Iron West, Tommysaurus Rex, and Creature Tech

	Iron West by Doug TenNapel Image Comics ISBN: 1582406308
	Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel Image Comics ISBN: 1582403953
	Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel Top Shelf Productions ISBN: 1891830341

I like westerns. I like robots. Why not have both? That's what I thought when I found Doug TenNapel's Iron West graphic novel at the library. Ok…I admit that I think similar thoughts on a pretty regular basis. This was different as it was prompted by the finding of book rather than…well…boredom.

Anyway, if the name Doug TenNapel sounds familiar, it’s probably not surprising as he’s worked on a lot of different projects. I was most familiar with his Earthworm Jim creation.

Iron West featured the humor and, let’s face it, off-the-wall-ness you’d expect from TenNapel. There were portions that seemed a little gimmicky but, overall, I really liked the book. It had humor, action, character development, and character growth. In this case, the main character grows from a man that runs from challenges to one the accepts and responsibility for those around him. I liked the silliness of the story. I enjoyed the free-flowing artwork. And I liked that the story was wholly contained in one book. You start from scratch with no preconceived ideas as to who the characters are or should be. Well done.

I enjoyed Iron West enough that I proceed to read the other TenNapal works in the library’s collection. Next up was Tommysaurus Rex. I actually enjoyed this more than Iron West. Like Iron West, the story is solid and well told. Again, there’s silliness but I’d consider that a good time. Through the telling of a story that involved a boy finding and befriending a dinosaur, the boy learns valuable lessons about kindness and sacrifice.

Third in my TenNapel reading trilogy was Creature Tech. Maybe my favorite of the three. The silliness is still there. The solid story and characters are still there. The silliness (thankfully) is still prominent. Space eels? Demon cats? A symbiotic organism? Good stuff. Here, the main character finds a faith he’d previous put aside for science. Yes, there’s a message of faith here. I wouldn’t call the message thinly-veiled though I didn’t find it preachy, either.

All in all, I’m disappointed the library doesn’t have more TenNapel works. From what I’ve read, it’s lively and fun without being superficial. While I didn’t know it when I first picked up his work, TenNapel’s is a professing Christian and it shows through. As in several of my previous book reviews, I was pleased to see these books fall into the category of things I wouldn’t mind my kids reading. The language was clean. There may have been a cheek shown in Creature Tech but it’s brief (you know, assuming you don’t read the same panel over and over).

Bone: The One Volume Edition

Bone: The One Volume Edition
by Jeff Smith
Cartoon Books
ISBN: 188896314X

I've fallen behind on my reviews and my blogging in general. I've been busy, ok?!

Anyway, I've always heard good things about the Bone series by Jeff Smith but I never really got into them. No, it's not that I didn't get into them. I don't think I really even tried. I'm pretty sure I picked up the books and thought they looked too childish and left it at that. I know...this from someone that still watches cartoons. Recently, though, I thought I'd give them a real try. Fortunately, the library has copies and I was able to pick up a few of the books published by Scholastic. I was impressed and, with the help or Christmas gift cards, I scored a copy of Bone: The One Volume Edition.

Well, I'm still impressed. First off, the edition is something like 1300 pages. I own some pretty big books but I think this is definitely the biggest. But, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The artwork is a terrific mix of realism and stylization. The fact that three of the main characters are, for lack of a better description, blobby people only adds to the fantastical nature of the story. And it really is fantastic. There are twists and turns. Humor and horror. Action and drama. It's pretty intense. No wonder it's 1300 pages.

I think part of why I liked the book was that is offered something for both adults and children. It is childish, as I initially thought. But, unlike my first feelings, there's a lot for grown ups too. It's something I can enjoy without worrying about my kids also reading it. That scored big in my book.

It should be noted that Bone: The One Volume Edition is in black and white. I believe that's how the books were originally published. I know you can get them in color as the Scholastic copies at the library are printed in color. Really, I could go either way on it. I like the black and white for it's originality and simplicity. On the other hand, the color looks really good, isn't distracting, and might draw in those that are turned off by lack of color. Either way, it's worth checking out.

