24 Hour Comics Day 2011: Am I alive?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Challengers Comics, the best comics store in Chicago, for putting on the event, and thanks to all the artist there for letting me use them as subjects. This is a crazy event, but it's one of those things I can say I did, I guess.

If you're interested in any of the mentioned artists, here is a collection of links:

Megan Ansbach
Ryan Browne
Don Cardenas
Sean Dove
Dan Glassberg
Tom Kelly
Dave Losso
Brian Mead
Christopher Mitten
Mike Norton
Chris Revekant
Alejandro Rosado
Luke Smarto
Chris Smits
Jim Thomas

(If I missed anyone or need to update any of those links, please let me know)

Current status:

Or rather:

That's my new baby girl, Dahlia Noelle Brady, born at 3:55 PM Central on January 14, 2011.  8 pounds, 8 ounces, nice and big and healthy.  We're super-excited to have a new addition to the family, and everyone is doing well.

Hopefully more posting will resume in the next few days, but if it doesn't, I imagine people will understand.  Not that things have been very regular around here anyway.  Whatever happens, my year is off to a great start.

I still can't draw, but I can apparently trace

Here's an interesting project: Images Degrading Forever.  It's by Robin Blanchard, who, prompted by Matt Seneca of Death to the Universe (another interesting blog that I'll have to start reading), has posted five images from Dave Sim's Glamourpuss (Blanchard was featured in the 12th issue of the series), encouraging anybody and everybody to download and ink them, then send him the results.  He'll take the images people send and replace the originals with them, continuing to do so over and over, with the intent of making them, well, degrade forever.  I liked the idea, so I gave it a try with a drawing app on my Iphone, and here's the result:

There, now anybody who wants to try it has to draw over me!  This is a cool idea and a fun project, so I encourage anybody reading to give it a try.  Art!

The ultimate hipster douchebag, episode 4

The ultimate hipster douchebag, episode 3

100 Bullets: Everyone dies in a flurry of arrows

That's what it seems like anyway, in this final version of my notorious 100 Bullets character chart (WARNING: SPOILERS for the entire series! Do not view if you haven't read until the end! Really!):

Click to view at a size that makes slightly more sense.

Good, god, that's complicated, to the point of being unreadable. But once I started it, I knew I would have to finish it to reflect all the information revealed in the final volume. Whew. I think this pretty much covers everything, from what I'm able to discern. There are still a few dashed lines, due to plot points that were never resolved clearly or that I'm unsure about. And some of the deaths might not be quite right; it's certainly possible that a few of the characters survived, but it pretty much ends in a bloodbath, so red Xs on nearly every character are definitely appropriate. But if you think I got something wrong or missed something, please let me know.

Hopefully, I'll have a full review up tomorrow, but I wanted to get this posted. Enjoy everyone, although I suspect I'm the only person who can actually read the damn thing.

The ultimate hipster douchebag, episode 2

This might turn into a regular thing, if I can keep thinking of dumb jokes.

Is sushi even a hipster thing? I dunno.

The ultimate hipster douchebag

Sometimes I think of dumb jokes:

100 Bullets: ohshitohshitohshit

I'm getting behind again.  Ugh.  But, I've got a review of Fantastic Four: True Story #1 up over at Comics Bulletin.  And then this thing, which has been percolating through my brain for days:

100 Bullets, volume 12: Dirty

Written by Brian Azzarello

Art by Eduardo Risso

As has been mentioned before around these parts, I'm not exactly unbiased when it comes to this series.  It consistently blows my mind whenever a new volume shows up, so feel free to take whatever I say with a grain of salt (and watch out for spoilers, although I'll try not to reveal anything major).  But know this: I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's a really fucking good series, with some amazing writing and absolutely beautiful artwork.  I can't get enough of it.

With the series ramping up to its 100th-issue finale, Brian Azzarello seems to be setting up the pieces for a final conflict.  There's no multi-issue story in this volume; it's all done-in-one tales, showing characters being manipulated, screwed, and murdered on the way to the bloodbath that is sure to come.  The original conceit of the series (consequence-free revenge, courtesy of the titular projectiles) has long since been left behind, shown to be a setup for the real story of the behind-the-scenes-of-American-life power play that all the various characters are caught up in.  Agent Graves is taking out the heads of the Trust, one by one, as a revenge for their traitorous turn on him and his Minutemen.  Or is he?  Maybe he's actually working with one or more of the existing houses of the Trust to consolidate power.  Or maybe he's decided the vast criminal empire cannot be trusted to secretly run the country anymore, and he's eliminating it altogether.

Whatever the case, we're not privy to the decision-making or high-level maneuvers.  What we see here is the dirty work, as Graves' men go about the ugly business of massacre-ing their targets.  We've seen various members of the Trust from time to time (aside from the major ones like Augustus Medici or Megan Dietrich), but the ones that were unknown before this point barely even pop up for an introduction here before being executed.  It's pretty horrific, especially when we get to see just enough to know that they might be good friends or loving fathers before receiving a bullet between the eyes.  And as much as we might have grown to like characters like Cole or Victor, these chapters confirm that they're as vicious as anybody else in the series.

We also get some other looks at the idea of revenge, which is near-omnipresent in this series.  An especially powerful chapter sees Lono (probably the most vicious killer in the series, and that's saying something) confronted by a woman whose life he destroyed with his casual violence and nearly killed.  She swore to herself that she would kill him given the chance, but she can't bring herself to do it.  It's a fascinating scene, both in the emotions displayed and the implications; we know he's going to go on and keep raping and killing, so wouldn't it have been better to rid the world of him?  Azzarello gets a lot of credit for his complex plotting, but we can see that the themes and emotions are all incredibly complex as well.

And there's so much more that could be talked about, from the mannered dialogue to the layered "cuts" between scenes that play off each other thematically.  But among my favorite aspects is the little stuff that happens in between the major moments.  One chapter sees Victor do something for himself as sort of a reward for completing a killing that he was ordered to do, and the result is one of the most horrifying revelations I've seen in a crime story, probably because it's all-too-possible.  Another chapter uses a simple killing as a counterpoint to the high-level schemes going on between characters, and, as with the plentiful similar scenes over the course of the series, it's a nice way of reminding us that you don't need glamorous, conspiratorial motives to murder somebody; in fact, it's something that happens every day, and usually for stupid reasons.  It's Azzarello's way of keeping the series down to earth and showing that murder is an ugly, simple act, no matter how fancily it's dressed up.

There's plenty more to mention in the way of plot developments and revelations, but that can be covered by the anal retentive bit of work I perform below.  For now, I can't end anything without raving about Eduardo Risso's artwork.  It's as beautiful as ever, giving the characters a noirish setting in which to act out their awful deeds and detailing the actions of the characters amazingly expressively.  I end up meticulously studying the details of each page, even when I'm caught up in the story and feel the need to keep reading.  I love the way he defines locales, setting the mood for scenes perfectly (props should also be given to Patricial Mulvihill for her excellent colors):

And the character art is just amazing, bringout out the emotions of the characters beautifully:

Not to mention the way the scenes play out.  That previous scene sees Benito in shadows, on his way to being ready to enter the dark world of his father.  But even if you don't look at symbolism, the scene is just incredible, especially the way the shadows play across the water entrancingly.  And then there's the pacing of scenes:

That reaction panel in the middle functions perfectly to stop the movement for a second as he realizes what is happening, then the next tier of panels shows us what he sees, with the final one revealing the full implications of what is going on.  Breathtaking.  Or there's this bit:

I love the quirky establishing shot from inside the ice cooler; that's a Risso trademark.  And the following panels, which see Cole get situated before casually and menacingly confronting the other man at the bar, who has his face cleverly hidden until the reveal on the next page.  That last panel blows me away, with the eyes peeking out from the shadowed face and the smoke curling up around it.  Wow.  Finally, I love the high-energy panels that capture a moment of action or emotion; this one might be one of the best ones Risso has done yet:

Again, wow.

So that's probably everything I have to say about this volume (other than buy it if you haven't already.  You'll want to read the other 11 volumes first though), but I've got to show off my updated character map.  I've spent way too much time putting it together electronically and trying to make it legible, but who knows how readable it is.  As the series continues, it just gets more and more complex and clogged with information:

So there it is, containing every bit of important information I can think of.  Click to enlarge, obviously.  Dead people have a red X through their picture or name, red arrows mean somebody killed the character (or attempted to), and dashed lines mean I'm not sure about that information.  If you have any corrections or additions to suggest, let me know, but please don't spoil anything past volume 12/issue #88.  And try not to let it drive you insane, like it nearly did me.

100 Bullets: Once Upon a Crime: I hope this is readable, and not just a repetition of "Oh, shit, this is awesome!"

This is a tough one to review, since it's one of the few series that reduces me to the level of frothing fanboy. I'll see if I can keep it coherent.

100 Bullets volume 11: Once Upon a Crime
Written by Brian Azzarello
Art by Eduardo Risso



By this volume, 100 Bullets seems to have abandoned its original concept of violent tales of revenge and morality, now focusing completely on shadowy conspiracies, manipulations, alliances, and double-crosses among its large cast of characters. But that's fine; that stuff was all in the background of the series from the beginning; it's just moved to the forefront this late in the game. This volume collects issues 76-83, and the series is set to end with the one hundredth installment, so Azzarello is spending the majority of the time setting up the pieces for the final conflict and slowly revealing more and more of the backstory. It's quite satisfying for a long-time reader, but even those who have been following the series from the start might have trouble keeping track of who is who and how all the various characters are related (I've tried to do what I can to remedy that situation; see below).

We get two stories in this book [I guess I'll have SPOILERS from this point on, so don't read the rest of this if you haven't read the book!]. The first one follows all of the living Minutemen, letting us know who is allied with whom and revealing where loyalties lie. At this point, Lono has gathered his own group of rogue Minutemen (Loop, Victor, and Jack), and he is acting as the Trust's warlord, reporting to Augustus Medici. Graves has gathered Cole Burns and Remi Rome to his side, but even though he seems to be preparing for war with the Trust, there have been hints that he might be in league with Augustus, possibly planning to eliminate the rest of the Trust and place him at the head. Both Lono and Graves are trying to get Dizzy (Lono wants revenge because she killed Mr. Shepherd, and Graves wants her to be a Minuteman), who is holed up in Mexico with Wiley, Mr. Branch, and Benito Medici. And she wants to kill Graves for brainwashing her into killing Shepherd. Whew! This all plays out in a mixture of violence and double-crosses, and when the dust settles, Wiley is dead and Dizzy has chosen to become a Minuteman and work for Graves. Also, Victor is revealed to be working for Graves rather than Lono, and we get a hint of Lono's true intentions; he might be planning to kill Augustus and install Benito as the head of the Trust, pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

I love watching this all play out, and Azzarello has a great grasp of how to set up a tense conflict and "resolve" it in a surprising manner, but still keep us wanting to know more about what exactly is going on. He's been building these characters for so long, we know them really well and can predict how they'll act. Actually, that's not true for the most recently introduced character, Remi, who was only introduced in the last volume, and sure enough, he provides the most unexpected moment of the story; we don't know him well enough yet to know what he'll do, so he's the one to surprise us. Nicely done, as always.

The second story in the book concerns Remi's brother Ronnie, who has gone to Rome to collect a painting, the same painting that Graves and Cole sent Mr. Branch to retrieve from Echo Memoria, a woman who has been haunting the fringes of the series for quite some time. It's an interesting little tale of sex and violence, and it ends somewhat ambiguously; I'm not sure if Ronnie is dead or not (but I suspect he survived), and Echo still seems to be surviving and involving herself in the main plot. She's something of a wild card, not seeming to have any loyalties and relying on her sexiness and manipulative nature to get by. I'm sure we'll see her true role in the future, as well as the significance of the painting (I assume it's the one with the word "Croatoa", but I don't know how that is important, since all the Minutemen have been awakened, and the painting isn't needed for that anyway).

At the same time as the Echo/Ronny plot is transpiring, Graves and Dizzy are in New York to take care of some business involving the late Mr. Shepherd, and we see a flashback detailing how Graves and Mr. Hughes first recruited Shepherd into the Minutemen. It's an interesting look into the past of the characters, but I don't know how much it really reveals. Maybe it will gain more significance later.

I realize I haven't mentioned the art, but I don't really know what to say that hasn't been said about Eduardo Risso already. He's as amazing as ever, portraying characters with flair, detailing beautiful landscapes (both urban and rural) and shadow-filled interiors, and delivering gory, visceral violence when needed. He seems to knock this stuff out like it's second nature, and it's as good as it's ever been. He's one of my favorite artists, and I can't praise him enough.

So it's another good collection of one of my favorite series, and it's leading toward an apocalyptic ending. I can't wait to read more.
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As I mentioned above, it can be hard to keep track of all the characters in the book, so a few months ago (after I read volume 10), I made a character chart showing all the relationships between characters. Well, I've updated it to show everything that has happened or been revealed as of volume 11, and here it is [SPOILERS for pretty much the whole series]:



It might not be perfect, especially since I couldn't really figure out how to portray that Graves might be secretly working with Augustus Medici, or that Lono might be planning to betray Augustus. And I probably should have added that Megan Dietrich's father was killed by six of the seven Minutemen, in the flashback that we've seen parts of several times over the course of the series. But I didn't have room. When the next volume comes out, I'll probably try to redo the whole thing, preferably in some sort of electronic format that doesn't look so amateurish. Until then, enjoy!

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UPDATE, a year later:

I've completed a much prettier version of the chart, so check it out.  To be updated soon, when I finish reading volume 12!

I think I'll call this "100 Arrows"

I recently finished reading volume 10 of 100 Bullets, and I got thinking about the huge cast of characters and all the connections between them. So I decided to make a sort of "character map", thinking it would be something cool to post on the ol' blog. Here's what I came up with (by the way, spoilers for the entire series up to issue #75):

The Great 100 Bullets Character Map:
(Click to enlarge)



As you can probably figure out, a red "X" through someone's picture or name means they are dead, and the red arrows point from the killer (or, in one case, the attempted killer) to the killee. I did this the low-tech way (obviously), putting pencil to paper to write everything out and draw the arrows. Sorry if it looks amateurish; I hope my writing is legible. I also scanned in pictures of all the characters, then printed them, cut them out, and glued them onto the page. It took a good deal of work, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. I don't know Photoshop or have any experience with drawing programs, but if I ever get one, I might try to redo this in electronic form; that would look much nicer.

So, my question is, is this of interest anyone but me? For that matter, does it make any sense to anyone but me? Any comments or suggestions? If you're a reader of 100 Bullets, please let me know. By the way, since I've only read through volume 10, please don't spoil anything for me past issue #75. Thanks!

Poor art skills on display

Here's my contribution to Chris Sims' "Summarize a comics storyline with a crappy drawing" contest:

Nextwave #1-2:



I was originally going to do the first eight or so issues, but this one took me so long, and I was so frustrated by how terrible I am at drawing, that I stopped with this one. It doesn't quite take 30 seconds to read, but I think it's a good summary of the first storyline.
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UPDATE: Sims noticed me! He mentioned the matching jackets, which is definitely what I was going for, since that's the closest thing Nextwave has to a team uniform. Fun contest, Chris!