All Their Ducks In A Row: Finger Awards Honor Steve Gerber and Don Rosa

Never before in their nine year history have the Bill Finger Awards for Excellence In Comic Book Writing had anything approaching what you could reasonably call a "theme."  There is little, for instance, beyond the long decades they each spent toiling in the unforgiving vineyards of corporate comics, to link the work of last year's recipients.  Frank Doyle spent the bulk of his career relating the misadventures of amiable every-teen Archie Andrews for the company that bears that character's name, while the majority of Steve Skeates' professional output consists of super-hero comics produced for the likes of Charlton and DC.  

This year however, the two recipients of the 2013 Finger Awards, who will honored in a ceremony at next weekends Comic-Con International in San Diego, are linked by a common thread.  Each is primarily known for their work with talking ducks. 

An aside, before we go any further, for those of you reading this who may not be familiar with the concept and history of the Finger Awards.  I wrote a somewhat serviceable synopsis of the concept in my post about last years' awards, and, as I thus see no need to wrack my brain trying to reword it, I shall employ my computers copy and paste function to re-present it below:

Begun in 2005, the Bill Finger Award is the idea of veteran Batman illustrator and political cartoonist Jerry Robinson.  Its sort of a lifetime achievement award for the comics industry's journeyman creators. The recipients are writers who have built up a respectable body of work over a long career but never quite achieved super-stardom or racked up a bunch of flashy awards.  Each year two comics writers, one living and one dead, are chosen to be honored.
The selection is made by a committee of five comics professionals chaired by Mark Evanier...

 Now, where was I?
Oh--right...Ducks.  Talking ducks, at that.

In another first for the finger Awards, Don Rosa is first recipients to have also drawn the stories he wrote.  (Although, as I mentioned last year, Steve Skeates is quite an adept cartoonist, it really wasn't his early 1990s mini-comics that earned him the Finger.)  From the late 1980s until his 2008 retirement, Rosa followed in footsteps of the legendary Carl Barks as the historian of Duckburg, chronicling the new adventures of Donald Duck, his nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey, and cantankerous billionaire waterfowl Scrooge McDuck.  His signature work--some might even say, if they wanted to be so grandiose and somewhat slightly pretentious, his masterpiece--remains the graphic novel The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, in which Rosa wove together the fleeting and ocassionally contradictory hints to Scrooge's past that Barks seeded throughout his many stories over the years into a coherent and compelling epic tale.
This year's posthumous honoree, Steve Gerber, enjoyed a four decade career in the comics industry spanning from the early 1970s until shortly before his death in 2008.  During that time he lent his unique voice and worldview to such titles as The Defenders, Omega the Unknown, Man-Thing, Stewart the Rat, Nevada  and Hard Time.  Gerber's most enduring, and endearing, contribution to American pop culture lies in his creation of a certain cynical, cigar smoking duck from Cleveland who goes by the name of Howard.
Both of these prolific and talented creators are richly deserving of this recognition. It's somewhat of a shame, though, that the Finger Awards didn't get around to honoring Gerber during their first three years, when he was still alive to enjoy it.

Let's See How Much I Can Write About This One Photo From SPACE

Damn.  Sarah (girlfriend of frequent Gutter Talk commenter Jonathon Riddle) was right.  I was rockin' some SPECTACULAR hair last Sunday. She'd probably hate me if I'd have told her all I did to it that morning was wash it, blow dry it and run my fingers through it a couple of times.  Or maybe not.  She doesn't seem like someone who's overly concerned with hair and make-up.  That's not to say she's unattractive, but that she strikes me as neither vain nor vapid.  

Anyway, the above photo is, as you may have surmised already, of me and Canada Keck at the Sunday Comix table at the 14th annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) last weekend.  (Canada's the one wearing the dress.)  I like the way the word balloon in the Sunday Comix logo is pointing at my mouth.  I don't think that was intentional, but its a nice effect anyway.  This picture, by the way, was taken by Michael Neno, and you can see more of his photos from the show on his own blog.

To my right on the table are copies of The Sunday Comix Jam-iversary, the new collection of jam comix that we debuted at the show.  To my left are the bags of comics donated by the other exhibitors which made up the prizes in our raffle to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  Thanks to the generosity of the exhibitors and patrons at SPACE this year, Sunday Comix was able to donate over $200 to the AFSP.

I'll be back to updating this blog soon, I hope.  I haven't quite been inactive the past week, however.  We of Sunday Comix are already planning our next publication, which we hope to have ready for next year's SPACE.  This is going to be an anthology comic with proceeds also going to the AFSP.  I'll have more details as the project evolves.

Meanwhile, I did pick up some comics at the show and I'll be writing about some of those here in the future.

UPDATE: Sunday Comix at SPACE

I'm dashing this post off before I head out to the Ramada Plaza Hotel (4900 Sinclair Road in Columbus, OH) for the second day of the fourteenth annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE).  I will again be mostly at the Sunday Comix table pitching the various comics for sale there, including our latest collection of jam comics, The Sunday Comix Jam-versary, celebrating the group's tenth anniversary.  When I wrote about this book a couple of days ago, I posted some preliminary cover art, but now I can show you the finished cover.  So if you're heading out to the show today, look for this cover:

Also, we of Sunday Comix are once again holding a raffle at the show with the proceeds to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  As the show opened yesterday, Canada Keck hit up all the exhibitors for donations to the prize pool, and came back to the table with enough booty to fill six gift bags.  Yesterday we held three drawings, raising over one hundred twenty dollars.  Today, we plan three more throughout the day.  So, if you're at the show, stop by and get a ticket or several.  We're selling them for two dollars each or a strip of 12 for ten dollars.  The money will be going to a good cause and one that is very near to the hearts of the members of Sunday Comix, you get a shot at going home with a collection of some of the best comics being done today. 

I hope to see you there.

New Sunday Comix Jam Collection Debuting at SPACE

Not Quite Final Cover

This year marks ten years that Columbus cartoonist group Sunday Comix has existed, and to mark this event I baked a cake for our tenth anniversary meeting.  I also helped put together, with fellow SC member Canada Keck, who, to be honest, is doing most of the work, a new collection of the jam comics we do at our meetings.  The cake is gone now, but The Sunday Comic Jam-iversary will debut at SPACE this coming weekend. In addition to the comics, I've written a history of the group that will appear in the back of the book, accompanied by photos from our meetings. 

Also at the Sunday Comix table will be our earlier jam comics collections Sunday Gold and Blue Sunday, the more story based jam Jamtastic Foray and the fundraiser anthology for the Hero Alliance, A Bowl Full of Happiness.  In addition comics by various of our members who don't have their own tables will be on display and for sale.  Sunday Comix members  with tables of their own include Max Ink, Michael Neno, Alex Heberling and Michael Carroll and probably a few others I'm forgetting at the moment.

I'll be spending some time at the table, and I look forward to seeing some of you there.

To whet your appetite for the new collection, here's a couple of the jams that will be included:

Click to enlarge--Read and enjoy!

Click to Enlarge--Read and Enjoy!

Me and Irwin

As I mentioned back in my wrap-up of my weekend at Gem City Comic Con, among the many comics fans wandering the Wright State University's E.J. Nutter Center dressed in the costumes of their favorite comic book super-hero was one who had chosen to don the guise of Irwin Schwab, a.k.a. the Ambush Bug.  At my urging, Canada Keck, with whom I was manning the Sunday Comix table, retrieved her camera from her car and I fetched Mr. Schwab to our table to pose with me for the photo which appears below.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Ambush Bug, or me, for that matter, the Bug is the green one and I'm the one wearing the scarf.

Now, if I can only get a picture of me with G'Nort, I could die happy.

2012 SPACE Prize Winners

As of today, we are six days out from the fourteenth annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, a.k.a.  SPACE.  For those who don't know, SPACE is annual gathering of small press and alternative comics writers, artists and publishers held every spring here in Columbus, Ohio.  This year's show will be held this coming weekend at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center located at 4900 Sinclair Road from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
One of the highlights of any SPACE show is the presentation of the SPACE Prizes. From a pool of books submitted by the exhibitors at the previous year's show, SPACE organizer Bob Corby narrows the field down to ten finalists in three categories. 
The Web-Comic category honors comics published on the web in the twelve month period preceding the show at which they are submitted for consideration.
The Mini-Comics and Short Story category covers comics up to five and a half by eight and a half inches and no more than twenty-eight pages in length, as well as short stories from anthology comics that are no more than sixteen pages long.
The General category is for full size and larger and longer comics.
The finalists are submitted to a vote by a panel of two judges in each category and the SPACE exhibitors, whose decision is counted as one vote.  Once again this year, I was one of the judges, this time in the Mini-comics/Short Story category.
The winners of the 2012 SPACE Prizes, to be presented at an awards ceremony at one o'clock Saturday afternoon are:

GENERAL:
1st Place:
A tie between:

MariNaomi 

for

Kiss & Tell A Romantic Resume Ages 0 to 22
and

Katherine Wirick

for

No One is Safe

3rd Place:

M Young  

for

Wild Child #1 Fight or Flight

MINI-COMIC/SHORT STORY

1st Place:

 Ryan Claytor

for

And Then One Day #9

2nd Place:

Tony Goins and  Andy Bennett

for

“The Only Two” from Panel #18

3rd Place:

Suzanne Baumann

for 

As Eavesdropped #3

WEBCOMIC:

1st Place:

Katie Valeska

for

Next Year’s Girl

2nd Place:

MariNaomi

for

Smoke in Your Eyes

3rd Place:

Bianca Alu-Marr and Steve Peters

for

The Comicverse

Gem City Report

As I arrived back at the Sunday Comix table in the last hour of the Gem City Comic Con on Sunday carrying my latest, and final, purchase--volume four of The Complete Bloom County Library as well as the complete Outland and Opus volumes, all aquired for $20, or half cover price, each--Canada Keck quipped, "So, do you have enough Bloom County?"

"No," I chirped ('cause sometimes I do chirp), "They didn't have volume five."

So, while my collection of the collected works of Berkely Breathed remains incomplete, with Complete Bloom County LIbrary Volume 5 being the final remaining piece of that puzzle yet to fall into place, I did manage to complete my run of Prez.  I located reasonably priced copies of #'s 1and 3, the issues I was missing, and went ahead and picked up a new copy of #4 as mine was in such bad condition that it really wasn't even much good for a reading copy.  I've been planning to write about Prez sometime here in the near future, and now I'll be able to give a more complete overview of the series and actually know what I'm talking about.  You may not believe it, but I do ocassionally like to know what I'm talking about.
Some of the other Bronze Age books I picked up this weekend, and which I may end up writing about here, include:

• Hercules Unbound #'s 1, 2 and 4 (I already had a copy of #3) I've been considering doing a series on the many collaborations between writer Gerry Conway and artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.  In addition to this series, these include Atari Force, Cinder and Ashe, as well as various Superman and Batman stories.
• Green Lantern/Green Arrow #113--I mentioned in an earlier post a  December 1978 DC house ad spotlighting four holiday themed issues  released that month.  I now have every book mentioned in that ad.  I also have several other Christmas themed Green Lantern books, so you might just see a "Green Christmas" this December.
• DC's first and only issue of Sherlock Holmes, featuring adaptations of the Arthur Conan Doyle short stories "The Final Problem," in which Holmes is killed off, and "The Adventure of the Empty House," in which he returns, written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by E.R. Cruz with a cover by Walt Simonson.
• Three issues of DC Special including #11, entitled "Beware...The Monsters Are Coming Here!", #17 from 1975, which contains several Green Lantern reprints, apparently testing the waters for the revival of the character's series that occurred the following years, and #16's "Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas."  Seriously, how could I pass that last one up?  I do have a rep to uphold, after all, and I'm sure there are some people who might be surprised I didn't already have a copy of that one.
• Mystery in Space #111---the first issue of the short-lived late seventies  revival of the classic SF title, featuring a great "silent" story drawn by master storyteller Jim Aparo
• Welcome Back, Kotter #3--I've probably already said all I have to say about this issue on this blog in my overview of the series as a whole and my tribute to the career of Tony Isabella, who wrote this one, which, now that I think about it, may be the first thing I ever read by him.  I just wanted to have a copy and I'm looking forward to reading it again after several decades.

