Map of My Heart

By John Porcellino

Published by Drawn & Quarterly

It is the simple pleasures of life that John Porcellino celebrates in his beloved and influential zine, “King-Cat Comics & Stories.” Porcellino shares with us the most simple and basic pleasures which ultimately leads to sharing the joy of being alive. There is a life struggle too, and Porcellino shares his with you, his heart being broken, his illnesses, but he keeps coming back to the joie de vivre.

“Map of My Heart” is the latest collection of “King-Cat” and covers 1996 through 2002. These are the years that Generation X comes of age. And while a case can be made that John Porcellino is a voice for his generation, he is actually much more than that. He is himself. He’s what all of us from Generation X were suppose to be: authentic. It helps if you believe in something. John Porcellino finds inspiration in Zen Buddhism and it looks like it helps to inform and guide his comics. He often will draw something from his studies like his references to the Zen-Monk poet, Ryokan. He’ll also find inspiration from the Marx Brothers and the Beach Boys. Whatever it might be, he seems to know how to tap into the good stuff.

For example, “Psalm,” is a magical meditation on being in the moment. Porcellino goes out for a walk at night. He lets his cat, Maisie Kukoc, know he’s leaving. He wanders through the neighborhood. When he returns, he sees Kukoc through the window and she might be asleep. The stars inspire Porcellino to stay outside. On the porch, he can hear the living ground beneath his feet. He tunes in to the sounds of worms, “click, click, click.” And the sounds of bugs, “zha, zha, zha.” All is well and good.

Porcellino has a simple and direct drawing style that fits in so well with his clear-eyed vision. It is just one of those things, along with the letters from readers, his extended written narratives, the top forty lists, the research on bugs and animals, all of this you can’t fake. So, brother and sister, enjoy. You too will be moved by something in this book whether it is a discussion on football plays, pill bugs, root hogs or Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” suddenly tuned in on the car radio.

Something will get to you. Maybe it will be the comics essay, “Forgiveness,” which is about Porcellino as a boy from Chicago visiting his aunt down in Prairie City. He’s out of his element but is anchored by the family dog, Duchie, and a new gift, a slingshot. He promises he won’t get into trouble with the slingshot but how can he predict what may happen? Another intriguing comic is “Suburban Dreams,” which finds a man kneeling in front of a television. On the screen is the image of a beautiful woman who stares back at him and sort of sighs. He dreams. She dreams. They may find themselves together at least in a dream.

Among Porcellino’s many celebrations  of life is quite a list of movies, books, music and special moments. You’ll find Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life,” Frank Sinatra’s “Ring a Ding Ding” and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.” Here’s one talking about my generation, #9 from Top Forty, Summer 2001:

“Our Band Could Be Your Life” by Michael Azerrad (Little Brown) Yes, it’s a book about Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Replacements, etc. etc. In other words: my formative years! Worth it for the Minutemen chapter alone. Also: Butthole Surfers, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, lots more. America’s last great blast of post/pre-corporate rock.

Those top forty lists are about the fun stuff, with a big nod to humanity and authenticity. It is stuff that inspires you to want to share with someone else for whatever reason is peculiar to your own private world view.

So, on one level, John Porcellino is saying he’s just another human being doing his best to live his life. He has his own life struggle, like we all do, and he has his assorted interests and passions, like we all do. He also happens to be someone who does something very special and makes it all look easy. However, much care has gone into it and is not easily emulated.  ”Map of My Heart,” the latest collection of “King-Cat,” from one of the nicest guys you’ll ever know.

Visit Drawn & Quarterly, the awesome publisher of “Map of My Heart,” and buy yourself a copy today.

One gentle book that you may have missed, but should not, is John Porcellino’s Thoreau at Walden, a beautiful hardcover published by Hyperion. It’s a wonderful introduction to Thoreau for any reader. Thankfully, John Porcellino, in connection with The Center For Cartoon Studies, leads the way. This certainly is not your standard graphic novel meets the classics outing. Instead, it’s a meeting of genuine kindred spirits.

Most people live lives of quiet desperation.

If we don’t keep pace with our companions, perhaps it is because we march to the beat of a different drummer.

These words are ingrained in us and as true today as when they were first presented to the world by Henry David Thoreau in 1849 in the landmark of American literature, Walden.

Never hitting a false note, cartoonist John Porcellino, known for his own landmark in comics, King-Cat Comics and Stories, shares with us his interpretation of what it may have felt like to be in a little log cabin out in the wilderness. This brings to mind the film, Into The Wild, and another young man with the world at his feet with a compulsion to throw himself to the mercy of raw nature. However, this extreme reaction to civilization was never Thoreau’s intention.

Instead, his plan was to live in a cabin, not too far from town, as an experiment in self-reliance. He wasn’t courting anything extreme. His goal was to simply live within his means. He grew his own food and did a few odd jobs. He visited friends and they visited him. The rest of the time, he studied, wrote and communed with nature. All this sounds sort of like a page out of John Porcellino’s life. His drawings clearly resonate with a similar outlook on things. That common desire to come up against the elements is tempered with gentle contemplation, a hallmark of Porcellino’s own observations, and the only constructive way to go when it’s just you and the woods.

If you stay in one place long enough, you will see and be part of everything. Out there in the wild, what matters are the quiet moments like how the sun light plays throughout the day or how the owl reacts to your movements or how the friendly mouse will wiggle its way through your clothes to reach that piece of cheddar you hold out to it. It’s a pleasure to see how Porcellino depicts that play of light, the owl’s reactions and the mouse’s journey.

Porcellino is careful to distill what happened at Walden Pond. In a most natural way, Porcellino becomes Thoreau and Thoreau becomes Porcellino. Both of them come together to invite you to join in: no need to crash into nature; just learn to simplify. Porcellino does a great job of keeping that message clear, simple and accessible. He also does a thorough job of annotating his use of text from Walden which helps to encourage further reading.

This book is a great companion to the more recent book by Porcellino, Map of My Heart, which I will explore with you next time.

Beardo

Written & Drawn by Dan Dougherty

Published by Better On Paper Comics

Comic strips, are a “funny” thing. You know a good one when you read it. I’m just thinking of humor strips but this could apply elsewhere too. The “joke” itself, while important, may not be the most important part. Only one thing can not falter, no matter what, and that is the main character. If he or she or it is not somehow “funny” then the comic strip stinks. Beardo does not stink. No, far from it. This is a comic strip worthy of your attention with a solid track record. The latest batch of Beardo comic strips, in full color, have just been released as a trade and it inspired me to spread the word.

Now, think of Richard Pryor on stage, deep in the comedy zone. He could have said anything and you’d laugh. You know you would. Well, that’s sort of what it’s like with this character, Beardo. He is by no means Richard Pryor. I’m not saying that. I’m basically saying that this is character-driven comedy. Say, like all the oddball stuff that happened between Basil and Manuel in the classic British sitcom, Fawlty Towers. Or, better yet, think of Kevin Smith’s world of Clerks. This comic strip is very much about raging and aging youth stuck working in retail hell. Yeah, that’s more like it.

It’s all about characters and execution. This is a very stylish comic strip. Dougherty provides just the right amount of lines and curves and, bam, you’ve got sharp, distinct characters. Very spare and neat. They just need little circles for eyes ala Little Orphan Annie. And, then, just the right lines to refer to perspective and decor and, bam, you’ve got a lean and clean environment for all the madcap hijinks, or in this case, madap wry humor.

Beardo is a down on his luck barista. He has aspirations of being a successful cartoonist and musician. In his late twenties, he’s starting to wonder where his life is headed. In one scene he has a nightmare where he’s in a boxing ring with a giant cup of coffee. He thinks this will be the last round but the coffee cup thinks he isn’t going to ever leave. If that wasn’t sad enough, Beardo is not exactly having a nightmare but is daydreaming with a cup of coffee in his hand while his coworkers look at him in dismay. It’s a funny scene, not laugh-out-loud funny but character-driven funny which can often be even more satisfying.

