Updates for a Monday

Hey, gang.  As I’m sure you know by now, Boston Comic Con was in fact forced to cancel at the last minute, due to the manhunt that took place in Boston and the neighboring area on Friday.  My understanding is that the organizers of the con are hoping to be able to reschedule, and ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as they work toward this.  On the bright side, many guests of the con who had already flown in wound up at various other sites on Saturday, such as Comicazi, signing and sketching for free.  I wasn’t able to go to any of these, but I hope some of you did—if you were there and feel like writing to me about how it was, drop me a line and I’ll post your thoughts on the blog.

Some quick updates on what’s happening in my world:

Some of the swag I picked up at PAX East 2013.

Attended:  PAX East, where I finally got to meet Brian, the delightful blogger of Bells’ Kitchen.  He’s got a pretty fun overview of his experience at PAX over on his blog; go check it out!

Played:  Injustice: Gods Among Us on the PS3.  I’m about 85% of the way through Story Mode.  Unfortunately at this point, I would not recommend spending the $60 for this title.  While the gameplay itself isn’t bad, the story and overall delivery is some of the poorest I have ever come across in a video game.  If you’re really intent on checking it out, give it a bit of time for the price to drop and just play Versus.  I kind of wish I had taken those three hours playing this game over the weekend and spent them reading comics instead.

Currently Reading:  Hawkguy, catching up on Fables trades, and my usual round of weekly webcomics.  If you aren’t reading JL8, you’re missing out something huge.  Also just picked up A Song of Fire and Ice paperbacks and hope to start making my way through those, because I’m …

… Watching:  Game of Thrones.  Obsessively.

Working on:  My next post for CSBG; wedding planning; day job.

Speaking of which … back to work I go.  ‘Til next time.

Boston Comic Con on Schedule for This Weekend

Hey there.  I know I haven’t posted in a while, as work and wedding planning have taken over every aspect of my life.  But I find myself completely unable to focus on much today; I finally remembered this poor, derelict blog, and decided I need to ramble a bit.

There isn’t much I can say about what happened yesterday other than to reiterate how tragic, disgusting, and outright awful it is.  But Boston, New England, America in general are tough as nails and will endure.  This is one of the wonderful things I have read today to counteract the sadness with some optimism.  And keep in mind there is lots you can do to help.  I hope all of you, your families, and friends are safe.

Boston Comic Con shirt for sale; Image via bostoncomiccon.com

To relate this post back to comics, Boston Comic Con announced that they intend to move forward with the show as planned this weekend.  A portion of proceeds from their art auction will be donated to the American Red Cross toward relief efforts, and I believe they will be accepting cash donations as well.  Many creators have come out on Twitter and other social media platforms, voicing their support for the show.  You can find a list of guests/attendees here; I was pleased to attend this show the past two years, and both were a great time.  I plan on being there Saturday, so if you will be around and would like to say hello, please drop me a line and let me know.

One other minor note; in case you missed it, I have a couple of posts up on Comic Book Resources.  More coming as soon as I have a free moment that is not occupied by picking out chair covers or licking envelopes.

Hope to see some of you this weekend.

Much love and stay safe.

Princeless Volume 2, #1

I was on my lunch break from the day job late last year when I first picked up Princeless at a comic shop near my work.  I didn’t know anything about the book, creative team, or publisher at all prior to that day—at most I had heard some negligible rumblings about the title on the internet somewhere, maybe Twitter—but when I saw it on the shelf in front of me, I figured I may as well give it a quick flick.

