The First Column

File in the If No One Likes You than You've Got No One But Yourself to Blame: Not long ago at a convention a fan thought it the height of wit to try and publicly humiliate Rob Liefeld.  Now everyone knows Mr. Liefeld isn't the most  highly regarded artist in the comic community, but there is still a limit to what's right and what's not.  The so-called Fan filmed his public insult and posted it on his blog.  If he thought it was going to make him a “hero” to Liefeld bashers it back fired.  People that would never have thought to defend Rob before leapt to his defense.  It was a pretty jerky act and the fan comes off as a complete tool.  So here Mr. Liefeld has all this good will on his side now and what does he do with it.  Pisses it away in the wind.  Recently, after Paul Levitz was removed from his job of Publisher at DC (still Comics and not Entertainment yet) Rob throws a party to celebrate the fact.  Yes, Mr. Levitz was old school and may have been the reason for some things you didn't like at DC but he also helped save the comic industry and helped create the direct market and guided DC for quite a few years and from what I understand a gentleman to the end.  Which is more than can be said for some.

What is this and who are you?:  This is a column of reviews and facts and gossip and whatever else we have lying around here.  And who the heck am I?  What do I bring to the party?  Well, I make a great chex-mix.  But seriously...over the years I've dabbled in comic book writing.  Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, or before the advent of Image Comics, I could be found with my name in some Indy Comics.  Black and White was being thrown against the wall and a lot of stuff was sticking and there were a dozen or more color comic companies grabbing at the rungs below Marvel and DC.  And there were a bunch of us with our noses pressed against the glass, looking for a way to get in...me, Ron Wilber, Dave Garcia, Sam Kieth (yes that Sam Kieth), Terry Pavlet and a bunch of others.  So I'm going to regale you my thoughts on what's going on in comics, reviews, what I've heard. 

So Let's Throw In At Least One Review:  Upfront I'm going to admit something not cool.  I don't like zombies.  Don't like the movies, don't like the books, don't like the comics.  And zombies are like the second coolest monster at the moment, right after vampires, but without all the psycho sexuality of the vampire.  So when The Walking Dead first came out from Image Comics, I ignored it.  It wasn't hard, like I said; not a big fan of the zombies, not a big fan of Image and never heard of the writer Robert Kirkman.  The guy working the counter at the comic book store I was frequenting at that time convinced me I should give this comic a try.  This was around issue six or so, the first trade had just come out.  I'm always looking for new books to read, and he had recently turned me on to Ex Machina, so I was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

Let's just say that I'm extremely glad that he did.  I read that one issue, went back and picked up the trade and have been happily buying every single issue since.  Nowadays, most fan boys have heard of Robert Kirkman, heck, he's even a partner at Image now, the first to be so honored since the original group that formed the company.  Kirkman built his fame slowly and the old fashioned way, one issue at a time, month after month.  He's had a few hiccups along the way, but mainly has stayed the course.  The Walking Dead is fast approaching issue seventy.  How many comics, Marvel or DC much less the other publishers, can say that?

Not to take anything away from the artist on the comic but this is a writer's book.  What made me like this comic enough to pick up future issues and go back for the trades is the writing.  Yes, it's a zombie comic, but not really.  Most people think the title refers to the zombies in the comic, but as Rick (as close to a main character as this series has) points out after a few dozen issues it's the humans that have survived that are the real Walking Dead. 

You can go entire issues and not run across a zombie in the comic, but the menace of the zombies is never far from the surface.  The more recent storyline shows that while zombies might be the evil the humans are facing, sometimes other humans are even worse. 

I realize that I haven't really described the series or the characters.  Basically, it's a group of survivors that are trying to live in a world now inhabited by zombies.  Pretty much your basic late night horror flick retreads, but in Kirkman's hands it is so much more.  No character is safe, even the closest as it gets to a main character Rick could get it, with Kirkman you just never know.  He's killed other characters that you would have thought safe. 

Over the run of five dozens plus issues there have been a few dips here and there in quality but none so dangerous that I've ever thought of giving up the comic.  This is one of the best comic books being published today and if all you read are super heroes you owe it to yourself to give this comic a chance.  More so than a lot of other comics that aren't super heroes that I'll end up talking up and raving over in the future, this is one comic book that I think a lot of super hero fans will like. 

That's A Wrap For The First Installment: Like the famous pigs says “th-th-that's all, folks!” for this week.  Come back for another fun filled round next week.

Kid's Comics

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain:  The goal of this column is to be out every week.  Evidently I've already missed that goal, the first column being up for more than a week now.  All I can say is that I'm going to work very hard not to miss that deadline again. 

Any comments on the column can be emailed to me at JohnH985@yahoo.com.  Or if you want to start a discussion about anything I've written here you can go to my blog Lifein4colors.blogspot.com and I plan to leave a post for each week where anyone can drop by and leave comments and we can have something of a dialogue about each week's subject.  Feel free to drop by even if you disagree with what I've said. 

With your childhood flames on your midnight rug:  Awhile back I was shopping at one of the local comic shops.  I was checking out with my pile of newly arrived comics and making conversation with the guy working behind the counter.  One of the comics I was purchasing was the newest issue of Marvel Adventures starring Spider-man.  I made a comment that I had read online that Marvel was canceling this book.  He shrugged and said “Doesn't matter, it's only a kid's comic.”

I didn't say anything at the time, just paid for my comics and left on my way.  But his comments kept gnawing at me.  Just a kid's comic. 

Just a kid's comic.

Now maybe I'm making more out of this than needs be made.  But where is the next generation of comic readers going to come from?  We've seen that even with the biggest blockbuster of a movie comics don't attract a lot of new regular readers.   Yes, with the new Batman or Spider-man movie the comic shop might see a bump in people off the street that haven't read a comic in years venturing into unfamiliar land and buying a comic.  But they don't come back.  And even that isn't that big of a bump.  While everyone talks about a new blockbuster movie being a help to the comic industry, the truth is it only helps the bottom line of the company, not the comic shops so much.

