gwalla

I need to be better about updating with stuff I've done reasonably close to when I do it. It's been a week since WonderCon!

I went all three days, but only have pics from Saturday and Sunday. Oh, I brought my camera on Friday...it just refused to turn on! Batteries were fresh too. I was a little put out, since I'd lugged the damned thing to work with me (I work just a few blocks from Moscone Center), and I'd just had it fixed (I just hadn't bothered to try it out since I got it back from the shop, and it'd been too long since then to just bring it back and get it fixed again for free). I borrowed my folks' digital camera for the rest of the weekend

( Dr. Who, Cobra, and Girl Genius )

( Art Adams, Silent Hill, and Cartoon Network graffiti )

( By the gleamin' gates of funky Asgard! )

( lol wut )

( Street Fighter, Star Wars, Mike Mignola, Johnny Depp, and Batty bad girls )

( The Dark Horse panel, plus criticism )

( Violet Incredible, Dan Brereton, Halo, and MST3K )

( Above ground: R2D2, Link, Cassandra Cain, and a monster )

( Boba Fett, Green Hornet, the Clone Wars, Mike Royer, and ROB! VAN! DAM! )

( Boba and Boushh, Gandalf, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon )

( Kurt Busiek, manga maestro Jason Thompson CHARGIN EYE LAZOR, Sergio Aragones and Steve Leialoha )

I also attended the latter half of the DC panel, saw some Bleach, and saw a couple of movies. One was the 3DCG anime Appleseed: Ex Machina. The semi-cell-shaded look took some getting used to, but it was pretty fun. Although it's kind of hard to believe that Deunan is an "unmodified human" when she's pulling off crazy Matrix gun-fu acrobatics. And it's produced by John Woo, so naturally there are flocks of doves everywhere (later it's revealed that the doves are actually robots broadcasting a mind-controlling signal. At this revelation, the entire theater broke out laughing). The other was the animated Justice League: New Frontier, based on Darwyn Cooke's revisionist (but not "superhero deconstructionist") take on the Silver Age DCU. I missed most of the first half, but what I saw was pretty good (I don't think there was any need for Hal Jordan to be abducted by a UFO to find Abin Sur rather than just being led to him by the ring, because blowing up the room he was in makes his secret identity a little harder to justify, but then by the end it seems like a lot of folks, including Rick Flagg of all people, know his ID, so it hardly matters). Both are worth checking out, JL:NF more than Appleseed (unless you're up for some fairly mindless explodification).

And to sum up, here's all the stuff I got:

( Con haul )

• Drew Weing's Set to Sea - The story of a burly poet who gets mistaken for a sailor and shanghaied. Good characterization and fantastic art. Characters reminiscent of E. C. Segar and gorgeous, detailed settings. Start at the beginning.
• Dean Haspiel's Immortal - A pair of hard-boiled, super-powered lovers accidentally awaken a cosmic deity that doesn't know how to love anymore. Seriously. Jack Kirby space-god operatics and Frank Miller two-fisted hypernoir combined in one concentrated dose. Sample dialogue: "That dame broke her bruiser out from jail—only to crack the seal of a legend exiled eons ago." Don't expect anything so banal as naturalism. It's a one-shot (just one extended vertical strip—infinite canvas minus gimmicks), so read it all here.
  

lol japan

I didn't make this. I found it on 4chan. I have no idea where it comes from. But I love it.

\

EDIT: it's from XKCD. Thanks, guys!

WonderCon started on Friday, but I didn't go, since work and gym conflicted. I came kind of late on Saturday, but I don't feel like I missed anything—none of the early panels really grabbed me. I didn't go to any panels, actually, and just hung out in the dealer room spending money and getting sketches.

The dealers room was very good to me. Just about the first thing I found was a booth selling old comics, where they had a table of random issues they were selling for $5 each (not bad at all for vintage stuff in still-readable condition). We're not talking Action Comics #1 here, but there was some stuff that at the very least would be fun to post on scans_daily. I picked up a Silver Age issue of Action Comics in which Superman goes up against a criminal made of kryptonite, an issue of Blackhawk in which the Blackhawks (a WW2 flying team) fight a magician who shoots himself into the water with a cannon, an issue of Giant Size Man-Thing (hee hee!), an issue of Dial H For Hero where Robby Reed turns into three bizarre creatures, and an issue of Where Monsters Dwell featuring Kirby art. At another booth I got some old weird DC stuff: Anthro #2 (a caveman hero), Star Hunters, and DC Super Stars of Space (a collection of reprinted adventures of Adam Strange, Captain Comet, Tommy Tomorrow, and SPACE CABBY!).

Then I found what I was looking for: most of the DC Challenge maxi-series. It's missing a couple of issues from the middle, and the last two, but I'd never been able to find any issues before (and I looked at the last Comic-Con!). I'm looking forward to reading this silliness. The samples on scans_daily are just too awesome.

Got a sketch of Nocturne by Michael Ryan. It's beautiful.

After some ships-passing-in-the-night hijinx, I caught up with Shaenon Garrity and bought signed copies of Narbonic volumes 2 and 3, and chatted for a while. She agrees that Fin Fang 4 should be an ongoing, and told me that the original pitch was for a miniseries which at one point was to involve a Stan Lee clone with hypnotic powers. God I wish they'd gone through with that. I got vol. 3 signed by Phil Foglio, too, who did the bonus story. From Phil I got a few cloisonne pins (why does nobody else sell these? I love 'em), volume 1 of Girl Genius, and a copy of Dealer's Choice: The Complete Guide to Saturday Night Poker (which he illustrated). Both books were signed, and I got a sketch of Agatha. Also, since he collects poker variants, I told him about Crosstown Traffic.

Caught up with Chuck Whelon and bought a book from him. I left my sketchbook with him while I wandered around Artists Alley, and when I came back he'd filled the page with a huge and very detailed cartoon dragon! Chuck is awesome. Read his comic.

Bought the new K Chronicles collection and the new Marginal Prophets album from Keith Knight. Got a sketchfrom him, too...of his K Chonicles alter ego riding a milk bottle (captioned "don't ask").

At the Oni Press booth I got a sketch of Pandora from Death Jr. by Ted Naifeh, and bought his comics Polly and the Pirates and Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things. Good stuff.

And one booth I got DVDs of Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (the Rowan Atkinson parody), Wild Wild Planet (partly just to impress my dad, who still repeats his favorite line from it, "look out for those gadgets on their chests!" said regarding a bunch of buxom space amazons), and Light Years (a French animated sci-fi film directed by the guy who did Fantastic Planet, with an English script by Isaac Asimov and a whole bunch of famous people in the voice cast before that was common). At another I got a bootleg 4-DVD set of the early 1980s Incredible Hulk cartoon, which I remember watching once on video way back in the day (on Betamax!).

Con closed at 7. Got beer & dinner at the ThirstyBear brew pub/tapas bar (Golden Hallucination ale is good, Menage a Frambois not so great, tortilla española really good, fried calamari too salty, olive tapenade for bread tasty). Then home.

Going back tomorrow (er...today. How'd it get this late?)

Wolverine, Batman, Savage Dragon, and MEGA MAN!

(found via BeaucoupKevin)

also:
( The horror mounts, the terror grows...these monsters have no use for cloooothes! )

Comicsresearch.org's Comics Research & Such blog. It announces new journals, calls for papers, new features on the site, etc. I set up LJ syndication for it: comics_research

Dave Campbell on how superheroes would vote:

• BATMAN – INDEPENDENT

Batman is a true independent, a man of solid principles and baffling contradictions. This may be because he is mentally ill. Batman has an almost paranoid distrust of government institutions, yet believes in the rule of law. He’s an urban vigilante, yet he’s a proponent of gun control. Batman is anti-death penalty to a fault – how many times has he had to capture the mass-murdering Joker and return him to Arkham Asylum instead of the electric chair? Contradictions be damned. Batman follows his own moral compass, and Batman is always right. When Batman votes, he weighs all the options and chooses the best person for the job, regardless of party affiliation or whether they are actually running for office. In other words, he writes-in BATMAN on every ballot.

