You're a violent lot, aren't you? More Q&A.

I'm utterly amazed at the percentage of violence-related questions. Wertham was right!

More things that barely make sense from F-dot:

I. Would you rather eat or read a Chris Ware pie comic collection?

Read carefully. I don't know that I'd eat Ware. I imagine Warepie would taste like cream of asparagus, topped with ridiculously intricate laticework.

II. If for some unfathomable reason you choose to READ the delicious pie comics, what would you do if someone plopped a dollop of Ghost World made out of fudge ice cream on top?

I'd make a sweet exception to eat Clowes. There, I said it.

III. I'm hungry and surrounded by books. Do you have any suggestions on which ones I could eat?

The oldest book you own--the bookmold would probably be the most nutritional part. On the chance you have nothing aged, I say nibble on everything until you find the right book for your tastebuds.

Nora Lally-Graves asks:

1) Favorite music for working late at night? [I have to go with Nina Simone, myself]

I tend to stay up late with Sinatra, although Nina Simone is a good choice too. Lately, I'll I've been listening to has been jazz and popular standards. Soul Coughing is great 11PM-2AM music too.

2) If you had to work for an established comic book company, which one would you pick, and what role would you ideally want to have? By "established" I basically mean any one with slight name recognition (not just the top four or five).

I'd probably love to edit THE COMICS JOURNAL for Fantagraphics, or be Jeff Mason's publishing partner at Alternative Comics.

3) I'm going to twist the 8-year old AND the lunch question into: if you had to fistfight a great literary figure of days past, who would you pick? I'm not sure whether to gauge your answer by slightness of build or not, since saying you were pummelled blind by Hemingway would probably have its own appeal.

Hemingway would be a good choice, but I'll go with Morley Callaghan. I'd rather be the opening match rather than the headlining one.

The always lovely, brilliant and sometimes frightening Milo George asks:

What about Endemic Treponematosis?

I'm not a crusader! But I applaud your valiant efforts at wiping it out.

Rob Schamberger asks:

1. What celebrity, living or dead, would you most want to fight in a steel cage match?

I would have said Carrot Top in the past, but that guy is surprisingly well built, so now I'd be afraid to fight him.

2. Who'd you rather: Elizabeth Montgomery or Barbara Eden?

Whether you mean the actress or the character she made famous, I have to go with Elizabeth Montgomery. Subservient doesn't do it for me, so Eden's character is out, and Montgomery's just plain cute.

3. Who was the sexiest actor/actress on Twin Peaks?

For the boys, Kyle Maclachlan is the obvious choice. For the girls, either Mädchen Amick or the more obvious Sheryl Lee.

4. Fanboy Rampage: Hero or Menace?

The blog itself? Hero. The comments that come from it? Somewhere in between, depending on the day, the cast, and the topic.

Graeme? McMillan I adore to an unhealthy level.

Paul Teel asks:

If neither of us were married, if both of us were gay, and both had enjoyed a glass or two of a nice chardonnay after being snowed in in a cozy Vermont bed and breakfast, and the right music was playing...

...y'know,...

...wouldja?

Duh. You're cute. Yes.

Answers to more questions.

David P. Welsh brings food-related questions, kind of:

Being staunchly pro-dessert, I have to ask: what have you got against cake? Looking at your exceptions, I would guess that it's a texture/moisture issue, which I can certainly understand.

I just generally don't like sweet things, although the texture/moisture issue is something I hadn't considered. Carrot cake and coffee cake aren't particularly sweet, and even that level of sweetness means I need a cup of black coffee to get through it.

The exception is cheesecake (which I don't think is technically cake), but I don't know why I can take that, as it really can be sickeningly sweet.

As a follow-up, what are your feelings about pie? If pro-pie, do you have a preference between fruit- and cream-based alternatives?

I'm pro-fruit pie. I can eat cherry, blueberry, apple and other fruit-based pies. I don't eat any cream-based pies.

Lastly, how does your anti-cake position influence your likelihood of picking up Antique Bakery, which will likely feature both cake and hot guys totally doing it?

I don't have to eat the cake, so Antique Bakery might be something I'd watch for, and "hot guys totally doing it" is never a bad thing.

Shane asks a lot of questions:

1)What's the difference in styles between early dance music and early hip hop. Weren't they both about repetition of beats, some sampling, and just getting people in a groove?

When you say "early dance music," you mean early electronic dance music, right? I'd say they both have the same general background (music for streets, clubs and parties), and the only real difference (if you're talking the mostly wordless but sometimes toast-driven proto-hip hop type stuff coming out of the early- to mid-'70s) would be the cultural influences and a different aesthetic.

2)Why do you identify with hip hop so much? Do you identify with any other kinds of music or scenes as much?

The lyrical possibilities and the way that the music is made--making something new from old and new stuff combined in interesting ways. I do also identify with jazz music a great deal--lately I've been listening to much more jazz and standards than hip hop.

