Sonia Harris | Writing about Comicbooks

Committed: Science Fiction Action Movie Music Guilt

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:00 -0700

Last weekend, a friend who works on music for television and film took me to a concert commemorating the 35th anniversary of a publisher of film scores. She warned me that it would be kind of industry-heavy evening for her, lots of people for her to talk to who I wouldn’t know, basically something like a comic book launch party but with a different kind of nerd (though as it turns out, music nerds aren’t that different from comic nerds, they just wear cocktail dresses and button down shirts instead of pink hair dye and Adventure Time T-shirts). The concert comprised of a massive orchestra (she did tell me that they weren’t quite a “full orchestra” but they looked huge to me) who played a wide range of scores, as well as guest starring some of the composers to play or conduct their music.

While there was a curious kitsch factor to hearing live renditions of things like Hans Zimmer playing “Driving Miss Daisy”, or the love theme from Kubrick’s “Spartacus”, I found myself far more engaged by the science fiction scores, particularly the action ones. It shouldn’t have surprised me, since this is one of my favorite genres of film, but I hadn’t realized how different this type of film music is. The music itself is more intense, more high-energy and hyperbolic than the regular movie scores seemed to be. In many ways it gave me an entirely different perspective on the movies, and made me see that part of what I like about them is how outrageous that type of film can be, even if I hadn’t been consciously aware of it before. Science fiction action movies (when they work) are all about heightened emotions and finding any way to make a ridiculous premise seem plausible, almost like the film equivalent of cape-wearing superheroes. The big difference is that, unlike science fiction action movies, superhero comic books don’t have the support of a musical score to create an emotional connection. In some ways this makes me feel a little more comfortable with my consumption of comic books, since the small handful of people creating them almost always want to be making comics. The same cannot possibly be true of everyone involved in making a movie, and as I watched the musicians struggle through the outrageous action scores I worried that they might be finding them as silly as I did, but without having nearly as much fun as I was.

As I listened to the intense bravado of music for films like “Aliens”, “Stargate”, “Alien vs Predator: Requiem” (the composer / conductor looked like he nearly slipped a disc conducting the hell out of that), and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (which had a surprisingly warm and openly enthusiastic composer / conductor), I found myself suddenly aware of all of the musicians courageously plowing through this rather over-the-top music. While I might love it, who’s to say how they felt about it? It seemed as if everyone had to work three times as hard to play this type of music, and it seemed to be the only music which intermittently required a massive choir to simply sing “AAAAAAAH” very enthusiastically. A fit of giggles swelled in me and soon I was fighting to suppress laughter ; It had never occurred to me that serious classical musicians would have to perform this rather campy music. While I adore my science fiction movies, I am aware that they aren’t always targeting the most mature audience and until now I’ve never had to separate the score from the film. Sitting in a very lovely, art-deco hall forced me to do appreciate the intensity and enthusiasm of the music and I found myself confronted by the fact that (as a science fiction fan), I’m partly responsible for the work these poor musicians were working so hard to play. It is one thing for people who’re excited about science fiction films to be engaged in making them, it is a completely different one for people who are excited about classical music to do so and I wondered if they enjoyed it, or found it completely silly. Confronted with a stage packed with people furiously working together, I couldn’t ignore the humanity involved in the creation of these large, complex orchestral scores and I felt deeply guilty for the work I’d inadvertently created for them.

Leaving the concert hall with all the other well-dressed grown-ups, I found myself even more grateful for comic books. While the world of music nerds and comic book nerds might be sort of similar, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for making those music nerds play all the silly science fiction scores I love so much, but I’ve never felt guilty for loving a comic book because someone had to write it or draw it, no matter how silly the book was! Maybe I should have, but because comic books are a such a niche market, everyone I’ve ever met making comic books is doing it because they love those silly stories as much as me. I can only hope that there are music nerds out there who love to play outrageous science fiction action scores just as much.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Iron Man 3 - Neither Super Nor Heroic

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:00:00 -0700

It is miserable disappointment for me to have to admit that a person who hates sports but loves superhero movies thoroughly enjoyed the superhuman heroism of 42, and was disinterested in the sound and fury of Iron Man 3… But this is probably all my own fault; if I hadn’t seen 42 in the same week as Iron Man 3, maybe it wouldn’t have seemed like such a featherweight.

20 minutes ago I walked out of Iron Man 3, a film about some really great looking middle-aged people and some roboty suit things (and yes, I do know who and what Iron Man is. I read the comic books and I like the character, but that is what I took away from the film). A couple of my favorite actors where in the movie, as well as one of my favorite stunt-women. The explosions were terrific and there were effects. People were yawning a lot when they left, much like Bruce Banner at the end of the film, no one seemed particularly interested or excited. I guess they thought that was all they could expect from a comic book movie. As Aldrich Killian aptly said in the film; “Ever since the guy with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety kind of went out the window.”

This weekend I also saw 42, a film about someone else who was almost superhumanly strong, skilled, and brave. He and his team changed the world, with his actions and behavior he paved the way us to treat each other with a little more respect. Despite the fact that this was a true story which everyone knew the outcome of, it managed to be maintain tension, and become engaging and exciting in a way which I hadn’t expected. Jackie Robinson was a super hero in every sense of the word and when the lights came up, the dazed, tearful audience spontaneously burst into applause.

I’m a pretty disastrously nerdy person (i.e. I love those clichéd nerdy things like comic books, science fiction, and old movies, and I take absolutely no joy in saying that, since it has been quite inconvenient for most of my life). Unfortunately I compound this nerdiness by not liking sports at all to watch or participate in (I wish I did, it would have made my childhood much easier, but it never interested me). Despite this, when I went to see 42 it blew my tiny nerd mind. Along with a packed audience (impressive for a film that’s already been out for a couple of weeks) I became completely engaged in the beautiful, inspiring, difficult journey of Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Watching them try to play baseball and behave like human beings in the face of so much antagonism and prejudice was heartbreaking. Witnessing him surmount those obstacles and knowing that the fight is ongoing was truly inspirational.

You get the idea; I love superhero comic books and I hate sports, so I really ought to have enjoyed the superhero movie and been bored by the sports movie. But what I love about superhero comic books are the parts which are super and the parts about heroism. While it was slightly entertaining, Iron Man 3 was neither super nor heroic. Even knowing that Tony Stark is not your average do-gooder, but an ex-alcholic womanizer, I still expect decent writers, directors, and producers to be able to take a team of talented actors and give the audience a certain emotional draw in a film about a damned superhero. The first two films were enjoyable and even if they had an element of disposability about them, there was a depth and a warmth that was strangely absent here, and saying “it’s just a superhero movie” isn’t a good enough excuse.

At 42, at a matinee showing for a two week old movie, the audience was inspired to overtly express their warmth and appreciation. At the evening of an opening week showing of Iron Man 3 (arguably when the film audience is still at it’s most excited), the sparse audience quietly ambled out of the theater, subdued and underwhelmed. This is not why superheroes stories exist. While action is fun, it is not the most important aspect of a superhero movie. Stories about heroes are a way to share our humanity, to inspire and remind us of our potential and our responsibility towards each other. If this is the one thing that we are not getting out of our superhero movies, then they are missing the point entirely.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Death Sells… But Who’s Buying Ultimate Spider-Man?

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:00:16 -0700

Unfortunately, we seem to have come to the point where the logical extension of making violence an all-ages-friendly subject, means that death in comic books is no longer shocking, it is boring.

In our current social climate, the one high impact event that it is acceptable to use as children’s entertainment, is violence. The most extreme outcome of violence is death, therefore when it came to creating some high-impact events in Ultimate Spider-Man; first his uncle was killed off, then his father was put in a coma, and now his mother has been killed off. In less than 22 issues poor Miles Morales is finding out that the price of being a young superhero published by a mainstream company is death all around him.

Think about it, if you are one of the big two publishers, producing a bit of a marketing vehicle of a monthly book like Ultimate Spider-Man, the last thing you want to do is piss people off. However, you do want to surprise people and create a marketable event every month. How can you do this? Can you depict a young superhero exploring his budding sexuality, or questioning his sanity, or learning about the relationship between poverty and crime, or combatting racism? No, of course not, because sex, mental health, and politics are taboo subjects, and when approached in an all-ages comic book they would take a deft hand to make simultaneously media-attractive, socially acceptable, and relatable for an all-ages audience. While writing about issues like these (which could plausibly arise in Miles Morales’ world) could be compelling and also attract media attention, they could also raise an outcry which violence doesn’t, and no mainstream publisher is interested in dealing with that.

Why did Miles Morales’ mum have to die? The new Spider-Man is a young, bright, smart, sweet boy who became a superhero by accident and for nearly 2 years we’ve watched him blunder though it. I thought that just maybe just once we could have a kid with two, healthy, loving, solvent parents ,who would fight crime simply because he felt it was right, without the need for a hackneyed guilt/revenge scenario. This was a kid too young to have much sense of self-protection, but tons of empathy, a taste for adventure, and a good heart. He wasn’t born from tragedy but from a happy accident, his origin story didn’t have to stem from the depth of some horrific death in the family. But then it did…

When Miles held his mum in his arms and the life just ran out of her, I started crying, not just because it was a sad scene at the end of a whole lot of sad scenes, but because I was mourning for the whole damn genre. Someone came up with some good stories a long time ago and writers keep returning to that well, churning out the same stuff, never daring to try something different. I thought just once that we would see something entirely new, but I was wrong. Once again we have a practically orphaned child, torn apart by pain, forced to watch loved ones attacked by evil.

When I want to listen to the Rolling Stones, I do. I don’t listen to the Strokes. They’re cute and I quite like them, but too much of the time they’re like a Rolling Stones New, so it feels better and richer to just listen to the original source material and lose myself in Let it Bleed. I used to apply the same logic to Ultimates comic books, I made fun of friends who read them because I didn’t see why I’d need a modern retelling of a story that was already done well the first time. But for a little while, Ultimate Spider-Man showed me I was wrong, he was a different kind of Spider-Man with a different kind of supporting cast. I got drawn in, I got attached. Today I was reminded that all big publishers play it safe and focus on violence to sell books. When push comes to shove they don’t want to try something new, they just want to write the same damn stories again and again.

The artist on this has been Sara Pichelli, and she is one of the greatest new voices in visual storytelling to emerge, so I’m grateful to Ultimate Spider-Man for bringing her to my attention. If not for her, perhaps I wouldn’t have become so attached to Miles and his family, or believed that this little kid could and would throw himself around the city to take the kind of risks he does.

In terms of the character’s writing though, I am disappointed. Painting with a broad brush is all well and good, but reverting to hackneyed, violent-centric story lines and depressing clichés when a book is seeking attention is cowardly and lazy. In the real world children are already being subjected to news of violent deaths in the playgrounds of America far too often, using violent death as a recurrent theme in all-ages comic books is no longer healthy or acceptable. If the envelope needs to be pushed, try pushing buttons outside of violence. At their core, all-ages comic books are adventure stories, fantasies of power and escapism for children who do not have much power or many escapes from their everyday lives, let’s stop using violent death as a touchstone in these books.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: The Dangerous Ideas of Grant Morrison’s “Marvel Boy”

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:36:00 -0700

This week I picked up the trade paperback of Marvel Boy, (originally published in 6 issues between 2000 - 2001) by Grant Morrison and Jeff G. Jones. The main character of Kree diplomat, Noh-Varr, lone survivor of an accidental shipwreck, is a charming, irreverent, unpredictable one. His love interest / sparring partner, Oubliette, daughter of our hero’s one true enemy (in true star-crossed lovers fashion) is a fantastic series of contradictions. The issues and ideas which are the playground of this book are deceptively entertaining, giving us plenty to digest and think about once the book is finished. It gives credence to the concept put forth within the book, that ideas have a life of their own, not as a metaphor, but as a concrete reality.

