Stuff I Like: WTF with Marc Maron

I don't have a lot of new work to post right now; besides working on the next volume of "Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit", I've been working on some private commissions that I'm not really free to post to this space.  I've got a cover coming up for an issue of "Sky Pirates of Valendor", but that's about it for public work for now.

Still, I've got to use this space for something, don't I?  So, I thought it might be a good opportunity to start sharing some reviews of things I enjoy.  Like my self-publishing work, this will be done on an "as I can get to it" basis, and when I haven't got anything more important to do, or I'm not trying to catch up on new releases on Netflix.  Who says I haven't got my priorities straight?

I like podcasts.  A lot.  As I write this, I've got 29 episodes of 27 different podcasts waiting on my phone...and only that few because I've made a concerted effort in recent weeks to whittle down that number, as I felt I was getting backlogged.
Podcasts for me are like magazines for my ears; they're a direct channel of information from the source to my brain without requiring the intermediate use of my hands or eyes.  That means that I can consume them by the gigabyte while engaged in other things, like certain aspects of my day job, or while at the drawing board, or while doing paste up on the next book for AIM Comics.  Podcasts are free, disposable infotainment and are easily accessible on a good podcatcher, in my case "Pocket Casts" for Android.  Through the use of podcasts, I get daily doses of fiction, news, comedy, interviews, history lessons and shows on just about anything else I care to take an interest in, with some stops for guilty pleasures along the way (more on those another day).  They make my workday go a little bit faster while allowing me to consume information at a much faster rate than I could just by reading.  In short, I think they are the perfect form of disposable media.

One podcast I've come to recently, and rather late, is WTF with Marc Maron.  It's an interview-based show hosted by standup comedian and insightful neurotic Marc Maron in which he talks with contemporaries and legends in the entertainment industry.  I've missed a lot of the shows and haven't yet signed up for the premium package to get access to his back catalog, but since I've started listening, I've heard Marc give great interviews with such people as Jeffry Tambor, Russell Brand, Chris Rock, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, Penn Jilette and Weird Al Yankovic. 

Maron is really using the novelty and freedom of the medium to its finest in this series.  We're so used to seeing celebrity interviews as shallow two minute snippets on Entertainment Tonight that it's easy to forget there's a deeper aspect to the work these people produce and the roads they take to create that work.  Maron uses the long format of his show (most episodes run over an hour to an hour and a half in length) to get behind the creative process of the subject, as well as their own developmental process as a creative person.  This always leads to a better understanding and appreciation of the people and their work, and often to the creative process in general.  It's rare that I finish an episode of WTF without at least one small moment of satori. 

What really helps in this process is that Marc is very open about his own life and frame of mind, and as an experienced standup comedian, he has decades of stories from inside the industry.  He injects a lot of himself into each interview to establish a personal connection with his subjects and reaps a much richer harvest as a result.  It seems at this point that subjects come to his "garage" expecting to have their personal lives delved a bit and bring a willingness to open up more than usual. 
Occasionally, Marc will also host a live WTF event with a panel of comedians which make for some of his funniest episodes.  And this is a comedy podcast at heart; Mark always seems to be able to infuse a sense of humour into the conversation, no matter how dark the subject matter may get (check out the Matt Graham episode from February to see what I mean).  He's got a self-deprecating intellectual approach that never allows things to stay too serious for too long.
What's especially funny to me is that I remember when Marc was a guest on the "Nobody Likes Onions" podcast a few years ago.  He commented on how impressed he was with the show's setup at that time, saying something to the effect that "I got to get me one of these podcasts".  Skip forward a couple of years and his show has developed a huge amount of status and a large following, and he has become one of the premiere names in the medium.
Updating at least weekly, "WTF" is one of the shows I most look forward to in my playlist.  Even when he's interviewing someone I've never heard of, Marc always makes the show enjoyable and insightful.  I recommend that anyone interested in the inner workings of the entertainment industry give it a try.  If nothing else, do yourself a favor and listen to the episode with Penn Jilette (who knew his family is from Newfoundland?). 
"WTF With Marc Maron"...stick it in your ears.