There were only a couple of items that I was really looking for at the show.  I found the Green Lantern/Green Arrow issue, but was frustrated by the fact that out of the dozens of dealers and thousands, hell, possibly millions, of comics gathered in the E.J. Nutter Center on the campus of Dayton's Wright State University, there was apparently not one single copy of Steve Ditko's Shade, The Changing Man #6.  I encountered at least one copy of every other issue of the series except the one I need to complete my collection.

When I wasn't searching in vain for a copy of Shade #6, I spent some time behind the table of Columbus cartoonist group Sunday Comix, where I helped Canada tell people who wandered up all about the group and describe the books by our various members that were on display.  I even managed to sell a couple of my books collecting my Wasted Potential comic strip.  That brought in four dollars, which really didn't do much to offset what I spent over the course of the weekend.  Still, I consider it all money well spent.

As  with every mainstream comic convention, there were many people dressed as their favorite characters.  I saw several Robins, an overweight Captain America, a Dr. Fate and Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash.  Canada got a picture of me posing with Ambush Bug.  As soon as she sends me a copy, I'll share it with you.

There were also a couple of my favorite artists on the guest list whom I was eager to meet. I learned something very important about one of them.  Which is that Howard Chaykin does not care what I think of him.

Or you, for that matter, I'm sure.

I know this because he told me so.

When I reported this to Mike Carroll back at the Sunday Comix table on Saturday, Mike's immediate response was, "Did you try to pay him a compliment?"  As it happens, that's exactly what I did.

When I walked up to his table, Chaykin was already engaged in a conversation with a fan.  As he signed the two books I presented (yes, two--more about that later), he was saying that he considered himself probably the least talented of his generation of comics artists.  At that point I interjected with, "You're probably the only one who would say that."  This is what caused him to respond with, "Well, I don't care what you think about me. Its not my business to care about that." He went on to give an assessment of his progress as an artist.  He characterized his work during the 1970's as "shit."  He said that he didn't do work he considered decent until after "woodshedding" by doing other things such as painted book covers before returning to comics with American Flagg! He went on to say that he makes up for what he considers a deficit of talent with hard work.  

While I wouldn't exactly say call Chaykin's early work "shit," I would agree that his art on Monark Moonstalker and Star Wars, and his writing on the former, is far surpassed in quality by his post Flagg output.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea here.  He wasn't mean or angry and he wasn't yelling at me.  This wasn't a repeat of the Aragones incident from Mid-Ohio Con 1996. (I may tell you about that someday--or I may not.)  He was simply giving an honest, if well rehearsed, self assessment.

I say well well rehearsed because I did get a certain sense of deja vu as I listened to him.  I seemed to remember having read the same sentiments from him in one interview or another in the comics press.  This is perfectly understandable, of course.  Anyone who is in the public eye and has made numerous public appearances and been interviewed multiple times must encounter the same questions over and over again.  The answers to these questions rarely change, so its natural that the responses begin to sound rehearsed after awhile.  

Based on having read a few interviews with him, I found Mr. Chaykin to be exactly what I expected.  He was gracious, if somewhat gruff; self-assured and self-confident but definitely not arrogant; secure in his sense of self, and opinionated and not afraid to share those opinions.  At 62 years of age, though he doesn't look it, I suppose he's old enough to be described as curmudgeonly, though I imagine he wouldn't like it if I did so, so I won't. 

Before I shook his hand and told him it had been a pleasure to meet him before heading back to the Sunday Comix table, Chaykin mentioned that he was currently working as hard as ever.  He is apparently booked up through next year.  He might have mentioned what those projects are if I'd stuck around for a few more seconds, but whatever they may be, I look forward to seeing them. 

By the way, I mentioned above that I got Mr. Chaykin to sign two comics, even though I said earlier that I was only going to present him with one book.  However, Joe Staton was also a guest at Gem City, and someone else I was eager to meet.  While browsing Green Lantern issues on the Comic Book Data Base, I remembered that I possessed a comic on which both Staton and Chaykin had worked.  Green Lantern #196 contains interior art by Staton with a cover featuring a striking image of Guy Gardner by Chaykin.  The remnants of fanboy within me just couldn't resist getting both of their signatures on one book.  It'll be a perfect reminder of a great weekend.

Joe Staton was considerably less argumentative than Chaykin when I told him how much I enjoyed his art on Dick Tracy.  If you haven't read Tracy since he and writer Mike Curtis took over, I highly recommend that you do so.  The Curtis/Staton run have breathed new life into the feature.  In my opinion, this is the best Tracy has been since the early days of Max Allan Collins' tenure when it was drawn by the late Rick Fletcher. 
Staton was there promoting Calling Dick Tracy Volume I, an upcoming e-book from Rabbit Hole Comics collecting approximately the first year of his Tracy run.  I asked if there was going to be a print edition, and Joe said that there might be if the digital version performs well.
In conclusion, I want to publicly and effusively thank SPACE promoter Bob Corby for everything, and I do mean everything.  He sponsored the table for Sunday Comix that got me into the con, drove me down to Dayton on Saturday morning and back the next day, let me crash in his hotel room Saturday night and generally made a wonderful weekend possible. 

The Power & Glory of Howard Chaykin

The annual Gem City Comic Con takes place in Dayton next weekend. Bob Corby of Backporch Comics and SPACE is generously sponsoring a table for Sunday Comix, the Columbus, Ohio cartoonists group of which he and I are both members.  I'll be travelling there Saturday morning to put in some time behind the table.  Actually, the real reason I'm going is because I haven't attended a mainstream comics convention for nearly three years, the most recent being the last pre-Wizard World Mid-Ohio Con, and, most importantly, there are a couple of my favorite artists scheduled to attend and I really want to meet them.

One of these is Howard Chaykin, and I've been pondering lately which one--and only one--comic I wish to shove in his face and demand that he affix a signature to.  Among the list of candidates, from the works of Mr. Chaykin littering my collection of comics are

• American Flagg!--probably his most famous work, and sort of a cliche choice if you think about it.
• The Shadow--this four issue mini-series brought the 1930's pulp adventurer out of retirement and into the modern world of the 1980's
• Blackhawk--this reinvention of a Golden Age character kept the legendary pilot in his WWII milieu but brought a 1980's, and distinctly Chaykin, sensibility to the tale
• Midnight Men--a quite frankly unremarkable four issue mini-series from Marvel's Epic imprint.  Without rereading it, I couldn't even tell you what its about.
• Marvel Premiere #32--featuring the debut of space-faring adventurer Monark Moonstalker

I thought about putting the question to you, my readers.  However, I decided the answer was pretty obvious.  It should be my favorite Chaykin comic. When I asked myself what that was, the title that leaped to mind was Power & Glory, the 1994 four issue from Malibu's creator owned Bravura line.

