APE 2010: My Super Powers

I can review flyers, right?

Okay, My Super Powers by Neil Brideau, isn't a flyer, but it is a single piece of paper, folded in half, making a four page comic book. Such a format isn't uncommon at the Altnerative Press Expo -- in fact, it's often the norm -- but if you left this little piece of art anywhere else, a layman may incorrectly dub it "a flyer." So, I'm putting it in layman's terms. I'm not a superhero, after all.

Apparently, Neil Brideau is. In fact, he's my kind of superhero: the type with powers anybody can acquire, with enough sheer will. He has out-run the bus he missed. He has a bottom stomach in all-you-can-eat restaurants. Apparently, his hugs are great. See, regular super powers. Like Batman, but without the travel, the fortune, and the perpetual vengeance. So forget Superman or Spawn -- Neil's are the powers that just might save the planet one day.

Seriously, Brideau's strip is a charming little slice of life that boasts a latent love of comics and an appreciation for the minutiae of life. Hey, who cares if it's just one piece of paper? This is the kind of comic absolutely anyone can read, quickly, and happily.

Here's Neil's blog.

APE 2010: Dancing with Jack Ketch: The Life of Jackson Donfaire, Notorious Pirate

I flew into San Francisco on Saturday morning. I returned to Phoenix on Sunday night. Somewhere in between, I had the pleasure of picking up some of the best independent comic books self-published today at the annual Alternative Press Expo, and as is my custom every year, I'd like to review as many of them as I can, albeit in short bursts.

As I read through my swag pile over the next few days, if all of the comics I bought (or traded for) at APE are as good as Josh Shalek's Dancing With Jack Ketch: The Life of Jackson Donfaire, Notorious Pirate, I'm in for a treat. This impressive 40-page minicomic tells the story of, you guessed it, Jackson Donfaire, the son of an escaped slave that manages to elude his would-be masters and stow away on a pirate ship. Through a series of mishaps and twists of fate, Jackson experiences a taste of power, confronts the tragedies of his past, and embraces the promises of his new future.

What I liked best about Josh's story was its historical roots; with a base in early colonial slavery, and a surprisingly down-to-earth portrayal of the classic pirate, one could be led to believe this yarn is spun from real events. Shalek's art betrays a whimsy to his writing style, at times reflecting the style of old Playboy gag panels or The New Yorker comic strips, but his characters offer real depth, just like the ocean to which they're bound. Above all else, Jackson's story is a human one; the pirates stuff is just, well, added treasure.

Josh's work can found at his website, Falling Rock National Park.

Goin' APE!

A special thanks to John Parkin from the blog Robot 6 for his detailed article about this year's Alternative Press Expo at Comic Book Resources, and for including some quotes from yours truly! Not to brag, but one of my quotes was actually used as the article's headline!

If anyone is checking out my humble little blog as a result of that article, drop me a line, and I'll happily send you a complimentary copy of my first solo self-published comic, Karaoke Comics #1. Otherwise, the rest of my self-published work can be found at KaraokeFanboy Press -- and don't forget to check out my K.O. Comix buddy Brent's new dogs vs. cats apocalyptic western, Dog Town, too!

APE '09: The Portrait of Two Ladies & The Bourgeois Blues

The Portrait of Two Ladies by Marvin Jackson
The Bourgeois Blues by Ja Liebe

A zine is a many splendored thing, because it has the potential to be or do anything. Some of them analyze pop culture or contribute to the arts by interviewing musicians, reviewing the latest albums and books, or offering editorials on political or social developments. Others are simply multi-faceted pictorial stories and comics, oftentimes using the page or some other canvas as a means for telling a tale more dynamically than the average mainstream funnybook. I’ve seen all of this done effectively, and terribly. When it’s the latter, it’s just a waste of office supplies, but when it’s the former, it’s like a spike strip in the road that unexpectedly throws you off course. In a good way.

