Shit, this was supposed to have gone in regular Spit Spat. If a mod happens by, I would appreciate if it could be moved.

edit: on second thought, never mind

This is one of my favourite comics now, by Em Partridge.

I don't know if I "get" Dragon Ball/ Dragon Ball Z/ etc.

Is it something that you had to watch/read when you were younger? I started reading the manga last year and really enjoyed it for a while, but then it began to get bogged down with interminable fights (the Tenchi Budokai stuff, over and over again) until that seemed to be all it was. I understand that shonen manga isn't, not should be, aimed at a 31 year old man, but with the new Dragon Ball thing cropping up I'm seeing a lot of people get excited about it. Is it nostalgia that's fuelling this? Or am I just too old to be interested in reading these fights over and over again?

the rarity of shininess in the dusty wastes is what makes it so sacred to them; only to then just have it all as background dressing to a killer fucking action movie. That's the way you're supposed to worldbuild.

I had actually assumed that their whole thing was that they were a motor cult- the cars that survived the apocalypse were heavy, chrome-bearing V8 monsters that provided the military power to subjugate the wastelands, and they represented all that was desirable- to be fast, to be powerful and most importantly, to be chrome. The steering wheels as badges of authority, etc.

Just found this Area 51 7" on youtube, it rules.

Sheldon and I have a new story coming out next week in Spider-Verse #2, so...go...buy it?

If you know me, you know that I fucking hate "I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE." Its breathless nerd pandering bullshit drives me fucking bananas, much like XKCD or the Oatmeal whatever other "TESSSLLLALAAAAA" type horsedickery is floating around the internet. "SCIENCE!?!?" being some smug fedora rallying cry irritates me to no end.

That said, I love Nowhere Men, a comic that says

Nowhere Men is a book that seems to be an incredibly decompressed superhero origin comic, but one that is so rich with detail and history that you don't actually care that you're not sure where the actual story is going. The world of Nowhere Men begins when you ask a single question- what would the world be like if scientists were like rock stars?

The story tracks the dealings of World Corp, a company created by four very different visionaries, and how it has impacted the both the world and the four men who created it. As well, it follows the crew of the World Corp Remote Site "Nowhere" and the strange effects that some unknown agent is having on them and their desperate attempts to save their own lives. AS WELL, the comic is intercut with media artifacts from the beginning of World Corp to the present, magazine articles, newspaper stories, pictorals, ads and even year-end top-ten lists.




Nate Bellegrande knocks the art out of the park, portraying intricate technology and science fiction weirdness as well as his normal human characters. He makes his characters look real, like living people who change their clothes from day to day and appear as individuals, not just "haircut #4 on generic white woman body," as is often the case these days. He captures both the glamour and the weirdness of the science fiction world, making every single panel of the six issues a joy to look at.

Eric Stephenson teases out the story at a slow but steady pace, taking his time and filling enough corners of the world to make it understandable but leaving enough blank space to keep you wondering what else is going on. Carefully doled out answers to questions keep coming, but then often raise questions of their own.

Fonografiks does a great job creating the media artifacts, imitating Rolling Stone, Esquire and other magazines at various points in time. The ads for World Corp products (and those of other scientific firms) give the world a real, lived-in feel.

Jordie Bellaire nails the palette for the story, able to convey the environmental feeling of each scene. Her colours are remarkably flexible, being used to portray a wide variety of different environments and times, characters and moods.

Anyways, the first trade is out, pick it up.

It's not people wanting books/stories/comics/whatever that cater to a particular audience, but rather perspectives. When you're talking about comics, it always centres around mainstream comics because, well, they're the mainstream, and mainstream comics creators are overwhelmingly straight white males. That colours the way things are created, because it's one perspective that is represented above all others. "Comics for girls" is a kind of self-defeating idea as it tends to a) try too hard (which reeks of "cool-dad" obviousness) and b) it doesn't come from the viewpoint of the people it's trying to appeal to. A cry for more diversity in comics creators, be it on a gender, race or sexuality basis is not necessarily a demand for a particular kind of book but is instead a statement that people want books created by people who have viewpoints shaped through experiences outside those shared by the vast majority of comics creators, especially in the mainstream.

I used to have a setup just like that.

Don't worry Shelly, there's always room for one more

Oh yeah, those're legit.

Just looking out for you buddy.