So where were we?  Yes, about needing to bring more readers into comics.  How do you do that?  Start them young.  I was reading comics when I was a kid.  The first ones I remember reading where comics like Caspar, Spooky and the like.  One of the earliest comic books I can remember reading was The Three Mouseketeers.  Where are these comics today?  None of them are even published.  There's very little out there that a six or seven year old can pick up and enjoy reading.  Yes, they might have seen Spider-man or Batman and like the characters, but as a kid that young if they picked up the newest issue of either of those characters they would probably not pick up the next issue.  Comics today aren't written for kids, they're written for the comic fan.  Even an adult that isn't a regular reader or familiar with the back story for the character could have a hard time reading some of the new comics.  Too much going on for a new reader to just jump into, especially if they're not a regular reader of comics.  But that's another column, this one is about kids.

Kids don't need comics that are dumbed down, but they do need something without all the backstory and drama of today's comics.  They need something that tells a story without the reader having to know what happened in the last hundred issues.  They want an exciting story with believable characters, even a continuing storyline, but don't overdo it. 

If we get kids interested and reading comics at an early age they'll keep reading and move into the more mainstream comics as they get older.   Most comic readers are older now and as they get older and move more into life some of them will fall the wayside and give up comics all together.  So where do we get new readers from?

Kid comics.

And as someone working behind the counter at a comic shop I can't believe that he would so easily dismiss them.  Ask him about what's going on in Daredevil and he'll give you a twenty minute lecture on what's been happening in that comic for the last three years and why the newest issue is so good.  Which is all wonderful, but that's preaching to the converted.  The person in the store buying that new issue of Daredevil is already a comic reader.

Which actually is part of the problem of a comic shop.  Most of the people that come into one is already a comic reader, so it's hard to attract that person off the street in to try something new.  We'll talk in another column about trying to pull in adult readers and what needs to be done, but this one we're still talking about trying to get that comic bug into them at an early age and get them hooked. 

We need comics that reach out to kids.  We need kids to pick up a comic and read it and want to pick up another issue and another issue after that.  If we don't get a new generation of kids reading comics the future of comics is going to look even dimmer.  It's a slowly diminishing return, as some of the current readers drift away from comics and we don't have those new younger readers coming in, comics will slowly wither away. 

And the cool thing is that kid's comics aren't just for kids.  Some of my favorite reading material lately has been comics that are aimed more for kids.   Like the aforementioned Marvel Adventures.  Paul Tobin has been writing the comic with Matteo Lolli on the art and they've created a really fun, good looking comic to read.  The stories are done in one issue, but there is an overall continuity to the storyline and what happens in one issue matters to the next.  What these comics remind me of more than anything are the early Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, before the Marvel Universe got so complicated and huge.  Peter Parker is in high school in these stories and they revolve around him going out a first date or having a fight with a girl that he likes or any one of a thousand other things that normal kids do.  And yea, Spider-ma is thrown in there for good measure.  The art is simple and I don't mean that as a knock, it tells the story and is easy on the eye.  I love the way Spider-man is drawn in the comic. 

I still like reading the regular line of comics, but sometimes I can get tired of having to know fifty different things happening in fifty different comics to understand what's going on.  Sometimes I just want to sit down and read a comic that tells a good story and is fun.

Other favorites that I've liked recently have been Supergirl:Cosmic Adventures in the 8^th Grade which unfortunately was a mini series and is over.  The comic was created by Landry Q. Walker and Eric Jones. But while this comic was being published it was one of my favorite comics.  I'm really hoping that this series will be back.  This is the Supergirl that I want to read, not whoever is currently being called Supergirl in the other comic.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is another great comic, that is still currently being published.  Mike Kunkel writes and draws the comic and you won't find another comic book out there that looks like this.   One of his pages can be filled with what looks like a hundred panels.  The down side of this is that Kunkel isn't able to keep up with the deadlines, so other writers and artists are stepping in to help him.  I haven't enjoyed the other storylines as much when it's not by him, but when Kunkel is doing it this is a comic that is as funny as it is good.

And finally one of my favorite comics, period.  Spider-man Loves Mary Jane.  I missed this in its earlier run, but when Terry Moore came on board I picked it up.  Terry Moore is better known as the writer and artist of Strangers In Paradise and Echo, two really good comics, with Echo being one of my favorites right now.  So let me just say this, I think this comic is as good as anything Moore has done.  He brought a new understanding to the character of Mary Jane.  He was doing some of his best work.  And than....I'm not sure what happened.  I haven't seen a new issue in months or longer.  From what I've heard he is no longer doing the comic, so I don't know if the comic is even still being published.  Which is a real shame. 

So there you have it.  Don't ignore a comic just because it's labeled for kids.  And if you want to keep this industry growing give a kid a comic. 

And before anyone asks, it wasn't Ronnie's shop that this occurred at.  I'm not going to name names, but rest assured Ronnie would never say anything like that.   I've known Ronnie for more years than either of us would probably want to admit to and Ronnie is one of the most passionate lovers of this industry that I know.  He's always trying to get more people to read comics.  And nowhere in this column did I mention a comic that kids and adults both love and was a runaway success....Bone.

A Writer In Search of His Artist

Although the masters makes the rules  For the wise men and the fools I got nothing, Ma, to live up to:

To put it bluntly, to be a writer trying to break into comics without an artist sucks.  Trying to break into comics as a writer without an artist is next to impossible.  An editor can look at a portfolio of an artists' work at a convention and make a decision in minutes.  A writer handing the same editor a script is lucky if he takes it with a promise of not throwing it away as soon as the writer's back is turned.  It's not that the editor is being a jerk, it's just a lot harder to evaluate a script and most editors don't have the time to do so from unknowns. 

So if you want to break into comics as a writer it helps to find an artist to work with.  As a team you can create a proposal that an editor will be glad to look at.  As a team you can create a comic book and take the finished project to an editor.