3)Graffiti, crime, art, or both?

I think it really comes down to a few factors. What's the intent of the graffiti? Is it to make art, or is it to just deface property for kicks? How well is it crafted? I'd lean towards both, with intention, craft, and other factors placing it somewhere specific on a linear CRIME---------ART line.

4)3 wishes, can't wish for more wishes and all the wishes have to be for you and no one else. What would they be?

Hmm. I'd probably wish to be more financially comfortable, to have this irritable bowel syndrome thing go away, and to have a way to step out of time and read everything worth reading ever, some kind of weird library of the mind thing.

5)If you could change something about the comic book industry as a whole what would it be and why?

I'd get rid of the "big fish in a small pond" thing. I do think that if more people were making comics, and it was more appealing (financially or otherwise) to a larger ammount of people, we'd see less crap and more good stuff.

6)What artists/writers/books do you think are underappreciated?

Too hard. I think a lot of independent books are too underrated in the mainstream, and a lot of mainstream books are too looked down on by the indie crowd, and every other this-or-that grouping that can be made. I'd say the converse is also true, that many things are overrated.

Pressed, I'd probably say either Rick Smith's Shuck comics, Brandon Graham's Escalator or anything by Gabrielle Bell.

7)Do you have any regrets?

My choice of undergraduate education, either in coursework or the university I attended.

8)If you could change one thing about your life what would it be?

One thing? Shiiiit. I'm not very satisfied right now, although I think I'd rather be living somewhere more urban.

9)If you could have lunch with any person alive or dead who would it be?

Tough one... Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mos Def, Charles Mingus, Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker...

I'll pick T.S. Eliot, I think.

10)Do you think you're normal? What is a normal person to you? I'm always interested in what different people constitute as normal.

Normal isn't something I think about. Not to get all "we're all perfect, different snowflakes" or whatever, but I think that considering any state of whatever as "normal" is kind of useless. I mean, I'm normal to me, but maybe not to you.

First set of questions answered.

I've answered the first round of questions below, and I'll still take more until the end of today--no subject is off-limits, and no question is too bizarre (thanks to F. Chong Rutherford).

The Pickytarian asks:

Let's say that you are standing in an empty gymnasium. The doors open and a flood of 8-year-olds rush in, intent on fighting you until you lose consciousness. Neither you nor the children are armed. The only way to stop them from fighting you is to knock them out. My question is: How many 8-year-olds could you beat into unconsciousness before they did the same to you?

Hmm. This sounds like a great scene for a book. The average 8-year-old is, what, 80lbs? I'm thinking I could get through somewhere between 10-15 of them before they figure out how to gang up on me correctly.

Tom Spurgeon flips the script and asks me questions:

1. Where do you buy your comics and how much do you spend in each place?

I don't have a set place, exactly. When I preorder or have things on a pull list, I buy from Brandon Wilt at Comix Misadventure in Johnstown, PA. He does his best (despite a shitty all-around market, and a consuming public not interested in reading in general) to order interesting looking independent and alternative comics, and he's a heck of a guy--I bought just a couple things from him while I was in college (by no means a regular customer) and when I finally moved to the area for work, he remembered my name and my tastes. When I forget to order something, or just want to browse, I hit up the better stocked Comics Swap in State College, PA. If I'm in NYC, it's pretty much just Jim Hanley's Universe. I buy trades and graphic novels from major bookstores, Amazon and any of the stores listed.

On the "how much" part of the question, it really depends on how my cash flow is. We've gone through two lean years while my wife went back to nursing school, so I probably only spent about $60-70 per month on comics from brick-and-mortar stores, and budgeted for bigger purchases at conventions like SPX and MoCCA. My wife will chip in, though--if she sees something at a bookstore she thinks I would like (the most recent example would be The R. Crumb Handbook--she thought it looked right up my alley because "the guy on the cover looked twisted and bitter"). Once we get settled in with her new job, that figure might change.

2. What percentage of them do you keep for more than 3 years?

Almost everything. I hoard books, and I used to hoard periodicals until she told me that I'll never use them again. Ideally, though, I'd like to get rid of almost everything I have in single issue form in favor of trades, which are much more convenient for my lifestyle and reading. As much as I hold onto things, I'm not a collector.

3. Would you buy more if comics "back issues" were priced more along the lines of used books, with a few rarities but mostly tradeable junk?

No, I don't think so. I don't have that "collecting" mentality--I've never thought of having a "complete run" of a comic as something I'd enjoy building. I like my books sturdy. Now, I'm all about old trades priced like used books.

4. What is the traditional area of comics you are least interested in?

Traditional area? If by that, you mean genre, I'd probably have to say fantasy, but that's more of an all-around thing than something just limited to comics. I've never understood the appeal of fantasy novels/comics from the last 100 years or so (and, to some extent, I feel the same way about science fiction). I might also say manga--I'm interested in it, but not to the extent of some of my friends, but as I become more familiar with manga, I'm growing more appreciative of it.

