The Rack: Preconceived Notions

It’s called love, and it’s so uncool.

And then there was the time that Ben Grimm broke up with the Fantastic Four because he and The Hulk were “an item.”

Being hated by the right people is a sign of success.

So, this is what I woke up to this morning . If you don’t to want read the whole thing, it concerns the person who is posting to Twitter as @scans_daily and trying to track down who this horrible person is so they can be silenced. There are two things in this person’s post that I want to address, and I’m going to do it here, instead of LiveJournal because I actually want to clarify the second point to a broader audience.

1.
No, I’m not the person who tweets as @scans_daily. I do however, frequently find this person hilarious.

2.
In the middle of their informed, thoughtful post, Kali921 makes the following statement: Part of me wouldn’t be surprised if this troll turns out to be someone like Kevin Church. (Okay, probably not. But between his searing, frothing hatred of scans_daily and his angry-white-boy-that-resents-an-opinionated-woman-of-color self-manufactured feud with Willow, I’ve come to expect the worst from him.).

I just want to say that this was entirely on the nose. As you all have likely seen, I have spent the past several weeks doing nothing but posting about this LiveJournal community and Willow. If you’re on an instant messenger service, you might have received a message from me asking if you had any more information so I could better continue my battle against opinionated women of color. As part of my campaign of searing, frothing hatred, I joined the Nerd Klux Klan so my racist brethren and I can discuss how much we hate LiveJournal and women of color at the beginnings of our meetings before we go into the usual heated discussions about D6 versus D20 gaming and whether or not Picard could take on Adama.

Yes, it’s obvious that I’m the one that is holding grudges, and I’m actually relieved that I’ve been exposed as a racist, misogynist axe-grinder. I confess. If someone could hold my sword so I could throw myself down upon it, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Edited to add: The post has since been friendslocked. Apparently “Kali” doesn’t want the credit for exposing me to the world.

“We has comes to make crossovers metal.”

A Rough Guide To Webcomics Made By Twitter Users. (Part Two)

Aaaand I looked at some more strips from people who submitted their URLs to my hateful gaze. You may want to also look at Part One. Part Three will be up on Friday hopefully.

Harmless Free Radicals by “Fenmere, The Worm”
I really enjoyed the strips I read from this (a chunk from the early days, and the last 30 or so updates.) The earlier strips have a “very good for a college newspaper” feel and while more frequent updates would really help the flow of the strip since it moved away from the gag format to a longform narrative, there’s clearly a lot of thought put into the characters and the art is very easy on the eyes.

I Can Draw Better Than This by “Fenmere, The Worm”
Another comic by the creator whose name makes my teeth grind like a motherfucker. I Can Draw Better Than This is experimental, sometimes funny, and occasionally a pure distillation of comics. I love the presentation more than the (good, to be sure) comics: it’s drawn on index cards and photographed, which leads to the only complaint I have: the comics should be larger.

I Rule The Night by Kevin Colden
You guys, I thought Colden’s Fishtown was good and showed a lot of promise but this shit is fire. I don’t want to say anything about the plot because, honestly, the initial reveal about the lead is too good to spoil, but the 21 pages on Zuda so far had me chomping at the bit for more, even if he’s working on themes touched on by creators Alan Moore and Rick Veitch among others. Gorgeous and blackly funny, it’s easily the best thing I’ve seen on DC’s webcomic site.

Kitsune Kiki by Samuel and David Thomas
Superbly polished, highly derivative American-made manga.

Nemu Nemu by KimonoKitsy Studios
If you can handle too-cute, baby-talking stuffed animals more than I can, then this manga webcomic is likely made for you. I just do not have that kawaii gene outside of Yotsuba and Hello Kitty, I suppose.

Not Artistically Strong by George Beedham
Truth in advertising, I suppose, but I actually was pretty charmed by Beedham’s very British (there’s enough Doctor Who gags to qualify this strip for the Gallifreyian Medal Of Nerditude,) occasionally very funny look at his life. Autobiocomics are a dime a dozen, particularly on the web, but it’s nice to see someone manage to be both self-deprecating and sure of themselves.

Par for the Core by “Fenmere, The Worm”
We’ll come back when he’s got more than a half-dozen pages up of this interesting-looking comic about parkour.

Requiem by James Roden
It’s a science-fiction comic done using CGI with a backstory that reads like it belongs in an RPG manual. It’s pretty much the platonic ideal of what I’m not interested in, but I can definitely see it having an audience out there among people who masturbate to Kim Stanley-Robinson and David Brin novels while logged into Second Life.  (I’m teasing.  Honest.)

Sam & Lilah by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park
A gorgeously-drawn, lushly-colored romance comic that is so damn celebratory that I can’t help but think it’s worth a look, even if my back teeth still ache from the over-the-top cuteness.

