This is Leave Your Spandex @t the Door, packed neatly every week to make you cringe and smile
This is number 107, catching up:
• Panel of the Week voting
• Con Report: BICS 2007 part 1
• Halloween X-Men, pumpkins and ghouls
• Astonishing X-Men #22 at a glance
• Comics Reviews: True Story Swear To God, Gen13, Action Comics, Messiah Complex
• Scalped or your money back
• Chris Ware – This American Life
• This is Britney, Beach
For daily updates and even more reviews, videos and commentary, keep checking the LYS@D daily blog. and subscribe to the RSS feed.
This week in comics…
PANEL OF THE WEEK VOTING 04.11.07
Last week, DC’s continuing lack of subtlety towards their only gay lead male character seemed to resonate with the readers of the blog, earning a 51% total over the other three. I still think ‘Hulk Bored’ was a classic!
This week has been too weird and queer, so I had to put 5 panels up for vote:
CoolWebPollPanel A
Kitty Pryde & Spider-Man: Interns of SHIELD! (Ultimate Spider-man #115)
Panel B
PWNED! (Black Panther #31)
Panel C
PWNED II (Thunderbolts #117)
Panel D
PWNED III (Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman Prime)
Panel E
The Ostrich Maneuver (Cable & Deadpool #46)
CON REPORT: BICS 2007
Talk about falling behind on deadlines! BICS, or Birmingham International Comics Show was held 2 weeks ago, and the Nexus was invited over in official press capacity to cover the event.
Although getting off to a late start, I’ll be posting small chunks of news and photos from the event throughout this week to make up.
So, BICS.
BICS was held for a second year in Birmingham, UK’s second largest city (although some Mancunians will argue the decimal points). LYS@D was there for another year, thanks to the Show’s kind invitation.
Birmingham itself was as I had left it. Vast, dirty, industrial, with a shiny mall smack dab in the middle, shaped like a Bull’s ass in strass. Don’t believe me? Behold, the Bull Ring:
After last December’s humbler beginnings, this year the organizers really shot for the skies, moving to the largest exhibition venue in the city, Millennium Point, and caving in to popular demand and bringing in the one thing guaranteed to make an UK comics convention a roaring success:
BOOZE.
Which brings us neatly to the Opening Reception of the Show. Friday night, Bennets, up on Bennets’ Hill. Invitation only, this reception was open only to VIPs (ha!), creators, early bookers and dirty paparazzi – like yours truly-.
The drinking venue was packed to the brim, and everyone was happy-smiley to see familiar faces amongst the professional circles, and get beer down their throats. The evening was sponsored by Tony Lee and Markosia Comics, promoting Tony’s upcoming Hope Falls comic release.
Entertainment was provided by Skelter, headlined by DC editors Michael Wright and Nachie Castro. The only dark spot of the evening was the unfortunate acoustics and loud volume of the music, as it made any conversation within the venue problematic. Geeks love to yabber people, leave the rocking for Saturday night.
Luckily LYSAD escaped with Mike Carey to quieter corners to discover the real nitty gritty of the upcoming X-Men events that brought a grin in this fanboy’s face. But that’s a secret I’ll never tell! xoxo
SATURDAY MORNING, RISE AND SHINE
After Friday’s excess, BICS wisely opened its doors after 10:30am to allow everyone their beauty sleep, or the chance to get back to their own hotel rooms for a fresh change of clothes. LYS@D slept alone, in a room with 4 snoring strangers, and only one fellow geek. LYS@D accuses Birmingham for the lack of sex or sleep on a Friday night.
Making my way to the actual exhibition floor, we picked up our proud laminated press pass (FREEEEE) and got to work.
The queues were massive, taking up the entire foyer of the exhibit, as everyone wanted an early piece of the action (and a freebie bag from Forbidden Planet, which unfortunately LYS@D missed out. The later spotted and highly sought-after copies of Umbrella Academy FCBD included within some of them didn’t help matters)
Rich Johnston (front and center in fashionable green checkers) didn’t share his loot.
COMICS BEFORE BREAKFAST
I still didn’t despair, I already had three free comics ‘shoved’ in my loving pockets before the time I had finished breakfast:
Dan Fish‘s always popular giveaway free mini-comics kicked off the trend on the Friday night drink-a-thon. This year it’s Baffling Mysteries #1. It’s a murder mystery done in 13 panels, including, a murder, An accusation, three suspects, a twist, another murder and another twist! Comics compression at its tightest!
The second comic caught me unaware on Saturday morning breakfast from my bunkmate Lorcan McGrane. When he’s not snoring he makes cool photocopy comics. The title is ‘The life and times of Jimmny Homunculus’ and I’ll be pimping it more later. Lorcan’s blog
Chime in tomorrow for coverage of Saturday’s panels, Mike Mignola, photos from the floor, Mike Carey playing Wonder Woman and other weird stories…
Halloween X-Men, pumpkins and ghouls
Jeff Parker has uploaded the entire two-page Halloween story he did with Colleen Coover in the latest X-Men: First Class.
Have a look here.
If you still have some left-over Halloween spirit, check out my Carving Skillz over at the LYSAD blog:
and my sweet-if random- costume:
Astonishing X-Men #22 at a glance
And don’t forget our Advance Review of #23 here
Reviews from the past week:
Scalped or your money back
A message from SCALPED writer Jason Aaron:
If you’re not reading SCALPED, I want to make it as easy as possible for you to at least give the series a shot, so I’m now offering a money back guarantee on the first trade paperback, “Indian Country.” That’s the first five issues of the series, for only $9.99, and if you don’t like it, you can send it to me and I’ll give you your money back. It’s as simple as that. Here’s my address and email:
Jason Aaron
P.O. Box 8620
Prairie Village, KS 66208-0620
everywhere73 at yahoo.com
Try SCALPED, you might like it. And if you don’t believe me, listen to these guys:
“This Native American noir is the best crime book you’re not reading. If you’re looking for a new Vertigo series to try with Y ending in a few months, SCALPED is an excellent place to start. “
–Brian K. Vaughan
“SCALPED is some of the most compelling character work and crime writing I’ve seen in a long time.”
–Ed Brubaker
“As perfect a comic book as I’ve ever read.”
–Brian Wood
“The best new series in years. Spread the word. Tell your friends. Talk about it. Blog about it.”
–Garth Ennis
Chris Ware – This American Life
Chris Ware animated a short clip for Showtime’s This American Life earlier this year
People act differently if they’re behind a camera, even if the fake camera isn’t real.
And you’re overtaken, you’re doling things that you normally wouldn’t.
This is Britney, Beach
Misspell, dear? Who, dear, me, dear?
No, dear:
(Well, ok, maybe)
That’s a wrap for today! I’m waiting your comments and feedback through email to Manolis@gmail.com or through the site’s comments feature
If you self-publish your own comics or represent an Indy comics company, add me to your press release list, and I will run your news in this space every week.
Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Dr. Dooplove
