This is how the con looked, felt, and tasted like.

Wizard World Chicago… probably the most confusing convention I’ve ever been to. Not on a programming scale or anything like that, but on an energy scale.

This year’s WWC (technically called Wizard World Chicago Comic Con) was packed with Star Trek nerds and stars, Battle Star Galactica nerds and stars, professional wrestlers, people with barely any movie career, tons of merch, tons of artists, people trying to sell me stuff, and god damn Rod Blagojevich.

Seeing that this convention wasn’t really focused on comic books at all, and I truly believe it’s a sham that Wizard still called it a comic convention, I didn’t have much to check out and “report” on.

Nonetheless, there were some cool booths and shops, as well as one real publisher and a few small time publishers around.

More after the break.

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Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

Jumping on the bandwagon of the rest of the “cool kids” of the world, I sat down in 3 weeks and read all six volumes of Scott Pilgrim.

Here are my ratings of volumes 1-5:

• Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
  • Good gracious, this book made me giggle. 8/10
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  • Joseph? You’re my favorite. 9/10
• Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
  • This ex-gf nonsense is getting a bit old. 7/10
• Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
  • Ninja fights and strange lesbian-ness. Yeah, okay. 7.5/10
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe
  • Was there a point to this one? Oh, the ending. Okay. 6/10

So, I was kind of in a downer mood when I jumped into volume 6 because I wasn’t the biggest fan of volume 5. Nonetheless, Brian Lee O’Malley managed to keep me reading to the point where I couldn’t stop reading from cover to cover.

More fun and spoilers after the break. (more…)

Me (left) & the girlfriend (right) Photo: opacity

6 hours of driving, 4 hotel rooms, 120+ comic books, TPBs, autographs, standing in line, eating fast food, ordering pizza, sleeping, coffee, Slim Jims, panels, disappointment, anxiety, awesomeness, and lots of damn walking.

That was C2E2 for me.

It began on a Friday, ended on a Sunday, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I met a ton of awesome people (writers, artists, web comic dudes, and other random people) and I realized–like I always do at comic conventions–that I love comics with all of my damn heart.

Do I have comic news? Not really. Do I have some cool stories? Definitely.

Check more after the break.

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When I read about what the premise of Turf was going to be 3 months back, I thought, “HELL YES! Tommy Lee Edwards is on another book! Man I loved Marvel 1985!!”

Wait. Stop. Let’s get things in order here:

Turf appealed to me back in February when I was looking through my Previews book. It was a story being told to be about the mafia in New York City paired with none other than vampires and aliens. How cool is that? And then I saw that Tommy Lee Edwards was on the book and got all excited. I looked at the author (Jonathan Ross) and shrugged. “This could be a great comic,” I thought. “It’ll be cool looking, at least.”

Three months pass.

I walk into my local comic shop and this is in my stack. I open it up and get anxious to read it as it looks real wordy. Oh well, the art is fantastic. When I finally sat down to read this comic I was not even close to being prepared to taking in it’s brilliance. Somehow I survived.

More after the break. *mild spoilers abound, dear reader*

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The final act of the 3ish year overarching plot headed by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost is finally beginning its end. We’re talking a five month crossover story contained within Uncanny X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, New Mutants, and X-Force (similar to what they did back during Messiah CompleX) where you have to buy all of these comics to get the full story.

This is the first issue; a one-shot.

What you need to know: Mutants across the world have been cut down to a mere 198 (well, 181 now according to this current issue) thanks to good ol’ Wanda Maximoff (see also: House of M). The kicker is that no new mutants have been born since then. Out of the blue, BAM, a mutant is born. And every group of bad guys you could think of who has tried to kill off the X-Men finds out. So what happens? Cable ends up finding this girl first–knowing with his memory of the past from his future–that she will save mutantkind. Then what does he do? He jumps into the future to save her, but Bishop follows. Why? Well, Bishop has to kill this girl, as she caused his past in his future to be a terrible place. For 18 years (3 years worth of comic books) the chase through time between Cable & the baby (who ends up with the name Hope) and Bishop goes on, and now Cable and Hope are back. As for Bishop… you’ll need to read Cable #24 to find out.

This is where we’ll start things. *spoilers abound*

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Mysterio! The Gauntlet! Dan Slott! Oh my!

After not reading comics for almost two months, I finally went and picked up all of the comics I hadn’t bought and in this monstrous stack was Amazing Spider-Man #618. Penned by Dan Slott with art by Marcos Martin, this was the issue I have been looking forward to for months (since I heard word of it back in August) that was apart of Spider-Man’s “The Gauntlet.”

In case you haven’t been keeping up with Amazing Spider-Man, what’s been happening is this: all of Spidey’s old villains have been coming back… with a vengeance. The thing is, they’re not coming back to get Spider-Man, but they’re coming back to do what they do best: do selfish things. So far, we’ve had Electro, Sandman, Rhino (2.0) and this weeks baddy–Mysterio.

It’s been all very good so far, but this week’s issue… I wasn’t feeling it so much, which is a huge surprise since I have an absolute love for Dan Slott’s Spider-Man. But let’s talk more after the break.

*some minor spoilery after the break*

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Just got this in our e-mail over here:

–
Mohawk Media

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Thursday 3 December 2009

PUBLISHER PUTS OUT CALL TO COMIC ARTISTS

Mohawk Media launches talent search

Publisher Mohawk Media has today announced that it is in search of artists for upcoming comic book and graphic novel projects.

Having had success with its Mr. T graphic novels, the publisher is readying to get new projects underway in 2010.

To help spearhead this search, Mr. T author, Christopher Bunting, has been appointed as Editor-In-Chief.

Bunting says: “As a freelance writer, one in the early stages of his career, I know just how tough it is to break into comic books.”

“I’ve often heard aspiring artists say there are no openings. I’m therefore proud to be part of this Mohawk Media initiative to give artists the opportunity to become published, and be involved in some of the coolest titles of 2010!”

The publisher recommends the following:

• A brief email about yourself and any published experience, accompanied by a minimum of 5 sequential pages
• Story pages only (no pinups, paintings or portraits)
• Your strongest – and preferably, recent – work
• A variety of genres if possible
• Samples in jpeg or PDF format only. Links will not be opened
• All submissions to chris@mohawkmedia.co.uk

Bunting continues: “Remember, comics are a storytelling medium. Those are the skills that you need to demonstrate.”

“We’re excited to see what comes in. Good luck!”

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Do you buy comic books?

That’s my question for you today. Do you buy comic books? If so, why? What keeps you coming back each month to each book you buy?

I’ve stated on many occasions that I’m an avid X-Men fan and each month I come back to my X-books knowing that the story is going to go forward to something great–and also, small hopes that Gambit will make an appearance. Marvel has (pretty much) had solid writing on the part of X-Men for the last 10 years or so and since I started picking up single issues instead of trades (which started roughly a year and a half ago) I’ve been buying at least one X-book a month because they’re that good. Of course, as of right now I’m buying almost all the X-books (Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, X-Factor, X-Men: Legacy, Cable)… because I’m a super nerd.

But I also pick up a lot of non-X-books.

Invincible Iron Man, for instance, is a book I’ve been buying since I read the first issue of “World’s Most Wanted.” Combining the art of Salvador Larroca and the writing of Matt Fraction, the 12 issue story arc has kept me wanting more and more each month. Both the plot and the art are above and beyond what I ever thought possible for a story focused on Iron Man. This is one of the books I’m going to classify as “I’m glad I started reading/buying when I did.”

Incredible Hercules. I have been reading Incredible Hercules since it’s first issue after World War Hulk, but I didn’t start buying it until issue #125 or so. Since then, I have bought the back issues of the comic (back to #112). This is a comic that when I read it, I don’t want it to end. The story and the writing in general is simply fantastic. It drives the comic beyond what I would ever expect from a Marvel comic. It’s strange to say, but this comic is so good, I’m surprised it hasn’t been canceled yet. Do you know what I mean?

Marvel aside, I do grab some DC/Vertigo comics as well as some independents.

Detective Comics. This is the one comic book I never thought I’d see myself reading a year ago. To me Detective Comics and Action Comics are the definitive DC comics and a year ago I wanted nothing to do with DC. I was a fool. On a whim I picked up Detective Comics #854 after a buddy of mine recommended it to me. This is another one of those “I’m glad I started reading/buying when I did” comics as I can not stop loving every piece of this comic. The art alone keeps me coming back each month.

The Vertigo comic I read right now that keeps me wanting more each month is DMZ. A comic I started buying back around issue #35, I wish I owned #1-34 because Brian Wood‘s story is just fan-flipping-tastic. This is probably the best non-super-hero comic I have ever read in my life. Period.

Outside of Robert Kirkman‘s plethora of sexy-time comic books, I read some random independent comics because I always like to try out the indie publishers here and there to see if there is greatness out there. Warren Ellis‘ torrent of comics that he releases tend to keep me buying every month (most recently Supergod and Ignition City), Garth Ennis‘ Crossed, and Mark Waid‘s Irredeemable keep me wanting more every month. With these indie comics, it’s a sick hunger I get for more story each month. Wendigo style.

There are a few others in there I buy but the comics above are the ones I always look forward to the most. But again, I have to know, why do you buy comics? What keeps you coming back to your favorite titles? Let me know in the comments.

More info about the comics reviewed after the break.

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More info about the comics covered this week after the break.

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