The story opens with the dramatic crash landing of a Kree diplomatic ship as it traverses millions of possible dimensions, stumbling upon Earth. Noh-Varr is the sole survivor of the crew, captured and experimented upon by Doctor Midas, a self-styled genius who wants access to gamma rays in an attempt to harness Fantastic Four-like powers for himself. Noh-Varr escapes, initially vowing revenge upon the Earth for the death of his crew mates and lover, but constraining himself to defacing Manhattan, swearing at us in letters visible from space (immediately establishing his as a mischievous, moralistic power).

Noh-Varr’s relationship with his gradually self-repairing ship, (hidden underground, called “Plex”), is a rather maternalistic one, as it reminds him that the people of Earth aren’t all guilty. When a “dangerous idea” escapes from the hold and threatens to destroy Earth, Plex implores Noh-Varr to save them. This concept of a sentient, “idea” is hinted at in the very first pages of the book, when the crew talk about belief powering their ship and Noh-Varr is at risk of being literally trapped by frozen data. These brief hints give backbone to the story three chapters later as Hexus, the Living Corporation, quickly grows to dominate Earth culture. In the midst of violent battle, Plex hacks the data banks and disseminates all of Hexus’ corporate database and disseminates it’s secrets with Earth’s natural corporations, (i.e. Hexus’ rivals). Through the mouthpiece of it’s employees, Hexus threatens “THE HUNTER OF THE LIVING CORPORATION CANNOT BE OPPOSED”, right before Noh-Varr delivers his cosmic bullet and ends Hexus once and for all.

In the aftershock of the cosmic bullet, Noh-Varr is weakened and once again finds himself at odds with Doctor Midas, who this time uses his daughter Oubliette in the hunt. Oubliette and Noh-Varr’s dialogue, though sparse, hints strongly at her conflicted feelings towards the Kree and as she finds herself defying her father and saving the alien, new lines of battle are drawn. Though Midas manages to engage S.H.I.E.L.D. in the pursuit and capture of Noh-Varr, he is vanquished in the process, leaving Noh-Varr and Oubliette uncowed, to threaten the Earth and hint at a future adventures.

While the wonderful romp of the book is an engaging and entertaining work, the central storyline is in chapter three. The living corporation seeks to brand and subsume every aspect of human life before abandoning the burnt out husk to move on to new worlds. Language which might be considered inflammatory or outrageous in another context is utterly acceptable in the space of a science fiction comic book, (a supposedly “disposable medium”), hidden amongst the surreal and strange. In this instance it speaks volumes about our current cultural concerns, examining issues which were only mildly troubling in the mainstream 13 years ago when this came out, but have now become overt hot-button topics in our culture. Corporate monopolies and the monoculture they create weren’t as inflammatory back then, but now we see the fruits of these issues in the Occupy movement and the corporate hegemony of our current culture.

Visually, particularly from chapter three onwards, Marvel Boy is a prime example of the kind of sequential experimentation which Morrison and his collaborators have become known for. A precursor to books like We3, by Morrison and Frank Quitely, and Seven Soldiers of Victory, particularly the portion by Morrison and J.H Williams. Like Quitely and Williams, J.G. Jones is a versatile, eloquent artist who responded beautifully to a writer moving away from the custom of creating comic books like storyboards for movies, and instead exploring the limits of visual storytelling. As well as a beautifully crafted example of sequential art, this is also a nicely packed, highly engaging novel. At only six issues, most comic books nowadays have a difficult time introducing their world and characters, let alone creating the depth of humor and rich descriptions that Morrison and Jones effortlessly communicate in this short book. This is a rich, well-encapsulated modern parable which I’m surprised it took me this long to discover, but really, the timing couldn’t be better.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: The Importance of Krypto

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0700

It is no accident that Superman, the original boy scout, the mildest-mannered, the most humane of all superheroes, always has a dog. Obviously, the concept of a super-powered dog is probably the silliest one yet to come from comic books, but whether it was with Krypto or a more mundane dog, I always picture Clark Kent growing up with animals. Unlike the humans in his life, he would never have to explain himself to them, or fear rejection if they saw his true nature. Animals are important in any kid’s life, but I can imagine that they would be essential to a superhero growing up with a secret like he had. Any hero as solid and grounded as he is would need to have animal companionship to grow up with and in many ways they could be as important to him as his human relationships, since we’re all alien life forms to him.

Late in life I came to understand how much an animal could impact your life. I didn’t really grow up with animals, I was a city-kid with two city-kid parents. Apart from the odd short-lived goldfish (who we would wake up to find floating), and a brief few months with a skittish cat, there were very few animals in my childhood. (We didn’t even name the cat and my parents had to have put down when it went nuts and wouldn’t stop crapping all over the house… In retrospect I can see that they didn’t have a lot of choice, but it probably didn’t help to have their 10 year old kid yelling “MURDERERS!” at them.) When I moved to California I had the good fortune to housesit for a friend who’d gone back East and needed someone to take care of his dog. Needing a place to live, the dog was purely incidental, but that dog walked every neighborhood in San Francisco with me. She was loyal, smart, and wherever I went I felt safe with her. Her wordless companionship gave me the confidence and the comfort to really explore. Later I was lucky enough to live with two strange cats for 5 years. While I was recovering from illness the cats were affectionate and caring, knowing to snuggle close when I was in pain and give me space when I needed it. Animals were my best and easiest companions in stressful times and I began to understand how teenagers growing up in rural settings had such different experiences of life to me. For them, animals gave them warmth and friendship when their hormones were driving them insane (and driving everyone else away in the process). Comparing the process of learning about a superpower, to the process of self-discovery that people go through, animals would be similarly helpful in that time.

People mock Aquaman for having the weird power of being able to communicate with sea creatures, but imagine how that communion would change a person? It must change a person’s psyche quite dramatically to be able to communicate with something that is almost an alien species. We have no idea how whales, dolphins, or even sea anemones think. What are their priorities? Can he talk to sea sponges and barnacles too? How deep does the communication go when they communicate? Let’s not even get into super powers which involve transformation into an animal, something like that would affect a human’s personality. I once lived in Germany for two years and by the time I left, I was just about beginning to dream in German, which definitely impacted my thought process. Despite their similar roots, German and English use different words to express similar concepts, and there aren’t always direct translations for every concept or experience. If being around an animal affects a person deeply, and learning to think in a foreign language does too, then talking TO animals or even becoming one and experiencing animal-shaped thought patterns would have to change a person immeasurably.

If people who grow up with pets and animals in their lives have a different experience of the world, superheroes who do so are bound to have a less lonely view of their reality. It is no wonder that heroes like Daredevil or Spider-Man who grew up in their concrete jungles have a more desperate, fraught quality to their characters. It is a simple enough thing, but from a super hero standpoint, having an animal to unquestionably bond with would be a huge boon to their sanity and I’m glad that Superman, in every incarnation, never seems to lose his childhood dog.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: The Relatable X-Men

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:00:18 -0700

Growing up with the X-Men made me feel like I wasn’t alone. I guess I was lucky because whatever kind of freak I was, I wasn’t any kind of outcast and there were always friends around, but I never felt like part of anything or understood by anyone. I had an unconventional upbringing and that engendered hiding a lot of things from people, nothing really big but I didn’t feel particularly connected to the culture I was growing up in. And the other kids could tell that I wasn’t “normal”; I was small, thin, dark, I dressed all wrong, I ate the wrong food, and I liked all the wrong TV and music. I didn’t choose to be different, I just was.

As a tiny kid I was obsessed with cartoon books of any kind, I always preferred visual story telling whether it was Peanuts, MAD magazine, or the indecipherable cartoons in the New Yorker (undecipherable for an 8 year old, I can handle them fine now… mostly). Still, the first time I read the Uncanny X-Men I knew it was something completely different. I didn’t have to struggle to understand the adult relationships and strange rituals because they were young, a small group of misfit kids, and the first young, outsider group I’d ever encountered in fiction. I was immediately fascinated.

My first glimpse of the X-Men was a random, early origin story in a pocket-sized, black and white reprint. American comic books were harder to find in the UK before there were specialty comic book stores, so I’d regularly comb the newsagents shelves for the bright, glossy paper of an American comic book in-between the soft, faded newsprint of the UK ones. This one was nothing fancy, despite the shiny, colorful cover it was black and white inside, but those misfit kids were there and on first glance I could tell that they were different.

Rejected by their families and society, finding a home together, making mistakes and saving the people who hated them so much… I loved it. They weren’t like the adult superheroes I’d been reading about, I was too young to understand what was implied by Tony Stark’s drinking or Spider-Man’s girlfriends, these things genuinely puzzled me and I read them as if they were written in a foreign language. It is strange now to remember a time when those things were a foreign concept, and although I enjoyed the action and adventure of those comic books, there was too much that was going over my head. But the X-Men were different, they didn’t have money, or homes, or relationships (at that point). Most importantly, as kids themselves they didn’t have many choices or much control over their lives, they were just dealing with reality as it presented itself to them, trying to survive and take care of each other. If there was ever a group of misfits more suited to helping a little kid deal with the confusing process of reaching puberty then I never found it. (Things might have been different if I’d had access to punk rock or even Lord of the Flies.)

Like a lot of people, as I grew older those differences changed and not “fitting in” began to feel like a good thing, what began as a weakness became an asset. My individuality gave me a creative drive which has never let me down and enabled me to build stronger friendships with a more diverse group than I might have if I’d been part of a crowd growing up. The X-Men gave me a little glimpse of the future freedom waiting beyond the confusing isolation of childhood.

Over the years, as the X-Men’s comic books developed and progressed their story grew ever more sophisticated. It was a good fit to my growing understanding of the world. The analogies to race, religion, and gender politics became more overt and were played upon in myriad ways by a slew of interesting writers. These comparisons are laudable, they speak to the versatility and the importance of the X-Men as a symbol for a lot of people, but I’m glad that I was able to begin reading about them before I understood those struggles. As someone who’s never been very good at defining what I am (in any of those categories now I think about it) I feel lucky to have discovered the X-Men in a simpler, less defined incarnation, where I could simply identity with them without understanding what the implications where. The X-Men were simply my first misfit friends and when I think about it, I think I’m still choosing the comic books I love most based on whether I’ve found another misfit friend.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Porn & Wonder Woman's Pants

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0700

In a move which disappoints everyone, (but surprises no one), the first promo pic from the upcoming Vivid Entertainment Wonder Woman porn parody reveals that her costume is significantly closer to her comic book counterpart than any the hero has worn in other screen adaptations.

Unless you’re a fan of the high-waist and clunky heels of Lynda Carter (whose awkward run did hold a certain charm, even if it wasn’t particularly Amazonian), or you can make do with some pretty nifty animation adaptations, there really hasn’t been a decent Wonder Woman costume on TV in decades. Woman who find out I read comic books often ask me why there isn’t a new Wonder Woman TV show or movie (because while they may not read the comic books anymore, she’s arguably the most instantly recognizable female hero around). When I reply that they tried with David E. Kelly, with Joss Whedon, with others… but it seems like there are always too many questions about her pants, they think I’m joking. How could something as basic as pants be the problem?

Adapting female superheroes from comic books to the screen is a complex task for a slew of reasons, but sexy clothing is a much bigger issue than it seems on the surface. While her 70 year old costume has generally managed to maintain a consistent brand over the years, on a human being it is always difficult to believe that a strong woman would fight battles in what is essentially a star-spangled swim suit. In real life it just isn’t plausible, and in the current climate of gritty, realistic superheroes, it is a tricky adaptation. Specifically, the problem is that television and movie makers are assuming that we need to find it believable, which gets a bit strange when you question whether a man could design and build his own Iron Man suit, or a kid could sew his own web-slinger costume… why aren’t male superheroes being held up to the same standard of realism?

