Archive for the ‘artist/creator(s)’ Category

Mary Had a Little Dream of Robots

November 9th, 2012 by Martin

Yesterday my daughter Colleen sat down at the library with this book Robot Dreams, by Sera Veron and started singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. I thought nothing of it until I spotted a copy of Comic Book Nursery Rhymes on the shelf (which we own), and put two-and-two together.

She only “read” this book (there aren’t many words, if any), for a few minutes, but we also spent some time paging through some of the Muppet Show comic anthologies they have in the kid’s comics area. An area that we will definitely visit again.

(Gee, wouldn’t it be cool if we started writing on here again. Maybe we will start reviewing kid-appropriate comics.)

Brand New Sandman Comic! (eventually)

July 14th, 2012 by Susie

Watch this.  Do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GndnR7oSYYk&feature=player_embedded

Announcement

Long time readers of this blog can probably guess how I feel about this.  He doesn’t say when it will come out or if it will be a single issue, a mini series, a maxi series, or a standalone graphic novel.  my vote is for the latter, since after months of anticipation waiting a month between installments would be torture.  Of course I will buy it regardless of format.  I’m very glad he’s giving us another glimpse into this universe.  Sandman is such an important mythology to me, it feels a bit like Homer announcing an untold tale of Odysseus.

 

(By the way, if you are one of the five people who have purchased something from my Redbubble shop, thank you from the bottom of my heart.)

Anybody want to buy a tee shirt?

June 24th, 2012 by Susie

 

If you are interested, I’ve put some of my drawings (including my idea of the ultimate super group above) on Red Bubble for sale as tee shirts and prints.

They can be found here.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/qooze/portfolio

Singing, dancing, and underwear on the outside. What’s not to like?

June 14th, 2012 by Susie

By now we’ve all seen the Avengers, maybe more than once.  And the Amazing Spider-man and the Dark Knight Rises aren’t out yet.  so how to fill the on screen super-hero void?  May I suggest Holy Musical, B@man?  It’s the latest project by Team Starkid, the folks who brought you A Very Potter Musical, a staged parody of Harry Potter.  They’ve given Batman the same treatment and it’s just as funny though songs aren’t quite as catchy in my opinion).  Their production values are much improved.  They’ve put the entire show on their website and on youtube.  Watch it, it’s a good time.  and if you haven’t see a Very Potter Musical or it’s sequel, give them a shot.

I’ve seen the Avengers, now what do I watch?

May 4th, 2012 by Susie

 

Disclaimer:  If you reading this prior to Saturday afternoon, I haven’t seen the movie yet, but am expecting to love it.  I have great faith in Joss
It’s Avengers opening day!  Some of you may have already seen it, maybe even at a midnight showing.  And after months of anticipation you might feel like there’s nothing left to watch to get excited about.  Or you loved the movie so much you want other movies and shows that capture the same feeling.  Well lucky you, I’ve got a few suggestions!  Whether you’re craving more funny, more superheroes, or just more epic Jossness, no worries, I’ve got you covered.
1) the Cabin in the Woods.  It’s still in theaters so it’s a perfect fix if you’re craving more of that communal adrenaline rush.
Why will it appeal to Avengers fans?  Well it features Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor.  And it is a humorous take on horror movies while still delivering actual scares.  Much the way I predict the Avengers will deliver everything you want out of a super hero movie, while having fun with the genre (though I suspect it won’t be quite as meta as Cabin in the Woods).  And it was cowritten by some dude with a familiar sounding name, rhymes with bleedin’.  Even if you hate horror movies (I must raise my hand here) there is a lot to enjoy about this flick.
2) Firefly and Serenity.  Serenity is Joss’ big screen debut, and while it’s possible to enjoy Serenity, without having seen any episodes of Firefly, the television show that preceded it, once you see Serenity, you’ll want to see everything involving Mal and the crew.  You might as well do it in order.  It’s only twelve episodes, not too much of a time commitment.
Why will it appeal to Avengers fans? Once again we’ve got the Joss factor.  But it is also really exciting, with a twisty plot, and intriguing, quippy, sometimes mysterious, characters.  Plus you want to see River Tam kick butt.  Trust me on that.
3)The Incredibles. The movie that solidified Pixar as one of the best companies currently making films, not just the best making kid’s films. Why will it appeal to Avengers fans? Superheroes, of course.  But also it blends top notch action with compelling character arcs.  You’ve got a guy who feels trapped in his unsatisfying job.  A marriage under extreme pressure.  A teenager who wants to blend into the crowd.  And a sociopath who would destroy a city, just so he can be the one to save it.
3) Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog.  Another unconventional take on superheroes.  This time focussing on a wannabe super villain.  Plus musical numbers!
Why will it appeal to Avengers fans? Again it’s the brainchild of Joss, along with his talented brothers and sister in-law.  And Nathan Fillion’s Captain Hammer  is at least as arrogant as Robert Downey Jr’s Ironman (though not as endearing).
4) The Specials.  It might not have the production values of the Avengers, it’s a worthy entry into the super team oeuvre (which is pretty small at least in feature films).
Why will it appeal to Avengers fans? The Avengers are Earth’s mightiest heroes.  The Specials–not so much.  They are the superhero community’s version of the D list.  There isn’t much action in the movie, but anyone familiar with super teams will appreciate the humor.  Plus it features Rob Lowe in a comedy before the world at large realized how funny he is.
And a few things to look forward to. Joss’ next movie is Much Ado About Nothing.  It’s a modern set interpretation of the Shakespeare comedy (my favorite of the comedies).  It was filmed in a month and entirely in his house.  It features many actors he’s worked with in the past, Amy Acker, Alexis Denisoff, Fran Kranz, etc.  It’s unclear when it’s coming out, or if it will get a theatrical release, but I’m excited to see it.
And also coming soon is the Amazing Spider-man.  I’m not sure Spider-man was in need of a reboot so soon, but Spidey is a great character.  I’m interested to see what Andrew Garfield brings to the role.

