A few of my favorite things 2008. Comics, cartoons, TV etc.

It's that time of year when bloggy people start trotting out their "best of" lists. As I've said before, I don't think the word "best" has any place in art criticism but I do have favorites so I'll share some of them with you. I always resist the idea of doing this kind of thing before the year is actually over but I'll go ahead and do it now in the hopes that some of you might buy some some of the minicomics I'll mention.

I won't waste your time with my thoughts on movies. Even though that is what I studied in college I don't tend to see new movies. I think I went to the theater twice in 2008. I saw Wall-E (Boring.) and The Dark Knight (Terrifying. I had a nightmare just the other night about the Ledger Joker holding me and a hundred or so people hostage and making us play weird parlor games.)

Music?  Aw man, do they even make CDs anymore?  The music industry is dead to me.  If I can't download it for free I can't be bothered.

I don't have any thoughts on this year's books and novels. I don't remember reading any books this year by anyone that was not dead other than textbooks and reference books and I really, really. really hated all of those textbooks.

As far as graphic novels go, I used to have access to most of them but in 2008 the only new graphic novel I read was Steve Lafler's book Tranny. I liked it a lot. Since I don't have disposable income or work in a bookstore anymore, it might be a long time before I read another graphic novel. It's very sad but that's the way it is.

As far as floppy comics go, I think I bought five in 2008.  I bought the first issue of Fraction and Larroca's Invincible Iron Man.  Fraction seems to be pretty sharp but Larocca bores my retinas off.  I bought Dave Sim's glamourpuss (trainwreck) and blabbed about it here.  I got the first two issues of Jeff Smith's Rasl and liked them a lot.  It's like Smith's impersonation of Paul Pope.  Speaking of Paul Pope, I bought his last THB comic and loved it.  I landed a couple of Students of the Unusual books and they were pretty awesome in both production and content especially for their price.  I've picked up several Archie digests this year and enjoyed them.  The Archie digest books are one of the few comics investments I can make where I don't reel like I've wasted my money.  They are packed with pages and I can share them with my daughter.  

I do have a television and I occasionally watch it. My 2008 viewing was mostly dominated by political stuff on CNN with some Daily Show and Colbert Report to take the edge off. My favorite show with humans is probably Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. I love that show. The simple fact that Harvey Pekar and Toby Radloff were on it makes it better than most any other human based shows.  I like the Office and was glad to see it recover from the whole writer's strike thing.  I like My Name is Earl and am very glad they got away from all that jail and coma nonsense.  Honestly, I'm not a big fan of shows with humans on them.  Well, I do watch football and auto racing but those are sans actors.  I prefer cartoons and it was a pretty good year for cartoons.  My favorites are Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Secret Saturdays.  I also like Ben 10, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Johnny Test, SpongeBob, Phineas and Ferb and I absolutely loved the Legion of Superheroes but they cancelled it.  The new Batpants show ain't bad but it pales in comparison to the Legion show, Teen Titans or the previous Batpants.  Yeah, I like the Adult Swim stuff too but not enough to stay up late on a regular basis.  

The only form of entertainment I am at all qualified to comment on is minicomics.  I've read a lot of minicomics in 2008. 

My absolute favorite minicomic of 2008?  The one that stands above the rest for me is Josh Latta's Rashy Rabbit #4.  Yeah, this may all sound biased because Josh is my pal but it is the comic I read and re-read the most in 2008.  I think the drawing, the inking, tones, cover, writing, story, characters, jokes etc. are all just about seamless.  I can't think of a more consistent minicomic from cover to cover.  You can read my review of it here and you can read the thing yourself here but more importantly you should go buy a copy here.  If you can think of a better minicomic from 2008 then by all means, email me and I'll email you back my address and you can send me a free copy of that awesome book.  

There were a lot of other great books I have to mention.  2008 delivered a lot of strong anthology books.  I think Candy or Medicine is important because of the wide range of creators in each issue but also because Josh Blair is doing just a good job keeping the thing on schedule and getting it into people's hands.  Mallard out of the UK is important for similar reasons.  The Good Minnesotan books are amazing looking.  Vol. 3 is more of a graphic novel format (I'll review it soon) but 1 and 2 are two of the "best" designed minicomics I saw all year.  Especially 2.  Shitbeams on the Loose is another anthology with brilliant design but it's format is more graphic novel than traditional minicomic.  Good content too.  All that said, my favorite anthology of the year is Not My Small Diary 14.  It is a great looking two volume set but it's the creators that make it my favorite.  Alec Longstreth, John Porcellino and many more awesome talents in one package.  I think I said in my review that it is probably the best dollar for dollar comics investment you can make.  And, you can make that investment here.  You won't regret it.