What we seem to forget (but porn producers haven’t) is that it doesn’t matter if Wonder Woman’s costume is feasible, fashionable, or even plausible. What matters is that she is iconic, she is an instantly recognizable brand which has been firmly planted in our brains from infancy (well, for some of us more recently, but I grew up with her). What is a stumbling block for television networks and movie companies is actually a bonus to porn companies, who need only put a strong looking woman into an accurate costume in order to have viewers instantly buy into the fantasy. In the world of porn there is an awareness that what they are selling is sex and fantasy, this is an accepted fact known by all. This pragmatism frees porn to more accurately depict Wonder Woman’s costume, which is great. It is a shame that they rest of television can’t just admit that they’re basically in the same business of selling a fantasy, and give us a powerful, established icon in the costume which is her brand identity. I have no interest in porn parodies of superheroes, but I welcome the attention to detail and lack of self-consciousness with which they are approaching these characters and I think we can learn a thing or two from it.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: 44 FLOOD's TOME - A Kickstarter Success

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:00:00 -0700

Buying a book before it is has been created is a bit of a gamble. A collaborative art project by comic book artists, painters, writers, and musicians has to be even more of an unquantifiable project, so TOME has been a particularly pleasant surprise.

At this point, I expect that a lot of people reading this have contributed to some sort of crowd-funded project, whether it be a major motion picture, a comic book convention, or a comic book. Whether you have or haven’t got involved directly, you are probably familiar with the concept and aware of all of the potential pitfalls inherent in such an endeavor. Essentially, we pay for a product which doesn’t exist yet, either to purchase said project or some form of physical incentive (i.e. these aren’t charitable donations that we’re making, we’re buying something based on trust).

TOME is a project which, when launched on Kickstarter, wildly exceeded its goals. Unlike many other projects, the organizers used this unprecedented number of supporters to increase the scope, scale, and size of the final deliverable. After so many horror stories within the comic book and art industry, it is incredibly refreshing to see an extremely successful crowd-funded project which managed to over-deliver to such an extent.

From the outset, 44FLOOD promised not only a slew of visual beauty in their elegantly designed graphic art showcase, but a wide range artists working in all manner of styles, mediums. As the funding increased, they were able first to increase the dimensions of the book, the page count (allowing for more artists’ inclusion), a feature length documentary of the making of the book, and a companion music CD. The end result has been an immersive, creative experience of a book.

Working both in print and online design as I do, for decades people have been telling me that “print is dead”. The melodramatic fallacy of this statement aside, as book purchases gradually decline it is important to acknowledge that while basic printed matter might become less desirable, the experiential nature of a premium book is still unique. Now that there is no longer a single way to read, if it is simply the act of communicating a basic idea that we require then a printed book _has_ become superfluous; digital books are often cheaper, they take up less physical space, and they’re often easier to find. However, the very ubiquity of dry printed text makes premium, well-crafted books that much more desirable. As we accept the no-frills delivery of the printed word, we’re increasingly aware of the beauty of reading a lovingly built book, one that cannot be duplicated digitally. When my friends purge their shelves of comic books, they inevitably keep the oversized, absolute editions and the hardcover, cloth-bound indie books. We retain the link to print through the luxurious and special items in our collections.

TOME is a relatively simple idea; an annual anthology of artists using their medium of comic books, painting and music to express a single idea each year. However, the simple act of creating it at this scale, with this level of attention to the actual design of the book and the promotional film (i.e. the framework and structure of TOME) have elevated this and created a uniquely desirable artifact.

The book is being distributed to those early pre-purchasters, but there are a still few copies left for the general public to purchase from their website. My copy arrived yesterday and the book really delivers. The art is lovely, from the previews I was hopeful that it would be of this standard, but hope and expectation are two different things… In this instance I’m lucky that my hopes were fulfilled. Double-pages plastered from top to bottom with inventive, passionate work by painters, photographers, sculptures, and models. There are interviews with all manner of artists, and often they’re being interviewed by even more interesting artists! The graphic design is fantastic too, reminds me a little of early David Carson with the cleanliness of some John Maeda as a nice juxtaposition. Elegant swathes of text bleed almost to the edge of each page imparting a feeling of urgency to the layouts. This is offset by large, white blocks of negative space which act to breath calm between the pages of tumultuous large-scale artwork. After all this bounty I didn’t expect much from the music CD which was subtly pressed into a little pocket at the back of the book. Yet again, my expectations were exceeded as these clever tunes perfectly accompanied the book. I suppose if I had to describe it, I’d say it was a little bit reminiscent of Boards of Canada, Oval, and at times, György Ligeti’s Requiem (which makes perfect sense to accompany this black monolith of a book).

Click on the photos to open larger versions to check out some details, and there are more photos (I got a bit over-excited and took more than I needed for this article) posted here. More information on the nuts and bolts of the project can be found here.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Learning from Superheroes

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:00:22 -0700

Superhero comic books have saved me. I don’t mean that some real-life lunatic vigilante in a costume stopped a mugger or something, I’m talking about the actual comic books. There was a turning point in my life, when I had to stop waiting to be rescued by some larger-than-life hero, and figure out that I was (and am) my own superhero. It changed everything and I am so grateful that it did. Books like Elektra Assassin, The Uncanny X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga, Promethea, Arkham Asylum, Concrete, and Kingdom Come all told tales of people who got to their lowest ebb and then figured out how to rescue themselves. In this way the stories I loved became parables to guide me and I found strength, even when it was simply the strength to know how to ask for help.

Years ago, there was a point when I found myself suddenly ill and in debilitating, chronic pain all the time. Unfortunately I didn’t just lose that one year, my life was damaged for a few years afterwards. I was left with a slew of muscular, neural, and emotional problems which threatened every aspect of my body. One day, whining about the state of my health, a friend told me emphatically “You’re not a superhero, don’t be so hard on yourself.” It shocked me awake and I remember thinking, “But of course I am a superhero!” I felt a huge sense of elation and frustration, knowing suddenly that I was the only person who could fix this. Furious with myself, I resolved to begin trying to help myself, however I could. I realized that in a very childlike way, on some level that I hadn’t acknowledged up until then, I had been expecting some authority figure or outside force to know everything and make it better. Luckily at that most desperate point, all of the self-made, struggling superheroes I loved had hit the same low point before uncovering their deep wells of strength. If I hadn’t read superhero comic books when I was growing up, I don’t know where I would have learned that it was time to step up for myself, perhaps I’d have found another path to my own autonomy and power, but I don’t know if it would have been as satisfying.

Physically, being in pain without a break had impaired my muscles ability to relax - they had tensed and spasmed in reaction to the pain for so long that they wouldn’t release, which in turn caused more pain. Simultaneously, while I was incapacitated, other muscles had atrophied and so I was clumsier and weaker which led me to bump into things and cause more pain. My reactions to stimulants became exacerbated too, and the slightest bit of caffeine had the potential to create muscle spasms which, again, was painful. I had to reteach my muscles to relax. I found physical therapists who specialized in my disease, an acupuncturist, and massage practitioners I trusted. I learned a discipline of exercises, stretches, and self-massage techniques to work these muscles into something approximating my former self. To help my flailing immune system, I explored a variety of diets which would allow me to rebuild my strength. I found ways to eat which could heal me and support my health.

Apart from all of these muscular problems, doctors told me that the neural pathways in my brain had become so accustomed to receiving messages of pain that they had worn a kind of rut, which meant that they were beginning to interpret all sensations as pain by default. For a while, this meant that something as benign as the elasticated waistband on a pair of pants felt like a steel band cutting me in half. It sounds very Spider-Man but I learned to sew, not a costume but loose dresses, skirts with no waistband, and oversizes shirts which I wore over the next year or so until my brain gradually lost that habit.

Emotionally, I’d spent a year generally isolated, often on drugs or in pain which deprived me of my ability to think coherently. I had resigned myself to increasing disorientation as I waited for external help that didn’t come. When I finally began to emerge from the haze I was lost and timid. Like any reader, I started researching about how other sufferers had found treatment, the causes and the cures. I began talking to people about their own struggles, I found a therapist to vent to, and after years of happily working alone I got a weekend job in a comic shop so that I could ease back into human interaction in a safe environment.

Until I remembered that I am my own superhero I had been trapped in a vicious cycle, but I could save the day and I did rescue myself. This lesson still serves me, the disease is ongoing and there can be a reoccurrence of pain at any time, but when it does come back it is simply a reminder to be my own superhero, to step up and take care of myself. Now I know that I have rebuilt myself once and I can do it again. More recently when I injured my back, I managed to work through it using the same methodology I developed when I was ill. Of course it was frightening at times and impacted my life, but this time I was able to deal with it because no matter what happens, I am a superhero and I will always find a way to rescue myself.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: My 2013 Emerald City Comic Con Awards

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:38:15 -0800

As always, this year Seattle’s incredible Emerald City Comic Con presented an amazing line up of comic book creators and associated ephemera. The staff, guests, and attendees were consistently friendly, helpful, and entertaining. There was so much to see and enjoy that I only managed to fit a tenth of what I wanted into the three days I had there and by extension, I only managed to fit a tenth of that into this column, but I hope this rough countdown of incredible things gives you a taste of the best titbits of one of the best comic book conventions I’ve ever been to.

1. Best Commission Art - Kevin Maguire’s Max Lord pinup
Jordyn Nolz was the happy recipient of this amazing commission of this Max Lord drawing and she proudly showed it off all over Emerald City. Later, I asked Kevin Maguire about the marvelously cheezy 1970’s feel of it and he said that he was trying to channel the feel of that infamous Burt Reynolds centerfold 40 years ago. I asked if he had used any photo reference since the posture and body hair are so detailed and lifelike, but he said that he hadn’t and joked that it had sprung from his head pretty much perfectly formed. Another great convention sketch was Andy Suriano’s fantastically energetic Big Barda. Such a different take on the character, so quintessentially his, that it made me want to see more artist’s take on the classic character in future.

2. Best Special Edition Comic Book - Wuvvable Oaf #4 Super Fan Edition
The full ride from Wuvable Oaf, including a poster/removable slip cover, a unique random sketch, a backstage “ass” pass with an LED light-up logo, a playable flexi-record, a ticket stub with an mp3 download link, and of course, issue #4 of the comic book. This impressive and funny package was being snapped up left and right, so I was lucky to get a look at it. Other companies offered interesting special editions too, most of which were green (for Emerald City I suppose), like Espionage cosmetics who offered a set of green sparkly eye shadow pigment pots. This, apparently, had the honor of being the first ECCC special aimed specifically at women.

3. Best Fashion - Space Shuttle Skirt
Sadly, this wasn’t for sale at the convention, it was simply being worn by a stylish attendee. I caught this in passing, as a literally ran from one room to the next, (trying to catch up with all my friends in the last hour of the convention, as you do). The woman wearing it told me that a friend who’d actually watched the take off had made the print for the skirt. I was in awe of it, even as I ran off and resolved to look more actively into custom-printing on fabric in future. The runner up to this would have to be the woman with the hand-painted Batman logos on her nails. Tiny as can be, I can’t imagine how hard these were to paint.

4. Best Toy - Scoliosis Superman
Poor Superman clearly has a very dangerously curved spine, at least according to this toy he does. I see this extreme arch of his back and all I can think is “that man is going to slip a disc next time he lifts something heavy.” Personally, I always assumed that Superman’s superior musculature would give him near-perfect posture, but according to this figure he arches his back quite aggressively. He contrasted nicely with the stylized, super-blocky little Justice League nearby, all straight lines and sharp corners.

5. Biggest Faux Pas - Bitching about Panelist in Their Panels
Insulting the guests who’re speaking while you’re sitting in their panel is just silly. It might not seem obvious to everyone, but if you choose to attend a panel featuring a guest you don’t like, you might want to keep it to yourself. Sitting in panels I’ve often overheard people making disparaging remarks about the people on stage, (often people who I have made a special effort to hear talk). Sitting in close-quarters with a lot of people who have made a special effort to go see those specific creators talk, you’re definitely going to offend someone, a bit like being a fan of the away team at a home team game.

