Author: Elayne Riggs

That BoingBoing Bounce

That BoingBoing Bounce

  • News
  • November 24, 2007

It’s common knowledge that once a comics-related site appears on BoingBoing, its hits rise exponentially. So congratulations to both Ward Sutton, whose recent New York Times slideshow analyzing political posters and campaign logos (see example at right) got a mention this morning, and the very amusing Comic Book Periodic Table, saluted last week.  BoingBoing notes that the latter site, a projeect from two chemistry profs at the University of Kentucky, "provides a cross-reference to mentions of various elements in a wide variety of funnybooks."  Naturally there are a lot of Metal Men pages involved, but also Spidey comics, Richie Rich refs, even Tintin!  And if anybody out there knows of a comic book page that mentions cerium or cesium, do contact them!

Advice from the pros

Advice from the pros

  • News
  • November 23, 2007

Congratulations to Dave Roman on approaching his 10th year editing at Nickelodeon Magazine!  To celebrate, as many others in the comics blogosphere have noted, Dave has put together a comprehensive review of "advice for building a career as a freelance artist and/or paid cartoonist" based on a number of SVA panels and portfolio reviews he’s done through the years.  Lots of nice practical points in there, check it out!

And earlier this month, our friend Alan Davis gave an art class to a group of French children at the Lille Comic Art Festival, captured on video by the good folks at Comic Box.  Here’s part one:

And part two:

Also confirmed at Lille, the first issue of Alan’s long-anticipated ClanDestine revival will debut in February of 2008.

Your Black Friday geek viewing

Your Black Friday geek viewing

  • News
  • November 23, 2007

A heads-up, folks, that tonight at 10 PM Eastern, the TV series NUM3ERs will present its "Graphic episode," much of which takes place at a fictional comics convention featuring lots of work by very real creators, like Colleen Doran, Dan Brereton and Tony Fleecs, among many others.  Wil Wheaton, who guest stars on this episode as fictional comics superstar Miles Sklar, has a Flickr stream of photos from the set, and promises a post on the experience at TV Squad sometime this afternoon.

Am I the only one who looks at the show’s title and mentally pronounces it "num-three-ers"?  Just checking.

The days of miracles and wonder, by Elayne Riggs

The days of miracles and wonder, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • November 21, 2007

I’ve taken a break from my promised sequel about comic book artists whose current work I like because (1) I still haven’t made it through the most recent DC comp box, (2) it’s not like there’s a huge clamor for it. and mostly (3) I’ve been in a sort of weird transition mode and needed to write about that because it’s never far from my mind, but is thrown into special relief during the upcoming holiday season.

In truth, I feel like this entire year has been a transitional one for me. Losing my best friend then my father in rapid succession threw me for such a loop it seems doubtful I’ll ever fully regain my equilibrium. Then there was The Job Thing. I’d been looking for a new position for awhile but the timing never worked out. Every time my job search gained momentum, my boss would return from Europe and I had to put everything on hold. Meanwhile, lots of little downturns became bigger ones and, to make a long story which I’ll be happy to tell you in a bar sometime short, on November 9 my employer of ten years and I officially came to a parting of the ways.

I have enough severance pay for awhile and am still interviewing for a new position back in Manhattan, so this isn’t a lamentation on my lack of current employment. It’s more a realization of how lucky I’ve been again this year. Even with deaths in the family and among my circle of friends, I have so very many blessings in my life. And with my half-century mark looming ever closer (a week from Sunday, in fact) I thought it would be a nice and perhaps inspirational idea to count those blessings.

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ComicMix Goes National, Part 2

  • News
  • November 19, 2007

Where were we this morning?  Ah yes, it was actually noontime on Saturday, where we headed upstairs to the Hotel Penn’s Sky-something ballroom for the Mark Evanier-moderated panel "Marvel in the 60s and 70s."

Just look at those luminaries.  Gary Friedrich; Dick Ayers (in his old Army outfit that still fits!); Herb Trimpe; Joe Sinnott.  Truly amazing gentlemen, with the usual stories you’d expect.  But the best anecdote may have been one in the making, as Mark received an email from Stan Lee during the panel, emailed him back that he was currently moderating a panel and did Stan have something to say…

…which of course, about a half hour later, he did.  It went something along the lines of "Tell those gentlemen they need to get out of that hick town and come to Los Angeles, where they can join me for a real Marvel panel!"  Mark should have the exact text up on his blog shortly, I’m sure.

"But," you say, "you promised us purple pants!"  Well, here’s a Wizard to warm you up:

The bearded gent on the right, come in all the way from Israel, is Mike Netzer.  Or is he the one on the left?  I’ll never tell.  Purple pants aplenty below!

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ComicMix Goes National, Part 1

ComicMix Goes National, Part 1

  • News
  • November 19, 2007

It’s always nice when a convention takes place in your own backyard, a mere express bus or train journey away, and despite the weather turning chillier this is a great time of year to be out and about in NYC.  Michael Carbonaro has been running his bimonthly Big Apple comics and media expos for at least a dozen years now, and every November he gathers industry luminaries and showbiz greats together in his signature extravaganza, the National.  Naturally, ComicMix was there this year, and although I could only make it on Saturday I snapped plenty of photos and talked to lots of friends!

ComicMix Media Queen Martha Thomases knows how to keep her hands busy at the booth; the pink cashmere layer in her latest knitting endeavor felt absolutely gorgeous!

Here was the view of the left side of our row, with Bob McLeod in the foreground, then my husband Robin Riggs (I shuttled the few feet between the CM table and our location for much of the day), then Scott Roberts, and in the background Rodney Ramos.  More on those two below.  In fact, more of everything below!

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Time Crashes On

Time Crashes On

  • News
  • November 18, 2007

I’ve been told to try to keep news bits to only one Dr. Who reference a day, but as we all know Time Crash premiered at this year’s Children In Need special, and naturally it’s now all over the YouTubes.  Here’s the grab we’re passing along.  Intro by Terry "Tight Pants" Wogan and John "Captain Jack" Barrowman from Who spinoff Torchwood:

Le sigh.  Peter Davison was my favorite Doctor before David Tennant came along.  Now for your happy dance:

Whorythmics iPod spoof via Laura Gjovaag.

Unconventional reading

Unconventional reading

  • News
  • November 18, 2007

Some of us not being nearly as young as we used to be, yesterday’s National convention in NYC pretty much wiped us for the weekend.  Other ComicMix folks will be in attendance today, but we’re resting our aching back and legs and never-you-mind, and catching up on the past week of columns:

And, although it goes without saying, don’t forget to click on our free online comics as well!

Residual Effects, by Elayne Riggs

Residual Effects, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • November 14, 2007

I was going to continue my review of art I like, but since last week the new DC comp box arrived and I want to catch up before I write any more about that. Plus, I had a fairly major lifestyle change, more about which later. Meantime, the Writers Guild of America strike is into its second week and, while a resolution still seems fairly far away, I think it’s done a lot of good already in terms of consciousness raising. As with other recent revelations a lot of Americans have had, many people are starting to question why such a modern and powerful country seems so backwards when it comes to its citizens fairly sharing its bounty, whether that means providing health care for all or living up to its humane ideals in its treatment of captives or celebrating and supporting the collective strength of productive workers.

I think the WGA strike has resulted in a lot of folks who’ve never heard anything but anti-union talk since before Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO workers rethinking that knee-jerk (but craftily cultivated) attitude. They’ve learned that about half of WGA members are unemployed or underemployed in a given year, and they don’t buy the studios’ insistence that the strike is “millionaires versus billionaires.” They’ve learned that professional writing, like a lot of other entertainment-related professions that seem all-fun from the outside looking in, in fact represents a lot of hard work and long hours. They’re learning to deeply mistrust the line they’ve been fed for so long, a version of the famous Peter Stone dialogue from 1776 that “most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.” Nowadays it’s become imperative to protect the reality of being able to survive. And they understand that residual payments are the way most WGA members survive between the relatively few successful gigs they’re able to score.

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Women of Color at MoCCA

Women of Color at MoCCA

  • News
  • November 13, 2007

As mentioned previously on ComicMix, last night’s "MoCCA Monday" panel was held in conjunction with Friends of Lulu and the Ormes Society, and featured three enterprising women of color working in the comics field.  Moderator (and Ormes Society founder) Cheryl Lynn Eaton interviewed Rashida Lewis, Jennifer Gonzalez and Alitha Martinez about their various projects, experiences in comics as both fans and creators, and hopes and expectations for the future.

The event was so well-attended that MoCCA volunteers were putting out extra rows of chairs to accommodate the crowd.  This seemed to speak to comics fans’ need to see and support images represented in their favorite hobby, both on the page and behind the drawing board, that aren’t always the white male default.  Even so, the very talented women seemed to want to keep an arm’s distance from the mainstream comics scene.  Lewis has a nice portfolio of work for Marvel Comics but felt constrained by corporate dictates, and is following her muse by painting and working on her upcoming manga title Yume and Ever.  Gonzalez takes her inspiration from Mad Magazine, underground and even horror comics to continue in the alternative world with Too Negative and her other dark humor works.  And Lewis has expanded her Sand Storm series into a downloadable game soon to be available for mobile devices, and is intrigued by the world of animation in general.

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