HIATUS: ABBRACADABBLING BACK TO YOU 27 JUNE!

April Is COMIC BOOK MONTH In PORTLAND...And We Plan A Road-Trip To See KEVIN SMITH

We were definitely bummed out over missing Wonder Con in San Francisco last weekend, but where comics are concerned, there's really no better place to be than Portland, Oregon.   Aside from the numerous comic book shops, galleries, and artists studios throughout the city,  and the fact that four of the nation's most prominent independent comics publishers (Dark Horse Comics, Oni Press, Bluewater, and Top Shelf Productions), along with a veritable 'Who's Who' of today's most prominent comics creators, call the state capitol home, Portland is the only city in the nation able to celebrate Comic Book Month. 

For the third year in a row, Rose City Mayor Sam Adams officially declared April to be Comic Book Month at the 01 April opening of the sixth annual Stumptown Comics Art Show. The exhibit, sponsored by the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Stumptown Comics Fest, and the Sequential Art Gallery features work by 45 local comic book artists, including Paul Guinan, Erika Moen, Garrett Izumi, and will be on display at the Antoinette Hatfield Hall, 1111 S.W. Broadway, through 31 May. 

Portland's Comic Book Month is book-ended on the  far side by the Stumptown Comics Fest 24-25 April. Founded in 2004 by a group of local artists, the 'Fest has become a draw for mainstream and independent creators nationwide.  One reason for the 'Fest's growing appeal may be its relatively unconventional approach to the convention scene:  where larger cons like Wonder Con are dominated by work-for-hire publishers and top-dollar vendors, the Stumptown Comics Fest keeps its focus on the creators and their work, on the art of comics rather than the brand.

This year's 'Fest boats a terrific line-up of special guests, including independent rockstar comics artist Paul Pope, the super-talented New York comics illustrator Dean Haspiel, as well as one of their own, Seattle-based artist Matthew Southworth, co-creator (along with Portland writer Greg Rucka) of the very appropriately-named Stumptown missing persons crime noir series from Oni Press.  Stumptown Comics Fest will be held once again at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel, and additional info and directions can be found-  here.

An amazingly long list of awesome area events fill the days between 01 April's Art Show kick-off and the Comics Fest near month's end, and Portland's world-class comics shops are at the forefront of Comic Book Month activities. One of the city's pre-eminent shops, Floating World Comics , kicked-off the month with an exhibit of their own -  Stumptown: The Art of Matthew Southworth. While we would've loved to be on hand for April Fool's, the good news is the store is running the exhibit through 25 April, so maybe we'll see you there.

In full-swing even right this very moment is Cosmic Monkey Comics' third annual 24 Hour Comic Event: Drawpocalypse 3.  Professional and amateur artists sharpened their pencils as early as 10am this morning, their goal to each produce 24 completed pages of comics before the clock runs out tomorrow - Sunday 11 April - at 10am.  Fans, on-lookers, late-night shoppers, and insomniacs of all colors and kinds are encouraged to stop by the store's new location at literally ANY time to see the artists in action.   Cosmic Monkey is located at 5335 NE Sandy Blvd in Portland as well as online, here.   If you're not in Portland, chances are one of your local comics retailers will be sponsoring their own 24 Hr Comics event this year, too.  Find out on the 24 Hr Comics Day national website  - here.

Portland's Comic Book Month reaches its half-way point next week, welcoming actor, filmmaker, and comics creator Kevin Smith as it does. Smith takes his unique, uncensored brand of storytelling to center stage at Portland's McMenamins Crystal Ballroom for An Evening with Kevin Smith this Monday, 12 April, beginning at 8pm. 

Our entire Office is excited for the show, despite the fact not a one of us owns a ticket. But again, good news is to be had: seats for Smith's three-hours of irreverence are still available. We found some sweet ones at TicketMaster  [here] for $50 plus their rather pricey $10 fee. To steep? Our internet search revealed several other online vendors, but time's short and the only better deal for An Evening with Kevin Smith you're likely to stumble upon is that $2 Clerks rental at the corner Blockbuster.  Unless, of course, the one on your corner's been closed. Seriously, Blockbuster's going under, but that doesn't mean you have to  go with them. Y'all are welcome to come with us instead; so, man up, dabblers, and get those tickets tonight!

We've only just scratched the surface of that comic book celebration going on 90 miles to our North, and there's no way we'll be able to do Portland's Comic Book Month the justice it deserves. Other than throwing the idea out to the comicsblogosphere that maybe we should all start clamoring for a National Comic Book Month, we're outta here for the night and leave you in the informative and oh-so-capable hands of the Stumptown Comics Fest folks as we go. 

You can find a wonderfully detailed schedule of every Comic Book Month event you'll want to be at on their website HERE - with links a plenty that'll take you exactly where you want to go.  You may also want to give a listen to  S.W. Conser, host of  Words and Pictures on Portland's KBOO Community Radio. Conser recently welcomed Stumptown Comics Festival director Shannon Stewart and Stumptown Comic Book Foundation president Kaebel Hashitani to his talk show, and it's a half-hour run-down of everything going on up the road you might not want to miss.  Give your peepers a pause and give a listen HERE.

 

LOGAN'S RUN: Journey...or Destination? PLUS: William F. Nolan Signs in Portland Tomorrow!!

"Sometime in the 23rd century...the survivors of war, overpopulation and pollution are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the forgotten world outside..." 

If those words strangely compel you to slip into a skin-tight black jumpsuit and go for a jog like the one we just got back from, then you're either a fan of Logan's Run or just really, really weird.  Oddly enough, either notion's appropriate, considering that Logan's Run creator William F. Nolan's idea for the 1967 novel he co-wrote came from a presentation he gave for Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont's science fiction class at UCLA in 1963.

Nearly fifty years later, Nolan's protagonist Logan is poised for not just a new 'run,' but potentially a marathon.   One leg of this futuristic race will happen just 24 hours from now, when Portland-based comics retailer Things From Another World (TFAW) hosts a special in-store event with Nolan himself.  If you're in the area, abbracadabbling your way over to TFAW's Portland location to meet the legendary science fiction author and geek his signature would be a very worthy way to spend the afternoon, we think.  Get your directions to TFAW and the event's 411 right HERE.

While Nolan and co-author George Clayton Johnson's milestone science fiction novel was published while Star Trek was airing on television,  Logan's Run's influence on science fiction  was most directly felt thanks to the 1976 MGM movie adaptation starring Michael York. The  movie version did alter several facets of the book before it was brought to the big screen, but the essence remained the same.  The story follows the adventures of Logan 3, a “Sandman” charged with hunting those who flee rather than surrender themselves to “sleep.” A jewel embedded in each person's hand at birth changes colors every seven years, marking the stages of life, until it turns black after 21 years -- one's lastday. As Logan himself nears the completion of his allotted years, he begins to hear whispers of a place called Sanctuary where runners can escape the Sandmen and the obligation of Sleep. Logan resolves to use his lastday to find Sanctuary and destroy it... but of course doubts cloud the way.

The movie's popularity also spawned a short-lived Logan's Run television series, an ongoing comic strip published in the United Kingdom, and an equally short-lived comic book series published in 1977 by Marvel Comics here at home.  (Logan's Run was also attempted unsuccessfully a few years later by former publisher Malibu Comics).

But now Nolan and Logan's Run are back in comics - and going strong.  Although Nolan himself was a comic book writer by trade, having worked before his novel years for Whitman Comics, a division of Walt Disney, writing Mickey Mouse stories, he's not the chief scribe behind Logan's latest comic incarnation. Instead, he's licensed his creation to Vancouver, Washington-based Bluewater Productions, who developed the idea for a new the ongoing series, Logan's Run: Lastday, written by Paul J. Salamoff with art by Daniel Gete.

Lastday's first issue hit shelves in late 2009, but what ever additions to the post-apocalyptic world of  Logan's Run the comic may make, it's Daniel Gete's new costume designs for the series - like the new look for the stormtrooper-esque Sandmen - that are of particularly important to Nolan.

Under his arrangement with Bluewater, Nolan has approval of all story and design elements for the new Logan's Run series.  While many creators would want such an agreement to ensure  their visions aren't somehow terribly disfigured by other creators, Nolan's control is of greater significance.

While he hasn't directly stated why the 'look' of his new Logan's Run comic is so important, Nolan did tell Comic Book Resources last summer that part of his reason to get Logan back in the the fan boy public eye was to push Warner Bros along on their much-delayed Logan's Run movie remake.  Warner's optioned Logan's Run twelve years ago, with seven writers and four directors having been attached to the project since. More recently, Joel Silver has been named as the film's producer, but Logan's Run is just one of a dozen-plus films Silver appears to have on his plate for the next several years. Even so, and with Bluewater's help,  Nolan's trying his best to 're-energize' Logan's Run so that the race his character began a half-century ago will finally find a suitable finish line.  

Bluewater Productions has built most of their comics lines around properties like Logan's Run.  Aside from their biographically-slanted titles Female Force and Political Power, their most popular books include Ray Harryhausen Presents, William Shatner Presents, Vincent Price Presents, and Legend Film's Plan 9 From Outer Space.   So, for Logan's Run to find new and deserved life in comic book form - especially at Bluewater Productions - is a fitting realization for an older yet still-resonant science fiction property.

Yet unlike their other creator-licensed titles (with the possible exception of William Shatner's), Nolan's involvement with comic books seems primarily motivated by his feature film aspirations.  To us, this brings up an entirely new matter of debate - namely, comic books not being an end unto themselves, but simply as a potential marketing vehicle that exists only as material for an eventual Hollywood pitch.

It's the hope of any creator - writer or artist - that their work might one day reach today's highest pinnacle of media success and become the next summer blockbuster, but few (Radical Publishing's The Last Days of American Crime being one) have been positioned like Nolan's new Logan's Run series.  Despite the intentions and the comic's purpose for Nolan, a comic book's purpose is to entertain -- and to the extent Salamoff and Gete's Last Day does, we think, should be the sole reason to support the series or judge it by.  Beyond that, our jury's still out, and only two things are certain. (1) You can bet your Nike's that we'll be returning to this topic in a later blog and (2) if there's any good reason to find yourself at Things From Another World's event with William F. Nolan tomorrow, it'd be to address this very question with the author himself.

If we're not on the blog tomorrow, you'll know exactly where we are. 

Our love of science fiction and graphic design's wave of minimalism meant we had to share this fantastically redesigned Logan's Run movie poster by Tom Muller.  Muller included the piece as part of the Now Showing exhibition at London's Cosh Gallery. Although it ain't cheap, Muller's Logan's Run has been made available as a 50 cm x 70 cm Giclée print on Da Vinci Archival Art Paper in a limited edition of 25 , offered by Wear It With Pride on their site HERE.  And you can check out more of Muller's sweet designs on his website, HERE.

Exhibitionism: The Art of Video Games in 2012

If getting to the bottom of the Mayan mystery isn't enough of a reason to look forward to  2012,  we've got something else for you to put on your calendar. Beginning in March of that year, The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, will open The Art of Video Games, the first-ever US exhibition to comprehensively examine the evolution of video games as an artistic medium. 

Thanks to Atari and the Pong revolution of  the early 1970's, video games have become an  integral part of American culture.  Over 70% of our households play video games on a regular basis - and as Nielsen's findings [below] tells us, regular is a relative concept.

Source: [link] via [link]

While the numbers have many implications, there's no denying that video games - and home computers - have had tremendous influence on two generations of Americans, an entirely new medium of imagery, narrative, action and interaction engaging audiences and shaping lives.  Ed of the Indianapolis Museum of Art illustrates the video game influence in his life and particularly on his appreciation for Japanese art on the Museum's Blog HERE. 

Ed's blog also represents the growing popularity of  video game-inspired art exhibitions, which have increased in number over the last decade.  The Art of Video Games will take a much more interesting approach to the subject: the exhibit will focus on the development of video game visual effects and aesthetics since 1970, the emergence of games as a means for storytelling, the influence of world events and popular culture on game development, and the impact that the games can have on society. 

It's a fascinating subject and although The Smithsonian may be breaking new 'exhibitionary ground' here, they're not establishing this area of study but responding to it en force. Which is great news for your dude the Dabbler, because I've been craving something new to in which to sink my academic incisors.  

Everybody in the Springfield Home Office intends to make the trek to our nation's capitol for this show. If you do, too, The Art of Video Games runs 16 March 2012 through 09 September 2012.  The Smithsonian American Art Museum is located at 8th and F Streets NW in Washington, DC.  A downloadable PDF map of the Museum and directions to it can be found at the link. [link]

Speaking of Atari and video games, as your favorite comicsblog is so inclined to do from time to time, we've been wondering what the 'grandfather' of video game consoles has been up recently.  Their mainstay logo has become entrenched in pop-culture  iconography to be sure, but we've been hoping the company's been looking as far forward as they have behind them. Still,  Atari has rolled out their online Arcade, a cool site more than worthy of our monitor minutes.  Though the selection's a bit limited (so far), Atari does have six of it more classic games high-score enabled and available for your online playing pleasure: Adventure, Asteroids, Battlezone, Lunar Lander, Crystal Castle and Yars’ Revenge.   Not that we ever have much time to sink -- always plenty of blogwork to do if we want to keep impressing our dabblers every day! But if you've got some spare time, check out the Atari Arcade HERE.

Green Lantern:CORPS RECRUITMENT POSTERS (6-8/8) + 'Building The Blackest Night' News!

We really, really think the eight Corps Recruitment Posters we've had on the comicsblog  for the last week or so are killer.  Hell, they make us want to enlist!  A truly talented Green Lantern fan by the (code) name of 'heart-attack jack' is the dude responsible, and jack, if you're out there, we'd like to thank you for the wonderful creations -- they've really helped us sow the seeds of Blackest Night  on abbracadabbling. 

* * * * * 

If you cruise around the comics blogosphere at all, you've undoubtedly wondered why abbracadabbling's barely mentioned DC Comics' super-huge Blackest Night comics event -- especially when nearly every  other fanboy blog and comics news site can talk about nothing else! Okay, that's a slight exaggeration --- but just slight.   

Of course, that's our point right there. We've stayed out of the Blackest Night racket for that every reason -- up until now, anyway.  We didn't intend to stay away from the Lantern fray forever. Time for us to make good on the hints we've been dropping almost since the day the blog went live.  Yes,  our long-anticipated report Building The Blackest Night is on it's way!  


While we'll be talking about DC Comics' reinvented Green Lantern universe, we'll also be examining the many creative, strategic, and promotional aspects of the Blackest Night  event -- from the crossover comic book storylines to DC's marketing and sales promotions and the impact they've had on the company's bottom line, to DC Direct's action figures and the many other ancillary products, to the greater implications  of the limited series and its 'big picture' problem-solving potential.  Last but not least, we'll take a look at the creative architect of the Blackest Night event, writer Geoff Johns, and we'll examine what this series means for him as well as says what it says about him  -- and comics writers in general.

Excited? You should be! We are (yikes!) Look for Building The Blackest Night just after the first of the New Year.  (Rather ambitious of us, if we do say so ourselves!)  

In the meantime, we'll have the latest news for you on the upcoming Green Lantern movie, and probably a ton of other cool art.  Tonight we finish up our Corps Recruitment series with the final three Lantern Corps posters - Yellow, Indigo, and Black! And next...even more fan-made Green Lantern fun -- stay with us, dabblers!

Sinestro Corps Recruitment Poster

via heart attack jack [link]

Indigo Tribe Recruitment Poster

via heart attack jack [link]

The Black Lantern Corps

via heart attack jack [link]