The Worst Writer in the World

My co-writer blogs for Amoeba Music! Movie reviews of Dust Devil, Bloodsport, Morgan!, and Herzog's latest!

2008-12-15T01:42:00.000-08:00

Gillian Horvat, co-writer of the GILLIAN'S HEART comic with me, recently began to write movie reviews for the AMOEBA MUSIC Blog.

What's Amoeba Music? Simply the biggest independent music and DVD retail seller in the nation, and by far the "hippest" (certainly it's the most liked and renowned).

Here's her latest:

WERNER HERZOG'S ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD

It’s an uncontestable fact that Werner Herzog is the greatest living director. His latest documentary Encounters at the End of the World may not be as cathartic or controversial as his dramatic features, but it validates Herzog’s ability to personalize every film that he directs with the creation of hypnotic, surreal images, images that despite their otherworldliness symbolize a litany of urgent, undeniable truths. The most famous of these are the 360-ton steamship being pulled over a hill in the Amazon rainforest in Fitzcarraldo, as well as the dancing chicken and interminable ski-lift ride in the finale of Stroszek. People who have seen multiple Herzog films walk away with images they hold personally to them, like amulets; for me it’s Kaspar Hauser standing immobile in the village square clutching a letter that he can’t read. Only a director like Herzog could go to edge of the planet and make a film that is idiosyncratic. READ THE FULL REVIEW

BLOODSPORT

There are some who would say that Bloodsport was the film Ingmar Bergman intended to make when he directed Wild Strawberries. And to be perfectly serious Bloodsport is the better film.

When Frank Dux’s childhood friend and the son of his martial arts mentor is killed in a Kumite, a bloody underground mixed martial arts championship, Dux (Jean-Claude van Damme) goes AWOL from his army post to travel to Hong Kong to compete in the next Kumite and avenge his fallen friend’s honor. Hot on his trail, two military agents (one played by Forest Whitaker) follow him to protect the army’s investment in Dux’s amazing martial arts talents. With the help of a wrestler with a huge forehead (Donald Gibb from Revenge of the Nerds) also competing in the tournament and a plucky and attractive female journalist, Dux enters the brutal Kumite and displays his excellent fighting skills. But can he beat the man-killing, pec-flexing Chong Li or will he end up like his boyhood buddy? READ THE FULL REVIEW

DUST DEVIL: THE FINAL CUT

Dust Devil has suffered from a bad reputation ever since Harvey and somebody Weinstein eviscerated Richard Stanley’s cut of the film from 108 minutes to 87 for its ill-fated theatrical release. Stanley’s previous feature was the cult hit Hardware, which was noted for having made back its micro budget many times over as a video store hit. Why the Weinsteins chose to lop off 20 minutes and remove all the sense from the film is a bit of a mystery. Hopefully, Dust Devil: The Final Cut will redeem the film in the eyes of those who had seen it previously and introduce this gem to a new generation of horror fans.

Set in an arid, remote region of South Africa, Dust Devil follows an enigmatic serial killer (Robert John Burke), half man-half demon who follows the lonely highway, making love to and then killing depressed women. The killer uses ritual magic, attempting through his murders to transcend the earthly plane so he can return to the spiritual world.... READ WHY THIS IS A CULT CLASSIC THAT DESERVES ITS REP!

MORGAN!: A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT

I volunteer, in an unofficial capacity, that David Warner could play with intelligence and wit any part offered to him. Misogynistic art film buffs will fondly remember his uncredited role in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, 80s comedy fans know him best as vampire hunting Professor McCarthy in My Best Friend is a Vampire, and a certain blog writer can’t choose between his best performances, as Evil Genius in Time Bandits and Jack the Ripper in Time after Time. Warner’s rugged, sculpted features and his Royal Shakespeare Company training have made him one of the most versatile and charismatic film actors, on par with other distinctive, powerful talents like Stephen Rea and Harvey Keitel. Warner gives his leading man performance in Morgan! with such ease and virtuosity, it’s incredible that he’s so often been relegated to smaller roles. His is a rather unlikeable character: a juvenile underproductive artist with a complex involving gorillas and Communism, financially supported by his soon to be ex-wife. Vanessa Redgrave does a lot with a thin role as his rich, unappreciated spouse who has transferred her affections to Morgan’s oleaginous art dealer. Already suffering from (or in Morgan’s case thoroughly enjoying) delusions and fantasies, his wife’s ambivalent reaction to his attempts to win her back makes him lose his grasp of reality. READ WHY DAVID WARNER IS A MAN AMONG MEN

First Gillian's Heart Pin-up by Jason Copland (Perhapanauts)

2008-12-14T02:56:00.000-08:00

So I ordered JASON COPLAND's convention sketchbook a few weeks back. This is a guy who was just plucked up to illustrate covers and back-up stories in Image's PERHAPANAUTS ongoing. The sketchbook is a beaut, but even better, Jason offered to draw anything I wanted in the book's inner back cover, and I opted for a sketch of none other than GILLIAN and her arch-nemesis MR. RIGHT!!!

Here's the masterpiece:

Thanks for the pin-up, Jason! And everyone: be on the look out for Jason's BRAIDS OF THE GORGON, coming soon!

Killing the Grizzly #1 - New Column on the birth of e-comics distribution over at Septagon Studios

2008-12-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

Whoot! My new super-cool gig at Septagon Studios has begun.

KILLING THE GRIZZLY #1 - the first of a long series of articles dedicated to chronicling the rise of the online comic boos publishing sphere, from e-comics, downloadable comics, online marketplaces such as Wowio, Literate Machine, Lulu, Clickwheel, then independent folks who are trying some truly cutting edge things, plus creative collectives like Chimera and Alterna, who have found solid success in keeping everything electronic. Creators have literally DROPPED their productive print-media contracts in favor of going digital. Why? Because they're making money. In print, they were not. How?

Come join me and find out.

"The world has changed.

There are less theatrical ways to put that, but none simpler in declaring this manifest truth: we’ve progressed. Beyond the printed page, though we’ve yet to leave those bastard scions of trees behind; beyond the water-stained warehouses and corner-crumpled cardboard boxes of overfed distribution systems. We feel far stranger today sitting there with a newspaper in hand, unable to double-click on names within the articles. It has become an existential dilemma to hold a book in our hands and realize we have no way of sharing it with others, beyond writing about it, or scanning it page by page into our computer and then equally as drudgery-slow uploading the images into a cohesive PDF, rather than post a link to download a ready-made digital copy and be done with it, gain a few hundred shared readers within hours of its posting. In a world of instant photo, video, journal, and profile sharing, anything slower than now, and costlier than free, is unacceptable."

READ MORE

Mr. Right preview - and a Desert Peach Afterdead Christmas card

2008-12-03T01:16:00.001-08:00

Lots of news! Well, sort of. Lots of news to come.

Our first MR. RIGHT story is on its way, as art by the incredible RICK WORLEY pours in. More on that in the very near future. But here's a sneak peek:

And here's a DESERT PEACH CHRISTMAS CARD:

Comics Bulletin Reviews - Batman #681 and SCAD Anthology GNs 2007 and 2008

2008-11-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

My latest reviews at , up and online!

BATMAN #681 - RIP Finale! - 1 Bullet! What a disaster. This is actually a "slugfest" review, with three other reviewers weighing in. And talk about a balance - I gave it 1 Bullet, another guy gave it 2, another 3, and the last guy 4. That's about as well stretched a line of opinions as it comes! The others had a lot more to say about the details, the continuity nuances. Me? I got a little obsessive about other thing. READ IT!

SCAD Anthology Graphic Novels 2007 ("Discovered") and 2008 ("Pantomime") - 4.5 Bullets! Two truly incredible anthologies, both collecting the graduate and undergrad work of artists schooled at The Savannah College of Art and Design. Absolutely gorgeous visuals, adventuresome narratives. This is ground-breaking and cutting edge stuff, mixed with the classic and familiar. These kids are the future of comics!READ IT!

Literate Machine - new e-comics marketplace for small press and independant creators

2008-11-29T07:13:00.001-08:00

Just discovered this new venue for independant and/or small press publishers:

Literate Machine is a place to upload your e-book or e-comic, usually PDF format is best, and then YOU choose the price and get to keep the vast majority of any sale (you can even give the book away for FREE, should that seem the proper strategy - and unknown newbies, I'm talkin' ta you, that IS the appropriate strategy for you!). Plus you can use their forums as a great marketing and scoial networking tool!

This is a truly nifty place. Just bought myself a copy of the DEFENDING TAYVR GN in electronic format to try it out. It's a high quality e-comic and well worth the six bucks it cost to support the creators and but the entire 150+ page graphic novel.

Check it out:

LM looks to be a terrific new resource for new creators to get their names and work out there and into readers' hands, not to mention to find readers in the first place! --Dave B.

Mr. Scootles graphic novel by HC Noel arrives today!

2008-11-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, as I mentioned earlier last week, the incredible Mr. Scootles Volume 1: Mr. Scootles vs. The Inferno comes out today! Forgotten black-and-white cartoon character tries to escape from Hell, with Satan, angels, and psychotic film history professors all vying to use Mr. Scootles' soul for their own purposes! Really, really great new book.

Check out the review I did for it a week earlier:
PART 1

PART 2

Comic Bulletin Reviews for 11/19 - X-Files #1 and Hack/Slash #15-17 ( guest-starring Herbert West, the Re-Aminator !)

2008-11-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

My latest reviews at , up and online!

THE X-FILES Volume 2 #1 (of 7) - 3 Bullets! Picking up somewheres around the 5th Season of the show, but remaining relatively stand-alone regardless, long-time fans will get a little somehting extra added to the tv "mythology" and new readers will get a solid mystery thriller. Written by regular show scripter Frank Spotnitz. Atmospheric art, great Duchovony and Anderson likenesses, tight pacing, could use som e polish but a good book. Nothing great, just good.READ IT!

HACK/SLASH #15-17 - A perfect 5 Bullets! Guest-starring Herbert West, the RE-ANIMATOR himself!!! A flawless crossover. West is absorbed thoroughly into this indelibly important story that changes everything for the series' heroes. Distributed independantly outside of Diamond due to an odorific legal dispute over the "Re-Animator" license, Devil's Due supported this gem of a story and pushed it out the gates anyway, on its own steam. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Faith in humanity...restored! READ IT!

Donna Barr's THE DESERT PEACH #22 - Lady Luck - an in-depth review

2008-11-24T12:05:00.001-08:00

Don't forget this is all posted originally at my new THE GILLIAN'S HEART BLOG!

Okay, first off, sorry for the few days away. I'm busy on a side project that hopefully should get cleaned up and absored into my daily routines in another week or so, but for now, sporadic installments it's going to be.

On a really sweet, look-what-a-good-boy-I-am note, I'm finally back on track with reading my massive, completist DONNA BARR collection, and in my never-ending quest to get people to READ this woman's work, I'm back to blogging about it. I plan, in the near future, to do a whole lot more for her, but for now...let's blog!

Donna Barr...Donna Barr...she's a genius creator, or chaneler of fictitious character's voices (as she'd likely claim - "I have no control over these people!" is practically her mantra, when it comes to her writing). Her art is equally as drop-dead drool-worthy gorgeous with its mesh of incredible detail and automatic-sketch-like freneticness. She's my god(des) of comicdom, I shit you not. So let's look at the latest:

THE DESERT PEACH #22: LADY LUCK

Ah, yes. The rape issue. Sort of. I'd heard a fair controversy of this one, because god forbid the topic of human sexuality and the horrors it causes doesn't become controversial. Conversation worthy is always nice, and worthwhile. Controversy? Sometimes I feel controversy is the only "buzz word" that actually exists. All other so-called buzz words are merely arbitrary triggers sleected for the sole puprose of spinning ourselves into a frenzy of controversy. We love it. We adore it. Without controversy, we live in not-so-interesting times, and that would be pitiful, so controversy we shall find. Sex, rape, genitals, penis, vagina, and tits, will forever help us find it and find it pretty damn effortlessly, seeing as how we all have them or at least are surrounded by them on any given day.

But I'm digressing - the rape issue. A lone woman finds herself attached to Pfirsich's (the Desert Peach's - who's the gay younger brother of the infamous Desert Fox) regiment in Afrika, and so all the men immediately begin to rile themsleves into infantile impishness - they shift between compliments and casual slurs with the speed of the clinically bi-polar, calling the girl foxy and cow and all-around undecided on which animal she should be to them.

The girl, in turn, knowing the army and how men in the army (away from women on the whole) generally are, remains aloof and distant and entirely untrusting. Pfirisch, being a take-carge kind of guy and blissfully naive, tries to smoothen things out by treating the lady like "a lady, which does little but prove to the poor girl that she's been targeted as an object for unwanted male affection - and from an officer no less!

The men quickly decide the uppity beeyotch needs to be taken down a peg, and so devise a little rendevous between another officer and the woman, which goes...shitty...kind of literally...though nothing as disgusting as you're all likely thinking at this point. Still, the question of improper advances, attempted rape, and the danger of following one's emotions be they self-rigteous or self-involved, be they hidden as love or self-preservation. This one walks a fine line, but, as with most Barr stories, the line is more schwoogled and trotted and performed Chinese acrobatics upon, rather than simply walked.

Perhaps one of the most interesting and long-term relevant moments of this issue, even though it occurs kind of as a side note, if Pfirsich's confrontation with his brother, Erwin (The Desert Fox), about the Peach's homosexuality. Erwin's known, and seemed suportive of such in past issues, but here a quick temper-flare brings out that he's forever hoped Pfirsich would "get over this phase" and stop being so childish, and that the homo-erotic stuff does actually sit uneasy with him. A fantastic little dig, especially as the readers were likely (I was) as convinced that Erwin was on Pfirsich's side as Pfirsich was! So this sudden outcry is as effective and affecting to us and to the characters - yet another Barr par for the course. This is drama, mixed with innocent charm, mixed with explicit adult content, done somehow poignant and thought-provoking and touching on a scale I rarely encounter in comics.

And her art is beginning to move into something astonishing here: she'd gone from tight detail in the early issues, to a much looser flair in more recent books, to finally here a tempestous balance between the two. It looks amazing. Here's a full page just to ogle and read (click for larger veiwing):

You can buy this issue by going HERE.

Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary talks webcomics as profitable business

2008-11-20T01:31:00.000-08:00

Really, really, really, really, REALLY inspiring video of Howard Tayler - the creator of the daily webstrip SCHLOCK MERCENARY, a comic that's allowed Tayler to quit his day job and work for himself full time - as he speaks on how to turn a webcomic into a profitable small business for yourself. He got ME excited, that's for damn sure. Check it out below:

If for any reason the player below is buggy and doesn't work (it works for me, but I'm always paranoid about these things working cross-PC-Mac-etc.), go check it out at the source, pun intended: http://www.opensourcetv.tv/video/7.html

Many thanks to the glorious DONNA BARR for turning me on to this one! Thanks, Donna!

Mr. Scootles vs. The Inferno - An Inter-Review with HC Noel

2008-11-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

The Inter-Review is BACK!

After a brief albeit solid hiatus, as I focused on other creative endeavors and, oh, life, I'm back with BROKEN FRONTIER full-force and ready to pump of a whole slew of review/interview hybrids starting with...

MR. SCOOTLES VOLUME 1: MR. SCOOTLES VS. THE INFERNO

Originally distributed online via WOWIO, now published by ALTERNA COMICS and distributed via Diamond to comic shops everywhere come November 26th!

Read the full two-part review/full interview with creator Howie C. Noel by clicking below:

READ PART 1 of the Mr. Scootles Inter-Review

READ PART 2 of the Mr. Scootles Inter-Review

Gillian's Heart Character ID Badges!

2008-11-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

GILLIAN'S HEART CHARACTER BADGES!

As seen on my GILLIAN'S HEART BLOG

Yup, those cool little badge thingies up in the right corner-ish area of the GH Blog (one of the images based on the image above of THIS WWitWorld Blog), those are Flickr-made badges of the three characters we have sketches/art for: Gillian, Nuts, and Mr. Right! Refresh the page and the badge should switch from one to the other, until you see all three. Lots more will be added as the art for new characters comes in.

Here's the three badges up close for easier reading:

Our heroine, the lovable Gillian, also known as "Gillian X" (her super-heroine persona). Potentially she wields the power of Superman, but only when she's in the throes of the truest of true love! Her level of love = level of strength.

NUTS, THE WONDER SQUIRREL! Gillian's furry ears and twitchy nose in NYC, keeping tabs on and reporting back all the wrongdoings in the city! Only Gillian can talk to him.

It's MR. RIGHT! Founding but now ex-member of the Axis of Justice, after they became a government think tank and he broke off to become a Libertarian Anti-Hero the likes of which few comics have ever seen. He's always right. That's why he's a villain.

Gillian X image by Cal Slayton (of the somewhat dated but still uber-cool SHADES OF BLUE comic). NUTS and MR. RIGHT art by the insanely talented RICK WORLEY, whose first comic:

A WASTE OF TIME

Can be purchased HERE.

More GILLIAN'S HEART news to come! This blog is still under development (all these old posts were imported from my older BLOGGER blog), and the comic's main site is equally on its way.

Ev'ry'ting it be comin', mon...

100th POST! Comic Bulletin Reviews for 11/12 - yeah, I'm sticking around, but I've still moved!

2008-11-17T01:01:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I'm sticking around here, cuz I still like Blogger, and my WORST WRITER IN THE WORLD blog, but I'm primarily going to be posting content over at THE GILLIAN'S HEART BLOG. Then, when I have the time, like now, re-posting posts there over here. But Wordpress is turning out to be pretty cool. But so is Blogger. Sigh...

Oh, and THIS IS MY 100TH POST!!! WHOO-HOO!!!! Guess I couldn't really just ditch after 99 posts and no 100th. Yeah, this feels good. So what if it's more work? I can deal. (*gulp*)

Anywho, without further ado:

The latest reviews with are up!

WARNING: Some of these are quite catty. If you're opposed to negativity and snark, steer clear, or you can just get catty and snarky back with me and leave a comment ;)

All "Bullet" ratings are on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest/best.

I HATE GALLANT GIRL #1 (0f 3) - 2 Bullets! The runner-up for the "Create a Super-Heroine" contest held by Shadowline earlier this year, gets published as a 3-issue mini before the actual winner...by Shadowline! (yeah, not the smartest damn move they ever did make). Gallant Girl is chosen in a Miss America-like pageant every year, but what happens when the truly talented, powerful girl is passed up for a talentless slut with better looks? Sadly, the series doesn't mirror its own premise, and this runner-up doesn't show half the promise its title character does. READ THE FULL REVIEW!

NIGHTWING #150 - 3 Bullets! Definitely one of the best issues of Nightwing sincep pre-Infinite Crisis/One Year Later/Countdown/Final Crisis, etc., you get the idear. Two Face and Dick square off in a rematch that's been building since Dick's first days as Robin! Double-sized issue, dirigibles, lots of fighting, obnoxious soliloquy, and absolutely nothing to do with RIP not matter what the cover says. Not a groundbreaker, but a solid anniversary issue. READ THE FULL REVIEW!

WALTER BECKER'S LAST REIGN: KINGS OF WAR #1 (of 5) - A dismal 1 Bullet! The director of VAN WILDER and WILD HOGS teams up with the scripter of FALL OF CTHULU and newbie artist Ed Estevez for a brand new sci-fi fantasy extravaganza...that fails on nearly every level imaginable. BOOM! is a great company, but wow. Wow. I'm speechless. Ha, no, you wish. READ THE FULL REVIEW!

CTHULU TALES #8 - 3.5 Bullets! Two stories, "The Elite" and "Theater of the Empty Eye", that latter being the first pro publication of Comics Bulletin editor MATTHEW MCLEAN. A good issue, "The Elite" being cliche but well done, and Mclean's story blowing it all out of the water, albeit with an editorially mandated final moment which is only so-so. I hope Matt can explore the concept beyond this short, though. It rules. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

That's it for this week - more to come! --Dave B.

The blog you need to advertise your stuff, save $97 in getting it.

2008-11-11T15:12:00.001-08:00

READ THE LAST POST!!! Then come back here for major super-important news...

Okay? Okay, so...ignore the new blog as listed in the last post, my new blog is now:
http://www.gilliansheart.com/blog

So here's the skinny on something I just learned, for those of you trying to move to WordPress, or thinking of it.

There's WordPress.COM...and then WordPress.ORG

The .com version is a free blog, like blogger, and still has awesome SEO, but it's not terribly customizable. You have very limited options and overall it plumb isn't worth it. That was my attempted http://www.gilliansheart.wordpress.com blog. That's gone now. Already, yes. It had a life shorter than a lovebug. Sad, but moving on.

WordPress.ORG is the place to go. Download the latest version of WP.org at the site, onto your computer, then go buy some webhosting. Most of you will already have a hosting account, and if you don't go get an account with

DREAMHOST, because they rule, and as a gift from me here's a promo code for a whopping $97.00 any plan purchased - 97OFFANY

That's right, plug that promo code in and you'll get nearly a hundred bucks shaved off the top. A year plan costs $120.00, but with this code it'll only cost you $23.00. How's that for service? Basically, I'm now with DreamHost, and they're a wonder. They rule. Furthermore, now that I'm with them, I'm an "Affiliate", and I COULD be linking you to their site and earning $97.00 per person that signs up with them via me. Instead, I've opted to create a promo code that offers my entire possible profit to you, as a discount, so I earn nada, and you get the hosting you need to have an unbelievably powerful WordPress.org blog. You're welcome.

Once with Dreamhost, and so also with a webist URL name (www.Whatever.com), log in to your account, head down to "Goodies", then "One Click Installs". Make sure you choose to install "Advanced" and not "Easy", and choose WordPress under Advanced. Now choose the name of your blog. If it isn't the default www.Whatever.com, you can have it placed in www.whatever.com/blog Then Dreamhost auto installs WordPress.org FOR you!

Now you have a blog. Go to your blog + "/wp-admin" (so www.Whatever.com/blog/wp-admin) and log in with user/pass. Now you're inside your fully customizable blog. You can import all your Blogger posts, so you lose nothing, and WordPress.org is going to have people find you like never before. Next up will be learning about "Plugins" and how they work. Plenty of tutorials online for those, so you should be fine. Love you all, and hope to see you over at DreamHost and on your own WP.org blogs soon! Expecially you creators! You NEED this! Blogger will never put you out there the way Wordpress will!

Cheers. --Dave B.

P.S. - Yes, "Gillian's Heart" is the upcoming webcomic of mine. The blog will now serve as the blog to it, when the time comes...

P.S.S. - If you opt for the monthly Dreamhost plan (why the hell would you, paying every month, but just in case you're retarded and do so), you'll get $51 off the $60 price. Then pay monthly, which will add up. Don't do it. But if you must...that's FYI.

I've MOVED.

2008-11-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm outta here, lads 'n lassies.

Every post here has just been imported over to:
http://gilliansheart.wordpress.com

So that's where to find me from this point on. I'm still designing the site, so it's just a stock plain facade right now, no frills, no nothin', but it was time to make the switch.

Why? What's so bad about Blogger? Word to the wise for all you artists/writers/creators trying to pimp yourself online, like me - Blogger has ZERO search engine optimization. Wordpress has insanely awesome SEO. You want to be found? You want what you post to show up in a Google search? Get the heck out of Blogger and get'cher ass over to Wordpress! It's a whole new learning curve to wade through a whole new set of operations and how-to-post-what and, most notably, Wordpress unlike Blogger doesn't come with any real instruction or easy to use add-ons: you have to download things called "Plugins" and then upload them using FTP software. Plugins are for the simplest things, too, like adding images, or tables, or having a feed. So it'll be hair-pulling, but 100% worth it. People put up a Wordpress blog yesterday and are on page fucking 1 of any search. Blogger? I'm still trying to get "Donna Barr", "Rick Worley" and my own name to show up before page 3.

So I'm off! The new blog should look purddy in about a week or two, and I'll be sure to add all your blogs which I have been following to my WP new blog. Plus...my webcomic is a'comin'...(building the site for it now...) PLUS I've got one final thing brewing, which I hope will blow the socks of the comics INDUSTRY at large. I think it's a rockin' idea anyway.

Peace out, peeps! --Dave B.

MY NEW BLOG - GO THERE!

My First Comics Bulletin Reviews! Sky Pirates #4 and Hellblazer: Chas, The Knowledge #5

2008-11-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

My first reviews with are up and online!

SKY PIRATES OF VALENDOR #4 (0f 5) - 4 Bullets! Above-average small press black-and-white. Definitely one of the best high fantasy comics out there. Not that that's a high bar or nothin', but still...really worth picking up for cheap at WOWIO. READ IT!

HELLBLAZER SPECIAL: CHAS, THE KNOWLEDGE #5 (of 5) - A perfect 5 Bullets! Kicks the ongoing main series' ASS. The characterization of Chas we've all been waiting for. Him vs. a demon down the streets of London, with no John in sight... READ IT!

Got an unpublished novel? Get it published by Harper Collins! Introducing: AUTHONOMY!

