very fond of the mini-comics format — take two to four 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, fold them once, staple, and voilà!” wrote Kim Thompson. “You have an adorable little 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 comic book for mere pennies. But I could never really figure out what to do with this old-school, low-tech format. Until now!”

The contents of the mini-comics are fairly unique, too; there’s a David B. one featuring a never-before-translated-into-English tale, and a Stan Sakai one that reprints a Nilson Groundthumper story that originally appeared in the Critters anthology back in the day. There’s one featuring out-of-print Peter Bagge strips, and one featuring a full-color 10-page summary of Tony Millionaire’s doomed attempt to get Billy Hazelnuts onto television. And more, by the Hernandez Bros., Jim Woodring, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Bill Griffith, Ivan Brunetti and even Doc Winner, E.C. Segar’s assistant on Popeye.

The big chain stores might have cheap TVs this weekend, but how many of them come with a Tony Millionaire mini-comic? Not nearly enough, I tell ya.

Drunk Elephant Comics

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading?, your weekly look into our reading piles. Today we’re joined by special guest Jacquelene Cohen, director of publicity and promotions for Fantagraphics Books.

To see what Jacq and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, read on …

*****

Chris Mautner

Nuts

Nuts by Gahan Wilson — I’ve written at length about this strip before, but it’s worth reiterating I think just how goddamn wonderful this comic is, and how great it is to have a decent collection available after lying fallow for so long. Wilson captures the anxieties and traumas of childhood as few cartoonists have before or since. Never one to grow nostalgic, Wilson understood perfectly well what an utter hell childhood could be and he sets about reminding readers just what it was like to experience your first death, or to be really sick, or to have to deal with that rich kid in your class who always got better stuff than you did and rubbed your face in it. My only complaint about the book is that some of the strips seem to be out of narrative order, but it’s a small quibble. I’m just happy to see these comics back in print.

Pure Pajamas by Marc Bell — This is a collection of early strips and comic stories Bell did for various publications back in the 1990s though, except for one or two segments — it bears a pretty close resemblance to the sort of work he’s doing now. Bell’s comics always take place in a big-footed, anthropomorphic universe, where everything — pills, the broccoli on your plate, a pair of pajamas — seems capable of suddenly coming to life and doing a little song and dance. It’s a vibrant, cartoony impeccably detailed world to be sure, but not one devoid of darkness. The broccoli could easily end up being cut to pieces and served on a plate of rice, cute little drunks can get crushed to death by speedy security wagons, you could be a piece of toast looking for advice from a psychiatrist only to end up as his breakfast. There’s a bit of danger and savagery in Bell’s world, which gives the stories in Pajamas a nice bit of tension and keep the whimsical nature of his universe from getting too precious.

Tim O’Shea

Animal Man #3

Animal Man #3: The second issue had sold out at my local shop, so this week I caught up reading both issue #2 and #3. This is a title that I bet would have been a great success for Vertigo in the old DCU. But in the new DCU, I wonder if it will have sales levels that will make the bean counters happy. Had it been a Vertigo book, the lower numbers (that I speculate will greet this book eventually) would be fine. Anyways, as for the series itself, it really has turned Buddy Baker’s origin inside out (literally and figuratively), while still keeping the Baker family as a focal point (much like my favorite era of the character, when written by Grant Morrison). As much as writer Jeff Lemire is boring me on Sweet Tooth these days (though the latest installment of the Matt Kindt arc was substantially more interesting to me than the first part), he is delivering a strong script on this book. Meanwhile, I imagine that Travel Foreman’s art is earning him a plethora of new fans. The reason the art is so striking is the distinctive coloring efforts of Lovern Kindzierski.

Stormwatch #3: Again, issue #2 had sold out so this week found me catching up on two issues of the new Paul Cornell incarnation of the former Wildstorm property. Cornell approaches this title with his Doctor Who series writing sensibilities—and it works. There’s a solid balance of adventure and whimsy to the overall narrative. And artist Miguel Sepulveda is the ideal match for Cornell, as exemplified in the opening scene of the latest issue, where Jack Hawksmoor grabs a cup of tea (or is it coffee) mentally with the cities of Metropolis (a meter maid?), Paris and Gotham (a gargoyle). When I read that scene, the series most definitely clicked with me (unlike Cornell’s Demon Knights, I might add, which has failed to spark my interest to any substantial degree).

Batwing

Batwing #3: I cannot believe that Judd Winick is writing such an incredibly engaging title as this. I can only speculate part of the credit goes to him being properly edited, so kudos to Mike Marts. I hope that the series eventually builds a supporting cast beyond one or two folks. Unfortunately, so far, the mortality rate on folks that have appeared so far is fairly high.

Hulk #44: Damn you, Jeff Parker, for making Machine Man the perfect sidekick for Hulk. This comic never disappoints me.

Villains for Hire #0.1: Reflecting upon the strengths of the former Heroes for Hire series, the series had a good sense of humor amidst the characters, thanks to writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning . That sense of humor carries on in the initial installment of the new incarnation of the series. For example, the whole Stilt Woman going with the Stilt Man name was a great bit that worked for me.

Captain America and Bucky #623

Captain America and Bucky #623: Smarter Cap scholars than me will remember past issues where the topic of the WWII concentration camps were addressed (though I just recalled Chris Claremont/Roger McKenzie’s introduction of Anna Kapplebaum in Captain America #237). I have to give writers Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko credit for conveying the impact it would have on Marvel heroes (in this case Bucky and Toro) in realizing the full scale of the horrors of the camp. The strength of those scenes only works however, due to the effective collaboration between artist Chris Samnee and colorist Bettie Breitweiser.

Brigid Alverson

I read Jimmy Gownley’s latest Amelia Rules book, The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff, and I’m not ashamed to say it made me tear up a bit at the end. This is the seventh book in his series about Amelia McBride, who moves from New York to a small town after her parents divorce, and while the first books were all about adjusting and making friends, in this one, Amelia is seeing the new reality crumble a bit. Amelia is surrounded by warm, loving people, except for her bully of a principal, but that doesn’t mean there is no tension and emotion in this story; Gownley is a perceptive observer of the small moments and gestures that can strengthen or strain a friendship. He is also one of the best cartoonists around, and he stretches the medium in interesting ways, but only in the service of the story. The Meaning of Life is about kids, and kids generally like the Amelia books, but it’s a very satisfying read for a grownup as well.

Feynman

I’m about halfway through Jim Ottoviani and Leland Myrick’s Feynman. This is a book that is close to my heart: My father, a theoretical physicist, gave me a copy of the Feynman Lectures when I started college, and my husband, an experimental physicist, actually had Feynman as a professor at Caltech. The graphic novel does a nice job of balancing Feynman’s life and work, presenting him as the interesting, quirky guy that he was as well as explaining his work in simple terms (including summing up quantum electrodynamics in a single sentence). Feynman’s ego comes through as well, but subtly. Overall, it’s an enjoyable story, and Myrick’s wobbly line is well suited to the subject matter, keeping the many scenes of people sitting around talking or writing from becoming too static.

Jacquelene Cohen

My “to read” pile is totally bigger than my “currently reading” pile.  But, what would life be without an impending stack of books on your nightstand next to your bed, ready to crush your head if there was an earthquake? Lately I’ve been really digging dark humor comix.  My pal, Jason Miles, distributes a bunch of really rad mini comix and zines with Profanity Hill, and I’ve found a treasure trove of reading material there. Also, I have my webcomics that I read religiously.  All those have been taking up much of my non-Fantagraphics reading time. I could go on and on about Fanta books, but I figure that I’ll just ask Chris Mautner and Sean T. Collins to write about those books for Robot 6. They do a mighty fine job on that front.

A Matter of Life and Death

My current publicity intern, Tom Van Deusen, is a killer cartoonist. He self-published his first book titled A Matter Of Life And Death. It’s one of those “laugh so hard you peed a little” type of comics. It’s a book that’ll earn you strange glances from the people sitting next to you on the bus. Basically it’s a book about a really self-absorbed gross dude who is completely unaware of his disgustingness. Even though it’s presented as a comedy, the book actually deals with pretty heavy stuff. The main character goes into Planned Parenthood to get tested for HIV.  He encounters protesters on his way in and then unknowingly makes very uncomfortable conversation with everyone he talks to in the waiting room and doctor’s office. There is a grotesque level of consciousness that makes you feel for the guy.  The strength of the story really comes from the writing.

