Super Stupor #4

There is no small irony that some of the most novel portrayals of a world where super powers are a reality I have ever seen came from a series that is meant to be comedic. And yet, this series has provided me with more honest drama than a good deal of the serious superhero books published by The Big Two. Such is the magic of Super Stupor, which is at times as funny as The Tick, as twisted as Nextwave and as thoughtful as Astro City.

Case in point: one of the two subplots of Super Stupor #4 focuses upon the superhero Boy-Toy and the rights of artificial intelligence in a high-tech society. The end result of the final project of genius inventor Dr. Nolan Candle, Boy-Toy was created to be the first of a line of personal protectors/robot friends for children everywhere. But something went wrong and despite developing thousands of clones of the original, Dr. Candle never managed to build another robot with the innate intelligence of the first Boy-Toy. Now, over four decades later, someone has finally thought of a use for thousands of robotic boys with no free will - sex dolls for convicted child molesters!

Naturally, Boy-Toy is upset by the thought of his "brothers" being turned into sex slaves in the name of providing therapy to perverted criminals but he's virtually alone in his protest. And the government bureaucrat who is backing the program seems to take a disturbing glee in further upsetting Boy-Toy, noting that as an employee of the Department of Human Services, he doesn't have to care about what a non-human like Boy-Toy thinks.

Of course this is all played for laughs. And yet, there is still a certain level of serious Swiftian satire in the midst of this madness. After all, similar arguments have been made in the past about how the mistreatment of minorities justified noble ends. Slavery and Apartheid were justified because people with a different skin color weren't really people. The subjugation of women is still justified for all manner of philosophical and religious reasons. Like all great comedians, author R.K. Milholland's uses humor to expose the deeper truths about society and the sad truth is that we could justify some of the worst things possible for the right price.

This serious examination of the underpinnings of a super-powered society is one thing that separates Super Stupor from most other comedic superhero books. Another is Milholland's refusal to fall back on the tired jokes that countless other creators have run into the ground. There is no Batman analog who has a questionable relationship with his young ward. No bitter aquatic princes longing for respect. His characters are all unique creations and while it is possible to explain away the main characters of Super Stupor by using comparisons to other, more established heroes (Punchline is The Joker as a superhero, Angela is a Christian female Thor, etc.) this does a serious disservice to Milholland.

This is shown in the other main plot of Issue #4, which focuses upon Punchline, as he investigates a sports-bar waitress whose ability to influence surly customers seems to come from something besides her natural charisma and skimpy work attire. There is humor here, yes, but beyond that is the true heart of Punchline, who has already been revealed in Super Stupor #2 as being far wiser and kinder than his twisted sense of humor would suggest.

Punchline is far more than a heroic version of The Joker. In fact, as previous issues have shown, he is perhaps the most idealistic and honestly heroic character in the whole series. Which is quite ironic given his penchant for feeling up his female teammates and insulting everyone else in the hero community. And yet, when the chips are down, he'll be the first one to lead the charge and he's the last person to laugh at dead baby humor.

Do yourself a favor. Check out the numerous free comics at SuperStupor.com then drag thy buttcheeks to R.K. Millholland's web store to buy all four print comics. You'll be glad you did!

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 8/6/08

JACK OF FABLES #24 - And so ends the ballad of The Jack Candle gang. Not with a bang, but a whisper. The last page is priceless and so is the description of next month's new storyline. This book should be required reading for any comics fan.


KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE SPECIAL - A special worthy of the name, this "nothing but the comics" issue of KODT Magazine picks up on some hints dropped in recent issues regarding an Urban Assassin LARP game while building upon the recent issues set at the KODT equivalent of Gen-Con. If you've never been exposed to the wonderful world of Knights of the Dinner Table, this is a good issue to start with. No big story lines to worry about. No cumbersome continuity. Just a bunch of quickly defined characters and a lad of paintball guns...