2008-11-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Calling all authors! Got an unpublished novel (I know I frickin' do!)? Or two? Or three? Would you like to have dozens of folks read it and offer feedback, rate it, champion it, and get it into the hands of an editor at Harper Collins?

Boy howdy I bet you would and here's how ta do it:

It's called AUTHONOMY. Whip up a cover/avatar (just a small image will do - it only operates as your books mini image on the site) and then upload your book along with a one-page pitch.

Now here's the nitty-gritty: the pitch is real important, just like a query letter would be if you were searching for an agent, in a way more important than your book itself. Readers, also known as "Talent Scouts", get to read your pitch and decide whether your book is worth checking out. The pitch sells them or it doesn't. With hundreds of books up on the site, they can't read everything, so they're selective. Who are these readers? Anyone and everyone. You can be a reader and network with other readers on the Authonomy forums, share your fave books and least liked books.

Each reader gets to have 5 - count 'em, 5 - "Favorites" out of all the books up on the Authonomy site at any given time. They can change their five at any time, but can never have more than five. A book's ranking is based on how many readers have selected it as one of their top five.

At the end of each and every month, the top five out of all the "top 5's", get passed on to a Harper Collins editor to be read. And that's that. No guarantee of getting published, but you WILL be read by an editor at a top publisher, and they'll give feedback even if they don't decide to publish you.

Just be ready to spend time on the Authonomy forums and doing online social stuff. There's been a lot of critique already that the site runs overly-much on circle-jerk-esque commaradarie, with the Top 5 at the end of the month always reflecting those who were the most shameless in plugging their book and schmoozing with the readers. Not that this isn't an EXACT replica of real life in the major leagues of publishing, but still...don't expect anything magically different. FYI.

So get on over there and check it out now! http://www.authonomy.com

So much stuff to blog about! Tom Brown! Rick Worley! Rabbits! Politics! New writing gigs! WOW!!!

2008-11-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

Holy hell, okay, TONS to talk about, so here we go:

First off, The Inimitable Tom Brown (as I now think of him, in uppercase letters, just like that) has produced two exquisite new pieces he's shared with me:

1) First up, the Halloween e-card, in full beauteous color, check it out:

That Myspace URL on the bottom is his website for the nonce, so visit it and tell him how much you dig his art! Wait...that perfectly-shaded vellum-orange and eerie mummified figure doesn't convince? Dude, just look at THIS:

Now THAT is beauty. Go to http://www.myspace.com/copperage to see more. His stuff is really some of the best I've seen recently.

And speaking of artwork that's amazing, I got to go meet artist RICK WORLEY at APE Con recently, a guy whose been kind enough to sign on to collaborate with me and my co-writing gal-pal-for-life. This boy is the next R. Crumb, I shit not one person out there. He's inordinately talented, and he had his first small press book on sale at APE to prove it:

Go to INDYPLANET to purchase a copy now, and see some incredible samples of the pages within! It's hysterical, heartwarming, depressing, and poignant, and Rick makes it seem effortless to achieve such results. It's only $4 for 32 pages of funny/touching-in-a-sexual-way rabbit-cursing goodness.

Here's a few bonus sketches he doodled at the con (this is pre-election day, mind):

So YAY! Rick Worley's A WASTE OF TIME #1 (of, thus far, 1) $4.00 at INDYPLANET.

Hmmmm....what else?

Oh, yes! I am now writing for three, coun 'em, THREE online comic book news sites.

1) I'm still on with Broken Frontier, which is itself back with a vengeance after suffering a series of technical setbacks with its site - suddenly corrupted code, a redesigns that has been started and stalled THREE TIMES to date. CEO Frederik Hautain was actually the very first of the comic news site publishers to conceptualize a Web 2.0 overhaul of the usual comic book news site, but after a series of deals which fell through, corporate alliances that backed out at the last minute, etc., we're now the ones lagging behind in the race. Still, Fred's a visionary, and BF is one of the best sites to find articles on the most obscure never-before-covered shit. Others catch up and cover things maybe a month or two after, but I swear, a lot of new small press companies or self-publishers find us much more receptive than the average comic news site, and far less buried behind the Marvel/DC/Image maelstrom.

2) I'm now also to begin writing a monthly column for the incredible SEPTAGON STUDIOS (just put my name in the above pic, that'll be me reeeeal soon!). This is that site I blogged about just a few weeks ago, when they were nominated for best comics blog on the web by Blognet.com Well, now I get to cover online/downloadable e-comics, being one of the very first to explore...not webcomics...but PDF/CBR books such as those found on Wowio, ClickWheel, Lulu, and the like. This is the section of the comics world that has simply received nearly zippo mainstream coverage. I aim to change that. There is no more viable option to self-publish than to do so electronically. If we can all finally get over our prejudices of having grown up in a print-centric universe, we can free the entire industry from the shackles of big money. Seriously, folks. E-comics, even more so than webcomics, are the stepping stone we've been looking for. So a regular monthly column at this amazing new site, focusing on e-comics, the best and brightest of that world.

3) Finally, I've also been offered to write reviews for the site COMICS BULLETIN. A rather talented and ridiculously sweethearted-fellow name of Matt Mclean, who I met via a gig at Spacedog Entertainment and then in person at the last Emerald City Con in Seattle, offered me the job, and I said yes, because Matt rules, and Comics Bulletin allows me to stretch my wings and cover print books at EITHER Broken Frontier or Comics Bulletin, depending on whichever might serve the book best. I really feel this will give me a stronger voice for the works I want to support, placing reviews on the proper site with the proper audience the book will likely be looking for, or say, whichever site they HAVEN'T been able to make any headway with previously.

Oh, and BTW: Matt Mclean recently made it to the top 50 finalists for 2008 Comic Book Challenge hosted by Platinum, and now he's got gigs with BOOM! Studios, 407 Studios, and more. He's an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with, and you can check out his ludicrous level of creative output by going to his BLOG. Really good stuff.

Okay, and THAT is all for today. Whew! There's even more, but I have got to get on with my life for tonight. Catch y'all real soon! --Dave B.

In commemoration to Calypso

2008-11-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

I blogged. And it came true. (See previous post).

Hooray.

Barack Obama is now president. And my kitty of 19 years died today. In commemoration to you, Calypso, we will now become a better nation.

At least she lived through the Clinton years. She knows we're better than what mostly we showed her. I hope. Rest in peace, babe. --Dave B.

Please Let Obama Win. Please.

2008-11-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

This is as political as I get in public.

Please Let Obama Win. Please. --Dave B.

Back from APE Con!!!

2008-11-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

I'm back! Huzzah! $1300 lighter in the wallet and I'm back! Probably fifty pounds heavier on the bookshelf (that's the sweet part), and somehow, even drinking and eating greasy Chinese and deep fried shit from a nonetheless cool-ass hole-in-the-wall diner, I think I'm one or two pounds lither in the waist. Travel can take it out of a fella...

So I went to Ape Con. I didn't take pictures, because I don't have a camera and my phone plan charges me for every damn photo I take so...no pictures. But here's the skinny:

It rocked. We met up with our Artist RICK WORLEY and then schmoozed with Josh Wagner, Brent J. Trembath, Ethan Nicolle, Karl Christian Krumpholz, and even chatted up and taught the Michael Jackson Thriller dance to rising star JOSH HAGLER (The Boy Who Made Silence).

The floor was PACKED with exhibitors and books. So many that I don't think anyone was actually doing all that well sales-wise. Not only were people buying less due to the harsh economic realities of the day, but the number of actual artists and writers and BOOKS there was ridiculous. I'm super happy to see so many bright-eyed talents, but jesus, there's too many of us. No one was getting much notice. Except Chris Ware. Whole island-sized sections were blocked off from even being seen due to the snaking, wriggling, writhing, living line of hardcore fans that stemmed from Chris Ware's booth.

Everyone I chatted with were happy to be there, having a ball in at least a social sense, but everyone was somewhat moribund by the complete lack of selling anything. Which is half the point of a con: people get to see your stuff, on a shelf or platform, as though you were in a real store. And yet no-to-few sales. Le sigh....

Beyond that element, however, the after-events were phenomenal.

I got to go to the SAN FRANCISCO CARTOON ART MUSEUM where free drinks and food were offered, and then a whole slew of creators got to show slideshow presentations of their books while they READ THEM ALOUD. Yes, a comic book/graphic novel READING. That sounds pretty godawful, actually, but actually it was breathtaking. The creators dove right in and had an intense amount of fun reading their pages out loud, and tried valiantly to craft impromptu sound effects and commentary and all-around the audience was either rolling in the aisles or completely captivated by the show. If you ever find your self in SF, go here. And donate liberally to keep this wonderful little gem of a museum alive! (They deserve it for having entertained me so!)

Then we pranced over to the infamous comic shop Isotope Comics owned by the infamously friendly and wacky-looking James Sime, where more free booze was (at this point) dribbled onto the floor more than into mouths, and i got to argue with everyone over what a hack Grant Morrison is.

Second day of the Con we said our goodbyes, and bought a few final choice books (some Dark Horse book, the total surprise of the show, called "THE NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE", the first collection of strips from a "collective dream diary" [which is much more entertaining than it sounds], wherein artist Jesse Reklaw asked folks to write to him and tell him their dreams, which he then narrated and put to paper, after being performed out loud at the Cartoon Art Museum showcase and blowing the minds of both my gf, Gillian, and myself, was greedily snatched up and taken home and so far Gillian's successfully convinced half a dozen people to buy the thing - she's a fan, and the book is incredibly funny in that poignant utterly touching way that only dream logic can garner. Go check out the online free version at www.slowwave.com). Then we flew home. Now I'm back.

Look for Lowdowns on all the swag I brought home. I plan to spotlight everything I can find the time to do so as I read them. Lots to talk about and lots of books you'll likely never hear about anywhere else. BE HERE!!! (or...go read Batman. Stupid Morrison.)

I'm off to APE CON!!!

2008-10-31T00:23:00.001-07:00

I'm off to the big Alternative Press Expo Convention ("APE Con" to the hip kids) in San Francisco (open your doors for me! la la la laaa la la...). I'll be meeting up with our artist sensation Mr. Rick Worley in person for the first time, plus getting to hang again with FICTION CLEMENS scribe Josh Wagner and his crew of up-and-comings.

But the point: it'll be all quiet on the Western front until I return, and recuperate, and realize I spent WAY too much goddamn money on small press books which'll take me months if not more to get around to reading. Though far be that a criticism on my small press spending habits. If only we all bought indy books with such aplomb!

Ethan Nicolle will be guest speaking, as will Chris Ware, plus Brent J. Trembath of SCRUFFY PUPPIES fame will be in attendance, as will Karl Christian Krumpholz creator of BYRON. Oh, the fun to be had. The schmoozing to be done. I love these people.

Anywho, see y'all. I'm gonna be having a great, GREAT time.

Jason Copeland's Convention Sketchbook for only $5 - with personalized sketch!

2008-10-29T01:28:00.000-07:00

Up-and-coming artist Jason Copeland (with a backup feature soon to be seen in the back of PERHAPANAUTS!) is now selling his first convention Sketchbook, titled "Marks on Paper 1" for a meager $5 - a price that INCLUDES shipping in the US! PLUS you get a personalized sketch of your choice in the book to boot! In a word - HOLY FREAKING JEHOSAPHAT!!!! GET THIS SKETCHBOOK!!!

In Jason's own words:

"I am now selling my convention sketchbook. For a measly $5 you get 28 pages of black and white drawing goodness wrapped in a cool gray card stock cover. There is a great range of subject matter and drawing styles contained within. And, there is even a space on the first interior page for an original sketch... by me!! That's right! If you wish, I will sketch you something original right in your very own copy! Please specify what I should draw, if you don't want me just drawing something of my own design. Postage is included in the $5, if sending it regular snail mail is cool with you, otherwise we can work something out.

If you're interested, just leave a comment here (with a way to contact you) or email me at: j dot copland at telus dot net"

Go to Jason's BLOG and buy this sketchbook now! Before he's too much of a big wig to give us the time of day (without charging $200 to draw it on scrap paper). --Dave B.

The crossover everyone's been waiting for

2008-10-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

The Last Unicorn and Robocop. Together at last. 'Nuff said. --Dave B.

In Defense of ORCA THE KILLER WHALE

2008-10-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

So Yahoo news decided to name 1977's ORCA: THE KILLER WHALE flick as runner-up for the top ten not-so-scary movies of all time.

Now, one thing to get out of the way up front: ORCA, as a horror movie, is admittedly not very scary. However...it isn't a horror movie. That's like calling THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON a runner-up for the top ten not-so-scary movies of all time. That wouldn't be an...er...incorrect thing to say, but rather a pointless list if you're going to compose it of movies not meant to be "scary" flicks in the first place. Alas, ORCA suffers the stigma of JAWS, and so any ocean-swelling thing larger than a man with a fin and which isn't starring in a kid's flick, must by default be trying for "terrifying".

But ORCA isn't scary. It's phenomenal. This is hands down one of the all-time best drama/thriller blends ever put to celluloid. This thing out Moby Dicks MOBY DICK with superstar Richard Harris in the leading role of tough-as-nails but exhaustively emotive fisherman Capt. Nolan, who at first struts through the opening scenes as an old-timer with little open compartments left in his mind, especially when he meets his foil in animal-rights-loving Rachel Bedford (played by ZARDOZ's Charlotte Rampling). Yet every minute that ticks by brings Nolan into greater, deeper turmoil. And that isn't to say this is histrionic (though at times, yes, it is). Rather, Nolan's struggle is a nuanced one. A quiet one. One of watching slight hesitations in a man usually unswerving in his violence and remorselessness.

Harris as Nolan:

The incredible Charlotte Rampling:

ORCA is Nolan vs. the whale, but instead of in a ship, this is the captain on land, retired, no longer what he once was, emotionally squaring off with a whale that won't leave the shore line for want of revenge. In a bizarre sort of inverse of the classic Ahab scenario, the WHALE wants vengeance, and the captain wants...resolution. But does this come from a victorious battle? Or absolution? Between sporadic bouts of serious bloodshed, this movie is pure brooding intellectualism.

Sure, there's scenes like this one:

And they're fantastically suspense-filled. Is the whale violent? Will be maul them? Take revenge? It actually isn't at all apparent through a good chunk of the film, and when the violence does hit it's bloody, sudden, and very impacting. But again, this is not the meat of this 2 1/2 hour epic. The true soul of this movie is in the moralizing of Nolan. The unmistakable humanity of the character given Orca herself, and the sheer power the battle between these two unleashes, which overshadows the small dramas afflicting the human characters of the piece.

ORCA may only be vaguely "scary". But this is a masterpiece in monster film making. I cannot recommend any film more than this one. Except perhaps RAVENOUS. --Dave B.

Super Human Resources #1-3 (of 4) REVIEW - HR Dept. for superhumans!

2008-10-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tim is your average joe, a little nerdy, a little geeky, small-bodied and intelligent if not a genius. He’s a steady hand at accounting and at present finds himself reporting for his first day at a new job: the offices of SHR, the HR department for super humans everywhere! Poisoned fatally by a ninja in the waiting room, grunted at by a zombie receptionist, buddied to a maniacal ex-villain in the records department, and all of it loomed over by a sentient, flesh-hating copier machine, life take no time in giving Tim a trial-by-fire inauguration, followed by an unforgettable employment beyond.

That’s an inspired premise, but haven’t we already seen reality mashed atop the world of genre fare time and again? Didn’t Kirkman give us Capesand Tales From the Realm? Marvel’s Damage Control for a similar-setting juxtaposition of mundane and hyper-real, of work-a-day folk tossed into impossible Superman situations only to see what sparks? Even ignoring those, haven’t we been inundated with comedy super-mags? Yes, spandex and supers and creatures of the night are hysterical, especially the four-color kind, but the trouble with any new humor book that harps on such subject matter, is that it is emphatically not alone.

In this day and age, readers dare any “humor” book to indeed be humorous, to make them laugh, to elicit so much as a lopsided grin via its so-called comedy. The audacity of the writer, the sheer chutzpah of the artist, to think they can simply put what they think works on paper and that any reader will forcibly laugh, maybe cry (should they laugh hard enough), and pay the exorbitant price of single-issue print comics just to find out if they do. Well, hell, that’s what reviews like this one are for, right? To know in advance whether anyone who’s read the book thinks it’s worth the price? So…is Super Human Resources worth the price? Is it funny? Or rather, is it funny even in the face of all the funny that’s come before? Survey says…

Let’s wait one more paragraph for that big revelation and allow me a moment to confess: I was excited to hear from writer Ken Marcus to read the first three issues of SHR for review, but when I at last sat down to read them I was…resistant. I simply didn’t want to like it and I couldn’t really tell you why. Maybe because I thought “oh, right, another look-how-funnny-genre-stuff-is-especially-when-standing-next-to-real-life story. Hmph.” Maybe the book just looked too colorful and modern webcomic-y in art style. Not that either of those things are bad per se, but for whatever reason I dove in and immediately felt my face scrunch and posture tilt rearward, away from the “offending” material. This was going to be a tough battle between SHR and me. A long and tension-filled cold war.

Or so I thought; the book thawed me, somehow, mostly because it did something far more difficult to achieve than comedy - it charmed. Protagonist Tim was an everyman but the innocent goodwilled best of the everyman, not the ignorant acquiescent worst of the same. The supporting cast of zombie, bog monster, giant lady, Superman, ninja, robot, evil genius (the list goes on…) is thankfully more than a series of jokes. The jokes are there, and they are funny, but when being funny isn’t enough in an industry chock-a-block with genre-humor yarns, what a new series needs is character. And that, sweetly, SHR has in spades.

Writer Ken Marcus, a newcomer to the world of comic book scriptin’, skillfully pens the characterizations through a series of vignettes that feel connected in more than just setting (even though they really aren’t). The dialogue is well played and, if not nuanced, it’s definitely fitting. The comedy unfurls without a crinkle on its carpet, and the characters are enduringly likable. Justin Bleep, on the art side of things, wields his trademark umbellar figures with distorted features to pitch-perfect effect, resulting in a book that seems literally shaped like candy for the eye - rolls and twists and gumdrops and gummies, cobbled together and colored by the great Joey Mason (of The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Animated Series fame).

Much like Digerolamo’s The Travelers, and Donna Barr’s Desert Peach, or Phil Foglio’s Girl Genius, there’s an alluring innocence to Super Human Resources, a recognizable sincerity to the characterizations and motivations. Perhaps because the setting is one of office drudgery, where the creators may have sufficient real-life inspiration to draw upon, even when the anti-heroes or villains act their worst there’s an intelligence and sympathy to the proceedings that lend the book a magnetism most fail to achieve. This is the element that wins over, that kept me hopping right ton over to issue #2 and then #3 without pause. Oh, and the comic is really damn funny.

###

Find out all you’ll ever need to find out about Super Human Resources at the comic’s WEBSITE.

Novo Volume 2: The Pride - THE REVIEW!

2008-10-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I've banner waved Michael Bracco's epic masterpiece NOVO enough before, now here's a quite thorough review of his latest:

Novo Volume 2: The Pride (ADVANCE)

Review by Dave Baxter, posted October 23, 2008

Words: Michael S. Bracco

Pencils: Michael S. Bracco

Inks: Michael S. Bracco

Colors: N/A

Story Title: The Pride

Publisher: Alterna Comics

Price: $9.95

Release Date: December 00, 2008

Bracco is back. A mere season after the outrageous beginning of his ambitious 7-volume epic, Novo (though it’s 8-volume if you include the, uniquely, published-first stand-alone prequel called Birth ), Michael S. Bracco returns with another 88-page black-and-white tome which continues the adventures of his little Earth-born sole survivor. But wait…he’s the sole survivor? Then, uhm, what is this second volume about? Hell, that was half the fun of Volume One’s climax—what was coming next? A new planet, new species, new conflict, and yet, some things feel oddly familiar….

Novo finds himself washed up on the planet Xennon, where he meets the brutal, warrior cat-woman, Xephonia, and her son, the rightful heir to the Xennon throne. But dark supernatural cat-like creatures hunt the lot of them, and Novo Volume 2: The Pride concerns itself with our trio’s desperate race to survive within an uncharted wilderness, hounded by unknown enemies wielding abilities undefined. It’s 88 pages of tension, action, chase sequences, bloodletting, and, in the spirit of the best of Roddenberry and Bradbury, a heavy-cream dollop of cultural philosophy, existentialism, and frenzied fantasy.

Heroic Kamandi-figure (yes, I just used Kamandi’s name like Christ’s) Novo, having just escaped the folly of his own stratified Earth peoples, finds himself swept up in a clash of traditions and ancient animosities which mirror the very vista of tragic casualty he’d left behind at the end of Volume One. Can Novo put things right on this new planet? Can anything ever break blood vendettas and cultivate seemingly impossible peace? These are the very questions Bracco explored, up close, in Birth, and then mused upon the ultimate consequences of in Novo Volume One , now brought into crisper focus in Volume Two by mixing up the setting and details, but even little Novo can’t miss the startling similarities.

Bracco weaves a magnificent sequel (or is it threequel?), a story symmetric to what has come before and yet, thrillingly, in effect an unanticipated plunge into whole-cloth new territory. But it’s disquieting territory as well: this is the Wizards of the black-and-white comics crowd, the innocent and cute-looking alien lad getting hip-deep in the realities of a universe wherein justice is an ideal and not a force of nature, where mortality confronts everyone, even a would-be hero. Much as with Birth, Bracco is able to go toe-to-toe with Ron E. Howard and Burroughs in blending social criticism with head-to-toe fantasy, and the mix of pulp adventure, light-heartedness, and deadly serious danger should please anyone who’s ever marveled over those classic writers’ ability to ignore all such supposed divisions in fiction.

The hand-drawn dialogue is utterly fantastic, both in content and form, funny, wry, intelligent, dramatic, and it only enhances the greatest element of any Bracco work: the art. A breif digression: my girlfriend, only vaguely comics-initiated herself, was sitting over my shoulder while I cracked open Volume Two to read, and after maybe three seconds of staring at the first page she announced: “That’s looks really incredible.” She proceeded to pace by every few minutes after that, to look at another page and then another. She had a few more choice testimonials to give to the work before she and me were done with the book, but needless to say, Bracco’s sequential pages are like watching Picasso paint. They’re captivating, pleasing, overwhelming, and ultimately cathartic to take in. They illustrate his story with utter ease and absolute craft. Bracco is, in a nutshell, both in writing and art, Frank Miller meets Sam Kieth. If this man isn’t an Eisner winner within the next decade, I’ll eat my laptop’s cathode-ray tube. Which would kill me. So as you can see, I’m serious.

Even considering the violence (there's a bit of it, true to any story that purports to peer into the depths of human fallibility), this is a fable for us all, even for our children, especially for our children to grow up with and to understand as an inherent part of their character: this is not the way we should live. Schisms between nations, bloodlines, classes, people need to end. There will forever be conflict, but never-ending? Based on past or imagined slights? Carried onto the sons and daughters of future generations? Traditions that disallow for honest evolution, either biological or anthropological? Phooey. That’s what Novo Volume 2: The Pride is all about. And more. But to tell more would be tell-ing, and believe me, you really want to check out these books and receive the surprises they have in store for yourself. They have a ton in store.

###

Pre-order Novo Volume Two: The Pride now from your retailer until the end of this month (Oct. 2008) with Diamond code OCT083787

And order Birth and Volume One direct from the creator at The Birth of Novo Website

Septagon Studios News Blog Nominated for "BEST COMICS BLOG" - and well deserved!

2008-10-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

Head over to the SEPTAGON STUDIOS NEWS BLOG, now more than ever because their superb ground-breaking blog has just been nominated for "Best Comics Blog" Award at the BlogNet.com awards site!

Go HERE TO VOTE. All you have to do is register for the Awards site and then cast your vote by rating the site 1-5 stars (oh, come on and just give 'em 5 already! - no equivocating on this one!)

SS offers essay-esque coverage on comic news and thought-provoking and utterly enlightening editorials on starting up a small press comics company in the modern age, marketing, printing, etc. Their design sense is insane, too. The blog looks GORGEOUS. But for once, it's pretty AND has content. 200% more small press coverage than your average blog to boot.

So VOTE FOR THEM! Huzzah! --Dave B.

NOVO VOLUME 2 FOR ORDER NOW! Bestest find of last year continues!

2008-10-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

NOVO 2 in October previews..order all month!

For those of you who frequent a local comic shop, this message is for you. All this month NOVO Volume 2: "THE PRIDE" is in the October issue of PREVIEWS. So go on down to your comic shop and place your order today!! To preview the book and read some reviews on the first installment of NOVO just go HERE

And if you can talk your LCS into carrying my books...EVEN BETTER!

For anyone who gets their books online or at a regular ol' bookstore, you can pre-order NOVO at AMAZON

NOVO is an amazing book, one of the best goddamn finds of the past year for me, so check this out if you like daring new art and storytelling techniques doing classic-mold adventure type yarns. This one rocks it out of the park.

