Comicsgirl

Archive for October, 2007

New York Times has an article about the crossover between comics and music (registration required).

This article doesn’t talk about this, but I do see a pretty big connection between the indie comics scene and the indie music scene. It does seem like most people in both are doing it for the love and because they have ideas to express. If money and fame follows, that’s great, but it’s not about that.

Of course, shoving Avril Lavigne into an English-language manga is an entirely different matter.

(I did post this last night — it went out over the feed so I know it existed. However, it seems to have been eaten somehow — probably my mistake, I’m sure. Sorry if you saw this before.)

The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea – Raina Telgemeier
I probably read about a half-dozen of the Baby-Sitters Club books and they were enjoyable until I began to realize you could pretty much skip the second chapter and still know what was going on (usually, it recapped what the Baby-Sitter’s Club was and explained all the characters who all fell neatly into specific “girl” types – Kristy is the sporty one! Mary Anne is sheltered! Stacy is fashionable!). After about the sixth book, I deeply wondered why they were all in first person even though they were told by different characters. That just seemed lazy to me, even at 11.

I think Raina Telgemeier’s adaptations are probably better than the original books. Her character designs are perfect – the girls look like young teenagers. Her art is animated and her faces are expressive. The graphic novel is paced perfectly. I want the other two now because I do care about what happens.. I wish I had gotten to read these when I was in the target age group, since that was right around the time I started reading comics. I would’ve been so excited to have them. I wish I knew some preteens so I could buy them these books.

Daybreak 2 – Brian Ralph
Less cute than the first volume (which appropriate, since it is a zombie story), Daybreak’s pace picks up and the plot become more intense. I like the immediacy of the writing – the main character talks directly to you – and Ralph’s blocky style and thick outlines remain distinctive. I haven’t been keeping up with Daybreak online but I hope it’s not another 8 months before the next chapter is out. I’m not much of a zombie-story fan, but I’m hooked.

Teen Power – Joe Sayers
Better known for Thingpart, this is a collection of Sayer’s five-minute comics. The drawings are crude, but the punchlines are funny. Much like Thingpart, these comics have an odd mix of darkness and innocence. Plenty of unexpected hilarity here.

Teen Boat #1-6 – John Green and Dave Roman
Much like the title suggests, this is about a teen who turns into a boat and the angst that ensues. Of course, it’s silly but in a really delightful way. I want to see this as an animated series on Nickelodeon.

Subculture of One: Spring 2006 & Fall/Winter 2006 – Rachel Nabors
Once, in college, I played Pokemon for 5 hours without even realizing it. Another time, I didn’t go to a party because the last episode of Cowboy Bebop was on (even though I’d seen it before). I can relate to this comic.

Reprinting Nabors’ comics from gURL.com, these two books give a great glimpse of what it’s like to not fit in with the people around you and not really care. Nabors’ manga- and anime-nspired artwork is clean and playful. The subject matter is sometimes sexual, but Nabors’ honesty and lighthearted attitude make these situations funny and positive. She’s discussing things girls deal with every day. I’m not surprised her comic is so popular on gURL.com. I’m a little bit outside the target age range, but in her, I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit.

The Gazette (Montgomery County, I assume) has a cute article on SPX.

The Washington Post’s Express has a bunch of SPX stuff here, none of which I’ve looked at in great detail. I’m glad to see this event get this sort of press, though.

I’m going to post another batch of reviews tomorrow night. Work just got a little busy on me, otherwise they would’ve been up today.

Possibly part one. In no particular order.

Ask Miss Anthropy – Shana Manion
This is a 24-hour comic? Seriously? This is amazing as a 24-hour comic and would still be good even if it wasn’t. The jokes are a little obvious but are still funny, and Manion’s comedic timing is delightful. I hope Shana Manion makes more comics.

Hey Pais: Journal Comics By a Cat, Issue #3 – Paisley the Cat
I have a sneaky suspicion this is actually drawn by Sara Bauer, but I’m not going to argue with a cat. Comics and cats are always an excellent combination and this is simple and cute. I’d take this over Garfield any day.

Full Sanction: Home Mechanomics – Joe Mochove, Rusty Rowley
Stupidly funny in the best possible way. Art isn’t much to speak of – just stick figures – but a robot using the Washington Monument as a sword fulfills a desire I didn’t even know I had.

Challenge of the Dincorns! – John Green
Not so much a comic, but a color sheet, button and stickers. Of dinosaurs with unicorn horns. Best $1 I ever spent.

Simple Routines #7, Adrift – JP Coovert
I never need to read another comic about someone trying to draw comics again. Simple Routines #7 does pick up about midway through, and as comics-as-journal-entries go, there’s a sweetness here. Coovert has a beautiful line. Adrift is lovely – a mostly wordless tale of being lost at sea with excitement, drama and redemption. Its probably my favorite of the minicomics I got at SPX.

Folded Paper Assembly #3 – James Hindle
The two stories here a little dark thematically – loosely concerned with justice and loss of innocence – but do have an understated poignancy about them. Hindle’s art is sketchy and intricate. He’ll be someone whose work I’ll look for in the future.

How to Be a Ninja, starring the Feral Chicken Players – Joe Komeda
I’m sure I’d like this better if I knew the characters and the world they belong to, but mostly I was left with a feeling of “huh?” at the end. I like the brushstroke-by-way-of-Sharpie look of it, though.

I think I have mostly recovered from SPX. The 14 hours of sleep last night helped there.

I will probably get some things wrong since it is all blurring together (the lack of sleep helped there) but I will say the amount of fun I had can only be described as “ridiculous.”

Being a volunteer was an incredible experience and I recommend it to everyone. I met some great people (hi Nate! hi Ben!) and our fearless volunteer coordinator Michael Thomas took excellent care of us. I enjoyed volunteering so much that I continued doing it even when my shifts were over.

Most of Friday was spent setting up and then running around doing this and that. I bought a few things on Friday – most notably, the first chapter of Matt Silady’s The Homeless Channel (and I kick myself that I didn’t just buy the whole thing because it’s that good). I watched Nick Abadzis’ presentation on Laika, which was expanded from his one at the Air & Space Museum (I also enjoyed chatting with Abadzis again). I helped close up the registration table, grabbed dinner (I skipped the Gilbert Hernandez Q&A) and headed to the reception.

Christopher “Radical” Warren struck up a conversation with me and promoted Dead Man’s Hand and how they decided on the Old West theme (because pirates and zombies are over!). We had a great conversation and we agreed on autobiographical comics (mostly, that they’re dull) and I’m glad I got to meet him.

Saturday, I had the early shift (9 to 12) but I got there around 8:30 (I left early because you can never tell if the Metro is going to be early or late). We untangled badges and made more (badly) until we eventually realized how to keep them from falling apart. My volunteer shift went by quickly and then I went onto the floor to spend much too much money.

I won’t list everything here (I’ll discuss it more in detail later) but I was most impressed by Rachel Nabors (of course, I liked her story in the Friends of Lulu anthology, but I think my Pokemon story is for another time). She was super cute and friendly. I also finally tracked down Julia Wertz to sign my copy of The Fart Party. Here and there, I stopped by the volunteer table and pointed people to Vegetable Garden which everyone kept asking about (really, it’s apparently legendary. I didn’t eat there, though).

As I waited for my boyfriend and friend to get there, I sat on the floor and read comics. I wasn’t the only one, and you do get fewer weird looks there when you’re giggling to yourself than you do when you’re on the Metro.

I left SPX at about 3:30 on Saturday, feeling exhaustion creeping in. I was really sad to go – if I hadn’t been so tired, I would’ve stayed through the end. But what an amazing weekend and I want to thank everyone involved for making it so awesome. I think SPX is definitely the coolest comic book-related event, but quite possibly just one of the coolest events, period. If I’m not in the area next year, I’m going to come back for it.

I’ll write about the massive amounts of comics purchased in more detail as I read them.

My bottle of the Shojo Beat-inspired scent Vampire Tears arrived and I’m pretty sure it’s now the geekiest thing I own. I mean that in a good way. I’ve bought enough from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab that I can tell when I’ll like something from the description and this I do quite like. The fruits and ginger are bright and sharp but complimented by the florals. This would make a good every day scent for me — it’s not too overpowering but still has a presence.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab also sent along a sample of the the other Shojo Beat scent, Midnight Kiss. It’s not my thing — it smells too much like the inside of a new age shop on me. I’m sure it’s lovely on someone else, but it does show that I picked correctly.

And yes, I’ve moved very far away from actually discussing comic books here.

See you at SPX.

Obviously, by now, Imaginova buying Newsarama is old news (but still weird, if you ask me), but since I’ve been trying to get rid of a cold before Small Press Expo, I didn’t get around to posting it in a timely fashion (my week has been get up, go to work, come home, sleep for 12 hours, repeat).

I’ve been trying to get excited about the International Comic Arts Forum but I have yet to do so. It’s free, so it’s well within my price range. I guess I’ll see how I feel next Friday.

Expect a full report on SPX. I’ll even make it timely, I promise.

While Hey, Answerman is discussing anime (in case the “Anime News Network” bit didn’t tip you off), he has some great things to say about female characters which can apply to comic books, too.

I started my Saturday off with a visit to the Air and Space Museum to see Nick Abadzis. His appearance there was sadly under promoted and very much overshadowed by the National Book Festival.

But it was good for me since I got to talk to him for quite a while. I think he was pleased to see that I already had Laika (I bought another copy for my brother while I was there). He was lovely and gracious and had wonderful responses for my questions.

I’m still not in the proper state of mind to write seriously about Laika, but it’s probably my favorite book that I’ve read this year (old or new). He told Laika’s story so beautifully without making it overly sentimental. I can barely think about this book without getting a little misty. I’m going to do my best to be coherent about it before the 50th anniversary of Laika’s flight in a month.

While I waited for his presentation on the creation of the book, a NASA employee struck up a conversation with me about Laika. He hadn’t heard of the book before, but he’s worked with Oleg Gazenko so he knew the story (I believe Abadzis gave him his email address because he’s been trying to get a copy to Gazenko). I did my best to sell him on it, and we discussed graphic novels in general. I said that I think books like Laika are wonderful because they can open up a bigger audience to the sorts of stories that graphic novels are telling (I think First Second does an amazing job with this overall).

Abadzis’ presentation was interesting – a great glimpse at the creative process and how he shaped this story. I think it’s really a shame more people weren’t there to see it (he has several other dates along the East Coast in the next week and a half before his appearance at Small Press Expo. He will also be on PRI’s The World tomorrow for the anniversary of Sputnik I.)

After that, I wandered over to the National Book Festival to wait for Gene Yang’s appearance. As I noted before, he is really funny. He didn’t read from American Born Chinese because you can’t read from comic books. He told us instead that we shouldn’t make comic books because they take forever, they don’t make you rich and they won’t make you sexy. However, he said it’s easy to become a comic book professional – all you have to do is draw a comic, make a copy, and then sell it to someone (even if it’s your mom) and you’re a professional. He also commented on how comic book creators are almost always accessible and happy to talk to fans. He was a lot of fun and I’m glad they had the good sense to bring him to D.C.

All in all, a very cool experience with two really cool creators.