AnimeVegas this weekend

The 4th annual AnimeVegas will be this Labor Day weekend (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). I've attended (and have had a booth) the previous three years (I'll have one this year also so stop by and say hi!) and it's always a fun time. The guest of honor this year is Yoko Ishida, who has recorded theme songs for many anime shows as well as doing voice work. There'll be a performance by Yoko Ishida as well as a signing afterwards. As with previous AnimeVegas' there'll be other voice actors, j-pop performers, and various dealers selling all of the anime things you NEED (ha - but seriously, the Japanese are the kings of cute!). There's also all day and night anime screenings (two new animes I'd recommend are Beck and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzuniya), cosplay (people who dress up as their favorite characters), and a variety of panels featuring guests and events such as Japanese bingo, a dating Sim demo, and charity auctions.

Both of the photos here are from AnimeVegas 2006.






For more info go to: www.animevegas.com

Jack Kirby!!!

Jack Kirby would have been 90 years old today. Kirby died February 6, 1994. I remember first reading about his death in USA Today. I was sad and in shock because I thought if anyone would have lived until at least 100 years old, it would have been Jack Kirby. It's hard to imagine what the American comic landscape would look like if Kirby hadn't made such a huge imprint on this medium. This photo shows two covers of The Jack Kirby Collector, a magazine devoted to the art of Jack Kirby and these two images are great examples of the power and dynamism of Kirby's art.

Head over to www.povonline.com, Mark Evainer's website, click on "News From Me" and scroll down until you get to Mark's Tuesday (August 28th) post titled "Jack Kirby". Mark Evainer was a long time friend and collaborator of Jack Kirby and is the foremost authority on everything Kirby related. Evainer has two Kirby biographies coming out, with the first one called Kirby: King Of Comics arriving in stores in October.

This page of original art is from Jack Kirby's Black Panther from about 1977. The year that I was looking to buy an original Jack Kirby art page at the San Diego convention (I think that was 1997 or 1998) I was looking for something from his DC Fourth World titles (such as Mr. Miracle, New Gods, Forever People, etc.), but I wasn't having any luck with that search. I was happy though to find this Black Panther page though because it captured what I was looking for. Basically I was looking for a dynamic page from a title that Kirby both wrote and drew and that was inked by Mike Royer. While I enjoy the many styles and inking that Jack Kirby's art encompassed, my favorite Kirby era was his 1970's period when his art was really blocky and primarily inked by Mike Royer. Every panel exudes so much power even when the characters are just standing around talking. I think that one of the main reasons that Kirby was so prolific (besides the fact that even top artists of his day didn't get great page rates or royalties) was because his imagination was just screaming to be unleashed!

I'm going to call September (since August is almost over) at my store (Alternate Reality Comics in Las Vegas, of course) Jack Kirby month and for everyone who reads this, comes to my store, and mentions Ich Liebe Comics and Jack Kirby, for the month of September they'll get 25% off any book that Kirby wrote and or drew (including the Marvel Essential volumes, Jack Kirby Collector, Silver Star, and the Fourth World Omnibus).

Bendis/Mack circa 1995!

This is Brian Michael Bendis holding a book called Jinx that he had something to do with. Seriously though in 1995, way back when the internet as we know it today barely had its training wheels on and I had just started up my store, Bendis, David Mack, Greg Horn, and James Hudnall were doing their Caliber tour and I was lucky enough to host them. Note the uber cool Love and Rockets shirt Bendis is wearing!

I'll always fondly remember that signing because I got to have both Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack as my first signing guests.


Here we see Bendis doing his Wolvie pose, foreshadowing a character he wouldn't write until years later. David Mack is of course to the right of Bendis probably wishing he wasn't next to the fashion victim that is me in the white t-shirt. Greg Horn is in the red shirt (and he didn't even die afterwards!) and James Hudnall is on the left of Bendis. We had just finished eating at this submarine themed restaurant (I think it was called Dive!) that no longer exists on the Las Vegas Strip.

John Stamos is Preacher!

