As in, here.

You know, for those people who still have this on their feed thing, for whatever reason.

That's probably it for now. I haven't updated this blog in months and, when I did, it was sporadic at best. Partner-in-crime John Jakala is still blogging elsewhere, though, and I'll probably be back somewhere, eventually.

I like New York in June,
how about you?
I like a Gershwin tune,
how about you?
I love a fireside
when a storm is due.
I like potato chips,
moonlight and motor trips,
how about you?

…especially when the motor trips are to New York for the MoCCA Art Festival. Without a doubt, this is the comics-related thing I've been looking forward to the most each year. Like-minded nerds in Manhattan, gathering over comics and liquor--who could ask for anything more? I can't--not only for the great publishers and creators there, but the great people. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend, chatting comics with friends and acquaintances old and new (and if you want to meet up for a moment, e-mail me by noonish Friday and let me know your plans, if we haven't already discussed meeting up).

If you're going, you've probably already seen the guest list and panel schedules, but, if you haven't, you've still got time.

Some things I'll be checking out, or things I think others should check out:

• Depending on what time I make it to the area, I'm hoping to hit up Rocketship's MoCCA preparty and Fantagraphics celebration:

This Friday Night, June 9th, 8 pm at ROCKETSHIP, join us as we kick off the MoCCA Art Festival weekend! This is going to be quite a night, with some excellent things going on:
* The CARTOON L.A. gallery show, which will feature original works by Jordan Crane, Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan, and Sten Weissman.
* A book signing, premiering CHEWING GUM IN CHURCH by Steven Weissman, UPTIGHT by Jordan Crane, and THE SQUIRREL MOTHER by Megan Kelso. These fine cartoonists will be on hand signing these fine books.
* Fantagraphics 30th Birthday! Have a round of drinks on us, and celebrate the birthday of these lovely publishers of quality graphic periodicals!
* Musical entertainment by DJ ILL PANTIES.

Start the weekend off right! Stop by ROCKETSHIP and check out some amazing artwork by some of L.A.'s top cartoonists! Get some incredible new books signed! It's June already! Time to start enjoying yourself!

You deserve it!

(ROCKETSHIP is located at 208 Smith Street, between Butler and Baltic, in the Borough of Kings, Brooklyn. You can take the F train to Bergen Street for easy subway access.

• New publisher and blogosphere darling First Second will be there. I've already reviewed Deogratias (which I recommend highly), and I'm looking forward to picking up Eddie Campbell's Fate of the Artist and Joann Sfar's Vampire Loves.

• AdHouse will be there as well--highly recommended are the Project series (Project: Telstar and Project: Superior are out, and Project: Romantic--one of the books I'm looking forward to most this year--is due out soon) and The Collected Sequential. I'll probably be picking up Salamander Dream--I'm not sure why I haven't bought that one yet. AdHouse will also have the new Skyscrapers of the Midwest there, too, so stop by--Chris Pitzer's a hell of a guy to chat with.

• Where goes Fantagraphics, so go I, as that's where I'll be most of the weekend--let me sling comics at you, particularly if you haven't checked out the Mome anthology or Tales Designed To Thrizzle yet.

• Meathaus will be there, too. According to their site, Meathaus #8 isn't ready yet, but other Meathaus anthologies should be, and Farel Dalrymple and others will be at the table. They're also hosting one of the afterparties:

SATURDAY JUNE 10th: MOCCA PARTY!!
++a free& public afterparty for the small press indoe comic dudes unwinding after sitting behind a convention table all day nervously wondering what you think of their comic and whether or not it sucks. PERFORMANCES BY comic book legends JEFF & JACK LEWIS (rough trade) and the animated-enough SOILED MATTRESS AND THE SPRINGS!!free Macau beer from 8 to 9!

• Each year, checking out the "real" publisher tables gets more and more exciting--this year, I think the heavy buzz of the show might concentrate around the Houghton Mifflin and Pantheon tables.

• I can't sing the praises of Ryan Dunlavy and Fred Van Lente's Action Philosphers--it's probably my favorite new series of the past year. They'll both be there, along with the mini-trade of the first three issues of the title--that's funny stories of nine philosophers for $6.95.

