Panel Discussion: Scans from Beasts of Burden, Thunderbolts, Spider-Woman, and More

Cute Overload - Beasts of Burden #2
This book is actually dark and sad and terrifying, but come on, CUTE DOGGIES! The really remarkable aspect of this sequence, in which neighborhood dogs bug our animal heroes with a bunch of frivolous cases, is how Jill Thompson's dog drawings perfectly evoke the personalities Evan Dorkin has written for them in just one panel. We've got the thuggish bull terrier, the dopey briard, the gossipy Pomeranians, and the paranoid Chihuahuas. Anthropomorphizing animals never seemed so true to life.

Pretty girls, crazy supervillians, and cop abuse, after the jump...


Excessive Force - Azrael #1



Gotham is just a mess since Batman died. Robin is slicing faces off with a hacksaw, and Azrael is beating the living crap out of a room full of cops! This isn't even the old crazy Azrael, it's some new perfectly sane guy who just happens to be down with kicking cops in the nuts and punching their noses into their brains.
This scene makes it all better.


Fun with Montage - Power Girl #6
Why are trips to Ikea always fun? Actually sometimes they're horrible and boring, but I've definitely had trips much like the ones experienced here by Power Girl and her galpal whatshername. Amanda Connor continues to turn out the most lighthearted yet densely communicative art on the stands today. I love all the Swedized words - it took me a while to get "tasty rolls" from "tejsti rohls". What is the name of the store, "Aidja", supposed to be?


Best Visual Metaphor - Thunderbolts 137
This panel completely sums up Norman Osbourne's role in Dark Reign. Sitting on his Green Goblin glider (why not?), setting up dominoes, boozing it up. He's completely given up any pretense of pretending to be sane around his underlings. It's kind of classy, somehow.

Photo Reference Done Right - Spider-Woman #2
I don't understand why some comic fans get upset about photo referencing. The model in this case, Jolynn Carpenter, is actually credited at the head of the book along with the writer and artist. I've never seen this done before, but it's a good idea. If you're going to have someone "playing" a comic character, they should get a credit. These panels are beautiful, thanks both to Carpenter being really gorgeous and to artist Alex Maleev's beautiful colors and shadow effects. There's also some very subtle compositional touches that link the panels together - check out how the outline of her shoulder in the top panels becomes the edge of a shadow in the second panel.

Reviewed: Silber Media Comics

These are the smallest comics I've ever seen. Seriously, look at them. Their palmable size and tiny plastic baggies bring to mind illicit substances, or secret messages that you have to destroy after reading. Each page has only one panel and a line of text, requiring the storytelling to be as compact as the packaging.

These match-book sized comics are written by Brian John Mitchell and put out by his indie distribution company, Silber Media. Issues of each of the four serialized titles can be ordered for a dollar each, though several issues are also available for free on the Silber site.

The books cover a range of genres; XO is a hitman power fantasy, Just a Man is a slow burning western, Lost Kisses is an sardonic, self-effacing confessional about Mitchell's personal life(illustrated almost entirely with grinning stick figures), and Worms is a paranoid headtrip that invovles worms, questionably ethical medical treatments, and other unpleasant things.

The common thread in each book is an understated, almost deadpan style of narration. Take for example the narration that accompanies the opening three pages of XO:

"I just killed someone for free.

I guess you could say I killed some people when I was younger....

...but none since I consider myself an adult."

This irrisistibly macabre hook is made even more distincitve by it's context; an adorably small booklet with illustrations that look more like a daily comic strip than the sort angular grit usuallly found in a crime graphic novel. The story unfolds with similarly passive descriptions of crime and murder, and the series ends up feeling like a slice-of-life diary comic by a sociopath. Whether it reads as creepy or funny is probably a matter of taste, but it's entertaining either way.

While several issues of XO can be read online, the highlight of the Silber Comics stable really needs to be read in print for the full effect. Only a single issue of Just A Man has been released so far, but in that 56 panel issue Mitchell and artist Andrew White tell a wild west story of revenge that evokes dread and suspence on every miniature page.


The dramatic weight of Just A Man is entwined with it's formal elements; having to focus your attention on stamp sized panels creates an bond between the reader and the stark desert world of the story. The limitations of size and length force the reader to consider the meaning behind each image and sentence, and as the plot turns more and more grim, the effect is hauntingly intimate.

Just A Man is a serious tale in a small package, and I highly reccomending spending the dollar it costs to have one delivered to your house. Read it in a public place for maximum effect; people will wonder what the hell you're holding that has you so engaged, and you'll feel like you're getting away with something.

