Hula-Hoop Girl by Kassidy Smith on sale this weekend at HeroesCon, Charlotte NC, USA Earth.

My 12 year old daughter Kassidy's first minicomic is ready to print.  Yup.  Look for us on Indie Island this weekend and come get a copy. 

Adventure Time comic by Kassidy Smith age 10

This comic by Kassidy Smith (age 10) takes place sometime during the story of the Marceline and the Scream Queens comic book mini-series which is a spin-off of Adventure Time.  Duh!

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

Adventure Time by Kassidy Smith age 10.

Adventure Time by Kassidy Smith age 10.





via Tumblr http://globalcozykamikaze.tumblr.com/post/27416752965

Super Kids List-O-Friends

I'm a big fan of the ancient business practice of writing things down.  I have notebooks and post-its all over the place.  Most of which contain lists.  I make a to-do list at least once a day.  I hate working but I love scratching things off lists.  I work at home from time to time and often take my notebooks and post-its back and forth between home and office.  

I found the above list in one of my notebooks.  It is not a list that I created.  It is a list created by my nine year old daughter.  She has created her own super hero group called The Super Kids.  The list documents the Super Kid's friends.  

There are three things on this list that really impress me:

1)  Yes.  Super Lois is a character of critical importance and should be on any list of important super heroes, characters or friends.  

2) Ditto Plastic Man and Bat-Mite.

3)  My daughter can spell the word "friends".  I've been working on that for over three decades and still do not have any idea where to put the "i" and the "e".

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Happy Halloween.

I love Halloween and usually try to draw some Halloweenie art but I've been way to sick to push a pencil this month. My daughter Kassidy draws all day every day though. Above is a Halloween pic she did. I helped her with the skeleton though. Have fun trick and or treating everyone.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

What the kids these days are really into is 80's comics.

Or at least that's what my kid is into. Hi there blogoverse! I've been real busy in case you missed me (and I know you did). I won't get into why I've been busy because it's all a total downer. Let's talk about happy things instead. Like comics! Any time I take my seven year old daughter Kassidy with me to a comic book shop I usually let her pick out some cheap comics from the back issues boxes. Recently she picked out a bunch of old Batman and the Outsiders comics from the 80's. These comics had colorful girl characters like Katana and Halo so I'm sure that is what jumped out at Kassidy. Plus, we likes us some Batman. (I'm sure The Outsiders showing up on Batman The Brave and the Bold also helped.) I never read these comics back in the day. I was much more team Marvel. I've been reading them when Kassidy is looking the other way and they are pretty cool. Lovely Jim Aparo art. They are so 80's team comics in that they try to touch on real world issues but, ya know with a crazy cast of misfit characters. Ah the 80's when all the heroes were either damaged goods or misfits. Kind of just like the 00's.
Here is a drawing Kassidy did of Katana. To see more of Kassidy's drawings click here. You'll even find some Spongebob art from little sister Alana.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

Hawkman, Kamandi and Wonder Woman at Rob Con.

Here are some drawings from this past Saturday's Rob Con, a comic book show in the Bristol Mall in TN. Above is just a pencil quick sketch of Hawkman but I decided to play around with it and drop in some quick colors using a DC style guide I found online somewhere a while back. This is just super quick coloring using the eye dropper and paint bucket tool and stealing those DC colors.

This is the pencil drawing sans color.

Here is a pretty lousy Kamandi pencil drawing I did with the same color experiment.

And here are the Kamandi pencils.

My seven year old daughter Kassidy sold more comics at the show than I did. This his her drawing of Wonder Woman with the same color tricks.

Here is Kassidy's pencil sketch of Wonder Woman.

And here is the DC style guide I stole from.

The show was cool but I feel safe in saying that myself, my family, Jeremy Massie and his posse were the only people there that had ever seen a minicomic before. Not really an indie crowd. But, Kassidy found a lot of good girl-centric comics and toys for cheap. I found an issue of Kamandi I was missing. Good times.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Six year old girls like Kitty Pryde.

(Kitty Pryde and Dazzler by Kassidy Smith age six.)