Invicible: Ultimate Collection Volume 1

Invincible: Ultimate Collection 1
by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley
Image Comics
ISBN 9781582405001

Up until this past week, it had been months since I’d read a superhero comic. Actually, the last one was DC’s New Frontier. I hadn’t been avoiding them. I’d just found myself in the mood for other things. Then I found the Invincible Ultimate Collection 1.

I wasn’t previously all that familiar with the Invincible series but I do like to read new stuff. I had heard of it. In fact, I had heard very, very good things about the series. I’d even flipped through a couple issues at the comic shop and I remember thinking it looked pretty cool. Unfortunately, my comic-buying budget was already maxed out and the series was already several issues along. Those things discouraged me and I didn't buy it. That’s a shame because this is a book that really did live up to the hype.

Without giving too much away, here’s the rundown on the story. It follows a high school student named Mark Grayson, a normal high school guy with homework, college prep, a job at a burger joint, and the typical adolescent awkwardness. Ok, so he’s not so normal. And, no, this isn’t Spider-man. He’s known for a long time that his dad is the world renown superhero, Omni-Man. He also knows that, eventually, it’s very likely he’ll develop the superpowers of his father. And, no, this isn’t Son of Superman. A lot of things happen to Mark. He does get his superpowers, he joins his first Super Team, he fights alongside his Dad, and he faces terrible, terrible tragedy. The story arc is well paced over the 13 issues and we see Mark really grow as he faces numerous challenges both as a hero and as a kid. You can read vast amounts about the series on Wikipedia Invincible entry but be forewarned that there are spoilers aplenty.

The writer, Robert Kirkman, is someone I’m familiar with from his work on The Walking Dead series (another book I sadly didn’t discover until well after it began). I really enjoyed The Walking Dead and Kirkman’s work on Invincible is no less appealing. It’s concise. It’s clear. And, even while creating a new universe of characters, you feel like you know each of them quite well in a very short time. Yyou get a real feel for the heroes as both heroes and as people. You know them as both the costumed figure and the alter-ago…and they’re the same person. That is, it’s the same personality in both. You don’t read them and think “there’s no way these are the same people”. That’s a good thing.

The artwork is equally impressive. While the characters do lean toward some of the typical over-buff superhero physique, it’s not outlandish. It does a good job blending realism and stylization and, most importantly, the artwork is believable (to the extent that a superhero comic can be believable). Proportion is terrific. The surrounding details are amazing and add a great deal to the atmosphere.

The book doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is. Does that make sense? It’s not forcing itself to follow any sort of trend. It doesn’t try to be a gritty drama. I don’t get that it has any sort of big political agenda like so many other books. It doesn't have any big summer movie blockbuster tied to it (though it looks like it may eventually be a movie). It’s a very good, very well-developed story that’s fun to read (and re-read, if you're like me).

Some of the issues have some pretty violent and even gory images but the language and story are generally family friendly.

I’ll be looking for more.

Rocketo: The Journey to the Hidden Sea by Frank Espinosa

Rocketo Volume 1: Journey to the Hidden Sea and Rocketo Volume 2: Journey to the Hidden Sea by Frank Espinosa Image Comics ISBN 1582405859 and 1582407355

Here's a book I found by chance...Rocketo by Frank Espinosa. Ok, actually, two books. Ok, one story, two volumns. Back off!

Anyway, I was checking out the graphic novels at the local library. I honestly can't remember what I was actually looking for but, while I was in the neighborhood, I checked out the books on the New Release shelf. That's where I found Rocketo. I had never heard of it. I wasn't familiar with the author. I didn't have any clue as to what I should expect.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The artwork immediately caught my eye. The colors and inks are bold. While it's heavily stylized, it's incredibly engaging. Every brush stroke drives the story. And every brush stroke is driven by the story. Nothing is wasted. Rocketo represents the perfect example of Scott McCloud's theory stylization can be healthier for the story than realism.

