Show Some Love: SPACE & STAPLE

I love comic shows even when my wallet doesn’t, so it sucks to be me this weekend as I’ll be missing out on two of the best up-and-coming indie shows in the comics community.

For anyone in the Midwest, Columbus, Ohio’s SPACE con (which stands for Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) kicks off tomorrow with the annual awarding of the Day Prize, a small press award given out by Cerebus creator Dave Sim. Sim’s also going to be on hand all weekend with copies of his new novella Judenhass, a history of the Holocaust which he hasn’t been promoting with his recent Glamourpuss internet love fest/message board flamewar extravaganza. The money quote on Judenhass seems to be “It made Neil Gaiman cry” but your mileage may vary.

Also appearing at the show are regional cartoonists like Matt Feazell, Neil Fitzpatrick, Greg Hyland and a crazy giant number of Ohio talent. It’s important to remember that regional shows like this often hold a few legitimate “diamonds in the rough” or whatever metaphor you’d like to throw in for “rad cartoonists you’ve probably never heard of.” Want some proof? Check out this killer poster:

Not to be outdone, the Southwest plays host to STAPLE in Austin, Texas. While the show is billed as an “Independent Media Expo,” I’m betting that anything that isn’t comics featured there will appeal to your average indie reader. Not to mention that their lineup includes some star power from Brian Wood to Eric Powell, who is responsible for the show’s mascot:

AHHHHH!

STAPLE also has a nice web comics lineup led by Scott Kurtz, and mentioning that is a convenient transition for me to say that if you’re like me and you can’t make either show, it’s pretty easy to click through from the show sites onto exhibitor’s own personal pages and check out their work and maybe even buy something. Self publishing comics isn’t a game anyone gets into for cash, but sending them cash probably won’t tick them off either, dig?

I’m going to be trolling for news and photos from both shows over the weekend, and if you have any you’d like to share, drop me a line.

- KP

REVIEW: RASL #1

RASL #1
By Jeff Smith
Cartoon Books, $3.50

I’ve got a new favorite comic.
Jeff Smith, the WORLD renowned comic book creator behind Bone and Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil debuted his most recent venture this past week through his own Cartoon Books—RASL.
RASL is the story of a dimension-hopping art thief—who we currently know as RASL—whose reality-defying exploits finally catch up with him. RASL mysteriously alludes to “The Drift” in this first issue as his means for traveling though realities, and talks about how it’s starting to take to take a lot out of him physically. We also find out that his way of traversing “The Drift” is getting less reliable (when we see that he lands in an alternate reality that he thought would be his own) and someone, that RASL is aware of, has gotten smart to his system and has sent an assassin after him. For the cherry on top, the book opens and ends with a flash-forward of RASL, bloody and beaten wandering the desert.

And there you have it—an incredibly enticing sci-fi mystery read. Smith puts just enough cards on the table to get you interested. SOMETHING bad is eventually going to happen to this guy. In the “present” it’s a double-edged sword of intrigue watching RASL march toward his fate while Smith slowly reveals secrets about this universe. It’s probably going to get pretty interesting when Smith, a self proclaimed fan of theoretical physics, gets more into the technology and science, but for now its just fun to let your mind wander as Smith throws all these crazy elements at you. Like what is that machine? What is that mask RASL is wearing? What is that thing he notices poking out of the assassins arm? What is up with that assassins face?!? That moment where he slithers around that corner freaked me out. You can tell he’s there as you see the page as a whole, but following the panels sequentially gave me jump—like that scene in Mulholland Drive where the homeless guy appears from behind the dumpster (sounds random, but see the movie). And speaking of the art, Smith really is at the top of his game here. Whether it’s the sense of movement in the chase scene or his attention to detail in the desert scenes —everything is perfectly in place.

While it will always be rough waiting for new issues (RASL is currently on a quarterly schedule) what’s presented to me here has more than enough promise to pay out in the long run. Smith is a proven creator and it’s a lot of fun to get to see him stretch out his creative muscles.

Greetings!

Hello world!

Welcome to Indie Jones—the independent/alternative comics blog at Wizard Universe!

We’ve got a lot of great things planned for this blog, like interviews, reviews, news, what kind of tea I’m drinking (Raspberry Zinger) and so much more!

We’ll start off with some sweet Friday morning links to check out…

First, Super Spy creator Matt Kindt has posted some images from his next graphic novel over at his blog. The book is called Super Natural. He hasn’t said what its about yet, but he has said he’ll be using some historical figures like Harry Houdini, Amelia Earhart and Morgan Earp in it. Good enough for us!

In other news Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg are doing a brand new 10-page Street Angel story for Superior Showcase #3 from AdHouse! Over at his blog Rugg posts a page and says the book should be out at Heroes Con this summer. Hooray!

Rounding out our RSS feed, James Jean has posted a page from his upcoming story in the next Meathaus anthology. Brilliant as always.

Wrapping up, I encourage everyone to go check out my new favorite web comic, Patches, by Kelly Vivanco (she’s also got some beautiful paintings on her site). If you don’t find it very funny we probably wouldn’t get along as friends. Just sayin’.

Well that’s it for now! Be sure to check back for more (later today, *wink wink*)!

<3
dave&kiel