Cartoon Central

I’ve been called a cartoon character before. Now, according to the Tampa Tribune’s BlogJam section, I actually am one!

I was in SM Megamall yesterday and I just a Malang comics and cartoon exhibit inside The Crucible and then I asked for a press release of the exhibit just to inform everyone about the event.

Arno from the comments section asked me about my drawing tools and I thought I’d post a scan of some of the things I use to create my comics.

Alamat Comics compiled the comic book, titled simply WASTED in 1998, and we had our launch at Cybercafe in Robinson’s Galleria in February 13, a date somehow strangely fitting. When no one came with knives and pitchforks to burn me at the stake, it was then I realized just how much, and in what way, it has affected other people.

Michael Bay’s big-screen treatment of Transformers reworks the venerable 1980s cartoon and comic book series as an effects-laden thrill ride for the digital age, while hitting enough of the right notes to please the purists.

So, Marvel Comics has killed and buried one of it's pre-emanate characters in Captain America...

Today is the penultimate DITKO WEEK! entry. It’s back to Marvel as I take a look at a terrifically fun character who is going through a depression. I’m also going to take a more in-depth look at a pattern that’s popped up so far in all these neat Ditko entries. Join me, will you?

When my brother and i were little and refused to get out of the bath our Xhosa nanny, Fabia, would pull out the bath plug and once the water began spinning she would tell us that the snake was appearing and if we didn't jump out we would be eaten by him. Terrified we would leap out of the bath. Not long after first meeting, Markus and I did a three page fantasy comic strip based on this experience. It was from this that the Household idea began to form. I then made up a book of a collection of drawings I had done over the last few months.

I've just been made aware of the fact that several Alias titles are available as free downloads via WOWIO. These include Lullaby, The Imaginaries and Deal With The Devil.

I’ve been doodling some comics and have started posting them on my parenting blog since the first couple happen to be about parenting. There’s no real theme or style or anything yet. Just some doodling with some words added. I also posted a another one over here called The Resume Project.

Offering comics on the internet is becoming unavoidable, with many comics being scanned and copied, not always legally, then posted for download on torrent sites and news groups. Preview pages being offered on comics news sites is becoming the norm in promotional campaigns for books. However, the majors are only now coming around to offering entire books online. Marvel and DC Comics are currently finalizing their strategies for online comics, and Top Cow announced at the New York Comic Convention that they have entered into a partnership with entertainment portal IGN.com to distribute downloadable digital editions of their back catalogue.

Its a question that goes through most peoples minds when watching or hearing about anything to do with X-Men. This brillaint Marvel Comic that has been so excellently brought to life and displayed on our big screens, it starts the strangest of thoughts in my head, thoughts that have kept me awake on many occasions, thoughts that, I'm sure shouldn't enter and normal guys mind when trying to sleep: If I had a mutant power, what would it be? Would I be good? Would I be evil? Would I tell anyone about my powers?

wasn’t your fault

So I figured what better way to voice my concerns over what I saw happening in the United States, than to dig up some zombies of my own to express it. As a writer, I’ve always preferred to rely on humor to make a point, which is why “American Soil” is almost as much a satire about zombies as it is about politics. So, in that regard, I would say that horror-comedies like “Shaun of the Dead”, “Army of Darkness” and “Return of the Living Dead” along with propaganda cartoons and comic books from the Second World War, were the inspiration for the kind of narrative that I wanted to write.

OK … a little something different today. Welcome to the first in my series of occasional interviews with TCP — Totally Cool People. First up … the man behind the popular comic strip Luann.

However, in performing research for this blog post, I have since discovered that "See you in the funnies!" may not be considered "cheerful and breezy" by all recipients. This news saddens me deeply.

Amazingly, this is the only online comic strip that informs me of the latest tech hypes and events. It told me about the RIAA and it’s stupidity, SCO’s stupid filing lawsuits against various BSDs and Linux Distros and copyright infringements, Google’s new services like GMail, GDrive, et al, and about Net Neutrality being under fire, and a lot more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. The website’s slogan always holds true, though. It impaired my productivity ever since I started reading it.

Andy Mangels compiles a list of Marvel’s recent discussion and actions with its gay characters linking to the relevant stories for Prism Comics.