As I read, I found the story just as engaging as the artwork. This is no superhero comic though there's certainly no shortage of action. In fact, it's packed with action. But there's also intrigue, deception, friendships, and magic (not Harry Potter kind of magic but the kind of magic that comes from engulfing oneself in the unknown). The story takes place on earth, far into the future. Life on earth is nothing like it is now. Land masses are different. New lifeforms exist. Dogmen. Birdmen. Living storms. All of this has led to a new age of exploration. It's the story of one such explorer...one that's lost, so to speak. And it's the story of how this lost explorer finds his way back.

As you can probably guess, I would highly recommend the books. For those of you with families, there is quite a bit of violence but both the language and the artwork are clean.

Book Review: Making Comics by Scott McCloud

Making Comics
by Scott McCloud
Harper Paperbacks
ISBN 00607809

I've previously reviewed Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud. I thoroughly enjoyed both books. Naturally, I was pretty pumped when his book, Making Comics, came out recently. I was not disappointed. Where the previous two books focused on the past and future of comics, Making Comics focused on the actual craft. This fit in nicely with my current aspirations.

One might think that this would be a step-by-step, how-to-draw book but this is not the case. Really, the core is storytelling via comics. How do you tell a story with artwork? How do you make it not only readable and worthy of reading? H0w do you make you characters interesting and convincing?

Here are some of my big takeaways:

1. How does the artist balance clarity (simplicity, ease of reading) with intensity (the flash that catches reader's attentions). What to include/exclude. Framing. POV. Really, it's like directing a film...on Bristol Board.

2. Facial expressions. Seriously, Making Comics includes pages upon pages about expression, facial musculature, and the ever-so-slight variations on expressions. These pages, alone, might make it worth buying the book. It's really impressive. It prompted me to pull out my copy of Burne Hogarth's Drawing the Human Head.

3. Word use. Details about sound effects, bubbles, even fonts. How can they help/hurt the story.

4. Making the world of your comic feel real. It really is the little details that pulls the reader into this world. Taking a little time (i.e. space in a comic) to really show the world will go a long way.

5. Tools of the trade. Honestly, I was expecting a greater focus on art mediums, materials, techniques but was pleasantly surprised. Don't misunderstand. Having the right tools can make a task a lot easier and, if having something like a t-square means I can spend more time telling the story and less time making parallel lines, I'm all for it. I appreciated McCloud's documentation of what successful artists use...having a few guidelines make the art supply story feel a lot less intimidating. I also appreciated, though, the mentioning that great artists can make terrific artwork with just a few basic tools like printer paper and ballpoint pens. Ok, I wrote more about this, the smallest aspect of the book, than any of the other takeaways. Sorry.

There you have it. I really liked the book. I'd really like to own a copy but we'll see how that works out...I'm terribly cheap.

Book Review: Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud

This is part two of my Scott McCloud book reviews. The earlier review focussed on his book, Understanding Comics. This will focus on Reinventing Comics.

Where Understanding Comics looked at the magic and the mechanics of comics, Reinventing Comics, as expected from the title, looks at some of the history of the comic along with where comics are/can be going. It also provides McCloud's ideas as to how creators and readers can maximize the potential for comics.

The first section of the book hits on a lot of history. There's a great deal of information regarding the birth of modern comics, the periods throughout history where comics experienced highs and lows. There is also a great deal of focus on Fredric Wertham, M.D. and his book Seduction of the Innocent, the resulting censorship, and the Comic Code Authority which greatly limited what was deemed publishable. Little violence. Restricted language. Most importantly, absolutely no zombies. All that was left was a lot of funny, talking animal comics.

Looking to the future, McCloud points out several events that need to take place before comics can really reach their potential. The general theme here is that comics need to reach more people. In order to reach more people, they need to appeal to more people. In order to appeal to more people, they need to grow more diverse. In order to be more diverse, they need creators that are more diverse.

