Sim's Secret Project 1 unveiled

In May, Dave Sim will release what he's been up until now calling Secret Project 1. This book, called Judenhass (German term for Jew hatred), is about the Holocaust. Judenhass will be 56 pages long and sell for $4.00. Sim will keep Judenhass in print as he wanted to have an affordable book about the Holocaust available that schools or anyone could buy. I'll be donating all of my sales of Judenhass to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. www.ushmm.org/.

Dave Sim selected the name Judenhass as the title for his Holocaust book because that's what the Holocaust was: the ultimate in Jewish hatred. Lou Copeland, volunteered his time and services to create www.judenhass.com, a website that people can go to for more information on Dave Sim's Judenhass. I highly recommend visiting the site as it has a preview section, a making of section (also click on www.glamourpusscomic.com and then click on making of glamourpuss for a utterly fascinating YouTube 5 minute video of how Sim does his art these days), there's also a great letter from Jean Shuster Peavy (Superman co-creater, Joe Shuster's sister) that she sent after she read the copy of Judenhass that Dave Sim had sent her. Neil Gaiman wrote Dave Sim that Judenhass made him cry. Dave Sim has only now unveiled what Secret Project 1 is so as not to trivalize the Holocaust and certainly anyone who looks at the preview pages will agree that the book will speak for itself and that Sim doesn't need to parade it around like he's doing with glamourpuss (again I'd like to say I enjoyed glamourpuss and urge everyone to look at the preview copy I have at the store).

I have a special interest in Judenhass, because as I've mentioned a couple of times here on this blog before, I think the Holocaust is a time in history that should never be forgotten. Stories from the Holocaust are amongst the most powerful examples of man's capacity for hatred, how this hatred has effected millions of lives, and how people survived (and sadly didn't survive) this hatred.

New Frontier!

No spoilers following: JLA New Frontier, based on the comic series New Frontier by writer / artist Darwyn Cooke, was released today and having just watched it, I can say with no reservations that it is GEEKTASTIC! All the bells and whistles (use of super powers and fight scenes) are present, but with JLA: New Frontier, there's also a story with substance and a lot of heart. This newest animated feature from Warner Brothers and DC will click with people unfamiliar with the comic upon which it's based and for those who have read the comic, they'll be cheering because even though there's differences from the original story, all the right notes are hit. The animation is top notch, the voices are great, and basically all around a viewer can tell that this was done with great respect for Darwyn Cooke's story. There are a lot of special features including two audio commentary tracks (one by Darwyn Cooke, which I'm especially eager to listen to) and a preview for Warner Brothers / DC's next animated feature that comes out this summer, Batman Gotham Nights, which is a collection of short Batman stories in different animated styles like the Animatrix from a few years ago (I haven't watched any of the special features yet).

New Frontier originally came out as a six issue, 64 page comic series, which has since been released as two graphic novels or as one huge, over-sized, expensive Absolute edition (and I think it's the best of all the Absolute editions that DC has done). JLA: New Frontier is rated PG-13 (nothing real overt, but it does earn its rating) and I was pleasantly surprised that within its 75 minute running time, that they were able to encompass so much of what Cooke did in the original comic.

Brunetti does Vegas!

In what is sure to put Vegas on the map as the city that brings the love to alternative comic book artists, this week everyone who walks or drives the streets of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street will see fifty huge banners featuring the art of Ivan Brunetti presenting, Thirst: Aerial Gallery. Brunetti will be giving a lecture at UNLV at the Alta Ham Fine Arts Building Room 357 Wednesday, February 27th at 5:30pm. The project dedication, officiated by Mayor Goodman, will be held Thursday, February 28th at 4pm on Las Vegas Blvd and Fremont Street. An artist reception will follow the dedication from 4:30-7:30pm at the Downtown Cocktail Room (111 Las Vegas Blvd. South). All of these events are free so if anyone reading this is able to go (and bring friends!), I'd highly recommend doing so because this is a really big deal and support of this will make people take notice that Vegas is serious about art. The theme of the Thirst art banners is how water and or the need to drink interconnects everything.