For those familiar with Dan Dougherty’s remarkable drawing skills, picking up the just released second collection of Beardo will be a treat. He is the artist for the zombie Western comic book series, Rotten, published by Moonstone. In Rotten, Dougherty can spread his wings and include intricate detail, everything from precise facial expressions to architectural renderings. In Beardo, he needs to condense his art to the needs of a comic strip. And it works quite well. His lean line work shines in both arenas.

What makes one comic strip funny and another one a dud? Some of it is in the eye of the beholder. But most of it depends on the conscientious effort of the creator. Breaking into comics in any big way is highly competitive so that’s one burden. And then the very nature of comics, coming out day after day, means there will be hits and misses. Dan Dougherty is pretty good about maintaining the quality to his comic strip. Some are funnier than others but, through it all, the main character, Beardo, the barsita who dreams of making it as an artist, carries on consistently. No, it’s not an easy task to produce a worthwhile comic strip. Anyone can create something on a daily basis but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be worthwhile. Beardo delivers and that’s saying a lot.

Keep a steady eye on one page or another from Stitches and you can feel the urgency and sincerity. For example: David is six and he is lying on the floor with his paper and crayons before him. He’s in his element, his world. He’s already feeling uncertain about his home life. In that moment, he has his crayons and he knows how to draw better than any other kid on the block.

David Small gathers up critical details along with the lighter ones as he pursues his own Rememberance of Things Past. He is documenting as well as exploring. He is going as deep as he can go for things to make sense to him. In the process, random moments in time find their proper place in the story: his mother’s secret language; his sliding in his socks across a hospital’s slick floor; his Alice in Wonderland make-believe world; his recognition that a mysterious friend of the family brings out something unusual in his mother. In this way of recalling the past, Stitches is most like Maus and Persepolis, the only two graphic novels that most people outside of comics are aware of.

As Small states in an interview with Newsarama, he does not consider himself a writer, at least not a great writer. Well, it’s no easy hat trick to summon up the past and bring it to life in vivid detail. Even when it’s just drawings we see, Small often creates bits of poetry. It’s nice that he does not take himself too seriously. Considering the content, it requires a sure and steady hand not to have it overwhelm the creator. This is a story about how Small discovered, at age eleven, a growth in his throat and his parents, who had the money, chose to wait three years before removing it. The neglect and misjudgment does not stop there. Small gives us a clear picture without his self-pity or any sense of revenge.

It’s hard to come out and call Stitches “groundbreaking” when you consider all the other exemplary works in comics. The last two columns of Comics Grinder alone provide excellent examples: The Squirrel Machine and The Winter Men. But, the fact is that Stitches is an exceptional book and it can be called groundbreaking in certain aspects. Placed alongside Maus and Persepolis, Stitches provides the general reader with a great leap forward in lyrical, expressive and beautiful drawing to be found in a “graphic novel,” something that Maus and Persepolis are not geared toward and is outside the scope of either book’s ambitions. Yes, at the end of the day, drawing counts for quite a lot.

Stitches is on many a critic’s short list for best comics of the year. It also holds the distinction of being only the second graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. The first was in 2006 for Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese. So, it’s good to have Stitches in the spotlight offering a strong story along with strong art and that’s a groundbreaking step for comics in the eyes of a mass readership. And for those of us with more discerning eyes, I still believe that Stitches holds its own among the best books out there.

For more information on David Small and Stitches, visit the David Small Web site. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again. Until then, stop by Comics Grinder for any other musings.

“The Winter Men” is a patchwork quilt of observations and red herrings that takes the spy thriller to new heights of eccentric fun. It’s one of those stories that starts out about being one thing and ends up embracing everything. Meet Kris Kalenov, the main character in “The Winter Men,” he is your guide into the underworld and beyond. It’s a new world order since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Kalenov is no longer a star player in a Soviet secret weapons program. He has become a Moscow cop, usually full of vodka and, at the start of this tale, is keeled over drunk on a sidewalk covered in snow.

I did not discover “The Winter Men” when it was a comic book but, considering its production delays, including its switchover from Vertigo to Wildstorm, it’s understandable that it somehow slipped by me. Luckily, I did not have to experience any long waits between issues and got to read this new collected trade in one sitting. This is a good read anytime and anywhere but I also see it as perfect inflight reading. Aren’t spy thrillers very popular in airport bookstores? I believe this to be so. It’s because you’re out of your element and open to adventure.

One big thing about “The Winter Men” is that it gets you way out of your element. It’s like “Goodfellas,” one of the best movies about gang life, all about wiseguys and getting whacked. “The Winter Men,” is all about Russia’s new Mafiya and its biznessmen and getting under the right roof. There’s also something akin to “Watchmen” going on in the background, a uber-man that was once the pride of Mother Russia, but it’s Kalenov and his rough and shady bunch, that will have you delight over this convoluted plot as you would in, say, an Elmore Leonard novel.

“The Winter Men” has a real attitude about it too. It promises the world, heroically keeps up with its ambition and, if it falters, shrugs like a good world-weary Russian. Kalenov, our drunk Moscow cop who once was so much more, would prefer to just live quietly and make do with his less than perfect marriage. But too much has happened in the past and it can’t be ignored. “We once filled the sky with heroes…but now they’ve fallen to earth…” That is an intriguing refrain that is looped throughout the book. Within the span of the first few pages: hints of the Soviet super-hero program, a woman is shot, a child is kidnapped and Kalenov is picked up from the snow and enlisted to solve the crime of the century, although he doesn’t know that yet.

All this reminds me of any number of very good television series that, from the narrative, the characters and the production value, are clearly a cut above. And these shows usually make big promises and it’s okay if they don’t deliver on all of them since it’s the world that the characters inhabit that’s most rewarding. I think of shows like, “Life on Mars,” at least the American version, or “Life” or “Dollhouse.” In fact, it’s interesting to consider if these shows would have done better in finding an audience if they were less about process and more about results but, then again, these shows are primarily about attitude. The promises they make, real or not, can be legitimate fuel for the story’s engine.

Another connection to “Watchmen,” I think, is the group of heroes that Kalenov originally belonged to. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the line-up is recalled by Kalenov in a regular loop throughout the book: Drost, the soldier; Nikki, the gangster; Nina, the bodyguard; Kalenov, the poet; for a total of four, or five, if you include The Siberian. There’s even a sepia toned photograph of the gang in much happier times: Nikki has just told a joke and it has The Siberian in stitches. Along with the irony, it’s those details, the atmosphere and texture that this book thrives on.

There are a couple of scenes that come to mind. And, like everything else here, the writer and artist team of Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon tackle it with gusto. One has Kalenov and Nikki creating a disturbance in a McDonald’s so that they can unbolt from the floor a plastic table and chairs console to take home. The employee desperately tries to convince an irate Kalenov that the mayonnaise does adhere to city regulations with “well above the forty percent fat requirement.” Another good one has Nikki in the middle of a full-on turf war with other soft drink vendors. Informing the mayhem and murder are quotes from a self-help best-seller like, “Lose Control to the Maximum.”

Perhaps your reading of “The Winter Men” will find it keeping to all its promises and even holding the answer to the meaning to life. God knows, it is certainly within its reach. If you find fault, some blame, maybe a good bit of it, can go to the fact the series was cut from a promised eight issues down to six. There are parts to the story that do appear truncated. And the ending does seem to come all too quickly. However, the fact remains that this comic is really about the quirk and it’s all there for you to enjoy.

