“People crack me up. The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.”

-Jerry Bonner, former publisher, Proletariat Comics, LLC

Hello and welcome to another exciting edition of Comics You Should Be Reading.  This week, we’re going to take a look at a few comics I got before and during the Wizard World Philly show, talk a little bit about the stock market, and then talk about whatever else is on my mind at the end of this column.  I’m not so sure what that’s going to be right now, so if you want to know, you’ll have to stay tuned!

Before we get started this week, I’d like to welcome Jason DeGroot to the ranks of PBR columnists.  Jason is a long-time friend and co-conspirator or mine and is the publisher and owner of the Repercussion Comics Group.  He’s also the current Chairman of the United Fanzine Organization, perhaps the oldest and most well-respected self-publishing co-op in the world.  A veteran of the small press with over five years of experience in self-publishing, Jason is perhaps the MOST knowledgeable small press guy on this entire planet, and I think that if you give his column, Small Press Feedback, a chance, you’ll learn a lot and you’ll discover a lot of great comics that you’d otherwise have missed.

I should note while we’re talking about it that Jason’s column is different than mine.  This column focuses primarily on Indies in Previews.  Yes, I do review and recommend the occasional small press book and/or web comic, but the lion’s share of what we talk about here are books from established market players trying to reach a larger audience with excellent but mostly under-the-radar offerings.  Jason’s beat is similar, but he’s focusing more on small press self-publishers who are really doing this because they love to do it and who are distributing their work in new and novel ways.  We both think that it’s an important distinction and that each area of the market deserves its own coverage.  That’s why he’s here.  Jason will be covering the stuff that’s great but totally unknown.  I’ll be covering the stuff you might have heard about but about which you don’t have any real information.

And with that, let’s get to the comics.

 

Robotika 3 & 4

The two newest issues of Robotika were by far the biggest surprise of the Philly Con for me.  Up until now, creator Alex Sheikman has gotten mixed reviews for his sci fi samurai mini series, but with Issue 3, this series finally finds its footing.  Alex’s storytelling in the second half of his story is a quantum leap forward, showing a new strength and focus in both plot and characterization.

Up until now, our hero Nico has been introduced as the perfect warrior.  In Issues 1 and 2, he was a samurai of surpassing skill, able to defeat any enemy easily with his sword, but he was also a character virtually bereft of personality.  Issue 3 finds Nico disillusioned and without purpose.  A samurai without a master he can respect is less than a whole man.  Thus, Nico has set aside his sword and his place in society.  When Issue 3 opens, he is hired to help a group of religious pilgrims find their way to their holy land and in the process to finally discover who he really is.

Issue 3 marks the first time that we see Nico as a person.  Until now he has been – perhaps by intent – a nothing but a thorough warrior, seemingly cold and aloof from the cares of the world around him, and it is in this that I think the series faltered in its first half.  Sheikman went to pains to show us a character without much to live for besides his duty, and that’s fine as a set-up to Issue 3, but with that, there was not much with which readers could empathize in the opening half of the story.  Given the reveal at the end of Issue 3, I can see that this flatness of character was done on purpose, but even then, it probably would have helped to have driven home the point about the importance of Nico’s duty.  In retrospect, we can see that he must have cared deeply.  We needed to get that message more clearly in Issues 1 and 2.  Although portraying a character as flat might have made logical sense, it didn’t make storytelling sense, with the ultimate outcome being that readers didn’t empathize with the hero in the first half of the story.  Thus, the early issues of this series didn’t successfully answer the question, “Why should I care?”  However, with Issue 3, we finally see Nico as a person.  Stripped of his identity as a warrior, he is left to fend for himself. It is then that he begins to become personally interesting to the others in the story and therefore to readers as well. Once we’re engaged with the protagonist, the rest of the story comes alive in a way that was previously missing.

