Magic Bullet art preview from Mike Brace

 

It's been a while since we've seen an issue of the DC Conspiracy's free comics newspaper Magic Bullet, probably due to covid-19. Regular contributor Mike Brace and I ran into each other at Free Comic Book Day at Fantom Comics and caught up briefly about his strip for the next issue.

"I'm sending you this art in response to our conversation about what I've been doing during the covid pandemic. This art is for the Magic Bullet. It's actually the second version. I wasn't happy with the original comic I drew (very cartoony) and with the delay in publishing caused by the pandemic I decided to use the first version of the story to jumpstart the second by re-imagining it as a classic newspaper adventure style comic strip."

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Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center | National Air and Space Museum has reopened via tickets, so I stopped by yesterday. It's mostly very large aircraft, but there are a few interesting small things including a ballooning exhibit that includes some early editorial cartooning prints.

There is a very nice exhibit case of  space-toys including a lot from Buck Rogers (soon converted from a novel to a comic strip) and Flash Gordon (originally a comic strip).  Here's my set of photos.

Meet a Local Webcartoonist: A Chat with Jack Reickel

by Mike Rhode

Jack Reickel and I ran into each other before the COVID-19 quarantines, we think in fact about a year before at Nerds in NoMa. Jack recently reached out to tell me about his new webcomic, Unclaimed, and to answer our usual questions.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I'm creating an episodic long-form story. In its earliest stages it was planned as a written novel, but I found out that I can't write prose without sliding into a humorous tone, and it's a serious story. Luckily I'm a capable enough illustrator (at least to start) to bring it to life as sequential art, but it is slow-going. Releasing it free online myself means the schedule and format is only limited by my ability to produce it, which again, is very slow.

Unclaimed is a graphic epic told in sporadically-released episodes. In a universe ravaged by opposing destructive forces, life and interest occurs in the clash between the abyss and annihilation. The story begins on the frozen isle Idep, surrounded by frigid emptiness.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

It's a combination of digital linework and tones drawn in Clip Studio Paint, with traditional watercolor scanned then mixed in with Photoshop.

When and where were you born?

Late 80s in Walkersville, Maryland (a small town in northern Frederick County)

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I spiraled closer to the DMV after undergrad, finally making my way into the District-proper in Petsworth. I lived in Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan before being pulled out into the suburbs to more spaciously support my ever-growing fur family. My wife and I met at RFD in Chinatown, and now live in Alexandria with our five pets.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, and worked two summers as a caricature artist in Ohio at Cedar Point: the largest seasonal amusement park in the country.

Who are your influences?

Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá for all-around everything; I think they're the best sequential artists ever to put panels down, and they're great writers to boot. Harry Nilsson and Bill Watterson for whimsy, imagination, vision, and dedication. Katsuhiro Otomo, Rebecca Sugar, and Noah Hawley for story structure, character, and pacing. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins for format.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

Coming up with the concept for Unclaimed and figuring out what I wanted to do with it earlier would've been great! I came up with the idea for the novel in 2014 and started seriously developing it as a comic in 2016.

What work are you best-known for?

Realistically, for designing apparel for DC's ultimate-frisbee community. I design jerseys and other gear for tournaments, festivals, leagues, volunteer gifts, and travelling club teams. With COVID-19 cancelling all of those things this year, I created gear for Unclaimed instead, which is available through July 6. Use the code readunc to save 20%!

What work are you most proud of?

Unclaimed! To be more specific, at this point, probably Unclaimed part ii page 10 panel 4.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

Unclaimed is going to keep growing. It's penciled in to take up my entire artistic future.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

Writing and drawing Unclaimed around a full-time job and life full of other interests and efforts has kept me from dealing with writer's block, but artistic ruts happen. Drawing is exhausting, physically and mentally, and it's something one gets better at through sustained effort. If I draw 15 hours in 3 days, hours 13–15 will produce more good work than 1–10. Fábio Moon said something about going for a few days without drawing and struggling coming back from even that break, and he's been at the top of the industry for a decade. Finding the time to be able to exert that kind of sustained effort is a challenge.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

COVID-19 was a shock to the industry and we still have to see what those sustained effects are going to be. For all that we're in a prolonged golden-age of long-form story in television, I'd love to see more comics produced and appreciated at a similar level. The enthusiasm and interest for good stories of all types is there and won't ever go away, we just need to figure out how to align the creators and the audiences. I don't think the monthly nothing-ever-changes status of superhero stories will carry the medium any further, and we're already seeing that in reader demographics.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?

