Tag Archives: Comics

New Comic Day: Late to the Party – The Nice House on the Lake

Just in time for the series to have ended on issue 12 over the winter holiday and the release of the second and final trade paperback, I finally decided to dig in to the first volume of The Nice House on the Lake, another character driven supernatural horror/thriller from James Tynion IV (Something is Killing the Children, Department of Truth, w0rldtr33.)

*Mild plot based spoilers* The story revolves around a group of 10 friends/acquaintances who are invited out to a luxurious lake house by their mutual friend Walter. Shortly after arriving in, in short, the world basically ends, while the house, lake, and surrounding area appear unaffected by the chaos witnessed through various social media. Also, Walter doesn’t appear to be what he seemed and then essentially abandons the group.

The structure of each issue is wholly unique. Each issue (of the 4 I’ve read thus far, each volume collects 6 issues) centers on one of the ten characters, with a “post apocalyptic” narration and subsequent flashback from each in the first 4 pages before delving into the events following the outside world apocalypse. Each character has an occupation (The Reporter, The Comedian, The Artist, etc.) and attached “icon.” At first the mass of characters seemed a bit daunting, but there is a nice key to each on the back page, so it’s a bit easier to keep track of them before the story starts rolling along.

So far 10/10 would recommend, will be finishing 👍

New Comic Day Fresh Read: W0rldTr33

On the recommendation from my friends at our local comic shop (Telegraph Art & Comics in Cville, VA Check them out!) I picked up the first issue of the new series from James Tynion IV (Something is Killing the Children, The Nice House on the Lake, and a healthy portion of Batman over the last 10 years…)

w0rldtr33 #1

w0rldtr33 shares a lot of the visceral qualities of Something is Killing the Children, but is a bit more grounded into the ever increasing singularity of modern technology (no physical monsters, but the monsters are… people? The internet? Both?) So far this story feels right at home in the thematic universe shared in Cronenberg films like VideoDrome, eXistenZ, and Crimes of the Future. Not for the faint of heart, or weak of stomach, strap in for this one! *Mature Readers, obviously*

GalaxyCon 2023 Wrap Up

So it’s 4 days later and I’m still in general recovery mode. What a great weekend, nonetheless! Managed to distribute a good number of the SouthTown Ashcan Preview issue and put a little money toward the official issue #1 fundraiser (Kickstarter launching later this week!)

While I didn’t have the time away from my table to wait on line to meet the big names in TV and film (I did see the likes of David Tennant, John Barrowman, Corey Feldman and Kerri Green from a short distance, and told Boy Meets World’s Rider Strong that he was great in Cabin Fever 😂) the biggest thing for me was being able to meet some of the professional, career comic artists and creators that drew me to this style of drawing in the first place.

John Romita Jr. first popped up on my radar in about 1992. I remember picking up the first issue of Punisher: War Zone and then seeing his style appear in a short run on Uncanny X-Men (during the Fatal Attractions storyline featuring the return of Magneto.) Most notably for me was his Eternals mini-series which he did with Neil Gaiman in 2006 (which the movie sadly sidelined for story ideas and went with… whatever it was they decided…)

Also had a chance to chat with Georges Jeanty whose work on the sequel “seasons” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was most impressed with his ability to complete nearly 1500 pages of story while maintaining the uncanny likeness of the tv series actors. He is currently providing the artwork for Marvel’s Star Wars Mandalorian comic book series.

Finally, a bit more on the indie circuit was Jason Shawn Alexander. He’d done a series back in the late 90’s and early 00’s called Empty Zone and was one of my favorite cyber-punk series at the time. While I’d forgotten to bring along my issues for him to sign, we had a great little chat about his evolution as an artist, the “good ol’ days” with the indie comic labels and out mutual dealings with celebrity name sharing 😂 Also dropped a SouthTown ashcan into his hands. Hope he enjoyed it!

Also met a handful of indie comic creators (Anthony Stokes, Pat Shand, and Charlie McElvy) at a late night panel about self publication, looking forward to staying in touch with those dudes and catching up again at the next con 🤙

*Now, your obligatory photo dump*

We’ll see ya all again next year! Likely with at least one full issue of SouthTown in tow!

GalaxyCon Richmond Prep Week!

Finally have our table assignment for GalaxyCon in Richmond! We’ll be at N10 (right by the food court.)

Look for the red dot, Vincent!

I couldn’t be more excited to get back into the convention circuit, especially with the comic crew. I’m so excited I made a little video showing off my Con Goodies that arrived on my doorstep today!

Tired but excited!

She Hulk – Fan Art Friday 3/10/23

Subject: She Hulk (aka Jennifer Walters, Attorney at Law: Marvel Universe Earth 616)
First Appearance: The Savage She-Hulk #1 (Nov. 1979) by Stan Lee and John Buscema
Cameo: Deadpool (first appearance, New Mutants #98, Feb 1991 by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld) included to mimic the character’s similar fourth wall breaking tendencies.
Medium: Pencil, Ink, Gouache

SouthTown Update 2/8 – Neon Dreams and Marketing Schemes

Now that Southtown has a mild social media presence of its own (go follow the Facebook page in addition to his site for content and updates) the game of non-spoiler marketing has begun!

~;;~Bar Life: 2072AD~;;~

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the team and I will be at this year’s GalaxyCon convention in Richmond, VA at the end of March and one of the big projects we’ll have ready to go is a 5 page ashcan preview comic to get the ball rolling. It’s a small snippet from issue #1 to introduce a small handful of the prominent characters in the series.

Additionally, below are a few character sketches and studies to tide everyone over until the next info-drop 😉