Quick Comic Review - Chew Volume 7: Bad Apples

Chew Volume 7 -- This series seems to be moving more and more to a darker and more intense tone. It's still got much of its comedy intact but this volume focuses on the repercussions from the previous volume. And, although I prefer the lighter side of this series it's still a great book. Still recommending this series to those with a strong stomach (yeah, bad pun).

Is it a sign?

I've been thinking a lot lately that I should probably bring the Bluenoser to a close or just flat out stop doing it (or maybe leave it on an open ended hiatus). It's extremely time consuming, the only readers I have are a few people on DrunkDuck, and I don't have the confidence/talent to really do much with it. And now with DrunkDuck down for the last week and a half nobody is reading it. So beyond personal improvement, there's really no point and with no feedback it's even harder to improve. And I really haven't had the free time as of late to work on it.

So I guess I have to figure out what I'm going to do. Continue or just bring my webcomic creating to a close. And if I do close it down, do I have wrap it up now (throwing away the story ideas I had) or just leave it unfinished.

Decisions, decisions.

One More Fan Expo Canada 2013 Thing

One panel I forgot to mention was the webcomic one and it's understandable as I found it extremely underwhelming. I'm not sure what I was expecting, is "webcomics" really a thing that needs its own panel at comic conventions any more? And this one just felt like I was sitting in a room listening to a couple friends have a conversation about their webcomics. The panelists seemed to be a clique who all shared similar experiences and had similar opinions. And half of the questions came from the moderator. Definitely could (and should) have skipped this one.

Fan Expo 2013 Recap

I won't bother with any photos, you can find that sort of stuff on my Twitter account. But here's a bit of a recap of my weekend...

Thursday: Started off with plenty of confusion as security and volunteers admitted to having no idea what was going on. Many didn't understand that there were various forms of weekend passes (VIP, Premium, and Deluxe) that had different benefits and such. But Thursday was mostly a shopping day. Got a Hellboy hardcover (signed in person by Mike Mignola), Skullkickers volumes 1 and 2 (signed in person by Jim Zub), Astro City: The Dark Age 1 and 2, some Fan Expo exclusives (Hellboy and Firefly t-shirts and the Rocketeer/Spirit comic), and prints from Agnes Garbowska, Mike Rooth, and Christopher Uminga.

Friday: More confusion from the security and volunteers but let's move past that. Friday we had the Steve Epting/Stuart Immonen sketching duel where they (somewhat reluctantly) drew Rocket Raccoon. Both rocked their sketches. Other than that, more shopping. Picked up books from Becky Cloonan (the Mire, Wolves, Demeter) and from Steve Niles (Breath of Bones 1-3).

Saturday: Have I mentioned the confusion? But despite that, things actually ran fairly smoothly inside the con. There were delays when trying to get from one place to another (some intentional I've heard, to control crowding issues) but things seem to run fairly smoothly. Saturday was a photo-op with Nathan Fillian/Gina Torres (who were super nice and awesome as you hope they would be) as well as the sketching duel between Andy Belanger, Stephen Platt, and Yanick Paquette (Cary Nord missed it). The duel was lots of fun and each was great with the crowd, especially Belanger and Paquette. If either of those two are involved in a duel or panel at a con you can pretty much count me in.

Sunday: First up, photo op with Ron Perlman. Super nice guy. In fact, I heard so many great stories about all the celebrities there. Tim Sale couldn't make it so Tony Moore took his place in a sketching duel vs Dave Johnson. The duel quickly moved to a more adult tone in stories but whatever. The Deadpool sketches were great. Then it was a bit more shopping (I bought some Hulk buttons).

All in all, I didn't really have a lot of must see celebrities or events I felt were necessary but I really enjoyed a bit more of a relaxing Fan Expo where I could spend quite a bit more time shopping and just seeing the sights. And by the end, I wasn't nearly as worn out as I usually am by the fourth day. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Quick Comic Reviews - Astro City: Local Heroes

Astro City: Local Heroes - This volume definitely had a "Marvels" feel to it, focusing on the common man and woman living among the superheroes/villains. Every story is very well written and the art may not be flashy but is effective at telling the stories. I wish I would have tried out this series long ago, but perhaps I wouldn't have appreciated it as much back then. I definitely continue to recommend this series to everyone.

And I was fortunate to locate the Dark Age 1 and 2 at Fan Expo so now I just have to wait for the Shining Stars TPB.

Quick Comic Reviews - Invincible Volume 18

My pile of books to read has grown far too large and I really need to start knocking some of them off. I was thinking of taking some to Fan Expo Canada next weekend to read while I was waiting in lines but I didn't really want to lug a bunch of books with me (an argument for digital?) and I hope to pick up some down there so I don't want to lug even more back home with me. Which reminds me, anyone else going to Fan Expo Canada?

Invincible Volume 18 - SPOILERS: The title "The Death of Everyone" turns out to be a pretty big exaggeration. Sure, a lot of people die (which makes me wonder what the other Image universe characters were up to during all this, especially the ones who appeared in earlier Invincible issues) but actual Invincible characters dying? Not very many. Having said that, this volume was pretty good. Intense, lots of emotion, complex questions, etc, etc. The downside, it wasn't exactly told in a great fashion. The splash pages? Didn't work when "Death of Superman" did it, didn't really work for me here (though the inclusion of more dialog helped a bit here). And the jumping to the side stories like Omni-Man and Angstrom Levy just felt choppy and distracting at times. My final take, a good story but not exactly executed as well as it could. A good Invincible volume, but not a great one. Still, I'm eager to see what happens next.

Quick Comic Reviews: Hawkeye Volume 2

I know it's been a while since my last review. I've been spending quite a bit of my reading time trying to make my way through the "A Song of Ice and Fire"/Game of Thrones books. Not even half way through the second book, I'm a slow reader and they're pretty big books.

Hawkeye Volume 2: Little Hits - This series is pretty awesome. Amazing storytelling by everyone. Fraction deserves much of the credit but the art, the colouring, the lettering, it all comes together perfectly. I know it may be a stretch but parts of it sort of reminded me of Wil Eisner's Contract with God. How some great stories can come out of a simple apartment building settings with a quirky cast of characters, their stories intertwining just right. I saw why people put the first volume on their top books lists and I can see why this series is going to stay there for some time.