Blog @ Canadian Geek

And here is what I will be ordering this month.  I’m still working on the whole copy & paste thing, so I apologize for the abundance of CAPS LOCKed titles.

100 BULLETS VOL 11 ONCE UPON A CRIME TP
BIRDS OF PREY BLOOD AND CIRCUITS TP

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #5

Unless the next issue I recieve is better then the first three, this will be the last issue I order.  It’s all over the place.  And as much as I do love text-heavy issues (try the average issue of FELL), the text in this one almost seems pointless half the time.  Chatter for the point of chatter.

COUNTDOWN #40
COUNTDOWN #41
COUNTDOWN #42
COUNTDOWN #43

Still waiting for the other 8 to ship.  Hoping it’s good.

DMZ #21
EXILES VOL 15 TP
FALLEN ANGEL IDW #18
FELL #9
GRENDEL BEHOLD THE DEVIL #0

HALO UPRISING #1 (Of 4)

I’m a Halo Whore.  But oddly enough, I’m not that big a fan of the GAME, but rather, everything else.  The action figures, the characters, the movie (trailers), and even the books.  Hoping the comic is good.  Hard to go wrong with Bendis and Maleev.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #11
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #7
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL 1 THE NEXT AGE HC

I fantastically despise the small HCs as a format.  But, as this is the only way to get the HC of anything DC, I go for it on the titles that really count.  Perhaps in the vague hope that they’ll grow a brain and release something bigger.  (Ok, yeah, there’s the Absolute Editions too.)

LONERS #4 (Of 6)
MANHUNTER VOL 3 ORIGINS TP
NEW AVENGERS #32
NOVA #4
PREVIEWS VOL XVII #7
RED STAR SWORD OF LIES #2
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #32

ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 7 HC
UNCANNY X-MEN RISE & FALL OF THE SHIAR HC

See DC?  These are how you do Hardcovers.  Woot!

ZERO KILLER #1

Arvid is a really nice guy.  I try to support him.  Rex Mundi has been good, if a touch too historical and wordy at times.  We’ll see.

Hello everyone.

So, what in the world is this? I know you’re asking. Mostly because I just typed ’so, what in the world is this’, and you’d be reading it and would automatically think it in your head. Or you talk to yourself and that’s just kinda weird. This is 1/2 of The Emperor’s Picks: The comics I received this month. Well, the comics, the statues, the trade paperbacks, etc.

I figure, over time, I can comment on the direction of some titles, whether or not I plan on dropping some of them. I certainly won’t review ALL of them, but I might drop a comment here and there. Over time, you’ll get a feel for what I’m enjoying reading and why, and perhaps, if you agree or disagree, it’ll make you want to look at what you’re reading, and why. Perhaps you’ll decide to pick something up I’m reading. Or perhaps you’ll realize you hate the book I hate just as much but didn’t know why. Beats me.

So without further ado, this is what I received this month. (Oh. For now, I’m going to be sorting by Alphabetical order, not by company. Singles, and trades/gns are seperated.  If you don’t know the company, ask, and I’ll let you know. Because that’d just be too much to type. :P)

52 #48 - #51

Gotta admit, I really enjoyed this series, but I am totally miffed that I didn’t get issue #52 snuck into the shipment. Guess I’ll have to wait after all. Renee Montoya as the new Question is fantastic. Overall very impressed with the series, and looking forward to Countdown.

Avengers, New #29

Brave and the Bold #3

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #2

I am entirely miffed that I somehow missed Issue #1, because this was fantastic.

DMZ #18

Ex Machina #27

Fallen Angel #14 & #15

FELL #8

Have to say, if there’s just ONE series you aren’t reading, then you should be reading Runaways.  But if there’s TWO.. then the second should definitely be FELL.  Especially for that price!

Justice League of America #7 & #8

Ed Benes is unto God.  Honestly leap years ahead of anything Michael Turner even dreamed of drawing, and he manages to maintain some sense of .. common sense with his women.  Unsure if I like the whole LSH/JSA/JLA crossover, so far it’s just been confusing as hell, but since I’m collecting all three titles, I’m clearly going to ride it out one way or another.

