Hey Kids, Comics! #135 - More on Moore: I am Legend

The Jedi Cole Houston and Andrew Farmer of Hey Kids Comics! invited me onto their podcast, in
my capacity as a comic historian and the World's Finest Alan Moore cosplayer to discuss Alan Moore's influence on the comic industry and the many legendary stories about the man himself, including how he met John Constantine.

Please enjoy Episode #135 - More On Moore - I Am Legend.

Dusk: Vol. 3 - A Kickstarter

My friend and colleague David Doub is currently Kickstarting a third volume of his amazing supernatural graphic-novel series Dusk.

As a battered wife, Eve’s only concern was keeping her marriage together. But when she is kidnapped into the sordid supernatural world of vampires and foul magic, Eve finds she doesn’t want to leave. Her mysterious benefactor, the Vampire Lord Ash, wishes her to have a normal life, but Eve chooses to stay in his service. Dusk is the story of Eve's challenges living in the darkness - a supernatural action-drama told through a dynamic blend of the sequential art styles of American comics and Japanese manga. Several artists help tell these stark noir tales of vampires and unrequited love.

Twilight: The Graphic Novel this ain't, folks!

If this sounds like the sort of thing you might be interested in - and I don't know why you wouldn't be - $10 will get your name in the book and a PDF of the book.  $20 will get your name in the book, the PDF and a physical copy.  That's a bargain even before the sense of satisfaction you'll get from supporting independent comics!

Click here to become a patron of the arts!

George Perez's Sirens #1 - A Review

George Perez's Sirens #1 is not an easy book to summarize and the reasons for this are its one weakness. While quite a lot happens in this first issue, little of it seems to pertain to the main plot. And what is that main plot? That, at least, is easily summarized but I can't really explain it without giving away the ending. Suffice it to say there is a group of space-faring, ass-kicking women called The Sirens who had to hide themselves through time and space.



Before I discuss the book proper, I should note that despite the all-female team and a plethora of alternate covers (my own comic shop of choice, Keith's Comics, has their own unique cover with the Siren Bombshell) this is not your usual girl-group comic. And by "usual", I mean that the excellent artwork depicting beautiful women is not being used to dress up a weak story. Those of you familiar with George Perez's work should know he is better than that. And this book is far better than that! Perez is a living legend in the American comics industry for a reason and that reason is showcased throughout this first issue.


Most of the book focuses on The Sirens at differing points in time, showcasing their abilities and personalities as we observe them in action. From Viking skalds to Roman gladiators to American frontier school-marms, we see a wide variety of time periods. Unfortunately, we don't get to see all of The Sirens in the field and more is the pity. What we do see comprises some of the best action sequences I've seen in a comic in recent memory.

That's the one weakness of the book.  Perez is not only introducing us to The Sirens - he is introducing us to a whole universe! And as much material is packed into this issue, it still seems like too little to really appreciate the scope of what Perez is trying to accomplish.

Still, I think it's better to leave an audience feeling overwhelmed rather than unimpressed. There's also something to be said for leaving an audience wanting more... and I definitely want more! And if you enjoy good books about awesome women, you'll enjoy Sirens #1 as much as I did.

Con Report: North Texas Comic Book Show - July 19, 2014 - Part Two

Our pal Anna from Glitzy Geek Girl was one of the professional cosplay guests.


Steampunk Princess Leia

Anna also hosted a wonderful how-to panel on cosplaying.

The other big panel for the day was a discussion on how Comics Are For Everyone.  This roundtable was hosted by our friends Taffeta Darling, Eddie Medina and The Jedi Cole Houston.

Me and Mike Grell - the best damn Green Arrow writer/artist ever.

I did allow myself one gratuitous expenditure this weekend.  I bought the preliminary sketch for this Green Arrow cover - one of the two times during his Green Arrow run that Grell depicted Black Canary in her classic costume.

I also bought this print from an artist, whose name I didn't catch. 

Order 66 Toys - DFW's Premier Star Wars Collectibles' Store

I must confess the first question I asked myself when I heard about Order 66 Toys was How?  How can a Star Wars specialty store survive in a place like McKinney Texas?  I don't mean to suggest that McKinney is a one-horse town - far from it!  But for all of its charms, McKinney isn't centrally located in relation to the rest of the urban sprawl that is the DFW Metrpoplex and most of the specialty stores devoted towards science-fiction and other nerdy interests tend to gravitate southward and westward.


Having seen Order 66 Toys' store-front, located just off the main square in dowtown McKinney, I can see why the store has done such a brisk business.  They have the largest collection of Star Wars swag I've seen this side of George Lucas' rumpus room!


Order 66 Toys has been around for just about four years and recently expanded into a newer, larger store-font. The new location is a gorgeous piece of real-state with a well-decorated interior.


Models of various starships hang from the ceiling in the entrance.  Murals depicting scenes from the movie are on nearly every wall.  An alcove at the back displays framed movie posters, near the glass case where the autographed pictures are kept.