Brandon Hanvey asks:

What did you think of "the stereos" books?

You're trying to steal my review content away from me. Bad, Brandon--bad!

The short answer: I liked them. I'm not sure that they work as well as they could, but I liked them. You've got a keen design sense, but I'd quibble (and I probably will, when I review it) on some of the storytelling aspects of it. My overall impression was "charming, but light." Still, I liked them.

Kevin asks:

Cake or death?

Unless it's carrot cake or coffee cake, death. I hate cake. I took exactly one bite of my wedding cake for ceremonial purposes.

F. Chong Rutherford asks:

A giant, balding man wearing a dress, a cape, with glowing eyes appears before you. He says,

"You, your family, your dogs and your unfathomable Ally McBeal collection are to be transported to a new universe, in order to maintain the cosmic balance!

"Would you rather be sent to ...

a. ... live with Marv from the Sin City universe, prior to his death?
b. ... the swingin' disco pad of the Super Sons, Batman Jr. and Superman Jr.?
c. ... the inside of James Kolchaka's imagination as a monkey family?

"Choose or Perish, so says Uatu!"

You are batshit insane, but I love you.

I don't know what the context is for option B, but I'll take it. I can live with a swingin' disco pad. I don't want to be a monkey, so Kolchaka's out, and I don't think my dogs would like Marv very much.

Taking requests.

First of all, I apologize to whoever reads this for not updating more regularly as of late. My wife is currently taking a critical care course at a local hospital for her nursing stuff, which means she's free the same hours I am during the evening. That, coupled with sudden, unexpected craziness at work has put a limit on my productivity in terms of blogging/interviewing/reviewing/etc. On top of that, I haven't bought many comics (aside from my MoCCA trip) in over a month, and I'm not likely to buy any more until I get paid at the end of next week. Excuses suck, I know, and I don't think there is anyone really dying for me to post something, but I still feel kind of bad about the whole thing, you know.

So, instead of just letting this blog wait for things to ease up for me, I'm opening the floor like Kevin has done in the past. Ask me something--anything--and I'll try to answer it as best I can. Of course, it tends to be charming and funny when he does it, but I fear me doing it runs the risk of seeming egotistical or whatever. So, go ahead--ask something if you feel like it. It doesn't have to be comics, but I figure that's probably the best frame of reference for people reading this. I'll probably stop taking questions at about 5PM EST tomorrow, give or take.

Watch Out, Liefeld: Churchill's Gunning For You

Seriously, this is one heck of an ugly cover:



Starfire doesn't have very good aim, does she? Unless she was trying to zap Superboy's hair, Supergirl's breast, and Wonder Girl's, uh, naughty bits all in one shot.

Also notable: How almost every character has the exact same gaping, raised-eyebrow expression. It's like they all studied at the Joey Tribbiani school of acting. "Must ... look ... dramatic!!!"

More cover art for DC's Sept. solicitations can be found over at Broken Frontier or Comic Book Resources. At least there's the start of DC's inexpensive "Showcase Presents" format to look forward to, although I really hope that isn't the cover design they're going to use.

Blame Kevin--he made me do it.

Kevin hit me with the latest superhero meme thing, so I guess I have to do it. I mean, obviously I could just, you know, not do it, so any protestations I might make are negated by posting it, I suppose.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (Assume you also get baseline superhero enhancements like moderately increased strength, endurance and agility.)

I'd like to be telepathic. That would be nice. I mean, not only would you be able to snark with your friends without fear of someone overhearing, but if someone's reading a really great book, you can just kind of sit back and let their eyes do the work.

Also, who was that guy from New Mutants that could speak any language? Doug Ramsey, right? Went by Cypher? That's a neat, useful--but not world-saving--power to have.

It's either that or talking to the animals, which would probably be a fairly useless power (for example, see Seanbaby's take on Aquaman's ability to talk with sea creatures. Still, it'd be nice to talk to my dogs and have them not look at me like I was some kind of bottom-feeding moron.



Which, if any, 'existing' superhero(es) do you fancy, and why?

I don't fancy any, but, as horrible as the movie is, I've always had a crush on Tank Girl's Lori Petty. Or did around the time of that movie. I guess that has to count.

Or Dazzler. At least we could bond over disco music.

Which, if any, 'existing' superhero(es) do you hate?

Too many to choose from. Let's just say most of the crop from the '90s, with a particular nod in the direction of Venom and the rest of the symbiote family tree on down.

OK, here’s the tough one. What would your superhero name be? (No prefab porn-name formulas here, you have to make up the name you think you’d be proud to mask under.)

It would depend on the power or something, right? The thing is, I probably wouldn't be a hero. If it was my first choice, telepathy, I'd just amuse myself. If it was the language choice, I'd probably... just amuse myself. If it was the third choice, I'd be a veterinarian. In that case, I could be Dr. Cunard, then.

I'm not good at this.

For extra credit: Is there an ‘existing’ superhero with whom you identify/whom you would like to be?

