Paper Girls, two ways

 As I was starting to watch the Paper Girls series on Amazon, I realized I did not remember it very well.

In between the second or third episode and the next, I decided to fix that.

Paper Girls

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan 

Illustrated by Cliff Chiang,

Colorist:Matt Wilson, 

Letterer and designer: Jared K. Fletcher, 

Color flatter: Dee Cunniffe

Image Comics. 

The version I read was borrowed through the very excellent Hoopla app, through it's affiliation with my local public library system. If you don't know it, Paper Girls is the story of 4 newspaper delivery girls that get caught up in a generational time war. They get sucked into it inadvertantly. There is humor and well written characters with good arcs. There is real emotion in it as well. Possibly even better than Vaughn's excellent character writing is Cliff Chiang's art. It is beautiful as usual, and really brings the characters to life. Wilson's colors very much contribute to the story, as well.

Paper Girls, the tv Series, Is basically the same story, told differently in parts. Some new things are added, some old things removed, things happen to different characters, and even so, the feeling and essence and direction of the storey, are so similar it doesn't stick out at you. The Actors playing the Girls when they are young are all great, and look nearly exactly like Chiang's art in the comic. They all convey a full range of emotions and are very believable in their roles. Ali Wong plays the grown-up version of Erin, and deserves an emmy for her performonce. Jason Mantzoukas Embodies the character he plys (GrandFather) so well, it's like he stepped off the page.

This isn't a big review or anything, just a solid endorsement for both versions of this story.I strongly suggest you take in both versions

Talking about comics

 In the late Seventies, or very early eighties (I was around ten) We went to Maine where my dad was stationed and stayed in the UOQ there with him (Unaccompanied officer's quarters... used to be BOQ I think, with the B for Bachelors). While we were there, we went to a flea market, and I got a brown paper grocery bag full of comics all in good reading condition. They included Plastic Man volume 1 #11-20 from 1976 or so, and some Omac (1,2 from 1974), and some Omega the unknown and a few other things. It was awesome, and boy did it make my trip. I was right around 10 years old. The other cool things were a bumper pool table (My sister was really good at it), and an unattended health center. 10-year-old me went a little crazy with the apparatus and bike and pulled a groin muscle. That was awful, but a cool bag of comics made it less so.

Surprise comics troves have always been my favorite. there is something great about unexpected free or inexpensive comics, of a type you didn't choose, and might not have ever chosen on your own. I got a pile of Tomb of Dracula the same way, and I have had a soft spot on my neck for that comic ever since. I can't pin down when I got those, but it could have been in Maine also.

My earliest version of this was when we uncovered a box of comics above my grandparent's garage, in a loft, open to the world, on their farm. They had been my uncle's comics as a kid in the early sixties or so, and included things like wagon train, Honey West, Classics Illustrated, and sugar and spike. Those are more examples of things I would not have gotten for myself; from an era and genre's I may have overlooked.

I bought comics at auction back in the late 80's, and I didn't pay a lot. they aren't in great shape, but included an early daredevil, x-men, and the first appearance of rhino in amazing spider-man. That wasn't exactly the same, but it was still a surprise of sorts as I think I only knew it was comics and didn't know exactly what. That one made me feel like I had something, and it was extra special to get to read a variety of comics that I might not have otherwise been able to at the time.

Most recently, my youngest daughter's boyfriend gave me a pile of comics that had been in his garage. His mom is an antiques dealer and sometimes gets miscellaneous things from auctions or estate sales, in lots, etc. It had been in a box in their garage for a while, and he gifted the whole pile to me. It was completely in the category of things I might not have considered, but really loved getting and having. There were 26 issues of Superman Family from 1979 - 1981, and a full run of Time Warp 1-5, and several Adventure Comics from the same era. All of these were oversized "dollar Comics". There is a joy to comics from this era. The stories they are filled with may not be particularly great, but they sure do delight me for the joy and silliness they provide, and the fact that they feel like the era they are from and link me directly to how comics made me feel at that age.

Setting up to disappoint

I know I have probably done this too often, but I think I may actually have some things going soon. I volunteered at SPX this year, and it was fantastic. SPX does a lot of things on a lot of levels, and is pretty special. It can also be offputting. You just need to convince yourself that you are just as cool as all the people there that are cooler than you. I met some great people and bought some really good comics.

I am definitely working on a Podcast that highlights the comics of the eighties, hopefully covering some of the less celebrated but still awesome creators and stories of that decade that covers a pretty big time in comics for me and my cohost Victor. Look for Big Time Comics Podcast coming soon.

Also, I very much want to make a youtube channel where I talk about comics... A Talkin' 'Bout Comics channel where I talk.... 'bout comics. My plan is to take all those cut up comics and action figures created by baby-men, and tape them back together on camera... Just kidding, I just plan on talking about comics stuff, and not being a horrible person while doing it.

