Articles by elayne-riggs
Tue Feb 26, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Friends of Lulu Campaign For Cartoonist Rachel Nabors
Team Comics to the rescue!
The comics blogosphere is spreading the word quite effectively about the current situation of Rachel Nabors, who's facing a dental bill of up to $25,000 to correct a serious jaw problem. Nabors, a Friends of Lulu Kim Yale award winner, doesn't have any health insurance. As Theresa Tschetter notes, Rachel "has her own business... She works for a subsidiary of MSNBC. Did I mention she's only 22? She's balancing school and a full-time job. She's a very energetic and determined person. And this cost will be out of pocket for her."
Leigh Dragoon and other Friends of Lulu members are spearheading a campaign to help defray these costs; if you donate more than $25, you'll receive a Dragoon-designed t-shirt.
Thanks to the results of a similar word-of-blog campaign, Rikki Simons reports that his mother-in-law Dyane (Dee) Blackford, who had gone missing in the Glendale, CA area, has been found! Rikki's wife Tavisha is the co-creator of the ShutterBox books from TokyoPop. Rikki and Tavi are one of the most creative couples I know, having burst upon the scene about a decade ago with their colorful and clever comic Ranklechick and his Three-Legged Cat, and we rejoice in their good news!
Sun Feb 24, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending Feb. 24, 2008
And the winners are...
Ah, it's Oscar time again! I know I'll be glued to my seat, whilst falling asleep in it at the same time! Look for all the geeky movies to win the usual geeky (technical) awards, most of which won't be given out on the air. Better to get your geek on reading our ComicMix columns for this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #54: Rock and Roll and Comic Books and Our Future
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #54: Nighty Knight Rider
- Me - It's All Good #53: TV Back Talk
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #54: Stranger Bedfellows
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #54: I'm Mad As Hell
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #17: More from Del Rey
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #45: The Sweet Smell of Rot
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #45: Mo' Dern' Modern Art from Texas
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #38: Five Fistfuls of Justice
I know Ratatouille will probably win for Best Animated Feature, but I'm still rooting for Persepolis, so there.
Wed Feb 20, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
TV Back Talk, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #53
Many people in this country are experiencing the age of interactive television for the first time. In other countries such as the UK, they've had a version of this for some time, in the form of a curious informational additive known as teletext, a useful imp that lives in the bands of the picture that we don't normally see, and which can be accessed by Brits wanting to know the local weather, transportation timetables, sports scores, and lots of other stuff that most of us in the US can only get online or through cable systems. Here in the US I've just discovered my digital cable system has interactive channels that can personalize my weather, traffic, pretty much whatever I want. And that's not even counting the on-demand entertainment, a tiny percentage of which is available at no extra charge!
And bully for the 21st century and all, but I've been interacting with my TV since I was a kid. And I'm not just talking about Winky-Dink.
Romper Room aside, I think I always suspected the people on TV couldn't see me or talk to me. I understood the idea of shows being recorded for anyone to tune in to, or not. The shows were still there even when I wasn't watching them. But none of that prevented me from talking back, from letting what I saw affect me to the point where I had an immediate, visceral reaction. As I recall my Dad couldn't stand it, he'd be there constantly reminding me "they can't hear you!" Then again, maybe that's Mom. Dad was the first person on his feet cheering whenever the Yankees took the lead, and yelling about what a bum the umpires or managers were when the game wasn't going well. So it's not like the apple fell very far from the tree there.
One of the great things about being married to Robin is that we have many of the same pet peeves about what we see and respond to on TV. One of my biggest annoyances is the increasing use of subtitles when the person being subtitled is speaking English. Occasionally the speaker will have something of a thick accent, but I've seen subtitles used with Scots and Irish and even Americans from southern states. Now come on y'all, a lot of that down-home drawl does get to be a bit much, but it's not a foreign tongue! The only thing subtitles have in their favor is that they, like news crawls on the 24-hour cable stations, encourage reading. Even when they're misspelled.
Mon Feb 18, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Inkwell Awards Celebrate Underappreciated Art of Inking
Almond strives to elevate craft again
Of all the artificial divisions of labor that modern assembly-line comics have spawned, inking is probably the least understood and most maligned, containing elements of both specialized artistic crafting and production talent. Most laypeople and casual comics readers still regard inking as merely the latter, a form of "tracing" requiring little more than a steady hand and an eye towards deadlines.
Long considered one of the "top three" storytelling skills, inking has been rendered (pun intended) such a relative afterthought that one major company no longer includes inkers in their Previews solicitations.
Long-time inking advocate Bob Almond is out to change all that. Bob writes the regular "Inkblots" column for SKETCH Magazine, where the idea germinated, and he's now set up a website with categories, voting instructions and other information about the awards. It even has a pretty good definition of what inking is, for those who haven't been exposed to the craft in all its complexity.
Voting is open to all, begins April 1 and runs through the end of May. Bob suggests that interested participants check the credit boxes of their favorite comics, as well as the somewhat cumbersome Comic Book DB, for eligible names, and "Maybe one year we will be able to put a complete inker database together." I can certainly suggest a few nominees for anyone coming up short!
Sun Feb 17, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns For the Week Ending Feb. 17, 2008
Hail to the chief writers!
The WGA writers are back at work, thank goodness, so there's finally some good stuff to watch this President's Day weekend (how can one have a "day weekend" anyway?). Meanwhile, our ComicMix columnists have been typing away as usual; here's what we've done for you this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #53: Today, We Are One
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #53: Lost in 'Lost'
- Me - It's All Good #52: The Dancing Bear Exposé
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #53: Star Trek My Eye!
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #53: My Follow Americans
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #16: A Slight Return
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #44: The 'In' Crowd
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #44: On the Wavelength of 'The Signal'
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #37: He-Man and the Nine Amateurs
Just as a reminder, Denny O'Neill's column was a bit waylaid this week so we didn't get to enjoy it until Friday, but he's still listed in his usual date order above...
Wed Feb 13, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
The Dancing Bear Expose, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #52
Have you heard of the proverbial dancing bear? It's apparently a Russian expression, which has its origin in some folk tale or other, and holds that the amazing thing about the performing animal isn't how well it dances, but that it dances at all. This metaphor (sometimes substituting "dog" for "bear" after the Samuel Johnson quote comparing a woman preaching to a dog walking on its hind legs) became very popular in the heyday of "second-wave" feminism, whenever some consciousness-raising battle appeared won and another hurdle reared up in its place, when the very act of being female and expecting to be treated as human beings at the same time felt Sisyphusean in its difficulties. Sadly, the bear is still rearing its head, howling, dancing backwards and in high heels.
It doesn't matter what the endeavor, career or hobby. Whether Presidential candidate or comic book writer or movie subject matter or just-plain blogger, a spate of "dancing bear" articles that appears like clockwork in the mainstream news, every few months or years, mining the same territory that comes down to "Look, women are doing things!" As if we need to be reminded we exist. It's not how well the bear is dancing, it's that it's doing it at all! A fellow blogger once remarked that she could practically tell the changing of the seasons by how often she came across male bloggers wanting to know where all the female bloggers were, as a different male blogger posted this in almost exact 90-day increments.
Likewise, now that Gail Simone is writing Wonder Woman, DC's longest-running, highest- profile book featuring a female character, we're starting to see features pop up in all sorts of magazines pointing to the dancing bears again. "Pow! Zap! Women can write and draw!" And imagine, we can breathe and think as well!
Tue Feb 12, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Fan Comics Celebrate 'Doctor Who', 'Torchwood'
Dueling 'Doctor Who' Chibi toons?
Pia Guerra may have her work cut out for her. While Guerra's first issue of IDW's Doctor Who comic book series is scheduled to come out in July, fan-drawn strips about the British sci-fi phenomenon and its spinoffs are already well underway.
Pseudonymous LiveJournal bloggers calling themselves spastasmagoria and jigglykat have created Torchwood Babiez, which is so unbearably adorable it could give Cute Overload a run for its money. So far the ladies are up to Page 10, and they're just getting rolling.
