Random Crap

Note: Due to things beyond my control, I had to combine two months worth of Random Crap articles into one article. The new year started off with a bang and has not let up. The fifth issue of "Detective Comics" in the "New 52" already has 100,000 orders and it came out at the beginning of January. Hopefully you will be able to find one if you are interested in the book. There were also four separate printings of the first issue and that is the most of an issue with non-variant covers in the "New 52." I would not buy this book to sell back later like most market speculators were doing with the first issues of the books and instead keep it and read it. If you want to slab it then by all means do so, but I would wait a while to try to sell it.

Fun with Tablets

If you are a fledgeling artist and don't like going through stacks and stacks of paper just to work on your drawing skills you need an alternative. There are the $1200-$2500 screen tablets that you can get, but most of you out there cannot afford that. You may be well off, but not that well off. I found this article on Bleeding Cool about tablet screen alternatives. There are two options that you could go with. Option one requires looking at YouTube videos and hoping that the instructions are good enough that you can do it with a minimum of fuss. I don't know how much this option will cost, and the money you save will probably go into the time spent trying to get the thing working properly. Option two is the tablet option. The second option only works so far with the iPad, but I am sure some savvy reader out there could find the apps (or program said apps) for the Android Tablets, and point everyone in the right direction. First you would have to invest a minimum of $500 on an iPad (roughly half of what a low end screen tablet would cost) then you would have to download a few apps that range in price from 99 cents to 10 dollars. You will also need to buy a FOAM TIP stylus for use with the iPad. The rubber ones just don't work as well. "Ten dollars! That's a lot for an app!" You may say. All I have to say to you about that is would you rather pay the money to get one of the screen tablets? I thought so. Let's continue shall we. Looking at the article, you only really need three apps. One for bitmap drawing, one for vector drawing and one called pages to lay out everything. Minimum price on the apps $12-$14 total. I know it is not the same as getting something like Angry Birds for free, but it is a small price to pay for being able to do artwork on the go. Plus you don't have to worry about killing a tree buying paper to practice on or wasting good paper on doing a commission that may be screwed up by negligence or just getting lost in the USPS/Fed Ex/UPS machine.

"New 52" Casualties

The first cancellations of books from DC's "New 52" came down in January and some were a surprise while the others were not. The canceled books are "Men of War", "Static Shock", "Blackhawks", "OMAC", "Hawk and Dove" and "Mister Terrific." The cancellation of the books "Men of War", "Static Shock" and "OMAC" are no surprise because I made comments about them possibly being canceled right after the first two months of sales figures came out. "Hawk and Dove" was a shock when I saw it on the list because Rob Liefield has an medium sized fanbase and the book was actually done pretty well. I guess his fanbase is not big enough to support a monthly ongoing book. "Mister Terrific" I have only read the first issue of and while it did not bowl me over, it did not make me regret spending that three dollars on the book either. "Blackhawks" is probably being canceled due to sales and nothing more. I have not read the book either so I cannot comment on anything other than the sales reports that I read monthly on web sites. The books are being replaced by six new books. Those books are "GI Combat" which is an anthology book that will have stories including "GI Combat" as well as "The Unknown Soldier" and "The Haunted Tank." I might get this one, but they have to really grab my attention with something beyond a decent creative team. I loved the Vertigo "The Haunted Tank" limited series DC put out several years ago about a tank crew in the run up to the invasion of Iraq back in 2003. "Batman Incorporated" is the next title filling a hole in the line up. This one will be done by (wait for it, wait for it) Grant Morrison as writer (Gaah!) and Chris Burnham as artist. Well DC, you have pretty much turned me off that comic because you put Grant Morrison on it. Because I promised you, the reader, that I would not talk about Grant Morrison I'm just going to leave it at that. My only question to the editors at DC Comics is; Do you really need another Batman book? You already have the likes of "Batman", "Detective", "Batman and Robin" and "Batman the Dark Knight" and those are just the ones that feature Batman. There's also "Batgirl" (a great book), "Batwoman", "Nightwing", "Batwing" and "Catwoman" as members of the bat family. That makes 9 out of 52 (or 17.3%) of the books you put out in a given month Batman related in one way or another. Now you want to tack on another one. I can see maybe adding another Superman or Green Lantern book to the line up, but why super-saturate the market with the Batman family of books? "Justice Society" is filling a void. This one will be based on a super hero group set in Earth Two by James Robinson and Nicola Scott. It looks like people got their wish of a Justice Society book in the "New 52," too bad it has to be set on Earth-2. I thought the whole thing about Flashpoint was that they were going to merge all the universes into one and not bother having other universes like Earth-2 to make everything nice and neat and readable. Looks like I was wrong. "Worlds Finest" is up next and instead of the usual Batman and Superman stories, they have gone the female route with Power Girl and Huntress. They will be stuck in the "New 52" universe and trying to find a way back to Earth-2. The book is being written by Paul Levitz with the art being handled by George Perez and Kevin Maguire in alternating arcs. Looks like we have an antidote to the whole sexy women being used as objects for men to lust after like in the "Catwoman" series. To fill a horror void in the line up, the book "Dial H" is being added to the line up. Based on the 1960's book "Dial H for Hero" it will deal with the psychological effects of a normal person gaining super powers. The book is being written by British author China Mieville with art from Wolverine's Mateus Santoluoco with covers by Brian Bolland. I know very little about the book "Dial H for Hero" so I might give this a shot depending on how it is presented. The last one is "The Revengers" which I guess is DC's answer to Marvel's "Runaways" because it is based on the idea of four teenage superheroes that are on the run from an evil organization that wants to turn them into supervillians. The books are done by two comic icons of the 1990's, Howard Mackie (writer) and Ian Churchill (artist). The book will spin out of the continuity of both "Teen Titans" and "Superboy." All of the new books will start in May while the last issues of the canceled books will be out in April.

