Sonia Harris | Writing about Comicbooks

Fairytale gay wedding vs gay marriage

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:56:00 -0700

Yesterday, amongst some media attention, Marvel announced an impending gay wedding. I can’t help but notice that there are no fairytales that begin with the main characters’ wedding. When there are weddings, they are the payoff, the money shot, and definitely the grand finale of the fairytale. No one wants to read a fairytale that begins with a wedding, because then it would be about domestic tedium, heated discussions about whose turn it is to fold the laundry or change the diapers. Weddings are how fairytales end. The exciting part of the story is how we get there, how people meet and surmount obstacles. No fairytales begin with the line “and they lived happily ever after”, because that is not as interesting as all the parts before they settle down. The wedding is the clear sign to the reader to stop paying attention because the story is over.

In comic books, I find the interesting couples are the ones in teams, the ones who are already part of a larger group dynamic, with all of the associated problems and issues that working with other people engender. The side issues of their relationship only serve to spice up the larger team dramas, and readers are rarely asked to care about the tedium of the intimate aspects of their relationship. In the distant past, the Avengers had some great examples of this, with the complicated interactions of Ant-Man and the Wasp, or the Scarlet Witch and her robotic husband The Vision to reveal all sorts of potential problems to contend with, and the ways in which their teammates support them (and vice verse.)

The difference between something like the above, and a comic book event wedding between a superhero like Peter Parker and his non-heroic girlfriend; Mary Jane is that this is an example of the heroes personal lives which has no place in the comic book about superheroes. (Which now, did not actually happen, but at the time it was a decent example of a similarly grandiose event wedding to this current public relations exercise over Northstar and Kyle’s upcoming wedding.) I have as little interest in reading about a gay superheroes wedding as I do in reading about a straight superheroes wedding, and that is none. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer might as well have been named “The Fantastic Four Plan a Wedding” for all the interest half of it had for me. I also don’t need to see the special issue of the comic book in which they go to the bathroom, go shopping for deodorant, mail some letters, or have dinner with an old friend. This stuff is a side issue which, acceptably within the format of a superhero comic book, a writer and artist could choose to show a couple of panels of. It is something the hero is doing outside of the business of being a hero, which is all that really ought to be focused on within the confines of a superhero comic book.

Truly, if Marvel and DC really want us to believe that they care about making gay marriage seem mundane and ”normal” then they need to show us two established, gay, married superheroes who work together to fight evil. They need to depict a same-sex marriage between working heroes, not as being some kind of unique, magical, unicorn of an event that merits ludicrous and totally unseemly announcements on The View. And let’s just ask for a moment; Why the View? Are Marvel hoping that all of those soccermom viewers will start buying comic books because there’s a wedding in it? First of all, I find the idea that all women want to read about is weddings, and second, sticking a wedding into a superhero comic book doesn’t make it automatically female-friendly. Once again, we’re confronted with the convoluted genius marketing strategies of big comic book publishers that mere mortals can never hope to understand. But I’m getting off the point here…

Showing a gay wedding in a comic book does not indicate that comic books are supportive of homosexual people getting the same rights as heterosexual people. What it indicates is that mainstream comic book publishers want to be seen to support equal rights and think they can make some money out of it. If they actually wanted us to believe in more than the fairytale and accept the reality of gay marriage then they would show us a gay marriage between equal superheroes who we could watch in action every issue, not a wedding which will be as insignificant to the ongoing title as any power and non-powers relationship. A story with superheroes who are working together would allow for a much more concrete example of intimacy.

Having said all of this, I am incredibly glad that two men are going to marry in comic books, just as I was very glad when a Hispanic/black kid became Spider-Man (even if it is just in the Ultimates universe and is riddled with cultural stereotypes.) It is important to me that mainstream media depict committed gay marriage as a facet of life and I’m very happy that this is happening. This is how capitalism works I suppose; nothing changes until big businesses believe that they’ll make a lot of money out of it. Unfortunately, this is just another example of a superhero marrying a member of the public and it just doesn’t carry the weight and importance of a relationship between heroes because it will never be the focus of the comic book (quite reasonably of course, because domesticity is not the stuff of superhero comic books.) If Marvel and DC are to truly embrace same-sex marriage, then instead of focusing on an obviously irrelevant event wedding, they need to give us a same-sex couple of heroes, who we get to see interact every day (and please don’t assume I’m talking about Batman and Robin, I personally think the age difference would make that much too divisive and creepy.)

Showing a wedding and telling us that this is an example of the acceptance of gay marriage is childish. What makes a relationship seem normal and mundane is seeing it day-in and day-out, which can only happen if they create a same-sex superhero marriage. I personally don’t really care what they do with the wedding, they can have them get married in between the panels as far as I’m concerned, but I want to see how they make their lives work.

All of the coverage in the mainstream media that I’ve read has talked about Northstar proposing to his boyfriend, Kyle. No one mentioned that his boyfriend is a black man. Years ago this would have been hugely divisive in America, but now suddenly we’re only worried about the contents of these men’s pants, not about the color of their skin. I hope this indicates that in another decade, this will be just as much of a non-issue, but part of me wishes that having a pasty-faced French Canadian marrying a black man was as much of a marketing coup for Marvel. Why can’t we all get super excited about that too? I guess that aspect of marriage just didn’t offer as many opportunities for the marketing department to milk anymore.

PunisherMAX: Better in Black & White

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:46:19 -0700

Some books simply demand the stark simplicity of no color, the absence of any warmth or hope. Steve Dillon’s stunningly beautiful artwork shines in black and white. Simultaneously, Jason Aaron creates an all-encompassing bleak world view for the inhabitants of the Punisher’s world. The PunisherMAX has little use for color.

I just finished reading Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon’s PunisherMAX volume 2: Bullseye (or issues #6-12 of the monthly comic book, for people smart enough to be buying this in single issues.) I knew I’d like it, the only reason I didn’t buy it as it came out monthly is because I started with trades, and once I start I can’t really switch. It shouldn’t matter, but it does, so I’m reading the trades. I would have expected to jump on each one as it came out, but life got on top of me, so I’d forgotten more of them were out after I read the stylish and unexpectedly heartbreaking first volume (PunisherMAX Volume 1: Kingpin.) Sounds sad that I could have let this excellent book be in the world without jumping on it as soon as possible, but sometimes life gets awfully distracting and the luxury of literary escapism just isn’t possible. Anyway, I finally got around to buying it this weekend, and read it in one sitting as soon as I got home. In fact, I went out specifically to buy it because once I realized that I had a free few hours, it was the first thing on my mind and I had to have it.

Aaron and Dillon continue their path, further examining the depressingly warped logic of the super villians of the Punisher’s world, this time focusing on Bullseye, without moving their unblinking gaze from the miserable car wreck that is the Kingpin’s developing existence. The stark, matter-of-fact storytelling reminds me of independent action movies from the mid 1960’s - late ‘70’s, like the original Get Carter, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, or Raging Bull, films loaded with atmosphere and unflinching tragedy.

The weird thing about Steve Dillon’s art is how clean and almost cartooney it is in contrast to the subject matter (please know that this is NOT intended as any kind of criticism) His approach to something as raw and heartbreakingly violent as Aaron’s writing is oddly cool and linear, which is a perfect fit for Frank Castle’s world view of detachment and ruthless judgement. Dillon’s visceral, detailed content combined with his cool, explicit style on Aaron’s PunisherMAX remind me a little of Jacen Burrows work on Alan Moore’s Neonomicon script, in that there is an almost diagrammatic approach, a total lack of titillation in the horror, which makes it that much more palatable. With each man’s art, you get the idea that they’ve deeply delved into the hideous, nightmare-filled script which the writer presented them with, and spun from these horrors intricate documentation of everything that happened, making it all that much easier for us to digest.

Now I think the coloring on the PunisherMAX is very nice. The colorist does an extremely good job, the colors are beautiful, the detail is fantastic, and everything is appropriately colored too. However, when you take a look at how harsh and raw the two black and white pages are in the back (there are two of Dillon’s own inked pages in the back of the book as part of the extra material), you know that this should be a black and white comic book. Everything about it screams black and white, from Castle’s totally inflexible view of right and wrong, to Aaron’s moody, sparse, film-noir dialogue. Everyone in this book is living in a miserable, broken version of their lives, things are as bad as they can be. There are no pretty colors for these people, not for a single character, their world view is a dismal, monochromatic half-life, wasted on seeking vengeance which can only hurt them more. Coloring the book in such clean, crisp colors is one way to limit the impact of such a horrific world-view, but mitigating the stark existence of these characters does a disservice to the authors and to the readers because it feels more like a marketing decision than a smart choice for the story itself. The idea that people need bright colors is a mistake the DC and Marvel often make, and it assumes that we need pretty colors more than we need a realistic story, that we care more about printing costs than content.

Neonomicon would also have worked without color, but the fact that it used the muddy coloring so common on horror comics made it that much less noticeable. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting we use Vertigo-esque coloring on Dillion and Aaron’s PunisherMAX story, that would be completely inappropriate, but I do think that if it MUST have color (and I personally do not feel that it should, but I’m willing to entertain the idea, just for marketing purposes) it needed to have a much more aggressively monochromatic color treatment. E.g. a simple red wash over a page to indicate the badly lit interior of the Punisher’s safe house could have indicated not only the claustrophobic nature of the space, the tension and simmering rage in the scene as the characters moved through it. The current, literal color scheme makes emotional sense in a low key way throughout, but I think monochrome would have had more impact. Having said that, in the scenes where Bullseye is playing “happy families” (and for people who haven’t read it yet, I’m not going to spoil it by explaining what is happening there) the color is perfect. The spring-color palette used on those pages gives the art a spectacularly surreal quality, reminiscent of the opening scenes of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, where the audience is introduced to the perfectly happy suburban homes, complete with white picket fence and Disney-esque song birds. But even in Blue Velvet, as the story devolves into madness and pain, the scenes are increasingly shot at night, with only poor reflected ambient lighting, which eventually devolves to a very basic color scheme of (logically) blue tones. (I realize that I’m making a lot of film references here, but I find that Aaron’s pacing and storytelling style lends itself as well to techniques of filmmaking as it does to comparisons with other comic books.)

My love of books like Love & Rockets, Optic Nerve, Guy Delisle’s travelogues, and The Courtyard (to name just a few) isn’t simply based on quality, but also on the impact and sensitive treatment of the art. I’m happy to buy black and white comic books and it seems to me that I cannot be the only person who feels this way. This year’s Oscar winning film was not only black and white, but silent too. Surely it is time for comic book publishers to accept that there is a market for black and white comic books, particularly when the subject matter is a single-minded, judgmental, brutally violent, adult-targeted comic, which lends itself so perfectly to a monochromatic treatment.

…

Originally published here.

How The Avengers Movie is like a Musical

Wed, 09 May 2012 09:59:00 -0700

Like a lot of people, last weekend I went to see The Avengers movie (and if you haven’t, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil any surprises here.) Anyway, I saw the movie and had a revelatory moment while watching it. Before the movie, I always thought that I was part of this big community of adults who all enjoy reading the same superhero comic books. I had assumed that all of us were basically in the same boat, enjoying the same things about them. In fact, it never really occurred to me to question what it was that I was enjoying in contrast to what other adults got out of it.

Because movies are completely different from comic books, something became very clear to me in The Avengers movie; there is a hell of a lot of fighting in superhero comic books. Yes, this is obvious, but when we read comic books, we read them at our own pace, with our own area of focus. There were parts which I focused on and paid more attention to and those parts weren’t the fight scenes. I didn’t even notice what I was doing, but I wasn’t spending as much time reading the fight scenes as I was reading the story. When reading an Avengers comic book, I was concentrating on the messed up marriages, mental breakdowns, confusion, fear, tragedy, loss, and the joy… all sorts of things, but I was not focusing on the battles. It isn’t that I don’t like a bit of action, violence is part and parcel of all superhero comic books I think, but I just don’t spend a lot of time reading those parts. I unconsciously sped up and The Avengers movie revealed to me that this isn’t how most other fans of the book read it.

When I first came out of the movie, the amount of time spent on the fighting and the action (while beautifully done), left me confused about why more time and energy wasn’t spent on the dialogue. And more importantly, why no one else was bothered by this, (because I can tell you that everyone I know has absolutely loved the movie without qualification.) As we left, I asked my friend Whitney about it and she laughed at my consternation, pointing out that “It isn’t that you don’t like the movie, it’s just that you expected a different movie.” and she’s right. As soon as she said that, things began to gradually slip into place and I figured out that I have been reading The Avengers with a different focus which (until now) I had no way of knowing.

