Meanwhile, I've got a preview of Free Comic Book Day 2011 up, so check it out. I encourage all comics fans to participate this Saturday -- only try to pick up some comics that aren't meant to hype upcoming superhero movies (looking at you Marvel and DC!). I'm in TO right now, so I'll try to get to one of the downtown comics shops myself.
Well, all the old blog posts from Suite101.com are now up here. They're not sorted by category, and there are a few pictures missing, but I hope to get those minor fixes in place some time soon.
Meanwhile, I've got a preview of Free Comic Book Day 2011 up, so check it out. I encourage all comics fans to participate this Saturday -- only try to pick up some comics that aren't meant to hype upcoming superhero movies (looking at you Marvel and DC!). I'm in TO right now, so I'll try to get to one of the downtown comics shops myself.
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Since my Suite101.com Feature Writer blog is soon to be defunct, I'll now be posting here at Weebly.com. We'll see how it goes...
In the meantime, I'm going to begin the tedious work of migrating the old blog posts (which still get a couple hits a day) to the new platform. So fear not – those long-out-of-date musings on comics and whatnot will neither be lost to the Internet ether, nor buried forever on my hard drive! Many of the best webcomics are created by and targeted at college-educated audiences, from engineers to English majors. Such comics appeal to students not only because they make fun of learned topics, but also because they can be a welcome distraction from studying. Here are a few of the more prominent online strips. History and Literature Webcomics: Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant Nova Scotia native Kate Beaton has a history degree, and her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant often pokes fun of literary or historical figures. Beaton's expressive, wild-eyed caricatures of classics from Robinson Crusoe to King Lear have been collected in print and even published in Harper's magazine. Mail-order comics have long been a staple of the comic book collector's hobby, and the advent of the Internet has only broadened the ways in which fans can buy comics. Different websites and retail companies are better, depending on what kind of comics readers are interested in ordering – whether it's current titles, graphic novels or collected editions, or one-of-a-kind back issues. Fans looking to get the latest comics series delivered to them would do best with a subscription service. Some major publishers, such as Marvel Comics, run their own subscription services. Others, such as Dark Horse and DC Comics, have their subscriptions handled by a third-party company. There are also a number of mail-order comics companies that sell not only recent issues from a wide range of comics publishers, but also comics-collecting supplies and related merchandise. This includes everything from backing boards to toys, figurines, and other licensed collectibles. Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1 begins a new, five-part comic book miniseries by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Ben Stenbeck. Released in August 2010, the Dark Horse comic stars Lord Henry Baltimore, a vampire-hunter in an alternate-reality 1916. Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire Lord Henry Baltimore first appeared in 2007's Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire published by Bantam Spectra. An illustrated novel, it was created by Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) and Christopher Golden. The two collaborated on the story, with Golden writing the finished book and Mignola illustrating it. In the Baltimore novel, Lord Baltimore is serving as a Captain during the First World War. Baltimore tousles with vampires after a disastrous night raid. Thanks to the encounter, the vampires' leader is mutilated, while Baltimore loses a leg. Incensed, the scarred vampire, Haigus, soon spreads vampirism – under the guise of a deadly plague – across Europe. When Baltimore's own family succumbs, he begins hunting vampires, Haigus in particular, to exact his revenge. As he was last year, Marvel's most luminary alum, Stan Lee – see, I'm starting to write like him – will be at Comic-Con International 2010. And good luck getting anywhere near him, true believers! From one of the many Marvel press releases I get around here: "As soon as the convention floor opens to the public on July 22nd, head to the Marvel Booth [#2329] for a chance (no purchase necessary) to receive a special ticket which will allow you to meet Stan Lee later that day. If you are one of the lucky fans to receive one of the limited tickets, you will have the opportunity to meet Stan and have one item signed during his appearance at the Marvel booth from 3:00-3:30 that afternoon." So if you're in San Diego, and have one of the long-since sold-out passes for the start of Comic-Con (and don't have to work this Thursday), you can fight it out with the other fanboys for the chance to press the flesh with Stan the Man. With those odds, it's no surprise that there's some demand for an alternative to Comic-Con. Dark Horse thinks it has the answer with #NotAtComicCon, a bunch of parties at various comics shops across North America. It seems to have potential, though early descriptions make it sound like a marketing gimmick. We shall see. Alan Moore has written some of the most acclaimed comics in the medium, from Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke to Lost Girls. What comics fans may not know is that Moore took a hand at penning "alternative" superhero comics during the comics boom of the mid-1990s. Moore wrote over a dozen WildC.A.T.S stories between 1995 and 1998. This chapter in Moore's career would, in retrospect, become emblematic more of the excesses of the 1990s than of the originality and iconoclasm for which Moore's best work is known. WildC.A.T.S and the 1990s Comic-Book Boom WildC.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams #1, created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, was published in 1992 by Image Comics. Image had found quick success in trying to break free of the dominance of Marvel and DC in superhero comics, with such titles as Todd McFarlane's Spawn, and WildC.A.T.S was another immediate hit. WildC.A.T.S featured a team of super-powered heroes who were fighting a centuries-long war with aliens on Earth. They, along with other Lee-Choi creations Stormwatch, Deathblow, and Gen13, became part of the so-called Wildstorm Universe. 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. 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. |
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