IDENTIFY: Spider-Man. Socially awkward to start, became somewhat less awkward but still geeky, married a pretty red-head...

WOULD LIKE TO BE: Superman. But then I'd probably have to save the world at some point. But it'd be nice to be good.

Pass it on. Three people please, and why they’re the wind beneath your wings.

Bugger if I know. Joe and Alex would probably come up with something more amusing than I did, and David might actually do it if I beg. Plus, I like all three.

MoCCA Wrap-up and Round-up

Before I get into the whole show, I want to thank everyone who linked and read my interview with Tom Spurgeon at Comic Book Galaxy. That's probably my favorite thing of anything I've done online. I'm hoping I can keep up the interviewing momentum between things for CBG, and a few interviews for Comic World News that I'm lining up.

If it wasn't for the MoCCA Art Festival, my weekend would have sucked really bad. Friday night was dreadful, and Saturday night was even worse. Luckily, MoCCA's such a stellar show that the entire weekend wasn't a total wash and, in retrospect, probably averaged out better than most weekends.

To be honest, I was nervous about working the Fantagraphics booth. Eric Reynolds was great, though, and Gary Groth was also fun to be around, so I didn't feel too out of place (and only a few people actually thought I was Greg Zura, whose badge I was wearing, so I didn't get too many "it's nice to put a face to the name" comments). I didn't stay there too long, only helping to set up in the morning and provide a short hour or so of relief to Eric and Beatrice (who volunteered for the whole day) in the afternoon. Also, doing the shift for them wasn't as physically strenuous as volunteering for the show itself last year, so all the nasty sweat and body odor can be blamed squarely on the nasty, sweltering weather.

I always enjoy meeting people I've spoke to online in person, and catching up with people I've met before, so a quick shoutout to Kevin Church, Chris Butcher, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Jim Rugg, Sal Cipriano (and sorry for thinking you were Lex, Sal--I'm a moron), Pat Lewis, Ed Piskor, Adam Suerte, Damon Hurd, Neil Kleid, Trisha L. Sebastian, Richard Mammana, Lena Gomez, Michael Pullman, Rachel Gluckstern, Alex Cox, Kyle Baker, Chris Pitzer, Rich Watson, Tom Beland, Heidi MacDonald, James Smith and anyone else I'm forgetting (I tried going in chronological order to make sure I didn't forget anyone, but that's not foolproof).

Sadly, I didn't shop as much as I wanted to, but I am happy with what I walked away with. I haven't read much of anything yet, but here's the list:

• Neil Kleid's Pilgrimage minicomic, Brownsville ashcan, and David... minicomic? Preview? I forget which.
• Five minicomics from this Ayo cat I've seen on the TCJ forum and the CBR forum.
• Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World volume 2.
• Bob Levin's Outlaws, Rebels, Freethinkers & Pirates: Essays on Cartoons and Cartoonists.
• Adam Suerte's Aprendiz issue three.
• Damon Hurd and Rick Smith's Temporary #3 (also, on the off chance you're reading this, Rick, congratulations on the new addition!).
• The Project: Telstar anthology from AdHouse Books, which I've only borrowed copies of before.
• Pat Lewis's latest mini, Abominable
• An issue of Squa Tront for the wifey
• Brandon Hanvey's The Stereos: Battle Of The Bands and The Stereos: In The Garage.
• Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's Action Philosphers! All-Sex Special.
• The Mome anthology from Fantagraphics.
• The latest Smut Peddler anthology from Saucy Goose Press.

A few of us left the show a little early to grab a drink across the street at Puck Fair. Kevin knew Ryan from before, we both knew James Smith from online stuff, and I knew Michael and Rachel before. What's odd, though, is the way a shared interest in comics can make a random gathering of semistrangers to be intimate, comfortable and amusing.

Between the shopping, the camraderie and the entire atmosphere, the entire daylight portion of Saturday is something I very much needed.

Proving that there's no rest for the wicked indy comics nerd, SPX is just around the corner, and they've already got a preliminary exhibitors list posted. I'm going to try to make it out for the entire weekend, so I don't have to bail on the evening festivities like I did with MoCCA.

As this is by no means comprehensive coverage, here are a few MoCCA-related links:

• Some of the people I walked around with have already posted their thoughts on the show, or their shopping list, or what have you. Here's Kevin's wrap-up and his
take on the minicomics of Pat Lewis, Lena's shopping list, Michael's take from a more mainstream reader's perspective, and Alex's minicomic finds.

• Neilalien has his "Best of MoCCA" list, including Action Philosphers #2, which will definitely make mine once I get through reading everything.

• Heidi MacDonald probably has the most MoCCA-related coverage, including the first (I think) Harvey Awards winner list, a shorter-than-normal photo parade, a show write-up and a round-up of her own.

• Over at Glyphs, Rich Watson interviews Keith Knight.

