Good Morning!

I know that usually Monday is a day of list-filled goodness, but I’m going to interrupt our regularly scheduled program to talk a bit about MYTHOI. For those who don’t know, MYTHOI is our inaugural title here at Semantink, and something that we are all very proud of. In September, MYTHOI #1 was released, and so far the response has been overwhelmingly good.

Now, most of you who visit the site probably know all about MYTHOI, and already have your copy of issue #1 (if you don’t have your copy yet, go get it now, it’s okay, I’ll wait) and are eagerly awaiting the release of issue #2, due out this month. That is what I am here to address.

I just wanted to let everyone know that issue #2 of MYTHOI is going to be on hold for a few months. WHAT THE HELL!? you might be yelling at your computer screen at this very moment (which is unfair, the computer didn’t do anything to you), but take a deep breath and relax, because I have some news that is going to make your day.

In a few weeks, Semantink is going to be releasing a brand new MYTHOI comic, and the best part? It’s going to be FREE! Yes, I said it, FREE! The comic will be available online, and as I just said, completely gratis. The storytelling team of James Ninness and Jed Soriano are still in place, so don’t worry, there will be no drop off in the quality of story.

This comic is going to be the first of five origin stories for our MYTHOI characters and be titled MYTHOI: BIRTH. The first MYTHOI: BIRTH will focus on a character named Wiglaf. Who is Wiglaf? Well, let me show you a picture:

Pretty neat, huh? So, for those expecting MYTHOI #2, I’m sorry for the delay, but I guarantee, you are going to love the MYTHOI BIRTH issues. And fear not, MYTHOI #2, while a bit tardy, is still coming!

For those who want to be kept up to date on all the latest MYTHOI news, or just want to talk other ofther MYTHOI lovers out there, feel free to become a fan of MYTHOI on facebook.

Oh, and one more thing, just to warn you: there is a secret hidden inside of MYTHOI: BIRTH WIGLAF, that you are not going to want to miss out on. Can you find the trail?

Thanks for stopping in folks, see you tomorrow.

Good Morning folks!

Less than a week until Halloween rears it’s ugly (albeit costumed) head, and today I thought I would talk a little bit about Jack-O– lanterns. What would Halloween be without massacring a poor, defenseless squash? The answer, of course, is lame. That’s right, without a large helping of defaced gourds, Halloween would loose a much of its panache. I like to think of Jack-O-lanterns as Halloween flair.

While all Jack-o-lanterns are, not all chopped-up, hollowed out cucurbitas are created equal. Some people have elevated Jack-o-lanterning into an art, and I want to share that art with you today. Enjoy!

COMIC-LANTERNS:

JACK-O-MOVIES:

CUTE AND CUDDLY PUMPKINS:

POLITICAL LUMINARIAS:

Ladies and gents, that’s it for today. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled here on the site, we have some big changes on the way.

Thanks for stopping in, see you tomorrow!

Ben and I weren’t to sure what to expect at APE (the Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco this weekend.  We packed our bags on Thursday night and hit the road bright and early Friday morning, leaving San Diego some time around 9.  We drove up to San Francisco with a few brief stops and arrived here while the evening was settling in across the bay.  We’d never been to APE before and while we knew it was meant for independent publishers, we didn’t know what that means — would there be anyone we were familiar with?  Was this the right place to try and sell MYTHOI?

We arrived at Ben’s brother’s place, who had been kind enough to offer up his couch for our resting, but upon arrival we realized that there were cats present, two of them.  As Ben and I both suffer from a disease called allergies that usually ends with us killing cats, we thanked his brother and found accommodations elsewhere — at 12:30am.  Most places were booked for either APE or the Treasure Island Music Festival and if they weren’t booked, the price was a mere $250.00 per night and nobody had rooms for both that night and Saturday night, just one or the other.  So right about the time we began discussing the legitimacy of sleeping in Ben’s car right outside of the Concourse (where APE is held) we got a hold of the greatest man in San Francisco: Gandhi.  Not that Gandhi.  Our Gandhi is the late-night concierge at a hotel without a name in an alley behind a bar in the Mission District.  And bless Gandhi for all time because he got us a room for both nights, under $100.00 per night, free valet and only 2 blocks from the Concourse.