Power & Glory revolves around the efforts of fictional government agency the National Intelligence Agency, and its sleazy leader Malcolm LeStrange, to create a real-life American super-hero.  Unfortunately, the candidate LeStrange chooses to become A-Pex, the American is Allen Powell, a superficial, cowardly, NIA agent with a pathological fear of disease that is only amplified by the treatments that give him super-powers.  On his first outing in costume, Powell proves a potential embarrassment to the NIA and a threat to LeStrange's continued employment as NIA director.  Michael Gorsky, a dedicated if slightly disillusioned NIA agent who had been the second choice for the A-Pex experiment, is brought in to covertly do the real heroic work. Powell publicly takes all the credit, appearing on talk shows and magazine covers and having his name and image plastered on products ranging from breakfast cereal to video games and comic books.  Complicating matters is the fact that Gorsky is going through a divorce from LeStrange's assistant Avis Cutlett, who ends up sleeping with Powell until he leaves her for vapid pop star Belladonna.  Further complicating things is that the drug dealing third world head of state and rap musician, Jean-Paul M'butu, who went to school with LeStrange's son and calles the NIA head "Uncle Malcolm", is involved in secret dealings with LeStrange and wants Powell and Gorsky eliminated.  

Power & Glory is an often hilarious dark comedy that satirizes the super-hero genre, and 1990s pop culture and politics while providing generous helpings of the complex, multi-layered plotting and witty, fast paced dialogue, as well as the over the top sex and violence that fans had come to expect from Howard Chaykin. There's even a connection to American Flagg! snuck in on the very last page.

I happen to have two copies of the first issue.  It was released with two covers and I bought both of them. (Hey, don't judge me, man.  It was the 90s.  I was young and didn't know any better.  Everybody was doin' it.  We didn't realize we were helping the industry commit suicide.)  So, I can get one signed and stick it in  a bag for posterity and still have a copy to read again in the future.

Indie Comics Fair Returns to the Ace of Cups This Saturday

Speaking, as I was at the end of my previous post, about places just down the street from where I sit and type these words:
What are you doing Saturday afternoon? Might you be up for hanging out with cartoonists in a bar named for one of the Minor Arcana of the Tarot which used to be a bank?
As I'm not quite the drinker these days that I was in my long lost youth, prior to last year's inaugural Indie Comics Fair, the last time I had been inside the building located at 2619 N. High Street in Columbus, Ohio that has for the past couple of years housed the bar known as the Ace of Cups it was occupied by a branch of the Huntington Bank, with whom I kept a savings account at the time.  There's still a Huntington ATM outside, one of the few left in the city that actually dispenses ten dollar bills. 
The Indie Comics Fair returns to the Ace of Cups this Saturday, March 9, from noon until 5 p.m. for its second annual outing, and a host of the titans of Columbus' independent comics scene will be on hand for the festivities.  The event is co-sponsored by Nix Comics and SPACE (the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) so you know that Nix publisher Ken Eppstein and SPACE promoter Bob Corby will be in attendance.  A partial list  (which is all I've been able to find on the web) of the other creators expected to be there includes such luminaries as Michael Neno, Matt Wyatt, Chris Monday, Chad Lambert, and the members of the cartoonists "collective", as they call themselves (sounds vaguely socialist to me, though) PANEL. 
Admission to the show is free. However, if you've got a wad of cash that you worry is slowly going to burn a hole in your pocket, fear not, for there shall be plenty on which to blow your paycheck.  There'll be beer (the show takes place in a bar, after all), barbecue (famed food truck Ray-Ray's [no relation] Hog Pit drops anchor in the Ace's parking lot on the weekends), and, of course, comics.
As I mentioned, the Ace of Cups is just down the street from me.  In fact, standing on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building, I can actually see it from where I live.  So, I will definitely be dropping in at some point during the afternoon to check out the comics, visit with some of my cartoonist friends and maybe even down a pint of ale as the Brits say.  I hope to see you there.

Skeates To Be Honored With Bill Finger Award for Excellence at Comic-Con

Plastic Man #15 from 1976 remains to this day one of my favorite comic books.  In that issue, written by Steve Skeates, Plas battles an a killer robot and an amnesiac dressed as a giant carrot.  The name of the diminutive West Coast based hired killer who sends the mechanized monster after the stretchable sleuth is "Rice" O'Rooney, The San Francisco Threat.  That name still makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Two decades later I published my first small press comics and joined a couple of small press "co-ops".  These were clubs for small press publishers who traded comics with each other and contributed columns to the club's newsletter.  One of these groups folded shortly after I joined.  I believe I only got one issue of the newsletter.  This was enough to allow me to start up a correspondence with one of the other members, who turned out to be the very same Steve Skeates who had written Plastic Man #15, as well as many other comics, of course, twenty years previously.  At first, I wasn't sure it was the same guy.  It seemed hard to believe that someone who'd been at the top of the comics profession as a writer for DC would now be self-publishing obscure photocopied mini-comics. (I was much more naive in my youth.)  But if it was, I knew I couldn't pass up a chance to get to know him a little bit.

I sent him my somewhat amateurish attempts at a humorous action/adventure comic and in return he sent me a series of surreal, silly, and slightly philosophical mini-comics that he drew himself in a wonderfully loose and simple cartoony style.  While I might at first have viewed mini-comics as a step down for him, these comics were actually, in many ways, superior  to his mainstream work.

They were accompanied by somewhat rambling letters filled with  anecdotes and reminiscences, as well as constructive criticism, advice and encouragement.  I was thrilled that the writer of one of my favorite comic books actually seemed to like my work. 

Recently, I learned that Steve Skeates is to be honored with the Bill Finger Award For Excellence in Comic Book Writing during the Eisner Award ceremonies at this year's Comic-Con International. 

