The Rack: Gotta Be A Montage
Comments Off | Posted: January 19th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
First person to pick up the film reference in the last panel of the new Rack gets a prize. Not a valuable prize, but a prize nonetheless.
First person to pick up the film reference in the last panel of the new Rack gets a prize. Not a valuable prize, but a prize nonetheless.
This is a three-part meta-post.
Comments Off | Posted: January 18th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized- The Rack is going to be delayed today, as Mr. Benjamin Birdie is otherwise engaged for a major portion of this morning, a time normally dedicated to lettering and last-minute adjustments. Worry not, though, as a new strip should appear this evening, which will give you something to look forward to besides ABC Family’s airing of Bring It On Again.
- The Rack was given a positive mention on Dai-Cast, where we were given “big ups” as the Webcomic of the Week. If you’re especially curious, you can skip forward to the 39:50 mark. Thanks, Adam, for making sure Beej said nice things about us.
- If you’ve started a comics blog and want to be listed in Cerebra’s databanks, please get in touch with me: kevin(dot)church(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject line ASK CEREBRA.
This is a second post.
Comments Off | Posted: January 17th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedThis is the content of the second post.
No, seriously.
Comments Off | Posted: January 17th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedEverybody who’s surprised and dismayed that Parker Brothers is suing the people behind the Scrabulous application for Facebook needs a good slap. Please form an orderly queue and I will begin the proceedings presently.
PS> Your boss is going to be happy with your boost in productivity.
PPS> Please stop asking me to be a Zombie or Dracula or Zombie Dracula or whatever on Facebook. That shit is tiiiiired.
Tiny "Reviews" of the single issues I picked up this week.
Comments Off | Posted: January 17th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedFell #9: About as subtle as a sledgehammer, but as impressive as can be. There’s an interesting note from Ellis about the next year or so of the series being focused more on Fell than the town he works in.
Whatever number the latest issue of Justice League of America is:
- Stop trying to make me care about Vixen, goddammit.
- The art feels like the pencillers are rubbing their genitalia in my face.
- I’d like the “main” story more if editorial would stop assuming I know every petty criminal in the DC universe on sight.
- This was the last issue of my subscription pull, so no more of that.
Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons #2: Completely over the top. Glorious. I can’t wait for the hardcover. Yes, I know. I know.
DMZ #27: Goddamn, somebody get this Nathan Fox cat on his own book stat.
100 Bullets #87: Huh. Every time I think I’m done with the book, I get an issue like this.
I endorse and/or use and/or enjoy(ed)…
Comments Off | Posted: January 16th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Super Dodgeball Comics by Ben Dugas and Adam Medley. These two spunky Canadian lads have done more than make me actually enjoy a sprite comic – they’ve made me thoroughly enjoy (and laugh at) at sprite comic about dodgeball. If you thought the comedic value of watching people take high-velocity blows to the face, torso, and crotch was drained completely by that Vince Vaughn movie a few years ago, you were wrong. The first episode’s a bit rough, but they seem to really establish themselves by the third installment.
My favorite character? Bill. He juggles medicine balls. That’s some goddamn Batman shit there.
This has been haunting me since Sims brought it to my attention last week.
Comments Off | Posted: January 16th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
The Rack: Over The Phone
Comments Off | Posted: January 16th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedSometimes, you have to man up and make the call.
Just Watch This | Robyn, "Be Mine" (Ocelot Remix)
Comments Off | Posted: January 15th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedThis had me laughing for a good five minutes straight.
Comments Off | Posted: January 15th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedCategory:Star Trek articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction.
There’s always a crazier hobby out there.
Comments Off | Posted: January 15th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedDisgruntled scrapbookers besieged the Creating Keepsakes chat room threatening to cancel subscriptions, boycott and sue. Scrapbooking bloggers called it “Hall of Fame-Gate,” naming it the top scrapbooking scandal of 2007. They compared it to the performance-enhancing-drug controversies involving major league baseball player Barry Bonds and Olympic track star Marion Jones. Someone wrote that Contes was as polarizing a figure as Martha Stewart.
Seriously, it reads like a piece from The Onion
Link courtesy of Metafilter.
The Rack: Staff Picks for the week of January 16, 2008
Comments Off | Posted: January 15th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedHere’s this week’s staff picks for Yavin IV.
The Rack: Big Fish, Small Pond
Comments Off | Posted: January 14th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedSorry about its lateness, but here’s today’s strip. I like how Jerry is a very different man in this one while Danny remains…Danny.
Book Clubs Are For The Weak: Frankenstein
Comments Off | Posted: January 14th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
With a visit to the New England Mobile Book Fair a couple of weekends ago, I got started on one of my 2008 resolutions: to read more of the classics. Despite my English major status, there’s big swaths of books that I’ve not sat down to read that I probably should, and it strikes me as prudent to spend some time figuring out why some of them made the cultural impact it did. (It’s also handy for finding out where to nick my Next Great Idea from.) With the introduction of the Penguin Classics line featuring covers by comics artists, I had a perfect way to scratch multiple itches in place.
I started off with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein for a couple of reasons. The first, simply, was that I’d never read the darn thing. It’s one of those books I could swear I remember reading, but for the life of me, I couldn’t recall a single detail. This probably means that it was on the same shelf from which I pulled 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Treasure Island but was never the lucky winner. The second was that I had recently received a copy of the excellent Frankenstein: A Cultural History
Once you get through the natural opacity of Shelley’s period writing (something I have to adjust to, but then find comfortable like a favorite pair of sneakers,) the structure of Frankenstein stands out, even today. It’s a set of narrative nesting dolls, beginning with a seaman’s letters home to his sister in which he relates his ship’s discovery of Dr. Frankenstein on the ice. With his final he includes his interviews with Frankenstein, in which the scientist relates his personal and scientific history, complete with the tragic creation of the creature we’ve all come to associate with his name and his subsequent confrontation with the wretch. From there, the “monster” tells his story. So you end up with something a bit like this:
That’s actually very daring (especially for a female writer at the time when such things were novelties), isn’t it? On a technical level alone, the novel succeeds, but it’s easy to see how much of an impact it made on audiences thanks to Shelley’s narrative skills. While modern standards make her prose look a bit overwrought, there are moments in this book that hit me like a ton of bricks, in particular the creature’s discovery of Frankenstein’s notes and his confrontation with his creator over their contents:
You minutely described in these papers every step you took in the progress of your work; this history was mingled with accounts of domestic occurrences. You, doubtless, recollect these papers. Here they are. Everything is related in them which bears reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of that series of disgusting circumstances which produced it is set in view; the minutest description of my odious and loathsome person is given, in language which painted our own horrors and rendered mine indelible. I sickened as I read. ‘Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. ‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.’
I was, very unexpectedly, captivated by this book. Much like The Three Musketeers, it’s easy to see why it has been adapted so frequently (and, much like Dumas’s novel, rarely with any accuracy towards the source material) by filmmakers. Also of note, particularly considering the vintage, is the fact that Frankenstein is a surprisingly quick read: 225 pages in the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, after you discount the inessential but still interesting introduction by Elizabeth Kostova and the various appendixes (one of which features Polidori’s “The Vampyre: A Tale,” a short story that came from the same writing challenge that Shelley’s novel arose from.)
Up next: East of Eden, the one Steinbeck novel I keep forgetting to read.
Cover Girl Reviewed at Pop Syndicate
Comments Off | Posted: January 12th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedThe last two paragraphs of Ken Lowery’s review show that he picked up what we put down:
Cover Girl is essentially silly, but silly in the way the entertainment industry itself is silly: Superficial, but wielding power. There’s a weight to Kevin Church and Andrew Cosby’s script, a full realization of character missing from your average fly-by-night action-fluff time killer. I hate to trot out the old chestnut, but here it goes: Inferior stories are all about the plot. Better stories are about how the characters react to the plot. Church, Cosby, and artist Mateus Santolouco understand this, and understand that Cover Girl has no reason for existing if its characters can’t bring something to the table other than pop culture references and attractive bodies. We as an audience are not starved for car chases and gun fights, well-done though they are.It’s the density that struck me throughout. Your average six-issue collection trade can be read in thirty minutes and will generally feature a few characters of note and a whole lot of page-padding, blink-of-an-eye action sequences or one-line-per-panel dialogue exchanges. Cover Girl has more meat to it. It introduces a half-dozen fully-fleshed out characters, plenty of action, lots of enjoyable conversation, the occasional bit of hilarious hand-wave exposition, and a satisfying story with a clever end. All while not being about much at all, really. How the hell did they do that?”