As before, this series boasts some of the best sequential action in comics. That made for a good comic before. Now that the art is coupled to a well-formed plot and an entertaining and wry sense of humor, this series has become a must-read.  By the end of Issue 4, I was even won over to Cherokee Geisha’s vertical letter-speak.  In the back of Issue 2, there is a discussion of the lettering of the book in which Alex talks about learning how to speak English and about how he wanted his readers to get the feeling of having to work to understand what someone is saying.  As with much of the rest of this comic, I fear that most readers won’t give it enough of a chance to get to the pay-off.  As a reader, I will tell you that you can and do get used to CG’s accent, but it takes real work.  In retrospect, I find that the visual is effective, but again, I fear that the execution will leave many readers unready to continue with the series.  But it works.  I don’t know that they should continue the vertical lettering in the future (I think the point has been made by the end of Issue 4), but as a means to convey a specific perspective, it is without a doubt effective.

Unfortunately, I’d imagine that many retailers let their orders lapse after Issue 2, and that’s a hell of a shame because it means that many readers are going to miss out on what ends up being a pretty damn good read in the latter half of this series. Sci Fi fans and fans of the unexpected would do well to pick this up when it shows up in Trade Paperback. It’s well worth the time and money. Issues 3 and 4 are simply excellent, and Issues 1 and 2 are at least entertaining because of the art.  If you have the chance to this series up, I highly recommend it, and if you’re still unsure, then click either of the pics above and follow the link through to the Robotika previews pages on the ASP site.  I assure you that the second half of this series is well worth your time.

 

Children of the Grave

A.C. Hall already put up a very good review of this book last week, and I have to say that I agreed with pretty much everything he said.  Children of the Grave is a strong book.  It focuses on a three-man Special Forces team, the Orphans, working somewhere in the Middle East that could be either Sudan or Iraq but is in this case called Stinwan.  The Orphans are assigned to gather intelligence that proves that a local warlord has been committing genocide, and then when that becomes impossible, they are tasked to assassinate said warlord. 

For me, the best thing about this book was its solid military storytelling.  I felt like I knew these characters from back in my days with the 3rd ID.  Honestly, this whole book made me somewhat nostalgic for those days of sleeping on the back of my tank and bullshitting with the guys under the open sky.  The accuracy here is spot-on in most places. Writer Tom Waltz gets the little things right.  The radio chatter, the characters’ tactical approach, the personal relationships… it all rang true to me.  Above and beyond that, the dialogue itself is wire-tight and consistently entertaining.  The characters speak in believable voices with cadences and phrases that I remember well. Reading that was a joy to me.

Artist Casey Maloney provides some very nice art to this story as well.  The project started as a small press book with Shooting Star Press and was then picked up in Trade by IDW.  Given that beginning, I have to say that this art is amongst the best I’ve ever seen in a small press book.  Like the writing, the military detail is spot-on, and the characters tell their stories with expressive gestures and facial features.  And when it’s time to rock, this story rocks.  Casey gives us exciting panels that show terrific action without ever losing the reader in what often devolves in to a series of chaotic and complex situations.  Overall, I’d say that the art is one of main the real reasons to buy this book.

My critique of this book focuses on the way that the conflict resolves.  This story is billed as a supernatural military-horror story, but to me, we never get a feeling for how the supernatural elements complicate the plot.  Our heroes’ lives were always on the line, so in that sense, the addition of the supernatural doesn’t make their predicament any worse.  Therefore, I have to believe that the central conflict is meant to be about the souls of our heroes.  If so, then for my money, we aren’t introduced to the characters’ torments early enough.  We’re almost half way through the story before we find out what’s really wrong in each of these guys’ lives, and with that, there’s not a lot of time left to see how it gets worse with the addition of the supernatural.  Or, to put it another way, I never got the feeling that their souls were in real jeopardy.

Still, this is a great book with far more strengths than weaknesses, and as the Foreword correctly points out, there is very little authentic military horror out there.  This is probably the strongest piece from that sub-genre that’s currently on the market.  For retailers, I’d recommend ordering this book for your fans of authentic military stories and for your fans of off-beat horror.  The art will make this book a seller, and the dialogue carries these characters with ease.  Your customers will be glad you got this one for them.