I saw some good sketchbook minis in 2008.  I think my favorite  might be J. Chris Campbell's 26 Robots.  Just a perfect little robot book.  Full color.  Full of robots.  Good fun.  Brad McGinty's Bird Doggin' is right up there with it just with less robots and more girls.  It's a great little pin up book with some nice color pages.  Rob Ullman's latest Atom Bomb Bikini would probably be on the list too but I managed to leave HeroesCon without a copy.  From what I saw at the show it is a good looking pin up book.  

I was really impressed by work I saw from Ed Moorman and Sarah Olesky in various books and anthologies this year.  I really liked Jeremy Massie's The Deadbeat minis and look forward to the graphic novel next year.  Jeff Zwirek's Burning Building Comix are great looking and a lot of fun to lay out and assemble like Leggos.  (Review coming soon Jeff.)  

I also read a pretty good amount of webcomics.  American Elf continues to be a favorite even after having read ten years worth of the things.  I think it's getting better and better.  Maybe it's because Kochalka is going through this fatherhood thing with two kids about he same age as mine but I think it is neat to watch it grow.  American Elf has been around so long now that it is easy to take for granted.  It is a part of my morning Internet log-on just like checking my email or looking at CNN.com but still it is a favorite.  I'm a big fan of Rene Engstrom's Anders Loves Maria.  I dislike that "best" word but it's the "best" ongoing fiction/drama/comedy/romance webcomic that I'm aware of.  The drawing is great, the characters are great and the story really moves from page to page.  Engstrom covers a lot of narrative and emotional space in a page of comics.  Engstrom's scanner apparently died at some point this year but even with the pages being posted via digital camera it still looks good.  It's the only ongoing web comic I can think of where I really care about finding out what happens next.  

It feels more like a print comic on the web than a true webcomic but I really enjoyed Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton's Demons of Sherwood at ComicMix.  A Robin Hood horror story done in the Toth style?  I'm sold.   Brad McGinty's Paper Pusher and Dustin Harbin's comics at THE DHARBLOG are new and don't have a lot of pages up yet but seem to be on track to make my 2009 favorites list.  

I could go on and on and there is a lot of great stuff I've left out but everything can't be my favorite.  I also have a large amount of minicomics I have yet to review at file under other.  Those books will be eligible for next year's list (since the eligibility judge is me).  

Looking forward to 2009 with no idea what to expect.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

UPDATE 12/12/2008:

Last night I remembered a couple of things I had forgotten.  I did see at least on other movie in the theater.  I saw The Clone Wars cartoon movie with my daughter and we loved it.

My biggest snafu is that I forgot to mention All-Star Superman.  Maybe it's because it took so long for the thing to come out but I still can't believe I forgot it.  The thing was genius and the art was beautiful.  My only problem with it is that it came to an end.  If I looked through all of my comics and picked out my forty favorite issues I think the Morrison/Quitely team would be responsible for at least twenty of them.  (All-Star Superman, Flex Mentalo, the final issue of The Invisibles and a couple of the better issues of their X-Men run.)  I think the UN should pass some sort of resolution that Morrison and Quitley be forced to produce a new comic ever month until I'm dead.  How did I forget comics I like so very much?  I am very dumb.

Save Christmas 2008: Rising Stars

Yep pals, more ebizification.  I've just put a lot of 22 issues of J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars.  This emo superpants fest was so awesome that TV plagiarized the thing into multiple shows no one watches anymore.  That's nerdtastic!  Buy them now before you don't!

And... don't forget to visit Crooked Finger Press for my own fine hand crafted comics and baked goods.

Your best pal ever, 

Shannon Smith

Save Christmas 2008: The Sentry

Hey pals. It's that time of year where I desperately try to think of schemes to finance my Children's Christmas presents and other luxuries like, eating and electricity. I'll be digging stuff out of the basement over the next few weeks and throwing things up for sell on my eBay page.
First up are some comics. Pictured above is the cover of the San Diego Comic Con variant edition of The Sentry # 1 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee. I'm selling it by itself because its a rare fancy pants variant thingamajigie that all nerds love and desperately need to have.
I'm also selling the complete first series of The Sentry from back in 2000. The first issue is pictured above and you will notice it is signed by the writer, Paul Jenkins. The lot contains the complete ten issue story and the first two issues are signed by Jenkins. I met Jenkins several times when I lived in Georgia. I think he lives in Lawrenceville. He was a super nice guy and very helpful and encouraging to me when I was first wrapping my brain around the idea of making comics. I really liked this series and I hate to sell these comics but as much as I like Paul Jenkins, I like my kids better. It also features some fantastic art by Jae Lee. I think that this (along with The Inhumans) is some of Lee's best work.
So, if you are one of those people that has what we referred to back in the 90's as "discretionary income", please consider buying some comics. Visit my eBay page and let the bidding begin.

Also, don't forget that I sell fine handcrafted minicomics that I made myself. You can buy those here.

Thanks pals!

