Bair Ink

I met Michael Bair at the Big Apple Con. I knew very little about what an inker really did...thought I'd share my findings here. Bair looked very rock and roll with his dark glasses and long hair. He signed an ID Crisis for me. All I really said to him was, I met Rags Morales a few weeks ago. We agreed he is a cool guy.

Simply put, a comic book inker renders another artist's pencil drawings in India ink.
Typically, in comics, there are two artists who work on any book. A penciller, who renders the original drawing in pencil; and the inker who transforms/interprets this drawing into a camera-ready piece of black-and-white art-work.
from: http://www.marklipka.com/inkerdo.htm


Michael Bair, Identity Crisis inker

Astro City Dark Age

Astro City Dark Age link

I really enjoyed the new Astro City Dark Age, with the Alex Ross cover. The two brothers, one cop and one criminal, are interesting and gritty. Intrigued to see where this series will go!

One of my favorite comics of all time is Astro City vol 2, No. 1/2, The Nearness of You. Every night Mike goes to sleep and dreams of Miranda, a girl he's never met, but who is real to him. He always chased blondes, but this girl has wave brown hair and light freckles across her nose...In the end the Hanged Man reveals that time can be rewoven and altered. Hanged man says "I can allow you to forget". But he chooses not to, and now he can sleep, knowing he did know her, and he loved her. "And that makes all the difference." How romantic!

me vs. the thing

In honor of July's Fantastic Four movie, I'm posting a pic of The Thing walking around the Wizard Con. Notice that The Thing isn't much bigger than me-- I think I could take him!
Fantastic Four movie site

metamorphic mutants with red hair

House of M 2
with the Astonishing X-Men and the New Avengers has a great couple of panels with Mystique and Wolverine..."James..It's your redhead fetish"


Mystique, the shapeshifter...

Dublin Forbidden Planet

In March I visited the Forbidden Planet in Dublin. They sell comics, manga, action figures, and random fun stuff. There was a much different gender ratio than in American comic stores; maybe 30% female. All males worked there, including one Irish dude with blue tinted dreads who talked comics with me. I asked about Irish writers, and I bought Havoc (Irish Anthology), Sancho, and a hauntingly illustrated graphic novel written in
gaelic AnTeachtaire . Big sellers in Dublin were the same DC, Marvel, Tokyopop titles like here.
Here I am outside the store, on Crampton Quay by the River Liffey.

Robin Year One

I love Batgirl: Year One and Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty's writing because of the amazing job on Batgirl: Year one. Picked up Robin Year One, part one, at the Big Apple Con. Alfred muses how "the addition of Dick Grayson in the master's crusade has made a difference in him. I do believe I saw him smile." but he also fears "I am once more watching a child barter his youth away in the service of "justice". Just read it for yourself. If you want to see my rave about meeting Scott at Wizard World Philly, go Fangirl hits Wizard World posts.
Scott Beatty site

Y the last man tidbits from BKV

After telling Brian K. Vaughan how much I loved Y, I asked if there were any crumbs of what will happen that he could reveal. He responded with, "What do you want to know?". After the next issues, Yorick will 'check in' with Beth. We'll learn more about her, how she met Yorick, if she's even alive in Australia...Although the series is more than half over- it's a 60 issue run- Yorick's travels will continue, and we'll see "many more continents" before the end. And while Y will end, he never plans to stop writing Runaways.

Another picture of the very groovy Brian K. Vaughan from yesterday.

and Tony Harris, penciller of Ex Machina (and Starman, much more)

Fangirl in the City

Big Apple Comic Con Saturday

Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris -
The panel was Brian and Tony, the west coasters, discussing Ex Machina. (And we found out how to pronounce it-- not "ex machine-a" like i've been saying, but "ex mock-in-a". There was some short lived "The Machine" that didn't allow that title. ) An ex superhero becomes NY mayor-- there was a lot of talk of the NY mayor characters from the past like LaGuardia and Koch.
Someone asked why it has to be for "mature readers", that without the f bombs and sex with prostitutes it still would be good. Tony said that after 16 years of constantly being censored, he loves the freedom. And Brian said that, well, despite having jet packs and superheroes, these sort of things are of the real world...that he wonders more about how the graphic violence is never questioned, but sex and profanity are. "I say the f word and I have seen nipples, but I've never been in a fistfight".

BKV signing (after I started the line)....



Which leads to my question to Brian-- thrilled that he said "that's a good question!" I asked, "About the Eisner awards, you're nominated for like 7...pound for pound, which of your fellow writers could you beat in a fight and who would pummel you?" It got a pretty good laugh. He answered that pretty much any of them could beat him up, that he's a pacifist, except that he could take Mark Millar, he's got those small Scottish hands..."

I couldn't leave after without telling how much I love Y- The Last Man and how I can't wait for each issue. My next will be a whole post on our Y discussion, including the tidbit crumbs about future issues he told me. He was excellent, funny, and so approachable. I'm glad to have met him.

Much more on the Big Apple Con....

Lovin for Bone, Peanuts, Escapist

2005 Harvey Awards were awarded on June 11th. DC: The New Frontier, Bone, The Complete Peanuts and The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist all won several awards. While I can't say I was personally pulling for any of these titles, it was good to see my library purchases are solid!

2005 Eisner nominees Brian K. Vaughan nominated 7 times ( 2 for Y- The Last Man!) I'm also pulling for Morrison/Quitely for WE3.

Face it Tiger...

Mary Jane Watson's infamous entrance into Peter Parker's life. Aren't redheads sassy?

Arana Heart of the Spider

I read Arana #1. Picked up for the sassy reddish haired girl on the cover. Cute, not real deep, but does have a young latina girl as the heroine. I haven't seen that much.

Midtown comics summary...
Straight from AMAZING FANTASY - the continuing adventures of Anya Corazon, scrappy teen from Brooklyn by day, and by night, teh butt-kicking Hunter of the ancient and mystical Spider Society

Comic art is an art form itself

The Flash Gordon, Vol 3 -- 1936-38 stories came in with a great quote-

"I decided honestly that comic art is an art form itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration- since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business-- he is playwright, director, editor and artist all at once"
-Alex Raymond 1909-1956

The Wicked West

Neil Vokes One of the friendliest artists out there. Met him at Wizard World Philly. He will be guesting at the MidJersey Comic Con in August.

Todd Livingston, Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes have, in the space of two original graphic novels, established themselves as a critically praised creative team. Their original Image Comics tour, The Black Forest, is selling well in its second printing, and their most recent effort, The Wicked West, is getting rave reviews.

Wicked West rave reviews

The Wicked West

Nightlanding.com : I picked up the beautiful postcard at Wizard. Beautiful female fantasy images.

Strangers in Paradise

I'm currently reading, on my breaks at work, Strangers in Paradise, Book 1 by Terry Moore. Katchoo- the blonde and Francine- the dark haired one are best friends, and Katchoo is in love with Francine. F latest boyfriend turns out to be a real dog. And Katchoo meets David, a seemingly sensitive boy at the art museum, and a love triangle is formed.

The black and white artwork is comic sometimes, tragic sometimes. This is one of the times when art and writing really mesh well. A smart read.

"without love, we are never more than strangers in paradise" Kevin Smith said that when people say romance comics are dead, he hands them SIP.

Comics in my pile: Villians United, Y the Last Man, Invincible, Nightwing (with Batgirl!), Mary Jane Homecoming, the OMAC project.

Fangirl hits Wizard World Philly!

Wizard World Philadelphia. My first comic con!

Ethan Van Sciver
How cool is it that he was wearing a Green Lantern ring? Fanboy next to me dared me to ask if it actually worked. He deadpanned that he was wearing the tights under his jeans. He didn't smile much, but was decent to all those in line. There were tons of Green Lantern shirts all around the con...GL is hot hot thanks to his work. I read he was from south Jersey-- he said he was born in Provo, UT and grew up in Cherry Hill. He took a photo after he signed GL #1 for me.


Rags Morales
Identity Crisis was the first series that I anxiously awaited each month. Everyone at the comic store was reading it, and you could usually debate about it with almost anyone. Anyway, Rags was signing at the DC Comics booth. I waited for well over an hour, with the Lions Gate movie blaring to reach Rags. He was doing sketches, but mostly the greedy and rude dealers were throwing every varient cover of IC for him to sign 30 or 40. The couple in front of me handed him tons of the same IC cover and Wonder Woman. I was there with my lone issue. I told Rags to sign it to me, because it's just for me and not going on Ebay. He liked that. I said to him, 'you've had a good year' and he agreed. He was very mellow and cool. Then he let me take this picture.


And a guy in a wheelchair asked me if I was meditating (I was sitting on the floor). Then he told me he was hit by a car, and died twice, and had to learn how to do everything again. Then he told me I was a fox. Not a word you hear much these days.

Adam and Andy Kubert
Orson Scott Card is the writer, I've picked up the Ultimate Iron Man. Andy signed UIM #2 for me. The fanboy next to me was commenting on the odd cover. Even as the artist, Andy said "there's a lot of weird stuff in there". I didn't have anything for Adam to sign.


Scott Beatty
I went up to the DC table because I saw Scott Beatty. I asked if he worked on Batgirl: Year One. I gushed and gushed how much I love that, being a redhead and a librarian, how its all me...especially the line about 'potential defaulter of student loans'. He said the artist on that really got Barbara Gordon. I didn't have it with me- Damn! But he signed a bookmark for me. He was saying his wife is having a boy in July-- she thinks it is good for him to have a little boy because he'll have to share his toys. He was great. The Nightwing trade comes out I think July 27th.

The archives o' quotes

August 2005
'Will you help us, Mark Grayson of Earth?' 'Of course I will. But I need to explain to my mother what's going on and tell people where I'll be.'- Invincible, 25.

Sept 2005
"Yes, well I suppose we can add gaydar to the extraordinary number of common senses you seem to lack" Dr. Mann to Yorick, Y Book4

Oct 2005
But sometimes, grrr...trying to make things work on this stupid planet with all these stupid people just...overwhelms me. Supergirl 2 Nov 2005

It felt like the world was looking at us. Asking how we could lead if we couldn't keep order at home. It was a fair question." Busiek, Astro City Dark Age 3

Nov 2005
'Observe time code- Preserve the past, protect the present, and forget the future.''Is it me, or does that sound like the GOP platform?' She-Hulk 2, #1

Dec 2005
"Lois. Please stop talking for one second. I have something to tell you." Clark Kent, All Star Superman 1

January 2006
"So, Algebra- Algebra's cool, huh? Your so weird, Peter Parker." Spider-man loves Mary Jane

March 2006
"I don't usually bleed this much on a team-up" Hal Jordan to Batman, Green Lantern 9

April 2006
Joker: I want what everybody wants...to be loved. Short of that..I'll take a little vengence-a-go-go"

May 2006
You're an adult! Why are you buying dolls? They're Action Figures!-Comic Book Guy in Bongo Free Comics

June 2006
You want fun and money that won't kill you- then learn to !@#^* READ! Cinnamon: El Chiclo 2

August 2006
Nine-tenths of any super freak battle is just rank banter. Birds of Prey 95

October 2006
Education is forbidden for slaves. "Denyin' freedom of opportunity just pisses me off!"Rex Libris 5

Jan 2007
We're going down a manhole? Nah. These days, it's just a hole. Y the last man 53

March 2007
May I just say "ouch!", Manhunter? Oracle, Birds of Prey 103

Have you seen this place? I got all my sisters 'n' me! Xander to Dawn, Buffy Season 8, 2

She was alive in all the ways he wasn't. And she radiated it like the sun, or like a wild animal. Criminal 8

Number five, from a strictly, punctiliously factual point of view--he's not human. Faker 4

"Well, well. Our little golden goose both rises and shines." Joker in Booster Gold 5

We can't go past the gate. We're trapped inside this house. House of Mystery 2