SF Concourse: where red paint goes to die.

The only other thing we did that night warranting any recognition was to make a brief appearance at the ISOTOPE party (thanks Amir Malekpour) featuring Dean Haspiel, (THE QUITTER, OPPOSABLE THUMBS, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and THE ALCOHOLIC).  Ben and I both agree that it is one of the coolest comic book shops we have ever seen and if you are ever in the San Francisco area, stop in and say hi to James Sime, the super-friendly owner.  The whole thing is 1-part comic book store, 1-part nightclub, and 1-part design — just go, trust me.

Isotope: The Geek’s Nightclub

Ben and I awoke on Saturday, trudged down to a coffee shop and made our way towards APE.  And what did we think?  It was awesome.  If San Diego Comic Con is meant to blow your mind with all the million-dollar bells and whistles, and Long Beach Comic Con is designed for the more intimate encounters with industry professionals, then APE is a secret fort where only fans congregate to go over their own good ideas and opinions on art, writing and everything mainstream.  Sure, people are there trying to sell their product, but at APE you can talk to them and find out why…  Writers grill each other on the presentation of information and misinformation, Artists trade work with each other and discuss their inspirations, while Publishers peruse through the aisles, taking it all in and maybe picking up some new talent…  It’s very neat — like the Swap Meet of Comic Cons.

APE from entrance: Left

APE from entrance: Center

APE from entrance: Right

Obviously, since it’s cheaper than some of the other cons, there are a lot of people presenting who, well, maybe shouldn’t.  But what’s great about APE is that they can!  One man’s Koontz is another man’s King!  Right?

Well Ben and I went through every single booth, one at a time, over five or six hours and met some great people, many of whom you will probably hear us mention in the future… or now.  Like John C. Narcomey Jr. from High Tower Comics, or Russ Kazmierczak Jr. and Brent Otey from K.O. Comix.  All good people, with good products, so check ‘em out when you get a chance…

High Tower makes death pretty.

Check out the blog — Nice guys!

After the convention Ben and I went back to the hotel, vegged out with some Dexter episodes and cleaned up before jumping into our favorite out-of-town-convention activity:  Drinking.  Luckily, the bar next to our hotel was fantastic:  Bloodhound.  This bar was perfect for us.  Good beer?  Check (and served in mason jars).  Nice people?  Yup.  Environment?  Got that too.  We moseyed down, caught the end of the Angels/Yankees game (and sighed when the Yankees won — damn them), had a few beers and talked to some, uh, interesting (?) people.  Then it was time for sleeps.

Drinks, Games and Entertainment!

We’re not going to APE today.  Instead we’re going to head home.  APE is a doable-in-one-day kind of event as it doesn’t have much change from one day to the next and is more for floor-walking than anything else.

We had fun and we’ll definitely be back next year…

James Ninness

Happy Wednesday all,

So I had a list all ready to go for today, but it felt flat, felt forced, felt… meh. Why? The answer is this week’s upcoming convention, the Alternative Press Expo, or A.P.E. for short. A.P.E. is Semantink’s last convention of the year, and it’s got me all twitterpated.

So, as I don’t think anyone would like a lackluster list (say that three times fast), I’m going to instead share with you all why A.P.E. has got me all excited. For those of you really jonesing for a list, fear not, I will break my APEcitement into list-like bullet points, so it will be just like a list.

1) San Francisco: The A.P.E. is held in one of the most unique and exciting cities on the west coast; San Francisco. SF has great energy, great public transportation, and great food. The Stinking Rose anyone?

2) Big Boys: At A.P.E. you won’t find a gigantic DC booth. No Mega Marvel panel. This is a time for the little guys to shine. The biggest publisher you will find here is SLG. This convention is a chance to get to know all the fringe creators you might not have heard of or reconnect with those you have forgotten about.