A cartoonist that I’ve been drooling over the past few months is Max Clotfelter. Many of his characters have a monster-like Woodringesque form, though Max’s strength is in his cross hatching. Seriously, this guy must spend hours hunched over a drafting table making millions of thin over-secting lines.  His comics have a demented logic that only makes sense when you read them.  I don’t even have the words to explain the contents of his stuff, but his style is visually explosive.  This guy really knows how to balance out a page.  There is always a lot going on, but never too much that you can’t enjoy the composition of each panel.  Max contributes to a lot of anthology zines, but the real pay off is in his mini comix.  Rough Grocery is the latest thing I read from him.  It made me feel like I just threw back two shots of well whiskey.  Burns when it goes down and makes your head swim.  I really like a comic that can make me feel dizzy.

Part of my daily routine is checking up on my favorite webcomics.  As of now, my two favorites are Nedroid and Drunk Elephant Comics.

Beartato and the Secret of the Mystery

Nedroid is a long-running gag comic about an anthropomorphic bird and his bear/potato hybrid buddy, Beartato. It’s funny and totally bizarre. The two main characters have crazy adventures that range from playing video games on their sofa to gallivanting around space.  There is a topical humor that exposes the intelligence behind the comic, and a cuteness that gives the satire a bit more of a bite.  The cartoonist, Anthony Clark, had been doing this comic for years.  I first encountered Nedroid at SPX 2010.  My friend Laura Hudson kept raving about Anthony’s book, Beartato and the Secret of the Mystery. I bought it and read it on the plane home.  I literally laughed out loud.  I overheard the jerks in the row in front of me get all annoyed and loudly exclaim, “Nothing she’s reading could be that funny!”  But it is that funny!  When I got home, I spent an entire Sunday reading through the archive.

I’ve been reading Drunk Elephant Comics since the beginning.  I love watching the style of the comic evolve and change as cartoonist Max Riffner grows as an artist.  The line work is fluid and each gag strip works both on its own and as part of the larger story.  I can tell this guy read a lot of Peanuts when he was a kid.  The story is centered around an alcoholic elephant, his best bud Marty and their bartender Kacy.  There is an extended “seeing pink elephants” metaphor that makes light of the rather dire situations most of the characters get themselves into. Reading this webcomic reminds me of the old Loony Tune shorts that featured the tiny elephant.  This comic is also kinda like the show Cheers.  The characters become your friend and it really does feel like you’re a regular at a bar and “everybody knows your name.”

While he is handling all this, Brown, who recently won two Ignatz Awards, continues to self-publish his own work, and Blank Slate will publish his graphic novel The Survivalist in December. We talked to him this past weekend about the genesis of Retrofit Comics and what it’s like to run a really, really small press.

Robot 6: Why did you decide you wanted to publish print comics, as opposed to going the digital route?

Box Brown: It wasn’t really so much about print comics as much as it was about small format comics, shorter stories. It’s more of a response to graphic novels than to digital. I have no problem putting Retrofit Comics on digital — I think they would probably sell well — but there are a bunch of different companies doing the digital download thing and none of them cater to me yet as a small publisher.

I love reading graphic novels, but it’s difficult for new artists to all of a sudden produce a 200-page work. It takes a really long time to do that, and I don’t think that is the best way to develop. For one thing, you are working in hiding, and you are not building an audience while you are working on a graphic novel, unless you are serializing it in some way, and also, when you finally finish it, you are still an unestablished artist and you are asking your readership to plunk down 10, 20 dollars for a work when they don’t know what they are getting into — and you are asking a publisher to invest a lot of money in a work without being established. So I wanted to re-legitimize the short-format story, where an artist could work on smaller works, get them out faster, build an audience, and get some money while they are working on their bigger work.

If you go to a convention and go to see a young artist at work, they are all making minicomics, so it is still a viable format for artists. It’s just because of the business landscape it has been difficult to get them to work. So I want to revitalize it a little.

Robot 6: How much of the prep work do the creators do, and what do you do in-house?

Box Brown: Some artists are better than others at getting their stuff print ready. James [Kochalka] just sent me finished pages, and I had to get them formatted for print, but with Colleen Frakes, who is probably much more accustomed to self publishing, all I had to do was forward them to the printer. So that’s just an artist’s quirk. But it’s mostly just me in my studio dealing with everything — the printer, the subscribers, the post office, who has been the biggest headache out of anybody, and everything from A to Z.

Robot 6: How do you handle the problem of distribution?

Box Brown: I am trying to do it all myself so we can circumvent Diamond. For one thing, I don’t think all these comics are appealing to all the people on Diamond’s distribution list. I would rather print less of them and have them go to comics stores where the clients are interested in them than print a thousand extra copies that will sit on a shelf forever. And they are monthly, and soliciting for Diamond would be the worst thing ever. I would need so much lead time. As it is, I can have the artists get the comics to me a few weeks before release.

The shops are really cool. Everyone I have worked with has been really supportive.

Robot 6: So the comics shops tell you how many they want and you ship them?

Box Brown: Yes, and I invoice them. I distribute [my self-published work] through Microcosm and Tony Shenton, and through those guys I got to know the comic shop owners. We got like 10 shops before we even started the Kickstarter, and then once I launched the website and the Kickstarter, a couple more saw it and wanted to be involved. Sometimes if I see a good shop, I contact the owner, and they get back to me … or they don’t.

Robot 6: Do you think Retrofit will break even or possibly make a profit?

Box Brown: I would say that Fungus has broken even, if not made a little bit of a profit. The biggest expenditure in this whole thing I have found is shipping. Printing is actually really cheap, relatively.

Robot 6: You mentioned that the artists are being paid in books. What happens if Retrofit turns a profit?

Box Brown: It just goes back into the business. If it doesn’t—I am doing enough work, I think it’s compensation for that. When you are printing small runs of books — I have dealt with this before — [the publisher] keeps the majority of the books, you get 25 free ones, and when you go to a convention you have to buy the books from them, which is OK, you get them wholesale or less. But when you are dealing with royalties, every once in a while you get a really small check. Honestly, this is from a small press guy, I feel the quickest and best way for them to get the most money out of their book is to get a lot of free copies to sell at conventions and on their websites. That’s the best way for them to get paid. I’m trying to keep it small basically so I can manage it.

Robot 6: How did you choose the artists who will be part of this? Were they people you already knew?

Box Brown: A lot of the people were people I knew from going to conventions; a few I just reached out to on the off chance they might be interested in working that way. Guys like Tom Hart and James Kochalka, who are established guys, I look to them for advice a lot anyway. I sent an e-mail to them to see if they thought it was possible, and James wrote back 10 minutes later saying “I’ll d the first issue.” People got really excited about it. I thought of this idea, I sent out an e-mail, and by the next day I had the start of the company without knowing all the pitfalls involved. I want to do it. I don’t care. I want to do something epic. I believe in comics, I believe in the format, and I want to be involved in any way I could.

Robot 6: Are the majority of the comics selling through retailers?

Box Brown: I think so. We get a decent amount of orders every week. That was part of the point. I came up with this quandary a while back. I was walking from inner-city Philadelphia to my house in West Philly and looking for something to read at the comic shop. I couldn’t get out of there with something I wanted for less than $20, but then, if I liked superhero comics, I could get three comics for less than $10. So I was like, this is not fair that they can go in every week and get a couple comics for a couple of bucks and have something to read on the bus, and I can’t because it doesn’t exist any more. I wanted to make it so you could go to the comic shop on a regular basis and get an alt comic. The retailers like that because they want people in the comic shop more often, not just coming in every few months when a Daniel Clowes book comes out.

Robot 6: So what’s coming up after Fungus?

Box Brown: The second issue, Drag Bandits, by Colleen Frakes and Betsy Swardlick, will be going out early next week. Colleen has this really good, really controlled cartooning style — she’s really good at simplifying things down to their basic elements, which is what cartooning is.

The next two issues after that are really art comics. They both have stories, they are both narrative, but they draw influence a lot from art comics. I was talking to Jessica Abel in baltimore right before SPX, and we were talking about this artist Josh Bayer whose book is coming out in December, and Jessica said, “You can tell right away that his art style is painterly. There’s a large part that wants to be Gary Panter and there is an equally large part that wants to be Jack Kirby.” I am excited about these guys. They probably have the smallest audience. Josh has been around for a while, he has been putting out comics and teaching comics, he works in New York and teaches comics full time, but I don’t think he has ever had a major widespread release. His first comic, Bike Rider, got an honorable mention in the Best American Comics anthology.

The November release is Bowman, by Pat Aulisio. He has an art school background and he has been making comics since he was 13 — he’s 25 now. He has a lot of kinetic energy, so I’m really excited about that too.

Robot 6: Why have you chosen not to publish your own work via Retrofit?

Box Brown: I kind of feel like it’s a conflict of interest. The other thing is I’m looking to have other publishers publish my work anyway, and they can do that work. It’s one less thing for me to do. I have a book coming out in December from Blank Slate books, Microcosm published Everything Dies 7. I’m working on a book about Andre the Giant, so I’m trying to find a publisher for that too.