The Portrait of Two Ladies and The Bourgeois Blues are two such examples of mind-shaping material, but, I warn you, you have to let it sink in a bit. I’ve picked up material by these authors before at the now defunct Edge of LA Comic Con in Claremont, California, and I was pleased to find them at this year’s Alternative Press Expo -- and even more delighted to chat with them a bit over morning coffee that Sunday morning. Two warm-hearted guys passionate about their craft, Marvin and Ja keep traditional zine making alive with some contemporary analysis of life, liberty, and society, and their zines might either make you really happy to be alive in America, or really angry that the everyman has the right to challenge you about this stuff in the first place.

Now, like with Mike Rios’ War Is Gay, Marvin and Ja assure me that these random smatterings of images are actually linear and coherently connected, so I tried to read the zines that way, versus the temptation to randomly flip through them and enjoy each page like disjointed works of art in some cutting edge museum. I’ll confess, The Portrait of Two Ladies makes more sense to me, as it uses newspaper headlines and pictures to create a consistent contrast that challenges the mind to analyze both concepts differently than their original context intended. I’m particularly drawn to the collage of various newspaper headlines that, when combined, read:

“Do you wish you could walk around in your backyard NAKED? You could amid the stench of death.”

The implications of this Frankenstein headline are truly thought-provoking, as Marvin takes what must’ve been some Life & Times fluff piece and sews it to a serious piece about some sort of international strife. Could such wanton destruction be the only way to achieve such correspondingly visceral freedom? Would it be worth such a high cost? Frankly, I’ll just close the window and wear my birthday suit inside, thank you very much.

The Bourgeois Blues is a combination of similarly displaced headlines and crude drawings -- some of which might make Tim Burton proud, or make even his skin crawl with these little characters’ creepiness. At the very least, one can only imagine the amount of work journalists and graphic designers put into the wording and placement of these headlines in the first place, so for someone like Ja to couple them with sketches of goblins or devil-horned little creatures spins the reverence of the mainstream media on its ear a little bit. These sacred cows are certainly the elephant in the room of these zines.

I look forward to seeing more of these guys’ work around town in the coming months, if the comic con circuit permits. A zine is indeed a many splendored thing, especially when it takes willfully strips away all of the splendor to show you the underbelly of existence.

APE '09: Will You Marry Me ___?

Will You Marry Me ___? by Nathan Carter

Admittedly, I’ve been making stupid little zines infrequently for years, and what keeps me from embracing the art and hobby whole hog is my ignorance of zine and mini-comics distribution. I’ve dared distribute zines by hand at war protests before, where I thought a charged political crowd would be open to such fringe material, but as suspected they were too consumed with their own cause to consider anyone else’s. When I search on-line, many zine distributors’ sites seem out of date, perhaps folded entirely (no pun intended). It’s enough to give up the practice all together.



Enter Nathan Carter and his zine Will You Marry Me ___?

Nathan takes the bull by the horns and mails you his zines, and all you the reader have to do is send him the stamps. Sure, the zines are single sheets of regular letter-sized paper, but Nathan uses the folds as proverbial page turns so you get at least two little works of art -- again, all for the price of a stamp. I was taken by two of his latest zines at the Alternative Press Expo, and Nathan was kind enough to let me take them both; one is a traditional newspaper/photography collage, the other a little more text-intensive. I appreciate the transparency of both media, as the author expresses feelings of inadequacy and adaptation, though admittedly the former sadly takes less to consume than the latter. Interestingly and ironically, I bet it takes more time to make . . .



. . . which brings me to the final point. Did I mention these zines cost the meager price of a stamp? Yes, for the price of postage, Nathan would mail you a little piece of his soul every month -- and I’m not being melodramatic. That’s what it is, on colored paper, to boot. When he recommended them, you could tell he favored some over others, like any self-criticizing artist, but the consistency is in their availably, and I hope Nathan’s inspiration to continue producing them. I’m excited to think, in this small way, APE will arrive in my mailbox all year long.

And I may consider sending some of it out myself someday . . .

APE '09: The Magic Yo-Yo

The Magic Yo-Yo by Oke Rosgana

I was beckoned to Doctor Popular’s booth at the Alternative Press Expo by his quarter-sheet silk screenings of a Pac-Man headed Ghostbuster. Yes, Doc Popular had managed to combine two of my favorite things from childhood, and he was happily giving it away with the purchase of a comic from his table. For the little print alone, I had to take him up on it.

