The Owl #1 (Project Superpowers)

As you may remember from my previous post on the character's Silver Age incarnation, the Owl was secretly Nick Terry, a police detective who felt constrained in his efforts to mete out justice by that silly little thing called the law and thus decided that the solution was to put on a ridiculous costume and go beat up crooks on his own time.  Given that motivation for becoming a super-hero, I suppose that it was only a matter of time before someone targeted the character for a grim and gritty Modern Age revamp as an emotionally tortured urban vigilante complete with dead sidekick.  That time has come as of this past July, courtesy of writer J.T. Krul and artist Heubert Khan Michael, with Dynamite's release of The Owl #1, the first issue of a mini-series set in the publisher's Project Superpowers universe.
This is my first visit to this particular super-hero universe.  Fortunately, this first issue provides all the background necessary to understand the events of this series.  It seems that back in the 1940's, the Owl and a whole slew of other obscure Golden Age heroes who'd lapsed into the public domain were imprisoned in a magic urn by one of their own and only recently released to face the brave new world of the 21st century.  His six decades in the limbo of the urn appear to have granted Terry actual super powers, at the very least the ability to fly.
In the premiere issue, Krul follows the Dark Knight Returns template fairly faithfully.  There's the dystopic urban landscape populated by a new breed of criminals who are so much more ruthless than the ones our hero remembers from back in the day, the first person narrative captions, and, of course, that dead sidekick.  The story consists of the Owl recapping his backstory for us, flying around beating up crooks while reflecting on how much more ruthless they are now than the ones he knew from back in the day, remembering his dead sidekick, flying around beating up more criminals, attempting to rejoin the police force but being told they have no budget to hire new detectives, flying around beating up still more criminals, and ultimately encountering a mysterious female vigilante who appears to be his dead sidekick Owl Girl.  She even turns when he calls her by the dead sidekick's name.  However, this can't be the original Owl Girl because she's, you know, dead.   I assume that the mystery of this new Owl Girl's identity and connection to the original form the basis for the remainder of the story in ensuing issues.
I could say that this is the best thing I've yet read by J.T. Krul.  I could, but I won't.   "Best" is too strong a word.  Its not really that good.  Hell, in fact, to be brutally brutal, the story, such as it is, is naught but a by the numbers recycling of the most worn out cliches of the grim and gritty school of comics writing, lacking even the tiniest spark of originality or anything resembling actual creativity.  However, it is the first comic written by Krul that hasn't left me angry and utterly disgusted, which is the reaction engendered by his butchering of Green Arrow a couple of years back.  I'll admit that that is probably because I have, prior to last week, no history with or special affection for this character as I do with Green Arrow.  Nonetheless, I suppose I can concede that this is Krul's least awful comic so far in my experience.
So, to conclude, while The Owl #1 may not quite be the abysmal abomination that I envisaged upon learning that J.T. Krul was attached to the project, it is by no means worth the four dollars and twenty-seven cents, tax included, that I ponied up to the little bald guy manning the cash register at the Laughing Ogre comics shop yesterday afternoon.  I can by no means recommend that you waste hard earned cash and precious moments of your life on this comic.

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!

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

"Panels In Pink" Comes To Wild Goose Creative in April

"Panels In Pink: A Celebration of Female Comics Creators" is a new exhibition  spotlighting the work of several female comics artists and writers, mostly from in and around the Central Ohio area.  The exhibit, produced in co-operation with Columbus cartoonists group Sunday Comix and curated by SC member Canada Keck, will be adorning the walls of local arts space Wild Goose Creative, located at 2491 Summit Street, from now until the end of the month. 

Among the creators represented are:

• Lora Innes
• Mari Naomi
• Katherine Wirick
• Suzanne Bauman
• Bianca Alu-Marr
• Katie Valeska
• Alex Heberling
• Maryanne Rose Papke
• Molly Durst
• Crystal Ash
• Brandy Foster
• Sue Olcott
• Caitlin McGurk
• Meg Syverud
• Erin Ash
• KT Swartz
• Lis Huey
• JL Smither
• Kira Keck
• Canada Keck
• Thor Mannly III*

An artists' reception, sure to be attended by many of the talented women listed above, is scheduled for April 29 from 6 until 9 p.m.  I hope to see you there!
* I threw in that last totally made up name as a joke because today is, after all, April Fool's Day.  The rest of this post is entirely on the level.  So go see the exhibit, already.

