Baltimore Comic-Con: looking in the rearview mirror

                                                                         

Part 1

The Baltimore Comic-con took place a little over a week ago.  And Dan and Matt and I set up in Artists Alley with our wares – copies of Warrior27, Mainelining, and Reading Watchmen, among a few other things.  So, how did it go?

First – the older I get, the more that fact becomes obvious during these 12-hour drives Dan and I endure to attend these conventions.  (when you live in Maine, going anywhere means you have to drive for a while, but there’s nowhere you can’t get to within five hours, so twelve can come off as a bit ridiculous).  But we love these shows, so it isn’t that big a sacrifice.  I just wish we didn’t have to do the overnight drive immediately after the show ends (and, to be fair, the traffic isn’t as bad when you’re traveling at night, so we got home at 4:30, eleven and a half hours after departing, rather than the standard twelve from Maryland to the heart of Maine).

Second – sales were soft, to say the least.  I saw a lot of dead areas in Artists Alley when I got a chance to trawl down the aisles.  One of those happened to be directly in front of our table.  We sold a few things, made back a little less than half our table fee, but we didn’t do nearly as well as we have, in the past, at the Small Press Expo.  I talked to a number of other creators who had similar things to say.  A couple of really talented artists I know, who have a larger profile than myself and Dan and Matt, were not happy with their sales.  They weren’t going to be able to cover costs, and one of these guys had a book published through a small press publisher earlier this year.  Odd. 

But here’s the thing.  As “indy-friendly” as Baltimore is said to be – and I can’t outright deny that, as I know a couple of other guys in Artists Alley who had good shows – it really is a show for fans of Big-2 comics and their creators.  With retailers at the front of the hall offering longboxes full of Marvel and DC comics, along with books from other, smaller publishers, and writers and artists such as Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Amanda Conner, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Jim Starlin, Frank Cho, Mike Mignola, Art & Franco, Ramona Fradon, Justin Jordan, Rob Venditti, Sean Murphy, et al. available to meet with their fans, this show is heavily geared toward the mainstream comic fan.  And with as much of the market share as is taken up by those two publishers, it makes sense.  That means it’s even harder for the “little guy” to succeed at this show, unless they’re pushing zombies, which does not seem to be a fad that has yet to run out of steam.

The nice thing about doing these shows with Dan, and Matt this year, is the fact that none of us is tied to the table.  We can give each other a breather and allow for opportunities to stretch our legs, maybe do some shopping, peruse the tables of other Artists Alley exhibitors, and do the fan service thing.   Dan and Matt did some of the former, with Dan managing to fill in some more of the dwindling holes in his Batman collection and Matt picking up some cool prints from an artist just down the line from us, while I focused on the latter.  And, to be honest, I was surprised at how easy it was to get to meet some of these creators.  Other than one major exception, which I’ll get to in the next installment, the longest line I got in was for Mark Waid, and that one went very quickly. 

Other creators with whom I spoke included J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, and Kevin Maguire (I got all three to sign my original Justice League collection), Mark Buckingham, who signed two issues from his Miracleman run with Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola (who only had three people in line when I got there o_O seriously?), Justin Jordan, Tradd Moore, and Rob Venditti (who’s been a great guy to talk to at conventions through the years and super-supportive of my writing), Mark Nelson (who drew an Alien in my collection of the original Dark Horse series), Greg Larocque, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, who drew a beautiful Wonder Woman sketch in the front of the sketchbook I purchased from him.  I managed to get some of my favorite books signed and was able to thank the creators for what they’ve done, while also getting the opportunity to speak with some newer creators about writing and comics and various other topics.  All the writers and artists, with a glaring exception I will keep to myself, were very approachable and came across as genuinely pleased to meet their fans.  So, from the point of view of a fan, this show was definitely a success. 

But how would I judge it from the point of view of a writer working to “break in,” as it were?  That’s for next time.

-chris

(You can read more from Chris at Warrior 27.)

Comic Review: Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

    I’ve been hearing about this book for years, and it’s circled around my head as one of those, ‘yeah, I’ll get to it’ titles.  Well, thanks to the graphic novel discussion group I belong to, my hand was forced and I’m glad of it.  This is the first volume of at least five, and though I have every intention of doing so, I have yet to read further.  Welcome to Lovecraft sets up a lot, hints at a lot, and reveals some interesting, but mysterious ‘facts.’  By the end of the volume, I was darned curious about a lot.  One question that plagues my mind is whether or not I read too much into the dark haired woman in the well.  With the Lovecraft reference, I ascribed a Nyarlathotep-type background to her, a bringer of chaos, and one of the only Old Ones to purposefully turn its gaze upon humans, to our lasting horror.  She (it?) fits that mold in this first volume, but again, I think I may be reading too much, or too much of the wrong thing, into it.  Time will tell.  Whatever the case, Hill has set up a great many dominos and shaken the table.  I need to read on, to find out how everything falls.

