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MoCCA Recap: Day Two – Fire! Smoke! Sellouts and Links!

MoCCA Recap: Day Two – Fire! Smoke! Sellouts and Links!

Day Two at the MoCCA Art Festival was… an experience.

Except for the few moments when the possibility of dying via fiery inferno was an issue, much of the day felt as if I was slogging through a sweaty, soupy mess thanks to the outdoor conditions and the exhaustion from the previous day (which I detailed in my MoCCA: Day One Recap).

As ComicMix‘s Elayne Riggs pointed out earlier today, the forced evacuation of the Puck Building generated quite a buzz as attendees, guests and staff were asked to leave the building (and its air conditioners) while emergency personnel did their thing. (On a side note, for a comprehensive look at exactly what "doing their thing" meant for the emergency crews, check out Fleen’s MoCCA Emergency ’08 report.)

Okay, confession time: When the fire alarm first started ringing, I honestly thought somebody in the room had won something… and according to a few reliable sources, I started clapping.

Apparently, all the bells, whistles and sirens I’ve been exposed to over the last few years at larger conventions have succeeded in reversing decades of training regarding what to do when I hear an alarm. Nevertheless, it looks like I won’t die alone.

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Review: ‘Water Baby’ by Ross Campbell

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of reviews of the five books coming out from DC’s Minx imprint this year. Previously, Van Jensen reviewed Rebecca Donner’s Burnout, Cecil Castellucci’s Janes in Love and Brian Wood‘s The New York Four. -RM]

Ah, ambiguity. It can be the driving force of great fiction, powering along mysteries, character dramas and horror stories.

And, when wielded irresponsibly, ambiguity can sink a promising book straight into the murky depths of… somewhere or other.

Take Water Baby ($9.99), a new Minx book written and drawn by Ross Campbell. At the book’s start, surfer girl Brody loses a leg to a hungry shark. She sorta tries to get over it with the help of her sorta friend Louisa, but then things kinda get crazy when Brody’s old flame Jake shows up (he’s somewhat cool but a bit of a jerk).

The girls (who have a relationship that meanders toward lesbianism, but never conclusively) decide to drive Jake back home to get rid of him, and things kinda sorta get even crazier when they pick up Chrissie, a girl who’s either cool or a slut or just crazy. Maybe.

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Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #6 – The Doctor’s Daughter

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #6 – The Doctor’s Daughter

The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.

Every week, we’ll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We’ll post our analysis each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before reading our review.

Missed a week? Check out our "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.

Keep in mind, we’re going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #6: "The Doctor’s Daughter"

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Not Necessarily The News, by Mike Gold

Not Necessarily The News, by Mike Gold

I have previously opined my regrets that America’s most reliable newspaper – some might say only reliable newspaper – the Weekly World News, bit the dust. It was a hoot.

Because the New York Post cloaks itself in the shroud of legitimacy, it may very well be America’s most unreliable newspaper. It is the hairy wart on Rupert Murdoch’s considerable media ass, which is saying something. The Post is completely bereft of credibility.

But they’ve got a sense of humor about it, and I’ve got to give them credit. Rupert’s book publishing division Harper Collins came out with a volume reprinting many of the, ahhh, more interesting front pages published in the Post since he bought the staid, boring tabloid and converted it into a daily joke. But at least it’s a good joke.

Entitled Headless Body In Topless Bar, the book was named after what may very well be the most memorable front page headline since Variety’s “Wall Street Lays An Egg.” That one set the standard for both the rag and for journalism itself: rarely has an entire story been reduced to five words. They did that back in 1983 and haven’t beaten it yet.

They reprint over 150 front pages in black and white (most were published in black and white, but the paper went to color several years ago) – from “Crowe Flies” (Russell; get it?) to “Good Noose” (about Saddam’s sentencing), from “Bowling For Palestine” (Arafat’s theft of pro-Palestinian funds) to my second-favorite: “V-D Day!” The sub-head, which does nothing to illuminate the story, is “Paris liberated, bimbos rejoice.” You couldn’t mix that many messages in a blender.

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MoCCA Recap: Day One – Heat, Buzz, Star Wars and Dinosaur Comics

With one day down, I still feel pretty good about declaring MoCCA Arts Festival my favorite comics event thus far this season.

Sure, it doesn’t have the numbers or names of New York Comic Con or San Diego’s Comic-Con International, but it also doesn’t have 100,000 people vying for seats in 1,000-chair auditoriums and competing, mind-numbingly overpowered loudpseakers at every other booth. What it does have, however, is a great opportunity to actually meet, greet and have an honest-to-goodness conversation with professionals at every level of the industry.

So how did the first day go?

Well, I arrived a few hours after the doors opened to the show — just about the time the weather outside turned from "oppressive" to "unbearable," but before the transition to "stay the hell inside at all costs" occurred. After bumping into Fleen.com’s Gary Tyrrell, the main mustache himself took me on a whirlwind tour of the show, culminating with my purchase of Harvest Is When I Need You The Most, the Star Wars fanbook featuring the work of eight cartoonists paying homage to the film franchise. The Harvest crew had only brought 50 with them to the show, and I believe I purchased one of the last dozen-or-so remaining.

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Webcomic News Roundup: MoCCA, Silly Sketches and Somber Tales

Webcomic News Roundup: MoCCA, Silly Sketches and Somber Tales

I’ve spent most of the day looking over MoCCA Art Festival schedules and guest lists for this weekend, so it’s been a light one here at ComicMix. Before I slide back into MoCCA madness, here are some short bursts of info and links from the webcomics scene that I’ve been meaning to share.

Yesterday, Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens ended "two years of procrastinating" by announcing the launch of online tee shirt store teeshirtparty.com. Simply put, the store will feature "our favorite tee shirts designed by independent artists and bloggers." Go ahead and give it a look.

On a side note, I would also like to point out that, out of the five artists currently associated with Tee Shirt Party, ComicMix has already interviewed (or is in the process of interviewing) four of ’em. Expect to hear from me soon, John.

In his first of two mentions in this roundup, Fleen’s Gary Tyrrell sparked an interesting comment-thread debate when he posted his thoughts on Hero By Night creator DJ Coffman’s parting of ways with Platinum Studios.

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Manga Friday: Korean Road Trip!

Manga Friday: Korean Road Trip!

The two books this week are actually manwha rather than manga, since they come from Korea and not Japan. Other than the reading direction, both of these books are more similar to their Japanese counterparts than to American comics, which I will demonstrate, viz:

Croquis Pop, Vol. 1
Story by KwangHyun Seo; Art by JinHo Ko
Yen Press, June 2008, $10.99

Da-Il is a young man who either wants to be a manwha artist more than anything in the world — because he told his now-dead mother that the only thing he wanted to do with his life was to make pictures that made her happy — or he fell into the job as a high school student because making comics "looked like fun." Or maybe both, since the story tells us both things and gives us no reason to disbelieve either of them.

Da-Il has just come to work for the manwha-ga Ho Go, who has just moved into a big house with his two other assistants, the punctilious senior assistant Ho-Suk Yang and the gorgeous and mysterious Hang-Chu. (Either in Korea in general, or just in this kind of manwha story, the staff of a particular story live with their boss.) But the hiring procedures are a bit lax, since Da-Il can barely draw.

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Yes We Can…by Michael Davis

Yes We Can…by Michael Davis

Yes We Can… unless we are stupid.

I’m always amazed at just how stupid, petty and small-minded some people can be. Remember the onslaught of bad press and savage criticism Barack Obama had to deal with because of Jeremiah Wright? The millions of TV news stories, the billions of You Tube hits, and the zillion chat room comments? Jeremiah Wright’s antics almost torpedoed Barack Obama’s shot at the Presidency. Rev. Wright’s sermons were broadcast recently but they were old sermons that someone found and put out for the entire world to see long after they were first spoken.

The furor had all but gone away making Rev. Wright’s recent TV news tour the worst possible moment for him to defend himself with regards to the Senator.

The title of Senator Obama’s book was The Audacity Of Hope. The Rev. Wright gave that title to the Senator. I hear that the Rev. Wright is writing a book; you think the title will be The Audacity Of A Dope?

Nah.

Rev. Wright has not made any other comments lately. I would like to think that he realized that there is something bigger out there than his attempt to get his side of the story out. I know a few people who know the man and from what I hear he’s a real decent and very smart guy. But we all have moments of bad judgment and I’m sure that was all it was, a bad judgment call. As I said we have all had those moments. I have had a few… thousand.

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Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ – Part 1

Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ – Part 1

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This week we begin a new regular feature on ComicMix in which we’ll review DC’s latest weekly series, Trinity, featuring a story by comics legend Kurt Busiek and art by one of the industry’s biggest names, Mark Bagley. Join us every week as ComicMix contributor Van Jensen analyzes the most recent issue of Trinity and decides whether the series lives up to the hype. -RM]

A couple years ago, DC made history by undertaking a weekly series and, miraculously, actually getting an issue out on time every week for a year. As much of a success as 52 was, their following weekly, Countdown, was an utter flop.

Now we have the debut of [[[Trinity]]], which instead of following mostly lesser-knowns, focuses intently on the big three: [[[Superman]]], [[[Wonder Woman]]] and [[[Batman]]]. The creative team is as good as it gets, with Kurt Busiek writing and Mark Bagley drawing, so this has the potential for big things.

Will Trinity come through? I don’t know, ask me in a year, when I’ll either be singing DC’s praises or freebasing illicit substances while muttering incoherently.

Introduction aside, how was this first issue? Pretty not too shabby, which is a vague way of saying it wasn’t stellar and it wasn’t horrible. The story so far:

We start out in the cosmos, with a big flaming face screaming, “Let me out!” Turns out the central three heroes have been dreaming about this entity, which they discuss over a way-too-public breakfast in Keystone City.

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Review: Two Grendel Hardcovers – Devil Child & Devil Quest

Review: Two Grendel Hardcovers – Devil Child & Devil Quest

It’s generally not a good sign when a series turns from telling stories at the far end of its timeline to filling in the gaps in earlier stories and explaining all the backstory — do I need to mention George Lucas here? — so these two new collections filled me with some trepidation. They’re both reprints of older material — older even than I thought, from 1999 and 1994-95 — but were explicitly returns to even earlier stories.

Matt Wagner’s series of [[[Grendel]]] stories started in 1982, and the main sequence ran from 1986 through 1992 (with a gap near the end caused by the collapse of Wagner’s then-publisher Comico). They started as the story of a near-future crimelord named Hunter Rose who used a mask and electrified pitchfork to terrorize…well, everyone, really. After Wagner wrote the story of Hunter’s inevitable demise, he rethought “Grendel” as a force of evil and aggression that possessed various people through a long future history. With various collaborators (and a number of stories entirely by other hands) and a great diversity of storytelling styles, the Grendel stories all had something in common: a deep, central notion that people are full of evil and corruption, and that life is inevitably nasty, brutish, and short.

Grendel: Devil Child
By Diana Schutz, Tim Sale, and Teddy Kristiansen
Dark Horse, May 2008, $17.95

Stacy Palumbo was the (adopted) daughter of the first Grendel, Hunter Rose, and the mother of the second, Christine Spar. She was a serious but lovable girl in Hunter’s story, and dead by the time of Christine’s. Her unpleasant life in between was backstory in the Christine Spar stories, but here it’s dramatized to wring maximum pathos.

(Think “maximum pathos” is too much? Try this line from the back cover of [[[Devil Child]]] — “The ugly world has no shelter for frightened Stacy, the pivotal link in a chain of evil that extends to the limits of time.” The limits of time, huh? Okay, if you say so.)

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