“The Winter Men” collected trade releases on November 25.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of Comics Grinder and I welcome you back for more. You can always check in too at the Comics Grinder site.

Hans Rickheit’s “The Squirrel Machine,” published by Fantagraphics Books, is a beautiful 179 page hard cover graphic novel. It is an appropriate book to start out this new column since it sets the tone for the type of offbeat work that attracts me and I hope will interest you. The story involves two brothers who desire to build wondrous things but are destined to create monstrous gadgets made from animals.

Rickheit’s world of self-published works, notably the series, “Chrome Fetus Comics,” and the graphic novel, “Chloe,” follow the internal logic of dreams and do well by it. In “The Squirrel Machine,” a magical reality confronting a mundane reality leads to a lot of very real bumps and bruises. Edmund, for instance, may rely on a pair of goggles to filter out the world but does not fully realize how odd he looks to all the other schoolchildren, especially the bullies. It’s the turn of the last century, and while amazing technological advancements lie ahead, Edmund and his brother, William, are doomed to be grotesquely out of step.

The things that seem the most curious and promising may ultimately be the things best left alone. That is a line of reasoning Edmund and William refuse to follow. They are dreamers but do not know they are guided by nightmares. The Squirrel Machine, whatever it is, has its own needs and is certainly not going to tell these boys what’s good for them. Much is left to mystery in this book. We can let Rickheit’s exquisite drawings, with their ornate detail and patterning, speak for themselves. Down to separate panels, the art provides little gems of its own storytelling as in a notable scene of two lovers covered in snails.

“The Squirrel Machine” defies easy categorization, but I’d venture to say, “steampunk surrealism.” This is for mature readers as well as discriminating ones. And it’s also for those who love a good coming-of-age story. Edmund woos the local beauty by the most unconventional of means. William falls madly in love with the Pig Lady. Each will take a turn that will twist the fate of the other. The mundane won’t accept them and yet the magical is no more reliable. Very romantic and strange at the same time, like any good coming-of-age tale. Primarily, this is adult, dark and disturbing work provided to you in healthy doses.

You can purchase “The Squirrel Machine” from Fantagraphics Books and make sure to check out the marvelous Squirrel Machine site. You can find Comics Grinder here every Wednesday. And for further observations, you can always go to the Comics Grinder site.

Mark your calendars and set your time pieces. Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” arrives in theaters on March 5, 2010. The above image has just been released by Disney. Want to see more? Join The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter on Facebook and help prepare his army! Do as The Mad Hatter says and you’ll be rewarded. You’ll be given orders like, “Do you want to see what I see? Then start shouting for it! I won’t release it until I’ve received 1,000 Likes. Please begin the praise now!”

From the press release:

From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3D fantasy adventure ALICE IN WONDERLAND, a magical and imaginative twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time.  JOHNNY DEPP stars as the Mad Hatter and MIA WASIKOWSKA as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends:  the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter.  Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.  The all-star cast also includes ANNE HATHAWAY, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and CRISPIN GLOVER. The screenplay is by Linda Woolverton.

Capturing the wonder of Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871) with stunning, avant-garde visuals and the most charismatic characters in literary history, ALICE IN WONDERLAND comes to the big screen in Disney Digital 3D™ on March 5, 2010.

“Rotten” is a surprise on many levels and not exactly what you’d expect from a comic that traffics in zombies. First off, it’s set in the Wild West of 1877. And it’s packed with a number of issues that parallel our own time like Americans forced to accept a president who has not been elected by popular vote. Or Americans being manipulated during a crisis. I sat down with “Rotten” creator, Mark Rahner, and began with this tongue-in-cheek question: “Is there room for ‘Rotten’ to address universal health care?”

With a chuckle, Rahner quipped, “Being uninsured today sort of leaves you as screwed as you would have been in 1877. And, by the way, when they have those historic reenactments, they never have displays of people who lost all their teeth by thirty.” He then adds, “You’ll see a lot more connections. In Issues 7 thru 9, for instance, we’ll have a story arc about the denial of evolution. It’s to my shock and dismay that this is still an issue for debate but it is. Science exists independently of whether or not you believe in it.” Any chance of a direct reference to Sarah Palin? Rahner doesn’t rule that out but he stresses that you won’t be getting an obvious pop culture fix like a lab mouse reaching for its next food pellet.

In the upcoming Issue 5, one of the characters delivers a wonderful Shakespearen quote: “Have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?” Very classy and all too relevant to 1877 or today. Rahner: “With something like that, it helps to stress that this isn’t a cliché Western. It also underscores the fact that if anyone thought that just with Bush gone we’ve returned to reason is mistaken. And that quote hits on the central theme running throughout this comic: Americans being manipulated during a crisis, when fear trumps reason.”

Mark Rahner, and co-writer Robert Horton, have both written professionally as movie critics. Rahner calls himself the more boisterous one and Horton the more thoughtful one which sort of parallels the main characters, Agent William Wade and his trusty aide, J. J. Flynn. “We often talk and act like our characters,” says Rahner. Given their backgrounds, these guys are quite capable of seasoning their writing with just the right movie reference. In No. 1, you’ll find references to “The Molly Maguires” and “Yojimbo.” In 4 – 6, you’ll find the spaghetti Western, “The Great Silence.”

Aside from movies, Agents Wade and Flynn, share a vibe with James T. West and Artemus Gordon from the TV show, “The Wild Wild West” and, maybe even more so, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. “It wasn’t something we set out to do but, the Holmes/Watson connection is there. The story is in Flynn’s voice. It can’t be Wade’s. It can’t be from his perspective since he’s right in the middle of it all.”

I talked to Rahner more about horror movies. He prefers his horror to be serious and to be about something like George Romero and his movies, notably “The Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead.” Getting back to the Holmes/Watson dynamic, Rahner suggested a classic horror movie with humor, “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter,” which “has a roving heroic hunter of monsters with a sidekick. It’s by the same creators of the TV show, ‘The Avengers’ and has that same wit.” Rahner even likes the sendup of the zombie genre and satire on society, “Shaun of the Dead.” But, as for “Rotten,” it is not going to break out of character. As Rahner says, “We are getting back to the roots and making it serious and about something.”

With the brilliant art of Dan Dougherty, “Rotten” is the real deal all the way around. When asked about Dougherty, Rahner admits that it’s not easy to work with Mark Rahner. “Dan will ask if he can spread out on the page something and I’ll just say, no, we have too much to cover.” Whatever the case, the final result is a comic that just keeps growing creatively and continues gaining buzz. FHM recently suggested that it’s only a matter of time before “Rotten” becomes a movie. “We’ve thought about that. We were thinking it could be cool to turn it into something for cable.” Time will tell.

One thing is clear, you couldn’t find a better spokesperson for “Rotten” than Mark Rahner. He is a well-spoken, funny and personable guy. It’s no wonder that, as part of his work as a reporter at The Seattle Times, he creates some really cool videos that accompany his written stories. A couple of recent standouts are Rahner’s investigation of bacon-flavored mayonnaise and a tour of the locale for “Twilight,” Forks, Washington . “All that is time-consuming. It’s hard to do humor, especially satire, and rely on it reading well on video. If you’re a control freak, like me, and want to keep all your juvenile humor intact, then you have to do it yourself.”

“I never wanted to do an honest day’s work,” jokes Rahner when asked how he got his start. “Seriously, it’s really like it is for anyone else who has something they need to follow. At twelve, I was telling people I was a writer, no matter how absurd that may have sounded. It’s about discipline and hard work regardless of what talent you may have. The better the writer is, the easier he makes it look. I don’t know of any other profession where people can chime in about your work and tell you how much you suck.”