For those unfamiliar with Ivan Brunetti as a cartoonist, he's mostly known as the creator of the comic Schizo (four issues), which is one of the best examples of an artist barring their nihilistic soul that you'll ever read. The first three issues are collected in a hardcover titled Misery Loves Comedy. While Brunetti isn't as self-deprectiating or as negative as he was in his first three issues of Schizo (or Haw!, which is a collection of single panel cartoons so demented that you have to be very careful whom you share them with), his comic book work is very self aware (maybe too much so, but he's able to substain all of his long diatribes without being boring and does so by using very different art styles that are all very refined and distinctive) and often has intellectual groundings. Brunetti's early Schizo is especially depressing, but it's done in very humourously (and often very adult) that leaves the reader feeling very sad for him while laughing at full tilt at the same time.

Michael Ogilvie, the project coordinator, was the person who contacted Ivan Brunetti and suggested he enter the competion of 35 artists that were vying to be selected and again, I want to express what a big coop this is for the city of Las Vegas, alternative comics, and Ivan. Local art critic, Jarret Keene, has a piece about Ivan Brunetti and Thirst: Aerial Gallery, in this week's CityLife (the February 21-27th issue, on page 41) available free throughout town or go to: www.lvcitylife.com and scroll down and click on the Art Splashes Of Ink link.

Will Eisner

So I'm reading the continuing adventures of Dave Sim hopping around messageboards today and he mentions that today is Will Eisner's birthday. Actually Eisner's birthday is March 6th and Dave Sim had gotten the date wrong because one year on February 22nd, he had attended a surprise birthday party for Will Eisner. Anyway, I hadn't read any Will Eisner in a while so I headed over to my book shelf.

My favorite graphic novel by Will Eisner is The Dreamer which he wrote and drew in 1986. The Dreamer is an autobiography of sorts by Eisner about the early creation of comic books in the 1930's in the U.S. (I say it's an autobiography of sorts because the names of people involved in the events written about have been changed and some of the timeline of events has been compressed). This is my favorite of Eisner's graphic novels because of my interest in the behind the scenes aspects of this medium and Will Eisner, being that he was there at the dawn of American comic books as a creator, writer, artist, and studio of artists owner, definitely knows about what went on behind the curtain.

Will Eisner is most known for creating, writing, and drawing The Spirit for over thirty years (DC has a marvelous 24 volume hardcover collection of all of The Spirit and they have a softcover best of The Spirit for those that want to sample the greatness that is The Spirit). When The Spirit originally appeared, it did so in seven or eight page weekly installments as inserts in the Sunday comic strips. The Spirit was Will Eisner's forum for exploring what could be done within this medium and his innovations has made The Spirit a timeless creation.

Starting in the 1970's Will Eisner's comic work took the form of graphic novels (his A Contract With God is considered by many as the first U.S. graphic novel). Eisner's graphic novels were largely people on the street stories, and were amongst the first to show readers that comic books didn't have to have characters in colorfull outfits to be dramastic, powerful stories. Will Eisner was still creating, writing, and drawing comics until his death at the age of 87, January, 2005.

The first Eisner book I bought was in 1975, called Will Eisner's Gleeful Guide: How To Avoid Death & Taxes...and live forever. Eisner did several Gleeful Guide volumes in the 1970's (with titles such as Occult Cookery and Communicating With Plants), that were not really sequential art productions, rather they featured many illustrations by Eisner that would accompany facts and humor about the book's topics. I bought How to Avoid Death... when I first started to buy comics regularly not because I was a big Eisner fan then (I hadn't even heard of him at that point), I picked it up because his illustrations had a great Mad magazine appeal for me (and because at the time I bought anything that looked even remotely like a comic).

Years ago at the San Diego comic-con, I got to thank Will Eisner for all the enjoyment his creations have provided me and my friend, Joel, even has video tape footage of me standing between Will Eisner and Jack Kirby. I wish I had gotten How To Avoid Death.. signed, now that I think about that.

Scott Pilgrim

Scott Pilgrim is a four volume graphic novel series (in the manga sized format that the kids love so much) created, written, and drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I read the first two volumes when they first came out and started to read volume three when it orignially came out, but I kept selling out of it before I'd remember to put one aside. So yesterday (and some of this morning) I read all four and now I really know why this series is so popular.
Scott Pilgrim is the central character in the Scott Pilgrim books, but the books are full of great characters and reading Scott Pilgrim makes me wish I had the kind of care-free lifestyle that Scott has when I was that age. Scott plays in a band, is cool in a not overt way and has gals flocking all over him. Scott Pilgrim isn't filled with teenage angst, is very kinetic (both in art style and scene transitions), and funny and clever without being annoying. I did think volume two (subtitled: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) wasn't as good as the other three but there's still some great stuff within. Scott Pilgrim volume three is my favorite (I love the subtitle: The Infinite Sadness) with the introduction of Todd Ingram, the sometimes vegan (explaining what I mean by him being a sometimes vegan would spoil some of the funniest bits in this volume). Scott Pilgrim is a perfect chaser after reading "serious" autobiographical comics or grim and gritty superhero comics.

A Valentine's Day thought

"Love between two people is beautiful, love between seven people is amazing!" I heard this on CBC Radio 3 (a Canadian radio station) today.

glamourpuss preview!

Yesterday when I got back to the store after being away for four days, I was happy to see that I got one of the 200 gold certificate copies of glamourpuss (yes, glamourpuss isn't capitalized) signed by Dave Sim himself! Even though all comic stores will get the preview copy tomorrow to show people, I'm aways happy to be the first on my block to read something.

So now, having read the entire issue, I'll ask again: Who is the audience for glamourpuss? Well the easy answer is people who like to look at gorgeous illustrations of women dressed to the nines in striking poses. The audience is also those who want to read Dave Sim discuss photo realistic comic book artists like Alex Raymond, Al Williamson, and Neal Adams. And on a lesser level, glamourpuss is for people who like a somewhat subdued satire of the fashion industry.

I'm definitely in this audience subset, but I think I'm going to be in the minority of who Dave Sim is going for as his audience at large. People who like to read and watch Sim emulate photo realistic comic book artists are I think a very niche group of people (mostly men, especially as the artists he's talking about are from yesteryear). I think all of the artists that Dave is talking about in glamourpuss #1 are great and I hope that this book will have those unfamiliar with them, seeking them out, but I'm not too sure that's a likely scenario.

I also don't think that people who like to look at fashion magazines will be too interested in glamourpuss because that's a small part of the book (other than the surface visuals) and anyone who wants to see Sim satire this industry will be mostly disappointed as he seems to be retraining his usual sharp wit seemingly to not offend too much anyone who picks up glamourpuss who actually likes what the fashion industry represents. And anyone who thinks that there will be a female audience for this book hasn't read the last two pages featuring Skank-O's (I think firstly the name of that character is very groan inducing) 5 Signs You've Found Mr. Rigfht! I actually thought those pages were the weakest part of the entire issue and while I understand what Sim is going for with these two pages, I especially don't think they'll click with a female audience. glamourpuss is not a title with a narrative, doesn't have charactrs that look like they'll be involved in any plot (Dave Sim comes out and says right away that this will not be a story driven book) or progressions, but while this doesn't bother me in the slightest and I'm very fascinated with what Sim is doing here (and I'm especially glad that glamourpuss doesn't have anything to do with the bible or religion), again I think that a lot of people that look at this and read this will be very puzzled.

I'll be ordering this and displaying glamourpuss in areas of my store that offer maximum exposure to potential customers line of sight and I hope that Sim's sales will be such that he actually finishes all 20-25 issues because I want to see where this goes. I also of course want to be proven wrong as to whom I think the audience is because Sim is a brilliant cartoonist and he's very committed to his projects (with excellent outreach thus far). And I know what his Secret Project One is (he'll be announcing that the first week in March) and I really really want to read that (and knowing what the subject matter is, I believe that this upcoming book will even give the Sim detracters pause - sorry I can't talk about it and sorry to be a comic tease). Next time those reading this are in the neighborhood of my store, please ask to look at glamourpuss.