RED SONJA #36 - Brian Reed has one more issue to make me start caring about this new Sonja... who may be the old Sonja. Even with the revelation that the old warrior we saw last issue is an aged Osin and the question as to who the "old man" tormenting Osin is still there... the tone here is a radical shift from what has come before and the scripts reek of padding with too many pages being devoted to Sonja's shipwreck and her splash-page decorated breakdown. I fear this may be decompressed to an insane degree - something which is disastrous in most superhero books but may be suicidal in a sword-and-sorcery epic like Red Sonja.


SUPER STUPOR #1 - My friend Patrick was kind enough to pick this up for me at the San Diego Comic Con from another friend - Something Positive author R.K. Milholland.

I've plugged Randy's work before and he hardly needs my help to sell it. Still, I'll refrain from a full review and limit my comments to saying that I enjoyed this book. You'll probably enjoy it yourself if you're a fan of the Giffen/DeMatthias Justice Leauge or The Tick.

Check out the on-line comic for yourself before you decide if it's worth $4.95 American to see a story centered around a superhero convention (It totally is though!)

Looking To The Stars - A Light Dimmed Too Quickly

Comics lost one of its’ eldest and greatest artists this past week. On Saturday, December 9th, Martin “Mart” Nodell – the beloved creator of Green Lantern - died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 91.

Born in Philadelphia, Nodell was no stranger to travel. He moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and then to New York to study at the Pratt Institute. It was also in New York that he began free-lancing with a number of comic companies in 1938.

After two years of unsteady (and frequently unpaid) work, Nodell went to DC Comics, found a position with affiliated publisher All American and, perhaps annoyed at his assignment one day, asked the fateful question; What do I need to do to get regular work? Editor Sheldon Mayer told Nodell to come up with a new character – something new and exciting that had never been done before.

Perhaps it was on his way home from work that same day that it happened. Inspiration struck! And as Martin Nodell was waiting for the subway, he happened to see a subway worker holding up a green-tinted lamp as a signal that the tracks were clear

Regardless of the exact day, Nodell returned to Mayer a few days after Mayer had made his request for a new character with the first few pages, written and drawn, of the hero he called The Green Lantern. While Nodell was no writer, Mayer proved impressed enough with the concept and the art to bring experienced writer Bill Finger (co-creator of Batman) on to handle the scripting duties while Nodell provided the artwork.

The Green Lantern would make his first appearance in July 1940 in All-American Comics #16. Sales figures from the period are erratic so it is difficult for us to say how big a splash Nodell’s creation made financially. What we do know is that Green Lantern was apparently popular enough to warrant inclusion in the new Justice Society (All Star Comics #3), which was founded in the winter of that same year and starred all of AAC’s biggest characters.

Nodell’s creation was a bona fide success. He spent the next year penciling and inking all the Green Lantern stories in All-American Comics and All-Star Comics for the next year. Then, in July of 1941, Green Lantern got his own title, for which Nodell also provided the artwork.

The end of 1941 would bring even more joy into the young Martin Nodell’s life. Not only did he find the artistic fulfillment and steady employment he sought but he found love as well. In October of 1941, he met a girl named Carrie at Coney Island. Truly theirs must have been a magical whirlwind romance, for by the end of December that year, the two were wed and living in Long Island.

Martin would continue to work for All American Comics until the summer of 1947. It is unknown why he left his position but some speculate it was a dispute over salary. Whatever the reason, Nodell took up a position with Timely Comics that same year and found work drawing the adventures of The Human Torch and Captain America. He would continue to work at Timely for three years, leaving the comic book business in 1950 following a rash of title cancellations. He feared the market was about to become tight again and with a young family to provide for, he needed steady work.

Nodell went into advertising, finding work as an art director for the Leo Burnett Agency. Perhaps his best known work in this time was being part of the team that created the Pillsbury Doughboy in 1965. He retired from advertising in 1976 but proved unable to rest on his laurels for too long.

