Category: comics

Dark Horse

I’ve bought a few digital comics via the Comixology iPad app over the last year, but I hadn’t bought any through the Dark Horse app until today. I just bought the new Groo mini-series (which apparently came out in print in 2009), and a Classic Usagi Yojimbo mini-series, which may be a digital-only release. The bundle pricing on these books is pretty reasonable, but you can only buy the bundles through the web site, not the app.
I’ve found myself reading comics on the iPad a lot recently, mostly while I’m on the train. I should really be working my way through the Programming iOS 4 ebook that I started a while ago, but I’ve been finding that my brain isn’t really up for that sometimes.
One interesting comic I’ve been reading via Comixology recently is Vision Machine. The whole three-issue series is completely free. It originally came out just about one year ago, and there was a panel about it at last year’s NYCC, moderated by Andy Ihnatko.

off to NYCC 2011

I’m heading out to NYCC tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that the last con I went to was NYCC 2009, which was back in February 2009, before they moved the con to the fall. I had plans to go to NYAF in 2009 also, which would have been in September, but my Dad was in the hospital at that time, so I skipped it. So I haven’t been to a con in a while.

I was also thinking that I haven’t really taken a vacation (other than a long weekend) in a while either. I guess that NYCC in Feb 2009 was the last time, though I think I only took Friday off for that, so that would also have just been a long weekend. This time, I’m taking Thursday, Friday, and Monday off, but I’ve got class at NYU on Thursday night, and a doctor’s appointment back in NJ on Monday, so I don’t know if this really counts as more than a long weekend.

The last San Diego show I went to was 2008. For SDCC, I would have flown out on Wednesday, come back on Monday, and I probably took Tuesday off to do laundry and relax, so that’s a solid seven days away from work. So July 2008 was likely the last serious vacation I had, which involved leaving the NY/NJ area, and staying away for more than a few days. And I can’t remember the last time I took a whole work week, Monday to Friday, off and had a good full nine days away from work. Technically, I wasn’t working at all during April 2010, in between leaving NMS/Spar and starting at Electric Vine, but there was enough going on then that it sure didn’t feel like a vacation.

So this long blog post that was going to be about NYCC 2011 has turned into a rumination on my lack of time off over the last few years. I’m going to have to come up with a plan to remedy that, though I’m really not that enthusiastic about any particular vacation idea right now. I’d like to get back to SDCC and/or WonderCon next year, so maybe I should look at that as my goal.

Planetary

I finally read the last issue of Planetary today. It came out in 2009, and the previous issue came out in 2006, so it’s been about 5 years since I read an issue. I managed to find all the issues back to #16 in my mostly undifferentiated pile(s) of old comics, so I got a chance to re-read a bunch of issues leading up to it. Planetary had been one of my favorite series, despite the long gaps between issues. That last issue was a nice one, and a fitting end to the series. It does leave open some possibilities, and it would be nice to see Ellis and Cassaday come back to it, but I guess that’s unlikely. I found a couple of good online references to the series, here and here. It’s a very dense series, so it helps to read someone else’s perspective on it, just to see things you’ve missed, or that might have alternate interpretations.

SDCC 2011, day one

This is now the third year in a row that I’ve skipped Comic-Con. The last time I went was 2008. I’m hoping I can find some way to get a full four-day pass and hotel reservation for next year. It’s been too long since I’ve been out there.
Meanwhile, as usual, I’ve been poking around the web for interesting articles about the con. Here are a few from SignOnSanDiego.com:
Comic-Con makes itself at home
Comic-Con and Hollywood
Comic-Con 2011 Preview

Concrete

I just started reading Concrete: The Human Dilemma. I’ve had this mini-series sitting in my reading pile since it was published back in 2004/2005. I’m really enjoying it, and I wish I had more Concrete to read, but I just checked Wikipedia, and apparently there hasn’t been any Concrete published since then. Oh well.
Paul Chadwick does a great job of mixing large-scale social commentary with small-scale human moments. And his artwork is great too. He obviously puts a lot of thought into panel arrangement and “camera angle” within the panels, and sometimes uses little tricks (for lack of a better word) that could only work in comics. Bits that, in the wrong context, would be distracting, but work well for him.

Little Dog Lost

OK, I know it’s sappy, but I like it.

Also, in the “dubious achievements” department, I have finally caught up and read all of the comic strip e-mails that have been piling up in my GMail account. I subscribe to GoComics.com, and get a daily e-mail with about a dozen strips. I fell behind in reading them quite a while ago and never caught up. Until this weekend, when I inexplicably had an urge to read about six months worth of comic strips. (One of the things that helped me catch up is that the older e-mails largely consisted of broken image links, since they apparently don’t keep the image links functioning forever. Except for those on Garfield and Doonesbury, for some reason.)

Murder Mysteries

I’m taking this week off from work, in part to relax a bit, and in part to catch up on some paperwork and tasks that I’ve been putting off for too long. I decided to read “Murder Mysteries” this afternoon. P. Craig Russell is one of my favorite artists, and Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite writers. I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read, for quite some time. It’s got some great PCR artwork, and it’s a really interesting story.
I stumbled across an interesting video yesterday, taken from a documentary, showing PCR hosting a little party for the various people who have worked for him as models. Pretty neat.

Heart of Empire

I’ve been relaxing a bit this weekend, and I just finished reading Bryan Talbot’s “Heart of Empire”. I bought a copy from him at a con (probably San Diego) a few years ago, and he did a nice little Luther Arkwright head sketch in it for me.
I need to pick up his Grandville books next. I haven’t had time to do much comic book reading lately, and I still have a heck of a pile of unread books, though, so I probably shouldn’t be thinking about buying any new ones.

A Big Book

75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking
Wow, here’s a book I’d buy, if it were a lot cheaper. I’m sure it’s worth the price, considering the size — 720 pages and 16 pounds! And written by Paul Levitz, who is probably the man most qualified to write such a book, given his long tenure at DC.