But almost no one in the comics is silly any more. With Tile, this has changed.

Yesterday, I went down to San Diego for Comic Con, the world’s biggest comic convention yadda yadda. I’ve got nothing against comics—in fact, I rather like the web and manga variety—but as far as U.S. comics go I’m pretty clueless. So, I spent a lot of time randomly wandering around, collecting free things and watching geeks.

Passage from a letter excerpted in Ernest Jone’s The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (3:392):

If I had my life to live over again, I should devote myself to telepathy rather than to psychoanalysis.

To which I can only say this:

It took me awhile to find this, knowing it was out there somewhere. I spent 15-30 minutes to finally locate it. How true this thing is. It appeared in papers on March 24, 1990.

Hi gang, it’s Wednesday already and time for an update. I’ve added another daily from DJ Coffman’s insane webcomic “Yirmumah!“. It’s from March 7, 2006, and features the introduction of the Gorton’s Fisherman to the comic (there’s a couple of nice shots of Calypso too); go and check it out! (Be warned, there’s a ton of art already on that page; the new one is the last daily shown.)

Anyways, if you managed to get past my 52 “review”, you’ll kinda get a vibe as to what’s wrong here with this issue. So, after IC, for some reason, Superman lost his powers. No real explanation I guess was needed, other than it made for some dramatic moment to have DC’s supposed 3 stand-out characters take some time off from their crime-fighterings, and let the spotlight shine on some of the other heroes or something. So de-powered Superman did who knows what for a year, I guess we’ll find out in 52, but now he is getting his powers back. How, you may ask? Did S.T.A.R. Labs work some magic science goodness on him? Nope. Did he get exposed to some awesome new re-powering Kryptonite, like on Smallville? Nope. Did Mr. Mxyzptlk show up and give Supes his powers back? Nada. Wanna know how he got em back?

I’m really loving Paul Pope’s Batman Year 100. It’s the best 2 dimensional riff on the dark knight for a good long while and brings a little French Comix sensibility to the character. Plus, Batman’s crazy, fake vampire teeth in issue #3 are funny as hell. Now if I can just get my hands on Pope’s Heavy Liquid and 100% comics, I’ll be a happy man.

New costume or old, I don’t plan on reading any more issues of The Amazing Spider-Man any time soon, and as long as Joe Quesada (Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics and apparently the brains behind the new costume) doesn’t mess with Ultimate Spider-Man or (even worse) the Spider-Man movies, I’m okay.

For those who hadn't noticed, comic synopsises(???) for IDW's Transformers: Infiltration issue #4 and Devil's Due's G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: The Art of War issue #2 are now available.

On Friday night, Mike and I went down to Hollywood to see the DVD taping of the Rockstars of Comedy. The Rockstars are a collection of six standup comics. One of them, Stevie D., hosts a series of Thursday shows at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood every now and again. He is also the MC for each show of this tour. The other five comics perform full-length sets (about twenty minutes or so).

Attention all comic authors and artists - we have a mission for you! The year-long World of Warcraft Comic Contest is now officially accepting submissions. It’s simple: you create a World of Warcraft comic and then submit your work through our new comic submission page. Each month, you will have a new chance to be the lucky winner of an amazing prize package!

I was certainly not one of the first members of Queensryche’s fan club, but I was definitely one of the earlier ones. I remember periodically getting one of those old photocopied newsletters in the mail, with all of the nice letters from the band, and those cool anime drawings of the band by a then-unknown Tomoko Saito, who is a big name in the industry now at Dark Horse Comics among other places.

Fans of Belle & Sebastian may want to check out Image Comics' Put the Book Back on the Shelf, a new graphic novel that features contemporary comic writers and illustrators offering their visual interpretation of B&S songs.

In the same spirit as books like The Science of the X-Files and The Physics of Star Trek, the California Science Center in Los Angeles is running a Science of Superheroes exhibitition. “Live the comics! Live the science!” exclaims the exhibition’s website. At this exhibition, you can learn how Bruce Banner’s emotions transform him into The Incredible Hulk, climb walls like Spider Man, and more.