A BFA in Sequential Art?

According to this link on Bleeding Cool, a "University" in Salt Lake City, Utah is offering a first of its kind Bachelor's of Fine Arts (BFA) in Sequential Art. In other words they are offering a BFA in comic books. I put the term University in quotes to describe this place because it is one of those for profit schools where your credits earned may or may not transfer to another institution of higher learning. I went to their web site where they have very little information on what kinds of classes that you would be taking throughout your four years there and if you already have credits from an institution in another state, would they transfer to this school or would you have to start over from square one. They do have the price. The tuition for four years (not including board, books or supplies) is over $73,000. I'm going to let that soak in a moment.   Done or do we need more time?   I'll give you a bit more time to let things soak in.       Good, now that we have our outrage and shock out of the way let us look at some of the alternatives. If you want to learn this sort of thing there are other routes to go. On the back or inside pages of some of the DC Comics "New 52" that I get there is an advertisement for the Kubert School in New Jersey. It may not be a BFA, but they have a pedigree of graduates and have been around since the 1980's or earlier, and while the cost may be the same at least you are learning from someone in the field that has worked for a major company and offers room and board with that cost. You could also go the Community/Junior College to a real university route. You may not get a BFA in sequential art from the classes, but you will be paying a lot less for the classes that you attend in your area and when you go on to a state school and you live in that state, tuition is much lower. You get a well rounded education in not only Fine Art, but also in things like English, History, Government, Mathematics, Social Science and Physical Science that help you along your path to becoming a college graduate and getting a good job. You may also think that you want to be an artist who paints and draws. but you might get involved in a ceramics class and find that you enjoy making things out of clay and the challenges of using glazes and firing them and getting the right result might entail. You might be forced to take an Art Metals class since it is the only class left open in a slot you have to fill and find you like being hands on in making jewelry. I saw some of the work that was made by the Art Metals classes this past semester at Brookhaven College and they do some really exquisite work with some left over copper or silver and some lesser jewels like birthstones when they make their projects. You could always do the painting and drawing route if you want to do comic books and graphic novels since those are the basic skills you need to draw. You don't need to go dropping $73,000 to learn how to draw a comic book. You could always just skip college altogether and just teach yourself how to draw with books you check-out from the library and lots of practice. That is by far the cheapest way to learn. All it costs you is time, pencils and paper. Then as you get better, you can go to major conventions like San Diego and have your work evaluated by editors from all the major companies, and who knows, you might just land a deal to do a comic book that goes on to change the world.

Lucas Retires

In the middle of January George Lucas announced that once he gets his involvement in Indiana Jones 5 out of the way he is going to retire from making blockbuster movies and go back to his art house roots. He said he was doing it because he was tired of hearing people gripe to him about how he has ruined things in the Star Wars universe. Let me be the first to say that I never thought that and never have and never will. If anything, the Expanded Universe books and comics have ruined Star Wars for me because of the introduction of things that take the cool idea of The Force and sweep the legs out from under it. I am looking at you Yuhzan Vong and Ysalamiri and the authors that introduced them as the big culprits of this ruining of The Force. It's like these authors were trying to introduce something they thought was cool that was essentially a plot device (Ysalamiri) or an idea an author had from one of their own works and shoehorned it in to the Star Wars Universe (Yuhzan Vong). Anyway enough of me trying to air my grievances with the Star Wars Expanded Universe and back to the subject at hand, George Lucas retiring. I think he has earned the right to go off and do whatever the heck he wants. He has produced six great Star Wars movies, had a hand in four Indiana Jones movies and has helped with several other movies, like the recently released Red Tails, and has added so much to popular culture that I don't know where to begin. If the man says he wants to go back to art house films that will be seen by a smaller audience, and allow him a certain amount of freedom then I don't blame him. If it will get the fanboys off his back about how the prequel trilogy ruined Star Wars and give them something else to talk about then I am sure that is good with him. Depending on how out there these ideas he has for movies are; I might go out and see one of them. If I were Lucas though, I would first take a few years off and think nothing about movies and just enjoy being with family and all the moments that you are going to get to see now that you don't have to be in Africa shooting Tattooine scenes; graduations and birthdays and just being with your partner Mellody Hobson can do wonders to recharge your batteries. Just let others handle things on The Clone Wars and other projects you may have on the horizon for Star Wars. When I felt ready, I would go back into the world of movies and start my projects.

Star Wars Television Show

Right around the time Revenge of the Sith was in theaters there was a rumor floating around the internet that Lucas was going to do a live action Star Wars show for television. Not a lot was going around about it other than bits and pieces that may or may not have been true. Well in a recent interview Rick McCollum let slip some of the details for the television show. First, it was be called "Star Wars Underworld" and deal with the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It would focus on characters that are part of the shady underworld that operates in the Star Wars universe. Second, there has been something on the order of 50 hour long scripts that have been approved to shoot whenever the project is greenlit. That is about the equivalent of two full seasons of the show which is really good if a network wants something that can be a cash cow. Third, some of the characters would be Computer Generated and most of the effects would be too. Well, that is something that you would expect for a Star Wars show. Fourth and this is a biggie, the show would cost somewhere on the order of $5,000,000 an episode to produce. I know that some shows that are on television right now cost about $1,000,000 an episode to shoot (and most of that is salary for the stars), but $5,000,000 per episode is something that is mini-series cost. They say they are waiting for the technology to do the effects for the show to get better and come down in price before they can get the show going. Would I watch a Star Wars live action series? Maybe. I know it would be something aimed at the more adult audience since it is dealing with the underworld and all that that entails. I think the only things that may be holding this back from production other than the cost per episode is finding a network to run it on and second getting people over their dislike of the new trilogy. The only way I can see the show not being a hit is if it is on a network most of us would have to pay extra to get like HBO or Showtime.

Marvel + Lawsuit = Internet Up In Arms

Back in the middle of February it was announced that Ghost Rider Co-Creator Gary Friedrich had settled a lawsuit with Marvel Comics over his sales of prints, t-shirts and other things that he had produced while claiming that he was the sole creator of the character Ghost Rider. The damage was $17,000 over the past six years or so. The internet was so up in arms about this whole situation that word spread to all artists on the internet that might be doing commissions of Marvel characters that they should stop doing Marvel characters as commissions. The person spearheading this drive had talked to their lawyer and they said that Marvel could put out Cease and Desist (C&D) letters at every artists table at a convention and if the artist violated that letter by doing a commission of a Marvel character then they could be sued. This led me to take down a picture on my Blog that I had just done a few days before of the Marvel comics character Phoenix for fear of a lawsuit by Marvel/Disney. Disney had gone after small child care centers in the past because they had painted Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on their walls without permission of the Walt Disney Company, and I don't have the money right now to hire a lawyer to defend me against Marvel/Disney and their law juggernaut. Looking at it after having some facts presented to me a day later in an interview on the Comic Book Resources web site, I had overreacted about the whole situation. Marvel was not going to go after professional artists who might do commissions in an Artists Alley, but they went after Gary Friedrich because he was taking sole credit for creating Ghost Rider at conventions and the art he had mass produced and put on T-shirts and so forth was not his. I have since put the Phoenix art back on my blog, but if I receive a C&D letter from Marvel then I will remove it. I think that interview did something to calm down the flames of this whole situation on the internet, but there are still artists out there that are concerned with doing commissions of Marvel Comics characters. After I read that interview on CBR I came to understand that if you do a one off sketch at a convention for money than that is okay (it hits that sort of fuzzy gray area), but if you mass produce something with a Marvel character on it, and what you made comes to Marvel's attention then you could be sued.

