Showing up for Indie Comics
You can't show up for art you don't know about.
Anyone else have this experience every May?
The sudden blast of new creators, stories, and titles the week after Free Comic Book Day (aka Comics Giveaway Day) always leaves me equal parts overwhelmed and buzzing with anticipation for the next book I get to crack into. Some early favorites include Terrorbytes (Mad Cave), Decidium (Image), and Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming adaptation (Ten Speed Graphic). Admittedly, it’s still a pretty large stack. And this year I already had a similar experience just weeks beforehand…
Last month at the STAPLE Expo in Austin, Texas, I met about 25 indie comic creators and purchased books from most of them. I wish I’d bought more, because the experience changed how I’m thinking about comics as a medium, this news venture, and what’s missing from the overall conversation.
And what’s missing, unsurprisingly, are these folks. The creators who are publishing respectably constructed print books, putting out single issues, and showing up to tiny conventions with special promo copies they’re probably losing money on. I showed up late to STAPLE, and was surprised to hear I was a lot of people’s first payment of the day. These are the sorts of weird, let-your-mind-wander, intentionally constructed experiments within the comics medium that Alan Moore opines about the world needing more of in occasional interviews and book forewords. And it’s who most people are missing out on simply because they don’t know about these series. You can't show up for art you don't know about. But the same creators would be showing up regardless.
So I’m going to show up. For them, for their art, and what’s driving their passion. I’m going to buy the books I report on here and make noise where there’s merit. But with Weird City, I’m also trying to carve out a better way to introduce these creators at large, or at least celebrate them. In the short term, that means spending a little time each week highlighting one of these indie books rather than digesting all of them within a roundup.
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Side Questers & Why I’m Excited for Dan Wolff’s Career
Dan Wolff feels like the sort of rare talent that comes with an assumption that you somehow missed the bulk of his comics work until now. What other explanation is there for someone such as myself, who’s constantly steeped in comics entertainment, only now encountering a book like Side Questers, which recently released its first collected edition in print?
Side Questers is a fantasy adventure series that opens with a stoic warrior woman who’s charged with stopping a returning evil from stomping on the world. That’s on top of being a resident hero to everyday folks, with and without a sword in hand. And she’s joined in an unlikely partnership with an infamous Lizard-man. It’s properly odd, with a fun story to boot. But I cannot stress enough that the reason to pick it up is Wolff’s overall art — showcasing illustration, colors, and lettering in conjunction to tell a story with maximum impact.
Wolff’s command of sequential art comes through strongly, as do his bold color choices and detailed inks. The art also lends itself well to pacing. A writer/artist duo might shy away from these sorts of deliciously large world-building scenes without much story text. But Wolff’s pages almost turn themselves. And in both directions…
For instance, pages 13, 14, and 15. It’s a sequence I nearly broke the spine flipping back and forth. Also worth noting is the use of word art. Illustrating sound effects is always a tricky element in graphic fiction, because the line between distracting and helpful is faint. Though Wolff pulls it off many times, joining other SFX masters like Marcos Martin.
I could easily screenshot another half dozen examples from that first issue, but it’s best if you just check it out for yourself.
Side Questers Vol. 1 is available in print via Barnes & Noble and Power Pulp, with a second volume already in motion. Or if you’d prefer digital, issues 1-9 are available on GlobalComix. (Also good: Three Panel Origins, his web comic series, offering original origin stories told in three panels.)