    One thing is a touch off-putting for this reader; the art.  Now, obviously, art is very subjective.  What I like, and what the next Dork likes will never be exactly the same (talk to my co-Dork Brad about the art in Hawkeye and then talk to me…Or don’t).  And it’s not that Gabriel Rodriguez’s work isn’t technically well done.  (Though it’s not my cup of tea, with the big eyes and kind of cartoony look).  It’s more that the art doesn’t feel quite right with the writing.  Maybe it’s intentional, but things look too nice or happy or…well, cartoon-like.  The subject feels more like something that should be in black & white, or in some old Eerie or Tales from the Crypt style of art.  That said, there are some panels I absolutely love.  The look on young Bode’s face when he’s ‘dead.’  Priceless.  And that shot where the woman in the well climbs out…I actually had a cinematic ‘jump’ when I looked at that panel, something that’s never happened to me in a comic before.  It was startling, and shows that I was engaged with the book.

    Personal artistic taste aside, the book is excellent.  I add my voice to all those others that have probably already told you to read Locke & Key.  And someday in the near future I’ll be listening to my own inner voice and I’ll read the next few volumes.  If you like Neil Gaiman or Clive Barker, especially their more ‘urban fantasy’ work, you should get right on Locke & Key.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft
Author: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-160010237-0

-Matt

Comic Reviews: Wonder Woman: Blood & 28 Days Later: London Calling

Wonder Woman Volume 1

    Wonder Woman is one of those characters I really, really want to like.  I mean, I loved the show when I was a kid, and Lynda Carter was one of my childhood crushes.  And I love powerful women who don’t take guff.  What could be better than an Amazon warrior who is strong and brave enough to be one of the three titans of the DC Universe, along with Batman and Superman.  So, why isn’t she a character I like?  Well, it all goes back to writing.  In the old comics, she got tied up in her own rope more often than anything else, ending up at the mercy of her enemies and needing to be rescued by her non-super boyfriend.  In cartoons she usually doesn’t have much personality, taking a back seat to Batman and Superman, and often every other hero to show up.  The TV show?  Well, it doesn’t live up to my childhood memories.  And costume change after costume change, she just never seems to embody the right balance of woman and warrior.  So, when they re-launched the various DC lines with The New 52, put Brian Azzarello on Wonder Woman, and the early reviews were glowing, I was pretty jazzed.  Perhaps they would finally make Wonder Woman the character I know she can be. 

    Alas, no.  Getting past Cliff Chiang’s artwork, which I’m just gonna come right out and say is ugly as sin, the characters all feel like they stepped out of an episode of Xena if it were written by Neil Gaiman.  Everything feels subtly wrong, nothing rings especially true, and when you get right down to it, Wonder Woman has no personality.  As with so many female characters (and none too few male ones), she seems to spend all her time reacting, not acting.

    Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this.  I don’t know.  But I could not get into the book at any point.  I didn’t care what was happening or who it was happening to.  Strife and Hermes literally look like they stepped out of the pages of Sandman (and I know, that comic is beloved, but I do not like it at all).  I genuinely believe this could be a great comic character.  However, once again, I’m disappointed by mediocrity of the handling.  I know Azzarello can write, but he missed the mark on this one.

Wonder Woman Volume 1: Blood
Author: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Cliff Chiang & Tony Akins
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3563-5

28 Days Later Volume 1

    28 Days Later was a movie I enjoyed the heck out of.  Cool apocalyptic adventure in an interesting setting (the UK) with some pretty good characters.  There was a lot of potential for further stories, but when 28 Weeks Later came out, they totally blew it.  Just a bad film, with bad characters.  So, I was never all that excited about Boom!’s tie-in comic series, especially considering how rare it is for a media based comic to be good.

    Color me shocked when I sat down and immediately got right into this volume.   The art pretty rough, but totally fit’s the mood.  The writing isn’t bad, though there are several kind of stupid characters.  But, like Kirkman on The Walking Dead, Michael Alan Nelson isn’t shy about killing and maiming characters, and very, very few make it out of this volume.

    I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than the sequel film, and think that perhaps this is a better place for the story to continue.  I’ll be looking for volume 2 at my local comic shop in the next week or two, I recon.  If you’re a fan of the first film, and enjoy grim appocolyptic stories, or maybe just want something else in the spirit of The Walking Dead, check this one out.  I’ll tell you, Boom! doesn’t always hit the mark, but they sure make the attempt.  And once in a while they do real good.

28 Days Later Volume 1: London Calling
Author Michael Alan Nelson
Artist: Declan Shalvey
Publisher: Boom! Studios
ISBN: 978-1-60886-622-9

-Matt

American Gods Coming to HBO?

Just saw this interesting tidbit about Neil Gaiman's American Gods.  I really enjoyed the book, and HBO seems to be a good hope for an adaptation.  We'll have to wait and see, but this could make for a very cool project. 

-Matt