Beware The Gutter In ALLIGATOR ALLEY

If there is a theme present--and I'm not referring to the lack of posts--it's comic book images. Why? Next weekend is the The Buffalo Niagara International Antiquarian Book, Paper & Ephemera Fair at the Convention Center in downtown Buffalo, and, for the past week, I've been bagging and boarding comics to present at the show.
     Most of the titles are DC and while I'm not a fan of the story arcs, I do love the artwork.

Just check out this issue of The Unexpected. The title constricts the image just a wee bit, but, overall, it's a good composition--a classic circular "X" shape with your eye zeroing in on a snarly, half-human/half-alligator and a scantily clad maiden to lead the focus up, around, and finally back down to the swamp.

I also like that everything in the background is in a brown-wash. It helps to bring the alligator/woman out of the background.


Ah, the conference papers one could write about this; the nerdy jokes one could resort to if we ignored that it's just complete, throw-away fiction. The whole point of the cover is to interest you enough to buy it, and I feel that this image raises enough questions to warrant, at least, a look-through. Why is that beautiful woman in that swamp? Do alligator men just bench press the hotties and eat the ugs? Was she living in that van? Why does that alligator in the background not appear violent and human-like? Why is his tail so long?

Or maybe the whole thing is a metaphor for...

                                                                        ..."parking?"

You know what I'm talkin' about.

Bow Chi-ca Growl Growl.

The Evil Eye

I sometimes wish that bad guys--real life bad guys--dressed the way comic book super-villains do. Imagine sitting at your desk, staring out into the glory that is "the outside world," only to have a giant, motorcycle riding Eyeball zoom by your window. Ignore the shock to your senses and tell me that you wouldn't assume they were up to no good?

And don't even get me started on the laughter.

Think of the laughter!

                     
It's got to be so hard coming up with villains. Orby here is a Ghost Rider baddie, hence the reason he's riding a motorcycle and, while comic-dom is no stranger to walking eyes, laser eyes, floating eyes, and the like, this kind of enemy is really a hard sell.
     I love lame bad guys; however, if for no other reason than the lampooning of said bad guy. A few years and a lifetime ago, Marvel was releasing a series Spider-Man's Tangled Web that focused more on the people Spider-Man affected, rather than the hero himself. And while most of the stories ended on something of a down-note, "lamer" villain stories were often written like they couldn't have been in the first place: as a parody.

So, for all my fellow nerds out there, if you haven't checked out Spider-Man's Tangled Web I recommend doing so. "Double Shots" is a favorite (as it got me into the series), but I am a fan of the whole 22-issue run.

And remember...

A Little Bit of Non-Fiction Relating To That Which Is Considered Pulp Fiction

"Two Complete Science-Adventure Books." Why waste time being unnecessarily vague when you can tell people exactly what they're getting within the title? Do you like Science? How about Adventure? Well, you should check out this title.

Pulps are wonderful finds for a number of different reasons; pulp art is, in my humblest of opinions, one of the main reasons why these publications remain so popular. Like penny dreadfuls (great name, right? LOVE it!), dime novels, and pre-code comic books, these periodicals were not made to be kept. For ten to twenty-five cents you could purchase, read, and then dispose of said magazine before the elements did it for you. Pulps were so named because of the quality of paper they were printed on. They tanned very easily, came shoddily cut, and went brittle within a couple of years.
     Many of the stories used had been or were also printed elsewhere. The Time Machine (Hey, wasn't that a muh-muh-movie?) was published almost fifty years before this pulp hit the newsstands, so the text was already more common than, say, the artwork. Each time a publishing company circulated a story, they employed an artist to paint a new cover for it. Spice it up, you know? It's so much easier to sell the same story over and over and over if you supplement it with new imagery. Comic book fans have fallen prey to this hundreds of times. Why do you think they reprint the same comic book a dozen times--the same month it comes out--with a dozen different cover images? Because they're jerks. Greedy jerks. Because it's easier to sell multiples of the same thing when the art is different. And they've got to do something because they've ruined their own collector's market by flooding said market with overpriced garbage.

Vintage Pulps, even in Fair or Poor condition, fascinate me because they're not supposed to still exist. They were made to be thrown away, and that makes them truly collectible.

Side Note: Stay tuned for my newest comic book creation: Penny Dreadful. A comic book that will never feature multiple covers for the same issue.