My eyes were drawn to The Magic Yo-Yo, starring Doc Pop but lovingly drawn by fellow artist and yo-yo enthusiast Oke Rosgana. As a 24-hour comic (if you haven’t heard of Scott McCloud’s 24-hour comics challenge, check it out here), this little comic is impressive, and the story is linear and charming. Basically, The Magic Yo-Yo is Doctor Popular’s ethereal origin as a yo-yo master and how he uses his skills to better the world around him. If Sam Raimi has decided to give Peter Parker a yo-yo instead of organic webshooters, this comic is what the first 20 minutes of the Spider-man movie would’ve looked like.

Unfortunately, as with most 24-hour comics, some panels are better drawn than others, but the passion is apparent on every page, and the lines are bold enough to reproduce clearly -- a challenge for every independent comics artist, especially if they’re hurriedly using the copy machine at work or something. The pivotal panels really pop off the page, propelling the story like any good yo-yo trick, and most importantly Doctor Popular’s caricature is consistent, keeping the whole issue visually grounded. In the best way possible, Rosgana proves that anyone and everyone should consider the 24-hour challenge. He makes it look like a blast!

Finally, my brief conversation with Doctor Popular (who was kind enough to sketch a karaoke-singin’ Pac-Man for me) revealed that he and Rosgana have actually never met! I only wish I had a friend that cared so much that he’d draw a comic book about me, for one whole day on the other side of the planet, to boot, but perhaps their mutual love of comics and yo-yos transcends geography. Around the world, indeed.

APE '09: War is Gay

Last weekend, my buddy Brent and I exhibited at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco as K.O. Comix, our self-publishing comic book company, where we displayed Brent’s new amazing comic Dog Town, not to mention my KaraokeFanboy Press stuff (all of which are available for purchase through our blogs, but anyway). Although I was technically one of “the talent,” I love mini-comics and zines (which is why I make them), so I was also a critical consumer, too, and I picked up some the most subversive and innovative stuff in the medium today. Of course, as in any forum of genre saturation, I also picked up some crap -- so in conjunction with my series of Halloween-oriented reviews, I’m going to sprinkle in some posts about this independent, and good or bad, I challenge you to check it out. What can it hurt to go ape from time to time?

War is Gay by Mike Rios

War is Gay is an interactive, neon-colored zine you can put in your pocket and share with your friends. In fact, I reckon author Mike Rios would encourage it, since his website, Mike Rios Is A Whore, implies shameless self-promotion, and by buying this zine, I feel totally empowered to be his pimp -- especially since I’ve tried the product. Er, take that as you will.

When I saw fellow APE exhibitors and attendees strolling about the convention floor with “Mike Rios is a Whore” tote bags, I wondered if someone was brazenly boasting their product, or bashing an enemy behind his back. While a zine titled War is Gay could be just as easily dismissed as pretentious vulgarity, I was drawn to its bold, brightly colored design, and while its image-laden interior could be digested in less than a minute, I encourage consumers to chew on its content a bit and ponder what the author meant, beyond satire and graphics-intensive social commentary.

Unfortunately, because of its relatively text-free nature, War is Gay is difficult to summarize, but when we spoke briefly Rios assured me that the content is linear and strategic. If it does indeed have a point, its commentary on masculinity in America in contrast to the history of war and the poignancy of homosexual rights creates a wry reflection of society and challenging springboard for thought. Otherwise, it’s just really pretty to look at.

Finally, I emphasize its interactive nature; at five dollars, War is Gay is the most I spent for any product at APE, and rightfully so since Rios and company painstakingly hand-cut and glued some of the issue’s manipulative elements. I’m drawn to any comic book artist that manipulates the humble canvas of a single piece of paper to tell a story (with an emphasis on the story), and considering the cost other artists were charging for traditionally published and bound books, Rios’ five dollars is very reasonable considering the time and effort put into each piece -- not to mention the free tote, handy when shopping for awkwardly sized zines and prints!

Okay, Mike Rios may be a whore, and war may be gay, but in this case his passion is pretty straightforward. Pull up to the dark corner of comicdom, roll down your car window, call him over, and check it out.