New Ways to Save the Day: Indie Superhero Comics

January 5th, 2012

New Ways to Save the Day: Indie Superhero Comics

Featuring Tales from the Flat and Geek Girl!

  

Sorry about the massive delay on this entry, folks. It’s actually been in the works for about a month now, before I even wrote last fortnight’s blog entry, but I’ve just had trouble with putting my thoughts to paper, particularly on the last review. After this, though, I should be able to get back to my regular schedule of every-other-Tuesday (or Wednesday depending on your timezone) and stick to it even when uni comes along.

I hope.

Anyway, superheroes. I ought to admit first off that I’ve had almost no contact with superhero comics (by which I mean classic, all-American Marvel and DC superhero comics) up to this point in my life. Not because of my gender; as far as I know my brother never read them either. Maybe it was to do with living in the UK instead of the US. Either way, my knowledge of classic superheroes comes largely from other media such as films, cartoons, TV series and fanfiction. So this article won’t be any great commentary on the new future of superhero comics, since I’m definitely not qualified to write that; but I think I understand enough of the genre’s tropes to give a decent perspective on these two.

One thing I can say for sure about superheroes is that they’re still a massively popular subject matter for comics of all sorts. Browsing the British Small Press section of Forbidden Planet’s online store for interesting new indie comics, I noticed a huge array of different comics I could have covered in a review which dealt with superhero stories, though I decided just to stick with the two named above which I already own. (Maybe there’ll be a Part Two to this review somewhere down the line). I have to admit I was almost disappointed, since I assumed that because indie comics are free from the whims of mainstream publishing that they wouldn’t keep coming back to such a thoroughly overdone topic. But the great thing about indie superhero comics is that they are diverse, and they approach the topic of superheroes in ways which are new and interesting and make it seem not-overdone. Which is one of my favourite things about our first comic to be reviewed, Tales from the Flat.

 

Ordinary Heroes – Tales from the Flat

Out of all the comics I could review for this blog, Tales from the Flat is one which doesn’t need any extra exposure. The back covers of the Collected Edition volumes 1 and 2, which I’m basing this review on, boast glowing quotations from names like Big Cheese Magazine, Optical Sloth, Indie Review and Forbidden Planet. On top of that, it was also nominated for the prestigious and long-standing Eagle Award, awarded to outstanding comics from the US and UK since 1976. So why am I bothering to review it here? Well, firstly because I can. It’s a fun comic, I’ll enjoy writing about it, and it’s one of the very first indie comics I ever read, after buying it at the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing in 2009. Secondly, I doubt absolutely everyone has heard of TFTF, so more exposure can’t be a bad thing. And thirdly, the one online review that I managed to find (in between all the search results for Tales from the Flat Earth, which Google was convinced I must be looking for) by Richard Bruton doesn’t cover the superhero aspect at all. And that’s mainly what I want to write about here.

 

 

Warning: this review contains spoilers for issues 1-3/Collected Edition Volume One of the comic.

 

Volume One of the Collected Edition spends a while – the whole of issue #1, in fact – just setting the scene for the rest of the comic. We are introduced to our main characters, Oliver, Laurence and Connor, who will be sharing a flat together. There is tension between their conflicting personalities and a lot of jokes about the trials of job interviews and sharing a flat, which almost all readers can surely relate to. The art style is fun and cartoony, and the writing is solid, carrying the jokes off well and with only a few spelling errors. (You might have gathered I’m picky about those. :P ) The three boys search for a fourth flatmate to share their living space and rent, which after several awful candidates turns up Fred, a mutual friend who’s just returned from uni and is looking for a place to live. Everything is completely ordinary and you might think the comic is just a slice-of-life story about four guys in a flat – if not for the cover image showing the guy with flaming eyes and the girl flying up into the air with one fist extended, Superman-style.

Then in issue #2, shit starts to get real when the local kebab guy suddenly turns into a monster, attacking Fred and Oliver; the next-door-neighbour acts creepy and schizophrenic; and new flatmate Fred is revealed to have pyrokinetic superpowers. (Hence the flaming eyes on the front cover). But what I love about this comic is that in spite of all that, everything is still so ordinary. For our four main characters, noisy kids in the cinema are just as big a problem as the fact that the local kebab guy tried to eat them. We aren’t even given any particular explanation for the existence of people with superpowers in this world. (At least not for six out of the seven published issues; I can’t speak for the seventh since I don’t own it yet). Fred explains that his powers appeared when he volunteered for pharmaceuticals testing which somehow altered his DNA structure, making him prone to burst into flame any moment. “Just think of me as a walking fire hazard…” he says. But at the end of Issue #3, Laurence introduces Fred to Vicky, who also has superpowers and is already an established crime-fighter, and the only explanation given for her powers is Laurence’s, “When she was about thirteen she developed superpowers along with a fine set of boobs…” which sounds similar to the way in which mutant powers are discovered with the onset of puberty in X-Men. Either way, the emphasis is not on what the powers are or how they came into being, but the consequences of them.

