It’s my turn to pick a book for the book club, and since we’re into this modern fantasy genre with the Unwritten (we still need to record a follow-up podcast talking about the last 6 issues or so), I choose The Books of Magic. It’s often cited as Harry Potter contemporary, and I’ve had a signed copy sitting on my shelf for at least a year now waiting for me to read it. (As of this writing, I’m actually about 3/4ths of the way through it.)
Since most of our regulars have probably already read this, I’ll encourage everyone to read as much as possible of the series, so we can discuss more than just the first TPB, but we’ll probably focus on that as a starting point.
I propose we meet near the end of this month–Sunday, March 28th at 2PM. We have plenty of time to reschedule before then.
This episode of the ReadComics Podcast is Florence, Jason, Mike, Marty and Susie discussing The Unwritten issues #1-5 (the first arc). We go off on tangents about meta-fiction (including Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, Fables, and The Magicians by Lev Grossman), and talk about The Unwritten’s obvious comparisons to Harry Potter and Books of Magic. We do spoil these early issues, so you’ll want to stay away if you mind that. They’re well worth reading, so go pick up the TPB if you haven’t already!
I am late to this, since I just caught up with the Golden Globes on Tivo this morning and then started going through the photos of attendees online.
Apparently Neil Gaiman attended for Coraline (which lost to Up in the Best Animated film category). Despite his nominee status, he was upstaged by his date and recent fiancee, musician Amanda Palmer. Thanks to Neil’s blog soliciting votes from avid fans, this series of photos of Amanda undressing for photographers after the ceremony has won both Best and Worst dressed on Go Fug Yourself. He briefly explains the context in his blog.
I have been meaning to repost this Jezebel commentary and join the conversation started in this list of 10 Great Female Comic Book Characters Of The Decade. Be warned that there are spoilers in this link (though not in my post below), particularly for the wonderfully badass selections of 355 from Y the Last Man (#3) and Michonne from Walking Dead (#2).
I really enjoyed the post, and I’m interested in reading more of Kelly Thompson’s She Has no Head posts in Comics Should be Good now. I am familiar with most of the women on the list. I love the inclusion of Frau Totenkinder (#10), though it does seem wrong for me to root for a child-eating witch when I’m on the verge of having a baby. I really didn’t connect with Promethea (#9), but I can reluctantly respect her inclusion on the list, and the post itself echoes many of my criticisms about the abstract turn the story took.
I love the inclusion of Jessica Jones from Alias (#5). Despite my terrible memory, which prohibits me from saying anything about the characters listed from Powers (#7) or Planetary (#6), despite having read both, Alias definitely stands out for me as one of my favorite titles/ new characters of the last decade.
There were three characters listed that I have never seen; Tara Chace from Queen & Country (#8), Cass Cain as Batgirl (#4), and Kate Kane as Batwoman (#1). I will probably continue to skip Queen & Country, since it seems to have a miliary focus that totally puts me off, but these incarnations of Batgirl & Batwoman sounds fascinating. I may have to check the library, since I don’t think I know anyone who collects these DC comics (speak up if I’m wrong).
I was initially indignant about the absence of Strangers in Paradise, Buffy, and Sandman, whose female characters shaped and fueled my fandom, but I can understand them being excluded as characters who appeared in comics after 2000, but who were created in the 90s. You could still make a case for Joss Whedon’s Fray, since it debuted in 2001.
Any suggestions of other missing characters who should have been eligible?
I just finished reading Stitches, by David Small. Excellent book, about events in his life when he was a boy. The art style is lovely, very fluid, a little creepy sometimes, funny in others, and beautiful the whole way through. The story itself is compelling. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it going in, but couldn’t put it down.
Graphical memoirs are definitely big right now, with Persepolis and Fun Home being a few of the more prominent examples. The voice that I hear when I read them is a different kind of voice. Usually a little subdued, as past events are related to me, even when something exciting or dramatic happens. It’s almost like there’s a kind of detachment that happens when I read these books, as if I feel like I’m the character in the book, but since the history is not mine, I can’t completely feel the emotions that the author may be trying to relate. I am fascinated by the memoirs, though. I’ve never read non-graphical memoirs that I can remember. I wonder if I’d enjoy them as much as I’m enjoying these.
No introduction can describe what will follow in this podcast. Mike says: “Listen, and godspeed.” Jason says: “Listen and god help you.”
This is actually only fifteen minutes of podcast #40, and the rest is podcast #41, since we lost everything of the first podcast after a hard-drive write-error. Mike, Jason, Susie, Florence and Marty all read and discussed the recent Marvel adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by Eric Shanower and drawn by Skottie Young.
This is the type of thing I’ve been waiting for for awhile. Not just for comics, but for all sorts of magazines, but it’s going to be especially nice for comics. That is, if the publishers get on board, of course. I’ve been reading stuff on Marvel’s Digital site for awhile, plus webcomics for years now, not to mention Zuda, and cd collections. I really don’t have any problem reading comics on a computer screen. And imagine this: you’re on a trans-oceanic flight, and don’t want to read the latest Michael Crichton or Dan Brown. Depending on capacity for the device, you can have hundreds of issues of comics in your lap for reading during the flight. Sure, you could use a laptop, but then, you could use a laptop for a music player as well.
I’d like to see some more details soon, like a price point, capacity, what kind of format the comics and magazines are going to be in, not to mention how much it’ll cost for the comics. But unless there are some outrageous drawbacks, this is going on my list of things to save up for.
I met Andy Mangels recently, when he was a featured guest at Gaylaxicon, and I was intrigued to learn about his online Wonder Woman museum.
On October 26th, he is holding the 4th annual Wonder Woman Day, which includes an art auction with art donated by Alex Ross and Gail Simone among others. I would love to find a way to buy some of the prints featured on this site, but I haven’t figured out how yet. Chime in if you find a way!
Recently the new Spider-Woman series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev hit the stands. It may also surprise you that they’ve also released a “motion comic” of the series on iTunes as well. In fact, if you read much of the promotional interviews and articles bout Spider-Woman, you’ll find that Marvel is pushing the motion comic more than the printed comic. In addition, they just announced that the first arc of Astonishing X-Men (“Gifted”) by Joss Whedon would be released as a motion comic as well, complete with a media blitz to boot. This follows DC’s jump into the genre with last year’s Watchmen motion comic that coincided with the movie. So what’s the story on this hot new craze sweeping the comics world? Is this the golden ticket that the big publishers were looking for to bring comics into the digital age? And what is the difference between a motion comic vs. a cartoon? Lucky for you, I’m here to help out. Read the rest of this entry »
Last weekend was Gaylaxicon in Minneapolis and Marty, Florence, Jason and myself were all in attendance. And a great time it was! We’ll podcast about it sometime this week but I wanted to make some call outs. First, Jason did a great job as the PR/Outreach coordinator for the convention. It was apparent by the turnout and the great time that was had by everyone that Jason worked hard in his role and it payed off. Also, the featured guests were excellent. Margaret Weis, Terrance Griep, Andy Mangels, Lawrence Schimel…they were all awesome and what I found great was that in a convention like this (as opposed to Convergence) was that you could interact with the guests of honor outside of the panels, and got a better feel for them as people. Finally, I loved the panels offered. All the panels I attended spoke to me as a gay geek and covered issues that were important to me. And it’s to the credit of the organizers that there were often tough choices on which panel to attend.
So that’s my brief Gaylaxicon recap. Next year it’s held in Montreal over Halloween weekend…I’m really interested in going!
I have been reading Daredevil for a few years. While both Bendis’ and Brubaker’s runs were well written and had fantastic art, every other arc dealt with one or all of the following.
-Matt is doing what it takes to protect the city. But he’s going too far! But what choice does he have!
-The Kingpin is gone. Now he’s back! But he’s powerless. But he’s secretly pulling all the all the strings!
-Matt needs a personal life or he’ll go crazy. But being daredevil is putting them all in danger! But if he dosen’t have a personal life he is not a person! But they’re all going to die!
I read the first issue of Andy Diggle’s run, and it looks like more of the same.
