Castle Waiting

Yawn.

That is what my reaction was when reading a synopsis of Castle Waiting. I fancy myself a bit of a harsh reality lovin' type of gal, so the idea of fantasy and fairy tales and "happily ever" make my eyes glaze over.

But I questioned my inital reaction after picking up the collected Castle Waiting by Linda Medley at the new Fantagraphic Books store. After admiring the beautifully bound, gorgeously printed book in the damage room, the mere 15 dollar price tag coupled with my growing curiosity won me over.

And wow, did I devour this book. I read with the fervor of the worst breed of fangirl and the intellectual curiosity of a scholar. Awed by the subtle weaving of Greek mythology (like a character referring to herself as the boulder to Sisyphus), fairy tales, drama, romance, and humor, I am humbled by how enthralled I am by this story. The construction of the plot keeps the reader on their toes, as the character Lady Jain weaves in and out of childhood memories and real-time events. The art is impeccable and perfectly suited for this fantasy world filled with sprites and pregnant women and walking horses.

I think what makes me the most happy is that I am not one of the first fans - the ones who had to wait years for a new installment of the story. Since Castle Waiting's inception in 1996 (it was a blessed Xeric inception, by the way), publishing has been unpredictable at best. Since Fantagraphics restarted the series, there has already been two continuation issues and one more scheduled for November. I'm hoping the healthy pace continues as I will now be one of the many waiting with baited breath for the next issue.

Successless loves you

And your Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrains
(Someone took this during the Seattle Zombie walk on Sunday - peek at the group pics if you want)

Happy Halloween everybody!

Traffic Tip

Hey, comics bloggers! Want a surefire way to increase traffic to your blog? Simply use the phrase "ball busting" in the title of an otherwise normal blog post! The hits will soon be rolling in by the dozens from various dark and seedy corners of the internets. Enjoy!

Stumptown Highlights

Portland, OR's Stumptown Comics Festival took place last weekend, and Serene and I decided to breeze through, in between meeting up with my recently-hitched sister and her friends from out of state. It was a quick trip indeed, with us arriving in Portland after 10pm on Friday to check in at the Jupiter Hotel, and hitting the road back to Seattle at 1:30pm on Saturday. Somewhere in there, we found time to snag a few hours of sleep and buy some comics.

The nice thing about Stumpton is that it's a comfortable size, much smaller than APE and therefore less overwhelming, yet it still manage to attract the same caliber of talent. Larger independent publishers like Oni, Top Shelf, and Fantagraphics were present, with groups of their artists signing and sketching away, and the attendance was rounded out with lots of smaller companies and self-publishers in a variety of genres. Webcomics, minicomics, pamphlets, and graphic novels were all heavily represented, with prints, t-shirts, toys, original art, and assorted other media available as well. There's enough there that you can spend a few hours taking it all in, but not so much that you feel like you missed something when you leave.

Some highlights:
-Flipping through some new Fantagraphics books, like the upcoming installment of Mome, and having Ben Catmull sign a copy of the gorgeous debut issue of his book Monster Parade.
-Making paper stars with the incredibly friendly Erika Moen.
-Standing mere inches from living legend Scott McCloud at Erika Moen's table. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to say hi, and thank him for putting a blurb for my horrible 24-hour comic on his list.
-Getting the new Liz Prince mini, and making small talk about Seattle hipster bars.
-Finally getting Kaz Strzepek's completed, partially redrawn book, the Mourning Star, which I'd been reading as minicomics. He's practically our neighbor, here in Capitol Hill! Get this book if you can.
-Serene's watchful eye was responsible for me scoring a copy of Anders Nilsen's Big Questions #3, the only issue of the minicomics incarnation I was missing (and where the story really starts, anyways).
-Serene getting a lovely, detailed sketch from Brandon Graham, another Seattle artist we love. We picked up some of his minis (and a naughty comic he made!), as well as Meathaus 8, which he's a contributor to.
-Speaking of Meathuas, Farel Dalrymple had a new mini called Spigot, and some beautiful original art.
-Seeing comics workhorse Kazu Kibuishi, on a panel about the process of creating comics, describe his process. He mentioned that he can ink a page in an hour and colour it in 5, but that he hopes to increase his pace to 6 pages a day. The other panelists just listened in utter disbelief.
-A new issue of Papercutter, the anthology title from Tugboat Press.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting, but with amount of stuff we crammed into such a short trip, that's inevitable. But check out Serene's photos of the event too!

Add it up

Paid day off!

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Jupiter Hotel

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Awesome!

Review Avoidance

Last night I had grandiose plans to post reviews of some awesome things that have gotten me excited about comics again. But something came up. And it's kinda sorta comic related.


I love John Pham's comics. This has been documented at least once on this blog. And through buying stuff from John Pham on his website, I stumbled across a musician named Daedelus.





But back to my slacking...

Daedelus swept through Seattle last night. In a last minute decision, blogging plans were avoided for a night filled with game boy based music (Truckersaurus), hip-hop breakcore (Thavius Beck), a set capped with an insane remix of My Bloody Valentine (Caural), and a lot of dancing to clicks and beats and samples from Daedelus.

So, as my love for comics and music come full circle, I am amazed by how energized I am with what is happening in both genres right now. And I swear some actual content will elbow it's way through sometime in the near future.

Fanta-awesome

As one of the first group of patrons to cross the threshold into unchartered Fantagraphics Books retail country, I can say that there is no greater sight than seeing an Acme Novelty Library stand next to a spinner rack swollen with Love and Rockets and Black Hole. But to stay with current blogging trends and to guarantee there isn't any actual content, let's make this into a photo post:

Storefront in the Georgetown neighborhood in Seattle. For non-Seattlites, this is a ten minute drive down the freeway from downtown Seattle.














The masses ache to spend cash. Dylan is in the middle of this shot. Yay Dylan!












The wall of signed prints and posters.


























The appropriately hyped damage room. Many, many steals.





The Acme Novelty Library stand


















I have now found my personal oasis.

















Since it was a soft opening there were a few details to be worked out (like a functional credit card machine), but we were told by December 2nd, everything will be perfect. December 2nd is the official grand opening super-fantastic night that everyone should attend. Hey, flights to Seattle aren't that bad. And if you aren't totally psycho we may even have some room for you to crash. You just have to ask nicely. And yes, we also accept bribes.

Fantagraphics Store

Seattle comics fans, make some space in your schedule this Saturday to visit the newest comics retailer in the city. Now, this isn't just any old direct market outlet packed with toys and collectables and a few racks of superhero pamphlets. No siree, this is the long-rumoured, finally real Fantagraphics retail storefront!

Looks like they;ll be stocking "everything Fantagraphics has in print, including our soon-to-be-legendary damaged room, featuring discounted and often out-of-print books unavailable anywhere else." I don't think you can afford to miss out, especially as that damaged room will probably get picked over right quick. Come early.

FANTAGRAPHIC BOOKS
1201 South Vale Street
Seattle, WA 98108
Mon. - Sat 11:30 - 8
Sun 11:30 - 5
206-658-0110

Steaming Pile

Fantastic Four - not only am I late to the game on this movie, but I am joining the chorus. There are only two things that don't bring out the rage in me about this movie. One is that I checked this movie from our library, so I didn't spend any money to watch it. The other is that the actor who played Doom at times looked like Morrissey. Other than that, the steaming pile of dung was a waste of time to watch. Dylan seemed a bit more amused than I did at the movie, but overall it sucked. Don't make our mistake and stay far, far away from this movie, even if it's at the risk that you don't see Jessica Alba skimpily clad.

In other more exciting news, we are taking the long and arduous three hour trek down to Portland in a few weeks for Stumptown Comics Fest. If any of you are going, we should get a drink. We also need to remember to stop and congratulate Farel Dalrymple on his shift to the darkside in his move to the Pacific Northwest. And pick up Meathaus 8.

Oh yeah, sorry for not posting so much. We've been busy with an electronic music festival and Halloween costume shopping and stuff.