Which all leads to one important question.  Where do you find artists?  Where did I find the artists that I was fortunate to work with?

To discover that answer we'll have to jump into the Way-Back Machine and take a trip back in the past to a time where the internet was just a glint in Al Gore's eye and Diamond was just one of many distributors that delivered your weekly comics to their shops.

I know now it might be hard to believe but once upon a time there actually was more than just one magazine out there about comics.  Wizard's first issue wasn't even being assembled yet.  One of these magazines was Comic Scene, published by the same people that put out the science fiction magazine Starlog.  They ran an article about a group called Interfan.  Interfan was a organization that provided a link between fledging writers and artists.  At this point I was awash with ideas and plots and even scripts, but had no idea what to do with all this outpouring.  Like I mentioned this was before the Internet, as hard as it might be for you to believe such a time existed, so I actually put stamps on an envelope and letter in the envelope and mailed it to InterFan.  (And to farther confuse those that are only conversed in email I included a SASE.  No, this isn't a foreign language, it means Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.  What this was for was so they could mail me back the list without them having to use their money for a stamp or envelope.)

And for what at a time without Instant Messaging seemed quick I received a reply.  I don't remember how long the list was or most of the names on it.  I'm sure that there were more writers than artists.  Everyone thinks writing is easy.  I do remember two names on the list that I was soon to get in contact with.  Both lived in California.  Dave Garcia and Sam Kieth.  Not too bad for a first try.  Dave was even than working on Panda Khan and would later go on to work on the Tick as well as many other comics.  Sam was working on some giant bunny strip and had a character called the Is that he kept trying to work into something.  He later went on to a few memorable characters, including the Maxx and Wolverine, Batman and a host of other books.

After a letter to both artists I was soon opening packages from both of them that included samples of their artwork.  Up to this point you have to realize that all my writing had been done pretty much solo with no real interaction with any of my peers.  I'm sure that I wrote and received some art samples back from artists that I decided not to work with, but today the only ones I remember are Sam and Dave.  To start off with two artists that are so good, even at that time in their career, was inspiring.  I still remember looking at their artwork and just marveling at the fact that these guys wanted to work with me.  Even today I get chills just thinking about it.

A few more letters back and forth, some phone calls and before long we were all working on new creations.  One of these early creations with Sam ended up being a character called Agatha Moore who went on to star in an issue of Amazing Comics Presents.  None of the series that Dave and I created ever made it to the published stage, but we did collaborate on some short comic stories that ended up in such publications as Kitchen Sinks'  Death Rattle and other places.

Even after getting the luck of the draw and working with these two talented artists I was still looking for artists.  Another source of discovering talented artists was the Comic Buyer's Guide.  The Buyer's Guide, or at it was affectionately known as CBG, started life as an ad paper, where fans basically ran ads to sell or trade their comics.  Eventually it morphed into more of a trade paper, where the news of the industry was first published and professionals wrote letters and debated issues.   Before the instant arrival of news with the web today a weekly provided fast service.  In the back they had a classified section where you could advertise for just about anything.  So I did.  I ran a classified looking for  artists.  I ran it for a month, four issues. 

I was surprised by the reaction.  I started getting replies within the first week.  And every week I got more.  I don't remember how many I ended up receiving, but it was a lot more than I ever expected.  Yes, a lot of them weren't at a professional level yet, but I was still surprised by the amount that were quite good.  Some of these artists I ended up working with and others due to time issues or we just couldn't figure out something we both agreed on I ended up not working with, but still thought the world of their artwork.

One of these artists was a guy named Ron Wilber.  Ron ended up being one of my greatest artist collaborators.  I sent Ron the script for a short story about a future where the main characters were walking talking Lizards.  It actually was a story that Sam Kieth and I had batted around a bit, but never ended up doing anything with.  The story ended up being the series Lizard and we published around a dozen stories in Fantagraphics'  Critters anthology comic and a single stand alone issue of Lizards Summer Fun Special. 

I would duplicate that ad in the back of CBG a few more times.  Another person that wrote into answer my ad was Brian Clifton.  Outside of Ron, Brian became my most constant artist companion.  Brian was one of the most talented artists I have ever had the privilege of working with.  (And after you've seen the names of the artists I've worked with that's pretty impressive.)   With Brian we created Diebold.  With this comic it was a true collaboration from the very get-go.  I didn't just send Brian a script or idea, he sent me sketches and we went from there.  I'm not going to go into a lot of detail over the creation of the comic here, because that's not the point of this week's column and I intend to write about that subject in the future. 

One point I want to mention here is that the art that accompanies this week's column is by Brian Clifton.  The art for the logo for this column is the first issue cover of Diebold by Sam Kieth.

So in today's world with instant communication and messaging just a click away you would think it would be even easier to find artists to work with.  Maybe it is, maybe I just haven't stumbled across the secret yet.  There are some sites where they advertise a section with artists and writers looking for each other, but so far I have had nowhere near the success that I had back in the day pre-Internet.  Now this isn't a rant for a less tech savy world, I love the Internet and my computer. 

One site I had some luck with was Digital Webbing.  I found some really excellent artists, but for one reason or another have had no luck in connecting with a story or character.  And than there are the artists that reply back with samples and a price list for their services.   Whatever I say here is going to come off wrong, like I don't think artists should be paid for their work, and nothing could be farther from the truth.  I believe artists should be paid for their work.  But and this is my big but of the matter, they should be paid from the publisher or even the writer if he's hiring an artist to illustrate his creations to help sell his work as a solo creator.  But if a writer is working with an artist to create something that they can pitch together than I don't see the point of the writer paying the artist.  It's a collaboration.  If the proposal is picked up than the writer and artist are both hired.  And they both get paid.  None of these artists that I worked with and got published with asked for money to illustrate my words.  We were in it together, as a team, to sell our concept. 

There's lot of sites out there that cater to comics.  Comic Space is a My Space like site that acts as portal for writers, artists, letterers, colorists, publishers, fans, anyone that has any interest in comic books.  Deviant Art is another site where artists advertise their talent. 