 

Preview of the Week

So now that you’ve heard my opinion, check out this art from Children of the Grave.  It rocks! And with that, you can get a taste of the story here too.

 

How do I break into comics?

I want to be clear: I don't know the answer to that question. However, two people have asked it of me in the last three days, and so I guess the perception must be that I have SOME CLUE about how to do it. I can assure you that this perception is NOT ACCURATE, but I'm still going to do my best to answer the question right here, right now because I want to move past it and on to things that are more interesting, at least to me.  Plus, the truth is that I really don’t care if you EVER break into comics.  It’s perfectly fine with me if you work the rest of your life at a regular 9-to-5 like I do, and honestly, I’ll be more likely to actually WANT to read your book if that’s what you do because at least then we’ll have something in common. And more to the point, I'm not the right person to ask about how to make comics for a living anyway.  Honestly, I have no idea how to do it and no real desire to do it full time.

With that said, if I was to make a couple of recommendations, they would be to give the guys at ASJ-41 and/or the Repercussion Comics Group a try and to start small. Maybe work on a 14-page zine and/or webcomic just to get a feel for producing work in the medium. I think that after you do that, you'll be much better prepared to start talking about mini series and such other grandiose dreams as you may be harboring now. At MOST, I'd recommend doing a 28-page one-shot as a first work. Anything bigger than that is going to cost a LOT and won't represent what you're really capable of after a year anyway.

That's a problem I'm having now with Bronx Angel: Politics By Another Method, my self-published OGN. It's not a bad book, but it's nowhere near as strong as my newer work.  And yet right now it's my in-print calling card. Now don’t get me wrong: I'm proud of the book.  But at a certain level, I wish I'd saved my money for some of my newer work because my newer work is much stronger. But then again, if I hadn't produced BA, I'd have NO CLUE about how to make the newer, better work, and that's probably at least part of why the newer work is better.

So my bottom line is to find a place where you can start small and get some storytelling experience. Try the RCG or ASJ-41 or Digital Webbing or wherever and make some comics.  Find someplace where you can find some decent but inexpensive artists with whom to produce a short piece of work. Spend maybe $25/page total for line art and letters and make a zine or a webcomic. With that under your belt and out on the Convention Circuit, you'll have a MUCH better idea of where to go next.

That's my $.02. Anybody else want to add something?  Email me and let me hear it.  And yes, I practice what I preach.  My 14-page zine is right here.

 

Stray Voltage

Man, it’s been a hell of a tough week in the markets.  Central banks around the world have been raising interest rates, draining excess capital out of ALL of the world’s markets at an alarming rate, and generally scaring the Hell of out investors everywhere.  That sucks, but the alternative – inflationary pressure in a recessionary market – is a lot worse, so I guess that the best thing to do is to grin and bear it and hope that the bottom falls out sooner rather than later so that we can at least reposition and hope to pick up the pieces quickly. 

If you shorted the market, then you had a good chance of making money, but other than that, I don’t know that there was any real money to be made.  Maybe in Oil Futures, but even there, OPEC is talking about an emerging supply glut once the summer driving season is over, and I think that’s a distinct possibility.  Not that oil should be cheap, but I have trouble believing that prices above $70/barrel are justified for any reason besides Terror, and even then, we killed the worst motherfucker on the planet last week.  In fact, one recent study showed that up to 40% of the world’s jihadis have been killed by the US military in the last five years (nice shooting guys!).  Thus, it’s not unreasonable to hope for prices in the $50-$60 range by September. In the meantime, maybe we should all invest in Exxon.

That said, I’m not too disappointed with how our little stock experiment has performed given the headwinds in the market.

What killed us was that when the world markets fell, the dollar rose against the Yen and especially the Euro, meaning that our International stuff took it in the ass. We lost value in an absolute sense and as measured through currency exchange rates.  Fortunately, the US Government is massively in debt and still borrowing, so the dollar’s value MUST eventually fall again – and likely soon – but in the meantime, now’s not the time to have another flood or otherwise attempt to get your hands on this money. 

