great gets at the detroit comic con~!

okay...

while the detroit comic con was somewhat slow--a victim of the perfect storm of unforeseen obstacles--it did give me a chance to get out and meet a lot of other writers and artists and explore the landscape of wonderful independent and self-published comics!
since swearing off, a few years ago, of any comics that were part of any crossovers and/or company-wide events--and thereby eliminating everything from marvel and dc, i've been on a quest to find comics that i could enjoy again, comics that entertained me and didn't make me wait six months for a story that could be told in two. solid fun adventures that resolved themselves in one or two (or three) issues and left me with a satisfied feeling when it was through.

FUN comics!

and so i was delighted to find these gems in detroit and even more excited to get to mete the people behind them! here's a few...


one of my favorites at the show and one of the books nominated for an award i was presenting at the shel dorf awards.
rob worley and jason kruse's scratch 9 is simply a lot of fun! scratch is a cat who can access any one of his 9 lives when he's in danger--you should check it out!




not 1, but 2 cute...! apooka is--as the title suggests--the world's most adorable zombie! the story(ies--there are three books out now...) by jon hickey are delightful and mike roll's illustrations are enchanting! great stories for your little zombie!



i was sitting next to ethan nicole throughout the show and was mesmerized by the covers of his two trades featuring axe cop! what the hell is axe cop, i said. just pure imagination and fun, it turns out! ethan explained to me that axe cop was the product of his and his seven year old nephew, malachai's, crazy playful storytelling games about a badass cop who wields an axe! malachai says "and then he does this...!" and ethan draws it. well, maybe ethan molds it into a little bit more of a story, but you get the tidea! axe cop is full of pure imaginative "and then"s and well worth your time.





and speaking of pure kid-powered imagination, jason howard (of wolfman fame) was kind enough to trade trades of his and robert kirkman's new book, super dinosaur about a dinosaur with super power and super armor and some of the coolest friends around! this stuff has to be robert and jason tapping into those old days of playing with action figures and toy dinosaurs in the backyard or on the playroom floor! flat out prehistoric fun!




and finally, ramona and i were lucky enough to sit with a young writer/artist named ted woods at the shel dorf awards and it was even nicer to get a chance to look at some of ted's work, one story featured in the anthology science! and the others in a self-published book (that i wasn't able to scan) the book of love. great stuff and it's always nice to see talented people exploring and using the art form of comics to express themselves and tell some compelling stories.





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did i mention that i just finished listening to the audio version of ernest cline's ready player one and that you should really, really check it out...?
i did.
and you should.



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finally--after last week's revelation that nicolas cage was not only immortal but a photographable vampire, it was inevitable that his face/off co-star was not to be left out when this 'photo' of an alleged john travolta was discovered along with the claim that this too is proof--that he is, in fact, a time-traveller!!! (i like how they abandoned the vampire thing once people pointed out their mistake...)



fun stuff...

...although this will always be my favorite time-traveller...




gotta go~!
smell ya later~!
todd