A little over a year ago I saw THIS BLOG POST on a little unpublished graphic novel titled FAR ARDEN. Actually, “unpublished” is a bit of a misnomer – the artist had shelled out money for an intensely limited 100-copy print run of the book, to hand out to press and possible industry folks to help garner interest in a possible bigger release. By the time I stumbled upon the GN’s existence, Kevin Cannon had already given so many away for free he was then charging for evey copy – no matter what – so he could break even on the printing costs. Honestly, the book looked SO bloody interested I paid $20 just to nab a review copy (and Kevin was kind enough to sign it and put a custom sketch inside, which is arguably worth $20 in and of itself).
I wrote THIS TWO-PART INTER-REVIEW (a review and interview in one! PART ONE. PART TWO.) to help FAR ARDEN get a little notice. Well, yee-haw, it’s been picked up by TOP SHELF. I feel so proud. As with any decently-done visual entertainment, words fail, so here’s a sneak peak:
In his search for the mythic arctic paradise Far Arden, Army Shanks fights off numerous obstacles such as the half polar bear man in this preview of Far Arden by Kevin Cannon. The book will be released by Top Shelf on May 29.
Continue reading about FAR ARDEN to be Published by TOP SHELF
This just in:
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publishers of the online comic
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and whose writer/publisher Barb Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper (respectively) are also co-writers of the critically-acclaimed Dabel Bros. and Marvel Comics’ HALF DEAD OGN, have announced the official release of their iPhone Apple Store app, and have mobile-y published the aforementioned GUN STREET GIRL as their opening offer.
There two comics available now, one for free and one for $0.99 purchase, are:
- “Where It All Began” which is the origin story, and it’s the one available for FREE DOWNLOAD
- “The Jealous Dead“, which is the latest and greatest of the GSG yarns, featuring those wonderful horror sensations – zombies! This one’s for $0.99 download on the Apple market or iTunes store, and you can check out a 4-page preview of it HERE.
GUN STREET GIRL has officially been given a sparkly-xlick new website to commemorate the occassion, and everyone really needs to head on over and check it out. It’s real purdy. I’ll give golf claps all around for Park, Barb, and artist Howe for the construction and design – very nice, you guys! But what’s more – YOU CAN READ ALL 23 OTHER GSG CHAPTERS, IN THEIR ENTIRETY, AT THE SITE!!!
Continue reading about Wicker Man Studios Launches iPhone eComic App!
From General Jinjur Productions comes a brand new graphic novel epic, a nifty damn twist on an otherwise cliche cliche (yes, that’s a cliche turned so cliched it becomes a cliche as an overused cliche!)
Originally written for and posted on BROKEN FRONTIER dot com – here’s my very honest review of these upstart newcomers:
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Charlatan: Preludes GN |
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Original graphic novels are forever mixed blessings: it’s a big chunk of comic book entertainment in one fell swoop, no waiting a month or two or three or four before the next meager 22-page sequel; on the other hand, if it’s bad, it’s a big chunk of super-horrid badness that cannot be denied or forgiven, neither for the price (which is usually less than the combined cost of single issues, but psychology being what it is, we forgive anything that outlasts our ADD emotional response time) nor the fact that so much effort was put forth by both artist and writer to produce something inexplicably, fundamentally worthless. My bad habit, which has biblically plagued me for 1,000 years of solitude (or so it seems) is that I fish-jump at the offer to procure a new meaty tome of four-color splendor, then instantaneously regret, the remembrance of things past settling into my stomach, my head, often my eyes (they start to hurt, sense memory kicking in) as I recall such monstrosities of GN justice as…well, I won’t name names, but there are many OGNs I’ve never reviewed. Even though I was supposed to.
I am really happy that Charlatan: Preludes does not fall into this category (obviously, since you’re reading this!). Like a boulder rolling down a mountain, that mountain being the overwrought and overdone “Chosen One” savior-of-the-universe paradigm, creators Gil Lawson and Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia heedlessly (almost recklessly) hurl themselves through what should be death-dealing heights and sail themselves over treacherous-deep gorges, avoiding every pitfall and, surprisingly, for once, descend down perhaps the sole unpopulated side remaining to this highly inhabited monument of subgenre. So assured are these creators, that Charlatan offers something worthwhile and different, that they charge in with pure pastiche and emerge on the other side with a story unique unto itself, yet charged with an energy and classicism culled from everything mainstream readers adore about spandex, space opera, and fantasy books.
