fantasy
Bone: Tall Tales by Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 6, 2010 - 07:05
The world of Bone is back for a series of short stories in Bone: Tall Tales by Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski. Jeff Smith's creation has been told in the original black and white versions and now the full series is out in color from Scholastic. After the release of a prequel Bone: Rose, Smith has turned to a small sequel of sorts as Tall Tales concerns four stories that Smiley Bone tells to little Ringo, Bingo, Todd and the rat creature Bartleby during a campout.
This is a fun little addition to Boneland focused on the sillier, fun side of Jeff Smith's world with almost none of the serious side of the epic tale through the original series of books. Most of the tall tales center around a new character called Big Johnson Bone, a Paul Bunyan-like character who is constantly telling tall tales as he wrecks a patch of destruction in his adventures. There is also a wordy, somewhat timid monkey named Mr. Pip (who Big Johnson won in a poker game) who is a nice counterpoint to Big Johnson's bravado. Even though the book is set after the epic series, the tall tale about Big Johnson concerns an adventure before the story in the original series. It turns out Big Johnson serves a key role in the early history of the valley when he turns back the rat creatures and rescues the forest creatures.
While there is none of the epic quality to the original series or the prequel Rose, this book does have all of the charming humor. The Queen Rat and her gigantic son Tyson are two great characters who add a bit more to the basic rat monster template of the stories. The tiny dragon Stillman is also very funny - in fact there is a whole lot of "cute" in the stories with lots of baby animals and the type of scattered chatter that Smith has done before.
Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 6, 2010 - 17:47
Copper is a beautiful comic. Kazu Kibuishi takes such care in rendering landscapes both natural and fantastic, that one can't help but be drawn into the page to fully appreciate the environment of Copper. In particular, I think Kibuishi must love drawing moving water because it is almost a constant presence in the book (The comic "Waterfall" is both a great bit of illustration but also an insightful commentary on it).
Comix Talk for Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 26, 2010 - 12:25
Short post today -- I recommend the following three things:
CRAFT: Wow, John K has an excellent and extensive tutorial on facial expressions, well worth reading.
REVIEW: El Santo praises Evan Dahm's epic fantasy webcomic Order of Tales.
Bone: Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess
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Is there any fantasy series in recent memory as beloved and praised as Bone? Jeff Smith began writing about the Bone cousins in 1991, but it was probably the publication of the books in color versions by Scholastic that truly launched Bone into the pop culture. It's a great sprawling story with a powerful conclusion. Bone: Rose is a prequel that fleshes out the story of Gran'ma Ben as a youth (i.e., Rose), a story that weighs heavily on the Bone saga proper.
Every God Has His (Or Her) Day - An interview with Chuck Rowles of The Gods of ArrKelaan
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Chuck Rowles is the creator of the long-running webcomic, The Gods of Arr-Kelaan, a consistent favorite at the webcomic community DrunkDuck.com.
Rowles describes his comic's world as "Mortals find themselves the gods of a magical planet called Arr-Kelaan. Can they successfully rule the planet, or will it end up as messed up as their home planets?"
Weekend Webcomic Update
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 8, 2008 - 21:00
BUSINESS
This has been out there on the intertubes this week - Kevin Kelly wrote an essay on 1000 True Fans, the notion being that there is a sweet spot on the long tail for the working artist to make a living - not poverty and not superstardom. Nothing earthshattering in it to most readers here, but well-written and a lengthy discussion ensues in the comments. FLEEN picked up on it with a post yesterday on venture capital for comics. Well actually Gary is just flagging the idea that print and swag costs money upfront that artists don't necessarily have to do those thing right (and in a way that will actually make real money on the back end). So we have seen some folks call for pre-orders to help gauge interest before committing the money. What about just getting someone else to float the money to the creator so there's no hurdle? Well - let's think about it some. If it was me I'd much rather invest in a Topatoco set-up; help that kind of thing expand, then give my money to a creator in the kind of scenario Gary is talking about. But it's an interesting idea to think about.
COPYTHIS
You Thought We Wouldn't Notice, a blog focused on pointing out suspiciously similar designs. FLEEN had great coverage of the recent Soap Swindle saga.
HYPE YOURSELF
I'm out of the loop - when did Digg get a Comics And Animation section?
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Checking out Xylia -- anyone else reading this fantasy webcomic?
International History Club is neither international nor historical. Discuss.
