Saturday Means Business, Part 2

As noted earlier, I was cranking with note-taking, meeting great and interesting new people, connecting with others I wanted to connect with and having a great time, compared to the previous couple of days at the New York Comic Con. I should probably lay a lot of the blame at the feet of Tara Johnson, the great and powerful Tarachu herself. If it weren’t for her, I would never have met Jacob Kirton and Tristan Powell, nor discovered their bizarre and incredible project, The Seven Scrolls of Shitorio. (Order it here 7 Scrolls of Shitorio and enjoy it) If I hadn’t visited the Walk on Water booth, I’d likely never have met and learned about Nathaniel Burney and his Illustrated Guide to Law books. (www.lawcomic.net) In addition, I probably wouldn’t have met the many creators behind Mythopoeia’s Skies of Fire comic (www.mythopoeia.us) or the in-your-face fun of Action Johnson. So, I suggest thanking her by showering her with wagonloads of strange Japanese gifts. Or pie. Just tell her it was all her fault.

The day was burning by me fast and I still had some big chats to go. First I had to get to the Action Lab booth and get some info on that up-and-coming publisher. I hoped to have enough time to get back down to the Artist’s Alley area and have a good chat with the guys at FUBAR, another publisher I have a fondness for that I think sometimes gets ignored within the industry. I don’t feel I’m alone in that thought.

Before I left the “small press” aisle and taking my leave of all those mentioned above, I should probably mention that the incredibly talented cosplayer who calls herself HaruVamp was getting her wings attached at the booth, where we exchanged greetings. We’d met before, but I didn’t even recognize her in her wild attire and makeup. Here’s a pic of her and Tara in costume:

 Just remember to duck when she’s coming down the aisle, folks.

Action Lab comics became known to me around three or four years ago when I purchased a single issue comic they had solicited in the Diamond Distributor’s Catalogue, Previews. I honestly don’t recall the name of the book and a search came up empty. All I know it that it wasn’t terrible and kept the name of the company in my memory for later potential purchases. About two years ago, I ordered from their solicitations a title called The Order of Dagonet, amused by the description given in the catalogue. As my comic buying had dropped considerably after DC Comics had given a large portion of their fandom the proverbial middle finger by creating a company-wide “reboot” of their shared universe (and I had given it back by dropping every single one of their titles – with the exception of the few remaining Vertigo series still worth reading), I found myself experimenting by purchasing lots of new comics from independent or small press publishers. Some of them, like The Order of Dagonet, were not only worth every single penny; they were worth telling every reader I could about them, when possible. And with that, suddenly Action Lab was a publisher of note.

Action Lab gained a lot of notoriety with a comic called Princeless, which I do not read. It received a number of nominations for comic awards, winning a few and elevating the company in the eyes of professionals, retailers and probably the distributor. The booth at the con was a large square of comics and toys, as they were sharing their space with a new, popular doll called Vamplets. It was way over on the far side of the main event floor from the rest of the small press or bigger independent publishers, stuck near cheapo replicated weaponry dealers, Japanese toy and anime t-shirt vendors, Dr. Who tchotchke sellers and other esoterica. They had a nice space that was situated fairly prominently on the floor in this area, but who the hell thought that putting them there was a great idea? I said in an earlier column that sometimes the convention organizers aren’t thinking things through and this is another great example.

Still, I had a great time talking with Jeremy Whitley, Action Lab’s listed Marketing Director, as well as writer of a number of series at the company, such as my favorite, The Order of Dagonet. I whined like a shameless fanboy, wondering why there was such a long delay since the last issue I’d received, #3. Sadly, I was told that it was a sales stinker, a problem I’ve discovered with many other comics I claim as favorites. My tastes are extremely eclectic and I’m not ashamed to say it. Still, there is hope that the series can be reasonably concluded, as the next few issues were finished. Someday, hopefully, I can read the remainder, even if it’s online. I heartily recommend you all go out and search for copies. It’s funny, bizarre and doesn’t take itself seriously at all. And the art is just beyond describing.

I also had a lengthy discussion with Jeremy Dale, writer and artist on Skyward, a fantasy series about and adventurous boy and his dog, and a comic for all ages of readers. While we chatted about comics, conventions and the company, Marcus Williams was sketching “con exclusive” art on blank covers of his series from Action Lab, Hero Cats. With that and many other current and upcoming titles falling into the ”all-ages” category, we all had a lot to say about the dearth of comics aimed at, or at least not excluding a younger audience. Both Jeremy’s told me vehemently that DC Comics, in particular, has no interest in publishing comics to a younger reader. It got pretty specific, with me being told that it wasn’t just that the publisher had no interest in attracting younger readers; they were actively excluding that demographic with editorial policies. As a reader and former retailer, I wasn’t blind to it, but hearing that another publisher was told, in pretty frank terms, that the comic company in charge of Superman has no interest in making their characters accessible to young readers or even publishing new comics geared to a younger audience was appalling. (Bear in mind that there are some titles from DC that are geared to young readers, but few are promoted, much less carried by very many retailers.}

Action Lab publishes comics aimed at a more… “mature” reader, as well. They have an entire line called Danger Zone, with successful titles such as Zombie Tramp. Yes, that is correct, Zombie Tramp. Don’t judge, I once bought a two-issue series called Harry Johnson. And it was great.