So, you know, look for updates on these projects here, hopefully soon.

Harley and Ivy

I like Harley Quinn, but I think she has been done too much and often not very well. I wasn't super stoked at the prospect of a new Harley based cartoon, But watching the preview and reading what I've read of it, this looks like it may be really good.

I really like Ivy as Daria

HARLEY QUINN New York Comic Con 2018 First Look #WBNYCC https://youtu.be/kBBvIyGqQYI via @YouTube

I turn 50 this year. I have some projects I am working on regarding comics. If they see the light of day, I will post them here. Right now I am hoping to write about the comics I have been getting since very late last year. I am also in the early stages of getting a Podcast together with an old friend of mine. More on that as it develops.

The Wolverine (may contain minor spoilers)

My daughters were both home this weekend, and asked to go to see The Wolverine. The greatest trick as a parent, is to raise kids who genuinely like the sorts of things you like, while still being 100 percent their own people. My girls are like that, as I am sure I have suggested in the past. The first thing my oldest asked when we picked her up from the Girl Scout Camp bus pickup on Friday, was 'can we see Wolverine?'. Actually, it was the second thing after... 'Let's get something to eat...', which I was also happy to hear and oblige.

We went to a regular matinee showing of the movie, and got away for just 21 bucks, so I didn't feel cheated or anything to begin with. I was seeing this movie with both of my girls, and we all had fun. Based just on those facts, this movie gets an above average rating from me. Having fun, or being able to enjoy something on some level that my girls also enjoyed is a primary factor in what I think of a movie.

Having said all of that up front, I really enjoyed the movie. It was not a perfect movie, but it hit an awful lot of the right notes, if not exactly how I would have hoped, it at least made an effort. I am not a super Wolverine fan, or a wolverine comics historian, but I was reading X-Men and getting wolverine mini series back in the 80's, and I did like Wolverine in Japan quite a lot when I was younger.

The movie gives us a solid wolverine in Japan experience. He meets a lot of significant people from the comics, and fights versions of recognizable villains from the comics as well, modified somewhat to fit into the movie reality. We get ninjas and some intrigue, in addition to seeing different aspects of the country it is set in.

I liked that it was sort of a checklist of wolverine character notes:
Wolverine is a wildman who has lived apart from people
Wolverine is a top of the food chain predator, but is respectful of animals and they are respectful of him.
The guy has a code, and pity the fools that violate it.
Wolverine is loyal and a good guy at heart. He will stick up for people in danger and jeopardy wherever he can
Wolverine is a soldier, and always has been. at his core, fighting for a cause is a thing he will always come back to.

I thought the movie showed good character insight, had enjoyable interactions, a bit of humor, and good action. It was easily worth seeing at the matinee.

SPX - Small Press Expo is this Weekend. I will be there today. My Daughter and I are  volunteering from 3-7. Jaime AND Gilbert Hernandez will be there, among many other distinguished guests, and awesome smaller press comics' creators. Check out their site at http://www.spxpo.com/

The Infinity Con

ECCC 2012 was one of the best experiences I have had in a long time, and for someone who is wildly uncomfortable around people, the best part was being surrounded by like-minded friends that I generally spend my days with on the internet, but many whom I never expected to meet in person. Good people of varying levels of comic book geekery, but every one of them my type of people. One thing I was overwhelmed by was the sort of caring compassion and acceptance that is always a little bit of a surprise, but never ceases o make me feel better about the world that I am often fairly cynical about. Just a lot of nice people and a lot of fun.

The Convention itself was a good solid con, and I hope to write more about the experiences there somtime, but it won't be anytime soon

The Long Con, Part 4: Comics People

It's the week of the con now, and I have meaning to post this installment for a while. The problem is that I don't have a great deal to say. What I want to say is that I am super excited, and looking forward to meeting all sorts of cool creators, and getting them to sign things. I am pretty sure that if I take anything with me it will just be one or two books. Maybe I will try to get The Last Iron Fist Story signed by both Fraction and Brubaker, or something like that. A Mice Templar signed by Oeming and Glass would be awesome, or a Mouse Guard signed by Peterson. Those things aren't exciting me all that much at the moment, and it doesn't change my opinion about wanting to fly out to Seattle at all.

My interests go in very well defined waves at times. Often there is a har line between one thing and the next, and I will burn super hot on something, like comics, until I burn out and something else takes its place, like movies or video games. I have always been like this for the most part. Today, out of an acknowledgement of my waning interest, and an acceptance that it will cost a good bit of money for my oldest to start college this fall, I cancelled my folder at my local comic shop. I picked up 16 dollars worth of comics and thanked my friend at the store. I have just finished reading them, and enjoyed them, although nothing really blew me away.

Despite not having much spending money, I am still very excited to fly out to Seattle and attend ECCC. I am looking forward to reconnecting with friends, and meeting a bunch in person for the first time, but I am also excited about having time at a convention again to really just take the whole thing in. I want to see everything and engage, hopefully without annoying everyone.

Here are some of the guests I am pretty excited about:
Kurt Busiek - Astro City is just awesome comics
Scott Wegener - I have 3 Atomic Robo shirts, wish Clevinger was able to be there still
Adam Warren - Funny Cheesecake in a way that isn't insulting
Bruce Timm - Bruce Timm for crying out loud
Dan Slott - Responsible for so much that has been good and funny in comics.
Bill Sienkiewicz - I was a kid when he ruined New Mutants for me, but I later learned to appreciate his amazing work, und understand that other people would kill New Mutants for real, way worse than conceptual art possibly could.
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Neat guy, Scott Pilgrim is a masterpiece. look forward to anything he chooses to do.
Colleen Coover - blown away by her pieces in Girl Comics, love her art in general and need to pick up more of her work.

So there are folks I am happy will be at ECCC, just not sure how outgoing I will end up being, etc.

The Long Con, Part Three: The Guest List (media)

My primary motivation for going to Seattle to attend Emerald City ComicCon, isn't really the con itself, as I have mentioned in earlier posts. That doesn't mean I'm not excited about going to a big comic convention again. I'm as psyched about that as I am about seeing friends again/in person for the first time. In preparation for the big event, which is now less than a month away, I have been pouring over the guest list and trying to figure out who I am most excited to meet, and also, exactly what I want to take with me to get signed.

I've Never been super comfortable with celebrities at cons. I don't know what to do with them. I don't like having to pay people to talk to them, and that seems to be what media people at cons are there for. I don't have as much of an issue with artists and writers, because I like the product they create and can ask to have it signed and say hello while that is happening. I get that there isn't a connection created in that moment, and I don't care. I get something out of being able to thank people for the work they do, and that I admire. If I pay for anything, I can pay for something they have made, and artists will usually do a quick sketch of some sort under those circumstances. There is just no comfortable equivalent I can think of with actors. 30 or 40 bucks for a signature, 30 or 40 bucks for a picture. Not a single person there is worth that kind of money, when I could be spending that same money on comics, or food from local joints, or alcohol for my friends so they keep me entertained and forget they don't really know me.

All that being said, and despite a large group of entertainers I am pretty fond of: Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, George Takei, and Christopher Lloyd, the place I think ECCC looks strongest in regard to Celebrity appearances is in the Voice Talent that will be there. Batman, Bubbles, Pinky & the Brain,Bender & Fry, and Wakko Warner will all be appearing in voice form at least, and that is just a fraction of the great characters performed by that group. Maurice LeMarche is particularly interesting to me, as the 9th annual Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedians special was kind of a milestone for me, and I remember how cool it was that the guy who did an almost entirely hack comic impressions set went on to do just an insane number of really great characters as a voice actor.

I'm not a very good stalker, and am intermittently shy in person, so most likely unless someone is really trying to attract people to them, I will not be meeting any media people while I am there. I go to these things in part to break out of my comfort zone, but most often I just retreat in horror to the heart of my comfort zone and comfortably avoid contact or interaction.

Also, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith will apparently be in or around ECCC doing things for money as well.

The Long Con, Part 2: Why ECCC?

My friend that was helpful in cultivating my most recent comic book revival, and responsible for getting me to go to Pittsburgh ComiCon, kicking off the era of me going to cons, has a podcast. He and his friend and frequent collaborator actually have two podcasts, both of them very good. The first is called Sarcastic Voyage, and is a great mix of humorous chatter and funny bits on any just about everything. The second is Post Atomic Horror, and it is an ambitious Star Trek themed Podcast that started with The Original Series, and is working its way through lovingly irreverent recaps of  all the episodes of all the series', as well as the movies. Both podcasts are a lot of fun, both are on ITunes, and  neither are for the overly prudish.

My friend lives in Seattle, and I have wanted to get out there for Emerald City Comic Con for a while. This year is a big year for the podcasts, and He and his co-host have a lot planned for ECCC. One of the nice things about following his creative efforts is that it has afforded me the opportunity to interact online with a lot of other friends and listeners of the shows, and develop friendships with many others who have similar interests and sensibilities. This will be the largest 'meet up' that I have ever been a part of, and I am very much looking forward to it.

I went to Seattle, once before for about a week. It's a beautiful city, but I didn't spend a lot of time in the city itself, as I was attending meetings at Microsoft, and was staying on Lake Washington, but I had a car and drove around it some. This time I don't know that I will see a lot more of it, but we'll see.