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.

Bechdel To Appear At Otterbein Tomorrow Night

I really should have written about this earlier, but I just found about it today when I finally got around to reading that copy of last Thursday's Columbus Alive that had been sitting at the bottom of my bag for the past four days.  Well, enough with the apologies, let's get to the news.

Alison Bechdel, whose graphic novel Fun Home was named by TIME magazine as the best book of 2006, will be giving a talk tomorrow (Tuesday, March 5, 2013) night at 7:30 at Otterbein University's Riley Auditorium.  The event is free and open to the public.

You know, its funny.  I've lived in Columbus for 21 years now, and until I looked up the press release about this event on-line  I really had no idea where the heck Otterbein University is.  I can find OSU, though.  That's just down the street.

The Newest Disney Princess: Princess Leia

You might have heard this already, but it seems that the Walt Disney Company has purchased Lucasfilm.  You know, when I first saw links to this start popping up on my Facebook wall, I initially thought it was some sort of Halloween prank.  But when trusted old media news outlets like The Washington Post (via The Associated Press) are reporting it, then I suppose its got to be true.  Even better, or worse, depending on your point of view, the House of Mouse is promising that there will be a new Star Wars film coming to a theater near you in 2015, with further adventures to follow every couple of years thereafter.  

Marvel's final Star Wars Comic--for now at least.

Except for the first movie (that's the first first movie, not the second first movie), I'm not that big of a fan of the Star Wars franchise.  Thus, I'm neither thrilled nor overly chagrined by this news.  However, I can't help but wonder, being a comics blogger, how this is going to affect the industry I'm unhealthily obsessed with, specifically Dark Horse Comics, current publisher of Star Wars adventures in sequential form.  After all, it seems only logical that as proud owner of its own comics company, Disney would want to produce Star Wars comics in-house, and thus bring the license back to original home at Marvel Comics.  

I just now as I type this heard some economic expert on the International Public Radio program Marketplace say that Disney is "pursuing a strategy of buying big entertainment companies and monetizing that content across all divisions of the company."  That little bit of financial double speak would seem to argue for the Star Wars franchise returning to Marvel once Dark Horse's license expires.

As with all things, only time will tell and when there are any more newsworthy developments, I'll let you know.

"Bowl Full of Happiness" Exhibit at Wild Goose Creative Part 2

Here are some more photos from the exhibition of pages from the Sunday Comix benefit anthology A Bowl Full of Happiness at Wild Goose Creative taken by niece Tamara Marshall.   This batch spotlights a few of the individual pages.   

------------------------------------------------------------

Here are Tamara's and my contributions:

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sea "Monkees" by Sue Olcott

------------------------------------------------------------------

Kira Keck's Kontribution

(Sorry.  I kouldn't kontrol myself)

----------------------------------------------------------

A beautiful piece by Maryanne Rose Papke 

------------------------------------------------------------

This one is by Ron Hill and frequent American Splendor artist Gary Dumm.

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Here's a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction--with Sea Monkeys--by Bob Corby

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Parody and puns from Matt Wyatt

----------------------------------------------------------

Mike Carroll's full color back cover mash-up of two fondly remembered perrennial comic book ads

Here are a couple of extreme close ups highlighting Mike's unique sense of humor

(It is highly recommended that you click on these to enlarge them so that you may read and appreciate them properly.  Or, even better, buy a copy of the book.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This is only a sampling of the art on display.   These represent the ones that Tamara saw fit to record.  I can not account for her choices, anymore than I can explain her somewhat mystifying decision to photograph a plate of cheese and crackers, as seen in my previous post.  Also on display were pieces by Max Ink, Michael Neno, Canada Keck, Sheldon Glaser and Jonathon Riddle, Steve Peterson, Frank Cvetkovic, Dan Taylor and more.

"Bowl Full of Happiness" Exhibit at Wild Goose Creative Part 1

About a week and a half ago (Thursday, October 18, to be exact),  Columbus arts space Wild Goose Creative hosted the artists reception for an exhibit of artwork from  A Bowl Full of Happiness, the Sunday Comix cartoonists group recent anthology to benefit The Hero Initiative, a charity which provides aid to comics professional in need.   The art may still be on display, though I would probably contact Wild Goose to make sure before heading over there.  

