September 2005 Archives

This is one awesome show for small press publishers like myself! SPX (Small Press Expo) is all about the DIY style, and MOPED ARMY was greeted with VERY enthusiastic response. Also sold a bunch of books along the way, with a few new book reviews in the works from various online gurus. I'll share them with you as soon as I know where they'll be. Also picked up a ton of really good stuff from new and established creators, and got to meet Harvey Pekar, the man behind the comic and film "AMERICAN SPLENDOR". SPX is for creators, run by creators and is sure as hell on my convention list for next yea

Stop #2 on the continuing TWO STROKE INVASION TOUR, this time touching down at FANFARE COMICS in Kalamazoo, hometown of the "Decepticons" branch of the Moped Army. Another awesome signing, cool people a-plenty, and Moped Cookies!

Special thanks to the entire staff of Fanfare Sports and Entertainment for hosting me and making the signing a success.
Thanks also for the SWARM of Decepticons who showed up to represent and eat cookies!

NEXT STOP: SPX in Bethesda, Maryland! A BIG one! More news when I return!

First stop on the tour, and it was a blast! Kudos to Dan and Katie Merritt of Green Brain Comics for being the best hosts ever, helping me sell many books, feeding me good Thai food, and being generally awesome people with a kick ass store. Thanks also to the members of the Noviy Lef branch of the Moped Army who were able to stop by and hang out.

Next stop: Fanfare Sports and Entertainment, Kalamazoo, Michigan, SEPTEMBER 21! Home of the Decepticons branch of the Moped Army.

Woo-hoo! Check out the REVIEW!

Here it is in case you don't feel like linking:
BOOK OF THE WEEK: MOPED ARMY

There's something of a tradition of engine love in my family. My Dad is a self-taught mechanical genius, or so he claims before cheerfully breaking cars with gay abandon and a spanner. My eldest brother drives his cars like he rode his motorbikes: with a terrifying blind disregard for his own mortality. And my younger-older brother used to serve his country by fixing the engines of impossibly huge aeroplanes, in order that they might transport machines of war, much-needed food aid, or on one notable occasion, a drunk medical student from Manchester to the Falkland Isles.

I don't share my family's fascination, but I can't say that I'm completely immune to the combustion engine's charms: there's a Chrysler dealership in Bishop's Stortford with an indelible, Turinesque mark on the window, where I spent many a day staring at the 1996 Dodge Viper and weeping into my empty wallet.

Man's love for all things greasy extends into the realm of comics in a number of different ways, from the fast and furious world of INITIAL D to the suspiciously transparent joys of the TRANSFORMERS (car with boobies, that's all I'm saying). And beyond that, there's a sub-genre of 'Motor Comics' that deals with the communities that spring up around the vehicles as readily as any other obsession.

Paul Sizer's MOPED ARMY (Café Digital Studios) deals with just such a community, a real-life organization of Vespaphiles and scootaholics that's more Honda Addicts than Hell's Angels. The book projects the gang two hundred years into tomorrow, into a world of sharp suits and sharper class divides. It's a cyberpunky backdrop familiar to fans of Marvel's long-forgotten 2099 imprint and Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA.

Judging by the extensive previews here (in PDF) and here (non-PDF), MOPED ARMY will have much the same spirit of Youth Solidarity as AKIRA or Dave Gibbons' THE ORIGINALS. However, the cast (and their vehicles) have a kitbashed look that distinguishes them from the slick future-Mod aesthetic of Gibbons' earlier work.

The preview pages also remind me of Brian Wood's counter-cultural comics POUNDED and THE COURIERS, but with a purer moral dichotomy, reminiscent of a hundred high school dramas. The Moped Army are The Nerds, picked on (and off) by the unexpectedly vicious Rich Kids. Browbeaten central character Simone is caught between both worlds. But for how long?

Sizer's graphic novel boasts appealing character art and a solid (future) worldview. I'm sure that MOPED ARMY will transcend the familiarity of the core premise, doing both creator and community proud. [Matthew Craig]

Photos were obtained by the staff at Cafe Digital Studios to confirm rumors that the MOPED ARMY graphic novel does in fact exist, is NOT a fevered hallucination of Paul Sizer's, and will soon be in stores across the world.
Now in my hands, soon in yours!

During this summer, I did a number of teen workshops at libraries around Michigan. The workshops were about comics and manga, and I was able to meet a ton of really enthusiastic young artists who had real love for the medium. A few of them contacted me after the workshops to ask technique questions, stuff like that. One of the more enthusiastic ones, who for privacy will be called G (14 or 15 years old), just sent me this email message:

Excerpt:
"... Believe it or not i was in the hospital on 8/29/05 . I had a grandmal seizure i was told and even today on friday i have lost my memory of everything in the past. I dont remember my friends and im slowly remembering my family. (G's best friend and artistic collaborator, N) is one of the only people i can recall and she is helping me threw this difficult time. Postanestisia i think its called, my nerologist said. It should go away and with time i should regain memory of who i am and everyone and thing around me. But she did remind me of you and that we met you in imlay city at a library. I read threw past emails and read your comics and profiles to jog my thoughts. Im slowly remembering you and forgive me for saying this..."

Wow. Makes me bitching about almost losing my laptop hard drive last week seem kind of small and stupid. I emailed G back and told her to email me if she wanted any help with relearning any of the art techniques we've been talking about. If I was this together when I was 15, I'd be king of hte world right now.
Get better, G. More than ever, the world needs people who generate beauty and inspriation.

Big enough, any way. Jane and I just finalized a deal for Sizer Design+Illustration to do website work for Random House Publishing, specifically their Del Rey Manga division! They are looking for us to design "mini-sites" for each of their new manga releases, starting with 3 initial releases, then hopefully leading to more work in the coming months (possibly as many as 11 more this year, and 15 more in the first half of 2006). They have just approved 3 initial site concepts (which I am VERY happy with in terms of design), and Jane is working to develop the Java and HTML needed to run these sites, which will have daily updates of pages from these new releases. The new releases are GHOST HUNT, GACHA GACHA and SUGAR SUGAR RUNE, and Del Rey is happy with what they see so far.

MUSIC OF THE DAY:
Lee Coombs: "Breakfast of Champions" (great breakbeat antics, great for driving to)
Towa Tei: "Flash" (includes a very weird but cool version of "My Sharona")
Echo and the Bunnymen: "Songs To Learn and Sing" (fixed on "The Killing Moon" right now)
Easy Star All Stars: "Dub Side of the Moon" (yes, a reggae version of "Dark Side of the Moon")