Somewhere out there is someone that is going to create a site that is made specifically for talent to connect and it's going to be a smash. 

All this has actually been a preamble to the main purpose of this week's column.  The weekend of April  24^th and 25^th NOLA Con comes back to Metairie.  I'll be there, sitting behind one of the tables, hawking my books and talking to anyone that comes by and wants to talk.  And any artists out there that are looking for a writer, come find me and let's talk.  I'm actively looking for artists to work on all sorts of proposals.  I've already have a small black and white publisher interested in a storyline, but I need an artist.  I really want to experiment with web comics, but I need an artist.  I have a couple story lines that I think would really be great, some super heroes, some thrillers, one set in New Orleans that would create a lot of notice, but (you know what I'm going to say) I need an artist.

Like the great piece of art that Brian drew that illustrates this week's column “I Need An Artist.”

So if you're in the area stop by and say hi.

Hanging Out At The Comic Shop

I realized something the other day.  I don't hang out at the comic shop anymore.  I also realized that I don't visit the comic shop at least once a week like I used to.  Heck, I was in such an introspective mood I realized that I don't even have a regular comic shop. 

The first person that says something about growing up gets smacked.  Upside the head with a wet fish.

I still buy comics, or writing this column wouldn't make a lot of sense.  I just don't have to buy them as soon as they come out.  In the day I would make a trip after work, tired and hungry and just wanting to get home and kick back and relax with food and drink, to the comic book store on that fabled Wednesday when new comics arrived.  Except if I do believe so, at one time new comic book day was Tuesday.  It's like if I waited even a day, reading those new comics might not mean as much to me.  And this was before the internet, so it wasn't like I might accidentally come across a spoiler and have the big surprise ruined for me.  If a couple days, heck even a week, went by it wasn't like I still wouldn't be able to pick up those comics and be as surprised as I was going to be.  But I had to have those comics right away.  It was a compulsion.  It's not like I have to explain it most of you out there reading this.  I'm preaching to the choir. 

Half the fun was hanging out at the comic shop.  If I had to make one of those late night drives to get my comics before the shop closed I would still find myself back at the store later in the week, before the next arrival of new comics.  I'd go and look at comics I might have missed the first time, but more importantly I'd go to stand around and talk comics with whoever was there.   Reading may be a solitary endeavor but reading comics was a group affair.  You had to discuss what had happened in the latest issue of what you had just read, what was coming up in future issues, what series your favorite writer or artist was leaving and which series they were taking over, which was better – DC or Marvel?   Now it's usually in and out, pick up whatever comics I'm buying and maybe a little small talk but than I'm on my way.

And of course you had your favorite comic shop.  The metro New Orleans area didn't have an abundance of comic shops, but there were a few.  New Orleans had a few, there was even one out in New Orleans East that I knew of, but I didn't have a vehicle at the time and getting around the Westbank and Metairie was hard enough, much less driving into the city or to the East.  Now I just decide which store by where ever I'm closest to at the time I want to pick up some comics.

I found my first comic shop because Marvel decided to sell three of their titles only through the than infant Direct Market, which meant they would only be available to people who frequented comic shops.  Up to that time I found my comics at the newstands.  Than you could pretty much find all your comics in such a fashion.  Sometimes you had to check out more than one place to get all the series you collected, but I managed without too much effort to get whatever comics I needed.  Drug stores, Time Savers, Mini Marts, there were quite a few places that had the circular rack with the Hey Kids! Comics sign atop.

Until the day that Marvel decided to pull three of their titles from such establishments.  Comics shops existed before that day, but they were carrying the same comics I could find at my local 7-11 and the 7-11 was closer.  They were good for back issues, but I don't really remember buying new comics from them at the time.  But Ka-zar, Micronauts and a title that escapes me were going to be sold only through the Direct Market now.  (I could also be wrong about Mirconauts being one of the titles, but I know Ka-zar was one.)  Now the problem was that Ka-zar was one of my favorite comics at the time.  Written by Bruce Jones and drawn by Brent Anderson this comic was unlike any version of Ka-zar every published.  So if I wanted my fix of Ka-zar and Shannon I was going to have to go to a comic shop. 

If memory serves me right (and what a fickle beast my memory seems to be) the first comic shop I started going to on a regular basis was Family Books in Metairie.  But it was in Metairie and I lived on the Westbank and man, I hated driving over the bridge at that time.  Still there were no comic shops on the Westbank.  Or at least that's what I thought.  I found one, in Westwego, in one of those little strip malls right off the Expressway.  For the life of me I can't remember the name of that shop and it's a shame, I spent a lot of my money and time there.  What was weird was that the store had started out as a water bed store and somehow morphed into a comic book store.  Eventually their main source of income came from the comics and they might sell a water bed every blue moon.  I don't remember the name of the store but I do remember the name of the people that ran it, John and Minnie.  The were an older couple, well to me every adult was older. 

This became the first comic shop that I can consider “my” comic shop.  The Direct Market was causing an explosion in the comic book publishing field.  Fantagraphics, Eclipse, Pacific, First and a thousand and one other companies sprang up publishing comics.  Cerebus, created and published by Dave Sim wasn't the first black and white comic, but he and his aardvark creation soon became the vanguard for a new movement of self publishing. 

I found myself spending too much money and probably too much time at their store.  They went to Houson for a comic book convention and I went with them.  (That story and other convention memories will be a future column.)  Though them I ended up meeting Carl and venturing into his store, BSI Comics.  This was at least three moves before he ended up at the store he retired at. 

I still shopped with John and Minnie but found myself driving over to Metairie more often to Carl's shop.  I'd also still manage to stop at Family Comics now and than.  Somewhere in all this John and Minnie closed their store, so my comic book fix was being supplied by Carl on a more regular basis now.  BSI became “my” comic book store.  Anyone that knows Carl knows what a unique person he is.  I could spend hours in his store and I did quite regularly.