Anyway, as one of the artists represented in the exhibit,  I attended the event with my niece Tamara Marshall, who also contributed to ABFoH and thus had a piece on display.  Tamara had the foresight to bring along a camera and below are a few of the photos she took.  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Sunday Comix Banner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The cover of A Bowl Full of Happiness

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Comics as "fine art"

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Snacks!! 

Courtesy of Sunday Comix member Canada Keck

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As always at Sunday Comix events, there were the inevitable Jam Comics:

Bob Corby starts one off...

 

...Tamara follows up...

...then Michael Neno puts his spin on it.

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That's enough for one post, I think.  Next time, Tamara and I will spotlight some of the individual pages from A Bowl Full of Happiness.

Ugli Studios Presents #1 Reviewed

Submitting your self-published small press comic to a 'zine or website for review is always a tricky proposition.  You want the world to greet your brainchild with universal acclaim, but you know that's not always going to be the case.  I guess that I ultimately don't have the stomach for it. When I was actively publishing my own comics, I stopped sending out review copies after a  couple of write ups that weren't exactly glowing.  One of them even led to me eventually abandoning a particular comic book series altogether.

So, I was sensitive to the potential for offense and hurt feelings when I got a message through the Gutter Talk Facebook page from an artist named Jason Lenox asking me to review his initial self published effort.   At the same time, I was honored that anyone would seek out my opinion in that way.  Therefore, I feel that I owe it to Jason to respect the trust he's placed in me by giving my honest opinion, for good or ill.

The good news is that I don't hate Ugli Studios Presents #1. It's nothing that would have me tossing the book against the nearest wall if Jason had sent me a physical copy rather than a PDF file. However, neither can I say that I loved it, or even really liked it all that strongly, either.

The thirty page comic consists of two separate sci-fi/fantasy short stories written by Lenox and David Paul and illustrated by Lenox as well as selection of pin-ups from various guest artists.  Jason's art in both stories is quite nice.  He has a good sense of design and storytelling and can draw a mean looking monster or alien as well as some pretty nice looking human beings.  The coloring job by Dani Kaulakis is particularly effective.  I hope that the actual book is printed on paper stock of sufficient quality to show it off to its full effect.  Kaulakis can also draw pretty well, as one of the pin-ups demonstrates.

On the other hand, the stories themselves don't quite work for me.  In each case, Lenox and Paul seem to be going for a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits--or maybe EC Comics would be a better comparison--style twist ending, but in neither instance do they quite pull it off.

The lead story, "Through The Eyes of Griselda," takes place in the mythical realm of Xendria, an ancient kingdom under the thumb of an evil sorcerer, and tells of an uprising against the wizard's oppressive rule as told from the perspective of his familiar, a cat named Griselda.  Unfortunately, the attempted twist is telegraphed in the art several pages before the actual revelation.

The second tale, "The Great Vermin," tells the story of an interstellar expeditionary force sent to a devastated planet to exterminate the last remnants of a vicious predator species.  Lenox and Paul pull off the twist ending a little better here, but I can't say that I was exactly shocked by it.  The big reveal left me with a strong feeling of having seen it before and done much better.  In fact, the final panel reminded me very much of a story called brief encounter from the fifth issue of a short lived science fiction anthology from DC Comics back in the early 80's called Time Warp.  The tone of that story, however, wasn't quite as grim as Lenox and Paul's.
Overrall, though, Ugli Studios Presents #1 is a good first effort.  There's definitely potential for improvement, but I certainly seeing more from these creators.

Ugli Studios Presents #1 can be purchased for $5.00 at Jason Lenox's web-site.

GONZO: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson Reviewed

Here, then, before we get to the meat of the review, are the basic facts of the matter before us.  Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson, written by Will Bingley and  illustrated by Anthony Hope-Smith with an introduction by Thompson's former editor Alan Rinzler, was originally published a couple of years ago by a British outfit called SelfMadeHero, and has just been re-released in a new edition by Abrams here in the States.  The 192 page paperback will set you back $17.95 if you still want to buy a copy after reading what I've got to say about it.