The bigger question is this: how to get more diversity? If you walk into you average comic shop, the majority of it is dedicated to mainstream comics. That is, superhero comics published by a handful of publishers. These are the biggest sellers, so these are what shops, all subject to limited shelf space, stock. That makes sense. It's kind of a Catch-22 in that shops have to stock what people buy...but people won't buy what isn't stocked. McCloud gives a good timeline/sequence of events for this phenomena:

1. Comic shop opens and they give comics A-Z equal shelf space.
2. People come in and buy comics. They buy a lot of comics A, B, and C.
3. Comic shops start stocking more of A, B, and C. This eliminates some of the shelf space for D-Z.
4. People come in and continue to buy A, B, and C as that's what appears to be popular.
5. Eventually, the entire shop is A, B, and C and D-Z have all but disappeared.

At this stage, I doubt people just "wander into" a comic shop. I'm thinking the average buyer is something that makes a weekly Wednesday trip to the shop to pick up superhero books. I know that's a broad generalization but, let's face it, if someone is looking for a really good Crime Drama story, they probably aren't heading down to the comic shop.

Does that mean the biggest opportunities for comic book innovation aren't in the local comic shop? Well, I don't know. What does seem apparent is that the web offers amazing opportunity. This is where it really started to hit home for me because of my interest in web comics. McCloud provides another series of events, outlining the career of a "successful" comic creator:

1. Creator folds a 8.5 x 11 paper into fourths. They use each section as a panel and they draw a cartoon. It's for their own benefit and they do it because they enjoy drawing, creating, and their time at the drawing table. They have complete control over what they create.
2. Creator shows their comic to a friend. The friend likes it and encourages the Creator. Creator sells the comic to their friend for $.25. Viola! They've made their first sale!
3. Creator's friend shows the comic to their friends. They like it and also want to buy $.25 copies. Creator busts his bottom to hand-create comics. They still retain complete control of the work.
4. Popularity grows and Creator can't keep up. They start selling photocopies. They still retain full control but now they suffer three things: a) the degradation of quality via the copy process, b) the cost of making the copies which cuts into their profits, and c) time spent in the copy shop instead of at the drawing table (which is where they'd rather be, anyway).
5. You can probably see where this is going. The creator prospers and the comic's popularity continues to grow even outside the local area. To keep up with demand, the creator now spends a lot of time boxing and shipping books, handling payments, and filling out paperwork. This means even less time at the drawing table.
6. Finally, the creator farms out some of the responsibility for printing, shipping, marketing, etc. This buys them more time but the increased number of middle-men cut more into profits. Even worse, more people are trying to tell the creator what to do.
7. In the end, what was once done for pure enjoyment and art is reduced to business.

I know it's probably overly cynical but I'm not sure it's that far off. There's good news, though! with modern technology, there's a way to not only maximize the art and the enjoyment of the creation but also maximize distribution. Here are the things that struck me as major benefits to online comics (from both the creator and the reader standpoint).

1. Very little overhead. With software advancements and cheap internet hosting, the publishing of online comics is surprisingly easy and affordable.
2. The creator retains all creative control. No one telling them what to do, how to run the business, or how to be more marketable.
3. Assuming the comic is strictly online, the delivery charge amounts to nothing other than web traffic. What you deliver is entirely digital...no paper, no ink, etc. That translates to even fewer costs and fewer middle-men.
4. The degree of separation between the artist and the online comic book reader is (or can be) exactly one.
5. With all of this, we're right back at the beginning of the above scenario where the creator sells a folded 8.5 x 11 to a friend and they retain complete control over subject and quality.
6. Honestly, the web offers a lot of creative potential, too. The standard comic is typically confined to a certain, standard size for print and delivery. The web page is virtually endless. The potential for creative use of that space is incredible.
   

Now, there's some work involved in making money at it. McCloud is a big fan of what's called micropayments. I admit I haven't investigated the concept extensively but, at it's core, the creator would be able to accept very small online payments (i.e. the aforementioned $.25) in return for an online comic. It's something but it's still small enough that a buyer unsure of whether they'll enjoy a comic won't be discouraged.