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

Batman The Brave and the Bold

I finally saw the new Batman cartoon. I'm ashamed that I missed last week's premier but I can't have my Nerd-Fu cranked to eleven all the time. I wanted to dislike this new cartoon. See, I really liked the last show, The Batman. But more than that I was bitter about the cancellation of The Legion of Superheroes cartoon. I take my cartoons seriously and the Legion cartoon was my all time favorite DC based cartoon. I was also just bitter in general about the state of Saturday morning cartoons. With the end of The Batman and Legion it was also the end of the Kids WB which had been the last bastion of Saturday Morning goodness. I'm getting over that though. I've come to accept Friday night as the new Saturday morning.
So, I watched the new Batpants cartoon and it is pretty good. Just trying to judge it as it's own thing I like it well enough. This week's episode had Plastic Man. It is really hard to go wrong with Plastic Man. He is a perfect cartoon character. I thought they handled him well but his voice should have been more, I don't know... ethnic? I mean, his name is Eel O'Brian and he's a former criminal. He should not sound like some kid in a California Starbucks. But maybe that's just me. The show was campy and goofy and had almost no story but that's okay. It's a big step down from the stories being told on The Batman but it's okay. Dumb and goofy is fun. What saves the thing is that they did not camp up Batman. Yeah, they gave him the friendlier color scheme but he is really the same character as the previous cartoons. It's just the situations and the supporting cast that are campier. Batman is still Batman so I think the show will work. The real reason I will keep tuning in is the supporting cast. A cartoon with Plastic Man and Gorilla Grodd? I'm there. On a scale of one to ten, ten being The Secret Saturdays, I'd give it about a five. I'd give it's predecessor, The Batman a seven. It's not a bad cartoon but not a great TV show.
I have to question the logic behind the whole campy direction. Nothing Warner/DC does makes any sense to me. You have the biggest movie of the year and one of the biggest movies of all time in The Dark Knight and you immediately try to make your comics nothing like the movie by offing Batman and you make your new cartoon more like the exact opposite of the movie, the 60's Batman TV show. Does that make sense to anyone? Yeah, I liked the 60's show but it could not be more opposite of The Dark Knight and to tell the truth it did not bear a whole lot of resemblance to what the Batman comics were before the show.
Open letter to Warner/DC: I am ready to help you. Whenever you have an idea, email me first and I will tell you how horrible it is. I'm willing to do this for a fraction of whatever salary you are paying the idiots in charge at the moment. I look forward to your email.


Another question I have to ask is... who else noticed they stole the title sequence and music from Cowboy Bebop? I could not find a video of The Brave and The Bold's title sequence to post here but if you play the video up top you will hear the music. Then, check out the Cowboy Bebop clip. Not an exact lift but close and when you see The Brave and the Bold's actual title sequence you will see a lot of similarities. I'm not going to fault the Warners crew for this. I get that they are going for that 60's style and I also get that the Cowboy Bebop title sequence is the best TV show title sequence of all time and should by all means be imitated.
So, if the idiots in charge had emailed me and said, "hey Shannon, should we steal Cowboy Bebop's title sequence?" I would have said, "Great idea!". If they had asked, "should we make all our Batman properties the exact opposite of our hit movie?" I would have said, "not so much".

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

Sometimes ya just need a little Bruce.

I bet Bruce Lee could cure my cold.  Or at least kick it's ass.  

In other random thoughts; if I can prove my family has the plague do you think ABC would give us an Extreme Home Makeover?

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Okay, the internet has been renewed.

But only to bring you this.

Again stolen from my new favorite website of the past 24 hours or so: Bully Says: Comics Oughta Fun.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

The internet has been cancelled.

Because it will never get better than this.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

MailCon: Invisible Girl and Wonder Woman for Kurt Beaulieu

(Click the image to watch it grow.)

I drew this during lunch today for my Canadian pal Kurt Beaulieu.  (Sorry it took so long Kurt.)  I've been reading a lot of Essential Fantastic Four and I recently watched the New Frontier DVD so I've been wanting to put 60's Sue Storm (aka Invisible Girl, aka Invisible Woman aka Sue Richards ) and 40's Wonder Woman having a "girl talk" session.  

Have I mentioned how much I love decorated envelopes?!?

Kurt is a very good cartoonist.  You can check out his stuff here.   I like his comics and his style a lot.  I'm grateful that he sent along these cool drawings of his own.

Yes.  All Canadian women really look just like that.  It's true!

You too can play MailCon.  How you ask? Do I have to explain everything to you people?  Do I have to explain the whole dang introwebnet?  Okay, here is what you do.  First you reach behind your computer and make sure all the cords are plugged in... no silly, it's not that hard.  Just click here to find out how to play MailCon.

