Zombie Romance's Live Drawing Mini Artzine #1

On the agenda: Comics purchased at MeCAF, comics from FCBD, and comics from the National Conference on Science Education. Plus the usual backlog. Trying to make a push to post every day to at least get through the books from these recent events.

With that in mind, here's a minicomic I got yesterday at MeCAF.

Title: Zombie Romance's Live Drawing Mini Artzine
Issue: 1
Publisher: Kristilyn Stevenson
Date: 2012
Writer: Kristilyn Stevenson
Artist: Kristilyn Stevenson

Full-color folded quarter-sized collection of portraits of Boston-area musicians performing. The subjects include Courtney Swain, Gem Club, Gene Dante, Edrie Edrie, Mali Sastri, Vending Machetes, and Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band.

The portraits all represent performances that the artist attended in 2012, and the sketches were done live on-site.

This is a fun project, and an interesting slice of the Boston music scene. The vivid colors really bring the art to live.

Rating: 7/10

Bandit Mountain

I just got back from the Maine Comic Arts Festival with a small stack of comics that I am looking forward to reading and reviewing. I'll start with one I had a chance to read at the show.

Title: Bandit Mountain
Publisher: Sarah "Chu" Wilson
Date: 2013
Writer: Sarah "Chu" Wilson
Artist: Sarah "Chu" Wilson

Eight- page half-sized b/w minicomic. Adapted from one of Aesop's fables, but with human characters.

When a knight needs a guide through a treacherous mountain pass, he makes a bandit girl an
offer she can't refuse. Unfortunately for the knight, the consequences of underestimating an
opponent on Bandit Mountain are pretty harsh.

Simple story, but very effective.

Rating: 8/10

Our Last Convention For A While

This Sunday (May 18, 2014), Dandelion Studios will be appearing at our last show, at least for the foreseeable future.

As mentioned here before, I’ve taken a teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and we’re excitedly looking forward to new adventures on the other side of the planet.

We’re going to be moving all of our Dandelion Studios comics publishing activities online, and we are expecting to be off the convention circuit for at least two years. Of course, anything is possible, so you may see us show up at an anime con somewhere in Asia, or at a show back in the USA if we end up coming home for our summers.

But we are treating this coming weekend as our farewell show. The event is MECAF, the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland ME, and it’s consistently been one of our favorite shows.

It features exclusively small press/independent talent, and adult admission is a mere $5. If you are anywhere near Portland this weekend, and you are at all geekily-inclined, this is the best deal for your money, barring none.

Guests of honor are Kazu Kibuishi of Amulet, Vol. 1: The Stonekeeper, Zach Giallongo of Ewoks: Shadow Over Endor, and the creator of one of my favorite recent comic series, Jimmy Gownley of Amelia Rules! Volume 1: The Whole World’s Crazy.

So, come to Portland this Sunday and stop by the Dandelion Studios table to check out all of our comic titles, plus a full selection of plushie giant spiders and (not technically giant) narwhals.

Hope to see you there!

Superman #205

Time was tight for me on Free Comic Book Day this year, with two family events occupying most of the day. I only managed to get in a brief visit to one comic shop, which was New England Comics in Quincy MA.

NEC always puts on a huge event for FCBD. They had the creative team of one of the new Tick comics on hand, and a picked up an autographed book from them along with some of the regular FCBD books. NEC also gives away some bonus comics, which are regular back issues they have overstocked. This is one of those bonus freebies that I picked up this year.

Here is my complete haul:

And now for tonight's review!

Title: Superman
Issue: 205
Date: July, 2004
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Nick Napolitano
Editor: Casey Seijas, Will Dennis, Eddie Berganza
Cover: Jim Lee, Scott Williams

This is a fairly introspective and quiet issue, with even the opening action scene proving to be a flashback. It focuses on Father Leone, who Clark (as Superman) has been turning to for spiritual advice.

Clark is struggling in the aftermath of a recent attempt to stop the fighting in an unnamed and mostly-symbolic Middle Eastern country. As might be expected, Superman's paternalistic approach of taking away everyone's weapon and scolding them to just get along proved to be an ineffective approach.

Not much was resolved here. This story raised more questions than it answered, and it only presented a very simplistic scenario in response to the rather complex question of whether Superman can literally function as the world's policeman.