I have to mention one thing that I thought very strange when I first started buying my comics from these comic shops.  They didn't put their new comics out on a rack where you could just go in and pick them up and pay for them.  No, all new comics were bagged and hung from the wall, usually behind the counter.  You couldn't pick up a copy of the newest issue of Daredevil and flip through it or see who was writing the newest issue of Spider-man before deciding if you wanted to buy it.  To get your new comics you had to look at the comics hanging on the wall and tell whoever was behind the counter what comics you wanted and they would pull them from boxes they had back there.  All the comic shops sold new comics this way.  The older back issues were out to be browsed and touched and pawed over, but the new comics were untouchable.  I don't know if this was how new comics were sold all over the country or just in the New Orleans market.  Were they afraid of theft if the new comics were within reach or that customers would read them all and not buy the issue?  I have no idea and no one ever really could give me a good answer.  Than one day they all went to racking the new comics on the floor so you could just pick them up.  Very strange.

Around this time I was engaged in a small side business.  I ended up stripping and waxing the floors of BSI on more than one occasion.  I'd met Carl after hours with the stripper and buffer and spend the next few hours re-doing his floors.

Though Carl I met the owners of what would become my next shop and become the shop that I look back on today as my one really true comic shop.   Carl was always helping other shop owners out, offering advice, providing them with a way to get their comics through his ordering with the distributors.  On one of my trips to BSI (and can anyone out there tell me what BSI stands for?  I know, but I used to wonder about that until I found out) Carl introduced me to a man and his teen-age son and told me they were opening a store up on the Westbank.  That was Ron and his son Ronnie and they were opening Paper Gold in Woodmere. 

Before long Paper Gold became “my” comic shop.  I still visited BSI and shopped there, there was no way I could stop seeing Carl, but my weekly trips were to Woodmere.  Paper Gold was a family affair, Ron and his wife Pat and son Ronnie owned and operated the store.  I think Ronnie might have been 15 or 16 at the time.  I won't say I was their first customer, but I know I was one of their first.  I was their from day one and until their last day.  Ron used to be in the oil business in Houston, but after the oil boom went bust he and family moved back home to New Orleans and opened Paper Gold. 

Paper Gold became a home away from home for me.  I can't even guess the amount of time I spent at that store.  Ron, Pat and Ronnie became friends, my comic book family.  From the start Paper Gold catered to more than just superheroes, they stocked all the latest Marvel and DC and whatever company  was publishing four color adventures featuring such heroes, but they also stocked so much more.  Ronnie introduced me to Bone.  I was able to continue my purchases of Love and Rockets with no problem.  Cerebus was always on the rack. 

There were more trips to conventions in Houston.  This time with Ron and Ronnie.  I remember new comics coming in the night before, I don't know if that was just something that happened for a little while or what, but Ron would let me in the store at night when they were all there separating the shipments and working the pull lists for their customers.  They'd let me shop what I needed and I'd hang around talking, probably distracting them from their work.

It was a rare week that I didn't make a couple stops at the store.  A good portion of at least one day off would be spent at the store, talking comics or whatever.  Ronnie was the comic fan in the family, so we could talk comics or I could talk with Ron or Pat about whatever else came up. 

During this time Brian Clifton and I decided to self publish Diebold.  (The long strange trip to such a decision is definitely fuel for a future column.)  We by passed Diamond as a distributor and went after it ourselves.  Not the brightest of moves perhaps, but we ended up selling a few thousand copies through word of mouth and mail order.  I had a list of comic shops throughout the country and I worked that list.  We did use distributors like Cold Cut and smaller ones.  Like I said for the time we sold a respectable amount, for today's time we sold what would be considered a lot for a black and white comic.  Do I need to say who bought the largest amount of issues from us?  Of course not, it was Ron, Ronnie and Pat.  I don't know how many copies they ended up stuck with, but they made us happy with their purchase.  My only regret is that for some reason I was never able to do a signing at Paper Gold for the series.  We talked about it, but something always seemed to come up. 

They closed up and moved back to Houston right around the time I ended up moving to Florida briefly.  They closed up before I moved and I remember when I'd drive over that way how weird it was not to be able to stop at the store.  Not long afterwards I ended up moving to Florida.

I shop most of the comic shops in metro New Orleans and Northshore and I enjoy them all.  There's some of them that I can hang around with for a little while and we'll talk comics and the industry, but it's not the same.  And that's a shame.  I think a lot of the enjoyment I got from comics was the relationships I developed from the comic stores. 

Still I'm hopeful.  Since I've discovered Ronnie is back in town with his new store Media Underground I'm hoping that it'll become “my” comic store.  I can't visit it as often as I did Paper Gold, it's in Metairie and I live on the Northshore, but when I do visit it I find myself standing around talking to Ronnie about comics and creators and conventions and whatever and it feels like back in the days of Paper Gold.  Though it is a little strange not to see Ron and Pat around. 

So do you have a comic shop that your consider “yours”?  Do you like to hang out and talk comics or are you just in and out?  Drop over at Lifein4colors.blogspot.com and tell me what your favorite comic shop is and what you like about it.

The High Cost of Death

I've been walkin' through the middle of nowhere, Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door:

We're cheating ourselves.

As readers we're cheating ourselves.  In comics death is treated as a plot gimmick and not the milestone it should be treated as.

When was the last time you believed that anyone in comics that supposedly died was really dead?  Give DC credit, at least when Batman died they didn't even pretend that he was really dead for good.  Marvel tried to get everyone to buy into Captain America's death, trying to convince us that Bucky was the new Captain America.  But we knew that eventually Steve Rogers would be back in the red, white and blue.  (And please don't tell me that even with Steve back Bucky is still going to be Cap.  We'll see for how long.)

We all know at the end of the storyline when the Big Bad is blown up that somehow the Evil will return to harangue our hero in the future.  That's an expected cliché of the comic book story.  When Dr. Doom is blown up we know he'll be back.  I'm not talking that as real death.  That's comic book death and it's really not supposed to trick us.