6. Best Wearable Art / Cosplay - Phoenix’s Satyr
It was an unexpected surprise to see Phoenix wearing her incredible art project at Emerald City. I’v been charting the progress as she makes this, step-be-step on her website (here) and so I was excited to get a chance to see it in real life. When she popped out of the crowd, I didn’t recognize her at all, the difference in the costume was that dramatic. The legs were so much more substantial than I’d imagined and she must have been boiling, but she hopped around like a pro and her satyr make-up was flawless too.

7. Best Animation Announcement - Squee Cartoon in the Works
There’s going to be an animated Squee cartoon from Jhonen Vasquez working with Titmouse (as a precursor to a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac animation). The embattled little character Squee was originally created by Jhonen Vasquez as simply another peripheral character to be terrorized by Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, but he grew to inhabit his own tortured comic books. Now he’s providing a healthy testing ground for Vasquez and Titmouse before they dive into the morass that is the world of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

8. Best Booth Posters - Coop
Nowadays most of the artists appearing at comic book conventions seem to bring their own posters or signage, which makes them much easier to identity and find from across a room of crowded tables. Coop took this a step further, creating these marvelously statuesque women to flank him at his booth, reminiscent of his infamous Devil Girl paintings. Special mentions have to go up for Chuck BB, who managed to accidentally create a booth poster which gave him some epic horns, and led to some very silly photos of him, and Ben Templesmith, who’s radically simple black “T” logo on a sea of red makes him identifiable from miles away.

9. Best Comic Book Job Offer - Roberta Gregory Call for Online Assistance
This year I was lucky enough to meet Roberta Gregory, the creator of hysterical, seminal books like Naughty Bits. She told me that she is looking to hire someone local to Seattle who can work closely with her to help her get her post some excerpts of her work online as a long terms project (e.g. around 3-4 hours every week or two). I wish I were local because I’d jump at the chance to help this ground-breaking cartoonist disseminate her work to a wider audience. If you’re in Seattle please consider offering your services, contact details are here.

10. Biggest Change to Emerald City in 2013 - Doubled in size
While a lot of conventions have been steadily growing, Emerald City took a tremendous leap this year and doubled in size, both in realty and attendees. This impressive growth was adroitly handled by the always affable team, I really cannot say enough good things about the very friendly and helpful people who run Emerald City Comic Con every year. As always the crowd was friendly and generally pretty relaxed, it was still a great atmosphere, just a little more crowded. The sudden change did affect the environment, and this year was the first year that the convention felt just a tiny bit overwhelming, even if it was only in the sense that I couldn’t see all of the people I wanted to and somehow missing socializing with some very good friends. All this means is that I’ll have to try to come back again next year!

…

Originally published here.

Committed: the Fallacy of Superheroes for Boys & Fantasy for Girls

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:00:19 -0800

Like a lot of adult comic book readers do at some point, I’ve been taking stock of my reading choices and the type of mainstream, ongoing, monthly comic books which I read. It took me a while to figure out what was bothering me, but I found that I was making a couple of assumptions which, upon closer examination, were wrong.

1. I’ve been assuming that I read predominantly two types of comic books; fantasy and superhero (apart from the odd foray into horror, bios, and science fiction.)
2. Without thought and with quite some negative judgement about it, I’ve been thinking of the fantasy genre comic books as “girl” comics, and the superhero ones as “boy” comics (e.g. some weeks are “girl heavy”).

These are depressingly reductive ways to look at the comic books I enjoy, and the more I thought about it, the more I saw how wrong I was.

The books I deemed fantasy, like Unwritten, Fables, and all of the Buffy spinoff books which I think of as my “girls” reading (and which seem to be targeted predominantly at a female audience) have their roots in fantasy fiction, this is true. There are fairy tales and mythical stories woven into the roots of these books and no one is wearing colorful spandex or a cape. However, when I start to dissect them each one focuses on people with unusual powers and abilities, people who find that these power separate them from their regular human counterparts, who are burdened with a responsibility to fight for the greater good.

Unwritten’s Tommy Taylor is clearly a superhero, whether he wants to be or not, thrown into one chaotic, world-altering scenario after another. His enemies are more like super villains than most of the pseudo criminals who pepper regular superhero comic books, complete with code names and costumes too.

Similarly Buffy is a hero, as are Willow, Angel, Faith and even Spike. Whedon always intended her to serve as a modern myth, a hero of a new type, and while the comic veers into the territory of fantasy and horror, it is ultimately a superhero book, as all all of the spin-off titles associated with it.

Fables is not just another way of looking at ancient fairy tales, but is also about an entire population of super powered individuals. In many ways this is a world of superheroes, trying to function and survive in the “real” world while staying hidden from their ancient enemies, as much as from us.

All of my so-called fantasy books are stories about superheroes of some kind of another, no matter what the setting. Action, violence, and epic struggle are all integral to the stories of these comic books, just as much as the connections and interactions between individuals which made me assume these were something as narrow as a book which would only work for one gender or another.

Similarly, the books which I was pigeonholing as basic superhero stories, “boy” books, are so much richer than this. Fury, Ultimate Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Daredevil, and Powers all have a much broader focus than the superheroes they’re named for.

The excellent Fury is all about the youth of Nick Fury. Pre S.H.I.E.L.D., pre Avengers, this is him on covert jungle missions, frustrating sexual trysts, and heart breaking sacrifice. When Ennis writes Fury, we feel his stoic pain as he grits his teeth and gets on with the brutal job at hand. It hardly reads like a superhero comic book, and even less like a war comic book, it’s just that rich that it transcends genres.

Ultimate Spider-Man (apart from being an incredible showcase for Sara Pichelli’s Spidey acrobatics focuses as much on the emotional aspect of the heroes journey as it does on the fight. I’ve come to care about this kid, his family, and the city which seems to be continuously pitted against them.

Hawkeye isn’t just about a non-powered superhero (which is always an interesting little puzzle to watch), but is just as engagingly about the inhabitants of the building Barton lives in and protects. With more to lose, our protagonist becomes a more sympathetic character. This is a book about life in a neighborhood as much as it is about adventure and risk.

Over the last few months, Daredevil has evolved from revitalized, swashbuckling hero, into a man struggling with his own sanity. By confronting the massive personal changes the character embraced last year, Waid has allowed a necessary depth to emerge from the veneer of happiness he gave Murdock and it makes for richer reading. Far from being a basic superhero story, this is book about mental health, trust, and personal awareness.

Powers is an odd one. The entire thing is about the police who deal with the super powered criminals and overtly all about superheroes. But at it’s core it is a workplace drama, focusing on the dynamic between Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim as a classic, buddy-movie. The bureaucracy they wrestle with in the face of a violent world is an excellent metaphor for the limitations inherent in any professional endeavor. While the powers described in the title are those of superheroes and villains, the real power is in the weighty emotional baggage of the protagonists and their work.

I’m so glad that I was worried about my monthly superhero reading, because in examining my assumptions and expectations I found that the categories I was applying to them are essentially meaningless. The reason I enjoy these particular books so much is because they capture my imagination, on a multitude of different levels. The genre and gender stereotypes which I had applied to them were reductive and restrictive, which means that in the future I can ignore them, recommend better books to my friends, and be more open-minded about my own reading experiments.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: 10 Great Superhero Boots

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:00:20 -0800

Comic book artists make strange shoe designers. Some of them don’t really draw feet, others perch their heroes on tiny 6” stilettos and assume they’ll be able to fight. Decades ago when I first began reading American superhero comics, the footwear fascinated me. Too young to be wearing anything but the most basic, functional kid-shoes, I loved the thigh-highs, the swashbuckling boots, the slouchy ankle boots, and all manner of footwear that was still out of my reach. As I’ve aged it has become less of an item of desire and more of curiosity as I witness cosplayers at conventions trying to duplicate their favorite heroes, footwear and all. Here is a list of ten of of my favorite boots in comic books, with no films included (I wanted to look more at the work of the artists and their specific shoe designs). Click on any of the images to see a larger version of each.

1. John Byrne’s STORM go-go bootsThe boots which first impressed me where Storm’s, back in the 1980’s. Thigh high with the elaborate cut-outs, they had a kind of ‘70’s go-go look that I loved. Impractical on one level (how do they stay up) and practical on another (it’s better than having naked legs in a storm), they don’t just look good, they make her very revealing costume somewhat less revealing. More than half disco-fabulous, these look great in a fight. Those kitten heels wouldn’t be my choice, but it was Byrne’s standard heel at that time and he makes it work.

2. Mike McMahon’s JUDGE DREDD ribbed boots
The crazy thing about these boots is that ribbed toe cap. Well, I say that, but the scale and the bright green is pretty insane, but that ribbed toe cap is what always gets me. It reminds me of a classic Adidas Superstar (or shell toe) sneaker. I used to have calf-high green boots, they weren’t as clunky as these but they had just as much impact. There’s something fantastically stompy and exaggerated about them in conjunction with those huge knee pads that makes the Judge’s costume that much more grounded. He’s one of the skinniest men in comic books, with the largest boots in contrast with his little legs. It’s a great silhouette.

3. Darwyn Cooke’s CATWOMAN ankle boots
Over the years I’ve enjoyed all the incarnations of Catwoman, but Cooke gave her the most covetable costume. This is definitely the first time I’d seen Catwoman in practical, sturdy shoes she could work in. There’s still a heel, enough to give the foot support if she’s running fast, and that sole has serious grip to it, which probably comes in very handy with all the cat-burgling. The crazy thing about Cooke is that he’s still using his sassy, 1950’s style, but her shoes are completely contemporary and they sweep the costume out of the realm of fetish and into a more utilitarian style.

4. Adi Granov’s Iron Man boots
Ever since I read Iron Man Extremis (by Warren Ellis with art by Granov) I’ve loved Granov’s take on Iron Man. The overall shape of this, the silhouette is like someone wearing long, boot-cut jeans over giant boots, there’s a smooth, continuous line from leg to foot. It emphasizes the jet-functionality of the boot. Granov’s perspective of the Iron Man armor is well-known because of his work designing for the movies, the benefit of this is that he’s had to decide how the armor actually accommodates a live human body which has in turn strengthened the design.

5. George Perez’ elegant Wonder Woman boots
This is one of my favorite incarnations of Wonder Woman and her costume, there’s something deeply unsexy about her semi-nudity (in a good way). Perez had this knack for making her look strong without making her look aggressive and her simple, sporty, flat-soled boots are part of this. Light and agile, these boots are made for Wonder Woman to live in and look good doing it. If you look at the way he draws the top of the foot, you can tell that this is a well constructed heel, not entirely flat.The red boot with the white stripe was always pretty slick, but taking away any heel perfects them and takes them out of the 60’s.

6. Jack Kirby’s Captain America pirate boots
Maybe it was my early love of pirate movies, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Captain America’s calf-high, fold-over boots. They root him in the era he was created for and add a swashbuckling mood to his costume. Captain America could so easily be a dour sort of a hero, so earnest and well-meaning that he could be dull, but how can a man in bright red pirate boots be dull? Kirby’s often drew feet a little larger than other artists and with these cuffed boots encasing his calves, Captain America has that much more gravitas than his fellow superheroes.

7. Kirby (and Bruce Timm’s) Barda pixie boots
This delicate, black, leather footwear is the creation of Kirby, who depicted Barda wearing this outfit when she was out of uniform. Bruce Timm’s take on the costume emphasize the delicacy of the boots even more and they provide a contrast to her muscular physique. They’re almost ballet slippers and the sharp little wings on the front, cinched together by a white circle, give them that dynamic, otherworldly look. While this might seem like an odd choice to wear when out of costume, Barda is practically invulnerable so protecting her feet for everyday tasks probably isn’t a factor.

8. Amanda Conner’s Supergirl boots
Chunky, red, knee-high boots with a heavily textured, thick sole. I’ve never seen Amanda Conner get it wrong with shoes for any character, every detail is plausible and wearable, maybe because she’s aware of what it feels like to wear a woman’s boot. Conner’s Wednesday Comics version of Supergirl was my favorite version of the hero because she had so much fun and seemed like more of a young girl than she’d been portrayed as in years. The oversized boot emphasized her small stature and disproportionate strength, giving her a solid base to stand on and rooting her to the earth even in flight.

9. Flash (Jay Garrick’s) winged boots
From a design standpoint this is an obvious homage to the winged messenger Mercury, but the fact is that these aren’t just roman sandals, these are the slouchiest little 1980’s-style ankle boots (and so ahead of his time! These were designed four decades earlier than the era when these would finally become current). Red boots with perfect, little golden wings and a solid sole for good traction when running, they might not be as useful as a good pair of sneakers, but in an era when the only sneakers available would have been lightweight tennis shoes these were a practical creation as well as a stylish one.

10. Brian Bolland’s take on Zatanna’s new boots
As you can see on the right Zatanna (in her current costume, not the Justice League Dark one), is usually depicted wearing a simple court shoe. A high heeled, slip on shoe might be fine for stage wear, but it isn’t too realistic a contender for a fighting superhero. That’s why I was so happy to see her in these very high, flat, thick soled boots (on the left of the image on the right). They provide her legs with some protection (without changing her costume and putting her in pants) and the thick flat sole is a far more useable one for a superhero.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: "Reset", "Seconds", and Peter Bagge's New Optimism

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:00:21 -0800

Reset is the story of out-of-work, B-movie comedy actor Guy Krause, whose life has become a series of tabloid story jokes. He’s penniless and out of work when he’s approached to be a guinea pig for a mysterious, virtual reality project which allows the subject to relive and change events from their past. The only control that the subject has over his virtual experience is a “reset” button, which allows him to return to the beginning of his story (his high school graduation) and start all over again. Initially it seems like some kind of dumb game or potential psychotherapy tool, but as the weeks progress the behind-the-scenes workings become increasingly disturbing and we begin to wonder if our heroes sanity is safe…

Not to spoil the story (and maybe you can stop reading here if you want to be completely surprised), but unlike Other Lives, the man actually chooses to go through some difficult things, confront some real people in a very blunt way, and finally grows from his experiences. It’s beautiful in a very basic way, he struggles to find his own redemption, despite the massive forces of government scientists trying their inept best to break their own system. The book

Peter Bagge’s Reset came out ages ago, and while I bought all 7 issues as they came out I kept putting off reading it, which is a bit stupid, in retrospect, because I could have just bought a nice hardcover compilation of it for less money, (which incidentally I recommend you do). Obviously I didn’t intentionally put off reading it, but it didn’t really beckon to me in the way I expected it, I think perhaps I was a little burned out on what I thought would be Bagge’s attitude to humanity. You see, based on some of his previous books, I’d grown a little wary of Bagge’s unrelenting realism (or perhaps his pessimism, it depends what day you ask me on), but anyway, I couldn’t face another comic about pathetic losers throwing their lives away. It turns out that my fears were completely unfounded and I totally misjudged Bagge. With the aptly named Reset, Bagge seems to have taken another approach to life and it is exactly the little nudge his work needed for me.

Peter Bagge’s Hate used to crack me up. From the first issue he was right there explaining and mocking everything that I found completely surreal about America. He had this fantastic way of laughing at his characters,while simultaneously expressing great affection for them. He gave us a cast of hilariously fucked up characters and watching them drive their lives into a ditch. Over the years I’ve been following his other books, but I’ve never found him to have the same level of affection for his other characters that he did for those in Hate. Messed up lives just wind up seeming pathetic and insane when there is no redemption or hope for happiness, and maybe it got a bit much for Bagge too, because Reset moves into a very different space quite seamlessly.

When I was growing up in the UK, there were only three choices on TV on a Sunday; televised church services, football (or soccer for you Americans), or old, black and white movies. None of them were particularly interesting to me, so I chose the old movies. This means that I watched a lot of very odd old movies which may or may not have made sense to me at the time, and definitely had a huge impact on my outlook on life. One of these key films was called Seconds, which was directed by John Frankenheimer in 1966, starring Rock Hudson, and featuring titles by Saul Bass.

Even as a little kid, I knew that I was seeing something completely different from anything I’d seen before, and for the first time in my life I carefully read those titles to find out who had directed this, acted in it, and designed those strange and disturbing titles. Later on, as I grew up and learned about Rock Hudson’s usual roles (ie. a lot lighter than this type of film) I began to research how this film came to be what it was, and how Hudson came to be in it. Slowly I came to understand that what I’d seen was a metaphor for the kind of questions that adults ask themselves as they grow up, the kind of personal moment of revelation that was still a world away for me. This film probably set the foundations for my future interest in design and the importance I now place on consciously choosing my path.

Like Reset, Seconds is the story of a man who has given up on true happiness in his life, and worse than that, he doesn’t even understand that he could be happy. While external forces are conspiring to compound this misery there is plenty our hero has done to let things get this bad. The compromises he has made have made his life a gray and joyless thing and while he has regrets, he doesn’t think to look for an alternative. Suddenly he finds himself in a situation where he is being offered a second chance at life and he takes it. The process is confusing, invasive, the scientists don’t allow him time to think about the choices he is making and he finds himself as lost and confused as ever. Without a chance to confront his demons, he cannot move on.

While Peter Bagge uses Reset to confront similarly heady concepts, the inevitable chaotic dysfunction of conspiracies creates a situation which pushes his protagonist into areas of discomfort and potential horror. Krause is forced to truly see himself and accept the man he is. At times it can be a wild and silly ride of a comic book, (it wouldn’t be a Bagge book if it wasn’t), and he uses this ride to is show us a brave man on a journey to find himself. It makes for a very enjoyable, rewarding read.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: The "Batman On Robin" Exhibition (Warning: Explicit Imagery, for mature readers only, NSFW, etc)

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:00:00 -0800

This Friday sees the opening of an exhibition of original art inspired by the relationship between Batman and Robin at Mission Comics and Art from February 6th - March 3rd. The exhibition includes original works from 30 artists, including Ed Luce, Sina Grace, Beth Dean, as well as the curators; Justin Hall and Rick Worley. I spoke with Worley and Hall about the exhibition, and they gave us a preview of art which will be included in the show (which I’ve included below the interview.)

Please note that some of the imagery is of a graphic nature and will not be appropriate for all ages.

…

Sonia Harris: Can you tell me how you came up with the idea for the exhibition?

Rick Worley: I was doing a reading for a release party for the Fantagraphics collection No Straight Lines about the history of queer comics, which Justin [Hall] had edited and very kindly included some of my work in. Justin read a piece he had done about two real life male prostitutes who had been paid by a client to dress up as Batman and Robin, which was a fetish of his, and I had just recently, coincidentally, done a commissioned story that had been written about another true life story about somebody who had gone to a Halloween party dressed as Robin and found a guy dressed as Batman, and they ended up having sex together. Justin and I were talking about how funny it was that we had both happened to illustrate things on that theme, and one of us said that there must easily be enough of that stuff in the world to make a whole show of it, and that’s how it started.

What made me think it would be an interesting show is how, despite both being sex stories involving Batman and Robin, Justin’s piece and mine were so completely different. The stories reflect the life experiences and sexual inclinations of the people who draw them. I thought it was interesting how such a specific theme could provide such a variety of responses, and how some of those responses tell you more about the artists than they do about Batman and Robin. The original idea of the show was actually to try to collect and do a retrospective of Batman and Robin slash stuff that already existed, since there’s enough of that in the world already to probably do 10 good shows. Once we started to talk to artists about it, though, we found that there was no shortage of people who wanted to original pieces specifically for our show. Actually, the show goes up tomorrow and I’m still getting messages from people asking if they can contribute pieces. So apparently the idea hit a nerve. I think the show is going to end up with around 30 contributors, and we’ve already had people talk to us about traveling the show after it comes down in March.

I was talking a little while ago to some friends who are heterosexual and who aren’t really into comics, and when I told them the show was about Batman and Robin and the theme of the show their immediate response was, “Oh yeah, they totally fuck.” It’s something that’s become such a part of the subtext of the characters over the decades that people get it right away.

Justin Hall: Rick and I first came up with a dream list of possible contributors to reach out to, but then the ball started rolling almost faster than we could keep up with. A lot of artists came forward on their own with work, and the response in general has been remarkable, and incredibly diverse. As Rick said, we have an entire range of artists, men and women, gay, straight, and bisexual, doing everything from classic gay erotica, to curtain fiction (“domestic” slash), to really surreal pieces. We have everything from traditional comics art, to oil paintings, etchings, tattoo art, photograph, ink washes, digital prints, etc. We’ll even have some poetry read at the opening, along with the comics! It’s really interesting how such a narrowly defined subject, homoerotic takes on Batman and Robin, can lead to such a tremendous range of art.

SH: How did you choose artists to contribute to the exhibition?

Rick Worley: The idea was to get as diverse a group of artists as possible to see what they would bring to it, as you can probably see from the samples (below). We have female contributors, heterosexual contributors, even a lesbian Batwoman and Catwoman story. We have paintings, digital art, and some traditional comics-style pen and ink.

SH: Batman and Robin are copyrighted characters, have you had any problems with using them as your inspiration for this exhibition?

Rick Worley: I don’t see any problem with that. For one thing, most of the pieces fall into the category of commentary on the characters, we aren’t presenting them as official products, and I think they’re well within the definition of fair use. Also, within comics there’s a big tradition of artist alley, where people can do their spins on the characters, and there’s also the fact that artists are allowed to sell the original art for pieces that are made for reproduction. We aren’t selling books or programs or charging admission, the only thing for sale are the pieces created by the artists, and I think comic book stores do these types of shows all the time.

Justin Hall: I’ve talked to a couple of lawyers about this, and they agree that this should all fall clearly within parody. Of course, if Time Warner really wants to go after us, they certainly have the money to do it. I really hope, though, that the powers that be recognize that slash fan fiction is a more sophisticated and interesting phenomenon than simple plagiarism or vulgarity. The art in this show is utilizing popular culture icons as the means of expression for other sets of ideas; this doesn’t diminish the properties of Batman and Robin in the slightest. It makes them more profound, and more relevant, precisely because they can be used by so many people to so many artistic ends, even if those ends were unintended by the original creators.

…

The Batman on Robin exhibition runs from February 6th - March 3rd at Mission: Comics & Art, 3520 20th Street, Suite B, San Francisco CA. The opening reception is on Friday February 8th from 7pm onwards, with readings, drinks, snacks, and a chance to meet some of the artists.

…

(Art at top right of article: Beth Dean.)

Above: Ed Luce’s art, complete with real body hair.

Above: Yssa Badiola touching portrait of the duo.

Above: Stealing the punchline from the last page of Rick Worley’s comic.

Above: Painting by Craig Bostick.

Above: Adorable bat-messaging art from Mari Naomi.

Above: Justin Hall’s Kama Sutra-inspired dynamic duo.

Committed: Jeff Lemire talks Constantine

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:00:19 -0800

Last week Jeff Lemire let me know that he and Ray Fawkes are committed to keeping John Constantine’s life filled with self-sabotage, demons, sex, and all kinds of insanity. After a sneak peak at the script for Constantine #1 (on shelves in March) I found some points of interest, certainly enough to make me look forward to the release of Constantine in March), and Lemire kindly agreed to answer a few questions. Talking about his intentions and the future for our favorite misanthropic anti-hero gives me hope that the core issues Hellblazer was able to wrestle with may not be entirely lost in this forthcoming take on the character.