Powers vs. Power V. 2 Now Available

Waiting for a Watchmen sequel that's likely never going to happen?  Read every issue of Astro City and wondering where to go next?  Let me suggest you try "Powers vs. Power" by Robin Reed.
The second volume of this series has just been released in various ebook formats, with my own work gracing the cover.  Each book is a collection of short stories based on a group of original superheroes created by Robin for Metahuman Press.  I enjoyed the first volume very much and am pleased to say that the second volume, so far, is maintaining the same level of quality.
Writing prose about superheroes can be a difficult task because the visual aspect on which the medium of comics depends is missing.  "Biff!" and "Pow" don't parse the same in a non-graphic form.  This means that the stories, if they're not to be entirely juvenile, have to be a lot more character driven.  The problem is then to avoid the pitfall of turning the work into fanfic, making the characters cheap pastiches of existing heroes or winding up hip deep in long descriptions of powers and physiques.  Robin manages to avoid these dangers quite nicely and has created a cast with a fair amount of depth and personality.  Yet, the work does not cross over much into Alan Moore territory, in the sense that this is not a deconstruction of the genre.  Superheroes in this world are a good thing, and there's a good sense of fun and wonder in these stories as well.  I think these books will be enjoyed by anyone who actually likes superheroes.
Powers Vs. Power Book 2 is available in Kindle format from Amazon at the low price of $2.99, and in various ebook formats from Smashwords for just 99 cents.  If you're fan of the genre, or of good storytelling in general, I really do recommend it.

Review: Harlan County Horrors

For me, the short story format is the ideal format for horror.  The necessary brevity of the format seems to concentrate the power of fear into a gut punch.  It may have something to do with the fact that a short story can be consumed in a single sitting, and the immediacy of the experience is not lost like the drawn out process of reading a novel.

Even my favorite authors in the genre (e.g. Stephen King, Clive Barker) consistently deliver better in their shorter works (although their longer work is still way beyond the average), and the masters of the format such as Robert Bloch, Lovecraft and Karl Edward Wagner can communicate more in the space of a few hundred words than many other authors can in an entire novel.

So, if the short story is the proper meal for horror, then a collection of short stories is a feast, and an anthology is a proper banquet.  Nothing serves up quite as well, in my opinion, as a selection of dishes from a variety of authors, and in that regard, "Harlan County Horrors" truly satisfies.

"Harlan County Horrors", edited by Apex submissions editor Mari Adkins, is a recent anthology from Apex Books, with all the stories centering on events in and around the mining region of Harlan County, Kentucky, an area apparently well known for its ghost stories.  Aside from that uniting factor, the stories in the collection are on a cornucopia of subjects and themes, from demon dogs and Chinese vampires to dark science fiction and true love gone awry.  A lot of horror tropes a put to good and novel use in these stories, while cliche is generally skiilfully avoided, making each story an exploration for the reader.

The authors for this anthology are the cream of Apex's alumni, who really shine in these works.  Alethea Kontis's "Witch of Black Mountain" is a dark romance that is equally poetic and macabre, while Geoffrey Girard's "Psychomachia" is a bleak humanistic tale built on coal mining, and Ronald Kelly's "The Thing at the Side of the Road" is a fast-paced and bloody monster story worthy of Bloch.  Apex publisher Jason Sizemore even comes through with a nasty little surprise in the story "Yellow Warblers".  With these and the other authors that make up the dozen in the book, it's practically guaranteed that any fan of horror tales will find something pleasing here, although I don't think that any discerning reader will be disappointed by any of these stories.

Honestly, when I first saw this book listed on their store page, I thought it would hold little to interest me.  I didn't know anything about Harlan County, and couldn't see myself caring what these authors had to say about it.  However, given the price it was selling for on Fictionwise, and the strength of previous works I had read by some of these authors, I thought it would be at least worth a try.  I'm glad I did.  "Harlan County Horrors" is one of those books that I cherish while reading, and will recall fondly long after I'm done.