Begun in 2005, the Bill Finger Award is the idea of veteran Batman illustrator and political cartoonist Jerry Robinson.  Its sort of a lifetime achievement award for the comics industry's journeyman creators. The recipients are writers who have built up a respectable body of work over a long career but never quite achieved super-stardom or racked up a bunch of flashy awards.  Each year two comics writers, one living and one dead, are chosen to be honored.

The selection is made by a committee of five comics professionals chaired by Mark Evanier, who himself could be a candidate for the prize.

This year's other recipient of the Bill Finger Award is Frank Doyle, long time writer for Archie Comics who passed away in 1996.

Unfortunately, its been quite some time since I've written to Steve.  I'll have to drop him a line through Facebook and offer my congratulations for this great achievement.

Speaking of Facebook, thanks to Matt Dembicki for alerting me to this bit of news by posting about it there.

Friday Evening News & Rants: June 15, 2012 Edition

This is the first installment of what may just turn out to be a regular feature.  It all depends on whether or not there's any news that I deem worth writing about or commenting on.

CAKE banner designed by Chicago artist Laura Park

My readers in Chicago (and I'm told that I have at least one occassional reader in the city) who couldn't make it to Columbus for SPACE have another chance to hang out in a roomful of small press and alternative  comics artists, writers and publishers this weekend when the inaugural edition of CAKE--the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo--takes place this weekend. 

Ok, the acronym doesn't quite work.  I guess they were trying to have their CAKE and eat it too.  

In case you're wondering, the answer is yes.  My main purpose in reporting this item was just so I could make that dumb joke.

Full details on the show, the exhibitors and the line-up of panels can be found at the CAKE web-site.

In mainstream comics news, DC recently announced the cancellation of four of its original New 52 titles.  This was paired, because the company remains inexplicably obsessed with the number 52, with the announcement of four new ongoing series to replace them.  

The new books, all debuting with zero issues as part of DC's line wide "Zero Month" event celebrating the first anniversary of the New 52 reboot (not to be confused with 1994's "Zero Month" that followed the end of the crossover mini-series Zero Hour), are Talon, yet another Batman related title springing out of the recent "Night of the Owls" storyline; Sword of Sorcery, an anthology book anchored by a revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld; Team 7, a revival of an old title from co-publisher Jim Lee's Wildstorm imprint; and The Phantom Stranger. The cancelled series  whose spots on the schedule these new titles are taking are Justice League International, Voodoo, Resurrection Man, and Captain Atom.

The bad news, as far as I'm concerned, is that, despite his exit from Green Arrow and the cancellation of Captain Atom, J. T. Krul continues to draw a paycheck from DC Comics. 

To the right of these words is a cropped version of Krul's photo from the DC web-site.  He appears to be either angry or in pain.  You don't suppose he just read one of his own Green Arrow comics, do you?

Comics You Could Have Picked Up At SPACE Part 2

Hunter S. Thompson has been much on my mind of late.  A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a copy of the new edition of  Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith's "graphic biography" of Thompson, Gonzo, a review of which shall be forthcoming. I have long been a fan of Thompson's work, but over the years, my collection of Thompson's books had dwindled to zero, with my copies being either stolen, lost or borrowed and never returned.  Slowly, I have begun to rebuild it, first picking up a new (new to me, at least, it's an early printing that I picked up at Half Price Books) copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, and just a few days ago, inspired by Gonzo to reread some of the classic Thompson pieces referenced in the comic, I purchased The Gonzo Papers Anthology, which collects in one hefty brick of a trade paperback the three of Thompson's books that carry the "Gonzo Papers" subtitle: The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine, and Song of the Doomed.  (Anyone who's looking for something to get me for my birthday in September should note that I still need a new copy of Hell's Angels.) Readers of my various blogs over the years should be able to spot when I've been re-reading Thompson, as I am overcome by a barely controllable urge to imitate his prose style.

At such times, I also tend to emulate Thompson's tendency to careen wildly off topic, thus explaining the above paragraph about my favorite writer and my book buying habits in a post that is meant to be about comics I purchased at SPACE last month.

Of course, the tangent about HST isn't entirely off-topic, as it does segue neatly into the discussion of Bill Volk's 24-Hour Comic The Dewey Decimal System Is Decadent and Depraved.   From the cover, it is apparent that Volk is as big an admirer of Thompson as I am.  Not only is the cover design and lettering reminiscent of Ralph Steadman's work on Campaign Trail and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but the very title of the comic harkens back to Thompson's seminal "gonzo" article about the Kentucky Derby.

The cover, though, is as Thompsonesque as the comic gets.  The story itself displays a style that is, I assume though I've never read anything else by him, uniquely Volk's.   It concerns Bill's experiences after he got a job shelving books at a library. He discovers that Maus gets shelved in the "History" section apart from the other graphic novels.  At first, this upsets him and he sets out to discover the reason for it, but no one he turns to can answer his questions about who assigns the Dewey Decimal numbers.  The bulk of the comic is taken up by a hallucinatory fever dream in which an astral Volk goes on a spiritual journey, confronting the specters of Melvil Dewey, Art Spiegelman and Fortuna, who seems to be a sort of personification of Fate, attempting to find the enlightenment he seeks.
In the end, Volk awakes to a conclusion that mirrors a point I've been making for years.  He realizes that there shouldn't even be a separate "graphic novel" section in libraries, or, I might add, in bookstores, for that matter.  Maus should go in the History section, fiction comics should be shelved with other fiction and literature novels. Likewise, I have long contended that Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics should sit besided Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media (speaking of potential birthday gifts, my copy of that book seems to have disappeared somewhere along the line), and American Splendor should be found in the "Biography" section. 
It doesn't seem right to talk about the art in a 24-Hour comic.  To say it seems rushed is kind of silly, as that is the very nature of the beast, and the creator may not even be an artist normally.  Still, I want to say that art has a certain simplistic charm about it and tells the tale clearly and cleanly.
You can order a copy of The Dewey Decimal System Is Decadent and Depraved at Bill Volk's web-site.

Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada's 1991 mini-series The Ray turned out to be one of my favorite comics of that year, but due to the fact that DC barely promoted this book, I had no idea what to expect from it.  In fact, the reason I initially picked it up when I saw it at a convenience store in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania--where I was living at the time--is that it had my name on the cover.  This same self-centeredness also motivated my purchase at SPACE of Nathan Kissel's Cosmic Raymond.  Once again, it turned out to be a good decision.  Raymond tells the story of an ordinary office worker who recieves a message from outer space telling him that he has been "chosen" and finds himself whisked off to another planet to stand in line with others who have been "chosen" to be tested to see if they are the king of a race of odd looking aliens whose return has been foretold by prophecy.
This is an clever and amusing, well drawn comic.  I especially like the way Kissel uses pictograms to depict Raymond's thoughts. 
In an introduction, Kissel says that he wasn't able to finish the comic, at least not to his satisfaction, so he calls this a "preview edition."  Personally, I think it's just fine the way it is, but I'd like to see the "finished" edition someday.
Also at Kissel's table, I picked up Deserted Aisles, a really nice looking little twelve page comic that tells an amusing story about a chance encounter between a supermarket stockboy and an unlikely looking genie in the canned goods aisle.

The last book from this year's SPACE that I want to talk about is Morgan Pielli's Indestructible Universe Quarterly #8. Morgan described the book to me as a series of Twilight Zone inspired short stories. The first tale in the book certainly fits that description. "The Worry Tree" is an an odd, eerie and haunting tale about a man who stumbles upon a mysterious hidden cemetary at the center of which is a strange tree upon the bark of which is inscribed the secret, hidden anxieties of the people, and cats, buried there.
The second, and cover-featured, story, "A Forged Man" is also quite weird, thought provoking and a little disturbing.  It concerns a space faring super-hero on a seemingly routine mission suddenly confronted by the shocking truth not only of the nature of his mission, but his own nature.
I hope Morgan comes to SPACE next year, so I pick up some more of these.
Oh, by the way, my birthday is September 3rd.

Comics You Could Have Picked Up at SPACE Part One

So, I've been away from the blog again for another extended period, though a mere month this time, due to various "real world" circumstances, among them the remodeling of my apartment which had me staying with my sister for a few days.  This has only increased the backlog of stuff that I want to write about, as during this latest down period has occurred the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE), and Free Comic Book Day, not to mention that DC, Marvel and other publishers have continued to put out new comics during this time.

So, let's get started with some of the comics I picked up at SPACE.

I am not even going to pretend to attempt any sort of objective review of A Bowl Full of Happiness, an anthology of comics and pin-ups about Sea Monkeys published by Columbus cartoonists group Sunday Comix and benefitting the Hero Initiative in their efforts to provide assistance to comics creators in need.  After all, I am a founding member of Sunday Comix and I have worked with the Hero Initiative before, and, of course, I have a piece in this book, as do several of my closest friends and, most importantly, my niece Tamara Marshall, which is the reason I cannot be objective about this book.   This is a great book for a very good cause, and if  you didn't get your copy at the show, I recommend that you do so as soon as possible.  Hopefully, by the time I get this post, editor Canada Keck will have updated the web-site to allow you to order your own copy.  If not, shoot me an e-mail and I'll arrange to get you a copy.

Speaking of my closest friends, I got my copy of Matt Wyatt's Joking Victim #0 well before SPACE, and you can pick a copy at various locations around Columbus, including What The Rock, Kafe Kerouac and the Laughing Ogre, or order a copy through Matt's web-site.  He will also be appearing at Ratha Con in Athens, Ohio this coming weekend.  Once again throwing objectivity to the wind, I highly recommend that you do so.  Featuring a variety of comics and cartoons by Matt, Joking Victim is loaded with parody, satire, silliness, wordplay and puns, and a heaping dose of what MAD artist Will Elder termed "chicken fat", little throwaway visual gags in the background. The mention of MAD is apt, because this book is very reminiscent of early MAD, when it was a comic book and reflected the sensibility of one man, Harvey Kurtzman.

Another comic to which I personally contributed (That's an excerpt from my contribution down there in the lower left corner of the cover.) is the SPACE Anthology 2012, a full color trade paperback collection featuring work from many of the artists who were present at the show this year. This is the third year, I believe, that there's been a SPACE Anthology, though in the past it has been available only as a pdf download on-line.  This is the first year that the collection has  been available in physical book form, with proceeds from sales at the show going to fund the SPACE Prize, recognizing excellence in small press publishing.  You can download a copy of the anthology here, or go here to get a print copy.

Small press veteran J. Kevin Carrier did not have a table at the show, however he was present on Saturday carrying copies of the latest issue of his long running anthology Fantasy Theater, a showcase for his extensive reportoire of comics characters.  FT #22 features brand new adventures of Kevin's futuristic sword and sorcery warrior Glorianna and second generation super hero Cappella.  You should be able to order a copy at Kevin's blog. 

I'll  close out this post by mentioning Suzanne Baumann's As Eavesdropped Volume Three, in which Suzanne illustrates in her charming and simple style dialogue that, I assume from the title of the book, she has actually overheard.  This comic is free, and, I assume, available at her web-site, along with all her other great comics.

That covers the comics from me and my friends.  I did actually get out in the room and talk to some people whose work I wasn't previously familiar with and who weren't among my closest friends and associates, and I'll be looking at the comics I got from them soon.

Sunday Comix Raffle to Benefit AFSP at S.P.A.C.E.

"Every 15 minutes someone dies by suicide."

That sad statistic comes from the web-site of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  As far as I'm concerned, once every twenty years is more than enough.  In my life, I have lost two people that I have cared about to suicide.  First, my childhood best friend Eric "Igor" Brown in 1991, and most recently my nephew Steve Pisarchick in 2008.  

Thus, this past weekend at the 12th Annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.), I organized a raffle at the Sunday Comix table, the proceeds of which went to the AFSP. 

Before the show, I took a basket, donated by fellow Sunday Comix member Canada Keck, around the room, filling it with comics generously donated  by many of the exhibitors to be the prize.  Throughout the day, as well, several other artists came up to the table and added to the prize pool.  By the time we finally held the drawing, the basket could no longer hold all the comics that had been donated. 

Selling tickets for $2, or 12 for $10, we managed to raise $168.  To that I added $32 from my own pocket to make a $200 donation to AFSP in Steve's memory. 

I would like to thank everyone at the show who donated comics, all those who bought tickets, and, most of all, my fellow members of Sunday Comix, especially Canada and Max Ink, for all their help and support.  I could not have pulled this off without it.

You can find more information about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and make a donation on-line, at afsp.org.

Follow-Up: Wizard World Formally Announces Purchase of Mid-Ohio Con; First Guests of Honor

Thanks to Bob Corby, I had the story, and shared it with you, that Wizard World had bought Mid-Ohio Con a week ago.  However, it was just yesterday that the official announcement  of the deal appeared on Wizard World's web-site.  (Thanks to Dara Naraghi at the PANEL blog for bringing this to my attention.) 

The press release also includes an announcement of three of the big names that Wizard World will be bringing to the Greater Columbus Convention Center next October 22 and 23.  They are camp icons Adam West and Burt Ward of 1960's sitcom version of Batman and "fan-favorite", at least according to the press release, artist and co-founder of Image Comics Rob Liefeld.

Having never attended a Wizard World show before, I will, as I stated in my previous post on this story, reserve judgment on this development until after next year's show is in the history books.  However, since for the last couple of years I've gone to the show mainly just to shop for back issues, I really don't see this change really affecting my enjoyment of the experience all that much. 

By the way, do the people at Wizard World think this is still 1992?  After all, wasn't that really about the last time that Rob Liefeld could honestly have been described as a "fan favorite"? For most of the last fifteen years or so he's been mostly a joke among a majority of fans and even that's worn thin recently.  These days he strikes me more as a guy who used to be somebody attempting to pretend the glory days never ended.

Mid-Ohio Con Wrap-Up

You may remember that when I hit "Send" to upload Friday's post, I was on my way out the door, heading to the pre-Mid-Ohio Con Party at Packrat Comics.  The party, by the way, was a lot better than I'd expected.  It was apparently a lot better than Jonathon Riddle expected, as well.  He was my ride to the gala, and he had stated beforehand that he only intended to stay for a little while.  However, after arriving shortly before 7 p.m., we stayed until nearly the end, finally heading out at 11.

Not that I'm complaining, I had a great time.  There was, as I reported on Friday, live music.  The first set was by the band Seven Book Trilogy, a quartet of regular Packrat customers.  Jon and I were talking afterward with Kyle, the band's drummer, who revealed that the band has been in flux recently.  Apparently, they've recently lost their lead guitarist.  It seems that before his departure, Kendall, the new lead guitarist and lead vocalist, used to play more trombone.  He did pick up the horn for a little bit at the beginning of the set.  Despite these recent ups and downs, the band put on a great show.

Later, Ethan Van Sciver sat down with a keyboard and treated the party goers to his unique song stylings.  Yes, that is the same Ethan Van Sciver who drew New X-Men, Green Lantern, Flash: Rebirth, and many other best selling comics.

The real highlight of the night was the food.  I was expecting that they would just have pizza delivered and set out some chips and dip. But the owner's wife, Teresa, actually cooked. She laid out an entire Thanksgiving dinner including turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and even stuffing.  My friends were a little surprised to discover just how much I like stuffing when I went back to the buffet table and filled almost an entire plate with just stuffing. Everything tasted great, of course.

The other great thing about the party was hanging out with other comic nerds just talking about comics.  I did get a little, shall we say, "over-excited" at one point, or maybe "obnoxious" would be a better word, when I literally shouted down someone who dared to admit he liked Identity Crisis.  I  felt bad about that later and caught up to him the next day at the con and apologized.

As for the con itself, I ended up going both days and spending most of my time, as I said I would on Friday, pawing through bargain boxes looking for old comics.  I had to quit buying comics on Saturday, when I ran out of room in my bag. Sunday, I was a bit more disciplined, seeking out specific issues and not spending too much more money.  Anyway, I found some neat stuff, and I will be writing about a few of my newest old comics here over the next few months.  

I did get that sketch I was talking about from Art Baltazar. I asked him to draw Vertigo's John Constantine for me, and he very graciously agreed to do so, even though its not a character he's probably ever drawn before.  It's a really cool drawing, and as soon as I get it scanned, I'll share it with you.

While, as I said, I'm not much for collecting autographs, I did pick up an extra copy of my favorite Adam Hughes illustrated issue of Justice League America, so that the man himself could put his "AH!" on it.  Jon and I had a nice conversation with Tony Isabella, who invited us, as I'm sure he does everyone he talks to at conventions, to submit suggestions for comic books to include in the sequel to his book 1000 Comic Books You Must Read.  I've been working on my list in my head and I'll be sending it to him before long. 

All in all, I had a great weekend, and I can only hope that future shows are as much fun now that Mid-Ohio is in the hands of Wizard World.

Mid-Ohio Con bought by Wizard World

No sooner has this year's Mid-Ohio Con packed up its long boxes for another year than there's big news concerning next year's show, and all future shows.
Wizard World, which operates comic book shows in several cities including Atlanta, Toronto, New Orleans, Miami, Boston, Austin, New York, Philadelphia,  Chicago and others, has bought Mid-Ohio Con.  The show is now apparently to be known as Mid-Ohio Comic Con Wizard World Convention.  Wow--that's a mouthful!
When I first saw this posted on Facebook by SPACE promoter Bob Corby, I thought it was a joke.  Which I suppose says more about my sense of humor than it does Bob's.   Anyway, several comics news sites, including Bleeding Cool and Newsarama are also reporting this.  According to these sources, Wizard World has made no formal announcement concerning the purchase. However, they are already selling advance tickets for next year's show on their site, so it looks like its pretty much a done deal. 
I suppose that whether this is good news or bad news will be determined next October 22 and 23, the dates given on Wizard World's site for next year's con.

Goin' Downtown: Mid-Ohio Con This Weekend

 "I'm going downtown

And I'm gonna buy me some new shoes.

When there's nothin' to win,

You got nothin' to lose,

It ain't nothin' like a pair of brand new shoes.

Oh, yeah!"

