Hoojaboose

Stumptown Comics Fest '09

2009-04-26T06:45:00Z

The Fest

I can't believe I lived 40 minutes from San Diego for three years and never attended the San Diego Comic Con.

You see, I try not to be too much of a fanboy. I imagine that most of what comics writers and artists hear at conventions is "You're awesome!" or "I loved your story about..." or "Will you sign my super-rare, limited edition hardback with slip-cased edition of your masterwork..." Most comic creators are, I'm sure, defined by more than just the stories and characters they create. What could I possible bring to the discussion table that someone else hasn't said before?

I want to be more than a fanboy. I'd like to be a friend. But, I'm not silly enough to think that could possibly happen via a conversation at a comic book convention.

Plus, I'm just not very social around strangers.

So, in an effort to act like a normal fanboy and conquer my fear of being around people I don't know, I went to the the sixth annual Stumptown Comics Fest. I wasn't disappointed.

Held at the Doubletree Hotel here in Portland, Oregon, it took up a 100 foot by 100 foot exhibition hall. About a dozen parallel rows of fold out tables took up the center of the space, with more tables lining the four walls.

The Room

I didn't attend any of the panels. Most of them seemed to be for actual writers, artists and creators, and I was there as a fanboy. Shortly after arriving, I decided my goal was to find some good, undiscovered comic books. It was a little daunting at first. In formulating my plan of attack, my biggest consideration was budget: I had $100 to spend, and didn't want to blow it quickly.

Step one: triage. I walked down each row, seeing what caught my eye, making mental notes about what looked interesting.

I noticed very quickly that these creators were very friendly. Bordering on too friendly. Almost everyone I made eye contact with greeted me with a very warm "Hello! How's it going?" The more outgoing people would engage me in conversations that I didn't really want. These people loved comics, and loved their own comics and wanted to show them off to everyone. Adapting quickly, I learned to keep my head down and looking at the comics, not the people.

Isn't that horrible? I'm so anti-social.

After the triage, I started buying things; pretty conservatively at first. I'm horribly indecisive about spending money. This indecisiveness meant I ended up making about six trips up and down each row. Each trip through the room getting the most interesting books I saw.

By about the third trip, fearful of forgetting something that looked interesting, I started taking notes.

My main shopping criteria was I only wanted to buy things I couldn't buy outside the fest. If someone was selling a book I could get at my local comics shop or Amazon, I skipped it.

After about three hours and six full trips around the hall, my eyes and head started to hurt, so I called it a day.

The Haul

Missed

In the end, I'm pretty happy with what I found and bought. I only regret forgetting to do a final review of my notes before I left, which resulted in me not buying Monica Gallagher's Gods and Undergrads. Fortunately, its available online and is now on my wishlist.

Josh Shalek's Welcome to Falling Rock State Park

The first items I bought were all three collections of the daily strip Welcome to Falling Rock State Park, by Josh Shalek. When I found myself laughing out loud while reading the first few pages, I had to get them all. These strips are funnier than anything I read in my daily newspaper (except perhaps Get Fuzzy). Seldom do daily comics get me to laugh. This one did. Loved it. I will continue to buy future collections. Unfortunately, the author doesn't have a news feed or newsletter, only an archive page.

Maris Wicks

The next item I remember buying was a collection of three mini-comics by Maris Wicks. I read one at her table, Talk Nerdy to Me, which got me to buy the rest. When I got home and read her Coping with Death comic, it turned out to be my favorite of everything I bought: funny and very poignant. It's available online

Jonathan Case's Sea Freak

The biggest surprise turned out to be Sea Freak, by Jonathan Case, bought on my last trip through the hall. Case took a pretty notable character type (e.g., the creature from the Black Lagoon), and turned him into a guilty-at-snacking-on-humans, Shakespeare-loving, love-sick protagonist, or, as Case himself puts it: "an atomic sea mutant in 1962 with a hunger for poetry and human flesh". These were the three most well written comics I bought: from the pacing, to the characters, to the dialog, to the sub-plots. The complete package. The art is top-notch, and reminds me of Paul Chadwick. I'm not sure why this isn't being published by someone. You can read chapter one online.

Honorable Mentions

There are a couple of honorable mentions.

The first is Iron God by William Schar. I flipped through the first few pages and on the strength of the art and writing picked it up. The book, however, suffers from a quick, jagged pace, and a little too much exposition/explanation. Rather than let the reader discover and come to understand the characters and world as the narrative unfolds, too much of the story and character dialog is used to explain everything too early in the story. In May 2009, Schar will start an online reboot titled The Iron Sea. I think there is a lot of potential here, and will watch as things progress. The original Iron God comic is available online.

The second honorable mention is Kingwood Himself, by Reynold Kissling. Casually flipping through it, I thought it looked like a good little fantasy story. My suspicions were confirmed when I actually sat down and read it. The artwork is very clean, as is the writing. It reminded me a lot of the stories I used to read in Dark Horse Presents. I'm looking forward to seeing more from him. You can read Kingwood Himself online, as well as many of Kissling's other comics.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm happy with the day and what I bought. Upon reflection, I realize I didn't buy very much. I still had about $40 in my pocket when I left. Maybe next time I'll go through the room only once, at more of a snails pace, taking breaks to read what I've bought so my brain and eyes don't get overloaded. Going a little slower will probably give me a little time to interact with the creators as well.