3)Paneling: Like I mentioned above, the mainstream guys aren’t here, and of course neither are their panels. No “how to draw the Top Cow way” panels (not that I don’t enjoy those too), but the panels at A.P.E. are a great change of pace. Some examples are “An indy cartoonist’s survival guide” and “Pop Perversity”. Try finding those at Megacon!

4) It’s only a Weekend: The convention is nice and short, the perfect way to end convention season. I love me a four day convention, but my bank account does not.

5) Jeff Smith: The guy behind BONE is gonna be there! Yay!

6) Hello, My Name is: With a dearth of huge superstars and autograph lines, it is much easier to actually meet people and connect. Not just a cursory hello, but actual conversation. It was one of my favorite parts of the LBCC a few weeks ago, and I’m looking forward to getting to meet more folks this weekend.

So, yeah, I’m excited for A.P.E. this weekend. Thanks for letting me vent. If anyone is planning on being up in SF this weekend and wants to chat comics, let me know.

Thanks for stopping in, see you all later!

It’s over.  The first ever Long Beach Comic Con has closed it’s doors until (hopefully) next year.

Ben and I left early on the last day, sometime around noon.  We had gone with plans to see our new friends/artists and attend a few panels, but something wasn’t right with the LBCC — everyone was gone.  I know that Sundays are usually slow at conventions, but this was bad…  Real bad.  All of the artists we went to speak with had decided to leave after Saturday, or maybe they just decided to come late, but all of the name tags had been taken down.  Then, after reviewing the three panels we had meant to attend, we realized that there was a grand chance (based on the previous day) that we wouldn’t see the people we wanted to see.  Ultimately we weighed out our options and decided to get back to San Diego and work, rather then tempt disappointment.  That isn’t meant to be nearly as pessimistic as it sounds, so please don’t confuse our priority management with disdain in any way for LBCC.

I can’t say much for day three, as I wasn’t really there.  So I guess I’ll just give you some feedback on the Comic Convention as a whole.  Ready?

It’s awesome.

I know a lot of Southern Californians are going to be comparing LBCC to the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), and I don’t think that’s fair.  SDCC is the Comic Con.  Everyone from every where goes to that one, and to be honest: it’s not about comics.  SDCC is about everything media related in POP culture — movies, toys, video games, computer software, television and at times, comic books.  LBCC is different, it’s all about comic books.  Ben and I were able to have complete, uninterupted conversations with several writers and artists that we have admired much of our lives.  You can’t do that at SDCC.  So, off the bat people need to realize that this is not San Diego’s Comic Convention; this is the Long Beach Comic Con and it’s all about comics.

Now, as much as I loved being within arm’s reach of Doug Mahnke, Mark Waid and Jim Lee for most of the time we were there, the downside was the lackluster turnout of fans.  I don’t know if this is due to bad marketing (the ads and marketing campaign looked deceptively similar to SDCC’s), or the fact that panel presentations were not as advertised in the program, but whatever the reason, people just didn’t seem interested in LBCC to the extent that I (and I assume LBCC) had hoped for.  It’s a bummer really, and it kind of explains why SDCC has expanded it’s coverage beyond comics — some geeks just aren’t enough, we need everyone to come out and support.

Yellow, angled type, city on top…

Yellow (and blue), angled text, city on top…

I think that comic book conventions on an intimate level are great for fans, industry professionals and exhibitors alike, but without fan support they are doomed to fail.  And without solid and cohesive programming, the fans won’t come.  I’m not saying that LBCC is doomed to fail, but I do think they need to deliver on their promises, panels and presentations if they expect positive word of mouth and a higher turnout for next year.

And we really, really hope there is a next year…  This was some of the most fun we almost had at a comic con, ever.

Wishfully, James (and Ben).

PS: Yes, I switched from singular to plural a lot.  I’m sorry, but some of that was from both of us. 

Salutations Semantinkerers!  This is Ben and James once again reporting from the first annual Long Beach Comic Convention!