My trip this year almost wasn't going to happen, but there were just too many people I really want to meet in person for me to miss it unless it would bankrupt us, and I don't think it will. I definitely need to budget carefully, but I don't think this one time will kill us. My Flight is booked, my hotel accommodations are handled. I am now in the early panic and planning stages, which I will continue to discuss in future entries here.

The Long Con: part 1 - An Introduction

I haven't been to that many comic conventions, and never until relatively recent. I've been to Pittsburgh, and Heroes in NC, and SPX in Bethesda. I only went to Heroes once, but it was with both of my daughters and was a particularly good experience for all of us. We stayed in a nice hotel, we took our Wii with us, we went to a couple Triple D restaurants, went to a movie, shopping, etc. and it was just great. My youngest met and hit it off with several of the creators at Top Shelf, and I got to meet Jaime Hernandez for the first time, and Matt Wagner signed a copy of Mage for me. SPX has been a pretty great show for me as well, and I have gone to it several times, including twice as a volunteer. My youngest went with me as a volunteer as well, and it's a whole different angle on comics. Even if you don't think of yourself as a traditional, or mainstream comics fan, I recommend attending a small press con at some point, and if they take volunteers, you should try it, at least once. The combination of DIY, Small publishers, students and collectives really creates a sort of festival feel. Everyone is accessible, and nearly everyone is excited to just get their work in front of people, and mix with fans of the medium, and even moreso to mix with their fellow creators. If your view of comics is solely Super Heroes from Marvel and DC, then you will either hate it, or it will open your eyes to what else is out there.

Pittsburgh Comicon was my first real comic convention, I went as a way to see one of my best friends from High School, and to meet in person and support a friend of mine that I had only ever met online. I know I have discussed some or all of this previously, but please indulge me. My first experience at a con was awkward. I was giddy, but nervous, and didn't feel comfortable approaching anyone. My friends had more experience than I did, and had some insight to things that was helpful, and I got the courage up to approach one or two people eventually, but mostly I just stared at people from 50 feet away.

I went to Pittsburgh a second time, and took my oldest daughter with me. This was still before going to Heroes with both of my girls, and the presence of one of my kids gave me at least a sort of borrowed courage to approach some people and engage them to some degree. We met Gigi Edgely and Marc Singer, and had a great time eating wasabi peanuts and talking toKristy Bourgeois and the Noses Optional crew. We also stayed for the cosplay roundup on Sunday before we went back home, and that was something that my daughter and I still reference 5 or 6 years after the fact.

This has all been a preface up to this point. This post is a kickoff to what I hope will be a series of posts relating to my anticipation of, preparation for, and ultimately attendance at: Emerald City Comicon 2012, which takes runs March 30 - April 1 in Seattle, WA. I have secured a place to stay and booked my flight already, so it is going to happen. I am very excited about this, and plan to share just about everything relating to it that I can, so we all have that to look forward to, apparently.

Taking Issue - Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

This issue has sparked a lot of debate. I tend to side with people who have in general been a bit disappointed with DC regarding the treatment of female characters, and the seeming lack of a serious commitment to better representing women in comics, both on the creator side of things, and the character side as well. There are a couple of questions that I kept in mind while re-reading this issue the five + times I have read it so far.
1. What(if anything) is wrong with this comic
2. Is this a bad comic
3.What(if anything) is wrong with the portrayal of Starfire in this comic
4. Who would like this comic

That's not everything I kept in mind, but I have read a lot of the discussions that have been written about this issue, as well as about Catwoman #1, I understand what people have expressed about the issues seeming to scream out that the female character is less important to the creators as a character, or as a woman, than they are as an object of titillation and male fantasy.

I think there is a lot to be said for trying harder, or at all, to put out well written comics that embrace the female characters they contain as full fledged characters, and give them the same sort of respect and complexity that other characters are given, rather than having everything focus on their sexualization and their role in fan boy wet dreams. I am not anti sex or sexiness, but the mechanical cheesecake posing, or the constant focus on t&a and forced emphasis on female characters as sex objects is a problem in my opinion.

That being said(and that barely scratches the surface of my opinions of the misuse of female characters by DC and the top few publishers in general) What about this issue over all, what about this title as an ongoing?

I picked this comic because the premise sounded cool enough. I have no history with Roy Harper, I am most familiar with Red Hood from the Under the Red Hood video and some appearances in Batman and Robin when I was picking that up before the relaunch. Starfire was a favorite of mine from when I was reading the New Teen Titans as a kid, and also, from her excellent re-imagining for the Teen Titans cartoon. I have friends who warned me about Scott Lobdell as a writer, but I am not sure if I have read his work before, so that was not a negative to me, Also, the art looked like it would be pretty good, and I will say, except for the awful Starfire posing, I think the art was pretty great. Starfire is a beautiful character with no problems about showing off her body, but posing her like a stripper just comes off cheesy and a bit cheap.