You can read my "Inter-Review" (a review and interview intertwined!) of NOVO Vol. 1 by clicking HERE.

PLUS...read by review for creator Michael S. Bracco's NOVO prequel Graphic Novel BIRTH
and also his early works ATTY & MAX and finally THE COLLECTIVE (AND OTHER STORIES)

A complete Waste of Time...NOT!!!

2008-10-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

The soon to be super-star artist behind our Nuts and Mr. Right character designs, plus my and Gillian's upcoming 8-page short "The Right that One Can Do" for the HOPE ANTHOLOGY by Ronin Studios and The HERO Initiative, the one and only RICK WORLEY, has his

VERY FIRST COMIC BOOK FOR SALE AT THE APE CON IN SAN FRAN THIS NOVEMBER 1ST-2ND!!!!

Look at this beauty:

This shit is FUNNY. And its sadly too true, too. Weep, chuckle, chortle, pray to god in thanks that you have a better life than Rick's. That's the experience of reading his strips. That's a comPLETE Waste of Time...not. This book will rock.

GO TO RICK WORLEY'S PAGE! --Dave B.

THE UNWANTED Graphic Novel $8 Halloween sale!

2008-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

SOME REALLY COOL NEWS HERE....

The Unwanted Halloween Sale!

Attention all comic book fans and horror freaks, "The Unwanted" will be on sale for $8 thru October! Contact us at Itcho@aol.com or through myspace to order your special signed copy today!

Spread The Word...

» Blog this and/or Bulletin this!

To honor Halloween (our favorite holiday) - read the graphic novel that everyone is talking about!

HEY, MAN, I JUST BOUGHT A COPY. I'M EXCITED TO READ IT!!!

NEW PLACE!

2008-10-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Moved into the new apartment with my girl of six years this weekend, the co-writer of what will be my first published comic - I'm exHAUSted, and won't have internet at home until next week sometime. So very sporadic replies and communication and posting from me for a bit. I still love everybody, though. Love my fucking living room, full dining room, full kitchen, full bath, one bedroom, four closet, gated community, everything-within-walking-distance-including-Quentin-Taratino's-favorite-Midnight-Movie-theater-The-New-Beverly place even MORE.

So, so, sooooo...happy. :) --Dave B.

SPEED RACER - The Awesome Anti-American Anthem

2008-10-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I kinda have to agree with Robert Kirkman about what a damn fine movie SPEED RACER is. It's way over the top, and super-CGI heavy, but one thing I'll grant the Watchowskis: whenever they tackle the visual side of things, it never looks like what anyone else is doing. This movie may seem, from the trailer alone, to be the epitome of brain-dead eye-candy in the shape of story cinema, but it is far from that in effect.

The story itself is classic, a coming-of-age tale with every well-loved cliche rolled into one. There's the overbearing lovable bear of a dad, the older sibling who failed before, the younger who now has to prove his mettle, the choice between the love of a thing and the corporate greed and abuse of a thing, adults that don't fight quite hard enough and youth that often acts upon overly-naive convictions, propelled by the belief that their go-get'em gumption will mass the masses to to 'em.

Admittedly, the "evil corporation" comes across as a somewhat empty villain, seeing as how this is the Watchowskis and a huge-budget studio flick. If corporations were truly okay with having their mentality exposed as anything more biting than cookie-cutter cartoon biblical style evil, then IDIOCRACY would have been treated better. Hmmm...come to think of it, SPEED RACER didn't exactly have the right backing and promotion necessary in these entertainment-saturated times to become a hit. It just kinda came and went. The moral? America, darling, you're the enemy. The rest of the world? The wide-eyed youth that believes spirit and passion can win him everything? That's what we kill. Daily. In our pursuit of greed and gadgets. I am not talking about our corporations. I'm talking about YOU. Our corporations may be THE corporation of the film, but we're Taejo, the driver that turns a blind eye to how the actions of his family and company do away with all sportsmanlike virtues, and even, ultimately, the sport itself. America, these movies aren't doing well. We don't like them. We ignore them. I wonder why? It's no mistake the villain was American (albeit with a British accent, which I suppose was the attempt at camouflage) and the semi-villain was Japanese.

SPEED RACER is a half kid's-movie, and reminded me greatly of the Hoskins/Hopper SUPER MARIO BROS. flick in tone, but its oh-so-much fun, and every actor, especially the child actors, are so INTO the movie and enjoying what they're doing, you can't help but be strung along. On the subject of the visuals, seriously, what other movie on earth looks like this:

Maybe ZARDOZ, a choice few Boorman and Ken Russell masterpieces, but that's about it.

The CGI is wondefully artful, like a sci-fi Willy Wonka, it actually stands reminiscent of TRON, mixed with of course the more modern slow-mo stuff a la THE MATRIX and 300. Yet the charming part is that the CGI is meant to look like CGI. They make it look hyper-real and fake, and beautifully so. Unlike such rainbow colored bowel movements as 300, wherein the CGI was meant to stun, and startle, and shake, no nuance or sense of actual love or craft apparent (just manipulation), SPEED RACER is the CGI equivalent of stop-motion CLASH OF THE TITANS type grandeur. It's wonderfully unreal, exquisitely so. It's awesome to watch because for all its excessive qualities, it's NEW. It's truly DIFFERENT and something we havent' yet seen before.

So check this one out. If you're a Yank, this movie is at its heart against everything you are and do currently, but it yearns for a spirit no capitalist culture has truly maintained as its grown into the global bloated beast it stands as today. It's headier than it thinks it is, is our Speed Racer. It's mind and swirling, sizzling, streaking matter. It's bloody awesome is what it is. --Dave B.

WOLF'S HOUR by Robert McCammon - Like Stephen King writing Doc Savage!

2008-10-09T01:16:00.000-07:00

If you're in the mood for some GREAT old-fashioned 80's pulp semi-high-literature fun, a book that's like Stephen King at his grandest writing Doc Savage - check out:

It's a werewolf hero vs. Nazis in Germany during the core of World War II. Slow-ish to start, but the second half is absolutely phenomenal. Some of the best action and thirller sequences I've read in a long damn time. The fight between the hero and a master "Great White Hunter" through multiple cars of a train is sweet, sweet fiction magic. Buy a copy HERE.

Just Read: BARR GIRLS #1 - Donna Barr does hermaphrodite porn, oh yes, ohhh yeeeessssss...

2008-10-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

So here was a Donna Barr book I wasn't aware of until I decided to be all completest about her gluttonous, corpulent body of work. Published through Antarctic Press' adult line, Venus Comics, it's a compilation of the pin-ups and shorts that Barr doodled out over the course of coarse time, hinging on a rather interesting (if graphic) idea: what if everyone was an hermaphrodite? What if all humans were both genders at once, so that there was never any distinction? What would the new preconceptions be? The new biases and cultural divides? And what of our own cultures would be lost having never arisen in the first place?

BARR GIRLS is fancy free and graphic, in love with sexuality and in love with love in general. While there is some drop-dead accurate social criticism in these stories, mostly by what the stories leave out rather than what they contain, the lack of certain beliefs and day-to-day gender views that logically are the bathwater to the baby that gets overhand-fastballed out the window when men and women become one and the same, and so are proven cosmetic, views and beliefs that do not stand up to even this slightest of shifts in reality, and in this way spotlighted as dependent upon circumstance (wow this is turning into a long, digressive sentence, sorry, and this isn't helping, sorry again), the core of BARR GIRLS is not necessarily message-centric, or preachy, and while perhaps it is a little slap-in-the-face insofar as its outrageous subject matter in concerned, the spirit of its audacity comes across as the passion of innocence unfettered (why would I hold back? the child asks) instead of the shock value of arrogance unleashed (what's gonna make me hold back? the bastard sneers).

The book starts gentle, mostly observing the "girls" (who are referred to as girls but almost always pronoun-ed as "he" and "him"), heading to work, inviting guests over, exploring what the unavoidable assumptions of the human mind would be like in a world where gender was simply parceled out differently. Then comes the crowning, most lengthy episode of the issue, and the sex-stuff gets explicit and wild. Not for the easily offended, and not at all for anyone who thinks they already have the answers to human sexuality and gender place and position. Closed-minded asininnies need not apply.

The pin-ups are the most blink-inducing parts of the book. Mostly involving Barr dressing her girls in the looniest outfits and exploring the, uhm, anatomies of male-female adonis-amaranths. It's all jolly good fun, and you walk away feeling damn good about genitals, of either sex, which is refreshing.

This one's a tough nut to find, but right now there's copy available over at or anyway their online eBay store (which is where I purchased my copy, and they still have at least one more!) Head on over there by clicking HERE

CELL PHONE NUMBERS GO NATIONAL - REGISTER TO NOT RECIEVE TELEMARKETING CALLS

2008-10-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public today

REMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.

..... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:
888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS ...It takes about 20 seconds.

or go to www.dontcall.gov

My Top 10 80's Songs (of all time, by which I mean right now)

2008-10-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a fellow comic-con goer, who recently posted his Top 10 80's tunes, I decided (being such a fanatic of that decade, because I was too young to really live it and get disgusted by it) to make my own. His was very Brit-based, little punk and alternative, mine's a but more mainstream, if that can really be a distinction.

Here 'tis:

10) WE CLOSE OUR EYES (Oingo Boingo) - This is the one that I discovered only recently. In fact, OB themselves I only recently came aware of due to THE FORBIDDEN ZONE oddball musical movie they made when they were KNIGHTS OF THE OINGO BOINGO (pre-new-wave rock-pop stuff) and now I do oh-so-love them. This one was the song that made me seek out EVERYTHING they did (I now own it all, live albums, too). Haunting, happy, melodic, dissonant, very very metallic drum 80's. Gorgeous and begins my best-of list, no question.

9) THE HEAT IS ON (Kenny Loggins) - Just lost out to "Footloose", but I only wanted one song per artist, and "Heat" with its unforgettable saxophone core, wailing whoa-OH-oh-oh!, and catchy verse, it does definitely trump the toe-tapping/I-wanna-jump-around quality of Kevin Bacon's old-school aria. There's a lot of movie themes here like this one (which is from Beverly Hills Cop), but oddly I'd never seen BHC, or most of the movies the songs were made for, until long after I fell in love with the songs themselves.

8) GHOSTBUSTERS THEME (Ray Parker, Jr.) - Well, except this one: I saw the movie first, and this is one of the best theme songs in movie history. The artist hardly ever made a "hit" again, but this one will forever be as remembered as the movie and characters themselves. Who you gonna call? That's right. You gonna call them.

7) NOTHING COMPARES 2 U (Sinnead O'Connor) - Not only a heart wrenching song, but also arguably the only heart-wrenching music video ever made. Just Sinnead in front of the camera in close-up for one single take, as the song drives her to tears. Incoyable! You can't even think of this song without singing/humming it for hours after the fact.

6.5) LEAD ME ON (Amy Grant) - Yeeeaaahhh, this one is 6.5, as I'm one song too many on this list, and this one is a tough call. It's very special to me. I had no idea Amy Grant was Christian/Gospel, but stole a tape of hers out of my sister's bedroom one day an listened to it while reading Uncanny X-Men comics and it was the perfect soundtrack to the reading experience. It made the X-Men issue I was reading my favorite of all time (#285 - the final chapter of "The Muir Island Saga") and this song, "Lead Me On" was the one I replayed the most, loving it to pieces. It could have been worse. My only other option were Tiffany tapes. "Circle in the Sand" anyone?

6) WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN (Bangles) - Just lost out to "Manic Monday", but this one is *that* much more phenomenal in its simplicity and yet completely unexpected perfectly overkill production. Like a Broadway finale with synth.

5) FAITH (George Michael) - "Father Figure" and "I Want Your Sex" were close runners up, but Faith has got the staying power in the head, and really makes one want to dance, sing, and I think everyone can picture themselves being George Michael in looks and style when they sing it. Incredible blend of styles into a song that never even strikes as being a fusion unless you really listen to its parts.

4) DUCHESS (Genesis) - Barley made the list, as it was released in 1980, but this ballad by Phil Collins and Co. was the first that really paved the way for Genesis' pop career and Phil's own solo one. It's so wonderfully sung, composed, and the lyrics are killer. Also a great blend of old-Genesis and pop-Genesis, a perfect middle ground. Made me adore them forever and ever, even into the easy listening days and new-singer-who's-isn't-Phil album.

3) MAN IN THE MIRROR (Michael Jackson) - MJ is a god. And this is his very best far as I'm concerned. There are songs of his that work better than Man in the Mirror, in one way or another, but none had such a solid coming together of rock, pop, diva, gospel, funk, you name it. And what a great message! If only MJ himself hadn't taken it so...uhm...literal. And, you know, followed the message and not just the words. ("Take a look at yourself, and make that change")

2) WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO (Wham!) - The first song I ever decided to love just for myself. The awakening of my musical awareness. Oh, yes, it's so syrupy gummy sticky wonderful. "Last Christmas" and "Careless Whisper" are almost as good, but in ultimately different ways - a little more sentimental and gooey. This one is total cheese, and done soooo sincerely. Love. It.

1) ***GLORY OF LOVE (Peter Cetera)***- The ultimate, the one, the top and very bestest of them all. Yes, it's that wretched theme from KARATE KID II. Insanely 80's. Insanely sappy. Insanely wonderful. Cetera seemingly sings the whole thing from inside a tin drum, and the lyrics are bar none for their ridiculousness and yet true-blue touching pie in the sky romance. This was Bryan Adam's "Everything I Do, I Do it For You" long before Bryan Adams was known.

Okay, that's that! Richard Marx should have been on this list (Endless Summer Nights!) but, alas, only so much room, and I haven't listened to him in too long a time. Beyond that, what's YOUR top ten 80's? --Dave B.

Just Read: Desert Peach #21 - The Good Uncle

2008-10-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

Whoof - child molestation, murder, and desecration, generally in that order. THAT is the name of the game for this rather unexpected (can I say that? That this book is unexpected? Ever? As in "I didn't see the fact that I wouldn't see the what that came next would be coming?" Haven't I learned that this is straight-on par fer the sandy dry dessicated course?) issue #21, titled "The Good Uncle".

I thought that was Erwin Rommel on the cover (what a striking cover, too, eh?), the Desert Fox himself, but thankfully no, the cover model is a new character introduced (and exuented) in this very issue, there to basically explore a rather squirm-inducing topic. For that, it's memorable, as this is a hotter topic to fan the flames than the more general topics of war, humanity, tolerance, bigotry, sexuality, etc. I suppose that's the unexpected part, this is the first time quite so specific an issue has been raised as sole focus of an entire chapter. Which isn't to say creator Donna Barr doesn't toss in male mothering instinct, her usual up-close dissection of the differences between cultures and resolving issues even in the face of ignorance and unavoidable bigotry. But past DP books have wheeled between sub-plots and side tracks, while "The Good Uncle" travels a very straight and arrow-shaped path, as thought the subject demanded a very focused, single-child nurture.

The first half flows well, and offers readers a marvelous number of scenes involving an enlisted regiment of dirty, lonely, aimless soldiers taking care of a little leibchen, the son of Pfirsich. Then comes the arrival of Leutnant Doktor Lindemann, a pediatrician who's come to lavish special, prim, professional attention on Pfirsich's boy. Soon, however, the locals arrive crying for justice, looking for a killer of their children! A search for the suspect in on, and when they're found the question still remains of just what to do with them.

It's a heady brew, The Good Uncle is, though it does a commendable job with sizing up the justifications of man's behaviors, and drawing distinctions between "deviant" ones. And the ENDING!!! With a one-two punch of horrific absurdity, Barr yanks the whole shebang to a climax and epilogue that would have immediately been rejected by any editor with content authority. Not that they're offensive (is anything, really, in a Barr book? It's her most signature talent - offensive material that never IS offensive when she writes about it), but the ending is classic Barr - entirely random and not how anyone else would have done it, but wholly fitting nevertheless.

One final thing that makes #21 stand out - A LETTER'S PAGE!!! Yes, after having nearly none for quite some time, AEON gave Donna 10 whopping pages to go all Dave Sim/Erik Larsen with her fans, printing letter after letter longer than some essays and responding in kind. It's was fascinating to get a nice lump of historical perspective, reading letters concerned with the book's hiatus (when Donna took time off to produce the DP musical) and then letters deciphering the issues much as I'm doing now on this blog. Different takes, different opinions, good to read, awesome to read in fact.

THE GOOD UNCLE is an issue I'll likely think of long into the future, one of those that may become signature when I consider the series in retrospect. But it's also, thus far, an oddity - less a pot pourri than a deliberation. But a deliberation done DP style, which makes it oh-so-good. --Dave B.

Just Read: STINZ - A STRANGER TO OUR KIND

2008-10-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo! What a thrill to have finally read the very last (missing) installment of my Stinz collection!

A Stranger to Our Kind (Stinz Volume III, #5), the fifth and final one-shot published by MU PRESS before Stinz V.III continued on for four more issues (#6-9) and a graphic novel (New Souls, which wedged itself between issues #8 and 9) under creator Donna Barr's own company imprint, A FINE LINE PRESS.

The first two volumes of Stinz dealt with his war years, as a half-horse conscripted into the German army, his meteoric rise to war hero, thus nicknamed "The Black Major", and then also his coming home, back to a rural farmland community. There were whispers, though, of "The End of the War", and how this had somehow traumatized Stinz, changed the face of the world as anyone knew it, and yet Stinz's own township seemed unaffected. The one-shots otherwise known as Stinz V.III #1-4 slowly built-up the mystery, and revealed hints of precisely how the world changed, and began to build up a new tension: Stinz and the townfolk vs. the Baron and Baronin, who since the End of the War have apparently, officially "owned" the town, and all the half-horses became their Serfs. Half-horses are not seen to the world at large as people, with the rights of two-leggers. By and large creator Barr kept this mostly as part of the setting, rather than first and foremost in the trials of the characters. But all that changed with "A Stranger to Our Kind".

Here, the conflict between the extreme class differences as accentuated by the results of "The End of the War", come straight to the fore. The Baronin has married the Baron, and now brings her guards in to run the valley as she deems proper, which is based on an outsider's perspective of "proper". This leads to yellow-suited soldiers trotting about and demanding service of the locals, which leads to one local reacting with a fatal consequence for one of the soldiers. Confusion and outrage ensue, leading to one young half-horse soldier, Yesi, thoughtlessly naming Stinz as the most likely suspect in the murder.

Now, Yesi had been (somewhat unsuccessfully) courting Stinz' daughter, Reet, only to be rebutted by both the girl and the old war half-horse himself, so that this accusation stems from less-than-sincere impulses. Now Stinz' ex-General, Gift, along with Yesi and other soldiers who consider the half-horses little more than uppity slaves, have to bring Stinz to a ceremonial trial that no one in the valley has actually heard of or taken part of before, and mass miscommunication is the flavor of the day.

This is the story that truly kick-starts everything that comes in the FINE LINE PRESS issues. The Baron and Baronin, the carnivorous face-horse Kilan, mention of the ground zero area for the mysterious End of the War, the first story that truly centers itself around the cultural overhauls caused by said End of the War, much talk of journeying back into the world outside the valley, Yesi and Reet's relationship, the respect and love between Gift and Stinz that only two old war companions could have, no matter the most current conflict between them. It's all here, and makes, frankly, issues #6-9 seem much less sudden of a switch in tone and focus as they did before, when I tried to jump from V.III #4 to #6.

A Stranger to Our Kind is dense and jam-packed, with dozens of characters, and a whole story told on nearly every page, each page like a chapter in a book, nearly self-contained in its own right but then you get a full book-length contemplation of events should you plow through all 40+ pages of the one-shot. In a way, this is the perfect "jumping-on point" for Stinz, as everything you need to know is explored here, and then continued and brought to natural conclusions in following issues. Think of this as like the beginning of the "Twilight years" for Stinz, all past stories dealing more with youth (V.I) and middle age (V.II, III #1-4).

Barr's dialogue and pacing is in perfect control, which is to say the story tells itself without doubting its intent or direction for an instant. The art is equally as finely wrought, tight and layered but very polished. The printing is smooth and flawlessly cut and magic to the touch - crisp white paper and solid cardstock cover.

An absolutely beautiful package, with a striking cover and a story that will bloat you with ideas and characters and events as though a meal of fried chicken and waffles - it will stay with you, intermittently pleasant and otherwise.

The only place I know to order a copy of this extremely rare, hard-to-find issue, is Westfield Comics dot com - (or click here - http://westfieldcomics.com/store.cgi?sc=858151910832426433&cid=2&mid=250&P=80027620)

But it's worth it - go find it! Read STINZ!!!

For all other Stinz issues (they're all available except this one!), go to:

THE LITTLE STORE (http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-emergency-website.html)

EDUCATION OF PURCHASE:

STINZ V.III #1-4 and 6-9 are sold individually.

The two Stinz collections offered: "CHARGER" collects all of V.I and V.II under one cover, and "ALL TURNED AROUND", otherwise/also known as "NEW SOULS" GN, fits chronologically between V.III #8 and 9, and collects a long run of online Stinz stories Barr published at ModernTales.com, where you can find yet more of her Stuff.

Check out this and last post - Uphold small business and creator rights!

2008-09-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Thought it wouln't pass?! Too extreme to go through?! Think again!!!

Capitol hill fucks artists everywhere!

FROM ILLUSTRATORS ' PARTNERSHIP OF AMERICA:

Orphan Works: The Devil's Own Day

Never Too Busy to Pass Special
Interest Legislation 9.28. 08

As lawmakers struggled Friday to clean up the mess on Wall Street, sponsors of the Orphan Works Act passed more special interest legislation. Their bill would force copyright holders to subsidize giant copyright databases run by giant internet firms.

Like the companies now needing billion dollar bailouts, these copyright registries - which would theoretically contain the entire copyright wealth of the US - would presumably be "too big to fail." Yet it's our wealth, not theirs, the scheme would risk.

Small business owners didn't ask for this legislation. We don't want it and we don't need it. Our opposition numbers have been growing daily. So Friday, the bill's sponsors reached for the hotline.

What is Hotlining?

Critics of hotlining say "that lawmakers are essentially signing off on legislation neither they nor their staff have ever read. "

"In order for a bill to be hotlined, the Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader must agree to pass it by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote. The two leaders then inform Members of this agreement using special hotlines installed in each office and give Members a specified amount of time to object - in some cases as little as 15 minutes. If no objection is registered, the bill is passed. "
- Roll Call, Sept 17, 2007

In other words, a Senate bill can pass by "unanimous consent" even if some Senators don't know about it.

The Devil's Own Day

Senators Leahy and Hatch hotlined the Orphan Works Act twice last summer. Each time came at the end of a day, at the end of a week, near the end of a legislative session. Each time lawmakers were distracted by other issues and other plans. Each time artists rallied quickly and each time a Senator put a hold on the bill.

Friday the Senators found a new opportunity.

With lawmakers struggling to package a 700 billion dollar bailout to avert a worldwide economic meltdown, with the rest of the country focused on Presidential debates, with Washington in chaos and Congressional phone lines jammed, they hotlined an amended bill. On short notice, even the legislative aides we could reach by phone said they didn't have time to read it. And so, while we were rushing to get out a second email blast to artists, the bill passed by "unanimous consent" - in other words, by default.

What better way to pass a bill that was drafted in secret than to pass it while nobody's looking?

Since Friday, artists have been conducting bitter post mortems on their blogs. That's understandable, but it's not time yet.

"When Sherman arrived at Grant's headquarters later that evening, he found the general - broken sword and all - chewing on a soggy cigar in the rain, which had begun soaking the battlefield.

'Well, Grant,' Sherman said to his friend, 'we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?'

'Yes,' replied Grant, 'lick 'em tomorrow, though. '"

The Senate passed their bill Friday, but the House hasn't. There's still time to write, phone and fax your congressional representatives. Tell them not to let the House Judiciary Committee fold their bill and adopt the Senate's.

Tell Congress to protect the private property of small businesses. Lick 'em tomorrow.

- Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership
Quote from "The Devil's Own Day," by Christopher Allen, January 2000 America's Civil War Magazine

TAKE ACTION: EMAIL CONGRESS TONIGHT
Tell the House Judiciary Committee not to adopt the Senate version.

We've supplied a special letter for this purpose:

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321

Oppose the Orphan Works Bill - Creator Rights!

2008-09-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

In case you did not get the petition sites - NOW WITH WORKING LINKS!!! (whotta concept):

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Artist-unite-ban-orphan-works

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-orphan-works-theft

Thank you to everyone for helping support this issue. With your help I know we can stop it~

smiles

Dave

Why White Man's Guilt is a Good Thing, But Not Really

2008-09-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

So I went out to a local coffee shop to get work done, and instead was conscripted into walking a Korean lady to the metro in order to "protect her from the black man".

