Cool funnybook SWAG

SWAG has been defined as Stuff We All Get. While we truly don’ all get this stuff, it is the term that has been assigned to it. SWAG, well I came away with some pretty cool SWAG from the recent National Comicbook show in NYC this past weekend. Mostly what I came away with was several very cool comics, and a couple of nifty posters. I also picked up some stuff a couple of weekends earlier at the Boston Comicbook show I attended.



This was a very interesting packing for an online comic by Radical Warren. I really enjoyed the very existentialist excursions into the absurd presented by this very funny strip . I haven't been to the site as of yet, but the comic was very cool, and got me to thinking that this would be a very cool way to not only package a strip comic as a promo (while it was cover-priced at .50 I believe that it was given away as a freebie). Currently I'm collaborating with three other cartoonists who are working on three different web comics for me, I think that I just might utilize this packaging technique when the time comes to promote my strips.

Next up was the ashcan Poser (also by Chris “Radical” Warren). this comic was ostensibly a superhero strip, and well, every bit as entertaining. Both of the comics are done in a very minimalist form with the dialogue driving the story and being the focus of each strip. While they both went in very different directions, I found them both to be quite good.

Another cool ashcan I received was from JGM Comics (see previous post). Plus I picked up some Amazing Spider-Man back issues for very cheap, narrowing the number of Spider-Man comics I need to complete my run of this title to less than 40.

I’ll go more into my NY SWAG in a later post. Now, I’m going to go to bed.

Ash Can Comics

Here in comics we have what we like to call Ashcans. When Ashcans where first used, they were literally a small-press run of a comic to establish ownership of the characters in the comic. The term “ashcan copy” originated during the Golden Age of Comics. It was meant to describe a publication that was produced solely for legal purposes (i.e.; trademark), and not normally intended for distribution.

The term “Ashcan” literally means that the printed material was supposed to go straight from the printer into the trash. Ashcan editions frequently contained unlettered stories, unfinished art or even just whatever wastepaper had been conveniently available at the time. The goal in making them was to get something out with the comic’s intended title slapped on as quickly as possible so that the publisher could make some claim to having been the first in print if a competitor tried to publish a similar title.

Needless to say, these days Ashcans function as a limited-edition collector’s copy, as well as a marketing tool for the publisher. Well, over the years, I have acquired quite a number of these little babies. My most recent Ashcan comes to me courtesy of JGM Comics. Two characters from JGM are Ripperman and Shadowflame; a couple of costume superheroes.

I bring this up, because, not only are these comics pretty good, but a future JGM comic is going to be spotlighting a couple of superheros that I’ve developed. Their names are Law and Order, and they pal around and bust up bad guys under the name The Enforcers. Joe who heads up JGM, found me a very talented artist, and well, I’ve seen the art, and I’m panting at the bit to see it in print.

More as it develops.