…

SH: Is Constantine a book you wanted to write? Do you have interest in this character specifically, (because I know he comes with quite a lot of baggage)?

Jeff Lemire: Well, first off, I should qualify all my answers by saying that Ray Fawkes is really the point man on this project. He and I are plotting the first five issues together and working together to build the direction of the book and the character in the New 52 DC Universe. But Ray will be writing the actual scripts. Having said all of that, I will say that I have an intense interest in Constantine as a character. John Constantine is probably my favorite comic book character and has been since I was fourteen. And, like a lot of fans I was really disappointed to see Hellblazer get cancelled. It was the one book I still bought monthly every month and I loved what Peter Milligan and company were doing. But, at the same time, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to have a chance to write him now.

To me Constantine in Justice League Dark, was a fun take on the character. It was a chance to see John interact with the larger DCU and with the other DC Dark characters. His solo book however will be a chance to re-establish John’s character and go deeper into who he is and what motivates him.

SH: Once I let go of the name “John Constantine”, I was able to enjoy your version as an entirely new character. Did you need to find a way to approach Constantine as a new character?

Jeff Lemire: No. To me our take is true to who he was to a large degree. Ray and I are working really hard to maintain the integrity of the character, to keep him consistent with what we loved about the Vertigo version, but to also reintroduce him to a new audience and make him a part of the larger DCU again like he was when he was originally introduced in Swamp Thing in the 80’s.

There are certain words we can’t use, but otherwise we aren’t pulling any punches. The two key differences are that he younger than he was in Hellblazer, and he is operating in New York now. Though we will see JC in London again.

SH: There has been a lot of speculation about how the move to the DC universe will change John Constantine. Outside of obvious differences (e.g. age, marital status, country of residence, etc), what kind of a man can we expect to see in this new Constantine?

Jeff Lemire: John is a man who is very much motivated my his thirst for knowledge. I also believe that deep down he does want to do the “right thing”, but that often is blurred together with what’s right for him. As a result he can be selfish and brutal. He is also a man who has a very hard time trusting anyone else.

SH: Apart from a few notable exceptions, Hellblazer was written by British writers. Did you feel any trepidation about finding John’s “voice”?

Jeff Lemire: Sure, at first I did. It’s a learning process to be sure. There are issues of JLD I’d like to have another go at, and some that I’m quite pleased with. But I felt like Constantine 1 was a chance to course correct and refine certian aspects of his character. I will say that Ray has a better ear for John’s dialogue than I did.

SH: In Hellblazer, the city of London and politics (or more specifically - John’s hatred of Tories), played an important role in many stories. Are either of these going to show up as devices in the future in the book?

Jeff Lemire: London will continue to play a role in the book and in John’s life. He returns to London in Issue 3 in fact. As for the politics. I feel those were aspects of the character that were very specific to Hellblazer and to the time the early issues of the book were being written. That’s not to say that our book won’t have political undertones, but I think they need to come about organically and John’s worldview in 2013 as opposes to 1989 when those early issues were published.

SH: In the past, the worst of Constantine’s battles have been against his self-destructive tendencies and the vitriol of damaged people (and demons). By placing him within the DC universe, will he be fighting more flamboyant, super villain types from now on, or will he continue to be his own worst enemy?

Jeff Lemire: John’s greatest enemy should always be himself. If it’s not that I think it’s not Constantine any more. I don’t plan on seeing JC fight Doctor Polaris or Crazy Quilt any time soon. Having said that, we will see other mystics appear in the book, MR. E, SARGON etc. But again, John will have a more complex relationship with them than the typical “good guy/bad guy”dynamic.

SH: Some of my favorite old Hellblazer comic books were one-shots, simple stories about the bizarre, ridiculous, and tragic that John deftly handled. Is that something that you’ll have room for, in between long-form, epic battles with big evil?

Jeff Lemire: Absolutely. In fact we are focusing almost exclusively on shorter arcs and one shots, with an underlying mythology running through everything.One of the things I learned form Animal Man was that huge story lines can be good, but if your only telling one story all the time, the reader can loose patience. We made that mistake with Rotworld, and I don’t want to do it again with Green Arrow or Constantine, or with Animal Man after Rotworld for that matter.

Our first five issues of Constantine will be composed of a 3-parter and then two stand alone issues.

….

Constantine #1 is out in March from DC.

…

Other articles I’ve written for CSBG about John Constantine include:
Committed: Hellblazer - DC Shoot Themselves in the Foot (again)
Committed: DC Got Their Marketing All Over My Constantine
Committed: Neonomicon, Hellblazer & Fables… NSFW?
Committed: Why You Wish You Read Hellblazer

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Kyle Baker's "Why I Hate Saturn"

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:00:31 -0800

Kyle Baker has posted small versions of his graphic novels on his website for everyone to read for free. I’m hoping that this will lead more people to discover the subtle genius that is “Why I Hate Saturn”, along with many of his other very clever, funny, beautiful, eclectic books.

For many years, Why I Hate Saturn was one of my favorite comic books, it was funny, silly, clever and wise. I gave it to at least three different friends so they would understand me a little better. This story highlights all of the things that work in society, (as well as the many things that don’t), and it makes me laugh while it does it. When I was growing into myself, it demystified a very awkward phase I was going through and the confusing changes in the ways that the world was responding to me. Even though that particular awkward phase is done, there are always new ones and this is still a book which is dear to my heart.

The story is simultaneously pretty straightforward and also quite convoluted, but basically Anne is a disgruntled New Yorker working as a columnist for a paper, drinking too much scotch, bemoaning her single status, when her life is thrown into chaos by the return of her annoyingly upbeat and slightly crazy sister. This comic came out before Sex in the City, Seinfeld, or Liz Lemon and 30 Rock, but it could have been the inspiration for any of those. Funny, biting, and drawn with real affection, this is ludicrously satisfying comic book to own and share. Maybe it is bad that I read this so young and thought it could teach me life lessons, but Baker never steered me wrong and to this day, I still quote the book to my confused friends.

“So basically you’re saying that you’re upset because you can’t compete with anorexic women for unemployed guys?”

“Look, Black music is in, Black culture is in, but Black people will never be in.”

“Nice legs. The goose bumps sort of ruin the effect though.”

It also contains the best synopsis of the biography of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald that I have ever read. You’ll see.

There are harsh truths to be told and learned by Anne and incidentally, by us too. That’s the thing, it pretends to be a dumb humor book, but the characters speak truths and the line work has moments of echoing Toulouse Lautrec’s drawings at their most heartbreakingly lovely. It might not have been intended to high art or great philosophy, but there are moments when it touches at the edges of that territory and that makes the book so much more than the sum of its parts. Apparently it was an Eisner award winner and I would say, deservedly so.

This came out right after Baker’s amazing work on The Shadow and I loved the humor and relaxed irreverence he brought to both of these works. Kyle Baker’s style has changed many times over the years, but this period is probably my favorite; he uses this oddly vulnerable, shaky line work which gives his characters a tremendous fragility and imparts the crappy, flawed humanity that he is so good at making amusing instead of tragic. At the time I found the two color print (well, one color if you don’t count black, but printers will still count it) very clean and elegant. Now I understand that it was also probably a cost consideration, but I still like the way he uses the soft second color as a shadow throughout, gives the whole story the dimension it needs. Published in a single volume, these well-developed and nicely drawn characters never appeared elsewhere (much to my disappointment).

If you haven’t already read this book, Kyle Baker has very generously posted it on his website to read for free (or at least he’s posted most of it, 124 pages to be exact. I expect the rest of it is still to come) http://www.qualityjollity.com/Why_I_Hate_Saturn.html
You have no idea how happy this makes me, if only so that (finally) someone else will read the book and be able to laugh with me about it. I should warn you that this free, online version is low-res, (it is just big enough to teeter on the edge of legibility) and you can’t see the lovely second color very well. However it is enough to give you a taste of the book and then if you like it (you will), you can buy it for under $20, which really isn’t much for a lifetime of fun and a chance at unlocking the mysteries of the human condition.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Big Bang Theory Vs. Morgan Spurlock (or "When a Sitcom is Less Insulting than a Documentary")

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:00:00 -0800

Like junk food, I expect my consumption of sitcoms to be unsatisfying and flippantly derogatory. I do not expect the same from films calling themselves “documentaries” but unfortunately that is what I experienced.

Last week an episode of the The Big Bang Theory (season 6, episode 13) featured the guys going to a small convention in costume, leaving their girlfriends to explore comic books. As usual, it was presented in a denigrating and ridiculous manner, belittling everyone involved. No big surprise, it was the usual mildly amusing collection of silly clichés played out by an ensemble of two-dimensional characters.

While I’ve written about the show before, I was careful not to express my own feelings lest I attract the fury of angry commenters. Ironically there will still plenty of comments from both sides; people angry at me for liking the show, and people angry at me for NOT liking the show. (I guess the moral of the story is not to worry too much about the fact that my having opinions might piss anyone off…) So here I am, telling you that I happily watch The Big Bang Theory. In fact, while I’m coming out with this not-very-interesting-revelation let me be really open; I watch a lot of terrible TV shows, and not just to mock and hate-watch them, but because I can get into them and enjoy them. I even like things I’m not supposed to, like Sherlock and Elementary (I think the world is big enough for two shows about Sherlock Holmes.) I do all sorts of things I don’t talk about, I watch terrible romantic comedies about women with terrible value systems which I find embarrassing and destructive. I read some lousy comic books with bad art and lazy stories just because I like the characters. I go to crappy gossip websites and read about celebrities I don’t care about. I even eat unhealthy food on a regular basis. Shockingly, I can get into these things because my expectations of them are realistic. I know that these are disposable, pop-culture artifacts which will not feed my soul in any sustainable sense and I can enjoy them for what they are - trash.

Let’s set the scene; I’m sitting on the couch eating cookies for lunch even though I have a kale salad and steamed salmon with herbs already cooked. Yes, despite the tasty leftovers in my fridge, I am making a conscious decision to eat cookies and watch the much hated episode of The Big Bang Theory. After all the fury and crazy talk, it is quite dull, just what I expected - silly and just about amusing enough to outweigh how depressing and ridiculous it is. Just as I don’t expect to get any nutrients out of a cookie-lunch, or build muscles from sitting on the couch, I understand that this is a pretty low-quality sitcom and I get out of it what I expected to. To paraphrase Mr Smithers, I’m fine with wallowing in my own crapulence once in a while.

People and things insulted in this episode of The Big Bang Theory include:

superhero comic books are described as stupid in various ways
comic book shoppers are shown as unnatractive, poorly-dressed men who have never seen a woman
women are depicted as uninterested in comic books
women are also depicted as bitchy and mean to each other
male scientists are portrayed as socially inept with clichéd camp/homosexual tendencies
which leads to the fact that men who like dressing up and wearing make-up are depicted as having questionable sexuality
small, comic book-oriented conventions are disparaged as being not as good as the ones with movie stuff
convention attendees are shown slavishly attending, despite their supposed non-enjoyment of them
people who dress up for conventions are made to seem impractical and delusional about their appearance outside of conventions
Star Trek Next Generation fans are depicted as having little or no awareness of the “real” world
Diner waitresses and patrons are mean and bitchy
Car thieves are portrayed as stubbly men with shaven heads and tattoos

The list could go on and you know why. Tacky sitcoms are designed to depict a series of “amusing” stereotypes for the mass market in order to create advertising opportunities for a new market i.e. the “geek curious”. Sitcoms are not created to educate and enlighten. While a few may do this once in a while, they are the exception to the rule and to be applauded, but they are not the norm. Of course The Big Bang Theory doesn’t depict my interests as a comic book reader accurately, for the same reason it doesn’t accurately portray scientists, men, women, or relationships; because it is a just a dumb sitcom and like all sitcoms, it has almost nothing to do with the real, multifaceted nature of human culture.