"Harlan County Horrors" is available in print version from Apex's store where you can preview the story "Yellow Warblers", or in ebook version from Fictionwise or the Amazon Kindle store.  For cost and portability, I recommend the Fictionwise version, but to each their own.  In any version, it' well worth a look.

Ideas and Monsters

Over at Amazon, I've just finished reviewing the latest good read from Apex Publishing, R. Thomnas Riley's "The Monster Within Idea". I won't repeat it all here, but here's a quick taste:

"This is an excellent exploration of the short story form. Riley is very adept at creating an engaging setting or situation in as few words as possible, then playing out tense, gripping scenes within those worlds. In this fine collection of stories, ranging in length from 2 to 30 pages, he crafts bold, and often bloody, dramas in which the players are driven as much by the demons that live inside as much as by those that lurk outside. The results are variously entertaining, thought provoking, and chilling. "

If you'd like to know more, go on over to the book's Amazon page and check it out. If you like it, you can order the book there, or directly from the Apex store, or in ebook format at Fictionwise.

Book Review: Bold Visions

I recently picked up Gary Tonge's "Bold Visions" on a whim while browsing the art section of a local bookstore. I generally tend to avoid the "how to" books on comics and fantasy art, other than a quick glance through the pages. This is mainly because I find that most of them teach very limited material, showing how to draw very specific characters in very specific poses, without really exploring the fundamentals of drawing or character design. Even rarer is it to find a good book on digital painting and illustration.
I hadn't scanned "Bold Visions" very far before I knew that this book was something different from the usual, and it practically demanded that I take it home and give it more attention. For the price ($21.00, less if you order it online), I was well rewarded with a book that is both inspirational and informative, and that I think would make a welcome addition to any aspiring artist's reference library.

Tonge's book stands out for three reasons:

1) the author is very good at explaining his process in as few words as possible, with only moderately technical language. His descriptions of his usage of layers, special effects and the basic tools of Photoshop are clear, and encourage experimentation, whereas some books on the subject scare off the reader with jargon. Beginning artists will find much of value in this book.

2) as obvious as this might seem, the book is full of pictures! Rather than relying on blocks of text and captioned images to communicate his methods, Tonge has used a simple yet brilliant technique of using well-labeled images to show the comparative effects of various tools. For example, when describing layer effects in Photoshop, he uses one large image broken down into smaller square areas, each area showing the result of applying the layer effect. The composite picture shows quite clearly the difference made in each case, and communicates the point much more clearly than could be done with traditional text and captions. This may seem obvious, but a quick glance at many art instruction books will show that it is not a technique in widespread use.

3) Tonge is a very good artist. Many of these books, I find, are done by artists who are mediocre, whose work does not really stand out. Take, for example, the many comic and manga instruction books authored by Chris Hart. While they're fine for raw beginners, or those who just want to draw action figures, the art itself is below the standard of even the better than average comic artists working in the market, and as such does not generally inspire the reader to want to take pen to paper. Tonge's work, as the title states, is indeed bold. It is well executed, polished and powerful. Tonge has a wonderful sense of color, and some of his digital paintings have the depth and detail of a John Berkey or a Syd Mead. Seeing this proficient work explained in such a simple way is great motivation for the reader to take mouse or stylus in hand and try some of the things he writes about. If nothing else, this is just an enjoyable book to look at, and makes a fine portfolio book for fantasy art collectors.

Aside from magazines like "Sketch" or "Draw", I've only added a few reference books to my library in recent years, great ones like Scott McCloud's "Making Comics" and "How to Make Webcomics" by Dave Kellett, Kris Straub, Brad Guigar and Scott Kurtz. "Bold Visions" will hold a welcome place among them, and I hope that more publishers will see the value in producing similar books by quality artists. This is the kind of stuff I really need in my collection.

For anyone who's curious about Tonge's work, you can see it for yourself at his website, VisionAfar. It's definitely worth a visit.