If you want to snag an autograph, you've got two chances. Shanower will be at Marvel's booth from 11 AM to 12 PM, plugging his new Marvelous Land of Oz. And on Thursday (May 27), he'll be at Books of Wonder between 6 PM and 8 PM.
This Wednesday (May 26), Eric Shanower – creator of the excellent Age of Bronze – will be at Book Expo America at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.
If you want to snag an autograph, you've got two chances. Shanower will be at Marvel's booth from 11 AM to 12 PM, plugging his new Marvelous Land of Oz. And on Thursday (May 27), he'll be at Books of Wonder between 6 PM and 8 PM.
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This week's feature article is on Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, by Harvey Pekar. I found myself re-reading this 2006 semi-autobiographical graphic novel in the wake of the latest uproar about Goldman Sachs, Inc.
Malice's excoriation of Goldman – and other unappealing work environments – has new relevance in the wake of the current recession and general anti-corporate sentiment. So while Ego & Hubris is rather aimless, and ends abruptly, there's added subtext about the nature of the human ego – not just Malice's – to keep it interesting. I also found it a bit odd that artist Gary Dumm, one of Pekar's longtime collaborators on American Splendor, barely gets credit for his work on the comic. (Contrast this with Pekar's more famous artist friends, like Robert Crumb, whose contributions are a selling point right from American Splendor #1.) Ego indeed! Today's Free Comic Book Day – so go down to your local comics shop and get some free comics!
It's a great way to support neighborhood businesses and get in touch with fans near you ... 'cause sometimes the Internet doesn't quite cut it. Just got through reading the latest from Peter Bagge, Other Lives. Follow the link to read my review.
One thing that struck me – just as a nebulous impression, mind you – was that Bagge's attitude toward Second Life and similar virtual worlds resembled Tom Wolfe's fatuous perspective on teen sex in his 2000 essay anthology Hooking Up. I got Hooking Up as a hand-me-down some years ago, and there's some interesting stuff there (I especially enjoyed the description of the founder of Intel). But the eponymous essay was pretty naive – Wolfe seemed truly surprised that all the young 'uns seemed to be doing it nowadays. The folly of the young may be thinking that they invented sex, but the folly of the old may well be that they think they were the last ones ever to do it. There's a little bit of this that comes through in Other Lives. Bagge seems to be looking at Second Life and saying, "Wow, look how mixed up notions of identity become in online virtual worlds!" But I suspect we've already reached the point where most people would just say "So what?" to that. It was twenty years ago when Lt. Barclay first got holo-addiction on Star Trek: The Next Generation; right about the time Buddy Bradley moved to Seattle. How's that for a dated concept? Peter Bagge's latest comic is Other Lives, published by DC/Vertigo Comics in April 2010. Unlike his serialized work for Fantagraphics Books (most notably the iconic 1990s series Hate), it's a self-contained graphic novel. Other Lives shares much with Peter Bagge's satirical oeuvre. It asks what it means to "have a life" (or not be able to get one), a question Bagge began posing in his 1980s Neat Stuff magazine. But in Other Lives, the thematic exploration is much more explicit. Other Lives focuses on a quartet of misfits, including Javier Ortiz (aka "Otis Boyd"), a bipolar conspiracy theorist; Woodrow Wooley, a divorced, online gambling addict; Vladimir "Vader" Rostov, a self-loathing journalist; and his fiancée, Ivy. This week's feature article is on the legendary Robert Crumb's music-related cartoons. Much of Crumb's art for and about musicians is from the mid-1960s to 1980s, but quite a bit has been reissued in the past few years.
For more on what Crumb's been up to lately, see the feature article from a few weeks back, The Bible Adapted by Comics Artists. Crumb's excellent version of the Book of Genesis gets reviewed, along with other comic-book versions of biblical lore. Marvel has hopped on the Apple bandwagon, releasing a comic-reader App for the iPad yesterday.
Says Dan Buckley, Marvel publisher: “We’re excited to introduce an unparalleled digital comic experience to our fans with the Marvel Comics App for iPad. The iPad is the first device that offers us a chance to present digital comics that are even close to replicating the experience of reading a print comic. This new world of digital comics distribution provides us great opportunities to reach new readers, allow consumers to sample our diverse stories and characters, and we believe it will drive these new fans into the App Store and local comic shops each week to find even more.” I've highlighted the crucial bit in bold – the rest is the usual press release chatter. Unlike the comics available on the iPhone, the new iPad really seems ideal for digital comic perusal. This has naturally been under-reported by most media, who seem obsessed over how the iPad may or may not affect e-books, newspapers, and the like. The app is free, while the comics cost $2 apiece (about the going rate for digital comics already sold via iTunes). It's Gillette's old cheap razor/expensive blades business model. But of course that leaves out the high price of the iPad itself... Anyway, see pics below, and happy Easter! Update 4/24/10: For more on this and other iPad apps, see Comics on the iPad: New Comic-Book Reader Apps for Apple's Tablet. Today Harper's Magazine has a new interview with Judge Richard Posner on capitalism. (All timed to coincide with Posner's new book on the subject, naturally.)
The piece is worth a read – yes, even for comics fans. After all, Posner was the judge who ruled on the 2004 Gaiman v. McFarlane copyright case, and his thoughtful opinion there should be required reading for anyone interested in the comics biz. Comic-book adaptations of the Old Testament and New Testament are experiencing a revival in recent years. Mangaka (manga artists) have been adapting the Bible into their own idiom, while new editions by comics legends Basil Wolverton and Robert Crumb are also appearing. Manga Bibles A number of manga versions of the Bible have been published in recent years. These manga vary in faithfulness to the source and in overall quality, but most are geared toward an adolescent readership. The most well-known adaptation is The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation (2007). The manga is drawn by Ajinbayo "Siku" Akinsiku, with scripting by Akin Akinsiku. Siku, born and based in England, has a drawing style that is sketchy-looking, and not closely in line with more traditional manga. Human Target as seen in DC's Vertigo series The Human Target – aka Christopher Chance – is a comic-book character who is part bodyguard, part private detective, using his skills at martial arts and impersonation to protect the targets of assassins. Fittingly, the character of Christopher Chance has had a number of different incarnations both in comics and on television in its nearly forty-year history. Chance first appeared in Action Comics #419 (December 1972). Created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino (co-creator of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl), Chance appeared as a dapper hero, in the mode of pre-superhero comics sleuths. In Human Target's "Action-Plus" segments following the main Superman story, Christopher Chance would disguise himself as people whose lives were threatened. Chance appeared regularly in Action Comics until 1974. In the late 1970s, Human Target moved to The Brave and The Bold and Detective Comics, titles which predominantly featured Batman. This was appropriate, as Christopher Chance's quick wits and skills at mimicry more resembled those of the Dark Knight than the Man of Steel. Chance even impersonated Bruce Wayne in a 1982 Batman story arc. |
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