Dear readers, I am both thrilled and honored to bring you a review of a Kickstarter comic by Ashley Cope. As the title suggests, it’s called Unsounded, and with her somewhat recently ended Kickstarter project she was able to compile the first three chapters of her webcomic into a tpb. The cover alone hints at both the humor and beauty that are found within.

Plot Summary:

We find ourselves with the hilariously mismatched duo of Sette, a young, brash, human girl with the heart of a true rogue, and Duane, a Galit. As far as Sette is concerned, a Galit is a zombie; although Duane disagrees with this. Given that he is skilled in magical arts, quite well-spoken educated, and carries himself with the utmost dignity, I’m inclined to agree. The unlikely partners are on a quest to investigate why Sette’s cousin Stockyard Frummagem, hasn’t been turning in his proper share of tribute to Sette’s father, the “boss-king” of thieves.

Reasoning:

Honestly, there’s nothing not to love about this. The story is good, the action is nicely placed, well laid-out, the humor is always spot on, and the serious issues touched on give one thoughtful pause. Much like the pairing of Sette and Duane, the juxtaposition of the never-ending banter between the main characters, and issues such as human trafficking and enslavement (not just that of humans mind you) may seem odd, but they go together very well; however, the fact that Ms. Cope can both skillfully and deftly deal with both lighthearted humor as well as more adult issues speaks volumes to her skill as a writer and storyteller.

As far as the art’s concerned, I literally have no complaints. What immediately struck me was the vibrancy of the colours she uses. Every single page, nay panel, brims with detail, life, and beauty. Facial expressions and outfits stand out and are memorable, and the panel layouts chosen in certain scenes perfectly help convey a sense of action and urgency or even bewilderment and awe. Some of her creations immediately call to mind Princess Mononoke (see below for an example) and it’s clear that Cope has invested a large amount of time, love, discipline, and passion into designing this rich, perplex, and intriguing world.

Final rating: 5/5. By far, this is my favorite Kickstarter comic and one of my favorite collections. You owe it to yourself, and to Ms. Cope, to check this out. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read this and have a great day! I saved my personal favorite page for last as it really made me see more of The Spectre in Duane.

Intro

Yes, it's going to be that kind of blog, but please bear through it, dear readers. :) My good friend turned me on to kickstarter about two weeks ago and this was a financially fatal mistake for me. I've seen so many good-looking projects with tasty looking awards (didn't know books could look delicious, huh?). Every few days I just keep seeing awesome sounding and eye-catching ideas and I just wanna jump on board. However, just pledging a dollar, the minimum pledge amount, doesn't do it for me. I want to have some decent, physical goodies that I can read, re-read, show off to friends and the staff at the lcs, and file away for posterity. I love the feel of kickstarter-from how you can hear/see the creators' pleas "directly," to the more or less immediate feedback you can get from said creators and other supporters called backers. The project updates, if done in a timely fashion, do a lot to keep momentum and excitement going, and if you include the "word of mouth" that occurs with social media, you've potentially got an unbelievably huge pool of backers. Now that I've gushed about the site, let's explain how it works.

How to

Navigating the site is really easy to do and intuitive but I'll give a rundown all the same for those who are curious. If not, feel free to skip this section. Naturally, you have to create an account, but it's easy and you can even sign in with your facebook one. At the top of the page in blue it says discover and create. This get you started either searching through projects you may want to support, or you can set up your own. We'll just focus on the searching, though. To help make things a little easier to navigate, there are categories on the right of the page that narrow the search. You probably wanna choose "comics," but there's also theater, music, and even photography . Once you find an intriguing looking project, just click and visit the page. Creators often have videos that introduce their projects followed by descriptions of what they're trying to accomplish, what the funding will go towards, and any "stretch" or extra rewards that are given as another token of appreciation for backers support. Creators establish pledge levels which are listed on the right with descriptions of what rewards/goodies are included for that level of financial support. After you pledge, you'll confirm the amount and corresponding reward and you can even manage your pledge if you want to change the amount or even just give it all without getting a reward in return, most generous you. :) After you confirm, you'll be taken to amazon where you'll further confirm your payment method and address, so make sure your amazon account is up to date with accurate address and payment info. That's it! You'll be redirected to a kickstarter page saying "You're a backer of x project," and from there you can-pledge more, post comments, or just browse to your heart's content.