In spite of the lack of easy answers (which was, to a large extent, the point), I enjoyed this issue. There was good character development for Father Leone, who is a fairly complex and interesting character. I also liked seeing Superman take some time to think about the consequences of his actions.In a comic book universe where there are few things Superman is not capable of accomplishing, it was interesting to see the focus on something that he is preceiving as a shortcoming.

Interesting read.

Rating: 7/10

Miracleman #2

I was on vacation last week, and I set aside Saturday for some geeky wanderings. In the late afternoon, I stopped in at a friend's place for a horror movie party he was throwing. From there it was off to the Magic: The Gathering prerelease tourney for the new Journey Into Nyx expansion set.

But earlier in the day, I stopped by New England Comics in New Bedford MA, where they were having one of their big sales.

I picked up some Magic cards and supplies, as well as this comic.

Title: Miracleman
Issue: 2
Date: March, 2014
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: The Original Writer, Mick Anglo
Artist: Garry Leach, Don Lawrence, Mick Anglo, Steve Dillon, Alan Davis, Paul Neary
Colorist: Steve Oliff
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Axel Alonso

The main feature here is the reprint of Miracleman #2, itself a reprint from early issues of Warrior magazine. It's written by Alan Moore, credited here once again as "The Original Writer". The story introduces Johnny Bates AKA Kid Miracleman, now grown to adulthood, rich, powerful, and thoroughly evil. Mickey Moran is great here as he sees through Bates' suave lies, but Bates as the villain absolutely steals the show. Bates is the best rendition of the Superman-gone-bad concept ever, and this issue is just a taste of what is to come.

The writing has a poetic quality to it that really brings up the intensity level.

Following the main story is an flash-forward segment that appeared in Warrior, but I'm not sure if it was printed in the Eclipse Miracleman series. It's a time travel piece set in the midst of the battle against Kid Miracleman later in the series, and it flashes back to earlier events. It had some good moments, but will probably make more sense to reread later on.

Bonus features in this issue include a "Behind the Scenes" segment showing original pencils and b/w artwork by Gary Leach for the story as it first appeared in Warrior.

There is also a full Marvelman origin story from 1954, which was quite good in places, but also leaned a bit on the typically goofy side. Last up is a short Kid Marvelman story from 1955, which is definitely goofy, and features Kid Marvelman helping out some local kids and improving the attitude of a cop.

The reprint material is fun, and the main story continues to be awesome.

Rating: 8.5/10

Magic: The Gathering: Path of Vengeance #2

Today I found myself in Fall River MA and stopped in at Stillpoint Comics, Cards, & Games.

I picked up this MTG comic along with a few booster packs.

Title: Magic: The Gathering: Path of Vengeance
Issue: 2
Date: January, 2012
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Matt Forbeck
Artist: Martin Coccolo, Chris Evenhuis
Colorist: J. Edwin Stevens, Baileigh Bolten, Noris Sola
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Ryan Pancoast

You know the drill. Bought it for the promo card (A lovely version of Voidmage Husher).

This is issue #2, but it may as well have been issue #1. The story was easy enough to figure out.

Planeswalker and thief Dack Fayden is being hunted down by the Rakdos Guild, while he himself is on the hunt for evil planeswalker Sifa Gent. The trail has led Dack back home to Ravnica, where his network of safehouses has apparently been compromised by, well, pretty much everyone.

Dack's old rival, Maytov, is injured in the mayhem that follows, and Dack spends a few pages musing on how he and Maytov first met while in the present, Dack has decided to get Maytov to a healer. Once there, Sifa's evil plan is figured out and it's up to Dack to not only get his revenge, but also possibly to save all of Ravnica.

This story moved the plot along without all that much actually happening. It spent a great deal of time telling, rather than showing, and the whole issue felt like a big infodump to set up the climactic battle. I do continue to like Dack as a character. He is thoughtful and fun. I also thought the flashback sequence had some good moments.

On a side note, couldn't they have come up with a more interesting name for the Mcguffin that starts this whole mess than the "Ancient Fang"?

Rating: 5/10

Spectra #3

Third in this educational series from the American Physical Society. Picked this one up a couple of weeks back at the National Conference on Science Education.

Title: Spectra
Issue: 3
Publisher: American Physical Society
Date: 2011
Writer: Rebecca Thompson
Artist: Kerry G. Johnson, David Ellis, Nancy Bennett-Karasik
Colorist: Kerry G. Johnson

There's a new physics teacher at Nikola Tesla Junior High School (!), and it's the uncle of Lucinda's best friend Ruby. He's known as General Leslie J. Relativity, and he's an ex-military man who hands out sets of pushups to students who aren't up to speed on the theory of gravity.

He's also involved in some secret experiments, and when he discovers Lucinda's laser superpowers, he's eager to have her change into Spectra to test his theories about the effects on light of the gravity extremes of white and black holes.

Lucinda, meanwhile, is hoping to escape from the gravity experiment in time to make it to a school dance.

This story is not as coherent as it could be. There is a seemingly random obstacle course of physics-related traps that the heroes need to overcome at the end, and it doesn't really have rhyme or reason for existing. General Relativity (I see what you did there.) is also a bit unclear in his intentions and motivations.

That being said, I still enjoyed the interaction between the characters, and the book continues to do a nice job of portraying a female superhero. Just the fact that it is consistently passing the Bechtel test and isn't turning Lucinda into a sex object is a nice change from, well, just about everything that the major publishers do. Physics idea continue to be scattered in, not to the point of drowning the story in educational content, but enough so that you can learn some facts and have a few concepts reenforced by reading the comic.

Rating: 6/10



 

Sun-Flower

Another item I picked up at Anime Boston from fellow Artists Alley participant Finni Chang.

Title: Sun-Flower
Publisher: Finni Chang
Date: 2013
Writer: Finni Chang
Artist: Finni Chang

This is a full-color sketchbook from artist Finni Chang. It opens with a 24-hour comic detailing a typical twenty-four hours in her life as a freelance artist in humorous style. From there, the book presents a range of gorgeous character illustrations with a scattering of other features.

This is mostly original characters. There is some Gaia Online work, and a three-page Pokemon fan comic, but the focus is on original characters, and there are some fascinating ones. Finni does awesome costume illustration, and her use of color is spectacular.

She also includes some sketch work with accompanying text to give some insights into her technique. For the most part, though, the art speaks for itself.

Rating: 8.5/10

Spectra #2

More laser-powered educational comic goodness from the American Physical Society. This is part of the stack of educational comics I brought home from the National Conference on Science Education.
 
Title: Spectra
Issue: 2
Publisher: American Physical Society
Date: 2010
Writer: Rebecca Thompson
Artist: Kerry G. Johnson

It's rematch time between Spectra and Miss Alignment, but first, Lucinda needs to make amends with her friends after having a bit of an issue with her newfound laser powers going to her head.

She also gets a ghostly mentor, the ghost of pioneering laser physicist Irnee D'Haenens. This issue gets a bit more educational content, but it flows pretty smoothly.

The confrontation between Spectra and the villainous Miss Alignment feels a little bit like too much of a repeat of the climax from the first issue, but it does go to a decisive finish this time.

This series still seems to be trying to find its stride as it experiments with getting the right mix of physics content, character development, and plot.

I did like the "if it weren't for those meddlesome kids" line that got thrown in at the end. Cute touch.

Rating: 6/10

Spectra #1

Did I mention that I got a bunch of comics at the National Conference on Science Education last week? Here is one of them.

Title: Spectra
Issue: 1
Publisher: American Physical Society
Date: 2010
Writer: Rebecca Thompson
Artist: Kerry G. Johnson

High school student Lucinda Hene suddenly develops laser-themed superpowers. She experiments with her powers and dreams of using them to save the world. Little does she realize that there there is a costumed supervillain lurking a lot closer than she expects, and she will soon need her powers to save her best friends.

This had a nice Archie Comics vibe to it. There was plenty of laser terminology thrown around, but story took precedence over education in this book. No much was explained when it came to the origins of Lucy's powers, and some of those powers were a bit goofy (she can make music by holding a CD; because well, everyone knows that CDs are played using lasers). I also found the villain's motives to not be as clear as they could have been.

That being said, I loved the fact that this book avoided the gender cliches that would normally be seen with a comic featuring a teenaged female superhero. Her costume looks great, and is practical and non-sexualized. There is a really good balance of genders among the cast too. Why do I need to turn to an educational comic from the American Physical Society for this to be the case? Get with the program, comic industry.

This didn't have the best flow to it, and the action was fairly toned down, but it accomplished its mission of being entertaining while at least providing some laser-related vocabulary to satisfy its educational mission.

The characters were fun and I look forward to reading more of their adventures. Which is good, because I have several more issues to review this week.

Rating: 6.5/10