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The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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Breakdowns – Con Carney Another SDCC has come and gone, and in many ways it was one of my favorites. It's always fun to socialize with my comics friends, whom I don't get to see any other time. It was also great to see so many people who were actively involved in creating art of some kind, rather than just talking about it like so many of us do, or what's really silly: talking about those who talk about art. But before I get to those Comic-Con reminiscences, I will, in fact, talk a little about art. Carl Is the Awesome and Mercury Lounge by Manuel Perez are some attractively packaged black-and-white mini-comics, each reflecting a different side of Perez. Carl is a series of boastful comics about a suave reptile who gets on well with the ladies. They're somewhere in the PG-13 category, full of ridiculous advice for the fellas about how to be as cool as Carl. I got some good chuckles out them. Mercury is a slice-of-lifer about a young man, presumably Perez, going out with friends, meeting a cute girl, giving her one of his Carl comics, and making a connection with it. There's nothing more to it than that, but the pacing and art are good, and if it's meant to show the "sensitive" side of Perez, it's a modest success. Cliff Face Comics Keeping Two #1 by Jordan Crane was one of the comics I picked up at SDCC. I'm a latecomer to Crane's work, apart from The Last Lonely Saturday, which now seems to have been done in a somewhat atypical (or merely outdated now) style for Crane, judging from this and the other books I bought. The story concerns a young couple and the challenges their marriage faces in the wake of the stillbirth of their first child. Crane's delicate line is used to excruciatingly good effect in depicting the baby, as well as the phantom shape of it being carried around by the grief-stricken husband. The ending, which quite suddenly and simply informs the reader that this tragedy may drive a destructive wedge between the couple, is a triumph of compact storytelling and knowing when to end the chapter. It's a cliffhanger of human proportions. $3.00. Reddingk. Rocketo #0 by Frank Espinosa is an unqualified success, an exhilarating blast of pulp adventure and mythology that looks to be Speakeasy's most unique, unfettered comic yet. In Espinosa's world, Lucerne, Rocketo Garrison and his dog-faced sidekick Spiro roam the land and sea for adventure, this time running into the beautiful but deadly Sirens of Alkinoos. The book is laid out sideways, offering Espinosa extra room horizontally, but he still crams a lot of story in each page rather than going for widescreen effects. Rather than filling the panels with detail, his line is more suggestive than representative, thick brushstrokes in a meaningful relationship with coloring reminiscent of 50s commercial illustration and children's books. It's maybe a little too busy to really grab kids, but I look to Espinosa to continue to refine himself. As it is, Darwyn Cooke fans should definitely check this one out, as should any fan of quality boys adventure stories. Good logo, too—very striking. Speakeasy Comics. $2.99 Where Hats Go by Kurt Wolfgang is a sweet, somewhat overlong graphic novel about a young man's misadventures trying to find his beloved grandfather's hat, given to him by his grandmother when he died, which blew off his head and floated away somewhere in the cold, inhospitable city. Helping him is a kindhearted girl he first avoids, then tolerates, and finally falls for. Wolfgang's style isn't quite as overwhelmingly cute as those of Craig Thompson or Jordan Crane, which is good, but the unabashedly sentimental tone still wins out. Despite my sarcastic nature, I happen to be a reader who would rather have more of these sweet little comics, so I didn't mind a bit. Kurt Wolfgang (best I could find; also try Jordan Crane, as the edition I read was included as a separate graphic novel in the large package of NON NO. 5). Though I live in San Diego County, I have neither the time nor funds to hit all four or five days of SDCC. However, I did see friends Thursday night who came for it; attended Friday by myself; and Saturday with my five-year-old son--his first time. Here's a smattering of thoughts: Had good times with Marc Mason, Matt Maxwell, Joe Rybandt, and Hannibal Tabu as the kind of core group, with some time spent hanging/chatting with Dirk Deppey, Anthony Bozzi, John Layman, Steven Grant and various Speakeasy work-for-hire grunts like myself. Hannibal and Bozzi were very kind Friday, helping me find my parking garage at 2:00 a.m. on a street full of similar ones. In fact, if you've ever met Bozzi, you'll probably walk away with a good feeling. We even set off an alarm, and when we finally found the right one, the metal arm was down, so the car should have stayed overnight. However, it proved easy to lift with no damage. Wish me luck that I don't get some kind of ticket or bill. So far, so good. If you attend and end up, like many, at the Hyatt's Redfields bar, ignore the main bar and go to the second one, as the service is infinitely better. The Top of the Hyatt is even better, and it's quieter, but if you're the last two guys left, like Rybandt and myself, it looks a little gay. Just sayin'. I mean, I did gayer stuff at other times, but intentionally. I paid no attention to any announcements aside from reading that one about Darwyn Cooke