And what else lies ahead for Rahner? For one, he and Horton have a new project, a 5 issue mini series, H.E.L.I.X. that is set in the present day but is also part of the “Rotten” universe. “All the stuff we’re doing is connected to one universe. You’ll see names pop up from previous work and things that happen in one title, set a hundred years ago, will affect another title set today. In H.E.L.I.X., Rahner promises “an exciting and even repugnant story at a break-neck pace set in Seattle that involves stem cell experiments, sexually transmitted diseases, a race to the clock with two partners who hate each other and people who die in ways that are vomit-inducing.”

Stay tuned to all things “Rotten” and the rest of the work published by Moonstone. And check in on what Mark Rahner is up to at his site.

Sheldon L. Dorf’s drive and vision paved the way for the Comic-Con International in San Diego that we know today. As part of the tributes emerging for Shel Dorf is a Web site where his memory can be honored, celebrated and shared with everyone. The photo above of Jack Kirby and Shelf Dorf in 1969 is from the site. Also, is this excerpt from Mike Towry’s observations:

Would there have been a Comic-Con in San Diego without Shel? Probably, someday, sure. Would it have been the one we have today? Certainly not. Comic-Con got its spirit, its positive, non-profit, welcoming vision from Shel. The Con committees throughout the years have done a fantastic job in building the Con into what it is today, but, to paraphrase Isaac Newton, “If they have seen further than others, it is because they stood on the shoulders of a giant.”

Phil Yeh, a long-time participant at Comic-Con International and founder of Cartoonists Across America and the World, has suggested for some time now that a street in San Diego should be named after Shel Dorf to honor the man and for all he’s done to make the San Diego Comic-Con the largest pop culture festival in North America , and one of the largest in the world.

When I contacted Phil Yeh, he said, “It would be great to see a street named for Shel and maybe a park with a mural that would be created by so many of the artists who had their lives changed because of Comic-Con. There is a park in Springfield, Massachusetts  with statues in tribute to Dr. Seuss and his characters. Perhaps San Diego should consider a park with statues celebrating comic characters and the man who brought so many talented creators together.”

Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

Written by Van Jensen

Drawn by Dustin Higgins

Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Who knew Pinocchio was such a badass? Well, he is in this 128 page graphic novel. Just released in time for Halloween, “Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer” is a treat combining horror and humor. This isn’t coming from the Disney “Pinocchio” either but a far more earthy version in keeping with the original 1883 tale by Carlo Collodi.

This Pinocchio has a sort of Scott Pilgrim energy to it. When his father/maker, Geppetto, is killed by vampires, that seals the deal: a wooden puppet vampire slayer is born. All he has to do is tell some lies, watch his nose grow and then snap it off to instantly dispatch any blood sucker. And if he needs back up, there’s always his faithful surrogate dad, the other carpenter, Master Cherry. With his own modified machine gun, “The Monsterminator,” he’ll get anything that might try to get away. And no cute cricket in a top hat here. This cricket gets routinely stomped on within an inch of its life.

Dustin Higgins sure knows how to create a world. His live wire brush work is crooked, jaggy and sharp. The buildings themselves have character. And he is certainly in tune with Van Jensen’s writing as each balances the laughs with the spooky stuff. Within this world, tension mounts and the vampires do feel like a real threat.

Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, there are hints that we may see more of a growing boy’s life in future installments. In this first book, Pinocchio is caught in a bashful moment as he chats it up with a girl he is sweet on. But, of course, he is mostly concerned with killing vampires.

By the end of the book, there have been a whole lot of changes and a whole lot of issues dealt with so it will be interesting to see what happens next. “P:VS”  began as a one panel gag by Higgins and was transformed by Jensen into a full-fledged serious, yet funny, work.  One thing is for sure, the creative team of Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins are two to keep an eye on. You can pick up a copy here.

Spider-Man: The Short Halloween

Written by Bill Hader and Seth Meyers

Art by Kevin Maguire

Published by Marvel Comics

This one passed me by when it first came out earlier this year. As a special Halloween treat, let’s look back at this delightful one-shot. How often is it that you have “Saturday Night Live” veterans writing a superhero comic? Is it possible that Bill Hader and Seth Meyers are the first? I think so but I’d be happy to learn that there’s like some Chevy Chase script about Wonder Woman out there or maybe Al Franken’s take on Wolverine.

Hader and Meyers opt to be respectful and even include a reverential recap on how Spider-Man got his powers just in case you’re from some other planet. The story finds Spider-Man in typical fashion, pursuing a baddie. But that’s perfectly fine as we ease into some offbeat and often hilarious writing. It’s easy to see that Hader and Meyers love comics and the people who read them. The title itself, “Spiderman: The Short Halloween,” is a geek in-joke referring to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “Batman: The Long Halloween.” And the story, well it’s not some obvious satire. No, it’s actually a little masterpiece involving mistaken identity and, in the bargain, a clever juxtaposition of the weird world of superheroes and us average citizens.

In some ways, you feel like you can’t cross a line with Spider-Man. Peter Parker is as average as you can get. He’s forever fighting for his well-earned cash from The Man, J. Jonah Jameson. Who can’t relate to that? And, as Spider-Man, the guy gets no respect. What’s not to love? Hader and Meyers appear to feel the same way and give you a story where Joe Average gets to take center stage and we consider his problems. And the villains, they’re average too. Actually, they’re below average. And Spider-Man is totally enmeshed in this.

You can really take this mistaken identity thing to new heights. What happens is that the real Spider-Man is quite accidentally knocked out while confronting a third-rate wannabe villain. At the same time, a drunk in a Spider-Man costume, who happens to have a great Spider-Man costume and a credible build, is being hauled around by two of his buddies after a Halloween night that has gone wrong. As the drunk Spider-Man careens down a corner and collapses by a dumpster, the real Spider-Man heroically falls out from the sky and crashes into a heap nearby. So, the buddies haul the real Spider-Man into their apartment. And the awkward villain makes off with the drunk Spider-Man to show off to the rest of his crew of lame baddies.

I love it every time New York gets to be a character in a Spider-Man story. I  prefer the offbeat and the more domestic and talky stuff and how it can play off the superhero stuff. That’s always been an important part of Spider-Man and it’s carried off here with a lot of authentic dialogue and some very natural action. For example, the drunk Spider-Man’s life is a mess with his girlfriend ready to leave him. Finally getting past his friends, she is more than ready to go through “the talk” with him as he lays on a couch. Having said what she needs to say, she feels some regret and goes to kiss his hand. And, with perfect comedic timing, that’s when Spider-Man’s webbing shoots into her face. It’s a scene done with such skill since it’s so in the moment.

What keeps the writing so in the moment too is the amazing art by Kevin Maguire. His realism mixed with cartoony flourish is a perfect match. From the start, you know that Fumes, the clumsy villain, is more like us than Doctor Octopus. He has that face. And the guys out on the town with the drunk Spider-Man, elicit sympathy. You’ve been in that same cab with these guys as they agree with their pal that’s he’s Spider-Man– or at least you feel like you have.

How often does comedy mix with comics? Well, within superhero comics, there’s some of that in the current run of Marvel’s “Strange Tales” which includes Peter Bagge’s hilarious sendup of The Hulk. Of course, superhero comics can have a sense of humor but strictly comedic, not so much. Then again, it all depends on where you look, like for instance, “The Metal Men.”

That said, comedy is certainly as viable as anything else in comics. As reported here at Newsarama, American Original’s Jeff Katz, in connection with Top Cow, will gather a lineup of star comedians to create their own comics. They will be collected into graphic novels under the series title, “Comedy Death Ray.” It will be an impressive roster including Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Paul Scheer, B. J. Novak, Janeane Garofalo and another SNL talent, Fred Armisen. The proposed first four issue run is scheduled to come out this winter.