I really like Action Lab. They’re a really diverse group of folks with some extremely good books to their name. Their website is a little weird and not always updated, but you can at least see the most recent books solicited. Take it from me right now, their soon to be released series called Fight Like a Girl is going to be a sleeper hit. Get in on the ground floor, you won’t be sorry. (www.actionlab.com)

One distressing note to interject here, before continuing my Saturday misadventure. Jeremy Dale, creator of Skyward, passed away unexpectedly about two weeks after returning home from the convention. He was very pleasant and open, a professional like I remember from when I first went to a convention. I was really looking forward to further communication with him, especially in regards to library-based comic conventions. I don’t know details of what happened, as few were released to the press. I’m not even going to go digging around the internet and respect his wife’s wishes in keeping it vague. Some things just don’t need to be known outside of the family. I will post the web address of a GoFundMe for her, as one was put up to help defray hospital costs: Help Kelly Dale

I spent a good portion of time with the guys at Action Lab and it was time to get a bite to eat before traversing the crowds to Artist’s Alley and FUBAR. I headed out, then remembered that an artist friend of mine was a last-minute addition to the con and would be appearing at the Zenescope Publishing booth. Zenescope maintains a reputation in the industry as purveyors of “bad girl” artwork, essentially selling to the lowest common denominator. I hadn’t purchased a Zenescope comic in years, since around the time they first started publishing. It was an interesting limited series set in early China, a far cry from their other product. It was one of many series I’ve bought into that never got finished, due to lagging sales. Either way, in trying to find the Zenescope booth before getting a bite to eat, I bumped into the Avatar Comics booth. Avatar and Bleeding Cool are publishing companions and I’ve found a number of Avatar series of late have been exceptionally good. Another title I really enjoyed, Dan the Unharmable, also vanished from the catalogues and I didn’t know if it had gone on hiatus or otherwise. I found out, but not before running into Max Brooks, writer of the famed Zombie Survival Guide, some novel called World War Z and author of a monthly comic from Avatar. It was the first time I’d met Max, having been a fan of the Survival Guide since its inception. We had a brief chat while he signed some books for another fan (he claimed to be just hanging out, but couldn’t say no to the guy). It was clear he was hoping not to be recognized and was scheduled to be elsewhere, so I said farewell and moved on to the Zenescope booth. O, and Dan the Unharmable? It didn’t sell. Canceled due to low sales. It was getting to be a theme for me.

Franchesco is an artist I met at the Chicago Comic Con some years back, when it wasn’t part of the Wizard*series of conventions but had outgrown itself and moved into a brand new facility on the outskirts of the city, called the Rosemont Convention Center. Feel free to try and date that period of time and enjoy the knowledge you’d get from it, but I’m not giving it away. I met him again after he had sent me a piece of art in the mail, thanking me for a letter I had written to a DC Comic about a Green Lantern character he’d created which appeared in one of the handful of Green Lantern series being published then. In a future A Leaf on the Wind topic, I may discuss my years of letterhacking and how that differs from the power of the interwebs. Franchesco is such a character it’s hard to forget the guy. I may have had some talks with him over the early days of the net, through email or old America Online discussion groups, which are harder to recall than the man himself. My days traveling to Chicago for the con ended when I moved into retailing (another possible topic for the future) and I lost track of a number of people I’d met from those fun, fandom filled days. Facebook allowed me to reconnect with him and see how his art had changed, as well as have fun discussions about comics and the silly comic’s media. At the Zenescope booth I was told he was in Artist’s Alley, so I planned to find him when I headed there. Here’s some Franchesco art to break the page a bit.

After a quick bite at my favorite outdoor vendor, I high-tailed it back into the center to Artist’s Alley, to collect more independent publisher insight from the guys at FUBAR. It was a difficult trek, as the crowds were too large for the narrowed passage to the North Hall of the Javitz Center, causing jams and a very uncomfortable, claustrophobic crush. If you could sweat it out, sometimes quite literally, it was worth it, as was the next hour or two of time I would be spending in the hall.

FUBAR Press is known for one thing: zombie war comics. I had heard of them when their first book was listed in the Previews catalogue, passing on purchasing it partly due to my lack of interest in yet another zombie book (by this time, The Walking Dead – Image Comics, not yet a television show -- had resurrected the venerable zombie horror comic and created a run of imitators) and because I was watching my spending. After it was published I learned that another artist friend of mine had done some work for this first volume of what was to become a series of FUBAR graphic novels. Lonny Chant and I have known each other since the grand old days of being comic nerds at the Friendly Local Comic Shop I eventually worked at when I was in high school. I’d supported his previous works, all small press efforts, and did the same for FUBAR.

Each FUBAR volume is loaded with short stories of zombies in various combat situations. The first book focused on various WW2 campaigns and settings, where zombies are not necessarily the enemy, just a plot device. FUBAR books all have subtitles, such as ‘Empire of the Rising Dead’ or ‘American History Z’, denoting their specific frame of storytelling. The stories run the gamut of funny, serious, gory and downright terrifying. The books are all short and fat, with all of them containing a section at the rear where every artist within can draw a sketch in a framed area next to their name. It’s such a great idea, I don’t know why more publishers don’t do that! At less than 15 bucks a pop, you get incredible bang for your buck, whether you like zombies, war comics, historical fiction or just black and white art.

In brief, I have visited the FUBAR booth, a mock-up of a camouflaged WW2 bivouac tent, every year they (and I) have attended NYCC since 2010. I went there the first time to support Lonny and see what it all was about, getting easily pulled in by the FUBAR guys’ enthusiasm, sense of fun and their willingness to discuss everything about their comics with me. Jeff McComsey has put together one fine little company here, mostly with successful Kickstarter campaigns. Kickstarter has been a model many companies have found succinct success with and I can’t fault FUBAR for staying with it until it no longer works. Feel like checking them out? Sure you do. www.fubar.com will take you to their site, in which you can do all the necessary things. Such as purchase product and tell them that I sent you.

I could go on and on about FUBAR and the great people doing work there, such as Ben Truman, Steve Becker, Shawn Aldridge, Stephen Lindsay, the vastly underrated Lonny Chant and some guy named Chuck Dixon, but I hope you go and discover it yourself.

I was pretty pleased with the information I’d gathered down in Artist’s Alley, but I still needed more games to write about. There was one company I had written down to locate but hadn’t at this point, so I stalked my way back to the main floor to see where it was. On the way, I walked past a tall stack of a boxed game I hadn’t seen before, but recognized from various news blurbs on game sites. Here’s the blurb I wrote for Bleeding Cool, though it never saw print:

Looking For Group is a Canadian web comic series in the fantasy genre, with a humorous flair. Its popularity, as well as with the interest of the series’ creators, Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza, pushed them to develop the comic into a role playing game utilizing the popular Pathfinder rule set from Paizo Publishing. A success through Kickstarter, the Looking For Group Boxed Set was released at this year’s GenCon (the largest North American game convention) and is available at NYCC, as well as a supplemental adventure to go along with the box. If you know nothing about the comic and enjoy role playing new settings, this could be a winner for you. If you are a regular Pathfinder aficionado, you could do no wrong with getting a copy. With new races, spells and feats, you’re going to benefit from the experience. Besides, every game needs a little more humor from time to time. You can also get copies of the printed Looking For Group, so get caught up on this gem while you can. Or visit www.lfgcomic.com and see the newest episodes.

The guys at LFG were a pretty odd and funny group, and I’d hoped to give them at least a small spotlight. Their product is top of the line and geared to a rather large assortment of gamers, so while they may not hit many of their targeted market at the NYCC, there was no reason they should be bypassed.

I soon located where the booth of the game I was looking for and headed directly there. Ziko Games is the name of the company publishing Legends of the Three Kingdoms, a semi-cooperative card game that originated in China. Utilizing the history and mythology of China, it has an interesting premise in the goals of the players, for each has a hidden role that may or may not come out during play. Essentially the role each player has dictates whether or not they should help or harm other players, or which cards they should activate. There is a mat with areas for card placement, allowing only so many of certain types of cards to be active, spurring all sorts of strategies for each and every hand. I watched three attendees play with the person running the booth (whose name I lost since the convention, sadly) until their game ended, which wasn’t all that long. Apparently the game has been very popular in China since its introduction in 2010, and with strong game sales in the US over the past 5 years, it was a certainty for translation. As a single boxed game allowing for up to ten players, it sits in an area all by itself by being small in size and allowing for so many to participate. One expansion is available, and to entice the American market, exclusive single cards are being made specifically for it. The website is www.zikogames.com and the game should be available at FLGS everywhere.

Time was winding down, but I wasn’t done yet. I figured I’d wander through the vendor section where they were selling back issues of comics. From my initial viewpoint, there were a lot less of them than previous years, and many of them didn’t look any different from when I was in New York in 2012. Regardless, I turned the corner from where the Ziko Games booth was, and spotted a rather large Golden Age comics booth (the name of which I’ll withhold for now) that impressed me. I do like seeing old comics from that era and figured being a window shopper wouldn’t be terrible. Besides, I was a little interested in whether or not people were turning out for comics of that era at a show that mostly ignores anything older than six months.

The booth had a vast display of older comics standing face up on the shelves behind the salespeople. A couple of locked cases held some of the more high end, or key issues. They had some very early copies of Action and Detective, where Superman and Batman originated. They had some first appearances of other characters, like Wonder Woman and the Flash. All in all, some extremely historic pieces in their displays. When I asked a woman behind the counter if they were getting any traffic to the booth, she wryly pointed to the other side of where we stood, where a convention staffer stood arguing with one of the booth’s operators. Apparently their booth had been placed nowhere near the other retailers of back issues, or even near the small group of other sellers of Golden Age comics. Considering that, they felt that they had been cheated, or at least been misrepresented at the show, as most shoppers for their goods likely wouldn’t be searching them out exclusively. They had a good point, as most collectors tend to just head for the section that has their comics, buy, and leave. It’s unlikely that they’d pick up the convention booklet to search out specific vendors; it’s just the nature of the collector. I listened to the argument for a little bit, amused at the poor responses from the event staffer. He didn’t see an issue with the positioning of the retailer’s booth; it was on the end of an aisle, after all! I held on to that snippet to see if I could turn it into something worthwhile, but it never gelled the way I wanted. NYCC is too big to give a damn about one vendor, especially someone selling old stuff. And that’s a bloody shame, to be honest.

I wandered around for a while longer, chuckling at the insanity of it all, pleased that I’d had such a productive day with just a pen and handy, dandy notebook. The writers of Bleeding Cool were intending to meet at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund** party held at a pub called Tir Na Nog a few blocks away, and I felt it was a good time to head that way. With no baggage to slow me down, it was absolutely fantastic to be able to walk up to the pub on a cool October evening. Plus? Free beer.

I got to the pub a little early, to decompress and compile a few notes. The CBLDF wasn’t set up as yet, so I ordered a stout from the Founder’s brewery (a particular favorite) and did my work. While sitting there a young woman I’d seen about the show came and plunked herself down next to me, with a few complaints about comic book shows. We then got into a conversation about covering the con for our respective sites (she was covering video games for a rather large entertainment magazine) and how the NYCC was treating press. She hadn’t even been to the press room and was horrified at my description of it, quite possibly adding to her already potent dislike of this particular show. As a female, she finds she gets far too many comments of a shady nature spoken to her, and New York seems to increase to the amount she normally gets. I will admit, she is attractive. She is also Asian, which more than likely adds to the amounts of comments she gets, as she’s covering video games and she said many people thing she’s cosplaying some character from one game or another, regardless of her clothing. Some of her video game writers came out to meet her and I discussed the recent “Gamergate” topic of internet news, where a number of females in the video game community blew some whistles about the misogyny and harassment they’ve dealt with. It wasn’t something I had much information on, so it was interesting to get a more in-depth view of what was happening at the time.

By then the free beer was flowing, with a particularly good beverage called the TNN Ale, an amber ale brewed specifically for the Tir Na Nog pubs in Manhattan. I got to meet a number of excellent artists and writers, such as Cesar Feliciano, artist of the superhero murder mystery Red 10 (www.comixtribe.com/the-red-ten/) and Michael Montenat (http://armhead.carbonmade.com/) as well as finally getting to meet everyone writing for Bleeding Cool. Rich Johnston and I had a brief but interesting conversation regarding the then recent settlement between Marvel/Disney and the Jack Kirby family, which will resonate for years, mark my words.

While I was having a great time talking with everyone and handing out business cards, I couldn’t stay forever, having to catch the last bus to New Jersey. So I bade my goodbyes and headed on out, ready to type up more articles before crashing.

*The Wizard was once one of comic fandom’s most infamous of magazines. Published by the execrable Gareb Shamus, it pandered to the lowest common denominator of fans, as well as pushed the speculator market of the early nineties to such heights you could arguably blame this rag for the current state of comics as a whole. The Wizard is no longer being published, a victim of its own excess, but it is now the name of a series of conventions around the country.

**The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, fondly known as the CBLDF, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the legal defense of persons in the comic book community that do not have the money to do so themselves. Originally based in Northampton, Massachusetts, they are now in New York fighting the good fight against censorship of all sorts. www.cbldf.org is their website, where you can learn all about who’s part of their board of directors, their mission, their successes and how to donate to the cause.