To con or not to con (also: Frank Miller movies)

I'm not going to do a Links du Jour today 'cause there's not a lot of news. Frank Miller's Ronin is getting made into a movie thanks no doubt to the success of Sin City and 300, but that's about it. I'm trying to figure out what the next Miller comic will be to get snatched up. Martha Washington maybe? Miller and Dave Gibbons have another installment of it coming out, so maybe. Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot would be even cooler though.

But anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was this article by Von Allen about trying to promote his graphic novel the road to god knows... at conventions. It's interesting because he's put a lot of thought into what he's doing at conventions and what he hopes to get out of them. He's done a lot of research in order to find the right conventions to go to in order to find people who might like his work. And he's been willing to spend some real money on tables and advertising and giveaways, all in return for some word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, the point of his post is that he isn't getting what he hoped to out of it, but it's making me think about my own convention experiences and what I'm trying to achieve while I'm there.

The only conventions I currently attend as a creator are MicroCon and FallCon. They're both local, so I don't have to travel or pay for a hotel room, but that's not why I go. I go because the tables are free for creators. As a writer, I can't draw sketches to sell and make back my money on a table. All I can do is sell comics. If I were better known and had more published to sell, I could probably justify buying a table at an out-of-town con, but I'm not there yet. And I'm not interested in spending a lot of my own money to promote what little I do have published right now. So, a lot of Von's article doesn't apply to me.

On the other hand, authors are expected to do a lot of their own marketing and publicity these days and I need to learn how to do that. I may not need to spend my own money to do it, but I need to be willing to follow Von's example and think hard about making the most of the conventions I attend. I need to think about what I'm specifically trying to achieve at each con.

For example, if everything goes according to plan, Dust to Dust should be in the October issue of the Previews catalog. FallCon is in October and a lot of local retailers will be there. In addition to talking the book up with fans, it might just be a good idea to use some of my con time to talk to retailers about it and see if maybe I can arrange some signings or something. Anything that'll help them to remember Dust to Dust later that month when it comes time to place their orders.

Each con is going to be different because I'll have different projects with different needs that I'll be trying to promote. What I need to remember is to spend a lot more time thinking about how to best use those opportunities, rather than just trying to figure out how to make a couple of bucks and have a good time. Not that I don't want to do those things too; I just want to be more thoughtful about it.

May theatrical releases

This is a new feature I want to try. At the first of each month, I'll list and talk about the new movies that are coming out that month. Or the ones that I want to see anyway. If I don't mention one that you think I should've (or you think one of mine is unworthy of mention); well, that's what comments sections are for.

Pirates

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Opens May 25th): I don't think I really need to explain my excitement about this one, do I? Easily my Pick of the Month, if not the Summer; if not the Year.

Fantasy

Shrek the Third (Opens May 18th): Yeah, yeah. I know. I wasn't thrilled about it either until I saw an ad for it that reminded me how much I liked Antonio Banderas as Puss n' Boots. I was lukewarm about the first Shrek movie and that still taints my perception of the franchise, but I really did enjoy Shrek 2 a lot.

Superheroes

Spider-Man 3 (Opens May 4th): I'm not a big fan of Venom. He comes from the days when Marvel was making nastier, grittier versions of all their heroes and he just seems like a lazy concept to me. But Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films have been anything but lazy and I like how he's gone out of his way to choose just the right villains to emphasize just the right lesson that Peter Parker is learning in each film. So, I trust Sam and I fully expect this to be as great an experience as the other two were.

Not So Much with the Adventure, but Still Looks Good

Waitress (Opens May 2nd in New York and LA): I mentioned this one a while back. Interesting to me mainly because it stars Felicity and Captain Mal.

The Ex (Opens May 18th in limited release): Another one I've mentioned before. Zach Braff and Jason Bateman in a movie Braff describes as being for people who like Scrubs and Arrested Development. Well, that's me.

Update: Would it be more useful to see these organized by genre or by release date?