There's a working Star Wars arcade game in the back-center of the shop.  There are even flat-screens which show scenes from the movies and cartoons.  And action figures - tons upon tons of action figures, with a tableau of loose figures in combat set up in the shop windows!


Recently, Order 66 Toys recently held a fund-raising event for The Wounded Warrior Project.  The 501st Legion were in attendance as were Clan Muraan of the Mandalorian Mercs.

Even Supergirl and R2D2 showed up!

Lhars Ebersold - who is part of the store's podcast (The Order 66 Insiders) - cosplayed Darth Talon.  Anybody else feel a sudden urge to join The Dark Side?


Reportedly, this remote-controlled R2 unit had been recently constructed by a robotics enthusiast over the course of two weeks.  It was his first attempt at building an R2 bot and it was, to quote Lord Vader himself, "most impressive."


There were a wide variety of characters in attendance for the cosplay contest.  There were several Jedi, Sith and other assorted characters, inducing a rather disreputable looking Time Lord who somehow escaped being photographed. ;)


The winner of the cosplay contest was Scotty Bleck Zod, who won for his incredibly convincing cosplay of General Grievous... once he was actually able to get through the door and into the building.  In all seriousness, this costume - while unwieldy to walk in -  is a masterpiece of creativity and engineering.


If you're a Star Wars fan in Dallas or Fort Worth, it's well worth the drive to check out Order 66 Toys in person.  And if you don't live in the area, they have a web store that is sure to have something you want.  You may miss out on the amazing store-front but you won't miss out on the good deals and quality service.

Free Comic Book Day 2014 And Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014.

Saturday, May 3rd, 2014 was a busy day for your intrepid author. Not only did I plan to traipse hither and yon to visit as many comic shops as possible for National Free Comic Book Day but I also had to attend Texas Frightmare Weekend - the biggest horror convention in the southwestern United States.

I didn't get much chance to take pictures but here are some of the pics I got over the course of the day.

Supergirl, Zatanna, Queen Amidala and The Green Ranger, camping it up at Keith's Comics.

Your author with Zatanna and Supergirl 

(AKA Taffeta Darling and Natalie Green of The Fangirls Of The Round Table podcast.)

The Ninth Doctor

Zombies!

Rotti Largo, Blind Mag and Shilo Wallac from REPO! The Genetic Opera.

Ash from Army of Darkness.

Another Blind Mag from REPO! The Genetic Opera.

Pyramid Head vs. Predator.

My pal Michael Ryan vs. Jack from The Shining.

See Me At G33K3 Con This Weekend!

I'm one of the guests of honor this week at G33K3 (pronounced Geeky) - a new all-interests geek convention being held in McKinney Texas.  I'll be giving a lecture on the history of American Comics at 4 pm on Saturday in the Workshop Room.

Admission is $10 per day, $25 for the whole weekend and there's a lot of fun stuff going on including cosplay events, lots of game demonstrations for International Tabletop Day and a lot of other cool stuff that is described right here.

Hope to see you there!

T.A.B.L.E. - Tabletop And Boardgame Learning Expo!

I will be running games all weekend at the first annual Tabletop And Boardgame Learning Expo (TABLE). 

It's being held at the Westin Hotel in Irving, Texas -  4545 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, TX 75063.  The fun starts at 4 PM on Friday, March 28th and runs through 7 PM on Sunday, March 30th.

There's a spattering of celebrities including Steve Jackson (if you have to ask, you probably won't care who he is), Keith "Ebberon" Baker and our pal Taffeta Darling among others.  However, should you wish to see me or want to learn the basics of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 or Pathfinder, here's my official schedule.


SATURDAY

Table 2 - Intro to D&D 3.5 - 11 AM to 3 PM

SUNDAY

Table 1 - Pathfinder RPG (with Keith Earley) - 3 PM to 7 PM.


I hope to see you there!

Bizenghast - The Game!

  
Bizenghast is a wonderful American manga by the amazing M. Alice LeGrow. Delightfully disturbing and gothic, it centers upon a young woman named Dinah who has the power to see ghosts.  She puts this power to work, trying to put lost souls to rest at the risk of becoming eternally trapped between life and death herself.

Now, M. Alice LeGrow is trying to develop Bizenghast into a video game.  The work thus far looks promising even if you aren't a fan of the original comics.  And if you are a fan of the original comics, it looks even more amazing to see the world of Bizenghast animated.

A Kickstarter for the game has been launched and will continue for the next month. $10 will snag you a copy of the game for portable devices and a number of special wallpapers.  $15 will get you the same for PC, Mac or UNIX desktops.  $25 will get you all that and your name in the credits! 

Of course there's a host of other more expensive options with ever more impressive rewards for those who wish a producer credit or dinner with the creative team... but $15 for a copy of a brand new game is a bargain these days and well worth it when you know you're supporting an independent project.  At least, I think it is.

All-Con 2014 - Day Four

Sundays at a convention tend to be the slowest, most sedate days.  The final day of All-Con 2014 proved to be no exception.  The halls were relatively empty when the day's events officially started at 9 am.  Deadpool had very few people to serve his famous flapjacks.  Then again, given the reason why said flapjacks are famous, most people were reluctant to take them anyway. 


    Still, Jedi Cole and Rick Gutierrez of United States of Geekdom were ready to kick the morning off with All-Con's most popular early morning zoo podcast - Jedi Cole's Morning After.  The fact that it's also All-Con's only early morning zoo podcast is not important. 



What is important is that dozens of people - fighting either hangovers or the sleepless nights caused by the people in the next room over who were up all night earning their hangovers - turned up to eat from tiny cereal boxes, enjoy a few laughs and win prizes like a never-emptying Guinness baby bottle!


Immediately afterward, the same room hosted USG's All-Con Wrap-Up show.  Joining Jedi Cole and Rick in commiserating over the awesome weekend were Hey Kids Comics! co-host Andrew Farmer and Cult Film Fanatics host Roy Buckingham.  I also got to speak a bit about my experiences doing panels and podcasts with these gentlemen.  Hopefully I'll be able to do the same again next year.




After that, I had to dash to my final two panels of the weekend - a double feature of Secret Origins: The History of American Comics and All About Arrow. With my final bit of hosting duties discharged, I had some time to take one final batch of cosplay photos.  A shame most of the cosplayers had departed at that point and a goodly number of people were already packing up to go.

Still, I did discover one lively group of Gothamite Steampunk Cosplayers downstairs waiting in line at the Neither Noir booth, who were willing to camp it up for me while waiting for their shot before the best professional cosplay photographers in Dallas.











I should note that this was one thing about All-Con this year that I think much improved on previous years.  This year, Neither Noir was allowed to set up shop in the lower lobby, near the information booth on the ground floor.  I think this helped to eliminate traffic problems on the second floor, where they had previously been set up on a corner before the grand ballroom most of the big events are held in.  In times past, it was not uncommon to have complete bottlenecks every hour, on the hour, as events let out only to run into a wall of cosplayers eagerly waiting to have their pictures done.  This year, I don't recall seeing or hearing about any similar problems in the lobby.

That is, I think, the best summation of All-Con 2014.  It was an improvement on previous years and it was a good time all around.  I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store!

All-Con 2014 - Day Two

Friday was my least-busy day this year at All-Con.  I had only one panel I was running myself and only one major event to worry about attending.  Given the more casual nature of the day, I opted for a casual costume - one I improvised after considering what I could possibly do on short notice with my beard trimmed into a goatee. 

And then it hit me.  It would be easy enough to get a blue shirt and red shorts.  I already did the voice quite well.  And it didn't take much effort to fashion a sign out of cardboard and a lanyard so I could be recognized at a distance.  For many years, I've been so the go-to guy for comics news and trivia for many people.  It seemed fitting then that I should be The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.



My first stop that morning was at a new addition to the All-Con events calendar - The Game Room.  This room gave attendees a chance to try a variety of board and card games.  It was sponsored by local game shop Roll2Play, which is also sponsoring its own upcoming gaming convention - T.A.B.L.E.  I spent the better part of the morning in the convention's Game Room, playing a few games with my friend Wes and demonstrating  Chrononauts and Fluxx to other gamers.


Of course I still had some time for cosplay pictures as I played.


The TARDIS and The Eighth Doctor


Hogun The Grim from The Warriors Three from Thor.


A female assassin from Assassin's Creed.  
Catwoman and Black Widow.   

This Cassandra Cain cosplayer has a web-comic well worth checking out.
I ran into the female assassin a second time and she asked if I could get a picture of her in her new corset.  Since she didn't have a camera of her own, I agreed to take a few pictures for her as she posed with a variety of weapons in front of a mock Stargate set.  Because if being a geek blogger for over a decade has taught me anything, it is that you can never have enough pictures of a heavily armed geek girl on your blog.



 Hood Down

Hood Up


Dual Wield


Amy Pond from Doctor Who
A medieval group of Gothamites - Poison Ivy, Robin, Batman, Bane, Catwoman & Harley


The Second Doctor and Black Cat


Doctor Girlfriend from The Venture Bros.  

I hadn't planned on attending Don't Lose Your Geek Card: The Comic Book Trivia Edition but decided to show up after realizing my schedule allowed me the time this year.  I didn't take part in the game, amusing as it might have been to have played The Comic Book Guy while doing so.  After winning the game for three years running, I decided to retire before I got retired.  Since then, I've befriended the hosts - Cole Houston and Andrew Farmer - and even been a guest on their podcast, Hey Kids Comics!  It was enough for me to sit in, enjoy the comedy and answer most of the questions for everyone after the contestants were buzzed out.


    My night ended the same way my Friday nights have ended at All-Con for the past three years - with United States of Geekdom's screening of Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog.  It was an enjoyable evening, as always, and I had a lot of fun riffing on the film with my buddies Rick and Roy from Cult Film Fanatics.  I also got a picture of my friend Beth (of Wilde Designs) in her Captain Hammer cosplay.