Always Remember!

Okay, I think this thing is cooling off, but since Lefty* just did his on Friday, and Dorian posted yet another addition Monday, I don’t think it’s too late for a handful more, although the trend seems to be moving to valentine cards featuring people from movies I haven't seen.

It may have started as a simple paean to the virtues and neverending love of one Ted Grant, but the whole thing has to have taken on a life of its own. Dorian seems committed to keeping the list of new creations up and has put a link to it on his sidebar. Wonder how long it will keep going?

Like some other folks, I’ve found that once you start doing these, it’s hard to stop. Characters kept popping into my head and I just HAD to come up with something for them. I’ve resisted putting anything else up, but I think I need to get it all out of my system, once and for all.

Reading what others come up with has been a real trip. Like Mike, I’ve been impressed with the range of creativity, coupled with the feeling of both homage and biting wit that’s on display in so many of them. And, hey, it pulled me back to my blog this year!

Anyway, I did my first one because I felt there weren’t enough non-mainstream characters being used. I kind of continued in that spirit, so this latest creative spurt of mine ended up turning into a romp through some of my favorite (including a few bygone) independent and alternative titles.


So, what else is new? Bitchy is from the late Naughty Bits by Roberta Gregory.

I miss Bone. It was one of a trio of titles that saved me as a comic reader several years ago. (Naughty Bits and Stray Bullets were the others.) Now all these years on, two of them are gone. Sigh! By the way, I am looking for Bone collections to fill out my set. I’m looking for the hardbacks (because I started buying them in hb and have this maddening consistency thing), in black and white (because I just don’t care for the color versions and there’s still that consistency thing to deal with), hopefully second-hand for around 10 or 15 bucks a pop (because I’m cheap). That’s right: I’m a tightwad snob with OCD. You read it here first.

So please try again later, won’t you?

From Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze. Well, somebody had to up the homo content a little! I actually wanted to use the panel of them kissing, but didn’t want to hunt for the issue. I don’t have the trade that collects that issue yet, but do have the first one, so I was able to find a sort of substitute. That’s the difference between pawing through a long box and going to a bookshelf for you. (What? You think I’m Mike Sterling or something??) Anyway, taken out of context, the expression on Achille’s face gets at what I was going for. Scan is a little warped because I didn’t want to crack the spine of the book, which, of course, would be the advantage to working with the floppies on something like this.

But you all already knew that didn’t you? If not, check out the Dark Horse Little Lulu reprints and see why! This is probably my favorite comic being published right now.

From Carla Speed McNeil’s awesome Finder, which has now retreated to the web to continue the story. And, by the way, I do mean the part about sexy!

Switching to some anime:

Wedding Peach is one of my favorite anime series. Part parody, part rip off, it’s like Sailor Moon on girly-steroids! It’s chock full of all the delirious, over-the-top craziness that I love in magical girls anime. This line is a nod to the excellent fansub from the TechnoGirls. Like Sailor Moon, Peach is prone to making long speeches in the midst of the fight scenes in which she outlines the offenses of the villains and declares her opposition to their evil. On the TG fansubs, these speeches always ended with something like, “and I, Wedding Peach, am severely perturbed at this.” (Click the link above and scroll about halfway down for a more in depth explanation of this.) Then she would attack. Needless to say, I loved it. I haven’t had a chance to get the WP commercial US releases, so I don’t know if that aspect was preserved or not, but when I started thinking about creating little graphics that start “CHARACTER NAME is doing or feeling something,” well, it didn’t take long for Momoko and crew to leap to mind.

And speaking of Sailor Moon. And fight speeches. And catchphrases. The first US dub release used the “I will punish you” line more than the original Japanese version did (or at least that seems to be the way I recall it), but it certainly works well in this context. And once WP came into the picture (so to speak) it was only a short hop to Sailor Moon herself.

Nuff said! (At least I know Mike agrees with me.)

Okay, so she’s not a comic character. She is, however, the goddess of music, and that’s good enough for me.

And on that note:



It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s time to move on to other blog topics. (hopefully)

*Speaking of Mr. Brown, Mike** was kind enough to provide the link to where his blog is currently residing, until he gets things straightened out. I updated the links in my earlier post to reflect this. Lefty also gives an update in the comments section for that same post and at his log. Roger Green also did excellent work as part of the "Find Lefty" patrol and left notes in various places.

**Did I actually just name-check Mike Sterling four times in one post?

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