Comics
More on Comic Rocket
I've been using Comic Rocket as a webcomics reader for a week now, since my earlier post on it. It's an interesting experiment and I think I'll keep going with it. All the regular webcomics I read, I am completely caught up on. Because when I look at the "My Comics" view it sorts on the...
read articleAn Even Better Webcomics Reader
After my post on my IFTTT Webcomics hack, I got an email from Jamey Sharp of Comic Rocket. In it, he points me at his site and says they built it out of similar frustrations to mine and with similar design goals. In the case of Comic Rocket, the reading of the site is actually done via a small...
read articleMy Current Webcomics Reader
Some time ago on Google Plus I cast a net for an idea of a new sort of webcomics reader. Because my reading is in fits and starts and often can go weeks between sessions, Google Reader is no longer a reasonable way to read the feeds. If there are up to 20 strips of each comic, all in reverse...
read articleSteve Bissette and Dave Sim Chat
Yesterday I got my Steve Bissette Captain Beefheart sketch from the post office and also read the purportedly last entry of the exchange between Steve and Dave Sim about self-publishing, comics in general and many other topics. That's kind of a shame. I'd like to see the two of these guys go on long...
read articleYou're the Goofa Man Now, Dog
I've been lucky enough to know Mike Fisher since I was a teenager in Augusta GA. I've blogged about him before, how cool it was when I saw Chris Gore on Attack of the Show pumping the Goofman Productions DVD collection of his CGI animated films. I'm enough of a spaz to have jumped up and said...
read articleDealing With the Post-Scarcity Digital World
When I write a long post that gets any sort of traction in the blogosphere, invariably some drive-by commentor will refer to it as "rambling." Generally they do this on posts where I try to tie together multiple different stories into a larger meta-story. This will be one of those. Don't...
read articleDrop Target Zine Review
I'm a fan of cartoonist Alec Longstreth. I read his blog, buy his comics, have met him at Heroescon several times and even interviewed him once. I was pleased a few months ago when I saw him blog a reference that he was working with fellow cartoonist Jon Chad on a good old fashioned paper zine...
read articleXCon 2010 - Myrtle Beach's Comic Book Convention
Starting tomorrow and running through Sunday Oct 24, the 3rd annual XCon comic book convention will be held at Springmaid Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach. The con was the cover story of this week's Weekly Surge, so hopefully that will help bring some locals in. I did like the cover with it's Marvel...
read articleDaytripper is a Classic of the Comic Form
I've been reading Daytripper from Vertigo Comics since it began. It's a project of Brazilian twins who are artist-writers, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. Having just read the last issue of the series, I'm declaring this work to be a masterpiece. It is Contract with God good. It is Death of Speedy Ortiz...
read articleRIP, Harvey Pekar
Yesterday I heard the sad news that Harvey Pekar has died at the age of 70. I've been a fan of Harvey since I was 18 years old and I happened across an issue of American Splendor in a comic book shop. At the time I was getting in to Love and Rockets so I wondered what this similarly magazine sized...
read articleMore Heroes Con Wrapups
More Heroes Con wrapups come in. I'm glad I got to meet and hang out with Derek Coward. I was a little surprised that the show was not as explicitly social as many such gatherings. Had I known that you could get in with only a wrist band like a record show, I'd have brought my own name badge. I...
read articleCynicalman Movie
This makes me happy, that someone is making a Cynicalman movie. Even better, Matt Feazell himself is in this clip as "Dad". I used to see him at various comic conventions around the south and I have a number of old Cynicalman issues myself. This movie is goofy as all hell, but that's what...
read articleNate Powell Insight
I'm listening to Nate Powell getting interviewed on Inkstuds. I'm not that familiar with him, but I might be converted to his fan by this interview. He just had an insight so profound that it might have just sold me Swallow Me Whole. On why he chose to settle in Bloomington, IN instead of other...
read articleComics On The Horizon
This is kind of a pointer to myself but hopefully others find it useful. I've heard a few interviews with comic creators that interested me in their work: Today I heard the Inkstuds interview with Derf. I've never heard of this guy before but I'm really interested in his graphic novel Punk Rock and...
