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On August 23rd I attended the Canadian National
Comic Book Expo in Toronto, organized by
HobbyStar. The convention had some ups and downs
which I would like to share with you in my monthly
column, as well as a book review of an off the
wall comic which at times made me laugh out loud,
and close the book in disgust.
In previous years Toronto's annual comic
convention has had huge line-ups
and long waits, this year was no different. While
it's fantastic that the fan support is definitely
alive and well in the Toronto area, the near hour
long wait (after the convention had already
started) for my non press-pass wearing friends was
irritating. The convention takes place on the
second floor of the metro Toronto convention
center, and only one escalator taking people up
single file can create a bit of a wait. But alas,
nobody wants to read about escalators, do they??
You want to hear about comics, so here goes!
"Freebies" were non-existent this year. The
grab-bag which was given out
after paying a $20 admittance fee was only filled
with flyers and an empty comic bag and board.
There was a special collectors convention edition
of Spectacular Spiderman #1, but it was $10!!! 2
years ago Incredible Hulk #1 was free, for your
information. The lack of freebies, and the lack of support
from the big two is a big negative for the
convention, but the organizers have done very well
with the companies who do make the effort. One
example is the Dreamwave booth which displays new
material and was giving away posters of the new
Transformers/GI Joe series.
Kudos for the organizers for bringing in a big
names like Brian Michael
Bendis. From what I saw, he had a huge line and
was willing to sign multiple copies of books.
Artist alley was a big disappointment this year.
It was extremely short of talent from the big
two and on the day I went, only Dave Ross
(Excalibur, Cloak & Dagger) and Leonard Kirk (JSA)
were on hand for the first half of the day.
Special thanks to Leonard Kirk for an excellent
Jay Garrick sketch he did for me. While I would
have liked to get more sketches done this was
sadly not the case (in previous years Dale
Eaglesham, Darwyn Cook, Denis Rodier, Tim Levins,
Ty Templeton and Stuart Immonen have been present
to sketch).
Conventional wisdom says that if you're going to
a comic convention be
prepared to wait until that last day for the real
deals, and I guess it still must be true because
on Saturday (day 2 of 3), few great deals were to
be had. Most dealers only offered 10% of cover
for trades and few would budge. Toys, however, were
another matter. My friend got the first 4 Kingdom
Come figures for nearly half price!!! This year
marked a huge improvement in the quantity and
selection of statues and action figures. I've
written before about mini-busts, and this
convention pulled no punches for the statue
enthusiast. Most dealers had statues, and some
brought only amazing collectibles which stretched
several years back. My only regret is that I
didn't have more money to bring to the convention!
I'll be the first to admit my lack of knowledge
when it comes to the
independent comic scene. As I walked down artist
alley I thought to myself, "who are some of these
people?" So this year I bought some independent
comics and would like to review one for you,
Laughter of the Damned from AAA Milwaukee
Publishing. I picked up this comic because the
creators (not sure which because each book is
filled with more than one writer and/or artist)
stuck a page in front of my face as I walked by and
told me to read it and to tell him that it's not
funny. Well I read the page, and dammit, it was
hilarious. He handed me another page, it too was
hilarious. In fact even though I don't recall
what was on the page as I type this, I remember
thinking that there hasn't been a comic this funny
crossing my path in a long while. I bought the
first issue. The first half of the issue was
written and illustrated by Douglas Paszkiewicz
about a character named Voodoo Joe, a witch
doctor/hit man who enlists zombie fetuses in his
line of work. The dialogue was witty and the
story was fast paced, however, the subject matter
was extremely mean; Voodoo Joe was enlisted to
help kill a mentally challenged man by his jealous
brother, as it turned out the man, although
successful in life was jealous because his brother
received great praise for even the most menial of
tasks. While I'm not here to censor anything, the
more I read the more I was perturbed by the story.
While it started out being funny, it became about
as comical as cancer. The art was top notch, with
minimal detail and really lent itself to the black
and white format. Funny books always seem to
benefit with that animated look (less detail) and
I really believe the look Paszkiewicz achieved
would really lend itself to the small screen.
The second half of the book by Mark Crnolatas
(writer) and Randy Crider
(artist). Was very similar to 'Voodoo Joe' in
that it started out funny, but quickly
deteriorated into something obscene. The story
was about the fat guys and their quest to get
some easy money. They eventually settle on
pretending to be blind/handicapped and rely on the
pity of others. Oh yes, they also repeatedly make
fun of "retards." The only thing funny was that I
paid $3.50 for this book. The artwork of Crider
is clean and easy to look at, but he needs to stop
using the same facial drawings over and over
again. I think on some pages he drew one face,
and used it every time the character appeared.
Overall, I am glad that Laughter of the Damned is
willing to try and push the envelope, but this
issue pushed it right off a cliff. Insulting
mentally challenged people is in such poor taste
that I may not give them another chance,
especially when the art and the dialogue is so
much better than that.
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