What a very light week for me! Pretty much just a few comics and catching up with a title I had forgotten about (probably because I’m old).
I’d like to take a moment to babble on about some other places to get comics, specifically Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a rabbit hole for many creative people or people who like to get things before anyone else. I started playing around on Kickstarter when it first started and it could be a crap shoot as to whether the item you helped along would actually come to fruition. I did get some cool things like the watch band for my iPod nano which kind of made it the first Apple Watch. I also tried some other ones that weren’t that successful, like the animatronic Arduino run head, the creator realized that he had over extended himself since was just a kid in college and didn’t have access to the school’s laser cutter after he completed the class he was in… ugh. The early days of anything can be frustrating… but as the bugs got worked out it became easier to use and almost a guarantee for those who have the patience to wait things out. Comic book creators use Kickstarter (and other platforms) to see if they can get enough people committed to their idea so it can be printed. Usually this includes special bonuses if certain levels of funding are achieved. I mention comics, but it really encompasses everything. The areas I tend to follow deal with comics/art and board games. I am cutting down on board games, not because they aren’t excellent, but because I’ve found I’m not playing games as much as once did (I think I’ve mentioned this before). Back to Kickstarter… This week something wonderful arrived in my mailbox. That’s one thing that is cool, is you sometimes have no idea when something will arrive. This week it was Thorn by Jeff Smith. If you didn’t already know, Jeff Smith is one of my favorite creators. His comic Bone wasn’t originally all ages, but has become a staple in many school libraries. The characters started out at Ohio State University in their school newspaper when Jeff was a student. He’s taken the time to pull all those strips together and publish them for fans like me. A publisher would probably look at it and say there’s not a large enough audience for this, but on Kickstarter if you don’t get enough support… you just don’t do the project. No one is charged until the project gets enough pledges to get made. Sometimes I’ll wait until I know a project has broken (or is really close to) that barrier before funding it, other times, I just jump into it on a whim.
This Week’s Comics:
Thorn by Jeff Smith: The Complete Proto-Bone College Strips 1982-1986 and Other Early Drawings- I really enjoy seeing the evolution of a character. Seeing the early strips with Phone Bone and knowing what the character becomes is amazing. Having done a comic strip (off & on) for over a decade I think about how Cecil has evolved from a simple concept and (horrible) drawing to what he is now, this is what I get to do with Bone. Some of the basic story is there, but there are so many ideas that made it into Jeff’s college strips that didn’t make it into Bone. Understandably so, since many parts were tied to time current events of the day, and the college audience. I have a few regrets, one of those is not having the guts to actually do a strip in high school or college. The strips done in my school papers I saw as much better than anything I could produce, so why try? It’s awesome that creators are now releasing early works so we can see that it takes time and effort to get something great.
Power Pack into the Storm #2-#4 – I know I missed a few, but to sum it up the Power Pack get captured and Franklin Richard’s is the only one who can save them by getting help from the X-Men. When it comes to involving the X-Men and evil aliens it means the Brood are now involved. Will they be able to save Franklin? Does Mayhem know what she is getting herself into- we know, but she is clueless.
Captain America #8 – so Cap is now saving the world from mystic evil… what happened to just punching Nazis in the face? I’ve seen Cap trapped in other dimensions – which made me seriously stop reading for a while. Now he’s fighting an army of evil (in another dimension?) in order to save the innocent. His new mission- he must go and find four catalysts for change and bring them back to The Front Door…. I’m giving Straczynski some leeway since I usually love his stuff.
Batman #146 – Has Batman figured it all out? That doesn’t mean he’s won and this arc is over… it’s only part two so we’ve got four more issues to go. For it to follow the “Heroes Journey” he’s got a few more steps to go before he can leave the cave… a lot more villains to fight, and then there’s everyone who are now thinking Zur-En-Arrh is Bruce Wayne- even though he’s a robot. Maybe I’m just used to six issue arcs and not epic sagas. (Although I do like Saga)
Love Everlasting #14 – the Cowboy’s Tale continues… BLAM! Joan dies so many times I lost count, BLAM! but we do find out who is behind all this, will the cowboy survive finding out?