As far as the comic being bad, or the title striking me as a bad one, I am not willing to say that at this point. I am not sure that I will continue getting this, but this is a relaunch where some liberties have been taken with a lot of characters in a lot of different ways, some not for the better by many estimations. Here is what the comic seems like to me.

I think this comic reads like a modern, somewhat raunchy buddy movie. It has a great deal of the smug smirkiness and kind of fist-bumping frat boy smarminess, wrapped around an initial setup that involves a kind of cool, kind of far fetched prison break and doesn't make you think too hard. I really like Starfire as the heavy hitter in the group, and the boys acceptance/dependence on that is cute. The issue introduces and interesting character named Essence, that must have featured in Red Hood's past, but I haven't seen her before. It was not a bad comic as comics go, It was not even something that would cause the average comic reader with no built in feelings for the character of Starfire, to take much notice or offense to, beyond perhaps the insistence on meaningless sex with her sex partner's buddy.

I think if that is the way that her race is now characterized, then it was necessary to show it. It is character development to play it out. Humans aren't Tamaranians though, and unless the writer takes some time to show the effects that that sort of behavior can have on close relationships and fragile male egos, then I will say it was just a cheap thing to do to excite boys.

So, in closing, This wasn't that bad of a comic. It read a bit too much like a movie, with the posing in the water and all, but it was not without some fun. There are very real issues with DC editorial being oblivious and letting some terrible ideas and attitudes just walk through to print. A lot of people could benefit from reading and learning from the opinions of the folks who took the time to intelligently document their reactions and thoughts about the issue.

More to Comics than comics

Over at my other blog, with an unfortunate name, I recently posted A Thing about some health issues and things that have been going on with me recently. Mostly it's just about finally trying to have a stake in by my own health and well being. During this same time, Comics have had a place in that mix as well, and I figure since I am not using all of the blank, potential page space I have lying around here to write some sort of scholarly take on Superman's pants and his psychological need to feel like he is wearing armor when his is on the shortest of short-lists of characters that probably don't need armor, I can put a few thoughts down about comics and people, and their intersection in my life.


My LCS - I don't love every single business move my LCS-Owner Makes. I flat out disagree with a number of notions and predispositions he has sometimes, but That guy is a top notch genuine Good guy. I can't fault him on that one bit, nor can I fault his business sense, even if I don't love it. He has navigated a store through a long tough time in a market that has eaten a lot of other stores, and he has done it by being smart and making hard decisions, but making up for the occasional bare shelf with kick ass customer service. Always err on the side of Customer service and genuine friendliness. Twice , recently when I have been trying to get by the shop and have ended up there early, they have seen me, or my Wife, and opened up the store for us. They found out I was having issues and have been asking after me. I walked in and they all came up to me and it was like returning home after an absence.

My Wife - My Wife Doesn't hate comics, but she has no great regard for them other than knowing that comics are a thing I like a lot. She long ago vowed to never go into a comic shop, and broke that vow while I was in the hospital for a week. She sought it out, I think they opened up for her after they had closed, and since I have reduced my pull list, she worked with them to find some good stuff for me to read during my nearly week long hospital stay. I didn't ask her to do this, or expect it, but it really was a nice extra, during a week when I already felt like she was doing too much for me by staying with me nearly 8 hours a day as I just lay in bed. My friend at the shop that I talk to probably more than the owner was happy to help her pick a few he thought I should like. That really meant a lot to me.

Comic Friends: There is an older gentleman at my church that is what I hope to be someday. He's a good person, and he is also a lifelong Batman Fan. We chat in the Narthex about comic series and events, and See each other at the shop sometimes. When he heard from the guys at the LCS asking about me, and saw my name in the church bulletin, he called my wife to see how I was, and to offer to pick up my comics and bring them by for me, or anything else I might need, really.

Comic Friends, Computer edition: I have a lot of friends on Twitter. A vast minority of them I have met in person. Many of them are from a community that formed around a comics related bulletin board, and have real lasting friendships based of of the relationships formed there. I have come to regard these folks as being as real of friends as most people I have known in person for ages. Yes, I am old enough that I have to explain things like that out. It is starting to feel dumb that I still do that. These folks have given me so much advice, encouragement, hope and humour that I can't imagine how I would have gotten through things otherwise. The Relationship I have with these folks is not a comics-centric one, but a great many are exactly the same sort of geek culture, comic-appreciating type of people that I am, and it is nice to be accepted in that kind of environment by good people, wherever they may congregate.