• The Pickytarian was at the show Sunday, geeking out on some creators and on the Clowes/Lethem panel (which I hate that I had to miss for other craptacular obligations that made me want to rip my hair out).

• There are lots of people posting their MoCCA related photos: Mike Manley, Comic Foundry's Tim Leong, Kevin Church (with three photos of me, no less--I prefer the two where I'm stuck in the shadows, where you can't see the nasty clogged pores of the first one), and the wonderfully antagonistic photos of Brian Musikoff.

• Neil Kleid has thoughts on MoCCA at his LiveJournal.

• Marc Sobel shares some quick notes on the show as well.

• Update: Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier have their pictures posted, too.

I'll probably update these links when new stuff comes along, at least for as long as this post remains on the front page (and, given my lack of blogging productivity lately, that might be a while).

Essential Defenders: More Seventies Silliness

As Ed pointed out in his last post, he's not much of a superhero guy, so here I come to raise the spandex quotient of the blog once again. I've recently been reading Essential Defenders and it's a lot of goofy fun. I remember reading a handful of Defenders comics when I was younger, but I never actively followed the series the way I followed Amazing Spider-Man (or Spectacular or Marvel Team-Up or any of the other Spidey spin-offs). So I hadn't read most of the stories collected in this volume before, which was a nice surprise: Usually when I pick up one of Marvel's Essentials I've already read all of the comics collected in one format or another. Anyway, I can now see why this series is so fondly remembered by its fervent fanbase. Where else could you get fun scenes like these? (Click any of the images for larger versions.)


"Hulk may be slow, but he knows when he's being insulted!"


Oh, sure, Hulk is all sensitive when he's the one being insulted, but give him a fancy cape and suddenly he's the one flinging the offensive terms around.


Those have got to be some of the worst sound effects in comic book history. "Clam!"? That's not a sound effect; that's something you eat. "Wop!" is an ethnic slur. "Dam!"* is something beavers build. Only "Crump!"comes close to being appropriate as a sound effect, since it can mean "to explode heavily or with a loud dull noise," but it still sounds lame. Apparently it would be several years before Marvel made real inroads establishing its sound effects supremacy over its Distinguished Competition.

* [That may actually be "Tdam!": Even in the original panel it's difficult to tell if that's a 't' that got cut off or if it's some debris flying from the Japanese shop sign Cap bashed Subby over the head with.]

Sitting on the sidelines in the Indy vs. Mainstream softball game, eating hot dogs and drinking beer with J'Onn J'Onnz.

Over at Comics Should Be Good, Brad Curran has some thoughts on the "team mentality" that sometimes comes up in the discussions about the comics industry, which he concludes with:

And now that I've come out in favor of a side in this argument, or at least the indie v. mainstream kerfuffle, I'll call bullshit on the whole affair. Who cares which "faction" of comics has more crap to its name? Why in the hell do we have to split comics effectively in half between "this side" and "that side," or "my side" and "your side." Who cares if indie comics can beat up mainstream comics, or vice versa? It's no different than arguing about superhero fights, politics, or any other "my team is better than your team" situation. Do you really want to be in the same category as the staff of Wizard Magazine and the Fox News Channel? The only side a comic falls on that really matter is good comics vs. bad comics. It doesn't matter who publishes them.

Like Curran, I agree that it's a false dichotomy--wrong on many levels. That Gail Simone can make a joke like "I was napping. Are we the team that hates popular things, or the team that hates people who hate popular things?" in a Fanboy Rampage comments thread highlights the problem of choosing sides better than anything I'm going to say.

Even as much as I come "rah rah go indy!" sometimes, it's not due to a wanting to be a part of either team (at least, I don't think this way, but how I come across could be a different matter entirely). For me, it comes down to the fact that I really just don't like the superhero genre as much as I used to, regardless of the quality.

Here's an admission: I haven't bought a single Seven Soldiers-related comic. In fact, I think the only superhero comics I've got in my pull list are Young Avengers (and I'm two issues behind on that, because I'm waiting for another copy of issue #3 before I read issue #4), Astonishing X-Men, Plastic Man, MK:4, and Punisher, which I think I'll be dropping soon. I think there might be one or two more, but that they're not jumping out at me immediately is probably saying something.

It's nothing against the genre--I still read and reread some superhero comics I already own, and there are some things I'll eventually buy in trade paperbacks once we get our finances in better shape. Come Christmas, I'm sure my wife will be buying me another Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover. They're fun comics, and I enjoy reading them (and knowing that she's thinking of my geek chic when it comes to present time), but I don't have any intention of buying them on my own. Today, I think I figured out why--I'm not the audience for which they're writing these books. I can enjoy them at times (even in a non-hipster, non-ironic way), but not enough to seek them out. Similarly, I'll watch a movie or television show with my wife will sometimes enjoy it, even when the thing isn't my cup of tea. She's just discovered The X-Files in syndication, a show I never really had any interest in, and she has the ReplayTV set up to record every episode in syndication. We watch it together, and it's nice (nice beyond even just spending time with one another, which our schedules don't really allow anymore), but when she's not there I don't make a point to watch any of the ones she's viewed without me.

In the post that prompted this, Curran mentions he has "never quite figured out what the difference between pandering and writing for an audience is..."

Over there, I repsonded that, in my opinion, the difference is:

1. When you're pandering, you're giving an audience exactly what it wants or, more directly, what it thinks it wants.

2. When you're writing for an audience, you're giving them something they want or need, even though they might not realize it until they see it on the page.

To me, the superhero comics that I think are bad are doing the first, and the ones that are good are doing the second.

Except I'm still not the audience.

There are a few reasons for this. In my head, despite the visual aspects of the medium, I still think of comics as books. I'm much more willing to forgive television or movies for just being fun diversions and nothing more than I am of something I'm sitting down to read, because I look at the whole process of reading as kind of sacred, as corny as it sounds. Reading requires more of an investment from me--it's probably my favorite thing to do, ever. And when it comes to "book books," my tastes have almost always run fairly academic. Reading something that lets me explore different themes and ideas is more important than a book designed for "kicking back," as is the quality of the writing itself. "Fun" just isn't enough for me, usually, and the same becomes true in comics. Also, I'm not generally attracted to continuing serial narratives--I prefer things with an actual beginning, middle and end (which is why, at the very least, I prefer trades and miniseries of superhero material with clearly defined arcs). That goes back to the exploration of theme--with a finite, concrete narrative, it's easier to have express a statement with a consistent thematic unity. It's probably part of the reason why I find the action/adventure "new mainstream" comics from publishers like AiT/Planet-Lar and Oni more palateable than superhero comics, and why I tend to prefer watching movies to sticking with television shows--I know there's an ending in sight.

Yesterday, I took some time to chat with Kevin Melrose on my lunchbreak. Somehow, we got on the subject of superheroes, and the conversation steered to the untapped potential of Martian Manhunter, among others. I'm not sure how many Martian Manhunter stories Kevin has read--that didn't really come up in the discussion--but I know I haven't read many. I think the only comics featuring that character that I've read in twenty-some years of reading comics are JLA: Year One, that one issue of Sandman, the "Funeral for a Friend" storyline after Superman's death (and I don't remember if he was actually in it, but I think he was), New Frontier, Mark Waid's first arc on JLA and Morrison's first two arcs on the same. I've also seen a few episodes here and there of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. That's probably a very small fraction of comics he's appeared in (and it also means that I haven't read Giffen's Justice League stuff everyone's so fond of, but I've been meaning to, and I also haven't read his solo series).

What I do know about the character is kind of limited by that frame of reference, so much of where I see potential in the character may be suspect. I've got the basics of his origin. I know people have mentioned that the nature and scope of his powers make it difficult to effectively use him as a central character for a sustained series--he's got super-strength, heat vision (although I don't quite understand how someone with fire-related weakness can project heat vision), intangibility, shape-shifting and telepathic abilities.

If the high adventure, power-driven parts of the genre were the only way to tell a story with J'Onn J'onnz in it, I'd be inclined to agree--constantly using fire as a source of danger would be as repetitive and questionable as using the color yellow in the early Hal Jordan Green Lantern stories ("Oh, no! A pterodactyl! And he's yellow! Just like the yellow spaceship I fought last month!").

In our conversation, though, Kevin mentioned the sheer possibilities of story types one could tell with the character. There's the possibility for the detective noir route, straight zany science fiction, gritty urban horror, romance... the list is practically endless. J'Onn's got that "stranger in a strange land" thing going for him, moreso than Superman--while he can effectively blend in anywhere he goes, he's far less an easy fit in society as the Kent-reared Kryptonian orphan. The story of loss is greater with J'Onn as well--while Superman never really knew his birth parents, J'Onn lost his wife and child before coming to Earth.

To me, any of the methods Kevin mentioned could work--even the one about J'Onn changing into a cat and living that way for a while. That's what interests me about the character--who is he? Is he John Jones, detective? Is he one of the other personas he adopted? Is he still fully Martian after all his time on Earth, or is he acclimating? Is he done deciding who he's going to be? Is "he" even settled on being male on this planet? As Dave Lewis pointed out in his column on J'Onn and his sexuality and sexual identity:

J’onn has demonstrated in many of his adventures the ability not only to alter his outer shape, but also his internal body structures. In JLA #11, he even managed to change the shape of his own brain, allowing his non-logical side to grow larger than his rational side in order to better see the world from the Joker’s psychopathic perspective. So, a womb – assuming that Martians even require such an organ to procreate – seems relatively easy, by comparison, to manifest. Even if they find a mate and produce offspring, it would seem that the choice of gender for a Martian is relatively arbitrary.