In the early 1980’s, Nodell contacted DC Comics and began doing some special projects for them, providing art for Who’s Who” and the Superfriends comic. His last work at DC was published in December of 1991 in Green Lantern #19. Appropriately, it was a portrait of Alan Scott – the character he had created some 50 years earlier.

Nodell, and his wife Carrie, became a fixture on the comic convention circuit throughout the 1990’s. They were both known for their generosity to Martin’s fans and Carrie herself became a beloved grand dame of the convention circuit. She was never far from her husband’s side as he met with the four generations of Green Lantern fans that came to him for autographs and original artwork.

Having been fortunate enough to meet the pair of them at the first Wizard World Texas, I can safely say that every story I have heard about Martin Nodell’s kindness is true. His hands may have shaken a little holding his pen but he still had a young man’s eyes when I met him. And he was clearly having the time of his life sitting there in a temple devoted to the art form he’d helped to revolutionize.

I only wish I could better remember what I had said to him and he to me. I don’t remember the exact words though I suspect I made a fool of myself talking about how Green Lantern was the character who got me into superheroes in the first place. But I do remember the emotions. I remember Martin thanking me for my praise and if he thought I was foolish he was nice enough not to show any sign of it. And I do remember a great feeling of love between himself and his wife – an aura, if you will. The sign of two people who truly loved one another. And I remember feeling wistful that I had no better way to express my gratitude than to say “thank you” and to buy an autographed mouse-pad with Alan Scott hand-painted on by Martin himself. And I’m sad that I have no better tribute to the man than this article.

I think my friend R.K. Milholland put it best though, proving once and for all that a comic is worth the just over 1,000 words I’ve written so far. I reprint the following with his generous permission.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Nodell. You too, Carrie.

Looking To The Stars - AnimeFest '06 Report

It is a very odd thing, conventions. Sometimes the biggest ones seem very small and the smallest ones seem very big. Case in point: Dallas is host to two notable Anime-themed conventions. A-KON and Animefest.

A-KON is the longest-running Anime and Manga Convention in the whole of the United States of America (Fun trivia fact: Dallas is also the first place in the USA to air Monty Python on PBS) and is famed for now being a convention capable of holding the interests of many branches of fandom as well as an international audience.

Animefest, by contrast, is a purer sort of convention. It has managed to stay mainly devoted to Anime and Manga, with gaming and webcomics making up a well-represented minority in the events and convention floor-space. It is more of a local con, or so I have heard. And yet, somehow, as I went to Animefest this year, I seemed to meet more people from far away than I did at A-Kon earlier this summer. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

This was my first time attending Animefest. Why? Well, me being a fanboy of American comics whom regards most Manga with the same cautious but potentially hostile attitude that the USA maintained toward East Germany during the 1960s, I’ve never had any reason to attend Anime-specific conventions before. But I am trying to broaden my horizons – become a Renaissance Fan as it were. And I thought that my readers who ARE fans of Anime/Manga might appreciate the low-down on the convention. And one of my old writing buddies from WAY back in the day was there as a guest of honor.

So it was with a mixture of glee and trepidation that I set forth that morning, managing to avoid the famous downtown Dallas mid-morning traffic jams that make a merry hell of the I-30/I-35 E changeover. One jaunt through the government district to an open and highly visible paid parking lot later and I was just a short walk from the famed Hyatt Regency Hotel at Reunion Tower. What is Reunion Tower you may ask? This.

Yeah. The big tower with the ball on top that you see in the opening of Dallas and Walker: Texas Ranger as well as most pictures of the Dallas skyline? THAT is Reunion Tower.

Still, I nearly didn’t make it to Animefest. To make a long story short, there were complications with my efforts to secure an advance press-pass. Thankfully, things got sorted out once I showed up and presented my bona fides Friday morning. So hats off to Jason, the media liaison, who did a thankless job on the fly quite well.

For once, I was far too early for a convention. Although things technically opened at ten in the morning, the dealers’ room did not open until noon and many of the guests in the Artists’ Alley were not there that early, perhaps due to jet lag from the day before. Still, it’s not hard to have fun at a convention just going around and talking to the people who are there.