Garth Ennis at the 1996 San Diego Comic-Con with the Preacher action figure I made for him out of a John Stamos (actor from tv's Full House) doll I bought at a Toys R Us. The pants are from a Skipper doll (and thus don't button up in the back because Jesse has a bigger ass than Skipper) and the shirt was air brushed black by my friend Jim who owns Cosmic Comics here in Vegas. Kate and I, with a marker, stubbled up his face (the John Stamos doll, not Garth's) and reddened up his eyes.
Before giving my homemade Preacher action figure to Garth (and I made this figure well before Vertigo made theirs), one early morning before leaving Vegas for the convention I went to a local church to pose the Preacher doll next to their statue of St. Viator (I hadn't thought of what I would have done if a church official had come out while I was doing that!). I wonder if Garth still has his John Stamos Preacher action figure?

Jim Rugg owns the pencil!

This awesome illo is by Jim Rugg, artist of The Plain Janes (someone commissioned this piece fom him of the Janes as the JLA) and writer / artist of Street Angel.

Another commission Jim Rugg did featuring Aquaman, of course. He's got some other great pieces on his live journal at:


http://jimrugg.livejournal.com/ I'm not sure if he's still doing commissions, but I'd guess that if a person headed over to his live journal and asked him, he'd let you know (as well as what the price would be). I'm going to see if he's up to doing a Promethea commission for me.

Everyone needs to fire off a letter or email to DC letting them know that an Aquaman prestige format book by Jim Rugg would be a highwater (let the groans commence!) mark for the character!

Mark Twain liebe comics!

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." - Samuel Clemens

Chance In Hell is Gilbert Hernadez's (of Love and Rockets fame) newest graphic novel and if you've never read anything by Gilbert Hernandez, this is a good book to sample. His storytelling style is probably best described as a cross between David Lynch and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After experiencing a Gilbert Hernandez comic you'll see why he's considered an alternative comics pioneer.

Initial D is just a really good manga (drawn in a very atypical style for manga) about street racing, specifically mountain street racing (also called drifting). The main character is Tak, who started off as a tofu delivery driver (seriously this isn't as wonky as it sounds) and he's hard to beat when he's in his Eight Six. While Initial D is mostly about racing and cars (and heavily researched racing and cars at that), it also has a great cast of regular characters. Initial D is very kinetic and at twenty seven volumes already it's still very engaging and I always look forward to a new volume even though prior to reading this manga I had no interest in any kind of car races. There's also a very good Initial D anime (the manga goes beyond the anime) and there's a live action movie, but I haven't seen that.

The Black Canary mini series which wrapped up this week was really entertaining on all fronts and I'm looking forward to the Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special as well as the series they'll share together later this year. Booster Gold was also a pleasant surprise as I've never been a huge Booster Gold fan or fan of time travel stories. This could be one of the sleeper hits of the year.

Hellblazer has really picked up for me with the addition of Andy Diggle writing this book and Leonardo Maco's art is perfect for this title. With issue six of The Brave and the Bold, Mark Waid and George Perez deliver another solid comic that harkens back to the way comic books read and looked from yesteryear without being clunky or feeling dated.

I wonder what Mark Twain's favorite comics would be?

Good As Derek Kirk Kim

The newest Minx graphic novel came out this week and it's one of the best books I've read recently (my other favorite Minx title is Plain Janes). I've liked Derek Kirk Kim after reading his other great graphic novel Same Difference and Other Stories which came out in 2003 that he wrote and drew. When I first heard about Good As Lily I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be as good as Same Difference because Kim wasn't drawing it, but somehow they've found a clone of Kim named Jesse Hamm who really does a bang up job on the art (seriously it is eerie though how similar his style is to Kim's).

The Minx line from DC was mainly created to attract more of a female audience, but of course that doesn't mean that guys won't like books like Good As Lily or Plain Janes unless they need all of their entertinment to have lots of explosions, slugfests, or other testosterone elements. Good As Lily has great characters that are instantly likeable and grow within the story. I don't want to talk much about the premise of Good As Lily because it's better through self discovery, but the situations that arise from the premise lead to some really good humor bits and good quite moments.