I'm talking about the death in comics that is supposed to be true and final.  Death should move us.  Death should make us feel.  Death should make us cry.  And good fiction can do that to us, it can move us, make us feel, make us cry. 

Even the supporting character that dies will probably be back.  No one that dies in comics is safe from coming back.  It used to be said that the only two deaths in comics that would never change were Bucky and Uncle Ben.  Well Bucky is back.  I don't think Uncle Ben has come back, but I could be wrong, I haven't been keeping up with Spider-man. 

I really feel that taking the element of true death out of a comic has hurt the writer's ability to make you feel that ultimate sense of loss.  He can bring you to the brink, but you're not going to take that plunge over into the abyss, because you know it's not true. 

It doesn't have to be like that.  Look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The TV show, not the comic.  Now Buffy was a show that dealt with the supernatural, so you would think that here for sure you would never believe a character could really be dead.  For goodness sake there were vampires and ghosts and all sorts of demon things on this show, so how could dead be dead?  But imagine how you felt when Tara was killed.  You believed it.  You hoped that they might find some way to bring her back, that she couldn't really be dead.  She was one of the good guys.  She was Willow's girlfriend.  But she was dead.  And it made the fiction of the show a little more believable. 

Once more going to Buffy we look at what is arguably considered one of its best shows, “The Body.”  This was the show where the vampires and ghosts and other supernatural thingies took a backseat to the storyline.  Buffy comes home and finds her Mother, Joyce on the floor of the living room.  She was dead.  And Buffy with all her powers could do nothing to save her.  She didn't die from some monster or spell, she died from a normal everyday medical condition.  Watch that show and I dare you not to be moved.  I dare you not to feel a few tears.  But how powerful would it be if you knew that death wasn't real in the Buffyverse and that in a few episodes Joyce would be back.   You might feel something, but I can promise you that the emotions you would feel wouldn't be as strong.

So in comics when you see that person die you always have the thought in the back of your mind that it isn't going to last.  Sooner or later that dead person will be back.  So how much emotion do you want to invest in their death scene?

I was a late comer to the Television show NCIS.  Whenever I'd go up to Tennessee my Mom would be watching it.  It's becoming one of those shows like MASH or Law and Order that seems to be on some channel almost any hour of the day.  USA Network runs marathons of it every week.  But I really never paid attention to it while I was up there.  I'd see part of a show, part of another show.  I didn't know the characters, the situations or anything about the show and it always bothered me that for a show with Navy in its title none of the characters seemed to be in said Navy.  Still I have to admit that I was intrigued by what I saw.  The characters were interesting. 

I started to watch it when I'd come home.  I set the DVR to record it on USA.  After watching half a dozen episodes I was hooked.  I am not a fan of the other forensics cop shows, the CSI franchise.  I've watched some of them and to be honest, really really do not like them.  I find the characters tedious, the stories terrible and cannot watch them.  But NCIS I was enjoying.  I goggled NCIS and discovered that the agents were civilians, they weren't supposed to be in the Navy.  They were investigating the Navy, not part of it. 

And the characters.  Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  Such a great name for a character.  The name just by itself tells you something of his past life.  That he was from a small town.  The rest of the team; Tony, Tim, Kate, Ducky and of course Abby.  Abby became my favorite character. 

I went out and bought the first two seasons on DVD.  I still hadn't seen a lot of the shows and the ones I had seen were out of order.  I knew somewhere in the run of six seasons Kate was replaced by Ziva, but why I didn't know.

So there I was watching the shows.  The first season cemented my feelings for the show.  I was really enjoying it.  For a show that that doesn't focus on the characters' private lives you actually learned a good bit, a little at a time.  I was becoming attached to these characters.  The second season just continued my fascination with the show and its characters.  Towards the end of the second season it was looking like there might be something more between Kate and Tony, like they might be heading into a romantic relationship.  Than at the end of the second season, in the final episode, Kate was killed.

Let me repeat that.  Kate was killed.  I can't tell you the surprise I felt while watching that episode.  I guess I was lucky that I hadn't stumbled across that fact before I watched the show, especially since it was already four or five years old.  But I had no idea what was going to happen.  I remember sitting there thinking this can't be right.  They can't be killing her.  She was going to get together with Tony.  There were too many story possibilities for her.

But she was dead.  And the next season explored the consequences of her death.  It looked at the reactions the other characters had because of her death.  It introduced a new character to replace her, but the acceptance of Ziva didn't come quickly to all the  members of the team who were still grieving over the loss of Kate.  In essence it dealt with death and its consequences. 

If this was a comic, with the show being in the seventh season, Kate would have returned.  The reasons could be many, she could be back as a good guy or more than likely she'd have returned as a villain, convinced that her death was the fault of Gibbs and his team and wanting revenge.  And it would have cheapened her death.  All the emotions I had as a viewer watching her die and the aftermath of her death would have felt cheap and hollow.  The investment I had in the character and the mourning I experienced over her loss would have been for nothing.  Even if I missed Kate and wished she was still with the show I knew her loss had made a difference in the show and by making me believe in the characters and the show for an hour whenever I watched it it had made a difference in me.

This is exactly what we as comic readers are being denied.  We can see someone die, but do we ever truly believe that the death is real?  As soon as the issue is read and the comic put to the side the message boards are going to be full of questioning the death or when will the character come back  from the dead, things that aren't important and not accepting the death and whatever happens next. 

Knowing that a character can actually die makes you read or watch whatever series you are involved in with a different light also.  Knowing that any character (yes, I know that even with Kate's death the odds of Gibb's character being killed were very slim, but there was the possibility and with the other characters you really didn't know) might die makes you believe in the show a bit more.  Any fiction wants you to invest in its world and for the amount of time you're visiting it wants you to believe in it.  I'm not saying you have to believe in people that can fly and whatever, but for the time you're in that fictional world you have to believe.  You have to be willing to put aside what you know might not be true but believe in what the creator of that piece of fiction has created.  And to believe the world has to be consistent with what the creator has created.  Everytime something happens in this make believe world that makes you pause and question it is a chance for you to cease believing and to pull you from the story.