My opinion, I must say, seems to be in the minority.  I Googled the title and found several reviews written around the time of the original edition's release, and most of them are, if not glowing, at least positive.   I myself found little of value between those bright orange covers other than Rinzler's introduction, which I shall deal with in more detail presently.  First though, I must dash off my dismissal of the main body of the book.  

Bingley and Smith attempt with this book, as they state in this interview, to get beyond the public persona of "Dr. Gonzo" that Thompson built up around himself and that is perpetuated in such films as Where The Buffalo Roam and Terry Gilliam's version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to, in Bingley's words, "tell a more interesting story."  There is a more interesting story to be told, but you won't read it here.  Bingley's narrative is written in the first person as if by Thompson himself in a semi-convincing pastiche of Thompson's style at its most lucid that may fool some with only a passing familiarity with his work into thinking that they are reading some sort of lost manuscript by Thompson himself.  However, Thompson's seemingly dashed off prose style was deceptively easy to imitate on the surface, but full of depth of meaning and insight combined with an inventive use of  language that his imitators, myself at times among them, rarely even attempt to duplicate beyond repeated and inappropriate use of the word "shitrain" and references to "bad craziness".  Ultimately, Bingley barely manages to scratch the surface, failing to capture the true complexity of Thompson's life and work.

The book focuses mainly on the 1970's, which I suppose is only right as this was his most productive period.  However, the final decades of his life are also important to an understanding of the man and his ultimate fate and deserve better than to be dismissed in a couple of scratchily drawn and sparsely captioned pages.  The book ends, of  course, with Thompson's death at his own hands.  Bingley seems to be among those who want to paint Thompson's end as some sort of noble or brave and heroic act, when, in fact, suicide is neither of those things.  I will have to admit that as much as I continue to admire Thompson's literary accomplishments, I lost some small measure of respect for the man because of his final act.

Of course, Bingley's failure to capture the essence of Thompson's soul is no surprise if he can't even get straight the basic biographical facts of the man's life. On page 17, "Thompson" states, "My first job was as a sportswriter in New Jersey in   1957," which is not accurate, or even true. While it is certainly a fact that Thompson began his civilian career as a journalist in the small town of Jersey Shore, that town is, as I learned in college when I met a young woman who had grown up there (and I wish I could remember her name), neither in New Jersey nor anywhere near a shore.  Instead, it is located near the center of my home state of Pennsylvania.  Apparently, Bingley wrote his caption based on an assumption made by simply looking at the town's name rather than doing any actual tedious and time consuming research.

I came away from this book with no greater understanding of its subject than I'd had before.  The only real insight into Thompson's personality is offered in the introduction by Alan Rinzler, who was Thompson's editor on what he calls "...four of his best books": Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72, Amerika, The Great Shark Hunt, and The Curse of Lono. The intro seems a bit odd to me, as it reads as if it were not specifically written for this particular book.  At the very least, Rinzler appears not to have even read the volume he's supposed to writing an introduction to.  Not once does he make any reference to the book we are about to read or its authors, focusing instead on his personal recollections of working with Thompson.  Sadly, though, those scant eight pages of prose give us more insight into who Thompson truly was than the entire 180 page sequential narrative that follows.

The one good thing I got out of this book was a renewed desire to re-read some of the classic pieces by Thompson referenced within.  Thus, I set out to pick up a new copy of The Great Shark Hunt, which, as far as I'm concerned, is, along with Campaign Trail, Hell's Angels and Songs of the Doomed, all the biography of Thompson that anyone really needs. For in Thompson's case, more than for any of the other so-called "new journalists" with whom he is often lumped in, his life and work where truly of a piece and inseparable.

If Gonzo inspires anyone else to go out and re-read, or, better yet, discover for the first time, Thompson's literary legacy, then I suppose that its existence will have been justified.  Personally, I would advise anyone curious about Thompson to skip this book and use the eighteen bucks you save to purchase the books I make reference to above.  That would be a much wiser investment of your cash and reading time.

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.

The Influencing Machine

My  two main sources of news and entertainment these days are comic books and National Public Radio, and one of my favorite NPR programs, due both to the subject matter it covers and to the way said subject matter is presented by hosts Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, is On The Media.  (Though, due to the fact that my local NPR station no longer carries OTM, I have to keep up with it by subscribing to the podcast.) Combine all of that and you get a book that I just knew from the moment that I learned of its existence that I absolutely had to read: The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld.  A couple of weeks ago, I finally aquired a copy and have read it through from cover to cover twice now, partly to prepare to write this review, but mostly because it is a fun, engaging, and informative book that I absolutely love, as I knew I would.

In the world of graphic nonfiction, dominated mostly by self-indulgent autobiographical comics, the only thing comparable to The Influencing Machine is Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which also seeks to translate complex ideas and theories into sequential art form.  However, while, in retrospect at least, the idea of doing a book on comics theory in comics form seems something of a no-brainer, The Influencing Machine, which distills Gladstone's quarter century of writing about media into an examination of the media's past, present and future and our relationship to it then and now, seems a slightly riskier proposition to attempt as a comic. It is, however, a gamble that pays off. 

In interviews at the time of the book's release a few months ago, Gladstone stated that she chose to present what she calls her "media manifesto" in comics form in order to foster the same kind of intimate relationship with readers that she feels she attains with her radio audience.  In this regard she succeeds even more fully than she might have hoped, due to the nature of comics, which is what Marshall McLuhan termed a "cool" medium, which more fully engages the reader's mind than the "hot" medium of radio and and creates an even more intimate connection between author and audience. 

This is my first time seeing Josh Neufeld's art, but whoever brought him and Gladstone together should get a bonus as he seems the perfect choice to convey Gladstone's message and create that intimate connection with the reader which she sought.

It goes without saying by this point that I highly and heartily recommend this book to one and all.  To whet your appetite, here is an animated version of the book's intro from YouTube:

Free Comic Book Day Comics Part 4

I shall attempt to keep my remarks short, as I begin to grow weary of this series and am glad to see it come to its conclusion. I have a mere two free comics yet to cover, and I have been saving what is perhaps the coolest Free Comic Book Day offering ever for the very last.

That is not to imply that the first comic under consideration this day, Antarctic Press' Zombie Kid, is bad. Quite the contrary, as a matter of fact.  Not, strictly speaking, a comic, per se, Zombie Kid, designed to resemble a handwritten journal with one or two illustrations per page, in the manner of the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, tells the story of Bill Stokes, who, along with his mother, became a zombie as a result of an experimental virus she picked up while a volunteer for a medical test.
Being a zombie is not without certain drawbacks, especially when you're attempting to keep your transformation a secret and continue with a relatively normal life as a typical middle school student, complete with tests, school bullies and everything else that entails.  Still, Bill finds that there are certain advantages to his current condition, especially in regards to his ambition to be a champion professional video gamer.  For example, he notes that his reflexes have greatly improved and that he is able to stare at a TV screen for hours at a time without blinking.
It is Bill's dreams of gaming glory that set up the conflict of the main story here, as he schemes to get out of going on a class field trip which all his friends are looking forward to but that conflicts with a video game tournament that he badly wants to enter and win.
Overall, Zombie Kid is a well written and illustrated book that is perfectly pitched to appeal to its obvious target audience of teenage boys.

They, whoever "they" might be, say that "You get what you pay for," and with Free Comic Book Day comics that is, unfortunately, all too often the case.  I've encountered quite a few that aren't even worth the cover price.  On the other hand, there's Archaia Entertainment's free sampler for 2012, Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories: A Free Comic Book Day Hardcover Anthology.
This is a beautifully put together full color fifty page hardcover book featuring complete, albeit short, stories, not just snippets of longer tales, previewing six of Archaia's graphic novel series; Mouse Guard,Labyrinth, based on the Jim Henson film; The Dapper Men, Rust, Cursed Pirate Girl, and Cow Boy.  I really can't believe that Archaia was just giving this book away.  For a product of this quality, I would happily pay around five dollars.  I'm not just referring to the book as mere physical object, either.  The contents reflect some of the best, in both writing and art, that the comics medium has to offer, and all of them are definitely worth reading more of. I certainly hope the investment  Arhaia Entertainment made in producing this truly unique Free Comic Book Day giveaway pays off for them in terms of increased sales of the featured books.
That wraps up Free Comic Book Day for this year.  I'll be back soon with posts about comics I actually paid for, and maybe some I wish I hadn't.

