As an update to the last 72 Hours Long Box column, I did indeed overcome my anxiety and shake the hand of comics legend Alan Davis at the Baltimore Comic Con. I also necked a large coffee while doing this, then went to interview people, so if I seem a little off the rails excited in the audio like I’ve done a line of coke, that’s why.
In full disclosure, I only managed to attend a few hours on Sunday, due to a range of family stuff, such as homecoming and an invasion of teenagers on Saturday night, and not one but three appliance deliveries. Who said middle age wasn’t exciting?
That said, I crammed a lot into those few hours, talked to a lot of good people, and scored several incredible comics.
One of the first guys I talked to was Ed Piskor. You may know him from his Hip-Hop Family Tree, or maybe his run on X-Men: Grand Design (which is where I discovered his work). Now, he’s not strictly in territory for the DMV region, but I couldn’t not take my shot and ask him for an interview. He politely declined due to con burnout. However, he did tell me the con was thronging on Saturday, so Sunday’s slow morning pace was a welcome reprieve to recover.
I picked up a couple of trades of Red Room, Piskor’s latest disturbing, viscerally violent creation. (I would not recommend this for the kids.)
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Now the audio:
TODD WEBB
About once every comic con, I get stopped dead in my tracks by seeing a creator, often buried in artists alley, whose work I immediately love on first sight. So it was with the little character featured on Todd Webb’s books, a sort of Walt Whitmanesque older man with grey goatee and straw (?) hat Webb has called The Poet. He, along with an irascible pigeon and a sentient park bench enjoy short, four-panel adventures that are funny, thoughtful, philosophical and, well, just charming.
What really got me, however, was a sign offering to draw table visitors for a dollar, and as I had my son with me, that’s a deal I couldn’t pass up.
I purchased from Webb The Poet: Color Comics Spectacular.
@toddbotdotcom (Instagram and Twitter)
STEVE CONLEY
Steve Conley or, as I refer to him, Supreme Steve, is, as I may mention several times in this interview, one of my favorite people, let alone creators, which is why I interview him here, even though he now live in Florida. He did at one point live in the DMZ, so he’s covered on a technicality (hey, my column, my rules).
Steve is the creative force behind long-running web comic, The Middle Age, which you can hear him talk about, and two successful, related Kickstarter campaigns. He’s one of those guys who constantly impresses me not only with his creative ability — he’s an amazing artist and writer — but how he manages to tie in and expand what he creates to other fun projects. Best of all, you can see how Steve works when he streams on Twitch.
@thesteveconley on Twitter and @steveconley on Instagram.
www.twitch.tv/steveconley for his art stream.
MIKE RILEY
One of the driest, world-weary senses of humor I’ve encountered is that of Irascible Mike Riley. Readers may recall that I did Mike dirty, so dirty, in my report from SPX, as I interviewed his friends and colleagues Dave Crispino and Jordan Clark, but not Mike, as he was out fetching the crew lunch. I right that wrong here.
Mike’s the writer and artist behind too much work to fully detail here, but his latest is Irregulordz, a fun sci-fi romp
@mikerileycomics on Twitter and Instagram.
KEVIN CUFFE
Hat tip to Dave Crispino, who was like, “You should interview this guy,” and sent me into the wilds of Artists Alley to find Kevin Cuffe — not only a great creator, but we hit it off immediately. (Both dads, both love comics.) Besides which, he has a magnificent beard. And naturally I forgot to get his picture.
@kevin_cuffe on Twitter (his writing partner is BobFrantz (@bfrantz19).
Their Metal Shark Bro 1 and 2 are published by Scout Comics; Get Lich or Die Trying is on Kickstarter.
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RECOMMENDS … “You can’t kill the metal. The metal will live on,” intoned Jack Black of Tenacious D. And he is right. The Metal has long been part of the comics scene — I mean, take the long-running magazine Heavy Metal, for instance — so, when I ran into cartoonist Rafer Roberts at BCC, and he recommended a metal album/comic project on Kickstarter from D.C.’s A Sound of Thunder, well, hell yes, I was in.
Queen of Hell: Initium is: “one massive story intended from inception to be told both in song and comics, produced and released concurrently.”
Rafer’s writing the comic, with art by Mike Ratera, colors by Diego L. Parada and Max Bayo, and letters by Crank!. The main cover artwork is by Dusan Markovic, with variant cover art by Joseph Schmalke.
HONORABLE MENTION … for Karl Slominski, an artist/writer I ran into at the New York Comic Con. I was so impressed with his book, Evermore Falls, I spent good hard cash on Teeter Totter and The Cult of Icarus Limited Edition Ash Can. Something about the madness of his linework spoke to me — and it’ll speak to you, too.
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That about sums it up for now, my dears. Keep lovin’, readin’ and drawin’. Look out for the print column Thursday, Nov. 17 in 72 Hours from my local paper, The Frederick News-Post.
Q
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Sound like you had a great time and strong coffee.🤣 Hope all the appliances are working.👍