Crimebuster

I attended my first convention as an artist over the weekend, so I wrote up a little thing about the experience here, including a short video diary about the con and the comics I ended up bringing home myself:crimebustercomics.com/2019/09/16/catamount-comic-expo-convention-report/

For those considering attending, the guests of honor are Joe St. Pierre, Andy MacDonald, and Blair Shedd. I think admission is just $5, so that's a bonus!

There are 18 characters on the cover. 13 of them are men. What's the problem?

4.5/5.0 really nice colors!

I'm only at a 5.5/6.0, so maybe I'm an outlier here. Between the tanning, the general wear, the creases along the spine, writing on bc, and that little tear (?) on the fc by the CCA stamp, I have a hard time going higher.

It doesn't look like anyone has mentioned this show yet, so while it may be a little late in the game, there is a comic show in Burlington, Vermont this Saturday, September 14. I'll have my first table there, with copies of my comic The Crimebusters, plus some prints and other goodies. Here's a link to the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/494763341356822/ Stop by and say hi if you're in the area!

Thanks, Cliff, I appreciate the support.

In my latest blog entry, I get personal about some of the challenges I have faced this summer. Thank you for the support, everyone. https://crimebustercomics.com/2019/09/08/a-personal-note/

I'm going to be in Artist's Alley at Fan Expo Boston tomorrow from 2-7 PM at table A1200 in Artist's Alley, representing the Boston Comics Roundtable, a local collective of indie comic creators. I'll have my self-published comic The Crimebusters there if anyone's interested, as well as a very limited number of copies of my Boy Comics #120 variant cover. I'll also be cosplaying as Wonder Woman, so you can't miss me. If any boardies are at the show, drop by and say hi!

It's been too long since I updated here, but I've just been super busy. I have now sent out rewards to almost everyone, just a couple stragglers. There was a bit of a snafu at the printer with some variants that delayed things by a couple weeks, but in the end, everything worked out. I'm hard at work on the second issue at the moment, just finishing up page 11. Things are going faster this time around, so I hope to have the issue done in November, but I will probably wait until January to launch it in Kickstarter because of the holidays. In the meantime, I'm going to be at two conventions! Tomorrow - Saturday, August 17 - I will be at Fan Expo Boston from 2-7 pm at booth A1200 in Artist's Alley, representing the Boston Comics Roundtable. I will have copies of The Crimebusters, as well as very limited supplies of a couple variant covers, so if you're around, stop by and say hi! You can't miss me - I'll also be cosplaying as Wonder Woman. Next month, I will also be appearing at Catamount Comics Expo in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday, September 14! This will be my first show with my own table, so I'm really excited and curious to see how it goes. I am hoping by then to also have some prints to sell, but who knows. If you're in the Vermont area, stop by and say hello!

This trailer seemed super try-hard to me. Maybe it will be good, but... I dunno.

This cover is hideous.

Sure, I'm not arguing with you exactly. What you are saying is correct. I'm just saying that this is maybe the absolute lamest "first appearance" in comic book history, even in terms of a cameo. It's significantly worse than that one panel of Darkseid even. At least there, it's recognizably him, and there's a name. It's somehow even worse than the Crossbones cameo in Captain America #359, where his shadow is at least the same shape as Crossbones, and he has a thought balloon. And while Doomsday is just a fist in Man of Steel #17, at least he's punching something - taking an action! Part of the issue here with Warp #5 — just one part! — is that the character was re-designed by Tim Truman after this initial "cameo" was done by Lenin Delsol. So we're left with a single panel which has an unidentifiable shape in it. In terms of "first appearances," this is maybe the least relevant ever. Just my personal opinion. Here's the appearance in question.

Eh. I know he revealed years later that this "cameo" was supposed to be Grimjack, but there's a reason nobody noticed, and it's because it's just a vague outline in the shadows that could be anybody. It's not even a cameo. It's just, like, a shape in the background.

It's always amazing to me that comic fans are so concerned with the continuity of a fictional universe that they believe it somehow trumps the actual reality of our real universe. I don't really care what DC considers to be the first appearance. It's more important to me to learn what actual is the first appearance. If Superman 4 came out first, then that's the first appearance. I say if, because I don't know, I'm just going by what I am learning in this thread. If Action 23 came out first, then it's first. But what the company intended to do, or what the continuity reading order is, really isn't relevant. It can't and doesn't change historical facts. The comic that he first appeared in is his first appearance. That's axiomatic.

It is! But Rogue was originally intended to first appear in Ms. Marvel #25. The first half of that story had been completed when the title was abruptly canceled. So they introduced her in Avengers Annual #10 instead. The story from Ms. Marvel #25 was many years later printed in Marvel Super-Heroes #11. The pathway to first appearances is paved with good intentions.

If Superman #4 came out earlier, it's the first appearance. This is just simple fact. People are certainly welcome to consider Action #23 to be the more important and valuable book based on the story contents. But that doesn't change publication date. This situation seems identical to me to Gambit's first appearance. It's clear from the story that X-Men #266 was intended to be his first appearance. However, due to some scheduling mishap, X-Men Annual #14 came out two weeks earlier. X-Men #266 is by far the more valuable comic and is considered more important by most readers. But his first appearance is in Annual #14.

I just read the whole series for the first time about 5 years ago. For me, the stories definitely hold up. There are a few elements that are occasionally mildly dated — there's an issue with a Michael Jackson lookalike, for instance, and there was a late 80's/early 90's grim-n-gritty reboot that, while still good and pretty interesting in its own way, bordered at times on too much — but the stories are really solid throughout, for my money. I'm less enamored of the Munden's Bar backup feature, which allowed guest creators to bring their characters into Grimjack's world for humorous crossovers, but that feature has its moments as well.

Sure! I have a few copies left and am in the process of setting up an online store on my website; once I have it up and running, I'll shoot you a message. Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it!

I didn't see any mention of this, so I apologize if I missed something. But the Russo Brothers announced at Comic Con that they are producing a GrimJack movie for Amazon. https://deadline.com/2019/07/russo-brothers-agbo-studios-developing-grimjack-comics-adapting-japanese-anime-battle-of-the-planets-comic-con-1202649229/ Personally, I've been saying for years that Grimjack would make a great TV series for someone like Amazon or HBO. I'm a huge fan of the comics. I also happened to get 5 or 6 copies of his first appearance last week for 30 cents each, so I guess this is good timing. But mostly I'm just stoked at the possibility of seeing this on the big screen — or any screen at all. I did take a quick look at ebay, and it looks like all the cheap BIN copies of Starslayer #10 for like $3 each were sold earlier today, and now we're in speculation mode - like four copies have sold tonight for prices of $30, $33, $38, and $60. Thoughts?

Thanks, I appreciate the support! The printer had some kind of snafu and forgot to send any copies of two of the variants, so it's going to be a little while longer before I can send the books out. But hopefully in the next couple of weeks!

Dream realized! IT LIVES AGAIN!!

Lonestar has a hilarious writeup of it: "The Story Behind Your Liberty was produced in 1952 during the Cold War by the National Association of Manufacturers as an educational give-away comic. It was intended to inform young readers about our right to vote and how important that right is to our freedom. One panel shows a drawing of Stalin on the back page. The Story Behind Your Liberty was published during a period when the commie threat was real. Thanks in great part to Ronald Reagan, communism is now where it belongs, in the dustbin of history." The cover artist is apparently Victor Dowd, who I gather did a lot of children's book illustrations.

I was going to scan it, but then I immediately misplaced it. But I found it again!