Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Steve also has 8 things

We got tagged, and then Chad choce to tag me again, so this is me answering my eight things.
The rules are in Chad's post before mine, which I can't be bothered to repost. That's one of the rules, reposting the rules, so you can see how I feel about obeying the rules.

1. I like comics aimed at teenage girls.
Spiderman loves Mary Jane is my favorite book being published right now, and I'm glad it's being handed off to Terry Moore, who I think will do the book justice. I have also in recent years been a big fan of Emma Frost. I love Courtney Crumrin, Blue Monday, Lost at Sea, and Leave it to Chance. I recently bought and read The PLAIN Janes, from the Minx line, and I look forward to other books from them, in particular Clubbing and Good as Lily.

2. I do not, however, like manga.
I've read some Fruits Basket, DNAngel, Battle Royale, Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III, Lone Wolf and Cub, Tokyo Babylon, Descendents of Darkness, The Ring, Ohikkoshi... and while there are some of those I'd gladly read more of if you gave me a free copy, the only Japanese comics I have ever liked enough to own are the recent collections of Yoshihiro Tatsumi stuff that Drawn and Quarterly released, and I only dug them because they're very Raymond Carver-esque.

3. I've become an original art addict.
I have on my wall pages by Jeremy Haun (Paradigm), Scott Chantler (Scandalous), Brian Hurtt (Three Strikes), Eric J (Rex Mundi cover), Ryan Kelly (Local), Simon Gane (Paris), Matt Kindt (Pistolwhip), Jamie McKelvie (Long Hot Summer), Takeshi Miyazawa (Mary Jane), and Bryan Lee O'Malley (Lost at Sea). And I intend to buy more in Chicago and San Diego this year.

4. I am an unabashed fan of Vertigo.
Swamp Thing from before it was fully a "mature readers" book. Doom Patrol. Animal Man. Hellblazer. Sandman. Shade the Changing Man. The Extremist. Sebastian O. Egypt. and on and on and on to the present day, when Vertigo is the publisher I buy the most books from in any given month (not DC but Vertigo). If I don't own it, I've read it. If I haven't read it, I know enough about it to talk to you about it.

5. I am a comics advocate.
I used to do a column for Broken Frontier about how to best support the industry by buying books to give away to friends, loved ones, and complete strangers (seriously, next time you go to the barbershop, take a kid-friendly comic with you and leave it there for someone else to read). And I still follow the tactics; I just don't write about it anymore.

6. If I ever have a son, which isn't very likely...
but if my wife and I ever decide to have kids, and we have a boy, the frontrunner name at present is Seth Alan. Seth for the penname of cartoonist Greg Gallant, and Alan for Alan Moore.

7. My sketchbook project
The sketchbook I take to cons to get artists to draw in for me is full of images of my wife. I take photos of my wife as reference and ask them to draw her. Worst one? Rich Koslowski, who I normally love. Best one? Jeremy Haun, who knows my wife so took his time with it to make it lovely.

8. comics of my own
It is my personal goal to have a table at Wondercon next year to sell books I have written that I've paid artists to draw for me. I've got over a thousand bucks saved up at present to pay various artists (with another thou by the end of the summer and another by the end of the year--thank God for teaching overload), and a couple of artists are working right now on stories for me. More details to come when I have enough material to start talking about it with people, hopefully around the beginning of August.

And now the rules say I have to tag other people. But I don't care to, so I'm not gonna.