Comics - I have had trouble focusing for a while, and motivating, and staying comfortable, and feeling like doing anything, But comics have still been there for me. I think it's easier for me to read comics when I am not feeling great, or discontent. The visual storytelling is generally easier to grab hold of than solid blocks of text that can seem daunting, or can be a bit more strain on the eyes, Also, right before getting sick I was reorganizing my shelves, and so they have been on my mind and in clearer focus to me lately, so I have gotten a lot of joy out of thinking about the series I have, and want to start, and following along with the impending DC relaunch and the new titles that will be available.

So there's that. Hopefully I can shake this fog of melancholy I've been stuck in and start writing more, again, we'll see. I just wanted to take a second and say Thanks Comics, and all the good folks who find themselves around comics in whatever capacity.

Flashpoint (some spoilers)

I will state right up front that I hadn't expected to even look at Flashpoint, DC's giant summer event. It is less of a crossover than it is a giant multifaceted event made up of a core limited series and a vast number of mini's and one-shots. It evolved out of The Flash, and the Impetus of the plot is the result of a Flash Villain's diabolical plot to really just shit on Barry Allen's life in the most collossally Meta level possible.

I am not a fan of publisher's giant events. I think they are crass and abusive to the consumer, and most of the time there are scads of crossover comics , minis and one shots that contribute almost nothing important to the story. I am not saying event comics don't produce some terriffic comics, because sometimes they do, but in general I would prefer to have a story told without a lot of filler to make me spend more than I really need to.

Flashpoint drew me in with some interesting plot setups. Some fundamental things changed in the world, critical moments in time were altered just enough to produce outcomes drastically different from what we knew to be true. This creates the elseworld to end all elseworlds out of 'reality' In the new configuration Atlantis and Themyscira are at war with each other and the world. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are ruthless warmongers fighting for control of the erth. The Atlanteans have flooded Europe and The Amazons have taken Great Britain. Gorrilla Grodd has Conquered Africa in an awful and brutal campaign against humanity. Amazons, Apes and Atlanteans, the world is in the crapper without ever leaving the A's.
The main series focuses on Barry Allen in this situation, realizing that this is indeed his world, tampered with, rather than an alternate universe or anything, and the mini series' being released at the same time address a lot of what-if's and where are they nows.

Some of these are
What if Bruce Wayne was killed in Crime Alley and Thomas Wyne became Batman
In a world where Superman was held by the government and never became a hero, what becomes of Lois Lane
What if DeathStroke the Terminator was a pirate vying against the Warlord for control of the high seas over a newly flooded Europe.
and tons more, focusing on characters from Abin Sur and Shade the changing man, to Kid Flash and the Flying Graysons.
I think this works really well. Some of the titles are a little heavy on brutality, but especially for people who Love the characters and their histories, etc., it is fun to see who they would be changed based on tweaks in the timeline. I'm not sure where this will stand ultimately as a comics event, but it has made for some fun reading so far. It is pretty neat as a sort of exercise . It is also sort of funny that this comes just prior to the relaunch of the DC line. I think it shows hope for the future. It is possible to change and tweak popular characters and start them in a new environment without losing the things you love about those characters. Good writing is the thing that gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to trying new things. Flashpoint works way better than I had expected, an I look forward to seeing what the fall brings as well.

Free Comic Book Day

#FreeComicBookDay #FCBD - You probably aren't seeing this if you don't already pay attention to comics at least a little, but on the off chance you got here via a search, or you don't know the significance of today, here is the deal:

Free Comic Book Day is an extremely cool comics industry wide event where comic creators and publishers and shops work to get a variety of free comic book offerings out in front of the public to promote the industry and to welcome new readers, collectors, enthusiasts to the joys of comics.

Many stores participate, and some have specific rules as to how many free comics you can get, but many are happy to have you stop by and pick up what you'd like from the specific selection of free comic book day comics they have.

There are a great number cof comics in various genres, but comics for kids, and all ages are plentiful, and comics featuring characters they may recognize from movies and tv and games are also readily available, so it is a great time to introduce a young person you know to comics.

It is also a perfect opportunity as an adult to get an introduction to comics and comic shops, and to see the great variety of people who enjoy comics as well. Some stores have special sales or contests, etc., but not all.

On a local note (southern MD, Charles county-ish) I went to two stores, as I am here to visit my Mom for Mother's day tomorrow. House of Pop Culture had a great sale in addition to a take what you'd like to read FCBD policy, and a large selection of comics that are a buck apiece or 10 for $15. Comics MD had a slightly smaller selection with the same policy, a big pile of $1 trades and at least 20% off most things in the store.

If you see this, and it is still a reasonable hour on 5/7/2011, you owe it to yourself to get out and take advantage of this celebration of comics.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

This book is making it hard for me to review it. I will start with the easy part and finish with the stuff that is giving me trouble from a review standpoint. Robot Dreams by Sara Varon is a dialog free comic. I love how this book looks and feels. It is a First Second book, so I am not surprised at the quality.

I was not really familiar with Sara Varon before I brought this home from the Library. As it stands, I now have a strong desire to read everything she has done. I think I like every single panel in the book. She certainly conveys a great deal in the nearly wordless pages. She also has created a book that doesn't rely on anything overtly negative or malicious. The inhabitants of the world this takes place in are all animals, and they are all depicted without cruelty or hostility in them. The story is a simple one, and it doesn't preach or moralize. It also makes very clear that reading and libraries are two extremely important things. When the dog needs to find a beach to go to, they hit the Library first. When they need to figure out how to repair a robot, they look in the Library first. It also shows us the benefits of various transit methods like the bus or Taxis. I really like that we get panel space for those things.

Check out Sara Varon's WebPage for more about her and her works.


Ok, here's the thing. Sara Varon is a heck of a story teller, and I genuinely do like every panel of her work, I really think the art is darling and the storytelling masterful, and the feelings of her characters convey right through the illustration and are touching and charming. All that being said, I hate the story and think it's an awful story. I yelled at the book when I was done. As if it was it's fault the story was awful. Here is my take on the story:

A dog orders a build it yourself Robot, makes a friend out of it. Does really nice things for it and with it, including going to the beach. The Robot swims and ends up rusted and immobile. The dog completely abandons the robot on the beach. The dog returns maybe a day, maybe a month later and the beach is closed, so despite seeing the robot right over there.. he leaves and starts on a quest to find new friends, leaving robot to lay there alone with his fantasies, etc. with no hope for rescue. At one point while robot is scavenged from in a way grossly disproportionate to the needs of the person who scavenged off of him. Jump to the end of the book, and dog just buys and builds a new robot. Old Robot has been found by a cool guy who makes him into a walking and dancing radio of a robot. He sees his old best pal walk by with his new robot, and plays music for them to hear, but they straight up ignore him and walk by. THE END

Please also note that the dog who abandoned the robot because of rust, easily carried him when he first arrived in box before assembly, and later carried the second robot the same way. Somebody doesn't value friendship or the feeling of others over the need to never be even mildly inconvenienced I guess.

The other thing about the story that gets my attention is how the plot is summarized in different places. The creator has the best and most accurate blurb about it, and then the publisher has some misleading notions that it posts, and I saw others commenting on it referring to it in ways that make you wonder if the read it at all.

So, In closing, I certainly liked a whole lot of stuff about a book whose story is on my Nixon-Style enemies list. Also, if you close one eye and read it in a different frame of mind than perhaps I did, you could see it as a story with a number of triumphs in it, a sort of survivors story, are one of winning through patience and perseverance.

Small Press Expo 2011

Small Press Expo will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11 this year, once again at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland. I hope you appreciate that I am posting about this early enough for you to start saving your money. This is a show that you can enjoy without spending much. but it presents an opportunity to sample a great deal of small press and independently produced comics. It has also had some pretty great programs in the past, Including features involving cartoonists such as Jaime Hernandez, Carol Tyler, and Bryan Lee O'Malley (To name a few sessions I personally attended and enjoyed).

This years lineup of special guests includes a pretty diverse group of creators as you can see from the Flyers I have attached here from the SPXPO site. (Craig Thomson and Dustin Harbin respectively). The artwork, flyers and posters that are made for SPX are always pretty awesome, and these are no different.

Write-ups for this year's guests can be found at the Exhibitors and Guests page on the SPX site. This year they were written by volunteers. I wrote the blurbs for Jim Rugg and for Johnny Ryan. I have been a big fan of Rugg's since I picked up Street Angel from him at a Pittsburgh Comicon a number of years ago, before it was in trade paperback form. Despite loving his work, or maybe because of my love for his work, my blurb is a bit drier than I had hoped it would be, as I didn't want to break down into blathering about just what a great guy he seemed like, and how interviews done with him are some of the better comic related discussions you could want to read. Not wanting to turn a little blurb into an editorial love-fest, I went with a cut and dried approach and it is boring but respectful.

I felt a bit more comfortable being a little looser with the Blurb for Johnny Ryan. Up to the point of asking to do his writeup, I had only read one issue of Angry Youth Comix. I had wanted to become more familiar with his work, so I asked to write it and then bought at least one trade volume of each of his collected works, etc. Given the nature of his work, it made it feel a bit easier to joke while still being respectful of a cartoonist that really knows what he is doing.

It was fun being a part of this build up to the main event in the fall. SPX is a fun event to volunteer at, in addition to being one of my favorite comics related events in general. There is a large selection of wildly varied material, and behind nearly every table is someone that is genuinely excited about being a creator and getting their work in front of people. If you haven't been to it, you really should give it a shot. If you are a fan of comics and comics creators, then this is something that can really rekindle enthusiasm for those things. For the past several years I have gone and I have volunteered, and each year I leave the event having met some really awesome people at all levels of the comics experience.

