THAT COMIC SMELL #100: Issue 100s

The latest episode is out now. A discussion on issue 100s!

Have a listen here.

From the website:

"[Episode 100 of That Comic Smell is dedicated to Ian Kennedy and Steven Walsh. Thank you, for everything]

First of all we want to give a MASSIVE thank you to Richter FM (AKA, Paddy Johnston of Good Comics) for composing this amazing track/new theme music. Please follow the links above and give the Hibiscus EP and the rest of Richter FMs music a listen and follow. Also a HUGE thank you to Chartsmasher (AKA, Joan Edam) for allowing us to use their track for so long.We hope you enjoy the new intro and outro. It’s nice to change things up a little but we’re not changing too much around here. It’s comics, comics, comics, as usual. Seeing as it’s episode 100 as well then why not issue #100s to celebrate.

There is also a little focus on how some titles seem to get published/publishers, a particular comic that Mike managed to get his hands on (De Cape et de Crocs by Alain Ayroles & Jean-Luc Masbou) and a certain ‘Krazy’ collection of Sunday strips that could double as a paving slab.
This and all the usual comics chat on…
That Comic Smell!
To find out where to find, listen, contact us and buy our comics then please visit
thatcomicsmell.com
Don’t forget to Like, Share, Subscribe, Rate & Review.
Most importantly… Read/Make More Comics!
Thanks again for listening and supporting the podcast
Krazy Kat Sundays (George Herriman)
The Thing and Ben Grimm #100 (John Byrne, Ron Wilson)
2000AD and Starlord #100 (IPC)
Archie Madhouse #100 (Dexter Taylor, Stan Goldberg)
Star Wars Weekly #100 (Chris Claremont, Mike Vosburg, Steve Leialoha, John Costanza, Bob Sharen)
The Defenders #100 (J.M. DeMatteis, Don Perlin, Joe Sinnott, Sal Trapani, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Frank Giacoia)
Starblazer #100 (Various, Jesus Redondo)
Justice League of America #100 (Len Wien, Dick Dylan)
The Nutty #100 (DC Thomson)
Master of Kung Fu #100 (Doug Moench, Gene Day, Mike Zeck)
Dark Horse Presents #100 1&6 (Various Dark horse Contributors)
Iron Man #100 (Jim Starlin, George Tuska)
Showcase #100 (Joe Orlando, Joe Staton, Dick Giordano, Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, Joe Staton)
The Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk (Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan, Gary Frank, José Ladrönn)
The Comics Journal #100
X-Men #100 (Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum)
Doctor Who Magazine #100
Conan #100 (Roy Thomas, Jon Buscema, Ernie Chan)
Eagle is 100 (Alan Grant, Ian Kennedy, John Wagner, John Burns, Alan Hebden, Jose Ortiz, Vanyo, Rex Archer, Manuel Carmona, Scott Goodall, Heinzl, Dave Follows, John Cooper, Fred Baker)
Marvel Age Special 100th Issue (Fred Hembeck, Tom DeFalco & various Marvel alumni)
Amazing Spider-Man #100 (Stan Lee, Gill Kane)
Marvel Team Up #100: Fantastic Four & Spider-Man (Frank Miller, Chris Claremont)
Cerebus #100 (Dave Sim)
The Simpsons #100 (Bill Morrison, Jason Ho, Nathan Kane)
The Beano 100 (DC Thomson)
The Walking Dead #100 (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard)
Penned Guin Strip 100 (Alan Henderson) tinyurl.com/5n9xrkj6
Awesome Comics Podcast: tinyurl.com/2p9hm8ad
iFanboy: ifanboy.com/
Comic Books Are Burning In Hell: comicsinhell.libsyn.com/
Word Balloon with John Siuntres: wordballoon.blogspot.com/
Cartoonist Kayfabe: tinyurl.com/h7a4b84j
Noah Van Sciver Youtube Channel: tinyurl.com/yc4z9m8c
11 O'Clock Comics: 11oclockcomics.com/
Never Iron Anything: neverironanything.com/
Fatman Beyond: tinyurl.com/2p8prkfx
The Lakes Podcast: tinyurl.com/mrxd6u4y
Inkstuds: www.inkstuds.org/
The Comics Alternative: tinyurl.com/wj3t99zm
The Earth-2 Podcast: tinyurl.com/ymtj77zy"

THAT COMIC SMELL: Comics aimed at children

The new episode is online now.