Knowing a character can really die in this world you're reading or watching helps you to invest in the world, helps you to believe a little stronger.  When you don't believe the character dies and there is a death and your first thought is how or when will the character return, you've just been pulled from that world a bit and you're not quite believing as much. 

Watching NCIS I am always worried that another character might die.  And they have.  From semi regular supporting characters to other leads, some characters have died.  It's made me believe in the characters that are alive even more.  When I read the death of a comic book character, as much as I enjoyed the death of Captain America, part of me was questioning the death, wondering when he'd be back, how'd he be back, too many questions for me to fully believe in the death and to pull me from the storyline and the belief that I had invested into that comic that I had been willing to give it. 

There's no real summing up here.  We all know that nothing is really going to change, as far as death is concerned in comics.  It's a shame, death could actually bring a certain life to comics, give the readers a chance to experience true feelings of the death of a character and what it means.  But don't blame just the creators, we as readers are just as guilty.  We're the ones that demand the return of a character before his four color remains are even buried.  We're the ones that start trying to come up with explanations of how the character survived their death.  We're the ones that don't want to accept death as part of life.  And thus we're the ones that will always read the death of a character and be pulled from that fictional world and be reminded a bit at that point in the story that we're just reading a story and of course it's not true and the link between us as a reader and the creator of the story will be broken just a bit.

Who Writes The Watchmen

There's eyes behind the mirrors in empty places: 

Bleeding Cool has reported that DC plans on taking full advantage of the Watchmen universe.  So you know what that means?  A Minutemen comic.  And who among you doubts that there'll be something starring Rorschach.

For those few who are unfamiliar with the comic Watchmen was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.  Moore was coming off a celebrated run on Swamp Thing and DC was looking for a new project for the writer to work on.  Originally Moore was going to take the newly purchased Charlton Comic Heroes and create a new world for the characters.  Somewhere along the line the decision was made that, maybe, the Charlton Heroes (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Question, etc.) wasn't exactly right for this story.  Perhaps when someone at DC realized what Moore was planning and than realized how much money was tied up in the Charlton characters.

So Moore and Gibbons created new characters for their story.  So Captain Atom became Dr. Manhattan.  Blue Beetle became Nite Owl.  And Question became Rorschach.

To say Watchmen was a success is an understatement.  It became the benchmark for the genre.  After the twelve issues were published the series was collected in a single volume. 

And that's when things became interesting.  The contracts between DC and the creators were not the standard ones between talent and corporate for that time.  I have no idea of the details but from what has been reported the rights to Watchmen were to revert to Moore and Gibbons once the book went out of print.  I would imagine that the two creators  thought this a fairly decent deal since up to that time no comic book collection had stayed in constant publication.

Until Watchmen.  The series has stayed in print continuously since its initial publication.  And Moore and Gibbons have only been able to stand to the side and watch what DC decides to do with their work. 

DC decided to do a movie of the comic.  It's not exactly a secret that Moore was not a fan of the movie version of his work.  What was somewhat surprising is that there were no movie versions of the comic, no spin-offs or prequels or one of the usual thousand and one comics you see when a movie is coming out.  It seems that even though DC wasn't going to let control of the comic out of their hands, the publisher of the company at that time, Paul Levitz was inclined to let the comic speak for itself and was willing to honor Moore and Gibbons' vision and not add to it with additional comics.

I been in a jail when all my mail showed That a man can't give his address out to bad company:

Things have changed in the last few months.  As we've mentioned before Mr. Levitz is no longer in charge of DC.  And word is that those in charge now are more than eager to add pages to the world of Watchmen.  Dan Didio has supposedly been talking about new projects for the Watchmen universe.  Now this was back when Didio was just the editor of the company, now he is a co-publisher.  But that could be a new wrinkle.  He's the co-publisher, as is there is another publisher.  And that publisher is Jim Lee.

Jim Lee owned Wildstorm Studios, the company that managed to lure Alan Moore back into writing super hero comics some years back with the creation of the ABC Comics line.  Lee was even instrumental in keeping Moore working on his ABC Comics after Wildstorm was sold to DC, when Moore had publicly stated he would never work with DC Comics again.  So we have Lee on one side, obviously once willing to side with Moore and Didio on the other side wanting to publish more comics based on Moore's creations when it's pretty evident that Moore won't be happy about.   Which side will he be on this time?  Will it be enough to cause a rift between the two newly minted co-publishers or would one side be willing to lay their feelings to the side? 

Publication of new comics based on Watchmen also bring up questions of the morality of such an act.  DC owns the title and the characters, but Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created it for the story they told and intended it to end there.  Would a writer or artist be willing to take on such a job knowing the history?  Well, there's always someone out there willing to write or draw something if they get paid, regardless of if it's right or wrong.  And we're not saying that such writers or artists would be wrong. 

Isn't Spider-man and Batman still going after the original creators left the comic?   Moore and Gibbons knew the history of the industry, they knew what they were signing, they weren't kids, so why is DC the bad guys here?  Moore and Gibbons believed that the comic would be published by DC for a few years and than once it went out of print would revert to them, at the time that was probably a pretty good bet, so it could be said that DC led them on. 

As you can see a good point could be made from either side.  I think one reason no one has wanted to add to the Watchmen canon so far is because of how highly regarded the comic is held.  For goodness sake, it was named one of the 100 best NOVELS of all time by TIME magazine.  Not graphic novels, but novels, you know those things that don't have pictures to tell their story.  Who wants to take a chance to screw with that? 

