breakthrough

My first real comix gig will see publication later this summer. My story -- "Nimrod's Son" -- is part of an anthology called BREAK THE WALLS - COMIC STORIES INSPIRED BY THE PIXIES. Describing the book's concept, editor Shawn Demumbrum writes:

What story plays in your head when you listen to your favorite Pixies song? I approached some of my fellow comic book creators and asked them to create 4-8 page stories inspired by their favorite Pixies songs. The song acts as an inspiration, jumping off point, theme or mood for the story. Each story varies in style and genre.

The story that plays in my head while listening to The Pixies' "Nimrod's Son" features an autistic alien god and the biblical Tower of Babel. The surreal six-page sci-fi story is being brought to life by my creative collaborator on the project, artist Christian Kaw. I've known Chris for years via Robotech fandom, and I hope to collaborate with him again very soon. Here are the first two pages sans lettering...




I approached Shawn about including our story after finding out about the project, and -- following a review of my script and Chris's sequentials -- he said yes. I may even have another story in a similar forthcoming book he's publishing next year. I'm thankful for the break Shawn provided us (we were a very late addition), and it's motivated me to finally move beyond my anxieties to "make real" the other comix stories I've been tinkering with for years. Crippled baby steps...

BREAK THE WALLS is available for pre-order through Sunday, July 8. We'd appreciate your support. After it's been published, it'll be available for purchase at comix shops and conventions and on Amazon.com.

robot marx, introduction

ROBOT MARX will be a six part re-presention of a research project that I had the pleasure of working on last year. As I discussed last week, I desperately need to focus on my Spring 2011 college course work. So, as a blogging stopgap, I'll be sharing a "remastered" entry from the ROBOT MARX project on Wednesdays and Sundays throughout April. I've also solicited some peer (fan) reviews with plans to run those during the month's final week.

In its original form, the project was my semester-long Spring 2010 course work for WOM 203: "Women in Popular Culture." Harry Potter scholar and UW-Colleges' Women's Studies chair, Dr. Holly Hassel's class approached the subject from a Conflict Theory-Marxist perspective; topics included patriarchy, media gender construction and representation, and kids' and girls' culture. The project was a fun way for me and my classmates to master the class's learning objectives while refining our critical reading and thinking ability. From the syllabus:

[O]ur semester project will involve applying your understanding of each essay/article [read for class] to a ... pop [kids' and/or girls'] culture artifact of your choice. As we begin to develop our analysis skills, each of you will develop an ongoing semester text ... that you will write over the course of the semester. The final product will be submitted as a polished document ... and will [also] include a self-assessment and peer assessment submitted separately.

Superhero Wonder Woman, tattoo artist Kat Von D, and soap opera The Young & the Restless were among the 30-some artifacts/relics analyzed by my classmates. I chose ROBOTECH...



I discovered ROBOTECH's colorful universe in the mid '80s via its "Saturday morning" NBC repackaging; it was love at first sight (Episode 4: "The Long Wait"). For those that don't know, ROBOTECH follows three generations of characters from 1999-2044 as they're shaped by the events of three interconnected wars. Its cartoon premiered in 1985, standing out from its contemporaries -- unlike iconically similar G.I. Joe and Transformers, ROBOTECH's characters lived and died, met and fell in love, and expressed real emotions and evolved as individuals.



The 85 episodes of this "sci-fi soap opera" spawned toys, comix, role-playing games, novels, and other pop-cultural relics. From the Conflict-Marxist assumption that America is a patriarchal society, ROBOTECH is a fascinating case study: it featured women heroes in leadership positions, a cross-dressing male hero, and an essentially anti-war message, among other subversive elements. Perfect for the project. Thus was born ROBOT MARX. ("Robot Marks," get it?)

I hope you enjoy reading this academic expression of my fandom as much as I enjoyed writing it.

where's the cap'n?

Last week, Kevin "Bank of Kev" McKeever pointed me to a financial article by Jonathan Berr speculating on the abandonment of the "Cap'n Crunch" cereal brand by Pepsi/Quaker Oats. Berr made some astute observations, but by no means stated matter-of-fact that the good Cap'n* was "retiring." That didn't stop media outlets from jumping to conclusions though. In fact, Quaker is possibly gearing up for a new-generation return of their "Where's the Cap'n?" promotion.

**

I was 9 years-old when the original "Where's the Cap'n?" promotion hit. And it was epic. Well, "epic" in the context of '80s-kid-culture epic. As Mr. Breakfast describes:

In 1985, Cap'n Crunch disappeared from boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal leaving a question mark and an empty silhouette in his place. The "Where's The Cap'n?" campaign encourage[d] kids to decipher his whereabouts through clues on the back of the box. In December of 1985, it was revealed [that] the Cap'n had been hanging out in the Milky Way [galaxy].

The months-long promotion targeted me and my contemporaries from every direction. In addition to the cereal box exteriors and interiors (via maps, decoder strips, detective badges, etc.), there were television commercials, print ads, an 800-number, a music video... Like I said, epic. It was interactive, immersive, and fun. It was also cynical commercialism at its finest, and my brother, friends and I ate it up.

In the quarter-century since, media in all of its forms has fragmented and specialized; the ability to pull off another successful "Where's the Cap'n?"-like stunt seems highly unlikely. With the exception of tragedies, it seems to me that there are few opportunities anymore for that level of shared experience among kids. Which is kind of sad. Yes, '80s kids' culture left a lot to be desired. But it connected those of us who were a part of it. And it left us a lot (of junk and junkfood) to remember with smiles.

- - -

* For a deconstruction of cereal mascots a la what WATCHMEN did for superheroes, see James Sturm's THE CEREAL KILLINGS.

** Images from Cover Browser.

die with your mask on

After months of teasing, Steve Bissette announced last week that his new book, TEEN ANGELS & NEW MUTANTS is finally available. Subtitled "Rick Veitch’s Brat Pack® and the Art, Commerce, and Karma of Killing Sidekicks," its 400+ pages analyze Veitch's career, his BRAT PACK, and the intersections between comix history, the superhero-sidekick phenomenon, and modern teen culture. Veitch shared the following that same day:

This book grew out of an article I commissioned from Steve Bissette when I was planning a special hardcover edition of BRAT PACK a couple years back. I asked Steve to write a short history of what was going on with me, the comics scene and my co-publisher while I was creating the original BRAT PACK. Steve dug into it deeper than I could have ever imagined... [H]e has produced what must be the most comprehensive, contextual, far-reaching and in-depth analysis of a graphic novel ever written.

You can order it directly from the publisher or from Amazon. I immediately ordered myself a copy, and I look forward to pouring myself into it ASAP.



I discovered Veitch's King Hell Heroica via THE MAXIMORTAL in the early '90s, which led me back to BRAT PACK. Burnt out by the Marvel, DC, Image and Valiant superhero comix hype-machines, the Heroica definitely spoke to my "fuck superheroes!" mindset of the time. The stories were raw, brutal and sincere; genuine artistic expressions from an independent creator. Looking back on it nearly 20 years later, they likely served as a bridge between what I thought comix were and what I realized they could be.

I had the pleasure of revisiting both books a number of months ago and they ring more true now than they did then. Here's hoping we get the continuing story someday... Until then -- I've got a 400-page thesis to read.