Funnily enough, as I examine this, I realize that the way I feel about this kind of movie is similar to how I feel about musicals. I like musicals okay, but I don’t love the singing. It sounds impossible, but actually, once I accepted that fact I was able to just not pay as much attention when people started singing. I can get into watching films like Singing in the Rain, because I don’t focus on those bits of the film. Similarly, once I understood that about The Avengers, I went back to see it a couple of days later, this time being careful to pay more attention to the dialogue and character development parts and less attention to the action, and it did work, I liked it more. Realistically, I have to admit that predominantly CGI action movies aren’t really my favorite kind of movie, but at least now I can see how well this related to someone else’s interpretation of The Avengers.

One day, I would still like to see a superhero movie that unashamedly targets a different audience, with more weight and importance given to the intimate, complex, human interactions of a superhero team dynamic. Maybe Game of Thrones is this kind of thing, (although I’m not sure if it fits exactly in the superhero genre), it definitely strikes a perfect balance between drama, suspense, action, and effects. Whedon begins to touch on it quite nicely and I could really go for a lot more of that talking thing the team just starts to do. I often find that non-comic book readers are most surprised and excited by the ways that superhero team dynamics can offer an entertaining metaphor to look at life through. We all have to work with people who we may not always see eye-to-eye with, but if we had to save the world (all the time) we’d find a way to make it work, just like The Avengers always do. Thankfully, no matter how awkward the office politics we have to deal with, most of us aren’t depending on our coworkers to help us save the world.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Dolls & Death (Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol 12)

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:40:44 -0700

Just before I moved apartment, volume 12 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service came out. Last week I finally had time to curl up on my new couch and read this wonderful book. This time, the three short stories involved examined dolls, virtual life, and the existence of the soul. One after another they shocked, delighted, and devastated me. Now I’m hoping that I can entice some of you to give them a go.

For me, these books can’t come out fast enough, but for anyone out there who has never read them, there are 12 little volumes (so far, but there are more to come), packed with strange & beautiful stories. To briefly summarize; a group of young, technologically savvy, buddhist-monks-in-training team together to use their extra-sensory powers to work with the dead, delivering them to their final resting places and helping them to finish whatever business they were forced to leave. Ostensibly they’re doing this to make money, because (like all students the world over, including, apparently, our president) they have way too many bills. In actuality they don’t seem to make much profit, but what they do brings peace to many tortured souls (including, at times, their own.) I could give you more information, but I think you’ll have more fun reading about them yourself. Strictly speaking, these are horror manga, an odd genre with a fairly dodgy reputation for tentacle monsters and vagina fetishists (I’m generalizing, I have no idea, but it looks that way from the outside), and so I expect some of you will have automatically dismissed this as outside of your interests. Luckily I tend to cast a wide net with my reading and I will now dismiss any prejudices you might have, and explain why you might love them.

6 Misconceptions About The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service:

1. This is a horror book, so it will only appeal to people who like horror.
Nope. Okay, well yes. Sort of. To my taste this is horror in the old-fashioned sense of the word, loaded with tension and tragedy, like those creepy black and white “Hammer House of Horror” movies that used to keep me up all night. There is atmosphere and tension, pathos and melodrama, much more so than there is horror in the contemporary sense of the word, (i.e. gore and sensationalism.) Yes, in each story there is a at least one panel of something shocking or disturbing, that is just one aspect of a broad range of emotions elicited by the stories. The reason each short story gets under the reader’s skin is because the authors skillfully and deftly make us care about the protagonists. There is an awareness of human frailty and empathy which makes the horror something which actually softens the intensity of these weird little meditations on the human condition.

2. I only read mainstream superhero stories, so there’s nothing here for me.
Definitely wrong here, at least I think so. No one is wearing spandex, but this is an elite group of people who have banded together to use their super powers to help people. The fact that their superpowers make them better at helping the dead instead of the living is purely an accident, but one which forces them to work with a very odd clientele. As we read each story, we see them exerting their powers, learning to use them wisely and well, and slowly, as the team learns about themselves, so do we as readers. I’m on volume 11 and I still don’t know every character’s origin story, but like good chefs using an intense seasoning, the author is careful to very slowly and sparsely allow the information to spice up the odd story. It is rewarding and enjoyable, and these misfit buddhist kids have become like friends to the readers.

3. If stories are inspired partly by Japanese folkore, the comic book won’t make any sense to me.
Understandable concern, but wrong again. I had this fear when I first picked up the books, but it was totally unfounded. First of all, the folklore used is often something quite universal (i.e. a story which is echoed in Western fairytales) and secondly, each little volume has a few pages at the back which are ostensibly a glossary of Japanese sound effects. In actuality there are many useful snippets of information there, which not only explain the stories and the background which makes them so powerful, but also gives a better understanding of the whole culture. In addition, their are explanations as to why they recently changed cover stock (from unfinished kraft card to a more common card stock printed with the kraft color.) While this isn’t interesting to everyone, it is certainly adds a lot of value to the books.

4. Manga is just for girls or little kids.
Absolutely wrong on this front. These books have that sticker warning you of “explicit content” and I would say that is absolutely the case. This isn’t simply an instance of stories with overt sex or drugs, but the subject matter is also very mature. Sometimes it is oddly sexually, exploring human need and the desire for life, other times the books explore emotionally complex subjects, none of these themes would be enjoyable or make sense to a little kid. These are books for adults, with meditations on the life of people who have lived and died.

5. Monochrome art won’t be as entertaining as a full-color comic book.
Usually I would say that this is a matter of personal taste, but in this instance there is plenty of impact and energy in the black and white art. As in comic books like From Hell, when the subject matter turns gruesome I don’t want the nasty aspects of the story to be in garish colors, it would only sensationalize the intensity. There is more than enough detail and description, and the black and white drawings are more versatile for evoking the sometimes wistful, sometimes brutal nature of the story lines.

6. The small size means that the art and action scenes won’t have as much impact as US comic books.
The action is dynamic and graphic, because instead of simply shrinking down a traditional page layout, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service limits the number of panels on the page, keeping the flow of the story going at a fast clip. The stories are dense in subject matter, with plenty of detail, but the pace is smoothly fast. As with any comic book, you can read it as quickly as you like, but the way these stories are told keep them eerily personal and intimate. The size helps with that and I’m glad of it.

I hope you’ll give these books a try, from the elegant cover designs to the poignantly disturbing content, these books deserve a wide audience.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Why Ancient Mythology Breaks in Contemporary Comics

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:00:00 -0700

Adapting ancient parables and mythology is a large part of current comic book lore, as writers seek to imbue their creations with weight by borrowing from more established folklore. But in doing so without context, we’re ignoring the reasons why these stories worked so well, and what they would have meant in their original eras.

My friend Tara, an anthropologist and archeologist living in Britain, told me yesterday that she was disappointed by the two dimensional depiction of Loki in the movie version of Thor. Initially I was surprised, since I didn’t see him that way, but then I remembered that I was superimposing my own knowledge of Loki in comic books onto the film. Because of the odd range of Loki stories that I’ve read, I’ve managed to enjoy fairly diverse depictions of him. He’s quite well represented in non-cape books like Sandman or Lucifer, as well as more directly in mini-series’, Avenger’s books, and naturally in Thor’s own comic books. I’ve always read him as a conflicted character at best, not outright bad and certainly someone who, while selfish, has done some ostensibly positive works at some vague point in the past.

In the movie, while he was a disgruntled and out of place child, his character and response to the revelations about his past depicted him as an all round bad egg, with no redeeming qualities within our own moral codes. While it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of a fun, action movie, I can definitely see how it was limited use of a rich character (although that could be said about any superhero or myth-based movie these days, but that’s a different article and I’m not writing it today.)

For a moment let’s put aside the fact that blockbuster movies are presenting simplified versions of already basic characters from mainstream comic books (a depressing thought), but Tara gave me some food for thought about mythology. She explained that originally, when these myths and stories were written, people had very different values from the ones we have now, so while the character of Loki was always a manipulative figure, this wasn’t considered an entirely bad thing. If we look back at various ancient mythical figures both in Norse mythology and otherwise, even the heroes were comfortable using whatever lies necessary to attain their goals, including lying and trickery. While we demonize Loki for this now, in the past he was a more ambiguous character, and these current flaws weren’t always seen as such. Heroes of mythology, like Odysseus for example, also lied and manipulated others to get their way, dishonesty and manipulation was not enough to class someone as “evil” in the way that it is now. In fact, using these ancient characters in current stories, then presenting them through the warped lens of our values creates rather dull ideas and ignores much of the richness which made them so exciting in the past.

I asked Tara about the current treatment of Wonder Woman, now that a version of the Amazon mythology is being incorporated into this current iteration of the comic book. I explained that while proponents of the rapist Amazon behavior have said it is true to the original mythos, detractors are disappointed by this rapey / slavey behavior from former feminist icons. As an anthropologist, Tara had another take on the subject. Apparently, back when stories of a race of Amazon warrior women was current, the idea that these warriors would be slavers or rapists wasn’t frowned upon because this was how all warriors behaved, it was part the job, i.e. “We won, we get to rape your women and sell your menfolk - wooohooo!” The reason the Amazon rapist / slavers was such a disturbing story at the time, wasn’t what they did, but that they were _women_ doing it to men, turning the tables on them, so to speak. The idea that warrior men could be raped and forced to experience the horrors they regularly inflicted on their female foes was the frightening part of the myth at that time. Therefore, if we follow this logic, the problem isn’t that we’re using the original mythology in the current stories, the problem is that we aren’t amending it to work with our current moral standards. Logically, If we want to present men with a terrifying turnabout story of this type, we need to write tales of men who’re paid pennies on the dollar, expected to wear uncomfortable shoes every day, and judged purely on their appearance, while being denied health insurance coverage for birth control (scary!)

Joking aside, while the above idea might seem like a very euthanized version of the original mythology, these are the types of problems we encounter when we utilize early mythology in todays world, instead of creating new situations which fit more logically into the confines of current standards of behavior. Using the excuse that these are old stories we’re repurposing and so their behavior is dictated is a cop out, because when they were written, we weren’t the same people. We must acknowledge our own changes in writing our stories.

Whenever something like this comes up, I’m reminded of the scientist who witnessed a homosexual, necrophiliac, duck rape. (Bear with me, the connection will become apparent in a moment.) You see, it turns out that these ducks were having a flight fight, which may culminate with the dominant duck having sex with the his vanquished opponent, no matter what gender or what condition he is in (i.e. alive or dead!) Now if we look at this by our own moral standards, we’re horrified at this illegal behavior. The duck is a necrophiliac, homosexual rapist! But within his own society, the duck is behaving perfectly rationally. We do not try to retell this story by replacing the duck with a human, because it would make no sense. Similarly, we should not try to rehash ancient stories as if they are about modern people, because they won’t make any sense. Our stories and our histories are nothing without context, and we do them a disservice by presenting them as such. As Tara said to me; Let’s just hope the Norse gods aren’t real, otherwise they’re going to be very angry.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: How Attendees Make ECCC Great

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:51:01 -0700

This is an article in praise of the people who attended Emerald City Comicon. Last week I covered some of the basic interactions that I had, meeting and briefly talking to comic book creators at ECCC. What I missed writing about, and why I felt it worthy of a follow up article, is the fantastic crowd who attend this Seattle convention.