I mentioned before how much my daughter likes the Dazzler comic we picked up a few weeks ago.  It was Dazzler #2 and it has just a few panels showing Ktty Pryde and some of the other X-Men.  I've been amazed at how interested she has been in Kitty and yesterday when I came home from work she was proud to show me a bunch of Kitty Pryde and X-Men drawings.  The fact that she is a kid and often wears normal clothes seems to make the character very appealing.  I loved the X-Men as a kid and always cared about Kitty a bit more than the other characters.  And by cared I mean that I worried about her.  She was just a teenager so when she was in peril it had a lot more impact than if Colossus or even Storm were in a bind.  (I liked the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini-series even more than the Frank Miller Wolverine series.)  However, I've never been a little girl so I had no real scope of the impact the character had on girls.  No I get why so many girls got into comics through the X-Men.  It makes perfect sense.  They can see themselves in Kitty and she changed clothes more than the rest of the cast so there is that whole fashion element girls are attracted to.  

Was there a point to this post?  Um, I don't guess so.  I just find it interesting to look at these comics through someone else's eyes.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s.  And since I'm talking about X-Men I may as well say I was disappointed by the new Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon.  It was kinda boring.  My daughter seemed to like it though.  She lit up every time Kitty was in a scene and she seems to think the Beast is hilarious.  I don't think she could care less about Wolverine though.  It's not a bad cartoon but it's a big step down from Batman: The Brave and the Bold or Spectacular Spider-Man.  I like the character designs and the cast choices but the animation, writing and music are all below the standard of what I'm used to seeing on Cartoon Network and the Kids WB, er, I mean whatever they call those CW cartoons now.  I also don't even have that Nick Toons channel so we caught it somewhere else on Sunday.  However, if I did have Nick Toons, I doubt that I would watch the show because Wolverine is on at the same time as Batman and Bats is simply better.  So far.

p.p.s.  And since I mentioned Spectacular Spider-Man... Hey CW, change your schedule!  Spidey is on wayyy too early.  7:30 for your best show?!?  C'mon.  I needs my Spidey fix at around 9:00 or 9:30 Saturday mornings.  Get that fixed right now!  Chop chop!

A tale of two comic shops or things used to be better back when they sucked less.

(Gaze into the face of Awesome. This is the glory that was. All Star Squadron #37. 1984.)

I love comic book shops but now that I live in rural America my comic book shop visits are very infrequent. Neither the town I work in nor the town I live in even have a spinner rack much less a comic book shop. A county away from me my pal Brian at Cavalier Comics runs a nice shop and is happy to get me what I need but I am seldom in that neck of the woods. Way over in Bristol, TN there is a shop called Mountain Empire Comics. It's the shop I went to when I was a kid and it's a nice little store. They carry Rasl and that's about all I can expect of a comic shop these days. (I've given up on them carrying stuff like The Comics Journal or much else I have interest in.) I've shopped at comics shops since at least 1985 and from about 1991 to 2007 a comic book shop visit was a weekly thing for me but now in my grown-up-daddy-of-two-rural-life if I visit a comic shop six times in a year then that would be a lot.

(I don't know who this new "Obama" character is or what his super powers are but that is a pretty boring costume. It's just a suit. How is he going to swing over the city or punch bad guys in the face with a suit jacket on? I hope he does not replace Spidey.)

This past Wednesday (the 14th) was apparently a big day for some comic shops. For me, it was just Wednesday but out of random dumb luck and the need to get the kids out of the house on a snow day I ended up visiting two comic shops. I had to go by the doctor over in Abingdon VA which is about 45 minutes from my house. There is a newish G2K store over there. This G2K location is part comics shop part video game store. It's a cool store. If I were 15 or under I would want to go there on a weekly basis. Nice, clean, new, well lit, lots of video games, lots of toys and all your new mainstream comics. Well, not all of them. I took the kids in and we looked around. The clerk was still putting out new comics and toys from the Wednesday shipment. He was nice and asked if we were looking for anything. As both a nerd and an Obama fan I of course was aware of the Spidey comic with Obama so I asked if he had any. He of course said they were sold out. I expected that. Then I came back with a question I dreaded to ask. See, I don't really care about new mainstream comics. It's not that I don't like them it's just that I don't' need them. I have about 1000 comics in my basement that are written better, drawn better and probably even stapled better than most of what Marvel and DC have put out in years. I'm all good on the super hero books thanks. That being said there is one specific super hero comic I have been wanting. Since my first daughter was born it has been a dream of mine that DC would make a Wonder Woman or Supergirl book for kids that wasn't terrible and actually made sense. Recently, DC started a new Supergirl book so I've been wanting it. Granted, the girl in the comic does not look anything like Supegirl but hey, I'm desperate to have a comic I can read with my daughters other than the Archie books. But, alas, I've never seen this Supergirl comic anywhere. So, I summon up the nerve and I ask, "Do you have that new Supergirl comic for kids?" Now the comic is a month or two old so I expected them to be out of it but the answer I got was like a punch to the stomach. "No, we stopped carrying kids comics due to lack of interest." Ouch! They never even ordered the thing. Supergirl dead on the vine. No, I do not at all fault the small business for making the call it feels it has to make on any product. I've been there myself. As a former book retailer I've returned some of my favorite books due to lack of sales. I get it. But as a customer, it kind of sucks to be told that the store has given up on the one and only product you would have any interest in. If your local grocery store stopped carrying your favorite beer because it turned out that you were the only one that ever bought it, you would understand but you would still be pissed. The difference is that you would probably go back to the grocery store. You would need milk or bread or something. But as a parent who spends his meager discretionary income on his kids, I don't have much need for a comics shop that does not sale kids comics. I really tried to find something to buy. My oldest daughter loves comics and she was sick so I wanted to get her something. I looked at the comics racks over and over but all the books were terrible looking. Ugly, dark, violent art in this terrible post-Alex Ross hack painting style all over the place. Marvel and DC sure make some ugly comics. The only comic that interested me at all was a Grant Morrison Dr. Who comic but I nearly had a stroke when I saw the cover price. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a copy of the Supergirl book at a convention or something.(There was a time when things happened in mainstream comic books. The Superman Family #183. 1977.)

So we left G2K and headed for Bristol, TN. I need some shoes and I had heard about a going out of business sale. (Oh that wacky recession.) On the way I noticed a comic shop I had never been to before so I pulled in. It is called Vintage Comics.

The shop looks like most of the smaller shops I've been in. Lots of comics and toys crammed from the floor to the ceiling in every corner of the shop. And of course, they have video games. One thing I didn't notice was any new comics. I asked the clerk if they carried new comics and he said, "No, we quit fooling with them a few months ago." I was taken aback by this for about a half a second but then I thought to myself, yeah, that's exactly what dealing in new comics is, "fooling". I wouldn't fool with them either if I were a small business owner. Vintage comics had a dozen or so long boxes of dollar comics so I started looking through those and immediately found just the type of comics I was looking for. They had bunches of pre-Crisis DC books with Wonder Woman and Supergirl and all the heroes my daughter likes from back in the day when comics had stories in them that made sense. Forget new comics. Forget Spidey and Obama's Spectacular Sales Gimmick. What we need are old comics.

(That's right. Twenty cents. Uncle Scrooge No. 112. 1974.)

I even found and old Uncle Scrooge. (Lately I've been picking up all the funny animal comics I find for a buck or less and it's all Josh Latta's fault.) I let my daughter pick out a few and we ended up with eight comics. We came away with my Scrooge book, the All Star Squadron and Superman Family books pictured above, a couple of Wonder Woman comics, a Superboy with freaking amazing art by Kurt Shaffenberger, a Cloak and Dagger and a Dazzler. They only charged us six dollars. Eight awesome comics for less than a dollar a piece! If I ever have any discretionary income any time soon I'm going back and cleaning them out. My six year old loves the comics and I do too. She is really blown away. The All Star Squadron alone is enough to satisfy one's superhero appetite for quite a while. It has the Marvel kids taking on Superman, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel in the comic at the same time, all the heroes riding in a Plastic Man raft, all the heroes fighting freaking Hitler and the Flash and Plastic man get shot! Now that's a comic book! If all that stuff happened in comics today it would be a year long company wide crossover called Secret Infinite Invasion Crisis. Back in 1984 they just called that the September issue of All Star Squadron. Needless to say, I can't wait to get back to Vintage Comics.

So two comic shops in one day and two every different results. A new school shop that has completely given up on kids comics. An old school shop that has completely given up on new comics. What does it all mean? I don't know. Last week was a weird week for comcis. You had the Spidey/Obama thing dominate the mainstream media's perception of comics. You had Batman freaking die and no one outside of the comics community cared. You have comic's monopoly holding distributer to the direct market make a change that means they probably won't be carrying any new books from the publishers that actually make the kinds of books I like. Odd times. I'm just glad the folks in charge today do not yet have time travel technology that can allow them to go back and time and destroy all the good comics that are already out there. None of those clowns are allowed in my basement. If we can keep the savages from stealing or destroying all the old comics then at least my daughters and I will have something to read.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. The comics we picked up inspired my daughter to make a lot of great drawings and even invent her own superhero rock band and make up a theme song for them. Team/band members include Light Girl and Fast Girl. You can see some of the drawings here. There are dozens more but I can't scan fast enough to keep up with her.

p.p.s. Yesterday, Saturday the 24th, me and my posse hit up another comic shop. This time it was Hero Headquarters in Kingsport, TN. It is a nice friendly shop. Lots to toys. Lots of G.I. Joe. They only had a small amount of new comics and rather than having them on a rack they were just laid out on the counter. No Spidey/Obama and of course no Supergirl. He had a nice selection of fifty cent books where we found an issue of Wonder Girl and some other goodies. (Kassidy is already drawing Wonder Girl adventures.) I also got a book from the old Marvel Graphic Novel series for just a buck! I'll probably talk more about that after I read it.

Six year old girls like Dazzler comics.

(The torn, re-taped and re-stapled cover of Dazzler #2 from 1981.  Art by Romita Jr. and Al Milgrom.)

I posted this on my kids' art blog but I thought I would post it here as well because it's comics and more often than not this is a comics blog.  We picked up this Dazzler comic for less than a dollar and my daughter likes it a lot.  It makes perfect sense that a little girl would like Dazzler.  She is basically Hannah Montana with super powers and roller skates.  It seems to me that if someone were to produce a Dazzler TV show with toys, clothes and accessories today it would be like printing money.  Heck, it might even make a decent comic book.  Oh if only kids read comic books... wait, they do read comic books!  You just have to give them twenty year old comics you found on the floor of a comic shop.  Honestly, looking at comic books and drawing the characters is the only thing in my daughter's world that can even compete with the Nintendo DS right now.  That is saying a lot.
Here is my six year old's version of the cover.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

The Smith Kids Art Blog

I have started a new blog to keep track of all the awesome drawings and things my kids make.  I know you are thinking, "why in the world would I ever want to look at some other dude's kid's art" but not so fast Negative Nancy.  I think it is very interesting to watch it progress and as an artist myself I think it is fascinating to see the obvious tricks a kid will pick up on that adults are kind of blind to.  There is not much there yet but if I can keep up with them it should grow really fast.  Check it out and bookmark it and subscribe to it and follow it and all those fun intronet 2.0 funtastic things.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

(Quick pencils by Daddy. Crayons by Kassidy. This one was already cut into a paper doll before it made it to the scanner.)

(Quick pencils by Daddy. Crayons by Kassidy.)

(Quick pencil sketch by Daddy. Crayons by Kassidy.)

(Quick pen sketch by Daddy. Crayons by Kassidy.)

I took my six year old to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Saturday and we both loved it. My opinion on the flick really does not matter because I'm a grown up and it's a kids movie but my kid was literally on the edge of her seat from the second the girl Jedi, Ashoka, hit the screen until the end. When we got home she wanted to play with my toy lightsaber and watch one of the Star Wars movies. She was excited that my toy lightsaber is green just like Ashoka's. Now she wants me to draw the characters so she can color them and cut them out into paper dolls. I liked the Clone Wars cartoons that Cartoon Network put out a few years ago so much that I thought I would be disappointed by this movie but I really liked it. I thought the Lucasfilm guys did a good job with most of the animation. The action stuff was amazing but they were clumsy with some of the same things Pixar was clumsy with on their first few films. Grown humans walking and cloth always see to be a problem in these things. Yeah, Wall-E is a better looking movie (I''d guess Wall-E's budget dwarfed Clone Wars') but at least things happened in Clone Wars. I really like it when things happen in movies. It makes it much less boring. I also really liked how they took the music in a different direction than the live action movies. It wasn't trying to be the live action movies. It was it's own thing for kids. Oh, wait, there I go with my dumb grown-up opinions. Ignore all of that and just remember that yes, the six year old liked it.

Weird timing on WB's part to release this thing now. Your adult nerd audience is occupied by Batpants and Tropical Thunder and your kid audience is probably stuck at home because their chauffeurs (a.k.a. parents) have already spent all their money on back to school supplies. Other random thoughts on the movie going experience: Almost all the trailers before the flick were inappropriate for a kids audience. There was this horrific trailer for a horror movie, I forget the title, something about Hairy Porter, that was too terrible for a kid audience. There was this Vin Deisel vs. the universe thing that was too terrible for any audience. Even the commericals (don't you just hate paying to watch TV commericals at a movie?) were totally sex based and not right for kids. In short, yeesh!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Kassidy's Art Gallery

My daughter Kassidy creates art on a daily basis. Some of it is pretty good. I've started an art gallery here. Not much yet but as I find time to scan you will see that her paper doll collection alone is staggering. Some of these are drawn by me (to her precise instructions) and colored by Kassidy but most are solo Kassidy creations. Check it out.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith