The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 432: Alien Worlds #5, December 1983 (Little Tiny Break in "War Week" Day One More!)

Okay, one more. The first comic I blogged from the Edmonton Con last year was a copy of Alien Worlds, so I thought this was fitting. Bruce Jones tells creepy little stories. If you're a fan of The Twilight Zone, this is the sci-fi comic for you. And what's great is that Jones and his collaborators are equally comfortable with 3-page dialogueless stories or longer, complex, and quite verbose narratives. The lead story in this one, "Lip Service," offers a viewpoint of life from the compound eyes of a Praying Mantis. I'm not sure if these stories have ever been reprinted, but they'd be amazing in a genre-literature course in an English program.

So, tomorrow, seriously, I'll get back to the war comics. Promise. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 431: SpaceSquatch: State of the Union Digress, 2015 (Little Tiny Break in "War Week" Day Only!)

You knew it was going to happen, right?

This was an amazingly strange comic. Had I known how strange this comic was going to be, I would have bought everything on James Zintel's table at the Calgary Comic Expo.

(Oh, so I was at the Calgary Expo today, my first time since moving to the city 3.5 years ago. It was awesome, and I'll write it up properly [promise this time, not like my Edmonton con failure to launch] eventually. I came home with art and comics and amazing Kirby Krackle albums. More on that later.)

I don't know what I was expecting from a comic about a Sasquatch in Outer Space, who is "Future President of Freedom." I actually am not sure I can describe it adequately. It's less stories, and more little poems of disorder and cuteness. SpaceSquatch is faced with strange situations, and answers them with stranger situations. Glorious little visualizations of the ridiculous. My favourite is a strip in which SpaceSquatch fires an Afro onto his head, leaps from his chair, and yells "Super Fly!"

Go to James Zintel's website and throw money at him so he can continue to make little gems of strangeness like this.

Onward.

2016 University of Calgary Free Exchange Graduate Conference

Hey all.
This is a plug for my lovely colleagues who are organizing our annual graduate conference next March. Have a look at the Call for Papers, and then come and join us for what promises to be an interesting and fun weekend of scholarship. Having run this conference for a couple of years, I know how much time and energy is devoted to making it a fantastic experience for all involved. You won't regret your visit to Calgary.

For more information, about the conferences and those past, check out the Wordpress site.