Continue reading about CHARLATAN: PRELUDES Graphic Novel – Review
From the creator of THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST (soon to be a major motion picture from Myriad Pictures [Jeepers Creepers 2]):
After three full collections of suburban horror short stories (in comic book format), creator Robert M. Heske produces a graphic novel collection that reprints the “best of” – his favorites from the three volume run. Don’t want to plow through the whoel series to date? No problem – just read the stories the author himself, in retrospect, believes to be the finest. Plus a few added extras, but of course. While Heske pens all the stories, each tale is drawn by different artists who each bring a unique voice (except for a fella names Eliseu ” Zeu” Gouveia – see the next blog post for details) who eerily illustrates False Pretenses and Dead Dog. The 140-page anthology features a forward by Rod Lott (www.bookgasm.com) and includes three “themed” sections – Femme Fatales, Distrust Thy Neighbor, and Someone is Watching (stories with a supernatural bent). Also included are two chilling extras: Alibi, a short film script with spot illustrations by Reno Maniquis of Walls of Angels fame (who also illustrates Transcendence in the book), and a micro comic called Shopper’s Nightmare drawn by Breno Tamura and lettered by David Paul.
Continue reading about BONE CHILLER – Heske’s Cold Blooded Chillers Collection plus a Movie Trailer!
This one looks VERY promising as a comic reader, based on the Google Android tech. Video featuring one of my faves – MISERY DEPOT!!!
We like to think that Android Comic Viewer or ACV is the best comic viewer available for Android. ACV is a lightweight viewer that comes bundled with our titles, and there will be a standalone version soon that will allow you to read Android comics from your internal memory of SD card.
Continue reading about Android Comic Viewer ACV – best comics reader for Google Android
I recently “Inter-Reviewed” writer Robert M. Heske on his earlier Cold Blooded Chillers collections—single-issue anthologies dedicated to suburban-based horror yarns in the slasher, thriller, monster (and more) genres—and now he’s gone and published his third and (for the time being) final installment. And this one is weird with a capital “wuh”.
Earlier issues dealt with mundane (literally – as in “down to earth”) 
matters such as serial killers, haunted houses, things easy to wrap one’s head around albeit often Heske tossed in a deft little twist to keep things interesting. However CBC #3 is out-and-out Twilight Zone material, the final story in fact a lengthy finale very much worth (and possibly even requiring) a second reading to understand its many minutiae. Which isn’t to say the suburbia-angle is missing: Heske kicks off inside (what is for him) familiar territory with a pedophilia-focused short, although things swiftly shift from gritty realism to surreal paranormality (not a word, but it should be). Then we segue into story #2, dealing with, on the surface, a haunted Aquarium, though only one security guard seems to notice its existence. Thematically, it’s this second story that drives home the symmetry of CBC #3 as a whole: it’s a bizarrely perfect inverse to story #1, a completely different approach to telling, cleverly, the exact same story only with new faces and a switcheroo in roles.
All well and good, I was truly digging the issue by the end of story #2, and Olympic-dove head-first into the third and last…and man, if anyone else out there can tell me what the heck was going on in this last of the last, please dear god email me and let me know! All you Grant Morrison fans out there who actually understood the last issue of The Invisibles and Final Crisis, this one’s for you. Help a brother out. Though to caveat: it’s certainly the most ambitious story Heske has attempted inside the whole CBC repertoire, roping together numerology, Mayan Myth, aliens, other dimensions, multiple lifes, and, I think, even more—it’s a bit of a smorgasbord, an all-you-can-eat weird-end-of-the-genre buffet. It’s therefore the longest and most epic story told in CBC to boot. Heske expertly paces his oddity; and for all my confusion, I was sucked right in, dying to understand every nuance, and discover the ultimate destination the story was leading to. Sadly, after two thorough reading, I haven’t a clue to what the final pages inferred. There’s a “Forum” section up above (you’ll see the tab). Read CBC #3. Go to the Forums. Go to “Reviews”. Find “Cold Blooded Chillers #3” in “Reviews” in “Forum”. Give me your take on this one. I’d be very curious to know.
Continue reading about Cold Blooded Chillers #3 from Heske Horror – REVIEW!
New Review (well, kinda old actually – I’m late in posting this) of Brian Andersen’s REIGNBOW AND DEE-VA One-Shot
Published by Andersen’s own CBG Comics, this is the second series of his I’ve critiqued, with a third and fourth to come (soon, promise).
Here we go!
Reignbow and Dee-Va #1
Review by Dave Baxter, posted February 09, 2009
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So Super Duper was Brian Andersen’s first comic work, which I rave-reviewed here, and it’s a book that has since begun serialization online at the Newsarama blog (you can read the ongoing SSD adventures by clicking this – updates every Tuesday and Thursday). Looking to stretch his wings beyond the SSD universe, though this might easily (and perhaps does) fit within the already-established framework despite its “one-shot” and “stand-alone” 
status, Andersen scripted Reignbow and Dee-Va. It’s a book that is, believe it or not, even more whimsical, irreverent, and charmingly unselfconscious than what has come before.
Working with Studio 407 – as I do now – one of the more interesting subjects to arise from our pairing is handling the PR (or some of it – the gig’s only part-time) for the upcoming SMUGGLING SPIRITS HC GN slipcase edition, which also happens to be an extended “Director’s Cut” version of the work with 12 additional pages fleshing out the ending to what the creators envisioned in the first place.
This is “interesting” because SMUGGLING SPIRITS, by writer Ben Fisher and jaw-dropping artist Mike Henderson, used to be with online digital publisher, Ambrosia Publishing, and way back when I did a hefty write-up on Ambrosia and – even then – had singled out SMUGGLING SPIRITS as the most promising property the company was then carrying. Now, approximately a year and a half later, after my first review of the book, it’s seen a two-volume printing via Ambrosia, to critical acclaim but little fan or reader fanfare, shouldered through the collapse of Ambrosia (though the publisher says he’ll be back, and hopefully soon, and hopefully with a better game plan than he had originally), and now the book lies in the hands of the impressive newcomer STUDIO 407. And I call them “impressive” not because I work for them, but rather reverse that – I work for them because I call them “impressive”.
Killing the Grizzly returns! With an extra-long article chronicling just where digital comics sit now that Diamond has pulled the rug out from under the small press and indie community.
PART 1 – EVERYONE PASSES “GO”: THE BREAKING OF A MONOPOLY
“THE HIBERNATION PERIOD IS OVER, IT’S TIME TO MAKE SOME SOUP. The bear has awakened, and it needs to be killed. Not later, now. Or some comics creators or going to die.”
KILLING THE GRIZZLY was going to focus on a far different topic for its third installment—a fair number of different t’ings, actually—but between KtG #2 and now, something rather big happened, and as it now stands as the (one and only) talk of the town, especially whenever “the changing landscape of comic publishing” is brought up, by necessity it must then become the core of this latest one-sided conversation between you and me.
Diamond has raised the minimum bar on preorders for comics. For those of you not in the know, here’s the skinny: Diamond Distributors has been the sole source of mainstream Marvel, DC, Image, and Darkhorse distribution since the early 90’s, as well as for all major small publishers and the few lucky independents that wedge their way inside the hallowed halls of Diamond’s Previews catalogue. It is the one and only retailer resource for ordering comics across a national system and in any quantity that truly matters to creators.
Diamond is and has been for some time, a monopoly. They are, by-and-large, the stranglehold on the industry in much the same way that megaliths Borders and Barnes & Noble alongside the practice of “returns” are the stranglehold squeezing the life’s blood out of the book publishing industry. Everyone involved is aware of the limitations such monopolies enforce on either side of the commercial print world, but little has ever been done to change the reality, or challenge it, even as the world of publishing has suffered a slow, suffering decline in recent years.
So when Diamond announced a hefty raise on the minimum order allowed for all comics carried in their catalogue, this meant that any book Diamond ships to retailers must achieve a guaranteed revenue via pre-orders…or else they’ll be dropped. Not immediately, per se, but eventually, should sales not increase, a book will find itself without retail distribution, or at least without distribution through the sole retailer that has ever carried any sincere weight within the American comic book market model for the past fifteen years.
Continue reading about KILLING THE GRIZZLY #3 – Life After Diamond, Parts 1 and 2
The third of my NYCC coverage articles, as taken from the Broken Frontier NYCC blog:
So every news site covers Panels when heading to a major Comic Convention, always reporting the big news from the big companies. But what about the little guys? Those who don’t have the pull or pocket change to roll out an hour long multi-media-enhanced Q&A to let the world know what’s going on and what fans can expect?
Well, time to report on the New York Con’s Panels without Panels – small press and indy announcements gathered up by walking the floor and chatting up those tables that were findable, approachable, and (ideally) both.
First up is Alterna: after a breakout year of Diamond distribution for their Novo Volumes 1 and 2, Fomera Volumes 1 and 2, Mr. Scootles, American Terror: Confessions of a Human Smart Bomb, The Chair, and fan-favorite Jesus Hates Zombies, Alterna is gearing up for the release of the second volume of American Terror, a second volume of JHZ (sub-titled Lincoln Hates Werewolves) and an outstanding new book called Dead Beat, which is “a ‘slice of super life’ graphic novel revolving around a down on his luck former superhero and his estranged daughter as they come to terms with one another and the events that drove a wedge between them years ago.”
Next up, I moved to….
Continue reading about NYCC Coverage #3: Panels without Panels