Case in point: I spent a goodly hour chatting with Brandon McKinney of White Apple Multimedia about comic books and other things while he was setting his booth up. Brandon, it turns out, was the artist who designed the various badges for AnimeFest – including the rather fetching reporter lady who graced my Press Badge. I would offer a scan here, but the lamination is somehow blocking my scanners efforts to scan it. So take a gander at this, that my may see of his glory.

Brandon is a good artist and a class-act, who gave me an alternate-background version of a print that reminded me of my lady Sierra gratis when I didn’t have the money for it. The version of this print that can be purchased off his site, along with a number of other good prints, is shown above.

I also got a chance to talk to a trio from Florida; respectively a writer, an artist and a writer/artist of Manga whose work I had heard of, but not read. The writer/artist in question is the sweet and lovely Rivkah whose book Steady Beat, recently made the American Library Associations list of good graphic novels for Young Adults. The library I work at recently got this manga and I intend to review it, as best as a white-boy like myself can, at a future date.

I fear the same cannot be done for the other pair making up this trio, as their book is sold out darn near everywhere. I know this because I recommended it to my bosses at the library when they asked me what comics/manga we should try and pick up and my bosses said, after going through channels, that they couldn’t get it through their buyers. This dynamic duo is known to the world as Jared Hodges & Lindsay Cibos and if you can get a hold of their book Peach Fuzz, consider yourself lucky indeed. It is the story of a girl and her ferret and I can say without any qualms whatsoever that the artwork looks cute – even if I am not the target audience for a book about a girl and her ferret.

Still, as much fun as it can be to wander about, chat with random folks and take pictures of the costume-players, there is one important part of conventions that cannot be ignored: shopping! Even if you are living paycheck to paycheck like me, there is much fun to be had at a con just looking around and haggling dealers down.

I have one rule for patronizing a business – see how they treat you when they say you are just looking and don’t have money today and see how they react when you ask about special requests. The good ones appreciate browsers and while there are a lot of jerks who abuse the merchant goodwill, that won’t stop these good people from at least trying to make a potential customer happy. Sadly, my spending funds for this con were limited but the following merchants are very much worth patronizing on the World Wide Web

Trinkets and Baubles – A local dealer and maker of chainmail, I would have gotten one of their teddy-bears with a mail vest and a sword had I had the scratch. As it is, I’m going to have to contact them about getting a pink chainmail bikini bear for Sierra at some point.

Pegasus Publishing – Makers and sellers of all manner of Fandom t-shirts and bumper stickers. Odds are you’ve seen their work if you’ve ever walked through the parking lot at a convention. From the more common fandoms (Star Wars and Star Trek) to the more obscure (Forever Knight and Firefly), chances are you can find something to clothe your carcass or cover your car at Pegasus Publishing.

The Lazy Dragon – Another fine merchant of weaponry of all sorts, you have to love any business that keeps two stuffed monsters that sing “Mahna Mahna” hanging down at kid-height to delight passing children. And what is more, they will be having their own convention next summer with Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew as the guest of honor. Wookies and weapons? I’m so there.

Platypus Dreams – While a hand-knitted pair of cat-ears or a similar cap is not my cup of tea, any would-be catgirls out there could hardly do better than to buy their kitty headbands from Austin artist Kathy Bateman.

Knighthawk Armory – Makers of fine weapons yes, but very special weapons. All of their gear, from short swords to shields, is crafted from a special latex-foam blend that grants their gear two benefits. First, they are very durable despite being very soft and light. Second, they are a good deal safer than any home-made custom weapons and they look a lot better too! Their products are a bit pricey (daggers start at $20 and swords average about $70 from what I saw) but they are worth every penny to a LARPer or a parent who wants a nice safe toy weapon for their kids. I have one of their throwing daggers and can vouch for the strength, balance and general coolness of their weapons. And they do custom orders as well, allowing you to order props and weapons of any design if you have the cash and the ability to describe it. (Mental note – look into getting a Jack Knight cosmic rod at some point…)

After crashing for lunch and finding out why most people seemed to be skipping the hotel cafes ($9 for a Snapple and turkey sandwich?), I finally got a chance to make a historic meeting with R.K. Milholland – writer and artist for the much acclaimed webcomic Something Positive.

