Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Art Show: Sugar... ah, Honey Honey... You are my Jungle Girl

Judy of the Jungle vs. Something That Almost Looks Like a Shark



By Alex Schomburg. [Shanna the She-Devil Blogger]

Jungle Jamboree!



By Dan DeCarlo in homage to this. [Shanna the She-Devil Blogger]

Wonder City



By Alex Horley. [Illustrateurs]

More apes, monsters, and jungle girls after the break.

Pass the Comics: Ape Gods and Scientific Fiends

Cave Girl gets Thun'da to do her dirty work against The Ape God of Kor



[The Crossover of the Epoch courtesy of The Comic Book Catacombs]

Marga, the Panther Woman vs. the power-mad Professor Meier



[The Comic Book Catacombs]

Monday, August 30, 2010

Hawaii Five-Oh Premiere (among others)



Michael Ausiello's got the complete rundown of which Fall shows are premiering when. The one I'm looking forward to most though is the new Hawaii Five-Oh, debuting on Monday, September 20th.

Art Show: Monday du Mer

Sea Port



By William J Aylward. [Tons of great Aylward ship art at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.]

Demon of the Deep



By Ken Kelly. [Illustrateurs]

The Aqua Monster



By Sean Hamilton. [Art Jumble]

Wanderwine Prophets



By Alex Horley. [Illustrateurs]

Creature from the Black Lagoon



By Michele Legendre.

This Probably Won't End Well



[The Aquaman Shrine]

Namor



By "Justice."

AquaMeal



Took David and his cousin to McDonalds last week and made sure to snap a picture of the Happy Meal for The Aquaman Shrine. As Rob rightly observes in his post, that is indeed a ball of hard-water for Aquaman to toss around.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

My Favorite Memory

Continuing to work my way through Calvin's list, I've had a hard time with this item. I have a lot of favorite memories. I mean, even if I could get them narrowed down to just two: how am I going to choose between my wedding day and the birth of my son?

And even if I could somehow eliminate the wedding (which I can't), David's birth still doesn't feel like a fair choice. Why would that be a better memory than our trip with him to Disney World as an infant when he wore a cute little lion costume to Animal Kingdom? Or his first birthday when he devoured his first cake and then rolled up the paper plate and tried to eat that too? Or preschool days when I would draw his favorite dinosaur on his lunch bags? Or any of the many, many bedtime comics we've read together? Or the times we've spent playing Fossil Fighter on his DS? Or how fun it's been introducing him to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings? Why not the time I'm about to spend with him tonight; tucking him in and snuggling a bit before lights out?

The thing is, I don't choose to view life as a collection of memories where I have to pick out favorites to dwell on. This might sound cheesy (and I hope it's not preachy), but every new moment is a new memory and I'd much rather have that one be my favorite than to be nostalgic for days past. I love remembering good times, but never as much as I enjoy whatever's going on right now.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Speaking of Kids Reading Comics...



From today's Minneapolis Meet-Up for Read Comics in Public Day. I took a couple of other photos too that you can see here.

Quote of the Week: Politically Incorrect



If I Lived In Maryland and this Democrat cleared the primaries and was the Senatorial candidate, I swear to God I’d vote Republican.
--Peter David.

[If it weren't for teachers, our kids would be reading COMICS! *clutches heart*]

Friday, August 27, 2010

Elsewhere... there was MIXing

I apologize for not getting anything posted yesterday. Diane's mom's funeral was last night and that took up most of the day.



I was able to get a couple of articles written this week though. One was this report on the newest addition to the Twin Cities' awesome convention schedule: the Minneapolis Indi Xpo.



The other was this week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs in which we look at all the cool comics coming out in October. Seriously, there's so much awesome stuff in there that I get a headache trying to pick favorites.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Land of the Lost: Season Three (Part One: After-Shock)



Judging just from how much I ended up saying about the first episode, we're going to have to divide Season Three into smaller chunks than just two posts. So just Episode 1 today. If you need to catch up on previous seasons before we get started, here are the links:

Season One: Part One, Two, and Three.
Season Two: Part One and Two.

Episode 1: “After-Shock”

The season opens with Will and Holly’s exiting a pylon. Just inside, we can see Rick’s back as he works. Will’s got a new shirt for the season, as usual, but that’s not the only thing immediately different from the previous seasons. The kids are growing up.