Confessions of a Comic Geek: Part One

I'm a geek. And, admittedly, a pretty big one.

Did you not know this? Surely, you must have suspected. I mean, there have been hints of this since I was young. My action figure wall in college, my collection of Nine Inch Nails import albums, my hetero-crush on Neil Gaiman...all of it pretty damning evidence. But if you have any lingering doubts, let me put them to bed right now: Eric Mowery is a Geek.

And why is this even a topic? Because last night, while discussing said geekdom, I had a thought: For years I've considered myself to be a fairly well read person; yet, the thing that I'm most knowledgeable about is still seen as somewhat shameful. Despite the recent influx of people hearting comics, superhero comics are still not taken very seriously. And if this is the case, how much brevity does my comprehension of comic books carry? Should I stop telling people I'm well-read? Where do I really fit on the Smart Smarter Smartest pyramid of social standings? Can having a brain full of Marvel comic trivia make me an literary juggernaut? Or did I only use the word 'juggernaut' because he is a Marvel Character? To find out, I had to break down my history with comics into sections. 

Read on, True Believer, you're my only hope.

 Part One: 

"The first thing I ever remember reading is also the first thing I remember keeping."

Uncanny X-Men #113 came out before I was even born, but I was given a copy of it as a child. When I say 'remember keeping' what I really mean is: the first item I cherished. Above anything else, I coveted this comic and kept it rolled up and with me at all times. On my mental shelf of nostalgia, it sits beside my Nintendo, my Smurf Guitar, and my light up Glow Worm; however, no other single item had an impact of my life like this comic did. Be it a blessing or curse, my path in life shifted.

The X-Men are Marvel characters, and Marvel is who held my allegiance throughout my childhood. I, like many other boys, quickly became obsessed with Wolverine, but also fell in love with Daredevil, Alpha Flight (I know. I was the only one.), and Captain America. X-Men was my most accessible title (they sold that title at the gas station by my house) so I relied on that to get my comics fix. The man working at the local Uni-Mart always tried talking me into DC titles, but I couldn't be bothered. In addition to reading them, I also drew the images from them, and this practice dominated many of my evenings.  

Part Two:
"No, no, stop, stop! You're far too kind."

     When I was a teenager, I knew a great deal about movies. Whenever a family member had a question about an actor or series, I was quick to answer, and this knowledge always brought on a wave of undeserved praise. "You're so smart," my Mother would say. "I can always count on you to know what I'm talking about." But (sorry, Mom) this really had nothing to do with my intelligence. It just meant that I spent a lot of time watching films and reading reviews. If I've told you I've watched American Beauty and know of all the actors associated with it, you think, "A lot of people have and do." But if I'm asking you questions about the themes in American Beauty, it's parallels with other films, and what it's trying to say then maybe giving a shout out to my intelligence is warranted. If only because I'm creating a dialogue.

      Growing up it was much harder to have dialogue about comics. Until chat rooms came along, a lone friend and myself looked to our semi-local comic shop to satisfy our need to discuss all things Marvel. This shop; however, always employed the variety of comic geek that would not waste their time reading mainstream issues of anything. And since my friend and I wouldn't dare read anything that didn't have a guy in tights as it's star, we were constantly at a loss for things to discuss. All of my dialogue happened with one other person, and I never once got to impress anyone with anything I'd learned.


My artistic ability excelled during this period in my life. I failed at getting my friends into reading comics, but I was very successful at getting them to appreciate the artwork I was pulling off because of comics. Eventually, I began writing and drawing a series of dailies that I passed around during lunch. 'Soldiers of Fortune' was my first but also my least successful. It was a straight-up superhero comic with a detailed backstory (well, as detailed as 8th grade gets) and complicated characters. It wasn't until 'The Adventures of Dickey' came along that my classmates began asking for these dailies by request. Dickey was a crudely drawn superhero who used his..well, I WAS IN EIGHTH GRADE! Come on. Seriously. How riveting a story line does one expect from an thirteen year old? Anyway, everyone loved Dickey. Yet, it was impossible to have a conversation about it. I marched onward, falling back on stupid humor, and waiting for the right moment to say, "Hey, if you like my comic, why don't you check these out?" And just when that moment finally arose...
    
...High School happened.

To Be continued!