Comics-related road trip, followed by links.

After doing some family-related stuff Saturday morning, I'm planning on making the drive to visit Jason Richard's new Riot! Comics & Culture shop in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Like Rocketship, the other new comics retail outlet making the internerd rounds, Riot! Comics is placing a heavy emphasis on alternative, independent and small press comics (including minicomics!) as well as the more domininant superhero comics and manga offerings one finds at comics retailers and major bookstores (admittedly, if I lived closer to Brooklyn, I probably would have visited Rocketship first, as I've known Alex longer, but I'm saving that for a weekend when I'm out in that area visiting). According to various online direction thingies, the trip should take me approximately two hours (give or take pee breaks), so if anyone else wants to make the trip and revel in geekdom with me, I should be there by 5pm at the latest. I'll be the guy with the blue leg.

Also, here's a profile of Richards's store from the local Harrisburg Patriot newspaper.

At some point next week, I'll try to post my impressions of Riot! Comics, and whether or not it lives up to the hype. I have a gut feeling, though, that I'll end up purchasing more than just the planned "I Read Comics" t-shirt Richards produced to brand the store.


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I'd be lying if I said I was a big fan of the comics produced by either Runemaster Studios or Alias Comics. "All-ages" material in comics never really suited me--the "all-ages" tag usually comes across more as marketing copy to get an adult-driven market interested in books geared towards children (although I am curious to check out Alias's translated US release of XIII when that's available in trade form). That said, if you are a fan of that type of comics, and their comics in particular, you can pick up some stuff for yourself while doing a good thing: according to this Newsarama press release, Runemaster Studios is holding an Ebay auction with all the proceeds going to Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona, which the press release describes as "a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals afflicted with Down Syndrome." It's a cause dear to my heart--I spent a few weeks each summer while I was in high school volunteering at a camp for mentally and physically handicapped kids in central New Jersey. So, if that's your thing, and you've got money to spare, I'd recommend bidding on it. While the comics aren't my cup of tea, I certainly can respect Mike Bullock and the rest of Runemaster Studios for their efforts supporting charitable causes.

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I'm not terribly bothered/upset/worked up about anything comics- or comics internet- related right now, but it seems like a lot of people are. Here, look at one of my dogs and feel better, and think happy thoughts about whatever it is you love about the comics you love:



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Speaking of comics you love, here's one I fell in love with: Unicorn Mountain. I got an e-mail a few days before leaving for my friend's wedding in Pittsburgh for this anthologies release party, so I met up with some comics friends and acquaintances local to the area (and ran into someone who I went to high school with, and haven't talked to since--how strange is that?). To be truthful, I didn't even know Pittsburgh had a comics scene outside of a few creators, but evidently there are at least three separate groups of comics creators in the 'burgh. While I plan on doing a big long review-type post on it Sunday, I wanted to throw it out there now in case anyone wants to check it out. Imagine the joy of finding an anthology of minicomics from people you probably haven't heard of--I don't think I recognized a single contributor (but my minicomics knowledge isn't quite as catholic as that of, say, Shawn Hoke or Tom Spurgeon, but some names would likely be new to them as well--if I'm recalling correctly from the release party, some of the contributors work primarily in visual arts and haven't made comics before. The product, though, doesn't seem like a beginner's effort--it's a handsome, well-produced work. The lead piece, "Cosmotopia" by Joe Deferrari and Alan Dubinsky, would have fit right in with Project: Superior, and would have been one of the better pieces in that already-good anthology. If you dig minicomics and/or indie rock, this might appeal to you--it comes with a CD from Pittsburgh bands, including a song that sounds like Joe Rice would have wrote it called "If You Are What You Eat, I Must Eat a Lot of Awesome." I'm holding off on the review until I finish the CD part, so I can discuss that too. There are also some prose pieces, but I haven't finished those yet.

The first volume of Unicorn Mountain is available online for $15, including postage.


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Speaking of comics of various shapes and sizes, Augie De Blieck has some post-WizardWorld notes regarding format:

As I sort through the scads of comics gathered up on the convention floors over the course of the last month, there's a small part of me that gets terribly annoyed over the variant comic sizes. I want everything to be roughly the same size and shape. That just makes it easier to bag and board them, hoard them in short boxes, and scan them in for this comic.

That's a completely backwards attitude to have. To ask everyone to conform to an arbitrary size for the sake of a reader's expediency is the ultimate act of hubris. I apologize to all of you now.

That doesn't make it any less annoying. It just puts me in my place, is all. I know some retailers have the same concern, but for different reason. If you feel the need to conform to the majority's format for any reason, it should be for the sake of sell-through, and not me.

Whoo, boy. At least he admits it's a backwards attitude to have. I think admitting you have a problem is the first step for working through it.

He's forgiven, though, for pointing to the three following books for October that are worth checking out:

iBooks has a new graphic novel from Joe Kubert, called JEW GANGSTER: A FATHER'S ADMONITION. This 128 page hardcover book is about, well, a Jewish gangster. It's black and white, $23. Between this and YOSSEL, I wonder if Kubert is becoming the new Will Eisner: Real life stories set in Jewish communities, told in self contained graphic novels. All the while, he's busy with a school to teach the next generation of comic artist. Good work.

Oni Press brings us John Layman's latest creation, ARMAGEDDON & SON, a 96 page graphic novel set in a world of spies, nuclear apocalypse, mirth, and mayhem. It's ten bucks for that one, drawn by Dave Dumeer.

From Speakeasy Press -- the small publisher that just keeps gobbling up books from other small self-publishers -- comes ELK'S RUN COLLECTED EDITION, Volume 1. It's $8 for the first three issues of the series, with a new cover from Darwyn Cooke.

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Yeah, that does it, I think. Enough of me and what I want to read about for at least another day, and more likely three or four days.