She hardly spoke a lick of English, but she could say "black man", and "following me" and "scared to leave" and "metro" and somehow, by intermittently speaking in hushed, harsh whispers and pointing with vaudevillian "inconspicuous" swoops of the arm at a tall and lanky black man sleeping in a chair somewhere behind us, it was revealed to me that she was of the emphatic belief that he was following her. I know secret service men that couldn't pull off so deft a tailing as sleeping and snoring and successfully keeping up with a short penguin-gaited highly-paranoiac Asian gal. But he'd apparently been at the same Metro stop as she, three days in a row, always there, just like she, always taking the same Metro (*gasp!*) Honestly, I don't even think that was true (I suspect they were different black men, but all tall and characteristically dressed and so deemed the same individual), but even if it was true, the dear little ajumma* didn't speak proper enough English (or, honestly, intelligence in any language) to allow me to point out that, based on her criteria for spotting a stalker, she was following them.

Still, just in case I was living in a casually stereotypical Hollywood Blockbuster, I didn't want to ignore the possibility of someone truly stalking a poor petite Korean ummu**, so I walked her to the Metro, "keeping my eye out" for the black man (which translated to any black men) who might sneaky-sneaky be following us. Surprise, surprise, the one in question remained vigilant in his napping, and all the rest were wrapped up in their own insanities.

Now, I know Koreatown blacks aren't the most sterling examples of ethnic potential the world over - they tend to be homeless, or extremely low-income, or plumb clinically off-kilter in the head, but this was my first dawning realization that my inherent white man's guilt, a thing which tends to rub off on most Americans no matter their ethnicity should they not be so cloistered in an area that allows them to cling to non-American traditionalist world views, was something that, for all its shamefaced existence, kept me from so throwback a behavior to another color of guy. Is guilt necessary for progress? Probably not: someone else once pointed out that it's merely that we have a history with blacks, more so than the Koreans, and the fact that our history is one of slave trade and viciously fought-for civil rights isn't as important as that we had a relationship with another people at all.

Exposure and interaction are the key elements. Here's hoping we can expose ourselves and interact in ways that aren't abusive, violent, demeaning, and/or demoralizing to another people. Likely we'd come to the same ends if we actually behaved ourselves: we'd still end up with a melting pot jamboree of differences, people coming together and staying together anyway. Wouldn't it be nice to have it without the regrets? --Dave B.

*auntie (older woman - not so polite)
**mum (casual, polite enough)

Not much to report, but found my missing Stinz!

2008-09-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

Nothing much for today, something more definitely tomorrow. But today I got my last issue I was missing of STINZ - A STRANGER TO OUR KIND (Volume III, #5). I read lots of incredible things about this issue from other online reviews, many claiming it was their favorite and the best of the character's run. So of course it was the ONE issue I couldn't bloody locate.

But I nabbed a copy from www.WestFieldComics.com, and it arrived via post this afternoon, so WOOT! I've already read to the end of the line, or anyway to the new beginning of sorts in AFTERDEAD 1.1 and 1.2, but still, I'm looking forward to digging into this much anticipated chapter. Prolly write about it tomorrow.

In other news, me and the gal-pal of 6 years and counting found a great new apartment in Los Angeles an will be moving in together in a few short weeks! No more ghetto Koreatown! No more one-hour walks and bus rides just to steal a kiss! (awww! But it was so romantic [and yeah, it was, we'll have to get creative to replace the "And I will walk 500 miles" shtick to pronounce our undying affection for the other! Mmmm...creative...lookin' forward to it *sluuuurpp!*])

Late and tired and already written other things all evening long. Time for rest. Reading, maybe watch a move-ay. G'noit! --Dave B.

Just Read: The Desert Peach #19 & 20 Self-Propelled Target and Fever Dream

2008-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

We got us a double bill today - I'm passing on reviewing THE DESERT PEACH #18 until I've had the chance to listen to the soundtrack a few more times, plus finish reading the libretto. (DP #18 wasn't a DP comic as such, but a reprint of THE DESERT PEACH: THE MUSICAL Program, plus lots of behind-the-scenes accouterments). I'll hit #18 with a proper review alongside a full review of the musical when the time comes. But for now...

The Desert Peach #19: "Self-Propelled Target"

"Self-Propelled Target" is the name of this one - the big return of the book after the huge climax/wedding-of-Udo in ish #17, and also it seems the title was shuffled from MU PRESS over to AEON STUDIOS with this installment, where it would remain until issue #25, after which creator Donna Barr would launch her own (and to this day still kicking) publishing gambit, A FINE LINE PRESS. When I interview the lady in the near future, I'll have to ask her about all the transitions and manifestations of this book, but for now, all I know is that the title changed publishing hands, and not for any discernible reason.

But sticking with the last two MU issues, #19 consists of a meaty 44 pages of story. Oddly, Udo's marriage isn't brought up at all, even though it was the seminal event of the book's run to date. Instead we're offered a crazy tale of pranks gone awry - Oberst Pfirsich Rommell is feeling under the weather (stomach problems that would plague him to the end of the NEXT issue!), and in his discomfort he allows himself to poorly phrase a request to Udo that yanks open a loophole to allow his nemesis, Kjars, to go at each other no-holds-barred. It begins Udo rupturing the decaying stomach juices of a deceased body while on grave-digging duty, and allowing the effluvia to douse both Kjars and (by accident) Pfirsich. This does nothing but exacerbate the poor Oberst's delicate, waning constitution. This leads him to camp out in the outhouse, while Udo and Kjars both pursue parallel schemes of trickster-like schenannigans which will once again climax with poor Pfirsich caught in the middle.

This issue is, in a word, "disgusting". I'll leave it at that, and warn that those with a low threshold for potty humor and low-brow brown humor need not apply. The pranks go WAY over the top ant he results are extraordinarily nauseating if thought upon too explicitly. Which isn't to say this isn't a WONDERFULLY entertaining thing, just that it's also quite disturbing. The Wyle E. Coyote essence of the pranks is inspired, and the sheer mechanical clockwork genius of how the story comes crashing together into a tight, horrific climax is superb. That said, this is mostly a shtick-y episode, humorous and outlandish but not really concerned with advancing or searching the intricacies of the characters. This one is throwaway, in a sense, but it's also a perfect stand-alone story, more so than usual, as nothing before or after really enters into it.

Donna art is electric, some of the best yet - the sh*tstorm of a finale is brilliantly depicted, and all the whirlwind antics impressively captured and fluidly woven panel to panel.

STORY - 7/10 (incredible execution, some things almost out-of-character crazy though)

ART - 9/10 (Really tight layout and flow, detailed and dynamic)

IMPORTANCE - (EDITED [see comments below]) 8/10 (mostly stand-alone, but Pfirsich's sickness pays off in next issue #20, AND effects Kjars in #26 in a major way! )

TOTAL SCORE - 8

And then comes...

The Desert Peach #20: "Fever Dream"

Pfirsich's health problems come to a head as he lay, seemingly, at death's door. Udo (the one most responsible with last issue's pranks) paces and frets, and has the dear ear of Pfirsich's ego-heavy lover Rosen to commiserate with. This leads to Rosen relating the day he first met Pfirsich in German-occupied France, and then Udo spinning a tale of the same, and apparently the two events happened close together. This offers creator Donna Barr the opportunity to (at last!) break out with a very, intensely graphic and magnificently choreographed sex scene. Rosen may be a stud, but he's new to the guy-on-guy stuff (the beauty of Pfirsich his sudden inspiration!) and so Barr allows the somewhat awkwardness of the two trying to literally feel the other out to coincide with an audience that hasn't yet had the pleasure of a Desert Peach comic sliding quite so emphatically into the sex stuff.

But here it be, in all its visceral, funny, eye-popping and unexpectedly heart-warming glory. In usual Barr fashion, Donna somehow depicts an explicit act of sex, and not a mainstream one at that, and manages to make it charm the pants off a Hellfire preacher. Rosen and Pfirsich never seemed so real, human, and yet larger than life as they do in this extended and brilliant flashback.

Then Udo's story waxes poetic on his hiding his Jewishness while being nonetheless bigoted toward gays, and how his first meeting with Pfirsich and the braggart Rosen slapped his hypocritical double-standard beliefs into second thoughts and serious re-thinks.

Barr's art gets a touch more refined and polished for this semi-anatomy lesson yarn, and the result is a GORGEOUS issue of DP. The story is perhaps the most character-centric of the entire run, and gives Rosen a personality he sorely needed to bring his relationship with Pfirsich into glittering light. And Udo's less enlightened past also grants his character a 3-D real world sensibility that lets the reader love him all the more.

After the lightness of substance of #19, "Fever Dream" gives readers a dense and heady package of human beings being human in absolute and definitively human ways, puritanism be damned.

STORY - 10/10 (perfect blend of daring and charming, character and plot)

ART - 10/10 (like lightening striking wood, inordinate detail and crazed energy alike)

IMPORTANCE - 10/10 (two major characters get major moments of their lives told)

TOTAL SCORE - A PERFECT 10/10

Sean Connery as James Bond - my first exposure

2008-09-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it, I've been a recalcitrant pop-culturalist: I've never watched a single Bond film before Pierce Brosnan's GOLDENEYE. Well, I have vague memories of a Roger Moore Bond, and one Timothy Dalton Bond, both circa 1980-something, having watched a few scenes when I was a tyke and my mom had them playing in the background, but I was far too young to retain specifics and don't acutely recall a damn thing about either. So James Bond, as a viewing entertainment experience, for me, began with the Brosnan years.

I saw and enjoyed GOLDENEYE and then TOMORROW NEVER DIES, but fell off and heard far too many awful things about the third and fourth Pierce/Bond flicks. I have watched and feel happy enough with CASINO ROYALE - I'm not completely in love with what's-his-face (Daniel Craig) as the new "gritty" Bond, but it works well enough, and ultimately I realized - I had no idea what the flying $^&k I was comparing any of it to! I've never seen any other Bond!

Were any of these quote-unquote "good Bond films"? I guess I've never really been able to say. When people mention that Sean Connery is the best Bond, I can't imagine the guy without a white beard. Time I rectified that.

So I've plowed through Connery's years, and here's my thought on the first three:

First came DR. NO, and it was...okay. The first half was mesmerizing in its dated, sexist, racist, but nevertheless thrilling attempts at gritty pulp fare, but the second half slipped into over the top nonesense that really did make little to no sense. The villain was ominous, but ultimately ineffectual at doing villainous thing, and the climax/final big fisticuff was slow and mostly weird, a dud - which I suppose is poetic as it was about defusing a nuclear attack. The iconic white bikini chick - the first poster Bond girl - was a simply tossed in there character, appearing at the last half hour and sporting a laughable "origin" (a seaside drop dead gorgeous [well, for the time] orphan running around crazy free? Wait, what from where and why? Brrrprrprrprrp, trill the lips of my poor overtaxed brain).

Connery, though, I'd admit, made a suave Bond. His cool-as-cucumber posture coupled with his alarmingly agressive, straight-on glare at everyone who crossed his path gave him menace and charm, which is what Bond is all about. The deadpan quips with just a *touch* of lift at the end - par excellance.

Then came FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, hands down the very best the Connery Bonds ever achieved, and so I was on board to stay after this one. Connery was now form-fitted into the role, which had yet to balloon into sheer ridiculousness. The villains were fantastic, while also being sympathetic, the "Girl" of the story wonderfully three-dimensional while nevertheless fitting the 2-D plot device mold which allowed the movie to still be, at its core, a simple Bond movie. SPECTER is introduced, the fighting sequences were brilliantly choreographed with rough-and-tumble "realistic" half brawling boxing, half fine-tuned martial art moves. The story itself was the most coherent and twisty; this one seemed to have the perfect blend of pulp and grit, of real and surreal. It reminded me of the BOURNE films, and truly I see a lot that BOURNE stole/was inspired by from RUSSIA. This would collapse in its entirety with GOLDFINGER.

Yes, GOLDFINGER...I really wanted to like this one more than I did. It's the quintessential Bond flick, the one that set the mold for all to come: lunatic villains with bizarre prowess (in this case a touch that turns to gold), unforgettably lethal henchmen (Odd Job!), "Girl" names that must be heard from the lips of the actors themselves to be believed (Pussy Galore!), lines quotable for decades to come ("I don't expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"), and action that moves waaaaaay past the realms of anything resembling "the world". And it was boring. Or, well, it was...weak.

Lots of gooniness, an admittedly great battle bewteen Connery and Odd Job at the climax, but beyond that, the movie just wanders and does little to cement itself - more in love with the brilliance of its MOMENTS rather than its whole. The great moments have already been shared via oral tradition and everything else is forgettable. Connery as well, especially when he's strapped to a table or otherwise not in motion, can literally be SEEN thinking "hmmm...I wonder what else I can do with my career...?"

Thankfully, the series picks up a bit better in THUNDERBALL and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and even the break-from-Connery-for-a-single-movie George Lazenby as Bond ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE does some wild but inspired visual storytelling. GOLDFINGER set the standard, but mirroring the dynamic between DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, what came next figured out how to do it better. I'll talk about those some day soon. --Dave B.

Yo Madd Phat Yog-Sothothery from The Inimitable Tom Brown

2008-09-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Latest sketch from Tom Brown, just sent to me last night to peek at. An image he doodled up for a company called Dagon Industries. Isn't he great, folx? (click the image for a bigger view) --Dave B.

The Inimitable TOM BROWN

2008-09-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start pimpin' every new sketch done by the unbelievably talented (unbelievable because he's still a relative unknown) TOM BROWN. He's pedal-to-the-metal working on his first big manga graphic novel opus, and this after nearly completing the first volume with Image's Shadowline before deciding he was unsatisfied with the art and speed he was trying to plow through it and decided to go indy and take his sweet jolly time with it. Already the difference shows and shows big:

Here's the first two-page spread of the NEW first book of Brown's HOPELESS uber-epic (click on image for a much larger view):

More to come!

Nightwatch - Daywatch - Wanted? Moby Dick the Action-Adventure Graphic Novel Mov...ie...uh...what the fuck is WRONG with us!?!

2008-09-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here's a connect-the-dots eureka that everyone is well aware of but likely this'll still come as an oh-my-god-that-still-took-me-by-surprise-and-makes-me-feel-really-really-bad kind of thing.

So Timur Bekmambetov, the director of WANTED, also directed the Russian smash box office hits (in Russia, mind you, still pretty decent successes in the States and abroad as well, though) NIGHTWATCH and DAYWATCH, the first and second offerings in the Nightwatch "Trilogy" of films:

Now, there are four novels all together insofar as the original Nightwatch series is concerned, of which the movies are then based on, but the first AND the second movie cover only - I shit you not - the first TWO-THIRDS of the FIRST NOVEL alone, no matter that the second movie shares the same title as the second novel, and so THAT is worrisome enough as it is. Nevertheless, the movies are fantastic, the first flick the most so, a perfect example to American producers and directors on how to craft a wild fantasy spectacle via creativity, ingenuity, and an indy-sized budget. On Daywatch, Bekmambetov had a much more sizable piggy bank to dip into and it shows: Matrix-style effects dominate a script that really could have stood a finer polish (or any polish at all).

THEN...to make matters as bad as they (theoretically) could possibly be (oh, how naive we can be! To think we've reached the bottom when it's only a giant land mass floating atop free-flowing high-speed lava!) an American producer contacted Bekmambetov and offered to finance the third and final Nightwatch entry...on the condition that it was shot with an entirely English cast and in English to boot. I mean, who the &*$k would watch a Russian language movie over an English one? Subtitles or dubbing be damned? Better to have the third be in English, even though first and second weren't, because things (including trilogies) get better exponentially on WHATEVER small part of it can be transformed into English, language of the past, present, and future.

So, okay, that's pretty shitty, right? To be taken over by Hollywood and to have the insanely uneducated demands begun before the film is even past its conception point. BUT...Bekmambetov didn't make any third Nightwatch film, did he? Well...uhm...no, wait wait he did make something, though. Ooooohhhh. Right. He made WANTED. Well, that's okay (depending on your open-minded definition of "okay"). Hollywood shuffled him over to another project to prove his worth before really pouring money into something as ludicrous as the thir entry in a non-English fantasy trilogy. That makes sense. I don't cheer the approach, but I can follow the general reasoning.

But this isn't what happened. Bekmambetov ultimately revealed: the third Nightwatch movie BECAME "Wanted". The English movie with an English cast directed by Bakmambetov through the producers that approached him shsuffled THE PROJECT ITSELF into a mindless comic book popcorn thing. And then Bekmambetov admitted that he didn't know if - and didn't think it likely that - the third Nightwatch would ever be made.

Thanks, Hollywood. Thanks, America. Oh, country that I love for its...uh...well dash it all for its something I'm sure. That's pretty troubling I can't think of anything off the top of my head that isn't shared by SOME other country(ies) as well, and nothing whatsoever that's more than a single something, and therefore definiteively shared by others but...hmm....

And then it gets really, REALLY BETTER.

To quote the press release:

"Bekmambetov to direct 'Moby Dick'
Universal steers reimagining of Melville classic

Universal Pictures has made a splashy preemptive buy of "Moby Dick," a reimagining of the Herman Melville whale tale that Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") will direct.

Studio paid high six figures to Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to pen the screenplay. The writers revere Melville’s original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure. Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain. This change will allow them to depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.

"Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick,’ " Cooper said. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."

Scott Stuber is producing with Jim Lemley and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley. Both Stuber and Bekmambetov have deals at Universal. Bekmambetov will look to apply the visual flourish he displayed on the U summer hit "Wanted."

"We wanted to take a graphic novel sensibility to a classic narrative," said Collage. They brought it to the Wibberlys, the "National Treasure" scribes who are branching into producing and will team with Stuber. The project then caught the fancy of Bekmambetov and Lemley, who teamed with the helmer on "Wanted."

I love how this is considered the quote-unquote GRAPHIC NOVEL-esque take on the tale. THIS, my comic book brethren, is what "the mainstream" thinks our art form is. How blockheaded, how blind, how bass-ackward they...oh...wait...

Yeah, picture's worth a thousand, eh? This will likely be closer to the reality of the film, though:

Has anyone here seen IDIOCRACY, the latest Mike Judge film which uber-corporate braindead Fox treated like crap because the film treated them like crap? Well, if you haven't seen it, see it. Idiocracy predicts shit like action-adventure Moby Dick. You watch that film and you see it everywhere. It's depressing, but also enlightening, in a way that makes you a better fucking human being. Or, as one of the posters on a message board pointedly pointed out:

"Isn't the book basically Melville's meditation on America and an examination of the human character?"

Point, set, and match. We are well and truly fucked, and apparently this is a natural evolution that cannot and will not be stopped. --Dave B.

Things to come...

2008-09-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

More Donna Barr reviews...reading through the DESERT PEACH: THE MUSICAL Libretto while also giving its soundtrack a second and third listen-to, so I can progress with my reviews of the single issues, as the next issue I'm to hit is in actuality a special non-comic dedicated instead to behind-the-scenes ephemera and a reprint of the Musical's program pamphlet.

Also I'm putting together a solid, understandable list of how and where to purchase Donna's stuff, as searching for her books online and trying to track their twisty publishing history can be a mind &$*k.

Also more thoughts on 3R and Armageddonquest, thoughts on Bond movies, X-Files...oh, lots of thoughts. That's what blogs are for! --Dave B.

The Joker is Us - The Dark Knight Understood

2008-09-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big Jonathan Lethem fan, and there are parts of his New York Times Op-Ed essay "Art of Darkness" that I don't agree with, or feel reach a bit too schmaltz-ily far, but it's core point is a killer one, and a god damn true one:

"If everything is broken, perhaps it is because for the moment we like it better that way. Unlike some others, I have no theory who Batman is — but the Joker is us."

Read the whole article by clicking above. --Dave B.

Just Read: The Desert Peach #17 (The Wedding Issue!)

2008-09-18T17:55:00.001-07:00

Wow. What an issue.

"Peach" has adherred to a 33-page "standard" format up until this point, though now it overflows into 44+ pages per book, beginning with this 48 page wedding spectacular! After the complete mess our resident secret Jew (who-is-also-a-nonbelieving-member-of-the-Nazi-party!), Udo, made of the local Muslim people's black stallion in issue #16, he's forced to make amends by marrying one of their girls, who, for her part, has had her eye on Udo for quite some time. And far be it for Oberst Pfirsich Rommel not to swoon at the idea of a happy couple coming together in coupling love.

Creator Donna Barr kicks off the story with an inspired addition to the wannabe Nazi character, Kjars, a knee-jerk Aryan who's passion for music attributed to "the lower orders" (black music - jazz) comes to the fore and offers an entertaining and (god forbid) BUYABLE tug-of-war between Kjars' unsupportable political beliefs and his actual love of an art form. This broadening of Kjars' character plays heavily into the proceedings when the wedding kicks into high gear, as a malicious rumor of Udo being a Jew starts winding its way through the camp, and neither the Germans nor the Muslims are one bit happy with this!

But before it all hits the fan, two dozen pages are devoted to a whirlwind of culture clashes as a wedding is held to appease (through trial and error) Muslims and Lutherans alike (I think it's Lutherans, anyway...I dunno, the Catholic and Christian divisions confuse the beejeezus out of me - I once knew a born-again gal who I asked point blank to explain the differences and break it down like a family tree kind of thing, and her response was, I kid you not - "there's only one Chirstianity", and proceeded to blink baffled back at me. So much for going to the source...one day I'll read a history book and get it straight). As usual, Barr's play on traditions and pre-conceived notions is as whimsical as it is critical, a celebration of human fraility that doubles as a compelte jeremiad against it to boot. It's a whacktastic blend that feels more real than reality, in a way, a caricature that holds solid layers of true-blue truth behind it, all impossible to ignore the way Barr maneuvers her story through it.

When rumors of Udo's Jewishness finally come to light, things get hairy, and Barr seems to finally get from off her chest all that she has to say on the topic of slander, the unthinking maligning of another without regard to the full conseuqences another will suffer due to the rumor, whether it be true or not. Talk about a subject that still pertains: DP #17 may be over a decade old, and cover a time period nearly half-a century back, but if there's one thing people consistently wipe their hands of, no matter the era, its responsibility of their own actions, the consequences they could have forseen, if only they'd bothered to think it through, only they don't, and so claim they couldn't have known, or anyway it's "THE TRUTH" as though there was something inherently virtuous in spreading around a fact that was, insofar as any man can determine, a fact, and "lies" are bad while "truth" is forever worthy, it's own reward, no matter the disastrous results of utilizing it. Da liegt der Hund begraben: "Truth", in so many things, is like the aethist's God, a thing to believe in at face value and without question. It's pure, it's "good", it's "godly", while lies are the devil, evil and scandalous. Fooey.

Kjars and his music are roped in with an enviously organic twist of plot - if only my own characters could dance around a story and a comic book page as fluidly as Donna Barr's! His own internal battle between what's "acceptable" and what calls to him naturally is mirrored to the Jew/Muslim/Catholic culture issues at hand and it ALL comes to a head with drinking, covorting, and a development with Kjars at the end which makes the entire trip seem, in Barr's own words: "If there's a lesson to be learned here...it's much too confusing for me!"

This is the epitome of storytelling done solid, intelligent, and unchained - unfettered by anything so pedestrian as editorial or audience concerns. Desert Peach #17 is an issue I'd recommend to be a first of the series for anyone, as it embodies and showcases to marvelous effect the every strength the book normally wields. An all-around compelte and exhaustive package of Donna Barr and DP, in a single issue. Es ist einfach zum Schießen!

Story - 10/10 (firing on all cylinders)

Art - 9/10 (incredible detail, wild layouts, more going on in any panel than most comics have happen in an entire run!)

Importance - 10/10 (the culmination of the past 16 issues, all be told)

TOTAL - 9.7/10

Donna Barr Official Dealer Logo!

2008-09-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Running on my Donna Barr riff: the logo below is now to be displayed alongside any official vendor of her books. The first time you'll see this will be at BellCon, at the Cartoonist Northwest table, and Keith Curtis's Crater On The Moon, with more to follow!

On a side note, review for Desert Peach #17 coming tonight, after I finish the double-sized 48-pages-of-story-and-art bastard. It's a real memorable one though.

Anyway, THE UNVEiLING...

Just Read: Desert Peach #16

2008-09-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Working my way through the entire Desert Peach saga (30 issues + two AFTERDEAD GNs in total), a series that follows the exploits of The Desert Fox's gay younger brother, Pfirsich Rommel - The Desert Peach! And here I am at the more-or-less halfway point - issue #16!

First off, the cover sports a simple but utterly beautiful use of watercolor, one of the prettiest covers of the series yet - past covers offered a greater dollop of exquisite detail, but this one makes simplicity look damn good.

Inside, then, the story follows the attempted mating of Pfirsich's white purebred mare with a black pureblood stallion (the mare is a breed that boasts blood purer than humankind can scarcely fathom...well...except for the fact that people were the ones who bred them, or anyway an Arabic people did, which blow the European peoples' little brainpans).

Anyway, long story short, Pfirsich wants to work closely with the Arab folken to enact a successful mating with the mare, an event which would double as a friendly-relations event between the Germans and the natives, but then Peach's subordinate, Udo, rather fancies a mating between the white mare and some other gray speckled horse. He tries to sneak said mare out one night, to make the coupling happen the way HE wants it to, but of course it all goes horribly awry and leads to - I kid you not - a horse orgy with army men stuck in-between. The look on Udo's face as he gets tangled/tied to the white mare's rump as a black, quite erect stallion rears up for the mount, is beyond priceless and perfection itself!