Small Press Expo and Baltimore Comic Con, MAGFest if you count that. Baltimore Comic Con in 2006 was very meaningful for me, as I met and befriended a handful of talented pros I've kept in contact with across my transformation from high-school senior to art-school grad to someone-finally-making-art.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

All the perks of a big city, but with plenty of visible sky. I think my preoccupation with beautiful skies is already showing through in Unclaimed, and that's here to stay.

Least favorite?

The current sitting president acting as a hostile occupier. DC is the most politically-informed populace in the country, and doesn't have the representation at the federal level and even deals with congressional obstruction in governing the city itself.

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

National Gallery of Art!

How about a favorite local restaurant?

El Sol -- it used to be in Petworth then moved to Mount Vernon Square, and it's got the best tacos I've had in this timezone.

Do you have a website or blog?

Unclaimed is free to read at https://unclaimed-comic.com/ ; I also post art @jackreickel on instagram

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

My wife and I are very fortunate in that we've each been able to continue our jobs through full-time telework. We fostered a rescue puppy, then of course couldn't give her up.

It's also continued to stun me, watching the public's varied response to everything. Wear a mask. Maintain social distance. "We've got a better chance of survival if we work together." It feels like this could've been a moment for our divided country to rally together, and it very much hasn't been.

Through my apparel partner Savage, I've arranged a way to donate high-quality fabric masks to Pathway Homes, a Fairfax non-profit which supports the homeless and mentally ill, who asked for fabric-mask donations. The discount code readunc works for donations as well. Anyone who can: please support local businesses, please tip the service industry generously.

Gypsy Omnibus review

by RM Rhodes

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Heavy Metal ran six stories by Thierry Smolderen and Enrico Marini. The first of these, titled The Gypsy Star, was an immediate hit and was followed by the rest of the series over almost the course of a decade.

The art was the obvious draw of the story. Realistic, with an obvious manga influence, Marini could provide a cartoon flip to his line when it was necessary. The color scheme usually balanced a very orange red and a cool blue. The sequential storytelling was often clever and made for a compulsively readable feature.

The main character is called The Gypsy in the first series and Tsaigoi thereafter. He drives his eighteen wheel truck across a futuristic highway that spans the world. Sometimes he’s with his sister, sometimes he’s with other family members, and sometimes he’s alone. It’s a Mad Max setup with an unfortunate ethnic label and none of the pesky fuel shortage limitations.

Tsaigoi is an enthusiastic participant in capitalism. All of the stories are about him driving his truck through a problem area and getting caught up in local events, to his dismay. In every case, the stakes of the story are commercial in nature. And when it is called for, Tsaigoi will strap on his guns and take the fight to the people standing in the way of him getting his product to his customers.

Easily the best of these stories is a yarn about a caper in Germany during the final World Cup game between Germany and France. Germany loses badly due to a penalty shot 45 seconds into the game. Much comedy is made from this state of affairs and, in the end, Tsaigoi’s commercial instincts prove to be very very solid.

Tsaigoi is also a lover. I’m happy to report that every one of his sexual encounters (roughly one per story) is consensual. There is one problematic scene with a parapalegic woman, and one of the main characters is introduced by showing him running away from a giant man who wants to rape him. The way the character is drawn, he could be anywhere from a boy to his early teens. For the most part, though, it’s wholesome entertainment.

It is not difficult to find out what issues of Heavy Metal these originally appeared in, nor is it difficult to purchase them. The new Omnibus Edition of the six stories is, however, a much nicer product than the random handful of issues. It’s a hardback edition with a very nice slipcase. The extras are nice as well – a map of the world, showing the route of the highway, along with several pages of production art and sketches. It's the first thing I've seen from Insight Comics and its a handsome debut. The European edition must have recently been published.



The only real flaw in the production of the Omnibus is the title of the introduction. Dan Panosian remembers Gypsy from the pages of Heavy Metal and references a catchphrase saying that the main character utters when he is surprised or frustrated – “Dracu!” Except in the new translation for this edition, Dracu has been printed as Dracs.