Links du Jour: Walking with Dinosaurs, The Scarlet Avenger, and more about The Mummy 3

Dinosarus

• Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience looks like the coolest thing ever. So far it's only scheduled for a couple of shows in Washington state, but check back at the site for updates (or sign up to get them through email).

Pulp

• Film student Scott Clements sent me a link to his pulp-serial-inspired student film The Scarlet Avenger. It could stand some tighter editing in order to pick up the general pace, but the costumes, sets, fight choreography, special effects and even the acting are all really good. It's a fun way to spend about 20 minutes, so you should definitely give it a look.
• Variety is reporting that Luke Ford (this one; not the one who writes about porn) will co-star in the next Mummy film as Brendan Fraser's grown son. Word has it that Ford's being groomed to spin his character off into its own franchise. I'm just hoping that The Mummy 3 is sort of good. Sci Fi Wire has some new plot details about it, including that Michelle Yeoh has been added to the cast as the wizard who created Jet Li's mummy.

Superheroes

• Matt Fraction's written an excellent review of DC's 52 series, which is pretty cool since he's primarily working at Marvel these days. But what really jumped out at me was a comment he made that relates to the topic I mentioned the other day about judging material based on what it is, rather than what you wish it was. "I don’t like critique and commentary that hinge on reader preconception-- I don’t give a fuck what got said on what website in the lead-up to a series’ release, or a movie coming out, or a book hitting the shelves. The creative process is mutable and pre-release hype is just vapor. You view the work as the work, not as the fulfillment of its advertorials, and certainly not in light of your expectations."

MicroCon report

Well, MicroCon was a blast as always. I got to catch up with a bunch of other local comics creators whom I only see a couple of times a year, and that's a huge benefit of the show. Got to talk to Tyler Page for a bit about his recent Xeric award and what that means for his upcoming print edition of Nothing Better. Sam Hiti and I chatted about his Fist-a-Cuffs blog and how cool it is that everyone's suddenly paying attention to it. Bought a copy of the new Spider Chronicles anthology off contributor Martin Powell. I know I'm forgetting people, so I apologize for that.

I also met some cool new folks. Joel Vollmer, artist on Dust to Dust, for one. Joel showed me his portfolio and I couldn't be more excited that he's the one illustrating our Jesse James/Machine Gun Kelly gunfight. I also got to re-meet Sarah Morean whom I'd briefly met at FallCon last year, but didn't realize that she was a creator, much less someone whose work I needed to check out. (It's not surprising, but Shawn Hoke knew that already.)

The most fun about the local conventions though is hanging out with my usual convention pals: Grant, Jess, Darla, and Alex. Paul Taylor and his wife and baby also hung out with us for a while, and new this year to our neck of the convention was Charles Raymond and his wife Jennifer. I bought some great, oversized Hulk comics from Charles, sketchbooks from Jess and Grant (I already had one of Darla's), and a copy of Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch, which Alex and Grant had both contributed to.

As for my own self: I wasn't really there to sell this year. Tales from the Inner Sanctum has pretty much found its audience in the Twin Cities, but I did okay with Cownt prints. My real goal for the show though was to get folks interested in and excited about Kill All Monsters! Mission accomplished. Everyone who stopped by the table checked out the unlettered pages I had on display and when I'd explain the pitch there was a lot of enthusiasm for the book.

I also had a couple of folks ask me for advice about finding artists or otherwise breaking into the biz, which is happening more and more at shows, but is still flattering and humbling.

Links du Jour: New Pirates pics, Iron Man movie update, and Silly Superheroes

Pirates

• I've recently come to the surprising realization that I'm the only person amongst my friends who actually likes Elizabeth Swan as a character. Even those who can't help but acknowledge Keira Knightley's tear-inducing hotness don't like poor Elizabeth. I think she's fascinating; especially after her actions at the end of Dead Man's Chest, but depending on how you feel about it, you may or may not be interested in the new Pirates promo images that have been released and are pretty Keira-centric.