Wrap Up

There have been a number of posts about kickstarter projects and I'll post them later for easier referencing. A lot of big names in the industry such as Gail Simone and Jamal Igle have projects on kickstarter (Igle's was successfully funded already), but there are tons of other ones from "amateur" creators who are taking a chance with the public to make their dreams come true. *Cue the sugar overload and subsequent barf bag* I say all of this because I think these projects are neat, comic based, have good rewards, and worth the support. Although I'm not one for facebooking, skyping, or the like, I feel like this is the way that I can help promote these projects, even if it's only a little bit. Take a look around and maybe you'll see a project or ten you feel like throwing a buck at. The friend of mine who turned me on to kickstarter has backed (i.e funded) several video/card games so there's a lot here to appeal to everyone, I hope. Thank you all so much for bearing through this. Blessed be.

Links

• Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore's project Leaving Megalopolis
• Venezia by Wolf Beaumont
• Endtime: Book 1 by Tim Kenyon
• Nowhere Man by Jerome Crawford
• Blast Furnace by Ryan Rowe (Here's a link to the web comic that this project will be compiling. It's funny and random but I stopped reading as to not ruin the future reading experience.)
• I Draw Comics by Matt Marrocco (G-Man did an interview with Marocco here)
• Human by Gabe Smith and Ryan Merrill (This is one I really want to succeed.)
• Black Lotus Empire #1 by Moneyhorse (no writer's name available but the artists are Carlos Gomez and Neeraj Menon; here's the cv thread )

Dealing with partners who aren’t into comics

Over the past few weeks I’ve been catching up on a small portion of the many comics I missed during my 15 year absence. Scary, I know. My local library has come quite in handy with this as I just check out trades, HCs, Essentials, etc. and have at it. Given that I work at a dormitory that doesn’t have many kids I have a lot of time to read these stories so that’s what I do for most of my shift. Unfortunately, try as I might, I’ve not been able to win my fiancée over. She likes to write rather creepy short stories but can’t get into comics.

This weekend I tried getting her to read Batwoman: Elegy, not only because of the awesome character that Katherine Kane is (traditional alliteration notwithstanding), but also because of the jaw-droppingly gorgeous artwork. Alas, due to her general lack of interest and our wedding planning, she did not. A few months ago when we were collectively less busy, I tried getting her to read Aquaman Vol 7 #6 as I found Mera’s treatment of the groping, scumbag boss to be utterly satisfying but she kept “forgetting.” Perhaps she truly did or maybe it was motivated forgetting. Who knows?

To her credit, whenever I discuss comic things she will both honestly and seriously engage me in conversation, and we do have fairly frequent comic book based discussions. A few days ago I brought up Colossus’ betrayal in UCXM Vol. 1 #304 (remember when getting holographic covers got you really psyched?) for some reason other than the fact that her brother in law is Russian, I think.

The point of all this is to get others’ input as to how they deal or don’t deal with being with a significant other who isn’t into comics the way you are, or at all? This blog was sparked by jloneblackheart's "A Milestone" blog as I've been wondering about this for a while now.

Disclosure: As I've not been creative of late but still wanted to get some perspective on this topic, I re-posted an older blog of mine with appropriate updates

First off, let me say that I love being a subscriber as it is a great way to not only support your local comic shop and the titles you love, but also allows you to connect with other comic book geeks/fans. Social perks aside, there are also the discounts you can get if you subscribe to enough titles. Currently, I'm at 15% off which definitely helps financially (helps me to spend more, that is) but I wonder if that amount will/can go up as my "Master List" now contains 38 titles.

Also, because the majority of titles are ones you can't have access to ahead of time,there may come a moment when you will stumble upon one that really clicks with you. In other words, taking a chance with a subscription can certainly pay off if you find a series you like and expand your comic repertoire. In a forum, some members mentioned that their LCS gave them bags and boards for free, or even bagged and boarded their purchases. This is great.

Case in point #1: The Goon, Journey Into Mystery, Uncanny X-Force

Cons:

On the other hand, what if you take a chance on a title and don't like it? And I just don't mean don't like it, maybe you ''hate'' it. What do you do? Do you cancel it? Surreptitiously slip the book back onto the shelf but quickly grab another title out of guilt (Edit-I've done this twice)? Buy it but rage about it to the online community/friends later?

Case in point #2: Batman: The Dark Knight- I've yet to remove this from my pull but will soon. Even the inclusion of Bane couldn't help this series.