Like any self-respecting comic book nerds, Laurence and Oliver deal with the revelation that their friend has superpowers by urging him to don a costume and start using his powers for good. Oliver even quotes him that one really overused line from Spiderman – you all know the one I’m talking about. But Fred is more concerned with leading a normal life whilst keeping his fire accidents to a minimum. However, after some ‘training’ from Laurence and some encouragement from Vicky, Freddy agrees to try and use his powers to take on the demon kebab guy. And thus ends Volume One.

The other great thing about the way TFTF deals with superheroes and superpowers is that it’s able to take a step back and make some jokes about the whole concept of superheroes and how the stereotypes don’t actually hold up in real life. Oliver, Laurence and I think Freddy as well are all gaming/comic book nerds, and there are references to Spiderman, Star Wars and Street Fighter – “It’s not quite as easy as down, diagonal, forward and punch” – as well as a lot of general humorous references to superhero tropes, like the awful puns often used as banter during fight scenes. Now that I think about it, there are some similarities to The Incredibles in that respect. I think a lot of the more recent film and television remakes of superhero stories tried to do this as well, bringing the comic-book gods down to a more human level to make them more relatable. Whether or not you thought those adaptations achieved their aim, I’d say that Tales from the Flat definitely succeeds in that regard.

I haven’t covered much of Volume Two in this review, but without wanting to spoil that one as well, it continues with the same great work that was started in Volume One, paralleling a supernatural world of heroes and villains with the ordinary one of house parties, bar brawls and errant, irresponsible siblings. The jokes are still hilarious and the artwork features some thinner lines and more sophisticated shading whilst still retaining its bold, cartoony comic-book style. The backgrounds, an area that you see a lot of comic artists cop out or fall down on, are particularly fantastic, rendering the settings in loving and realistic detail. My favourite character, Viki, kicks all kinds of ass and I’d like to see her become more of a main character than  a “special guest star” and object of Freddy’s crush. Simply put, I can’t wait to read more and you guys should definitely go out and buy the comics now!

 

Visit the Tales from the Flat homepage at Modern Monstrosity Comics

Or buy the comics now from the site shop

 

 

Stereotypes Abound! – Geek-Girl

Geek-Girl was another find from The Thing, this time in 2010, where I bought the anthology Mysterious Visions which features Geek-Girl as the first of four comics by UK small press artists. Geek-Girl was the reason I bought the anthology, though, as it had art of Geek-Girl’s main character Ruby Kaye splashed across the front. I also chatted to Geek-Girl’s creator Sam Johnson, who was very friendly and signed my copy of the anthology. From looking at the title and cover art, my hope was that the comic would give us a tough, butt-kicking female superhero who could turn being a geek into something empowering. But in that regard, I have to say I was pretty disappointed.

Before I start in on the reasons why Geek-Girl disappointed me, let me first say what it does well, which is plenty of things. The art is really great: Sally Thompson’s art style is perfect for this sort of comic and is also the best in the anthology by a long way. The inking and backgrounds are solid; the panelling is well-done and flows nicely. Jaymes Reed’s lettering uses some very well-chosen fonts – which, as we know, is not something that all indie comics do well. In fact Geek-Girl, much like Tales of the Flat, gives off the air of a much more professional and non-indie publication. I certainly have no problems with the look of it; the aspects that bother me are to do with writing and characterisation, and for me as a writer, those kinds of considerations tend to outweigh the art.

 

Problem 1: I don’t find Ruby Kaye likeable as a character. Now, I will admit that I’m only given a very short introduction to her here: Geek-Girl issue #0 is only twelve pages long, and supposedly Ruby is drunk for the most part (although I only know that detail because it was mentioned in an interview I read; it wasn’t really indicated in the comic) but all the same, Ruby’s character bothered me from the moment she was introduced. For example, this piece of dialogue where Ruby explains her motivations for wanting a pair of glasses which are supposed to give the wearer superpowers:

 

Ruby: …I want those glasses.

Summer (Ruby’s BFF): Really–? I mean, they look kind of dorky, and the guy’s talking crap, right?

Ruby: Uh–yeah–but they’re really valuable to Trevor Goldstein–and he…probably spent a fortune on them–so it–uh–it’d be fun to take them off him!

 

And then they promptly start making out in order to grab the guys’ attention. Drunk or not, this is nevertheless our main introduction to Ruby Kaye’s character and our first impression of her, so if she comes across as a jerk, that impression will stick with us and it’s going to be hard to shift later. Now, in an interview Sam Johnson does mention that it’s more Summer, the truly ‘nice’ girl, who pushes Ruby into becoming a super-heroine and doing good with the powers that she acquires. But in the same interview he compares Ruby to other well-known comic book superheroines by saying she’s “much more down to earth”, when the impression given of her in issue #0 is anything but. I wouldn’t have said she was meant to be down-to-earth given that she acquires a pair of superpowered glasses on a whim, without even knowing how they work or their limitations, and then immediately lands herself in a heap of trouble with them. So I think there is a conflict at work here between what Sam Johnson would like Ruby’s character to be and how she actually comes across.