From the web:

"On this brand new episode of That Comic Smell we are still coming to you remotely. This time we just get right into it. We did have a chat beforehand but that was just between us about something coming very soon… But you’ll have to wait to see what it is.
In this we tackle “Comics aimed at Children”, we didn’t go massively in depth but just touched some of our favourites, and had a brief chat about what classes as all ages and should the libraries review how the classify comics ages.

This and all the usual comics chat on…

That Comic Smell!

Follow us on Twitter & Instagram @thatcomicsmell
Get us on…
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and most places you find podcasts.

Adventure Time (Various, Pendleton Ward)
Animaniacs
Asterix (Albert Uderzo, René Goscinny, Jean-Yves Ferri, Didier Conrad)
Babysitters Club (Raina Telgemeier, Gale Galligan)
Batman: Gotham Adventures (Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, Terry Beatty)
Be Prepared (Vera Brosgol)
Beano
Beezer
Bone (Jeff Smith)
Broons and Oor Wullie
Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Count Duckula
Crunch
Dandy
Dear Justice League (Michael Northrop, Gustavo Duarte)
Dick Tracy (Chester Gould)
Dino Riders
Disneytime
Dragonball (Akira Toriyama)
Fantastic Four (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby)
Fantasy Sports No.1 (Sam Bosma)
Fast Forward (Various)
Franklin Richards: Not-So-Secret Invasion (Chris Eliopoulos, Marc Sumerak)
He-man
Hilda (Luke Pearson)
Hoot
Jungle Book (Gil Kane, Mary Jo Duffy, Craig Russel)
Little Heroes Anthology (Various)
Lookin (Various)
Looney Tunes
Lucky Luke (René Goscinny, Morris)
Mini Marvels (Chris Giarrusso)
Nutty
Panini Pocket Books (Marvel)
Peanuts (Charles Schultz)
Pokemon
Popeye (IDW Reprint)
Roland Rat Annuals
Science Comics: Dogs (Andy Hirsch)
Simpsons
Sisters (Raina Telgemeier)
Smile (Raina Telgemeier)
Space Ghost (Alex Toth)
Spike
Spirou & Fantasio (Various)
Thundercats
Tin Tin (Hergé)
Topper
Transformers
Visionaries
Wild Lives (Claire Hubbard)
World of Quest (Jason t. Kruse)
X-men Adventures"

THAT COMIC SMELL 49: British Super-Heroes

The new episode is online now!

From the website:

“AY UP GUVNA!”
We’re coming down the old apples and pears to bring you the best of old Blighty. We are of course talking ‘British Superheroes’
Come and join us first as we show off our latest grabs before we go delving into our picks of Britain’s ultimate super powered beings… or not so? We spark a little debate about what constitutes as a Super Hero and even as a comic. There’s a little reaction to the latest Marvel movie news and a whole host of Brit Supes comics chat.
This and all the usual comics chat on the only comics podcast that’s right behind you…
That Comic Smell!
Follow us on Twitter & Instagram @thatcomicsmell
Get us on…
Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c
Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs
iTunes: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj
and most places you find podcasts."

THE PERILS OF MIXING COMICS AS A HOBBY, AND COMICS AS A BUSINESS

This is the second in a series of guest posts I'm going to run over the summer. I asked folk to write on any topic at any length - as long as it's comics related. Next up is David Wright...

Until about 5 years ago, comic books were a huge part of my "escapism" along with tabletop games.  I say until about 5 years ago as that's around the time that I stopped reading comics.  At least reading them for fun.
Some background to help shape this.
I was introduced to comic books around the age of 6 or 7 through a variety of sources.

My eldest brother Leslie had started getting 2000AD from its release.  My brother Allan was reading the Beano (which I would borrow) and shortly after that started to get my own comic - The Nutty, which was the home to Bananaman.

Alongside all of this though the 3 Wright Brothers had been introduced to American Comics thanks to a collection previously owned by my Uncle John.  Now these were reprints of Marvel titles under the banners of Fantastic and Terrific and so began my connection with Superhero comics specifically.

Throughout the 80s my relationship with comic books grew through picking up "holiday packs" of DC Comics from newstands when on family holidays.  These would be where I'd learn of such superhero teams as the Legion Of Superheroes and All Star Squadron and also get to know about titles like Camelot 3000.  The DC titles stretched my imagination yet further and this overlapped into my tabletop gaming hobby when Mayfair Games released their DC Heroes RPG in 1985.  I think I got the Marvel RPG around the same time but it's less clear.

Anyway it was in the late to mid 80s that my comic book reading really started to kick off and a lot of it was Marvel based.  I think some of that was due to the Secret Wars storyline that was being printed in magazine sized format comics in the UK.  I had all of them and from there I was able to determine the books that I wanted to read.

Amazing Spider-man was one such title and in particular the emergence of Todd McFarlane's re-imagined webhead in 1988 was for me so refreshing that for the first time I was bagging and boarding my books.  Up til then comics had been consumable, now they were to be treasured and to a certain extent to be collected.  I had been buying Amazing Spider-man prior to McFarlane's first appearance on the title but it was only once 298, 299 and then 300 hit the shelves that I really got into the title.

This development of my interest in comics continued to grow through those hey days of the Pre-Image crew working on flagship Marvel titles with Jim Lee slowly becoming my favourite artist of that time and indeed he remains one of my favourite artists to this day.

My comic book interest during the 90s peaked along with my spending on comics.  Lots of Image (Spawn, WildCATS and others) and Dark Horse (specifically Star Wars) titles with the ever present Peter David on Incredible Hulk and a variety of other titles.  Nothing really stands out from that time other than the Incredible Hulk run that Peter did.  The early 90s also saw the creation of the Glasgow Comic Art Convention (GlasCAC) which enabled my younger self to meet some seriously famous comic book creators including Peter David, Charles Vess, Bryan Talbot and Alan Grant.

It was also during the 90s though and into the early 2000s that my interest started to wane.  This was at the same time as my gaming hobby hitting a complete lull and "real life" really taking a grip on me.  Whilst this only lasted a couple of years (thankfully) I'd say that my comic book interest really only started to restart again through the discovery of 3 books -

Mage: The Hero Defined.  Matt Wagner is perhaps my favourite writer/artist and his creation of Kevin Matchstick is fabulous.  I've consistently recommended this title to people over the years and I will continue to do so.

Queen & Country - Greg Rucka's spy series of comics which blew my mind.  It was the first non-superhero comic that when I read it I knew I had to have all of it.

Atomic Robo - Easily my favourite comic for light hearted ACTION SCIENCE fun.

There have been other comics such as Pride Of Bagdhad and a number of the iconic Batman books but these 3 titles (none of which are DC / Marvel in case you hadn't noticed) are without question the comics that have helped define my interest.

So why then do I find myself uninterested in reading comic books?

As with my tabletop gaming hobby, my interest in comic books suffered when my games & comic shop "Kingdom Of Adventure" closed down just over 2 years ago.  It wasn't just as a result of the closing of the shop though, it was more (I think) in part down to my associating the comic books to sales and seeing them pretty much as products and commodities that if I didn't sell I didn't make money.

I'd extend that a little by saying that the ordering process and reliability of the deliveries was painful.  Diamond Comics have a monopoly over the distribution of comic books.  This has its benefits as it's just 1 distributor to deal with whereas in the tabletop gaming space I had 5 regular distributors and another 5 or so secondary ones.

It also however means that you end up not getting stuff if your order levels are low.  Essentially a pecking order exists.  With hindsight I should have looked at other options for distribution, e.g some of the bigger retailers offer a "sub" service where you buy through them which actually makes it more likely you get what you order but also takes a slice out of your margin.

The struggle I have now is finding something that actually interests me.  I'm expecting that through my purchase of the Atomic Robo RPG that I might be drawn back to reading the Atomic Robo comics and who knows maybe some other stuff too.  I've tried to read stuff over the past 2 years but they end up being half read or in some cases sit on the shelf untouched...

I'm sorry to say that right now I'm not interested in reading comics.  It's something that gnaws away at my core in many respects but that is offset by my recent recapture of my tabletop gaming hobby (chronicled on a2ndchapter.blogspot.co.uk if you're interested).  Who knows, maybe I just need to find the right book?

DUMP #2 GUEST ARTIST INTERVIEW: DAMON HERD

Another in a series of mini-interviews with the guest artists who are featured in Dump #2. Next up is Damon Herd…

DR: Have you always been interested in comics?

DH: Yes, I've always been interested in comics. i remember buying the NUTTY when I was a kid and had a drawing published in issue 26. 

I had a few Marvel UK Hulk comics as I loved the TV show (also Wonder Woman but never got any comics). I never really read much superhero stuff after that, I do remember spending days in the local library reading Asterix and Tintin books. My Dad had fabric pens for drawing on T-shirts and I made my own Asterix T-shirt!

I recently remembered reading TOPS magazine, which was a rival to Look-in and had TV and pop music strips. I was a big fan of Adam Ant and they ran a bio strip about him as well as fantasy adventures, that was probably my first experience of autobio type comics.
As a teenager I read 2000AD and then Deadline and started getting into American indie comics when I discovered Peter Bagge's Neat Stuff and Daniel Clowes Lloyd Llewellyn. Then Love & Rockets and Dennis Eichorn's Real Stuff. Autobio became my big thing especially Eddie Camppbell's Alec, David B's Epileptic, and Julie Doucet's Dirty Plotte. Most recently I've been impressed by the work of Geneviève Castrée and Ulli Lust.

I did a short strip for Graphixia last year about my life in comics (

http://www.graphixia.cssgn.org/2013/01/22/100-standing-in-relation-to-comics-a-special-100th-post/ )

DR: What had been your experience in making comics yourself before your contribution to Dump?

DH: I drew the occasional comic as a kid. I remember making a Danger Mouse one as a kid with a pal and I used to copy the characters in Asterix. If I drew a superhero he would have the physique of a muscly legionnaire.

The Weetabix skinheads were an influence too. I didn't draw much in my teens which I regret but slowly picked it up again in my 20s with a very occasional one pager.

I didn't really get going again until my 30s when I went to art school. I studied Book Arts and they were very happy for me to make comics as my projects. I started to do my own minis, such as You're So Vain which looked at scalp replacement surgery. On my illustration MA I produced my autobio comic The Adventures of Ticking Boy.

 

Twitter and tumblr are both good ways to discover and connect with other cartoonists, and for the last 2 years I have taken part in 30 Days of Comics. Each day in November you have to create a short strip. I've produced a minicomic of my results each year.

The creating of strips has been sidelined slightly by my current PhD studies but I have produced some autobio strips as part of my research.

DR: What other artistic pursuits do you follow? I've seen you implement guitar playing into your comics talks.

DH: Ha, yeah, I did play an electric guitar soundtrack to a strip at a DeeCAP performance evening. DeeCAP stands for Dundee Comics/Art/Performance and we host comics readings which can be as straightforward or highly performed as the artists like. You've done a few great turns there yourself! Interestingly I started off by just reading prepublished strips but for the performance you mentioned I created the strip knowing I wanted some sort of musical accompaniment. The strip doesn't really work without the music. We are planning the next DeeCAP in April as part of Dundee Comics Expo. I am not an accomplished musician by any means but I like to have a go and I know a few chords.

I am also a practising fine artist and have been part of several exhibitions across Scotland. I work across several media including murals, video, installations and print making, I'm especially partial to screenprinting. Much of my work is influenced by comics though, either by including comics language such as panels and balloons, or by actually being comics such as my piece on Sandford Fleming, the inventor of standard time, which was a 4 panel comic strip in which each panel was 1m x 1m.

DR: How did you find the process of drawing "Why I Vote"?

DH: I enjoyed it. It was a pleasant change to work from someone else's script - difficult to do if most of your work is autobio! And it was an an insight into another person's way of working. If it's not cheating to do this, you can see my more detailed thoughts on collaborating with you in my post at Graphixia

http://www.graphixia.cssgn.org/2014/01/28/152-a-collaborative-dump/

One thing I didn't mention there though was the trying out of a new working method for me. Usually I pencil the page on Bristol board then ink it and then, once dry, I rub out the pencils. I recently got a lightbox and so this time I did the pencils on paper and used the lightbox to then trace the inks on board. No pencils to rub out on the finished art!

Can we expect to see more comics from you in the future?

Good question! I've put together my strips from 30 Days of Comics in November and should be printing that shortly. It will also be featured in Graphixia's 30 Days... epublication which should hopefully be available soon.

I've done a few strips for my studies which I will collect at some point but not until I have finished my PhD! It would be good to have another issue of Ticking Boy out by the end of the year but I might get lost in finishing my PhD, we'll see.


Have a look at www.damonherd.com for more information.