I Interviewed Pete Pantazis
Not content to merely review comics for Comic Book Resources, today I took a giant leap forward in content providing and sat down with colorist Pete Pantazis (Powers, Trinity, JLA, etc) talking about all sorts of things that potentially only he and I could possibly be interested in.
Perhaps you may be too. One never knows.
Anyway, in all seriousness, I’m really pleased with how the interview turned out. Pete’s a great and talented guy and has a whole lot to say about the business behind the business of comics.
Inside Baseball
So, while I’m waiting for this whole “Getting Back To The Island” thing to shake out before I finish off the full color action packed adventure, I figured I’d start doing these charming little recap gags every week. I hope you enjoy them! (As always, click for a larger version.)
Our Little Losties UPDATE
Yes, I know. It’s been nearly a week since I teased the world with such a totally awesome first page to Our Little Losties’ newest adventure. Well, that Season Premiere really kind of threw a wrench into the story I had laid out, so I’m going to wait until the “First Act” of the season (I hear tell around the sixth or seventh episode?) to finish the story off properly. But fret not. Tune in tomorrow for a super awesome new incarnation for our favorite wayward kids, guaranteed to thrill you for the next, what, fourteen weeks?
See you then!
Our Little Losties Return!
LOST isn’t the only thing coming back today! Our Little Losties are back in a senses shattering FIVE PART adventure, starting today! Come back Friday for the next part and then the rest of the week until next week’s episode! For the most up to date updates, follow me on Twitter! (And feel free to click on the image for a senses shattering larger version.)
Are you excited, or what?
Who Were You Planning To Call?
So, I’m a guy who knows some people who know some people in sunny old Weirdowood (“Hollywood” to you folks), and every now and then they forward along any funny or strange stuff that happens across their desk or Blackberry. I’ve been seeing letters from this guy (industry?) for a while now and I figured I’d share them with you. I’m sure he won’t mind the publicity! Feel free to click for a slightly larger version. And special thanks to Chris Sims for helping me collate this stuff.
The Triumphant Return Of Your Panel Of The Week
From Secret Six #5 by Gail Simone, Nicola Scott, Doug Hazlewood (or possibly Rodney Ramos), Jason Wright, and Travis Lanham
What struck me first was the top of Deadshot’s face here. The eyes, the nose, the cheekbones. It was all just perfectly drawn. Not one line in excess of what was needed to convey the state of the character. Than, working out from there, Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood (or, as said, possbly Ramos) did a great chin/stache/lips/puke combo. Top it off with a very detailed realization of a casino bathroom and we’re off to a great start. (The detail on his gun bracelet [not belt?] and gloves, is also very nice.)
What pushed this over the top for me (when a Mike McKone Spidey close-up was very high in the running) was the really fantastic color work of Travis Lanham. There was a distinct painterly quality to the entire book, but especially this sequence. I don’t know why, but it really stood out to me.
Also, it might not be totally evident in this single panel (just because it’s out of context, not because it stinks), but Simone is writing the living crap out of this book. So much fun, such well drawn characters, and legitimate, earned surprises in every issue.
This is an ongoing, right? Please tell me it’s an ongoing. And please, don’t let the rest of this production team go anywhere.
Ending The Conversation
So, I was all set to write a really long farewell piece about UGO, Hearst Corporation, and Ziff Davis teaming up to decimate Electronic Gaming Monthly and the 1UP Network (I’d throw up links, but neither of them exist anymore). Then I read former 1UP employee Jenn Frank’s piece about the whole thing and decided to just forget it. Not much more to be said.
But I’ll say this anyway.
1UP Yours and The 1UP Show were just as much a part of my life as a gamer as the games themselves. Some of the best of the bunch had already moved on (Shawn Elliott, Luke Smith, Jeff Green, Che Chou, Mark MacDonald, Kathleen Sanders, Jane Pinckard, John Davison and a crapload of others) but two of the very best lasted all the way to the end, until they cleaned out their desks this afternoon. More even then the many personalities they captured on their podcasts, Ryan O’Donnell and Andrew “Skip” Pfister were the minds and the muscle behind an initiative that, honestly, changed the landscape of gaming enthusiast journalism. Decades of shrill, one way carping in previews and reviews had, seemingly overnight, been turned into a conversation. As much as the watcher and listener might not be able to directly communicate, just watching and listening to these shows made you feel like here was a bunch of folks who just plain loved games as much you did, and talked the same kind of shit about them. They disagreed, yes, of course, but they all knew they were all in the same boat. The same boat we all were in. The one where your eyes start to sting because you’ve been grinding the same JRPG for six hours now. The one where the heels of your feet are starting to hurt because you just can’t bring yourself to play Rock Band guitar sitting down. The one where the only thing as exhilarating as doing something awesome in a game is telling someone else about it, even if you’ve never met them.
Now, a world without such a thing seems ridiculous. There are a multitude of podcasts now that are little more than a few well-mic’ed gamers having a conversation they just as easily could be having by themselves, but that they’ve decided to share. None of these would exist without the work of so many people who, today, are now out of it.
It’s beyond a shame. But they’re not gone. No one as passionate about games will ever truly be able to shut up about them. And even now, fans are feverishly archiving the shows that at any minute could be flushed into oblivion. So they’re not gone.
But we did lose something, and no matter how much we’ll be able to revisit past enterprises, and no matter what forms future initiatives take, as Jeff Green put it so eloquently today, “This Fucking Sucks.”
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Benjamin Birdie
Suddenly kind of aged, Benjamin lives in Queens with his cat. His Master's Degree in Creative Writing has helped him immensely with his primary responsibilities of drawing things.
He can be reached at benjaminbirdie (at) gmail (dot) com.
And do feel free to follow him on Twitter.
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His Comics
Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, this charming comic strip by myself and Kevin Church receives a sparkling new installment. A Comic Strip About A Comic Shop.