When it comes right down to it, the reason any convention works and is enjoyable is the general atmosphere. Yes, a convention can be much improved by a good meeting with a like-minded fan or a long-time hero, but in terms of the day-to-day ambience, it is mostly about moving through the crowds of regular people who go to these conventions (and actually, the same can be said for most situations we find ourselves in - the people we do it with have the greatest impact on the how we experience the environment.) I’m not sure why it is, but somehow, attendees and guests at ECCC seem more relaxed. Even in situations like a slightly crowded Saturday, there is amore breathing room and a less anxiety than I’ve experienced at other cons, like New York Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, or even WonderCon. Now of course, NYCC and SDCC are both larger than ECCC and while size has some impact, there are many other key factors that are different:

Unlike SDCC and NYCC, not that many companies are there to sell merchandise other than comic books, and the merch they sell is always related to comic books in some way.
Inside the main hall, there no food being sold, so there aren’t any weird smells in the windowless space as there are at NYCC.
Artists alley and creator owned comic books are on the main floor, alongside larger publishing companies, (rather than being cordoned off in a separate area as they are at NYCC, or simply kept to one side of the hall as in SDCC), so meeting people becomes more organic.
The design of the Seattle convention center means that the hallway leading to the main floor is flooded with daylight, which gives instant access to a bit of reality for anyone with even a hint of claustrophobia.
The weather is generally cooler than SDCC (or even NYCC, even in the winter, since the space gets so overheated), which means that people can get away with wearing warmer costumes without looking like they’re going to pass out from the heat.
Any actor and celebrity guests are on a different floor, so there is less friction between the comic book fans and the movie fans.
Which brings up another important point; ECCC is essentially just comic books, and no comic book-related movies. This attracts a very different, much more low-key audience which adds a lot to the relaxed atmosphere.
Even on Sunday, which is traditionally the kids day, there are less children at ECCC than I’ve seen at any other comic book convention (which, as much as I like kids, does contribute to a less panicky atmosphere, since kids often get understandably frightened by the crowds at convention.) More importantly, the kids who’re there move slower, are rushed less and generally seem happier than the kids I’ve seen at other cons over the last 4 years.

There are a few things that make ECCC different from other conventions, and I think these all contribute to the happier convention. However, we also have to look at how much of this is because of the people and city in which the convention is held? I think the answer to this can be most obviously seen in the cosplayers, because even if you’re so consumed by the convention that you never get around to exploring the rest of the city, you can pick up on the different kinds of attitudes by looking at how they approach dressing up.

In Seattle there is a marvelous nonchalance to the costumes, sometimes they’re good, sometimes they aren’t, but people are playing and they’re enjoying it. Conversely, in San Diego I’ve seen some incredibly accurate costumes, but the people posing in them often look tense (which makes sense, as there are a lot more industry cameras at SDCC.) On the other side of the spectrum is New York, where we rarely see an accurate costume, but the cosplayers still seem edgy and uncomfortable (which probably has something to do with the the overcrowded environs.) The universal offenders are:

Men not wearing athletic support when wearing spandex - This is a universal problem, but I’d say it happens 90% of the time in NY. No idea why, maybe they don’t have access to cups?
People who aren’t the same ethnicity or sex as the person they’re dressing up as (i.e. white kids dressing as asian or black, women dressed as men, or vice versa) - I’ve seen this predominantly in Seattle and it speaks volumes about the relaxed attitudes of attendees. While NYCC attendees also seem comfortable going off-brand with their costumes, I haven’t seen anyone use cosmetics to fake being a different ethnicity or sex as they do in Seattle, NYCC cosplayers seem to more frequently simply ignore the differences.
People who aren’t the same size or shape as the superhero they’re dressed as - This is huge in NYCC, nearly everyone there is a larger version of the hero they emulate (Jamie Oliverneeds to do one of those intervention food shows where he makes us all eat healthy for the next con.) In Seattle it happens a lot, but there is more humor about it, as if they’re aware of the difference and like it, instead of being subtly pissed off about it as people seem to be at other cons. In San Diego you get more skinny women with fake boobs, which is another kind of difference from the superheroic ideal. Obviously it happens at all cons, but more frequently in SDCC.
Overall, Seattle definitely has the most zombies, the most convincing zombie make-up, and even the most child-zombies I’ve seen. And they did before Walking Dead came out too, so they’re hip to zombies I guess. (Now I think of it, maybe this is why the only people I know who own guns are people who live in Seattle…?)

At the end of the day, what makes a convention great is usability and the people who attend. ECCC comes through on both fronts, it’s less crowded, functionally superior as a building and in organization. Content-wise, it is focused on the love of the comic books, (without excluding or marginalizing any genre.) There is an appreciation and acceptance which affects everyone who attends, and we can all take that with us when we leave to go back to our daily lives.

(The rest of my photos from ECCC are all up on my now if you want to see them, click here to open the set.)

…

Originally published here.

Committed: My Emerald City Comicon, 2012

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:59:00 -0700

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Emerald City Comicon is my favorite comic book convention. It truly is all about the comic books, not just for the fans but for the creators too. There is something almost thrilling about how excited everyone gets about the medium, whatever the perspective, the enthusiasm is palpable. I made a postcard about it (right), because this boy’s quiet smile and nifty, painted mask exemplify the fun everyone has at ECCC.

Have you ever seen that old movie; My Dinner with Andre? I always feel energized by that film, as if the depth and range of the protagonist’s conversation, and their excitement together is nourishing me. In real life, a good bit of banter between friends can be similarly thrilling, and ECCC absolutely oozes with these kind of happy interactions. Some people collect sketches or rare back issues at conventions, but the secret joy is to collect experiences, to immerse ourselves in the little glimpses of intimacy and shared enthusiasm. In a time when we can easily document and share every aspect of our lives, the priceless souvenirs I bring home from ECCC are my meetings with people.

On the way to Seattle, I used the flight to catch up with my reading and just loved the newest issue of Powers. Ever since Deena Pilrgim came back, I think it’s just got better and better. This newest storyline allows for some really weird thinking and the art is getting this oddly 1960’s graphics / Mod Squad feel about it. When I stumbled across Michael Avon Oeming’s table, I told him so, and added that I particularly loved the page with all three cops, simultaneously pulling their guns. He laughed and said that he had the page for sale if I was interested. Now I don’t often buy art, I already have more than I can fit on my walls, but I couldn’t resist. When I pulled out the page, it had this marvelous white space, giving it even more of that ‘60’s filmstrip look I like. I ended up buying that and the two pages following, to frame as a triptych together. I rationalized the purchase by calling it a housewarming gift to myself, since I’m moving to Los Angeles next week. It felt extravagant, but the new art has really helped me look forward to decorating my new place instead of dreading the move.

Most people probably already know this, but I found out that before his career as a writer, Rick Remender worked as professional artist. Until I heard him talking to Tony Harris about it, I hadn’t realized the extent of his experience, but when they began arguing about their preferences for a Winsor & Newton 00 brush Vs. a Winsor & Newton 5 brush I began to understand the level of artistic geekery they embraced. (In case you’re interested; Harris prefers the thick handle and versatility of a number 5 with an extremely light touch, while Remender prefers the finesse and control of the extremely fine 00 brush.) Remender had a some encouraging words about my impending move south, since he made a similar move himself and loves the sunshine of Southern California.

Talking of moves, I managed to visit a friend who has recently relocated from San Francisco to Seattle; Emily Stackhouse, (artist and creator of her gritty, creator-owned comic book; Miner’s Mutiny.) Her table neighbor was Georges Jeanty, artist of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 & 9, and all around nice guy. Don’t think me too European, but because of the spelling of his name, and his stellar work on Buffy, I had assumed he would be a French woman. Turns out he is a very American man, and he introduced me to his table-mate; Dexter Vines, who’s beautifully fluid inking had graced some early Buffy comic books. We looked at his fantastic work on Hulk, and I admired his range. Though I would like to say that we had a sensibly conversation about something sensible, I couldn’t help myself from raving about the vampy cats in Buffy, which I personally would love to see more of (Sanrio goes horror? Yes please.)

On Sunday, I randomly found Jacen Burrows, who’s work I have long admired, most recently on the mind-expanding comic book Neonomicon. This was an exciting comic book to discuss, as I have read some of the script and was absolutely shocked at the detail. While most of us who read Moore have, at some point, read one of his detailed scripts, I had never seen an artist so meticulously draw every single thing in that script. Even more impressive, Burrows managed to make all of those details look like organic elements of each scene. He told me a lot about Moore’s requirements for the comic book, not just the content but the layouts too. Then, adding more layers to the insanely rich detail of the comic book, he showed me his own secret requirements for each page, with a five pointed star hidden somewhere on every single page, and black cats winding their way through the story. It made me so excited to go back and reread the book, finding out that Burrows not only managed to incorporate every single detail of the script descriptions into the comic book, but also added his own. What a mad man!

These are just a few of the wonderful little things that happened in one short weekend. Come back next week, when I’ll be posting part two about the creators, the cosplayers, and the attendees I encountered at Emerald City Comicon 2012.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Moving Horrors & Frankenstein

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700

All comic book readers know the creeping fear that goes along with moving house and with it, moving the comic books. For me, packing has revealed the scope of my collection (which was all shelved until recently), and once I’ve moved, there is the nagging fear that there won’t be room in the new place. And what sort of order do I put them in? Alphabetical by author, or by title, or by publisher? Chronologically organized by when I read them? Is that too chaotic or will it be more instinctive for browsing? Gah!

I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to write a column last week, but what with apartment hunting, then packing to move, landing two new design clients (I’m doing a small website and making elements for a big one), and then also prepping to fly to Seattle for Emerald City Comic-Con next week, I ran out of time to write a column (or do anything much.) In fact, I had no time to read my comic books and certainly nothing to write about because I was in a bit of a panic.

Since then I calmed down a little. I’ve got two weeks till I actually move, two days until I leave for Emerald City Comic-Con, and I think I’m going to make it. As a reward, I made some time to relax and read comic books. Now because I only have a limited amount of down time, I had to combine two things, so I went for a sauna and while I was there, I read some comic books. Due to the damp, steamy environs of the Japanese bathhouse where I got to sauna, I had to choose reading materials that could withstand the steam (or at least ones I didn’t mind getting a little beat up. And here, once again, is my personal preference for the printed comic. You can’t take a bloody iPad into a sauna, can you?)

For my disposable reading I chose the first 4 issues of Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Months ago I bought these on a reader’s recommendation in response to my article about the lackluster women-centric titles in DC’s new 52, he thought I’d like this more. And I did! The sauna was dimly lit and eerily quiet, so I reasoned that it would compliment it the moody, Vertigo-esque look of the comic. In retrospect, I realize that I was expecting something more popart-tastic, like the hysterically irreverent Wachowski brother’s book called Doc Frankenstein. (I loved that book, why didn’t they keep that going?!) Anyway, this was much more B.P.R.D. in tone, and even some of the characters were reminiscent of Hellboy’s little friends. These first four issues definitely gave me enough of an intro to know that I like reading it well enough, and I’ll probably read a bit further to see how it departs from the B.P.R.D. model once the introduction period is over.

Now the last time I read a comic book in the sauna (yes, I’m that weirdo reading comic books while the other ladies read fashion magazines) I read a short run of Superman / Batman, which I have to say was actually more compelling while sweating. You see, while I thought that the murky eeriness of Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. would be atmospherically appropriate to the relaxed mood of the sauna, I found the darker colors and more organic pace made it hard to focus on while my blood pressure dropped. It was just a bit too sleepy. Weirdly, the punchy, no-nonsense nature of the Superman / Batman story was a bit easier to enjoy in the sweaty sauna. I felt more involved and engaged by it, as if the dynamism of the superhero masculinity provided a counterpoint to the physical environment. In future I’ll keep in mind that sometimes a comic books with totally opposite energy of an situation can work better than one that is more overtly complimentary.

Now I’m back home and packing (well, in-between writing this I am.) With the comic books are all packed, I’m feeling less ambivalent about them, more appreciative of the print medium, despite the quantity. We’ll see if I feel the same once I’ve paid the moving company.

It isn’t the furthest move I’ve ever made, but it is far enough that I need to get professional movers to help me. When I initially phoned movers for cost estimates, I thought that I would have about 10 boxes of books. Now that I’ve packed the comic books, action figures (I also have a substantial collection of boxed female action figures), and all of my design and photography books it comes to over 30 of those large Diamond boxes (kindly donated by my local comic shop.) Theoretically, this stuff is all non-essential to my life, I don’t need it, but I have to say, I really like it. Whatever may now be universally available via the internet as information and imagery, it’ll never beat having it all around me, existing in the physical world.

I used to be pretty tidy, organizing my belongings and clearing up other people’s messes. Over the years I have learned to channel my slightly compulsive behavior into my graphic design work which has allowed me to loosen up. Now I’m at the point where I no longer notice a certain level of lived-in-ness (essential since I spent the last three years sharing a house with my little brother), but the impact of this relaxation is a more disorganized comic book collection and I fear the chaos when I unpack. Initially, I packed meticulously, putting action figures into a boxes with related comic books (to balance out the weight). For example, I packed my Swamp Thing figure in with the Hellblazer comic books (because Constantine first appeared in a Swamp Thing comic.) But by the end of the packing, I was down to shoving random figures in with random boxes, and now there are at least 4 boxes of unread, totally disorganized comic books and weird action figures. Ideally I’ll remember to unpack them first so that I can have something to read when I arrive in my new place… I just need to remember which boxes are which. Wish me luck!

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Comics Should Be FUN

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700

I feel that I ought to be thinking of something to write about that I’m really worked up about over comic books, but I can’t. Comic books are fun, I like them a lot, love them even, but I don’t have it in me to get really furious up about them right now. A lot of my friends who write about comic books are vehemently arguing about something… I’m afraid I don’t know what it is all about. In general, people seem to get very worked up about comic books and I’m beginning to wonder why. After all, wasn’t this created to be a disposable medium, a bit of fun to spice up a day? And isn’t it that very disposability that makes them so open to diverse, free, unfettered creativity?

When I read the abusive comments that fans throw around over their differing opinions about comic books, I find it difficult to understand the level of vitriol and anger that is being expressed. I begin to wonder what else is going on for people when comment sections are filled with violent threats to strangers, after all, unless someone is actually working in the comic book industry and having actual work problems, what is in a difference of taste, that merits such fury and aggression?

This is probably naive, but the comic books I love are fun for me, whether or not other people agree with me. When my friends laugh at me for liking an artist or writer that they don’t, I don’t care in the least. It could be that I’m just not used to this environment. After all, up until 4 or so years ago, when I was first asked to begin writing about comic books, I didn’t pay any attention to online discussions. It wasn’t a willful decision, it is just that because I’m self-employed, I feel like time online outside of work is time when I could be working. So I didn’t read reviews or forums, and offline I was relatively uninterested in other people’s opinions too, I rarely even took recommendations from store owners. When I started reading comic books as a little girl in the UK, it was in a era when the medium was far more openly despised and so out of necessity I was reading in a bit of a vacuum, just reading what I found on my own. Nowadays that habit of browsing on my own and reading whatever I find has continued and pretty much stuck.

I think the last time I unintentionally wrote something divisive was over a year ago, since then I’ve done my best to keep things light. Actually I always did before as well, but somehow I still occasionally instigate a deep and impressive rage from the odd very vociferous commenter. Realistically I expect at some point I will incite ire again, I’m really not sure how or why. This is meant to be fun.

The level of aggression and furious personal attacks thrown around in interviews, articles, and comment sections on comic book articles is consistently shocking. Over the 4 years or so that I’ve been writing about them, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to avoid reading about comic books. But reading too much of this stuff sours it. In the same way that I avoid watching too much reality tv (because I don’t need any encouragement in finding humanity unpleasant), I really just want to stay out of it. Like everyone, I can get stuck into watching “Hoarders” or some other insanity, because 10 minutes of some poor woman who’s stopped using a toilet because she wants to keep her poop in bags in the spare room (or whatever) is actually pretty mindblowing), but when the cleaners start find the corpses of multiple “lost” cats it quickly becomes depressing. Similarly, I’ll dip my proverbial toe into reading the odd comment sections to check out the tone, but things can get very strange very quickly. Lately I’ve noticed that many people who comment on my weekly column here, do so via email, or on social networks and because of the personal connection engendered by Facebook, Twitter and Google+, those comments are generally of a similar tone to conversations I have with friends in real life. It would be nice if, even if we’re commenting anonymously on a website, we could all assume that the person who wrote the article is another human being, whether we agree or disagree, and treat them accordingly.

Plenty of my friends and colleagues disagree with my opinions on comic books (and all sorts of other, more life-threatening issues), but I will never threaten physical injury because I disagree with their opinion. That will never happen. It has happened to me though, and frequently happens to my colleagues, particularly the female ones. This is not okay.

I like my comic books and I liked them just as much for the 30+ years that I was reading them without being able to talk about them, online or otherwise. I just bought what I fancied and enjoyed it. Most of the time, I still do. When Brian Cronin talked to me about writing these Wednesday columns, he noticed that I don’t write about news, that I don’t pay much attention to the “insider” talk about the comic book industry. That isn’t an accident and it surprises me that so many people do otherwise. Working on designing comic books themselves now, I make an effort to focus on the joy of the medium, because knowing too much about how the sausages are made takes some of the fun out of it. I do my best to focus on the comic books themselves, to read the comic books which catch my eye and appeal to me and reserve the bulk of my debates to real-life, where people treat each other with a modicum of respect. This way the comic books continue to make me happy, much more so than reading about them ever has.

Note: All pics are from cuteoverload.com which is an excellent antidote to bad moods, about comic books or otherwise.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Meeting Creators at the Image Expo

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0800

Image Expo was great fun. Perfectly formed, with a smaller space and less room for waste, ever aspect of it was lovingly crafted and casually, comfortably enjoyable. Meeting talented artists and writers is a boon at any convention, but at Image Expo it was absolutely the focus. In retrospect, that is almost all I really did at the Image Expo, and it reinvigorated my excitement for comic books and conventions.

Front and center, opposite the large Image Expo booth, was Andy Suriano’s colorful table. While speaking to him, (and admiring his crazy, beautiful work on Plastic Man and the freaky little drawings he was doing for people, see left), someone told us that they’d just come from talking to Chris Sprouse. We became so involved with the discussing the sexiness of the way Sprouse draws Tom Strong’s arms that I completely forgot to go and find the man to shake his hand.

Instead Suriano and I geeked out discussing print techniques, wondering why a spot varnish on a hardcover book adds so much but is such a headache for the printer. He showed me the elaborate printing on the new hardcover book; Doc Bizarre and we concluded that it was worth the hassle.

Meeting Matt Wagner was an unexpected pleasure, and he gave me a sneak peek at the gorgeous Simon Bisley artwork from his upcoming book for Legendary comics. I wish I could share it with you, but you’ll just have to wait since it wasn’t for publication yet.

Wagner explained that his work has really ramped up since his kids moved out, he said that he just couldn’t work with them looking over his shoulder, having opinions and we laughed about how families are always so comfortable sharing unsolicited opinions. On the flip side, now that his children are grown up, he is actually in the process of working with them and told me that there is a project he is working on with his son, who is an artist. He wouldn’t say more about it and was very mysterious about the nature of it (though he did sound like he was enjoying the process), so we’ll just have to wait and see what comes from this family collaboration.

Seeing author Ed Luce was great (that’s him on the left, the giant guy next to him is Ken Kneisel, modeling one of Luce’s tshirts.) His comic Wuvable Oaf is always enjoyable, but I became accutely aware of his talen when I recently saw the original art for it on display at my local comic shop. I only wish I’d bought one of his prints of Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig on the Newlywed Show (or with cats, of course!)

With my newfound appreciation for his lovingly detailed paintings, I at least had to buy myself a Wuvable Oaf tshirt (because there is something deeply incongruous about me wearing a tshirt emblazoned with a giant, hairy man, wearing only pink, kitty underpants.) We talked about making creator-owned comic books and he told me about his plans for the evening to attend Bob Mould in concert and turn it into a minicomic (he did too, on top of a whole weekend of work at the con, and the comic came out amazingly, you can look at it on the Spin Magazine website.)

I often find the most exciting part of conventions the opportunity to meet my friends in the actual flesh. Too often I only get to talk to people online and rarely spend any time with them. This con was an opportunity to say hello to Canada-located Kurtis Wiebe (who I worked with on his upcoming book Grim Leaper, pictured left) and meet New York inhabitant; Jeremy Holt (his collaborator on their podcast The Process and author of his own mysterious creator-owned comic book, coming soon.)

While Wiebe wore his own work on his gothic Green Wake tshirt, Holt did the emo thing wearing his classic Morrissey shirt (and looked oddly model-ey in it, but that could just be how the photo came out…)

Moving across the alley was local illustrator Joshua Ellingson, displaying a dizzying array of his brightly-colored prints. I managed to snap a photo of his recent purchase, bartered for one of his prints from a fellow vendor of a one-eyed cat vinyl toy (pictured in the thumbnails below.)

On Saturday he did the smart, ‘60’s thing wearing a jacket and nifty retro shirt, but by Sunday he was back in the comic book uniform of an amusing tshirt. In the photo (left) he’s posing with the doodle he’d just done of a lounge-fish. I don’t think that’s a thing (like lounge-lizards), but it works. He told me that he was on a bit of a roll with fish doodles lately.

Appropriately (sort of, since his interests do veer towards horror) located directly opposite the hotdog booth, was local writer Jason McNamara, who kindly posed for my photo with his best creepy look. He was doing a great job selling all of his own books, from the friendly Martian Confederacy (created with collaborator Paige Braddock) to his newest book; Short Hand, which is about a diminutive, elderly detective who turns out to be a small child with a horrible disease. It’s a comedy (you have to read it to see what I mean.)

Finally, I got sort of ambushed by this hysterical group of kids who are starting a comic book comedy thing, and were selling audio CD’s of their routines and pretty decent sketches. It seems like a narrow niche market, but they kept me laughing hard for the 10 minutes that I was talking to them (particularly with their good and better drawings of superheroes) so that I was happy to listen to their self published comedy CD. It helped that one of their number dressed up as Lucha Tigre (at least I think that was his character’s name, he’s a tiger in a wrestler mask speaking Spanish and French), making him one of only 2 or 3 people in costume at the event and certainly the most boisterous. That’s him on the left, with me in the red shirt, looking dubious.

There were so very many fun things and people that I met, far too many to write about them all here, so I’m ending with some thumbnails of the event at the bottom of this article. You can see the rest of the pics at full size on my flickr.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but no matter what size the convention is, I still manage to forget to do something great. This weekend at Image Expo was no exception to that rule, while I got to speak to many great people and see many wonderful things, I somehow missed out on all these things I meant to do. There are still comic books to buy, art to seek, toys to find and (most importantly) people to talk to. I can’t wait for Emerald City Comic Con!

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Jubilex Loves You!

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

The intimacy and warmth of the Image Expo last weekend reminded me that we create in order to share the love, and so I’ve posted my weird cat cartoon calendar for you to download and print.

Because of the intimate, comfortable layout and boutique feel of the Image Expo, I was able to properly explore all of the independent creators work. It inspired me so much that I became completely distracted with my own cartoons and completely neglected writing up my notes from the convention or processing the photos that I took… I’ll share them with you next week. Instead I made a 2012 calendar of weird little cats: Jubilex and friends

The inside skinny on Jubilex and friends: First of all, you should know that I’m not what people call a “cat person”, (although I do like animals.) But a few years ago when I was very ill, I had an very affectionate siamese cat called Jubilex, who would gently paw my face and make me feel better. Despite knowing that the breed is unusually affectionate, he still seemed to be crazy in love with everyone to a ridiculous degree (he once climbed on a client’s face while I was having a design meeting, which was awkward.) Anyway, while I was ill, he was a bit of a lifesaver, and as I slowly regained my health I read a study that people experience a rush of endorphins when they see something cute, that they actually feel physically better because of a cute drawing.

While I have always liked Sanrio characters and Dick Bruna’s Miffy books, I eschewed them in favor of darker, more serious artwork. So I took this study as my inspiration and as I sought to heal myself in any small way I could, I drew an overly cute cartoon of my cat Jubilex to cheer myself up. Then for fun, I made a calendar for friends to download (so that we could all share in the endorphins.) Before long other friends sent me photos of their cats to draw for each month and soon I had a whole year of characters. Now you can get in on the endorphin boost and download your own weird cat calendar: Jubilex and friends

Enjoy!

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Image Expo

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:06 -0800

This weekend will see the first Image Expo, a comic book convention supported by local Bay Area publishers Image Comics. Famous for their creator-owned comic books, Image Expo promises to be a very different sort of convention. With the move of Wonder Con to Southern California this year, this leaves the field wide open for something new and Image seem ready to meet the challenge. I spoke to Image Comics publisher; Eric Stephenson about the convention and asked him some questions about what we could expect to find there.

Sonia Harris: First of all, what made you decide to do Image Expo?

