Comic Fest 2011 (just a tad late)

Even though it's been almost two weeks since I went to Comic Fest here in Denver, life had been a little too hectic to do any posts on it until now :(
So, like the last couple of years I had fun, but it's also getting to where the comic book area is getting to small. There weren't as many vendors there as the previous years but, luckily wasn't quite as cramped as it was last year. I got a copy of the Generation X movie, an Autograph from Amy Reeder for my copy of Batwoman #0 as well as a nice stack of quarter bin goodness.
Besides, the holiday this last weekend (Easter). My Sister welcomed a new son to the world the day after Comic Fest and a few other things have kept me from being able to post :( I have a couple of posts I'm working on that will hopefully be up here soon as well prepping a script I'm hoping to get published (Sadly it's not the Irredeemable X-Men, since apparently Axel Alonso does not read my blog). But, I'm attempting to get a few pokers in the fire (so to speak) and until then I'm hoping to get on here more often (like I have been saying for months now I would). Well, I should probably end my rambling now before I left out too many details of my life and as always I hope my few faithfull readers are doing well :)

That bridge is cursed, ya know

Sorry, once again my faithful readers. I've been meaning to post more regularly, but lately I just haven't been able to think of anything to write, even though quite a bit has been happening in comics this last month. On another note this weekend is Comic Fest here in Denver, and I'm pretty psyched once agian Amy Reeder and Matthew Sturges will be there along with J. Scott Cambell and a bunch of other folks. Of course, I have been reading Wolverine and Jubilee (which btw is awesome) and last week I started reading Batgirl, which I should have been doing all along since I dig Stephanie Brown and all but something about it just hadn't clicked with me before. The Valentine's issue was pretty entertaining probably even more so since it guest starred Clarion the witch boy and the end literally had me laughing out loud. I was a bit sad that Deadpool Corps. ended this month, but so far Deadpool Family is making up for it. Maybe it's time for another post mortem review so I can get more in-depth with what made me enjoy Deadpool Corps so much. Well, I think that's enough rambling for now. Just thought I would catch all you fine folks up on what's been going on in the world of Jay.

Comic Fest 2010: A Fantastic Spring Day

So, last week was Comic Fest here in Denver and it was a blast. I got some awesome prints of Zatanna and Matilda (Natalie Portman in the Professional), I also picked up a big chunk of the original New Mutants run including a copy of Marvel Graphic Novel No.4 signed by Claremont and McLeod and the issue Cypher died in. Besides the cool raid of the quarter bins and finding out there's a cool little comic shop in Cheyenne. I also got to hang out and have a cigarette with Matthew Sturges (after he signed my copy of JSA: All Stars(which of course, cuz it's me was the issue with Stargirl on the cover). I even made him laugh while doing a bit of monologuing on Power Girl's outfit and the frequency of having to tie Chuck Taylors(which we agreed was a worthwhile cost of wearing cool shoes). Then I got an issue of Madame Xanadu as well as a sketch, and make it even cool was when she told me she remember the review I did here at Monkey Knife Fight of her manga Fool's Gold. She and Matt Sturges are(from my meetings with them) super nice and awesome folks. Oddly, enough while I was there I kept running into Scorpio Steele and Zach Howard (also really neat guys) and I also said "Hi" Armando Durruthy how did an awesome Guy Gardner sketch from me last year and we've kinda been keeping in touch since then. Oh and before I forget I also got a way cool Avengers print done in a style that kinda reminds ya of Bruce Timm's style. though, I didn't have any work critiqued this year I was able to scope out some of the panels. Which for whatever reason, I ended up missing all of the panels last year, which really sucked. All three of the panels I went to were all pretty DC centric and the Marvel panels honestly seemed kinda lame so, I opted for raiding Quarter Bins instead. Well, that's about it had a really great time and hopefully next year they'll move it to a bigger room as it's starting to get really crowded in the space they hold it. I even managed to find a copy of the Marvel Team-Up featuring Spiderman, The New Mutants and Cloak & Dagger, in which Sunspot and Wolfsbane are injected with the drugs that gave Cloak and Dagger their powers. All in all I had a really fun time.