• Jessica Abel and Matt Madden will be there, so if you haven't picked up the new editions of Abel's stuff yet, here's a great chance. Also, Madden's 99 Ways To Tell A Story is really worth checking out if you, like me, are the kind of reader who likes explorations in form--the book really shows how much craft goes towards making even the most banal story engaging. Highly recommended (it's on my review pile, but that pile is big and daunting).

• Keith Knight is back again. Check out the link to see what Knight brings to the table (or, take my word for the fact that he brings awesome to the table, and give him your money).

• If minicomics are what you're after, check out Pittsburgh's own Pat Lewis. Last year, I think the book I most often recommended to people was Lewis's Hideous: A Monster Romance, which is appealing whether you love or loathe the Jeffrey Brown stuff he's parodying.

• I'm not sure, but I think the MoCCA Art Festival is Jim Mahfood's only East Coast appearance of the year. If you love hip hop (and underground hip hop in particular), Mahfood's Felt is right up your alley. Mahfood's also one of the artists who sells original art at the show--depending on what I have left over Sunday, I may buy something to frame for the new house (they're pouring concrete as I type this).

• You'll probably be stopping by Bryan Lee O'Malley's table anyway. All the cool kids are, you know. Well, the cool kids, and nerds like Kevin and me.

• Speaking of Kevin, his interview with Brian Wood is now up at the Graphic Language blog. Wood will also be at MoCCA, along with Ryan Kelley, selling Local, Supermarket and other books.

• All three issues of Aprendiz, Adam Suerte's self-published autiobiographical series focusing on his tattooing apprenticeship, will be there at Suerte's table--visually, the book is a perfect blend of tattooing iconography and DIY comics aesthetic, and the subject matter is one of those things that hits my nerd buttons the right way.

• Neil Kleid isn't listed on the exhibitor list, but I know he'll be bouncing back and forth between the NBM and House of Twelve tables hawking his wares--I'll finally get the chance to pick up Brownsville, Kleid's story of early 20th century Jewish gangsters.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, to finish off this hype-fueled post with a final cliche. Really, there's something at the show for just about everyone who loves comics, and everyone who is about to fall in love with the medium for the first time. I'll be driving Route 80 and singing all the way Friday, guaranteed:

I'm mad for comic books,
can't get my fill,
and Gary Panter's looks
give me a thrill...

So, that Super! Secret! Project! thing isn't so secret anymore. Kevin Church, Chris Tamarri and I are going to try to do an irregular, interview-centric blog called Graphic Language. Chris did the launch interview with Douglas Wolk, which goes into the whole writing-about-comics thing. I'm happy we're starting off with Wolk, because there's so much more to comics than storylines and events--I'm hoping that over the course of the next year, we'll talk to critics, publishers, retailers, and musicians connected to or invested in the medium and its fandom. Essentially, I want to think about the interviews themselves as the product. It may not be exciting in the same way as finding out tidbits of future plot points in favorite series, but I'm hoping there's an audience for what we're trying to do and, if not, it's been a fun thing to plan and work on. I think our goal is to try to have at least one interview up per week, but we'll see how that goes.

Back in December, I made an offhand comment in a comments thread here expressing that I'd "love to see a blog only devoted to interviews, but that'd be one heck of a time-consuming prospect," and Chris, go-getter that he is, suggested we start one. I thought he was crazy but, like Ice Cube, I'm down for whatever. Luckily, so was Kevin when we asked him to come along for the ride. Plus, while it sounds like a lot of work on paper, having three people doing a project together helps distribute the workload and ease the pressure. That's more than a little bit of a relief, because it'll make closing this place down a little easier. A lot has been happening in my personal life lately--next week, we close on our mortgage, and a few weeks ago, I found out that I got into graduate school. Between working full time, working on the house-related stuff and working for class, I won't have much time for blogging (not that I ever really blogged "full time" anyway). So, like Graeme, I think I'm going to call this one a day come the two year anniversary in August. But, hey, if someone should need a guest blogger...

• Speaking of interviews, Bookforum has a short one up with Gary Groth that focuses on the 30th anniversary of Fantagraphics. I don't believe that's a permanent link, but I think it's good through the summer, at least.

• The MoCCA Art Festival is less than a month away. I've booked my room (once again, in Jersey City, because I am cheap), and there's a lot to look forward to even if the actual panel schedule isn't posted yet.

• While I can't make it, the Hotwire Comix & Capers release party at Rocketship this Friday sounds like a blast.

• Reviews are on the way for The Lost Colony, Noble Boy, Entanglement and some other things, along with a look at what I'm looking forward to at MoCCA.

DEOGRATIAS
by J.P. STASSEN
translated by Alexis Siegel
96 pages Full Color
ISBN: 1-59643-103-2
US $16.95 / CANADA $22.95
First Second

J. P. Stassen's Deogratias is a fictional account of the personal impact the Rwandan genocide had on those affected by it, Rwandans and foreigners alike. The story is horrific, captivating, and important--it sheds light on a foreign conflict that isn't discussed as often as other issues abroad, one that many might not know much about.

Fortunately, Alexis Siegel's introduction to the book helps catch readers up on the real-world events that inform the setting; I imagine that, for some readers, this may be the most they've ever read on the Rwandan genocide--that's how it was for me. While I've heard news reports on NPR on the subject throughout the years, Siegel's introduction provided some much appreciated historical context beyond what I knew going in.

If Siegel's introduction provides the broad strokes and the facts of the Rwandan genocide, Stassen provides the personal element that puts faces on it--he gives the emotional context. There may never have been a Deogratias or an Apollinara, but Stassen fleshes the characters out so well that the line between history and fiction blurs a little, and the formal aspects of the book heighten that. One thing I've noticed in some comics from Europe is that the word balloons tend to have sharper edges than in some American comics; while that's more of a trend there, in Deogratias it may help foster that verisimilitude in American readers--the dialogue reads as if it were captioned, which gives the book a touch of a documentary feel. The characters help give that impression as well. Stassen provides an ensemble cast of characters, none of whom can be easily distilled into simple archetypes--while the focal characters act heroically or villainous at certain times, Stassen doesn't make any fit heroic or villainous roles--they're just people thrust into a horrifying situations, and they act like one would expect people to act in that environment.

While the formal aspects of Deogratias make the story feel real, its structure also acts as one of its best features--it's constructed very well in its narrative and rhythmic cadences. Stassen's use of flashback is exactly right for the story he's telling--the jumps between "this is where we are" and "this is where we have been" lets the thematic elements progress in a linear fashion even though the timeline doesn't, and gives the ending more of an emotional impact. There are no notes indicating the timeshifts in the storytelling; Stassen relies entirely on the character's visual portrayals to indicate when things are happening. Another visual aspect worth noting is Stassen's illustrations of Deogratias's subjective self-interpretation; his madness manifests as him turning into a dog, an image that works very well both in terms of artistry and as a way to show Deogratias madness through visual representation. Stassen also uses a repetitive panel of the Rwandan sky with an area of empty white space beneath it as punctuation and a refrain, which keeps the pace of the book on tempo--it's highly formalized, but in a very organic way.

Like all the First Second books that I have seen, Deogratias is a very well-designed book. In a way, their line realizes the potential of the space where comics publishing and traditional book publishing meet. The cover takes the recurring starry night panel from the book, and adds a foreground image of a cowering Deogratias, whose body language suggests his canine self-image. He and the rest of the foreground are printed more glossy than the background, which provides even more contrast, and the effect of dark-on-dark tones makes his reddish eyes more pronounced. Really, what's most striking is how dark the whole cover is--at first, or on a casual glance, the whole cover looks muddled and dark, but just as it takes a moment for eyes to adjust in a dark room, it takes a moment to adjust to the cover to see that there is a lot of detail in what initially looks like shadow.

Deogratias isn't a comfortable book. If there's comfort food (the kind that sticks to the ribs and fills the body with warmth), there's comfort reading. And if there's comfort reading, then this book might be considered discomfort reading--it sticks to the ribs, sure, and it satisfies, but it provokes contemplative uneasiness and demands that the reader takes his or her time to digest everything. While Deogratias might not be a comfortable, lazy Sunday book, it is satisfying because it is emotionally resonant without being emotionally manipulative. It won't tell the reader what to feel, but it should provoke an honest reaction. It's a book worth sharing with readers of all kinds: NPR junkies, people who appreciate the craft of comics creation, and people that want to read works that not only provoke contemplation, but demand it.

I'm not dead--I just feel as if I were. If I don't post at least one review by Sunday, feel free to drag me over the proverbial coals (or go on ignoring this space).

In any case, two comics-related things that caught my eye:

• David P. Welsh always kicks ass, but his latest Flipped is extra fabulous. In it, he talks with :01 translator Alexis Siegel. No pull quotes--just go read it.

• Normally, I just delete or ignore most comics-related e-mails of the hype variety I receive--almost always, it's something that's awful, something I'm not interested in, or stuff that I've seen posted elsewhere (which shouldn't be surprising, considering the frequency of posting around here as of late). However, I think the one I received this morning is worth sharing with others. Dirk Schwieger, a German cartoonist currently living in Tokyo, started an interactive comics blog, where the content is dictated by reader questions/requests. At the time of posting, he's done about fourteen comics on various topics, and they're rather good. His first post explains, in comics form, how to get interactive with the blog.

There's a new blog out there with a lofty mission statement: saving independent comics. Started by aspiring comic book creator Jason Berek-Lewis, Independents' Day is setting itself up to be a pooling place for ideas and a place where other like-minded fans, publishers and creators can come together to fight the good fight, as it were.

Or, in other words, Team Comics is popping back up again.

Three years ago, I'd have been all about this. I wanted to save comics, man. Maybe I wasn't passionate enough to leave comics on the subway, or anything like that (and, well, there aren't subways here, exactly--plus, that would mean spending money, and I'm cheap), but I was going to start small, like buying family members comics for Christmas and the like. Woo, comics! Since I didn't want to really spend any money of my own, I thought I'd suggest that other people do it with their money. Again--Woo, comics!

In some respects, I'm still like this. Over time, though, I became a little less pushy about it. Someone wants a recommendation for something new to try? I'm taking Brandon Hanvey's advice, and trying to figure out what might appeal to them. Comics come up in a conversation? Sure, I'll jump in (I've yet to find a conversation about anything I won't jump into--again, I'm a rather obnoxious fellow). I still buy my wife comics from time to time, but they're stuff she likes, like the Russ Cochran EC library editions.

Anything past that, though? I can't commit anymore. Maybe it's getting older. Maybe it's losing passion. Maybe it's my slow slide towards cynical entropy. Maybe Tom Spurgeon, bad influence that he is, helped me decide that I don't have to support a comic book just because it is self-published or from a small press when he wrote about the "Team Comics" mentality in The Comics Journal #250.

Or, taking it more in the glass half-full way, maybe it's because I am seeing success stories--books like Black Hole doing well in the bookstore trade and at certain comics shops; NPR features on Persepolis, R. Crumb and Dan Clowes; seeing First Second ads in almost every Publisher's Weekly newsletter I get (and not just the comics-related ones); films like A History of Violence and the upcoming Art School Confidential that show others are getting hip to the idea that "comics" doesn't necessarily mean "superheroes," even if the vox populi of online fandom doesn't voice it; manga and graphic novels becoming a major force in mainstream publishing (even if some still maintain that manga isn't comics, for whatever reason).

I know I'm skewing my "yays" towards things I like, but that's a bias I can't hide from--the successes and failures of companies like CrossGen, Dreamwave, Speakeasy and Alias make interesting talking points for me, but they're not things I invest in. That could be what's getting in my way of fully embracing the Independents' Day idea--companies like the ones just mentioned aren't the ones I'm thinking can "save" an industry. They're a dime a dozen--people dreaming of "making it big," or whatever, but going about it without any solid business plan. And, like the hydra of myth, each time one of these heads gets cut off, another one takes its place--Johanna Draper Carlson has a great rebuttal of Open Book Press's press release inviting displaced Speakeasy creators to join their stable.

Here's where I get hopeful again--I think the creators and books that are facing hardships resulting from Speakeasy's demise will get things worked out in the long run. I'm think we'll see Matt Maxwell's Strangeways eventually, whether it's from another company or done on his own (an interview conducted with Maxwell before the fall of Speakeasy was just published at Broken Frontier). I don't doubt that Elk's Run will bounce back from this, if only because of the devotion and drive of Joshua Hail Fialkov and Jason Rodriguez. It won't be easy for any of the people involved, and Speakeasy closing is certainly a setback that I don't mean to downplay, but if the drive is there (and, more important, if the quality is there), then the books will make it to the hands of people who want to read them.

In the opening post of the Independents' Day blog, Berek-Lewis points to Speakeasy's demise differently than I would, using it as the rallying point for the blog:

Speakeasy is not the first well-meaning independent to bite the dust. Unfortunately, we are reading about this all too often. We can stick our head in the sand, as a lot of people do, or we can stand up and do something about it.

