TAKE NO PRISONERS

"Remember that kid in school? The one with the pen sketchings on the back of his Trapper Keeper full of wicked violence and jagged lines? Ever wonder what happened to him? Well, he's Johnny Ryan and he's all grown up and making some of the most in your face comics today." - Ain't It Cool News

What more can I say that wasn't just mentioned? Prison Pit has been one of my favorite indies the past couple years and the depraved madman behind that is Johnny Ryan, born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Plymouth, just a mile away from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife creating madness and political incorrectness galore. Robert Crumb thinks he's dumb and infantile.

Prison Pit is his first original graphic novel.It's an over-the-top orgy of escalating ultra-violence and perversity as intergalactic monster criminals battle for supremacy in a barren negative zone! What?!! This has to be too good to be true, right??!!. Be ready to be grossed out and laughing your a$$ off.

NYCC 2010 Day 1

Here it is, Day 1 of Action Chad and Gerald von Stoddard taking on NY at the 2010 New York Comic Con, maybe its not under the radar but it was a blast...stay tuned for the next couple episodes of the next two days of comic madness, as Gerald steals from Rick Remender, Ivan Reis loses his mind and Chad loses to a World Champion Street Fighter player..

MY GRAMPA WILL BEAT UP YOUR GRAMPA

Yea you heard me, because my Grampa is a cutting edge Brazilian juggernaut punching you in the face with awesome! Rafael Grampá first attracted widespread attention in North America in 2007 with his work on the Eisner Award-winning anthology 5, a collaboration with Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Vasilos Lolos and Fabio Moon. There has been casual references to his work resembling the kinetic line work of Frank Quitely and the dark tones of Frank Miller even one his real life heroes Paul Pope. Though Pope has said he doesnt see it, Grampa takes that a gesture of humility which makes Pope that much cooler in the comics world. This week STRANGE TALES II #1 released with great success and part of that is due to an amazing cover by Senor Grampa himself. The list of talent on this book is phenomenal but it's Grampa's cover art and introdcutory Wolverine story that turned me on, and man did it! Rafael's artwork is unstoppable and ready to explode off the page, theres so much movement and energy in his lines it makes my heart race and my life is now more enriched having experienced his awesomeness. From Daredevil to Madman to his own work, Mesmo Delivery, "a bloody story about two delivery men — Rufo, a brawny ex-boxer, and Sangrecco, an Elvis impersonator who views violence as performance art — who are hired to deliver a mysterious cargo. Everything appears to be going fine, at least until they encounter a group of drunken locals at a rest stop." (ROBOT 6) You can check out more about Rafeal at: http://furrywater.wordpress.com Rafael dances a fine line between creator owned anarachism and mainstream comics and it's in the pages of STRANGE TALES we can see how he orchestrates his own sense of comic independence when dealing with such mythical characters. So while Disney uses Marvel to push the upcoming TRON film with upcoming variant covers, Rafael doesnt seem to notice and gives us pure unadulterated adrenaline all in a 2 dimensional page, mucho gracias Grampa.

WOLVERINES, WENDIGOS AND MAN THINGS ..OH MY!

STRANGE TALES II #1
stories and art by
Rafael Grampa
Nick Bertozzi
Gene Luen Yang
Frank Santoro
Kate Beaton
Jillian Tamaki
Shannon Wheeler
Jeff Lemire
Nicholas Gurewitch

Phew that's a long list of insane talent that you may or may not have heard of, but Marvel is doing an awesome job of letting loose their properties for these mad scientists to do their respective tweeking to. These are tales that you wont find anywhere else. I personally find it genius to take characters firmly embedded into the mainstream comic world and giving them an underground, contemporary non super hero take. This takes peanut butter and jelly and gives you awesome! The cover art is by the indie warrior from Brazil, Rafael Grampa whose artwork is staggering and unforgettable and it probably wont be long until Marvel has him illustrate a full book on one of their beloved super dupes. Jeff Lemire brings his rugged Canadian bad ass self and mixes up a Wendigo slash man thing cross over, chock filled with mounties. Frank Santoro creates an amazing colorful dream like Silver Surfer tale of unrequited love, its heartbreaking and rewarding and beats any recent Silver Surfer material. Just grab a copy today and stop choosing sides at least for one day and walk that neutral line where you dont have to be too cool for school indie and neither super nerdified wolverine obsessed fanboy. Strange Tales gives us what should be a national holiday. Stay tuned for the Hernandez brothers and the Scarlet Witch, come on too good to be true right?

UNDER THE RADAR @ NYCC '10 part2

The pictures are in, the con is over and Maine feels like a reprieve but there's one thing I love about NYCC and that's the wealth of talent of those working hard in the trenches who live just below the mainstream equator but still crank out high quality artwork. I wish I could have had spent more time with these unsung warriors but if you have never been to NYCC then you don't know the maelstrom of sensory overload it is, so I feel lucky to have met the few I did and want to shine a light on their amazing work.

First, let's talk Tofu and let's talk Squirrel together that's TOFUSQUIRREL. This wasn't what I expected it to be. Elizabeth Siegel from Boston,Mass. creates unique, surrealism from Band posters to one of a kind creatures from a universe you've never been to. Hailing from Boston, Siegel is as one one of a kind as the emo squirrels she makes buttons out of. check out her website @: http://tofusquirrel.com

As I continued my travels down the underground path I stumbled upon a familiar print that once adorned Coast City Comics computer screen. Let me introduce, Ulises Farinas A cartoonist/illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. He draws MOTRO as part of the webcomix collective ACT-I-VATE and is the founder of the Bear Party Collective.His Batman prints were tragically beautiful and his line work is kinetic and brings his work to an electric level. Check out more of Ulises at his website: http://www.ulisesfarinas.com

From the corner of my eye I caught the cover of one my highlights from Indy Comic Book Week last winter, that comic being AMERICAN TERROR published by Alterna Press and created by Jeff McComsey. As part of his participation in a new graphic novel called FUBAR. With artist Steve Becker they were selling stunning zombie prints underneath a recreation of a WWII bunker that they want to bring to the shop this winter and I say hell yea! You can find out more at their website: http://zombiefubar.wordpress.com

And last but not least, our very own Ben Bishop was in attendance peddling his wares but also to announce his involvement with Jim Krueger's re launch of THE STAND-IN on ATLAS books. Stay tuned for UNDER THE RADAR part 3 that I will be dedicating solely to Bishop's NYCC exploits.

NYCC updates

Well folks id love to show you the awesome pictures I've been taking all weekend but I have just learned that the iPad is for playing video games not actually being able to digitally connect with the world around you. Ben Bishop seems stoked to be signing alongside Jim Krueger today at the Atlas booth for the relaunch of the Stand In that Jim has scribed. If you don't know Mr. Krueger he is the man behind JUSTICE, INVADERS and EARTH-X. Met an awesome artist from Boston who creates amazingly fantastical dreamlike creatures in a book called TOFUSQUIRREL. If you were around when we had our Indy Comic Book Week this past winter, you might recall an awesome book called AMERICAN TERROR put out by Alterna Press they have a radical booth made up like an army bunker to pimp their WWII comic about zombies, they want to come up and re create their bunker in the shop in Portland and I say hell yea! Rick Remender is a madman and Chad and I are stalking him, Phillip Tan is going to be the artist on a DC relaunch that some of you might be way into cant say anything he told me or maybe he cant say anything, just think feathers and magic metal, you mean that sounds more kinky then superhero fare? Just stay tuned. Jeff Lemire is the man and I caught him hanging out at theTop Shelf booth and got to just chat casually about how great Sweet Tooth continues to be and his excitement for the upcoming SUPERBOY title he will be penning. Day 2 of NY Comic-Con and Chad and I aren't even close to being done. Grant Morrisons documentary debuts in the city tonight and if we can survive anime weirdness and 12 foot swords we just might make it. I will be doing a recap blog post WITH pictures once I figure out how to find the 13th adapter that lets you hook up your digital camera to this glorified itouch. Oh and if anyone wants a leather jacket with the giant word EXCELSIOR emblazoned on it, their here!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BISHOP TO KRUEGER'S CASTLE

Ok Ok that was a very desperate attempt at witty humor for a title that I stared at for over an hour. But there it is and I'm done apologizing when there's so much exciting stuff to share. Portland's own, Ben Bishop has recently shared some exciting news with all of us.

If you find yourself at the NY Comic-Con, go find Bishop who will be joining Jim Krueger ( writer of Earth-X, JUSTICE, AVENGERS/INVADERS) to pimp The Stand-In, a title introduced with a #0 issue at New York Comic Con 2009 in February of that year and first announced in November 2008, that will debut as an ongoing in 2011. The series, from Krueger and artist Ben Bishop, depicts an actor who survives an assassination attempt while hired to stand in for a senator. Krueger comments, “I think people are going to be amazed at the way Ben Bishop tells a story. He's going to be such a superstar, I just know he'll never work with me again.”

Bishop counters, “I feel very lucky that the guys over at Ardden and Jim Krueger, one of the best writers out there, have given me this opportunity. The story is great, it's going to be a lot of fun, and I think everyone is going to love it.

The great news is that I will be on hand to document Bishop's exciting new adventure. Everyone at Coast City wishes Ben the best and will share with you all the cool stuff from NY Comic-Con. Stay tuned....