Warren Ellis to launch webcomics portal through WebcomicsNation

Well, I shall be leaving for San Diego Comic Con shortly. Of course, this means I will most likely be netless (horrors!) for about a week. I'll see some of you down there, and talk to the rest later!

Try not to break anything while I'm gone!

I am the terror that flaps in the Knight...

Sci-Fi Channel is going to be doing an animated series of The Amazing Screw-On Head! Holy crap! Not only that, but Paul freakin' Giamatti is doing the voice of The Amazing Screw-On Head! Someone up there* likes me.

For you poor ignorant souls who have never experienced the pure joy that is Amazing Screw-On Head, allow me to explain. The Amazing Screw-On Head was a one-shot comic by Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), published by Dark Horse. It was an opportunity for him to ignore the rather complex backstory of Hellboy and just cut loose in comics form. The Amazing Screw-On Head is about The Amazing Screw-On Head, an Amazing Screw-On Head who works for President Abraham Lincoln, fighting supernatural threats like the evil Professor Zombie. There is no hero more awesome than The Amazing Screw-On Head.

If I can find my copy, I'll post scans to scans_daily.

*Sci-Fi Channel corporate headquarters

Iceman gets some good character writing

Some musing inspired by the discussion following this post by heykidzcomix.

The question of how to attract female readers to comic books is the source of much debate and hand-wringing in the industry. The major publishers both, on occasion, decide that they're going to make an effort to get girls into comics. They know that girls like manga, so they try incorporating anime/manga styles and tropes (e.g. Marvel Mangaverse, which is generally terrible, and Mary Jane, formerly Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man, which is charming and fun). They push titles with female heroes beating up baddies. They succeed marginally if at all.

I think the problem is not necessarily one of methodology (although those attempts at anime-fying superheroes can be pretty hamfisted), but of scope. When a publisher decides to attempt to woo female audiences, it's usually its own little thing, set apart from the rest, like one or two titles devoted to the purpose. Meanwhile, the rest of the editors, writers, and artists continue to operate under the (safe) assumption that their audience is primarily young men, and produce accordingly. They know their audience; it just isn't the audience they want to add. So the peace offerings to the female contingent drown in a sea of testosterone, and as a result female readers don't get a significantly better impression of American comic books as a whole.

People tend to repeat the assertion that the problem is that many male writers attempting to write "strong female characters" end up writing macho men with breasts. To some extent this is true, but they also point to the "bad girl" comics as examples. This is a red herring, I think. While "bad girl" creators were fond of claiming that they were promoting "images of strong females", this was never more than an excuse. The central premise behind the bad girls, which I'm certain all of those writers understood, was to have a adolescent wank-fantasies for protagonists, while giving them "macho badass" personalities their adolescent male readers could grok (many boys would have a hard time letting themselves identify with a character who worries about her appearance or is otherwise "girly", but punching people in the face is much more in their comfort zone).

The Nightmare Before Christmas shojo manga. For reals.

• Ellsworth Air Force Base has the world's biggest bubble bath
• from grassynoel: we got snakes on a muthafuckin' webcomic!
• the fine art of 8-bit characters
• "Imagine, five of the indusrty's greatest voice-over talents in one car..."
• from heykidzcomix: Plushie Ash!
• Chibi Watchmen characters! Tubby Nite Owl! Censored Dr. Manhattan! Formative Experience Rorschach! Happy Comedian!
• Inspired by the LJ Batgirl redesign meme of a few months ago, Project Rooftop continues the work of redesigning superhero costumes, taking submissions from amateur and pro artists alike. I particularly like Dean dryponder Trippe's version of The Spectre, which ditches the silly green Speedo in favor of a subtle transparency effect that manages to make The Spectre actually creepy for once (no mean feat).
  

For the duration of Eisner voting, "best new talent" nominee Ursula Vernon's great GraphicSmash comic Digger is free, archives and all! It's great stuff, somewhat reminiscent of Bone, so check it out while you can.

Secret Wars Re-Enactment Society

( Posting the rest of my Wondercon '06 pics! Grant Morrison and Jim Lee! Peter David and Terry Moore! Pewfell Porfingles! Cosplay! )