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.

Hail to the Chief!

Only, who, precisely is that? No really, if I believe Fox News it was this Obama guy, but if I go with [[The Daily Bugle]] it was Steven Colbert. I’m trying to sort it all out, but I’m not so sure whom I can trust on this, especially as I completely distrust all forms of mass media.

So, I figure that I’ll just lay low for a couple of days perhaps make a deal with the Devil or something, but eventually I’ll certainly puzzle it out.

Or at least I hope I do.

And the Winner is!

Us. We. The American People!

That’s right, we won. A true American has been elected into the White House, and I couldn’t be happier!



Sorry, couldn’t help myself there.



Seriously, how cool is this?

Stop reading this and go out and vote already!

Cup ‘o (Spider) Joe

So, the other day I mentioned that I was having a cup of Spider-Coco (my last cup, as it turned out), Our good buddy — and regular commenter — Tommy told me that he felt especially jealous over this, so I figured that I’d show him my collection of five Spider-Mugs. They are from three separate purchases.

The “odd” mug was purchased first. then I received as gifts two sets of two mugs each. One set has Spidey on one side and The Hulk on the other, while the second set of mugs (the one that came with the Hot Chocolate mix, I believe) had two different versions of Spidey on the mugs.

As I said, both of these two-mug sets were gifts, and now they are the only mugs from which I drink (coffee, usually) when I am at home.

On a different subject, I attended a Boston comicbook convention today, and while I was there I scooped up 13 Spidey comics (10 for .50¢ each, and the other three for a total of $10.00). Not bad, eh? The really cool thing about this acquisition was that it brought me within five regular comics and three annuals of completing the original run of Amazing Spider-Man.

I scored three issues of ASM, (& two Annuals), a Peter Parker Annual, three issues of Sensational Spider-Man, one Spider-Man the Lost Years, and three issues of Spider-Man Chapter One. Not bad for a day of fun, eh?

More on this story as it develops.

Embrace Change

Yes, I have embraced change. I mean, sure, what the heck? Why not?

No I’m not a traitor to my species, I know that while the fundamentals of our Earth culture are strong, we are in need of a real bail out — not just one that is handled in the same fast-food, slick-ass Persian Bazaar manner with which Washington seems to handle everything else these days. If that sort of a slip-shod approach occurs then I’m afraid that something’s gonna get missed; and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I allowed that to happen and we wound up in Armageddon any sooner than absolutely necessary, because our festering attorneys had predetermined our future based on the path of least resistance.



Someone has to defend us, for the hour of Ragnarok is near...