I'm not sure what fans really can do about it, particularly with so many companies shooting themselves in their corporate feet. Speakeasy made some of the same mistakes other upstart publishers have done in the past (expanding too quickly, waiting for investments that never materialize, and other counting-chickens-before-they-hatchisms)--simply because they "meant well" doesn't mean that they should be supported as a company. If anything, that should be the lesson publishers and creators take from Speakeasy--just because you really love the medium doesn't mean you can expect to succeed in it, as it takes more than just good intentions. For all my complaints about the business practices and shenanigans of Alias, Berek-Lewis points out their saving grace, and examples from other publishers in the same vein:

There are a number of strategies smaller studios can pursue. Alias Enterprises, for example, through its Community Comics, seeks out religious audiences. Other studios pursue online sales. The Dabel Brothers seek to produce adaptations of fantasy properties with existing fan bases [...] Other companies build awareness and loyalty through viral marketing, using tools such as newsletters, posting on message boards and fan street teams.

I'm obviously not the market for Community Comics, but that's the one thing I can say I respect about Alias--that they're going after new markets, rather than simply hoping to cannabilize the current crop of superhero fans. That's another point where Berek-Lewis's approach differs from mine--instead of a system where publishers are "all still fighting for pieces of the same pie," I wouldn't suggest making the pie bigger. Instead, I'd say, "hey, this pie is nice, but not everyone likes this one pie, and there isn't enough of this one pie to go around. Let's make different pies for people who don't like this pie, and both pies can sell at bakeries and supermarkets and other pie providers," to really torture his metaphor. Judging by some of the websites of the studios supporting Independents' Day, though, I can't help but think they really want to be in that massive first pie, and I don't mean in terms of market share--they seem to be the types that Matt Maxwell admonishes in the interview linked above that are willing to "give [their own ideas] up so that you can get yourself on a Superman or Spider-Man book." While it's been said that producing a comic is the best way to get the major superhero publishers to notice an aspiring creator's work, it doesn't mean that people will necessarily enjoy, embrace, or purchase someone's resume-comic, though--I wish that instead of thinking three steps ahead, more aspiring creators would temper the strength of their desire with a commitment to craft and a better, more realistic sense of the business side of comics publishing. Instead of self-publishers and creators hitching their hopes on fans to save their comics, I'd like to see them take a more proactive approach--while I don't think all of the ideas The Hive, a forum/column run by Jason Rodriquez, are golden, I appreciate the level of thought and determination his band of comics creators are bringing to the comics internet--plus, the discussion goes deeper than "how do I break in?" and focuses on "how can I make the format work for me, and how can I market it, and how can I plan it from a business perspective, and..."--certainly more refreshing and valuable than a bunch of "we're all in this together, yay!" self-help. The same can be said of the conversations that happen at The Engine; I've never registered there, but it often makes for interesting, thought-provoking reading on comics creation.

The blog also has ideas for fans who want to do their part. I cocked my eyebrow at the suggestion that fans should "give up your copy of Teen Titans and New X-Men and consider instead Femforce, Hero Squared, GI Joe: America's Elite or Starship Troopers: Blaze Of Glory." While the snobby-snob in me snickered at the choices ("Hey, look! Buck the superhero hedgemony by buying more superhero comics or comics very similar to superhero comics!"), I took more of an issue with asking people to give up one thing in place of another--it smacks of desperation to me. Other things I can certainly get behind--suggesting comics to people, for one. Berek-Lewis got my wallet's attention with his suggestion to "set up comic swaps. Arrange for you and a friend to buy a different indy book, one you wouldn’t usually try, and after you have finished with it, swap. You could get lucky, with both of you discovering a previously hidden gem."

For the proactive fan, I do think the idea behind Independents' Day is a relatively solid one, despite the quibbles I have with some of the ideas presented. What I'd suggest to anyone, though, is that you should skew your "yays" to what you like. Be open to new things, absolutely--on that, I agree with Berek-Lewis--but I wouldn't suggest that anyone should feel obligated to do anything beyond what he or she is comfortable with as a consumer and as a fan. And, if Independents' Day falls into your "yay" category, do what you can to support them. If not, though, don't feel bad about it--we can be grumpy-pantses together.