 

Problem 2: Ruby Kaye is not a ‘geek’. And this is ultimately what bothered me most about the comic since I had hopes for the total opposite to be true. As far as the comic is concerned, putting on a pair of slightly “dorky” glasses automatically transforms Ruby into a “geek”. Prior to this sudden transformation, she was actually one of the popular crowd, though her shallow friends reject her after an accidental display of clumsiness which is a side-effect of the glasses’ superpowers. Other reviewers have mentioned the clumsiness as another geek typecast, which I actually accepted as a fair drawback of Ruby not being able to control her new super-strength (although apparently it is actually due to a flaw in the glasses’ programming).  Either way, for something which is supposed to be a major theme of the comic (given its title), it just makes me facepalm. A lot. I know people may think with this whole review that I’m taking a light-hearted comic too seriously (wouldn’t be the first time…) but I suppose I just don’t get why Ruby Kaye needs to be a ‘geek’ if the comic isn’t going to do anything particularly new or positive with it. There are plenty of other places we can go to for geek stereotypes, but how about a really decent portrayal of geeks with superpowers? Oh wait… that’s Tales from the Flat. :3

 

Visit the Geek-Girl Main Site

Buy Geek-Girl issue #0 at Indy Planet

 

 

enchantedsleeper is a writer from the UK, head of Catalytic Productions comic studio and wannabe indie comics reviewer who has spent way too much money on small-press comics since she started doing this. Her signature trait is taking stuff too seriously.

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The Oriental Influence: ‘Yakage Force’, ‘Japanofail!’ and ‘Gashapon Adventure!’

December 13th, 2011

The Oriental Influence

Featuring Yakage Force, Japanofail! and Gashapon Adventure!                      

 

How do I even begin to sum up the massive impact and continuing influence that Japanese manga and anime have had on the Western comics scene? Well, since the comics I’m reviewing here are again all UK publications, I thought I’d start by giving some background about Japanese comics and cartoons in the UK, put together from my memories and a bit of research.

As early as Year Three in primary school (around 1998) I remember a friend telling me about Sailor Moon, though at the time I had no idea that it was even a cartoon, let alone a Japanese one. Around the same time, the Pokémon anime began airing on UK television, and Pokémon cards exploded into a massive craze in schools everywhere. Pokémon Red was also the first Gameboy game I ever played, on my brother’s old black and white Gameboy. But in spite of knowing that Pokémon came from Japan, I was never aware of it as being part of a larger whole, even when Yu-gi-oh! and Beyblade came along a few years later.

Then in the summer of 2004, aged 13, I followed a link to the Shonen Jump website in the back of one of my Yu-gi-oh! Gameboy game manuals, and started reading some of their manga online for free. Titles like Shaman King and Yu Yu Hakusho quickly became favourites. I also stumbled upon the dark and twisted world of badly-written fanfiction via Quizilla, and found out about other series like Inuyasha and Rurouni Kenshin. In the same year, Tokyopop established their London office and began distributing graphic novels to UK bookstores – mainly Waterstones, where Tokyopop graphic novels had a permanent ‘3 for 2’ deal going for a very long time. (Needless to say, I bought excessive amounts of whatever I could lay my hands on). Tokyopop’s slogan was “Leading the UK manga revolution!”, and they organised some of the first cons that I ever went to, also held at Waterstones.

Once initiated into the world of anime and manga, I took the logical next step for any teenage weeaboo and invented my own story which was a complete hodge-podge of my favourite series, set in a pseudo-Japan full of random unexplained martial artists and samurai, starring a cast replete with Japanese-style names and weird eye and hair colours. I started attempting to draw my characters in what I thought was an “anime” style. I was convinced that I could become a Famous Manga-Ka™ with this series and take the world by storm, never mind that the comic never got beyond one page. X3 And it was an awful page, at that.

But many other artists out there, more serious and dedicated than I ever was, have channelled their interests in Japanese culture and Japanese-style art into producing fully-fledged printed comics, three of which I have selected to review here today. So, shall we?

 

 

Cover image for Yakage Force Chapter One, featuring the mysterious girl

Elemental Battle Stations! – Yakage Force Chapter 1 by Jahvin Baxter

I picked this comic up while I was at London Gaming Con the other weekend, and read it a couple of times in between panels. Overall, I think it has the potential to be an interesting story, but just from reading this first chapter (the only one printed so far), it’s hard for me to see where the plot is going. There is no official introduction to the world of Yakage Force; instead the comic drops you smack bang in the middle of its action and leaves you to figure out who’s who and what the hell is going on. Now, I’m a big fan of stories that can work in exposition more subtly, but in this case I think some more information would make for a much less bewildering read.

From what I can gather, we are in a world where the characters we’ve seen so far are all trained to fight with elemental powers. But we don’t  know whether they are special or normal in this regard, why they need to learn to fight, or what their origins and end goals are. The characters  thus far are two brothers, Adam and “No1”; their father, Isamu Yakage; and a mysterious woman who shows up with the intent to destroy  Isamu and his base. The action of the chapter is almost entirely composed of fight scenes from start to finish: first a sparring match between  No1 and Adam, and then a fight between the two brothers and the woman. However, I have a feeling the action may slow down a little in the  next chapter, and hopefully there’ll be some much-needed exposition as well.

Art-wise, the comic is generally well-drawn and carries off the fast-paced drama of the fight scenes without much of a problem. The colours were also really nice when they came along, although I was at a loss as to why the comic started off in black and white and then abruptly transitioned into colour. I happen to know that this is carried over from the original webcomic, though I don’t know why. But if you’re going to print your work, why not take the time to redo the first eight pages in colour? It would majorly improve the appearance and consistency of the whole comic, and when you’re an independent comics creator working for yourself with no deadlines, there’s nothing to stop you from making your work look as good as it can be.

The comic used a variety of panel shapes and sizes, which again helped carry off the pacing of the fight scenes and gave it an interesting look. But there were a lot of instances of confusing panelling where panels seemed to read in the wrong order, or characters interacted with each other as if they were in the same panel when in fact they weren’t. I think traditional round speech bubbles would also have looked better than the awkwardly straight-edged ones used, and I would recommend using a different font for dialogue to (what appears to be) Comic Sans.

The comic clearly borrows heavily from Japanese manga in its visual style, which in itself is not a bad thing. However, it reminds me of my own would-be manga series, and many other similar ideas thought up by manga fans, where everything is Japan-ified without any decent explanation for it. In other words, it’s done because the creator thinks Japan is cool and wants to give their characters Japanese names and have them using random Japanese words, but doesn’t think to provide readers with any sort of logical explanation for this phenomenon. Is Yakage Force supposed to be set in Japan? We don’t know, but to be fair, the setting is quite a minor thing at the bottom of a list of things we have no idea about. If I buy the next chapter of this comic, it will most likely be in the hopes of alleviating my confusion.

 

Visit the Yakage Force website and read the webcomic

Buy Chapter One online

Check out the YFStudio Tumblr

 

 

Cover image for the comic 'Japanofail!', featuring a short humorous comic strip我々はオタクです~!* – Japanofail! Volume 1 by Ushio

Japanofail! is not just a comic that uses a Japan-esque style, but one which satirises more or less everything in the West that borrows from Japanese culture, from cosplays to manga to con-goers and all things in between. I also picked this one up at London Gaming Con, and I wish I could have bought another volume or two, but I was too busy systematically purchasing the entirety of Ushio’s Beholder of the Eye series (which will also get its own review here in the not-too-distant future – watch this space!).

Japanofail! is a short but funny collection of 4-panel gag strips which poke fun at things like idiot anime fans, manga tropes and clichés, tentacle porn, the eternal left-right vs. right-left debate, and so on, as well a few things out of geek culture which have nothing to do with Japan. It’s a perfect antidote to comics like the ones I mentioned in my previous review, and any jaded ex-anime fanatic will find plenty to laugh at, as will anyone who’s still a fan of J-culture and has a good sense of humour. Even someone who’s only had a passing encounter with a few self-styled “otaku” at cons will be able to get most of the jokes.

The art style is simplistic to the extreme, along the lines of ten-second doodles, but it does the job and the words and presentation carry off the rest. Although the front cover carries the warning “FOR MATURE READERS ONLY!”, the slight nudity and violence found within is so simplified that I doubt it would offend anyone above the age of twelve; but better to be safe than sorry. Again I think that the look of the comic would benefit from a more “classic” comic font rather than using the defaults that come with the computer; you can download many classic comic fonts such as this one - which happens to be called ‘Anime Ace’ - for free from Blambot and other similar sites. The font also sometimes changes between serif and sans-serif for no apparent reason, but in other places different fonts are used to good effect, and I only spotted one typo throughout the entire volume. :3 Overall, a really funny book well worth spending a couple of quid on, and you can be sure I’ll help myself to a few more volumes next time I run into Ushio at a con.

 

Buy Japanofail! and other comics at Ushio’s shop

Read Ushio’s blog and stalk him to cons keep up-to-date with news

 

 

Cover image for the comic 'Gashapon Adventure!', featuring our nameless heroCapsule Power! – Gashapon Adventure!  Volume 1 by Sephryn Grey

Gashapon Adventure! is one of the first few indie comics that I found and bought on the internet as opposed to at a con. I came across it in the online store belonging to Non Repro, a group of UK indie manga artists whose advert I saw in the back of one of my Beholder of the Eye comics. They’re a fantastic discovery for anyone who likes indie comics, manga or supporting independent artists (or all of the above) and they have various different comics to their name, as well as a few craft items and a magazine which features short manga-style stories and articles on Japanese culture – but more about Non Repro magazine in a future review.