Right now I have a big box of books, and I know the next few days will be the worst of the month. Shipping is the worst, packing and spending, you’re just dripping postage, but once they are out it’s not that bad. It’s just a lot of organization, and sending e-mails.

Robot 6: Will you stop after publishing 17 comics?

Box Brown: I feel like if we get to 17 comics we might as well keep going. I would love it to continue, I would love it to be an outlet for emerging artists and undiscovered talent, as much as we can be. This is the first time I have ever really run a business that wasn’t just my own stuff. I’m doing my best. It’s volatile times, and it’s difficult, and I’m hoping we stay afloat as best we can.

Legal

Legal | Prosecutors in Macomb County, Michigan, rested their case Friday in the second trial of Michael George, a former retailer and convention organizer accused of the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara in the back room of their Clinton Township comic store. The judge this morning will hear a defense motion for a directed verdict, seeking dismissal due to lack of evidence, before testimony resumes.

George, now 51, was arrested in August 2007, after a detective reopened the cold case, and convicted seven months later of first-degree murder and insurance fraud, among other counts, and sentenced to life in prison. However, the judge later set aside the verdict, citing prosecutorial misconduct — George’s mug shot was shown to the jury — and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder. His retrial began Sept. 14, and should conclude this week. Prosecutors contend that George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman. George insists he was asleep at the time of the shooting, and that his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong. [Daily Tribune]

Publishing | Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for BOOM! Studios, left the publisher on Friday after four years. Marketing coordinator Emily McGuiness will take over his duties. [BOOM! Studios]

Publishing | Papercutz has acquired the license for the Three Stooges, allowing the company to reprint classic comics and adapt the 2012 Farrelly brothers movie. [ICv2.com]

Three #2

Awards | Prism Comics awarded its 2011 Queer Press Grant to veteran cartoonist and publisher Robert Kirby for his anthology Three. “I’m slightly overwhelmed, humbly grateful and excited, and full of renewed energy for proceeding with Three — which is now more than ever my magic number,” Kirby wrote on his blog. [Prism Comics]

Awards | Katie Longua has won the 2011 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics, presented over the weekend by San Francisco’s Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge. Previous winners include Joshua M. Cotter, Danica Novgorodoff, Will Dinski, Max Riffner and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey. [Twitter]

Awards | The entries have been posted for the 2011 SPACE Prize, which will be presented April 21, 2012, at SPACE 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. [SPACE Prize]

Publishing | Geek Out looks at recent moves at Archie Comics, primarily the introduction of gay character Kevin Keller. [CNN.com]

Emma #1

Publishing | Geek Out also stumbles across comic-book adaptations of classic, and contemporary, novels, and seeks out artists Janet Lee and R. Sikoryak, and writer Nancy Butler. [CNN.com]

Creators | The New York Times spotlights the Sunday routine of Joe Quesada: “I am pretty much working all the time. I don’t have a set schedule, per se — it’s just a matter of what comes across my e-mail first. I’ll be reading an animation script, working on an animatic for one of our shows, or drawing covers for our books. I have an iPad that’s set to ping whenever I get an e-mail from work. On weekends, there’s very little pinging, so it’s a good time to sit and draw. I listen to music when I draw — a majority of it is the Beatles.” [The New York Times]

Creators | Dave Gibbons discusses the state of the comics industry, digital comics, and the long shadow of Watchmen. [The Huffington Post UK]

Grant Morrison

Creators | A profile of Grant Morrison is pegged to his Action Comics relaunch and an announced adaptation of his forthcoming graphic novel Dominion: Dinosaur vs. Aliens. [Daily Record]

Creators | J.H. Williams III is profiled by his local newspaper, which focuses, of course, on the newly launched Batwoman. [Merced Sun-Star]

Creators | Mike Carey talks about creating the story for the X-Men: Destiny video game, and touches upon his tenure on Vertigo’s Hellblazer. [God Is a Geek]

Comics | Darryl Ayo explains Frank Miller’s Holy Terror this way: It’s cartooning, using the full power of the medium and eschewing an “adult” subtlety: “What makes Frank Miller special isn’t that he’s a great writer (he’s not) or that he’s an expert draftsman (he is, though) … what makes Miller special is that he can make things look heavy and light at the same time. That he can have ‘Batman’ vault through the great expanse of the hazy, scratchy page and land roughly, awkwardly and gracefully at the same time.” [Comix Cube]

Craft | Kevin Czap admires the way that both James Kochalka and Ron Rege Jr. compose their comics with the whole page in mind, ensuring that all the elements are perfectly balanced. [Comix Cube]

Little Tommy Lost

Welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Annie Koyama, owner and operator of the wonderful Koyama Press, which publishes fantastic books that you should buy ASAP. To see what Annie and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading this week, click on the link below.

Flash #1

Tim O’Shea: Black Panther 523.1: If you have not checked out writer David Liss’ approach on Black Panther, here is your chance with this standalone tale. I am one of those readers that never enjoyed Reginald Hudlin’s approach to the character, so I welcomed the opportunity for a different writer to take a swing at Panther. Setting him in Hell’s Kitchen has been a really boost for the character—and one that I hope sticks around for a while.

Captain America 622: Yeah I repeat myself some weeks on WAYR. But why the hell should I need to say more than Chris Samnee art colored by Bettie Breitweiser? (And I really feel badly for failing to mention Breitweiser’s role in making Hulk 41 look so damn good last week.)

Venom 7: I come for the Tom Fowler art and stick around for Rick Remender’s writing. It’s nice to see Flash Thompson’s character fleshed out (no pun intended) in this series. Don’t know how many people are just checking the book out because of Spider Island, but I hope they stick around.

Justice League Dark 1: The last time I have read anything by Peter Milligan was likely The Human Target. His creative pursuits and my interests just rarely intersect. But he may have hooked me in the scene where Shade the Changing Man reveals certain truths to his girlfriend about the dynamics of their relationship. I like the concept of a Justice League for fighting magic (despite the fact Shadowpact has already been down this road, admittedly).

Superman 1: The numbers drop between 1 and 2 on this book is going to stun DC. Even if the writing had not been so uneven, the news that writer George Pérez is leaving with issue 7 will prompt some folks to bolt. I wonder why this book was not more tightly edited (oh wait, because they had to get 51 other issues out in the same month). Clark Kent’s newspaper story serving as the narrative device for this issue made it even a more boring read for me. Do that bit for one or two scenes, but not almost the whole book. A good comic can sometimes read like a fun soap opera episode. A weak comic reads like a wince- inducing soap opera. I am wincing as I write this.

Flash 1: In the race to win my interest for issue 2, Barry Allen wins (beating Superman quite easily). Co-creators Francis (writer/artist) Manapul and Brian (Writer/Colorist) Buccellato construct a hero with a sense of humor and who can think fast on his feet (heh, see what I did there, yeah I wrote a lame cliché). Seriously though, from the dialogue to the layout, there is nothing rushed (except for the character, of course) or half-baked. Sidebar: do you think DC intentionally wanted to run the Converse ads this month — particularly in this issue the six different versions of Flash in that ad might confuse those potential new readers they are trying to gain and weaken the brand building DC wants to establish

Firestorm 1: This is not Gail Simone at her best, not even close (why would a character insult a jock by calling him “boy band” for instance?; why introduce a female scientist who’s one bit of dialogue is to hit on doomed scientist for this plot [hopefully she has a role of more substance down the road]). This smacked of a bad afterschool special on the perils of weak journalistic ethics or the struggle of race dynamics in the current age. Also am I the only person who momentarily mistook the villains in this issue for the new Blackhawks? Wonderful art by Yildiray Cinar though, but not enough to get me back for issue 2.

Aquaman 1: The last time I enjoyed Geoff Johns writing consistently may have been around the time of the first JSA relaunch (no really). So the deck was stacked against him on this first issue of Aquaman. But two things put this book in the winning column: Aquaman’s two hands. OK, it was more than that, namely the scene in the diner–heck the fact that Aquaman ordered fish at a diner. Quirky stuff.

Secret Avengers 17: As much as I loved Warren Ellis on Secret Avengers 16, I am stymied by his writing in this issue. He writes a Cap that is like that crazy rec league coach who yells at his team for their performance. As much as I love Kev Walker’s art on Thunderbolts, he is ill-suited for this comic. Sharon Carter looks downright ugly (and unrecognizable from the way Walker typically draws her in certain panels). This was a done-in-one effort I wish I had left on the shelf. Avengers Academy 19: Christos Gage and company continue the streak of writing the best Avengers book, hands down. I really admire how Gage incorporated the Fear Itself storyline without allowing it to derail the pacing of the story or growth in characters. In fact, he used the event to his story’s overall benefits.

