Comics

AggroChat #120 – Can’t Go Back Home

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This week Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tam and Thalen address a listener comment regarding our feelings about WoW.

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It feels like every week I say “something weird happened” when describing our podcast.  I might simply be that we have no real “normal” state to fall back on, and that everything is essentially new and strange.  That said I feel like this week is on an island of its own.  After last week’s podcast I had a listener pull me aside and comment that it sounded like it physically pained us to talk about Warcraft.  I personally didn’t realize this until I went back and listened a bit, and I can absolutely see how someone could have that take away.  More often than not we just have super confused feelings about the game, and  tonight we delve into this…  and it leads to a whole sequence of topics including the loss of “junk culture” and the businessification of things we love.  For some of us you definitely can’t ever truly go back home.

Topics On The Show:  Listener Comment – Conflicted Feelings About Warcraft – Why Tam Hates WoW – Loss of Junk Culture – Businessification of Comics and Games – Hobbyism and Creative Industries -Metal Gear Solid 5 – Overwatch – Last Bastion Cinematic

 

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Convention Time

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While half of the Aggrochat crew were off at PAX this past weekend, I also attended a convention right near home. Saturday was the annual River City Comic Expo, and this year a friend and I decided to check it out. I hadn't been to a con since MidSouthCon in 2007 and just like then it was the guests that convinced me to go.

It was a relatively small convention; one big combination dealer's room / gaming area and a couple smaller rooms for panels. Plenty of dealers to check out, and I ended up spending about $15 on singles from one guy's quarter boxes. I picked up quite a few older New Mutants issues, issues 2-7 of Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby's Destroyer Duck, and most of the initial color run of Zot!, along with various and sundry other things. I was especially happy to find so many Zot! issues since the only collection of the color issues is long out of print, and Scott McCloud doesn't seem to have any desire to reprint them again.

Convention Time
Those first 10 issues were amazing pulpy fun

There were lots of cosplayers in attendance which in part drove home just how out of touch with modern anime I am. People dressed as comic book characters I could identify no problem, even the ones using TV or video game versions of costumes. There were plenty of people whose costumes clearly came from anime, though, and I think I recognized maybe a quarter of them. I am no longer in touch with the kids today. Woe is me.

The real draw, though, was the guests. The first I found and talked to was Bob McLeod who is probably best known for creating the New Mutants with Chris Claremont. He's also done art for any number of books for Marvel and DC both. I ended up getting a signed print from him of a lovely piece of the original New Mutants fighting Sentinels as well as a booklet of con sketches that he was selling.

Convention Time
Just beautiful

The other guest that I could not wait to meet was Gail Simone. She and her husband were both there, and were absolutely wonderful to chat with. I took the opportunity to let her know how much I enjoyed her work and that she's one of the creators whose presence in superhero comics keeps me optimistic about the medium. Her work on Birds of Prey and Secret Six is just stellar. From her I got an autographed hardcover copy of the Conan / Red Sonja miniseries she wrote for Dark Horse.

In all, an enjoyable few hours spent among my people. I'm looking forward to seeing who next year's guests will be; maybe I'll end up making this a regular thing.

#Blaugust Day 27: Corndog Girl

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In the world of comic books, Marvel and DC have both been in a period of flux recently. Worlds have ended, characters have been rebooted, it's a whole thing. If you were invested in existing superhero comics, it can seem like a bad time. But some amazing books are coming out of the chaos. One of those is Prez.

#Blaugust Day 27: Corndog Girl

The original Prez came out in 1973 as part of DCs attempts to appeal to 'the kids of today'. It followed a teenager, Prez Rickard, who was elected President of the United States after the eligibility age was lowered. His book only ran 4 issues, and he's showed up occasionally since then, usually as an easter egg or in an alternate reality story. If you know the character, it's most likely from the story Neil Gaiman wrote using him in Sandman issue 54.

Where the original Prez came out in a time of youth protests and political action, this new one taps into today's social media frenzies, reality stars, and corporate power. The setting is near future; to me it feels like a few years down the line on the road to the world of Transmetropolitan. Corporate personhood has been established by amendment (CEOs are anonymous figures behind holographic representations of their corporation), votes can be cast via Twitter, and an endorsement from an internet celebrity can win you Ohio.

#Blaugust Day 27: Corndog Girl
Pharmaduke is the sensational new character find of 2015

In this strange yet scarily familiar world, we follow Beth Ross as she goes from unwilling internet meme (she accidentally fried her braid in a corn dog frier) to President. For the first two issues she's very much out of her depth and subject to forces beyond her control. The third issue, which came out yesterday, is where we see her start to realize that she has an opportunity here, and maybe she can do something great.

#Blaugust Day 27: Corndog Girl
She's not wrong

I mentioned earlier that this feels to me like a world that could eventually become the world of Transmetropolitan. More importantly, this book feels like it could be the next Transmetropolitan. Obviously Beth has nothing in common with Spider Robinson, but the book has a lot of that same twisted humor and strange yet familiar setting, and uses it to poke at the idiocies of the real world. The third issue just came out yesterday, so there's a good chance you could find the whole run so far at your local comic book store. It's also on Comixology if you prefer digital comics. Read it. You won't be disappointed.