Copper by Kazu Kibuishi

I was not familiar with Kazu Kibuishi's web comic Copper before I saw this book in the library. I knew him from the Flight Anthologies, and am a huge fan of his Amulet series, so I recognized his style on the cover before I read his name there.

I like the strips that are in here. They are single page affairs, but sometimes are connected to other pages and sometimes not. The setup for the strip is basically Calvin and Hobbes, but that analogy only goes so far. There is a boy named Copper, and he has a dog named Fred. They have adventures and hang out and play games and set themselves adrift in the world. Sometimes there exploits seem to take place in the real world, sometimes in fantastic worlds, sometimes dystopian worlds, and sometimes in dream.

Kibuishi's art is beautiful. It is stunning and colorful and shows clearly the wonders and beauty that Copper is so taken by. He sees beauty and takes time to look at it. He is a master of creating lush but bleak landscapes. I am not sure how else to describe what he does in many of the pages. There is a bleakness in some of them, mixed with a sort of beauty and detail. The strips range from clever or funny to melancholy and somewat cynical.

I enjoyed reading the book. It made me chuckle and it made me sigh. Certainly worth looking at online to make your own decision. It is on Kibuishi's website.

Castle Waiting: Volumes One and Two

I borrowed the hardcovers of Castle Waiting volume one and two from my local library. I own the paperback volume one, but reading both in hardcover was kind of nice. I had difficulty setting the books down once I started, and honestly loved both of them pretty much completely. When I was re-reading EB White's books to my kids as they were groing up, Stewart Little was my favorite, and the character stays very present in my mind, as he was an example of decency, and also kind heartedness. For being more or less a mouse in the world, he was fallable and capable of self defeat, but really, again for being what he was, embodied humanity as I could identify with it, and as I liked to think it could be. This is what Linda Medley has captured and conveys in the characters she has created in her books. Even if the characters are not all entirely human, there is a real decency and humanity in so many of them that it has the ability to just about bring tears to my eyes.

Linda Medley's art is clean and thin lined and very clear and easy to follow. Her settings and architecture are perfect, and her expertise with facial expressions has her rightfully recognized as one of the all-time greats in that particular skill. I think of her in the same way I think of Jaime Hernandez and Terry Moore with regard to conveying thoughts and feelings through their character's faces.

Castle Waiting starts with a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Stories are a primary focus of this series, and it opens with a story that at least so far, gives us the main base of operations for the primary focus of the series, and it also gives us a handful of characters. If Castle Waiting is about stories, it is equally about characters, as characters are the heart of the stories. There is less traditional 'action' in Castle Waiting than you might expect for something that owes so much to Fairy Tales, and seems to have evolved out of such a great love of them, but it is replaced with character development and backstory filling up even the most seemingly still and reflective or insignificant of pages.

After the Sleeping Beauty story is told, we move focus to Jain, who we first see fleeing presumable domestic abuse and setting out on her own to seek an almost mythical sanctuary known as Castle Waiting. Jain exhibits a lot of fairy tale characteristics herself, and gets into situations that should go much worse for her, but always seem to work themselves out with kindness or storytelling, etc. She eventually makes it to Castle Waiting, which is the castle of the kingdom from the Sleeping Beauty story. Remaining there from the opening piece is a trio of Ladies in Waiting who are now very old ladies, and a small demon that always seems to be around. They people of Castle Waiting operate it as a sanctuary for anyone who needs it, and they all need it themselves to some degree.

Jain is pregnant, and has her child at the castle, and ultimately the book turns to the story of Sister Peace (Warren), a sister of a very unique order, who seems to always know what people really need. Her story is again, filled with relatively little real conflict, although there is a good bit there, the focus is on the good people trying to live their lives. The stories are very much the sorts of things that go on just off the page in fairy stories, combined with a sort of modern sensibility of feminism and human nature, and good people looking out for good people.

The Second volume contains a lot of coverage of what goes on when visitors come to the castle with ties to some of the other residents, and are inlisted in helping Jain and her baby move to different living quarters. It is slice of life, but there is more going on than just day to day. You continue to get stories, and you continue to wait for resolution to a variety of questions that have naturally come up since the story began. In my opinion that is just fine with me. I am not impatient about the lack of resolution. The word WAITING is right there in the title. This is not an action story, this is a story that celebrates the need for stories as much as the need for people to have a safe place to live, and caring people to interact with. There is a great deal of sweetness in this, but it is mixed with mischief and wonder, and a sense that if you look hard enough you will find that you aren't alone, and that you don't have to suffer for your differences as much as we are lead to believe sometimes. These books are a treasure, and I highly recommend them. There will be plenty of people who will surely hate them as much as I love them, but there are books out there for them as well.