Reinventing Comics was published several years ago so you'd think that, as far as technology goes, it would already be somewhat dated. Fortunately, the book sticks to broad concepts that don't really go out of date. If anything, the improvements in software and hardware have made McCloud's statements even more valid. Some might argue online publishing is getting too easy as it floods the web with, well, junk.

Do I think print comics are on their way out? No. At least, I certainly hope not. I still love the feel of the comic book in my hand. I like to flip through the pages repeatedly and I enjoy the tactile side of it. Though I don't make the weekly trip to the comic shop anymore, I still actively read graphic novels and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

So, I actually found the book really encouraging to my efforts. McCloud has a newer book titled Making Comics. I haven't read it yet but it has definitely been added to the list.

Book Review: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

In the past, my book reviews have been pretty short. That is partially because I don't want to "give away" too much about the books. But, I'm also kind of picky about what I read and I have no trouble putting down a book if I don't like it. The fact that I finish a book is indicative that I enjoyed it and would likely recommend it. Unlike my other reviews, this one horrifically long. I also know many of the readers of this blog aren't necessarily comic book fans so they may not jump out there and read a book about comics so I'm not really concerned with giving away the surprise ending.

While I'm not making a weekly trip to the comic shop, my interest in comics is as strong as ever. Most recently, I've grown more and more interested in the art and the future of comics. This is, in part, due to a renewed desire to work on some web comics and to increase my chances of making those web comics...not stink. In an effort to expand my knowledge of both the nature and the potential of comics, I went to two books by Scott McCloud. This was actually a re-read of these book but they were no less informative the second time around. I thought about doing one review of both but am, instead, opting for two separate reviews. This review is the first. My thoughts on McCloud's Reinventing Comics will be posted in a few days.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is an interesting read for anyone at all interested in comics. It certainly takes what is often viewed as low-brow, trivial junk to be tossed in the garage sale pile or garbage pail and begs you to take a second look. McCloud breaks comics down, redefining the lowly medium as not only art but, specifically, as sequential art. That is, art that encompasses time, action, or motion (or all of the above) rather than one moment in time. The history of the medium is traced from ancient cave paintings to the Column of Marcus Aurelius to a visual depiction of the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus all the way up to the works of such greats as Art Spiegelman (Maus), Will Eisner (The Spirit, et al), Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns).

McCloud also discusses the nature and perception of comics in other (i.e. non-North American) cultures. Specifically, he looks at the comics of Japan and contrasts them with western comic (comics from western culture...not comics about cowboys). Where western comics tend to focus on the superhero and non-superhero action comics that still feel like superhero comics, Japan comics are more diverse with genres that mirror your local library's selection (action, drama, romance, etc). The superhero theme is, of course, to be expected in the West as that's what sells the best. Naturally, publishers will print what people buy (more on that in my follow-up review). Also, Japanese comics are more often published and bound as novel-sized volumes rather than in monthly, episodic increments. The cultural differences run deeper and well into the actual art. Read on.

Even more interesting than the history and demographics of comics is the, for lack of a better term, magic of comics. Really, the relationship between what comics are/can do and how they relate to the human mind is fascinating. In particular, McCloud discusses the way time is represented in comics. More accurately, how time is perceived in comics. We look at a photograph and understand that it's a snaphot of a single instant and nothing more. However, if we look at a single panel of a comic, it could encompass any amount of time. It could be an instant (i.e. an image of a gunshot) or it could represent several minutes (i.e. an entire conversation). Actions and reactions can be captured within a single bound box. The tools used by the comic creator to represent time are varied with the most common being the basic word/thought balloons and simple object placement (following the Western left-to-right reading). There's more, though. A dramatic pause, for instance, could by shown via an extra wide panel, multiple silent panels, or a normal panel with extra wide gutters (the space between panels). Even more details are given regarding the mystical space that is the gutter.

Motion, like time, is another less tangible concept that requires some doing to fit into a static, two dimensional panel. McCloud looks at the various means comic creators have used to represent motion. The common methods involve multiple panels, motion lines, and the use of subjective motion (previously common to only Japanese comics but growing in popularity) which places the object as the focus and the surroundings being "blurred".

The nature of the panel is also discussed in great length. The various kind of transitions between the panels is the focus. What's represented when moving from one panel to the next? Motion? Action? Emotion? Tension? Nothing except a pause? Details and examples of all these are provided. The power of the panel is no more obvious than in the previously blogged Garfield minus Garfield comics. I'm not sure anything could represent awkward creepiness as well as an empty panel portraying absolutely nothing.

All in all, the images on the page are representative of some thing. McCloud points out that, no matter how realistic a drawing may be...it's still just a drawing. A highly detailed image of a pipe, for example, is still not an actual pipe though the eye and the brain still recognizes it as a pipe. A simplified drawing of a pipe is still translated into a pipe in the brain. Even more simplified would be the word "pipe" written on a page. It still invokes the image of a pipe despite the fact that the lines that make up the letters look nothing like a pipe. Stylization isn't bad by any means. In fact, making an overly detailed drawing can actually be distracting from the point. What is more evocative of a pipe? Something in a simple Courier font? Or something written in in a flowery calligraphy script. Both work, but which is better? The same idea works for drawings.

Finally, McCloud discusses the comic creators. What makes a creator great? Essentially, comics are a representation of something in the creator's mind. No matter how good a comic is, it will never rival what's actually in the imagination. A creator, then, is measured by their effectiveness at getting their imagination transmitted and translated into the imagination of the reader.

In short, I would recommend the book to my friends. In fact, I own a copy so if any of my friends want to borrow it, feel free to ask.

Less is More. Also More Funny

Less is often more.

We at the home office have realized this most recently when someone discovered there is a brilliant mind doctoring Garfield comics so as to completely remove Garfield. That's right, Garfield minus Garfield. At first, it sounds like a silly and unfunny idea. Trust me, it's neither. Well, maybe a little silly. But definitely funny.

Having attended college in Muncie, the home of Jim Davis, Paws, and all things Garfield, this hits a little close to home. But I'm not bitter in the least. What was once a comic strip about a fat cat and his quirky, neurotic owner, Jon, has been transformed into a hilarious but often disturbing strip about Jon, a man barely holding onto the fringe of reality. No longer do I feel sorry for Jon, his struggles to get a second date, or his having to purchase fern plants at an alarming rate. I think I'm a little afraid of him.

A New Frontier

I stopped buying monthly comic books a few months ago. That was a big deal for me if for no other reason than than I'd been making a semi-weekly trip to the comic shop for several years. It's not that I've given up on comics as that's certainly not the case. If anything, I'm more into them than ever. But that stoppage has freed up both time and money (but mostly time) to invest in reading either graphic novels or collected reprints of monthly comics. I enjoy having everything "right there". There's no waiting for next month's issue. There's no trying to figure out what I missed before I started picking up a title. Anyway, I've written about that before.

I've read some books I've really enjoyed. I liked DC's Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex. I also really enjoyed Superman: Secret Identity. Of course, I've also read some that I didn't care for like Son of Superman.

Most recently, I've been reading DC: The New Frontier. It was published a few years ago so I'm a little behind the game as I only found out about it recently. And that was only because of an email I received about the upcoming animated movie based on the book. I've got to say, the book(s) (it's actually published in two volumes) have blown me away. Here's why:

1. It's a great story. It spans several decades, weaving several generations of characters into a something that ultimately gives us the first incarnation of the Justice League. Characters that really don't interact...ever...are meeting under believable circumstances. Obviously, it's a comic book so I'm using a pretty loose interpretation of the term "believable". Still, it's impressive.


2. It's set during the mid-/late-fifties. Why is that a big deal? Well, first, it's about the time the Justice League was actually developed (1960). Several of the individual characters like the Hal Jordan Green Lantern (1959) and the Barry Allan Flash (1956) also debuted during that timeframe. In other words, it's not a modernized version of the characters. It's not taking place in some other dimension. The time feels real and there are plenty of semi-accurate historical tidbits.


3. More important than the time of the setting is the mood of the setting. The time period just fits, for lack of a better term. Space was a mystery. Communism was a threat. The heroes of the day were astronauts, test pilots, veterans not juiced up athletes or grandstanding celebrities. People had a genuine sense of duty and honor. I don't know. It's not like I was alive during the 1950s so maybe I'm just being nostalgic for a time that at least appears less murky than today.


4. It does justice to the characters. There seems to be a trend to make comic book characters...you know...trendy. They've been created and recreated to make them more human and more flawed...ordinary people with flaws. The thing with DC: The New Frontier is that, while the character still have flaws, these characters were, at their core, extraordinary even without the powers. If they weren't extraordinary...well, that's where the supervillians come from. Anyway, the heros (superpowered and otherwise) inspire courage which, I think, is what they're meant to do.


5. It introduced me to characters the I either a) didn't know about or b) was unfamiliar with. The Challengers of the Unknown. The Sea Devils. The Suicide Squad. I'll be looking them up.


6. The Flash and Green Lantern, awesome characters that tend to get overshadowed by Superman and Batman, save the day. The Flash is fast. Really, REALLY fast. Seriously.

There's good interview with Darwyn Cooke, the author and artist behind DC: The New Frontier, on the Comic Book Resource site. He hits on a lot the things I mentioned. After this, I will be checking out some of his other work.

Check out the trailer for the animated movie.

More like Funky Winker-MEAN (Part 2 of 2)

I greatly admire the really good cartoonists. I like the poignancy of Peanuts. The offbeat humor of The Far Side always gets me. And I’m amazed at how Calvin and Hobbes can make you laugh and make you think (perhaps I’ll follow up with another entry specifically on Bill Watterson and his creation). I know those three strips are no longer in development but let’s not forget that there are certainly some terrific comics in production today. I think Mr. Boffo by Joe Martin is terrific but surprisingly unknown. Speed Bump by Dave Coverly is interesting and works well. And Dilbert by Scott Adams reaches people that would never pick up the funny pages otherwise.

[Warning: rants ahead]

There’s a downside, of course. Maybe it’s because I love comics so much that it hurts so much to see them so...not good. My issues start with the newspapers themselves. Several decades ago, a decent Sunday paper might have a comics section of 30+ pages. And each of those Sunday strips might have half a page with which to work. Considering the real estate allotted to comics today, that’s astounding. I think the Indy Star, a reasonably “large” paper, prints something like six pages of Sunday funnies with the strips being little larger than the minuscule weekday strips. Add to that the fact that the first two panels (essentially the first line) of today’s Sundays have to be “throw away” work to be printed or not printed at the paper’s discretion and…well…it’s bad.

The other downside? The strips. They simply aren’t funny. Now I could probably read Flash Gordon, Tarzan, or Spider-Man but those aren’t intended to be funny. But, c’mon, has anyone read Funky Winkerbean in the last ten years? Seriously, alcoholism, cancer, chemotherapy, death, missing limbs, lost biological parents, etc. It sounds more like a season of Degrassi Junior High than anything funky. Of course, the odd thing is that I actually read Funky but only because the thing's a train wreck. Then there are the reprints of Peanuts. Reprints?! Not cool. It seems like most of what’s left in the funnies are heavy-handed political or social commentary. Asking readers to think about an issue is great. Unfortunately, so much of it now is the literary equivalent of a sucker punch in the face…with brass knuckles…embossed with some kind of bumper sticker-ism. Ugg. Don't we get enough of that from John Mellencamp?

I do have hope. Most notably, that hope springs from the web. Nowhere can one get their work “out there” as easily as on the web. The possibilities are endless. Online comics can be animated, any length, color, black and white, you name it. Sure, it creates even more competition for the printed strips. And, yes, the ease of online publishing has created a sea of junk which makes it difficult to find “the good stuff”. Mr. Boffo, Speed Bump, and Dilbert are all available online so that’s a plus. While I’m surfing, maybe I’ll find something else new and, you know, not painful.

