What I Read Last Month…

What I read last…
April 2012

 Beginnings, by many various. 

http://beginningsanthology.blogspot.com.au/

A nicely chunky read, full of short stories of varying length and accomplishment, but most importantly, varying in style and genre. Very nicely printed and finished. 


 The List, Volumes I, II and III, by Paul Bedford, Henry Pop and Tom Bonin. 

http://thelistgraphicnovel.bigcartel.com/

This is quite the arduous horror and gore story. Often sparse and consciously lacking in unnecessary dialogue, completely lacking in captions, and comfortably taking its time to get where it's going. 
Each volume gets progressively thicker, and it's not really until the third of them that I finally felt caught up in the story. 
There's a collected single volume now available. 

The Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes #7, by Christopher Sequiera, Phil Cornel, Dave Elsey and Paul Mason. 

http://www.blackhousecomics.com/the-dark-detective-sherlock-holmes.html

Continuing Holmes' run-in with Frankenstein's monster, this is pretty dense and verbose, relying heavily on dialogue and spoken exposition. Fab if you like the depth and backstory being injected, not so if you want to cut to the chase. Period appropriate art throughout. 

Mongrel #2, by Bernard Caleo. 

http://www.cardigancomics.com/index.php/mongrel.html

http://anislandart.blogspot.com.au/search/label/MONGREL

How does Caleo do it? I just KNOW this is set in Melbourne and no where else. His well-practiced ability to create a Melbourne-centric sense of place goes all the way back to his (and Tolley's) earlier great Yell & Olé and The False Impressionists. 
I favour this issue – a more realist drama served in the 10 or so pages – to the fantastical treatment of historical characters of #1. As Caleo says though, at only 20 pages in, the story's not even begun yet.

The Thing That Should Not Be #s 1, 2 and 3, by Chris Hale, Wen Huang, Joshua Regan, and Mark Withington. 

http://www.thethingthatshouldnotbe.net/

This is a really good little anthology, printing material by the same four contributors each issue. This steady contributor line-up helps with what can often be an odious task when following serial anthologies of getting used to new creators every issue, and the possibility of not getting the same level of quality issue to issue. It also makes it quite obvious that this is to be a showcase for these four, which is a good thing. 
There are four very different styles here, which means the reader's not going to get bored, and they're mostly really good, which means any disappointment, if there is any, is short lived and slight.  

Mongrel #3, by Bernard Caleo. 

http://www.cardigancomics.com/index.php/mongrel.html

http://anislandart.blogspot.com.au/search/label/MONGREL

Caleo deftly outlines a new character (Salvation Jane) in a mere eight pages in this issue: her personality, resolve, determination, allure and attraction, relationships with two men whom she works with, and probably how influential to the developing story she'll be. And really, I don't like her already. But in a good, good way. 

Supanova Gold Coast 2012

After writing about Supanova Melbourne the other week, how could I not write about the weekend that followed on the Gold Coast? 

This was Supanova's inaugural Gold Coast expo, and it went off with a blast. For me, it felt like one of, if not the best expo we've ever put on, in so many ways. It had a fabulous buzz and the Gold Coast really embraced SN with everything it's got. Great vibe, great guests, awesome crowd, fab venue, amazing team. Solid gold.

Full disclosure: I'm one of the founders of Supanova, I art directed it for about six years (jumping on board that title again as of this week), and have a financial stake in the business. 

Before the show even opened Belle was getting into the Supanova spirit during a quick visit to a local toy shop. Did somebody say "Assemble?!?"

Supanova started with a great ComicBook MasterClass on Friday night, lead by the very popular Brian Michael Bendis. 

 

The crowds waiting to get in on Saturday morning were great!

Which translated to a fabulous bunch of excited people inside!

 The crowd in one of the Artist's Alleys.

 And in another of the Alleys. 

 Heading towards the main autograph area. 

And on the main trading floor at the complete opposite end of the expo. 

Can you spot: a) a storm trooper; b) a Fin the Human hat, and; c) Fel, of Supanova Guest Services?

 Kings Comics hosted our comic book guests Brian Michael Bendis, Carlos Pacheco and Tristan Jones. Each of whom did a wonderful drawing in my sketchbook. 

Here's Brian doing his sketch in my book. 

We did a great live cross to LA to speak to Marvel's The Avengers' Agent Coulson, Clark Gregg. At one point Jaimie Alexander (Thor's Sif) gatecrashed the panel to prank Clark.  

Speaking of Sif… here's the real life action figure herself! 

 

Here's a couple more shots of Artists' Alley. Spread out along here in the two photos you might be able to see Stewart McKenny, Travis Burch, Christopher Sequeira, Cameron Davis, Paul Abstruse, Wayne Nichols, Samuel David, Jeffrey 'Chamba' Cruz, and Leonard Bermingham. 

Belle sat in on Artists' Alley too, selling her handmade wallets, each made from actual pages of comic books, each one unique. 

And speaking of comics and my offspring, here's The Boy (on the right) breathing in the smell of good old eighties Uncanny X-Men. On the left being Chris Rattray, the pusher in this case, one of Supanova's marvellous MCs. 

We had a very swish cocktail/VIP party on the Saturday night. Here I am, being very swish myself.

What a great venue! See you next year Gold Coast!