More news later!

Hey everyone,

I've had lots of interesting times lately. I don't have time to write much, as I'm finishing up the inks for Authority #2. What can I say, slow writer + slow artist = slow comic. At least Art is a quick colorist compared to us.

After I'm done I'll post some photos of the Chicago Comics Lunch (with returning guest star Adi Granov!) and the doings from the extra fun FX show in Florida (hey Mark!). Also some big news on the next comic I'll be drawing. It isn't Authority #3.

On the subject of world news, here's an excerpt from my favorite reporter in Lebanon, Christopher Allbritton. It gives some idea of just why Presidents with short attention spans shouldn't be allowed to implement foreign policy. It's hard to tell our enemies from our friends:

At one neighborhood in Beirut, where the fighting was fiercest, the largely Sunni supporters of al-Mustaqbal chanted their support for America (in response to the chants of “Iran! Iran!” and “Bashar! Syria!” by Amal supporters across the street.) They also, bizarrely, hoisted a poster of Saddam Hussein, indicating that the Sunni-Shi’a conflict from Iraq has poisoned the atmosphere in Lebanon now, too.

(If you have any spare Paypal cash, consider donating to his site. He's a freelancer and risks his life regularly to keep us informed).

Here's hard nosed Israeli historian and military analyst Martin van Creveld on why we should make peace with Syria to cripple the Iran/Syria/Hamas/Hezbollah alliance:

Syria forms the critical link between Hezbollah and Iran. The airport in Damascus is the gateway through which Iranian weapons and Iranian military advisers have been reaching Lebanon for some two decades. Close the gateway, and the flow of aid will be much diminished, if not eliminated.

Worth reading. I'll never understand why Bush feels we have to fight all of our enemies at once, instead of dividing and conquering.

Webcomics

My favorite read at any point in time isn't usually the 'greatest' comic being put out. It just has to be fun.

Right now my two favorites are Scary Go Round and the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels. Neither one is realistically drawn. In fact, SGR has gotten slightly less finicky over time. I enjoyed the designy quality of his early black-line free days, but I think his current use of black lines and bolder background colors is easier on the eyes:

Quick plug: Scary Go Round looks to have started a new storyline. Great time to jump on board! Read the book, buy the t-shirt.

I will not claim that these two stories are the highest artistic achievement of the 'sequential artform' (a fancy name for comics). But they do represent the qualities that make comics great and distinctive.

Scott McCloud has done a great job of defining what a comic book is. But that's very different than defining what makes it great. The defining words are fun and easy.

Both SGR and Pilgrim have chosen small formats. SGR is in the grainy online world (72 dpi vs. 300+dpi for print). Scott Pilgrim is published in manga sized digests. They're infectious casual reads that can be easily tossed to a friend, or emailed as a link. They're full of wit and breezy charm. That's the fun part. They're making a Scott Pilgrim movie, but I can't see how they'll keep all the nonchalant brilliance of the published work.

The easy part is their creation. While I'm sure both John Allison and Bryan O'Malley sweat bullets putting out their stories, it's nothing compared to the man-hours required to make a TV commercial or a Flash cartoon. I've said it before and I'll repeat it now: comics are the greatest storytelling medium because almost anyone can start making them. They are the garage band of visual storytelling. Each new comic is a Steve Jobs nativity scene, the crazy loner with a world shaking idea.

You don't need a lot of money. Starting off you don't need a lot of skill (but you'll learn pretty quickly if you keep it up). This low initial investment cost allows anyone to become a comics entrepreneur. The growing tide of wonderful new indy comics and webcomics is the result. A production studio could never try all the wacky ideas you'll find in one webcomic link site. The easy nature of the medium also lets John Allison put out a 'Sunday' comic every weekday.

I used to get jealous of European and Japanese comics. They had far more genres than we do and comics weren't ghettoized into oft-grotty comic shops. But webcomics and the sale of new material in chain bookstores has revitalized American comics*. It's a great time to be a young comics creator or reader. It's scary trying to keep up with so many new talents, but it's better to be in a thriving field than a dying art.

Also, very pleased not to be living in a one party nation anymore. Makes me fret less about politics and that lets me blather more about comics!

Happy New Year to all the readers and especially to the young artists,

Gene Ha

PS Thanks to Lowell and Sherri for introducing me to my current fave reads. *And I know, Allison is British.