Guy stuff.

Comics Took A Back Seat This Week

It was a rough weekend here at stately Gonzalez Manor, between a nasty virus laying the kids low and our respective exhaustion meters hitting their red lines, coupled with my 9-to-5 making it impossible to stay on top of my four-color fixation most of the week. Days like this are what escapist entertainment were made for. If only I could stay awake long enough to escape! As a result, not much posting here, including my missing my first Vs. Card of the Week entry. :-(Anyway, in case you haven't gotten into the habit of checking Buzzscope every day yet (why…

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COMMENT: Buzzscope Update

I just sent out an email to all of our columnists updating them on what's what over at Buzzscope and, in doing so, was rather impressed with the roster we've put together over the past couple of months. Check it out:WeeklyRonée Garcia Bourgeois' "What A Girl Wants" (every Monday)Jim Salicrup's "Addicted to Comics" (every Wednesday)Semi-MonthlyFangirl Rampage, by Lauren Perry (1st & 3rd Thursdays)The Hive, by Jason Rodriguez (2nd & 4th Thursdays)Comics You Should Own, by Greg Burgas (2nd & 4th Fridays)MonthlyGuy LeCharles Gonzalez' "Establishing Shots" (1st Thursdays)Tania Del Rio's "Read This Way" (1st Fridays)Eric Shanower's "Man of the Hour" (2nd…

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COMMENT: Comics & "the Mainstream"

The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon, in his first CR Sunday Magazine of the new year, said:"Screw being mainstream anyway. Comics has a lot of its cultural power not just as a secondary art form, but as a semi-disgraced secondary art form. I think because of their personal neuroses, which in many cases expresses itself in a desire to be popular, some comics fans put too much stock in a wide audience. The goofballs who write 'According to Jim' have a bigger audience than the playwright Tony Kushner. But who has the more admirable, effective and ultimately desirable creative platform? I'd…

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Farewell 2005

Don't let the door hit you... No, not really!It's been a year of extreme ups and downs (and the downs were particularly rough), but the end result has been relatively positive. For the most part. I'm too lazy to shoot from the hip like Salomé did, and I already covered the comics side of things over at CBC, so here's a meme to wrap things up here:1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?Dealt with an autistic child and the death of a close friend.2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make…

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COMMENT: On 2006, and Some Greatest Hits

Personally, 2005 has been a pretty damn good year, from a comics perspective. CBC’s barely a year old, quickly evolving from being a total lark to something central to reformatting my writing chops post-poetry slam era. (Not surprisingly, the activist angle of my work has transitioned intact.) Plus, I went from contributing reviews and the occasional feature at Buzzscope, to taking over as their Senior Comics Editor and spearheading the upcoming relaunch. As a result, my pull list has expanded from primarily Marvel and DC offerings and the random indie-published license, to a pretty diverse range of material that’s introduced me not just to some great work, but as importantly, to a great community of ambitious creators.

The Buzzscope Drink-up on Wednesday was a lot of fun, finally putting some faces to names, but there were two moments in particular that summed up the year for me. The first came near the end of the night, standing outside talking to Jason Rodriguez, Rich Watson and Jim Salicrup. Each is, or is about to become, a Buzzsco–ah, I mean, PopCultureShock columnist, and the energy between us as we talked about the site and the industry and where we saw things potentially going in 2006 was absolutely electric. The second came a little while later, while talking with Jenny Gonzalez (another new columnist) about how she got into comics, and a specific story about her work with an Aspie, translating his Yu-Gi-Oh!-influenced stories into comic book form. It reinforced my sense that there’s way more to the big picture than the Diamond Top 300 and ill-conceived cutoff benchmarks.

I left Botanica at the end of the night with a similar buzz to what I’d felt nearly 8 years ago to the day, in that very same bar, when a bunch of poets from diverse backgrounds and styles bonded over drinks and debate and formed the foundation of what would later become a little bit louder, the poetry series I founded and ran from 1998-2001, before turning it over to the collective of artists who’d made it their home and have kept it running strong, on the verge of celebrating its 8th anniversary next Spring.

I have a pretty clear vision for where I want PopCultureShock: Comics to go and, similar to how I built a little bit louder (aka louderARTS) over the first two years, it hinges on bringing together a diverse mix of talent and giving them a personal stake in its success, instilling a sense of ownership over both their own contributions as well as the larger umbrella they share, while keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel myself and not losing sight of where I’m trying to go. The proverbial winds of change are blowing through the industry right now, and I think there’s two potential directions things can go: a variation on the boom-and-bust 90s, led by Marvel & DC’s increasing reliance on big events and sales-boosting gimmicks; or, a relative leveling of the playing field, as indies shift their focus from the direct market, developing new audiences and distribution models. The latter direction is as likely to be driven by Marvel & DC’s recruiting of mainstream writers like King, Huston, Dickey and Meltzer as it is by the defection of Craig Thompson and FLIGHT to higher-profile mainstream publishers. The opportunities are there; the question is, which ones will people take advantage of?

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