What's the Fuss?

Back in the first week of January I picked up some of the DC Comics "New 52" issue number ones that I have been meaning to try. They also were on some of the controversial books lists at the end of 2011 so I figured I would check them out and see what the fuss was all about. The controversial comics were Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Nothing in those was shocking. Yes there was Bat and Cat coitus in one and a mention of coitus in the other, but I actually found both books to be rather good reads. Catwoman because it was packed with just the right amount of action for a first issue, but it lacked a lot of an introduction to the plot. Something about Russian Mobsters or something like that was all I could suss out. It was not enough to get me to pick up the rest of the issues as singles, but with the trade being a cheap pre-order on Amazon I'll get it there and if I don't like where it is going then I can sell it to a used book store and someone can get better use of it. I just don't get all the internet comic fanboy hate for Judd Winick. He's an okay storyteller from what I have read of his in the past, and I do admit that the sex scene at the end of the first issue of Catwoman was unnecessary, but it was not too graphic. I think it was a rated T book and it's not like teenagers have read or seen anything worse on television, in movies or in books. The first issue of Red Hood and the Outlaws was a good introduction to what was going on, and it started off with an action sequence and did not let up for about the first half of the book. The second half of the book was all mellow on the beach of some tropical island in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico but I want to know what the hell that spirit or whatever Red Hood was talking to on the beach said that led him to what we saw at the end of the issue. The book does have my favorite Tamaran Princess, Starfire, that I have had a crush on since I was teenager. Then there was the sub-plot that had the kid posting a picture of Starfire in her bikini on DC's equivalent to Facebook and some guy on the mainland of the United States scanning the internet for pictures of aliens finding it. There was a cliff hanger end to the issue, but it was not enough to make me go out and buy the rest of the issues up to this point. Although a trade paperback from Amazon might be in my future.

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Enjoy Comics

Back in the first week of January, I saw that there was a horror/noir comic that was being recommended by several of the comic book web sites that I frequent and I thought I should check it out. I have been meaning to go beyond the usual super hero and licensed comics and into something more independent. When I went to the comic book store that Thursday; I picked it up and set it aside after not being in the mood for whatever the book was offering after reading the first few pages. The book that all the sites were talking about back in January, that is now on its third issue is Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips and is published by Image Comics. I only got around to reading the first issue in February, and not having read anything by Brubaker before, I'm kind of wondering if this is his usual kind of story or is this something new for him. The book starts off in modern times with a character at a funeral for the character's godfather who was also the writer of bad mysteries. There he meets a woman who seems to know the man. The night after the funeral the character is going through the godfather's things and he finds a manuscript for something the man wrote three years before he was first published. He notices some men coming up the driveway with guns, and tries to make an escape. He encounters the same woman who he met at the funeral who kills the men who have just come into the house. They escape through the forest and into her sports car. They end up being followed by an airplane that crashes and forces them off an ocean side road. The man wakes up in a hospital five days later with the manuscript in his possession, but he's missing a leg. We then get into the meat of the book which takes place in1956 where all sorts of things happen. The father of the man who has lost a leg encounters a woman who looks a lot like the woman we saw at the funeral. They discuss something in vague terms and then we jump to a gruesome crime scene in a house where multiple people have been murdered in a variety of ritualistic ways. One of the Police Detectives says he has seen something like this before during World War II in Romania. There are mentions of nightmares in the next few pages that are haunting three of the people. The book ends with one of the men going to an opium den in the city's Chinatown district when he is confronted by a couple of shady characters and he tells them that he has some information for their boss. The art on the book, done by Sean Phillips is great with just the right amount of realism for my taste. There are some gruesome things in this book that may not be appropriate for young adults under 17 and I'm guessing that is why it was given a M rating on the back of the book. The writing by Ed Brubaker has gotten me deeply involved in this world of 1956 San Francisco after only one issue and that is saying something. There is some cussing in the book, but it is perfectly justified since it is pretty much in the part where the police find the house with the bodies, and if you don't think the police cuss 17 ways from Sunday at a crime scene then you are living a sheltered life. This book has gotten me over my fear of some things horror. It's not that I am going to go out and buy the Friday the 13th series of films on DVD or anything, but this has gotten me wanting to read more of this series. The series seems to have some sort of supernatural bent to it because in the back of the issue there are a couple of prose pages all about H.P. Lovecraft. All I know about Lovecraft is that he made up something about He Who Cannot be Named, and all I know about that is what I have been able to glean from internet message boards. That's all for this month. Look for more in April.

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