Highway 62

eBay: VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO 1966 Acetate LP ANDY WARHOL (item 300054910309 end time Dec-08-06 20:27:23 PST)

As of the time of this writing, this acetate (an inferior version of a vinyl recording) is priced at 17.1K dollars. In my time, I've seen some crazy behavior motivated by collector fetishism, but this one not only takes the cake, but the oven and pantry from which the cake was made. You could argue the historical importance of said recording, stating that it was "As the creators intended" and that subsequent releases (AKA, the ones that fans and critics have already listened to ad nauseum) are inferior.

You could do that.

Posted by Matt M. at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To which I say: "Gheusendteit!"

scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2003 - Preview of Dan Hipp's GYAKUSHU!

Yeah, I'd buy this. Dan Hipp of THE AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS brings us GYAKUSHU from Tokyopop. Uh, sometime soon; the dates seemed fuzzy (or my reading comprehension is worse than usual.)

Spotted on The Engine.

Posted by Matt M. at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was saddened to hear about the passing of comic artist Dave Cockrum. I won’t go so far out on a limb to say that I wouldn’t be reading comics were it not for his work, but I certainly wouldn’t have the degree of affection for say, X-MEN, were it not for his art (and his co-creation of the characters.)

When I came into comics, John Byrne had stopped working on X-MEN. I’d heard folks waxing rhapsodic about his work, which was fine and dandy. To be frank, I got into X-MEN by way of ROM, but that’s another story. I started reading the adventures of everyone’s favorite mutants right as Dave Cockrum joined the book again. Having been a big fan of artists like John Buscema (by way of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS and SON OF ORIGINS), I took to Cockrum’s muscular draftsmanship and layouts right from the start.

I can still remember being thrilled, yes thrilled, to get my mitts on X-MEN #150, which featured the big showdown between a returned Magneto and a re-united X-MEN on R’lyeh of all places. (Prove me wrong, I dare you.) Could I have asked for anything more? Well, sure, but only an ingrate of a 14-year-old would.

Sadly, Cockrum’s strengths were also perceived weaknesses. He had his finger on the pulse of the 70s in terms of costume design and fashion, as well as his physiques which seemed beefier and not a suitable middle ground between the anorexia/steroid bulk schizophrenia that seemed to grip comics art through the middle eighties and beyond. Even his later efforts on books like THE FUTURIANS felt somewhat dated (and I as a comic fan felt this, I can only imagine what editors thought).

That said, his vision of the Shi’ar Empire is still unique and individual. The fact that I can visualize it now, after years of reading and thousands upon thousands of other images crowding my brain after a lifetime of media absorption attests to that. And were it not for the fact that most of my comics are more than 500 miles away at the moment, I’d take the time out to study those old pages again. Because when I remember classic X-MEN comics, Orange Julius fries in one hand and a coke in the other, murmuring of the mall as background noise and being a kid in 1983, I remember buccaneer boots and flared shoulders and those capes that go from shoulder to wrists and were utterly impractical. Classic X-MEN means Dave Cockrum.

Rest in peace, sir.

Posted by Matt M. at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Or is it "Stop the horses!!" I can never get that right.

After some digging around, and a fair bit of driving through the suburbs of my newfound home, I've come across not one, but two reasonably good comic shops. By "reasonably good", the following critera have been met:

1) Less than half an hour away. Okay, one of the two fudges that a little bit, by about 5 mins or so. This is a consideration because if it comes down to it, I can drive to San Francisco to hit up my choice of stores that will have everything I'm looking for and more. And really, my time is not as free as it used to be.

2) They order from the back of the catalog. You'd be surprised how many stores I've come across that are nothing more than DC/Marvel (with the occasional DH licensed title and Image comic) outlets. True, there's fewer of those than they used do be, only because they died out or moved onto Pokémon cards or something timely like that.

