Congrats to ADDTF for one solid year of reading comics naked.

Also, welcome back ADD and In Sequence.

Did I miss anyone?

 
Not Quite The End Of World

Scott Shaw's excellent look at Oddball Comics is paring down from posting on the weekdays to once weekly. In his announcement concerning this change, Shaw reminds his readers that he's on the verge of his 1000th entry, so there's plenty of back material to go through, as well as the Oddball Comics Forum, probably my favourite comic book message board. I highly recommend Shaw's site as a treasure trove of delights for anyone with an interest in the weirdest in comics.
posted by Steven at 2:11 AM

 
Dave Blood R.I.P.

"I went to your house last night
Your dad called me the Human Torch
Got a little pissed at him
so I burned down your front porch"
-Lyrics from If You Love Somebody, Set Them On Fire, by The Dead Milkmen

Dave Blood, the bassist for the Dead Milkmen, ended his life Tuesday night.

A Dead Milkmen show was the first concert I ever attended. It was the summer of '89 and it seemed like all the parents of Village Court were off on vacation. They must have assumed the kids would be on their best behaviour. Russell, the Love Muscle was weening himself off KISS and moving onto listening to The Misfits while skateboarding, so he picked up a couple of tickets to the closest thing to a punk show he could find, The Dead Milkmen in Toronto. He mistakenly believed I knew more about the punk scene then I actually did, and invited me along to show him the ropes. We took the train up to Hogtown, and stumbled down Spadina until we found the legendary rock 'n roll dive known as The El Mocambo. It was like stepping into another world.

It's been almost 15 years now, but that show still stands out as one of the best I've ever attended, and not just from nostalgia either (though the nostagia doesn't hurt). That night, the Milkmen moved easily between friendly onstage banter about the new Batman movie to rocking our sweet all-age asses all over the mosh pit. During Punk Rock Girl I even got to tap a girl with a mohawk on the shoulder and ask if she had a beau. And, yes, she did look at me and smile and say she did not know. The Love Muscle missed out on most of this as he was busy hitting on a different girl with a rat on her shoulder, who was going to be evicted if she didn't find it a good home. We almost went back to the Rose City with a new pet. Oh, the folly of youth.

After the show, the band mingled with the kids in-between breaking down their equipment. Sweaty, shirtless Dave Blood, ever the bassist, stayed on the outskirts of the adulation, cracking out a huge grin and damp handshake anytime a fan approached him. He took all the time in the world with each and every person, including two stupid kids from the Rose City.

The Dead Milkmen website has a message board thread for anyone to post their memories of Dave. Is there anyone that doesn't have a fond Dead Milkmen memory?

posted by Steven at 2:19 PM

 
Free Comic Thursday - Sody Pop



"You know how he hates Yeah-Yeah music!"

Ever have one of those weeks where a certain topic keeps popping up out of the blue, whereas in times past it was rarely mentioned? I've been hearing a lot about John Kricfalusi's animation studio Spumco lately, largely because their Canadian affiliate is located here in Ottawa.

Nearly a decade back, between the time they lost then regained Ren and Stimpy, Spumco released a few tabloid-sized comic books, appropriately entitled Spumco's Comic Book. Beautiful things, written and drawn by the animators themselves. If you've ever seen any of Spumco's work, the content was just about as gross as you'd expect.

At the Ottawa International Animation Festival a few years back, I asked Kricfalusi, who had gone on record as saying that he enjoyed the hell out of doing these comics, whether he would ever consider producing more. "Nah. There's no money in comics", was his reply.

It's a beautiful day, and I'm in a bouncy mood. In service to Mankind, here's a short Spumco strip starring Sody Pop.

As a bonus, you can very nearly read the entire first issue of Spumco's Comic Book. Unfortunately, the Waybackmachine being what it is, the story cuts out at page 56. When you hit that wall, you can continue on from here to the end, but I've been unable to find page 62 at all. Venture at your own risk!

Hey, what do you want for free?

posted by Steven at 2:17 PM

 
Long on work, short on time

Shane Glines' new message board offers up some lovely drawings by Disney animator Freddie Moore.

Mark Evanier comes through again with a link to the official Archie tribute for Rudy Lapick.

According to the mailing list from the greatest comic shop in the world, The Beguiling, Grant Morrison will be coming to Hog Town in May. Get on the mailing list by writing to mail@beguiling.com and keep tabs on all sorts of wonderful Toronto comic happenings.

Condolences to David Fiore on the passing of his kitty. I'm sure The Husk was happy to have people who loved him holding tight right up to the end. Take care, David.
posted by Steven at 10:17 PM

 
Dish Pigs Unite - A Street Angel review



There aren't enough expletives in this world to convey the pure joy Street Angel brings me.

Just in the nick of time, I received a preview copy of Street Angel from creators Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, a comic published by Slave Labor Graphics which I've been anticipating for months now. The real deal comes out tomorrow in finer comic shops everywhere.

