tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143158752011-11-04T20:52:03.603-07:00Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-55186140838105588702011-09-16T17:26:00.000-07:002011-09-16T17:26:48.290-07:00

Small Press Expo weekend started with a Roger Langridge signing at the Big Planet Comics in Vienna, Virginia that Friday. For all his zany writing, Langridge is a quiet soft spoken man with a lovely accent. I was able to thank him profusely for the enjoyment I received from Thor: The Mighty Avenger. I also bought a trade of his Muppet Show series from Boom and picked up the Snarked #0 freebie. He

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-85287757870069256942011-08-20T21:36:00.000-07:002011-08-20T21:38:34.507-07:00

The Legion of Super-Heroes panel consisted of Mike Grell, Keith Giffen, Mark Waid, Barry Kitson and Chris Roberson. Paul Levitz was originally scheduled but had to cancel. Jack C. Harris, an editor on early Legion stories, joined on the panel. Bob Greenberger moderated the panel. Grell was running late, so he appeared in the middle of the first question. Greenberger first asked the panelists

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-43222252062964080462010-09-23T14:40:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:19:11.832-07:00

I've already talked some about my experience at the Small Press Expo on the Manga Out Loud podcast, but I thought I'd add in a few details I invariably forgot to mention. Last year I wound up going in the wrong direction on Metro. This year my luck continued with the wrong train in the right direction. The Grosvenor train ends a stop before the White Flint station. Fortunately all I had to do

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-61088636970899565992010-06-10T19:39:00.000-07:002010-09-23T12:31:41.364-07:00

Comic book conventions have always seemed strangely out of reach for me. When I was younger, I attended the little day conventions in some neighborhood hotel, a dealer's room of back issues and merchandise. Occasionally they'd invite a guest. Usually I'd ignore them. I didn't recognize most of the names and I was more after more stories to read. At one event, they brought Adam Hughes. I

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-69622236744806787452010-05-02T21:45:00.000-07:002010-05-02T21:48:17.372-07:00

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. Rather than hitting the usual haunts here, I was invited to join some Twitter friends for a "comics caravan". So I took the Amtrak train at any ungodly hour down to Richmond, Virginia. The caravan was actually a nine-person van. This worked out well, since we didn't have to worry about following other cars or odd directions. The caravan was a near even split with

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-11742573834301039902010-05-02T19:08:00.000-07:002010-05-02T19:17:41.809-07:00

Relatability is a double-edged sword. Comics have to dance a very. On the one hand, publishers want to keep their characters young and fresh for new readers. On the other hand, they don't want to antagonize their current audience. It's a tricky business. What one person finds endearing, another might find overbearing and idiotic.I nearly gave up on the manga "Kimi ni Todoke" after the first

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-75638747826380451332010-01-15T10:15:00.000-08:002010-01-15T10:46:50.712-08:00

With the coming of the New Year, it's time to spread your wings and try new things. At least that's the theory. I'm trying to catch up reading with my piles of existing graphic novels and manga. I've wanted to get my reactions and thoughts down on paper. My reading choices will be all over the place.I hope you'll enjoy these reviews and please leave feedback, so I have some idea how I'm doing,

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-81283305747273343982009-11-25T11:18:00.000-08:002009-11-25T12:35:16.141-08:00

This year marked the start of the New York Times' Graphic Books bestseller lists, including best selling trade paperbacks, hardcovers and manga. Now the blogging community rolled its collective eyes a little at the term "Graphic Books" – why not use graphic novels or sequential art if you have to get all literary? The weekly updates include some surprise titles and some not-so surprising ones.

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-78204799219673900622009-10-14T19:19:00.000-07:002009-10-14T19:43:30.896-07:00

While World War II rages on, a smaller war in Brooklyn escalates when a boy is kidnapped by the dark forces of the Boogeyman. Unwilling to give up on their young master, the child's faithful toys decide to mount a rescue operation into the Dark. Outmatched and outgunned, they're still determined to see the quest through, no matter the dangers or the cost. Th3rd World Studios published "The

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-12426669777981328442009-09-27T16:26:00.000-07:002009-09-27T16:28:58.565-07:00

So Saturday I spent part of the day at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. I had all the best of intentions getting over there really early. Metro had other ideas. Everyone was on the Orange Line heading into town for the National Book Festival. Then I went in the opposite direction I needed on the Red Line. That was just the way my day was going. The North Bethesda Marriott & Convention

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-74252989978741177342009-09-03T15:57:00.000-07:002009-09-03T16:02:31.512-07:00