Justice Society of America #5

Alex Ross’ covers are boring.

Loners #1

Mostly in it for Karl Moline, who has been one of my favorite artists since FRAY.  Reading issue #1, I realize I’m _solely_ in it for Karl.

newuniversal #5

Nova #1

Runaways (vol. 2) #25

In Whedon We Trust.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #28 & #29

World War III #1 - #4

Worthless.  Absolutely worthless.  Easily the worst 4 issues I read from the shipment.  Could’ve been one issue instead of four, and that would’ve been too much.  Near unending pandering from Martian Manhunter, ending with that HORRIBLE costume transformation.  Blah.

White Tiger #5

TRADES

Cable & Deadpool Vol. 6

Civil War

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3: Adult Education

“Wow, thanks nice,” someone will say about a drawing of mine and the first words out of my mouth are…

“No, that sucks.”

This is the worst possible thing (aside from “Want to see my human ear collection? They’re fresh!”) that you can say. “But what if it does suck?” I hear somebody out there ask. Well, sucky is in the eye of the beholder.

There are a few things that you’re doing as you say “No, it sucks.”

You insult the person, making the statement! They made a judgment call, based on their own thoughts and feelings. You just told them that what they think and feel don’t mean squat.

You devalue your work in their eyes and as an artist, even if you never plan to sell a thing, you don’t want to make your work worth less. If you’re showing your work to others at all, chances are you wish for them to enjoy it. You want to make people glad they took the time to look. When you tell them it isn’t any good, they start to believe you.

You probably are not as bad as you think. I rarely look at anything I draw and think it’s all that great. If I do the feeling goes away soon enough. Kidding aside, I am my own worst critic. Many artist are. You may just not be the best person to be making any judgment about your work at all.

On this same note, you probably have a whole mess of negative internal dialog in your head already. Telling others that your work sucks only helps to reinforce the negative statements rolling around in your mind already. Why add to the pile your trying to work though?

The simple fact remains that so many people ARE NOT ARTISTS AND NEVER WILL BE. This is, of course, true of every profession and skill type. I will never be a figure skater. So when I see anyone do a turn on the ice I say, “Wow, you’re good,” because I will never even get THAT far.

If someone compliments your art, chances are it’s something they can’t do themselves. (Not always the case, of course)

Smile, and say “Thank you, I’m working hard at it.”

Bri

Hello readers!,

Bear with us, we’re going through some changes.  But, as always with Canadian Geek, we not only WANT, but NEED your feedback, suggestions and thoughts.  Throw ‘em at us.  Don’t hold back.

First of all, as you can clearly see, we changed the template for the blog.  The old one was admittedly quite ugly, and I’m rather fond of the layout of this one in general.   There may be some color tweaks coming in the future — again, this is something you could comment/suggest on — but for the time being, this is the way it is.

We’ll be adding a few more columns so the page stays busier.  I personally will be doing a weekly “What’s New In Trailers”.  I like trailers.  Half the time I go to new movies, it’s because I know there is a specific trailer being attached to certain reels of a movie being shown — I actually go out of my way to talk to the manager of the theater and  find out which room will be showing the reel.  It’ll be your ONE-STOP shop for all trailers that aren’t crappy.

Also, seeing as I order a bucketload of comics every month, I’ll be doing another TWO columns based on that.  I’ll be telling you what I’m ordering every month, and, when they arrive I’ll be giving my thoughts on them.  Not just the comics, but the toys and the statues I order.  Just a general idea of whether or not the month was .. well, worth waiting a month to get.  Maybe throw in some specific reviews if something just HAS to be owned.

So that will be something resembling 2-1/2ish new columns.  It’s not enough.  We want more.  We want YOU!

We know you’re out there.  We don’t just want your feedback, we want your participation.  Every geek has something.  Something they are fanatical about.  Something they love.  Perhaps it’s comic books, or music, or books, video games, action figures … anything!  So you have your thing, now here’s your chance to talk about it.  You, yes you, can have a column on our blog!

