November 15, 2006 Johanna IDW / Top Shelf Leave a comment

Alec: How to Be an Artist

Eddie Campbell has been cartooning for a long time, and in Alec: How to Be an Artist, he shares his wisdom about the field in an autobiographical ramble through his career. Campbell constructs his pages around a nine-panel grid, only without borders. His art is spare, as though dashed off in a pen-and-ink sketch, but such apparent carelessness only comes with decades of experience. The narration sounds as though it’s slightly removed from events, as suits a jaded look back, […]

November 15, 2006 Johanna Comic News One comment

Essential Reading for Young Creators

One: Responding to Negative Reviews Kevin Church, blogger and comic writer, tells you how to react to negative reviews (link no longer available). I like this so much, I’m thinking of adding to my form response to “will you review my book?” “Only if you’ve read this.” Here’s the rundown, but his site has a lot more explanation: Your LiveJournal “friends list” does not necessarily reflect the taste of the general reading public. When a reviewer does not like your […]

November 14, 2006 Johanna Art Leave a comment

The Atom Drives Batman

Sometimes it seems as though everyone’s doing supposedly funny write-ups of old comics, but Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog really wins the blue ribbon with his takedown of The Brave and the Bold #115, “the story where the Atom reanimates Batman’s corpse so that he can fight crime from beyond the grave.” …and that’s when the Atom shrinks down, hops into Batman’s ear canal, pauses just long enough to drop some knowledge on the kids by explaining how the ear works, and […]

November 14, 2006 Johanna Other Publishers One comment

Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank

Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio is a fun “gaslamp fantasy” starring a young woman just discovering her abilities. The first volume, Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank, establishes the setting and characters for the ongoing steampunk adventure series. Agatha’s world is one of mad science, run by privileged nobles who display the Spark needed to work steam-powered technological magic. She’s a lowly lab assistant in this Cinderella story. No one, including herself, yet suspects that she possess the […]

November 13, 2006 Johanna Tokyopop Manga Reviews 2 comments

Dramacon Volume 2

As promised at the end of the first book, it’s a year later, and Christie’s back at the anime convention in Dramacon volume 2. She’s still writing her comic, but her new artist, Bethany, is a lot easier to get along with. (The former artist and boyfriend has been dumped.) This year it’s Bethany’s first time at the show, and Christie’s a lot more comfortable with the atmosphere. Christie’s also seeing more realistically. The professional creator who encouraged her so […]

November 13, 2006 Johanna Other Publishers One comment

Beanworld

There’s never been anything in comics like Larry Marder’s Beanworld, before or since, and although the last collection came out in 1999, it’s still very much missed. Marder combined his original symbology with elements of Native American myth, the influence of Marcel Duchamp, and thoughts on ecology, community, and the nature of art. There wasn’t always a story so much as an exploration of some sort of philosophy, and much of it remains unexplained. That might be why it’s still […]

November 11, 2006 Johanna Television Reviews One comment

Teen Titans Season 2

I liked the first season of Teen Titans well enough that I rushed into the second. That was probably a mistake. The first episode, “How Long Is Forever?”, pits the Titans against a time-traveling thief, resulting in a surprisingly elegiac and overall depressing entry about losing friends and the ravages of time. Cyborg is particularly damaged, tethered to the tower due to his technology becoming obsolete. Beast Boy is fat, bald, and caged in a circus. Raven is utterly alone. […]

November 10, 2006 Johanna Other Leave a comment

Reviewing Serialized Chapters

A comment in response to my review of Mail Order Ninja brought up an interesting point I wanted to draw more attention to. MON Book 1 is only the beginning of a series, as I noted in the review. However, I reviewed it as a single element, because that was the package I was given. A reader responded “you seem to have an inability to recognize the inertia of character arcs”, telling me I should have more faith in the […]

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