A place where I do looked for a more informative, broad view of comic book culture is in a documentary, which is why I was so disappointed by Morgan Spurlock’s exploration of the San Diego Comic-Con; Comic-Con - Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. Here is a film which purports to provide actual information about our comic book culture to the rest of the world, to be an sensible “documentary” film, offering real insight into Comic-Con and the attendees who love it. Spurlock has engaged comic book pros Joss Whedon and Stan Lee to “present” it with him (which doesn’t seem to translate to any overt involvement by the two so I’m not sure what that engendered on a practical level.) Unfortunately it does not seem to have helped Spurlock to do anything more than present an extended Big Bang Theory episode to the world.

For some bizarre reason the bulk of this film focuses on five specific convention attendees, from their planning and preparation to attend, through to the end of their convention experience. None of these people are simple comic book readers who are excited to go to a conference to meet other comic book fans and hear creators talk about their work, not a single one. Instead there are people wants to be “in” the industry of comics or film, people who somehow expect to be deeply involved in the lives of comic book and film creators, and one is even an old-school comic book seller with a very tenuous grasp on the new economy. What unites them is not that they’re attending comic-con, but that they all have (unrealistic) expectations and dreams about how this one convention is going to change their lives. Not only is this not at all representative of the people attending the show, but it is not representative of most sane adults. While a convention or trip can be transformative, it is rarely in the ways we expect it to and most people are aware of this.

This strange choice of people to focus on is clearly simply to cater to the filmmakers idea of the audiences expectations, in order to create something overtly marketable he focuses on these extremes, not on the reality of regular people who currently attend Comic-Con. I’ve been interested in comic books for most of my life, (as have many of my friends) and the bulk of comic convention attendees are similar; we have regular jobs and a wide range of interests so our passion for the comic book medium and enjoyment of SDCC is a small facet of our personal life. The unifying factor amongst the many, many people I meet attending the convention is that we enjoy sharing our love of the medium, we like talking about the books with passion and enthusiasm to other people who share our interest, that is all. But I suppose that wasn’t inflammatory enough for the makers of this film.

The worst thing about Comic-Con - Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope is that it does the thing a documentary maker should never do - completely and absolutely changes the subject by filming it. It is obvious that every person that these five chosen people interact with is deeply aware of the cameras following them and they change their behavior accordingly. These poor, unfortunate caricatures become increasingly forced and awkward as the so-called documentary progresses and it becomes increasingly depressing to witness.

In between the semi-tragic stories of these socially awkward five individuals are a series of brief, one-on-one interviews with attendees, comic book creators, and actors at the convention. Filmed against a simple white backdrop, there is a simplicity to this format which could give an interesting insight into the people’s experience of the convention and it means to them. However, while the comic book professionals are interesting, the large portion of interviews with attendees (again) focuses on choices which are predominantly clichés. Beyond lampooning the convention and insulting the attendees, there is no reason for Spurlock to have chosen only to show stereotypes of what non-comic book readers expect to see (i.e. overweight men, overweight women in corsets, underweight men with bad haircuts, etc.) The regular attendees I frequently bump into at Comic-Con are socially comfortable men and women who’re healthy, attractive, employed, getting laid (and they look it.) To go out of his way to find only antiquated stereotypes shows a disregard for the convention, for the medium, and most of all for the audience.

While I expect disposable sitcoms to ridicule and lampoon my interests, I do not expect this from a so-called documentary. It is far more disappointing and depressing and I can only hope that people who are interested in learning more about the passion we share for comic books will see it for the utter rubbish it is.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: "Elizabeth's Canvas" Interview

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:00:00 -0800

Jud Meyers and Scott Tipton (founders of Blastoff Comics in North Hollywood) are the team behind the ambitious compendium comic book for Elizabeth’s Canvas; a non-profit organization which offers cancer patients and people affected by cancer creative therapy through free art classes, including painting, drawing, and writing. Published by IDW in March, with all of the proceeds going to the organization (thanks to IDW covering the print costs) this book features work by well-known writers and artists from all over the world. Meyers agreed to sit down and tell us more about the book.

…

Sonia Harris: In March the book Elizabeth’s Canvas will be in comic stores and is available now for people to pre-order. Can you give me a quick synopsis of the book?
Jud Meyers: EC is a collection of true stories detailing the lives of a handful of human beings who have all been touched by the specter of Cancer. A small child searching for a little daylight, an elderly couple clinging to memories, a nurse transforming from healed to healer, a scientist searching for answers and of course, Elizabeth, the woman who inspired this whole project.

SH: Can you tell me more about who is contributing to the book and what readers can expect?
JM: My partner (Scott Tipton) and I have spent the last year gathering together some of the industries’ best writers and artists, all dedicated to telling these stories and raising awareness for an organization that focuses on using art (painting, photography, writing) as therapeutic healing before, during and after Cancer treatment.

We worked hard to find the perfect pairing of writer, artist and subject and even set up unique ways of all three communicating with one another to ensure their stories were accurate and reflective of the overall theme of the book. When you have a writer in Los Angeles, an artist in Italy and a scientist up North who won’t leave his laboratory for even a few minutes, creativity seems to begin before anyone even says, “hello!”

Mark Waid was the very first creator to get involved in this. He was integral to its overall development and his hands are very much a part of the foundation of the entire project. If there was ever a creator whose vision as an artist mirrors our vision as responsible retailers, it’s definitely Waid. Like Harlan, he’s one of those creators who does so much charitable work, but doesn’t feel the need to discuss it.

Gregg Hurwitz jumped on board right at the start. Gregg and his family are extremely active when it comes to community service and child development.

Then came the Italians. We love the Italians! Passion seems to be their common theme at all times. Even when I can’t understand a damn word they say, I fall madly in love with them!

David Messina, Sara Pichelli, Elena Casagrande and Claudia Balboni all committed to providing pictures for the words from their studios across the ocean.

Harlan Ellison came out of hiding for this one, writing a sharp little story and Ryan Benjamin carved time out of his schedule to provide the required dark shadows Harlan likes to lurk around in.

Chris Ryall lent his considerable storytelling talents to the mix and Scott Tipton took time out of his Doctor Who/Star Trek alien madness to create something undeniably human.

I was lucky enough to have Todd Harris bring his sequential art skills to the table for my first published work and Jenny Frison capped it all off with a gorgeous cover image, filled with strength and beauty.

SH: How did you get involved with the organization?
JM: John-David Perry is the founder of Elizabeth’s Canvas. He and I have been friends for years. We often talked about the comic book reading rooms I help build for various Children’s Hospitals and orphanages around Los Angeles and he relayed stories to me from his daily work. Stories of struggle and hope and love and humanity. One of John-David’s previous jobs was traveling the country as an oral historian, so he has a natural gift for recognizing inspirational stories. His mother, Elizabeth, is the inspiration for the organization and when he told me her story (not to mention his own), I decided I was going to find a way to be a part of what he was creating and somehow bring comic art into what his organization was building across America.

SH: What made you choose a compilation comic book as the way assist Elizabeth’s Canvas?
JM: Initially, we discussed bringing in comic book artists to just spend some time with kids and their families. Maybe just spend an hour or two drawing and painting comic book style artwork. I quickly realized that this might be a bit short-sighted. Comic art is difficult. Panel grids are hard, even for artists with industry training. How can a child going through chemotherapy treatment hope to learn how to tell their story in an hour? When does a doctor have time to stop and draw some lines to show solidarity? How can a mom or a dad or a sister share their story on paper in the same hour?

We needed to help them tell their stories in comic form, but not force them to figure out a way to do it. Once we committed to the idea of bringing comic professionals to the table, we were able to broaden our scope of stories from children and adults battling Cancer to other people’s stories that rarely get any spotlight. What about the nurses? The doctors? The scientists? Important public figures?

Scott came up with the simple idea of an interview format, leading to a writer/artist collaboration, leading to sequential art stories. Then we started the process of “building” the book.

SH: Did the contributors have free reign to create whatever stories they chose?
JM: We chose to pair what we felt were the best writer/artist team with the most compatible person’s story. It’s interesting when you discover that one of the grittiest authors in the crime/thriller novel genre is best suited for the story of a sensitive child and his imagination. The comic medium is so unique. It brings out the best in creators.

Once everyone was paired up, they told the stories in whatever way they felt best suited its content. I can’t imagine dictating a style to Mark Waid, much less Harlan. If I’d have done that, I’d be floating in a river somewhere instead of doing this interview!

SH: Your new store incorporates so much community and charitable work as part of the basic, daily function. What spurred the decision to work that way?
JM: A “daily function” is a perfect way of putting it! It’s the first thing I think about when I step into the shop or turn on the computer. “What can my company do today that helps someone?” Once I accomplish that, everything else is just gravy.

When Scott and I formed the company, we found that we had the same belief about giving back, not just to the community, but to the world. We see the largest companies in the world putting their backs into charitable works (Gap’s Red campaign is a good example). Why can’t small companies do the same? Especially ones that exist on the foundation of kids and family.

Since our website launched over a year ago, we’ve given a percentage of everything we make on a monthly basis to a different charitable organization. Since we opened our store, that has only continued to grow. On our site, you can see what charity we’re giving to on any given month and we keep everything transparent at all times. I think that many business owners confuse the idea of “giving” with the idea of “giving away”.

A few years back, the late Rory Root, one of the craziest and most intelligent retailers in comic book history, told me that the most powerful word retailers could bring to the world is “free”. I disagreed with him (which he loved!) and told him that I believed the most powerful word was “give”.

This new store is the third I’ve opened and it’s quickly become the most successful. Yet, I’ve given more to charity in the past year than at any time in my retail life. The most important part of that is how I feel at the end of the day. Don’t get me wrong, I love selling comics! But I love giving of myself to people in need far more. The fact that I can use my profession to do that is a blessing. All I have to do is commit to it and do a little something every day. All those little somethings add up to something pretty big in the end!

SH: What other forms of community & charitable actions have you got planned?
JM: 2013 is going to be bold and aggressive when it comes to the company’s charitable work.

Right now (with the help of Elizabeth’s Canvas), we’re working on the building of a Blastoff reading library that will span an entire wing of LA County Children’s Hospital.

We’re developing a project that will entail ANY retail location in Los Angeles sponsoring a child from a hospital, clinic or orphanage. This child will receive books, comics, clothes, movies, games, whatever he/she needs to develop and thrive. Each shop will be hands-on with their child and do something every day to help them have a solid foundation for a successful life. A large company can “sponsor” the building of an entire village. A small retail business can sponsor the building of one child at a time in their very own neighborhood.

And the most ambitious project we’ve ever set out to accomplish is set to launch this summer. Hopefully, we can make it happen before the San Diego Convention rolls around. I don’t want to reveal too much, but let’s just say it involves a shipping container filled with comics, books, shelves, tables and couches. It also involves a boat, an ocean and an African township populated by kids with bare feet who’ve never even seen a superhero pamphlet before. Whoo-boy!

I’m so excited to bring our rocket ship to other streets, states, countries. Scott and I want to do better. We don’t just want to do well. We want to do good.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: My Top 16 Comics of 2012

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:20:00 -0800

In 2012 a broader variety of author communicated their joy and intensity using the alchemy that is art and literature in comic books. The wealth of great comic books published in nearly every genre made me happier than I can say and when I put in my votes for the CBR Top 100 Comics of 2012 I was hard pressed to pick only 10 comic books to vote for. So for you, I’ve compiled 16 mini-reviews of my favorite comic books published in 2012. These books were enjoyable, intense, personal, and / or an evolution of the the comic book medium (and now I can’t wait to see what we’re going to get this year!)

