Creature Features!

This week's post focuses on creatures big and small -- from the ankle-biters that plague suburban Phoenix streets to the dinosaurs of Route 66 and beyond!

Coming Soon: Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly #1 & America's Super Secret Service #1

Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly is still scheduled to drop this month, but in the meantime here's a detail from the first page of Amazing Arizona Comics #10/America's Super Secret Service #1.  How does a routine chihuahua attack in Phoenix lead to the biggest threat our country has ever faced?  Coming soon!

Amazing Arizona Research

Earlier this month, my wife and I toured the Arizona section of Route 66, and the last leg of our trip unearthed a lot of dinosaurs.  Stewart's Petrified Wood, a trading post just outside of Holbrook, is one of the most famous spots starring Arizona's prehistoric pests, specifically the homemade variety.  While I'm leaning toward not posting all of the pics I took on Route 66, because you really should see it all yourself, consider this comprehensive collage a gift so you won't have to experience the creepy shopkeepers of Stewart's.  Sometimes the beasts of a region are more evolved than the humans in their midst.

Cool Cosplay

I get to see a lot of cool cosplay at the cons I attend, and rather than post endless slideshows of fat Batmen, I like to feature one great costume at a time, ideally revealing the wearer's creativity, originality, and most importantly to me practicality.  Keeping with the creature theme, here's Sharknado, the Sci-Fi Network's most successful passing fad yet.  Thankfully, Sharknado will always live on in cosplay form.

This Week's Intake

This week's intake didn't vary much from previous weeks' intake.  In fact, I read another issue of Kirby's Captain America, which introduced a new bad guy called the Baron (I think), whose core villainy seems centered on recruiting slaves for manual labor, confirming that overarching theme in the King's comics: that the greatest evil is making someone work.  I also picked up Dean Haspiel's The Fox #5, which concluded his excellent Freak Magnet miniseries with a team-up with the Shield.  The tone wasn't as scatterbrained as previous issues, thanks in large part to J.M DeMatteis' script, but I still loved it and am excited for more.

I think the most mind-consuming intake I'm still processing is Eric Stephenson's speech to comic book retailers at a recent industry convention about the importance of brick and mortar stores.  Comic Book Resources posted a transcript of the speech, and I'm still mulling over the subtexts about the importance of superheroes in today's culture.  As I prepare of SPX in September, I accept I might be in the minority of self-publishers still doling out superhero stuff.  I'm definitely comfortable with that -- it's just an interesting phenomenon to experience superheroes become less counter-culture as they become more mainstream . . . at least in perception.  I believe superheroes are still the epitome of counter-culture, despite their new place in pop culture as box office blockbusters.  I won't explore too much further, because I think the subject is worthy of a post all by itself, only to leave it with what would undoubtedly be that post's first sentence:

At its best, the superhero is an all-ages escape fantasy for reality's troubles, shameless in its ethical simplicity, yet daring in the complexity that presents a graphic narrative with such a blurred fourth wall.

A New Strip . . . and More!

I haven't posted much since last month's Amazing Arizona Comic Con, but I've been busy at the drawing board plotting this year's worth of Amazing Arizona Comics and more.  I'll tease some upcoming projects at the end of this post, but, in the meantime, I hope to post weekly newsletter-style updates of what's happening here at KaraokeFanboy Press . . . starting today!

McGruff . . . Enough!

You may have heard this week that McGruff the Crime Dog has barked up the wrong tree of the law, but do you know the whole story?  If you're cruising comic shops in Phoenix this week, you can pick up a noir copy of this strip, but here it is in glorious color, revealing McGruff's connection to America's Super Secret Service, the national extension of Amazing Arizona Comics explored here in years past.  (Click here for easier reading.)

Cool Cosplay

I get to see a lot of cool cosplay at the cons I attend, and rather than post endless slideshows of fat Batmen, I like to feature one great costume at a time, ideally revealing the wearer's creativity, originality, and most importantly to me practicality.  So, here's a look at a Samurai Flash from the Amazing Arizona Comic Con!  Great threads, dude!

This Week's Intake

This week, I've been catching up on Dean Haspiel's The Fox through Archie Comics' Red Circle Comics imprint.  I've dug Dean since the Billy Dogma days, but his out-of-this-world take on classic superhero shtick is really fun.  I think the next issue (#5) wraps the current storyline, so pick up the back issues while you can!  Sure, a trade is right around the corner, but nothing beats this series' funky floppy issue design, which includes a nice batch of bio pages and back-up stories.

Coming Soon . . .

I've created a yearlong game plan of projects for 2014, which started with the Amazing Arizona Comics: No Burn Day Special that month, and continues with Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly, my first standard comic-sized issue!  AACQ will collect old and new adventures alongside extras exploring the rich superhero subtext of Arizona's history.  The first issue, scheduled for publication by mid-March, will feature Cupid's annual plot to usurp Arizona's birthday in favor of his beloved Valentine's Day, both of which fall on February 14.  The mini-comics will continue, but AACQ will be fun way to get these tales out there in a different format for new readers.

Karaoke Comics and my old fanzine Far & Wee are all on the to-do list for this year, as well.  Keep your eyes on freebie shelves around Phoenix -- and of course right here on the blog -- for excerpts of all this stuff.  

Until next week, happy birthday, Arizona!