Also worth noting is that our Money Market fund is now paying almost 5%.  That number will climb with the Fed’s interest rates, so although it’s small beans now, it should at least partially counteract any wackiness in the markets over time.

 

While we’re talking about stocks and the Market, the Wall Street Journal carried a major report about Marvel on Monday this week.  It seems that Avi Arad has left the House of Ideas to form his own Hollywood related business, and that on his way out, he sold almost $60 million dollars worth of stock.  Between his departure and his stock sale, the company’s stock price dropped almost five percent in one week!  The WSJ article noted that with the success of Marvel’s Spider Man movies, Arad’s earning potential had outgrown Marvel’s ability to compensate him.  Arad, of course, claims that the stock sales were unrelated to his departure (he called them part of “estate planning,” which is a pretty normal excuse in these instances), but it’s hard for me to believe that it’s all coincidental.  Especially with Marvel’s moving into the actual business of producing movies, where there is both more upside potential as well as significantly more downside risk, one has to wonder if Arad hasn’t worked out some kind of sweetheart deal with some other comics producers (or other content providers) in addition to what he has going with Marvel.  Certainly it seems like there must be more going on than meets the eye, but for my money, I can’t bring myself to believe that Avi Arad was the BEST thing about Marvel, no matter what he himself seems to believe.

Marvel is a company with a long and distinguished history of successful publishing in one of the toughest industries around.  They have some great character brands and a very nice deal with some quality investment banks to fund their new movies, and they are making moves to improve the profitability of their main publishing lines.  And there are A LOT of talented people in Hollywood.  I’ve got to believe that Avi Arad can be replaced.  Thus, for me, I think now is probably a good time to BUY Marvel stock despite (or perhaps because of) some recent analysts moving the company from “buy” to “hold.”  Personally, I think the thing to do is to buy now and hold until the day before Spider Man 3 gets released in theaters - especially with the market in the shitter this week. 

I feel better about saying that because Marvel seems to agree with me.  They just completed a $100 million stock buy-back program.  I guess we’ll see over time who’s right.

 

There’s not too much else to say.  The new webisode of ASJ-41, number eleven, is supposed to come out this week, and it marks my second and probably final run as the series’ writer.  Episodes eleven and twelve tell a particular part of the current arc and together comprise perhaps the toughest creative writing assignment I’ve ever had.  At least for me, twelve pages wasn’t a lot considering that we had to get from here to there and back again.  How successfully we managed to do that is for you to decide, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve seen so far.

 

I still haven’t gotten to see the new X-Men movie yet, but I have high hopes for this weekend.  It’s Father’s Day, and I told Sally that all I want to mark the occasion is a chance to get out of the house and see the movie.  That seems fair to me considering that we went to a wedding for two of her friends last weekend, but then again, you never know about these things.  Sometimes in marriage, fair is me eating a cold dinner and sleeping on the coach. Not that I’ve ever had to do that, mind you, but you get the idea…

 

I posted my interview with Jim Starlin on Wednesday.  If you didn’t see it, go check it out.

 

I’m pretty much full-up on books to recommend with my post-Con reading list, but if you want to send me your book, you can do that using the email address in the sidebar. If you have a Small Press Book, I recommend you hit Jason with it (his column starts its regular publishing schedule on Monday), but if you have a book going out through Previews, then give me a shot, and I’ll see what I can do.  Good luck!

Next week, we’ll talk more about some of the books from ASP, run a Preview of the new Buzzboy GN, and take a look at a few other things I got at the Con.  Until then, stay safe!

***

About the columnist:

Dan Head is a utilities analyst and occasional freelance writer and editor.  A 1995 graduate of the United States Military Academy, Dan served in the 3rd Infantry Division at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, as Platoon Leader for First Platoon, B Company, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment and as Executive Officer of the 2nd Brigade’s Headquarter’s Company.  He then went to Korea where he was the Adjutant and later Assistant Operations Officer (Plans) for the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry.  Dan left the Army in September 2000.