Meanwhile, Rich Morris is currently up to Page 81 of his wonderful strip The Ten Doctors, which can be enjoyed by casual viewers of the show but is really designed for the more fanatic trivia buff who remembers over a quarter century of Doctors, companions, villains and planets. Only three of the story pages have been inked and colored so far, but Rich's art is worthwhile even in pencil form.
Doubtless there are a ton of other fan-based comics making the rounds; we'd be especially interested to see any paying tribute to the kid-friendly "Sarah Jane Chronicles."
Sun Feb 10, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns For The Week Ending Feb. 10, 2008
Just the facts, ma'am
There's a new Marshall in town, and he's laid down the law against punny headers. So let's just get down to business and rustle up this past week's worth of ComicMix columns:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #52: "...this is Captain American calling..."
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #52: William James and the Superbowl
- Me - It's All Good #51: Birds of a Feather
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #52: Me Eat Meat
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #52: Pow! Zap! Dim! Thick! Asinine!
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #15: Something Old, Something New
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #43: The Look of Love
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #43: George A. Romero's 'Diary of the Dead' in Review
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #36: Turok, Son of Stanley Kramer
So if ComicMix newbee Rick is the Marshall, does that make me the schoolmarm with the heart of go -- nah, I'm more like the extra mumbling "rhubarb" in the background...
Fri Feb 8, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Lenticular 'Star Wars' Poster
Your YouTube goodness for today
There's not much to say about this one, except to ask, "How in heck did they do that?" (Here are some details about the "Syndimation" process that creates the effect.)
That's so 3D it's almost 4D...
Thu Feb 7, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Update on Marie Severin's Recovery
'First Lady of Comics' settles into retirement
Cliff Meth reports on his blog that, as of today, comics great Marie Severin "has moved on to an assisted living facility out on Long Island. It’s been a solid, steady recovery. Her spirits are high (but weren’t they always?) and she acts like nothing much has happened. And nothing much has.
"Except for retirement. Marie isn’t drawing anymore. Isn’t taking coloring assignments either. Time has finally caught up with the First Lady of Comics and she’s spending her twilight years relaxing and doing fun stuff. Whatever fun stuff means."
We at ComicMix send our best, as always, to Marie, and suggest that some of her fun stuff include reading our many free comics and news items. Provided the assisted living place has WiFi, of course.
Wed Feb 6, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Birds of a Feather, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #51
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm already burnt out on the 2008 primary season. Okay, to tell you the truth I was burnt out sometime last autumn. The other day I was watching Tom Brokaw's documentary about 1968 (highly recommended) and one of the political facts mentioned was that Bobby Kennedy didn't even enter that year's Presidential race until after the New Hampshire primary! Can you imagine such a thing today, a candidate not even declaring until after an "important" primary has already been run? This year almost all of them dropped out before yesterday's Super-Duper Pooper-Scooper Fat Tuesday.
It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of Catholics out there are considering giving up following politics for Lent. It's not like there's anything in it for us any more. People joke about the campaigns turning into another version of American Idol, but if you think about it the parallels are valid. You have performances evaluated on TV by a bunch of millionaires, and you're given the illusion of choice among a very narrowly-acceptable band of telegenic hopefuls running more on the basis of style over substance (hey, they have machines now that can "correct" even live voices so they all come out on-key and synthetically perfect). The big difference with politics, besides the sad reality that the results of this contest matters to our lives and the future and the rest of the world, is that the contestants are also millionaires. Have to be; they wouldn't be considered "viable" candidates otherwise.
"Viable" is one of those nebulous, never-defined vagaries like "freedom" that means whatever the person using it wants the people hearing it to think it means. The less you define something, the less you can be pinned down and expected to stick to your definition. So when you assume everyone believes "freedom" means the same thing, when most of the time those who employ the term equate it with "unfettered capitalism and false consumer choice" even though others still consider it to mean "having bodily autonomy and not being homeless nor starving nor spied upon nor told how or whether to worship," they're able to completely circumvent actual communication and not have anything they say be actionable! And "viable" is a media-created term -- they don't have to admit that their use of "viable" means "rich and part of the political machine and accepted by the corporations we've allowed to actually run this country" if they can get us to believe it means "intelligent and experienced enough to be taken seriously despite their income level or circle of cronies." I mean, we should have known that ship had long since sailed when the last guy got elected despite having mostly negative experience and far too little intelligence for the job.