---The Bus Boys, "New Shoes"

I'm actually pretty well fixed for shoes right now, but I am headed to downtown Columbus, Ohio this weekend and I'm gonna buy me some old comics.  The 30th annual Mid-Ohio Con is taking place tomorrow and Sunday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
It may not be as big as the San Diego Comicon (and from the reports I've read of what an overcrowded zoo that show has become in recent years, that's probably a good thing), but Mid-Ohio Con is the only major mainstream comics convention that I could walk to if I were so inclined.  Sure, it's a long walk from my neighborhood of Clintonville to Downtown, but I've done it before.  This weekend, though, I plan on taking a bus, as it is very cold here in Central Ohio land.
I'll probably only go tomorrow.  The last two years, I actually shared a table with other members of local cartoonists' group Sunday Comix, but this year I'm going mostly to expand my already voluminous comic book collection.  I'm sure I'll end up writing about at least a few of my aquisitions here on this blog.
I'm not really much of an autograph collector these days, but there are a few guests at the con I'd like to see, if only to say "hi" and tell them how much I've enjoyed their work over the years.  I do want to get another sketch from Art Baltazar.  This one will be for me.  The one I got two years ago was a Christmas gift for my niece Alison, who's a big fan of Tiny Titans.   However, even though this blog is not exclusively focused on Bronze Age comics, as you surf through it you'll realize that is where my interests primarily lie, so I honestly don't even recognize more than half the names on the con's guest list.  Among those that do ring a bell are Matt Wagner, Tony Isabella, Kurt Busiek, Chris Sprouse, Bob McLeod, Darryl Banks, Mark Texiera, Ethan Van Sciver, Michael Golden, Arvell Jones, Beau Smith, Barry Kitson and the legendary Herb Trimpe.
The weekend's festivities kick off tonight with a pre-con party at Packrat Comics.  You've got quite a legacy to live up to, Packrat. I'm referring to the Great Ogre Gatherings, the pre-Mid-Ohio Con parties hosted by the Laughing Ogre back when it was in the hands of original owners Gib Bickel, Rod Philips, and Darren Guarino.  Those were truly memorable, often moreso than the con itself.  I do hear that Packrat's shindig may include live music.  If that materializes, then Packrat wins.  That's something the GOG never had.
So, the party's only a couple of hours away and I need to get all cleaned up  and presentable for it.  I'll talk to you all in a couple of days.

Genghis Con

For as long as I've lived in Columbus, up until two years ago, the weekend after Thanksgiving meant Mid-Ohio Con, then the new owners of the show, having no respect for tradition, went and moved it to the first weekend in October.  This year, however, if you're really missing going to a comics show that weekend, you can head over to Cleveland and check out the first, hopefully annual, Genghis Con on Saturday, November 28 at the Beachland Ballroom. 

Actually, this show sounds to be less like MOC, with its emphasis on mainstream and super-hero comics and  special "media" guests, and more akin to Columbus' own Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, or SPACE, which features independent and self-published creators hawking the work they have poured their hearts into.

Now, I'd be telling you  about show anyway, 'cause it looks to be a pretty good one, but it just so happens that I just got an e-mail from GC promoter Scott Rudge, and my humble request for a table, for which Rudge is charging not one red cent, has been accepted.  I'll be riding down with fellow exhibitor and SPACE organizer Bob Corby, armed with copies of my books reprinting the first two years of my strip, Wasted Potential, which I will once again attempt to foist on the unsuspecting comics readership.

A little more info on the con is in the official press release below, and here's an article that  appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Then, of course, there's the show's web-site.    

GENGHIS CON CELEBRATES RICHES OF MIDWEST INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING
Comic Show Features the Unknown Work of Local Graphic Storytellers

You won’t find Superman, expensive back issues or fading Hollywood celebrities at Genghis Con, a comic book convention organized to showcase the work of independent artists and writers from the Midwest. The event will be held at the Beachland Ballroom on Saturday, November 28, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. The convention will feature the talent of approximately 50 graphic storytellers from around the Midwest whose work does not fit into the normal perception of what a comic book should be.

For 70 years the part of the country known as the “rust belt” has provided the world with an incredible abundance of creative talent in the art of telling stories with pictures. This form of communication has reached its pinnacle of popularity in the form of the beloved comic book. Many of the biggest names in comics today hail from the Midwest.

Comic readers are familiar with such Ohio natives as Brian Bendis, Brian Vaughn, Fred Van Lente, Harvey Pekar and Jeff Smith. These and many others from around the Great Lakes are the modern personalities shaping graphic storytelling as we know it today. The common thread through each of these current and rising stars of the industry is they began their careers creating and publishing their own material.

Like their famous brethren, the participants of Genghis Con use skill, imagination and craftsmanship to create engaging, original graphic storytelling art. Their work, however, remains largely unpublished outside of the creator’s own trips to the local copy center. Genghis Con exists to bring this creative talent together in one place and to provide a venue for interaction with potential readers who may not have any other opportunity to see this work.

The organizers of Genghis Con are committed to creating an event which is unique in many ways. Early in the planning stages, the convention organizers decided to break most of the rules of a normal comic convention. These changes include eliminating the dealer’s room and the endless rows of fading TV celebrities. Perhaps the most radical difference is participants will not be charged for table space as they are at other comic conventions. The organizers feel this will free the artists from feeling the pressure to “make up their costs” and allow them to focus on promoting their work.

"We are not doing this to make money,” says Scott Rudge, one of the Genghis Con organizers and owner of Astound Comics in Westlake, Ohio. “We want the creators to use the money they save on renting space to offer inexpensive copies of their work. This benefits both the artist and the audience in a way not seen at a typical comic con. We want those attending the convention to feel comfortable interacting meaningfully with the creators and we hope to do that by making the communication of ideas as inexpensive as possible.”

To further break down the barriers between the artists and readers, Genghis Con attendees will be able to build their own comic book containing the work of each artist at the show. This book will be included at no additional charge with normal admission of $5.00.

“We are looking for creators who use a comic book style format to tell their stories, but we also have accepted some ‘zine and poster artists,” says Rudge. “While we may have some of the next generation of mainstream stars displaying their work, we are also looking forward to offering the work of those who have no interest in promoting their material beyond the desire to simply tell a story.”

The call is out for artists wishing to participate in Genghis Con. Artists are welcome to submit samples of their work for consideration. The organizers of Genghis Con will be accepting submissions until November 15^th. For complete details and submission guidelines, creators should go to the event website, www.thegenghiscon.com.