The first issue introduces the reader to 13-year old Jesse Sanchez, a scrawny skateboarding street kid who can kick your ass and all your friends' asses, but can't manage to get a decent meal inside her or any measure of respect from the people she saves. She rides in Wilkesborough, a run down subsection of Angel City, a kind of ghetto toybox where every guilty pleasure you've ever secretly obsessed over rubs shoulders with the mundane. Fellow Street Angel booster Grotesque Anatomy mentions that one of the nice touches to this issue is Street Angel losing a shoe, which she goes without for several pages of vicious ninja combat. What he may not have noticed is that her sock has a hole in it, even on the front cover. I can relate. In fact, I can relate to the whole shebang. Worrying as much about washing dishes for a living as saving the world, shirts vs. skins ninja basketball playing, insidious death traps. It's like coming home.

The design on this book is striking, from the irregular choice of colour for the cover, to the varying number of panels per page and their placement. The razor-sharp timing of Street Angel serves up large dollops of comedy, action and even pathos admist all the background gags and other assorted "chicken fat". Most of all, its the kind of fun that is rarely seen in "comics" anymore, a sweet bar brawl between realism and the absurd, neither giving way to the other. It's rare that a writer and artist team fuse their work so seamlessly, so soon. It's no wonder that the art and writing duties aren't separated in the credits, as it's practically impossible to tell where one ends and one begins. I'm not a great admirer of the writer/artist divide, preferring comics with one sole cartoonist at the helm, but if more writer/artist books ended up like this one, I'd be a convert pretty damn quick.

The only quibble I have with the comic has already been brought up by many, and defended by the creators themselves. Twice. The back cover. I've sent a link of the preview to a number of people, and that's invariably the first thing they mention, eventually coming around to talk about the rest of the book itself. To put a positive spin on it, my main reason for disliking the back cover is that Rugg and Maruca have established such a strong voice and visuals in Street Angel that apeing another artist, even as a joke, temporarily takes the reader out of the experience. In other words, they're at least as good, if not better, then many of the artists they parody or plan on parodying. I suppose it's only fair to the competition that a title this good should have even the smallest blemish. Levels the playing field. Just a little.



I grew up on the tail end of the dominance of newstand comics, and part of the excitement in buying comics has always been the suspense of not knowing exactly what I'm going to be getting, or if my favourite comic will even be there when I plan on purchasing it. To that end, I have never had a pull list or preordered a comic through my local shop. Ever.

There's a first time for everything. Upon reading the short internet preview of Street Angel a couple of months ago, I headed down to the comic book shop and preordered a copy. I asked them if they were going to be ordering any copies for themselves, and they assured me that they usually get a few copies of any interesting indies that come down the pike (to their credit, they do). I told them to order me a second copy, and in the unlikely event that they didn't get any in for themselves, I'd be happy to donate my extra to give Street Angel a presence on the shelves. The clerk asked me if it was really that good. I assured him it was. If they do order their own, maybe I'll take my extra down to the skate shop.

Still not convinced? Here's the inside-back cover description for Street Angel's next action-packed issue.

Human Sacrifices, the Incan Empire, Conquistadors, Pirates, Ninjas, Inti, the Sun God, Time-Warps, Charlotte's Web, a Rocket Crash in the Middle of Wilkesborough, and everyone's favorite homeless, skateboarding super hero(ine) - Jesse Sanchez, a.k.a. STREET ANGEL!

Pick up the first issue tomorrow at your local, and if they don't have it, demand it, because otherwise you'll be kicking yourself. You don't deserve a comic this fun, but get it anyway.
posted by Steven at 2:09 PM

 
Work Safe Once More

Imagine my distress when I discovered that people could get into trouble while reading my blog at work. At first I didn't know what the big deal was, having cropped the images to cover everything but bare bums. I put the question to J. She looked at me like I was an idiot, and assured me that my blog was not at all work safe. Chalk it up to ignorance and being raised in a community where strippers take it all off.

I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable with the nudity that has run rampant on this blog these past few weeks. I have taken measures to replace all those images with pictures of my kitties, and I will strive to be more careful and attentive to the needs of others in the future. Unfortunately, this also means that I cannot show the naked comic reading picture of myself, taken just this weekend. This especially saddens me, since homoerotic content in this blog is surely lacking. As a replacement, and as penance, to the left you will find a picture of me wearing a shredded wheat box on my head. Enjoy!


posted by Steven at 2:47 PM

 
Good Grief!

I'm in Montreal celebrating my impending doom (ie. my birthday), so blogging is even lighter than usual this weekend. Just wanted to share a quote found in my brand spanking new collection of Li'l Folks gag panels by Charles "Sparky" Schulz (for which I gave a not-so-subtle hint about it's value as a potential gift in a previous post), provided by the wonderfully thoughtful J.

"The most terrifying loneliness is not experienced by everyone," Schulz once observed, "and can be understood by only a few. I compare the panic in this kind of loneliness to the dog we see running frantically down the road pursuing the family car. He is not really being left behind, for the family knows it is to return, but for that moment in his limited understanding, he is being left alone forever, and he has to run and run to survive."

Is it any wonder why Schulz is my favourite cartoonist of all time? These early gag panels of his are surprisingly funny and well-executed for someone so early in his career. It's a beautiful book, jam-packed with annotations and parallels to future Peanuts strips, samples of which are provided for comparison. Schulz raided his earlier material so much it's no wonder he didn't want these panels published. Hopefully I'll return to it here when I've read it more thoroughly. I'm so damned excited!
posted by Steven at 1:20 AM