Fool's Gold: A review

For my first post of the new year I thought I would try something different and try to write out a review for one of the books I have really enjoyed. I didn't really set out with any master plan but I just finished re-reading Fool's Gold by Amy Reeder Hadley and thought it would be fun to write up a review of it and hopefully get a couple of people to check it. But, before we get to the book itself I should probably give you my faithful readers a little bit of background on how I came to be in possession of this fine book. Last year I went to Comic Fest (for the first time) here in colorful Colorado and while I was there one of the the writer/artists I met was the creator of this tome, Amy Reeder Hadley. It was pretty cool, though I must confess I wasn't all that familiar with her work before meeting her and really the thing that really piqued my interest in her work was that she had her sketch book open for folks to come by and check out and when I got up to her table it was opened to some of the Sailor Moon sketches she had done and in high school I was a huge Sailor Moon fan, no matter which channel it moved to or what time it aired (even when it started airing here at 6 a.m.) I always tuned in and would be totally bummed if I missed an episode. So, back to the story I flipped through her Sailor Moon drawings and remarked on how much I used to love that series and after chatting for awhile I decided I needed to get some of her work, so I picked out a copy of the first book of her Fool's Gold series and she was nice enough to sign it and draw a neat little sketch for me in the inside cover. So, these facts along with her being a native Coloradan like myself made it extremely hard for me not to like this book upon my first reading of it and if you ever get the chance to meet her Amy Reeder Hadley is a total sweetheart. As you could probably tell by reading this so far I was quite biased in my first reading of this story. Well, since that time (nearly a year since then) a lot of things have gone on in my life some good, some bad, some completely awesome and some completely terrible and the other night as I was getting ready for bed and trying to find something to read before dozing off I figured I go with this story, and boy am I glad I did. Now I'm not really the target audience for this book seeing how I'm a 30 year old hetero male, rather than a teenage girl which is definitely the target audience of this manga. However, even through this second reading I still enjoyed the story quite a lot if not more. If you haven't read the story and I encourage you all to check it out. The story starts off with the main character Penny a fledgling fashion designer who is starting her sophomore year of high school and dealing with her best friend Katie dating a complete jerk whom cheats on her and how Penny keeps trying to get Katie to leave this tool. While reading about pyrite for her Geology class she stumbles upon a classification for the jerks she sees Katie and all the other girls in school fall for and it's during this Geology class the teacher asks for a volunteer to head up the Geology club. This gives Penny the idea to use the cover of the Geology club to get the girls of her school to stop chasing the jerks and look for nice guys to date. Now as a nice guy (and I'm not just that I have references)I enjoyed the idea of girls seeing through the slickness of the douchebags they usually go for(or atleast, did in high school)and seeking out the nice guys in school. Another thing I really loved about this story were the outfits Penny wears,she designs and makes all her own clothes and some of the designs Amy comes up with for the character are just so cool. Plus it doesn't hurt that she mostly wears dresses and if there is one thing I love more than anything else it is seeing a girl in a dress and speaking of the clothes the costumes Mrs. Hadley draws for the school Halloween dance, are just awesome. This story has just gotten better since I've read it again and after reading it the first time I went out and got a copy of Madame Xanadu which Mrs. Hadley also did the artwork for and the issue I picked up by sheer coincidence happened to be the last issue with Amy Hadley doing the artwork on before a new team took over the book. Well, I don't know if this is the best review you'll read for this book. But, I just wanted to share with you fine folks out there on the Internets and Interwebs how much I truly enjoyed reading this book and hopefully turning some of you on to Amy Reeder Hadley's talents as a writer and artist. Plus, I think I may have promised a little more in depth talk on this subject in my posts way back when I first commented on here about the fun time I had at Comic Fest all those months ago.

Free Comic Book Day (Yay!)

I had a really good free comic book day, this year. The funniest part was it was my friend, Kristal who had planned out the day and was super psyched about it (even though she's not into comics). She has young sons and rather than trying to keep comics she would buy for them in decent condition, she takes them to Free Comic Book Day every year and that's their comic book outing. So, with her Husband and kids loaded up in the car. We first went to Mile High Comics, which along with FCBD had a buy one get one free deal going on all of their trades and comics. So, while we were there I picked up the latest issues of Madame Xanadu (since meeting her I've become a big fan of Amy Reeder Hadley), JSA and, The Runaways. I also picked the Showcase collection; Wonder Women vol.1 and The Unknown Soldier vol.1. Then we headed over to I Want More Comics! formerly known as Free Time Comics. Which was even cooler as they had Armando Durruthy and Stan Yan were there selling prints and doing drawings and all that. Which was cool and, I said Hi to Armando while I was there still happy with the Guy Gardner drawing he did for me at Comic Fest. AS for the free comics I picked up; I picked Blackest Night #0 (of course)Gold Digger, Contract (which I had been curious about since the rave reviews it got on Fanboy Radio), Atomic Robo and Love & Capes. So, all in all it was a good day for comics all round.

Comic Fest 2009

So, last weekend was Comic Fest here in Denver. I went Friday and Saturday, I would have loved to attend on Sunday as well. But,a previous engagement kept me from going.My friend Carl's welcome back, which had it not been for seeing a bunch of old school friends and eating BBQ and drink moderately priced beer. I totally, would have gone to the last day. Anyways, back to the fest. It was quite fun I got an awesome Guy Gardner sketch from Armando Durruthy and I got a sign and sketch copy of Fool's Gold from Amy Reeder Hadley. Both of them are super nice folks and I hope that get much attention in the world of comic books.Right now, I'm still waiting to get in touch with Karl Christian to get a print of his drawing of Hank Williams from the his Famous Drunks line he did for Modern Drunkard (magazine). Hopefully, I get that print soon. 'cuz I'm a huge Hank Williams (senior) fan. Another thing I did while I was there was to have Mike Baron (Nexus, The Badger) check out and critique some of my stories. He gave me some really helpful advice and a couple helpful hints to get editors to check my stuff out and even told me I'm pretty good at coming up with neat ideas for comic books. So, hopefully I'll improve in the next year I'll be blowing some minds with my awesome comic book writing skillz. LOL