Exciting News!

January 5th, 2012 by Susie

At least it’s exciting to me.  A short story I wrote was recently published in the anthology Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume 3.  Im not posting about it because I’m proud of being published (okay maybe a little because of that) but because the story, titled Sister, is about superheroes and was heavily influenced by comic books.  I thought the readers of this blog might like that.

It’s available in paperback here:

Horror, Humor, and Heroes Vol. 3: New Faces of Science Fiction [paperback]

And on kindle here:

Horror, Humor, and Heroes Vol. 3: New Faces of Science Fiction [kindle]

The kindle edition is only $2.99, which is a pretty good deal for 24  stories.  Please note, I’m not making a dime off the sales of the anthology, I just want as many people that might want to read it to know about it.

We will return to our (not) regularly scheduled comics rambling, ranting, and spoofing in the next post.

The Avengers Assembled! Sort of

August 22nd, 2011 by Susie

 

Part of the cast was on hand at the Disney Expo thingy this weekend, where they showed four minutes of footage from the upcoming Avengers movie. I haven’t been able to find a video of it online, but here is a good description of it, as well as an article about the event.

I’m excited for the movie, mainly because it’s being written and directed by Joss Whedon. I don’t think it’s a secret that I love just about everything he’s done and it feels like there hasn’t been much output from other than a few issues of Buffy season eight, since Dollhouse went off the air. That would be because he’s been busy prepping a major tentpole motion picture. I think it has the potential to be fantastic. In his one previous big screen work Serenity, he delivered exciting action sequences that furthered the plot,while not losing sight of the characters, while also giving them strong emotional arcs and some really fun dialog. That is exactly what I want out of the Avengers.

I havent seen any of the movies introducing the individual team members, except the first Iron Man. Which I quite enjoyed. I think it’s a shame that the core of the team has been established and cast already, I would have liked some Whedon regulars in the cast. As it is the closest we’ve got to a Whedon connection is Cobie Smulders, whose How I Met Your Mother castmate Neil Patrick Harris starred in Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. At least as far as we know. Maybe he’ll find places for Nathan Fillion, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Summer Glau, Alyson Hannigan, Adam Baldwin, and Felicia Day. Yeah, that’s a super team I would get behind.

 

(the poster is most definitely not an official poster, but it the best of the fan made ones I saw.  I could not find an artist to credit it to.  If anyone knows, leave it in the comments and I’ll include it.)

Not so Wonderous

May 14th, 2011 by Susie

The word is that after much retooling, NBC passed on the David E. Kelley Wonder Woman series that I have been kvetching about for the last several months. Woo hoo, it was shaping up to be a total debacle!
It does beg the question of why one comicdom’s most iconic superheroes, and argueably it’s most iconic female superhero, has been in development hell for so long. How many times have we heard about a Wonder Woman movie or tv show being developed, only to have it not see the light of day? This one got closer, as it actually filmed a pilot (partial or complete, I’m not sure of).
I’m not saying this is the one that should have happened, everything I heard about it made me sick to my stomach (except for the casting of Adrianne Palicki, she was great on Friday Night Lights!). I’m just wondering why a new live action Wonder Woman appears to be an impossibility.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffengger

April 19th, 2011 by Susie

 

I picked this book up at the event I attended last week.  I have been very eager to read it for several reasons.  The first being that Niffengger is one of my favorite authors.  Second, this is her first comic, and as you know if you read this blog, I love comics!  Lastly, it is about books and the role they play in in a person’s life.  And I love books too, of all kinds, pure prose, illustrated, memoir, essays, fantasy, humor, children’s, ebooks, and countless others.

The Night Bookmobile is unlike Niffenegger’s two previously published graphic pieces.  The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress were both stories told in brief poetic sentences accompanied by equally dreamlike, evocative illustrations.  The Night Bookmoblie is different to the point that if you did not know who the author of each was and put them next to each other, you probably would not guess they were done by the same person.