In unpacking more of our sea of boxes from our move last summer, we came across a pile of Slade’s old comics from when he was a kid. Seby & Zane both were amazed by them. Graham heard they had them in their room and needed to get a pile to read in bed. Fun Fun Fun

Dismantling my room led me to open my mysterious “important documents” bag, unexplored for many a year. To my surprise, the bag contained about 4% important material, a large assortment of indie comics from the mid-90s, and a ton of trash. The important portion was worth the rooting about.

Farawayistan is a comic drawn by a dutch person named Syl who also likes wearing cowboy hats. I think this comic is funny in the way dogs would be funny if they had two backsides.

The comic book industry has been hurting for a lot of years. This is no surprise to anyone who has remotely followed comics at all over the last 10 years. Comic book shops continue to close. I think the closest one to me is now over 100 miles away.

I’ve always thought of Disney as children’s entertainment. And I’ve always assumed that comics were always the way they are today, ie one of two general memes: Kids animated stories, or superhero. Both are escapist. Turns out the history of comics tells a tale of another approach.

Its about time is all I have to say. The old image comics site sucked, mostly because it didn't bother to tell you what was coming out when...the main reason I go to any comic book publisher's website. However the new site fixes that, plus it looks really cool. Jumoing into a neat kinda post modern thing. Big type, interesting layout. I approve....as if they care. Now if Marvel, darkhorse and DC would revamp their sites and make them more relevant I'd be a happy panda.

I think the “accessibility” question is more of a problem in principle than in practice; between Google, DCUGuide, Spoilt!, and Newsarama’s various recaps, not to mention the local know-it-alls at your local comic shop or message board of choice, there are enough resources to help you figure out what’s going on in any given comic. It’s just a matter of whether you consider web surfing to be an appropriate part of the comic-reading experience, and whether the comic makes you interested enough to do so.

Hi gang, it’s a little late but it’s Webcomic Wednesday and I’ve got today’s update for you. I’ve added a great daily to the page for DJ Coffman’s “Yirmumah“. This one is for January 8, 2005, and it’s a huge one featuring all kinds of characters, from Beetle Bailey to Barry Bonds. You’ll have to scroll around on the page to find it though, as there’s a TON of Yirmumah originals already on the page. It’s worth seeking out though, so go find it! And after you check out the art, don’t forget to visit DJ’s site! Tell him I said hi

Not gonna be a very long post. Uncanny X-men 15 got lost due to “unfortunate mishaps in temper and shipment* but ya know its all good. I learned that comics and “stuff” arent really as important to me as i had let them get, my priorities were all screwed. I guess nothing of that makes sense, no worries, It does to ME and thats the imporant thing.

You may think that you’re a dedicated fan of this blog: you comment on the front page, you comment in the forums, you wear your Comics Curmudgeon gear in public to the embarrassment of your spouse. But have you sent me an umbrella decorated with comic strips? No, of course you haven’t — unless you’re Sam Garst, that is.

Also, read some comics. Ultimate Spider-Man Annual? Yes! Thank You!

Dave is just doing a heck of a job talking about, and reviewing, comics. This is great content–well written and full of information. If you love comics, don’t miss him.

However, when Wizard manages to garner a fluff piece like this (bugmenot login: samcolt, password: 12345) out of the publicity it received by trying their level best to screw over HeroesCon, it’s pretty damned annoying. I especially like the part where the article says that WizardWorld shows are the only ones where the fans get to interact with pros.

So, the current topic of discussion right now is the premiere of Webcomics Nation (WCN). Bob Stevenson mentioned how all the other “pundits” have thrown in their sentiments on the thing, and I figured I may as well, too. Especially since I haven’t had a “Snarkworthy” webcomic installment come to my attention for a while now.

I think it’s going to be huge. I think the support behind this is huge, and I think that the support will be even larger come September 1 when this thing is up and running. With so many people wanting to be able to voice their opinions and help make a difference in this era, they’ve been looking for their place to do so. Message Boards and Blogs had become the norm, but with some message boards, comics is not the main discussion anymore. I’m a comics activist, at least I like to think so, and I want to do my part. I love this industry, and I love writing, so I think it only fits that something like this really burned inside of me when I started thinking about it.

I went to Barnes and Noble afterwards to pick up a couple “graphic novels.” I ended up picking up World Without a Superman, The Return of Superman, and The Death of Clark Kent. All those added onto the ones from Wednesday…and that makes a busy list of night reading. And with that…I shall start. Goodnight.

