Fresh Take: GRAVITY Comix

"GRAVITY Comix" by Ryan Cecil Smith

Prints available for purchase from BigCartel. US$5

This is a “looping zine,” whose story you can start or end at any point, and reach a different ending. When printed in book format, you can easily fold it so that any spread could be inside or on the outside.   Check out the loopdeloop tag on his Tumblr for more of these looping zines. You can order all four of them in a pack.  If you’re in LA, go get a free copy of the zine plus poster at Loop de Loop’s April 3rd screening at Meltdown Comics!

Illustration: FIGHT LIKE A GIRL

"FIGHT LIKE A GIRL" by Kaol Porfírio

Illustration: Jawas and the TARDIS

"Jawas and the TARDIS" by Buenos Aires, Argentina-based Gabriela Omann

Humor: Daughter

"Daughter" by Lunarbaboon

It's too late! The tiaras are coming from inside the house!

Featured Site: Mare Internum

"Mare Internum" by Der-shing Helmer

"Mare Internum" is a sci-fi web comic set on Mars launched earlier this year by Der-shing Helmer, the creator of the fantasy web comic The Meek.  The comic centers around Rebekah “Bex” Egunsola, an entomologist who arrives at her new post on an isolated Mars research station, where she meets the station's previous occupant, Michael Fisher, who has just been fired.  Bex is on a mission to determine the feasibility of raising crickets on Mars, but Fisher's mental stability is questionable.  Tension quickly builds between the two as Bex struggles to learn everything she needs to know to survive at the remote outpost while also dealing with Fisher's personal demons.

Shing describes it as "a comic about isolation, living with imperfections, being in dark places, and yeah also bugs and robots I guess. It is also a way for me to communicate some feelings about some bad times in my life without having to actually talk about them. That’s the power of webcomics- it’s a way for me to share a message with you, to teach and hopefully entertain, all without you needing to leave your room. Or me mine, haha."

What sets the comic apart is that the author, Shing, spent two years researching the science behind the story to make sure that it is as accurate as possible.  That makes this a very plausible story that few space nerds are going to be able to resist.  It reminds me of some of my favorite sci-fi movies, like Solaris, Moon, or 2001.  Yes, it's absolutely the science fiction elements that draw you in, but ultimately what keeps you at the edge of your seat is the human drama. 

Bookmark it!

Comic Round-Up: May 28, 2015

"The Dark Knight and The Joker" by Mark Sparacio

Event: Artist Greg Hinkle will appear at Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, June 3rd at 5:00 pm to sign the first issue of the AIRBOY reboot!  RSVP on Facebook!

Event: Paul Levitz will appear at Midtown Comics Downtown in New York City to sign Dr. Fate #1 on Wednesday, June 17th at 7:00 PM!  RSVP on Facebook!


Interview: Gil Press reports on a talk by Sydney Padua, creator of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, which started out as a joke, turned into a webcomic, and is now a full-blown graphic novel.

Interview: Guy Gilchrist, who has been the artist for the comic strip Nancy for the past 20 years, talks about the timeless nature of the comic, the changes in the medium, and how his Christian faith affects his work.

Interview: Mother Goose and Grimm creator Mike Peters talks about his double life as an editorial cartoonist and a daily strip cartoonist.

Interview: Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis talks about meeting Charles Schulz, collaborating with Bill Watterson, and changing careers from law to cartooning.

Interview: Peggy Burns, who’s succeeding Chris Olveros as publisher of Drawn and Quarterly, talks about how she and her husband Tom Devlin (who will be the new executive editor) came to D+Q in the first place and how the company and its retail store have developed over the years.

Interview: Van Jensen interviews Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man), focusing on how he constructs a story from beginning to end.

Link Round-Up: May 28, 2015

"Fighter Squadron" by Belarus-based Dmitriy Leonovich

Illustration for a collectible card game.

Interview: The Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow talks about the irony of putting the Indominus Rex on party plates.

All of her years writing about Dementors have set up J.K. Rowling to sass the Westboro Baptist Church on Twitter.

An argument for the golden age of sci-fi being 29.

Eric Adler of the Adler Vermillion law firm and the Legal Hackers group dives into the odd nuances of copyright laws as applied to video games.  Once upon a time Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about this.

Feminist Mad Max Tumblr: hey girl: you can use my shoulder as a rifle stand, as you’re the better shot of the two of us.

Hayao Miyazaki's - On Your Mark "In 1994, Hayao Miyazaki took a break from writing the script for Princess Mononoke to work on this music video from Japnese pop duo Chage & Aska" 

Shaun Tan is most identified with his distinctly surreal style of 2D still art, but he has also worked in sculpted and animated forms, as seen in his pieces inspired by recently revised stories of the Brothers Grimm, and The Lost Thing, a short film based on his book of the same name.

You won't regret that tattoo: A short, sweet first documentary by Angie Bird, via the Tattoo Historian at Tattoo History Daily.