Also, can you unwillingly of course, "go crazy" with subscriptions and end up eating cheap Ramen for a month or two? I haven't reached this point yet, but could (Edit- I've been there a few times this year). The requirements of physical storage also potentially apply to the cons but I'd be particularly interested in hearing about cons (if any) for those who do comics digitally that don't deal with sensory aspects of the reading experience.

The Good

About a week or so ago, I, once again went to my comic shop a few minutes before the scheduled opening so I could grab my pulls before class started. When I got there there was already an older, possibly middle-aged guy, waiting as well , along with Wayne (a long time employee and my favorite to boot) Wayne and I started catching up about Thanksgiving break and what not while we all waited for Dave (the guy with the key that day) to show up. Wayne informed us that Dave had just moved and had to adjust to using a different bus to get into work and that was probably why he was running a little late. A few minutes later Dave showed up and he and Wayne headed up to prep the store. While they did so, the other customer and I struck up a conversation centered around comics, naturally, that was polite, pleasant, and not at all invasive. I found out that he worked down the street and decided to come up early so he could fully enjoy his lunch break rather than having to divide it between travelling to and from the shop as well as eat. I very much enjoyed talking with him and towards the end of our conversation Jeff (the store owner) showed up, and ushered us upstairs to our home away from home. Talking to other comic book readers about comics, comic related topics, or even *gasp* other topics, is what I look forward to the most when making the weekly pilgrimage to Phantom of the Attic Comics. It's always nice to see and hear what people are interested in who share a mutual interest. I'll stop with that for now as the social aspect of comic reading is a whole other topic in of itself.

The Bad

So, a few weeks ago, about a week or so before the above incident, I skipped my philosophy class and went to the comic shop before it opened so I could grab the titles and covers I wanted before the other faithful patrons could get their hands on them. Well, shortly after I got there another younger-looking shopper showed up and waited so I struck up a conversation with him and asked which titles he was reading and what he thought of the DC reboot. At first, he seemed almost deathly afraid to engage me in conversation and, throughout the painfully wrought interaction, seemed reluctant to talk about this mutual interest that we shared. After our brief chat I left him alone and shortly afterwards, Wayne showed up and went up to set up. Jeff followed him up to help and told us things would be ready in five. After the time elapsed we went up and my pulls were waiting for me in a neat little pile. Blah, blah, blah. To be fair to the other guy, he was just randomly asked about which comics he likes by a random bearded stranger at 10 in the morning so I can understand his initial reluctance. Moreover, he could have suffered from some social anxiety/disorder, but for whatever reason, he still tolerated my talking to him so I give him props for that.

The Ugly

Recently, I've been hitting up the commuter lounge, a new lounge that caters to commuter students (shocking I know, given the name). Strangely enough, there always seems to be a buzz of nerdy/geeky activity here: some people are always playing Magic, doing PC gaming (a lot of WoW fans and virtual chess) , discussing episodes of MythBusters, and the like. On this particular occasion, I was scoping out a spot to set up my laptop when I noticed a guy reading comics that were very 90s looking. I set my stuff down and asked him what he was reading (you'd think I'd have been discouraged from doing this by now) and he held up a cover to show me. I asked him if they were 90s and he said, "I think so" or something like that. I asked him another question or two but he seemed irritated that I was bothering him. I can appreciate that, truly, I can. Although he seemed reluctant to talk from the beginning he had a slightly rude air about him towards the end of our chat. Interestingly enough, later on that same day I was playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and a guy walked up behind me and commented on how he'd never seen anyone else playing that game. I took out my ear-buds and had a pleasant, albeit short, conversation with him about it and afterwards he continued walking over to his friends, one of which interjected a comment during our talk. It was neat to connect with a random person over a shared interest

The point of this whole rant-ish entry is to stress how much I hate comic book nerd stereotype as being: shy, reclusive, social awkward, pale, etc. but this guy just screamed socially awkward and that really infuriated me. I though, don't make us look like that! However, the point remains that I still hate negative incarnations of comic book nerds as I'm very proud of my community of readers. (This may very well sound elitist and that too, I despise) We geeks/nerds or whatever have to stick together and support each other, not shrink away from social interactions. Everyone has a potentially interesting and informative perspective on things and it's always awesome to see/hear them and thus expand our experience, knowledge, and perspective as well. What do you all think? Any thoughts and input are appreciated.