If you're in Portland, or anywhere nearby, for next year's fest, take the time to attend. Bring some cash, and prepare to enjoy some comics.

True Story, Swear to God

2008-12-04T05:43:00Z

We all have stories to tell.

True Story, Swear to God, as the title so aptly describes it, begins with a most unlikely meeting. The writer and illustrator, Tom Beland, is on a work assignment at Disney World in Florida. While waiting for a bus, he meets Lily Garcia, a talk-show host from Puerto Rico. They immediately hit it off. After their time at Disney World, he goes back to Napa Valley, she returns to Puerto Rico, and they continue their relationship across those thousands of miles.

When I read this book, I can't help but think of The Princess Bride. Toward the end, Prince Humperdink confronts Wesley saying,

You truly love each other, and so you might have been truly happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the storybooks say.

Just like Wesley and Princess Buttercup, I believe Tom and Lily found true love, that once in a century chance. Reading their story is by turns touching and hilarious. They have their ups and downs and disagreements and frustrations, with each other and their extended families, but they work it out, love, laugh, cry, and watching them do so is enjoyable, page after page.

It is also inspiring. Reading about Tom's efforts to publish and promote his story (as a mini-comic and later as a regular comic) made me want to go out, learn how to cartoon, and publish my own stories. (Granted, this might have more to do with my super-power, Delusions of Grandeur, than Beland's writing, but I don't think so.)

The illustrations are super clean, black and white, done in a cartooning style. Since most of the story involves people and their relationships, so do the illustrations. When the story focuses on the world outside people, though, Beland has the necessary chops.

By far my favorite part, though, is the writing. Beland does a fantastic job of showing moments of drama, sorrow, and humor. Although I never cried reading this, I have surely laughed, and not to myself, but guffaw-like outbursts. The writing is so good, in fact, that my wife actually started reading and, while I was collecting individual issues, she would ask every few weeks if a new issue had come in that she could read. That is truly a marvelous feat!

In the end, Beland accomplishes the extremely difficult job of writing and drawing his story in such a skilled way that the reader comes to love and care about his characters (in this case, real people), and miss them when finally putting the book down. The story is universal.

"Bravo", I say, "Bravo."

There are four volumes available. The first is True Story, Swear to God: 100 Stories (ISBN 193205121X). Published by AiT/PlanetLar, it collects the comic strip version of the story Beland wrote and drew for the Napa Valley newspaper he worked for before publishing his comic book. Each strip is one-off, with no story from strip to strip, but these are some of the funniest pieces Beland has written

The next three are published by Image Comics. These tell the story, from the beginning, that I talked about in my review. The first is True Story, Swear to God Archives Volume 1 (ISBN 1582408815). This is followed up with True Story, Swear to God Volume 1 (ISBN 1582407614) and True Story Swear to God Volume 2 (ISBN 1582409358). Unfortunately, as of this writing, it looks like Volume 2 is not currently available. Strange, considering it was only published a few months ago.

You can use any of the links below to buy from Amazon (I'll get a kick-back if you do).

Welcome!

2008-11-10T05:06:00Z

I've been collecting comic books for almost 20 years now. It started way back in late 1988, when I used some extra money my dad gave me for a haircut to buy Batman #426. Over the years, I've spent over $8,000 on issues in my collection, which now stands at about 3,500 in number.

One thing that started bothering me recently when reading my comic books was how hard it was to remember, from month to month, the details of a particular storyline. My brain doesn't know what to remember and what to forget, and invariable gets it wrong. Not only that, but sometimes I'll even miss issues and not even know it.

So, a few weeks ago, I cried "Uncle!" and closed up my subscription box at the local comic shop, Things from Another World. It was hard to give up on 20 years of history and habits, but I'm much happier.

Now, instead of collecting individual issues, I wait until those issues get collected together in a trade paperback/collection/graphic novel and buy that. Not only is it cheaper, but I can actually put these graphic novels on a bookshelf, where friends and relatives can lust over them (granted, I don't own a bookshelf yet, but first things first).

There is only one problem: I only have a handful of graphic novels. Not only that, but the graphic novels I do have probably wouldn't make my list of favorites. In other words, I don't own anything worthwhile!

So, for the past few months, I have set aside a little bit of money from the weekly budget to by one book a week. I figure in a year or two, I'll have a pretty good collection of my favorite comic books out there.

My plan is to post articles here at least once a week about what I'm buying and why. I'm trying to buy in order of my most favorite, but every once in awhile I'm sure a new release will sneak in occasionally, or I'll get spontaneous and buy something from left field.

I hope you enjoy what I'll be posting here. One of my goals with this site is to inspire those of you who haven't ever read a comic book to perhaps pick one up, or to inspire those who haven't read in awhile to get back in the habit. It truly is a beautiful, incredible medium, which deserves more widespread attention and sales.

Happy reading!