Sun Feb 3, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns For The Week Ending Feb 3, 2008
Columnists take the ball and run with it
Snackies at hand? Ready to cheer on the best ads in between the quarters? Me, I'm psyched to see me some Tom Petty at halftime. Before they take the field for Superbowl XLIIayeaye!!one!, why not warm up with this past week's ComicMix columns?:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #51: Sex
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #51: Hate
- Me - It's All Good #50: Death, Warmed Over
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #51: Rant-O-Rama
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #51: The Worst TV Show Ever - Part 2
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #14: Is That a Giant Sword in Your Pocket, Or...?
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #42: Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #42: Capt. Marvel and Serial Retro-Mania
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #35: Across the Midnight Express Universe
I love how the titles of those first three columns kind of go together... sex, hate, death (warmed over)... Anyway, Giants in, erm, four, just to be weird...
Wed Jan 30, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Death, Warmed Over, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #50
As I type this I'm struggling through a pretty bad flu, which I am convinced I contracted on Thursday. That's when I went for a job interview at the World Financial Center, a hermetically-sealed office and mall complex sandwiched squarely between the Hudson River and the now-cavernous World Trade Center site in downtown Manhattan. I'm unsure whether it was the biting winds or the horrendously long "pedestrian walkway" past the gaping hole of Ground Zero and back to the nearest subway that could get me home now that the Cortlandt Street stations are, it seems, permanently closed, but I haven't been the same since I shrugged off the interview suit upon my arrival home. The next day Robin met his latest deadline, and we were looking forward to a somewhat active weekend -- and then it hit. And it's still hitting me, and has started hitting him. Funny how, at my age, "lucking out" translates into "thank goodness Robin and I got sick whilst I'm unemployed and he's between issues!"
But you know, in the back of my head I can't help but wonder whether I got ill, in part, from breathing in dead people. After all, we all know how the EPA of a government renowned for its repeated lies about everything else also lied to citizens about the air quality in that area. I know it's over seven years later, but there's still a ton of construction kicking up dust in that area, and the "walkways" offer scant protection, particularly on a cold and windy day.
Living through 9/11, being in the city the day the towers were attacked, one learns never to take life for granted. This is my 50th It's All Good column for ComicMix, a milestone number of sorts, and so it seems fitting that I come back around to a subject touched upon in my first column here last February 15, scarcely a month after I'd lost my best friend. In fact, this would have been It's All Good #51 but for the untimely death of my father. Sometimes the Reaper seems inescapable. Because in the end, of course, it is. And as it touches us all in real life, personally or otherwise (as with Heath Ledger's recent demise), some of us find much less entertainment and amusement in its fictional counterpart.
Tue Jan 29, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Persepolis on The Colbert Report
Marjane Satrapi makes it a Colbert Comic Week
For those of you who may have thought Marvel EIC Joe Quesada was Stephen Colbert's major comic book guest this week, he had a nice surprise for those who read beyond the Big Two: superstar graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi, whose animated film Persepolis is nominated for an Oscar. Here's the video:
We're not sure if Satrapi knew what to make of Colbert, but she seemed to enjoy herself.
Sun Jan 27, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Good For What Ails You
Read some columns, call me in the morning
There's something in the air, and unfortunately your author has caught it. But it's well worth rising from one's sickbed to bring you the weekly roundup of ComicMix columnists! Isn't it?:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #50: I Am Not Running For President
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #50: Morality and such
- Me - It's All Good #49: The Great Divide
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #50: This Is Not My Column
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #50: The Worst TV Show Ever - Part 1
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #13: Sex and Death
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #41: Ballad of a Thin Man
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #41: Ingagi: Gorillas in Our Midst
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #34: Life of Groundhog
Apologies for not adding in Andrew Wheeler's "Manga Friday" columns before now, but he's only started numbering them himself. And by the way, the best thing about being sick? Erm, well, nothing, actually...