Sorry DD it’s over. Call me if you get a fresh perspective.
We’ll be reading The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, the recent Marvel adaption by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, issues 1-8. Tentatively scheduled for Saturday, 7 November.
I found a post on Violet Blue’s website compiling some sexy webcomics. I haven’t had a chance to check them all out yet, but I have listened to her interesting ‘open source sex’ podcast and have enjoyed reading her political/ cultural blog posts, and her links to pretty girls.
This link is definitely NSFW, and the site is >18yrs.
Yet another fascinating and tantalizing podcastical tribute to comics! This book club issueissode focused on the awesome Echo, by veteran comic creator Terry Moore.
Marty, Florence, Mike, Jason and Susie wax your ears off with unquestionable eloquence, only straying satirically from the subject for brief but satisfying interludes. (We’re segue savants, so of course you probably won’t even notice.) This episode is best enjoyed in the company of a well trained room full of monkeys with typewriters.
I have known about and avoiding this manga sequel from TokyoPop to the classic Jim Henson movie the Labyrinth, for a few years now. The Labyrinth is one of those special movies that I have watched many times since I was a child, and treasure as much now as then. So when, around five years ago I stumbled across the listing on Amazon for the first volume, I was taken aback. I could not help but be worried that the people producing this series would miss the charm and wonder of the original. I did not even want to take the chance that it would disappoint, so I left it alone. I am not sure what made me check if the library had them now, but I am glad I did. No, author Jake T. Forbes has not quite created a story as brilliant as the movie. He has crafted a narrative that pays homage to the original, while cutting it’s own path through the Labyrinth. This time it is Toby, whom you may remember as the baby that heroine Sarah had to rescue from the Goblin King, who is the teenage hero. He finds himself pulled into the Labyrinth and makes friends both new to the audience as well as familiar ones. His adventures in the first volume while not boring, do feel a little like a retread. However it is as the story progresses and we learn of King Jareth’s designs for Toby and his motives and also as we get a broader view of the world he inhabits that I found my self truly invested in the story. Volume 3 took the plot in a direction I was not expecting, and of course left us with quite the cliffhanger. There is one more volume in the works however it looks like the books have been released at least two years apart and number three just came out last May, so I will be waiting for the conclusion for a while. I especially appreciated that the author planted references to other Jim Henson fantasy works, such as the Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock and the Story Teller. Jim Henson’s work from the Muppets and beyond, was my very first fandom and it is still my most favorite. Sorry Joss, I love you too! I am really glad my fears for this project were completely unfounded. If I have a small complaint, it is that the creatures that were created just for the manga don’t look like they were created by the same person who created the creatures for the film. And of course they weren’t, Brian Froud designed the firies, Ludo, and Hoggle for the film, while Chris Lie is the artist on the manga. It also would be nice if the series was in color, but then it would take even longer to be published. The series has it’s own website and forums at goblin.net.
My next comic book club selection is Terry Moore’s Echo, issues #1-13. The first 10 are collected in two trade paperbacks already.
Echo is his latest creation, but I have been a fan of Terry Moore’s earlier series, Strangers in Paradise, since college. I am looking forward to hearing everyone else’s opinion about how this new story plays out from the beginning.
We’ll meet on Sunday, September 20th* at 3PM at Florence & Marty’s apartment.
*We are postponing from the 13th to the 20th to protect visitors from our flu.
Jackson Ferrell, of This Week in Webcomics has interviewed the co-creators of the Blank It webcomic, Aric and Lem. He is going to post this interview tomorrow in webcomic form, and was kind enough to send over a sneak-preview for ReadComics.org readers. (Unfortunately, I didn’t check my email all day, and it’s not much of a preview anymore, but hit the jump below for a couple of images from the interview.)
This book club episode of the podcast was composed of the melodic and intellectual voices of Marty, Florence, Mike, Jason, and of course the disembodied Susie, whose choice it was to read American Born Chinese & The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang (with Derek Kirk Kim on The Eternal Smile). Both books are well worth a read, and we go into great detail about their plots and allegories and meanings contained therein. As with all our bookclub episodes, it’ll be a more entertaining listen if you’ve already read the books in question. Feel free to leave your own commentary and opinions in the comments.
Thursday night, August 13th at The Riverview (the best movie theater in Minneapolis):
“Can’t Stop The Serenity is the annual global browncoat event featuring Serenity on the big screen with all proceeds to benefit Equality Now, Joss Whedon’s favorite charity. Equality Now is an international non profit organization working to end violence and descrimination against women and girls around the world. The now-annual event began in 2006 when over 40 locations around the globe raised over $60,000 for Equality Now! The 2007 global events topped that with gusto by raising over $100,000 for Equality Now! Minnesota’s participation provided over $2,000 in 2006, and tripled that amount in 2007 by raising $6,160! We raised over $7,200 in 2008!”
While I was out of town, a co-worker sent out a link to these awesome one-liner comics inspired by spam email subject lines. As you can see, an ironic meaning is often illustrated, rather than the one the often broken english subjects are meant to invoke. The illustrations/comics are drawn by graphic designer Elliott Burford, whose other projects (in the site’s navigation) are well worth checking out.
Also in my inbox this morning, (or, perhaps in my twitter stream) was a link to Opertoon’s iPhone/iPod Touch app Ruben & Lullaby, which is a self-described: “digital comic/game (we call it an “opertoon”) that lets you shape the emotions of a quarreling couple with a touch”. I haven’t downloaded this yet, but I will be checking it out sometime in the near future. It looks quite interesting.
Join us tonight, dear friends, as we delve once more into the madness that is the ReadComics podcast. Subdued madness, in this case, as we talk about our trips to the comic shop and the library, and what we found there. Mike bought Marvel, Jason checked out some Tezuka, and Marty waxes wanly about Thor. We also prepare for the San Diego Comic Convention, which none of us will attend.
So, here’s some cool news: Joss Whedon’s brilliant Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is up for an emmy award for the ultra-obscure Outstanding Special Class Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs category. Which, appropriately enough, sounds like it should come from a Whedon musical.
In related Emmy news, Dr. Horrible Star Neil Patrick Harris was nominated for his supporting role in How I Met Your Mother. He’s also hosting the show! Yay!
The director’s cut of the Watchmen movie will be hitting theaters Friday, July 17th, for one week only. And only in four U.S. theaters. Luckily one of them is in the Twin Cities – at Apple Valley’s Carmike 15.
Zack Snyder confirmed again that there will be a limited theatrical release of an extended director’s cut of Watchmen in July, and revealed that the opening title montage featured two deleted shots
Apparently one of the scenes depicts the brutal murder of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason. If you can’t make it to the theater this weekend see it on YouTube, or wait for the director’s cut release on DVD and Blu-Ray July 21st.
I finished my cover-to-cover reading of this amazing book this morning on my way to work. Upon first glimpse, I figured I would simply be reading the cartoons and be done with it, but when I dug in, I actually found the commentary by Richard H. Minear to be so integral to the viewing and understanding of Dr. Suess’s political cartoons that I simply couldn’t proceed without devouring every paragraph. (I even read his analysis at the end, which while it was not quite as entertaining as the guided tour of Dr. Suess’s brilliant cartoons contained within, was still quite entertaining and enlightening.)
Essentially, Dr. Seuss was the editorial cartoonist for a New York political magazine called PM, for two years from 1941 to 1943. In that time, he was incredibly prolific, and wrote/drew over 400 cartoons.
One thing I took away from this book was the evidence that Dr. Seuss was unfortunately, not immune to the plague of racism that he himself rallied so strongly against. His treatment of the Japanese, even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor was pretty despicable, (although some might argue justified given the circumstances, I would tend to disagree). However, to his credit, and at least partial redemption in my eyes, he actually visited Japan in 1953, and subsequently wrote Horton Hears a Who.
This book is a must read for fans of Dr. Seuss, and I think it’s also a very handy history lesson (from the perspective of someone who has never successfully completed an American History course). If you want to just read the cartoons, or supplement the book material, the University of California San Diego’s website hosts an awesome archive of all 400 of Dr. Seuss’s political cartoons. (Only 200 are reprinted in the book.) I wish they’d been scanned (or made available) at a higher resolution, since the details really are what makes this work stand out, but nonetheless it’s an awesome archive of an absolute master of the art.
Susie has picked American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, and The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang, and Derek Kirk Kim. We will be discussing them on August 16 at 2 pm
Today we sat around and shared our impressions of the Annihilation series. This was Chad’s pick for the book club, and he, Florence, Marty, Mike, Jason, Susie (and Tony, who joins us after a while) all give their impressions of the series, or what they read of it.
My mega talented coworker Sally did this amazing Batman mural for a lucky kid’s bedroom wall.
So I have two questions for you. The first is, what comic themed mural assuming you had the space and property would you want? Second, what comic or cartoon themed mural would your eight year old self want? Now I think I would go for Fray in free fall surrounded by flying cars. At eight it would have been either Gem and the Holograms in concert, or the Thundercats in a group pose. And you?
It’s my turn to pick a book for the book club, and since we’re into this modern fantasy genre with the Unwritten (we still need to record a follow-up podcast talking about the last 6 issues or so), I choose The Books of Magic. It’s often cited as Harry Potter contemporary, and I’ve had a signed copy sitting on my shelf for at least a year now waiting for me to read it. (As of this writing, I’m actually about 3/4ths of the way through it.)
I am late to this, since I just caught up with the Golden Globes on Tivo this morning and then started going through the photos of attendees online.
I met Andy Mangels recently, when he was a featured guest at Gaylaxicon, and I was intrigued to learn about his online 
Recently the new Spider-Woman series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev hit the stands. It may also surprise you that they’ve also released a “motion comic” of the series on iTunes as well. In fact, if you read much of the promotional interviews and articles bout Spider-Woman, you’ll find that Marvel is pushing the motion comic more than the printed comic. In addition, they just announced that the first arc of Astonishing X-Men (“Gifted”) by Joss Whedon would be released as a motion comic as well, complete with a media blitz to boot. This follows DC’s jump into the genre with last year’s Watchmen motion comic that coincided with the movie. So what’s the story on this hot new craze sweeping the comics world? Is this the golden ticket that the big publishers were looking for to bring comics into the digital age? And what is the difference between a motion comic vs. a cartoon? Lucky for you, I’m here to help out. 
Last weekend was Gaylaxicon in Minneapolis and Marty, Florence, Jason and myself were all in attendance. And a great time it was! We’ll podcast about it sometime this week but I wanted to make some call outs. First, Jason did a great job as the PR/Outreach coordinator for the convention. It was apparent by the turnout and the great time that was had by everyone that Jason worked hard in his role and it payed off. Also, the featured guests were excellent. Margaret Weis, Terrance Griep, Andy Mangels, Lawrence Schimel…they were all awesome and what I found great was that in a convention like this (as opposed to Convergence) was that you could interact with the guests of honor outside of the panels, and got a better feel for them as people. Finally, I loved the panels offered. All the panels I attended spoke to me as a gay geek and covered issues that were important to me. And it’s to the credit of the organizers that there were often tough choices on which panel to attend.
We’ll be reading The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, the recent Marvel adaption by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, issues 1-8. Tentatively scheduled for Saturday, 7 November.
My next comic book club selection is Terry Moore’s Echo, issues #1-13. The first 10 are collected in two trade paperbacks already.
proceeds to benefit Equality Now, Joss Whedon’s favorite charity. Equality Now is an international non profit organization working to end violence and descrimination against women and girls around the world. The now-annual event began in 2006 when over 40 locations around the globe raised over $60,000 for Equality Now! The 2007 global events topped that with gusto by raising over $100,000 for Equality Now! Minnesota’s participation provided over $2,000 in 2006, and tripled that amount in 2007 by raising $6,160! We raised over $7,200 in 2008!”
So, here’s some cool news: Joss Whedon’s brilliant Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is up for an emmy award for the ultra-obscure Outstanding Special Class Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs category. Which, appropriately enough, sounds like it should come from a Whedon musical.