Shades by David Berner and Harsho Mohan Chattoraj
This ongoing superhero story feels a lot like an early Warren Ellis comic for Avatar, but without his trademark dialogue. (Speaking of dialogue, though, the writer admits that the latest installment features a near-direct lift from The Dark Knight Returns. I admire that sort of honesty, even if it seemed closer to a tribute than an out-and-out swipe.)

The Rack: Standards

It’s two dudes, talking about what dudes talk about. Sorry, Lydia fans. She comes back on Friday, though.

Just Imagine…Social Media’s Watchmen.

Picture Dictionary: Hand

The Rack: Staff Picks for the Week of March 18, 2009

Stuck with the blues after looking at your pull list? Looking for new titles? Well, your favorite fictional comic shop employees are coming to the rescue!.

A Rough Guide To Webcomics Made By Twitter Users. (Part One)

So, I asked people on Twitter to give me a shout if they made a webcomic.  Thanks to “retweets” (blergh) by Deb Aoki and a few other people, I got quite a nice batch of responses.  I’m going to divide this up into three parts so it’s a bit more manageable for everyone and hopefully you’ll actually click on all of the links that interest you versus being overwhelmed.

Abandon: First Vampire by Greg Carter and Eliot Dombo
Manga-influenced online graphic novel about a vampire who has adventures while confronting her past.  There’s quite a lot of stabbing in the first bit, so I will probably go back to check out some more.

Alternate Delusions by Tim Volpe
One of those comics that feels very quaint, with the Zentraedi-like bulk of poorly-drawn, geek-centric strips like User Friendly looming over it menacingly.

Children of the Tiger by Melissa Stone
From the site’s “about” page: “It is a webcomic by Melissa Stone that is based on her novelette of the same name. It will be four parts in length.” That translates to “Not for Kevin, but if you like that sort of thing, you can do much, much worse.”

Cold Iron Badge by Stephen Geigen-Miller and Patrick Heinicke
A fantasy-world police procedural.  Think Life On Mars meets Lars Brown’s NorthWorld.  I imagine I’m in the minority when I say I like the earlier look of the strip compared to the more manga-influenced style being used right now, but I do like what I’ve seen of the characters and their world.

Construction Paper Angst by Topher McCulloch
It’s a semi-auto-bio-comic that’s been recently revived.  Points for the clever use of construction paper, however there are penalties for the sporadic nature of updates and impossible-to-decipher writing that surely seemed funny to the author at the time.  We’ll call it a wash.

Dark Side of the Horse by Samson
The wordless strips here really, really sing and I love the two-tone art.  It feels very much like a classic strip that’s been unearthed, and that’s a good thing.

Dragon’s Fall by William Alexander Righetti and Irene Pitcairn
This hasn’t started yet, but the people involved mentioned it anyway.  So, you know.  There will be something there soon.  The “cover” posted has nice coloring.

El Gorgo! by Mike McGee and Tamas Jakab
We’ve been over this before.  This is better than you deserve.

Entry Level Hipster Garbage by Max Huffman and Ethan (Who Has No Last Name Listed)
When you go to the site, you get confronted with some page that is like “The series has launched,” but go and click on “First Comic” or “Latest Comic” and you’ll see that the title does a good job of explaining it.  A lot of the jokes here seem a bit forced, but I really like Huffman’s facial expressions and how he conveys action in his sketchy style.  It’s nice to see a comic that isn’t rendered to the nth degree.

Fera by David Shirley
“Follow the adventures of this rag tag group as they travel the lost planet of Mu.”  Imagine my disappointment that this is not about the KLF having said adventures.  Not my cup of tea at all.

Finn-Strip by Jarmo
I suspect I would appreciate the near-sociopathic pride in being Finnish if I were, in fact, Finnish.  I do like the art in some strips much more than others.

George by John Norton
It’s interesting that I read a big swath of a comic with the exact style of face that I hate (see also: User Friendly) and jokes that were pretty hackish without really feeling like I was wasting my time.  Maybe it was the Two And A Half Men effect, where things are moving along just enough to keep you engaged even if you know there’s better out there.

Hamstah Powah by Samuel Boyd
It’s about hamsters having crazy adventures with “jokes” that make no sense.  I’m sure it’s wildly popular with a certain sort of person.

The Rack: Authenticity

This is a strip based on a true story that totally happened at a real comic book shop.

A Showcase and/or Omnibus that needs to come out, post-haste.

Mike Sterling: Facts I Have Collected

Here are the facts I know about Mike Sterling:

1.
He works at Ralph’s Comics Corner, a well-respected, well-liked comics shop in Ventura, CA.

2.
He has a too-patient girlfriend who he’s been with for over a decade.

3.
He loves Diet Coke.

4.

He goes down this street every evening between the hours of 8:43 and 8:54pm in his well-used-but-in-good-condition import pickup truck with the license plate [REDACTED.]  When he gets home, he generally passes through the living room and greets his girlfriend with a kiss on the forehead or cheek before going to the kitchen and preparing dinner.  Likely due to the late hour, these meals usually consists of something simple, such as a cold cut sandwich or leftovers.  He also occasionally stops by one of four fast-food venues that are on his drive home, usually preferring Wendy’s over Carl’s Jr or McDonald’s, but he makes exceptions for Burger King’s Angry Whopper, which he described as “delightfully piquant” to his pen pal Hao Xing, a 22-year-old male who manages a production line at the Foxconn factory where the iPhone is assembled.

5.
After eating dinner, Mike changes his clothes to shorts and a t-shirt, generally one that is well worn and comfortable with his favorite being a Mystery Science Theater 3000 shirt from the comedy troupe’s theatrical release.  This shirt, while still sporting a very legible graphic on the front, has a small hole in the left armpit that Mike’s girlfriend frequently teases him over as they watch a DVD on the La-Z-Boy Elaine sofa Mike purchased from a factory outlet located in an outlet mall approximately an hour northwest of his home.  The DVDs watched are oftentimes television shows, but Mike’s three-at-a-time Netflix membership also gives him access to recent hits on DVD such as The Transporter 3, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Mike’s choice), and Choke. The couple also has a DVR that Mike uses to watch Battestar Galactica, Heroes, and Dirty Jobs among other programs.

6.
In addition to watching TV and movies with his better half, Mike also enjoys several different radio shows while performing household chores or reading and organizing his comic books.  These include the popular paranormal program Coast to Coast AM, hosted by George Noury.  Mike frequently mocks the callers who form the bulk of the show, often pointing out fallacies in their arguments to himself as he chuckles and shakes his head slowly.  Mike also enjoys listening to Firesign Theater on CD, with his favorite sketches centered around recurring characters Nick Danger and Ralph Spoilsport.

7.
Mike is a concentious homemaker, splitting the chores evenly with his girlfriend with a system they have laid out on a piece of paper attached to their 25.8 cubic foot GE Energy Star-certified refrigerator by a Papa John’s magnet.  While he’d hesitate to tell you that he enjoys them, Mike doesn’t seem to mind doing dishes and cleaning the bathroom when they come up in his rotation and handles the household garbage deftly, ensuring that the recyclables are well-sorted and that the garbage can is rolled out to his curb by 9:30 the evening before the scheduled pickup.

8.
To prepare for bed, Mike changes into a pair of loose jogging shorts and a t-shirt, generally a set that he recycles for three nights at a time.  These are generally promotional shirts he’s received as a comic shop manager, with one of them featuring Jim Lee’s rendering of the X-Men with the addition of a moustache over each character, added with a Sharpie marker.  Mike brushes his teeth with Gleem Toothpaste, using an Oral B D9511 Plak Control Ultra Power Toothbrush he received as a gift from his family two years ago, paying close attention to the unit’s built-in timer.  He generally only flosses after his girlfriend reminds him, but he does use Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash (in the Cool Mint variety), studiously reaching the 30-second time recommended on the packaging.

9.
Before going to sleep around midnight, Mike reads thirty to fifty pages of a science fiction novel, frequently one from the Star Wars expanded universe, while his girlfriend reviews material for her job.  Mike generally falls asleep on his side but moves to his back after 30 to 45 minutes.  In this position, he begins snoring, but will generally roll back onto his side after he receives a poke in the side from his girlfriend, who performs this action in her sleep after long years together.  Mike normally sleeps well, but wakes up at around 4:50 due to his neighbor leaving for their job and takes the opportunity to use the bathroom and going back to bed for another three hours.

10.
By that time, the cops are generally doing a slow drive down Mike’s street and I have to get back into the utility van that I stole in order to collect these facts.  Why am I so dedicated to Mike Sterling?  Two reasons.  The first is that he’s someone I consider a trans-continental ally in comics blogging, an inspiration to me and someone I’d call a friend without hesitation.  The second is that it’s his 40th goddamn birthday.  Mike, I don’t want to get sloppy or anything, but hey, happy happy.  You’re respected and loved by a few and tolerated by many, many more.

11.
Briefs, not boxers.

Something everybody should see.

The Rack: There’s Always One

Presented without comment.

So my friend Rebecca’s first graphic novel was Watchmen…

…and she asked me to give her pointers for the next time she’s at Barnes & Noble. I wrote her a very long email in response. Here it is.

Rebecca:

The problem with starting reading comics with Watchmen is that it’s like you started watching movies with Seven Samurai or Citizen Kane and suddenly find yourself in a video store that mostly has Michael Bay or Peter Greenaway movies, either too loud and bright or too arty for their own good. On top of that, Watchmen is full of metacommentary and symbolism on the art form, a book as much about superhero comics and their tropes as anything else, and that’s why it’s held in such regard by a lot of people. Anyway, I tend to gravitate towards stuff that’s a bit more pop and smart, no matter what the genre. To make it easier on you, I’ve picked stuff that meets some basic criteria:

1. It’s easy to find via your local bookstores, at a comics shop, or on Amazon.
2. It’s as self contained as possible, meaning that you won’t have to know the ins and outs of continuing superhero universes to enjoy them.

Vertigo was started after DC Comics (who published Watchmen) realized there was a market for more mature comics, both superhero and otherwise. In fact, Grant Morrison’s Animal Man was of of the impetuses for the new line, as it featured a C-List hero discovering the metaphysics of comic books. Popular Vertigo series in trade include Y: The Last Man, Brian K Vaughan’s story about what happens when every male on the planet dies except one (I’m not crazy about it, but it has a lot of fans) Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing (I am not making this up. It’s splendid,) Transmetropolitan (Warren Ellis does Future Hunter S. Thompson,) and Hellblazer (Sometimes great, sometimes blergh. The early material by Jamie Delano is very, very creepy and Garth Ennis’s early stories are wonderful and carry a lot of the humanity I’ve discussed with Preacher.) I also very much enjoy Brian Wood’s DMZ, about a near-future New York City that’s become a demilitarized zone after a civil war splits America into two nations. It’s currently ongoing and so you’ll be able to read new trades of that every few months, or actually buy the issues.

You know, it just occured to me that Vertigo also published Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta, but that seems pretty obvious, as it’s the same writer, the same publisher, and had a movie of its very own that wasn’t nearly as good as the book. Another favorite from the bearded mage of comics is From Hell, a monster tome exploring the Jack The Ripper murders that Top Shelf put out as a massive phonebook. Art in that is provided by Eddie Campbell, one of those artists that right-thinking people love. There’s also The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, drawn by Kevin O’Neill. I may have to establish some trust before you walk down that path, considering how disastrous the film version was. (Crap, I might have to do that with From Hell too, right?)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was released the same year as Watchmen and is often paired up with it. It’s a very well-done story about a retired Batman coming back to clean up Gotham City and influenced the “mainstream” Batman comics for years because a lot of people missed the distinctly satirical notes in Frank Miller’s writing. It’s dense, vibrant, and will keep you guessing until the final pages – Bruce knows how things are going to end, but no one else does. It was written by Frank Miller, whose Batman: Year One is also pretty essential, not least for David Mazzucchelli’s art and the very human angle taken on Batman’s origin – the book belongs to Jim Gordon as much as it does to Bruce Wayne.

The Scott Pilgrim series from Oni Press is very hot at the moment, and for good reason. This manga-influenced epic takes place in a fun video game reality where one 20-something has to defeat his new girl’s seven evil ex-boyfriends to win her heart. It is really, really incredible, particularly once Bryan Lee O’Malley gets started. There are five of these out now. Just buy them all at once because that’s how you’ll read them. Oni has also published Queen And Country, a fine series of stories featuring British secret agent Tara Chace. The reason Greg Rucka’s work stands out here is that it feels very real and handles the realities of the job deftly.

:01 First Second is a New York-based publisher of graphic novels for kids and adults and they’ve put out some great reads including Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese (an ambitious look at racial stereotypes that manages to work in the Monkey King), The Professor’s Daughter by Sfar and Guibert (a girl and a mummy fall in love in early 20th-century Paris), and Gipi’s Garage Band, a frank and engaging examination of youth and what even the most amateurish music can mean to its players.

My favorite comic series of all time is probably Love and Rockets. Fantagraphics has not numbered their very nice new trades, but you should start with Maggie The Mechanic for Jaime Hernandez’s material (which starts off being about chicks who fix rockets and quickly takes a left turn into punk chicks living in southern California with diversions into gang life and professional wrestling) and Heartbreak Soup for Gilbert Hernandez’s comics (which are about a tiny Central American village and the people who inhabit it.)

These are just starting points. I’ve not included Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’s splendid All Star Superman or the original Runaways or Sean McKeever’s Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. I’ve also not mentioned my friend Jeff Lemire’s Essex County stories or Criminal or The Invisibles or any of a million other comics I love, including a slab of the weird, wild world of Jack Kirby. Once you get started, come back to me and tell me what you liked and didn’t like. We’ll see if I can point you in the right direction.

Kevin

I have no idea why they wouldn’t let me write Fantastic Four, do you?

The Rack: Livestock

And then there was the time a three-quarters-naked Reed Richards found himself in the Negative Zone, where Annihilus was waiting to kick his ass.