Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Well, okay, all of us, actually, and I couldn’t agree more.

The “Great Man” theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that “the history of the world is but the biography of great men.” He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.

…look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

While Time obviously wasn’t thinking about the comics blogiverse, the truth of the matter is that even in our little world the balance of power has shifted a bit, as the myriad blogs and alternative sources of news and information springing forth over the past few years has helped to expand the scope of comics discussion. The exponential growth in new and varied voices has carved out brand new niches where creators, publishers and even genres that didn’t have a shot at getting any attention from the likes of Wizard, Newsarama or the average comics retailer can now have some realistic hope of attracting an audience for themselves.

For me, these 5 web sites and blogs particularly stood out in 2006 for adding something important and useful to the bigger picture:

Blog@Newsarama: Newsarama has come a long way from when I first hit the comics internerd back in 2003 to find, effectively, an online version of Wizard magazine, with an almost identical myopic viewpoint of the comics industry that left me cold more often than not. 2006 saw Matt Brady and company make some laudable attempts to expand their coverage, and the addition of the blog formerly known as The Great Curve under their umbrella was as smart a move as any made by the major players on the comics scene. It’s a several-times-a-day stop in my online travels, and one which has kept the main site on my radar when it might otherwise have fallen off.

Glyphs: The Language of the Black Comics Community: Even before I took over as senior comics editor for Buzzscope back in the late summer of 2005, Rich Watson was #1 on my list of bloggers to bring into the fold. His Glyphs blog had quickly become essential reading and I wanted a larger audience to see it, so I asked him to do a monthly column for us and he agreed. Fast forward to today and his blog has moved over to the recently relaunched and redesigned PopCultureShock and, in my opinion, represents a cornerstone for the site as it repositions itself as the online destination for pop culture fans who have a mature, adult life beyond their geek passions.

Occasional Superheroine: I first came across Valerie D’Orazio’s now infamous blog earlier this year and found her to be an engaging comics blogger who happened to be female. At the time, I was looking for potential contributors for PopCultureShock and put her on my watch list for future reference. The summer came and went and PopCultureShock, blogs, and comics in general fell victim to my lack of free time, so when I started to get back into the loop a month or so ago, I was startled to discover her entire blog had been deleted and replaced by her harrowing “Goodbye To Comics” series of posts that served as “a ‘theoretical’ memoir of what *might* have happened in the life of a woman in the field and fandom of comics. You know, just like how OJ’s ‘How I Might Have Done It’ is theoretical.” Having personally witnessed what one young woman who dared to come forth with her story about harrassment in the industry was put through — the ringer doesn’t even come close — I was inspired by Valerie’s determination to tell her very thinly veiled account of her own experiences in the industry and heartened by the relatively positive response she received from across the comics blogiverse.

First Second Books: Doodles and Dailies: Some publishers get it, and some really get it, and in only their first year of publishing, First Second really seems to get it. From an excellent and eclectic lineup of graphic novels that have garnered both critical acclaim and mainstream attention, to a regularly updated online presence that perfectly communicates Mark Siegel and company’s mission to publish graphic novels that “build bridges“. (A new feature called “Who Reads First Second Books?” could (and should) double as a marketing campaign.) If you haven’t picked up a First Second title yet, I dare you to poke around their web site for 10 minutes and not find something that tickles your fancy. If more publishers in the industry mimicked First Second’s approach to comics, we’d all be a lot better off because of it.

ComicSpace: More potential than anything else right now, the fact that in slightly less than two weeks this laser-targeted version of MySpace has managed to bring together more than 6,300 comics creators, pundits and fans under one roof is impressive, especially considering the site has very little functionality at this point. Owner/creator Josh Roberts’ remarkable side project is poised to be the industry’s killer app if he can quickly integrate some of his proposed options (like hosting comics and offering RSS feeds) and creators and publishers can figure out how to properly leverage their usage. It will be interesting to watch how things play out over the next few months.

Cowboys & Aliens
By Fred Van Lente, Andrew Foley, Dennis Calero, Luciano Lima, Magic Eye Studios, et al (Platinum Studios, 2006; $4.99)

What if an alien invasion of North America in 1873 interrupted the European settlers’ westward expansion of the United States, forcing them to band together with the native Americans they had ruthlessly displaced for nearly two centuries, and fight for their mutual survival? It’s the kind of high concept Hollywood loves, so the only surprise in the comic book version of the story being published by Platinum Studios is that, well, they’re actually publishing the comic book version at all! (Check out Kurt Addams’ post about Platinum Studios from earlier this year for more on that.)