I have to admit, I bought Gashapon Adventure! as sort of a throwaway purchase, because it was cheap and I was already getting 20% off thanks to Non Repro’s post-MCM Expo discount, so I thought, ‘Might as  well see what this is like; maybe I can include it in a review based around manga-style indie comics.’ The shop description didn’t give much of a clue as to what the comic was about, so I really had no idea what I was buying. But for a throwaway purchase, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the comic. The idea is interesting and quite different, the art is drawn well and nicely shaded, and it was lettered nicely in a fitting font with only one spelling mistake :) What more could you ask for, right?

But the one big problem is that the comic, or at least this first instalment of it, is incredibly short. Only eight pages long, in fact, and the last one of those isn’t even double-sided. There’s so little to it plot-wise that I’m afraid of spoiling the whole thing if I attempt to summarise it here, but I’ll do my best.

The comic focuses on the adventures of… actually, I’m not even sure what the name of our hero is supposed to be, since none of the characters address him by it; I want to call him ‘Gashapon’, but apparently Gashapon is the name of the world he comes from, the range of capsule toys he belongs to, so… Yeah, he’s an inch-and-a-half-high capsule toy, which is in itself interesting. The only other comic I can think of where this idea has been touched upon is with Capsule Monsters in Yu-gi-oh!, but those weren’t really sentient. It is explained that each of the Gashapon capsule toys was designed by a mad creator “with a spark of the divine” and is forced to fulfil his or her destiny according to “The Story”. We don’t know what the ‘story’ is, but so far, it all sounds pretty original and interesting. And the hero of the comic also happens to be the hero of The Story, naturally. His destiny is revealed to be to defeat evil monsters, starting with “the most evil and gloopy fiend known to Gashapon-kind”, who turns out to be ridiculously easy to defeat, given that… it’s not even shown? Seriously, it took me until about the third re-reading to figure out that he’d been killed, because the act of killing him wasn’t shown at all. I really don’t get that.

Which I suppose brings me to my other point of contention with the comic: it would benefit from being more serious, because at the moment it comes off as trying a little too hard to be funny, and loses some of its impact in the process. The comic is almost all drawn in a simplified ‘chibi’ style, which is fine and makes perfect sense because the main characters are little capsule creatures. It also includes all the exaggerated humorous quirks typical to Japanese comics – vein pops, sweatdrops, speed and focus lines, over-dramatic gestures, smoke and sparkles, tear fountains – almost as if the artist has gone out of her way to include them all. And of course we have our blunt and sarcastic hero, viewed as an idiot by the other characters, who gives them silly nicknames and whose stomach is his constant primary concern. He’s certainly not breaking any new ground in terms of manga heroes, but that’s not my real problem. The inclusion of so many stereotypes wouldn’t bother me so much except that it feels as if some of them were forced in there for the sake of humour. I’m probably taking what is a very short and light-hearted comic much more seriously than the creator intended, but that’s my point – I think the story has the potential to be really great if its creator can only let up on the gags for a while and give the plot a chance to develop more seriously.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a second instalment is at all forthcoming anyway. The inside front cover reads, “This first issue was originally created in 2009 and published online. More will come. One day.” which doesn’t exactly reek of the artist’s enthusiasm to continue the project. X3 Again, I think this is a shame because I would really like to see where the story goes from this point. I’d hate to see a good idea go to waste. Maybe if I can drum up enough interest from this blog, Sephryn might be inspired to continue it…? :’D

 

Check out Non Repro’s Etsy (The 20% discount is still good until January 1st!)

Or follow their blog

Follow Sephryn Grey on Twitter

 

 

enchantedsleeper is a writer from England and the head of Catalytic Productions comic studio. She really needs to stop posting reviews at 2am and hopes no-one will mind that they’re getting longer and more rambling every time she posts.

*I don’t actually speak Japanese, but this is supposed to say “We are otaku!” Blame Google Translate if it’s wrong. CX

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The Spoils of MCM Expo: ‘Filmish’ and ‘Cute & Silly Fun’

November 29th, 2011

The Spoils of MCM Expo: Filmish and Cute & Silly Fun!

 

Hey everyone! enchantedsleeper here again. I have returned to the interblogs with a new feature that I hope will become a regular for me: indie/small-press comics reviews.

After attending the latest biannual* London MCM Expo (MCM stands for Movies, Comics & Media) at the end of October, I got to thinking about how many awesome but little-known indie comics there are out there and whether anyone on the internet has committed themselves to reviewing them. I had a little Google and it doesn’t seem they have, so here I am!

Now before I begin, I’m not limiting myself entirely to indie, self-published, or small press comics (hereafter and in all future reviews referred to collectively as “indie comics” for the sake of simplicity). It would be hard to know exactly where to draw the line on that one. So if I come across a comic that I think is worth reviewing which no-one else seems to have reviewed much, regardless of who it’s published by, then I’ll cover it. The aim of the game here is basically just to bring interesting and unknown comics to people’s attention. I’m equally open to doing webcomic reviews or reviews of comics in any other format you can think of. (Though as far as I’m aware, paper and digital are the only ones so far xD) Where I do review comics that have been physically printed, I will make sure that I include a link as to where you can buy them and support the creators yourselves.

