destroyerzooey

it's December. i turn 30 this month. O_O'
given how uneventful and/or boring my life tends to be, it looks like that without any new art to post, my blog here is degenerating into me posting links or just remaining silent. is anybody still reading out there?

-Kelly Thompson's new CSBD post is here, and it leads into another sprawling comment thread! this time Kelly talks about Power Girl and the recent backlash against a scene written by Jen Van Meter in "Justice Society of America."

-The Tyranny of Realism by Devin Faraci at CHUD.com. i think about some of the stuff he talks about there a lot, how "real" my stories/characters should or need to be, or what the line is between realistic and believable, especially now that i'm doing a superhero project.

-love him or hate him, Steven Grant's new Permanent Damage post is pretty good (whether you agree or not), wherein he talks about his views narrative in comics, and then at the end some funny thoughts on Thanksgiving.

-2010 Glyph Comics Awards now taking submissions!

-here's a short interview i did for new blog Gateway Geek.

( behind cut: another interview i did for a French magazine in which i sound like kind of a hipster douchebag or something. )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Fluxblog/~3/s2w33ohf9vw/thats-cos-im-a-guy

http://www.fluxblog.org/?p=2866

Idiot Glee “It”

Harmony vocals usually imply the presence of others, but the wordless moans and spare keyboard accompaniment in this song just make the lead singer sound so incredibly lonely and isolated as he sings about processing a painful unrequited love. He’s trying hard to hold it together, to accept that what he wants so badly is just never going to happen, but his stoicism barely contains his raw agony, bitter disappointment, and bruised ego.

Visit the Idiot Glee page on MySpace.

I plan on getting my thingythangs together and going to some comic conventions next year. I will have new PINS! They will be re-drawn versions of my old pins (pictured!), and a couple entirely brand new sets.

I drew the new ones entirely digitally. A new thing for me. But I discovered something making these in Photoshop that I never knew before (how to upsize pixels while still maintaining the hard edges), I dunno if it's a new thing or what but it blows my mind because I can now start making PIXEL ART.

OBSERVE:



This blows my mind. I have always wanted to make pixelly art but never understood how to resize without losing the blocks (there's a pull-down option when you resize images in CS4).

It's like, it's like... A whole new world:




Just watched Funny People and my new favorite Aubrey Plaza is in it. And of course she's in that one movie everyone awesome is in, SCOTT PILGRIAM. It blows my mind that dude not only gets a movie, but all the hottest young celebs are in it. I could only be more excited if the hot young celebs' costumes were skin-tight battle suits. That could be a goal for me.

http://joglikescomics.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-have-10000-words-to-make-up-for.html

*New comics aren't out until Thursday around here, so that's why the new comics post isn't going to be up until Tuesday night.

In the meantime, I recently (finally) posted the rest of my two part look at Manga - it's an early '80s anthology book that purported to introduce the magic of Japanese comics and culture to English-reading audiences, although the differences between manga then and Manga then are telling, as is the state of manga in North America today. Lots of pictures in this one, probably a few artists you'll recognize and several more that have gone on to interesting things. Enjoy!

http://joglikescomics.blogspot.com/2009/11/thanks-in-advance-for-that.html

*Last night I had a dream that aliens were invading, and I was holed up in my aunt's old house with Spider-Man and a bunch of other people.

It wasn't Peter Parker or anything, it was Spider-Man, in full costume, sitting listlessly at the kitchen table, not saying a word. Some guy told me we had to train for the aliens' attack, so he wound up chasing me around the house armed with some air gun with a scope on it. I managed to hide for a bit and when he came by I ran to disarm him, but then the world changed into a Zack Snyder slow slow slow slow action scene, except I could feel the slowing so that it seemed the distance between me and my target was being halved and halved again forever, and I got slower and slower, and it was agony.

Spider-Man didn't lift a finger to help me. He didn't go fight the aliens either. Fuck you Spider-Man, you're a piece of shit. I can't even look at you, and now I posted it all so everyone knows the truth. Fuck you, me and you are finished. I wish the machines crushed you in that one issue. We are done. I hate you.

***

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

Astro Boy (Astro Boy's a real superhero, Spider-Man, he was fighting in 'Nam while you were salting up Aunt May's wheatcakes with baby tears in your bassinet every morning, asshole; covers the recent movie and pertinent manga context)

***



"Stupid Babies."

- Angelica from Rugrats, on Spider-Man

***

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

Ganges #3: Oh, but I know what'll make it all better - the latest $7.95 installment of Kevin Huizenga's Ignatz-format (oversized, nice paper, dust cover) pamphlet series from Fantagraphics & Coconino Press, a journey through what's still adding up to be considerably less than a day in the life of observant Glenn Ganges, the narrative eye diving in and out of memories and perceptions and impressions and all the stuff that makes up human experience, serving to summarize all of Huizenga's experiments in comics storytelling so far. It's not what happens here but how it happens, the 'how' alone revealing the complexities of the person, a biography of craft-as-occasion, the hundred revelations to a man remaining still. Jokes too, and real police action. I got into it more here, and Fantagraphics has a slideshow here. This is the one to flip through on Wednesday, yes.

The Winter Men: God, twice as nice - a 176-page, $19.99 softcover Wildstorm collection of the well-regarded 2005-09 Brett Lewis/John Paul Leon Russian ex-rocket squad series, a dense piece of just-into-fantasy worldbuilding with terrific dialogue and some excellent visuals. I went into some detail here, with a few spoilers; well worth a look.

Shade the Changing Man Vol. 2: Edge of Vision: It's... it's like the world's dial is set to delight. Finally collecting issues #7-13 of Peter Milligan's 1990-96 proto-Vertigo classic, with most of these chapters drawn by Chris Bachalo. Only 57 issues to go! It's $19.99.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Now this is just too much! The second deluxe hardcover repackaging of the famous Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette & John Totleben run on the muck monster character, collecting issues #28-34 and Annual #2, including the "Pog" issue (in homage to Walt Kelly, drawn by Shawn McManus) and the sex issue. You know if your $24.99 is going this way. Man, I feel great!

A Distant Neighborhood Vol. 2 (of 2): What? Above? No, I'm not Perez Hilton, I'm just upset. Was upset. C'mon, would Perez Hilton recommend the new Jiro Taniguchi manga from Fanfare/Ponent Mon? NO... granted, I wasn't really over the moon with vol. 1 myself, but I'm sure the artist will at least serve up some potent visual evocation of the 1963 this series' salaryman protagonist is stuck in (and in his 14-year old body of the time at that), and the story may well deepen as he draws closer to the events that caused his father to abandon the household back around that time. Apropos of nothing, I've seen copies of vol. 1 in various Borders locations recently, so the publisher's spotty U.S. distribution seems to be getting a little better. Good on them. It's $23.00 for 208 pages; preview here.

Years of the Elephant: Also from Fanfare/Ponent Mon this week is a change of pace - an English translation of a Dutch-language comic initially serialized in eight chapters by the excellent Belgian publisher Bries in 2007 and 2008. It's autobiographical fiction of the most intimate sort, a sketched-out account of artist Willy Linthout's attempts to cope with his son's suicide, efforts that involve no shortage of funnybook gags and fantasies, rendered in a line not unlike Johnny Ryan's. Yet another one to flip through this week if you encounter it. It's $18.95 for 168 pages; samples here.

Proper Go Well High: A Trains Are... Mint Book: I believe the second book by Oliver East, a 166-page work from the UK-based Blank Slate Books just now hitting North America via Diamond. Basically it's the story of a walk, from Manchester to Liverpool, sticking close to the railroad tracks. Richard Bruton has much more information (and several images) in his review; it looks nice. Priced at $19.99.

Sparky O'Hare: Master Electrician: Also from Blank Slate, a 94-page, $8.99 collection of humor strips by German cartoonist Mawil, who some might remember from the 2003 Top Shelf book Beach Safari, or maybe the 2008 Blank Slate release We Can Still be Friends. Again, Richard Bruton has more.

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture Vol. 1: Your eye-catching manga debut for the week, a 240-page Del Rey release of Masayuki Ishikawa's ongoing seinen series (started in 2004, currently at vol. 8, adapted to 11 episodes of television anime in 2007; great opening titles) regarding an agricultural student with the ability to communicate with micro-organisms and all the funny/dramatic/educational microbe-related situations that arise. I like the sound of this! Only $10.99.

Berserk Vol. 32: More more more from Kentaro Miura. More. Dark Horse's release is two volumes behind the Japanese ongoing.

Star Comics: All-Star Collection Vol. 1: But maybe you want something a little sweeter? Here's a selection of works from Marvel's old Star Comics line (est. 1984), probably best remembered by '80s kids for licensed books like Fraggle Rock or Alf; an effort was also made to pick up some Harvey Comics characters, but when that didn't go through Marvel picked up Harvey veterans Warren Kremer (paired with writer Lennie Herman) and Bob Bolling (creator of Little Archie) to produce new(ish) comics. Some of the results are collected in this $19.99 softcover, including Bolling's Wally the Wizard (#1-2) and Kremer's & Herman's Planet Terry (#1-2), Top Dog (#1-3) and Royal Roy (#1-2). As seen in the current X-Babies miniseries, which presentes the X-Men as babies, which they aren't normally, unlike some Marvel superheroes.

Detective Comics #859: Surely the superhero item of the week, part 2 of 3 in Greg Rucka's & J.H. Williams III's origin of Batwoman saga, now with added 52 wrap-up power. Preview.

The Boys Vol. 5: Herogasm: In which this miniseries struck from the Garth Ennis/Darick Robertson supermen-that-smash-superheroes project assumes its expected place as a specific spread of issues in the larger storyline. This was kind of a weird thing, starting off as a parody of superhero Event crossovers -- in which all of the series' superhumans actually sneak away to secret island to have a massive orgy -- but gradually becoming immersed in the larger series' various subplots, to the point where certain miniseries-specific points (like good superheroine Starlight finding herself turned on in spite of herself by the sheer decadence of the scene) simply vanish while apparent long-term things (such as Hughie's distressing encounter with Black Noir) are set up for resolution way later, I'm guessing.

That probably makes this thing a bit easier to read as a $19.99 softcover in a series, although there were a few funny things going on with withheld information that interacted with contemporaneously released issues of the main series (set a little ways down the series timeline) that suggest the whole thing was planned at least in part as Boys Biweekly in execution, which doesn't quite explain the misty plotting of the Herogasm side of things. It also doesn't help that guest artists John McCrea & Keith Burns don't quite manage the visceral style necessary to sell the sexy and/or revolting bits of the script, or that Ennis ends on a routine study of a good, hard man forced to choose between the honor of his duty and the corruption said duty tends to support - another twist that seems to emerge from the mist about halfway through. Preview. Note that publisher Dynamite also a $29.99 hardcover this week for the series' second collection, Get Some, collecting issues #7-14 of the regular run (currently up to #36); many samples here.

Incognito: Also in anti-superhero activity this week, here's an $18.99 Icon softcover collection of Ed Brubaker's & Sean Phillips' pulp hero-styled study of a supervillain-in-hiding who discovers the pleasure of playing at violent superhero activities as an escape from his shitty office job. Secrets from the past eventually bubble up, leading to basically an extended origin story setup for a subsequent series to come. Certainly above average for this sort of trade-paced superhuman series kickoff -- it really does fit in well with the approach taken by some mainline Marvel U books -- but probably more orthodox than anyone anticipated, with not much in the way of depth just yet.

Criminal: The Sinners #2 (of 5): On the other hand, Brubaker & Phillips have done a nice job of dipping us back into the family-tied crime world of their other ongoing creator-owned concern. Can hapless-by-conscience gangland enforcer Tracy Lawless unravel the mystery of seemingly unrelated underworld murders? Especially when it might really be just happenstance that joins them? Here's some pages from the new $3.50 issue. In other Icon updates, Brian Michael Bendis' & Michael Avon Oeming's Powers relaunches with a new #1, previewed here, along with vol. 3 of the Definitive hardcover collection, gathering up issues #25-37 of the original Images series (thus leaving 30 issues of the first Icon series between it and the new #1) for $29.99.

The Dead: Kingdom of Flies: In case you happened to enjoy his recent Hellblazer run, here's a 96-page, $15.00 softcover collection of a zombies vs. soldiers and the fire brigade miniseries Simon Bisley recently pencilled for writer Alan Grant. From Berserker Comics; many pages here.

I Am Legion #6 (of 6): Closing out Fabien Nury's & John Cassaday's French market occult thriller, and the first DDP/Humanoids project; my Humanoids-in-English master list has been duly updated!

Beasts of Burden #3 (of 4): Cats 'n dogs 'n occult mystery from Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson. Preview.

Creepy Comics #2: Continuing Dark Horse's 48-page, $4.99 pamphlet-format revival of the old Warren horror magazine, this time featuring a story by Nathan Fox of Dark Reign: Zodiac. More here.

Image United #1 (of 6): You know, I'm a child of the Image Revolution and all, I loved The Savage Dragon and Shadowhawk and The Maxx - I felt the 13-year old boy appeal of, say, Pitt. This thing... there's something about it, this Robert Kirkman-written mega-crossover, and it's got to do with the fact that it's the highest-profile old-school jam comic in at least a decade. All six Image founders not named Jim Lee putting pencils to the same pages for big, violent swirls of pure high '90s ultra-muscle superhero excess, everyone working their own characters (and Whilce Portacio simply inventing a new one since Wildstorm has Wetworks) - it's $3.99's worth of superhero decadence, frankly, but of a purer, page-to-eye, art-first sort. That appeals to the lizard/boy side of me, and/or the part that senses some whiff of sedition in re: the writer/editor-driven universal plot points of big ticket superhero comics. Sparse production diary here; color preview here, opening joke on the fallen status of these clenched-fisted character included. No babies, I bet.

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=12012009

Achewood strip for Tuesday, December 1, 2009

http://www.octopuspie.com/2009-12-01/11-am-drinking/

Welcome to day 2! Today's painting is a bit bigger with more action (but not very much).

And look, it is for sale in the store!

I've noticed an alarming trend recently where I am completely obsessed with reality TV shows that focus on people who are frustrating and annoying and stupid. Some combination in there.

Personal Favourites:
Hoarders
Canada's Worst Handyman
Canada's Worst Driver
The Hills :)

I'm not sure what the draw is, why I'm obsessed with watching people's self-destructive ways. I wonder if it's just that I feel superior watching people fail to do something I'm able to do on a daily basis (by not collecting vast amounts of garbage in my house or putting nails where screws should go). The other day I was driving around stopping at stop signs and and I felt a small twinge of smug satisfaction. How semi-high-school horrible is that?

I wonder if there are some people who watch these shows and feel an overwhelming desire to go out and make the world a better place? I guess with shows like Intervention there might be some desire to help people suffering from addiction. But I'm sure in many ways the whole thing is more like the impact of slowing down to watch a car accident. Maybe people see shows like Hoarders and it raises the awareness of this compulsion as a disease, but, really, what's the forward momentum to positive social change from that?

On the other hand, how weird is it that all these shows are on a tv channel called Arts & Entertainment?

Is there a cable channel called People TV? There should be. A&E should become people TV.

Ok now for some Six Feet Under so I don't feel like a total boob.

PS Mr Campbell I just got the latest NM!!!!

sumxo

You can see the cover and the first three pages of BofB #4 here on the Dark Horse Comics Website.

In other "news" - I think I might be mouthing off with Dan Vado again for the entire hour on the SLG Radio Show this Thursday, I'll post about it later this week if it's definitely happening. It's been a lot of fun talking with Dan, or yelling at Dan, or whatever it is you want to call what I do (immature, misinformed outbursts --?) on the show these past few weeks. We're hoping to get some callers, even though most folks who listen in do so via the archives. Anyway, there's that.

Otherwise...weird day. Got some pages approved by Bongo. Saw friends of ours on the cover of a new DVD release. Odd stuff on Twitter. Interesting project dangled before my eyes (and the eyes of others, but can't say who, what, where or how in the hell --?). And I received a surprise gift in the mail of some DVDs I wanted and could not afford. Overall a happening bunch of hours.

Which means...

Something bad is definitely going to happen.

It must be some kind of a set-up.

I smell a rat.

Etc.

dudes I have Riker'd it up, perhaps you should too:

Riker Town

My fave episode still is the one where everyone is falling on the bridge. I think I have only seen like four episodes of TNG, perhaps I should nerd up and watch more. They're pretty amazing.

anyone can participate. check it out!

A week or two back I was reading the AV Club's "Best Music of the Decade" list and it brought on the dismaying notion that maybe there had been no good music for the last decade! But I couldn't believe that, so I sorted through my music "library" and made a list of the 25 albums I enjoyed the most these last ten years, in rough order:

25. Joanna Newsom - Ys
24. The Black Mages (self-titled)
23. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
22. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
21. The Blow - Paper Television
20. The Knife - Deep Cuts
19. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
18. MIA - Arular
17. Morrissey - You Are the Quarry
16. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
15. Outkast - Stankonia
14. The Advantage - Elf Titled
13. Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
12. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
11. Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
10. The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
9. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
8. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Greatest Palace Music
7. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
6. The Decemberists - Picaresque
5. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
4. The White Stripes - Elephant
3. Deltron 3030 (self-titled)
2. Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
1. Madvillian - Madvillainy