“Comedy Death Ray” probably won’t have that much to do with superheroes. The series editor, comedian/writer Scott Aukerman, is more of a fan of stuff like Dan Clowes’s “Eightball” and Peter Bagge’s “Hate.” But maybe he’s read “The Short Halloween.” If so, that’s a good thing since it’s a great example of comedy writers writing comics.

Nine Gallons

Written & Drawn by Susie Cagle

32 pages, 6.75″ x 6.75″, $5

Available at This Is What Concerns Me

We roll into the holiday season and more thought is given to those among us who are in need. Whether or not it’s the holidays or The Great Recession, there will always be those of us less fortunate. Susie Cagle’s mini-comic, Nine Gallons, invites those of us more fortunate to take a step into the world of the homeless and consider helping out.

For Susie Cagle, part of the answer is to just do something and she finds an outlet through Food Not Bombs, an international collective that protests war and serves food to the homeless. We see her on the first page, sprinting, limbs stretched out, sweat beads flying, as she runs to her first gig with the group. Once there, she’s met by a curious little man who barks, “I am Raj and you are late! Here, chop these into bits and introduce yourself.” This guy is a 20 year veteran, the de facto leader and a hard taskmaster. He is Yoda to Cagle’s Luke Skywalker.

Then there’s the rough terrain of battle, San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, an area full of sketchy characters until maybe you get to know some of them. First thing up, no one here in the TL is homeless. They’re just “camping.” Cagle asks one guy how long he’s been camping. “Seven years.”

Keep in mind too that this comic is full of life due to the combination of excellent reportage and spot on cartooning. It’s no wonder a lot of the best cartoonists are also excellent writers. It must be that inner need to get to the truth, observe and report. And Cagle does indeed report from the streets. She captures the vibe of waiting and hoping to make a difference as you offer free soup. It’s one ragtag bunch of people with soup attempting to connect with another ragtag bunch of people without soup or much of anything else.

You’ll be happy to know that Raj comes around to believing in Cagle. He even gets comfortable enough to request that maybe Cagle could make cupcakes for everyone. That she won’t do. We also learn that the city of San Francisco has not come around to addressing its homeless. As Cagle mentions, in 1988, the year that the SF chapter was founded, the city made more than 700 felony arrests of Food Not Bombs volunteers. Nowadays, the city hoses down the TL at six each evening in the hopes of scattering people somewhere else.

So, as we enter the holidaze, those of us who have the luxury of arguing the merits of one comic over another should consider ourselves lucky. And, by all means, look to Nine Gallons as a shining example of a comic used for a higher purpose. There isn’t any need to argue whether it’s too sexy or not literate. This mini-comic is really a nice guide for what you can do in the comics medium if you have integrity and a good story to tell.

Having said that, consider how each character in Nine Gallons is imbued with his or her own light. Whether it’s a volunteer or someone down on their luck, each character is distinct. Little but vital details are included: facial expression, clothing, body language, word choice. And this isn’t in some realistic style but more of a cartoony and naturalistic style which is actually more of challenge. Cagle is trying to show you how the character feels as much as how the character looks. A wonderful example is the portrait of Judy, a little old lady who knits amazing sweaters. The panel of Judy stepping up to get her routine cup of soup has a beautiful drawing of her in the background. It’s a great portrait and wonderful pause before we return to the streets.

For more information on Food Not Bombs, check out their site. And for more on what Susie Cagle is up to, check out her site.

Along with all the raunchy humor, one endearing quality about Kevin Smith is how polite he is. It’s not in any artificial  sense. He enjoys showing compassion and respect to others. That’s what came through to me when I caught his Seattle tour stop on October 17 on a rainy Saturday night at Benaroya Hall. It was a packed house. The fanboy demographic was very big, of course. And as polite as he could be about it, Kevin Smith was there to tell his fans that things were changing and he was growing up.

Like a charismatic high school teacher, Smith kept the ball bouncing as he reacted to his sometimes rowdy students as they posed questions to him. And, like an astute and generous performer, he just kept on giving, rolling well past schedule, on stage for nearly four hours. He made clear, it wasn’t easy for him to stop once he started. In some sense, he was looking for answers too.

His audience, he was most certainly aware, was made up largely of youth awaiting their place in the sun. First, he offered hope by saying that things run in cycles and that it is again a great time to be an indie filmmaker. And, as a leader among them, he went about connecting the dots of what it takes to get from one place to another. At one point, he stood at one end of the stage and said, “That’s me at twenty-one,” and walked across to about the middle of the stage and said, “And this is me at thirty-nine. That’s some distance from twenty-one and it’s hard to see back to that.” He was just beginning to explain where he sees himself and where he might go next.

At a crossroads, Smith found himself in a position where he could keep making the same type of movies he knows and loves or start to branch off in another direction. The show is all about this crossroads. As young and energetic as the audience was, they were also every bit as attentive to what Smith came to say. They’d heard it or read it before either on a Smodcast or blog or in collected writings. They just wanted to hear it from the man himself.

And they also came for the unexpected. One very good moment was when a soft-spoken guy with curly gray hair came, after many years, to thank Smith for some gifts he’d received from him regarding some connection between friends from long ago. It was all very fuzzy until the guy mentioned some names that Smith recognized and then went on to say that Smith’s best friend, Scott Mosier, had dated a girl the guy knew. Since Mosier is famously tight-lipped about his sex life, this got Smith’s attention for awhile. And, just as the moment was fading, the gray-haired guy asked if he could present Smith with a gift. Of course, this created a very odd situation. Smith said, for the sake of everyone’s safety, he’d have to ask him a series of questions regarding the gift. After that, the guy was finally allowed to deliver a gift-wrapped box. A few moments later, Smith, quite relieved, was happy to report it was a bottle of booze.

In good time, we reach what has become the turning point for Smith’s current career direction. It is triggered by a pretty girl in the rafters who passes over the Q & A rules of standing in line and yells out something about Jesus. Smith jokingly suggests this could be someone about to jump. Then she yells about how much she loves “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” Her question: Why doesn’t Smith embrace this glorious box office failure? And so the window has been opened. Smith toys around with the question like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Why, of course, he’s always embraced that movie but let’s now go about opening up a fresh wound and see what we may find. Suddenly, someone yells to the girl, “Show us your tits!” To this Smith scolds, “And you guys wonder why you don’t get laid!” Not missing a beat, Smith takes flight.

What happens next is nothing short of amazing. Smith treats everyone to a night at the theater as he beautifully does what amounts to a one act play. In it, he relates what it is that currently spins his wheels. Jumping off the tragic yet wonderful experience that was “Zack and Miri,” Smith talks about how the star of his movie, Seth Rogen, helped to turn him on to marijuana. Feeling pretty bad that he failed to make a hit movie with the rising star of director Judd Apatow, considered “the next Kevin Smith,” he gains some relief by getting stoned. As he slips into a stoner lifestyle, he happens upon a really cool Canadian documentary about hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. As he learns more and more about the exceptional life of Gretzky, he keeps bugging his wife about what he’s learned. She is not amused and starts to wonder if Smith is smoking too much pot. It’s a good thing to wonder about but , in Smith’s case, it seems to have opened things up for him. The writing is better. Even the sex is better. Of course, what works for Kevin Smith is not necessarily going to work for Joe Blow. Smith seems to acknowledge as much and doesn’t come right out and endorse drug use.

His main focus is Wayne Gretzky and how someone so exceptionally talented was also someone so generous. Like a true sports fan determined to make his point, Smith shares with everyone the remarkable fact that Gretzky is as well known for his record in goals as for his record in assists. His record in assists simply means those were goals he could have made but he opted to allow another team member to take the credit. It is a fact that profoundly moves Smith. It ties in with seeking peace through a more mellow attitude.