Superheroes

• Iron Man movie director Jon Favreau talks a little on his MySpace page about the movie, and especially the still from it that accompanies this story. Short version: we'll see both the old, clunky-but-cool, gray armor and the modern red-and-gold armor. Both of which are being designed by Stan Winston, which is cool.
• I don't care much for superhero parodies because frankly, I think straightforward superhero comics do a great job of parodying themselves and don't need a "keen" observer to point out how ridiculous they can be. But as I've learned in talking with Jamie Baker, there's a distinction between Superhero Parody and Silly Superheroes. Jamie writes and draws Rocket Rabbit, one of the funniest, silliest superhero books I've ever read. The Tick is another great one, obviously. And now Jamie has also introduced me to yet another: The Possum. It's The Possum that has me posting about this today, but if you don't know Rocket Rabbit already (and you like the Silly), you definitely need to check that out too.

Hm. Kinda slow day, I guess.

He's faulty. Malfunctioning. Kept babbling on about his mission.

I promised to post a picture of the Artoo mailbox in Saint Paul, didn't I? Yup. Guess I did.

Links du Jour: Own the Time Bandits' map, Star Wars Chicken, and why is fantasy more popular than scifi?

Mystery

• Dadgumit. First Drive; now Andy Barker.

Fantasy

• I haven't given this much thought, so I'm curious to hear what other people think. The Sci Fi Catholic speculates that maybe the reason fantasy is more popular than sci fi these days is that science is moving ahead faster than science fiction writers can keep up. There might be some merit to that, but I'm thinking that it also could have something to do with Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings. Thoughts?
• Ever wanted to own a replica of the map from Time Bandits? Got $100?

Science Fiction

• It was darn near a year ago when they started talking about releasing yet another Director's Cut of Blade Runner for this year's 25th anniversary of the film. According to Joanna Cassidy (who played Zhora the snake dancer), they've even been reshooting some scenes from it. Shouldn't be much longer now.
• My first exposure to Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken was a Star Wars sketch I saw on YouTube. When I checked out the show, it was funny, but I kept wishing that they'd do more Star Wars. Wish granted.
• The Sci Fi Channel has announced the premiere dates for some of their summer shows. The third season of Doctor Who starts July 6; their new Flash Gordon series premieres August 10th.

If you don't mind a Tarzan-related Cute Kid Story...

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I ever got was to let David be whatever he wanted to be and to love him regardless. As a non-conformist, that touched me. Especially since the advice came from another young non-conformist who was speaking to me from the child's perspective rather than a parent's.

So, as much as I love comics and Star Wars and all this other geeky stuff, I've made an effort not to push any of it on David. He's an animal geek by preference, so at age five now, he likes Tauntauns, but that's as far as his Star Wars (or Star Whores, as he pronounces it) fandom goes. He recognizes Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and the Hulk, but he's far more excited by Devil Dinosaur than any of those guys. This is one of his favorite comics of all time. He has good taste.

But lately, he's been getting into Tarzan. He discovered the back-issues of Marvel's Tarzan on a recent trip to the comic store and now he wants a new one every time we go. (They're cheap, so I indulge him.) And he's been watching occasional episodes of The New Adventures of Tarzan with me.

I took him to the comic store last night and he picked out this issue for me to buy him. Then, when we got home, we watched an episode of New Adventures that I'd been telling him about where Tarzan wrestles a lion. It's one of the better Tarzan-wrestles-a-jungle-cat scenes. No stuffed animal for Herman Brix to roll around with. It actually looks pretty dangerous.

Anyway, David -- as he's wont to do -- immediately identified with the lion and started "attacking" me. We wrestled for a bit until David, sweet kid that he is, decided it would be better if we were friends. If only the lion in the movie had been so smart, he might have saved himself a knife to the neck.