I’ve mentioned the comic before here but Randy hardly needs my help promoting his comics. The man was mentioned by name in Neil Gaiman’s speech at the Harveys in 2004, after he managed to raise enough money to match his yearly salary after he made an off-the-cuff remark that if people were that bothered by the delays in when the comic got posted due to his work, that he would quit his job and do the comic full time once they gave him the money to do so.

That is a very remarkable thing and I was lucky to get as much time to talk with him as I did given the constant crowd of fans that were circling about once he did get set up Friday afternoon. Not only did he have all manner of postcards and prints for sale, he had a Sailor Scout assistant. Classy!

Suffice it to say, he is a great guy and a terrific artist who I am fortunate enough to have written a few things with back when I was in high school – the legendary (if you were on a BBS in DFW during the 90s, anyway) Stories from Hell.

The Story From Hell was the first place I ever wrote anything for an audience. Somehow, they tolerated me despite a tendency to make far too many Monty Python references and my eschewing proper paragraph structure. I doubt I would be half the writer I am today, or indeed would have kept writing, had it not been for Randy and all the other members of the Squad From Hell.

So blame them if you don’t like my work.

But as for Randy’s work, he has generously allowed me to post this on his behalf. It is a little flyer he hands out at conventions detailing the joys and wonders of hygiene for clueless fanboys.

Aubrey’s Guide To Con Hygiene

Sadly, I wasn’t able to stick around the whole day or for the evening events. And quite honestly, AnimeFest isn’t quite my flavor of Pocky. It is a good convention if you’re a fan of Anime or Manga, to be sure! But there was only one dealer selling my kind of comics and nobody selling gaming gear that I saw. And my weekend work schedule sort of limited my chances to return on later days. Still, I had fun for what that’s worth. And for an American Fanboy in an Otaku Heaven, that is no small thing.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

All the attendees and merchants of Anime Fest 2006.

All the staff and volunteers of Anime Fest 2006.

The staff of the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Dallas.

Christine and Keith, for offering to pay my way if I couldn’t get a press pass.

R.K. Milholland, for asking about my girlfriend’s health.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/

Looking To The Stars: It Keeps You Reading...

With all the talk in this past week’s The Roundtable filling my mailbox as I’m trying to focus on constructing a website devoted to graphic novels for children, I found myself thinking a lot about the books I don’t enjoy. And saying more than I intended about the writers whose works I don’t enjoy.

It is easy, working in a comic shop, to develop a negative attitude towards the hobby itself. Constant exposure to whinny fanboys, speculators, Marvel Zombies and the DC equivalent that I’ve never heard a corresponding nickname for and all the Comic Book Guys everywhere – it can really make you question why you bother with the hobby at all.

That is why, in an effort to put a little more good will and positive thought out there, I put forth this list of twelve writers who keep me reading comics whenever I think about quitting.

1. Neil Gaiman

While this list is in no particular order, Neil would probably be at the top if I had any desire to organize the writers I like by “first favorite” and “second favorites” like a schoolgirl organizing her crushes. Simply put, I have yet to read anything bad this man has written which is more than I can say for most other comic writers. I do not believe it is possible for Neil Gaiman to write a bad story. That is the best compliment I can pay, I think.

2. James Robinson

While he hasn’t written a comic in a while, his influence is still felt throughout DC Comics. His Starman was the first book to spark a movement among DC Comics writers to take the long-neglected and ignored parts of the worlds’ oldest comic company’s universe and try and breathe some life back into them. At a time when DC was content to let the Justice Society die out, Robinson kept their legacy alive with his Golden Age mini-series and the many Times Past comics of Starman.

3. Geoff Johns

If Robinson is Socrates, then Johns is Plato- the philosopher who built upon the works of an earlier master to achieve even greater acclaim. Johns is pretty much THE Man at DC Comics today and it is well-deserved. A fan who made good, Johns is almost single-handedly responsible for correcting the biggest continuity snafus of the past ten years, with his work on countless titles. What is all the more amazing is his gift for characterization and telling the history of the comics he loves without boring the reader with statistics as some writers do.

4. Dan Slott

Marvel needs to give this man a lot more work. His Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series has been the best limited series this year by sure virtue of the fact that he did something that only Mark Waid and Paul Jenkins had managed in recent years- he made a fun Marvel comic. Not just funny, but fun. Slott is a man who knows his fun and packs more into everything he writes before 9 am than most writers manage all year.

5. R.K. Milholland

Some may blanch at me including a web-comic writer/artist in with all these professional writers. But make no mistake; the author of such on-line comics as Something Positive, New Gold Dreams and the brand new Midnight Macabre is very much a professional by any standard. Not only are his comics the funniest thing on the Internet, but they are delivered on-time at the same high level of quality on a regular basis. What is more, he managed without even trying seriously to become a fully-paid artist following a half-hearted pledge drive made in response to complaints about misspelling and late comics. He told his readers that if they thought it was that important, that they could donate money so he wouldn’t have to work so many hours and that if they matched his salary for one year, he would quit his job. The fans put up, and Milholland has been living the dream of many an amateur since.

6. Mark Waid

The one writer who can get me to try any book, no matter what, simply because of the way he always puts a spin on it. The man who has done the impossible twice this year; he got me to read a Legion book and he made the free City of Heroes comic readable.

7. Mike Grell

I’ve been a fan since reading Green Arrow: The Wonder Year after retrieving the series from the dollar bin of my first comic shop in Victoria, Texas. He was by far the best writer ever to tackle Oliver Queen and one of the best writers to every work in comics period. With a new regular John Sable: Freelance series out from IDW and the original series slowly coming out in TP format after a relative eternity, I am as happy as a pig in mud. You will be too if you give Mr. Grell’s work, old or new, a chance.

8. Stan Lee

I know it’s a cliche, but if you ever find yourself hating comics- not modern comics, but just comics in general, pull up a collection of old Stan Lee. Fantastic Four or Spider-Man – pick your own poison. It’ll cheer you like nothing else.

9. Gail Simone

If Sting hadn’t already written Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic some two decades ago, comic fans might have to write that song about Gail Simone and her work. I’ve gushed over Gail enough in the past, so rather than tell about my own experiences, I will tell the story of my friend Scott. Scott is one of a dying breed- an old school fanboy who still hasn’t forgiven DC from depowering Superman after the original Crisis. Scott has had few kind words for anyone who has written Superman since 1985 and he holds an especially deep loathing for John Byrne. Imagine my surprise then when, upon my recommendation, Scott picked up the latest Action Comics with John Byrne’s name on it (though just doing artwork) and declared that it was actually good.

10. Mike Carey

From Lucifer to Red Sonja, from Spellbinders to Hellblazer, Mike Carey is perhaps the most versatile writer working in comics today. He has proven capable of writing every genre there is, from sword-and-sorcery to modern magic and mythology. He’s also handled urban drama (in his Ultimate Elektra series) as well as, this week, old-fashioned superheroics with Ultimate Fantastic Four.

11. Kurt Busiek

If I’m going to mention the co-writer of Red Sonja, I have to mention the man who writes the best Conan since Robert Howard himself. His superhero work is not that bad, either. And by not that bad, I mean superb.

12. Brian K. Vaughan

Last, and definitely not least… well, if you aren’t reading Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina or Ultimate X-Men by now, anything complementary I have to say will probably not drag you out from under the rock you live under.

Tune in next time. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.