Power Girl

Tom Bondurant: I really liked IDW’s new Abramsverse Star Trek #1 (written by Mike Johnson, drawn by Stephen Molnar), but then I am pretty much the target audience for the book. For at least the first few arcs, it will re-stage Original-Series episodes for the timeline created in the 2009 movie. First up is Samuel Peeples’ “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the series’ second pilot episode and the first featuring Kirk (and Scotty and Sulu, but they didn’t get to do a lot). It’s not a straight-up adaptation, but the basic storyline remains intact: the Enterprise encounters a log-recorder from S.S. Valiant which warns of bad tidings around the galactic barrier; and sure enough, the barrier zaps Kirk’s friend Gary Mitchell with energy which magnifies his latent psionic powers. Before you can say “Dark Phoenix,” he’s showing off a little too much, and it’s time for issue #2. I kid, but I do think Johnson and Molnar have a good handle on the characters’ voices and likenesses. In a few panels Kirk looks about 19, but he had that problem in the movie too. Also, Molnar’s poses can sometimes be a bit stiff, and his pacing a bit off. I’m not sure if that’s a hazard of movie adaptations generally, but that’s what it reminded me of here. Still, the issue moves pretty well without getting bogged down in technobabble. While this series is perhaps best appreciated by those of us who wondered what the old stuff would look like “updated,” it’s a good read regardless.

As it happens, the first issue of Power Girl came out around the same time as 2009′s Trek movie, because I remember
picking up a copy on the way to the theater. (How’s that for a segue?) The first arc (featuring the Ultra-Humanite) didn’t grab me, but I kept hearing good things. Finally, I got the two paperbacks collecting Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner’s twelve issues, and I’m glad I did. Conner’s work especially brings wit and vitality to PG’s adventures, particularly the ones involving intergalactic swinger Vartox. However, overall these issues combine PG’s somewhat jaded, day-at-the-office attitude with a fun, anything-goes spirit, to excellent effect. There’s no getting around the cheesecake factor (my wife commented on it immediately), and an issue which PG spends mostly bound and gagged in Ultra’s torture device helped turn me off the book initially. In the larger context, though, it’s not really that salacious, and after a while it’s more farcical than anything else. Considering some of the now-infamous New-52 books, here’s hoping Conner gets to work on another DC title soon.

It’s purely coincidental that I re-watched 2008′s The Dark Knight right before picking up the paperback of 2005′s Batman: Dark Detective (written by Steve Englehart, pencilled by Marshall Rogers, inked by Terry Austin), but I was struck by the superficial similarities. Both feature an old flame of Bruce’s who knows he’s Batman (and who’s romancing a guy who looks like Aaron Eckhart) and both involve Two-Face going after the Joker. Like I said, superficial. I read the miniseries when it came out, but otherwise it’s been a while, so I can’t comment on it as a whole. However, Rogers & Austin’s work seems a lot more sketchy than their previous collaborations in the ’70s and ’80s. It’s still good, just different. Most of this is on Rogers, whose style got more loose over time; but Austin’s inking also loosened up. Their Bruce Wayne in DD has a very thick, squared-off face, almost like Jim Rockford meets Tim Sale’s For All Seasons Superman, and it’s hard to get used to. Their Joker is still fantastic, though — cold green eyes which seem to rest in those pale sockets like oiled ball bearings.

Oh! Before I forget, Kate Beaton’s new Hark! A Vagrant collection is just off-the-charts funny, page after page. The best part is that the subject matter makes virtually every comic timeless (sorry, hook-handed Aquaman). If you are able, you should get it, or at least pore obsessively over the website.

Laddertop

Brigid Alverson: Mental illness is a difficult topic, but it is also a wonderful subject for comics artists, because of the visual possibilities. Look Straight Ahead is a webcomic about a teenager with mental illness. It starts with the alienation of high school life — bullying, an unrequited crush — but in addition to that Jeremy, the main character, is hearing voices in his head and having freaky dreams — when he can sleep at all. In the third chapter he crosses over the boundary into delusions and paranoia, and his parents commit him to a mental hospital. Creator Elaine M. Will does a superb job of illustrating what’s going on inside of Jeremy’s head, constructing imaginary worlds out of galaxies and puzzle pieces, drawing what he is feeling as well as what he is seeing. She also makes very clever use of limited color in the hallucination sequences. Yet at the same time the comic is very grounded, and Jeremy’s delusions are presented as being of a piece with the other miseries of his life. It’s a fascinating comic, and the story is still unfolding, with two new pages going up each week.

Unlike Tom, I’m not the target audience at all for IDW’s Star Trek comic. I haven’t seen the movie, and I haven’t watched the show in about 20 years and yet I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story was clear, and everything I needed to know was in the comic. I liked the straightforward art style as well. I wish I could say the same for the first issue of their Ghostbusters comic. The story was a lot busier than the Star Trek comic, and with lots of cuts and scene changes it would be confusing anyway, but I kept feeling like I was missing some important bit of backstory. Again, I’m not the target audience, having last seen the movie about 10 years ago; I’m sure it would be a better experience for true fans.

I whiled away a bit of time with Laddertop, by Orson Scott Card and Emily Janice Card (apparently the three-names thing is hereditary). Although his name is in smaller type on the cover, I’d like to give Honoel A. Ibardolaza a shout-out for his lively manga-style art. “Manga-style art” is a deal-killer for a lot of people, but this is unusually well done. The story itself is sort of strange: Long ago, aliens gave the human race a gift of four 36,000-mile-high towers, each topped with a space station that provides clean energy for the earth. They are maintained by specially trained children who go to an elite school, Laddertop Academy. The main characters are two spunky 11-year-old girls, and we get to follow them through their training.It’s like Twin Spica Lite. My biggest problem with this book is that I have a healthy respect for the laws of physics and therefore I cannot accept the notion of a 36,000-mile-high-tower. That just wouldn’t work. But the idea of aliens gifting humans with technology and then leaving is kind of cool; it’s clear that the people running these things don’t totally get what they are. I’m only about a third of the way through the first volume, but there’s enough here to keep me interested.

The Freddy Stories

Annie Koyama: Since I began publishing indie comics, zines and art books in 2007, I rarely have time to read as much as I would like any more. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have boxes filled with books and zines I bought as far back as TCAF and MoCCA in 2010 that I haven’t read yet. The irony does not escape me.

This is a selection of what I have read lately. I’ll leave out things like Death Ray by Daniel Clowes since many others will cover the bigger current releases much more thoroughly than I could.

I’ve enjoyed Gabrielle Bell’s comics and love the ‘Diary’ and ‘San Diego Diary’ books published by Uncivilized Books. I like a lot of autobiographical comics but the best ones for me deal well with the mundane aspects of life. Her use of black ink for shading is so great. I don’t usually have time or the inclination to re-read books, but I have done that with these ones.

At the recent Fan Expo show in Toronto, I met Drazen Kozjan and got his self-published mini ‘The Happy Undertaker’. The art is beautiful and reminds me of Edward Gorey, Ronald Searle and San Francisco artist Roman Muradov whose work you should also check out

I just read the new Xeric funded book ‘Freddy Stories’ by Melissa Mendes. I’ve followed Melissa’s work for a couple years now and love how she draws the character Freddy. It’s charming and makes me want to see more of Freddy and what Melissa comes up with next.

I am nuts about Cole Closser’s work. I’ve got ‘Little Tommy Lost Book One’. His style is reminiscent of the comics my mom had around when I was little. His book design, colour palette and and stories are like nothing else out there right now.

Pope Hats #2

There will be a lot of great reviews for Ethan Rilly’s new ‘Pope Hats Number 2’ published by AdHouse Books so I will concentrate on what I like about his work. Ethan’s drawings are fantastic. With my film background, I automatically read and picture some books as films. There’s a page involving a character on a bus and the angles Ethan uses to portray the inertness of the scene is wonderfully filmic. I want to see more of these stories and look forward to ‘Pope Hats Number 3’.

I am loving Alex Schubert’s books ‘The Blobby Boys’ and ‘The Dudes’. The colours are gorgeous, I like the characters and the covers are great. You can see his work on the great site What Things Do and at Vice. Nathan Stapley is an amazing painter and I love his mini comics like ‘A Christmas Carol And Other Holiday Tales’. I’d be very happy to see a book of his paintings.

‘Nogoodniks’ by Adrian Norvid published by Drawn & Quarterly is a lovely hardcover of his drawings and collages. It reminds of me of the first book I published called ‘Trio Magnus: Equally Superior’.

Matthew Forsythe’s books are always beautiful and his illustrations in ‘My Name Is Elizabeth’ by Annika Dunklee published by Kids Can Press are no exception. I’m publishing his new ‘Comics Class’ book of his semi-autobiographical teaching experiences due out in time for the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival.