Printed together like this, it is easy to see how well Marini’s art matured over the course of the series. The early stories have a sketchier aspect to the line weights, but the later stories are much more confident. The color got better as well – it’s almost as if the technology improved during the same period as the original publication.

Gypsy is a pretty solid action adventure comic. The creators did their best in the later stories to lean into the skid on the problematic name, but they were stuck with it. If you can get past that, you should be able to relax into the ultraviolence and over the top slapstick of it all. And if you can do that, there is a good chance you'll be very entertained indeed.

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Why is this here? It's a long story. Mike Rhode first introduced himself to me when I first started vending at SPX. Over the years, we've talk to each other at Comic conventions around the DC area and never quite get around to sitting down for lunch. 

When I moved to Arlington two years ago, I didn't realize that Mike lived within a mile of my building. Nor did I realize that he lived next door to my girlfriend's friend from college. We also discovered, by accident that we work two buildings away from each other, because we work in adjacent organizations. The world is a very small place, sometimes. 

It really feels that way when I run into Mike at the local farmer's market. Naturally, that's when I pitch him article ideas. I'm reading the entire run of Heavy Metal in public (in blog format) because I happen to own the entire run of Heavy Metal. This means that I'm engaged in an ongoing study of the magazine. In addition, I have a diverse and idiosyncratic reading list that tends towards the weird corners of comics history. Sometimes one circumstance or another results in long articles that I don't really have anyplace to put. Mike has been gracious enough to let me publish them here.

In summary: this is an article about comics from someone in the DC area. 

Meet a Baltimore Cartoonist: A Chat with Spaghetti Kiss's Michael Bracco

Michael Bracco is a Baltimore-area cartoonist who often attends Washington's comics shows. He's frequently identified by his studio's nom-de-plume, Spaghetti Kiss. His comic Creators is debuting as a webcomic next month, but you can buy it in print now.

 

Mike Rhode: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Michael Bracco: I’m a science fiction geek and most of what I write and draw falls into that genre.  I love drawing robots and monsters and the work revolves around that type of character design.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I am a very analog artist.  I do all of my comic work in sketchbooks so that I can keep the work portable. I work in pen and ink with Zebra brush pens and Microns to do the paneling, drawing and lettering.  I do scan them and use the computer for color but tend to scan tons of watercolor washes and cut them up in Photoshop to make it feel a bit more hand done.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

1979.  It actually makes me sound younger to say the year than just the decade.

You attend events in Washington, but don't live here.  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I am in Baltimore City actually and have lived there for 14 years. I moved here in '97 to go to college and never left.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I went to Maryland Institute College of Art and received a BFA in illustration in 2001 and a Masters in Art Education in 2002.  Other than that my education in comics comes from years of reading them.

Who are your influences?

I do have some comic artists who are huge influences but really I am most inspired by movies.  The greatest challenge to me is to create comics that have the same sense of pacing as my favorite movies.  Movies like The Professional, Alien, 12 Monkeys, Star Wars and so many more have been my biggest sources of inspiration.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

Part of me wishes I had got the ball rolling on my career earlier but the 6 years I spent not really getting my work out there in my twenties were the years I cut my teeth and learned the most.  I guess I wouldn’t change much of anything.  All the tough times and challenges, even the really brow beating and ego killing moments are really what ended up defining me and giving me the work ethic I needed to be successful at all.

What work are you best-known for?

Probably my Apparel line and not my comics at all.  I have a very awesome and loyal fan base for the books but the clothing line, Spaghetti Kiss gets all the attention.

What work are you most proud of?

The Novo series.  I spent almost a decade building that world and developing the story and the characters into a 6 graphic novel series.  It was the first thing I published and it will always be my baby even though it has been finished for almost 4 years. 

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I have been working on a book for the past 2 years called The Creators and have recently decided that I am going to put it out as a web comic.  Up to this point I have always exclusively done print comics and I am really excited to start this new endeavor.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I just try and keep writing until I break through it.  Bad art/writing is just a necessary step in getting to good art/writing.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I think the independent market will really open up.  The non-superhero book has risen so high in the past decade and I think creators keep bringing new ideas to the table.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?

 

TONS!  I vend at SPX, Baltimore Comic Con, MagFest, Awesome Con, Smudge, Katsucon, Anime USA, Annapolis Con, Collectors Con, Baltimore Tattoo Con to name a few. I also do a lot of craft shows like Pile of Craft, Holiday Heap, Merry Mart, Honfest, Artscape and Crafty Bastards

 

What's your favorite thing about DC?

 

The food.  There are so many great places to get a good drink and a good meal.

 

Least favorite?

On the surface, most of DC’s culture is based around politics and I am not a big fan of that.  It takes a while to go deeper and find the local culture of the city but when you do you get to see what makes DC really great.

 

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

 

I don’t know if this counts, but I love the Cherry Blossom festival. 

 

Do you have a website or blog?

 

My site is spaghettikiss.com and you can find me on twitter, instagram, facebook and tumblr under spaghettikiss too!

Meet a Local Cartoonist: Garth Graham

 Garth Graham was at last fall's Intervention con and answered my usual questions.

Mike Rhode: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Garth Graham: I'm a webcomic artist. Right now I'm working on an urban fantasy, before that a slice-of-life comedy strip, next up who knows! Something in space maybe.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I used to pencil and ink by hand, but these days I do everything digitally. I use a Wacom Cintiq, do my line art in Corel Painter and all of my color work in Photoshop.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in '83. I'll leave you to guess which century.

Why are you in Washington now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?

Actually I live in Virginia, down in Stafford. I came here when my parents moved here and haven't found a particularly compelling reason to move away yet. The greater DC area is very centrally located to a lot of the conventions I go too, and there's quite the wealth of comic artists in the area.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I don't have any formal training in cartooning. I went to Virginia Tech to get my degree in Industrial Design, which overlaps a surprising amount with what I do. But the art and the story telling and all the comic-specific skills are things I've worked at and built up on my own over time.

Who are your influences?

Probably too many to list, but chiefly among them reside Mark Silvestri, Phil Foglio, J Scott Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Douglas Adams, Robert A. Heinlein, Peter F. Hamilton and many many others.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

That's a hard question. I don't really know if I'd change anything. Hindsight says I might have been better off if I had timed some things differently (launching new titles right as the housing market crumbles for instance), but there isn't really a moment that I wish I could go back to and re-do.

What work are you best-known for?

I am probably best known for my series of twisted faerie tale art prints.

What work are you most proud of?

Whatever is most recent. Every new page, every new print. Each piece I feel is better than the last, and that's what I'm most proud of.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

In the future I'm hoping to work on some more sci-fi kinds of stuff. Science fiction is what I grew up on, and while a lot of people consider me a steampunk artist, sci-fi is still my go to source for awesome and wonder.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I go do something else. Anything else. I boot up the xbox, I go for a jog, or go to the gym to do some rockclimbing. Something that works a different part of my brain, or no part at all. I let my subconscious churn it over for a bit and it always comes back to me with a solution.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I think, given time, all comics will be webcomics. They'll be in print too, absolutely, but the first point of distribution will be digital, will be on the web. I think this will allow for a real surge of independent (i.e. not Marvel or DC) comics into the public eye. The Marvel and DC universes won't be the entirety of what make up American comics in the minds of the general populace. It's going to be a wild trip.

What local cons do you attend ? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?

Local to DC, I attend Intervention and Katsucon regularly. AnimeUSA is another local con I've been to in the past. I'm hoping to get into SPX next year.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

Let's be honest, there's a LOT of cool stuff going on in DC. Not just history and politics and the center of power of what is arguably still the most powerful nation on the planet, but there's enough social life going on that no matter what your interest or inclination you can find it happening somewhere and join in the party.

Least favorite?

The traffic.

What monument or museum do like to take visitors to?

I've a long standing love of the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, both the one in DC and the big one out by Dulles.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

While not technically in DC proper, I'm a big fan of Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring. Great atmosphere, great food, wenches, sea shanties, fire shows, and belly dancing. What more could you want?

Do you have a website or blog?

Several, in fact! My most actively updated website is, of course, my current comic Finder's Keepers which can be found at http://www.finderskeepers.gcgstudios.com/ . My former site is http://www.gcgstudios.com/