Photos: The First Asian American ComiCon

This past weekend, NYC hosted the first ever Asian American ComiCon. My top three highlights:

1) Fantastic original art for auction to benefit the Museum of Chinese in America.


2) The NerdPop panel, which featured the following quote by Derek Kirk Kim on how nerdiness is relative: "Sometimes I think I'm a nerd because I watch Star Trek, then I meet actual Star Trek fans and I realize I'm just a normal person."

3) The Writer's Bloc panel, which yielded some really sincere and down-to-earth advice about writing, as well as one amazing anecdote from original GI Joe writer Larry Hama. He recounted a semi-recent pitch for a new GI Joe series that would have re-imagined the characters as more realistic, modern solider archetypes. This would have included Snake Eyes as "the owner of a kid's karate school in North Carolina", who had simply imagined his own epic ninja dojo backstory. The entire audience gasped at the brilliance of this idea, and we were all collectively crushed when Hama told us how the publisher passed on the series.

Many more pictures are up on Geekanerd's Flickr, including a doodle battle between Cliff Chiang and Sean Chen, shots from Artist's Alley, and more auction items.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Secret Six, Marvel Divas, Batman and Robin, and More

Best Art - Frank Quitely, Batman and Robin #2
The action scenes in this book by drawn by Frank Quitley bring the effects of the Batverse regime change into sharper focus than several books worth of philosophizing, angsty conversations, and images of Dick starring at the cowl. The fights in this book show that a clean, simple switch has taken place; Batman is now the showboaty, eager to prove himself fighter, and Robin is now the self-assured, methodical heavy-hitter. It's madness!

The Robin in the splash panel above could only be Damian Wayne. He's not displaying any of the flash or childish excitement that every other kid to brought to being being Batman's sidekick. Damian's form is straight-up Black Ops. He's is an assassin in superhero's clothing, and this panel nails that dissonance.

Meanwhile, seeing Dick in the Batsuit makes you realize how damn HEAVY Bruce's style really was. Seeing Batman move with this sort of grace is exciting, because it's been so rare up to this point.

Also, I don't think I'll ever get tired of these art-integrated sound effects, especially when they have to do with Damian getting forcibly implanted into a wall. Nerd!

George Bush doesn't care about black Superheroes, hating on the Justice League, and a spoiler for Secret Six #11, after the jump...

Orson Welles Award for Emphasis Fail - Justice League: Cry for Justice #1
BOLDING certain words in comic book scripts is just something we've all learned to live with. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Let's just reflect on what the bolds are trying to convey in this conversation.

GA: This is BAD.
BA: HOW do you know?
GA: I know WHEN Hal gets like this - things happen.

By emphasizing "how" we can only interpret Dinah's reaction as "Yes, I also know this is bad, but it's really the methodology of how Ollie came to his conclusion that I'm interested in." And when Ollie emphasizes "when", he's trying to convey....I actually have no idea how you could justify that emphasis choice. Say it out loud. It's insane. PS: This award is in honor of THIS classic meme, which I believe actually predates the internet!

Social Inequity Alert - Marvel Divas #1
I'm primarily a DC reader, so I always feel a little jarred when the Marvel uni starts talking about things that happened in our real, Earth Prime timeline. Here Captain Marvel (???) recounts how after Katrina hit, she and some other black superheroes went to New Orleans to clean up "the mess you white people left behind". One might question why in a world with superheroes, an American city could have flooded with such horrible consequences in the first place. Maybe at the time the supes were like, "Oh a Hurricane is going to decimate New Orleans? Eh, as long as there's no death ray involved, I'm sure the Government norms can deal with it."

Worst Use of Powers - Secret Six #11
I love Secret Six, and I really, really love Scandal Savage, but she's really not making her powers work for her. She's basically Wolverine, except no one is particularly afraid of her so people are constantly surprising her by shooting her in the face and stabbing her in the stomach just because they can. I mean sure, she heals, but it's not instantainious, so for a few minutes she always ends up bleeding on the ground. It's just terribly undignified.

However, this is the second issue in the last few months in which we've seen Scandal in boyshorts, so whatever, Secret Six; it's all good.


Slash Alert - Justice League: Cry For Justice #1
"What's there to say? Kiss me, you fool!"

Reviewed: Arcade of Cruelty

I received review copy of this book in the mail a few weeks ago. I've had a hard time reviewing it since then, and here's why: I find it hard to accept that this book is real. I know it exists, but it seems like an elaborate hoax, or possibly a practical joke. Or possibly concept art. Those things are all basically the same thing.