That flick turned into reading about half the issue off the shelf, and I had such a smile on my face and was laughing so much in the middle of the store that I knew I had to just buy the comic.  That was $3.99 I did not plan on spending that day, on a completely unheard of book—not my usual purchasing style.  In retrospect, I’m so very glad I did buy it, because I enjoyed the book so much that I wound up writing a short review of it on this blog … and that minor but emphatic little review was somehow, to my incredible surprise, discovered by Jeremy Whitley, the writer of Princeless, who contacted me with his thanks.  Later on, when I found myself struggling to find the remaining issues of Princeless (low awareness of the title meant low order numbers, meant zero shelf copies for me to grab), I still had a way to read it through Jeremy.  I did eventually get my hands on hard copies of each issue (thank you to the friendly staff at New England Comics), and when the mini was over, I had a timer set for when the next volume and continuation of the story would arrive.

That next volume is finally here, and I was all too happy to find my review copy patiently waiting for me in my inbox.

 

The first thing I noticed about volume 2 is that the series has a new artist.  Where M. Goodwin held art duties for the first iteration of the series, here we have Emily C. Martin illustrating Adrienne, Bedelia, Sparky, and the rest of the cast upon their return.  Martin definitely has her own style—I noticed the art was different before looking at the title page—but it blends in really well to what came before.  It’s not a drastic shift in art by any means.  One of my pet peeves when it comes to comics, but something that comes with the territory, is when a fill-in artist’s style is so radically different from the main art you’ve settled into on a book.  It can be jarring.  This isn’t the case here—the change is subtle, and that same great expression and color that we got with the first volume is still intact.

The story picks up more or less right where it left off, with Princess Adrienne & Co. on the run, except that we now learn Adrienne’s father has recruited quite a … let’s call them “eclectic” band of men to hunt down what he sees as his daughter’s attempted killer.  The prize for whoever captures this fiend’s head, of course, is the hand in marriage of any of the King’s daughters.  Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Adrienne’s brother Devin overhears his father’s proposal and pleads with his mother to put a stop to it all.  Her reaction is not what you would expect … or, then again, maybe it is exactly that.  I’m not sold on what’s really happening here, and I’ll let you read the scene for yourself to see what I mean.

The best parts of the issue, unsurprisingly, are the scenes with Adrienne and Bedelia, and I was pleased to see this issue continue the same level of humor and satire as in the previous volume.  We’re also introduced to a handful of new characters, not the least of which occurs on the final page of the issue.  I can’t wait to see where it goes, because I’m betting it’s going to be hilarious.  Sometimes when I’m reading this title, I forget that it’s an all-ages book and really meant for a younger audience, because there’s still so much here to play with as an adult.  It’s pure fun.

Princeless volume 2, #1 is available for pre-order from Previews, so if you’re interested in checking this out, it’s really important that you take a moment to order it with your LCS.  I’m guessing it will likely be available on Comixology as well.  Great independents like this absolutely need our support.  Remember the feeling of utter exhaustion and cynicism you felt after putting down an issue of Marvel/DC’s 698th Event this year?  Remember that feeling?  Yeah—Princeless won’t give you that.

 

Press Release

Action Lab Entertianment is proud to present the return of 2012 Glyph Winner for Best Heroine, Princess Adrienne!  Last year’s breakout all-ages hit, Princeless is finally making its way back into your comic shops and this time it’s bringing more action, more adventure, and a rogue’s gallery of deadly bounty hunters with their sights set on Adrienne and her new friend Bedelia!

Having saved herself from her own tower, Adrienne is now out to save her sisters, starting with her sister Angelica, the most beautiful girl in the whole kingdom.  However, Adrienne is about to learn that rescuing princesses is not as easy as she’s always believed and that not everybody has the same ideas about what it means to be saved as she does!

Princeless Volume 1 was nominated for two Eisner awards including “Best Series for Ages 8-12″ and “Best Single Issue.”  It also won the Glyph Awards for “Best Heroine,” “Best Writer,” and “Best Story.”  It has been nominated for a number of other awards and is one of the best reviewed books of 2011-2012.

Join Writer Jeremy Whitley and Illustrator Emily C. Martin for a second wild ride with the princess who saved herself and pre-order “Princeless Volume 2, Issue 1″ from Diamond today!  Order code:  STK522144

A new column?

Well, that’s the theory, anyway.