"Whatever happened to the old happy-go-lucky Sharon?""Her last boyfriend was killed in the Philadelphia bombing.""Oh.""And she was never that happy-go-lucky. But she did used to smile more often."-- Captain America #13I have never been much for the main Marvel universe. For someone who loves big massive super hero groups, the Avengers always left me in the dark. So I was really surprised when I

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-462037202765616602009-09-03T15:38:00.001-07:002009-09-03T15:54:21.123-07:00

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the "Women make comics" t-shirt design hunt. I've been somewhat remiss in posting the successful follow-up.Deb Aoki, about.com's tireless resident manga blogger has created the final design now available on CafePress in a dizzying array of shirts, stickers and mugs. The design celebrates superhero/manga/indies.All proceeds go to support the Comic Book Legal

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-34462898238235989742009-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:002009-06-23T18:15:35.751-07:00

One of the niftier aspects of Twitter is the ease you can bat around ideas on there. Someone suggests something and another pipes up with an even better idea or comes up with a way to make it happen. One of those nifty things happened last night.In the last couple of the weeks, there have been several articles and one contest tied to San Diego Comic Con, all belittling or demeaning female

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-76309514215173270812009-06-11T15:28:00.001-07:002009-06-11T15:31:51.252-07:00

I've expounded at length on Twitter and elsewhere about my woes with my comics pull list. I won't go into all the gory details, but suffice it to say, I wasn't a happy customer. But the options in the DC metro area are surprisingly limited. Some places require a minimum number of books before you can have a pull list; at that point I wasn't certain I was buying enough to manage that minimum. So I

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-29711439072238506082009-05-22T08:20:00.001-07:002009-05-22T08:31:53.356-07:00

The demise of Viz’s Shojo Beat magazine fills me with great sadness. I’ve been a loyal Shojo Beat reader since the very start. I have every issue, including the initial preview issue. I never subscribed, though, not because I couldn’t afford it, but because I heard so many horror stories from SB subscribers having problems with their subscriptions. For me, it was just easier to pick up the new

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-13555612653320279082009-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:002009-05-02T17:17:09.756-07:00

For sports fans, the first weekend in May usually means the Kentucky Derby. Ask a comics fan and it’s Free Comic Book Day. This event was set up as a way to lure potential new customers or entice old ones back into the comic shops. Comic book publishers create special editions or samplers of their books for the participating stores to carry that day. The Gold level sponsors are usually the heavy

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-51370310500747477052009-04-29T09:15:00.000-07:002009-04-29T10:15:10.674-07:00

A couple of manga bloggers have recently posted on why they Twitter. I didn't join Twitter to set the comics world ablaze. In fact, I joined for the goofiest of fangirl reasons.I joined Twitter because of a house.Her name is SARAH, the Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat, if you must. She was posting fun and sometimes cryptic little updates about upcoming episodes of Eureka. She’d reply

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-53977595650988005062009-04-01T10:16:00.000-07:002009-04-01T10:26:25.962-07:00

Up until now my blog posts have focused on American comic books and animation, but there was something else I discovered back then – Japanese manga and anime. Like others, I rushed home to watch the continuing story of the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. I even collected all the Comico issues of the Macross Saga and the novels and the art book and even the original LP soundtrack. (I wasn’t

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-83509801119271349502009-03-30T10:57:00.000-07:002009-03-31T14:48:58.815-07:00

Alert Nerd has a blogging discussion on everyone's "Scott & Jean." To wit:"That is my geek sacred cow, the one topic I cannot discuss rationally because it makes me too insane/angry/scary-eyed."Trying to narrow it down is hard. There are comic book-related topics that send me into a rage or fill me with irritation. But there is only one that I simply can’t hear logic on.Mine is simple: I loathe

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-78034831400509092002009-03-05T17:40:00.000-08:002009-03-31T14:51:35.753-07:00

When I started reading comic books, I loved the letter columns. Those back pages were my little link to the outside world. I didn’t have any friends who collected comics, so I only knew which characters I liked or disliked, which parts of stories I loved or loathed. Letter columns showed me that other people felt the same way. Or they completely disagreed with me. I also saw behind the curtain

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14315875.post-71545554962778935082009-02-13T10:39:00.001-08:002009-03-31T14:54:08.137-07:00

So you’re wondering about me? How does a nice girl like me get into comic books?Blame the cartoons. It’s usually the easiest explanation. The Super Friends cartoons took over my Saturday morning in the mid-late 1970s, so it was only natural I might discover comic books. Because I loved Wonder Woman (and I still do), I naturally gravitated to the books she appeared in: Super Friends, Justice

Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10786372718401697134noreply@blogger.com1