Well, we expected Saturday to be a busier day than Friday, and it definitely was.  More Costumes.  More attendees.  More poor planning!  Wha– Huh?  That’s right.  I’m afraid that Saturday was a great deal less impressive then Friday, though I would still put the entire convention oodles (that’s right, “oodles”) above many others.

Apparently Japan has a different version of Star Wars.

I don’t know. Mr. Wolff wins.

Looks better than Nick Cage’s version.

Bad. Ass.

Here’s the deal:

Ben and I awoke with great zeal, excited to continue what started on Friday as a wonderful time.  We went to Ghettobux, wrote our blog, plotted out the various panels we would attend, and were heading back towards the Long Beach Convention Center by 10:30am.  The first thing we did upon our arrival was find the new artist-friends we made the day before.  First was Lord L Mesa, who had a throng of peoples awaiting his attention and still found the effort to give us a smile and warm greeting.  We gave Lord a copy of Mythoi and let him go back to doing his thing after a brief conversation.  On our way to the next drop-off, Ben ran into none other than the great Mark Waid!  Ben seized opportunity and chirped a bit about the book in Mr. Waid’s ear and he asked if he could have a copy (of course, we gave it to him)!  Geeking off of that encounter, we made our way to Joel Gomez who opened Mythoi without hesitation and gave some instant (and appreciated) constructive criticism.  Finally, we dropped the last freebie issue off to the mighty Doug Mahnke, who had no time to open or look at the book but asked to get back to us soon.  It may sound small, but as an independent writer/artist who grew up reading these guys, it means the world to Ben and I to have these guys read our stuff.  It’s an honor.  Really.

Well, with our hearts all aflutter we trudged around the rest of the convention floor which was much, much fuller of freaks, geeks and other forms of fandom than the day before.  We killed some time perusing various booths (taking notes for one of our own some day…) and then followed the wall of celebrities off the floor to the panel rooms above.  This is when things when sour(ish)…

The first panel we went to was the writer’s panel, presented by Aspen.  In the program it says that Jeph Loeb, David Wohl, JT Krull, Scott Lobdell, and Jimmy Palmiotti.  Unfortunately, only the first three showed up (still an honor for fans like us).  Apparently Mr. Lobdell has Swine Flu and Mr. Palmiotti was called to another panel.  Ben and I were understanding and shrugged it off — the might that did show up was still beyond worthy of our attention.  The panel was excellent.  As a writer I took notes as these masters delivered various tips and tricks to the audience.  This was the best panel and earned an “A” for the day.

Writers = “Directors”

Ben and I grabbed lunch at Island’s across the street (try the new chicken sandwich with fried onions — awesome) before making our way to the next panel of the day: editing in comics.  Promoted to be speaking in this panel were Matt Gagnon, Rob Levin, Scott Dunbier, and Matt Hawkins.  Dunbier no showed for one reason or another, and Hawkins was replaced by another Top Cow editor whose name escapes us at the moment, but was awesome and informative.  Once again, it was disappointing to not see who you allotted time for, but the panel was almost as good as writing, and may only have been lacking in audience questions, which was partially our fault.  Overall, we give this panel a B+.

Editors = “People who do everything else”

At this point in the day, Ben and I snuck away for a quick meeting with some investors.  After an hour on the phone, we hustled back to the convention to join in on the Art Panel, which featured Joe Benitez, Dustin Nyugen, Mike Choi, Ale Garza, Philip Tan, and another gentleman whose name escapes us because we are terrible audience members (maybe Micah Gunnell).  The artist panel was interesting.  It wasn’t bad, but the information presented wasn’t incredibly helpful to Ben (an editor), or I (a writer).  We had hoped that by attending the panel we could learn more about the artistic process, but really only learned about the types of music (or lack thereof) that the artists listen to, what types of pencils and/or inks they use, and what inspires them to work.  The answers to these questions were all case specific and changed artist per artist.  The panel was unhelpful for us, but probably great for fans.  Unfortunately, it felt more like a personal panel interview then a panel about the artistic process — to be fair, I again blame poor audience questions.  B-.