The story shares the magic realism themes of the other two, but is told in a far more straight forward manner, and the art is much more precise and grounded.  I don’t consider that a bad thing, I think this is the strongest of her three graphic works.  The other two are lovely to look at, and to muse on the narrative, but the Night Bookmobile pulls you into the story in a way the other two don’t.

The story is that of a young women who while on a late night walk, after a fight with her boyfriend, stumbles upon an RV calling itself the Night Bookmoblie.  She steps inside to discover it is bigger than it appeared and is filled with books.  But they are not just any books, these are every book she has read over the course of her life.  Not just books she owns, but everything she had ever borrowed from a library or friend, everything read for school, or read and discarded.  The Bookmoblie also has a catalog of every magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, road sign or cereal box she ever read as well.  It’s not mentioned, but I am sure it also has a database of every email and webpage also.  The discovery changes the way she reads, always aware that she is adding to the library each time she opens the book.  She becomes obsessed with finding the  Bookmobile again.

The art is incredibly detailed and true to life.  It compliments the story perfectly.  One particular panel, a close up of the a shelf of books in the Bookmoblie was particularly compelling.  She recreates the spines of a collection of children’s books with nearly impossible accuracy, it is clear it was done by hand and it is a wonder to behold.  I was drawn to examine each one and felt the same tingles of recognition when I spotted one I had read as a child that the protagonist was experiencing.

The story was originally published as a prose story for an anthology.  She later interpreted it into a comic for the UK’s  the Guardian.  I think it is especially suited to the medium, since the imagery is so vivid.  The book was published by Abrams, with as much attention to detail and artistry as the material deserves.  If you can’t tell by now, I really liked it and highly recommend picking it up

Gaiman, Niffengger talk on NPR

April 18th, 2011 by Susie

The full audio of talk is now online at WBEZ. It includes plenty of bits I forgot to mention, such as their thoughts on writer’s block, and the inspiration for the door to the other house in Coraline.

You can listen to it here,

http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/story/audio/2011-April/2011-04-16/amp110412cplneil-gaiman-and-audrey-niffenegger.mp3

Neil Gaiman and Audrey Niffenegger at the Harold Washington Library

April 13th, 2011 by Susie

Last night I had the opportunity to see Neil Gaiman, writer of among many other things the Sandman, speak to Chicago native Audrey Niffenegger, author of the Time Traveller’s Wife, at the Chicago Public Libray.  I jumped at the chance since they are two of my all-time favorite authors.  The event was in honor of Gaiman’s novel, Neverwhere, being chosen as this year’s One Book One Chicago selection.  

I was one of six hundred people who showed up at the Cindy Pritzker auditorium for the chance to see them. While in line, and later in the auditorium waiting for the talk to start I was pleased to see many people were passing the time with real, honest to goodness paper books, rather than phones or ereaders (I saw several of those as well).  Most people either had Neverwhere or another of Gaiman’s books, or one of Niffenegger’s.  I was severely tempted to get up and do a survey of the audience to find out what they were reading, in order to get recommendations.  Instead I began reading Lev Grossman’s the Magicians, and was thoroughly engrossed in it, by the time the guests of honor took the stage.

When they were introduced, the mention of the upcoming episode of Doctor Who written by Neil got its own round of applause.  Incidently, for the first time ever I noticed billboards advertising the new season on BBCamerica, up at train stations on my way to the event.

Before the talk began I bought a signed copy of Neil’s poem, Instructions, illustrated by frequent collaborator Charles Vess.  I also bought the Night Bookmobile, a short story of Audrey’s that she adapted into a comic.  I will probably write a review once I have read it.

The talk was very interesting.  Below I will list what I thought were the highlights.  I intended to ask them a question, but when the time came I was struck with the sudden doubt that I could project my voice well enough to be heard.  I can be rather soft spoken.  Eventually I rose my hand anyway (people much further back in the room were being heard just fine) but I didn’t get called on.  I sent my question into Neil’s blog, maybe he will answer it.

Highlights as I remember them:

*Neil detailed the origins of Neverwhere.  He said he had read a book by Gene Wolfe (I forgot to write down the title) that featured Chicago in a way that made the city feel like a character.  Similarly he read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, that did the same for early twentieth century New York.  He suggested to an editor of his that someone should do book like that about London.  The editor said “why don’t you do it?”  He was taken aback, he thought he was giving the editor an idea to give to a “real writer” He didn’t say when this happened but it was either when he was still a journalist or just beginning to write comics.  He didn’t do anything with the idea at that point, but it was planted in his brain.

A few years later he ran into his friend, English actor/comedian, Lenny Henry, who mentioned that he had spoken to the BBC about doing a fantasy miniseries, possibly about warring tribes of homeless people in London.  He asked Neil if he wanted to write it.  Neil said yes, then went home and wrote a letter to Lenny saying that he didn’t want to write about tribes of homeless people in London.  Because he said he could make being homeless seem really cool, and he didn’t want to be responsible for a kid in Dorset (I don’t remember if that was the exact example he gave) running away from home, to be a “cool” homeless person.   Instead he wrote an outline of what became the BBC version of Neverwhere.

*He said that he usually uses a working title until he thinks of something better.  But that he usually doesn’t come up with anything better and so one day he winds up with a book in his hands called Neverwhere, and he thinks “why?”

*When asked how he came up with Coraline, he said when his daughter Holly was around four, she would come home from nursery school, find him at his type writer, and dictate stories to him.  They were about little girls who got locked in cellars, or whose mothers got replaced by witches that looked exactly like them.  He thought he should buy some ghost stories for her.  He went to his local book shop, and asked if they had anything really scary for little kids.  They had nothing of the kind.  And so he decided to write that kind of book himself.

*Asked about why he wrote Neverwhere as an all ages book.  Neil said he doesn’t know what age group a book will appeal to until after it is published and he finds out who is reading it.  He said that when he sent Coraline to his agent, she called him asking, “Do you honestly want me to send this to Harper Collins as a children’s book?” He asked why not, and she said it gave her nightmares.  He asked her to read it to her two young daughters, if they liked it then send it as a children’s book.  If they were turned into gibbering messes then–(he sort of shrugged there).  His agent read it to her her daughters, at the time seven and five.  They liked it, and so it went ahead as planned.  A few years ago, he attended a stage musical addaptation of Coraline.  He happened to be seated next to his agent’s younger daughter, by then fourteen.  He told her that Coraline got published because she wasn’t scared by it.  Her response was that she was terrified, but knew if she let on she wouldnt get to find out what happened next.

*Someone asked something to do with both Audrey and Neil working in visual mediums, as well as prose.  Sorry don’t remember what the exact question was.  Audrey said she often comes up with an image first, then writes as a way of figuring out what the story behind it is.  For example with the Time Traveler’s Wife, she thought of the title, then the image of an old woman sitting on a porch with a cup of tea, waiting for something.
Neil said that writing comics made him much better at describing things, because if he could not adequately describe an image, the artist couldn’t draw it.

*An audience member said she was in an American literature class in which a faction of the students were studying American Gods as non-canonical literature.  She asked him what he thought of the possibility of American Gods becoming part of the accepted curriculum.  He said he thinks authors should have the safety of being dead for a good amount of time before their books start being taught.

*On the topic of American Gods.  He said that the are places in Europe that are ancient and feel sacred.  And on them people built things like Stone Henge.  There are also places like that in America, but here we build giant balls of twine, or replicas of the worlds biggest wheel of cheese circa 1977.  And people visit, and get their pictures taken in front of them, and leave shaking their heads wondering what the hell that was all about.  And that was part to of the impetus to write American Gods, to explain it.

*He said that he has been working on a short story set in the Neverwhere universe called How the Marquis Got His Coat Back.  In which we meet the Marquis’ brother, who is exactly like the Marquis only worse.

*He isn’t planning on writing a sequel to Neverwhere anytime in the foreseeable future.  But if he does, he knows that a brass bed will be involved.  Sometime back, he read an article about workers finding an antique brass bed in the London sewers.  It could not have been brought done there whole, so someone must have brought it down piece by piece, and assembled it.  No one could figure out what it was doing there.  He read the article, and thought “I know.”

*He revealed that Terry Jones is working on an television miniseries version of Good Omens.  He did not say what channel would be producing it, or how far along it was.

*On collaborating with Terry Pratchett, he said it was great, because he was writing for an audience of one.  He would write with purpose of making Terry laugh.  And vice versa.

*Someone asked what upcoming books they recommended.  Audrey said she had read a book called the Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.  She described it as the an amazing, creepy story about the best circus you could possibly imagine.  Neil recommended a graphic novel called Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol.

So that is my best recollection of what was discussed.  If anyone else was there and has a favorite bit I didn’t include, please leave it in the comments.  And they mentioned at the beginning that it was being recorded for Chicago Public Radio, but the did not say when it will air.  If and when I find out I will link to it here.

Updated: the Gene Wolfe book is Free Live Free.

Lets Be Superficial, who is the sexiest (male) comics creator?

February 23rd, 2011 by Susie

Okay this post was inspired by an interview with Karen Berger, in which she mentioned that Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon are Brazilian and identical twins, and my brain went straight to “I must find a picture of them!”  And I did, and they are very cute.  And it occurred to me that it would be fun to make a post of the most sexy comics creators.  I decided to limit it to males, just because I find objectifying men far more amusing and novel, than doing the same to women.  Especially when it comes to the comics industry.  So keeping in mind that “sexy” is very subjective, I thought I would list the ones I think are the most physically attractive, and then open the floor to you guys to list your own.

Disclaimer: All of these guys are infinitely talented, and are worthy of admiration regardless of their appearance.  And frankly comics creator is a title that is just sort of inherently sexy to me.  But I’m being superficial today, so this post’s deepness level is skin.

First up the aforementioned twins Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.

Look at them!  They are such cute little hipster boys!  This could be an indie label album cover.  Oh and their credits include doing the writing and art for Umbrella Academy, and Daytrippers, among others.

Keeping with the theme of up and coming brother teams, Jonathan and Joshua Luna.

How hot are they?  Points for being able to work the camera.  They are responsible for the Sword, Girls, and Ultra.

How about David Mack?

I’ve met him twice at conventions, and was utterly charmed by him both times.  He totally recognized me the second time, even though two years had passed, and our first encounter had to be pretty similar to hundreds he had had with fans at conventions.  (I’m not implying anything here.  I just mean that I walked up to his table.  Told him his art was cool, and that I liked it.)  During that first meeting, I had not read any Kabuki though I had heard of it, and had really liked his Daredevil work.  He was incredibly gracious, and gave me the first trade and the, at that time, most recent hardcover collection for half price, and just flat out gave both me and my sister all the uncollected issues for free, as well as two limited prints of his Kabuki work, also for free.  And he signed it all!  It was just such a classy move, that of course the next time we saw him at a convention we bought every new item he had for sale, and we had already bought all the intervening Kabuki volumes.  (By the way Kabuki is amazing!)  Anyway that might have bought him a place on this list, but it was unnecessary because he is undeniably cute.

And this is the only other person on this list that I have spoken to, Neil Gaiman.

The conversation went like this:

Neil: Hello.

Me: Hi.  (blushes and hands over books)

Neil:  What is your name?

Me:  Susan (he writes personalized signature in my books, while I stammer incoherently)

Me: Thank you! (he smiles pleasantly, before turning to the next blushing, stammering person in line.)

Imagine how many times that has happened to him.  He probably has the highest ratio of  swooning to nonswooning fans in comicdom.  It could be because he is a super-genius-writer-guy, or that he is quite nice to look at, but I blame the voice.  He has the best story reading voice ever.  Just listen to one of his self narrated audiobooks for the proof.

Next we have Read Comics favorite Brian K. Vaughan.

Got to like a guy who can work a shaved head, raised eyebrow combo.  He is the writer behind Y: the Last Man, Runaways, and Ex Machina.

As I was compiling this list I was lamenting the fact that none of these guys had any calendar worthy beefcake photos that I could put up.  You would think they didn’t take their sex symbol status seriously.  (That was a whole lot of unplanned alliteration, sorry.)

But thank god for Grant Morrison!  Always planning ahead.  Here is a young Grant (almost demurely compared to later shots) showing off his bum in tight white pants.

Warning next pic may be NOT SAFE for WORK!  For real, I am not kidding.  Don’t let your boss catch you looking.  In fact I’m going to hide it under the jump.

(more…)

My longest post ever!: or My thoughts on Buffy Season Eight.

February 17th, 2011 by Susie

Buffy season 8 came to an end last month, with issue 40.  I have some thoughts on both the final issue, and the series as a whole.  I plan on going into detail about the plot, so anyone who has not read the whole thing, and is wary of spoilers, should not read beyond the jump.

Buffy the TV show meant a lot to me.  I connected to it from the moment it came on the air, and for the entire seven years it was on the air, I looked forward to every new episode.  I think I only missed seeing two episodes the night they aired, that whole time.  It is the reason I follow every project Joss Whedon works on with great interest.  Somewhere around season two, I became an unabashed fangirl, and haven’t looked back since.  And it’s fair to say my own writing has been heavily influenced by it.  In that I think a hero (or even more so, a heroine) should not be infallible, that they can make mistakes and fall down, and still remain a hero.

So when it was announced that Joss would be resuming the series as a comic, I was thrilled.  I could not wait for my friends to return, and find out what he had in store for them next.  The first twenty issues or so were pretty spectacular, beautiful art, and brilliantly written.  Having Joss write many, and oversee the rest, assured that the tone of the show carried over to the comics, and that the characters felt true to how they had been previously portrayed.  Those issues did a really good job bringing the audience up to speed with what the Scooby gang had been doing since the end of the series.  And also establishing new characters to root for, such as Renee and Satsu.

Spoilers from here on.  You have been warned, don’t whine to me if you read something you don’t want to.

(more…)

Ladies Making Comics Tournament

January 29th, 2011 by Susie

The tumblr/blog Ladies Making Comics (a fabulous subject for a blog), is having a tournament where it pits two female comics creators against each other, and readers can vote, eventually coming up with one winner. It’s just a bit of fun, and I thought I’d pass on a link. The first round consisted of: Gail Simone v. Marjorie Liu

Nicola Scott v. Amy Reeder

Alison Bechdel v. Posy Simmonds

Kate Beaton v. Megan Rose Gedris

Laura Martin v. Christina Strain

They are now on round two:

Kathryn Immonen v. Devin Grayson

Emma Rios v. Sara Pichelli

Marjane Satrapi v. Faith Erin Hicks

Elena “Yamino” Barbarich v. Meredith Gran

Adrienne Roy v. Lynn Varley

I really feel bad, that I only recognized 5 names out of 20. It made me wonder how many female comics creators I could come up with off the top of my head, that haven’t turned up in the tournie yet.

Here is who I could come up with, with out double checking the spelling of their names ( just to see if I know them well enough without having to research):

Lynda Berry (Ernie Pook’s Comeek, 100 Demons)

Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Lil’ Endless)

Dianne Dimassa (Hothead Paisan: Homocidal Lesbian Terrorist)

Rene Engstrom (Anders Loves Maria)

Jennifer Camper (Bitchy Bitch)

Jessica Abel (Art Babe, Life Sucks)

Amanda Conner (Power Girl)

Jenny Breadon (the Devil’s Panties)

Amber Benson (Shadowplay, Willow and Tara)

Jane Espenson (Buffy season 8)

Ellen Forney (I Was Seven in Seventy-five)

And a few I’m not certain about:

Pia Guerra (Y: the Last Man)  Not entirely positive that this person is female.  I think so again was avoiding research

the creator or Girls with Slingshots, ( might be a guy, I don’t know)

Alan Moore’s daughter (not sure what her credits are, but I think she has done some comics work).

So with the five I recognized from the tournament, that means there are 16 female comics creators I am aware of, and three others I may need to research.  That seems pretty pathetic, I know I could at the very least double that, if asked to name male creators.  I guess it’s a good thing their is a blog out there highlighting the works of others.

So go out there and vote!

Post Script:  I came across the the tournament, through a link on Yamino’s blog.  She is the writer/artist, of Sister Claire.  If you haven’t read Sister Claire yet, you should, it’s adorable (there is a martial art in it, known as Nun fu)!

Epic Doctor Who Fan Comic

January 21st, 2011 by Susie

This has been out there on interwebs for awhile, but I only just discovered it last week.  A cartoonist going only by Rich, has created a Doctor Who fan comic spanning 247 pages, called the Ten Doctors.  He clearly has a deep affection for Doctor Who, because the comic is very much a labor of love.  It took over three years to complete, and is a very complex, but entertaining adventure.  As the name implies, it features all ten incarnations of the doctor, through David Tennant.  It was completed before Matt Smith debuted as Doctor Eleven, so he is absent.  It also features countless past companions, aliens, and enemies.  I got into Doctor Who with the new series, so I was only really familiar with the characters from the ninth Doctor’s era and onward.  My experience with old school Who, is composed only of two Tom Baker serials, and short youtube clips, of the other Doctors.  So I did not recognize all the companions, or enemies, or plot elements refferenced, but it didn’t really matter, the story was told well enough that I could infer the most of what I needed to know.  Whenever I did get confused, I could just scroll down to that page’s comment section, and there was usually someone who had posed my question already, and an answer from either Rich, or another reader.  Each doctor, and most of the companions gets a moment to shine, over the course of the comic.  Based just on reading of this comic, I now am a fan of Doctors two, and five, and the companions Jamie, the Brigadier, Ace, Romana and Leela.  (I was already a fan of nine, ten, four, and eleven, and all their companions)  There are plenty of humorous moments, and quite a few touching ones as well.  It is drawn in an animated style, with rough pencils as the finished version.  Someone on Devient Art is going through it, and inking and coloring the pages, but has only reached the sixth page, last time I checked.  Regardless, it is quite is an impressive accomplishment.  Rich has a few other comics, featuring original characters.  Based on the qulity of the Ten Doctors, I plan on checking them out.

You should be able to click on the following image to be taken to the first page of the Ten Doctors on Rich’s website.  If you are anything like me, you will spend the next few days reading the whole thing.

New Serenity Comic!

January 18th, 2011 by Susie

This November, Dark Horse put out a the graphic novel the Shepherd’s Tale.  It provided us Browncoats with the long awaited back story of Shepherd Book.  While it was interesting to finally find out what he was hiding, and it was a well written story, it didn’t really feel like an installment of Firefly, since most of the crew only appeared in a couple of pages.  When I think of Firefly, the first thing I think of is the fun of spending time with the nine, very distinct, people living aboard Serenity.  Well Shepherd’s Tale writer, Zack Whedon, has given us just, that in an online only, eight page comic called Serenity: Downtime.

Surprisingly it is available on USA Today’s website, along with a brief introductory article about Firefly/Serenity.  It is awesome!  It feels very much like an episode of Firefly.  It even has close ups of River’s feet!  Here is a little blurb about the comic.

Whedon has tried to create an atmosphere resembling a scene from Firefly. “I wanted to reward those fans by showing these characters like it was a part of the show,” he says.

Downtime follows crewmembers snowed in on a planet filled with, as Whedon puts it, “a bunch of people you don’t want to run into.” Though the whole crew is included, the focus is on the mysterious (and fan-favorite) character known as River.

Check it out here!  Serenity:Downtime

Jessica Jones on network TV?