I am a big fan of zines too. Canadian James Kirkpatrick aka Thesis Sahib consistently puts out really interesting ones, the latest I have is called ‘New Strangers’ published by Le Dernier Cri. It comes with a CD too.

I also love his ‘Journey Through Time & Shapes’, a silk screened collaboration with Jamie Q. Perhaps my favourite zine/printmaker is Luke Ramsey. I recommend anything he does, many of which are collaborative efforts. He’s such a prolific artist whose joy, sense of wonder and social justice are evident in all of his work.

Thanks to Chris Mautner for having me contribute! Now back to that huge pile of unread treasures.

People don’t think of Boston as a comics town, like Portland or Brooklyn, but there’s a lot of talent here, much of it gathered under the aegis of the Boston Comics Roundtable; in addition, a number of the artists had come from New York, Rhode Island and Maine. Here’s a sample of some of the minicomics I picked up.

By far the standout minicomic of the show was The Potter’s Pet, by Braden D. Lamb and Shelli Paroline. The story feels like a traditional folk tale, although I don’t think it is; it’s about a potter in a Moroccan-style marketplace who makes a robot, then keeps re-customizing it to please his customers. The story is well told and the art is professional quality, which is not surprising as Paroline has been doing professional work for some time now, including the art for several of BOOM! Studios’ Muppet Show comics. In The Potter’s Pet, she carries the Moroccan theme through in the panels, which echo the shapes of Islamic architecture. I would say it’s the best $5 I spent at the show, but the book sold out before I could get a copy and I had to borrow it from a friend. I hope they make more.

One of the delights of a show like this is talking with the artists about their work. Dave Kender had his elevator pitch ready when I reached his table, and quickly explained the concept of The Ragbox, his series of short stories about the inhabitants of an urban neighborhood. Each of the stories is independent and is illustrated by a different artist (including Braden Lamb). I picked up The Salon, the fifth story in the series, illustrated by Line Olsson. It’s set in the neighborhood beauty salon and has a leisurely way to it — the two stylists talk about their lives, the customers come and go, and the landlord comes in for a tongue-lashing. There’s even a twist at the end. In the space of a few pages, Kender creates an entire world and populates it with interesting, quirky, yet very believable characters. Now I want to read the rest of the stories; fortunately, the first three are posted at his site, and he has also gathered them into a graphic novel.

I picked up two minicomics by Heather Bryant. American, Eh? #4 (the title is a reference to her Canadian origins) is part of a series about her move from Canada to the U.S. to be with her boyfriend Michael. This particular issue has a very nice self-contained story about her college film class, which gives her the opportunity to bring in some film imagery alongside a more personal story. Sho Ga Nai is a travel comic about her trip to Osaka with her mother; it doesn’t pack the same narrative punch as the first comic, but the art is nice. Bryant has a good eye for composition and detail, and Americah, Eh? in particular left me wanting more. Perhaps my next stop will be to read her webcomic, Cake Brat, although it is currently on hiatus.

I’m extremely fond of Jason Viola‘s minicomics. He has a pleasingly neurotic take on things that makes me feel kind of normal. Jay’s Brain, in which his brain takes on a life of its own and becomes the world’s most annoying roommate, is sort of the logical extreme of the indy comic, and it’s also a great use of the mini-comic medium: Each page is a tiny drama in six panels, and Viola is very good at making each one a complete, satisfying, and often pointed little story.

Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Kitten.

Described by the artist as “sixteen pages of feline piratical exploits,” the one-shot promises cats, jetpack pterodactyls and what could be my next catch-phrase, “Knives On His Face!”

Salume will be bringing 100 copies of this one-shot with her, along with her previous one-shot Unicorn Life Cycle and a number of stickers and other art. Look her up at table #450 this weekend at APE, and buy me a copy! Seriously!

Isotope Award

Comics retailer Isotope Comics in San Francisco is once again hosting their annual mini-comics award competition, and — AHHHH!!! — entries are due Monday by midnight!

“It’s my favorite time of year, when we get an opportunity to help spotlight a creator who is toiling in the underground making something magical that almost no one has seen yet… seriously, what could be more exciting?!” said Isotope retailer James Sime, “I consider the winner to be the comic industry’s Miss America for the year, it’s the Isotope’s job to get their work out there to the comics press and reviewers. And I’m proud to say that winning this award has helped some amazingly talented folks get noticed and published by some of the best and coolest comic publishers in our industry. So don’t be shy… I know that many of you out there are hand-crafting some mini-comics brilliance, let us help share your work with the world!”

Past winners of the award include Joshua W. Cotter, Max Riffner, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Danica Novgorodoff, among many others. To enter this competition, simply send five copies of your mini-comic to Isotope’s address (326 Fell St. San Francisco, CA 94102) before the Sept. 26 deadline.

The award will be presented at Isotope’s APE Aftermath party on Oct. 1, the same weekend as the Alternative Press Expo.

The Body of Work

I suppose on a certain level running through all the loot you nabbed at this or that convention seems a bit like bragging, even if the intention is merely to say, “Hey, here’s some cool comics you should check out.” That being said, it seems like a while since anyone’s done one of those “here’s the stuff I bought” posts, so I thought I’d run down some of the more interesting-looking books I nabbed at SPX this past weekend. Forgive me.

The Body of Work by Kevin Huizenga. In addition to promoting the release of Ganges #4, Huizenga had a couple of mini-comics for sale as well. This one features some of the comics he’s been posting online like Postcard from Fielder.

Color Engineering

Danger Country by Levon Jihanian. This is the first chapter of what feels like a rather ambitious fantasy series about warring factions, done in a spartan, but nicely detailed line. This was nominated for outstanding comic and oustanding mini comic this year, and chapter two is supposed to be released in October. File this under “promising.”

Lizzie’s Tail by Darryl Ayo. Ayo won the Promising New Talent Ignatz Award at the show, and reading this mini-comic, a surreal little jaunt about a woman who goes questing for a necklace, it’s not too hard to see why.

Color Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama. The other big debut book at the Picturebox table. Yokoyama’s Garden has been my favorite book of 2011 so far, so there was no way I was going to pass the chance to nab this collection of color work, most of which seems to have even more of a pop art sensibility than his black and white work. Picturebox also had limited copies of this book available, which looked pretty sweet.

The Naked Heroes by Benjamin Marra. A light goof from Marra, apparently done as a favor for some musician friends, it concerns a tough-as-nails couple that enter an otherwordly bar and end up taking on a two-bodied demon monster and its hellspawn. Lots of blood and violence, as one would expect. At the show, Marra let it be known that he was working on the second issue of Gangsta Rap Posse, the plot of which sounded almost too awesome to be believed.

A Lion in Winter by Jiro Taniguchi. I always try to pick up at least one book at the Fanfare/Ponent Mon table, if only because tracking down their books in stores can be such a tricky proposition (although I should note it has gotten considerably better). This is their latest book, another entry from their top star Taniguichi, although this one, about a young man who attempts to start a career in manga, is apparently his most autobiographical work to date.

Forming

Pope Hats #2 by Ethan Rilly. My comics collection is in complete disarray right now so I can’t look at the first issue for comparision’s sake, but it seems like Rilly’s art has taken a huge leap forward, becoming looser, more assured and more detailed. A nice eurocomics vibe throughout. Look for a more thoughtful, official review to show up sometime in the near future.

Forming by Jesse Moynihan. Another fantasy-style graphic novel, though this tends to lean more towards the mythology side of things, as it deals with a bunch of Biblical/Greek/etc. godlike beings fighting and speaking in a modern idiom. I haven’t had a chance to do more than browse through this, but it certainly seems promising. NoBrow Press did a really nice job with the production here, and I think it’s fair to say it was one of the better looking books at the show. AdHouse had copies of these but they sold out rather quickly on Saturday.

Theories of Everything by Roz Chast. One of the things I like about SPX is how cartoonists outside the traditional indie comics community like Roz Chast and Ann Telnaes  can fit in and be welcomed so easily. As I mentioned in my photo round-up, I’m a rather big Chast fan — honestly, I think she’s the best thing in the magazine these days; certainly the most idiosyncratic — so picking up this chunky “best of” collection of cartoons was kind of a no-brainer.

I Will Bite You

The winners of the 2011 Ignatz Awards were announced this weekend at SPX, the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md. Nominees for the awards were chosen by a jury of five creators and voted on by attendees at the show.

Congratulations to this year’s winners:

Outstanding Mini Comic: Ben Died of a Train, Box Brown
Outstanding Anthology or Collection: I Will Bite You, Joseph Lambert
Outstanding Online Comic: Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton
Promising New Talent: Darryl Ayo Brathwaite
Outstanding Story: Browntown, Jaime Hernandez
Outstanding Series: Everything Dies, Box Brown
Outstanding Comic: Lose #3, Michael DeForge
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Gaylord Phoenix, Edie Fake
Outstanding Artist: Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You

Spearheaded by SPX executive director and chairman of the board Warren Bernard, the Collection will serve multiple purposes. It will archive the ephemera of the Bethesda-based alt/indie comics convention itself, including the posters, badges, and programs created by cartoonists for the Expo, and even each year’s SPX website. It will also include every print comic nominated for the Expo’s festival award program, the Ignatz Awards. (For the time being, only the winner of the Best Webcomic Ignatz will be digitally archived.) And it will collect a selection of the comics that are available for purchase at each year’s show — a selection dominated by minicomics and other self-published works that are often difficult if not impossible to find once their tiny initial print runs have sold out.

As someone who’s gotten a lot out of SPX over the years, I think this is providing a vital service — a time capsule of the state of alternative and art comics, updated yearly. An Please read TCJ.com editor Dan Nadel’s entire interview with Bernard about this fascinating project. Then be sure to go to this year’s SPX next weekend, where my fellow Roboteer Chris Mautner and I will be hosting panels about the kinds of comics that will soon make the Library of Congress their permanent home.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3 Century #2

It’s time once again for another round of What Are You Reading?, kids. Today we welcome special guest Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, creator of Necessary Monsters, The Last Sane Cowboy and more.

To see what Daniel and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Chris Mautner

Dungeon Monstres

Dungeon Monstres Vol. 4: Night of the Ladykiller: This latest volume is much lighter in tone than the last Monstres volume, which carried a deep emotional weight as it showed how the choices of the lead characters had consequences that rippled throughout the fantasy world. Ladykiller is more of a goof, with vulture sorcerer Horus being accused of impregnating several women in the first tale, and the dim-bulb monster Grogro stumbling through a mission to a faraway land. Certainly in terms of storytelling capability, Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim have lost none of their edge, and the art by Vermot Desroches and Yoann is sumptuous to soak into, but I missed exploring the deeper undercurrents of the Dungeon universe. Consider this something of a palate-cleanser then.

Bad Island: This is the new book by Doug Tennapel, which should be out in August. It’s about a family that takes a boating vacation and (shades of Gilligan) ends up on an weird island full of strange and dangerous creatures. And, of course, through their ordeal, father, mother, son and daughter learn to bond and trust each other more than they did before and become a better, tighter family unit for their efforts. No surprises, but I did enjoy Bad Island more than Tennapel’s last book, Ghostopolis, which I felt rushed through its plot so quickly that it didn’t take enough time to build upon the interesting characters and fantasy world he had created. Bad Island‘s basic concept is simple enough that that I feel I can properly enjoy it’s frantic pace, and I think it will appeal rather well to its intended tween audience.

JK Parkin

Late

I came home from the San Diego Comic-Con with a whole bunch of new stuff, from an issue of Archie Comics written by my friend Alex Segura to a copy of Michael Kupperman’s Mark Twain Autobiography, 1910-2010. Unfortunately I went from the con right into some work-related stuff that kept me busy all week, so I haven’t had time to read much of my spoils.

One comic I did have the chance to read was a minicomic called Late by Joe Blablazo. Joe came to the “Indie Comics Marketing 101″ panel I was on and was kind enough to give me a copy of the book. It’s a wordless, surreal tale that’s beautifully drawn and showcases just one of several art styles he’s capable of doing (you can visit his website to see more of his stuff; unfortunately he just has one panel from Late up on the site. update: Joe has posted the whole story online!) Joe has a more superhero-y book on the way called Deathless, and I hope to see more from him in the future.

Tom Bondurant

It should surprise no one that I have been looking forward to the DC Retro-Active comics pretty much since they were announced. So far I’ve enjoyed reading them, even if they’ve been a mixed bag. This week’s titles included Superman by Martin Pasko, Eduardo Barreto, and Christian Duce; Justice League of America by Cary Bates and Gordon Purcell (and a couple of others whose names escape me); and Green Lantern by Dennis O’Neil and Mike Grell. As it happens, GL is the only one of the three with a reunited creative team, and it turned out to be the weakest. It features Green Lantern and Green Arrow in a two-track story which only comes together when the heroes catch each other up at the end. There’s not much to catch up, either — GL helps a familiar-looking extraterrestrial after his spaceship crashes in unfriendly territory; and GA tracks a rival archer who’s back to prove himself. While there are twists which I won’t spoil, they are of the “because the doctor is his mother” variety. Still, Mike Grell turns in a really fine story, full of crowd-pleasing ring-slinging and marksmanship feats. Neither creator seems to have gone for a retro vibe in this issue, and that’s fine. However, O’Neil’s script is just flat; and even more so when compared to “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!,” the historic (and, perhaps, histrionic) Green Lantern/Green Arrow kickoff from GL vol. 2 #76. I was hoping for something more obscure, which is to say something O’Neil and Grell did from the mid-’70s, but it’s hard to argue with such a classic tale.

Better is the Superman one-shot, although not necessarily because it feels more like a Superman comic from thirty-odd years ago. Barreto and Duce don’t seem to be channeling Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, who defined the Man of Steel’s look for decades. In fact, at times it was hard to spot elements of Barreto’s distinctive style. Still, like Swanderson, the result is light on frills, but easy to follow. Like the GL issue, Pasko’s script touches on period-specific elements: everyone works for WGBS-TV, the villains are identified mostly with the late ’70s and early ’80s, and Superman talks regularly with the Kandorians and the hot-pantsed Supergirl. While the plot’s ultimate resolution is hardly revolutionary, it’s executed with the sort of nervous energy you’d expect from a good sitcom. This too is typical of the ’70s Superman, and it’s not unwelcome at all. Besides, the reprint is “Superman Takes A Wife!,” the story which celebrated Action Comics‘ 40th anniversary by marrying the original (i.e., Earth-2) Supes and Lois.

Justice League

Perhaps most fun was the Justice League of America issue, which finds Adam Strange stranded once again in a place that doesn’t buy his stories of space adventure — only this time, it’s Earth-Prime, where he’s just a comic-book character. Fortunately, the Justice League knows just who to call to get Adam out of trouble — his editor, Julius Schwartz. (Naturally, Julie and Barry Allen have already gotten to know each other well, thanks to Barry’s many Earth-Prime visits.) There are a couple of obstacles in the way, of course; and it’s all part of Kanjar Ro’s plan to energize his cells to Superman-levels. Indeed, it risks being too familiar — but I have to say, it’s pretty cool to see Julie Schwartz as the JLA’s go-to guy, and in particular to see his reaction to meeting a couple of Leaguers for the first time. This is the kind of story which doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time never loses its sense of wonder. Ironically, more mean-spirited is the reprint, one part of a JLA/JSA team-up involving a DC writer from Earth-Prime who goes bad. Pick up Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 4 for the whole story, I guess.

Back in the present, I thought Flashpoint: Project Superman #2 (by Scott Snyder and Gene Ha) did a good job fleshing out Flashpoint-Supes’ backstory. Along with info from the main miniseries and the Frankenstein mini, we’re getting to know the military’s various superhuman-weapon projects pretty well. As you might expect, Kal-El has had a pretty rough time of it in military custody, but he’s acquired an unlikely patron. This issue also plants the seeds for what I expect will be a pivotal relationship. In some ways it’s reminiscent of JMS’ and Gary Frank’s Supreme Power miniseries, which spent an inordinate amount of time showing its Superman-analogue straining to get out from under military control. Of necessity, though, it has to move faster, and thank goodness for that. Between the next issue of this miniseries, and Flashpoint itself, Kal-El looks to shake off that control pretty dramatically.

Finally, I recognize that not every comic I read is fit for the eyes of my (almost-) three-year-old daughter — but I was too engrossed in the harrowing Detective Comics #880 to notice her ambling over to my easy chair. “Who’s that?” she wondered innocently, looking at Jock’s nightmare-fuel portrait of the Joker.

I tried to play it off by showing the back cover. “That’s Green Lantern!”

She wasn’t fooled. “No, who’s that?”

Quickly I put the issue back in the stack and reached for something more innocuous (and not American Vampire– d’oh!). “Oh, that’s just the Joker. What do you want to eat?”

Michael May

Planet of the Apes

I got caught up with BOOM!’s Planet of the Apes this week (the fourth issue just came out). What a perfect marriage of words and art this series is. Carlos Magno has created a world I want to live in. Or would want to live in if not for all the damn dirty apes. It’s so rich and full with its quaint, European houses and stone bridges and medieval fashions. Of course, there are plots and wars being planned in those houses, the bridges are barricaded Les Miserables-style, and the fashions conceal all manner of weapons. Daryl Gregory has taken a beautiful place and filled it with intrigue and death. For which I’m very, very grateful.