Eric Stephenson: Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld had both attended the Amazing Arizona convention in 2011 and got to talking about how great it would be if there was an Image-focused con during Image’s 20th anniversary year. I wasn’t particularly taken with the idea at the beginning, but then Amazing Arizona’s Jimmy Jay said he was scouting locations and that his top choice was the original home of WonderCon, the Oakland Convention Center, and that made the idea more appealing. Downtown Oakland is a really compelling success story. When I first came up here, almost 20 years ago now, Oakland’s downtown was rundown and kind of sketchy, but in recent years a lot of independent businesses have started moving in and creating first rate bars, restaurants and art spaces. That’s something I’m personally very into, and something I really wanted to expose our readers to. It’s a smaller venue than the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and seemed perfect for a smaller, more specialized event, and I really liked the idea of doing something that would support the local community.

SH: When it was announced that WonderCon was moving away from San Francisco, there were fears that there’d be no local convention, so I know that people are pretty excited. Did you see this as a gap in the market to fill?

ES: To a certain degree. I think Jimmy was thinking along those lines, for sure, and he would have probably put on the show with or without Image’s involvement.

It’s a real shame that WonderCon was forced to move down to Anaheim this year. Comic-Con does a great job with that show and everyone up here loves it – it’s a big part of comics culture in the Bay Area. And as a publisher, it’s definitely nice to have a convention that doesn’t require a lot of travel. So yeah, it’s good to be able to do something for fans in the Bay Area to kind of make up for WonderCon’s absence. If there are fans disappointed about WonderCon not being here this year, they can come to a different kind of show over in Oakland, and hopefully WonderCon will be back up here next year.

SH: Is this going to be an annual event or a one-off? If WonderCon moves away permanently, would this affect your decision to run Image Expo again next year?

ES: Man, with this thing only a few days out and no idea whatsoever what it’s going to be like, I have absolutely no desire to speculate on any of that. First off, I really hopeWonderCon doesn’t move away permanently. I think that would be a real tragedy. Secondly, Image Expo has been a tremendous undertaking and has required a lot more of Image’s input than we originally anticipated, and you know, our main priority is making comic books. At the moment, I think we all just want to make this year’s show a good experience for everyone who comes out, so thinking about doing another one is literally the last thing on our minds.

SH: Image Expo will be the first comic convention that I’ve attended which is supported by a single publisher. Does this mean that only Image books and creators will be featured?

ES: No, not at all. IDW is exhibiting, Archaia is there, Aspen is there, Diamond is there, and there’s a wide array of independent and self-published creators from the local area, along with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Hero Initiative and digital providers like iVerse.

Really, it’s not all that different from something like the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival, which is sponsored in part by PictureBox, but includes Fantagraphics, and D&Q, alongside a diverse group of individual creators.

SH: What do you feel will set this convention apart from other similar-sized comic conventions?

ES: Well, considering the guest list includes Brian K. Vaughan, Ed Brubaker, Robert Kirkman, Jonathan Hickman, Blair Butler, Fiona Staples, Matt Wagner and all but one of the Image founders, just for starters, I think it’s an opportunity to meet some of the most creative people in comics in a more intimate environment than, say, Comic-Con International in San Diego or New York Comic Con. Those shows are great, but they’re so big that it’s often hard to get quality time with every single creator. Here they will be be much more accessible, and there will be specialized programming that focuses directly on them and their work.

SH: Image is characterized by a tremendous range and variety of types of comic books. Will this be reflected in the choice of panels people can attend? Are there any that you’re particularly excited about, in terms of content or potential audience response?

ES: Definitely. We’re doing everything from a Womanthology panel to a spotlight on comics and TV, there’s a live version of Chris Hardwick and Robert Kirkman’s weekly discussions about The Walking Dead television series, featuring Steven Yeun, who plays Glen on the show, and we’re also doing some smaller workshops aimed at aspiring creators. Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jonathan Hickman and John Layman are all doing these hour-long workshops in small classroom-sized rooms that that focus on various aspects of the creative process. We’re also hosting a screening of the Warren Ellis documentary, Captured Ghosts, and instead of sprinkling our big announcements throughout the weekend, I’m going to be giving a keynote speech on Friday evening, to talk about some exciting things to expect from Image later this year. I was very hands on with determining the programming, and it’s my hope that people enjoy all of it.

SH: Which guests are you most excited about? Will it be possible for people to meet and talk to comic book creators?

ES: I think one of the great things about Image Expo is that since we have such a terrific guest list for such an intimate show, there’s an almost unprecedented opportunity for fans to get some quality interaction with some of comics’ very best. I think that’s one of the real benefits of more focused gatherings like this – for fans and guests alike.

Which guests am I most excited about? This is going to sound like a cop out, but all of them. It’s going to be really cool to have this many Image creators in one place at one time.

SH: As a local publisher, running a convention in your home town, can we expect any foreign creators, or is this primarily a Californian gathering?

There are a lot of creators in California, but people are coming from all over. Nick Spencer lives in the UK; Fiona Staples is up in Canada; Tim Seeley is in Chicago. We’ve got creators coming from North Carolina, Louisiana, Arizona, Utah, Oregon…

SH: What kind of attendance are you expecting? Will it be possible to buy tickets on the door?

ES: Absolutely, people can get tickets right at the convention center, throughout the weekend.

In terms of attendance, well, we have pretty modest aims, but we’ll see how it goes. Part of the reason WonderCon couldn’t simply move back to Oakland as an alternative to the Moscone Center was because it’s a much smaller space by comparison, and it’s not like we’re shooting for that kind of attendance. This is something for Image fans, and for Bay Area comic book fans, and we’re looking forward to providing a good experience for everyone who walks through the door.

SH: Thank you for talking to us, Eric. We’ll see you at Image Expo this weekend.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Back Issue - The Liberated Ladies Issue

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0800

If you wrote a magazine just for me, designed to plug into my brain and force me to purchase, it would have to be the “Liberated Ladies” issue of the new Back Issue magazine. Devoted to the in-depth examination of just a few of the strongest female superheroes in comic books, as well as interviewing three of the most identifiable women working in comic books - I had to read it.

The cover is adorned with a fabulous Bruce Timm painting of one of the most intense and powerful women in comic books; Big Barda. Personally I would have liked to have seen her depicted in her Apokolypitian military atire rather than a bikini. The partial nudity somewhat undermines the “Liberated Ladies” tagline, but this slightly more sexualized version of Barda is understandable; breasts are great sales tools. Besides, Timm perfectly depicts Barda’s mood, with her uncompromising stare and her unabashed posture, she is a character who truly embodies the warrior spirit of the superhero.

Inside the magazine follows through, spotlighting just a few of the strongest female superheroes in the comic book universe. Big Barda, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, Starfire, and Valkyrie are described in loving detail by some very committed readers. The authors have a strong affinity with the characters and the sense of history is engaging . The select superheroes are iconic with at least three of my favorites among them.

I was particularly entertained by the writer, Jim Ford, exhuming our dear Phoenix. Tellingly, he only wrote about her incarnation and then her death at her own hands (I say tellingly, because that’s how I would have written it too. Like many people, I have little or no interest in Phoenix and Jean Grey’s various reincarnations and excuses over recent years. Even when done well by writers like Grant Morrison in New X-Men, the lack of permanence in death depress me. Let a death be a death.) He writes well about the editorial and creative discussions which happened around Phoenix’s journey, from inception to her death. Most of it will be familiar to old fans of the character, but Ford compiles them in context quite beautifully, weaving a complete story of behind-the-scenes inspiration and competition leading to the creation of an (almost) cosmic female superhero.

Interestingly, the author includes Dave Cockrum’s original concept sketches for the Phoenix costume, which was to be white. It really makes so much more sense of Cockrum and Wein’s vision for Jean as an almost angelic incarnation of her previous self. However, due the the print limitations of the time, editor Archie Goodwin rejected the white costume because the thin paper would have allowed the printed page opposite to show through. It is a great example of how the limitations of the medium forced a different solution, one which is now quite iconic. Who’s to say if the Phoenix would have had as much impact in a white costume?

Similarly, Douglas R. Kelly writes about the inception of She-Hulk, explaining that she basically only came into being to establish some copyright laws so that Universal Television couldn’t make a She-Hulk spinoff. Once again, he describes how the creators of this character worked within the confines of a very weird medium to make a book they could be proud of. He infuses his description of her inception with so much attention to detail that he makes me yearn for a retelling under more salubrious conditions.

In amongst all this text there have to be some comic books and Karl Heitmuller creates an adorably amusing double page comic about the impracticalities of female superhero fashions. Using logic to entertainingly say the things that really need saying, like ”it speaks volumes that in movies like X-Men and Watchmen, the heels on Storm and Silk Spectre suddenly disappear during action scenes.” And I love that he noticed the oversized Amazonian proportions of Darwyn Cooke’s depiction of Wonder Woman, he’s right too, no one draws her looking as strong as that. I’ve seen similar commentary-style comic strips on the sexism of superhero comics from people like Kate Beaton and Roberta Gregory in the past, so it is interesting to see a contemporary male cartoonist making his point.

In addition to all of this female superhero love, there is a good amount of the real-life, superheroic females in an impressively detailed roundtable interview with Barbara Randall Kesel, Gail Simone, and Jill Thompson. As a person who rarely pays any attention to the gender (or nationality, or even the name!) it was fantastic to hear all of the personal anecdotes of these women working in the industry which produces what I love. Their candor is wonderful, simultaneously impressive and daunting. Their stories from the front lines aren’t always fun, trying to make a place for themselves in a male dominated industry wasn’t exactly a party by the sound of it, but they are eye-opening and interesting anecdotes. Most of all I enjoyed the interaction between them, and the appreciation that they had for each other’s stories and knowledge. There’s a double page spread of Jill Thompson’s art. I was especially enamored of her Wonder Woman painting (prints of which are on sale on her website), which has the look of Thompson’s long lost Amazonian sister.

All in all a very satisfying read and definitely money well spent as I was stuck in an airport departure lounge for an extra hour and a half. All that time flew by while I read Back Issue and the only sad note was the fact that this entire issue of the magazine was put together by a crew of male writers and designers. While I know that women readers of superhero comic books aren’t a huge audience, I would have loved to have seen one doing something to contribute to this particular issue. Unfortunately, this small yet vital misstep left a shadow over the magazine and reminded me of this old Punch cartoon. It would be nice to say that we’ve come a long way since 1988 when that cartoon was drawn, but if we’re going to have a voice in this industry, we women who love superheroes are going to have to make a lot more noise about the objects of our affection.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Covers with Depth (INVINCIBLE IRON MAN & SANDMAN)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

There are comic books I have bought for their cover and only for their cover. While the interior hasn’t displeased me, this meat of the comic book is not what drew me to it, nor (more importantly) what made the purchase a satisfying one. These are comic books I won’t sell or give away, even though I probably won’t read them again. While the interior are strongly echoed by the covers, it is the comic book as a container which interests me. Like most people, I try not to be a superficial person, to judge for the beauty inside, but for me, in these instances, the covers lend so much more weight to the stories which inspired them, that they become substance in their own right.

Today I thought I would write about two very different sorts of covers which excited me for two very different reasons. Having acknowledged these differences, I must say that the strength of each is that they are not only beautiful, but are firmly and strongly associated with the stories within them. It actually annoys me when a cover is simply beautiful, but does not solve the design problem of communicating the interior, that is art, but not design. Design exists for a purpose, these covers more than serve the purpose of communicating the interior and adding to the enjoyment of it.

…

Invincible Iron Man

When Rian Hughes cover designs for Invincible Iron Man: Disassembled storyline came out, I had already been reading the book for the previous 19 issues, so theoretically, I was already onboard as a reader. However, prior to seeing the covers I had decided that issue #19 formed a perfect stopping point for my reading the book. To clarify, I had only intended to jump in to the book for a short time (I do this, I get into a character for a while, catch up with him and then move on.) Then I got to my local store (Isotope) where, despite my asking James to stop saving the comic book for me, he had it! He laughed and said “I figured you would need this, it’s Rian Hughes!” He was right too, it was like design crack for me, so unlike anything else on the shelves and yet perfectly evocative of the character, the mood and story that was unfolding within.

Crisp and modern, these covers have such a marvelously 1960’s feel with the bold, monochrome color schemes and single, rounded typeface (is that Futura, or Gotham?) Yet somehow these covers are also very much contemporary designs, with all of the lovely use of clean lines and aggressively jarring imagery. Hughes has often impressed me with his work, but to my mind these are a pinnacle of his comic book design work. Taking just enough art to hint at Larroca’s interiors, the designs really speak to the sparse, information-light nature of Fractions storyline. As Iron Man is forced to deal with his rapidly erasing mind, the stripped-down covers tell of the horrible inner journey he is on.

Usually I’m such a stickler for design rules, consistent branding being a bit one of those. I should have been appalled that Hughes dispensed with Iron Man’s instantly recognizable red and gold colored logo, but this is a story about Iron Man losing himself, so to lose the usual identity of the comic book makes perfect sense. As Iron Man experiences distressingly decreasing information in his own mind, these stripped-down covers echo that sparse sense of self that the protagonist is living. Besides, the logo becomes irrelevant because the covers are so obviously visually identified as Iron Man comic books by presenting us simply with Iron Man’s unique helmet. In addition, by showing us this portrait of Iron Man on every one of the 5 covers, the journey inside of Iron Man’s mind is clearly depicted, negating the need for splashes of text that so many covers are emblazoned with, explaining the content. This is a fantastic example of cover art as communicative information design.

…

Sandman

At the time these were coming out, I would race to my comic shop each month (at the time I used to go to Gosh! Comics, opposite the British Museum, because then I could combine my comic shopping with a visit to the museum to sketch - a better excuse to get out of studying than saying I was going to buy comic books!) It was a logical purchase, since I’d been reading Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and had moved from there to the “new” title (at the time) Hellblazer. With McKean doing covers on Sandman, I thought it might scratch a similar itch. It wasn’t really a conscious move to buy them just for the covers, even if I understood it on some level, it wasn’t until issue 9 that I fully admitted it to myself. I loved the strange stories contained within those lovely covers, but they really weren’t the part of the package that was making me need to buy the comic books. It was those covers.

Not so much cover paintings, but cover sculptures by Dave McKean, these were extremely different from any other comic books on the shelves. I have since been told that the comic book appealed to a very distinct sort of goth/art student in America, and I can’t honestly say that I wasn’t either of those things (though I certainly didn’t see myself that way.) Nowadays such artist cover art might not seem so shocking, but when they came out I had never seen anything like them in comic books. As an art student, I had an interest in Joseph Cornell’s art, and this is the closes thing I’ve ever seen to McKean’s Sandman covers. While Cornell’s work hinted at stories, it was interesting to me only in the abstract and I had little interest in the subject matter of his boxes. However, McKean managed to infuse every frame of his covers with the dark, mysterious nature of the Neil Gaiman stories contained within. His art spoke volumes, each image and object drawn from the stories, leading the reader into this odd new and old world.

Years later, a friend gave me all of the trade paperbacks of Sandman and I reread them over a few weeks. At the time I was very curious as to whether my adult-self would enjoy the same comic books I was so into as a kid. Rereading them all at once, (instead of gradually over the years it took them to come out originally), was a very different experience and I found myself missing a lot from my original purchase. At first I thought it was just because comic books have changed so much in the intervening decades, as well as whatever changes I’ve gone through personally. Then I realized, it wasn’t just those obvious changes, much more importantly, it was the lack of covers introducing each story in the trade paperbacks. Recently I looked back at the individual covers, as part of my own personal research to study my favorite cover artists. I immediately saw how deeply McKean’s cover art had impacted my initial interpretation of the stories. Each issue was introduced by these marvelous painted sculptures and although the stories were quite lovely, the covers were a huge part of my own feelings about them. Without the covers front and center, the trades were missing the essential component of my original appreciation of the books. I gave the trades away, but kept my original issues, those single monthly issues are the comic books, the trades alone or the covers alone just don’t make sense in isolation.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Webcomics and Art Links

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

This week, while I ought to have been writing you a column, I was wasting time on the internet and making things. Here are the webcomics and art that distracted me so effectively. Enjoy!

Vapor Trails
Will Strode’s futuristic, science fiction story about sentient animals rebelling against their human masters is well under-way now at around 40 pages, which should be enough to get your teeth into (I’ve been reading it week-by-week, so I’ve had to be pretty patient.) Strode previously wrote the long-running webcomic Goodbye Blue Monday, (with talented artist Lindsay Lea), which was somehow simultaneously surreal, disturbing and adorable.

The Little Tales of Otto and Olive
A gentlemen cat and his sweet little girl owner visit the fair. This weekly comic by Stephanie Buscema has only just begun, but we’ve got a whole world of beautiful adventures ahead. Buscema’s new website (recently redesigned by the talented Rob Harrigan) is filled with fantastic paintings in her signature style.

Joshua Ellingson
Though there are a few covers, Joshua Ellingson hasn’t created any comic books (yet, I’m still hopeful he will one day.) Still, I’ve been looking through his portfolio recently and Ellingson has amassed a slew of entertaining illustrations for fun and commerce. From Fat Wonder Woman to his He-Man-inspired paintings, Ellingson will be selling his art at the upcoming WonderCon and Emerald City Comic Con.

Batwoman Original Art
Speaking of great art, J.H. Williams recently posted some more of the original art from Batwoman for sale. Right up there with his best work on books like Promethea and Seven Soldiers, we’re lucky to get a peek at this art in its original, elegant black and white form.

Oglaf
This is probably the only not-safe-for-work webcomic that I regularly read, but it is so funny. Basically a series of nonsensical non-sequitors that usually make me laugh. After all, what is more ridiculous than sex?

Maurice Sendak, interviewed by Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert interviewing Maurice Sendak is fantastic. Filled with odd, random insights into Mr Sendak’s thinking and his work while he mocks Colbert’s incongruous act. To this day, I love In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There. Out of all of the children’s books I grew up with, those still have the same appeal and impact that they always have, with all the feeling of the most personal, half-remembered dreams.

Sherlock
Although it might not be strictly speaking anything to do with comic books, I’ve been watching the very superheroic British series; Sherlock. Personally I’ve always thought of Sherlock Holmes as one of the closest things Brits come to a homemade American-style superhero, and Steven Moffat’s approach to the story really embraces that feel. I’m particularly impressed with how Joker-like Moriarty becomes by the end of the second season and I can’t wait to see what happens next. It is as bad as waiting for next months comics!

Patience
Finally, I created this poster (right) for an upcoming Image Comics book. If you plan on attending the Image Expo at the end of February, we’ll be giving away a very limited number of trading cards of this art, so come find me!

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Targeted Marketing for the Geek-Curious

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0800

Outside of comic books themselves, there is very little advertising for comic books, online or on television. Targeting non-comic book readers could be effective, but are the corporations who own comic book publishers really trying to sell comic books?

It seemed like there was universal acknowledgement of the fact that the dorky television ads DC used to promote the new 52 #1’s worked at getting some new readers into stores. Sure, plenty of those people were simply lured in by the fact that they thought they were buying some collectible first issues (adorable), but at least they were new or lapsed readers, i.e. people who don’t usually buy comic books. At my local stores there was a lot of talk about this, about the new readers and how, ultimately, they’d be a bit disappointed by the books, since they weren’t to everyones taste. But the important thing was that the ads were reaching a new audience.

Now it seems we’re back to normal, with comic books only advertising in comic books. Continuing to aggressively market to the people who are already buying comic books, even though that market is already being bled dry, makes no sense at all. Why not market to a whole new crop of people? To continue to target the people who already know about comic books is insanity. One of the most useful and dramatic changes that I’ve seen in my own work in marketing design is increasingly targeted marketing, particularly online.

Have you noticed that when you look up a flight or a hotel on a website, for a few days afterwards, all of the banner advertising you see on most other websites will be pushing flights or hotels. It is almost as if someone is watching you and recording your preferences (they are.) You can either decide this is some insidious 1984/ “Big Brother” type of thing, or you can be happy that the completely obligatory advertising is at least something you might be vaguely interested in. Advertising is one of those necessary evils and as far as I’m concerned, if there have to be ads, I’m fine with them using cookies to track my movement and chuck something slightly interesting at me.

The way it works is that, for example, if I read an article on this site about Captain America, I should then be followed around the internet by ads for the Captain America comic book. This is marketing 101, it makes no sense not to target us. I’m not saying I like advertising, but why not bloody use it? More importantly, if a person who doesn’t know about this comic book news sites like this one, is reading about the Captain America movie on Entertainment Weekly (or some similar non-comic book specific website), why aren’t they being targeted with comic book ads when they leave that site? I work in this industry, I know that this is how other industries do it, this is not some futuristic fantasy, this is the kind of basic junk that every business engages in.

My scientist friends tell me that the science on The Big Bang Theory renders it almost unwatchable, and from my point of view the comic book aspects of it are pretty painful too (not so much inaccurate as just laughably out-moded and implausible.) Here’s the thing though, whether you find The Big Bang Theory depressing, accurate or hilarious, (or all three) isn’t relevant. What is relevant is that the sitcom machine that is Chuck Lorre put out a sitcom targeting the geek-curious (is this an accepted term? I’m using it to describe people who are interested in experimenting with geeks, geek culture, or feel that they may actually be a geek.) And to a certain extent it has worked; while not all my geeky friends watch it, a lot of our friends and families do, and they think it relates to us (annoying, but there you go, we’ve been targeted.)

So why aren’t comic book publishers putting out ads during The Big Bang Theory, or Portlandia, or whatever else has geek appeal to the geek-curious? I’m not talking about prime-time ads, these shows get syndicated and if late night informercials about cleaning cloths can afford a commercial spot, surely Time Warner can throw together some quick ad for a comic book. Of course if you wanted to effectively target potential comic book readers on TV, you could just advertise during anything on the Independent Film Channel, which is apparently what DC do (that’s the only place I’ve ever seen ads for comics, for the new 52 and for Fables.) That’s a very broad audience, so then they could target the ads more effectively by having a broad range of ads, each one tailored to suit the tastes of the people watching various shows and movies. A Daredevil comic ad could go on during an action movie, or a Wonder Woman comic ad could be aired during a soap opera, you get the idea.

None of the above is happening though. No targeted advertising for comic books, not online or on television. This could be because publishers don’t think there is a big enough potential market for comic books. Or it could be because publishers don’t really control the purse-strings of their own marketing. Ultimately, the owners of the big comic book publishers (Time Warner and Disney) aren’t about pushing books, but creating iconic brands which they can then sell peripherals for and use to sell other products that they own. We’re all operating under the assumption that the aim of all of this work is to create and disseminate good comic books for people to read. But the people who are actually responsible for selling them aren’t really trying to do this at all, they don’t care, they just want to make something that can sell a lot of toys, gum, sandwiches, coffee, clothes, etc.

All of this leads to marketing embarrassments which further demean the medium and turn off potential new readers. It is just too depressing to think about and it makes me hate capitalism (which is stupid, because I can use money to buy comic books.) If big corporations continue to milk the most obvious brands in the tackiest ways, there will be no meat left on their bones for future consumers. I wish that marketing executives could see that effectively marketing good comic books now is what will ultimately lead to more sellable brands in the long term. Invest in the future, consider quality, enjoy true content. Is this really so much to ask?

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Crime Fighting Female Duos - Daughters of the Dragon

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0800

I just read Daughters of the Dragon, simply out of curiosity about one of the only female crime fighting duo’s (in comic books or any other entertainment medium.) While I’m a bit of an old Iron Fist fan, and I do enjoy reading comics about female superheroes, and Misty and Colleen are a creation of Chris Claremont and John Byrne (who did some very weird but very good things with strong, sexy women in other books, including the marvelous Dark Phoenix Saga) Daughters of the Dragon was the only female crime-fighting duo book I could find. It sounds ridiculous, and I’m hoping that perhaps some of you reading this can help me, but they were one of the only crime-fighting, female duos that I could think of in any entertainment medium, outside of that old ‘80’s tv series; Cagney and Lacey.

Last week, after my friend Stephanie and I stumbled out of the movie Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, I joked that I could probably be Watson to her Holmes. Since Stephanie is a woman who takes her superhero-self seriously (she does kung-fu and Japanese drumming, as well as working out all the time and doing regular yoga - it is all very intimidating, or inspiring, I’m not sure which) she asked me if there were actually any female versions of Holmes and Watson in comic books, movies or literature. Steph’s criteria were specific, these female duos had to be crime fighting, (i.e. not simply the female buddy film Thelma and Louise, since that’s all focused firmly on dealing with their relationships with men.) I asked a lot of people and this is the list I got:

1. Cagney and Lacey - sort of a weirdly Starsky and Hutch thing, I never dug this, but my growing up, my feminist girlfriends like it.

2. Daughters of the Dragon - so after an evening of research, I turned up the 2006, 6-issue collected trade, by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Khari Evans.

That’s the bloody entire list, two things! Do you have any more? I’d really LOVE to hear more suggestions from you, anything with a Batman and Robin feel would work too, they don’t have to be peers in the way that Holmes and Watson are. I think that a duo create so much more space for character development and camaraderie, I like the sort of back-and-forth dialogue that the intimacy of a same-sex duo engenders. It would be so sad if there aren’t more of these women working together. Hard-bitten loners are fine, it seems like a lot of the crime-fighting females work alone, but then there isn’t as much space for human warmth and interaction as there is with a partner.

Lucky for me I found a second hand copy of Daughters of the Dragon and it was pretty good. I can see why I didn’t pick it up when it came out and I do remember seeing it on the shelves and rejecting it. The reasons are two-fold. First, the covers had the usual, Catwoman-style up-the-arse type of action shots of women with nice tits and no bras which made me think “This is a book aimed at young boys looking for wank material.” Not that this is always a turn-off for me, but there is more to the book than the artwork. Now usually, I’m the first person to look for the same artist on the cover as there in for the interior. However, in this instance, the covers didn’t quite communicate the tongue-in-cheek tone of the writing. The whole mood of the book was so wild and funny, it was more like a sort of female, modern take on something like the Man From U.N.C.L.E. and I would love to have seen that reflected in the covers.

I did a quick bit of research and found some great examples of what I’m talking about (above right and left.) These book covers and posters from Goldfinger and Live and Let Die would make a terrific leaping off point, with all of the style and verve of that era. An example of the perfect modern take on this genre, with bags of humor, sass and sex-appeal is this painting Bill Sienkiewicz did of the Venture Brothers in action (below right.) These are all of the elements that are so dominant in Daughters of the Dragon too, and I think that Evan’s could have had a go at creating something a little more stylized in the covers, to reflect the interior’s snappy dialogue and outrageous scenarios, as well as the action-packed art.

Once inside I was very happy to have stumbled on this. The book was filled with plenty of humor, marvelous incongruous literary references, distinct voices for different characters, and a lot of really disastrous villains. Personally, I could maybe have done with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing wearing bras sometimes, but what the hell, it is a comic books and at least they had very different bodies from each other. Unlike some artists, Evans and Palmiotti did such a good job of creating two completely different women that it would have been easy to tell them apart, even if the book had been in black and white. As it was the colors were pretty sumptuous, adding atmosphere and never detracting from the action (always tricky.)

I could read a lot more books like this, it’s a shame I missed it when it came out in 2006, but then again it isn’t as if comic books are famed for their massively aggressive advertising campaigns. In future I’ll be keeping an eye out for more like this. Daughters of Dragon was much more fun than I expected. The fact is, unlike loners, Misty and Colleen are a team and teams by their nature can have more fun than hard-bitten loners, which is another good reason to make more female crime-fighting duos! We like fun too.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Aspirational Posture

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0800

Most superheroes are depicted standing so tall and straight that they almost arch their backs backwards. Meanwhile we sit at desks all day, curled up with almost the opposite posture, yet we are so engaged by these images. Are we trying to tell ourselves something?

I started the day so well, with my first yoga lesson in ages. A new teacher and a new type - much mellower and slower than I’ve ever done before, since I’m only at the 5 week mark with my sprained ankle. But I didn’t need to worry, it really was very relaxed, definitely yoga for old people, (and that is not a complaint, I loved it!) I came out of that lesson feeling simultaneously relaxed and energized, it was fantastic.

Of course since that healthy start to the day I have been sitting at my desk working, browsing, eating lunch, and accidentally watching a depressing movie about a gynecologist in a concentration camp (terrible combination, by the way. I have this bad habit of leaving the TV on while I work and only half watching until I suddenly notice something intense is on, like today.) So here I am, 8 hours later, nearing the end of the my day, all slouched and achey from slumping in front of the computer. Unfortunately, there’s no point in being too disappointed with myself because this is what I do most of the time, just like everyone else. Comic book readers and creators alike, we’re all in the same boat of abusing our bodies by sitting in front of screens a little too much.

It suddenly strikes me then, as particularly strange that a lot of the comic books we read are basically about the polar opposite of a desk worker. We spend all this time and money to look at depictions of people with exaggerated physiques and such over-emphasized perfect posture that they’re practically bending over backwards.

Most of us spend an inordinate amount of time in front of computers, whether for work or for entertainment, everyone reading this uses one (if for nothing else but to read this!) including the people who create the comic books we love. People use computers to write and draw comic books, sitting hunched over desks so that other people can buy these depictions of super powered humans, channeling all of our attention and energies into the act of forgetting our sedentary corporeal existence. Superhero posture is almost a caricatures of a healthy adult posture. It is ironic then that most of the superhero comic books we enjoy are so filled with people in various states of activity. We pore over these scenes of superheroes standing, running, leaping and fighting while we spend the bulk of our time curled up in front of computers. I can’t imagine that anyone would want to create or read a comic book about someone who does little outside of staring at a computer, it just wouldn’t be very interesting to look at. I tried it out, I drew a comic book version of myself sitting in front of the computer (below right.) It is rough, but you get the idea, not much is happening and sadly, that is what a comic book about me would look like. Even the bloody Social Network had two fit men rowing like Vikings!

When I was a kid I studied fine art, but we couldn’t afford life models for figure drawing, so I used to sketch myself or my friends for practice. Because I read comic books, and because the quality of the art wasn’t what it is nowadays, I used to try to draw people in superheroic poses to see what the poses should look like in real life (and at this point, I’m going to sound like something out of a Monty Python skit, but you have no idea how good you have it now, the standards of art are generally so high.) Anyway, these drawings were a lot of fun to do, but they were never true to how we really stood because none of us were particularly active. Perhaps if I’d been friends with some athletes it might have been closer to reality. Back then, I assumed that one day in the future we’d all be moving around more, not less.

After a few years of attending a few comic conventions and meeting a lot of the people who make comic books, I realize that most everyone making comic books does nothing but sit at a desk all day just like everyone else. Then after work most people slump on a couch to watch tv or play a game, which is basically more of the same. I once dated a guy who, on discovering my love of Elektra, asked “Why don’t you want to do any of that?” which seemed insane to me, but in retrospect I can see that since he had been an athlete, he was legitimately confused as to why I’d never learned to be a ninja in real life. (The fact that I just laughed when he suggested it didn’t do our relationship any favors, but at the time I really thought he was crazy to wonder why I was so inactive.) For most of us, it is frighteningly easy to be sucked into an increasingly sedentary life, so here we all are, comic book readers and creators united by our common physical indolence and I’m starting to think that the gradual rise in the popularity of the superhero might be a reaction to this.

There is a dichotomy between the superheroes we like reading about and our own bad working posture. Maybe part of the attraction is a sort of subconscious aspiration, where our bodies are trying to ask us to stand up straight by drawing us to depictions of it. I’m sure my body would prefer that I spend more time running and leaping, or at least standing up straight! The attraction to looking at comic books filled with people doing so has to speak to a sort of subconscious plea from our bodies. We spend all day ignoring the aches from sitting, only to keep looking at drawings of people with great posture. Maybe our bodies are crying out for a healthier posture by drawing us to these images of postural perfection?

…

Originally published here.

Committed: Designing a comic book logo - Grim Leaper

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:37:18 -0800

Comic book logo development is a lot of fun for me and I thought you might like to see how one gets made. Like a lot of self-employed people in this industry, I spent part of the holiday season working. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Being a graphic designer can be fun, but being a graphic designer for a comic book can be incredibly fun. So I worked on some ads for a new comic book and established some ground rules for the mood and feel that I want to evoke with the logo when it is done. This project is so far in the future that I cannot share the work, but it got me thinking that you might be interested in seeing how a new comic book logo takes shape for me. A logo that I worked on a couple of months ago is now in use on a comic book that will be available to buy in the Spring.

Working with Kurtis Wiebe (the author of atmospheric, creator-owned books like Green Wake and the Intrepids), I began by talking to him extensively about his next project. After he sent me his script and the first 6 pages of art by Aluisio Santos, (see left for a very sneaky peek at page 1 of issue # 1) he told me about the mood and the tone of the story. I asked as many questions as I could about his inspiration and what excited him about this story, seeking to gain insight into the kind of mood he would like a prospective reader to feel when glancing at the book on a shelf. After all, the cover of a book is often the first hint we have about what the book is about and I wanted to be sure I was conveying Wiebe’s intent.

Kurtis is based in Canada and I am in California, so after a very brief initial conversation at the New York Comic Book Convention, the rest of our conversations about the project were via email and phone call, which was surprisingly effective (but then again, he is a writer so his communication skills ought to be pretty good.) My first step in the process was to try and use Wiebe’s words to inspire me, I told him that I wanted to give the logo a sort of macabre “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” feel, with an edge of “Vertigo” meets “The Seven Year Itch” and “Seven” (i.e. encapsulating both the madcap humor, the disturbing tension, romance, and the gory deaths that the story contains.) Using the language of film made much more sense to me than looking at other comic book logos for a number of reasons. This isn’t your classic, big two, comic book story (which you’ll find out more about when it is available for purchase in the Spring), as a short-run, creator-owned book, the comic book owes more to moody, mid-century short stories of crime and noir fiction. While it definitely has a filmic / tv air about it, I felt that the art on the cover and title would already convey that to the audience, leaving the look of the logo to do the rest. Referencing film and music graphics allowed me to set it apart from other comic books and gave me a familiar visual language to use when discussing it with Wiebe.

For my own inspiration, I put together a big board of imagery (see above, click on the image to see a larger version) which echoed this conversation. This imagery collection served to inspire and remind me of the mood I wanted to evoke while I was designing, so that I wouldn’t lose sight of our agreed aims. While the comic book clearly has a lot of death and violence (as you would expect by simply reading the title), there is also a lot of humor and an almost slapstick quality to the outrageous situations that our hero will find himself in. Wiebe’s description reminded me so much of my favorite movies of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s that I wanted to evoke that with the title treatment.

WIth my inspiration all in place, my next step was to simply see how the title looked when written out in a slew of different ways. Like the inspiration research, this wasn’t for Wiebe’s eyes, but for mine, so I wrote it out in every font I could imagine might fit and from those, I filtered it down to 18 typefaces (pictured above, click on the image to see a larger version), which I then further narrowed down to my four or five strongest and began developing them by placing them on to the cover art and into a lock up with a tagline. At this point, Wiebe hadn’t yet written a tagline, but since I was giving this a filmic feel, I wanted to have one. To my eyes, the logo looked more real when it had a short line of text under it, and I also wanted to have something right up front which talked about the messed up love story that our grimly leaping hero must also contend with. Besides, a hard-edged logo always looks better when it has something written in a sexy script under it, like someone standing over their discarded underwear in a dark bedroom, so I found a nasty, scrawly looking script and wrote “A love story to die for.”

Since Wiebe didn’t have any specific visual direction, I wanted to be sure to give him four very different designs to choose from. Each logo had to be not only in a different style, but also speak of a different era. After all, while we’d both agreed to a retro feel, that doesn’t always translate as a retro look. It was also important to get the mood right, so there had to be a good span of serious, earnest looking designs to more fun, madcap designs. After a few tries, I sent Wiebe the following four designs to choose from. With each, I set the logo up in two different ways to show options of use, as a monochrome design on a solid red background (the easiest way to preview it in a clean way), as well as on the cover art of issue #1.

This is the first thing I showed him, though I did offer to show him the fonts and inspirational imagery afterwards if he was interested, I didn’t want to influence his first impression (since anyone buying the comic would also be going on their first impressions.) In addition, I didn’t give him any kind of introduction or explanation for the designs, since again, I wanted to hear his first impressions. As soon as he’d had a chance to look at them, we spoke and I gave him the background on each design.

With each design, I was going for something bold and easy to spot from far away (since I operate on the assumption that most comic books tend to get lost in the shuffle, I tried to create something visually aggressive.) The monochrome design means that the layout works over any cover art.

Design 1 (above, click on the image to see a larger version) was my favorite (although I like all of them, and wouldn’t have shown them otherwise), with the obvious Hitchcock references in both the font and the haphazard square motifs, which work to echo the way the hero jumps from one body to another in the comic book.

Design 2 (above, click on the image to see a larger version) was a cleaner, more contemporary design. Using a rounded font with crisp lines called “Gotham”, cropped slightly to create the feeling of being trapped and boxed in (as the hero is, metaphorically, by his strange circumstances.)

Design 3 (above, click on the image to see a larger version) echoed the quirky, inelegance of design 1, but this time with a more rigid arrangement, using the off-kilter background black box to show the way the hero and his body aren’t always in sync with each other.

Design 4 (above, click on the image to see a larger version) was my most aggressively ‘50’s direction, owing as much to screwball romantic comedies as it does to a Roadrunner cartoon. With more humor and fun than the other designs.

After some discussion and deliberation, Wiebe chose design 1 and asked me to refine it for the cover. He liked both the black drop shadow AND the black squares, and so I set about looking at how to incorporate them both into the design. He also liked my tagline enough to include it on the cover and had the idea of adding a little skull as the dot on the “i” in “Grim”, to give the design even more of a unique character. At this point I had all the pieces, I just needed to work on how the design would work for the cover of #1 and also for future issues.

Our final design for the logo (pictured above and right, click on the images to see larger versions) incorporates the drop shadows, the squares, the tagline, and the skull. By making the squares translucent and using them only behind the logo (and not the credits), the focus is clear and the eye is drawn to the title.

Right now I’m still working on the designs for other parts of the book, but I did enjoy giving you a sneak peek at this key stage of the design. You’ll be able to judge the finished product in Spring 2012 when Grim Leaper will be in stores.

…

Originally published here.

Committed: My Top 10 Comics (for ANY year)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:00:06 -0800

Rather than pick out my favorite comics of 2011, I present my top ten favorite comic books for any year (more about why this is non-specific to 2011 below the list.) Realistically, I’ll probably change my mind at some point, since inevitably I’m probably going to change myself at some point too. But for now, these are the books which made my this year, and every year so far, pretty great.

1. Elektra Assassin:
2011 is the year that Miller really came out the closet as a raging old nutter. But anyone who read his best works in the 1980’s and has witnessed his descent into public alcohol abuse over the last few years cannot have been surprised. His comic books are still right up there for me; Ronin and The Dark Knight Returns both completely reinvented the genre. We can’t blame him for the fact that while we were reading his books as tongue-in-cheek extremism, he was truly pushing an agenda of extreme political views. While the radical intolerance of his other books was right there on the proverbial sleeve, the magical collaboration of Bill Sienkiewicz pushed Elektra Assassin into a far more elegant, beautiful record of heroic endeavor and triumph.

2. Love & Rockets
That’s right, all of it! I could be nice and tell you that starting with the new, annual volumes will work fine for new readers (and that would be true.) Or I could be current and say that while the whole run has been incredible, volume 4 is the crowning pinnacle of the Hernandez brother’s achievements (and that would also be true.) But here’s the thing, like any really amazing experience, you need to work up to it nice and slowly. You need to get a rhythm going together and take your time, really build something together, which is what happens when you read a book for over 20 years and then cap it off with the glorious work that is volume 4 of Love & Rockets. Read Love & Rockets, all of them, both brothers, everything you can find. Your life will be richer.

3. Hellblazer
Everyone asks me where to start. I say start where ever you bloody like. It’s a mess, just like Constantine is a mess, I don’t think you’ll make it worse by reading his life in the wrong order. When people ask if this is good, I flippantly say that my relationship with Constantine is still going, after all the other relationships have somehow fallen away. Constantine had a big influence on me, from the time I first read about him in Swamp Thing, he made sense to me. As a kid I smoked Silk-Cut like he did, and then when he got lung cancer I got freaked out (and some say comic books don’t influence people, hah!) Sometimes he looked like crap and stopped making sense so we broke up for a little while, but I couldn’t stay away for long and I always came back because he always got good again. As I age, he makes more and more sense, which is a little worrying, admittedly, but that’s just how it is when you love someone. Maybe our’s isn’t the healthiest relationship, but despite being fictional, he’s a lot more realistic than some people I know.

4. Swamp Thing
Everything Alan Moore wrote on Swamp Thing, not just because it is a great story, but because contained in his Swamp Thing stories are the seeds of everything else he’s done, which I have loved. The magic, the horror, the love and trust. His wildly inventive adventure stories are on a par with the disturbing examinations of the psyche. He transformed my concept of reality with these books and I still enjoy them.

5. Vimanarama
One year, Grant Morrison put out two oddly experimental comic books. One of them was We3 with Frank Quitely, which is a gorgeous exercise in storytelling. Insanely energetic and emotionally wrenching, it uses imagery and pacing in ways that stretch the medium and allow the story to go that much deeper. Around the same time, Morrison collaborated on this far less lauded book with Philip Bond which was so completely different that at the time I didn’t even register them as being by the same author. Unlike other Vertigo books, this was a riot of color, influenced by the Indian gods awoken in the book, and dominated by the vaguely Bollywood aesthetic, Bond and Morrison created a delightful, enchanting love story. Classic adventure mixed in with a ton of very human interaction. It is the basic fun of it that I love the most, and taking this very simple idea of warring good and bad gods, which puny humans caught in the crossfire was done with such affection that I still love to reread this book or heroism in unlikely places.

6. Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
By all rights, this ought to be higher on my list, but I have to admit that for me right now, this isn’t as much fun to read as it was when I was a little kid the first time around. Either I’ve changed to much, or the world has, I don’t know. Back when I was running to the sweet shop, trying to find the British, oversize, black and white reprints of the Uncanny X-Men, clutching my money tightly in my sweaty little hands, it was magic. I was totally and completely absorbed by the X-Men and by Jean Grey’s strange awakening. There is very little that imprinted on me so deeply, in terms of comic books or any other sort of fiction I was absorbing at the time.

7. Kingdom Come
At the time, reading this, I thought it was all about the art. It took me years to gradually realize that it was actually all about the story. Obviously both Waid and Ross are working together to create the alchemy that is great collaborative comic books, so that somehow, over the years, these are the heroes I believe in. This depiction of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc is the one I have come to associate most strongly with the characters. I love the story, at the heart it is about a man learning to step up and be the adult the world needs him to be. Everyone manages to put aside their own self-flagelation and grow up enough to make the hard decisions. It is a deeply inspiring story, we all have those moments where we need to become the parents we always wish we’d had and the story is a beautiful metaphor for this transformative, seminal moment.

8. Detective Comics (#569-#574)
It’s another dorky one from my childhood. I don’t want this to be the Batman I love, but it is, I can’t help it. Mood-wise, I feel like The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One definitely set him in stone, but at his heart and soul, Mike Barr and Alan Davis made me love him. He’s alive, he’s got people around him he cares about, there’s a life and a liveliness to this that is so delightful. I can’t say that these stand up in the same way that Arkham Asylum (which - as a clichéd, teenage, black-wearing, art student - made me extremely happy) or Killing Joke does. I can read and reread them. But still, it is this Batman who forms the structure for those terribly serious iterations of our dark knight. With Barr’s affectionate, gentle humor and Davis’ style and warmth, this changed my thoughts about Batman forever.

9. Promethea
The best Wonder Woman story ever written was Promethea. I’m sorry that Wonder Woman is so great as an icon, but so disappointing in stories, but at least Alan Moore gave us Promethea. When J.H. Williams was working with Moore on this, he really began to stretch his storytelling muscles and for my money, this is both of them really throwing a ton of rich comic book love at the reader. With all the sex, magic and general themes of transformation, it is easy to forget that at heart this is a science superhero story, but it is, in spades. When we look to the future, we have to look to the visionaries of science fiction to give us something to dream about. In Promethea we get it and then some.

10. Buddha
Osamu Tezuka’s books chronicling the life of Buddha. He isn’t a Buddhist. That makes it better, honest. How can I get you to read this? It sounds like a terrible idea really; well-known creator of Astro Boy writes 8 volumes about the life and times of Buddha. But he does it so well! Fantastical and outrageous, he gives us his version of the tale, with his emphasis and interest always firmly in the arenas of transformation and adventure. It is so beautiful and affectionately done that one cannot help but enjoy it. People forget that religions are started by other people, that we have much in common with those we deify. Tezuka does a wonderful job of simultaneously celebrating and also humanizing Siddhartha Guatama for us. With cover designs by Chip Kidd at his best, these are books that I enjoy rereading or simply sitting on the shelf.

…

Last year at this time I ran a short questions and answer column based on your comments and emails, but this year I’m going to simply address one big question that has come up repeatedly this year. People have asked why I’ve been writing about “old” comic books with increasing frequency. Understandably, people wondered if it was because I was unable to get to my comic shop when I was off my feet with a sprained ankle, and while it is true that I didn’t manage to get as many of the monthly comic books for a few weeks, that isn’t why I enjoy write about past comic books.

There are four main reasons why I like to read old(er) comic books;

1. This is the time of year when many people are writing their “Top Ten of 2011” lists (or top 30 or top 50 or top 100, etc.) At times I’ve enjoyed it too, but lately I feel like the more people push the new stuff and talk about how important new comic books are, the more I feel an uncomfortable pressure to read them. Like most of us, I don’t want to be pushed into something just because it is new, or judge it by some different standard because it is a reprint and so I have been trying to represent the other options.

2. Then there is context, which is really interesting. It is can often be much easier to examine and identify the trends of an era in retrospect, and so reading comic books from just a few years ago can act as a sort of a time capsule, unwittingly telling us a lot about the wider political and economic moods that were prevalent when they were created. It isn’t as if I am some sort of history buff (I wish I were), but it adds to the enjoyment of a book if we can acknowledge what else was happening in society for the author as they were writing and drawing a book. An obvious example is something like the piece I wrote a little while ago on the influence of Margaret Thatcher on British comic book writer’s attitude towards authority figures and superheroes (Nov 2nd, 2011.) It is easier to look back 20 or 30 years and see how the politics of that era affected them. It is much divisive and complicated to look at a current prevalent trend in comic books now and try to correlate it to a national mood, which is one reason there was so much more aggressive commentary on the column I wrote about the new breed of solo female superhero titles from DC (Nov 30th, 2011.) While this might speak volumes about our current climate of changing attitudes towards sexual identity, it is much more difficult to dissect at it with out the benefit of time acting to emotionally disentangle us from the ongoing trends and changes.

3. This leads to my third reason to gravitate towards previous comic books and avoiding writing about current ones; The comments. I have noticed that when I write about current books, the comment section can become rather heated, and while I love to stimulate discussion, I like to try to avoid people insulting me (who wouldn’t?) Unlike Bart Simpson and Guy Gardner (who are two of my favorite negative-attention-seekers), I prefer to either slip in under the radar or have strangers talk about the work, rather than me. It makes me very nervous when the comment section fills up with irate comments, because then I have to monitor them carefully for personal threats. Naturally this takes the fun out of it for me, so although I do want to encourage a stimulated dialogue between people, I’m always aware that things could turn nasty. With all of that in mind, I try very hard to avoid subjects which might incite personal attacks. Over the last 4 or 5 years of writing this column on various websites, I have found that the more current and mainstream the book I write about, the more incendiary the comment section.

4. Finally, and most importantly, I try to write predominantly about the kind of comic books I love, which means that I’m going to pick ones from all over. If it is good, and I want to share it with you, I will, and I won’t hold back because it is old or even out of print. The overarching subject of my column has always been about the ways in which comic books intersect with my daily life, so when I read something particularly good, or it comes up in conversation with a friend, then I’ll share it with you. Lately, partly in reaction to trying out so many of the new DC 52, I started looking at back issues again as a sort of mental palate cleanser. It wasn’t that the new 52 were so traumatizing, but in order to give all of the female titles a chance, I felt that I had to read at least three months of each before I could really assess them. For someone who regularly reads only four or five ongoing comic book titles each week, adding an extra ten or so to them was quite a change. It sort of burned me out on new books, so much so that for a while, I just wanted to shelter in the refuge of some great old books. Last week I gave you a short, sharp splash of some of the new books that I do like, and I hope that balanced things out for you.

…

With the new year almost upon us, I want to thank you for reading my Wednesday missives, and particularly everyone who talk to me about comic books, online and in-person. It is remarkably fun to continue these online conversations and I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to meet and talk to new people about comic books. Comic books are such a potent combination of imagery and language and it is so exciting to share them, thank you.

…

Originally published here.