doing the Spirit, which will probably be fun but like many, I'd prefer original stuff from Cooke. He, by the way, is, along with Jeph Loeb and Joe Quesada, one of the easiest pros to recognize, I think. Quesada was hangin' with Liefeld, by the way. Never saw Bendis, if he was here. Grant Morrison and his girlfriend don't look as good in real life, or maybe that wasn't even them? I may have come on to Layman, but he's just so cuddly. I heard some good dirt here and there, but can't really reveal anything. Nothing earth-shaking. As far as the news that has come out, exclusive contracts and old properties getting revamped and big celebrities writing comics seemed to be the order of the day, and none of that really excites me, nor do unusual team-up stories. Nothing is definitive yet on my work for Speakeasy, but if and when the current core books do well enough to merit a next wave of series, my artist might be a guy who's done work for DC very recently. Not a huge name but you'd know it, and think he's pretty good. I'd certainly be happy to have him on the team. Nice guy, very tall, and very sharp incisors. He already gave me feedback on my Superunknown #1 script, which, while I wasn't really asking for it, wasn't bad. He liked it but had a decent idea for rearranging some things for a different effect. It would knock out the first effect I was going for, but might be better. Still, I'm not doing much until I know the book is going forward. Kyle Baker is a very nice guy to chat with, and he says that Nat Turner #1 went 48 pages for $3.00 only because he didn't think it had enough going on at the planned 32. The remaining three issues will vary in length and he has to get it all done by December, in order to have a collection out for Black History Month, probably a hardcover. He did a nice sketch for my son, basically Plastic Man in the shape of Sylvester the Cat. Johnny Ryan's MAD issue with the FF story is apparently out on the stands, but he feels his new limited edition Comic Book Holocaust is his best work yet. It's $10 for his brutal spoofs of altcomics such as Ghost World, Schizo, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Locas, La Perdida and many others, often in decent imitations of the various cartoonists' styles. Lots of poo-poo jokes in there, though. My guess is that half the cartoonists pay no attention; and the half that do are amused, kind of like being roasted. I'd never attended the Quick Draw panel before, and it was as fun as I expected. Mark Evanier emcees and offers suggestions and corrals them from the audience, while Kyle Baker, Scott Shaw and Sergio Aragones have to draw what's suggested, get people (like voiceover legend Gary Owens) to guess the secret words, etc. Jeff Smith took over for Baker later in the show, and he's a good guy but nowhere near as good a gag cartoonist. Shaw was good, and amazing at drawing Hanna-Barbera characters--10 in under five minutes--but Sergio was clearly the man, just amazing and always funny. I really wanted my son to see actual art being made, rather than just buying toys or seeing videogames or whatever. He got bored by the end, but was pretty impressed by most of it. We came up with some superhero ideas over dinner tonight as well, like Firecrab (he's only five). I was pretty worried about taking him, as far as the amount of walking, waiting, and the crowds, but if you preregister, and take pedicabs, and take a break for a show like the above, it works out fine. Aside from the one drunken episode, it was a great Con this year. One thing seeing Scott Shaw and some other pros did is help me appreciate them a bit more. I mean, I remember slamming Shaw for his Eisner emceeing a couple years ago, and yeah, I don't care for it, but put a pen in the guy's hand and he's sensational. And I kind of felt bad for Gene Colan, not bothered in Artist's Alley, trying to sell this TwoMorrows book about him that looked flimsy and reproduced his art at practically thumbnail size. He had some gorgeous original pages for sale, though, but I'm not ready for that stuff yet. Condolences to the family of Jeff Parker--I understand from Steve Lieber that Jeff's father just passed away, which is why Jeff wasn't there. The only not-so-great experience was at Steve "The Dude" Rude's booth, where he was selling the nice-looking Commissions 2005 book, said commissions I guess being a big source of revenue for him at this point, as well as a dvd of the few minutes of old Nexus animation he had done. Oh, and there was a trade of The Moth, too. I was going to get it but was a little low on money that day (Friday) and it was still early. I can fully understand that Steve is too big an artist to do free sketches, so no problem there, but it was a little weird that he just sat there, not looking at me, while a woman I presume is his wife did all the talking about how Steve is only doing five a day, and he's behind, and it's $50 for a b&w, etc. I understand, artists don't necessarily want to be salesmen, but it was still a little odd. I just thought, hmm, even if I was famous, I wouldn't do that. I mean, Neal Adams doesn't do sketches, I'm sure, but he'll talk your ear off about why he won't, I'm sure, and Rude will never be as famous as Neil Adams. And for that matter, Kyle Baker is as famous as Rude, I think, and won a freakin' Eisner the night before, and he did a sketch for me. So, no anti-Rude stuff here; just not the greatest experience. Overall, a really fun time, though.
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