It's a disaster of sexploitative length and breadth (tee hee) that leads to (a rare happenstance for this series) a direct kind-of sort-of "to be continued...", in which a particular event what's threatened poor Udo for the past six issues or so, finally looks to happen in issue #17. (Wedding bells anyone? - shotgun wedding to keep the peace!) Auteur Donna Barr begins to inch toward a looser, more kinetic style, leaving behind the smoother, more crisp pages of the early DP books. Which isn't to say that detail is lacking, but said detail becomes vastly more wild and fancy free as compared to the rigidly controlled linework of Barr's 80's work. This is the perfect story for Barr to cut loose, because horses rampaging and rutting amongst a small turmoil of human bodies stampeding to put it all under control = the very organized chaos Barr's pen-stroke evolves into.

While the social and cultural issues usually explored in a Barr story take a back seat for the situation here - a thing Barr obviously couldn't help but work into an issue-length fiasco out of sheer glee (horse sex! horse sex! army men in the middle! whoooo!) - sixteen issues in, and this is actually a breath of fresh air, allowing DP a chance to get down and get nasty not to mention funny and ridiculous before tackling the intricacies of a multi-cultural wedding in the next ish (which should have big-big cultural insights aplenty!).

Desert Peach #16 is a whirlwind ride of humor, humanity, and absolute artistry, if you like your art a fair shake on the naughty side.

Story - 8/10 (hysterical, dense, fast-paced, everyone in character, awesomeness)
Art - 8/10 (a wonderful blend of intricate and expressionistic, drop dead gorgeous cover)
Importance - 8/10 (Udo's goin' ta the chapel!)

TOTAL SCORE - 8/10

For more "Desert Peach" visit http://www.donnabarr.com/

To order copies of this Issue #16 (which is now SOLD OUT from Donna herself, Mycomicshop.com still has a few for $4.00 a pop at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=300451

Gillian's Heart - It's Mr. Right!!! Sketch

2008-09-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

In preparation of the second "Gillian's Heart" short story - this one to be published in the HERO Initiative and Ronin Studios' HOPE ANTHOLOGY coming in 2009 - our wonderful artist Rick Worley worked up a rough sketch of the character who'll star in this second short, the man who acts as Gillian's nemesis:

The Libertarian Anti-Hero MR. RIGHT!!!

Don'cha love it? In Rick's own words:

"Well, hm. Maybe a bit of explanation. First, I'll start with a disclaimer and say that I know the picture isn't perfect, but it's meant to give the idea. He looks kind of thicker than I'd like, but it's hard to put the muscular Superhero physique underneath a coat like that. I think that when I draw him again I'll be able to find a better balance. The coat is based on different references I found of German World War II soldiers. The goggles are meant to look something like aviator goggles from a similar time frame. This might make a little more sense if I showed you a picture of my idea for Mr. Right's older costume..." [Note from Dave: Mr. Right is planned to have a more spandex-y costume from his true-blue superhero days, before he parted ways with the other heroes who he found compromised by government interests, whereafter he himself became what you see here in the sketch - a militant guerrilla maverick!] "...but I haven't finished one yet, and I want to send you stuff as I do it. More or less.

"My idea for his older costume, in part, is to make it a more traditional superhero costume, but with similar goggles, except that the goggles will be more explicitly based on American WWII combat pilots. His newer costume, by contrast, should have goggles that are rounder and slightly creepy. I'm thinking of having the older costume without the coat, but with a similar collar, possibly a little like one of those older incarnations of Nightwing. The idea, of course, is to have more of an All-American look in the beginning, and then progress to something that draws, I hope subtly, on imagery associated with fascist armies. The earlier costume could have some sort of wing insignia on the chest that would be in reference to both the fact that in his dreams he can fly and, of course, an American bald eagle. The newer costume, though you can't see it in the drawing I'm sending, should have a more subtle, industrial wing insignia on the belt that's similar to what he used to have on his chest, only with sharper angles and a shape that just slightly might recall Nazi symbols.

"I like the idea of the belt on the new outfit having several large, almost cumbersome, pouches, because you talk about all of the gadgets he has come to use. This would be in contrast with an older costume where he has very few gadgets or pouches and relies much more on his hands. I think it would symbolize, too, him becoming weighed down by what he's taking on himself. I kind of like the newer costume being bulkier for these reasons. I think the goggles might turn out to work well for some of your ideas in the script, because I noticed at least one occasion where you mentioned something might be reflected in his eyes, and that would be easier to do with the goggles, and might look good, as well, if I do it right. Anyway, I think that's probably a good start at explaining my thinking on this costume and what I'd like to do with the other version."

So there ya have it, folks - an artist with BRAINS, eh? Yay! Forgive me when I say: our Mr. Right short is going to be one memorable damn story :) --Dave B.

Just Read: Detective Comics #848

2008-09-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Looking at the next R.I.P. tie-in, this one even more inexplicably removed from anything remotely R.I.P.-ish, as Batman is whole, hale, and hearty and fighting crime like he always has in it. That gripe aside (though c'mon, saying something is something it certainly is NOT is NOT a small thing), this is thus far the most interesting of the Bat-books outside of Morrison's.

It's Paul Dini, who most people trust, though lately I've been finding his Detective pretty bland, not to mention his contribution to "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" was incomprehensible and a mess. Still, Dini now tackles Hush, and FINALLY it looks like someone's going to wrap this subplot up. Not since THE CLONE SAGA has such a storyline seemed so editorially mandated to remain mysterious and unresolved. Jeph Loeb started it all in his popular epynonymous 12-parter with Jim Lee that introduced the villain. But at the end it seemed Hush's identity was revealed to be (disappointingly) the most obvious (Bruce Wayne's old freind Thomas Elliot, who was always who Hush was supposed to be, so why the bizarre secrecy?), even though (big red flag here!) he escaped and was never in fact unmasked. Then came the longer serial wherein Alfred recognized the identity of Hush, an identity which was for whatever reason kept away from readers to see explicitly, and then the story ended with Hush still advertised as being the obvious doctor Thomas Elliot and possibly killed by the Joker (in any event, the Hush "mystery", which again and again was strongly suggested to exist, went unsolved).

Now, we get "Heart of Hush" which looks like there IS an unsolved identity to Hush. God knows, there's no answer possible that can account for and pay off the years of build up, but at least it's here. Add to that a VERY dramatic and shocking event with Catwoman, and this is indeed a thrilling story. Dini doesn't pen a subtle or engrossing issue, save for this Catwoman event (what a motivation for Batman! - Catwoman's life hangs in the balance in a very creative way!), but this is head over heels better than ROBIN or NIGHTWING currently stands.

Dustin Nguyen, I love that he's doing a book as high profile as this, but I await a time he works on a book with the impact of WILDCATS 3.0. Dini's Detective Comics, even as a classic kind of book, is barely above average. Still, Nguen adds a skill to the proceedings, a layout and linework that bring sdynamism to a flat as hell script. It actually does make the story better!

The best Bat-book besides Morrison's right now. But yeah, that isn't exactly high enough off the ground to even be a "bar". --Dave B.

STORY - 5/10 (dead on average, great twist but otherwise generic storytelling)
Art - 8/10 (awesome layout and adds style, true panache!)
Importance - 5/10 (remains to be seen, to R.I.P. it's absolute zero, to Hush and Catwoman...hmmm...maybe quite a bit)

TOTAL SCORE - 6/10

Just Read: Nightwing #148

2008-09-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

So I've been intrigued, if not altogether overjoyed, by the "BATMAN R.I.P." saga - the main six-part saga over in Morrison's flagship Bat-book has had its moments, a sincerely interesting approach to a major event for all that it's more or less a failure insofar as cohesive storytelling in concerned (not that THAT's a surprise where Morrison's zaniness is concerned). I was hoping all the tie-ins would really lend the grounding to Morrison's overboard-ness, make the "event" work as something more than the brief overview of Batman's downward spiral which is all we get over in the main Bat-book. Where's the steady affect on others? What psychosis preluded Bruce Wayne's ultimate mental snip-snap like a twig in half? Ah, this must be it - Nightwing, Robin, and Dectective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, all getting in on it, two of them, including Nightwing, to culminate in a double-sized anniversary issue for their R.I.P. part to play. So a lot must be happening, a lot must stand to be revealed. Right?

Wow, nope, R.I.P. is apparently hands-off to other writers, even though the big-wigs in editorial obvious WANT all these titles to "tie-in". Batman's missing. That's the entire tie-in. Beyond that? Former comics editor Peter J. Tomasi continues his second NW storyarc, and its about as lackluster as his first. It's dramatic, but its slow and the dialogue, while not at all bad, isn't very interesting. There's too many dry, researched facts with far too little character development. And like Tomasi's last NW arc, it's not terribly apparent what the hell is going on in this one, even though it all seems to play out rather formulaically. The story is...okay. The writing is...okay. But it all feels VERY place-holding, like Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men pre-Manifest Destiny.

Rags Morales' art is as superb as it was in the much-lamented HOURMAN series, but it isn't enough to make this comic worth reading. Nightwing just doesn't feel like he has a purpose right now. He picks up the pieces of other Bat stories (League of Assassins, Talia al Ghul) and even then doesn't really move those forward, just deals with them.

Underwhelming, even as an R.I.P. tie-in, even with an anniversary issue right around the corner, I couldn't be more bored. --Dave B.

Story - 4/10 (entirely unimpressive, but nothing horrific)
Art - 7/10 (Solid, detailed, gorgeous, not much going on though)
Importance - 3/10 (Two-Face is involved, maybe it's leading somewhere, but otherwise this seems pointless)

TOTAL SCORE - 4.5/10

Just Read: Faker #1-6 (of 6) Vertigo Mini by Mike Carey and Jock

2008-09-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while since I've read a VERTIGO book, especially a VERTIGO mini-series, really I haven't taken the time since the days of Nevada and Goddess, and so it was with great anticipation and self-satisfaction ("I have a Vertigo mini, aren't I so cultured, ahem hem hem") that I sat down to consume FAKER, a six-issue saga written by Mike Carey (X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Crossing Midnight, Hellblazer) and art by Jock (The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One)

The story opens on a collegiate university, and swiftly introduces its small cast of young adult protagonists. Part of the series' premise is that each and every character is a bastard, in their way, an unlikable, self-involved, obstreperous kind of chap or chippie and while this does play into the themes and even the sci-fi/horror element of the tale, it is, as usual, exceedingly difficult to follow such characters for page after page, all the while telling yourself "there's a point, there has to be a point". We are inarguably a youth-centric culture, and youth is indeed a self-centric stage of life, more prevalently than any other. But isn't selfish to selfless kind of an uber-arc? Isn't the move from an awareness of yourself to the dawning understanding of, oh, everything else kind of a man or woman's entire life movement? Can this really be considered a fair arc for a character in a single story?

It's sort of forest for the trees: writers these days have THE great maturation process of any man double as the "character arc" for any given story, but of course in order to accomplish this everything has to be blown way out of proportion: the character has to be REALLY selfish, and then they have to magically turn REALLY out-of-character idealist at the last moment. It reminds me of the (in memorial here) David Foster Wallace quote: irony and ridicule have become “agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture”, wherein he mourned the loss of engagement with deep moral issues that animated the work of the great 19th-century novelists. Deep moral issues, which FAKER certainly tries to tackle, cannot so much as be jabbed with a toe if said toe isn't drenched in insincerity, punk attitude, quips, and a complete disassociation with the very importance the issues at hand hold.

Basically, FAKER vies to showcase different levels of selfishness and social fakery, of the pseudo-emotions we adopt to get through life and interact with other fakers. Toss in a bizarre Twilight Zone-esque element of a boy who apparently doesn't exist, a best friend who only the book's central cadre of kids recall having memories about, but to the rest of the world he was literally born yesterday, and FAKER offers, admittedly, a story not found anywhere else.

Sadly, it devolves quickly into cheesy pulp stuff, as the allegorical nature of the set-up becomes solid sci-fi followed by thriller-esque action. It kind of like an X-Files episode, but with highly unlikable characters. Even worse, the message of the book gets garbled as the MOST unlikable character of them all becomes the hero, and for...very inexplicable reasons. It's another tough-to-the-point-of-bitch girl = strong woman role model who hides a strength other types of mean people don't wield. Uh...sure.

Mike Carey is hit-or-miss - I really enjoyed his HELLBLAZER run up to issue #200, though then he spun off on a very odd tack. Actually, it makes sense: his HELLBLAZER, initially, was about a mythical dark beast, and it was glorious. Then he tried for human characters in need of sympathy, and the book bombed and bombed big. FAKER is the same, the fantastical elements very intriguing, but the characters and their respective stories absolute abominations story-wise.

JOCK supplies wonderfully deft artwork, well paired to a story that grows darker and black-ops-like as it goes, but his characters all look mean, defensive, itching for a fight, which only enhances the craptacularly juvenile emotional qualities of the story.

To steal a few quotes: "whiny, narcissistic characters [suggest] a falling off of ambition and a claustrophobic solipsism" which is not surprising as the "brave new individualism and sexual freedom of the 1960s has devolved into the joyless and anomic self-indulgence of the Me Generation." (more David Foster Wallace - rest in peace, big guy) FAKER is juvenility at its worst, but tempered not at all by anything resembling a mature eye or guiding hand. It's glorification of asininity justified by the "realism" of the subject matter. It's emotional and creative pornography, defined the same as any pornography "if it is done for the sole purpose of titillation alone".

I was happy to dive back into a VERTIGO mini, but FAKER fails on every level, and is a disgrace to a once progressive company line.

Story - 3/10 (some great genre ideas, well handled, terrible everything else)
Art - 5/10 (well done, nothing inspired, adds nothing to the story)
Importance - 1/10 (best left forgotten as ever being a part of VERTIGO)

TOTAL SCORE - 3/10

MyEbook - the alternative to Wowio.com?

2008-09-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, super-awesome find of the day - MYEBOOK.COM, a place that may replace WOWIO.COM for the ultimate in finding free reads. Registration is free, and while you don't get to download the material offered, MYEBOOK sports an intensely superior "Reader" to the Platinum Studios derived letdown used over at Wowio. The pages are big, bright, crisp, and MyEbook is even interactive, allowing you to leave comments about the book, join in communities, share with friends, and even more, though honestly I just found the site and I'm not aware of all that it offers yet. It seems kind of like MySpace if Myspace were a library - THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY :)

Myebook even allows you to embed a particular book in a blog, like so:

That's the first issue of the Archaia Studios Press' critically-acclaimed, highly unique spin on the zombie tale, AWAKENING. Really guys, do check this software/website out. There's only 49 comics up on the site right now, but I expect the list to grow much as Wowio's did, from 100+ to the 1000+ it has today. THE BOY WHO MADE SILENCE #1 is even up on Myebook now, and an affiliation like that is enough to recommend anything. --Dave B.

Just Read - Green Arrow Black Canary #12

2008-09-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Just closed the covers on Green Arrow/Black Canary #12, the grand-slam finale to the "Search for Ollie - no, wait, now it's - search for Connor" story arc. First off, I gotta ask, what the &#^k has happened to Judd Winnick?!? Does he have kids now? Creative types should never have kids. It's ruined Eddie Murphey's career, and the once-incredible creator of the foul-mouthed Barry Ween Boy Genius and the sincerely affecting if sappy Pedro and Me nowadays churns out plots stolen from hollywood script-doctor index cards and dialogue so quip-happy and banal it seems lifted right out of classic Thundercats episodes (I will forever love the T-kitties, but c'mon, that show was terribly written!). This is what writing children's cartoons gets you - the inability to write otherwise. Sigh....

The final mysteries surrounding Ollie's kidnap and then Connor's is finally brought to light, and it works, and isn't a compelte wtf letdown, but neither should it have been 12 goddamn issues to get to this point. The big showdown is intensely disappointing, consisting of a bunch of heroes throwing mid-air punches at a cavalcade of faceless lackeys while the mastermind escapes bwa-ha-ha'ing all the way. Jimminy Chirstmas! but this is an uninteresting series. Green Arrow and Black Canary, finally married and together, headlinging the same title, and all the damn book's been ABOUT is everything BUT this dynamic. Is that ridiculous to anyone else but me?

Mike Norton's art is very well done, very polished, very smooth, very easy on the eyes, but his animation-esque style does little to alieviate the already unenlightened, cartoon-quality of Winnick's approach.

Story: 4/10 (icky poo)
Art: 7/10 (very good, not great)
Importance: 7/10 (a new status quo for Connor Hawke, big GA continuity events!)

Total Score = 6/10

--Dave B.

"Die, Byron! Die!" and Krumpholz Hit the Web!

2008-09-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting piece of news, and a bloody "about time" one at that: Karl Christian Krumpholz's BYRON: DIE, BYRON! DIE! has at long last made the move from a downloadabe e-comic to a totally free, effortlessly accessible webcomic!

BRYON is a comic about a Goth kid wannabe who finds himself tumblind head-first into real true-blue horror evil dark-thing Yog-Sothothery. It's charming, freaky, and funny all at the same time, which is a difficult blend to achieve. Krumpholz and his BYRON have been an intriguing new work I've championed for about a year and a half now (you can read my review of the first series "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous" HERE, and then my lengthy Inter-Review of the sequel "Die, Byron! Die!" by going HERE.

Here's an excerpt from that last review, so in my own words *ach-hem-hem-hem-hem*:

"For all those cool story beats, Krumpholz can likely be called an artist first and foremost, regardless of the strengths inherent in his writing, and Byron can stand alone as a truly visual—and a packed one at that—warehouse of black-and-white elegance. M, B, and D is a chock-a-block collection of square-shaped characters, sharp-teethed critters, and nearly panel-less pages. D, B! D! wields the same, though wherein the first series had moments of opaque action and compositions sometimes difficult to dissect, the second series shows Krumpholz already finding a far more elegant and easily sub-divided number of layouts, with clearer action, more distinctive characters, and a clean and polished line to every finished page. His style is incredibly suited to Byron's subject matter, being a cousin to Mexican folk art..."

-Dave Baxter, Broken Frontier

So take off and go read BYRON for free at http://www.slgcomic.com/Byron_ep_60-1.html It's now in duo-tone COLOR (Blue and white) and if you like what you see in the webcomic then go purchase the e-books for ony $0.89 a-piece.

Yeah, the webcomic is chapter 4 of the second series, but said second series is largely episodic and easy to jump into, even in the middle. And anyway, it's a great way to get a tast before spending *gasp!* less than a dollar for awesome small press entertainment. Not the best of all worlds (that would be totally free webcomics beginning to end that somehow, magically, the publisher and artist could earn a living from), but it's a step in the right direction, a direction BYRON and Krumpholz have needed to take for a while now.

Well, here it is! Enjoy! --Dave B.

ORCUSVILLE - A webstrip for gamers, geeks, and gods

2008-09-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to plug a buddy of mine's webstrip: ORCUSVILLE!!

Starring the arch-demon baron duke dude fiend from literal Hell, Lord Orcus, and his one secretary, Velia; his lone torturer, Vis, who's also a lawyer and eternal demon of arbitrary retribution; the only torturee of Orcus' domain, named Victor, forever strapped spread-eagle to a wooden block and suffering (in-between witicisms and/or pleas for mercy); and finally the unforgettable Doctor A. Thoth, the pan-dimensional Chaos Theory specialist of all the known multiverse!

The webstrip is updated near-daily, usually riffing on gamer-related humor, or just geek-related humor in general. Por ejemlpo:

And:

Pretty funny, n'est ce pas? Even better, Lord Orcus himself sometimes steps out from behind the black HTML'd border of his own webstrip to interview comics pros in a Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast style, such as his latest chat (read: ridiculous harrasment of) superstar artist Carmilla d'Errico, of Nightmares & Fairy Tales fame as well as her latest little diddy, Burn (see images below).

AWWWWW! Don't Orcus and Carmilla make a sweet ol' couple?

So go read ORCUSVILLE!!! There's a TON more stuff on the site (it's quite comprehensive). Written by Steve Saunders and art by Julio Falkenhagen and Freedom Drudge and, hey, for those of you who read the gods-beautiful awesome FICTION CLEMENS mini from Ape earlier this year, Orcus is co-written by that book's very author, Josh Wagner! Ah, yes, sometimes life can be so syrupy sweet... --Dave B.

Crazy Crippled Church Bitch

2008-09-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Had a craptacular morning this morning: was woken up by noisey neighbors at 6:45 in the mother-lovin' a.m. (after going to sleep at 2am - I start work at 11). They were playing the radio at an insane volume - they live above me AND I was wearing earplugs, as I'm well aware of the thinness of my apartment's walls ('s cheap and them's the breaks). Nevertheless, loud radio in the early a.m. that hurdles through plaster and foam cylinders alike demands action. I had to call the cops and the building manager to get them to stop.

The dude who lives above me (note he lives there alone, or supposedly does) was gone, and instead it was his crazy lady friend. She told me to "get the fuck away from her door" when I asked her to turn her radio down. I love it: she tried to sound outraged because I was asking her to turn down her "church music" - "What, my church music?!?" she asked - and she was further outraged that I was doing what I was doing because she was "a cripple" and...and...she "used a wheelchair" (yes, she said this standing on both feet) and she tried to bulldog me by taking offense at absolutely everything I said, up to and including - I kid you not - "yes." I said "yes", she said "WHAT DID YOU SAY?", I said "I said yes." she said "YES?!?!!" I said "Yes." She said "get the fuck away from my door!" (probably because, shockingly, in a rare moment of self-awareness, she became savvy to the fact that she couldn't push the "yes" offense any further).

After that absolute absurdity, I told her I was "calling the cops, just so you know!" and then I did just that, and had to stay up because she never did turn down the music. Sadly, the cops didn't show up until 9:30, but that actually turned out to be a blessing and here's why. At first I thought the police would come quick, and so as not to miss them (and because I was sick to death of listening to crazy crippled church bitch music) I grabbed a book and stood outside from 7-8am. While I was out, the tall black dude came home. I said nothing to him, but let him go inside. Eventually I got tired of standing outdoors and went back in. Still the same music and ruckus. So I called to check on the police status, and was told they'd still be a bit. So I showered and lamely searched online for available apartments elsewhere.

Then it was 9:20ish, and I decided to leave for work. My building;s manager, Avi, was already there so I ducked in and told him all about it (good thing I raised my karma up with him over the weekend by helping another tenant hook up her internet). I told him I'd called the cops and that they were still coming. I asked him point blank if the crazy "crippled" lady was even on the lease and allowed to be there. He thought about it for a second and then said "no, she's not." I left it at that and he said he'd take care of it. Then, since I was leaving early for work, I went to the local Coffee Bean to relax and drink a really huge-ass coffee. At around 9:35 Avi calls and says the police are there, he's showing them in and they're ALL taking care of the problem and so not to worry.

And that...made me very happy. Crap assy morning, but I love sticking it to crazy crippled church bitches that make my morning so crap assy. I think though I may need to write a follow-up note to my next-door guy, because I left him a note Sunday saying I was still getting woken up and now I suspect it might have been the above jerk-offs. Damn. I need to move. --Dave B.

Something on my Mind: Weirdness and Personal Responsibility

2008-09-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, tonight I ramble on something bo-ooooor-ING. Just something on my mind:

I was thinking about how we call someone or something "weird" - "You're weird!", we might say, either lovingly or dismissively, either-or, but both amount to the same thing, viz. inferring that someone is outside the "norm", is plainly not normal, and/or that they display unnatural or unique and therefore inexplicable qualities. More often than not, it's slang-y speak to say you admire someone's eccentricities (the positive version), or are disgusted or unnerved by them(the negative).

But charmed or pissed off, it's a complete misnomer: weird is relative.

We all "know" this, we "get" relativity and in public we'd claim to the very heavens that we were thoroughly invested in keeping an open mind due to it. Yet so many little things keep minds locked and bolted tight. So many seemingly insignificant customary ways of speaking and therefore thinking that refuse to allow us a greater view of reality, and not even beyond our own head, but also the full view within our own head.

"You're weird", due to weirdness being relative, is a one-sided way of saying: "You've done something beyond my own experience and understanding of things." Even when said out of love or simple enjoyment of the "weirdness", it's a turn of phrase that allows someone's normal, if perhaps far from ubiquitous, way of being become something impossible, which is unnatural. Anything that exists is natural, as it does exist, therefore it fits within the framework of nature and what the universe finds acceptable. WE may not understand it, but the way we speak is forever to shift blame away from ourselves and onto others. THEY are the ones that "are" a certain way, even though, due to relativity, we must forever "be" a certain way as well, and so our translation of another's behavior is ever telling of ourselves.