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?

Free Comic Book Day Comics Part 3

I'm sure no one's going to be too disappointed if I skip the lengthy, rambling preamble this time out and get right to the comics.

I was in college when Voltron debuted back in the mid-80's.  While I enjoyed the series, mine was more of an ironic, detached appreciation.  I was laughing at it, whereas fifteen or even ten years earlier I would have bought into the premise unquestioningly.  Thus, I don't have the same nostalgic attachment to the show that people that much younger than me might.   Still I can tell a well written and drawn comics story when I read one, and VIZ Media's Free Comic Book Day offering, Voltron Force: Shelter From The Storm, written by Brian Smith with art by Jacob Chabot, presents the opening pages of what looks to be a very well done graphic novel.
Shelter From The Storm picks up several years after the events of the cartoon series with the original Voltron Force training a trio of new recruits to eventually take their places.  On a training exercise, the newbies encounter a runaway robeast created by the team's arch-nemesis King Lotor.  I would definitely consider reading the full graphic novel, though unless you're a real diehard Voltron junkie, I might recommend checking it out of the library.

The free comic from Red 5 Comics, with previews of the cover featured Atomic Robo, as well as NeoZoic and Bonnie Lass, and including stories featuring pirates and dinosaurs, seems shrewdly calculated to appeal to readers' inner child.  Nonetheless, it does hit most of the right buttons.
The titular Atomic Robo of the lead story is a robot created by Nikola Tesla in the 1920's who today leads a globe spanning scientific troubleshooting organization known as Tesladyne. In this tale, Robo is tricked by his old enemy Dr. Dinosaur, a super-intelligent talking dinosaur, naturally, into unleashing a super evolved dinosaur, or Futuresaurus Rex, intended by Dr. Dinosaur to destroy him.   While I didn't enjoy this quite as much as last year's Super Dinosaur free sampler, I can see that Atomic Robo has the potential to be a lot of fun.
I believe that in one of last year's posts in the wake of Free Comic Book Day I expressed a preference for free comics that give you complete stories rather than teasers continued in something you're expected to pay for.  This sampler from Red 5 contains a mix of both of those.  The Atomic Robo story is complete in this issue, while the other two stories are merely the beginnings of longer tales.
NeoZoic posits a world where dinosaurs never died out and have existed side by side with humans, giving rise to an organization called the Predator Defence League whose mission is to protect humanity from the beasts.   This eight page preview provides just enough  of a glimpse into that world to leave me slightly confused about just what's going on, but somewhat curious as to what the deal is.  Adding to the confusion is the art, done in sort of an Americanized Manga type of style.  The story features three female characters and they are all drawn with basically the same face.  The only thing differentiating them is hair and skin color.  If this were a black and  white comic I'd have been totally lost.  This is definitely a comic I'd want to check out from a library before shelling out any of my hard earned cash for it.
Bonnie Lass chronicles the adventures of the daughter of a famous pirate in what appears to be some sort of alternate history present day.  Bonnie and two of her companions have gotten themselves captured by some sort of cult or something looking to retrieve an object she stole from them.  They end up being rescued by probably the last person Bonnie wants to save them. With its cartoony art and irreverent tone, Bonnie Lass looks like it might be the most fun of the three series previewed here.

Finally for today, we come to Donald Duck Family Comics, presenting two vintage stories by legendary "good duck artist" Carl Barks.  The first deals with yet another scheme by the nefarious Beagle Boys to hijack Uncle Scrooge's money bin, while the other details Donald's efforts to be free of the nightmares which plague him whenever he tries to get some shuteye.  Rounding out the issue are a series of one page strips by Barks featuring Donald and Scrooge.
As to the question of whether the full books that this comic is promoting are worth buying, the answer seems pretty self-evident to me. Any collection of Barks' duck comics would make a worthy addition to anyone's bookshelf.
You know, its kind of funny, to me at least, that two of the best comics for young kids this Free Comic Book Day, this one and Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley, come from Fantagraphics, a publisher not exactly known for its kid friendly fare.  That they both contain material written and drawn over a half century ago is not so surprising to me, however, as I'm rapidly turning into a cranky old man who thinks everything new sucks.
I've still got two more free comics to write about, but I'll get to those next time.