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#16
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel & Faith / Willow Wonderland / Spike
by various authors
Almost an honorable mention because I have a hard time admitting these are comic books, not because of the quality, but because they’re spinoffs from a TV show and that is why I buy them. Before the Buffy series was a spinoff from the TV show, I never wanted to read it. I am only reading these books because they continue a story which I grew to love in another medium. In that way they aren’t a very “true” use of the medium, in that these characters weren’t created fleshed-out on the page. However, in the real world the actors and crew have all moved past the point where the show would be a viable concept, so this continuation is a nice little bonus which only comic books can offer me. This year as the titles proliferated and grew the quality moved on a little from last year, but the broader range has been fun and I’m willing to give Dark Horse more of my money for a larger range of stories with some of my favorite characters on TV who don’t exist anymore. None of the books have reached the visual quality they displayed when the main title was drawn by Georges Jeanty, but all the authors share his ability to make me believe and that is the key.

#15
Daredevil
by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee
Over the last year the much-lauded Daredevil has gradually become a little bleaker, descending back into familiar, unhealthy emotional territory (understandable given the character’s history, and a nice touch by a writer capable of so much more, as exhibited in the creation of harrowing characters like Irredeemable.) In terms of art, I can’t help but miss Paolo Rivera a little. I do understand why Samnee was put on this book; He’s good, kind of fun and sweet with a stylized charm, though his work on Thor was so much more appropriate that it makes me miss him there even more. At times he can give the book a slightly more cartoony feel than last year, but given the bleaker content, perhaps this is a healthy balance. Overall, as a character Waid and Samnee have done a good job of evolving Daredevil this year, but I’m very curious to see whether this bleakness carries them down into some spiral of sadness (as it has almost every other author) or if Waid can surprise us. Honestly, I’m expecting the latter.

#14
Are You My Mother?
by Allison Bechdel
With Are You My Mother? because of Bechdel’s exhaustive note-taking and scrupulous honesty, we have one of the most complete portraits of an inner journey that I’ve ever read. It is personal and detailed to a degree that a person would ordinarily only share with a beloved friend or partner. Bechdel’s honesty and self-deprecation are understandable in the wake of previous works, her need to uncover the “why” of everything force her to analyze her relationship with her mother in a classically analytical way - through psychoanalysis. Sharing the author’s journey can be harrowing, and as readers, we must love the author just a bit, enough so that this information is personal and intimate to us, rather than intrusive. With less of the urgency and more of the personal than Fun Home, this is an easier and stranger book with no obvious conclusions, so that the readers must invest more (and so gain more too.)

#13
Spider-Men
by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli
As someone who works in marketing design, when I see a product which is so obviously created to try and milk a market segment, I balk. No matter what the quality, I was ready to hate this book on principle. What I hadn’t counted on was how damn appealing Bendis would make the story, or how absolutely beautiful Pichelli’s art would be. I’d missed her art on Ultimate Spider-Man, even if it was still a good book, so I picked this up just to see what I was missing. In that moment I was hooked. While other artists may echo her fluid lines and elegantly flowing action scenes, no one can actually match her abilities. Pichelli has become one of the great superhero artists of our time, her characterization of each hero in build and style of movement is perfect, and her use of the page to move the reader’s eye around is like a dance. She’s uses space like a choreographer and her work on Spider-Men might be some of my favorite work by her to date.

#12
Not My Bag
by Sina Grace
A revealing first-person account of the cutthroat world of retail fashion, Grace allows all sorts of glimpses behind the curtain. Telling tales about a purposely hostile work environment doesn’t prevent this from being a personal and it also offers mediations on the importance of great accessories, a weather-appropriate wardrobe, and avoiding men who are replacement father-figures. The charming art (familiar to readers of Grace’s collaboration with Steven Struble; Li’l Depressed Boy) is descriptive and funny, and the small format of the book and brown paper cover art all contribute to a very complete slice of this man’s life.

#11
Hawkeye
by Matt Fraction and David Aja
If not for Aja brutally simplistic covers I would never have picked this up. But underneath those covers is a delightfully spartan interior telling the most basic of superhero stories for (arguably) one of the least super of the superheroes. I love the restricted color palette and the use of very dense grids of panels for moment-by-moment reaction shots. There have been issues which have felt like a French film; a simple slice of a very messy life, told as elegantly as possible. People have always talked to me about their love for this odd little character, so out of place in the Avengers, I think I finally understand why they like him. This comic book reminds me of the 1968 movie; Bullit, and Hawkeye inhabits Steve McQueen’s role perfectly.

#10
Legends of the Dark Knight #3
by Steve Niles and Trevor Hairsine
I love one-shots. Most monthly comic books used to be one-shots and it was what we expected. It is rare now for a writer and artist to be able to pack in all of their story telling and character development into a single issue, and it is very difficult sort of magic trick to pull off for the sophisticated audience we have become. In this instance, Niles managed to use his single issue to give us the Batman we rarely see nowadays; A detective using his skills and intelligence to get things done with subtlety and speed. The interplay between Wayne and Alfred hints at so much more, and the love and warmth from both of them is a delicate undercurrent to the dialogue.

#9
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 2009
by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil
By this point, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is almost unrecognizable from where it began so many years ago. And yet the quality and committment to inventive and disturbing story telling is still there. References to western mythology, history, and story abound, and with this book we finally catch up to our modern era in a big crashing jump. Out of time, our heroes struggle has become one which seems increasingly familiar to our modern lives, and the culmination of their mission becomes almost incidental to the ongoing exploration of history and culture.

#8
Wizzywig
by Ed Piskor
Piskor’s tale of a fugitive hacker, demonized by the media, imprisoned and forgotten. As we look back over his life, a rich and well-researched history is charted, from a childhood taking apart phones to his life as on the run hacking into databases from the odd client in order to fund his meagre existence. With Piskor’s detail-oriented style, the story is simultaneously sweet and seedy, unflinchingly aware of the sad tale he tells, but happily in-love with his character and the world he has created for him to survive in. The structure and concept are incredible well conceived, as is the physical quality of this Top Shelf published book.

#7
Fury
by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov
Ennis gives us the memoirs of Fury’s well spent youth; going on “deniable” missions for the government, training the young and green, taking America’s enemies out of the picture, and getting tortured. In the vein of Apocalypse Now or The Deerhunter, this is a ridiculously entertaining, grim and gritty book. It has become almost expected for Ennis to be able to step outside of the acceptable and shock us with brutality or gore, but his ability to show Fury in his own version of a long-term, intimate relationship with a woman, (however embittered and embattled) is a very interesting thing to watch. This is the past of the Nick Fury I like best, the hard-bitten, half-crazed, hard-as-nails colonel from Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz’ Elektra: Assassin.

#6
Henry & Glen Forever #1
by Tom Neely, Ed Luce, Benjamin Marra, Igloo Tornado, and more
If you do not enjoy laughing in public, this book is not for you. It is ridiculous and silly, the entire premise that Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig are roommates (something between “Bert and Ernie”, and ”The Odd Couple.”) Various artists present their adorable take on this, Nelly at the forefront with his diminutive Glen always messing things up in classic “Dennis the Menace” fashion. Ed Luce’s deeply intense, black-eyed Rollins is offset by his adoring kittens and the whole thing is just one extremely silly juxtaposition after another. (It might be humor, but it is entirely possible that Hall and Oates are actually kit-sacrifcing satanists. We’ll never know….)

#5
Love & Rockets #5
by the Hernandez Brothers
Issue #4’s “ending” to Xaime’s story left me wanting more and here it is, in spades, so much more. Between the development of Xaime’s world and Gilbert’s reemission in the people of Palomar, it really feels like coming home. Watching these people’s lives change on the page, along with the gradual evolution of the Hernandez brother’s art and writing is the closest thing to real life created in a comic book. Nothing on the screen could ever compare to the life and complexity these two men breathe into their characters year after year with such consistent quality and affection.

#4
Zegas #2
by Michel Fiffe
In the wake of Deathzone and Copra (Michel Fiffe’s oddly personal twist on the superhero genre), I had to check out Zegas. He uses similarly dynamic line work and vibrant coloring to convey the intimate human story of the Zegas kids making their way in the world. Like his previous works, this has the same incredibly high quality printing, but it is bigger and more ambitious storytelling. His appropriation of the visual language of the psychedelic and superheroic world serves in “Zegas” to convey the fast movement of hyperbolic joy of life.

#3
Fashion Beast
By Alan Moore, Malcolm McLaren, and Antony Johnston
A depressing, confusing, beautiful vision of the the future from Moore and McLaren. Work is scarce, and the culture has devolved to a Dickensian level. Gender identity is fluid and fashion is a terrifying business. Poverty and denial has led to this dystopian world and the story follows our would be model and designer from their one attempt to subtly undermine and sabotage each other to the next. If it didn’t make me question my reality, then it wouldn’t be an Alan Moore book.

#2
Hellblazer
by Peter Milligan, Simon Bisley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini
Yet another year in which this book shone. I’ve been reading this for as long as it has existed, and following John for longer than that. Like last year, these three did an incredible job depicting my favorite asshole, growing increasingly skilled at giving us strange little peeks into the creepier side of life. Milligan’s ability to create an engaging, aging character has been quite incredible and almost unheard of in mainstream comic books. Bisley draws the world as I want it to look, and Camuncoli (along with Stefano Landini) has really grown into the kind of artist who can work with the weird content of Hellblazer (i.e. he can draw the atmospheric, nasty stuff with _just_ enough detail to haunt, but not so much that it becomes ridiculous.) I am really going to miss this dirty, foul-mouthed, aging, sexually-charged, demon-manipulating bastard.

#1
Building Stories
by Chris Ware
Disturbing and weirdly intrusive as a story, like rifling through a stranger’s underwear drawer and finding out all their secret, lonely thoughts. The very act of reading it and the formats in which he has compiled it force a new perspective on the act of communication. It has an uncomfortable intimacy which creates a kind of affection for these loveless people, warmth and depth which might have been missing or less prominent in previous books in imparted by dint of the method of delivery. It further develops the medium, which is a truly great and rare thing.

Committed: Happy Holidays!

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 10:00:26 -0800

This year I designed a particularly silly holiday card for you. Enjoy and have a wonderful time (if you can. If not, then I hope that you can read some comic books, listen to some music, and wait until this weird time of year is over.)

Just in case you’re actually reading my column today (instead of recovering from holiday craziness,) I’ll tell you about one of my most Christmassy Christmases in years. I spent it with my UK family and some US family too. We ate too much and watched a little kid roll around in near hysteria as he ripped wrapping paper off of boxes (which is actually kind of great.) A birth was announced, tears were shed and much too much cake and chocolate was consumed.

On a personal consumerism front, between everyone who loves me in my life right now, the comic book-gifting love was overwhelming. I got Chris Ware’s Building Stories which I immediately spread out all over the floor and became obsessed with. The beautiful, oversized, hardcover compilation of Jaime Hernandez’ God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls looks even better at that size. The Hot Wheels Custom Motors Batman Tumbler Starter Set, with all the parts to customize the Tumbler is very silly and simultaneously pretty great. I haven’t even opened it yet because I like the way it looks in the package so much (and going by my past experiences with toys, I suppose it might stay that way.)

Moving away from the comic books and veering into my science fiction geekery, was the amazingly complete seven disc blu ray collection of all the original Star Trek movies plus a discussion/documentary (can’t wait to dig into that.) I’ve got Brave to watch too, which did came in very handy for an all-ages screening when everyone became too tired to move, even if most of what was said was “how did they do that with her hair?) I don’t think I’ve ever had such a Christmas (which is what happens when you don’t really celebrate the holiday in any official capacity for a couple of decades.) I feel like my inner child (and the outer one) has been very effectively satiated in a way that I probably never did before. It is a strange and wonderful time that we live in, where our once-marginal interests are so broadly accepted and easily accessible to the people around us.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone reading this for your generosity, for your attention, your comments, and your emails. Comic books are a wonderful, complex form of communication and I dearly love that you allow me to share my enthusiasm for the medium every Wednesday. I wish you happiness, peace, and good health, now and in the future.

Thank you - Sonia

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Originally published here.