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New Years Resolution 1. Get CR back on track!, but that’s for next ep.

 

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Matt is back!

We spend an hour talking about every DC event over the last few years.

This is one for those that like more open less structured episodes. Warning there is an F-bomb in this episode, so it should be rated PG-13, at least.

Theme Music from Brad Sucks
Proud Member of the Comics Podcast Network and Farpoint Media

 

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There was a problem when I first uploaded this, the new version should work better. Thanks to Kevin Batchelder for catching the problem for me.

Hello
Promo: SuperNot Ep. 24 <–painful link to podshow.
What do you think of the Captain Radar Liners?
How I got into comics
Why I started Comics Radar
Nominated for another Parsec!!!
Comics Radar Year Two
The Comics Radar Birthday Giveaway
8 Comics and 1 TPB, details in the episode.
Let me know what you want in year 2.
What comics do you really dig?
Call the new voicemail line 1-877-573-8439!

Every once in a while a public figure will pass on and it will feel deeply personal to you. For me, one of those happened last Sunday. Mike Wieringo, whom you may know from his work on Flash with Mark Waid, most recently Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man with Peter David, or if nothing else, take a look at those preview pages below for Mike’s work on Tellos with Todd Dezago, a great work. Honestly one of my favorites. On Sunday, he passed away of heart failure. At only 44 years old, it was certainly an untimely loss, but at any age, it’s a shame that so many people will not have a chance to see his beautiful work.
I’ve only had the luck to meet him twice, both at conventions, both on a busy floor. One of those times I got a sketch. The other time I got a couple issues of Tellos signed and shook his hand and told him how much I enjoyed his work. Neither one a really stand out meeting event, but he was an extremely nice both times.
He was one of those artists that when I was thinking of how my comics would look I’d picture them in his style. I hoped to one day work with him, but now I and many other creators will never have a chance, but I will still love his work.
Here’s to you, Mike. And say hi to Kirby for me. I’m sure you’ll have fun sharing sketches.

If you don’t know what a Meme is, it’s basically any idea that spreads and evolves, kind of like the telephone game you played as a kid where a string of people line up and one of them whispers a sentence, and you see what it ends up as when it gets to the end. It may be a perfect imitation or something entirely new.

So Andy sent this one my way. and since he directed it towards Comics Radar, I figured I would share 8 things about me that relate to comics.

8 things about John & Comics

1. When I was a child, I had my mom get me a summer membership to the city pool. But after she dropped me off, I would leave the pool and walk to the comic shop that was a short ways away.
2. I’ve never read Maus. I know it’s supposed to be one of the classics, but I’ve just never gotten around to doing.
3. I used to read comics with a Dictionary beside me. When I came across a word I didn’t know I would look it up. Then usually become very frustrated because words like “genetic” and “mutation” weren’t in the children’s Dictionary I had.
4. The only comic I have ever bought multiple covers of was the Transformers series when it first switched over to IDW.
5. I have an unhealthy obsession with CCGs and miniature games. Frequently buying boosters, packs or minis, and Inquest magazine, even though I never play.
6. I met my wife at a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP and proposed at a comic convention.
7. I own the first (I think) 9 issues of Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, as well as the first three of Youngblood: Strikefiles and Team Youngblood #1.
8. I download a lot of comics from BitTorrent, but usually just end up deleting them because I need the hard drive space.

and now, I get to tag 8 other people to fill out the 8 things Meme.
Let’s go with:

1. Neil Gorman
2. Cunning Minx
3. CC Chapman
4. Bruce Rosenberg
5. Derek Coward
6. Aaron Macom
7. Mikel OD
8. Paul French

I just chose to do all of mine comic focused, I don’t expect others to do the same.

The NY Times has an interesting article about Comics adapting Hollywood tools for comics creation. And granted the information in it is actually reading, but I have to say, what interested me most about the article was that it was in a major metro (national?) newspaper and didn’t use the standard media cop out onomatopoeias that usually pollute comic headlines. Good job, NY Times.

As for the actual content of the article. Read the rest of this entry »

I frequently keep myself up to date on the latest in comics news (no crap, says the person listening to the 40 minute episode right now) I even have my google reader and google alerts set to go off with bells and whistles when ever something new and comic related gets posted to the intarwub. And it never fails that once a week at least, I get a story like this, Local Man Opens Comic Shop. Shock!

Today, amazingly enough, I got two. And While I think it’s awesome that more comic stores are opening. (I never get the story of local comic shop closing, though. I wonder how many of those I would get a week)
Is this a sign that comic shops are growing, that more and more people are taking notice? I’m hoping that’s the reason. Comics ruling the box office, despite dragging graphic novel sales, have grown and now demand to be noticed; on page 4D of the entertainment section.

Maybe there’s some even more altruistic reason for it. The periodical in general seems to be one of the most flagging entertainment industries of all, more than the crashing cd sales, and movie theater sales, and blah blah. So these newspapers feel some level of kinship with the burgeoning businesses, especially considering the artifact of the news stand, which is all but relegated to a rusted metal coin box outside your local Mart of preference.

Or maybe it’s just a reaction to said Mart stores. As they come through and decimate the local businesses, the one are where their craggy cororate fingers haven’t seemed to reach has been into the local Comic store. I can go to the local Super-Mart and get a haircut, rent a movie, order a pizza, do my grocery shopping and pick up that fresh cardboard tasting pizza before I leave the building, but if I want a Graphic Novel I still have to go to a dedicated book store and that’s not even an option when I want my weekly Wednesday pile.
And in my local paper, they do have pieces occasionally on new businesses opening. But it’s usually either here’s a hot new restaurant where you have to order your foie gras a year and a half in advance so they can raise the duck to your specification before they rip out the liver and trash the rest, OR it’s a complaint about the newest fizer construction and how it is destroying the Everglades this week.

Or maybe it’s just part of the cultural zeitgeist, I was reading a recent study that the majority of people who read and consistently follow the newspaper comics are over 60, with a healthy majority of that being over 80s. They approximate the average comic reader is 25-30. And recently, book stores are seeing an upswing in sales among young adults, mostly in the graphic novels section, so as much as we think the comic industry is dying in its variety of methods it’s still touching most people in america. So, why not, keep it going, tell me every new comic store opening and sing it loud.

And, At least they didn’t use a “Bif! Pow!” headline.

 

 Standard Podcast [33:07m]: Play Now | Download

Really just a half hour rambling discussion of comics, comic shops, Civil War & other fan wankery.
It won’t stay like this, I promise. Back to format next episode.

Theme Music: Super Myth by Ledenhed courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network