On July 4, my local comic book store had a 20% off sale. I swung by to pick up a stack of trade paperbacks I’d been wanting for a while, including the first collection of Warren Ellis‘ Global Frequency. Wired carried a story about GF a couple weeks ago, which motivated the purchase. The story was about how Warner Bros. transformed the comic into a pilot for television, and subsequently abandoned it. The pilot suddenly found itself spreading online via BitTorrent. More on that in a moment. First, the story itself.

I found a bunch of interesting new comics, too. I picked up Brodie’s Law, which I’m still in the process of reading, mainly because it looked interesting and the writer or artist (not sure which off the top of my head) seemed like a cool guy and was selling them for discount. I’m also anxiously awaiting the release of this Lovecraft comic. I’m a big Lovecraft fan, and I dig the mix of traditional and digital art they’re using. It’s the kind of stuff I want to see more of in comics. I’m also looking forward to a supposed special edition of Ascend (couldn’t find official site).

I decided I needed to know a bit more about legendary Marvel Comics artist Steve Ditko. I found this site that’s going to take me days to crawl through.

Recently I have been reading more and more of this awesome web comic. It’s very addictive *shakes fist at drx for linking me to it*. So addictive that I have downloaded the entire archive of comics from 2002 til present using this rather cool shell script. As it stands the rar’d up directory is around 73Mb!

From now on, I’ll just link to the new comics, but this way you can just read through ‘em all.

First of all, lemme preface this by saying that I owned lots of comic books and comic book collector cards back in elementary school, so I tried to learn lots of stuff about Marvel Comics’ heroes and villains… Spider-Man was my favorite (of course), and the X-Men were popular and cool…but the Fantastic Four had been around for a long time and weren’t quite as popular anymore… Sure, they were a staple of comic book heroes, but they just weren’t that interesting for a kid in the 1990s.

I remember going through a friend’s blog with links to online comics. That reminded me of how I grew up with my very own collection of champak, amar chitra katha, raj comics and those billu and chacha chaudhary comic strips on the Friday paper. A trip to the city with my parents meant a new magazine or the latest in the series of Nagraj from the news stand at the bus stop.

Yesterday was spent cruising NYC with Grammatikos, which provided high entertainment. We grabbed lunch at Ben’s Kosher in Manhattan, which was freaking awesome (I haven’t had a salami burger or matzo ball soup in far too long), then wandered the City. After making sure to take Wolverine’s picture with the tree in Rockafeller Center (said picture will be posted soon, hopefully), I went and spent too damn much in various stores, including Midtown Comics. All in all, a productive day.

Today, DW is gone. But your choice of covers is not. The new license holder, IDW, revealed two variant covers for their upcoming book, Transformers #0, which will be available this fall. Comics Continuum posted their own feature on the re-emerging book, revealing still two more alternate covers. Further, there will be at least one BotCon exclusive cover as well!

I am almost inclined to believe this is some kind of prank, especially since the poster, someone named “Gord” appears to have completely bought the Japanese right-wing nationalist narrative of the colonial period in Korea. Perhaps his love for comics eventually led him to spend a little too much time with the illustrated books by Japanese fascist writer Kobayashi Yoshinori.

Neil Gaiman, creator/writer of the Sandman comics, will be signing books and doing some reading from his works. Check out his itinerary here (scroll down to see his schedule in the Philippines).

And finally, the monkey-wrench in the mix: I really like drawing comics. I don’t know if I am any good at it yet, but I am really enjoying experimenting. I am so used to drawing with pencils that it feels like a palatable baby-step to use ink instead of graphite for a while. Using ink has made me much more confident about my lines, and the richness of the black ink is really exciting, especially compared to the gray of the pencil marks. Perhaps the book I make this year (if it is only one) will be a comic book. Who knows?

So today I was all thinking and I thought about how long I’ve been reading comics, in some shape or form. Archie, Superman when I was a little kid playing piano and hockey moving on to Mad Magazine when I was just starting to get political satire, Europeen cartoons, Simpsons comics, that kinda stuff. Anyway I just realised how much comics mattered when I was all small, and noticed that in two of my comics people complain about there being no kids reading comics anymore.