To begin with I’ll be focusing mostly on indie comics by UK creators, because I live in England and so those are the comics that I wind up buying at conventions. I’m not trying to be selective, I’m just limited by my location. X3 Though I do believe that UK comics need bringing to people’s attention more than say, comics from the US, where the cons are much bigger and there are a lot more readers to begin with! But anyway, I’ll try to be varied in my selection, and I’ve got some comics from elsewhere in Europe which I’ll take for a whirl later on.

 

To business, then: two reviews of books that I bought at the latest MCM Expo.

 

Cover image of the comic 'Filmish'Move Over Scott McCloud! – Filmish by Edward Ross

As someone who has very recently taken up film studies (specifically, East Asian film) as a module in her course, I was delighted to find this little booklet at a stand in Artists’ Alley. Edward Ross has actually done three comic books of this sort, but I only had enough money on me to buy the one.

If you’ve ever heard of Scott McCloud (and if you haven’t, YOU NEED TO NOW), then Filmish will seem like very familiar territory to you. The booklets all contain essays on film theory told through the medium of comics. For those of you who haven’t heard of Scott McCloud, he’s a very clever guy who does the same thing but with comics theory instead of film theory. See ‘Further Reading’ for the books that he’s published.

Comics and film have quite a bit in common when it comes down to it, so I really enjoyed seeing the two media brought together in this way. The first volume of Filmish (subtitled “Comic Book Essays on Film Theory” contains three mini-essays, on Monsters, Point of View and Food respectively. Each is only a few pages long, but it’s enough to give you a general introduction to the topic followed by plenty of suggestions for further watching and reading. The art is really fun and creative: a comic-ised Edward Ross journeys through the world of film being terrorised by cinematic monsters (and at times becoming them himself), putting on masks, drowning in a sea of food, vanishing and being distorted, turning into a chicken and a Bond villain; all whilst narrating the key points of his essay. The writing is intellectual without being inaccessible, and whilst the comics are more suited to a beginner than an expert, I think almost anyone can learn something from them.

My personal favourite essay was the one on Point of View, especially for the way it confronts common film stereotypes such as the objectified female “prize” and ethnic minority villain, and the way in which films often force us to identify with a hero who is white, male and heterosexual even if we as a viewer fit none of those categories. Of course, this is significantly less the case today than it was in the past, but it’s amazing how often characters are still pigeonholed into stereotypes by mainstream film without us being aware of it. This essay is also the longest and most developed, at fourteen pages in length versus four for the other two, allowing for a slightly more in-depth exploration of the topic.

If I were to make one main criticism of Filmish, it would simply be that it is very short, and at times seems as if it is fighting to remain that way. The essays tend to wrap up very abruptly, and some speech bubbles have a lot crammed into them, with page references and citations squashed in around the ends and edges. It’s as if Ross is afraid of losing our attention if he goes on beyond a set number of pages; but maybe there were just printing constraints. Overall, I think the booklet’s conciseness works well for it, and it makes a great lead-in to further study of the topics covered as well as a pretty unusual source to quote in the bibliography of an essay!

 

Visit Edward Ross’s shop here

Or read his blog

 

Cover image of 'Cute and Silly Fun'All the Cutes! – Moo & Keo in Cute & Silly Fun, by Matt Dyson

MCM Expo was actually not my first encounter with Moo & Keo or their creator Matt Dyson, whom I first encountered at the UK Web and Mini Comics Thing back in 2009, but when chatting to him at his stand I learned that he has recently republished the first two Moo & Keo books into one extra-shiny volume, under the new title of Cute & Silly Fun, which is now available to purchase online at Orang Utan Comics. (See the link at the end of this article).

Cute & Silly Fun really sums up well what Moo and Keo are about, and why I love them and their adventures. It doesn’t pretend to be some great commentary on life and the universe, or indeed anything except some silly, cute and funny tales starring a collection of characters with big heads, massive eyes and no bodies. Some of them look like animals (Moo, one of the two titular characters, is actually a cow) and some look like people, but all of them have jobs, lives and ridiculous escapades involving stowaway lion cubs, Segway races and plant-destroying ninja clans.

To give you a bit of background, Moo & Keo is the brainchild of best friends Matt and Moonica, born from discussions and doodles one day when they were bored, which later evolved into a “gag-a-day” style webcomic. (I say “style” because the webcomic has in fact never published more frequently than three times in one month, but the format of stand-alone gag comics is still there). This style is still evident in the printed comics, which now feature larger storylines of roughly 30 strips each, but on each page you still get a mini comic that can be enjoyed by itself, with its own title and a caption at the side to replace the mouseover text. Only two of the storylines, Moo & Keo in South Africa and Moo & Keo 9 to 5 have been printed as of yet, but a third entitled Moo & Keo Market Garden can be found online, along with the original 75 “gag a day” strips. You can see that the art and presentation has come a long way since the comic began! I always enjoy being able to see the artistic progression of a comics creator, because it reminds me that there is still hope for the rest of us. xD

