Umbrella Academy: the Emo-iest Superheroes Ever

(yes, I've been on a comic book kick the last year. get off my back!)

Came across the Umbrella Academy in the library recently. Read the first volume, the Apocalypse Suite, which serves as an introduction to this new group of superheroes.

All in all, it's pretty fun. Brilliant artwork, vision, and tone. An interesting and unique world that it's set in. Bounces between light-hearted, silly, and unapologetically grotesque (there's a great half-page of a monkey named Pogo getting his brains squished out by the lethal chords of a violin that will stick with me forever). And also, rather ambitious writing.

But... it was created by Gerard Way, the front-man for the band My Chemical Romance. And that kinda bugs me. And it also explains much of the tone, and some of the holes...

I mostly hate superhero comics. Why? Because they are so fucking repetitive. And while the superheroes of Umbrella Academy do possess rather unique abilities and backgrounds, their personalities and roles are so predictably the children of other superhero groups like TMNT, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Justice League, and Watchmen. ESPECIALLY Watchmen. In fact, I could easily argue that Umbrella Academy is an emo version of Watchmen.

Still, I had fun reading it. And if the library has the next volume, I'll read that too. Won't pay for it though. Fuck that.

An Exploration of Ancient Icelandic Linguistics by Dylan Love

Got Dylan Love to write another funny little story for the NinjaPancakes.com Reader this month, "An Exploration of Ancient Icelandic Linguistics." Dylan shares what he thinks everyday life was like for the Icelandic people in the 12th and 13th centuries.

ENJOY!

If you'd like to contribute a one or two page story to the NinjaPancakes.com Reader, email me!

Abe and Daisy Sketches

Some more sketches from Zach for THEY ARE IDIOTS.

These are some ideas for Abe, Zombie union leader. Yes, he's a bit of a nod to Abe Vigoda, who just happens to look like a zombie these days because of his advanced age.



Some ideas for six-year-old Daisy, who is just full of surprises. Keeps close and dangerous company with beings beyond the living.


And of course another portrait of Seagram.

ThanksMything, Again

I shared this article last year around Thanksgiving time and I'd like to do so again. Just a reminder that although Thanksgiving is a nice, low-key holiday that brings families together, the myth and legends behinds its origins are clouded in bullshit and lies.

This Thanksgiving I'll be with my family, including my grandmother who immigrated to the States from a war-ravaged Europe in the late 1940s. This country doesn't romanticize and rationalize the shit she went through 60 years ago, so why does this country romanticize and ignore the shit that went down nearly 400 years ago at the so-called birth of a nation?


Native blood: the truth behind the myth of `Thanksgiving Day'
By Mike Ely

It is a deep thing that people still celebrate the survival of the early colonists at Plymouth - by giving thanks to the Christian God who supposedly protected and championed the European invasion. The real meaning of all that, then and now, needs to be continually excavated. The myths and lies that surround the past are constantly draped over the horrors and tortures of our present.

Every schoolchild in the United States has been taught that the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited the local Indians to a major harvest feast after surviving their first bitter year in New England. But the real history of Thanksgiving is a story of the murder of indigenous people and the theft of their land by European colonialists-and of the ruthless ways of capitalism.

Some Early Character Sketches

As mentioned previously, I'm in the process of making a comic book, a horror comedy called THEY ARE IDIOTS, written by me and illustrated by Zach Smith. Still in the early phases: draft scripts, lengthy coffee shop discussions, character sketching, brainstorming, et cetera.

Above are preliminary sketchings that Zach made of Seagram Graham, the everyman/straight-man/comic foil/realistic character of THEY ARE IDIOTS. Coming from a Clive Owens/John Constantine sorta realm.

I know it's still early, but I'm excited. This was a comic idea I came up with a couple years ago but couldn't get off the ground on my own. Happy to be working with Zach, a talented illustrator who shares my enthusiasm for the project. Hopefully some hard work and fun will result in a solid comic.

Zombie Walk in Portland

Dirt On Our Hands, again

For what I think is the third year in a row I revisited these stories again. A collection of admittedly bleak, nihilistic short stories I wrote during college mainly for writing workshops. About five inter-connected characters, none of them very good people.

I think I was aiming for Hemingway meets Brett Easton Ellis meets some rather familiar assholes everyone knew from college.

Take a gander if you like: Dirt On Our Hands.