Perhaps I’ll review the work of Scott McCloud and his views on web comics. Pretty interesting stuff. In the meantime, I’m breaking out The Authoratative Calvin and Hobbes and The Prehistory of the Far Side.

Maybe this should've been 3 parts.

More like Funky Winker-MEAN (Part 1 of 2)

I’ve always loved comics. I love comic books. I love comic strips. The former has been mentioned before. The latter probably hasn’t. Nevertheless, I remember being a little kid and spreading out the full color Sunday funny pages to pour over the funny pages. I still have a number of anthologies of my favorites, Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. Their creators, Bill Watterson and Gary Larson, respectively, inspired me to nurture my own creativity, writing, and artwork.

While I was in college, I had the opportunity to attend the triennial Festival of Cartoon Art at Ohio State University. That was 1998 (the list of events/speakers is still available online). For a comic guy, it really was a blast. Kind of my own one-man adventure. I heard the legendary Will Eisner (creator of The Spirit) speak. That alone would’ve been worth the trip. But that wasn’t it. I also heard and greatly enjoyed hearing Dave Coverly (creator of Speed Bump), Patrick McDonnell (of Mutz), and Ted Rall (editorial cartoonist for Rolling Stone, NY Times, Washington Post). My only regret is that I didn’t stick around for the second day to hear Jeff Smith (creator of Bone) and Art Spiegelman(creator of Maus). [Sigh] Unfortunately, I’ve only recently become interested in these last two artists and writers. FYI: The 2007 Festival of Cartoon Art is coming up near the end of October.

My love of comics went so far as to prompt me to submit my own comic strip for syndication. The strip was promptly turned down by…well…ALL the syndicates. It was heartbreaking but, looking at my old copies of that strip, I can certainly understand why it wasn’t picked up. First and foremost, it wasn’t any good. I probably don’t need to expand on that though I will look for my original character sheets. I'm somewhat hopeful they were lost in our recent move. Not really.

Anyway, there’s my history with the funnies. I know it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the negative title of this blog entry. It'll make more sense after I post Part 2 which will focus more on what I don’t love about comics. Stay tuned. That sounds about as much fun as reading the latest Funky Winkerbean.

Comic Revelations

It’s finally come to this. My celebrated weekly Comic Book day is no more. Sure, publishers are still cranking out comics, new books are still showing up in shops on Wednesdays, and I’ll probably still track new releases but, officially, there are no titles I regularly purchase. None. I never thought this day would come. But two things happened to facilitate the change.

First, the handful of titles I regularly picked up eventually dropped off my list. Some were miniseries books that ended as scheduled. Others were dropped because I decided I simply didn’t care about the stories. Either way, they went away.

Second, I grew tired. As much as I looked forward to comic book day, I grew weary of watching the distribution lists to see what was coming out each week. Likewise, I got tired of waiting, buying bits of story each month to see “how things turned out”. Even the best stories were rarely worth the wait. And, if the story turned out lame after waiting so long, I was infuriated. Most recently, I dropped a title because its content quite suddenly grew inappropriate. Not only do I not want to buy that book anymore…I really want to get the whole lot out of my house. That’s the problem, it’s impossible to tell how good something will be until it’s already been. And it doesn’t help that comic books have gotten more and more expensive while I’ve remained impossibly cheap. It’s one thing for me to see a comic book and think “I can spring 3 bucks to see if it’s any good.” It’s another thing to know that you’ve really got to spring $20+ over the next few months. Ouch. There are a lot of other things I can do with $20.

The solution? Well, I’m not sure. There’s a trend in comics to collect books in graphic novels. They’re not as collectible as individual books but I like that I can have the complete store right now. I especially enjoy that I can read reviews of the entire story before buying in (some I can even pick up at the library). I know it’s silly but I also kind of like the fact that I can put them on my bookshelf. If I have the individual books I keep them stashed away in boxes and I never look at them. The novel, though, I’ll shelve but actually pull out and thumb through periodically.

Anyway, I’m looking at selling off some of my collection. We'll see how that turns out.