The main criticism I will make of the Moo & Keo comics are the mistakes that jump out at me from the pages as I peruse the otherwise delightful stories. There are quite a few typos, punctuation issues and general slip-ups which could easily have been avoided with some more careful proofreading and an extra pair of eyes. Most readers probably aren’t bothered by it, but as someone who cares a lot about spelling and punctuation, it gets at me, and I feel that if you’re going to put your work out there on the published market – even if it’s through self-publishing – you should make sure that it is the best it can possibly be. (As an aside, this is a general hang-up I have about a lot of self-published work, both prose and comics). The same mistakes are evident in the webcomic as in the printed version, so it seems that none of them were picked up even when the comics went to print. Matt, might I tactfully suggest that you hire an editor? X3

Aside from that nag, though, I don’t have any complaints to make. As a self-confessed “fluffy bunny” who loves all things cute and silly, I’m a great fan of this comic and I can’t wait to see the next volume published. For those of you who tend towards the darker side of things, heavy-handed existentialist philosophy, epic world-spanning sagas or anything like that, then obviously this might not be up your street, but you can’t complain that you didn’t know what you were getting into from the title.

 

Buy Cute and Silly Fun at Orang Utan Comics

Or visit their site



Further Reading

Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

London MCM Expo

UK Web and Mini Comix Thing (sadly, this con no longer takes place)

 

 

enchantedsleeper is a writer from England and head of Catalytic Productions comic studio. She likes to write online articles about stuff she’s interested in and pretend people will actually read them. She is currently writing this in between late-night laundry trips under the influence of far too little sleep.

 

*Fun fact: ‘Biannual’ actually means ‘twice a year’, not ‘once every two years’! That’s biennial.

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Holidays, Comics, and Creativity

October 30th, 2011

Hello ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls of all ages! My name is Emily Grace and I’m an editor over at Catalytic Productions.  I’m also a writer on the side in my free time, and an avid blogger, so I’ve decided to undertake the almighty task of putting something in this space for you to look at while we’re still working on getting some other content to amuse and delight you with.

 

… is it working yet?  Are you amused and delighted with my witty banter?

 

Yeah, I know, its neither amusing nor delightful.  But the following will be!  This week, I’m going to delve into the wonderful world of how holidays are portrayed in comics.  With Halloween looming and the potential to see your favorite 2-D  characters in strange, hilarious, or smokin’ HOT costumes, I figure it’s an interesting topic to dissect.

 

Comic books have a long and involved history of holiday specials.  Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, The Fourth of July, New Year’s, Easter, Valentine’s Day, etc, etc, etc … they’ve all been featured in a comic at one time or another, and we’ve come to expect it.  We like seeing our favorite characters celebrating the same way we do, right?  It makes them easier to relate to and it helps us immerse ourselves further in the world.  Writers follow these trends for one main reason:

 

Holidays are the money-makers.

 

And that’s okay.  Holidays are ingrained in Western society and it shows in more than a few artistic mediums.  They’re familiar, comfortable, and easy to plan for and make realistic.  Similarly, Japanese festivals and traditions are commonly found in manga, like the cherry blossom festivals and the like.  Even in fantasy-based comics and works, we generally see some sort of similar festival or celebration that reminds us of our mom’s turkey stuffing, grandma’s fruitcake, or the smell of awkward “You’re A Good Friend” cards given anonymously to everybody who was willing to let you within a ten foot radius of their desk in grade school.

 

This is where the awesome “Creativity” thing comes in.  Fantasy-based comics and art mediums tend to be broken down into a few basic categories for how they work Western-Traditional holidays into the plot.

 

[ 1 ]  Direct and blatant “This Culture Celebrates (Insert Holiday Here)”

[ 2 ]  More subtle re-naming of holidays

[ 3 ]  Utilizing other cultures’ or historical societies’ religious systems to set up holidays

[ 4 ]  Make up their own thing with whatever names and reasons they want

 

I favor [ 4 ] myself, when I’m getting into the nitty-gritty details about a world that’s all my own.  I’ve played around with using Ancient Grecian festivals, Egyptian ritual cycles, and even Norse traditions, but nothing satisfies me more than taking a civilization that I’ve created from scratch and when the time comes to have some sort of obligatory celebration, making up whatever I feel like as the reasoning behind it.

 

Now, I pose the question to you.  What do you do when it comes to holidays, celebrations, festivals and what-have-yous in your preferred style of presentation?  Leave us a comment and let us know!

 

Yours,

Emily Grace

(I apologize, by the way, for any odd formatting you might notice.  I’m a Blogger.com girl so WordPress is sort of an alien to me.  I’ll figure it out soon though, I promise!)

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Is Gaia Good For Comics?

September 23rd, 2011

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the first entry for the Catalytic Productions blog :)

I figured I’d start off with something that’s basic and close to home. You probably know, or have deduced, that Catalytic is a Gaia-based studio. We were founded and are based in the Comic Creators forum on Gaia, all our members are Gaians, we have a Gaia guild, one of our comics is being printed in a Gaian magazine… You get the idea. We’re by no means whatsoever the only comic studio to come out of Gaia, but we do seem to be the only one still hanging around. And besides (wannabe) comic studios, Gaia also has tons of aspiring individual artists and a few writer-and-artist collaborative teams who post threads in the CC, looking for advice or showing their work. So I decided to have a look at whether Gaia is actually good for comics.

Let’s start with my home-from-home on Gaia, the Comic Creators forum; a very special place indeed. If you’re after brutally honest, no-punches-pulled criticism on your comic, look no further than the CC and its regulars. Just be warned that you may not like what they say about your work. X3 The CC regulars vary from the more polite and reasonable sort to outright trolls whose favourite hobby is to gather in threads created by obvious noobs with clichéd ideas and bad grammar, and verbally slaughter them and everything they hold dear. Some have been known to bring in a fanclub of their own mule accounts to back themselves up. Thankfully that particular kind of dickish behaviour is less common than it used to be, and most of the people who hand out blunt critiques are just being helpful. CC regulars tend to defend their harshness by saying that it prepares people for the reality of the professional comics world. Fair enough, except that most Gaians who post in the CC aren’t aspiring professionals or even that serious about comics; they just wanted to make something and have people like it and tell them their art is pretty. Maybe they could develop a more serious attitude towards comics over time, but not if they’re put right off it from the get-go thanks to a verbal gang-bang from a group of frustrated, nihilistic, bored comic ‘experts’ who think that having anonymity and nothing better to do gives them the right to bully other members of an online hangout for teens.

But maybe the problem is that the average age and maturity of your typical Gaian is too low. Let’s face it, how many people here were making good and lasting career decisions at the age of thirteen? Or sixteen? How many of you had ground-breakingly original ideas or the commitment to see a project that you started on whim through to its conclusion? (No offence to anyone here who is thirteen or sixteen. In a few years you’ll probably look back and facepalm too). So with that in mind, how likely is it that brilliant comics-making will flourish in a forum populated by users of that age? Then there’s the issue of anime and manga. Gaia is at its heart an anime and manga-based site, and the description of the CC forum itself begins with, “Making a manga?” This is just asking to attract the sort of enthusiastic animu fans who think that emulating every aspect of their favourite manga is good comics practice, that all good comics should read right-to-left regardless of what language they’re written in, and that “manga” and “comics” are different things. (They’re actually not. One is just a Japanese word, the other English). Again, stellar comics-making doesn’t really flourish in that environment either. I do think that a love of anime and manga is getting a lot of people interested in comics who otherwise wouldn’t have been, and that’s great. But so many of its fans, the would-be famous ‘manga-ka’, who post in the CC just make me shake my head in despair.

Anyway, I digress. There are circumstances under which I think Gaia can be good for comics: if you have some idea of what you’re doing, if you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, if you’re committed to seeing your project through, and above all if you know how to take criticism and setbacks. Because then Gaia can become a really excellent tool. Like I said, the CC is full of users who will give you honest feedback on your project as long as you can take it without having a toddler tantrum. (You’d be amazed how few people can do that). If it’s an audience you want, Gaia gets seven million visitors to its site every month – though if you just want to plug your comic rather than get critiques on it, go to the Promotions subforum and not the CC. You can get some exposure too by submitting to the Comics section of Arenas. If you’re looking to collaborate on a comics project, you’ll find writers and artists in the CC who want to do the same, and if you’re setting up a comics studio, Gaia Guilds is really well-geared towards creating that kind of thing. (Keeping it alive is another matter – but the pros and cons of online comic studios would fill an entire blog entry by itself, so I won’t go there now). In fact, considering it’s just a forums site – albeit the biggest on the ‘net – Gaia has a surprising amount of resources for comicking if you know where to look. You just have to avoid the oh-so-common pitfalls of giving up, refusing to take criticism, and not doing your homework (which covers most things from researching your medium and practicing artwork to reading the stickies before you post in a forum. Please, please always read the stickies).

So yeah, I think that Gaia can be good for comics, and if you’re a Gaia user who wants to create one, you definitely shouldn’t pass up the great resource you have at your disposal. It’s no deviantART or SmackJeeves forum, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it.

 

Links to some useful Gaia comics resources:

Comic Creators (subforum)

Promotions (subforum)

Comics Arena

So You Wanna Become a Comic Artist! (guild)

(This guild is sadly no longer active, but worth checking out still for the wealth of useful threads, resources and tutorials archived inside).

Printing, Hosting and Financing for Independent Comikers (thread)

-0 [NEGATIVE ZERO] (guild)

One “don’t do” for newbie creators (thread)

 

(It has come to my attention whilst researching resources for this list that there are almost no good comics-based guilds still alive and active at the moment. Fancy making one? Do it!!)

 


enchantedsleeper is a rogue English writer who has been bumming around on Gaia for longer than she cares to admit. She likes to write online articles about stuff she’s interested in and pretend people will actually read them. Whether or not she has a life beyond cyberspace is still in question.

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