Disclaimer: Ken and I are internet pals. We’ve probably talked about you behind your back.
Now, go to your LCS and get the trade paperback, OK? OK.
Thanks, Greg Hatcher!
Comments Off | Posted: January 11th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedFrom Comics Should Be Good’s Best of 2007:
SENSATIONAL CHARACTER FIND OF 2007Rachel and Alex in COVER GIRL. More, please! Those two deserve an ongoing series. Even my wife enjoyed that book, and Julie rarely picks up a comic by anyone other than Tom Beland or Charles Schulz.
The Rack: Stalag Southern Calilfornia
Comments Off | Posted: January 11th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedEvery action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Cover Girl: Commentary for Chapters 1 and 2.
Comments Off | Posted: January 11th, 2008 | Filed under: UncategorizedYou should probably read Cover Girl all the way through before coming back to this – there’s going to be some spoilers and junk. Sorry!
Chapter One: Hollywood Shuffle
This issue was really tightly plotted by Andrew Cosby – I just sort of dropped words in and went with what he sent over. I guess I should take a moment to thank he and Ross Richie for the faith they placed in me early on. Thanks, guys!
Page 01
Man, Alex’s car is junky. I didn’t specify the hole in the windsheld, but when I saw it, I laughed and laughed.Page 03
I love when Alex kind of Hulks out in that middle set of panels. Somebody shot me an email after this issue came out, saying that they didn’t think he could do that. I responded with this Straight Dope article and pointed out that the vehicle’s impact surely could have made his job easier.Page 04
Blame my love of Giffen and DeMatteis’s Justice League and Hero Squared for the dialogue at the bottom of this page. Graeme McMillian astutely pointed out the similarity. (So did another reviewer who was much less kind, but they’ve had it in for me for a while.)Page 05
There is no Channel 3 in LA. Several people pointed that out to me. That was intentional, as I didn’t want to then hear them complain that their favorite local broadcast “journalist” was replaced.Page 06
I love Alex’s expressions in Panel 2 and 4.Page 07
You know, for such a slob, Sam’s got a hell of a nice office.Page 08
Sylvia, by the way, was my favorite character to write in the first issue. She’s based on a composite of several people in the industry I know – people that are too smart to be the boss, and nobody else seems to figure that out.Page 09
Yes, that’s a Silence of the Lambs reference. There are very few movies that make me laugh like that one. Yes, there’s probably something wrong with me.The hobo line was a shout-out to all my brothers and sisters that ride the rails out there. (And yes, Janice’s boobs are probably 40% silicone.)
Page 11
Cosby’s plot had a note about Alex being popular because of the rescue, but I made Sam a bit more craven here. Sure, an actor rescued someone and that’s worthy of note, but Sam sees the dollar signs when that wouldn’t even occur to Alex. (That’s why Sam has a nice office and Alex is broke as a joke, I suppose.)Page 12
“Less Talk, More Nudity” is my first single. There’s a remix by DJ Assault.Page 13
If Cover Girl ever becomes a movie, this is the bit where they’ll stick on “Opportunities” by Pet Shop Boys and I’ll cringe at the screening.Page 14
Research required for this: having to watch Extra and Access Hollywood. The only thing that could be more horrifying would be having to research rectal surgery for a David Cronenberg film. Alex wearing the different clothes came from this weird spliced-together interview I saw with that guy from Las Vegas who’s putting it in Fergie now.Yes, that’s supposed to be someone whose initials are SLJ in panel 07. I wrote that dialogue with his voice in my head.
Page 15
Alex certainly settled into being famous quickly, didn’t he?Page 16
You mean Hollywood makes movies from books that aren’t children’s fantasy series? Amazing!Nyborg’s name is a Glengarry, Glen Ross reference.
Page 17
From what I can tell, nobody actually eats at lunch meetings in LA.Page 18
Panel 6 here? Yeah, it still makes me smile.I should have done more Alex-and-his-mom bits. I like the idea of a guy in his 30s treating his mom more like a friend. (Mostly because that’s how I am with my mom. She’s a classy lady.)
Page 19
I suspect the dinosaur in Panel 4 is a Batcave reference. Even if it’s not, I’m going to pretend it is.Page 20
Besides guns, you know what else you shouldn’t fuck with? Swords.Page 21
For some reason, lots of people were hung up on the fact that Rachel (the titular cover girl) doesn’t show up until the end of the first issue. That was purely Cosby’s call, and I have to say that I stand by him. It’s probably his cinematic leanings meeting nicely with my own, but the end of Act 1 introducing a main character and the attendant complications is sort of a trope in adventure fiction.
Chapter 02: It Never Rains In Los Angeles
The title comes from a Charles Flowers novel about the Black Panthers and a sample that crops up in the Jam and Spoon mix of “Go” by Moby. It also comes from the goddamn literal truth about that place. Cosby’s plotting was much, much looser after I turned in the script for the first issue, but his feedback was invaluable as we shot pieces back and forth.
Page 01
Please note that they did not just recycle the end of the previous issue. Go ahead, flip back and forth. It’s close, but not quite.You’ll also note that I started this issue off with a splash. I like doing that – sort of a nod back to how Stan The Man did it. I’m also fond of big panels at the start of The Rack, much to Birdie’s aggravation.
Page 02
Rachel’s pretty no-nonsese at the start of this, and despite the fact he’s being groomed and used by Sam and the studio, Alex is used to people doing what he says.Page 03
I’ve kind of got a rough backstory for Dwight that I’d love to flesh out sometime. He was actually physically based (at least in the description I sent to Mateus) on my pal Clarence. For the record, however, I’ve never seen Clarence accost someone in such a manner.Page 05
One page recap! One page recap! I got a few compliments for that.Shame I stopped doing it in the later issues, huh?
Page 07
Gary Sikes will be missed.Page 08
I love the dancing couple in front of the DJ for some reason. And yes, that’s SS, a famous director.Page 09-10
This sequence worked much better on the comics page than I thought it would when I scripted it.Page 11
Alex’s stupidity in Panel 1 makes me smirk every time.My friends in LA loved the joke at Encino’s expense. Me, I’d like to apologize to Pauly Shore and Brendan Fraser for slighting the location of their greatest cinematic effort.
Pages 12-14
This chase scene got some good feedback. I wanted to keep it short but exciting enough, and Mateus and R.M. did a great-looking job. Also, somebody told me that if they were still 13 and unable to get their hands on pornography, the last panel on page 12 would help them take care of their business.That may be more than you needed to know about one of my readers, huh?
Page 15
I wanted to establish that our Bad Guy was both very powerful and ruthless, and I’d like to think this does it nicely. Nice to see the previously-unnamed Janet having a bit of backbone, even with her fairly dire circumstances.Page 16
When all else fails, make fun of Encino and the Jacksons.Page 18
Yes, Davita and Christopher are named after who you think they are.Page 19
The second Mom bit. You should call yours now. Tell her you love her.Page 20
Wow, there’s a lot of talking on this page. Still, I love Alex’s expression in the last panel.Page 21
Every time I play Scrabble, I pray I can drop “QINTAR” on the board. It’s one of my favorite words ever.Page 22-23
Yeah, I felt kind of bad about doing that to Dwight. I heard that it was such a cliché from a few people, but that was sort of the point. There’s a metatextual underpinning to this whole series involving the inversion of gender roles and its subsequent interplay with societal and media expectations and I can’t keep typing this wank.
If anyone has any questions about Cover Girl, ask them in comments and I’ll answer them in the second half of the third installment.