With two out of three panels not delivering what was promised via program, Ben and I made our way to the final event of the day:  Thomas Jane’s premiere of “Give Em Hell Malone.”  We weren’t bitter, but I would be lying if I said we weren’t a little bummed.  We walked into a very empty room at just fifteen minutes or so before showtime to meet Thomas Jane and a couple of his buddies setting up the Playstation 3 that (we assumed) would be gracing us with his latest cinematic adventure.  Unfortunately, after waiting until ten after the scheduled showtime, Thomas Jane announced to less than 100 people that we would not be seeing “Give Em Hell Malone,” but would instead be watching the black and white version of “The Mist.”  Don’t get me wrong, “The Mist” is a great film, but this iced the let-down cake for Ben and I so we trudged off with our heads down and left the rest of the theater to enjoy their time with Mr. Jane.  To be fair, Thomas Jane seemed very bummed that he couldn’t show his film, and Ben and I are sure it wasn’t his fault.  You’re still the sh*t, Thomas — we love you!

Back at our hotel room, Ben and I got all cleaned up and decided to attempt and retake our hopes from the night by attending Mark Waid’s party at our new favorite Long Beach Bar, The Auld Dubliner.  It wasn’t very busy when we got there around 9pm, so we found a table, grabbed some beers and played a game of Scrabble.  By the time the game was over the occupancy had tripled and the band was playing loud.  At one point we were stampeded by a bachelorette party for a young lady who loved to dance.  It was a great night full of drinks, talks, laughs, and eventually, great sleep.

Day 3, here we come…

James and Ben

Greetings all!  Ben and I are writing you now from a rather ghetto Starbucks flanked by a Rite Aid and an Albertson’s in the center of Long Beach, California!

Yesterday was day one of the first ever Long Beach Comic Convention and it was great fun!  The whole thing started off with Ben and I begging our drive at 7:00am, which is the worst time to ever hit the road to go anywhere…  After making our way as far as Orange County, we stopped at Alberto’s in Garden Grove and devoured the best California Burritos either of us has ever had!  Then we meandered up the 22 towards Long Beach…

Long Beach Convention Center

One nice thing about being an “Industry Professional” is that you get to go down to the convention floor three hours before the general public.  We did.  It wasn’t worth it…  With the Convention starting at 3:00pm, there was nothing set up or ready for display at 12:30pm when we got there.  It was a bit of a disappointment, but not one we were willing to let ruin our glorious burrito-aftermath.

Our “Preview” Time…

At three there was a ribbon cutting ceremony with Jeph Loeb, Stan Lee and some politician…  Apparently the county of Los Angeles and the city of Long Beach made yesterday (Oct. 2, 2009), “Stan Lee Day!”  There was a laundry list of accomplishments listed for Stan “changing the face of comics” and his work with The Hero Initiative.  It was a nice start.  Then Stan cut the ribbon and the crowds flooded downstairs…

This guy did something awesome — but we don’t know what.

Jeph Loeb, writer of Batman’s “Long Halloween”

Stan “The Man” Lee

“Excelsior!”

Obviously people had been busy since we last journeyed to the convention floor…  Nintendo had the most impressive area with six wii stations and a very large DS area — not to mention some not-ugly girls walking around putting leis on us…  We got to check out Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Wii Sports Resort — they were all impressive.

Nintendo — Left

Nintendo — Center

Nintendo — Right

Atomic Comics shared a corner spot with Golden Apple to create the next largest section.  As soon as you walked onto the floor you were greeted by their spokeswoman: Wonder Woman (who was beautiful and gave us a bunch of invites to a party that night…).

Apparently “married” means I get to hold the camera…

While walking around the LBCC one can’t help but over hear people referring to the convention as a “return to comics.”  It’s true.  Even the setup for this convention requires you to walk through the GIGANTIC artist’s alley to get back and forth between the various vendors.  There are no movie studios, toy companies, or people hawking software…  LBCC really does put comic books on a pedestal for the weekend and leaves it at that.  Personally, I can’t help but compare it to the San Diego Comic Con (I’ve been there so many years…), and here’s the best comparison I can give you:  If the San Diego Comic Con is a wild orgy of all things “entertainment” with random people and things touching, feeling and groaning, then the Long Beach Comic Con is a small, candlelight dinner for you and comics.  It’s a softer setting with more intimate opportunities and a much better way to shop, learn and talk with more industry professionals than you could ever try to get at SDCC.  I highly recommend going to both, but for the true aficionado, LBCC is the place to be.

“aficionado” — this guy was soo excited…

So, who did we get to talk to?  Doug Mahnke.  Joe Benitez.  Ruben Martinez.  Joel Gomez.  Lord L Mesa.  R.C. Young.  Brian Haberlin (or at least, the guy at his both who we think was Brian…).  And we literally “bumped” into Thomas Jane, who is much smaller than we thought he’d be, but nonetheless impressive (side note:  go see HUNG now).  I also believe that I offended an talented artist named Oliver Nome.  You see, I don’t know nearly as much about art in comics as Ben.  So, while perusing Oliver’s portfolio, I noticed that one of them had a note reading, “Inked by Rich Friend.”  I asked Oliver why he was advertising his “Wealthy Buddy.”  I think he thought I was making fun of him, when in truth, I had no idea that Richard Friend is a famous inker…  Oops.  Sorry Oliver!

And like all Comic Cons, there were costumes…  Some great.  Some not.  But here are the ones we liked the most (aside from the above featured Wonder Woman):

Shrimps! Shrimps! Shrimps!

HOT Batgirl! …and batman… (and Malcolm X?)

More hot-Batwoman! ..and batman…

SNIKT!

Unenthusiastic Green Lantern

This guy’s awesome! Saw him at SDCC!

Gotham Sirens, minus Catwoman…

After the convention we tried going to the Golden Apple/Atomic Comics party, but it was a bit too loud for us and the drinks were way to expensive ($6.50 for a Heineken), so we made our way to the Auld Dubliner.  It was a great way to end the day and I can guarantee we’ll be there again tonight.  Beer makes everything better…

That’s it from Day One!  We’re on our way now to Day Two, which should prove to be more exciting than the first as it is a Saturday and there are a ton of sessions we’ll be attending.  Until tomorrow morning,

James and Ben

Hello fans of fiction!

My name is James Ninness, writer of Mythoi, lover of the Bootie and closet fan of Heroes (don’t tell Mr. Wolff).  I’m flattered that Ben, Mr. Wolff, Ash, Street Fece and Akatzen have asked me to write a little something-something in preparation for our departure to Long Beach for the first annual Long Beach Comic Con this weekend!  Ben tells me that we’re getting t-shirts to wear with the Semantink logo, so if you see us meandering about please feel free to come up and say hi!

I’ve known Benji for a while and I knew that he’d been talking about starting/running a publishing house for some time, but I was honored, elated and nervous as hell when he asked MYTHOI to be Semantink’s premiere property!  I’ve published a few short stories and some poetry here and there, but writing comic books has always been a dream.  All I have to do now is make out with a midget and I can officially die a happy man.

I was born and raised in San Diego, California, but I got my degree in English: Creative Writing from Cal State University Long Beach.  I did a bit of traveling and-  Okay.  This is boring.  How’s this:  Once I hog tied a crazy, drunk girl and threw her in a trailer because she threatened to stab me in my sleep.  True story!  She wriggled her cell phone out of her pocket and called the cops, but didn’t know where she was.  When I checked on her an hour later she was still on the phone with them so I took it and found out that several cop cars and a helicopter had been scouring Irvine looking for the motor-home she was in!  I gave them my address and when they showed up they asked me to keep the girls phone so she didn’t bug them anymore.  What does that have to do with comic books?  Nothing.  But it’s more fun than knowing anything about my education, publishing history and/or travel experiences.

So, as you’ve hopefully heard, I’ve got this title coming out through Semantink called MYTHOI.  I actually wrote MYTHOI almost four years ago while I was in college.  The idea for the premise came out of my fascination with mythology, legends and all things supernatural.  So, I picked elements from my favorites and created my players…  Combining ghosts, Buddhism, dragons and yeti, I got Yuki (our only femme fatale).  Vampires, werewolves, mummies and zombies gave me Vito, the oldest 10-year-old-bodied vampire ever.  The Terminator movies, Universal Soldier (yeah, Lundgren and Van Damme), anything post-apocalyptic and ninjas helped to create Touch.  Wiglaf arose from ancients texts like the Bible, Beowulf and Norwegian texts.  And last but not least came Taros, birthed out of my love of Greek/Roman mythology.  Now take all of those parent-ideas and all of the concepts, ideas and beliefs about each of them, throw them in our world, right now and shake it up — that’s MYTHOI.  Actually, let me introduce you to one of the minor characters, Cat — This is a sketch from my amazing artist, Jed Soriano (ironically, Cat is a werewolf):

MYTHOI is 60 issues long.  That’s it.  After 60 issues the story is done.  And while I can’t give away too much of the plot, I can lead you with a few questions…  If all gods ever conceived actually existed in today’s world where they are forgotten and cast aside, don’t you think they’d be a little upset?  If so, who would protect us humans from the big, angry gods?  I should also tell you that there are no superheroes in MYTHOI.  That’s it.  I’m afraid I can’t say anymore.  If you want to know more you’ll have to pick up issue #1 here.

If you haven’t already bought you tickets for the Long Beach Comic Con then you should do so immediately.  Even though it’s their first year, they’ve rounded up a pretty kick-ass line up:  Stan Lee, Jim Lee, Thomas Jane, Berkeley Breathed, Seth Green, Tim Bradstreet, Jeph Loeb, Jon Bogdanove, George Lazenby and many, many more!  I’ve been poking around the people who set the whole thing up and I have to say, they seem like a good group to be throwing this shindig.  I’m sure Benji will do a write-up of the whole event when we return, but if you care at all for comics and are anywhere near the Long Beach area you should definitely roll out this weekend (10/2 — 10/4).

I think that’ll do for now.  I hope I’ve piqued some of your curiosities about the comic and haven’t bored you too much.  If you want to write me, feel free to at jamesninness@yahoo.com.  Otherwise, enjoy MYTHOI and I hope to meet you soon!

James Ninness

Good Morning all!

So with Mythoi #1 coming out next week (!!!) I am so ramped up, I can’t really focus on much else. Now, I do not want to bore people with sub-par bloggeration, so, I was hoping you all could help me out with some of your own words (more on that in a second).

I get my comic books and graphic novels from a comic book store, I get my books from a book store, and I get my magazines from 7–11 (I just don’t read many magazines). I like going into my Local comic book store for comics because of the feeling that I get from being there. There is something about the smell of Mylar and longboxes that makes my heart sing.

Lately I have read quite a few articles that predict the end (or at least a great change) for the local comic book store, based on an increase in trade paperback sales (which people could go pick up in Borders), the new set ups at Dis-arvel and DCE now, and the crappy economy. All this is a blog unto itself, which I will probably talk about when I’m not so geeked up about MYTHOI!

This is where you come in dear readers. If you come to this site, you probably have at least a passing enjoyment of the comic book format, so I my question to you folks out there is this: Where do you go for your comics and why do you go there? Please, let me know!

Thanks all, oh, and 1 week until MYTHOI! Woo!

Oh, and since the militant panda picture went over well, here’s something else for you.

Greetings all,

This post is brief, and I apologize for that. What I am about to show you is the greatest comic book based cartoon of all time. The other day Mr. Wolff, told me that he has not seen this, so I thought I would share. Pay special attention to The Blob and Australian (?) Wolverine: