Cold Slither Reunites With Power Ballad, All-Star Line-Up!

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

They've certainly improved with age...

Domo Arigato, Mr Robo Comico

It's not easy to promote indie comics, or at least it's not easy to get anyone to listen or respond to that promotion. And back when I was cold-calling retailers and e-blasting the hell out of various comic review websites for Division 18, the response was so small on both counts that we could only put out one printed issue through Silent Devil. It was actually cheaper for us to just put the next two issues online for free than it would have been to self-publish them. And now the book is in a strange limbo where we want to keep it going--and, in fact, we are keeping it going in small doses, like in the upcoming Dremo's Taphouse book--but question whether there's enough interest from readers to bother.

But that sad tale leads to some pretty cool news for someone else. One of the bright spots during the mostly failed promotion of D18 was the enthusiastic support we got from one reviewer, Dave Baxter, at a site called Broken Frontier. (Sadly, those reviews have since been lost after a recent BF redesign.) We joked that he was our #1 (and only) fan--which was probably not far from the truth--and would include links to his hyperbolic praise for our comic every chance we got.

Well, Dave has moved on to bigger and better things. And not even just something moderately better, like writing his own comics or starting his own personal review site. No, Dave (with his partner Hermes Pique) is in the process of revolutionizing the whole damn comic industry with his made-for-mobile comics company, Robot Comics!



Robot Comics isn't the only company taking part in revolutionizing comics, but it is nice to see that it is at the forefront of the paradigm shift, as evidenced by their inclusion in a story about "The Future of Pulp" on CNN.com today.

I'm not yet convinced that I would ever be comfortable or interested in reading my weekly pull of comics on a computer screen, Kindle, or some other handheld device, but there is a whole new generation of potential comic readers who live and die by the tiny gadgets they carry around, and have a psychic aversion to paper--so this sort of initiative is what is going to keep the industry alive. Plus, consider my sorry song about indie comic struggles, where it was more cost effective to give our hard work away for free because printing costs are so high. If we had something like Robot Comics back on 2006-07, it would have saved us a lot of headache and heartbreak and given you a lot more D18. Robot Comics may very well become the next home for D18, if we can hunker down and adapt our made-for-print pages into something compatible with new technologies.

So, congratulations to Dave, our #1 fan and one of the new heroes of comics! Hopefully, he'll get to see more of the book he loved, in a whole new context.

UK Artists Compete At Corruption

I don't know if I even have any UK readers, but this is the World Wide Web. I recieved a PR e-mail about this comic competition and love the artwork on the e-flyer, so...

Click the pic to enbiggen.

Also, since it is not exactly easy to read, here are the contest details (for UK residents only, you wankers!):

Entrants to the competition will be in with the chance to create a unique comic style story in collaboration with acclaimed musician and writer Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion. After the first round of judging at the end of September, shortlisted entrants will be given Lightspeed Champion's comic script as inspiration and asked to create a visual adaptation of the story. The winning commission will be published in a comic alongside new work exploring the issue of Corruption by some of comic’s greatest talents. The work will also be showcased as part of a new exhibition, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, later this year at Lazarides Gallery, Soho.

To enter the competition, please send examples of your visual work (for example sketches, comic strips, animations etc...) along with your contact details, to comiccomp@ctrlaltshift.co.uk by Friday 25th September.

Five shortlisted artists will then be given a comic brief to respond to and a winner chosen by a panel of judges including: Marjane Satrapi (Writer and Director of Academy Award Nominated Animated Film Persepolis) Paul Gravett (Comica founder), V V Brown and David Allain (Musician and Comic Book Writer/Artist duo), Lightspeed Champion and Ctrl.Alt.Shift. The competition is restricted to UK Residents only.

Knowing Is Half The Battle

It always surprises me when I talk with my real, non-Internet-based, flesh-and-blood friends and family--about comics, TV, movies, and all the other pop culture nonsense that I enjoy so much--that they don't know all of the far-out minutia, behind-the-scenes news, and secret spoilers that I do.

Sure, the Internet people are all plugged into the same sources, all day and night, and usually tripping over themselves (ourselves, really) to outscoop the rest by posting links and opinions on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else one does that sort of thing. But Average Jane and Average Joe, with their healthy social lives and Vitamin D counts, who have put the childish things behind them, except for the occasional Saturday night at the movies...they haven't got a clue, and it blows my mind.

I don't expect everyone to know everything, because I sure don't. But this is the fun stuff here! I just feel bad that, with all the technology and geeks like me linking to the stuff left and right, that there's still anyone out there who's out of touch with my good time. Seriously--there are people who don't even realize companies still print comics, let alone have any clue what is going on inside of them. They don't have obsessively thought out opinions on the casting of Thor and Captain America, the destinies of The Losties, or the release schedule for Harry Potter movies. They hear old rumors and swear by them, or get the facts so mixed up that they become false ("Hey Matt, are you excited about that Justice League movie they're filming now?" [They're not.]). They download fan-made trailers from YouTube and think they're the real deal ("I can't wait for that Thundercats movie, Matt!" [That's fake.]). It's like dealing with a foreigner or an alien species.

This stuff is just in my head at this point, and I can't wrap that junk-loaded mind of mine around the idea that it isn't in theirs.

But it isn't fair of me to judge. When I'm not at home convalescing, I spend a solid 40-50 hours a week sitting in front of a computer at work. That is a lot of time to surf the handful of sites where I go to feed my brain. But I want to do some good in the world and help these less-fortunate souls. I want to bring them into the loop. If not for them, then for me--because when they don't know, they don't care, and if they don't care, I am forced to talk about real stuff, like religion or politics, instead, and that is just no fun at all.

What better way to help these poor fools gain the knowledge they need than by sharing with them my own sources for geeky information? These are the sites I go to at least once a day, usually way more often than that, to find out what's the what:

TWITTER -- Forget about all the "everybody's doing it" peer pressure or the fact that reading people droning on about every mundane activity is only a notch below jamming a stick in your eye. The bottom line with Twitter is that, if you follow the right people (ie, celebrities you like, bloggers you trust) and pay attention to the always updating list of "Trending Topics," you will start each day with an overload of information about what is going on in the world around you.

BUZZFEED -- If you like your popular trends with a little lag time and after vetting by a collective of hipsters, you'll like Buzzfeed. The site basically just posts videos, images, and topics that happen to be making the rounds on the web each day. So instead of waiting for your mom to forward you that viral video next month, you can see it here, while it is still a conversation piece. Aggregating celebrity shenanigans, viral videos, and memes is their specialty.

AIN'T IT COOL NEWS -- A team of film insiders share scoops on upcoming releases, early reviews, casting news, and spoiler reports for a legion of snarky, foul-mouthed haters in the comments section who crap all over every bit of information they get. The content and opinions on the site give a pretty accurate picture of what matters to geeks like me when it comes to TV and movies, and the constant bilious back and forth between the AICN writers and readers is.

EW POPWATCH BLOG -- When it comes to content and tone, Entertainment Weekly's pop culture blog is sort of the office water cooler equivalent to AICN's nerd dungeon. If you like a more polite and polished source for entertainment buzz, you'll probably be willing to forgive the fact that PopWatch does more picking up on other sites' scoops than providing it's own gets. But when it comes to the Internet, the difference between a scoop and a link usually comes down to hours or minutes, not days. PopWatch is also the home of my favorite source for all-things Lost, Jeff Jensen, who digs deep to analyze, theorize, and jazzercise his way through every episode of my favorite TV show.

BLEEDING COOL/COMIC BOOK RESOURCES -- Rich Johnston used to write a weekly news and gossip column about the comic industry, "Lying in the Gutters," for a bigger comics site called Comic Book Resources. He's since left CBR to start his own site, which is essentially Lying in the Gutters 24/7. I like CBR, but aside from reading their extensive comic convention coverage a few times each year, I'd only visit the site once a week for Rich's column. So far, Bleeding Cool has managed to capture all the big industry stories while doing away with the overload of Marvel, DC, and Image press releases that CBR presents as "news." Read them both, however, and you'll know everything you need to know about comics (and in BC's case, whether the comic industry wants you to know it or not).

MTV SPLASH PAGE -- While other sites cover my interest in the printed side of the comic industry, I like to visit MTV's newish site dedicated to comic book movies. The MTV name and notoriety leads to more cooperation from the filmmakers in terms of offering interviews, and those interviews are where all the other buzz sites tend to pull their "scoops" about casting, plot spoilers, etc. Splash Page is a good source for actual news, even if the topic is a little limiting.

WRESTLEVIEW -- With as many as 10 hours of original, repeat-free, weekly programming on US television, and a huge following worldwide, there's no denying that professional wrestling is a major part of pop culture. And, since, next to superheroes and G.I. Joes, the Superstars of Wrestling were my drug of choice as a kid, it is firmly embedded in my nostalgia-fueled heart and mind today. It's crude and corny and the antithesis to sophisticated, but the kid in me still likes to check in on what's going on with the muscleheads we've been watching for decades. But the adult in me is way more interested in what is going on with them behind the scenes. I don't know or care who the current champions are, because, even though the athleticism and acrobatics are cool to watch, that aspect of wrestling is fake and predictable. It's almost like checking in on old friends on Facebook...and the stuff you can find out goes beyond faces and heels. What do they look like now? Who died? Who got fired? Who got suspended for drugs? Who's trash-talking who in interviews? This is where you go to find out.

These are not the only websites I visit, and they're not necessarily the proven authorities in their respective areas. But whatever pop culture buzz, meme, announcement, or scandal is bouncing around the web on any given day either starts or ends somewhere within these pages. Maybe not all of these sites will suit you like they suit me, but there are plenty of alternate sources for the same information online. Seek it out and you will find it. Now you know.

But keep up that healthy social life. I may win in useless knowledge, but you've probably got me beat in exposure to daylight and physical fitness. Of course, if you're an overweight shut-in, you've got no excuse. Study up!

SDCC Kick-ASS Trailer Kicks, Well, You Know...

Thanks to gutter-king Rich Johnston and his always enlightening Bleeding Cool comics website for this look at a bootleg of the excellent Kick-Ass movie trailer that screened at San Diego Comic Con:



I didn't really like the first issue of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's comic version (the movie went into production before the first issue was even released), and chose to sit out on it until it was collected, to see if the whole piece was worth it. If the comic is as good as this trailer, I'm sold.

Of course, we've got some time before we find out whether the MOVIE is as good as the trailer. It does co-star Nicholas Cage, after all, and that hasn't worked out for me since Face-Off.

A Friend In Need...

In addition to my love for comics and movies, one of my favorite passtimes is riding the coattails of my most famousist friend, Peat. This guy is probably the only person I have ever met who has managed to successfully live the dream that he first had as a teenager, and did it without compromise and with pure drive and determination. He's a freakin' fantasy novel writing machine!

And the machine is currently cranking out a new book, so Peat has asked me to guest blog on his site to kick off a new contest that will hopefully satisfy his readers until he returns to a regular blogging schedule.

So--check out his blog, read up on his creations, and if you're so inclined, take part in the contest.

SDCC Iron Man Footage!

Snagged from Mark's World, thanks to some Twitter linkage from @JonFavreau: