Archive for June, 2010
The Ink Panthers Show! Summer Special
Out of the blue – there’s another Ink Panthers podcast posted this week! We were very happy with the special 50th episode two-part extravaganza, but wanted to go out on a less sleepy note before we take a little break for a few weeks. Also, there was an annoying hiss all throughout the 50th episode show, which we aren’t really sure what the cause was. Maybe the internet was as tired as we were. Anyhow, in this bonus episode, we talk about some of the things we’re looking forward to this Summer, and then complain about some popular things that we don’t like very much. Also, we start talking about an exciting upcoming live event, which you can be sure we will mention again and again until the day it happens this coming August. Comments welcome!
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Troop 142 – Trading Post and Secret Acres
Two new Troop 142 pages posted. Alan makes a phone-call home, and then finds himself with a little alone time.
Speaking of Troop 142, I haven’t blogged about it too much, but I’ve been putting together minicomics made from each individual chapter. These have been great for sending out to friends, and also for selling at MoCCA this past May.
I’m very excited to announce though, that the first four minicomics are now available in the Secret Acres Emporium, an online store that sells quality comics by a lot of talented cartoonists. My books can be gotten here.
In addition to distributing minicomics, Secret Acres has also published some books, including Monsters by Ken Dahl, and PS Comics by Minty Lewis, both of which I thought were fantastic reads.
Giant-Sized Ink Panthers #50, Part 2!
Comics Scribe, Matt Fraction joins us in The Panther’s Lair to talk Sumo Wrestling, Smelly Shoes, Indecent Science-Fiction movie Aliens, and Marvel Comics Writer’s Retreats, where they all gather in the woods and do Trust Exercises and things like that. Also: it’s 2AM in the morning when we record, so you know Mike and Alex are totally at their best and on their toes! Not sleepy at all! Comments Welcome!
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Invincible Iron Man artwork by Salvador Larroca
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Giant-Sized Ink Panthers #50, Part 1!
Episode 50 is here, and it’s so big we had to split it in two!! Listen to Alex and Mike, as they struggle to stay awake working their way through the Slush Pile and waiting for their special guest to join them from the West Coast. Topics include: Cosplay at the Phoenix Comicon, Renaissance Festivals, and the Comiket Comics Show in Tokyo; the imminent Collapse of society; and a recent challenge that has been laid before us, which we will surely accept. Comments Welcome!
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Troop 142 – Nineteen Seventy Four
Three new Troop 142 pages posted. What does Jason know? Where’s Matt? What’s Big-Bear going to talk to them about?
The Ink Panthers Show! #49 ACTUALLY featuring John Kovalic
This time we successfully create a record of John Kovalic’s time spent with us inside The Panther’s Lair. We discuss his passion for gaming, his feelings about selling the mega-popular get-together game Apples to Apples to Mattel, and his relationship to comics. Plus, an announcement which is sure to excite Dork Tower fans. Also: Alex thinks Revenge of the Sith is a better movie than Return of the Jedi. Insanity!! Comments Welcome!
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Troop 142 – Thursday Begins
Five new pages have been posted, kicking off Thursday, the fifth chapter in the book. I actually went back to a discarded sequence for this scene here, using the same location, and some of the same lines. I think it works to much better effect now.
My Kid Could Paint That
Watched this movie last night. What starts off as a pretty interesting documentary about the relative value of art, sort of starts to devolve into a story about whether or not the little girl is actually the one painting the paintings, or if it’s a hoax. I give the filmmaker credit for including material showing his own inner conflict about pursuing the hoax storyline, and generally showing us that he wishes he could believe that it was all the little girl. There’s definitely food for thought there, but in the end I kind of wish that he’d chosen not to release his movie, since it became more about the mystery, and less about modern art. It’s just one more layer of scrutiny into this little girl’s life.
I was thinking though, that a more interesting question than simply “did the girl do the paintings?”, is the question of “why would it make the paintings any less valuable if they weren’t painted by a four year old?”. Whether or not she painted them, don’t the actual paintings themselves remain the same? What gives them value?
This does get addressed, I’ll admit. I just wish the film could have remained tightly focused in this way. One scene I really liked was when the gallery owner who sells the paintings, who is a photorealist painter himself, speaks of his own frustrations in an art world that deems his work, which takes him months, less valuable than an abstract painting which took far less time. Do we value art based on the hours that it took to create? Like an hourly rate? Or, is there no practical way to quantify what’s good and what’s bad?