3) Reasonably friendly, or at least compellingly bizarre counterfolk. Sample conversation "I gave up on Wolverine when he started crying over a bunch of Neo-Nazis that he killed to get a kidnapped girl back." Now, I have no idea if that actually happened or it was some kind of fever dream, but that guy *got it*. Yeah, I gave up on Wolverine a long time before that, but I'm a crank.

4) Have the good taste to have a copy of ABSOLUTE NEW FRONTIER on display. Okay, so I'm arbitrary. But it's also a pretty decent indicator that they have at least some degree of taste.

This doesn't make either shop perfect. In fact, there's plenty of issues with both of them. One of them is kinda clubhousesque, with overstuffed racks and not a lot of breathing room for the merchandise. It's also in a place that's not going to get a lot of foot traffic. And there's enough of an otaku vibe to keep out the un-initiated. The bigger store of the two has big back issue bins, but it also seems to rely pretty heavily on collectable card games and porcelain statues. There's noting wrong with either of those, but my sort of Maxwellian ideal for comic stores are stores that not only get you your comics, but invite folks from the outside (by staying away from the gigantic and tacky Michael Turner posters for one) and feel more like a book store rather than a secret clubhouse.

In short, don't play to the stereotypes.

So at least I can get my floppy fix, though that's feeling kinda elusive these days. Yes, it's common, this whole "writing for the trade" thing, and so very few writers try to put enough in to make the monthly itself something close to satisfactory. But one lone grumpy blogger isn't going to change the fact that this keeps costs down, even if it is a completely unsatisfactory presentation for non-habitual-comics readers.

Oh, and something else that came to mind. People are surprised by the sales and the profits of the ABSOLUTE books. This comes as zero shock to myself. Why? The material has been generated and paid for already. Sure, there's nominal expenses (recoloring, layout, etc), but a far cry from paying all the creators a page rate and generating something from whole cloth. ABSOLUTE SANDMAN might be moving copies, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that you won't see original material in the ABSOLUTE format any time soon.

Or ever.

Right. Back to reading from the haul brough in over the last week or so.

Posted by Matt M. at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, here’s my problem.

I moved from a city (well, suburb, really) where I used to have to drive about 25 minutes to get to a (by my standards) good comic store. This wasn’t a huge deal. I’d take some time, grab my son from school, get a double chili-cheeseburger and chili fries from Tommy’s and then hit the comic store. Which in this case was Comickaze (best of my choices for current comics in San Diego). Now, given circumstances, I couldn’t get out there every week. Sometimes I skipped two weeks in a row.

However, since I’ve moved, things have changed. A lot. El Dorado Hills, which is a (mostly) lovely community in the Sierra Foothills. Go to Folsom and you can get decent Mexican food, a little further and you can get Mediterranean, as well as Mongolian BBQ and the best hot dogs you’re likely to find in California. There’s used bookstores, a variety of useful and sometimes necessary commercial establishments. Not much culture to speak of, but whatever. In short, a decently-sized city. Go to Sacramento (about 30 mins, give or take) and you get into a good-sized city.

Now one thing I haven’t found yet is… You guessed it, a decent comic store. Granted, I haven’t had time to really prowl Sacramento (and really, it’s a bit far to have to drive just for comics.) However, even when I was in San Diego, I had to drive a significant distance, too. And San Diego is either the sixth or seventh largest city in the US.

Sure, you can get (a selection, sometimes a good one) of graphic novels/trades in most bookstores. Though those have their own pitfalls, and unless they’re serviced by someone who knows the field, it’s going to be a painful mess. Monthly comics, however, are all but gone from the big stores. And they don’t seem to have much of a street presence here. Like any. I know, I’ve already railed at the weaknesses of the floppy; I’ll refrain for now.

But it appears that the public (or the folks who sell to the public) isn’t all that interested in the format. Now, maybe Brian Hibbs is right and if we had a comic store on every corner (okay, I’m exaggerating), things would pick up. As it stands, comics are a niche market. Which is interesting, because according to most folks, we’re in the middle of a boom. Boom and niche don’t seem to mesh real well in my mind.

Anyways, unless I find a decent store within a half-hour driving distance, I’ll be forced to do one of two things:

1) Drive into San Francisco once a month or so (which may mean getting a pull list to make sure that I get the things that I want). Granted, this possibility has some appeal. SF is a great place to spend a day, and that’s not even counting the friends I have there. There’s three comic stores that I can think of off the top of my head that are likely to have most of if not everything I want.
2) Get a subscription at one of the shipping services like DCS. Which removes almost all of the human/geek contact out of the equation. And means I have to plan ahead of time. Which I’m not big on. I suppose this wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s not an exciting possibility for me.

It’d just be easier if a store opened. Preferably nearby. Wonder how many customers it takes to keep the doors open on a decent store…

Posted by Matt M. at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the chiding of creators who should know better...

Hey, my parents (and her grandparents) read this blog, too. I gotta throw 'em a bone once in awhile. Normal griping will resume shortly.

Posted by Matt M. at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blog - Note to reviewers: Stay away from Tokyopop.

No, I didn't substitute an 'r' for an 'e' accidentally up there. This is for the folks out there whose work is going to be reviewed, or those who think they might want to have their work reviewed in the future. Ready? Here goes.

1) What you intended doesn't matter. Your intentions for the work, while all fine and dandy during the formation of the work may not have anything to do with what people actually take out of the work. Conversely, reviewers who make personality judgements regarding the artist by way of their work are likely trafficking in horsefeathers and not any kind of reality. But, what you *meant* to say doesn't matter. You don't get to sit beside the reader and say "Okay, now here I was making a general statement about the nature of the father-son relationship and not about the fundamental injustices of the capitalist system as others have intimated." You don't have that privelege. The reader gets to jump to their conclusions on their own. Granted, those concusions may be ill-formed at best and highly reflective of the readers own prejudiced and experiences. And then they may go on to attribute those feeling to the work itself, rather than themselves. This may make them say things that you didn't intend (or support in the slightest). Deal.

2) You can't make people like your work. You can do your darnest (darnedest? -- someone help me out here) to make your work engaging and to tell the story that you want to tell (you *are* telling a story, right?). You can bend over backwards to fill your work with meaning (though that's dangerous -- see number 1 above). Once the work is out there, it's out there. No rewrites, no do-overs. It's done, move along.

3) Arguing with your critics (even worse, aguing *about* your critics in another forum, thus drawing even *mroe* attention to the "faulty" reading) is stupid in the most meaningful definition of the word. Did we not read #2 above? You *can't* make someone like your work. They like or they do not. Losing sleep over it or getting into heated debate about it (and spending energy *not* doing more work and actually growing as an artist) is a waste of resources.

4) Most criticism on the internet isn't worth bothering with (positive OR negative). This includes counter-criticism of criticism itself. Maybe. There are a handful of comics reviewers that I'll pay attention to (I'm looking at you, Jog; Ian, too) but you know what? I like plenty of stuff they loathe and vice versa. There's no arguing taste (see #2 above).

Of course, people are going to refute this and say "but what do you know, you're not a professional!" You're right, I'm not. But I try to conduct myself in at least a semi-professional manner. Griping at your critics and refusing to shut your trap is fruitless. If someone "didn't get" your masterpiece, well then you might consider how you might have obfuscated your thesis or betrayed your own intentions. Calling them out on it, however, is only going to make you look like an increasingly strident amateur (regardless of how many publications you have under your belt) and again, only bring more attention to the viewpoint that you want downplayed.

And there goes my blogging time for the day. Maybe I blog about comics tomorrow.

Posted by Matt M. at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sure the hell isn't Rice-A-Roni.

The 2 pound Dungeness crab from The Franciscan comes a lot closer, don't you think? This crab was better than most lobsters I've ever eaten (and wasn't cooked right into dessication as often happens).

More pictures forthcoming, as well as... >gasp< ...comics discussion, but likely not much talk about "current" comics (though I make no promises.)

Posted by Matt M. at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Added a few pics that I took with my kids while trick-or-treating in darkest Inner Suburbia.

Posted by Matt M. at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)