House of Mystery v6: #27

Safe as Houses

Chapter 2: flying killer robots / mother issues / time travel is exactly what it used to be / a pyrrhic victory / i'll let you drive by Matthew Sturges (writer), Luca Rossi (pencils), and José Marzán, Jr. (inks)

Backup Story: Long Strange Trip by Matthew Sturges (writer) and Brendan McCarthy (artist)

Stuff happens. The art is the real draw in this series. The story wanders this way and that with very little in the way of closure or a sense of progress. It was fun for a while but after more than 2 years one has to wonder if the writer has an end point in mind. If the backup stories were consistently better than they are then reading this series might be more satisfying than it currently is.

The main storyline does not work as the feature of House of Mystery. It feels more like a backup story. It doesn't feel right to judge it as a backup, because it takes up most of the book. It would work much better If it was just a bookend-type story that only ran for 5-8 pages each issue.

Heroes Con 2012

Jun 22-24, 2012
Charlotte Convention Center
Charlotte, North Carolina

I had lots of fun at this year's Heroes Con.

Commissions

I'm very happy with all the art I bought at the show. See pictures of them all of them in my Heroes Con 2012 photo set. Here's a preview:

Juggernaut by Joey Weiser

Panels

Friday

Titans Tower - Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal, Michael Eury - the best part of this panel was the interaction between the audience members and the panelists

Coloring Presentation - Laura Martin, Val Staples - unfortunately, due to technical difficulties the demonstration never happened; instead they talked about and took questions from the audience on coloring comic books

Saturday

Twomorrows Panel - Roy Thomas, Michael Eury - not as exciting as I hoped it would be; basically just a preview of things to come from Twomorrows, along with some stories of stuff that has happened in the course of assembling issues of Back Issue, Alter Ego, etc

Echoes of '82 - Ben Towle, Craig Fischer, Jaime Hernandez, Louise Simonson, Stergios Botzakis, Toney Frazier, Heidi MacDonald, Andrew Mansell - 2 hours of awesome; the focus was on independent comic books and indie creators

Webcomics #1 - Dustin Harbin, Rich Barrett, Tom Scioli, Danielle Corsetto, Rich Tommaso - cast a wide net over all sorts of web comics

Sunday

Comic Twart - Francesco Francavilla, Mitch Gerads, Andy Kuhn, Dan Panosian, Ramón Pérez, Ron Salas, Chris Sims - This one was a little weird because there were more panelists than there were people in the audience

The Immonens - Kathryn and Stuart Immonen - slide show and overview of their collaborations, most of which were not for the "big 2"

Comic Books

Zegas #2 by Michel Fiffe - a trippy little series with an interesting visual style; I picked up the first issue at the Baltimore Comic Con last year

The Mice Templar v2.2 - for the 3rd year in a row I bought a hard cover edition of Mice Templar from the writer, Brian J.L. Glass; I can't think of enough good things to say about this series; it is a great read and very intelligently written; there is a ton of back matter that really helps to flesh out the origins of the story

Raw Nerve #1,2,3 by Mitch Rogers - I bought the first issue on Friday. I read it, liked it so I went back and bought the other two on Sunday. This is a horror comic.

Dustin Harbin had a box of old stuff sitting on his table that he was selling for 1/2 cover price. I bought two: Rio by Doug Wildey and Bookhunter by Jason Shiga.

Dealers

I was amazed at how poorly organized most dealers' long boxes were. For the most part it seemed as if they weren't selling high grade golden, silver, or bronze age comics they didn't bother to organize their boxes. I found a few that were organized and those are the ones from whom I bought back issues. It's not like I was looking for or bought a lot of comic books from dealers but still. For the most part the books that I bought were all from the late 70s to early 80s and filled in holes in my collection.

Action Comics 535 - early appearance of the Omega Men

Falcon 3 - the only issue I was missing from this 4-part limited series from the early 1980s

Green Lantern 161 - early appearance of the Omega Men

Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe 5, 8, 10, 11, 13 - all the issues I needed to fill out my collection of the original run of OHOTMU

Star Spangled War Stories 182 - Unknown Soldier, Enemy Ace

Sgt Rock 311

Other

You can find my pictures of original art, comic books, panels, and more in my Heroes Con 2012 photo set.

House of Mystery v6: #26

Safe as Houses

Chapter 1: walden away / true love sucks / the universe doesn't care about time travel / goblin democracy by Matthew Sturges (writer), Luca Rossi (pencils), and José Marzán, Jr. (inks) - the main story continues to wander as this chapter (presumably) lays the groundwork for future chapters. New characters and conflicts are introduced.

Backup Story: Ziggy by Matthew Sturges (writer) and Cristiano Cucina (art) - Lily tells Daphne the story of how she helped her father escape after he robbed a bank by animating the corpse of a woman he had killed during the robbery.

JSA: Classified #1-4

Power Trip
by Geoff Johns (writer), Amanda Conner (penciler), and Jimmy Palmiotti (inker)

While Power Girl wonders about her past someone seems to be messing with her mind.

There's an interesting idea behind this story but in the end the comic delivers only a suggestion of what it could and probably should have been. I do like the references to Crisis on Infinite Earths but in the end that felt like fan service because the story doesn't deliver with any sort of closure. Instead there is a note telling readers to look for Infinite Crisis #2.

I like Amanda Conner's pencils but with the exception of the 3rd issue (and early parts of the 4th issue) the art looks a bit muddied. I'm not sure who is to blame but I don't think it is the penciler.

Scalped v2: #11

Casino Boogie
by Jason Aaron (writer) and R.M. Guéra (artist)

Chapter 6: Requiem for a Dog Soldier

On the day that Red Crow's casino opens Gina Bad Horse reflects on her past with the Dog Soldiers. She visits a friend in prison and tries to make sense of what happened on that fateful night three decades ago.

There is very little in the way of closure in this, the final chapter in this volume. Information is dispensed through various mediums: flashbacks, conversations, and dreams; but nothing is resolved. The story is still in the opening stages. Presumably this chapter is setting things up that will be resolved in future issues, possibly in the next volume but probably not that soon.

Scalped v2: #10

Casino Boogie
by Jason Aaron (writer) and R.M. Guéra (artist)

Chapter 5: My Ambitionz Az a Ridah

It is still opening night for the Crazy Horse Casino. Dino Poor Bear, another character who hasn't been seen much up until now, is the spotlight character. He provides a running commentary of his day, of how shitty his life is, of how much he wants to leave the "rez" and everything he knows behind.

Truly depressing is the best way to sum up this chapter. Dino doesn't seem like a bad person but the fact that he is the focus of this chapter implies that he is going to play an important role down the line. It is impossible to predict what he will do do. His encounter with Red Crow may be a red herring or it may be foreshadowing. Either way it unlikely that discerning readers from priviledged backgrounds will feel upbeat after reading this chapter.

Scalped v2: #9

Casino Boogie
by Jason Aaron (writer) and R.M. Guéra (artist)

Chapter 4: A Thunder Being Nation I Am

The focus shifts to Catcher. The motivation for his actions in the previous few chapters is explained. Up to now he has been the most ethereal and mysterious member of the cast of Scalped. Some of his background gets fleshed out but mystery still surrounds him.