Thanks Kurt!  Be on the look out for a flying squirrel to deliver your MailCon sketch soon.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s.  This drawing got posted in Stan Lee's MySpace and Facebook galleries.   Yeah, Stan Lee is all intronet 2.0 and he's like 138 years old.  Take that John McCain!

Friday night is the new Saturday morning.

(Asajj Ventress.  Pencil sketch by el Shannisimo.)

The new Star Wars cartoon, The Clone Wars, premiered last Friday night on Cartoon Network.  I sat down and watched it with the same kind of excitement I had during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid.  I watched it sitting on the floor like I did as a kid and it inspired me to start drawing just like the cartoons did when I was a kid.  Here are some sketches I knocked out during the show.  I really like the character designs.  The villains are awesome.  Asajj Ventress is a pretty radical design for a kid's cartoon.  The big samurai double belt thing gives her a low center of gravity which makes her feminine but she is not pretty.  She's pretty scary looking.  That long neck and sharp features make her look like a vulture.  It's a really neat design and fun to draw.

(Count Dooku a.k.a. Mr. Grumpy Face. Pencil sketch by Shannana Montana.)

The design for Count Dooku is nothing radical but I like the big evil mustache and that grumpy bottom lip.  I like most all of the character designs and think that it is a great looking show.  It is probably the best looking computer animated TV show ever.  It has some weak points.  The human admiral character looks like he came out of one of those Barbie movies.  Humans look awkward when they walk and some times seem to slide across the frame but that's pretty common in computer animation.  I never for one second thought Golem looked like he was connected to his environment in those movies about those guys walking and camping.  I am generally not a fan of computer animation.  And I know, even the stuff  that looks like hand drawn cell animation is all assembled with computers these days but you know what I mean.  Simply put, I prefer my cartoons to look like cartoons and not like video games.  The Clone Wars does look like a video game but it looks like a really cool video game.  More importantly the stories (at least the two they showed on Friday) are really good.  Well crafted, well executed fast paced episodic adventure television.  That is something we don't see often on TV.  Firefly is the last example I can think of.  Don't even go there with throwing Heroes or Lost in my face.  That stuff is just soap opera with a bigger budget.  I'm talking about entertaining TV episodes with a beginning, a middle and an end.  I love that!  That is probably a big part of the reaon that cartoons and the occasional sitcom are the only fiction TV I watch.  

Another thing I really like about these Star Wars cartoons is that they have Star Wars in them.  I've wanted this cartoon for 31 years.  It's Star Wars man!  Space ships and aliens and light sabers and droids.  Freaking Star Wars on TV!  And not some low budget movie or special.  This is a freaking Star Wars TV show!  Exclamation point!  I never thought it would happen.  Now I know a lot of my nerd pals out there have gone to the dark side and flipped the hater switch firmly to the on position when it comes to all things relating to Uncle George.  That's fine.  I'm not going to cheerleader the Star Wars cause.  You don't owe Star Wars or Lucas anything.  They are doing just fine.  From all accounts Uncle George and his nice family are living happy healthy lives and will be just fine whether anyone watches a cartoon or not.  I'm just saying that if you like short adventure stories that require none of the investment of the longer TV dramas then you should check this show out.  And yeah, if I had my way, it would be a cartoon that looks more like a cartoon and it would have Luke and Han and Chewie (It would look just like the Howard Chaykin and Carmine Infantino Star Wars comics I loved as a kid and I would be hired to help write the thing or something...) but you can't have it all and I like these characters plenty.  And have I mentioned how much I like Ahsoka Tano?  Oh and there is this guy...

(Fiskerton from The Secret Saturdays.  Pencil sketch by Shannotron 3000.)

Wait a minute.  He's no Jedi.  That's Fisk from The Secret Saturdays.  He's a gorilla cat!  The Secret Saturdays is another new addition to The Cartoon Network and half the reason I think Friday nights are the new Saturday morning.  This show is awesome!  There is almost nothing original about it but they have stolen from all my favorite Alex Toth-ish cartoons.  If you fused Thundarr, The Herculoids, Jonny Quest and Scooby-Doo you would have the awesomest adventure cartoon ever and it would be The Secret Saturdays.  I really like the Fisk character I drew above.  He is basically a cross between Chewbacca and Scooby-Doo.  I can't believe it took someone 31 years to figure you that if you mix one part Chewie and one part Scooby you get awesome.  But, the real star of the show is action mom Drew Saturday.  She's got white hair, big boots and a huge freaking sword like that girl from the Heavy Metal movie.  How can that not turn your nerometer to wow?  Don't answer that. It can't not. (Or it can will!  Grammar?! Exclamation point!)  I really like this show.  Give me The Secret Saturdays, The Clone Wars, throw in some Ben 10 and man, you've got yourself all the excitement of a great Saturday morning!  (On Friday night.)

In conclusion.  Thank you Cartoon Network.  I'm six years old again.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith