Quick Announcement and Quick Note on Semantics

If I may be allowed a small plug, I have recently re-branded my old personal blog
"Gorga's Thoughts" into "The Comicsmithy" A Place Where Comics Are Forged(TM... not really).

"Comicsmith" is the only word I've ever come up with to adequately describe what we do. We who make comics.

Writers write, painters paint, filmmakers make films, but people always seem to stick to "comics creator" or "comics artist" to sum up the position of a person who makes comics. We're ALL "artists". None of these do it for me. The nearest one is "cartoonist", but that word technically refers to a style and not a medium according to Scott McCloud; "an approach to picture-making" as he puts it in "Understanding Comics", (McCloud, 21) and I agree. I heard a discussion of this problem just a few weeks ago at a panel on "Brooklyn Women in Comics" (on which there is an article covering it coming, I swear) and I wanted to say it out loud... but I didn't. It would have been obnoxious of me.

"Comicsmith" is great because it resolves the "s" at the end of the word "comics" with a word that denotes creation: "smith", like a "blacksmith", a "metalsmith", or, more importantly, a "shipsmith". A shipsmith makes ships so a comicsmith makes comics. I also feel like it's, therefore, a better translation of the Japanese word mangaka. A bit antiquated, yes, but after realizing that comics is, more often than not, a "forging" of disparate elements into a work, I've fallen even more in love with the word. I'll even go so far as to say that if my word (or one better, but equally unique to the medium), gains enough popularity it would help to consciously/subconsciously affect the way people treat comics as a medium.

So I'll be putting a bigger effort at putting my simple photo comics up for all to see. Soon I hope to include more elaborate comics written by me and drawn by others as well!

2oo9 in a Shortbox!! Best of the Year

My marathon reading and re-reading of the comics of last year is finally over!! And as last night was Oscar night, here's my Personal Best Comics of 2oo9 List.

Quick important notes: To qualify, a work must be comics and must have been published in its entirety, in English, and for the first time either in print or on the web, between 1/1/o9 and 12/31/o9. The selections are presented by category, but not in any ascending or descending order.

BEST MINIS
"Luke Cage Noir" #1, #2, #3, #4
written by Adam Glass and Mike Benson; drawn by Shawn Martinbrough
One that flew under most people's radar as far as I can tell. Racism is just one of the many themes among class, crime, betrayal, legends, hearsay, and hope at play in this mini-series.
Collected edition has also become available in 2o1o.

"The Life and Times of Savior 28" #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and the collection.
written by J.M. DeMatteis; drawn by Mike Cavallaro
Possibly the most important work done in the superhero genre in a decade, this mini-series challenges one of the long-standing, most-odious elements of the genre: violence.

BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS
"Asterios Polyp"
written and drawn by David Mazzucchelli
A torturously beautiful narrative of love and loss and realizing how much love it was you really did lose. Mazzucchelli broke the mold on utilizing style in visual narrative here. Brilliant. Although it is, in this writer's opinion, almost made a mess by a sudden and inappropriate shock ending. Making it the polar opposite of the following work...

"365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice"
written and drawn by J. P. Kalonji
379 pages of splash-pages drawn by a Swiss man actually make this surprising graphic novel like a steady rhythm of blood pounding in your ears slowly building toward a fittingly beautiful surprise ending. The end result is a beautiful work of art about life, love, and enlightenment.

BEST GRAPHIC NOVELLA
"The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" Vol. 3 "Century: 1910"
An amazing continuation of Alan Moore's crazy work of historical/fictional fantasy. Characters narrate their own story in period songs they sing as they go about their work. The background items in the League's headquarters get even more outrageous. Horrifying and beautiful.

BEST STORY-ARC IN AN ONGOING SERIES
"Red-Headed Stranger" Prelude in "Amazing Spider-Man" #601, Parts 1 through 3 in #602, #603, #604, and (epilogue) #605
written by Mark Waid, Fred Van Lente, and Brian Reed; drawn by Mario Alberti, Barry Kitson, Robert Atkins, Javier Pulido, Luke Ross, and Yanick Paquette
Issue #601 by Mark Waid and Mario Alberti gets special mention for being funny, action-packed, romantic, working as a stand-alone story, and being gorgeously drawn by Alberti to boot! The prelude and epilogue material by Mark Waid, Fred Van Lante, and Brian Reed is excellent humorous/romantic stuff that connects thematically to Van Lente's main drama/action story in the three issues between them. Mary Jane returns from a long hiatus from Peter's life and Spider-Man's first supervillain, The Chameleon, gets a fantastically creepy overhaul that allowed Van Lente to examine the role of fear in how we shape our identity.

BEST INDIVIDUAL ISSUES
"Counting Up From Zero" from "Invincible Iron Man" #20 and "Digging In The Dirt" from "Invincible Iron Man" #21
ongoing series issues written by Matt Fraction; drawn by Salvador Larroca
My god. If you told me six years ago that "Iron Man" would be one of the best series Marvel was doing, that it would be the MUST HAVE, the book that had you most excited about comics... I would have laughed in your face. Along came Fraction and Salva (although a great debt is owed to the work done a few years ago by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, too) and completely blew my socks off with these issues. Following on the heels of some great issues in the "World's Most Wanted" story-arc.

"Sandman: The Dream Hunters" #3, #4 and the collection.
mini-series issues written and drawn by P. Craig Russell; adapted from a short story by Neil Gaimen
This mini was mind-blowing, most-especially for someone, such as myself, who has never been fully immersed in the world of Neil Gaimen's "Sandman". I gave the collection to Clare for Christmas and it turned out to be the best Christmas gift I ever gave US.

"Blackest Night" #1
mini-series issue written by Geoff Johns; drawn by Ivan Reis
Strange, I know, to include the first issue of a mini-series and none of those that followed. Never before in a superhero comic-book had I seen so many characters in such a quick succession of pages be re-introduced, re-invigorated, and made respectably realistic. Johns is a master storyteller on an epic scale.

"Ring Out The Old" Conclusion from "Ex Machina" #44
ongoing series issue written by Brian K. Vaughan; drawn by Tony Harris
On a equally epic scale, if with a smaller number of characters, Brian K. Vaughan continues to bring new dimensions to the story of his ex-superhero mayor of New York City. This issue blew my mind with its kooky SF creations mixed with religious terminology.

"The Great Silence" from "Jonah Hex" #50
ongoing series issue written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; drawn by Darwyn Cooke
A smart, fast, heart-breaking story by Gray and Palmiotti breathtakingly realized by Darwyn Cooke, the sequential art master of our times. One of the only western genre titles out there today, and a damn good one.

"A Battle Within" from "Batman" #687
ongoing series issue written by Judd Winick; drawn by Ed Benes
Batman stories narrated even partially by Alfred have ended up being my very favorite Batman stories. When asked if he's okay after Bruce Wayne's death, he replies: I'm not okay. My son is dead.

"Saviour" from "Atomika" #8
mini-series issue written by Andrew Dabb; drawn by Sal Abbinanti
After four years of publishing, we finally see Atomika turn that moral corner, realize he is a monster and become a mature... god. It is at this point he embarks on the road to heroism that we will see him complete when the last, twelfth issue comes out.

"That Which Does Not Kill Us" from "The Infinite Horizon" #4 of 6
mini-series issue written by Gerry Duggan; drawn by Phil Noto
Excellent adaptation of "The Odyssey" recounting a soldier's moments of weakness. Circe's magic is replaced by a morphine addiction. Tough choices are made, as the road back home can only continue if the Captain breaks his own leg so that the previous unsuccessful bone setting can be re-done. Holy jesus.

"Planetary" #27
ooooooongoing series' final issue written by Warren Ellis; drawn by John Cassaday
The major work in the superhero genre in the past fifteen years come to a close. The final hurrah was worth the wait. Science fiction at the intersection of hope and history.

"32" from "Daytripper" #1
mini-series issue written and drawn by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Bá
This extremely talented team of twin brothers present their first mini-series. And it is a very auspicious start. We are introduced to their main character, Bras, at 32 years old.

"Comic Book Comics" #3
mini-series issue written by Fred Van Lente; drawn by Ryan Dunlavey
The men behind this comic are the unsung heroes of the comic-book medium right now, because they are attempting to create a history of the comics medium in the comics medium and they're having fun doing it! Honestly, they deserve props for the concept of the comics industry's self-infantilization (which they label the "Logan's Run Effect") alone.

BEST SHORTS
"Photograph"
mini-comic written and drawn by Nicholas Breutzman
A simple story in simple xeroxed pages without so much as a staple between them. A boy and a girl wake up in bed next to each other and through narration from the fella's point-of-view we slowly get a picture of who these people are and how they ended up in so intimate a position.

"...And Call My Lover MODOK!" from "Strange Tales" #1
short graphic anthology story written and drawn by Nick Bertozzi
Awkward, ridiculous, yet moving portrayal of a supervillain and his... concubine? Done in FOUR PAGES. Amazing.

"The Black Widow" from "Strange Tales" #2
short graphic anthology story written and drawn by Matt Kindt
A great, quick spy story set against the Marvel universe. Apparently, superheroes get in the way of your job when your job is being a secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. Great use of text, great characterization, all in so few pages!

"Martha" from "MySpace Dark Horse Presents" online Issue 19
webcomic written and drawn by Dave Chisholm
A remarkable little tale of highway violence and familial re-connection. The surprise ending makes this the best thing I read on the web last year.

Here's hoping 2o1o is as good a year! Or better!

[2oo9: The best to the right, the rest to the left! Not quite a shortbox, is it?]

and finally...
The Comics I Would Probably Have Put On The List Had I Bought Them and Read All Of Them
"Stiches" graphic novel written and drawn by David Small
"3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man" graphic novel written and drawn by Matt Kindt
"I Kill Giants" #7 of 7 mini-series final issue written by Joe Kelly; drawn by J. M. Ken Niimura

Perhaps Grant Morrison Has Finally, Truly, Totally Lost His Mind...

...and no one noticed.

Go see the covers for "The Return of Bruce Wayne" here at Newsarama.com

I saw them and said: "There's no way I'm looking at what I'm looking at."

This looks ridiculous.

Inspiring "DEMO"nstrations of Skill and Possibility

"DEMO" v2 #1 from Vertigo (an imprint of DC Comics)

Have these questions ever crossed your mind: "Superheroes could be so much more as a genre, couldn't it?" or "Why do they all have to be in that damn spandex, why can't they just be regular people with weird abilities?" If you ever thought these things (and REALLY, haven't we ALL?) you should be reading "DEMO", the anthology comic-book mini-series written by Brian Wood and drawn by Becky Cloonan. Either go back and find the original series from small publisher AiT/Planet Lar or buy these new issues from big publisher Vertigo as they come out. Or better yet, both.

When I came across the collected first volume of "DEMO" on the comics shelf of my good friend Davy Brustlin, I was mesmerized. I still haven't read all of Volume 1, but as the series is an anthology (and as such doesn't have any continuing characters or situations) we all have the freedom to read whatever we can find.

I have come to think of the series' name as an implication more than a label. A dare: 'This is what we can do with superheroes. This is our demonstration. Can you top us?' And this issue shows us once again why they deserve that title: These stories are strong. [At left, is a page from v1 #1. Raw teenage angst portrayed in angsty lines.]

To kick off the new volume Wood and Cloonan show us the mind of Joan. (Which is my mother's name. Weird.)

Joan doesn't really sleep anymore. She can't. She keeps seeing a vision in her dreams of someone falling to their death. Feeling a moral ache and an apparent inability to do anything about it, Joan draws away from her own life in San Francisco in growing concern over this person, this woman, in her dreams who seems to be falling to her doom.

Finally, deciding the location of the girl's fall she rushes across the globe hoping to save her in time. Quitting her job, breaking up with her boyfriend, and spending all her savings in a desperate and STILL sleepless race to St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

What she finds is that there is no girl about to fall, that the life she abandoned was very easy to abandon, and that in the falling moment of final freedom of all her burdens, as she topples over the guard rail to be saved at the very last moment by a nameless security guard, she can finally sleep.

At first glance a pulpy, simple story about a girl who dreams someone falling and rushes there to self-fulfill the prophecy, the story becomes something much deeper. If her life was so boring, by traveling half-way around the world and stranding herself there on a wild-goose chase, she did save the girl in her vision. She saved herself.

[To the right, super gorgeous page from v2 #1. A more mature sleek style for a more mature woman.]

Though this first story doesn't have the raw power of the debut issue of the first volume it is still really, really wonderful. And, although Brian Wood may not have been quite as awesome as he has been in the past, Becky Cloonan shows a great refinement of the crazy intensity and skill on display in her past work. Plus the story of a girl taking a chance, leaving her shitty life, and being helped by a male supporting character actually kinda parallels the story in v1 #1. So that's cool!

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?
This comic is like NBC's "Heroes" with all the stupid taken out. Read it.

Bendis' Favorite Character Suits Up With The Avengers in June?

Jessica Jones has been announced among others here on Marvel.com as one of the superheroes in Brian Michael Bendis' new, new, New Avengers team in a more official way than she has been so far.

Here she is in the costume of Jewel, her old superhero identity, looking badass:
Jessica Jones has never really been seen as a superhero character because she never was a superhero character...

Let me try that again.

In 2oo1, Bendis created Jessica Jones in her own title "Alias".

[The following is a dramatization and in no way reflects the thoughts, opinions, values, financial status, parent company, or sex lives of Marvel Entertainment, INC.]

So the story goes: The first script opened with the word "fuck" and Marvel's editorial department was all prepared to do the usual "Bendis, I know you want this character to be a foul-mouthed lady and that's cool, but the same company that publishes Spider-Man CANNOT publish comics with the word 'fuck' in them," but then someone said "Why can't we publish this? Why can't we put it in the comic-book stores with a MATURE label on it like the music industry does?"

And so the Marvel MAX imprint was born. A place where Marvel's creators and Marvel's characters could be naughty together. It's still around today in case you didn't know.

Jessica Jones was a private investigator who specialized in cases involving superheroes or super-powered people. She was the only person who could do this because-- drum roll..... she USED to be a superhero! She attended Midtown High, the same high school as Peter Parker and had a big crush on him (Bendis still got Spidey in there!) and in the classic Marvel 1960s million-in-one-accident explanation she got superpowers. A teenager with superpowers she of course ran out and became a superhero. Called herself Jewel and dressed, essentially, like she looks at the top of this post.

But things did not go rosey and super-heroric for Jessica Jones. She went through hell and quit. But all that is flashback to the main story in which Jessica is a private investigator and is dating Luke Cage. So, ya see, she was never a superhero character. She was a retired-superhero detective character from day UNO.

The series was cancelled with issue #28, but the character and her setting was carried over to one of Bendis' next pet projects: "The Pulse". In fact, Jessica and Luke had already been popping-up in the pages of Bendis' major series "New Avengers". They got hitched in that series' first annual.

These two series not being a part of the MAX Imprint, they were constrained in their subject matter, but not in their use of the wider Marvel U. So Jessica became a bit less of a foul-mouthed lady (which was explained as an effort of her willpower for her soon-to-be-born daughter), but Spider-Man, Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and the Green Gobin play a big role in the first story-arc of "The Pulse" and we got the fun of Jessica interacting with Iron Man and Captain America in the pages of "New Avengers".

The fact that she and her hubby Mr. Luke Cage are now both going to be super-duper heroic members of Bendis' New Avengers team should be pretty cool. Although Jessica is now a mother and can't spout the F-bomb anymore, she is still tough as nails. And Luke Cage... Luke Cage was ALWAYS tough as nails. It's another step away from what originally made Jessica Jones great but I don't believe that characters should be so constrained as to be forced into one mold. She was a retired-superhero detective. She married a superhero. Now it looks like she's going to be a superhero again. Makes sense to me.