Head on over to the Comics Should Be Good blog at Comic Book Resources for some new material by yours truly.

And as always, thank you for reading!

These things are important because I like them.

Guess what, guys?!  I read, like, twelve comics last week!  That is HUGE for me!  Stuff is really happening!

Here are some things I wanted to share with you until my next post:

The incredible Phil Noto did a staggeringly awesome cover for Journey into Mystery featuring Sif and you need to see it.

Gorgeous!

Next, more awesomeness:  Peter V. Nguyen’s new DC women print is here and, uh, wow.  It’s too big to embed here and I didn’t want to re-size or scrunch it up, so check it out in full-size glory at the link.

Also, if you followed the 2012 Olympics at all, you might find this as hilarious as I did.  I am totally buying this cover.

 

Finally, one thing I’ve been meaning to mention again since back in July is a project called How i Made the World.  You may recall I linked to the comic earlier this year as an “honorable mention” in the list of web stuff I’d been following.  The artist of the comic, Randy Michaels, was kind enough to send me some of his and writer Liz Plourde’s material that was published in an anthology called Lies Grown Ups Told Me.  That collection wound up winning a Stumptown Comic Arts Award for Best Anthology.  It’s some pretty great stuff, and if you can get your hands on a copy (it seems the print run was low, so that might be a task), I’d highly recommend the read.

But the even better news is that Randy and Liz were awarded the Xeric Grant in July.  They write on their website:

We’d discussed applying for a Xeric grant since we first began work on How i Made the World.  When we heard there would be one final comic book review, we knew we had to apply.  Yet, we also knew the competition would be fierce.  Entries from throughout the U.S. and Canada are judged on “originality, literary and artistic merit, and a sense of commitment to the work.”  [...]  Today, we’re thrilled to announce we are the recipients of a 2012 Xeric Award.  The grant is to be used for the printing, advertising, and distribution of our comic book, the pilot issue of How i Made the World.  We’ve enjoyed the comic books of past Xeric recipients for years.  They are among the most entertaining and innovative independent comic books being published, and they are often included in Houghton Mifflin’s annual The Best American Comics.  We’re deeply honored to be among those recognized by the foundation.  We’ll be working on the final stages of our comic and preparing it for press in the coming months.  Stay tuned!  This is only the beginning.

So here’s a late congrats to the team, and I look forward to reading more!

 

 

O Captain! My Captain!

As you may have guessed, my fights with Captain Couch haven’t been going so well lately.  He has, in fact, gotten so full of himself and his winning ways, that he’s passed on his torch of torment to a new adversary, Lieutenant L.L. Seat.

… In other words, I have a new sofa.

The battles are frequent.  It’s a whole new weightclass, here.  I’m just no match.  Please forgive my absence—it can take a while to get over these injuries.

I’ve talked about my comics backlog a few times, and I’ve always hesitated to show you just how truly grotesque the situation has become, but I can hold back no longer.  It’s time to unveil the horror.

Feast your eyes upon 209 unread comics:

I tried to break them up into three piles to subdue the overwhelming magnitude a little, so in actuality, this doesn’t do it justice.  We’re talking several years of stuff, here.  Whole runs of things I’ve picked up and never gotten around to reading—things as far back as Daytripper, half a run of House of Mystery, and the final issues of Secret Six I never finished.  I KNOW, okay?!  I know.  I know.

By the way, this isn’t counting all the trades I have piled up.  I’d estimate probably another two dozen unread collected editions of things.

It’s pretty bad.

But I make this post for a reason!  There is method to this madness!  I have every intention to catch up, starting this weekend.  And I’m going to be taking notes … oh, copious notes.  Notes I will share on all the crazy comics crap I’ve been missing.  Perhaps by announcing it to you before I actually do it, I’ll scare and pressure myself into action.  Get ‘er done, as they say.

Let’s hope there’s far more good than there is crap in the pile.  Cross your fingers for me.  And keep reading.

Oh—one more thing.  Look for these upcoming new posts in a somewhat unexpected place.

More later.

xx R

It’s the Return of Catwoman the Contortionist

DC released their September solicitations this week, and the cover for Catwoman #0 has born reactions that are nothing short of hysterically funny.  Check out this slideshow of mockery that had me just guffawing, the tears streaming down my face.  I’d considered posting my own reaction to the obscene ridiculousness of the cover, but then there are plenty others who have already summed it up, and so eloquently, too.

I almost feel bad for Guillem March.  I’m not sure the anger is really warranted toward him; if anything, the blame and frustration should be placed on the editor who OK’d this.  That editor was not doing their job … or, perhaps this is exactly what they believe their job to be—to spurn enough fury to get the Internet talking, bringing attention to this book, getting Catwoman “out there.”  For all the unbelievably wrong reasons, of course.

But in a week that has seen some other depressing things and disgusting behavior toward women, there’s still at least one thing to celebrate.

Apologies for the massive linkage, but in lieu of reviews this week, this is some important reading.

And Then This Happened

You may remember when I confessed my disappointment upon meeting Clay Mann during Boston Comic Con a few months ago.  I didn’t go into any detail other than to say that I walked away feeling let down, and left it there.  But as it turns out, and as anyone smarter than me could evidently have told you, there’s not much you can say on the Internet that won’t eventually be discovered.  As such, Clay Mann found me.  And he messaged me.  And he apologized.  It was extraordinarily kind—not to mention unexpected—and has certainly given me a much different perspective on the experience I had.  And I just wanted to share that with you all, because he’s a stand-up guy, and doesn’t deserve to be thought of otherwise due to something I may have written here.

You may or may not know that Clay is working on a new Gambit title that was announced recently.  And while Gambit is far from being one of my favorite characters (I’m probably in the fangirl minority there), I’ll still give this book a shot, because one of its creators was kind enough to reach out to a disheartened fan.  That should mean a lot.

Thanks, Clay.

Craig Davison Art

My last post talked about what a badass Greg Rucka is; if you still need some convincing, here’s a fantastic essay he wrote for io9.  Revel in its triumph.

To follow up on that awesomeness, this week I discovered (through a friend) the magical art of Craig Davison.  Who is Craig Davison, you ask?  Why, he’s this guy!  And his art is beautiful and moving.  I want to buy some gigantic framed prints and hang them throughout my house.  Check these out:

Tell me those aren’t inspiring?  There are many other great ones, as well.  Princess Leia with the hairdryer?  Brilliance.

I haven’t been reading very many new comics lately.  Marvel’s latest event, AvX, coupled with DC’s newest crossover, Court of Owls, is leaving me a little disinterested and disengaged, so I’ve taken to working through some old trades and hardcovers I’ve picked up over the last few months and neglected.  I just finished the first three volumes of Brubaker’s Death of Captain America saga—good stuff.  So good, in fact, that despite already knowing the major plot and ending, I’m still engrossed.  That is the mark of an excellent writer.  Still left in my reading stack is the newest volume of Chew; Marjane Satrapi’s The Sigh; two volumes of Gotham City Sirens; Terry Moore’s complete Echo, and so much more.  I’m having trouble deciding what to read in what order.

Final item—there’s a fun little shoutout to good ol’ Worcester, MA in this week’s The Line it is Drawn on CBR.  See if you can spot it.

That’s all for today—have a great week, and read good comics.

Just a Small Part of Why I Love Greg Rucka

I read this today and just had to share.  Greg Rucka has always been one of my favorite writers; I started reading Elektra because of him, and his Wonder Woman run still can’t be beat in my eyes.  I’m an avid follower of his web comic, Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether, as well as various other projects and minis.

So when I came across this piece of badassery, it just further cemented my loyalty to this incredible writer.

You tell them, Greg Rucka!

Also, here’s a somewhat related supplemental reading, if you feel like.  Definitely worth checking out.