December 19th, 2010 by Susie

Entertainment Weekly recently reported that ABC is developing Brian Michael Bendis’ Marvel series Alias as a TV series.  It centered on private investigator Jessica Jones, a former super heroine.  Bendis is listed as a consultant, while Melissa Rosenberg is credited as the writer. It’s going to be called Aka Jessica Jones, as calling it Alias would be pretty confusing. I hate to be negative about a project that is so early in the development stage, but I have some serious reservations about this. I really liked Alias, (earlier this year I named Jessica Jones one of my top female characters) but I can’t really see it translating well as a television series. Especially on risk wary network television. Jessica’s back story is pretty dark, while it’s about equal to some of the stuff seen on SVU and CSI, I doubt that the network would sign off on it for a lead female character. So it would likely be watered down. They will probably be worried that Jess’ drinking, and self destructive behavior, would turn off viewers, and try to make her flaws more “relatable”, like compulsive eating. Gone also would be the references to the surrounding Marvel universe, which was pivotal to the series, to illustrate and contrast Jess’ role within it. They would have to go, since it’s unlikely Marvel would grant them the rights to use Spider-man, or the Fantastic Four, and it would confusing for the casual viewer anyway. And while in the comics Jess’ cases were pretty gritty, with a superhero element thrown in, the series is probably going to want to inject a whole lot more action into it. Altogether it would probably make the show pretty unrecognizable from it’s source material. Also worrying is that Bendis is just a consultant, while Rosenberg is in charge. Her only credit listed in the article is writing the screenplay for Twilight. That movie was a huge financial success, so it makes sense that she would be given more oppurtunties as a result. It’s just that I found that movie dreadfully boring (I haven’t read the book yet, so I can’t say how much of that can be blamed on the source material, over the screenplay).
I really hope that I’m wrong. I hope that whatever comes from this is awesome, regardless of how much it resembles the excellent comic series. I’m just skeptical, about the likelihood. Between this news, the David E. Kelley run Wonder Woman series, and the Jossless Buffy reboot, the next few years are not looking promising for female superheroes on screen.

New Wonder Woman TV show.

October 4th, 2010 by Susie

According to this article Warner Brothers is developing a Wonder Woman series for television.

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/10/wonder-woman-tv-show.html

It does not say how far into development they have gotten, or which network will likely air it.  It does say that they have chosen David E. Kelley to be showrunner.  This seems like a bad fit to me.  Kelley has had success in the past, creating such shows as, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, The Practice, and Picket Fences, none of which have much in common with Wonder Woman.  I don’t know what the plans they have in store for the show, but I would think it would have to be an action drama to some extent, and Kelley doesn’t have much experience with action.  I am not much of a Kelley fan, I have not been able to stick with one of his shows for much more than a season or two.  In my experience, he tends run out of character driven stories pretty quickly, and then relies on increasingly  absurd plot twists, and controversial stunts, just for the sake of controversy.  His characters are usually very quirky, and as the series progress they seem to lose any humanity that makes them relatable, devolving into a walking mass of unusual ticks.  This does not bode well for his Wonder Woman, as though she has gone through many different characterizations over the course of her sixty plus years of being published, she has never come across to me as either quirky, or neurotic (another Kelley main stay).  I guess we will have to wait and see what comes of it.

Tony DiTerlizzi at the Wild Rumpus

October 1st, 2010 by Martin

I’m sad to say that I missed Tony DiTerlizzi yesterday at our local kid’s bookstore, The Wild Rumpus. However, my co-worker Tony (who did actually tell me about the event a few hours before it happened), was in attendance, and his son, Odin, and had these questions for DiTerlizzi:

“How much do you like drawing?”
“Oh I really like drawing.”

“Do you like to draw comics?”
“You mean like Batman and Iron Man? I used to draw them all the time when I was about your age. I really liked Iron Man.”

Apparently DiTerlizzi is also the artist for some of his books, and he was giving away sketch books filled with art from his new novel The Search for WondLa. Here is a picture of the stack of books Tony brought in to work with him today:

Click to see full-size

You might have to see the image full-size to make it out, but I love the dragon sketch on the inside cover of Kenny & The Dragon, which I have added to my reading list. Tony also had this to say about the event:

He was great. Told stories about being a “highly imaginative” kid and did drawings like he did back then. (Dinosaurs vs. Aliens: The T-Rex & Triceratops team up. “Not on our watch!”) He spoke about wanting to create a heroine, like Alice Little, Dorthy Gale and Wendy Darling, for a long time and that is where The Search for WondLa came from. He also mentioned his little daughter when he was engaging Isla during the signing.

“Well hello Isla. What a pretty name. What do you like to do?”
“I like to play.”
“Oh, isn’t playing fun! My daughter is about your age too. She loves to play. And collect bugs!”
“Yeah I like bugs and aluadsr hasde hasd areaagdre bbfeard…” (That last part was unintelligible tired 2.3 year old speak for yeah, but they are a little icky too.)

I think it’s great that fathers my age are writing books for their daughters with strong female characters.

I also think it’s great. And I can’t wait to read The Search for WondLa to Colleen.