So just please, remember that the more intelligent you are, the more understanding, empathetic, and sympathetic toward others and their behaviors you'll be. It's perfectly awesome to be held rapt by another, but try to realize that we're ALL very, very understandable, normal, and everyday. Maybe not to each other, but since we all ARE these things, perhaps we should be, perhaps we should all get over ourselves and agree that humankind in all our variety is effortless to understand and accept. No more racism, no more bigotry, no more inequality (not even the inequality that benefits the non-majority), no more quibbling over whether any one sub-culture of religion, culture, sexuality, gender, economic class, or aethetic is different and has rights. The details are irrelevant. If you're too stubborn and willfully unenlightened that you must refuse someone else a place in your life as "understandable and normal", then please, consider that someone else's "weirdness" is your personal responsibility.

Armageddonquest and Ronald Russell Roach - A Forgotten Gem

2008-09-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd take a mo' this morning to blog about one of my ALL TIME (we're talking Top 5 here) favorite comic book epics - ARMAGEDDONQUEST by the incredible (but entirely overlooked) Ronald Russell Roach.

Roach (or "3R" as he's been known to be nicknamed), is a child of the underground "Comix" movement, and his style is highly reminiscent of R. Crumb and Matt Howarth, solid black-and-white linework enhanced by extraordinary detail, intricate shading and crosshatching - basically the complete antithesis to the modern day style that owes more to cell animation than old-school quill-penned woodblock etchings of yore. 3R resembles the Comix guys not only in this, but also in his wonderfully unselfconsious, undisciplined use of text. For all that he might be an artist first, he nevertheless allows pages to overflow with oversized letters and hand-drawn captions and balloons, words that encompass, literally, I'd say two-thirds to three-fourths of any actual page, and yet the book is, stunningly, never a chore. The art is captivating, disarmingly charming, and the prose itself, in all its legions, flows like white water rapids until you have no choice - no choice whatsoever - but to topple right over and freefall down the waterfall that is AQ.

Now what's ARMAGEDDONQUEST about? In 3R's own words, it's: "a 900-page graphic novel about Tazio, the reluctant Antichrist. He is the paradoxical Good Beast of the Apocalypse, who challenges that Evil Destiny laid out for him." Yes, you read that right, this sucker is 900 PAGES, in three volumes of approx. 300 pages each! The story, ultimately, is inordinately complex, an absolute convoy of creative ideas. Tazio's childhood and young adulthood are explored in painstaking detail, with a nail-bitingly mysterious past, a wild supporting cast that is, I kid you not, bar none, and an approach that rears like a horse whenever it so much as smells a cliche. This is jam-packed, dense storytelling, that somehow manages to blow by. You sit down to read, oh, say, ten pages or so, and then 3 hours, 20 missed phone calls, and a full inbox of unanswered email later, you've read through a whole Volume, maybe even barked at your significant other for bothering you because you'll put it down in "just another minute, jeez!", but you don't, because it is that engrossing.

How engrossing? The only comic book epic, as a whole, that I've enjoyed more than ARMAGEDDONQUEST, is Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's PREACHER. Frankly (that's a pun, wait for it...) it far outpaces THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and only marginally loses to WATCHMEN in substance, intelligence, theme, and depth (I like AQ better than WATCHMEN, but Alan Moore's little masterpiece IS the more deft, all-around flawless work of creativity, I admit).

There's so much to love about AQ - the vast cast of memorable characters, I mean LOOK AT THEM ALL:

And then also the rich, textured artwork you simply won't find between many other covers, espeically not today. Also scripting that must be read to be believed, and lastly a story, a plot, a three-act structure that abides by every necessary standard of a cohesive epic as it does spurn formula and dive instead into its own waters - &*$k the ocean, I'll build my own man-made lake and swim there, 3R says. And it'll be fresh water, none 'a dis salt crap.

AQ was published in 1997 by Sirius Entertainment, in three volumes, in its entirety. Joe Lisner drew the covers for the three GNs, and published the short story prequel to AQ, "Mother Instinct", in his CRYPT OF DAWN #2. Lisner even let his DAWN character co-star with 3R's Tazio in this sweet little pinup:

You can nab all three AQ books by heading over to Amazon.com

Sirius is no longer around, but AQ volumes seem to be prevalent and cheap to come by, usually all three books able to be purchased for $3-5 each. Even better, 3R produced a few short stories and prose stories to flesh out small but significant moments and characters in the AQ world, and all of these can be read for free at HIS WEBSITE.

This book is amazing. BONE doesn't touch it, CEREBUS isn't nearly as readable, MAUS is practically trite by comparison. If you've never heard of Ronald Russell Roach, or his opus ARMAGEDDONQUEST, you my friend are in for a super-size me treat. --Dave B.

THE PROCESS - Incredible webcomic from Joe Infurnari

2008-09-06T00:48:00.001-07:00

This is probably one of the prettiest damn webcomics I ever did see. Very surreal, yet highly epic and accessible in a classic Jungian sense. It really works.

Yeah, and that's just a TASTE of what's at the site. Understadably nominated for an Eisner for Best Digital Comic 2008. And god, there's so much to be learned from the page design alone! This &*$^er's beautiful. --Dave B.

Dark Roasted Blend: Weird & Wonderful Things - A Thrilling Wonder Publication!

2008-09-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

This site is proof that we have probably never, in fact, dreamed up anything that is in truth "alien", but rather our imaginations are limited to cold stone reality.

Here's a taste of picures taken from the very real, very visitable (if not easily so) Socortra Island:

Jesus Chirst In the Name of the Gun - Awesome Webcomic!

2008-09-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Latest and Greatest Inter-Review!

JESUS CHRIST: IN THE NAME OF THE GUN - From the creators of Chumble Spuzz and Save the Babies, comes one awesome effing webcomic.

Read the INTER-REVIEW

And read the WEBCOMIC too!

Gillian's Heart - The Comic Doth Cometh

2008-09-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

All right! Now the blog is lookin' real purdy with that Oggi template. Since I don't (yet) own any actual good solid image software like Photoshop, I had to watermark an image and put it back into the template to make that sub-heading line of the blog, and that's why THAT'S kinda blurry-lookin', but other than that, I'm pretty happy now. I'll keep adding knick-knacks and paddywhacks to the sidebar, but otherwise we're up and running, babes.

Now onto the main point: the image at the top of this blog is a scene from my first published comic work (coming soon!) called "GILLIAN'S HEART", about a gal who's potentially as powerful as Superman, but only if she's in the throes of the truest of true love! Any faltering, and she gets weak, all the way down to no love = no powers. Two 8-page shorts are coming with a mini-series to follow, plus one other pretty major development I'll announce once it's underway.

Here's a sneak peek at the b&w title page of the first short, drawn by Cal Slayton:

And here's another image of Gillian's supporting sidekick, drawn by the artist of the second short story, Rick Worley:

I'm super excited about all this. Lots more news to come, albeit likely slowly, at least for a while. Soon, though, expect a shitstorm of good comics to hit your internet hometown ;) --Dave B.

New Template, Working out the Kinks

2008-09-03T00:28:00.001-07:00

Spent the evening trying to redesign the blog, rather than write in it (as you can plainly see - how pretty it be! If...a little off, yet).

It's a template called "Oggi", which you can find with a Google search. It's real sweet as it comes, even though I'm obviously trying to insert my own picture and whatnot up top.

Got some finagling with the HTML and XML tomorrow, then, before it all looks right, but it will. Tomorrow I'll be posting some fun stuff, to be sure! :) --Dave B.

My New Job

2008-09-01T18:13:00.001-07:00

So here's who I begin working for, starting tomorrow at normal-person hours (*shudder*):

It's a company that helps others - be they single individuals or small businesses, large businesses, or whatever - get noticed on the web. We help them build a proper website, with SEO Optimization, affiliate marketing, pay per click, density analysis, keyword ranking, etc., etc.

That's a long-winded way of saying I'm about to learn and become an expert in skills that'll come in AWFUL handy when I start to pimp my own work. This should be fun! (If scary early in the morning! Well, no, okay, it's no bakery, but for a writer - blah! I say BLAH to your mornings!)

Back and badder than ever

2008-08-31T18:17:00.001-07:00

I am back, officially. I'm working on adding all the bells and whistles to this blog and making it THE place for my blog posts in the future. I was, for a while here, using Myspace almost exclusively for bloody EVERYTHING, but now I'm thinking no, no, I really do need a non-social networking site related space to put all the updates and news and thoughts.

So lots to come, on a near-daily basis. Lots in the oven, lots soon to happen, for really reals! --Dave B.

REVIEW - Final Crisis #2

2008-06-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

Final Crisis #2
Review by Dave Baxter, posted June 30, 2008

Words: Grant Morrison
Pencils: JG Jones
Inks: JG Jones
Colors: Alex Sinclair

Story Title: Ticket to Blüdhaven
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 25, 2008

“It shames us that the noble calling of the superhero has become just one more gimmick!”

It difficult to tell if Morrison was talking about his own writing with that line, a line plucked directly from the third page of Final Crisis #2.

“When will he realize that being fantastic is a superpower in itself?”

Well, if ultramodern comic writing is anything to go by, the industry realized it somewhere between releasing The Authority and The Ultimates, Morrison’s own run on JLA and The Invisibles. The ultimate result of which is a Crisis threequel that is nothing like its forebears, but instead is everything like every other book on the stands today: a muddled, mired, thematically insincere mess.

But being fantastic sells books to an audience long since jaded, convinced that there is nothing left to explore in traditional storytelling. So everything’s been redefined: what is a character? A character is someone fantastic. What is a plot? A plot is something super-cool. What is dialogue? Dialogue is a word or words formed together to act as properly quotable signatures on message boards. What is theme? Theme is something that can be condensed into the above definition of dialogue. What is dramatic? Dramatic is creativity, unbridled. What is a big crossover event? A big crossover event is all of the above.

So what we get in Final Crisis are fantastic people facing a super-cool situation spouting quotable theses on the writer’s chosen subject matter all the while wading through an overabundance of new things. Honestly, it’s pretty cool. Super -cool, in fact. The new New Gods begin to emerge as quirk-tastic underbelly-of-society villains, Libra proves that he's one bad-ass villain, a single-page funeral for J’onn is held, and then a major DCU figure returns, seemingly for real and for good. That’s all fun stuff. It’s not terribly coherent, and lacks nuance and dexterity to its execution (it’s page after page of sledgehammer shtick), and while its chock full of details and little things, there’s only one flavor, one tone, and one level to the proceedings at all times.

What’s truly a shame is that, while this is an entertaining yarn in its own way, it just doesn’t cut it as a “Crisis”. All that super-coolness floating around and ultimately this is a pretty tiny story. It’s being dressed up and told as though it were “HUUUUUUGE!!!!!”, but when put down and thought about, it’s no bigger than any other DCU mini of the past year, like Death of the New Gods, Countdown to Adventure, Lord Havok and the Extremeists, etc. Those were all fine comics in their own right, but you’d think the big payoff, the big Final C, would top them, all, and not just by a hair. Countdown, though a far worse comic than FC, was still technically the bigger, more grandiose story.

Part of the problem is, of course, that all the build-up of the past year wasn’t build-up at all. Sure, bits and pieces from past series are cropping up in FC , but overall Morrison’s version of a "Crisis" has near nothing to do with any of them. The New Gods and the Fifth World were perhaps the only major follow up. Beyond that, FC just sort of begins, and will end five more issues from now, and that’ll be that. It’ll be super-cool, and fun, and lots of “BIIIIIIG!!!!” moments, but moments like that, when they come from out-of-the-blue-nowhere, always stike as false, like an artist's rendition of a sales pitch.

Speaking of which, JG Jones is a phenomenal artist, but he’s only so-so on this series. His layouts are superb but his final pages are muddier than I’d expect. He captures a solid noir atmosphere in FC #2, but otherwise the final effect of Final Crisis’ visuals is lacking. To be fair, he hasn’t really been able to cut loose yet, but even the final page splash, which is meant as a dramatic, cosmic-type shot, looks inexplicably awkward.

So Final Crisis is here! I’m looking forward to some of the parallel minis, like Legion of Three Worlds, but otherwise I can’t wait to just get on with the DCU. It’s suffering from trying to build a future on storytelling that’s a little too of-the-moment, and arguably even of-the-day-before-yesterday’s-moment. Morrison works best when he’s working on a raft floating in his own pool, off to the side and doing big things in small ways, like All-Star Superman. He’s always had difficulty with true-blue dramatics, in the old-school sense, or anything besides the Nuevo super-cool sense. And any “Crisis”, in my book, needs some old-school stuff, the test-of-time stuff, at least as a ground floor foundation.

REVIEW - Uncanny X-Men #499

2008-06-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men #499

Review by Dave Baxter, posted June 28, 2008

Words: Ed Brubaker

Pencils: Mike Choi & Ben Oliver

Inks: Sonia Oback & Jason Keith

Colors: Will Panzo

Story Title: X-Men: Divided, Part Five of Five

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $2.99

Release Date: June 25, 2008

When the solicitation for this issue boasted: “Witness the new status quo for the X-Men that will define their future!”, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wondering how one-half the team in Russia battling Omega Red and the other in San Fran wading through a hippie groove-centric altered reality would in fact lead to a changed status quo. Perhaps they’d remain in Russia and in hippie dress, respectively, for the foreseeable future? But no, this issue reads as decompressed as the last four, with minimal panels per page, a sparse count on dialogue, and very, very little in the way of actual happenstance. Omega Red is fought. The X-Men in SF fight each other. Things get resolved. The End.

I can’t say the two parallel yarns that made up “X-Men: Divided”, even for being two completely separate adventures, required five whole chapters to see them through. While the general events were a blast, and definitely the kind of pulp whimsy that only comics can capture and platform well, Ed Brubaker seemed merely spinning wheels with this one, unsure of what else to do until next month’s big anniversary ish. Had he injected a little more into each story, plied for a greater depth of character impact, interaction, and intervention, this would have been a worthwhile read.

But as it stands, Brubaker’s script, especially in this particular issue, is serviceable at best. Because it's lazy; no attempt is made to give the events serious drama, not even serious by spandex standards. The comedy is even half-hearted and fleeting, which is a shame, because the subject matter was unique, especially the remade hippie world. So much could have been explored and played with, but in the end all we got was: X-Men turn into hippies, this makes them fight, then they fix things. Essentially and almost literally that is all we got.

The Russia excursion is slightly better played, though again it boils down to a fight and a return. There is, however, one single event at the end that announces a new status quo. It’s a single panel, one person plain-speaking-ly saying it—“Here’s the big change everyone’s been dying to know! Isn't it cool? Isn't it big?” Again, it’s exceptionally lazy storytelling, but the change is very, very cool. If Fraction helps Brubaker not to slack off on scripts as woefully as he did in "Divided", great things should be in store for issue #500 and beyond.

On the art front, Mike Choi illustrates the fight with Omega Red and guest artist Ben Oliver steps in to wrap things with the hippie plot. Personally, I’m gonna miss Choi, and while I’m one of the dwindling numbers that still loves Greg Land, I think Choi is far the better team-book artist. He can make the X-Men’s world truly detailed, colorful; he can work gritty dark as well as silly spandex neon light. In fact, by comparison, Ben Oliver, who usually is a fine artist, comes across as unpolished and overly sparse. Choi’s work on the hippie universe was superb, and while Oliver finishes things satisfactorily, it doesn’t capture that same overblown silliness of previous issues.

So “Divided” is over, now new stuff begins. Land may yet prove a solid choice, due to the nature of the big twist. The X-Men’s world may be taking on a bit of political and realistic polish, similar to what Iron Man underwent when it became Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and so the photographic quality to Land’s work could gel with this. And while I’m fast feeling that Brubaker’s Uncanny is a ship without a rudder and definitely without a crew that gives a &*$#, he and Fraction together make things far better than either are capable of solo. Here’s to better things!

Inter-Review with Stephanie O'Donnell on "The Original Nutty Funsters"

2008-05-20T01:00:00.002-07:00

THE ORIGINAL NUTTY FUNSTERS: A LIST OF GRIEVANCES GN by Stephanie O'Donnel

Check out the Inter-Review (a review and an interview in one!) in two parts:

PART 1

PART 2

ECCC Medors Benefit Raises +$10K and you can still donate!!!

2008-05-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

ECCC Medors Benefit Raises +$10K

This past weekend the Emerald City ComiCon and Frazetta Comics run Josh Medors Benefit Auction raised over $10,000 for the FRANK FRAZETTA'S SWAMP DEMON artist in his fight with cancer.

"The response of the comics community and fans alike has been amazing," Medors said. "The money raised not only helps out with medical expenses, but it also takes a great weight off my shoulders and helps me focus on what positives I can. I could never thank everyone enough for what they have done for me."

What started off with a couple of e-mails and phone calls to a few friends turned into a mega event, with over 130 lots of donated original art, books, prints, posters, toys and statues all sold at the auction. Fans unable to attend the event can still support Josh in the Ebay auctions, an original John Romita Sr. Mary Jane sketch, Willow Creek sketch books by artists such as Eric Powell, Tim Vigil and an the opportunity to appear as a zombie in THE WALKING DEAD.

"Please, bid high and bid often, it's for a good cause," WALKING DEAD creator Robert Kirkman said. "To benefit Josh Medors in his time of need we're auctioning off a chance to have you (yes, YOU) appear in The WALKING DEAD as a zombie. You'll get a good appearance, and a good kill, it's not just a background thing. You'll get a full appearance that people will see, I promise."

Frazetta Comics Editor/Artist Jay Fotos added, "The auction went off without a hitch even though it was completely overwhelming. We had a small timeframe to auction and a large amount of donations, with people donating lots even during the auction! I can't thank enough to Jim Demonakos and all the ECCC staff that donated their time to help the auction move along smoothly. My hat's off to them, as this was all truly inspiring."

Monetary donations to Josh can be made via PayPal to jmedors1@insight.rr.com. All items are searchable under "Josh Medors Benefit Auction"

Presenting...the INTER-REVIEW!!! First up, Finding Peace and Far Arden

2008-05-16T12:57:00.002-07:00

THe Spacedog Entertainment job is over, so I'm freelance again, and back with Broken Frontier as a reviewer, although this time around look out for a twist: I'm trying out a new term/concept I'm calling an

"Inter-Review", a review and interview in one!

Wherein the cretaors get to talk and respond to all the points of a review as it goes. So far I'm only trying this with insanely positive reviews, to get the hang of it, but maybe I can make this something truly interesting in time. Still, I'm really happy with how they're coming out.

Here's the first few:

FINDING PEACE OGN by Tom Waltz (Children of the Graves, Zipper) and Natahn St. John (debut)

PART 1

PART 2

FAR ARDEN by Kevin Cannon - You've heard of 24-hour comics, well this is the first 288-hour GRAPHIC NOVEL ever made!

PART 1

PART 2

Help artist JOSH MEDORS fight cancer!

2008-04-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

This article is reposted from Image's website, I'm not the originator.

Still, it is good to see comics folks get together for a good cause, so if you will be at Emerald City you might want to help your fellow comic bloke out.

Article below:

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Auction to benefit Josh Medors' fight with cancer at this year's Emerald City Comic Con

23 April 2008 (Berkeley, CA) - Unknown to the general public, FRANK FRAZETTA'S SWAMP DEMON, RUNES OF RAGNAN, WILLOW CREEK, GI JOE and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT artist Josh Medors has been fighting cancer for the past several months. In his time of need, Image Comics and Frazetta Comics have stepped in organize an auction with all proceeds going straight to Josh.

"Josh is a good friend, father and artist.

With the support from the comic industry that he loves so dearly, we can all help with costly medical bills and ease his pain just a little would be most appreciated," said Frazetta Comics Editor/Artist Jay Fotos.

“We are under a crunch, for the show is just a few weeks away, so anyone that would like to donate please contact me as soon as you can so we can get your donations there for the auction in time, we are also taking PayPal donations as well that go directly to Josh.

Many of the industry's finest are donating items to auction, including Frank Frazetta himself. Any other creators interested in donating are encouraged to contact Jay Fotos at jayfotos@cox.net.

The Josh Medors Benefit Auction will take place Saturday, May 10th at the Emerald City Comic Con. If you would like to make a PayPal donation, please do so to jmedors1@insight.rr.com.

Contributors thus far:

Frank Frazetta, Jerry Beck, Brian Haberlin, Tom Beland, Mark Kidwell, Todd McFarlane, Nat Jones, Tony Moore, Peter Bergting, Richard Starkings, Steve Niles, Kody Chamberlin, Jay Fotos, Rick Remender, Christian Beranek, Ahmet Zappa, Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Zenescope Entertainment

REVIEW - Awakening #1-4

2008-04-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

Original review posted at: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/reviews/details.php?id=1778

Awakening 1-4
Review by Dave Baxter, posted March 18, 2008

Words: Nick Tapalansky
Pencils: Alex Eckman-Lawn
Inks: Alex Eckman-Lawn
Colors: Alex Eckman-Lawn

Story Title: N/A
Publisher: Archaia Studio Press
Price: $3.99 each
Release Date: March 19, 2008

It’s easy to think we’ve seen it all when it comes to zombies, especially these days, the thus-far height of the sub-genre in all recorded history.

Movies, novels, webcomics, online animation, cartoons, manga, anime, television shows, magazines, even music albums that are entirely devoted to the subject, each piece and performance presenting its own take on this now grown-into-the-mainstream classic. Incredibly fast zombies, intensely slow zombies, science based and magic-based, religious overtones or sheer nihilism, true-blue horror or blended with superhero and/or pulp adventure elements— we’ve seen it all. We have. So what does Awakening, a new 10-issue maxi-series from Archaia Studios Press have to offer us that we haven’t slogged through before via every respective medium available?

In a word: composure. There’s plenty within Awakening to connect it to the classics, pieces such as evil corporations and possible experimentations gone wrong, detectives and shambling flesh-eating figures. Yet writer Nick Tapalansky uses these tropes to blindside readers with a story within the story; he offers comfortable clichés in order to lure the average zombie-horror fan into an epic that isn’t going to play by the rules. Not entirely.

Beginning with issue 1, right from the offset, the story suits itself to the stylings of artist Alex Eckman-Lawn, whose highly fine art strokes demand a certain slowness, sparsely dialogued pages and an execution that depends on moments that exist on their own four-framed merits, panel by panel, rather than a never-ending series of celluloid-like progressions. That might make you think of the Golden Age, every panel pronouncing an event before moving on to the next, and in a way, that is what Awakening tends to do, though not with the boisterousness of a Kirby or a Lee, but rather, with the atmospheric power of a Sienkiewicz or a Templesmith.

This isn’t a gore fest, or a schlock parade or action adventure. Awakening is the closest thing to a real-world zombie urban crime drama as anyone’s likely to see, and even better, it still retains a certain horror-epic slant, at least as revealed in the latest issue 4. Tapalansky writes an oddly-paced but very effective narrative, intertwining numerous protagonists as they confront the possibility of actual zombies and the many, many horrors such things entail. Tapalansky has a knack for knowing when to speed things up and when he’s allowed to slow back down, when to toss out an unforeseen element and when to play it closer to what’s expected. In the end, four issues out of ten come and gone, Awakening looks to be a very unpredictable but meticulously crafted new angle on the same-old everyday zombie.

And then there’s Eckman-Lawn, the artist, he of the exquisite composition and dense, multilayered technique. Imagine an entire art gallery, a nighttime nightmare show telling an epic tale of zombie apocalypse as you walk through its winding halls, and that, in a nutshell, is what you get reading Awakening under Eckman-Lawn’s direction. His style is lush, though appropriately eerie and somber, often simply plain ol’ vanilla mesmerizing when he whips out a splash page or moment of intensity, as his art always matches the intent of the story event at hand. Awakening becomes alive and unforgettable via his vision, and matched with Tapalansky’s matchless concept, this maxi-series in one for the books, a zombie story unlike any other.

Not everyone will gush after sampling this oddity of a horror comic, it’s true, though I suspect that most will. Some may find it too quiet, too tediously dramatic and mellow and trudging in its tempo, but for anyone who sincerely wants to find the next horror concept comic that should be mirrored by writers and artists everywhere for years after its done, aping such an original thing until it’s no longer anything of the sort, then Awakening will prove a unique experience, and an immensely satisfying one at that.

For more information and previews go to http://www.aspcomics.com/awakening.php

Issues 1-3 are available now, Issue 4 is to be released sometime in March or April 2008.

REVIEW - Sullengrey: Cemetery Things GN

2008-04-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

Original review posted here: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/reviews/details.php?id=1773

Sullengrey: Cemetery Things GN

Review by Dave Baxter, posted March 17, 2008

Words: Jocelyn Gajeway
Pencils: Drew Rausch
Inks: Drew Rausch
Colors: Drew Rausch

Story Title: Cemetery Things
Publisher: Ape Entertainment
Price: $19.95
Release Date: March 12, 2008

Sullengrey follows the exploits of Grey, a fair-skinned, dark-featured lad whose best friend is a Grim Reaper plush doll. He’s a boy that wears a substantially wide scarf to cover an odd skin condition about his mouth (amongst other places), and he lives within a cemetery, talks to the dead, and remains tortured by his past. The town that he and his cemetery are a part of—Autumn’s Grove—is a pleasant place, though its pleasantness was long-ago carved into being by the locale’s many buried sins. Now, both Grey and Autumn’s Grove are about to be discovered and uncovered by young photographer Salam, a girl that’ll stop at nothing to determine the horrors that lurk beneath the surface of Autumn’s Grove.

That sounds serious, and it is, but Sullengrey is not a straight-forward horror book. It’s flavored by the more glamorous elements of the genre, the gothic and the goth, the kitschy and the comedic. Creator Drew Rausch is best known for working on SLG’s The Haunted Mansion and Tokyopop’s The Dark Goodbye, and any who’ve seen his highly expressionistic Cabinet of Doctor Caligari style angular art will have a solid idea on what to expect. Think the metaphysical and urban-surreal qualities of Ted McKeever mixed with a hefty dose of irreverence and true-blue horror à la Little Scrowlie and Dogwitch.

Scripted by Jocelyn Gajeway, she pens this inaugural volume with a disconcerting (though arguably effective) blend of sincerity, dramatic credibility, and schlock-fest B-movie banter and bathos. The story is staunchly self-aware of its style and intent, its goals and its genre influence-provenance. In a way, this makes for a nearly deconstructionist goth horror epic, a story that is to the dark and weird sequential what Cemetery Man was to the giallo. Often, I wanted less whimsy than Gajeway and Rausch chose to pack into Cemetery Things, as I found the rhythm of serious to flippant to be executed in too haphazard a fashion, but then this flip-flop is a part of what Sullengrey owes its existence to: a genre that mashes cute and utterly moribund into one seamless whole. There are moments to chill the blood, to raise an eyebrow at the writers’ overly wry modernist flourishes, to gasp at for sheer cool and well-played shock factor.

Though chock full of excellent sequences, Sullengrey, at least in this first volume, does fail to establish a voice and stick to it. It a way, the creators seem to flounder now and again at trying to define what they’re ultimately going to be - what part horror and what part humor? Where to establish the expository backstory, in what form, with what sensibility? More than once Gajeway and Rausch poke at a story element a few times before simply spitting it out in exasperation, and in all such instances, the revelations fall flat, too sudden and offered in a method unbecoming to the rest of the saga’s nuance. But in both story and art, Cemetery Things does manage a steady growth and maturation from issue to issue (or in this collection’s case, chapter to chapter), both creators noticeably coming into their own by the fourth and final installment.

This transitions us nicely to a paragraph about Rausch’s artwork: it begins as eye-catching, though comparatively (comparative to where it arrives at the end) it’s an awkward thing. Rausch has since become a smooth, polished, and atmospheric illustrator, though three out of Cemetery Things’ four chapters are pre-Rausch-the-Amazing and lean more toward Rausch-the-Overly-Hyper. His early pages are kinetic and overworked to the point of appearing like Keith Giffen on something decidedly illicit, and his digital coloring, while nothing offensive, is simple and flat in the way most early digital coloring appeared, once upon a time (and still often does). However, Cemetery Things is Rausch’s caterpillar cocoon, and by the final episode he bursts forth from an artist’s chrysalis as a beautiful, beautiful butterfly, his colors and his linework some of the very best since Ben Templesmith first came onto the scene and showed horror fans how it could and should be done.

Final verdict: Sullengrey is going to be pretty goddamned cool from hereon out, and it is, in the final moments of Cemetery Things, but its beginning bits may be too raw for some. If you’re already a fan of gothic horror and especially the more fanciful small press and manga-derived "cute" goth horror, then even the early chapters will hardly have you batting an eye. Cemetery Things suffers from certain storytelling potholes, an uneven narrative that rattles as often as it offers a smooth silky ride, but by and large, the creators do seem to get it under control before the back cover is closed.

The story itself is engaging, and the sequel looks to surpass the beginning in every way. I’d recommend CT mostly for what’s to come, rather than on its own merits alone, but that’s still a mighty big merit, and depending on how much does come after this, perhaps a bigger and better merit than being the only good volume of a longer, poorer epic. I get the feeling this’ll be the reverse: a shaky beginning to an awesome ongoing.

Be sure to check out the book’s official website: http://www.sullengrey.com/

FICTION CLEMENS #1 - Best new comic of the year, hand's down

2008-04-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Original review posted here: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/reviews/details.php?id=1770

Fiction Clemens 1 (ADVANCE)

Words: Josh Wagner
Pencils: Joiton
Inks: Joiton
Colors: Alejandro Marmontel

Story Title: N/A
Publisher: Ape Entertainment/ Spacedog Entertainment
Price: $5.95
Release Date: May, 2008

Seriously: "Fiction Clemens"?!? What’s in a name? Instant intrigue and impossible to resist allure is what. Not only does the book sport an awesome title, but take a look at the premise: soft-spoken gunslinger Fiction Clemens, on the run from the son of a powerful tycoon, stumbles across a conspiracy to bring the Old West kicking and screaming into the Space Age! Bizarre? You bet. Enthralling? You better believe. Impeccable storytelling and eye-popping art? On every goddamn page.

Ape Entertainment has proven an up-and-coming powerhouse of a small press company, steadily improving and impressing over the years, but nothing has quite nailed their oddball flavor of classic genre fare re-spliced into something wholly else like Fiction Clemens.

The main character himself is unforgettable, a man of few words and always small font-ed ones at that. A dead shot and a quick draw but like the best of anime heroes he’s a lazy bastard until provoked. The villains are marvelously endearing and yet resolutely villainous, the vista of Fiction’s Old West populated by Tim Burton-esque grotesqueries. Michael Avon Oeming is quoted as claiming: "if Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton had a love child, it would be the world of Fiction Clemens", and he’s absolutely right. The humor is black and yet somehow light-hearted and impressively ever-present.

Writer Josh Wagner ("So This Robot Walks Into a Bar..." , from 24Seven Vol. 2) makes his full-length debut with Fiction Clemens 1, though he’s already got one novel (see below) under his belt, a wild book which in fact co-stars his toothpick-gnawing hero of FC. Even beyond the novel, Wagner additionally financed and created a Fiction Clemens movie trailer, a sincerely well-made piece of cinema that can be found at http://www.fictionclemens.org/, which was crafted during a period when FC was originally a screenplay, a thickset manuscript that awaited only a Hollywood-sized budget to topple serendipitously into its writer’s lap. Needless to say, the something-million dollar paycheck didn’t occur, but the concept of turning the film into a comparatively budget-less comic book did.

We get to reap the rewards of Wagner’s brainstorm: under his distinctive voice and unerring sense of pace and plot and personality, Fiction Clemens is hands down the best book Ape has yet released. The comedy is laugh out loud and the characters fascinating. The story itself kicks off with a bang and hardly ever relents. Interestingly, the story isn’t fast-paced, but the sheer wealth of elements introduced and explored keeps the narrative from feeling as though a dawdling or ever stalling thing. The dialogue is natural and rhythmic and dense, every character wielding a unique voice. When the more fantastical moments arise the story takes on a weightier quality, a mystique that should impel readers to return for the following issues two and three.

But Wagner’s inimitable script, being so inimitable, is one hard pressed to partner up with an artist who’s got the chops to showcase all essential elements, without losing the book’s as-a-whole, fine-tuned effectiveness. Yet the one-named "Joiton" is indeed such an artist. To try and compare his style to others would demand a list longer than this entire review and more, so many styles seem to be rolled up and on display within his pages. Surreal, impressionistic, cartoony, animation-like, all are words that work, though even all-together they fail in offering a solid definition that suits.

Joiton’s layouts are superb, his sequential storytelling skills better than most mainstream comic artists, yet his forms and figures are disproportionate and wild, wielding a sensibility on par with popular avant-garde comic artists such as Drew Rausch and Doug TenNapel. Further prettified by Alejandro Marmontel’s colors, Fiction Clemens is a book that—panel for panel—begs to be studied and explored, though Joiton’s dynamic eye for action and expression allows Fiction to be a breezy read besides.

Fiction Clemens is slated to run for three issues, each 52 pages in length, full-color, and sets to tell the entire "origin" of the title character and his partner/sidekick Dune Trixie. Technically, Wagner’s prose novel (again, see below) which boasts Fic’s first appearance is actually, chronologically speaking, an adventure that takes place after the comic series, after Fic and Dune’s pulp adventure status quo is set and they’re blasting across time and space like the best of Burroughs and Moorcock, only in decidedly more whimsical a fashion. Fiction 1 is an exceedingly enjoyable reading experience, one that prompted me to devour the "sequel" novel in two days flat. Look below for links to everything, the comic, the movie trailer, the novel, and then treat yourself to one of the best new concepts to hit comic stands in years.

Fiction Clemens 1 is on page 211 of the March issue of PREVIEWS for national release in May, ORDER CODE "Mar083428"

Check out Fiction Clemens’ official website and Myspace page, and see the utterly awesome trailer for the non-existent Fiction Clemens movie!!! (maybe one day…but the trailer is real!)

Also, be sure to check out Fic’s first appearance in the novel The Adventures of the Imagination of Periphery Stowe which you can find at Lulu.com.

REVIEW: THE GHOST WHISPERER #1

2008-04-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Ghost Whisperer 1 (ADVANCE)

Review by Dave Baxter, posted March 17, 2008

Words: Becca Smith and Carrie Smith
Pencils: Elena Casagrande
Inks: Elena Casagrande
Colors: Matteo Gherardi

Story Title: N/A
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 12, 2008

Thanks to a darker edge having emerged within the television show, IDW tackles the Jennifer Love Hewitt hit series armed with regular show-scripter Becca Smith.

Much like the recent IDW Doctor Who series, penned by longtime Who producer/editor/writer Gary Russell, IDW’s The Ghost Whisperer is scripted by show regular Becca Smith, alongside her writing partner Carrie Smith. What they produce then is a comic that’s likely in line with the current trends of the show’s most recent season, a book about a girl who can see and talk to ghosts, now tinted with a slightly occult and horror-laced edge. Melinda Gordon encounters the ghost of a vengeful high school girl while inside a local café, a spirit with an unhealthy fixation on three still-living girls. Melinda soon discovers that the ghost believes itself to be empowered by the Egyptian god Osiris, and therefore unstoppable. And she plans a murderous revenge. But Melinda knows such pantheistic gods don’t actually exist…do they?

Being a comic, The Ghost Whisperer 1 gets to kick-start some things the TV show wouldn’t have the budget to manage, like towering dark gods and the special effects they accrue. The story still sticks to the show’s guns, nothing too overt or horrific, nothing action-oriented. The story is largely a parable, about

kindness to others, the unforeseen consequences of actions, and the value of revenge, though while the supernatural elements are heavy, they never really move the story into high-thrills territory. Becca and Carrie Smith have chosen a clever ongoing thread for the comic—that of a possible dark god having descended and taken note of Melinda—but this is no Supernatural. Don’t expect demons and monstrosities and the undead to be unleashed.

Ghost Whisperer keeps things light, in tone if not in theme, and should prove a marvelous all-ages read, but for the more hardcore amongst us it may be a bit of a let down, at least in the frills department. The characters are generally flat, though purposefully so, more cliché than complete personalities. Again, this tends to fit the show’s flavor, having adults that banter like teenagers and ghost-story adventures that are confronted like everyday teen melodrama. The dialogue is well handled and the pacing keeps things chugging alone, if occasionally awkward and too sudden in its transitions.

Hot off her one-shot solo debut in Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Orions, Elena Casagrande handles the art with colorist Matteo Gherardi. In compliment to the story, Casagrande’s art is dynamic, and leans toward the hyper-realized, a providential pairing with the Smiths’ low-key script. It doesn’t help breathe any kind of reality into the characters, but Casagrande’s work does give it a sense of much-needed urgency. Her layouts are intuitive, her figures expressive: all around a very good choice, a strong book visually.

The Ghost Whisperer, the television show, is not my cup o’ joe, and neither ultimately is the comic, but the comic does remain faithful to the intent of the show, and the one ongoing element I did very much dig (Osiris! Is he real?) is a damn good one. The Smiths will hopefully offer up a bit more character to the main character in future issues, and not assume everyone reading the comic will require or even desire nothing from them in that corner, but outside of this, there’s little to dislike. A quality comic, but so far only for the fans.

REVIEW - POGROM #1 (of 7), time to catch up!

2008-04-13T23:08:00.000-07:00

As many will note, it's been a while, but I'm back and ready to tackle this blog again. I've actually been a busy bee and been posting regularly over at my Myspace Blog, and now I'll be posting everything I've been putting over there, over here. In about a week we should be caught up and moving on to more original things.

Now on with the show!

Pogrom 1
Review by Dave Baxter, posted March 12, 2008

Words: Matthew Tomao

Pencils: Josh Medors

Inks:Josh Medors

Colors: Robbie Ruffolo

Story Title: Visions of Vice

Publisher: Devil's Due Publishing/Hypergraphia

Price: $5.99

Release Date: March 12, 2008

One of the trickiest reviews I've had to write in quite a while, Pogrom is a difficult book to define. It's daringly different, but does it succeed?

In writer Matthew Tomao's own words, Pogrom is his response to the hypocrisy of organized religion (note: organized religion, not spirituality in general). Pogrom is a story set inside a dystopian future, one ruled by "The Watican" and its figurehead, the Presipope. The series follows the resurrection of Grand Inquisitor Sabbath, a violent military figure who dies shortly after the Watican begins a year-long siege on Pax Africana. But the Seven Sins—seven demonic figures that embody their own personal weakness— plot to resurrect the Inquisitor, thinking to use his state of in-between being as a gateway to Earth from its toxic mirror-counterpart, that lies on the other dimensional side of things. But Sabbath proves more powerful than the Sins presupposed, and so instead of being a pawn he begins a slow rise back to power, hunting down those who gave him life, and reconstituting himself into a being far greater than he ever was before.

Now, here's the thing: that above summation…was extremely difficult to write. I'm not even certain I didn't lie, somewhere, up there, as I'm not at all convinced I followed the issue's happenings. Tomao unwraps an alien world without, sadly, much detail. A few nations are referenced, and the primary religious nation of the Watican is unveiled, but beyond that, this first issue, even at a whopping 48 pages, sticks to only a few central characters, locations, and events, and even those seem difficult to assimilate.

Let me mention the good things (there are quite a few): no one who's seen the website or viewed the preview or peeked in on the advance press for this book is going to be able to resist. The cover by Ben Templesmith is extraordinary, and the interior art by Josh Medors is utterly appealing as a horror comic aesthetic. The story is undeniably stacked with exotic and heavily mythological ideas, characters and sequences that can't help but enthrall with their majesty and eerie grandeur. Pogrom delivers on its promised elements and thematic impact. At least in general.

But (and this is a big but) the story, as a story, is off to a shaky start. The dialogue is purposefully obtuse. The demon or "Sin" named Gluttony acts as narrator for the better part of the issue and his wordplay is nearly as indecipherable as Beat poetry. Military figures come and go from the scene, the resurrection of Sabbath occurs in multiple stages, and the Sins, coming and going without rhyme or reason, come and go without rhyme or reason (that sounds redundant, but it's not, it's the actual reading experience, a kind of two-fold confusion at all times, at least where the Sins are concerned).

There's definitely the sense that a good chunk of all this will be revealed over time, but it's no less confusing as to why Tomao chooses to approach an introduction to such complicated material in so head-scratching a way. I'm all for fiction that engages a reader and makes him work, but Tomao seems a too inside his own head, which understands the significance of every line and drawn thing, and not enough in ours, which understands none of the above.

Medors' wonderfully Kevin O'Neil style hyper-dynamic scrawl keeps the eyes moving and glued, wondering what the next page will bring, though his art does nothing to illuminate the overly-challenging script. Often Tomao's dialogue attempts to offer details that seem oddly removed from the art, and especially since (as I mentioned above) Tomao's chosen narrator Gluttony speaks in a rhythm and syntax demanding to grasp, when the art additionally keeps things murky, the story suffers to a greater degree than it should.

That said, Pogrom is a comic everyone should experience, if only to say "what the *&^ was that!??" out loud, in high shrill tones while loitering at the racks of their local comic shop. It's unforgettable, and leaves a mark, two things that I absolutely must give as merits. I applaud Devil's Due and Tomao for pursuing so unique a thing as Pogrom, but for a book that holds a message, and a book that's multifaceted by default, without the creators having to even try, I hope the story and the backdrop both come clearer, and soon. Innovation is praiseworthy, but innovation for innovation's sake without a solid grip on originality's natural unwieldiness is simply a failed experiment. If Pogrom pays off, it'll do so in a big way, and make one killer graphic novel. I'm hoping it falls into that category—there're still six issues to go plus a sequel already in the works, so plenty of time.

For some tantalizing sneak peeks, check out Pogrom's website: http://www.pogromthecomic.com/

LEARNING TO WRITE IS LIKE...

2008-02-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

Learning to write is like trying to become fluent in Japanese solely by reading untranslated manga. You have no idea whether you're learning Japanese or making up your own language entirely. Ultimately, it's a little of both.

REVIEW - ALIMIGHTY Original Graphic Novel ( OGN )

2008-02-26T15:09:00.000-08:00

Almighty OGN

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 25, 2008

Words: Edward Laroche

Pencils: Edward Laroche

Inks: Edward Laroche

Price: $10.00

Publisher: Edward Laroche

David Lapham and Eduardo Risso team up for a gorgeous new OGN, a fast-paced, action-oriented, sci-fi chase across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Oh…wait…no they don’t.

So…who made this thing? Edward…Laroche? Okay, well, what publisher? Edward…Laroche ?!? So, no company, just him, all on his own, a full 180-page OGN, stylish, slick, pro production values indistinguishable from any Oni or Viper Comics collection, but he just…made it? And…uh…printed it?

Yup: and he doesn’t even pretend he’s a “company”, but instead just puts out his first published work, Almighty, a book that follows a hired killer and the young girl she’s hired to save, and protect from an onslaught of other killers. “Fale” is this savior-warrior-woman’s name, a person of questionable origins, apparently having been raised inside “Zone 1”, a place where only the most impossible mutations of post-nuclear holocaust reside. Armed with abilities perhaps biological, perhaps cybernetic, she carries her young charge across miles of dangerous road, an ensemble of mad kidnappers at their heels, mercenaries, mutants, and more at their toes.

Almighty is a sweetly conceived first offering from Laroche, self-contained and wholly its own, yet set in a fully-realized future world, one that looks to be revisited and fleshed-out in upcoming sequels, starting with Remember Amphion (for which there’s a one-page preview ad in the back). Even better, Fale (the killer-for-hire) seems to be Laroche’s “heroine”, his protagonist, Remember Amphion being a book that appears to peer into her past, and so I’m assuming she’ll likely continue as the focus for the many books to come. Which is a good thing: Fale rocks ass.

Comics could use a few more strong, well-established female heroes, even if they are, more often than not, anti-heroes or femme fatales, and Fale, while not really much of a pure-bred heroine, swiftly proves a fascinating lead, complicated and yet simple-minded and therefore focused in her own way. Her past is tied to the unique aspects that make Laroche’s post-apocalyptic world worthwhile, and not just a rehash of a zillion other similar After-the-Fall clichés, but rather its own distinctive setting. She’s a matchless foil to the world’s amoral side, and a character whose dichotomies allow her to become more than just a hero in an otherwise self-serving future. Instead, she’s one of them, through-and-through, and yet she’s more, but only just, which is where the entertainment comes in.

Fale is good at what she does, but not unconquerable, and there’s plenty of others with the exact same qualifications as she, superior beings all. In Laroche’s world, Fale is literally one of the best, but the total number of “bests” is pretty damn high. So the action is breakneck, the threat level extremely elevated, and the cool factor through the roof, and despite it all, Laroche never loses the thread of the story or the characters’ own arcs in favor of simple eye-candy. The story of Almighty is a straight-forward thing, and kicks right off with action and ends with the same, but there’s a lot of nuance packed in-between, and even during, marking the book a complete and total package.

Laroche’s art is, as I sort-of joked about up at the beginning there, very similar to Eduardo Risso’s, fluid and dynamic and utterly appealing. There’s traces of Jason Pearson, Brian Stelfreeze, and Phil Hester as well, though any which way you cut it what it equals is an extremely beautiful and high-quality graphic novel. The action is glorious and perfectly rendered, the quieter moments suffering not a jot in comparison to the fight scenes, and the presentation is obviously one schooled on the best that modern comics has to offer, as it manages to match them, panel for panel.

With writing somewhere between Lapham and Brian K. Vaughn (the cross country chase scenes and the talking-head scenes interspersed reminds me, in their execution and quality, entirely of Y: The Last Man) and art straight from popular Image or Vertigo books, Almighty becomes both the title and description of this thickset gem. Affordable, with a higher page count, and frankly better than most $20 GN’s popping up out of the mainstream and even the small presses, I really can’t recommend you spend your money on anything else. Laroche may not be a name, as this is his first, and it doesn’t yet have penny one behind it for marketing purposes, but there’s no possible way talent of this nature can go on in this secluded vein for long. I’ve rarely read anything so good from a purely self-published source before, and the last time I did, the book was picked up by Slave Labor Graphics within the year. So mark my words, and think of this as an advanced limited edition.

###

The only place to order Almighty for a meager $10 US is at Edward’s MySpace site: http://www.myspace.com/blackhalo51 Drop him a message and he’ll be sure to get a copy out to you. Preview pages are also available at the MySpace site.

REVIEW - LOCKE & KEY #1 (the son of Stephen King comes to comics!)

2008-02-23T17:13:00.001-08:00

Locke & Key #1

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 23, 2008

Words: Joe Hill

Pencils: Gabriel Rodriguez

Inks: Gabriel Rodriguez

Colors: Jay Fotos

Price: $3.99

Publisher: IDW Publishing

Novelist Joe Hill was born Joseph Hillstrom King, the second child to world-renowned authors Stephen and Tabitha King, and now, a mere year after the king of Kings brought his own property, The Dark Tower, over to mainstream comics to the praise of critics everywhere (well, except from me, but I digress…), his son joins IDW to produce Locke & Key, and this time, the “King” involved is operating as creator and full-on scripter. Following the success of his first horror novel, Heart-Shaped Box (named after the Nirvana song), Hill collaborates with co-creator and artist for the series, Gabriel Rodriguez, and what the duo put out is—come what may in later installments—the best first issue to a horror comic I have ever read.

What makes it so good? The story begins during a day in the life of the eponymous Locke family, on vacation in West Coast Country, USA, renovating their small rural estate. The comic itself opens with a serene full-page splash, depicting the front door to said estate, a large “Welcome” mat laid before it. A butterfly hovers beatifically over a small patch of wildflowers, the scene otherwise empty, a small brass knocker resting lifeless against the plain wood of the door. And then the horror begins.

Quietly, surreally, appearing as though a part of some other introductory scene, a thing made for some far less dreadful tale, Hill and Rodriguez masterfully hook readers through both cheeks with the gentlest of care. You hardly feel the pain. Moving between past and present then, a trick as old as time and yet utilized to awesome effect here, the creators give an eerie authenticity to the proceeding events. Whether sudden violence, heart-thumping tension, maudlin self-discovery, true mourning, offhand banter, or the beginnings of the epic side of the story, it all feels casual, everyday and genuine. Which makes it, frankly, all the more terrifying.

Hill seems a natural at visual storytelling, not just managing a fabulous flow but also using the very tricks allowed by comics to enhance his overall plot. The revelation of what’s shown versus what isn’t, and when, and even in what way—it’s all here. Nothing complicated, but very, very clever. And effective. Moreover, Hill manages to use visual cues to put honest personality into his characters, even within the course of a single introductory issue. The book focuses primarily on a singular and terrible event, and then its aftermath and the way in which the characters are moved into the positions the book needs them to be moved into. And yet it all seems natural, and without ever becoming dense or burdensome, packing a precise ratio of character, plot, and ingenuity into an unbelievably cohesive whole. The issue is so good, in fact, I’m nervous the follow-up can’t possibly match it.

Gabriel Rodriguez may be as much to blame for this expectation-raising beginning, and I’m inclined to believe he is. His layouts are superb, his composition pitch-perfect for every moment. There’s something inordinately appealing to Rodriguez’s character expressions, their postures, his take on action and scenes of dramatic impact. He never comes across as kitschy, though his style is indelibly that of a comic book: a rare nuance to achieve. The horror is gripping, the quieter scenes engrossing.

As I described the opening page in detail earlier, so now I’ll mention the book’s final page: it’s a mirror image, or rather, a through-the-looking-glass dark cousin thereof. And the point: the entire book is this carefully laid out. Every moment made just so, to correspond and fit with the moment that came before and the moment to come after, often panel-to-panel. Locke & Key #1 is one the most detailed and skillfully constructed—literally constructed—non-art-house comic books I’ve ever seen, and it should make everyone realize just what a horror comic can be, as opposed to a horror anything else. The best of the best, and practically a manual on how to write a good first issue to an ongoing series.

