Inside “Bone & Beyond”

Hey, children!

I don’t know how many of you are spending your Wednesday afternoon’s hanging out at the Big WU, but for those of you that have other priorities in life, you should totally check out the intrepid Robert Taylor’s comprehensive coverage of Jeff Smith’s “Bone & Beyond” art exhibit at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts. Included are:

- A newsy report from the show’s opening weekend letting you know what all the fuss is about.

- A transcript of the live interview of Smith conducted by Scott McCloud.

- A fact-filled review of the show itself.

If that ain’t quite enough, the whole shebang comes with Robert’s photos (one of which is above), and later this week, I’ll be following up by talking to Smith about the opening and what else is going on with the show later this summer.

- KP

Two Rob Schrab Interviews

This past Wednesday, Middle School Kiel’s favorite comic book finally came to an end when Image Comics published Scud: The Disposable Assassin #24. With a completely subjective mindset, I have to say that it was awesome, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever loved the series when creator Rob Schrab originally self-published it in the mid ’90s (if you’re unfamiliar, wait a few more weeks until the giant trade of the whole series hits on June 25th).

I don’t know if I could sum up in words how much I love this damn comic, and I don’t think anyone would care to read that anyway. But I thought maybe someone might want to read the two interviews I did with Schrab during the production of the final four issues (one was for the old site, the other for the mag’s Edge section), so here they are. The first interview took place just after the relaunch of Scud was announced in March of last year, and the second happened early this year in advance of the book’s February return. Enjoy.

Continue reading Two Rob Schrab Interviews…

Round Two…FIGHT!

Over at his Livejournal, Corey “The Rey” Lewis offers up a small preview of Double Z, the upcoming sequel to his off-the-wall fight comic Sharknife from Oni.

Lewis is working double time to get Double Z out in time for San Diego, which is awesome because we would LOVE to read some new Sharknife at San Diego.

Seriously. That book is more fun than beating Street Fighter II on hard while slurping down some Captain Crunch and 2% on a Sunday morning—which I did every Sunday morning from 1995-1998.

Please go read: Kiel talks to the Bone curators

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a very in depth showcase of Bone creator Jeff Smith’s comics work opening up this weekend at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio on the campus of The Ohio State University. I can’t make it down for the opening, but luckily I got the chance to talk to the curators behind the exhibit Lucy Caswell & David Filipi. The pair were extremely nice and got me really excited for the show (fingers crossed I’ll make it before they close up shop in August), and you can read the interview the big WU.

For anyone in the Ohio area, I highly recommend heading down and seeing the exhibit. All the info for the show can be found here. If you can’t head there just yet, worry not. We’re having the intrepid Robert Taylor stop in to review the show, talk to all involved and snap as many photos as he can, so check back to the blog next week for all the details!

ALSO: Vaneta Rogers talks to Smith about the show over at Newsarama.

Weezer & Alec Longstreth: Who Knew?

Interesting things I learned from my google alerts this week:

- There’s a new Weezer album out in June (on the 24th to be exact), and it’s a self-titled whose real title will be “The Red Album” in the classic Weezer tradition. The first single is called “Pork & Beans” and you can listen to it now on the Weezer homepage. Apparently all four members of the band will sing lead vocal at one point on this record…that ought to be interesting.

- On the Geffen label news article that led me to this news, there was a random but well-deserved shout out to cartoonist Alec Longstreth (that’s how he draws himself above) reminding people that you can go to his website to read plenty of his awesome Phase 7 comics for free. So please go and do that.

Student Meat Market

So last weekend when the rest of the comics world was getting reprints of DC and Marvel books they already paid for for free, I headed down to the School of Visual Arts’ Fresh Meat mini comics fair to buy some rad minis from students on the super cheap. This was the second year I’ve been able to go to the show, and while this year there seemed to be a few less students showing off their wares, there were still a number of mighty fine comics on display.

Most interesting thing to note: I’d say about 90% if not more of the kids there draw in a manga-inspired style. I know, I know…shocker, right? But it was very interesting to see what the next generation of OEL kids did when faced with predetermined subject matter from the faculty rather than just spinning off into their own fantasy lands. Let’s take a look, shall we?

[Oh, and I should note that no one should consider these reviews. More so they’re just impressions, and even those should be taken with a grain of salt. If I had the guts to not only print up but actually sell my creative work as an undergrad to total strangers, there’s no way it would have been half as successful as what these guys put together.]

CHARLIE CHAPLIN: A NOT-QUITE-SILENT MINI COMIC by Hanni Brosh

I’m putting Ms. Brosh’s comic first as she was the most helpful and informative student with comics out and seemed to be doing the thankless task of selling comics for three or four of her friends who weren’t around either. Brosh explained to me that as a Junior, her thesis had to be a biography-style mini fitting the theme “Kings & Queens” which didn’t have to be taken literaly. Any famous person at the top of their field was fair game for the students, and Brosh’s Chaplin comic centered in on the creation of the silent film star’s anti-Hilter pic “The Great Dictator.” There’s a lot to like about the mini including the fact that Brosh framed the story with a few scenes of older Chaplin reflecting on the film and the histeria surrounding it. Also, her cartooning reminded me a lot of Jay Hosler’s work, which considering the subject matter works quite well.

Continue reading Student Meat Market…

Zuda times twoda!

OK, that may be the stupidest title I’ve ever written for any post, but what do you really want from me?

ANYWAY, after yesterday’s call out to the new Zuda competiton, Brendan McGinley was nice enough to send a character sketch from his Zuda competing strip Hannibal Goes To Rome so I thought I’d share.

And there you have it.

A Zuda post

So, I’ll admit it, I’ve been a bit wary of posting a lot about Zuda Comics, DC’s voter-driven webcomics initiative. There are a few reasons for this, chief amongst them that I’m not sure anything created, released and publicized by one of the biggest publishers in the history of North American comics qualifies as either “indie” or “alternative.”

However, yesterday I got two e-mails from creators in the business who I know and whose work I generally enjoy, and their sensibilities fall squarely into the camp of stuff we normally cover here, so I thought I’d pass word of their running in the most recent competition. For those who don’t know, Zuda posts a whopping ten trial strips each month, two of which are chosen based on reader votes to continue on as regular web features. I received word of:

ACTION, OHIO

Written by Neil Kleid and drawn by Paul Salvi, this strip seems to be a reappropriation of comic tropes dating from the pulps through the Marvel heyday and set against a modern noir tale. The strip even has its own production blog, which was where I snagged this piece of promotional art:

HANNIBAL GOES TO ROME

This second entry I heard word of is a historical comedy strip that reminded me a lot of what Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey do with Comic Book Comics but with Roman war stuff instead of funny book stuff. It’s by Brendan McGinley and Mauro Vargas, and while I couldn’t pull an image of it so easily, you can access it and Action, Ohio both by going to the Zuda homepage. If you want to vote to keep a strip alive, you’ll have to register, and I should add that if you get in the voting spirit, please check out every strip competing. It’s only fair.

I’m going to pistol whip the next guy who says, “Shenanigans.”

No, I’m not.

I don’t even own a pistol.

But I have to say that whenever I hear that sublimely ridiculous word Shenanigans, the number one thing I think of beyond that sublimely ridiculous Brian Cox dialogue is Ian Shaughnessy and Mike Holmes’ very cool graphic novel.

And today, I was super reminded of it when I read this profile of Shaughnessy in the Fort Worth Business Press. It’s a well written piece that places the writer in the company of some other local cartooning talent both past and present and hints at at least three new books from him in the near future. Click through, already!

Jeff Mason Update

Jeff Mason, publisher of Alternative Comics, posted an update on the Alternative Comics blog Wednesday (the first post in almost a year) regarding his current personal situation. Mason, who has been dealing with health problems for the past few years (possibly longer, please excuse my ignorance) delivered a positive sounding state of affairs.

“For the first time in years, I have absolutely no abdominal pain. I’m still weak as a kitten, and don’t yet have stamina - but that will improve with time.”

I was never really in tune with the comings and goings of indie publishers and was shocked to hear about Mason’s problems when I did. Alternative Comics has published some pretty crucial creators in the past (Bertozzi, Annable, Kochalka, etc.) and to know that such a hard-working indie comics publisher, let alone anyone, has to deal with chronic debilitating health issues is truly heartbreaking.

Our best wishes go out to Jeff, his family and friends.