I also went back and picked up Supergirl #66. I somehow missed it when it came out a couple of weeks ago, but really wanted to continue Kelly Sue DeConnick’s story about Supergirl undercover at a college on assignment for Lois Lane. It’s got secret tunnels, biomechanical rats, Supergirl trying to use her powers without blowing her cover, and Lois doing some Lois Laneing. Really fun stuff.

Tim O’Shea

FF #6

FF #6: Yeesh. Black Bolt speaks twice in a comic that used to be about Reed Richards and his pals. The first time he speaks, to convey the power of his spoken word a 2 pt type was used. OK maybe 4 pt type if I am lucky. But really, I could have dealt with 6 pt type and still gotten the effect letterer Claytion Cowles was going for. The second time he speaks loudly (which is saying something when it comes to old Bolty) he actually says: “I. am. awake!” Really. Did someone imply you were dozing on the job there, Blackie? Added bonus, nothing on the cover resembles anything that happens in the comic. A two-issue Black Bolt subplot has me asking: “If I were waiting for the trade, would this be a chunk of the book that would bore me to death?” (The answer is yes) I love the Inhumans as a concept, but Jonathan Hickman writing the Inhumans in an FF book is like reading a mixture of U.S. congressional and U.K. parliamentary proceedings: boring and nonsensical. And hey, Medusa really took the news Black Bolt now has multiple wives (one of them being a talking horse) in stride. A twisted part of me wishes Bolt had spoken at that point: “Wow.” I am leaning toward dropping this book from my monthly reading assignments.

Secret Warriors #28: Lest people think I dislike Hickman, let me quickly dispel that notion. This is the last issue of a book where I had a Nick Fury that entertained the hell out of me. And he ends the series with one of the best present day conversations between Steve Rogers and Nick. That alone made the issue a must read for me. And I love that A) Dum Dum Dugan gets to say the final words in the issue B) How Hickman leaves the Contessa subplot

Teen Titans #98: Yeesh again.How did Superboy-Prime come back? Don’t expect an explanation–he just appears in a pile of a rubble in the opening pages of this issue. Well that’s convenient and lame. Way to run toward issue 100, just to get to a milestone, DC…that means absolutely nothing. Faithful readers, please tell me anything that was memorable about this particular 100 issue run of this Titans incarnation. Off the top of my head, I can think of nothing.

Xombi #5: John Rozum has a whole lot to say through the characters in this issue. I mean a lot. (And it’s not overwhelming–plus there’s a whole discussion of the film Lost Horizon at one point). And Frazer Irving’s art is just exquisite. I hope there is some project in the DCNu for these two to collaborate again. But I really wonder if they’re not more suited for Vertigo.

Captain America and Bucky #620: One must assume there is a finite end to this particular series,but I could be wrong. In the meantime, Chris Samnee drawing 1940s era Captain America and Bucky stories? To quote Black Bolt: “I. Am. Awake.” Seriously though, beautiful art made even better by the colors of Bettie Breitweiser.

Avengers Academy #16: Stuck record time for long-time readers…Christos Gage continues to write the best Avengers book on the current market. The story he crafts with Veil in this issue has the reader feel a gamut of emotions with the character as you see the issue play out. And that’s just one-half, the opening half gives me more smart (albeit on the ropes) Hank Pym. I love me some smart Giant Man.

Brigid Alverson

Spontaneous

I started off this sultry week with the first two issues of Spontaneous. Joe Harris and Brett Weldele take one of the more bizarre true-mystery phenomena and wrap it into a pretty good story. The hero, Melvin, is fascinated by spontaneous human combustion for many reasons, and he has studied it so carefully that he can predict who will go up in flames next. An overbearing investigative reporter happens onto the scene as the fire claims its next victim in a mall food court, and she starts doing some research of her own. It’s a well told story, although the reporter is a bit much, and Wedele, whose luminous watercolor style made The Light such a beautiful comic, is the perfect artist for this book. I’m hooked.

A trip to the comics shop yesterday netted me a copy of Drew Weing’s Set to Sea. It’s pure indulgence, because I have already read the story online, but Fantagraphics’ small, almost jewel-like presentation is really beautiful. Weing tells his story one panel at a time, and each panel could be framed as a work of art in itself, so having it in a book, without the clutter of the web, is a worthy investment.

My biggest bargain at the comics store, though, was a vintage issue of Dark Horse’s Super Manga Blast for a quarter. With chapters of 3×3 Eyes, Club 9, and What’s Michael?, all flipped, in black and white, in a pamphlet comic, it’s a very different format for manga than the one I’m used to. With just a single chapter of each story, though, it’s more a curiosity than a good read, although it reminds me I want to check out Club 9.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

You catch me on my return from Comic-Con, so I’m reading a mix of stuff I picked up at the show and things that were waiting for me at Chaos City when I got back.

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969: I read this through once on the plane back from San Diego. I’m re-reading it now with Jess Nevins’ annotations, just to appreciate the sheer lunatic everything-and-the-British-kitchen-sink-ness of it all. It’s Moore so it’s a great read of course, but the Century series does seem to be going to some rather bleak places as it progresses. Here’s hoping there’s a resurgence of Blazing-Kingdom-3D-wonderfullness before the sequence is complete.

The Boys

The Boys #56: Some fun moments this issue, but it’s only part one of “The Big Ride” so it’s mostly just positional play at this point. While The Boys wears a disguise of just-Garth-having-a-laugh-at-superheroes, its secret identity is a fascinating and carefully constructed story world that’s kept me coming back month after month. Something I noticed on flicking back through the book is how prominent Terror is this issue. I do hope this isn’t a precursor to something bad happening to him later in the arc. Please don’t kill the good wee doggie!

Paradigm Shift Part Three: Emergence I notice I am using too many hyphens in these reviews. Clearly, this must stop. This third part of Dirk Tiede’s brilliant Chicago werewolf police procedural manga (look! No hyphens!) finishes out the story’s first arc but still leaves me hungry for more. This book is tightly plotted and beautifully illustrated and is an absolute must for fans of any of the subjects I didn’t put hyphens between in the last sentence. How the series hasn’t been snapped up by a major publisher yet is beyond me. Grab a copy of all three volumes now so that you can say you read back in the day, before they made the motion picture and everybody got the tattoo.

The Sixth Gun Book One: Cold Dead Fingers: A bit of a stunt review this, as so far I’ve only had time to read the first six pages of the book. Sixth gun, six pages. See? Anyway, I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend at San Diego and, judging by these six pages, the recommendation was a good one. I’ve already got a good feeling about the mystic old west setting and been given a clear idea about what kind of a scoundrel we have for a protagonist. Worth a look I’d say and I’m definitely looking forward to page seven.

Arsenic Lullaby: 10 Year Omnibus: I first read Arsenic Lullaby at San Diego in 2002, and I think I’ve picked up a new something or other from them at every con since. I’m about halfway through reading this 10 Year Omnibus at the moment and so far it’s been great, filling out the gaps in my reading and reminding me of old favourites. It’s the darkest, blackest, sickest and funniest book I’ve read in a while. Well worth seeking out, if you can stomach a few zombie foetuses and watching the antics of a government-sponsored serial-baby-killer is your idea of a good time.

And thus begins what I can guess without even googling are a thousand racy fanfics. But it’s also the premise, more or less, of cartoonist Dave Kiersh’s thoughtful, funny minicomic Amazons, which he’s now posted online in its entirety on his new site Teenage Archive. The strip imagines what life would be like if these pulchritudinous paragons of fierce femininity were to attend high school, navigating the uncharted waters of jocks, nerds, preps, angry teachers, uncaring administrators, and unyielding dress codes.

Kiersh’s About Me blurb on Teenage Archive reads “Afterschool specials and the American dream,” and that pretty much nails what his comics are like: Whimsical yet melancholy explorations of teenage lust, boredom, romance, and desire to escape — and adult desire to return. Amazons is more of a goof than his usual stuff, but underneath the silliness is something true about the way dudes idealize beautiful women and the sense of unattainable freedom and fulfillment these fantasy figures represent. Read it in tandem with Kate Beaton, Carly Monardo, and Meredith Gran’s “Strong Female Characters” for a very different but I think complementary take on the power such images have.

John Y. at the Boots and Pup table

One of the reasons I go to comic cons is to wander the Artists Alley in search of good comics I never heard of before. I came back from Boston Comic Con with a big stack of postcards, print comics, and jotted notes, so the three comics here are just the beginning of the deluge.

Boots and Pup has been around for a while, but creator John Y. told me that he was moving to a six-day-a-week schedule this week. That’s a brave statement, because the comic has been on hiatus since 2007, but John tells me he has a two-month buffer already in place. The comic is colorful, simply drawn, and kid-friendly yet witty enough for older readers to appreciate.