Contact me at emperorcharon@gmail.com and let me know if you have something to say.

I’d like to talk more — once I get going, it’s often difficult to get me to stop — but, I figure I’ll let the changes to the site do the talking.   Well, more of the talking.

Well, ok, some of.

Yes, we’ve been down this road and while I don’t have a huge issue with variants I will ask comic companies that the very least - THE VERY LEAST - they could do is make the variant cover either;
A) Good
B) Interesting
C) Relevant

Case in point, and to show I’m not picking on a specific company or character, Justice League of America #3.
Regular cvr
Variant cvr
While techincally the art is okay, the pose and imagery is anything but spectacular. It’s hardly intersting and it’s not relevant to the story. And trust me, I like Superman so this hurts a little.

So, what makes a good variant? Again to show my unbias, lets use Wolverine Origins #2.
Regular cvr
Variant cvr
Okay, the quality of art is there and it certainly is interesting, regardless if you’re American or Canadian (but it’s freakin’ awesome if you’re Canadian), but is it relevant? Beats me, never read the issue but I know I won’t sell the copy I have cause it’s very, very cool! In a manner of speaking, it exceeds relevance because it’s so interesting that non-readers will be drawn in if they see the two covers side-by-side.

Coming at it from another angle, the JLofA cvr was easily available as it was 1 for every 10 issues. The near commonality coupled with the lack of, shall we say ‘pizazza’, makes the book mediocre at best. The Wolverine? 1 for every 100, making an already cool book highly collectible to boot.

Now, I’ll never scream from the rooftops that comics are ‘collectible’ but they are as much as they are readable and enjoyable. So for all you comic companies out there, if you want to create a buzz about your book and give the little fanboys and fangirls an extra treat, THINK about the variant you are about to slap on your cover and make sure it’s worth the while.

The Shpeherd

On Friday night, it began snowing. Since we had plans to set up a wrestling ring in the parking lot for some live wrestling (featuring the performers of the Prairie Wrestling Alliance), we had to decide if we should move forward or not, as loading and setting up the ring was a lot of work.

We decided to axe the wrestling and I was very sad. I was looking forward to this. I was banking on this. I bought newspaper ads (which we had not done before) and radio ads (which we had not done either). We hyped and promoted the day, with all it’s activities but in the end, no live wrestling.

Sure, we would still have our thousands of comics, 8 artists doing sketches for the Edmonton Food Bank (over 100 pounds of food collected, along with some cash), Heroclix gaming demos, World of Warcraft gaming demos, big sale, BBQ and most of the wrestlers still came out to promote their upcoming show but the snow and the wind on Friday night was making me think this was going to be the worst FCBD in our history.

At 9 am, Saturday morning, the clouds broke and the wind died. The pavement dried up and the air warmed. We opened at 10 am and by closing at 6 pm we had had the BEST FREAKING FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EVER!! Over 1200 people came through our store (almost double last year)! Comics were wiped out by 1:30 even though we bumped our numbers huge from last year! Our sales doubled from last year! And best of all - hundreds of new faces!

Families, couples, little kids, big kids, old school geeks and the new breed all came through our door, hearing about the event via the radio, newspaper and word of mouth. It was the most jam-packed our store has ever been and it was the most smiles I had ever seen!

Thank you, Joe Field, for giving us the opportunity to celebrate this medium and bring comics to the masses. Thanks to those companies who supplied books for the day with extra big thanks to those kind enough to leave space on their comics so us little store owners could share some of the credit by being able to stamp your books (shame on you Keenspot, Arcana, Fantagraphics, Rude Dude, Twomorrows, Wildcard, Aspen, Comic Genesis, First Second, Daystar, Blatant and Sky Dog).

Pictures form our event can be found at
http://www.happyharborcomics.com/Photo_Album/FCBD07/page_gallery.html
and here’s looking forward to 2008 and to renting a tent, just in case!

The Shepherd