Seriously, though, Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley (writers of the excellent Action Philosophers! and Parting Ways, respectively) do a great job of working every potential angle the concept offers into an entertaining variation on Independence Day: How the West Was Won. Whether it’s the obvious parallels of the alien invaders and European colonists; the innovative resourcefulness of the Americans, native and self-proclaimed; or the high-energy action scenes that will look great onscreen — Cowboys & Aliens delivers the fast-paced, action-adventure goods with a likeable cast of characters and a rousing finale that nicely sets up a sequel or ongoing series. Luciano Lima and Magic Eye Studios (with the underrated Dennis Calero ably handling a short prologue) do a solid job of visualizing the story, at times nailing the movie-on-paper feel the script demands, while offering distinctive character designs for the stock humans and aliens alike. At 100+ pages, it’s an excellent value for only $4.99, or you can get a free copy from Midtown Comics with any purchase.

100 Girls: The First Girl, Volume 2
By Adam Gallardo & Todd Demong (Arcana Studio, 2006; $9.95)

In a perfect world, 100 Girls — one of my personal Top 10 for 2005 and Buzzscope’s Best Independent Series of 2005 — would be on its 20th issue or so, out-selling the overrated likes of Girls and Invicible, and making its creators, Adam Gallardo and Todd Demong rich from licensing and merchandising deals. (A 100 Girls video game would be huge!) Instead, this second volume, collecting the final three issues of the story’s first arc plus some great extras, hit stores with little fanfare a while back, and even I was caught off-guard by its publication.

Nevertheless, everything I’ve said about this series in the past stands, specifically…

Sylvia Mark is a teenage prodigy who’s just a little bit different from her peers; among other things, she has 99 sisters, all of whom can kick your ass!

Writer Adam Gallardo has established an intriguing setup that creatively combines familiar sci-fi and government conspiracy tropes with Marvel’s patented mutant template, stitching it all together with actual character development and believable dialogue. The overall tone is not one of a black-and-white, good vs. evil world, but a multi-faceted place where many of the “bad guys” are just regular people doing their jobs without any bad intentions. Artist Todd Demong’s graffiti-like artwork gives 100 Girls a unique visual appeal, slightly cartoony but firmly grounded in reality. His teenagers look like teenagers; his “bad guys” look like regular people doing their jobs; and his layouts are energetic and fluid, no doubt influenced by the fact that he does storyboards for a living. There are many gems buried in the back of Previews, and 100 Girls stands head and shoulders above the majority of them.

One of the biggest difficulties most indies face in the marketplace is an inability to maintain a steady presence on the shelves and in the minds of retailers and readers alike. Gallardo offers some interesting background on 100 Girls in the extras, including how Dark Horse (where the beginning of the story was first published, online), Image, AiT/PlanetLar and Oni Press all passed on publishing it. Of them, I think Dark Horse made the biggest mistake because the resources they have available to promote a title like this would have helped it reach the much larger audience it deserved, and I suspect a decent page rate and regular paychecks would have enabled Gallardo and Demong to make the series a priority instead of only a labor of love, and I’d have more than 7 issues and two TPBs to recommend to people.

Hopefully their snatching of Rex Mundi and Fear Agent from Image will open the door to reconsidering 100 Girls, and Gallardo and Demong can work out a deal that gets Sylvia Mark back on the shelves ASAP. My fingers are crossed…

[Check out my interview with Gallardo at PopCultureShock for more on 100 Girls.]

Raised by Squirrels
By Bram Meehan and Monica Banko Meehan, 2006; $4.95)

Mark Fossen’s review of Raised by Squirrels piqued my interest, so I ordered a copy to see for myself and was pleased, both by its potential and by Fossen’s ability to nail its good and bad underdeveloped qualities while still making it sound appealing. Sort of a Mission: Impossible with “superpowered covert field agents”, the Meehans have come up with an intriguing premise for which their reach perhaps exceeds their grasp…for now. The plot and script are solid, suggesting there’s a lot more going on under the surface without distracting from the main focus of the slim 50-page story, and the artwork does a competent job of telling that story. There’s a low-budget, indie film lack of polish to the overall package that I find appealing — similar to the way Memento hinted at even better things to come from the Nolan brothers — and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Ed Brubaker’s work in Point Blank or Sleeper.

I’ll be keeping an eye on their web site — where individual “issues” are posted, including the seven represented in this volume — to see how their story develops and, hopefully, to bear witness to the blossoming of its underlying potential. There’s three new issues available that offer glimpses at a couple of the main characters’ backgrounds and motivations and feature guest artists with similar qualities to whichever Meehan (Monica, I believe) did the artwork in the first seven issues.