ReadComics Podcast #048 – Minneapolis Indie Comic Expo

September 14th, 2010 by Martin

In this episode, Marty, Jason, Florence, Sharyn and Susie talk about the Minneapolis Indie Expo, a one-day comic book festival/convention that took place in Minneapolis on August 21st, 2010. We plug far too many artists and creators to list them all in this blog post, and we probably only listed half of the cool stuff we saw at the con.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #048 (25 MB, 54 minutes)

ReadComics Podcast #047 – Book Club #18 – Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

September 2nd, 2010 by Martin

This podcast, featuring Marty, Florence, Jason, Angela, and Susie, was actually recorded over the course of two nights. We talk about our impressions of the first Hellboy TPB, Seed of Destruction, and also some about the second TPB, which only some of us had read. Additionally, we do go into how it compares to the first Hellboy movie, which loosely follows the same storyline.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #047 (18 MB, 40 minutes)

Redheads for the Win!

July 14th, 2010 by Susie

(more…)

New Book Club Choice

June 25th, 2010 by Susie

We will be recording our next Book Club podcast Thursday July 1st, at 6 pm.  Florence got the pick this month. She has chosen Runaways Volume 1: issues 1 through 18, by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrien Alphona.   Most of the regulers have read Runaways before so we may discuss events beyond the first eighteen issues, but they are the plan for now.  As always if anyone reading along would like to join in on the recording, please contact us by commenting below.

Graphical memoirs

January 4th, 2010 by jason

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.

Any recommendations for other graphical memoirs?

OMG you guys! I am totally breaking up with Daredevil!

October 9th, 2009 by Susie

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.

Return to the Labyrinth volumes 1 through 3

September 17th, 2009 by Susie

return-to-labyrinth-2-cover

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.

Next Comic Book Club: Echo #1-13

August 23rd, 2009 by florence

Echo 8 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.

Blank It comic interview tomorrow

August 19th, 2009 by Martin

blank_it_interview_300x300Jackson 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.)

Update: The full interview has been posted, so you should go over there and read it!

(more…)

Dr. Suess Goes To War

July 15th, 2009 by Martin

DrSuessGoesToWarI 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.

Buddha Kapilavastu

July 6th, 2009 by jason

Written and drawn by Osamu Tesuka

I just finished this first volume of eight of the life of the Buddha, and I’m flabbergasted. Buddha is for everyone who thinks they hate Manga. Even more, Buddha is for everyone who thinks they hate comics.

I’ll admit, that I’ve had a prejudice against manga, even as there’s been some that I’ve read and enjoyed. I look at the shelves at the bookstore and at the library, and see the millions of volumes of Naruto, encroaching on the graphic novels. And I shake my head at what has happened to comics. Recently, however, I took someone else’s lead and decided to revisit the idea of reading Japanese comics, and looked up some suggestions from the Around Comics forum. That led me to 20th Century Boys and Pluto. Pluto is a retelling of the Astro Boy comics of Osamu Tezuka, who is given posthumous author credit. I read a little about Tezuka, and decided to look up some of his work. Paging through the volumes at the library, the first thing I noticed was how different the artwork is from my idea of Japanese comics. This was much more like something out of Segar’s Popeye or Barks’s Uncle Scrooge. He was known as the Godfather of Japanese Comics, whatever that meant, and almost all of his series have been highly praised. He was the creator of Astro Boy, both the cartoon and the comic. And, of course, I feel if it’s at the library, it’s worth a shot. I may check it out and return it after reading five pages, but it helps the library’s circulation numbers. With Buddha, I was hooked almost instantaneously.

With Buddha Kapilavastu, we witness the birth of Siddhartha, although this is more of something occurring in the background, while the lives of monks, slaves, pariahs and generals take the center stage. We meet Tatta, Narradatta and Chapra, Chapra’s mother, and General Budai. Some of them are introduced as villains, but over the course of the chapters, are given more rounded characters and you can’t help but warm to them. The stories of these characters are epic, with high adventure, humour, and romance, and more than a little violence. It was a brutal world at the time of the Buddha’s birth, and we’re witness to the cruelties of the class system of that era. It’s enough to bring you nearly to tears, reading how the world and society treat Tatta, the Pariah, and Chapra and his mother, both slaves by birth. Tezuka interconnects all these characters, weaving their lives into a tapestry, with the birth of Siddhartha currently just a slight embroidery at the edge.

The art, as I said, is quite different from most of the manga I’ve seen. There are traditions in Japanese comics, in the shapes of the faces, in the expressions and what sweat drops and shading signify. You can see that in this work, but it’s more of a hint than anything else. It reminds me a lot more of the animation styles in the French co-produced cartoon of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. From what I’ve read about him, Tezuka was heavily influenced by Disney, and Tezuka in turn influenced a lot of anime artists since then. As well as having his own style, he likes to play with panel borders, and includes several highly detailed panoramic landscapes in the volume.

While I don’t think I’m going to picking up every volume of Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, I am going to continue with Buddha, and checking out Tezuka’s other work, like Black Jack and Dororo. I might even watch some Astro Boy, having never actually seen it. I’ve just cracked the surface of this artist’s body of work, and there’s a lot left to see.