Things that would have bothered Smith before are no longer that important. What’s more important is taking stock of what you have and making sense of it. With that in mind, it’s interesting to see where Smith’s current Batman run, “The Widening Gyre,” is headed. In Smith’s universe, we have the regular old Bruce Wayne Batman. He’s a virile middle-aged man who would like to enjoy life with a girlfriend. He’d like to find time to be laid-back. In the upcoming Issue Three, Batman takes a dip in the ocean and he has a groovy encounter with Aquaman. Batman and the ocean are not suppose to mix. Aquaman is puzzled. Batman says it’s simple, he just wants to swim. “And what about those strange biorhythm vibrations?” asks Aquaman. “It sounds like, ‘Dee, Dee, Dee.’” Oh, that’s just Batman’s girlfriend yelling out her pet name for him while they’re having sex.

The handwriting is on the wall, really, when it comes to what Kevin Smith will do next. He is all set for the next chapter in his life and is gearing up for it. Much like Woody Allen did around the same age, he is saying goodbye to a certain way of making movies and he’s looking for ways to grow as a filmmaker. He has just completed, “A Couple of Dicks,” starring Bruce Willis. And he has “Red State” and “Hit Somebody” in the works. But what comes next? Well, maybe it will be his version of “Annie Hall” or something equally significant. Whatever the case may be, Smith comes across as someone with so much to give that he simply needs to prioritize and that’s what he’s doing and he’s letting everyone in to see at the same time. For someone who claims to have set the bar pretty low, that’s quite a challenge. Stepping back from all the fan feedback, Kevin Smith should always remember he’s already won and there’s nothing that’s going to change that. Maybe that’s what he’s learned from Wayne Gretzky.

For more information on all things Kevin Smith and his on-going tour, check out his site, Viewaskew. He may be coming to your town before you know it. And don’t forget the recently released collection of Smodcasts and the new expanded edition of “My Boring-Ass Life.”

Rotten #4

Written by Mark Rahner and Robert Horton

Art by Dan Dougherty

Published by Moonstone

Agents Wade and Flynn proceed to their next zombie mission out in the Wild West in Part Four of Rotten. In a comic full of clever dialogue and wonderfully structured stoytelling, both in the writing and the art, you could say it’s sort of a bonus to include zombies.

As the popularity of “Zombieland” should make clear, it’s not just zombies that bring in an audience. It’s always going to come back to the story and the characters. In Rotten, you’ve got a very different kind of story led by a couple of likable and authentic guys, Agents Wade and Flynn. They are under special orders from Pres. Hayes to investigate reports of attacks from creatures or,  “the undead,” out West.

Issue Four finds our heroes going undercover as commanding officers taking over a snow-bound and desolate Army fort. For all purposes, it shouldn’t even exist. There’s a lot of good tension-filled scenes between the new officers and the troops as neither group is eager to reveal everything they know.

Dan Dougherty is definitely the guy to be drawing this. He has a very distinctive style: sharp-edged and lean. He knows how to keep the story moving with tight compositions. He also knows his way around the subtleties of human expression. In this issue, the pressure is really applied on Agent Wade to not only act as a leader but to be one even when his orders sound outright strange. His every move must be convincing to a group of desperate men. Dougherty keeps us in the story and gives us a deeper appreciation of this complex character.

And what are these strange orders coming from Wade? Well, they’re nothing compared to what the men have been hiding from him. It’s spooky stuff in the tradition of “The Twilight Zone.” You don’t want to say this sort of thing too often but Rotten remains one of those best kept secrets in comics and I recommend you get in on it. This issue is the start of a new arc and a great place to dive in.

It’s possible that you’ll be seeing a change of ownership of your favorite NBC Universal shows like “Heroes,” “Battlestar Galactica,” and the whole SyFy channel because it’s possible that Comcast Corp is going to make a play for the whole shooting match: a major network and movie studio and powerful cable channels like MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. That would be a huge leap in content for Comcast which currently owns such channels as E! Entertainment Television and G4.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Comcast Corp, the nation’s biggest cable company, is in talks to buy NBC Universal. While there has been speculation over the future of NBC Universal, it is far from certain what will happen next.

This isn’t the first time that Comcast has made such a bid. Five years ago it attempted to buy Disney for $54 billion. The article states that “While NBC Universal is valued at up to $35 billion, Comcast has a market cap of $48 billion and about $4 billion in cash. This would make it a highly leveraged buyout of NBC Universal.”

In a story full of scenarios, The Times makes a very interesting comics-related point. It may turn out that Time Warner, owner of DC Comics, could be in the best position to be the ultimate buyer of NBC Universal.

For the complete story, visit The Los Angeles Times here.

Exurbia

Written by Scott Allie

Art by Kevin McGovern

Published by Dark Horse

Scott Allie is a busy man. He’s an editor at Dark Horse for such titles as “Hellboy,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Umbrella Academy” and “The Goon.” But there’s always time for a pet project, especially one as wacky and thought-provoking as, “Exurbia.” Coming out in October from Dark Horse, Allie teams up with artist Kevin McGovern to serve up a truly ditzy distopian farce.

Judging by the current mini comic version, “Exurbia” is quite a stylish little rant. We all have these sort of venting sessions when we can clearly see the network of lies fed to us. We can put our finger on all the government and corporate corruption and cry foul. That’s why we have comics like “Exurbia” to give voice to our cries.

Happily, all the bitterness is contained primarily in the character of Gage Wallace for our entertainment and edification. He’s a layabout twenty-something who is so glued to his TV that it’s sort of painful to watch. He lives in an apartment building with circular windows that, from outside, looks like every other building in the city, a vast collection of blocks of cheese. No wonder a mysterious rat revolutionary emerges to galvanize protest against the system.

Gage has a girlfriend, Brenda, who regularly comes in and cleans up after him. She is beginning to wonder why. On the heels of a lovers’ quarrel, Gage must try to take stock of himself. His only saving grace appears to be his youth and he sort of realizes he’s been pissing that away. Maybe the TV can provide some answers.

The art is a wonderful match for the zany humor. Gage Wallace reminds you of that obnoxious housemate who, despite himself, always had something clever to say. Kevin McGovern is in tune with how to bring that sort of angst to life. His art style is very sharp and animated. The characters have the perfect proportions of big heads and little bodies. It’s like The Flintstones if Fred dabbled heavily in conspiracy theories.

The trade paperback is 6″ x 9″, 112 pages, $9.95 and available for pre-order.

Surrogates, the new Bruce Willis sci-fi action thriller from Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, is set to hit theaters Sept 25. It is based on the graphic novel written by Robert Venditti, illustrated by Brett Weldele and published by Top Shelf Productions. It all began as a script for a graphic novel that, as Robert Venditti says, has gone far “beyond anything that I ever anticipated happening.” Speak with him and you hear a humble guy who knows what he wants. Here is Robert Venditti talking about Surrogates, comics and Disney/Marvel.

As Venditti describes it, the whole idea of Surrogates even getting published was far from a sure thing. He was working in the mail room at Top Shelf Productions and was hoping that maybe Chris Staros, one of the partners, might be able to help him find a small publisher and then he could have a book he could pass around to editors in hopes of landing more work. “So, to have all of this happen: to actually get it optioned and have it made, which is the huge hurdle you have to clear, and then to have it be the size and scope that it is, you don’t even know what to say.”

Ask him what a surrogate is or what the story is about, and Venditti answers with such enthusiasm you’d think it was the first time he was being asked. “Maybe you want to have a surrogate because you want to summit Mt. Everest but you don’t want to go through the turmoil of actually doing that or maybe you are diabetic and you just want to eat chocolate cake — you can do any of these things with your surrogate and experience it as if you are really doing it but it’s all coming to you secondhand through the machine.”  The story about these surrogates, these android duplicates that do all the things its human owners only wish to do from a distance, takes a turn when they start turning up fried out in the real world. Something or someone is destroying them and that is where detective Harvey Greer steps in, played by Bruce Willis in the movie.

Having Bruce Willis on board is something that Venditti sounds like he’ll never grow tired of talking about. He sets up a scene a few years back, just as the trend of movies based on comics is heating up, and it’s him and his wife sitting at the kitchen table. They look at each other. What if, he asks, just for fun, a movie was made from his book? “Who would we cast in the film? And her and I both thought that Bruce Willis would be the perfect guy to play Greer because he is one of the very few actors that can be convincing in tough action sequences but also convincing in the more personal, emotional scenes like Greer has with his wife in the book, which is a very strong undertone of the book, the effect that surrogate technology has had on their marriage. And there aren’t a lot of guys who can do both and he is one of them. So, we thought he would be perfect and then, six years later, they cast him in that very same role, so it’s all pretty surreal.”

Surrogates can be practical as replacements for humans in dangerous occupations but the real attraction is that they can be the ideal version of their owners. Is this human trait to want to be something other than who you are essentially good or bad? “There is always something about yourself that you wish you could tweak to some extent. I don’t know that that’s a positive or a negative. When I wrote the book, I tried not to make any determinations. I’m trying to just ask questions. Is technology used in this way good or is it bad? It could be good in the sense that it’s what leads us to strive to better ourselves and ultimately make the world better around us. But it could be bad in the sense that it could make us go beyond that and start to lose sight of who we actually are and try to become something that we are not. So, there is no black or white, yes or no, answer to those kinds of questions — it all depends on how they are applied.”

And how are we applying the technology we have today? Where are we headed? “The technology is already so much more near the future than even the story I wrote. I put it about fifty years down the road but it seems like technology is advancing at a much faster rate that it’s going to be here sooner than that.” Venditti recalls a documentary he saw on Wired.com with robotics scientists demonstrating the use of robot arms by wearing a headset you operate with your mind. Then he thinks about things like Second Life and how we’re inching closer and closer to the future in his story with all the activity already in play in a virtual world. And, in this new world, can we hope for a truly level playing field free of prejudice? “I would hope we could reach such a place without having to use technology to get there.” In his story, for instance, the only way people can guarantee advancement is by simply taking on the required identity such as women pretending to be men in order to be airline pilots.

Now, get Venditti to talk about the writer’s craft and his creative journey and you’ll hear him make his way to a life changing discovery. “Through high school, all the way to graduate school, I had the same misconceptions that most people have which is that comics are just children’s literature and not capable of complex ideas and themes — never having read them and it was a completely ignorant stance to take. But a friend of mine was a big comics fan and got me to read an arc of Astro City called ‘Confession’ and it just jumped out at me.” “Confession”, by Kurt Busiek, considered a masterwork in comics comparable to Watchmen, showed Venditti that comics could be more than a plot-driven genre but it could be a character-driven work of literature.  On top of this discovery, Venditti had always harbored a childhood desire to be an animator. “So now, flash forward, and I’m reading these comic books with a literary sensibilty and I realized here’s a medium where I can write the stories and someone else can translate the stories into art and that’s probably as close as I’m ever going to be to that original childhood ambition I had.”

So, there is that wall between academia and commerce that must be overcome. What about another wall, the one that separates fans of mainstream comics from fans of alternative comics? Venditti’s relationship with Top Shelf Productions is a prime example of how these two worlds can mix with excellent results. Surrogates was definitely something new for Top Shelf, known for black and white graphic novels with a more literary style. Surrogates would be their first mainstream full color serialized story. “So, it was a bit of leap for them,” Venditti says, “but I take it as a great source of pride that Top Shelf felt that Surrogates had strong characters and a literary style. I don’t think that a wall should be there. There is a lot of cross-over. I know from working for Top Shelf, among the leading light of their generation of cartoonists, and they all grew up on Marvel and DC and they’ve all got a Spider-Man or a Batman story that they are just dying to tell so I don’t think the wall is as pronounced as maybe some people would think.”

You have to start somewhere and, as Venditti points out, there was a time before the independent comics movement when everyone grew up on Marvel and DC. Only now, can you have readers who have only known indie comics and, for them, it might be easier to cross over to mainstream comics. Whatever the case, Venditti is proud to let you know that Top Shelf has always welcomed all readers. “We do more conventions than anybody in a given year. We have a pretty heavy tour schedule and go to places where we are really the only independent literary style comics publisher in attendance. You know, places like Chicago Comic-Con, MegaCon in Orlando or Dragon*Con in Atlanta, are places where it’s a heavily mainstream audience and we’ve just sort of won people over one at a time. And our fan base, and people that read our books, is very much composed of people that are mainstream comic fans as well.”

The prequel to Surrogates, the graphic novel, recently came out and we can expect a sequel in the future to round out a trilogy. “I’m sort of doing the Star Wars model there where I did the middle first and then the beginning and then I do the end. But since then, I’ve also come up with two additional novels that I would like to do as well so right now, in my head, we’re up to five.”

Also from Top Shelf, there is Venditti’s upcoming Homeland Directive which explores how, in a post 9/11 world, we reconcile public safety with personal privacy. “When the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written, the worst thing you had to worry about was maybe a cannon ball coming through your window. We live in a much scarier world now.”

As for Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, Venditti’s view is framed by the fact he already works for both companies. Of course, Surrogates is a Disney movie. Venditi is also working with Hyperion Books, a division of Disney, where he is working on a graphic novel adaptation of Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. For Marvel, he did a Captain America story for Marvel Comics Presents in April of last year. And, among other upcoming projects, he has an Iron Man One Shot entitled, “Iron Protocol,” that comes out in October. “So I have a foot in both camps. If the acquisition now means that both feet are in one camp, then so much the better.” As for any concerns of change over at Marvel, Venditti doesn’t think there’s reason to worry. “Disney already has other, non-superhero comics publishing divisions, so as long as those continue with their output, I don’t see why Marvel wouldn’t remain primarily a superhero imprint.”

Batman: Cacophony

Writer: Kevin Smith

Artist: Walt Flanagan

Inker: Sandra Hope

Published by DC Comics

Hardcover, 142 pages, $19.99

As he throws out one self-deprecating line after another, Kevin Smith can make what he does look easy but it would be a mistake to dismiss what he’s done with Batman: Cacophony. In his introduction, he readily admits he can do better but  what he really means is that he’s inspired to take the work further. And, after reading this new hardcover collection, you should come away looking forward to more.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Smith’s take on Batman. Some of my comics friends had been put off by Smith’s Batman not saying what Batman would say. And then there’s the whole thing with the Joker taking a walk on the wild side. Well, it’s not exactly too big of a leap to see the character as gay. The one scene where he’s all too eager to act on his desires with the man who could likely kill him is beyond the pale but certainly within Joker territory. The few times Batman seems to slouch into something less than what we’d expect are minimal. Basically, along with artist Walter Flanagan, this is Kevin Smith’s Batman and it works best to go with it.

The quirky moments, I came to see, did not take me out of the story, especially if I’ve already accepted the world that I’m in. And, for the purists who may not even want to give this a chance, the quirk works and it does not overwhelm what is a solid story.

We start at the gates to Arkham Asylum. Due to the recent economic crash, frenzied cost cutting measures by the board lead to the firing of the front gate security guards. The money saved, however, promptly goes to the board’s year-end bonuses. Of course, who would ever want to break into Arkham Asylum? This night, it’s two separate killers both looking for the Joker.

As the story unfolds, we see one of the killers is Kevin Smith’s villain, Onomatopeia, from his Green Arrow run. And the other killer is a vigilante, Deadshot. Each will play supportive roles as will another minor baddie, Maxie Zeus, who has built an empire by converting the Joker’s venom into a designer drug. The Joker, in the scheme of things, has been reduced to the role of bait in a plot to lure Batman but he’s definitely the star of the show as well as a great vehicle for Smith’s humor to boot.

This book also includes the first draft script to Issue Three so you can get a sense for yourself of the number of revisions that went into the final work. Needless to say, Kevin Smith is a huge talent and he still won’t win over everyone. Having just read the first issue of Smith’s latest Batman run, The Widening Gyre, I would highly recommend getting this collection and it will likely win you over if you’re receptive and add to your appreciation of the current run.

Anthony E. Zuiker has made an impressive career as the creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 2007, nearly 84 million people watched CSI, making it the most watched show in the world. Zuiker’s talent at telling a good crime story has led him to launch his next major project, Level 26, the world’s first digi-novel. Written with Duane Swierczynski (Severance Package), Level 26 is about a seriously demented serial killer and the tortured FBI investigator who is forced to hunt him down. Level 26 releases on September 8.

The interactive quality of this digi-novel is handled by EQAL, with roots going back to its creation of the internet sensation, lonelygirl15. And, while Level 26 is not directly related to comics, there’s a lot going on with its interactive components that someday may become common to the comics medium. Also, there is already a line of CSI comics put out by IDW and who knows what may lie ahead.

Zuiker has an energetic and commanding presence. He stays on point with ease. When asked if he thought his “digi-novel” was the future of reading, he gracefully said no claims on the future have been made. The one sure claim is that he is excited about what he’s doing. It was a pleasure to chat with him at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Blog@Newsarama:Tell us what it was like for you growing up as your writing talents emerged.

Anthony E. Zuiker: As an only child in Las Vegas, I would often, just for fun, write letters for people as a favor.  Just formal letters.  I was sort of 16 of 16 in letter writing meaning that whenever someone asked me to write something, like get their girlfriend back or a letter to a judge to get out of jail, I would bat a thousand. I was in the hall of fame of letter writing. Then all through high school and in college I would charge people to write their term papers for $300.00 overnight and they were guaranteed at least a B plus. I made a lot of money doing that. When I was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at UNLV, I said that before they awarded me that maybe I should confess that I put about hundred people through college. My father always said that I had some talent as a writer and I guess I believed him. I’ve always had a way of putting what I’ve envisioned on the page. When I wrote my first movie, The Runner, it went right to video but it was an interesting piece of work with an authentic voice and it landed me an agent and a manager. My first TV script was CSI. It got green lit and, obviously, it took off. We went on to do CSI: Miami and CSI: New York.  I guess my visual way of thinking really worked simpatico with the philosophy of writing scripts in Hollywood.

BLOG@: Do you believe it had something to do with being at the right place at the right time?

ZUIKER: For CSI?  I think so. I think every great show is a sign of the times. It began in the aftermath of the OJ trial. People were just becoming fascinated with forensics. I was able to come in with a show set in Las Vegas, set in the graveyard shift. The idea of people actually going into a crime scene, scrutinizing evidence and the story being put together in flashback, that style of storytelling, felt like a modern day mystery. It felt like a mystery genre of our generation. People liked that. They were learning and watching at the same time which was highly efffective. And with a great cast, CSI had that mystery magic, this different way to tell a cop show which is what I call, “from the crime scene tape down.” And it worked.

BLOG@: It seems like CSI could go on forever. Do you see interest in the franchise shifting?

ZUIKER: Well, what goes up must come down.  You know, we are doing our best right now with all three shows to stay in the top 15, to keep challenging our audience.  We’ve killed people in many different ways. We continue to look for different ways to excite us and excite an audience. We feel because its is a procedural drama, and everybody loves a good mystery,  it has some good long legs to it, we believe.

BLOG@: Let’s say, somebody is totally in the dark on Level 26. How would you describe it?

ZUIKER: We are coining it as “the world’s first digi-novel.”  What a digi-novel is, is it takes all the elements of publishing, movies and internet and combines experience. Level 26 is a horror prime drama. Every twenty pages that you read, you log onto the Web site, Level26.com, enter a code at the end of that chapter, and it unlocks a piece of motion picture footage which bridges you from one chapter to another, so its a continuation of the story, visually, its about three minutes long.  There’s twenty of those experiences per book.  So you figure twenty pages times twenty bridges is about a four hundred page book. That is what the book is, also.  Sometimes its a horror scene, sometimes is a love scene, sometimes its a music video, sometimes when you call the killer, the killer calls your phone back.  So its very interactive.  We feel like in this attention economy, with how fast things are moving with technology, to ask someone to read twenty pages and then see a visual continuance, is a good rhythmic experience, rather than read four hundred pages and do nothing else.  If you read the book cover to cover, no problem.  But the best experience is to read, log in and watch, read, log in and watch.  And then become part of a social community, built by the lonelygirl15 creators, Miles and Greg,  to have this social site that is basically like a Facebook page Level 26, with all the bells and whistles of an interactive Web site.

BLOG@: Do you see this as just another form of entertainment or, in the future, as the way people read?

ZUIKER: Well you know, I think the audience and the reader will determine that.   We are not taking the position that we are going to replace publishing in its current state. My philosophy is that, in this generation, you need to go to your audience and recognize your audience’s behaviors. People now, when they watch television, they’re also on their computer, they’re tweeting, they’re chatting, they’re checking email, they’re TiVoing,  they’re doing multiple things at one time. So to ask someone to sit down and read a 400 page book in this generation, I think, is a tough ask, especially for  younger people. If you can provide them with these visceral/visual speed bumps it might get more young people to read. I think that’s a victory. And, if you’re an existing reader, who already loves to read, quite possibly you’ll try a different way to consume which is to read and watch the bridges. So, we feel that we’re trying to bridge the gap between an older generation and a younger generation in the spirit of where technology is going.

BLOG@: Basically, it can appeal to any age group.

ZUIKER: Here’s the litmus test.  Read the first twenty pages of Level 26, then you watch the first film, something you’ll probably find edgy and cool. If you’re not engaged by it, I may lose you as a customer. But, if you are, I think you’ll probably finish reading it that night. It’s pretty exciting.

BLOG@: The buzz concept in the entertainment industry is transmedia, the book sells the movie, the movie sells the game and so on. It seems like you’re sort of there with Level 26 or could you tell us where you might fit in?

ZUIKER: Sure, transmedia versus what we are doing is a little different. Transmedia is having one brand and launching it in various avenues. We’d certainly like to do that but our core concern is transmedia inside the narrative meaning you go from book to motion picture to Web site and it’s all inclusive in one experience so it’s nice and tight. It’s not about just creating a character and seeing if we can launch it on the Web, on the radio, on a phone and so on. That may eventually happen to Level 26 but, for now, we’re keeping it at the core of our philosophy which is: read, watch and log in and have a compelling story and let people consume that way. We’re not going to jump off any cliffs but keep to the core philosophy of what the digi-novel represents which is reading, watching and logging in.

BLOG@: How would describe in a nugget the story, Level 26?

ZUIKER: Level 26 is about Steve Dark, an ex-Quantico who works in Special Services which involves the worst and most horrific crimes that I can’t possibly tell you here. He’s been chasing an elusive killer named, Sqweegel for  twenty years who has killed over 30 people and has killed Steve Dark’s family. Steve Dark is retired.  He has met the love of his life, she’s pregnant and suddenly they get a message that Sqweegel has returned and he’s been inside Steve’s home. Steve is sucked back into pursuing Sqweegel. And that’s where it all begins.

BLOG@: I know you’re a busy man. Thank you for your time.

ZUIKER: I really appreciate it. Awesome.