By Josh Crawley
While sometimes there are some noteworthy going-ons in the world of comics, there isn’t really all that much newsworthy. Combine that with my lack of anything else to ramble about this week and it looks like we’re going to be on an adventure of not-so-mythic proportions!
How it works: I’ll pretty much scan some comic book websites, sometimes click on links (and share them with you), and babble a bit about what I see and read!
Legion Annual #1 Interview
But before I start (since it’s been lots of places before I got this idea), Scott Pilgrim’s six volumes have been printed in over one million copies total. That’s pretty awesome. Sidebar: I wonder how quick it would take digital sales to reach that number. Even more so, I wonder how it would look on a Kindle or a Nook.
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by Josh Crawley
Picture the scene: you walk into the comic book store, scan the racks, and find a comic book — aside from the entertainment provided — that’s a pleasing little artifact. Maybe it has extra pages, or even just a cover paper stock you really, really like.
Fast forward a month, maybe two, or maybe just two weeks (this is comics, where any one of those could be on-time or late). You walk into the store and look for the second artifact in your collection. Once found, it doesn’t have quite the same luster as the first. After purchasing your little treasure and getting it home, you realize the true difference: inexplicably, the cover stock has changed. (No, I’m not going to say you have a disorder and before someone — correctly or not — diagnoses me with one, bear with me.)
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by Josh Crawley
It’s that time of the month already?! Let’s get to it!
Artifacts Volume 1 Trade Paperback.
Less than $10 (USD, SRP) for four issues of this gorgeous, awesome event from Top Cow? It’s a little mind-boggling, I know. Sit down, sip a little warm milk – and if you’re one of those people who still insists Top Cow is just about T&A, throw that misconception out the window and take a chance on this book. Ron Marz is on his game, and Michael Broussard’s artwork has never looked better, in part thanks to the amazing contributions of Sal Regla, Rick Basaldua, and Sunny Gho.
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by Josh Crawley
featuring photos by “What happens in Vegas” Dave Wagner
For the first time since 2001, I went to Chicago Comic Con without a table in Artists’ Alley to call home. I went merely to walk the floor and, in the off hours, hang out with industry friends. Due to the reduced presence of many industry names, Dave and I didn’t arrive until around 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. (Normally I’d've arrived Thursday midday.)
By the time I had dinner with Los Brothers Heffron at 6 p.m. in the now-severely overpriced Expoteria (you may as well get the burger & fries over at Gibson’s Steakhouse across the street for USD .50 more; they also have amazing lobster bisque), I was more than ready to be done walking the convention floor.
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by Josh Crawley
Have you ever noticed how months, if not a year, before a comic book related movie comes out there’s a plethora of new comic books featuring that character? You haven’t?! Well, if you’ll allow me explain what I’m talking about…
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by Josh Crawley
It’s that time of the month! This week, though, I’m just focusing on the first half of the catalog. Next week I’ll wither focus on the second half of the catalog or babble a bit more in-depth on a couple particular books I skipped this week from one of my favorite publishers these days. Now, on with the show!
Graphic Novels
Xenozoic: The Complete Collection trade paperback
Many thanks to my friend Steve Bryant for sending me one of his less-than-healthy-yet-still-great-for-reading copies of an old Kitchen Sink collection of some of this material. My mind was blown; my body shocked! If you only buy one book this year, this should be the one! Sure, you may have the Dark Horse reprints, but this book has a bigger trim size to better showcase Mark Schultz’s awesome sequentials, as well as Denise Prowell’s gorgeous hand lettering!!!
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by Josh Crawley
I’m sure some people (mostly Westfield Comics retail store customers and employees), are getting tired of me raving about and pushing some of the more recent Top Cow Universe comic books. Well, until more people start listening to me and actually trying them out instead of holding onto vague, if not out-of-date, perceptions of the publisher’s products, I’m going to keep preaching.
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by Josh Crawley
Before I get into things this week, I want to mention my friend Zack Kruse’s webcomic Mystery Solved. There’s an old guy with a twirly moustache and a pipe. There’s a new installment every Thursday! And there’re fairies!
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Over the weekend I grabbed a handful of graphic novels to read at home after work. The first of those was Gravity: Big City Super Hero by Sean McKeever & Mike Norton. I liked the book, but in all honesty, there wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more of the fresh-out-of-high school kid from Wisconsin! (Sheboygan, to be exact. It’s pretty up there.) Not that McKeever & Norton are to blame. Sales didn’t warrant any more than the five issues published.
Imagine my surprise when i start reading the next book in my stack, Fantastic Four: The New Fantastic Four by Dwayne McDuffie & Paul Pelletier, and Gravity shows up!
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by Josh Crawley
I’m not sure when I first heard of Harvey Pekar or American Splendor. I’m pretty sure the first thing I bought and read, though, was American Splendor: Portrait of the Author in his Declining Years. I know by that point I’d heard of him, but the primary reason I bought the book was one of the stories’ artists: Dean Haspiel.
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by Josh Crawley
You may have noticed that we’re listing Ron Marz and Lee Moder’s Shinku ashcan this month. Since I already have a copy, I thought I’d give some of my thoughts on it, and if you were on the fence about trying it, hopefully I can push you off the fence and onto the side of “Buy!”
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