For bedtime, David wanted me to read him his new comic which, as fate would have it, featured Jad-bal-ja, Tarzan's faithful Golden Lion. David was in heaven. Suddenly, his room was a treehouse, I was Tarzan, and he was my pet lion. It was decided that Diane -- who was working at the time -- would be Jane.

It wouldn't be half as much fun if I'd pushed it on him, but all on his own he's discovered a love for both Tarzan and role-playing games. He's such a geek and I couldn't be more proud.

Links du Jour: Drive cancelled, Flash Gordon DVD, and Steve Niles joins the Borg

Mystery

• That cool Lost episode about Nikki and Paulo a while back wasn't the original intention of the writers, according to an Entertainment Weekly article. "Originally, the diamond-swiping crooks were to have anchored a winking arc of stories ... But faced with mounting disdain toward the abruptly introduced characters — and ramped-up viewer frustration with the show's aggressively enigmatic storytelling — the producers decided in December to telescope their ideas into a single kiss-off episode." The article also quotes producer Damon Lindelof as saying, ''Back when we had more good faith with the audience, we could have gotten away with these shenanigans. Given the backlash against (Nikki and Paulo), we had to clean up the mess.'' There's other good stuff in the link too, like teasers for the final episodes of this season and a reminder that the rerun-free fourth season probably won't start until January 2008. There's also an interesting quote from producer Carlton Cuse about how Lost has always been "a cult show at heart" and how this season's drop in ratings may just be indicative of its finding its real audience again.


• I've had Crime and Punishment on my bookshelf for years, but have never taken the time to read it. Now is probably a good time because I'm a sucker for sequels to literary works. In the case of Mr. Timothy it was because I love the characters, but for The Gentle Axe (thanks to Bookgasm for pointing it out) I think it may be the writer's hubris in even attempting it that I want to see.


• Dammit! FOX cancelled Drive.

Science Fiction

• I'm not ready to watch it yet, but I've been a little worried that when I finally get around to wanting to revisit the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, it wouldn't be available. As of August 7th, I'll be in the clear. And nice cover art by Alex Ross, by the way.


• At the end of an interview about 30 Days of Night, Steve Niles reveals that he's working on a Borg story for IDW's Star Trek comics. I gotta hug whoever came up with that idea. (He also talks about having "a couple new things brewing with IDW and a certain artist," which makes me itchy to know what "certain artist" he's talking about.)

Superheroes

• One of these days, I'm going to have to get around to thinking about why I like Mary Marvel so much. She's an appealing character, but why do I like her more than the other Marvel Family members or Supergirl (in any incarnation, not just the current one)? In the meantime, Newsarama has a nice article about the history of the character.


• Steve Bunche found a frightening still from The Man Who Laughs that's pretty much inarguable proof that Conrad Veidt's character was the visual inspiration for the Joker. You have to see it to believe it.

Rooting for the rapist?!

I was going to stick this in with the other Links du Jour, but decided I'll probably want more room to freak out.

I'm not a defender of Identity Crisis. As a mystery story, it was horribly flawed. And I do get the anger that a lot of folks feel towards the rape scene. My feelings about that scene pretty much echo Kalinara and Loren's, but they did a lot better job explaining them than I could, so I'll just send you to their blogs if you're interested in an in depth exploration of how it was handled. The short version is: although rape shouldn't be a taboo subject in comics, much like the mystery aspect of Identity Crisis, the rape scene could've been handled a lot better.

But... to say that it was the intention of the writer that we root for the freakin' rapist? Unbelievable.

Yes, writer Brad Meltzer was trying to "explain why Dr. Light was such a moron" in all those '60s and '70s comics. Yes, he wanted to darken Light (I'm aware of the irony) and make him more of a threat. I'd argue that Meltzer did both of those things. But, no, he absolutely did not make Light a sympathetic character who deserved vindication. Nor did Geoff Johns, who wrote the Teen Titans issues in which Dr. Light went after the teen heroes who'd belittled him in the past.