At the Agreeable Comics table, Kevin Church was pushing Lydia, which is a spinoff of another webcomic, The Rack. “You can read it on its own,” he said, and indeed, I read the print comic on the way home from the con and found myself laughing out loud. It’s workplace humor with a wry twist, illustrated by Max Riffner in a nice, expressive yet simple style in black and white.

Finally, I stopped off at Jason Viola’s table to tell him how much I liked his comic Herman the Manatee, in which Herman, a manatee, bumps his head on a boat in every single episode. (In the second series, Herman does move on to other things.) Jason gave me a carefully crafted minicomic of another story, Who Is Amy Amoeba? (language NSFW), the story of an amoeba who can’t stop dividing, and suffers multiple identity crises because of it. It’s a very clever idea, well executed and simply drawn, and well worth a visit, as are all of Jason’s comics.

Gingerbread Girl

Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Emily Stackhouse, creator of the award-winning minicomic Brazilianoir and her latest, Miner’s Mutiny.

To see what Emily and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Tom Bondurant

Showcase Presents Green Lantern

Back at the end of the year, I got all superior about DC’s solicitation of Showcase Presents Green Lantern Volume 5, because apparently it didn’t include all the GL backup stories from The Flash, back when Green Lantern itself had been canceled (gasp!) following the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams run. Therefore, when SCPGL #5 came out this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see those backups finally collected. So thanks, DC, for that!

I’d read those short stories before, but I’d forgotten that they start out with Hal Jordan unemployed and literally living out of his car. Talk about your “trek across America” — he’s sleeping in the woods, cooking Green Arrow’s chili recipe over a campfire and fighting aliens almost on the side. In fact, one story (“The Powerless Power Ring,” by O’Neil and Adams) finds Hal’s ring going goofy, apparently because he put the wrong mushrooms into the chili. Another, “Yellow Is A Dirty Little Color” (by O’Neil and Dick Giordano) loses a certain plot point in the black-and-white reprint, but it’s still a lightweight little puzzle which alert readers will probably figure out before Hal does. Eventually, the backups will shift to an extended outer-space serial, Mike Grell will come aboard as penciller, and the groundwork will be laid for 1976′s Green Lantern revival — but for now, it’s nice to see Hal in a more offbeat setting.

Some of the best superhero-comics news I’ve read in a while came at the end of Justice League: Generation Lost #24 (written by Judd Winick, penciled by Aaron Lopresti, inked by Matt Ryan), when the follow-up ongoing series was announced. JL:GL has been tremendously entertaining pretty much since it started, but I really
did not expect these characters to continue as a team after this miniseries. JL:GL sets up the conflict between the new JLI and its familiar enemy pretty well, too, with the bad guys essentially adopting a concern-troll posture. That should give the ongoing series a nice political/satirical edge (not that DC needs any more political edge these days…). Even with this dangling plot thread, and with a big nod to Wonder Woman‘s altered timeline, JL:GL worked nicely as a standalone superhero adventure. Winick and his rotating roster of artists did a great job keeping the stakes high and bringing the characters to life, and I hope that spirit continues into the regular series.

Tim O’Shea

FF #2

FF #2: Worth the read for a scene where Invisible Woman steps between Doom and Thing, in a manner of speaking. It’s crazy that Dragon Man is actually becoming my favorite supporting cast member. Sidebar: Have we just forgotten that whole “Ben can become human” plot element now that it got Johnny killed?

Action Comics #900: Positives: Cornell’s use of the character of Death in this issue. Negatives: snippets of Gary Frank drawing his version of Superman (or as I like to call it “constipated Christopher Reeve”; seriously why do people like Frank’s version of Superman, it creeps the hell out of me). In general, though, I have never enjoyed the Doomsday character and I long for a day the character is forgotten. While the Lex Luthor aspect of the story was a satisfying conclusion, the rest of the milestone issue smacked of useless filler, especially the Richard Donner co-written piece.

Secret Avengers #12 and #12.1: This book has seem to lost its way to a certain extent, and it appears that Brubaker has no interest himself in seeing the story to its end, given that he’s leaving the book. Brubaker wrote 12, then Nick Spencer wrote 12.1–and if 12.1 is a harbinger of what’s ahead for the book, I actually consider this a good jumping off point. I will revisit the book when Warren Ellis takes over the book.

The Incredible Hulks #627: I think I would enjoy an ongoing series with Bruce Banner as a James Bond-type hero, as shown in this issue. It’s interesting to see writer Greg Pak focus on the “inventive genius” aspect of the lead character.

Captain America #617: An interesting issue that reminded me of the old Marvel Triple Action reprints that were done back in the 1970s, given that you’re given a Winter Soldier narrative, a Black Widow/Sharon Carter team-up and a focus on Steve Rogers (guest starring Henry Gyrich). Bonus points to Marvel for getting Chris Samnee to draw the Steve Rogers leg of the issue.

Brigid Alverson

Literature! Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953

I took the opportunity to download Dave Kellett’s Literature! Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953, a compilation of strips from his webcomic Sheldon, after he offered it for free download to encourage Eisner voters to read it. It’s up for Best Humor Publication, and it certainly is a worthy contender. Sheldon is one of the most consistently funny gag comics on the web, and it’s funny in a smart, often sarcastic way without ever being mean. This e-book is particularly funny, and I laughed out loud, literally, at a number of the strips. My one complaint is that there seem to be a lot of Lord of the Rings jokes, but I suppose the fault is really mine for not having read it. And this is the only place outside of my immediate family circle where I have seen anyone poke fun at T.S. Eliot. (Let alone bring the Hulk into it.) If I were an Eisner judge, I’d give it the nod based on that alone.

I have been slowly catching up on all the awesome comics I picked up at MoCCA, and this week I settled down with a slim, self-published volume titled The Hookah Girl and Other Stories by Marguerite Dabaie. It’s a memoir of growing up as a Palestinian Christian, within the immigrant community in the U.S., as well as a meditation on all the contradictions and labels that come with that identity. Dabaie starts the first volume with a set of paper dolls that embody each of those stereotypes‹Muslim girl in full hijab, suicide bomber with vest full of explosives, I-Dream-of-Jeannie seductress, starving artist. The stories touch on things that are familiar to immigrants in general — scary relatives, peculiar customs, native foods‹but there is also an interesting comic about Leila Khaled that presents her as an interestingly complex individual. This book left me wanting to see more, and I hope there is a full-length graphic novel in the works. If there isn’t, there should be.

Emily Stackhouse

For the last, longer than I care to mention, I’ve been reading the Marion Zimmer Bradley Arthurian novel The Mists of Avalon. Started out great, but boy, is it dragging on! This is all very disconcerting because I just got back from Portland’s Stumptown Comics Fest and came home with quite a loot! I’ve only just barely been able to crack into the overwhelming stack of comics on my nightstand. Here’s what I HAVE been able to squeeze in and thoroughly enjoyed…

The Yellow Zine

Yellow Zine by Roman Muradov
This guy is definitely one to watch out for. This is a small collection of his current (beautifully drawn) strips. This little book is everything I love about a zine-style book. Honest, heartfelt, disturbing and endearing. I love when a self published work is able to speak great big truths while simultaneously saying, but don’t take any of this TOO seriously.

Glamazonia The Uncanny Super-Tranny by Justin Hall
I LOVE Glam! This is a book I picked up from Stumptown and only now was able to sink my teeth into. This is a collection of Glamzonia’s outlandish stories written by Justin Hall and drawn by a handful of Bay Area artists. I love how San Francisco this book is. I love how absurd and raunchy it is. I love the pink interior pages. I love the underlining social message of it all. Yes, it is time for a Tranny Super heroine! Fabulous.

Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes
In terms of Dan Clowes recent work, I enjoyed Ice Haven and Wilson more than Mr. Wonderful. Which isn’t to say I did not enjoy it, I did, very much. However, it seemed very straight forward and reality based as opposed to some of my favorites of his (Like a Velvet Glove..) which tend to be very meandering and odd, to say the least. Mister Wonderful is odd though in its earnestness. Truthfully, I’m a bit disarmed by it.

GingerbreadGirl by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin
I was lucky enough to booth right next to these two at Stumptown. This book was truly the star of the entire convention. I’m pretty sure they sold out all their stock and for good reason! This book is fantastic. It’s the kind of book any comic fan would pick up and have to buy simply for the design alone. The story is bizarre, the artwork is gorgeous, I cannot wait to continue reading this book!

Martian Confederacy vol. 2 From Mars With Love by Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock
These two have done it again. This is such a great follow up to the fun and adventurous vol. 1. Jason McNamara’s storytelling is always an inspiration, and Paige Braddock’s artwork is the kind of seemingly effortless style that drive artists mad with frustration. It’s a sci-fi love story, so I’m happy with that, but it’s also a totally engrossing page turner. Fun and excitement on every page!