REVIEW - CEMETERY BLUES #2

2008-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Cemetery Blues #2 (ADVANCE)

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 19, 2008

Words: Ryan Rudio

Pencils: Thomas Boatwright

Inks: Thomas Boatwright

Price: $3.50

Publisher: Image Comics/Shadowline Studios

Following an outbreak of vampirism, our not-at-all stalwart duo of Ridley and Falstaff stumble upon a funeral in the town of Hernesburg (mistaking the coffin’s occupant for an undead sort). Though while vampires seem in short supply, something else haunts the woods within the town’s surrounding hills, and before anyone can stick a cork into Ridley’s mouth, our heroes are recruited to lead the town’s menfolk on an ill-fated monster-hunting expedition. So into the woods they go, they go. A very powerful spirit attacks, many die, our heroes run and live to drink another pint, the origins of the enemy are divulged, and the duo’s arch-nemesis, the warlock Orlok, makes his move.

Whew! To say issue #2 of this wild-child story is cover-to-cover excitement would be an understatement. The humor by Ryan Rubio remains a naturally woven-in thing, the characters and events stitched into a smooth-textured whole. This book has been compared to Cemetery Man, and via that, that movie’s own influence: the Italian comic book Dylan Dog, though while the structure is undoubtedly the same (a slender rakish fellow with a stunted ugly fellow solving supernatural cases) the flavor and, most especially, its aftertaste, is due to a preparation all the creators’ own.

Cemetery Blues is far more coherent than any of its influences, and it also sticks to an unexpectedly epic underlying backstory. Like all great cartoons, there’s a core villain, the wicked and seemingly immortal Orlok, who is the architect behind all of Ridley and Falstaff’s woes. Each story is self-contained, and Haunting of Hernesburg is no exception, though little by little a grander scheme looks to unfold. Such centralized, classic high-drama is a fresh take on this type of quirky horror-humor varietal, and Rubio and artist Thomas Boatwright manage to plunge it smack into the center of their creative pool without losing a drop of water. All the humor remains, the eccentric movement to the scenes, the dry-wit dialogue, the situational farce, the actual, chilling and dangerous side to the horror itself. Everything’s here and looking better than it ever looked in either Cemetery Man or Dylan Dog.

With the introduction of the central threat to the Hernesburg story in this issue, everything gets kicked up a notch, the action and the actual menace of the story superseding the humor to a degree (though it’s still here, and in spades). For anyone unconvinced by the first issue, it’ll be near impossible not to return for the third and final after this second act.

Boatwright continues to dazzle eyes everywhere with his magnificent, thickly realized black-and-white pages, all awash in the non-colored equivalent of actual watercolor. His abilities as a sequential storyteller are also equally superb, the characters and the moments never seeming rushed or slow and the timing of the humor never falling short, the body language and expression detailed and nuanced and pitch-perfect. This issue also sports Boatwright’s unquestionably best cover to date: I want this thing mural-ized on a wall. It’s frickin’ gorgeous.

So another awesome Cemetery Blues issue, go figure. Probably the most surprising thing that Shodowline’s yet picked up and produced, though no one who peeks inside and notes the quality of it will ever wonder why. One more issue to go in this current series, and I’m chomping at the bit to find out how it ends! A truly thrilling horror story, and an honestly funny comedy adventure. John Landis couldn’t have managed it better.

###

If you’d like to give the original self-published mini a shot, contact the creators via their website: http://www.sequentialmatinee.com/.

Issues #1 and #2 are available at ComiXpress, though the third and final has never officially been published, so drop Ryan and Thomas a line and they’ll be happy to get a copy of those out to you.

“The Haunting of Hernesburg” Issue #1 is available through Shadowline/Image, at all major comic shops nationwide. And check out the book’s preview at newsarama.

Cyanide & Happiness

2008-02-20T16:20:00.000-08:00

Just found this new webstrip over on Explosm.net:

CYANIDE & HAPPINESS

It's quite funny. Here's some samples:

REVIEW - OLGA One Shot (Caruso Comics Considered, Part 3 of 3)

2008-02-19T17:46:00.000-08:00

Olga One Shot (ADVANCE)

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 18, 2008

Words: Dino Caruso

Pencils: Simon Fernandes

Inks: Simon Fernandes

Price: $4.00

Publisher: Caruso Comics

An 18-year-old narrator relates his story, of an experience obviously life-affecting: a girl named Olga, a girl he hasn’t spoken to or seen in years, calls him up, out of the blue, and asks to get together. Being a shy and—other than a lackluster part of a local hockey team—introverted sort, the narrator agrees, somewhat excitedly but equally (naturally) confused. Olga soon reveals herself to be a desperate, near-suicidal case, having been recently rejected on the romantic front, and so she looks to this socially awkward boy to save her, somehow, and do so in the course of a single night.

To say that Olga, the comic, is exciting, would be a lie, but to say that it’s slow or boring would be the same. It is, without a doubt, an unhurried story. It takes place within a very constrained about of time (a single night) and so is allowed a heavily detailed, wonderfully molasses-slow movement, but this tends to heighten the suspense rather than obliterate it. What’s going to happen? What’s wrong with this girl Olga? What’s the narrator going to do? What’s going on?!? All these questions seem imperative when turning the pages of this latest one-shot by newcomer Dino Caruso.

The narrator remains unnamed throughout, which was probably a smart move on Dino’s part, as without the name the exact true-to-lifeness of the story remains uncertain. It smacks of autobiography, especially the truly poetic turns of events at the end, moments that seem so un-story-like and yet apt that they could only come from reality. The story is delightfully involved with its own weight, so much so that it also becomes self-conscious of its own weight, and ultimately manages a series of life-lessons that aren’t in the least bit preachy, because the lessons skirt the primary issues involved and instead comment upon core understandings of human thought and behavior that…well…they’re actually quite astute, and acute, and mean more and pertain to the story to a greater and heftier degree than what anything more directly preachy could have managed. Caruso intuitively pulls off a magical hat trick, allegorically speaking, showing readers a straight path only to offer an end moral that’s basically: “Space is curved, kid. There ain’t no straight lines, only relative ones.”

Simon Fernandes joins Caruso for Olga, an artist with a thick-lined, stunted-figure style most commonly seen in webstrips, animation, and underground comix, though he uses the aesthetic to great effect here. Under Fernandes’ depictions, the narrator appears sweetly self-contained in both touching and arrogant ways, as demands the story. Olga and the side-characters are also seen across a wide array of moments, each calling for a showmanship of expression most artists would be hard-pressed to achieve. In a way, Olga is Fernandes’ warm-up, a thing he’s very, very good at but not quite perfect for. Caruso and he have a new book coming soon called The Amazing Adventures of Bell Boy, wherein Fernandes begins to cultivate a style and slickness not seen since Mike Kunkel’s Herobear and the Kid. The previews of Bell Boy look genuinely attractive (check ‘em out and I dare you to disagree!).

So that wraps up “Round One” of Caruso Comics. Three very quality comics, two slice-of-life inspired, one a bit more wild and woolly and pulp-flavored. There’s also a baseball themed graphic novel titled Against the Wall (an early preview of which was reviewed on BF) and that’s technically the last of the “Round One” books, and then comes the very intriguing “Round Two’ers”: the aforesaid Bell Boy, Fisk: Substitute Hero, and Courage, all of them genre-flavored and therefore upping the excitement factor by a thousandfold or so. After Olga and Crossroads, and A Cautionary Tale, and the sincere skill they were all executed with, I honestly can’t wait.

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For ordering copies of Olga or other Caruso Comics, go to http://www.carusocomics.blogspot.com/ and send Dino a message.

An official website (http://www.carusocomics.com/) is in the works, though it’s only a homepage for the moment (see date of this article above for an exact definition of “the moment”).

REVIEW - A CAUTIONARY TALE (Caruso Comics Considered, Part 2 of 3)

2008-02-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

A Cautionary Tale One Shot (ADVANCE)

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 17, 2008

Words: Dino Caruso

Pencils: Paul Quinn

Inks: Paul Quinn

Price: $4.00

Publisher: Caruso Comics

Talk about classic: what comic reader doesn’t have a notebook or scrapbook chock-full of notes and scribblings, ideas and character concepts alongside the odd plot outline, all of which we may or may not have ever had honest intentions of pursuing, but which we love musing upon and keeping records of for posterity’s sake alone if nothing else? Dino Caruso, being a writer, is more involved with such a notebook than most, though he’s definitely preaching to the choir with A Cautionary Tale, and it’s a sermon the faithful ought to revel in.

A down-and-out narrator, drinking himself into a stupor in a local dive establishment, is coaxed into relating his tragic tale to a handsome young couple (who only half actually care, but hey, this disheveled stranger’s kind of aggressive, so let’s just let him talk…). So the story is told, a story about stories, about unrealized stories that are written down, recorded, hoarded, until the world, to the writer, becomes a threatening place. As time passes, the writer grows paranoid, obsessively so, and turns away from those once close to him. To make matters worse, he can’t bring himself to actually show anyone his work for fear of concept-theft. Will he lose everything before he comes to his senses and simply tries to be proactive about his writing career?

Ha! The joy of A Cautionary Tale is that it is indeed a cautionary tale - it simply isn’t that easy. Like the best Twilight Zone or Tales From the Crypt speculative horror short, Caruso’s Tale smacks readers upside the head, posing as a contemporary fable with a tail-end moral only to collapse into a fantastically vicious finale. The characters are stylishly written, the emotion realistically represented, the pacing attractive; it’s a captivating one-shot, made unforgettable by its clever leap away from any overly naïve, morally enlightening end (a thing that would have been easy to flow into). Caruso proved his steady-as-she-goes writerly chops with his Crossroads, but here he has a lot more fun, gets a touch more stylish, and showcases some unique qualities to his conceptual dexterity.

Artist Paul Quinn returns (also of Crossroads fame) and he, too, is allowed a greater level of artistry, moving from noir to slice-of-life to pulp and back again, as the story wills. His use of blacks is hence heavier and more versatile, his range of characters and actions equally so. He makes the book look like an authentic thing, from the very era its cover steals so liberally from (there’s irony for you, stealing from stories for a story about stealing stories), though the final product feels nicely modern nevertheless. Composition is strong throughout, and never once does the art feel less than mainstream professional.

A much more ambitious and therefore impressive offering than Crossroads, A Cautionary Tale goes a long way to convincing that Caruso is nothing like a one-trick pony, and that, whatever else he does, it’ll be well worth a gander. His style is classic while managing a certain fresh factor, or at least, it never struck me as stale or rote, and his taste in artists is impeccable. I’ve got one more book of his to peek at for now, Olga, which I’m going to hit up this weekend. After the last two…man…now I’m excited, but also, now I have expectations! Let’s see how he does….

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For ordering copies of A Cautionary Tale or other Caruso Comics, go to http://www.carusocomics.blogspot.com/ and send Dino a message.

An official website (http://www.carusocomics.com/) is in the works, though it’s only a homepage for the moment (see date of this article above for an exact definition of “the moment”).

REVIEW - CROSSROADS One Shot (Caruso Comics Considered, Part 1 of 3)

2008-02-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

Crossroads One Shot

Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 16, 2008

Words: Dino Caruso

Pencils: Paul Quinn

Inks: Paul Quinn

Price: $4.00

Publisher: Caruso Comics

No one can accuse independent comic writers of shirking their own life material. There exist an equal (if not greater) number of slice-of-life autobiographical works hot off the small presses than any of the more mainstream-associated genre fare. To say that newcomer Dino Caruso better have something worth talking about, then, to inaugurate his own eponymous brand of sequential storytelling is more than lip service: he better, or it’s gonna be lost and never again found amongst the towering stacks of similar such titles that’d intimidate even a pro publisher’s slush pile, such is the market’s current saturation. So…Crossroads is one of his firsts, a one-shot detailing a particular, pivotal moment in the author’s life, thinly veiled as fiction (or, if this story is fiction, it’s thoroughly masked as not). How does it fare?

Wonderfully well, actually, shockingly, nothing thrilling about the story itself, but the script and approach to rather run-of-the-mill subject matter allow for a sincere and poignant look at a universal experience, a coming of age romantic chord that’s twang should resonate with darn near everybody. The plot follows a college-age narrator as he divulges a “crossroads” moment of his life to an unknown audience. Writer Caruso plays it coy, and smartly so, moving his narrator through several seemingly important events and instances of uncertainty, forever stringing both his fictional audience as well as the reader toward the book’s title instant of true life-altering decision. Being a book about young love (or rather, youth relationships, which, as the book attests, isn’t always about love or anything near so selfless), the story follows a clear and familiar path, though Caruso masterfully walks a fine line between cool reflection and heartfelt sympathy, the emotion of every moment present but not overpoweringly so, never choosing to slum it in sappier regions.

Caruso is joined by artist Paul Quinn, a man with a strong and simple style, appealingly akin to the old newspaper-strip style of Frank Bolle (Apartment 3-G), an aesthetic that more than enhances the classic drama of Crossroads. Quinn maneuvers through an entire 20-page story consisting of little more than talking heads and quiet character interactions (and between only three characters to boot!), yet manages to keep the reader’s eye and mind from wandering a scant anywhere before the covers are closed.

Crossroads is a deft example of how an autobiographical tale can be captivating with nary a “clever twist” or “original approach” in sight. It’s a straightforward story smoothly written, exactingly illustrated. It’s satisfying and a solid read. Maybe it won’t stand out amongst the rest of the riff-raff, but it probably should.

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For ordering copies of Crossroads or other Caruso Comics, go to http://www.carusocomics.blogspot.com/ and send Dino a message.

An official website (http://www.carusocomics.com/) is in the works, though it’s only a homepage for the moment (see date of this article above for an exact definition of “the moment”).

Tribute to Steve Gerber

2008-02-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

As many of you likely WON'T know, one of the best comic writers in history passed away last weekend. Well, I guess it's Monday, so technically the weekend before last weekend. His name was Steve Gerber, and he was one amazing man. He was battling against a degenerative lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis. He was waiting for a lung transplant, a thing that would have extended his life by perhaps five to ten years, tops, but time was against him even then.

A funny anecdote: another writer wrote about Steve: he said that Gerber was a heavy, HEAVY smoker, and smoked to the very day his health issues required him to stop. He had already been diagnosed, and yet still, he didn't drop a single pack. Finally, his lungs just couldn't support it and he had to stop. To the bitter end, Steve swore (and believed!) that his smoking had nothing to do with his lung problems. The writer telling the story mentioned this because, and I quote: "it was the only time I'd ever seen Steve divorced from reality".

And there's truth to that. Steve was a phenomenal, insightful writer, clever, deft, sharp as a tack. Even he, apparently, had a limit and a wall he reached when it came to the vice that likely finished him before he should have been finished, but thank god it was the only such wall he was caged by. On all other fronts, Steve was housed only by comic book stories unlike anything any other writer has ever, seriously, produced.

There's plenty of folks who wrote about him after his passing, but me and a few of my Broken Froniter colleagues gave it a shot as well. Mine's a little ways down, as I've included everyone's. Enjoy, and rest easy Steve. Miss ya already. --Dave B.

Steve Gerber 1947-2008: A Tribute

Lowdown by The BF Staff, posted February 15, 2008

As all will be aware by now, last weekend we lost Steve Gerber. Steve's most famous creation was probably Howard the Duck but his body of work included Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, The Defenders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Void Indigo, Sensational She-Hulk, Foolkiller, Sludge, Nevada, Hard Time and so, so much more. At the time of his passing he was working on the Dr. Fate feature in DC's Countdown to Mystery. The Broken Frontier team take the opportunity below to give their personal recollections of the impact Steve's writing had on them and extend their condolences to Steve's family and friends.

Tony Ingram writes: I’m not sure when I first came across the work of Steve Gerber, but if the date has been forgotten, the effect of his writing has not. As a kid growing up in the Seventies, I was pretty much a loner. It wasn’t that I disliked people - I just didn’t understand them; their cliquishness, their need to always be in a crowd. My closest "friends" were the comic book characters I read about all the time, but though I liked them, I had little in common with them. Even the misfit X Men were in a group, and had each other. Obviously, there was something wrong with me.

And then, I discovered The Defenders, a "group" of people who really were misfits. I met Nighthawk, always seeking approval, and Jack Norris, always trying to understand a world that made no sense to him. I discovered Omega the Unknown, a superhuman with tremendous potential who just hadn’t a clue who he was or where he was going, and Howard the Duck, who considered the whole world crazy. And above all, in the pages of Man-Thing, I discovered Richard Rory, the ultimate everyman; just wanting everyone to get along and, preferably, leave him in peace to play his music.

And suddenly, it was okay to be a loner. Because there were a lot of us, after all. Thanks, Steve.

Bart Croonenborghs writes: I’m from Belgium. There, I said it. My comics were always way behind your comics. My comics needed to be translated… this takes time. You can stop laughing now. We are allowed to drink beer when we reach the age of 16. Being 8 years old and in possession of a world that has the exact width and breadth as your bicycling range, I did not know about any publication time-lags or shipping delays or other some such nonsense. Comics arrived in shops, one month apart. That was it.

I read The Defenders in Dutch. I knew these were some mad comics. Except for Norm Breyfogle’s Batman, it was one of my favorite books. Comics to me existed in a kind of fugue state not unlike a kids’ perception in the Sixties in the States, before the advent of the Direct Market. You took whatever you could get. I was so obsessed with not missing an issue that I would go to the bookshop the same day every week to check on the comics.

The shop owner once grabbed me by the coat and accused me of stealing. I did not buy something every week, you see. I felt bad afterwards for a long time, even though I did not steal anything or even thought about stealing them. I just did not want to miss an issue.

Steve Gerber? Never heard of him at that age, but I knew The Defenders had a Voice. Stronger than the story. Something was said between the lines in those issues. You could beat me upside the head with a caveman holding his wife and sixteen children and I could still not tell you exactly what. The characters seemed to give voice to a higher power. In the Avengers comics, the Masters of Evil were attacking the New York Manor and boy was that exciting, but the story was the story, the characters played the part they were expected to play. Nothing more, nothing less. But The Defenders and later Howard the Duck… the story had subtext, hidden messages, a Voice.

Being young is being impressionable. These comics impressed me. Nowadays, as a writer, they awe me. This is what Steve Gerber taught me: never give up, find your voice, make your mark. You could sniff a Gerber comic from a mile off. I wish you could smell my comics from a mile off. Or my writing.

Andy Oliver writes: I first came across Steve Gerber’s writing in the 1970s and immediately realized I was reading something very different, something very special. As a kid I just loved the out and out weirdness of Man-Thing, and the uncompromising, biting humor of Howard the Duck. As an (alleged) adult I learnt to appreciate the humanity of Steve’s work on so many other levels; whether they were philosophical, satirical, political, psychological or even downright experimental.

Of all his creations, though, the one I always had the softest spot for was Howard the Duck. While the Marvel super-hero set may have had their soap opera-style problems there was still a large element of wish-fulfillment embodied in their fantasy world that meant I could empathize with them, but never really identify with them. Howard was different though. As gloriously absurd as his adventures were, I could connect with Howard in a far more personal way because, to use the famous tagline, who amongst us hasn’t felt "trapped in a world he never made"? Who doesn’t want to rail against the world of the "hairless apes" on a daily basis for its thoughtless stupidity, overindulgence and unfairness? Steve had far more to say about the realities and frailties of the human condition through that little anthropomorphic duck than every "hard luck Peter Parker" and allegorical mutant story combined.

The Internet can be a scary place, full of rampant excess and tiresome hyperbole. But in Steve Gerber’s case, not one word of the online praise and appreciation that has deluged cyberspace in the wake of his passing, is unjustified or exaggerated. He was, quite simply, that unique a voice and that irreplaceable a talent.

First beer tonight is raised to you Steve. Cheers!

Dave Baxter writes: Steve would have winced to hear it, but I discovered him through the movie version of Howard the Duck. As a child, I thought it was a wonderful film, a completely wild and astonishing urban adventure starring, of all things, a duck.

Thankfully, I graduated to a box of actual Howard the Duck comics via an aunt who held hostage the entire run of Gerber’s original Volume 1 down in her basement. To say I was enchanted by the comic, to say I was educated by it, would be an understatement of epic proportions. It was phenomenal, insightful, entirely unpredictable though never purely non-sequiter. It was what we in the biz like to call "smart", "intelligent" even. And that was the core of Steve Gerber as a writer: imagination unfettered, with no horizon to his own shrewd acumen.

Whether he focused upon the politics of politics, environment, culture, sociology, or just plumb commentary on day-to-day human idiocy, Gerber approached it all with a charm and swagger that was irresistible. He cared. He wanted to change things, affect things, but he wanted people to listen, and that meant developing a voice few writers and hardly a comic scripter around has ever achieved: total self-awareness and the ability to write about topics that mattered, in ways that people were willing to read. Gerber found a voice that was sympathetic, for all its criticisms, a voice that loved as much as it loathed, a voice that couldn’t help but give a person pause for its honesty and sincerity.

I didn’t know Gerber as a "name" until his Vertigo series Nevada struck shelves in the mid-90s, a sort-of spin-off from Howard the Duck that, while never finding a large audience, I know was received as one step beyond joy by those who read it. We all hoped, to this very day, for a sequel — such was its power. In the midst of a revolution in comics heralding the violent and unapologetic storytelling of Ennis and Ellis and Morrison, Gerber sallied forth with a hysterical, over-the-top, and ultimately humane series that adapted to the times and, indeed, surpassed it. He made it look effortless.

If I have any regret, in living in a world that housed Steve along with myself, it’s that I didn’t reach out and say word one to him until Countdown to Mystery #1 was released, only a scant few months ago. I discovered his blog, read wonderful postings as sharp and yet cautious as his writing ever proved, and even managed to post a few comments and receive a response or two in return from him - absolute highlights in my career as a reviewer, I can tell you that much.

I learned there about his struggle for survival. As usual, the world hardly batted an eye. His blog filled with a few stalwarts that cared, and even a few that merely wanted to take up space inside of his blogosphere for whatever they felt they needed it for, to deride him, to promote the odd whatever. And through it all, as he bore the weight on his own mortality (let that sink in)… he continued to respond, kindly, thoughtfully, and pen one of the best comics to come out of DC in years.

As usual.

He was a modern master to the end, a humanitarian with more insight and understanding on any given day than the rest of us might manage, collectively, throughout the course of our inwardly-seeking lives. He was one hell of a writer. Crème de la crème. He has not left without touching thousands, deeply, truly, ineradicably. I’ll miss his presence dearly, but, more importantly, I’ll forever be happy that he was here period. That was Steve’s effect on people he never knew, and who never really knew him. I can only imagine the effect he had on those who did. He was and is of the very best to have come and gone. Godspeed, m’man.

Sam Moyerman writes: One of the oddest things about going to college is finding out you can study all sorts of topics you never thought possible. So when I saw a course at Penn State that covered comics, I jumped all over it. Sadly though, as a child of the late 80s and early 90s, until I got to college it seemed like all I knew of comics was X-Men, Marvel, and Image. And it wasn't until this class (Integrated Arts 10 for any Nittany Lions reading this) that I learned of some of the greats that I never even noticed before. People like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, even (as ashamed as I am to admit this now) Will Eisner.

But the one guy who seemed to stick out of all of them was Steve Gerber. Here was a man who was not only famous for creating one of Marvel's funniest characters, but also for fighting for the creative rights of him. What made him stand out even more is that my only knowledge of said character was a crappy 1980s movie that made Roger Corman's Fantastic Four film seem like an Oscar winning effort. I, of course, am referring to Howard the Duck. But for some reason, I was learning (in college no less) about this creator's ongoing struggles for control of his irreverent mallard.

Fast forward a couple of years. I'm now out of college and my tastes in comics have changed dramatically to those I was taught about and suddenly Marvel Comics is announcing their new Max line of Mature comics, which will be headlined by one Howard the Duck miniseries, written by none other than Steve Gerber. Now, I'll be honest, initially I bought the book more out of curiosity than anything else. Quality-wise I had no idea what to expect. Comics from Gerber's time had tended not to age well to modern audiences and there was a little apprehension on my part. But boy did it ever come through.

Somehow Steve Gerber made his way back to his most famous creation and made me enjoy a book more than I ever thought possible. Satirically brilliant, Gerber hit all topics. The book was topical and written for modern audiences. He took chances and attacked everyone. And yet somehow, as he was throwing caution to the wind, leaving no stone unturned, and treating nothing sacred, he made a poignant statement, made the reader think, and also treated everything importantly. The series made me laugh so much I had to reread every issue over and over again. It was such a good series I even forgave him for turning Howard into a rat for most of it. Thank you Mr. Gerber. The comics world is not the same without you.

An Absolute Atheist Reviews Christian Comics (it's still coming)

2008-02-17T22:02:00.001-08:00

Yes! I have not abandoned this idea! I've just been (as all the reviews below may attest) SWAMPED with my regular work, so this side-project is still waiting impatiently in the lobby.

But it's coming! Swear!

Here's a sneak peek at the first issue I'll be dissecting:

It's a 48 page, double-sized first issue...with a LOT of scripture attached to it. This is not necessarily fun...and it's taking longer than I thought...but I'm still committed! (and when it comes to the big "C", you kind of have to be, in all meanings of the word....)