Will’s hair is shorter and he looks more like a young man than a teenaged boy. Holly’s also maturing; she’s taller and her face has more definition. That’s normally not worth mentioning in a show with child actors – of course they’re going to grow up – but it is with this show because the only timeline that makes any sense has them escaping the Land of the Lost while looking younger than this. Intentional or not, it’s our first hint that this is an alternate reality from the one in the first two seasons.

As Will and Holly take a break, they wonder whether “that new pylon” is going to help them get out of the Land of the Lost. Since the pylons were presumably all mapped in Season Two, the existence of a new one is another clue that this isn’t the same reality we’re used to.

Yet more clues and a Bold New Direction, after the break.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Pass the Comics: You Kept the Vacuum Tubes

The History of Aquaman Explained



[Comics Alliance]

The Neptonian



Kyle Latino's undersea webcomic has begun.

Zegra, Jungle Empress is The Deserter's Prize



Zegra has to rescue a native girl (and herself) from a couple of former Legionnaires. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

After the break: giant monsters, Tracy villains, Atomic Robo, Mysta of the Moon, and Peppermint Patty kicks some bootie.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Art Show: Would Someone Get This Big, Dapper Carpet Out of My Way?

A Journey to the Center of the Earth



Artist Unknown. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories, who's got a ton of other great Classics Illustrated covers in the same post. Seriously, if you only click through one link today, this should be the one.]

Hawaiian Dancer



By Katie Shanahan. I just fell in love with her stuff a few days ago, so this post is going to be a bit Shanahan-centric.

Best Friends



By Hannah Christenson. [Art Jumble]

After the break: Batman, a warrior woman, Thor and Co., the Hulk, Daisy Kutter, Steampunk Star Wars, and Fett... Boba Fett.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Quotes of the Week: The Revenge of Atticus Finch



The thing that kills me is that a sequel and a prequel for Watchmen are being sought by people at DC in the first place. This doesn't seem to me like out of the box publishing thinking; this seems to me like sad, typical all the way in the box corporate media thinking. I don't want a prequel to Lawrence of Arabia, I don't want to see a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird and I like Watchmen just the way it is as a singular expression of potent pop culture, thank you.
--Tom Spurgeon.

Hating Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is perfectly fine. It's got a style; you sort of embrace it and dig it or you don't. But when there's too much effort given to tut-tutting the people you imagine to be enjoying it, or declaring and promising that only narrow categories of losers and non-life-havers and other stupid annoying hipsters could possibly be having a good time when you're not, it sounds pinched and ungenerous. And, not to put too fine a point on it, a little bit jealous and fearful of obsolescence.
--Linda Holmes.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Conventions and some personal stuff...

This is too late to do anyone any good, but I still wanted to share the art from this MIX promo. The kick-off party was last night at Big Brain Comics and the Xpo itself was today. I went to both and took a lot of pictures (and bought a lot of comics), so I'll do a report for Robot 6 in the next few days.



As I've mentioned before, I struggle with how much personal information to share here (more specifically, how much you may be interested in), but the reason I didn't get this up sooner was that my wife's mom has been really sick for about a month. That's created a bunch of extra responsibilities for everyone of course. Responsibilities we've been happy to fulfill, but it's still been rough.

Anyway, Diane's mom passed on today. It's a blessing - she was ready to go - but still... She was a bright light in our lives and it's going to be very different from here on.

In better news, with MIX done, it's time to start thinking about FallCon. I'll be exhibiting there and if things go as planned, I hope to have some exciting news by then.

Art Show: No jacket, Adam. You didn’t think it through did you?

Pirate Girl



By Katie Shanahan. [Art Jumble]

Undersea Agent



By Gil Kane. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

It's Valkyrie, Airboy!



By Fred Kida. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

After the break: Sandmen, Shang Chi and Friends, Wonder Woman, magic, creeps, and a space barbarian.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Elsewhere... Clunky Robots!

Five Comics Shops



Last week's Five for Friday assignment was to Name The Five Comic Shops You Know About That Are Closest To Where You're Sitting Right Now. I'm blessed to live in a place with a lot of great comics shops, so this was easy:

1. The Source Comics and Games (Falcon Heights)
2. Uncle Sven's Comic Shoppe (Saint Paul)
3. Double Danger Comics and Collectibles (Minneapolis)
4. Big Brain Comics (Minneapolis)
5. Dreamhaven Books (Minneapolis)

I chatted with Zeroids writer Aaron Shaps



This week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs was an interview with the creator of Moonstone's new clunky-robots-vs-space-invaders series, Zeroids. He also pays homage to lots of other stuff like zombies, space vampires, sorority girls, and buddy movies. And he promises even more in upcoming issues: giant monsters, space pulp, and the like. This is going to be a crazy fun series, so click through and learn more about it.