To me, that's the character--not the high-powered JLA member who fills the gaps when the writer needs a specific effect in a story, but the alien trying to figure out his identity and his place in his new world. It could take part of its cue from Darwyn Cooke's take on the character in New Frontier, as he adjusts and makes decisions regarding who he's going to be. It could fall under the Vertigo line, free from the continuity to which the main line adheres, and could comfortably be paired with Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen's It's A Bird... in terms of tone and feel, if not in content.

That's a story I could get excited about, a story for which I'd gladly be the audience.

More links from around the comics internet...

Didn't I say I was done linkblogging? I lied. Or I'm a hypocrite. Either way.

Newsarama has kind of been on a roll lately--I've noticed some real gems there in terms of scope, content and quality. Here's a few things that might not have made the linkblog circuit (and if they have, my apologies):

• Chris Arrant's interview with Danielle Corsetto about Girls With Slingshots (and, as it sits here in my draft window, Graeme goes and links it)

• Benjamin Ong Pang Kean's interview with Felipe Smith on his MBQ (which I did initially spot courtesy of Rich Watson's Glyphs, now a blog rather than an e-mail newsletter)

Elsewhere:

• Repping The Pulse, Jen Contino talks to Damon Hurd about his upcoming work in X-Men Unlimited #9.

• You've already seen it most likely, but Sequential Tart has Adrienne Rappaport interviewing Fabio Moon on Smoke and Guns.

• Alex de Campi and Igor Kordey's Smoke is getting quite a few favorable responses, including being named "best of the week" by both Randy Lander and Don MacPherson at The Fourth Rail.

In the blogosphere:

• Jason Richards shares some of his ideas for his upcoming Comics Riot! store, and all of them sound good--even if difficulties with logistics hamper them, at least he's giving it his all.

Back in town, and leaving again... but with comics on the agenda.

Vacation was, on paper, a bust. The weather in Cape May certainly wasn't idyllic--the only time we saw blue sky and sun was on the day we left. Despite all that, it felt good to get away from work, but also comics and the comics internet--I didn't actually realize how invested I get in this whole culture and experience until I was away from it. Because of the meteorological funk going on last week, we didn't do much more than shopping (save for one trip to a cute little zoo in the area). Well, let's say that Beth did some shopping, and I tagged along--the only thing I bought was Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan's Sinatra: The Life, which has thusfar been underwhelming--most of the biographical and historical elements are interesting enough, but there's perhaps an overemphasis on making the case for Sinatra's mafia ties (going as far back to the neighborhood his paternal grandfather lived in for evidence), and the writing is fairly static. We've yet to get our vacation photos developed, so you've been spared that special kind of boredom (I forget what we took pictures of, but there's a good chance the reaction would be "Oh, look. There's a building. In the rain" for at least one roll of film).

It feels strange to be back, and even more strange to be preparing for another trip so soon after my last. At least this one is comics related, though--I'll be making another Saturday-only trip to the MoCCA Art Festival, where I'll hopefully run into some other bloggers/columnists/reviewers/fans and buy some great comics. I don't think I'll have the same fiscal freedom to spend willynilly that I did the last time I hit the show because of our reliance on shopping as entertainment on our trip to the shore, so I'm really going to have to work on the not-buying-everything thing from which I tend to suffer.

MoCCA's one of my two favorite shows I've been to, which isn't saying much considering I've only attended four comics-related shows. It's got a different vibe from SPX, the other convention I adore. Myatt Murphy convinced me to go a few years ago by describing the Art Festival as a comics convention filtered through an art gallery, and in a way I think he's right. While a lot of that feeling comes from the types of comics represented at the show and the lack of retailer presence, the venue itself has to be taken into consideration. As much fun as a show like SPX is, it's still set in a Holiday Inn; however, the MoCCA Art Festival resides in the Puck Building, a gorgeous, glorious venue dating back to the late 1800s. When I signed up to volunteer last year, I did so thinking I'd just get free admission, a pretty t-shirt and a chance to make early contact with a few of the exhibitors, but between busting my ass at seven in the morning hauling tables and struggling with squeaky handcarts, I got a chance to get educated on some of the building's unique aspects from one of the guys who worked at the facility. As we chatted in the ancient, slow-moving elevator, he filled me in (passionately, I might add--how many of us wax poetic on the buildings we work in?) on how much of the glass in the room the Harvey Awards would take place in1 dates back about a hundred years, and how if you really look at the glass, you can see how different the craftsmanship was back then--despite the imperfections, it's incredibly durable. The environment certainly affects the feel of the show, to some extent--it's not that it adds an air of respectability or cultural awareness, but it does add a bit of gravity--it makes for a more "serious" show.

As for the show itself, there's a lot for an independent and small press fan--almost so much as to be overwhelming. Many publishers of quality comics will be attending. I think I'll be starting off the day at the Fantagraphics table before the show opens, helping Eric Reynolds lug boxes if he still needs a hand (oh, and Fantagraphics now has its own blog that will probably be interesting to watch). After that, I plan on spending some time at the AdHouse table (and finally getting to meet Chris Pitzer after a bunch of near misses), catching up with Jeff Mason and his gang of cartoonists at the Alternative Comics table, scanning over the Meathaus table looking for new things from Brandon Graham, Jim Campbell and others, checking out what Drawn & Quarterly and Top Shelf are offering that I might have missed, and taking a look at the rest if there's time and money left.

Books debuting at MOCCA (all information taken from The Comics Journal message board, but there wasn't a lot in that thread, and some might not technically be debuts at all):

• Christina and Charles - Austin English (Sparkplug Comic Books)
• Through Prehensile Eyes - Robert Williams (Last Gasp)
• Pure Trance - Junko Mizuno (Last Gasp)
• Skyscrapers of the Midwest - Josh Cotter (AdHouse)
• Pilgrimage - Neil Kleid (Rant Comics

I know The Beat has already asked folks to say what they're debuting at MoCCA, so watch MacDonald's space for more updates in that regard--she'll get a ton more responses than I will, and more people will read them, so yay indy comics all around, I say.

Going through the list of exhibitors is daunting as all get out. Here's who and what I may be checking out.2 Jessica Abel will be there, for one. For the fans of classic comics or expanding Earth theories among us, so will Neal Adams, on a limited schedule. Kyle Baker be there again (and on Saturday this year, which means I can finally meet him in person!). On the bright side, Tom Beland will be there, as will Gabrielle Bell, whose When I'm Old and Other Stories is one of those books I keep pushing on people (often to positive reactions). Charles Burns, one of my all-time favorite cartoonists, will be there (if he was there last year, I missed him). Pop Gun War creator (and soon to be Omega The Unknown artist) Farel Dalrymple is exhibiting, and I think his line may get a boost from his upcoming work with Jonathan Lethem on that Omega book. Someone I know more online than I do by real life or by his work is Brandon Hanvey, making his first MoCCA appearance with his the stereos comic (it's also his and his wife's honeymoon adventure, so spend crazy buckets of cash with him, if you come bearing crazy buckets of cash). Most of the House of Twelve group will be there, including Adam Suerte, who does that Aprendiz comic I'm so fond of. Fucking James Jean will be there--I mean, shit! How can you not be excited about that? I already noted that Neil Kleid will be there, but I'm saying it again. An old friend of mine from high school, Richard Mammana, may be coming to meet up with me (he and I reconnected over comics--I want to say it was Louis Riel, but I can't remember), and I think some of Peter Kuper's work would be up his alley. I really enjoyed Pat Lewis's minicomics (and still need to do brief reviews of them, as well as the rest of the Pittsburgh stash), so I'll swing by his table. Jim Mahfood (whose recent Felt: True Tales of Underground Hip Hop really knocked my boxers off), which means--if funds permit--I can buy more of his Stupid Comics for my little brother, who liked the one I bought him last year on a lark. I think I might owe Jim Rugg money (stupid story, not worth getting into), but I won't be avoiding his table because of it. I know Kevin will be psyched to see James Sturm there (yes, I'm guilt-tripping you to come, in case you've changed your mind). And I owe Robert Ullman a review of his Lunch Hour Comix (which I'll hopefully have done by the Art Festival, but I've been saying I'd get on these reviews for months).

I probably won't hit any of the panels, but not for a lack of interest--as I'm only there one day, I can only fit so much into six hours. Also, the one I'd most like to see (the conversation between Daniel Clowes and Jonathan Lethem) happens on Sunday, and I'll already be back in the bowels of central Pennsylvania by then.

That's my self-indulgent list of some of the things I'm looking forward to for the MoCCA Art Festival, but I'm more excited to see friends and associates old and new, and to just get into the great feeling the show tends to inspire. Sadly, I won't be able to stay after the show--it's the weekend before my brother-in-law's wedding, and the bachelor party is that Saturday night.3 If you plan on going, and want to chat for a few minutes or sit outside smoking on the Puck Building stairs, let me know, because MoCCA is as much about the people as it is about the comics, and I'm all about both.



1. The Puck Building website points something out I didn't notice while I was there--the Skylight Ballroom is also featured in When Harry Met Sally.
2. The statements contained within this document are considered "forward-looking statements" and may not reflect upon the actual future performance of Ed Cunard or his silly blog thing.
3. This may, in fact, be the only time I would get in trouble with my wife for not going to see strippers and drink beer. So it's not all bad.

Attention New Yorkers: a fine art exhibit I'd attend if I lived closer.

If I wasn't headed that way next weekend, this is where I'd be headed this weekend: Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibit at the Brooklyn Musuem. The exhibition ends June 5th, unfortunately, because I was going to try to squeeze it into my MoCCA trip. Now some might be hesitant to call some of his work art, what with the graffiti influence and all, but I think his work was stellar.



For a quick, easy-to-digest primer on Basquiat, check out Basquiat Online, which the Brooklyn Museum website described as designed for teenagers, but it also works as an overview for those not familiar with the artist.