You know those coffee table books that get released upon the death or career turning point of major artist? The ones that collect all their unpublished work for fans to drool and obsess over. That is what Arcade of Cruelty most resembles in style and format, but here's the twist; the book is not about a major artist. It's about Joseph Patrick Larkin, a nonfamous, not particularly successful youngish man who may or may not consider himself a cartoonist.

Arcade of Cruelty is a hateful, self-aggrandizing, self-immolating, intensely exhibitionist celebration of Joseph Patrick Larkin, by Joseph Patrick Larkin, and very possibly for Joseph Patrick Larkin. It collects a wide-cross section of anything Larkin has produced since he was about about eight years old. This includes defaced high school yearbook photos, collages designed for aid in masturbation ("Excerpts From Joseph Patrick Larkin's Beat Off Binders"), visual art so pretentious it may be parody, and an entire chapter of 9-11 jokes.

It would be easy to label this book as a vanity project produced by a crazy person, but for two factors. First of all, some of the material is really funny. While Arcade of Cruelty isn't something I would ever consider reading cover to cover (did I mention it's long?), each section has something that made me smile, chuckle knowlingly, or even LOL. The personage of Joseph Patrick Larkin as represented in this book is a mean-spirited loser, a man who despises women almost as much as he fears them, and whose go-to topics of comedic inspiration include rape, domestic violence, and 9-11. And some of those 9-11 jokes are really funny. Your reception of his humor will probably be best received by A) suicidal misogynists or B) people who enjoy terribly dark humor and who see the whole thing as straight-faced self-parody. I come down more on the B side, but I still feel kind of bad for enjoying so much of it.

The second thing that separates this book from any other sort of self-published wingnut zine is how expensive and fancypants the production is. It's self-published by Larkin's one-man company, Also-Ran, which judging from the website appears to mostly distribute Larkin's personal mixtapes. And yet the book is extremely well designed with a sense of seriousness and professionalism that can be found in absolutely none of the book's content. Each piece in the book is labeled with a Fine Arts Museum style title, caption and date. In the aforementioned Beat Off Binder chapter, every masturbation collage is accompanied by the same caption: "This is deeply troubling." As far as caption-based running gags go, this is pretty good. Also this section includes a really great picture of Fairuza Balk, which may be worth the price of the entire book, which by the way is $7.49 used on Amazon.

What sort of cognative split does one need to undergo to publish the contents of one's attic as if it was going to be sold at the MOMA gift shop? Maybe it will! I am not sure of anything after receiving this book in the mail. End of review.

Panel Discussion: Sad Batfamily Edition!

This week's Fun Sized panel discussion features some scans that underline how sad everyone in Gotham is now that Batman is dead. Enjoy!

Splash Panel of the Week - Batman #687
Isn't this the saddest thing you ever did see! Of course we all know that neither Jason Todd OR Bruce Wayne are really dead. But outside of the larger DCU context, this image brings to mind an empty batcave, housing only the sad remains of the once unstoppable duo. And no one wants to see that.


Best Use of A Repeated Panel - Batman #687
Here we see the repeated-panel technique as a way to convey numbness, or shock. Great facial expression work here by Ed Benes. Alfred really hasn't gotten enough page-time to react to the death of Bruce, but this really says it all.


Burn of the Week - Red Robin #1
Bit of clarification here; That's Dick in the Batsuit, holding Tim in the orange shirt who just hit Damian in the Robin suit. Tim is mad because Damian is the new Robin and Tim is the new nothing! And Damian, who has the cruel insight of his father with none of the self-control, totally calls Tim on having nothing left to live for. And he's right! Tim, your life sucks!

This is really just a prelude to an upcoming Gnerd article that proves Tim Drake has the worst track record in the DCU when it comes to losing loved ones, and how it's a miracle he hasn't become the sort of villain that would make Jason Todd look like Jimmy Olsen. Stay tuned.

Panel Discussion: MoCCA 2009 Edition!

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival has come and gone, but the comics I bought there are forever. Or until they disintegrate. Please enjoy this selection of prime panels from the small-press work Team Geekanerd picked up at MoCCA '09.

Best Character Design - Things I've Seen At Shows, Allan Norico


Things I've Seen At Shows is rawker Allan Norico's collection of cartoon portraits based on the most memorable or archtypical people he's seen at rock shows over the last decade. Besides having an beautifully clean, sharp, and funny style, Norico's caricatures are so vividly on-point that reading the book brought back all sorts of memories from my own Berkeley punk experience that I hadn't thought about in years. There are a couple more preview pages on Norico's website, and the whole book is only $7 bucks; highly recommended for fans of awesome design or ROCKING THE F OUT.

Star Wars, talking potatoes, weird cuteness, and lots of DIY B&W goodness, after the jump!

Best Actor - Potatoes from Cooking With Food #1, by Evan Palmer
It is an eternal mystery of comics; how does an artist manage to pack an actor's seminar worth of expression into a drawing with only two eyes and a tiny, tiny mouth? Between the first and third panel, I swear you can see the potato gathering confidence in his shy line of questioning. And the fourth panel's angry-mug-to-the-audience is a great touch.

This comic is in fact a collection of illustrated recipes, at least one of which I plan on cooking tonight. Sadly, the book is not on Evan Palmer's website, so if you want a copy (and how can you not? LOOK AT THAT POTATO) head over to his site and email him!

Cute Overload - Lesbians by Jane Mai

When I bought this stapled mini-comic consisting of the 3-panel adventures in randomness of two gay girls as well as "other lesbians", my co-editor Degan was heard to remark "You don't have to buy something JUST because it has lesbians in it." Well it turned out to be awesome and hilarious (typically what I look for in mini-comics), and it ended with this drawing of lesbian otters in love. Just goes to show, when buying mini-comics, follow your heart! PS: Author Jane Mai is so indie she doesn't even seem to have a public website; talk about indie cred!


Ewok Alert and Cute Overload II - Harvest Is When I Need You The Most: A Star Wars Fanbook, edited by Shelli Paroline
This "Fanbook" may be my favorite thing I bought all weekend. An anthology of short Star Wars fancomics by independent artists, this three-part collection is a Star Wars version of DC's Bizzaro anthology. Except it's better, because it's Star Wars. The drawing that acompaniest the credits jumped out at me, because it speaks to my recently published theory that Ewoks are flesh eating monsters.

That drawing about is by editor Shelli Paroline. The book features a comic she did about what happens to Oola after she drops into the Rancor pit, which is a whimsical yet sad piece of imagined EU history, but what I really want to emphasize is this panel featuring my favorite character of the entire saga....


SALACIOUS CRUMB! I think this drawing captures his nihilistic misanthropy very well, as well as his crumb-likness.

There are lots more previews on the official site, I highly, highly recommend you check it out.


Achievement in Shading - Nerd Burglar (anthology), Elijah Brubaker

This is a scary freakin' ghost story inspired by an old sea shanty or something like that, and when things turn bad, artist Elijah Brubaker (no relation??) amps up the dramatic shading to grand guignol levels. I love it. Not sure if I've ever seen such a cute character look so frightening as in the first panel.

Too Real - Das Bear by Joseph Guillette
Speaking as a Hispanic person with no Hispanic friends, this hit a little too close to home. I was actually lucky to get this book for free, and it's full of other slice-of-life comics starring depressed and bitter animals, which is pretty much my thing. Author Joe Guillette has a free webcomic featuring hobos on his website, so you're going to want to check that out.


Best Dramatic Tension - Featuring Talking Guinea Pigs! by JoeGP
I picked this comic up from artist JoeGP's table because it had guinea pigs on the cover. I flipped to this page, and was immediately drawn into the story even without any other context. It was my only impulse purchase of the entire festival. I think it's the "hands-touching-through-the-glass" that really got me. Luckily for you, this entire space epic is available for free online. Not that I'm mad I bought a hard copy...grumble (jk jk lol).

That's it! For more festival highlights, be sure to check out our MoCCA set on Flickr.

MoCCA 2009 In One Image

I just don't have it in me to write a giant photo post like I did for the Saturday MoCCA experience. This is perhaps appropriate, because Sunday was pretty laid back. It was much less crowded than Saturday's packed house, so I had a much more chill experience of checking out the booths and chatting with artists. You can check out the photos I took throughout the weekend at Gnerd's Flickr.

The collage you see above is made up of all the free postcards and buttons I got over the Festival weekend (also a few business cards with neat graphics). You can set it as your desktop, and it will be liking going to MoCCA every time you look at your computer! Good luck ever finding your folders again!

Check back tomorrow for a very special Panel Discussion: MoCCA Edition, wherein I'll post scans from all the awesome small press stuff I got. You'll see what $10 a day at MoCCA gets you (spoiler alert: awesomeness).

Photos: Comic Artists in Their Larval Stage at the SVA Comic Con

Yesterday I checked out the Fresh Meet Comic Con, a showcase of student work by the Illustrating and Cartoon kids at the School of Visual Arts here in NYC. It's just like a real con where you browse tables, buy comics, and share awkward moments with the aritsts when you pass their work without taking anything.

This was my favorite comic that I picked up, and it was totally free. Slick, unique, appealing...seems like Alison Strejlau is just about ready for primetime. This is just the first half of the comic, check out the conclusion on her DeviantArt page.

More exceptional work from nextgen comic artists, after the jump...


Loved this cover. Well rendered people tearing their skin open will always get a thumbs up from me. The artist goes by *021, and her DeviantArt page has an exceptional drawing of some Umbrella Academy kids.

This print is by Heather Nunnelly, the character is the lead in her original series, Before I Sleep. I later realized I'd seen her work before on DeviantArt, this piece of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac fanart particularly stuck in my head.

This a print of a cover by Nicole Virella for a series called Eclipse by David Fernandez. This crap photograph doesn't do the art justice, which was really far and away one of the most technically impressive pieces I saw at the show. Check out her website for her two original comics, illustrated with fantastic watercolors like these:



Lots of kids were using the tried and true sales method of offering candy at their tables, but these guys took it all the way and baked Watchmen cookies. I'm not going to say I was swayed, but I did buy a comic at their table.

And here's a few panels from said comic, by Nicolas Micciola. Love that character design.


Finally, some shots of the tables. The whole experience was a lot like a small press fair, except all the vendors were like nineteen and either very on edge or aggressively nonchalant.

The New Terminator Is Two-Face's Female Doppleganger

Did you know Helena Bonham Carter is in the new Terminator movie? She is. She's not in the trailer, but that's because she's got some super-secret makeup, which is actually not a secret anymore because a photo was released of a makeup/effects test. People seem to be treating it sort of like a spoiler, so I'm putting the photo behind a cut. I bet we'll see her in the next trailer, though.

As you may have gathered from this post's concise headline, she looks a lot like everyone's second favorite villain from The Dark Knight.

Hit the jump for a picture, and some weird nonsense bordering dangerously on fanfic...



I give it a month.

via SciFi.com

Panel Discussion: Scans From Runaways, Jack of Fables, Thunderbolts and More

Cute OverlooaaAHHHG! - Runaways #8
This panel combines Geekanerd's love of zombies with our lesser-known love of cute stuff. But here's the weirdness...this zombie disease is only supposed to effect those who have had plastic surgery. Are we meant to infer that this lady is so into appearances she got her little "fashion accessory" a face lift too?! Or maybe tail/ear clipping counts...either way, poor puppy. At least he seems to be making the most of his newfound zombie strength by running amok.

Burn of the Week - Mercy Sparx #3
This dude finally gets his own anti-heroic splash panel, and it gets ruined by an off-screen insult. That's all the context you need.


Best Actor - Deadpool, Thunderbolts #130

I never read much Deadpool but Andy Diggle gives his some great meta-banter and artist Bong Dazo (lol) matches the comedy with some fantastic facial expressions...MASKED facial expressions!
Curious wonder! And what's with those little bubbles? Are they sick bubbles, from the smell?

Old school Warner Brothers dread! This is some Wile E. Coyote shit.

Cockiness!
And again, WB Cartoon-Style lovesickness! This is a wonderful page...details like his pinky-out grip on his gun and buckling knees make this a classic pose. And he's actually right to react this way- Black Window 2 might look like a generic blonde comic babe, but check out her sexy Russian-accented malaprops! Who can resist?


Most Creative Use of Superpowers - Runaways #8

This manga-tastic issue of Runaways had lots of fun momments, but these two examples of the kids using their powers in simple yet functional ways made the kids all the more easy to identify with. It'd be pretty sweet to have a campfire on your foot whenever you wanted...I'd like to see him try to light a cigarette with it. Don't smoke, kids!

Movie Moment - Mercy Sparx, #3
Here we see Mercy Sparx, Demon extraordinare, re-enacting a pivital scene of Joel Schumacher's popular remake of Birth of a Nation, Falling Down.


SPOILER SPACE!



Spoilers for Jack of Fables #32 and Runaways #8 below!


Best Use of Repeated Panels - Jack of Fables #32
Direct your attention to the left side of this panel. If you find out a group of girls you've been having casual sex with for the last several years are in fact your half-sisters, that's the makings for a long freakin' bus ride right there.

Best Splash Panel - Runaways #8
You need to click on this for the full effect. As cute and fun as the art is in this book, Takeshi Miyazawa really brings the nightmare on the last page. A giant monster made of zombies...arms and legs sticking out every whichway. Oh god. The more I look at this, the more I feel like I need to go outside and get some fresh air.