Longtime alt publisher Wow Cool is having a 20th Anniversary Sale for Alternative Comics, which it purchased last year. Over 100 titles are on sale, spanning the last 20 years of indie comics. Hard to make a pick, but Grandon Graham’s early collection Elevator, some other early cartooning efforts by Ed Brubaker, Lauren Weinstein’s Inside Vineyland, early Gabrielle Bell, Dean Haspiel, Jon Lewis, and on and on…well, heck, there’s a ton of great stuff there as well as a virtual history of small press indie comics in the 90s.
§ More on DragonCon, which like asll shows, is too big for its previous venues, a series of hotels which become city-states of various flavors of cosplay and adult play. Peach Pundit’s George Chidi wrestles a bit with the show’s purpose; he once thought it could be Atlanta’s own showbiz-centric Comic-Con, but now he thinks that would be the worst idea:
The rationale seems pretty straightforward – expanding Dragon Con’s connection to the big studios could increase economic activity in Atlanta and draw even more filmmakers to Georgia’s growing film industry, now fourth in the nation behind Calfornia, New York and Texas. It could also draw higher-profile stars to mingle with fan-girls in Battlestar Galactica double-tank-tops. But after four days of interviews with fans, vendors, volunteers and guests, panel discussions, research with the Georgia Economic Development folks and getting my geek on … I have changed my view. Dragon Con as the Peach State’s Comic-Con would be the worst damned thing in the world for all involved.
The second consideration is size. At 50,000 attendees – more than doubling in size in six years – Dragon Con is straining at the seams. The convention takes up most of four hotels right now, along with the Americas Mart building for vendors selling zombie contact lenses, Firefly dusters and steampunk goggles. Even now, what I am told by a corset-monger is that the seven-year waiting list to get a vendor spot at Dragon Con elicits grumbling lessened only by the 15 year waiting list at San Diego Comic-Con.
§ Blogger launches comics-centric column and starts with a slam dunk of a subject:
With my first post I thought I’d just start with the basics. Comic Books Vs. Graphic Novels: Where are you on the Spectrum?
§ They have names an asteroid after weirdo filmmaker, comics writer, all-around visionary Alejandro Jodorowsky. Thank god.
§ Peter Bagge drew the cover of this week’s Seattle Weekly, and it’s a bittersweet but funny salute to Fantagraphics.
§ Swear to god, just the other day I was wishing that Norwegian comics god Jason would write graphic novel reviews. I almost get my wish in this post of recent books he’s read:
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld
Minimalistic and drily funny strips collected from The Guardian.Sgt. Rock vol 3
Far too text heavy, often telling things you already see in the panels, just like in the EC comics – you end up just looking at the images by Joe Kubert (and sometimes Russ Heath), trying not to get ink in your eyes.
But then he stops reviewing graphic novels and goes on and on about all the light reading he’s doing like Forgotten Voices of The Holocaust and Their Darkest Hour – People Tested to the Extreme in WWII.
§ We’ve written about the cult cartoon Mysterious Cities of Gold a few times here, and not only is the sequel airing in France now, but they’ve launched a Kickstarter to fund a PC video game. Cocopetl!
All of Graham Annable books (Grickle…) are simply amazing! And the Hickee anthologies too!
I’m putting in recommendations for Tom Herpich’s Gongwanadon and Cusp. Also, Tomer Hanuka’s The Placebo Man. Unfortunately, it looks like they sold out of Asaf Hanuka’s Pizzeria Kamikaze which would be my other favorite form Alternative.
Dragon*Con is a science fiction convention.
Possibly the largest in the world.
That’s why it uses five hotels, not the convention center.
The only simple solution for the dealers:
Take Centennial Olympic Park and create an open-air free-to-enter bazaar.
Also in the Peach post:
“Kramer had been unwilling to sell his share of the convention, so Dragon Con’s board formed a new corporation and then sold the existing corporation to the new one, for an undisclosed sum. Kramer still owns shares in the “old” company, but that company has no control or continuing financial claim to the new one, I am told.”
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