Art Show: Don't Touch That!

This is Not Me



But Mike Maihack has a friend who sure looks like me.

Aquaman



By Erica Henderson.

Mermaiden



By Sasha Palacio. [Girls Drawing Girls]

After the break: Black Canary, The Sandman, Atomic Robo, Sherborg Holmes, a giant robot, and That Darn Kirk.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Pass the Comics: Our Endless War Against the Insects

I Found the City Under the Sea



With some help from Jack Kirby. [The Fabuleous Fifties]

The Lizard Man and Flight of the Terror Birds



You need to subscribe to Nuklear Power right now. When it's not showing you comics about dino-chefs who use succulent dinners to catch human prey...



...it's full of new Atomic Robo. None of the other websites you follow do that.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Art Show: Destroy This Mad Brute

Octomaid



By Carla Wyzgala. [Girls Drawing Girls]

The Toronto Roller Derby



By Vince Chui. [Art Jumble]

Black Canary



By Joe Quinones. [Project: Rooftop]

After the break: bats, Snowbird, Frankenstein, Scud the Atomic Hellwretch, DC fliers, Saturn Girl, and a crocodalien.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Gone Fishin'



Not really. I hate fishing. But Diane and I are going to the North Shore of Lake Superior for a couple of days where David's in the middle of a camping trip with my side of the family. That's why there won't be an Awesome List or My Favorite Whatnot this weekend.

See you when we get back!

Spencer Kills a Monster



One last post for the day. I could've put this in the Art Show, but it deserves it's own post. It's a giant lion-bot fighting an enormous cephalopod by Jason Copland. From a project he and I are working on.

More info coming sooner than you might think.

Art Show: Tiki Aliens

Pirate



By Michael Koelsch [Swing with Shad]

The Water Babies



By William Heath Robinson. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Ooooh!!



By Eric Tan.

After the break: Sheena, Frankenstein, the Creeper and Zatanna, Thor, a warrior-angel, a giant robot, and all Hell breaks loose in space.

Elsewhere... Comics Documentaries and Tripping through Intestines!

Five for Friday



I don't know if Spurgeon planned it this way or not, but shortly before Warner Brothers announced its documentary about the history of DC, he gave this Five for Friday assignment: Name Five Extended Moments In Comics History You Wish Had Been Documented On Film As They Were Happening.

Mine were:

1. The Rise and Fall of CrossGen
2. Marvel explores new genres during the Bronze Age.
3. DC vs. Captain Marvel
4. The Charlton Comics Story
5. The History of Archie

But after seeing some of the other responses, I'd change No. 5 to Jack Kirby: The DC Years.

Should there be a double standard on tripping-through intestines?



This week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs was a response to Robert Kirkman's GQ interview where he suggested that dark, complicated plots for superhero comics are okay in Invincible and other creator-owned comics, but not for corporate-owned ones. Some great discussion follows because I have awesome readers.

Writing is Hard: How Not to Write

This week's been threatening to get away from me since it started and yesterday it finally did. So there'll be a couple of more posts than usual today to make up for it.

How Not to Write About Africa



As a guy who loves jungle stories, but is sensitive to the racism in many of that genre's tropes, I found this article extremely helpful.

How Not to Write the Blurb for a Fantasy Novel



Maybe this is just me, so tell me in the comments if it bugs you too, but there's something that'll turn me off a fantasy novel every single time, even when the cover is as gorgeous as this one by Dan Dos Santos. From the Amazon Product Description for The Questing Road: "Acolytes to a dark god have crossed the gulf between worlds to abduct an innocent tariling..."

The italics are in the description, but they also highlight the word that stopped me cold. I've got no idea what a "tariling" is and I hate having to read the rest of the blurb to find out. Reading a blurb should be about discovering if I want to buy a book, not solving a mystery. In this case, I gather that a tariling is a cat-like creature (though the blurb likes the word "felinoid"). Couldn't it have just said that right up front?

I guess there must be an audience that enjoys being plunged cold into a world where everything has to be deciphered from the get-go, but I'm not part of it. I appreciate a fully realized world with its own languages and cultures and creatures to discover, but I prefer to be introduced to the strangeness gradually, not playing catch up from the first page. Or the cover blurb.

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