A Lesson In Fandom - How to not be a jerk

I love comic book fans! They are some of the best fans in the world, so much so that I attend a monthly all women comic book club (find out more about that here) which is a great place to discuss your favorites, share ideas, find out about new series and just generally geek out. The women who attend are all lovely, friendly and open to different opinions as the entire point of this club is that it is for all levels or readers "from those who have never read a comic, through to those who can name all the Spider-Versions from the Spider-Verse". As accepting as all these lovely ladies are there is a saying that "no fandom hates its own members as much as the comic book fandom". Unfortunately there is a small but vocal percentage that use terms like "fake geek" and "fake geek girl". So I decided I would write about how it is okay and not okay behavior in a fandom.

You should come and hang out with us next month

OKAY: Going total fangirl/fanboy over someones cosplay

People work very hard on their cosplays in their spare time, with some of them taking hundreds of hours of hard work. People usually really appreciate hearing that you like their cosplay but remember be polite, ask before taking photos and I know I don't need to tell you this but don't touch them inappropriately.

NOT OKAY: Pointing out mistakes in someones cosplay

Part of the fun of going to conventions and special events is seeing other people in cosplay and getting to dress up yourself, unfortunately not everybody can sew or like me has a very patient mother who can sew and is willing to teach. Dressing up is part of the fun even if you don't have a working arc reactor in your Iron Man costume.

OKAY: Having a differing opinion of a comic/character

I've had discussions with someone who thinks Batman is a villain because he is a vigilante I don't entirely agree but he did however have some very good points that made me think and reconsider the character.

NOT OKAY: Telling someone their opinion of a comic/character is stupid

Two people can look at a picture and see something completely different. This doesn't make them wrong they just see things in a different way. Remember variety is the spice of life.

OKAY: Talking to someone about a series they are unfamiliar with

Word of mouth is a great way to learn about different series just remember not to go on and on and on and on and on and on..........

NOT OKAY: Calling them a fake geek for not knowing the entire history of Superman

Don't be that person. There is way more in any series that anybody could ever possibly memorize so don't judge someone on not knowing as much as you it doesn't make them any less of a fan.


OKAY: Asking someone their favorite issue/arc

 Everybody loves talking about their favorites.

NOT OKAY: Quizzing them to test their knowledge

Seriously don't be that guy.

OKAY: Telling local creators you love their work

I love local creators and creator owned comic and I get reaaaaaaaaally excited when I meet them. Local creators pour their heart and soul into their work so it must be very nice for them to hear that people enjoy their work.

NOT OKAY: Telling local creators that their work is weird, you haven't heard of them or their work is expensive.

This is how people want to react when you do this

Local creators work very hard on their comics and they mean a lot to them so if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. As for the price, it is expensive to make comic books especially if they are being funded out of the creators own pockets which they usually are.

OKAY: Have fun. Being part of a fandom is one of the best things in the world because you get to be in a family with millions of other people who love the things you love. 

These are some of the great ladies from the All Star Women's Comic Book Club. I'm up the back left doing jazz hands.

I've actually had a very good friend of mine tell me he was actually a little jealous of the geek community because you can connect with so many people and we are like one big happy family

NOT OKAY: Let other people spoil your fun. There are always people that seem to enjoy spoiling other peoples fun, don't let them ruin yours.

 You are going to meet jerks no matter what you do in life just remember one thing: they are jerks.

Chew - It puts the ewwwww in Chew

Chew Volume #1 - Taster's Choice

Chew is written by written and lettered by John Layman, illustrated and coloured by Rob Guillory and published by Image comics. Chew is a wonderfully disgusting comedy/action series that will have you both chuckling and considering vomiting at the same time.

People pull this face when they taste my cooking too.

In a world ravaged by avian flu that killed 23 million people in the USA alone and 226 million world wide chicken is illegal and the F.D.A. (food and drug administration) is the ruling force above both the government and the law. Wow that got really dark really quickly. Tony Chu is a police officer freshly recruited into the F.D.A., who also happens to be a cibopath. Oh what's that? you don't know what a cibopath is? A cibopath is someone that gains psychic impressions and visions from anything they eat, yes it is an entirely made up thing. Tony uses this to help him gain leads and solve crimes. Unfortunately not all crimes involve a nicely prepared meal so Tony ends up munching on severed limbs, human faces, dead dogs, human ashes and some terrible, terrible sushi.

We all know a sushi place like this

The art of Chew is truly something different and has this ridiculous and exaggerated look that just works so well with the series. characters features are exaggerated with large beer bellies, giant breasts, large foreheads and disgusting pimples.
One of the most hilarious things about the art of Chew are the backgrounds with wonderful little Easter eggs hidden in them if you take the time to look. These include a missing poster for Jimmy Hoffa, pictures of Bruce Lee, people vomiting out windows and cameos of famous characters.

Chew is a series of fantastic sarcasm and wit with the character's personalities are as cartoony as the art. This works really well because lets face it we are dealing with a ridiculous concept so having a dark and brooding character like Batman would just ruin the entire theme of Chew.

Chew is a series that is just side splittingly funny that has some surprisingly touching moments as the series continues. Providing you aren't easily grossed out I would recommend Chew to anyone and everyone.

I give Chew 4 out of 5 projectile vomits.

Find out ore about Chew here.

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 28.2.2015

Swag Bag 28/2/2015

After a short break in the swag bag due to All Star Comics being closed during their relocation I am incredibly happy to finally be able to get another Swag Bag and boy, did I have some catching up to do.

Nail biter Volume #1: A Serial killer who chews off his victim's fingernails somehow gets away with it.

Rachel Rising Volume #5: Why do I buy trades of things I already own in single issues? Because I have a problem that's why.

The Adventures Of Dr. McNinja: He's a doctor and a ninja, do I really need to tell you this is a comedy series.

They're Not Like Us #2: Is Syd really going to go through with it and kill her parents?

They're Not Like Us #3: Well she hasn't killed her parents yet but this series is getting pretty intense.

Thor #5: Thor kicks a bad guy's ass for using feminist like an insult. I respect that, that's awesome. Great girl power moment between Thor and Titania. Also guy Thor is reaaaaaaally bad at detective work.

Thor Annual #1: 3 Stories about 3 different Thors. One of which written by CM Punk of wrestling fame and illustrated by Rob Guillory of Chew fame.

Gotham Academy #5: Why is Killer Croc hiding out at a high school? And whats the deal with Tristan's eyes?

Rachel Rising #31: Who is growing flowers over the bodies and did he kill Rachel? How is Zoe going with that whole giving birth to the antichrist in 5 years thing?

Effigy #2: Chondra finds out who the body belongs to and just how obsessed her old fans really are with her.

Shutter #9: Who is Kate's mother and how are we going to find her?

Chew #46: OMG OMG OMG!! Chew is back!!!!

Rasputin #5: Rasputin almost died last issue, its gonna be tough to top that.

Bodies #8: We finally have an ending. How will it turn out for our heroes and villains?

Tooth & Claw #4: Will Learoyd take Dusty' warning about Goodfoot? Dusty learns more about how those without magic are truly living.

Morning Glories #43: I love the cover on this one because its true nobody likes Ike.

Bitchy Planet #3: The origins of Penny who is just my favourite character so far.

Wow that was a long list this week!

In The Local Pocket #1 - How To Make A Friend

In The Local Pocket #1

Whenever new comic book day comes round I always try and pick up a series that I haven't read before it's a great way to find different series that you might enjoy and I always think the more variety the better. I always look in the local section as I think it is incredibly important to support local talent in all art forms. Local, creator owned comics are usually funded by the creators personally or through websites like Kickstarter. Creating these comics is more than just a job for them it's a passion that they pour their heart and soul into.

Local creators usually love signing their work

How To Make A Friend

How To Make A Friend is written, illustrated and published by Chris McQuinlan. How To Make A Friend is one of the most charming comic I have come across and I enjoyed it immensely. I showed How To Make A Friend to my mother, who has never read a comic in her entire life, and she enjoyed it so much that she asked me to get a copy for her because there was no way in hell I was parting with mine.

I wish I could make friends this easily

How To Make A Friend is about an old wizard who misses is late wife and is shunned by the people in the local town. He is so lonely he decides to make a friend using a magic spell book and creates a small pixie like creature and that's as much as I can tell you about the story. One of the things I love most about How To Make A Friend is that their are no words in the comic because you interpret the story the way you see it. I won't tell you how I interpreted this comic because I want you to come to your own conclusion about the story and the wizard.

Right in the feels :'(

The characters are drawn in a delightfully simple, way with magical smiles that will just melt your heart. The panels in the town are simple and clear and seem to be drawn as an entire piece of art rather than a character and background but as the story moves into the wizard's home and forest the backgrounds are drawn with a few trees, rocks and tufts of grass that don't draw the eye away from the characters but still give a clear in-depth look to each panel. The art is done in entirely blue, black, white and a tiny splash of red. The use of the blue to show light and shadows is magnificent and one of may favourite parts about this comic giving some of the panels an almost 3D look. The artist has clearly worked incredibly hard to have these wonderful details in every panel with not a single panel of lower quality in the entire comic.

If your heart isn't melting right now there is something wrong with you

If it sounds like I'm having a nerd-gasm over How To Make A Friend its because I am. I really enjoyed this comic and really just loved its innocence, joy and sadness. Unfortunately it is a little hard to get a hold of a copy at the moment so I actually emailed the creator, Chris McQuinlan, to both let him know how much I enjoyed his comic and to find out where I could possibly get a copy for my mother. Chris is hoping to have more copies printed up for Super Nova this year.

Check out Chris McQuinlan's website here and his twitter

I give How To Make A Friend 4.5 out of 5 magical smiles

Nawwwww I want one

Saga - The crack of comic books

Saga volume #1

Any comic that's first printed words are "am I shitting? It feels like I'm shitting" and continues to be published must be good. Saga, written by Brian Vaughan and art by Fiona Staples and published by Image comics, It is basically the crack of the comic world and turns you into a comic junkie desperate for the next issue.

Very first page of entire series

Landfall, home to the wings, and its moon Wreath, home to the horns, have been at war for as long as anyone can remember, so long in fact that the war has moved away from these place and onto surrounding planets and moons. Alana was a Landfall solider and Marko a Wreath solider who met in a POW camp and fell in love. Saga begins with the birth of their daughter Hazel after which within minutes we learn that Alana and Marko are wanted by both sides as a traitors. The story follows the new family as they try and escape the hit men, spies, royalty and soldiers after them as they just try and live their life in peace together. The story also follows a freelancer named The Will and his side kick Lying Cat, an alien cat who can tell if a person is lying, as they have been hired to find Marko and Alana kill them and bring baby Hazel back to his employers alive. The Will and Lying Cat's mission gets sidetracked as they attempt to rescue a young girl from the planet Sextillion where she is held captive as a prostitute.

Seriously even the plants want to kill them

The art of Saga is as close to perfect as a comic book can get, the sheer volume of character designs is staggering and the fact that they are all done well is a real achievement. One of my favourite things about the art in Saga is that all of the wings have different kinds of wings such as bat wings, feathered wings, butterfly wings and other bug wings and the horns all have different kinds of horns such as ram horns, antelope horns, cow horns, rhino horns and unicorn horns. the faces are expressive and show off the personalities of the characters such as sassy Alana, hopeful Marko and somber The Will. Saga doesn't shy away from surprising its readers with disturbing images without any notice such as a new born baby covered in blood and fluids, robots having sex, exploding heads and later in the series a giant humanoid monster with gigantic hairy testicles and it works surprisingly well.

Beautiful images like this then BAM! EXPLODING HEAD!!

A huge part of what makes Saga work so well are the characters, they have some of the most three dimensional and well rounded personalities that I have ever seen in any medium. All the characters make good decisions, they make bad decisions, they become irrational, they make selfish choices, they are frightened and through all of it they still try to make the best of the circumstances they find themselves in. You feel Immensely for Alana and Marko as they struggle with being newly weds and new parents situations that are hard enough without the complications of being wanted fugitives with an entire galaxy wanting them dead. I feel it is very realistic that Alana and Marko don't have any great heroic goals of trying to end a war that has lasted centuries all they want is to be left alone and raise their family in peace.

Setting realistic goals

Saga is one of the finest comics available and has had no drop in the quality of the writing or art since it began in 2012. Most people who buy volume #1 of Saga usually end up becoming hooked and turn into another Saga addict.

I give Saga a 4.5 out of 5 Lying Cats

Find out more about Saga here

My Top 5 Couples In Comics

Couples in comics are more than just super heroes and the damsels in distress that they rescue. Many comics involve deep, layered relationships between characters. These are 5 of my favourite relationships in comics. Happy Valentine's Day.

5

Andrea & Dale

The Walking Dead

I saved you guys the picture of them having sex. You're welcome.

Nothing Like the end of the world to let a person aim for a partner way out of their league. Andrea and Dale are part of a small group of survivors who travel together after the dead start rising as vicious zombies (you've seen the show I don't really need to explain the premise to you). Despite the huge age difference between the two Andrea and Dale fall in love and find some comfort and stability in each other and even get to have a family for a short time with two adopted sons.

4

Janni & Jack

Nemo Heart Of Ice & Nemo Rose Of Berlin

Not exactly my idea of romance but whatever floats your boat I suppose.

Captain Janni is the daughter of Captain Nemo (of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen fame) and Jack is her crewman and later her husband. They are supportive of each other and couldn't imagine a life apart, so much so that Janni is offered a chance at immortality she refuses because she wouldn't even consider living forever without Jack.

3

Toni Chu & Praveen

Chew

At least she didn't bite him

Toni and her boss Paneer are in love and they just have the most adorable goofy relationship you can really tell these two characters just adore each other and deserve to be together. Toni can see the future of anything she eats providing it is still alive, This makes for some shenanigans as Paneer even forgives Toni for taking a bite out of his shoulder after he asks her to marry him.

2

Suzie & Jon

Sex Criminals

The kinky ones are never the ones you'd suspect

Suzie and Jon meet at a party, Jon Spends the night at Suzie's place, Suzie and Jon have sex, Suzie and Jon both stop time when they have an orgasm. Well that was unexpected. Suzie and Jon not only have a sweet relationship that feels very real but they also have their fair share of problems including the the fact that they both end up in a suspended state of time after climaxing. This means they have finally found somebody just like themselves and have a plan for how they will use their powers together.

1

Alana & Marko

Saga

Smarter than Romeo & Juliette

Alana and Marko are like Romeo and Juliette but nowhere near as fucking stupid. They meet as enemies, come together as lovers and then continue their journey as husband and wife. These two not only put aside centuries of animosity between their two cultures they are willing to take on an entire universe to be together. Alana and Marko truly love each other and all they want is to be left alone with their family and just enjoy life. If you don't find that romantic your heart is made of stone.

Carmen - Its okay we know where in the world she is.

Carmen #0 & #1

Carmen is created by Mike Speakman, Issue #0 written by Mike Speakman & Aharon Claridge illustration & letters by Blake Wilkie. Issue #1 written by Mike Speakman & Aharon Claridge, illustrations & letters by Matt Kyme, colours & cover art by Matty Taylor and published by If? Commix. Carmen is a thriller/mystery/spy comic about a woman named Carmen who's boyfriend Cody Sinclair, an American solider, was recently killed in action under suspicious circumstances, those suspicious circumstances being that he was straight up murdered by another American soldier. A shady organization called King-Dome Come Industries, run by the terrifying Mr. King, steals Cody's body needing his brain for something. The brain is damaged during transportation and the information now unreadable. A person who was special to Cody is needed to transfer his memories so Mr. King can unlocks Cody's secrets. Carmen, now in danger, is being hunted.

Oh this? This is just my copy signed by Matty Taylor

The art style is very interesting and different straying away from the "classic" comic book style and uses thick lines and deep colours that reminds me of a stain glass window. Some of the backgrounds creatively use real pictures and textures enhanced with colours and outlines makings the backgrounds interestingly detailed without drawing your eye away from the focus of the panel. Those who like incredibly realistic art may be a little turned off by the art in Carmen but it is an unusual and engaging style that is refreshingly different.

I usually make my coffee after I get out of the shower but whatever

Carmen, although we haven't learned much about her personality yet, has already shown us an insight into her character as she reacts realistically when large frightening men force their way into her apartment by freaking the hell out but shows that she isn't going to be just another damsel in distress as she fights back by elbowing one of her attackers in the throat. What makes Carmen such an interesting character is that she really has no idea what is going on or why people are after her, she is just a normal person. We don't know much about her skills yet but she neither turns into a blubbering, helpless mess waiting to be rescued or into a super solider that can defeat her attackers without breaking a sweat. Carmen, although she may pick up some skills along the way, is looking like a story about an ordinary person in an extraordinary situations.

Carmen isn't going down without a fight

Normally I am not a huge fan of spy/thriller comics but I enjoyed Carmen immensely and was intrigued at what direction the story would progress in. I read a comic many times while writing reviews and each time I read Carmen I enjoyed it more. Carmen is a locally produced comic and like many creator owned local comics it doesn't have a monthly schedule with each issue coming out every few months or so. Many creator owned comics are funded via Kickstarter and other such websites and by their creators personally.

I'm both excited and inpatient so, so very inpatient

I give Carmen 4 out of 5 brains in a jar and remember support local talent!

Follow Carmen on Twitter and get your own copy of Carmen here.


I also just wanted to share this wonderful picture of me as a zombie drawn by Matty Taylor at an event at All Star Comics where he was doing free sketches for people.

This hangs proudly on my sketch wall