read articleHow to Commemorate the Death of the Newspapers
Scott Kurtz of the PVP webcomic has just posted about a new shirt available in his webstore. I think it is a hilarious slogan. "I'm killing newspapers by reading webcomics." Ha ha, it's funny because its true. I like the little throwaway comment at the bottom of that page: "A follow...
read articleThree Word Review of the Watchmen Movie
I just saw the Watchmen tonight. I'll be taking it in and writing about it more later. Whatever my expectations were of the best case scenario for pulling off this adaptation, it was waaay better than even that. Suffice it to say, here is my initial review of...
read articleHow to REALLY Make Digital Comics
While I'm in the embedding mood, here is some work by a guy pushing the envelope with digital comics. I have to say that I found this the most compelling argument I've ever seen for the value of digital comics, and moreover it practices what it preaches. It actually out-McClouds Scott McCloud by...
read articleUmbrella Academy
I've heard a lot of recommendations for the Umbrella Academy comic book series. I read the first two issues of the Dallas miniseries this weekend and all I can say is "Wow!" I can't remember the last time I had my socks so thoroughly knocked off out of nowhere. I also add my recommendation...
read articleTaming the Collection
I've been collecting comic books for approaching 40 years now and have amassed a few. While I'm currently working on organizing them and cataloging them online I have them spread out all over the floor of my home office. It is truly a mess, and it's not like I enjoy having all this floor space...
read articleJonathan Hickman on the Marvel Podcast
Even as I get back into buying comics regularly, I'm still learning a lot about the state of the industry as it is today. I used to read the Comics Buyer's Guide cover to cover ever week for many years. Nowadays I don't even understand 2/3 of the things Marvel and DC are up to. I've been getting...
read articleLiz Baillie Minicomic of the Month
For a complete lark, I just joined the Liz Baillie Minicomic of the Month Club. It seems like an interesting experiment in spurring creativity, throwing a bone to an interesting artist and getting some good stuff in the bargain. I heard about this deal on Indie Spinner Rack #146 and on a whim I...
read articleComic Book Noise's Best of the Year
I'm a regular listener to Comic Book Noise. As I get back into collecting comics, it's one of the tools I use to figure out what books and series sound interesting to me. Derek recently published a show about his top picks for 2008. Here is Part One, As far as I can tell, there is not yet a Part...
read articleThe Spirit Movie from an Alternate Reality
I am dreading the film version of The Spirit. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to go see it in the theater. Whatever problems it has, they won't get better on the smaller screen. It's just that I fear it will be miserable experience. Everything about it that I've seen so far makes it look heavy on the...
read articleMiracleman Explains Money
Via Derek Coward comes this link to a blog post the re-posts an old page from Miracleman that explains what money is and where it comes from. That is, right before it was abolished. As it happens, getting back into my comic collection means that I just touched my Miracleman issues for the first time...
read articleFirst Pass of Comics Done
I've entered everything I could on my printout into ComicBookDB. The next pass involves adding issues and/or titles to the database that don't already exist in it. I've been pulling out copies of those issue and also ones that exist but need a scanned cover. I've uploaded around 10 covers so far....
read articleCataloging Comic Books
Every so often for the past few years, I've been looking for a good solution for computerizing my comic book collection. As I tentatively get back into collecting them, I've got a good solid mess of things that were once cataloged, added since, and just loose in unorganized boxes and piles. I wanted...
read articleMyrtle Beach Comic Convention
On Halloween weekend, there will be a comic book convention in Myrtle Beach. It will be held at the Springmaid Resort which is at the very south tip of Ocean Boulevard. This location is convenient to Market Commons, Myrtle Beach State Park and all of the Ocean Boulevard attractions. If you have...
read articleCreating Fans the Bassackwards Way
I'm not sure this is how it is supposed to go, but I started listening to the Webcomics Weekly podcast first. I did not read any of the webcomics by any of the show's principals. I had previously listened to the Blank Label comics podcast and was curious about this one. After listening for a while,...
read articlePersepolis
We watched Marjane Satrapi's film version of **Persepolis last night. Wow, what a fantastic film, one of the best adaptions I've ever seen. I'd actually put it above **Sin City because it was not only a faithful adaption but the style of adaptation carried a lot of the story. My favorite bit was the...
read articleEddie Campbell on Becoming Things
I'm at this moment listening to writer and artist Eddie Campbell get interviewed on Inkstuds. This is good timing as I just picked up 9 of his Alec and Bacchus books from the Top Shelf $3 sale (still 2 days left.) He just made an amazing quote on starting up new pursuits and committing to them. In...
read articleTop Shelf Comix
I don't remember seeing their booth but surely Top Shelf Comix was displaying at Dragon*Con. One of the principals lives in Marietta, so it seems ridiculous not to. It's that time of the year when Top Shelf has their big blowout sale, and are selling a number of their graphic novels at discounts and...
read articleCreating a Comic Strip
Via The Comics Reporter I ran across this video showing how Dave Kellett creates the comic strip Sheldon. I'm not a comics creator, can't really draw but I'm always fascinated with the creation process and particularly the mechanics of it. I found this completely fascinating. I remember the first...
read articleAlison Bechdel
I've been a fan of Alison Bechdel's cartooning for a long time. I have several of the collections of Dykes to Watch Out For comic strips, and when I read her graphic novel Fun Home I was absolutely blown away. I've been following her weblog for a while, and I can't tell you how happy I was to find...
read articleGene Colan in Hard Times
One of my favorite comic artists of all time is Gene Colan. He drew Iron Man, a classic run on Tomb of Dracula including creating the Blade character, a stretch on Doctor Strange that I loved, and even worked on Howard the Duck with the late Steve Gerber. In the 80's Eclipse comics published some...
read articleFree Comic Book Day
We're out of town visiting my father-in-law in Goldsboro NC so I requested a side trip to the local comic store here for Free Comic Book Day. We got there about an hour before the store closed, so I don't know if the comics selection was depleted or if they didn't get the full array of stuff. I'd...
read articleMyrtle Beach's Comic Shop is Back!
There used to be one comic shop in my area, which was in Surfside Beach at Highway 544 and Kings Highway. We'd drive by it if we were going to Myrtle Beach State Park or the dog park. That shop closed a while ago, which left me with no local comic options. I have periodically been buying comics at...
read articleBring Me the Head of Del Close
The site ComicMix is an interesting one. It's an online comic book site that is commissioning new work from creators I'm familiar with. They are off to a running start with a new Munden's Bar story. It's not just any old story but it is a story drawn by Skip Williamson and starring the skull of Del...
read articleBobby Tables
You have got to love a comic strip about SQL injection...
read articleI Choose Panter
You know this is a sad election cycle when artist Gary Panter (the guy who does comics, did the Pee Wee's Playhouse Set, Zappa album covers, etc) has a presidential platform that excites me far more than any of the candidates for either party's actual platforms. I wish I could vote for Gary. We are...
read articleAnthony Bourdain/Harvey Pekar Crossover
Boy, I wish I had found out about Harvey Pekar appearing on Anthony Bourdain's TV show before it aired, rather than after. It showed last night, and while the Travel Channel replays the living hell out of most programs, they don't seem to be repeating the episode in the next week. I'll have to keep...
read articleAchewood in the House: Chris Onstad Interview
Here's an interesting interview from the Onion AV club with Chris Onstad of Achewood. That is the only webcomic I follow on a regular basis, and have for years. A few years back, my XMas gifts were collections of the strip and Achewood T-shirts, so I'm more interested than average. Apparently this...
read articleMinicomics Subscription Idea
One of the tangible results I get from listening to the Indie Spinner Rack podcast is that my interest in mini-comics has been rekindled. I have a number of these, and I used to pick them up from people at conventions. I've got some of the old Matt Feazell Cynicalman comics, some Steeldragon Press...
read articleComic Book Podcasts
Remember a few months back when I was actively looking for comic book related podcasts? Well, here is the motherlode at Comics Podcast Network. Dang. A few months ago I couldn't find any, and now there are enough to warrant a...
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