And as a writer or artist who wants to be known as the guy or girl that messed with Moore and Gibbons' creation.   You know, no matter how good it is, it isn't going to be Watchmen.  Plus you're going to be known as anti-creator, not much more than a hack, willing to take a job even though you know you shouldn't.  I'm not saying that's true.  Heck, if I was offered the job would I be willing to turn it down?  (As if there's even the slightest chance that will happen.)  I'd have to say I seriously doubt it, so believe me I'm not casting any dispersions on anyone here. 

Even though this isn't a creator owned comic, in the minds and thoughts of a lot of people it's often forgotten that the comic is owned by DC Entertainment.  Any artist or writer taking the job of continuing the adventures of the characters from Watchmen are going to be viewed as opposing Alan Moore's wishes.  Normally this wouldn't be that big a deal, most creators aren't that worried about what other creators think about such things, but this is Alan Moore we're talking about.  Moore is held in his own special place as far as most creators are concerned.

It would probably help if DC gets Dave Gibbons involved with the project.  But what does Mr. Gibbons think of the idea of continuing the Watchmen's legacy?  I don't remember him being opposed to the movie and he has continued to work in mainstream comics, so he may have no problems with the concept. 

So if DC does decide to go ahead with this it will be interesting to see who is willing to give it a try.  

Wizard World New Orleans: Day One

(This post and the following post originally appeared on the site Bleeding Cool.)

It’s 9:30 and the room is filling up with dealers and artists.  We’re only 30 minutes from opening.  I’ve heard that anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 tickets have been pre-sold.  Either amount would be a good showing.  Aside from some smaller shows New Orleans hasn’t had a convention in over a decade and that one didn’t turn out so well.  So here’s hoping this one will be a success.

For me this convention means something different than it does for a lot of people attending it.  Years ago, ok a lot of years ago, I’m an old fart, I used to write comic books.  Nothing fancy, just for a lot of the independent companies, at that time there were a lot more independent companies around.  I’ve been published by Fantagraphics, Kitchen Sink, Malibu, Innovation and at the end I even went the self published route and did two issues of Diebold with the artist Brian Clifton.  What writing I’ve been doing has been more towards musical subjects, with my online site Voices to hear (www.avoicetohear.com).  But I want to write comics again, so I’m looking at this convention twofold; get myself back out there and hopefully network with some artists.  A writer in the comic industry without an artist is a lonely person.  End of aside and back to the convention.

As always I’m early.  (I can’t help it, I have a anal fixation of always being early for any event I attend.)  I live about an hour outside New Orleans so I left at seven and was in the Hall a little after eight, and that’s even after turning down the wrong street and having to come back around.  Once inside I find my table has been moved from where it was listed online.  It looks like everyone that was on the row I was on has been flipped to the other side of the area.  The table across from me is for James O’Barr, the creator of The Crow, but we won’t see him the whole day, he stays at the booth of the publisher of his newest comic.

It looks like a pretty good selection of dealers.  I see comics, card, statues, fan clubs, a litle of everything it looks like.  And of course the Boba Fetts and Storm Troopers.   I haven’t been to a convention in a long time so I’m not sure which to compare it to.

The doors open and there’s a small crowed trickling in.  By 10:30 the crowd has grown from a trickle to more of a rush as I see more people walking around.  Larry Guidry stopped by the table to show me the page of a comic proposal that we are working on.  It looks great and I’m excited.  This is what I’m coming to the con for, to meet artists and hook up for work.  There’s a couple artists that I’ve been talking to that I want to meet with and I want to try and meet some new artists this weekend.   And it’d be nice to make a few sales, but so far I’m not having much luck on that front.

On the table to my left is a giant head of Galactus that everyone is stopping to take a picture of.  The creator told me that the head is make of Styrofoam.  

It’s 10:50 and I just made my first sale.  Someone bought the second issue of Diebold.  Not that they had the first issue, they just liked the look of the second issue.  I’m not going to argue, a sale is a sale.

There’s a young man standing in front of my table looking at my sign that reads “Writer In Search of An Artist.”  He tells me he’s an artist, unfortunately he doesn’t have any samples of his work with him.  (Just a tip: always bring something to show if you want to talk about your work.)  I give him a card and tell him to send me something.

Note to self:  Always make sure you have enough change.  I’ve started selling more comics now and someone just handed me a twenty and I don’t have change.  He tells me he’ll come back later.   He never makes it back.

Lots of Green Lantern shirts.  If it’s any indication the movie should be a smash hit.  Larry watches my table for me to give me a chance to take a stroll around.  As I move from the back of the Artist’s Alley I discover that there is a lot more people here.   And I mean a lot more.  The aisles are full, some artists have lines.  The photo ops are doing extremely well, I see long lines there.

I talk to a few dealers and they all tell me that they are doing very good.  One dealer says he’s so busy he recruited some friends that were visiting to help him sell.

Back to my table.  Someone from the Con comes by and asks if I need one of them to watch my table so I can take a bathroom break.  They see I’m sitting by myself so they want to make sure I get a chance to take care of business.  Now maybe this is something that Cons do nowdays, but I don’t remember any of the Cons doing that back in my day.  I just thought that was a nice thing to do.

One guy comes up and buys seven books.  I’m usually lucky to sell two or three at a time, so selling seven at once is pretty cool.  By the end of the day I’ve sold a few books and made some money.   I’m working with a double handicap since all the comics I’m selling are more than a few years old and none of them feature a character from the Big Two.  Heck, I thought having a cover by Sam Kieth and Mike Zeck would help, but it’s almost funny to realize how quickly fan favorites become fan whos?   When I mentioned to one person that the cover was by Mike Zeck I could see the question marks in his eyes.

More importantly I’ve talked to some artists and exchanged cards and hopefully made the start of a beautiful working relationship.  I’ve also managed to talk to one artist that I felt like I had screwed up with, but he felt like he had did the same, so we both laughed about it and agreed to give it another try.

To sum it up I have to give a thumps up to the Wizard World staff for putting on a fun show.  Everyone looked like they were having a good time I didn’t’ see any problems or hear any people grumbling about what went wrong.  Everything seemed to go right and hopefully tomorrow will be just as much fun.