What Johns did was take the new, darker, scarier Dr. Light and sic him on a bunch of kids whom he had reason to hate. It was a vile and horrifying story to tell, and it's okay if that kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, but it was supposed to be vile and horrifying. It wasn't supposed to be about hoping those damn kids -- you know, the frickin' stars of the comic you're reading -- finally get what's coming to them at the hands of a maniacal rapist. When Light talks about it not mattering whether or not he won at the end, as long as the world saw that he was powerful again, we're not supposed to freakin' cheer. We're supposed to think, "What a sick f**k. Thank God they beat him."

I don't know if the writer of that post is honestly that unable to interpret a story or is being intentionally disingenuous in order to further trash a story that he or she didn't like, but either way, it's sad.

Links du Jour: Harry Potter theme park, Doctor Who season three, and I want to hug Roger Ebert

Fantasy

• JK Rowling has a great idea for a Harry Potter theme park and there are several groups who want to help her make it, but her idea for the main entrance sounds a bit bottleneck-ish. Hope they can work out the details; I'd love to visit the place she's imagining.
• Josh Ortega sent out an email newsletter about the crazy success of the Death Dealer comic he wrote. "I was completely blindsided this month when Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer became the most successful series launch for Image Comics in over a decade, and one of the biggest independent comic debuts in recent history … heck, the book even sold out nationwide in six hours!" And not only that, but, "Frank Frazetta and his family absolutely love the book, and now there are talks of sequels, other Frazetta projects, slipcase hardcover collections, action figures, even a film … looks like the beginning of something big!" Congrats to Josh and artists Nat Jones and Jay Fotos. I definitely want to see a Death Dealer movie.

Science Fiction

• The third season of Doctor Who hits the Sci Fi Channel in July.

Superheroes

• I've been wanting to try out Marvel Adventures: The Avengers for a little while now. Partly because I'm thirsty for a more light-hearted superhero comic than I'm getting from the usual Marvel/DC stuff lately; partly because it's got Dumb Hulk in it and I love Dumb Hulk. Knowing that every four issues are collected in digest format, I wanted to wait until issue #13 came out to start buying the single issues, but unfortunately for that plan, issue #12 was all about Ego the Living Planet's macking on the Earth and I got impatient. Especially after reading this scene that didn't make it into the final version. So, yesterday I broke down and bought issues 1-8 in digest form and 9-12 in single issue form. So weak-willed. I'll try to do better about easing into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four.
• I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the material reprinted in it, but after reading Dan Kelly's post about it, I'm definitely getting Showcase Presents: Shazam!.
• After Marvel's movie producer Avi Arad made an offhanded comment about how the new movie version of the Hulk would have a "new color" (in addition to new everything else from the first film), fans began posting wildly about whether or not that meant the Hulk would be gray, as he was when he first appeared in comics. Arad later told Empire that folks needed to settle down. "Here’s what it was. There were 30 people around a table, and they said 'is there going to be a grey Hulk?' And I was thinking about it and I said, 'who knows?' It was one of those moments. I had just got back from Japan and I was trying to talk about Spider-Man and this guy was pushing me on The Hulk so I thought I’ll be coy. I don’t know what colour it is, and all of a sudden it’s headline news." He went on to explain his original "new color" comment: "It’s a different shade of green, but the colour is not like the old Hulk." I'm guessing that the "old Hulk" there refers to the one in the Ang Lee film.

Other Comics

• I mention this mainly because they're going to be publishing that King Kong comic and I don't want to lose track of it, but Markosia Publications is merging with its sister company [browse for "25-04-07 - AAM MERGES WITH MARKOSIA" if it's not at the top of the page anymore] Associate Arts and Media and may get a name change.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

• One of my biggest influences as a guy who reviews comics is Roger Ebert. His reviews are always entertaining and thoughtful, but most of all I love how he judges movies based on what they're trying to achieve, not on what he wishes they'd be. Seeing his attitude after having much of his jaw removed due to cancer, he's gone from Influence to Hero. Get well soon, Mr. Ebert.