Week of 6/24/2024

Assimilation phase begins on The Shapes and I go over my most anticipated SDCC special guests.

The Shapes

Close Endeavors of the Bob Kind 13-14

And to close out Pride Month, a gay take on the classic Who’s On First routine.

Vanilla is the New Rainbow

Sammy the Critic

SDCC Special Guests I’m Looking Foward To

We’re at the end of June which means summertime for every kid (in the States anyway), and for the average geek, it signals the nearing arrival of San Diego Comic Con, which is less than a month away. After trudging through the mind-bending labyrinth that is the Hotelpocalypse and Reddit hotel exchange threads, I finally was able to this week book two hotels to cover my stay for the entire con duration. Now, I can go back to worrying about other pressing matters, among those being this self-explainatory title. With 46 special guests already announced, there’ll be the obvious fan favorites like Jim Lee, Gerry Conway, and Jack C. Harris, but knowing the kind of artists I dig, those won’t be the ones on my radar. I’m sure there’re plenty of comic book journalists and YouTubers you can find for that. What I will be discussing are the indie/alternative and comic strip cartoonists I’ll be looking forward to seeing the first time.

Roberta Gregory

Veteran Fantagraphics creator and underground cartoonist who made history as the first woman to self-publish a solo comic book in 1976 (Dynamite Damsels), you might recognize her name from the many, many, many reviews I’ve written about Naughty Bits and her Bitchy Bitch stories. Most prolific during the 80s and 90s, Gregory is currently retired living a low profile with her most recent convention appearances being CXC and SolCon in 2018.

According to the SDCC website description, Gregory is currently working on a four-book prose series titled Mother Mountain. The biggest news to come out of this announcement, however, is Fantagraphics plans for a Bitchy collection. Considering that, throughout the 90s, they’ve released smaller book collections of Bitchy Bitch stories, and in 2005, part 1 of a complete comics collection (part 2 never happened), all of which are out-of-print, I can’t help but wonder, or should I say hope, that by Bitchy collection, they by extension are referring to the entire Naughty Bits run (the comic book anthology which contained most of Bitchy’s stories). With Fantagraphics’s track record lately of releasing complete editions of their flagship 80s and 90s series such as Eightball, Hate, Love & Rockets, etc., this wouldn’t be out of question. Plus, it would introduce Roberta Gregory’s work to a new generation of readers which would help with promoting her upcoming work as well.

Mariko Tamaki

Writer of YA graphic novel favorites such as This One Summer and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me alongside the more adult-oriented Roaming (which I still haven’t read yet), Mariko Tamaki is one of those guests that’s been close yet elusive for me. She’s appeared at many comic cons I’ve been to and even tabled at, but, for some reason or another, I always miss her. Probably this is the convention that’ll change that.

Dan Santat

Santat is most well-renowed for his picture books, but I remember him the most as the creator of my childhood cartoon The Replacement, which I did not even know until recently reading his Eisner-nominated middle-grade memoir A First Time for Everything (which I highly recommend by the way). I imagine whatever panels he’ll be at will pertain to making middle-grade graphic novels and picture books. Since SDCC even bothered to mention The Replacements (which isn’t exactly the most widely remembered Disney Channel animated series), maybe we might be featured in the TV animation panel or at least elaborate on his experience in that domain in a Spotlight talk.

Bill Amend

Even if it doesn’t rank in my top comic strips of all time, Foxtrot has been a casual staple in my reading diet that’s generally pleasant to read, so meeting the man behind the funnies will be worth it. Sure beats coming anywhere near Scott Adams.

Mike Friedrich

A historical figure in comic books, Friedrich spent 8 years writing for DC and Marvel during the late 60s to early 70s before creating the sci-fi and fantasy anthology Star*Reach, one of the earliest independent comic books bridging the gap between the mainstram and underground. Plus, he founded WonderCon and did a TV deal for the animated Bitchy Bitch adaptation! Given Friedrich’s long industrial experience, he’s bound to have some interesting insights and stories to tell. I’ll have to be on the lookout for any panels he’s at and hope he has any copies of Star*Reach.

Rick Marschall

Marschall has one of the most prolific industrial credentials with a career spanning over 4 decades. Think of any comics-adjacent pursuit and he’s already done it from being an editor two comics criticism periodicals, Epic Illustrated, three comic strip syndicates, Disney Comics, a Dr. Suess book, and much, much more. How hasn’t he broken a world record for his feats?

William Stout

Another prolific creator, Stout’s five decade art career spans from Heavy Metal magazine to over 70s films in roles such as storyboard artist, production design, character design, screenwriter, etc. on works such as Wizards, the Conan series, Rambo, Indiana Jones, and “Thriller” music video to name a few. Personally, I’m more interested in hearing about his time in Heavy Metal, his thoughts on Ralph Bakshi’s adaptation, and his experience interacting with Bakshi.