Good Mail Day

I love a good mail day. Luckily for me, Friday was a good mail day. Via trading, I received envelopes from Sam Spina, Justin Giampaoli, Jeff Wilson and Mister Ben (his actually came Saturday, but close enough).

Sam sent his mini-comics Sharker the Forgotten, Hoodle Origins and Fresh to Death. I've been waiting to read Sharker when I have some free time, but the other two I read and really enjoyed. Hoodle Origins, as it name suggests, tells the origin of an alien known as a Hoodle. The main character finally learns the truth about his people after being consistently lied to by his grandfather. Fresh to Death follows two clubsters and the fateful meeting with their favorite DJ.

Sam also does watercolor commissions for $5. I sent him a fiver (actually I Paypaled him) and a request for something to do with "space," as that is a topic in which my three-year-old son is interested. The painting Sam did was more than I imagined and something worth way more than five bucks. My son loved it. I highly recommend everyone not only ordering Sam's comics, but also commissioning him for a painting. I'll definitely frame mine and hang it in my son's bedroom. I'll make sure to post a photo when I get a chance.

Justin trading copies of his mini-comics The Mercy Killing and Blood Orange. I especially enjoyed Blood Orange. It was a quick read, but the point of the story hit home. It's an autobiographical piece of a tough time in Justin's childhood.

Jeff, who is pals with Candy or Medicine contributors Maggie Morrill and Mister Ben, sent me copies of his comic SAP and the anthology Tales from the Keg. SAP is a big comic about punk rockers, aliens and some other crazy things.



Mister Ben, whose work can be send in the latest issue of Candy or Medicine, sent the latest issue of his zine Freezer Burn, which has a nice hand-screened cover along with some comics and rantings. I haven't actually read all of this yet, but look forward to doing so. There's actually a lot to read, so you'll definitely get your money's worth when you order this zine.

Thanks again to these fine folks and all the others who enjoy trading comics and zines. It's a great way to discover new work.

Letters

This has been kind of a long time coming, but I wanted to mention I had letters it two (count 'em two!) comics recently, both published by friends of Candy or Medicine.

The first was in Blammo #4 by Noah Van Sciver, who appeared in the Candy or Medicine Free Comic Book Day 2009 Special and in Apartment 307.

The second letter appeared in Jonny Smeby's Mulder & Bolder in: "The Moon Rock." Jonny's artwork will be gracing the cover of Candy or Medicine Vol. 9, which should be out in March.

Blammo and Mulder and Bolder are two of my favorite comics being published. Noah has a new issue of Blammo out (available here) and Jonny tells me he will be working on a new issue of Mulder and Bolder soon, after he finished the fourth and final issue of his comic series Jonny RPG. You don't see too many letters columns anymore, especially in self-published comics, so it's cool to see there are still some around.

Volume Eight Out Now!

Sending out the decade in style, Candy or Medicine Volume Eight continues to captivate with 16 pages of all new artwork including “Wandering Through the Terrain” by Pat Aulisio, some office life slice-of-life by Jessica Seck Marquis, “Epicurus on God” by Cliff Lipp, another tale of love gone awry by Kevin Richardson, an obtuse toon by Mister Ben, more of the wokka wokka humor you’ve come to love from Ray N. and Josh Blair, a back page pin-up from mini-comic veteran Brad W. Foster plus a cover from the wild and crazy JB Sapienza. All new! All ages! All for a dollar!

Click below to order via Paypal or e-mail info (at) candyormedicine (dot) com for other ordering options.

Pin-Up Gallery Requesting submissions

Dear fellow Candy or Mediciners, Creative People and Friends of "The Arts" in general,

I am "blogging" [for the first time ever] to request you take part in an online gallery focusing on the life and times of one man. His name is... JONAH!

"What is a Jonah?" I can hear you asking. Since this is the official Call-To-Arms, for the My name is JONAH pin-up gallery, I encourage you to read on. All questions will be answered.*

I Hunger Productions, Asylum Studios & JB Inks bring you My Name is... JONAH. An Action, Adventure, Documentary coming in 2010.

In the meantime we are creating an on-line pin up gallery featuring the very best and most diverse artists tackling the puzzling subject matter that is Jonah. Please take a moment to look around his myspace page and see for yourselves. The man is a walking D&D Adventure/ Movie-of-the-Week [you know the kind I mean]. Ripe with possibilities.

You can submit a painting, drawing, comic strip, sculpture, collage, poem, tattoo, photograph, mashed potato pile or GIF...whatever your medium, we want it! Send it to us as a high res JPEG or PDF, Include a website for us to link to and a short bio about yourself. Spread the word to your artist friends. Blog about it, talk about it. Help us find more proper nouns to contribute. Make as many "arts" as you want.

Jonah has famously posed as Zorro, Sinbad the Sailor, 007, Highlander, Robin Hood and a plethora of his own characters to name a few. Be as incredibly creative and take as much license as you want.


The legalese states that we have the rights to use your image on the web-site, the DVD and to promote the release of the film. You, as the artist, will retain ownership of the image and can use the image to promote yourself and your work.

The website should be up and running by December 15th. We'll be taking submissions on a rolling basis. If you want to be in on the first wave you have a little less than a month to knock our socks off. Start your engines and all that junk. Please submit your arts to JBSapienza@gmail.com.

Thanks,

JB Sapienza


* Some answers may be questioned.

Where's Waldo..err...Volume Eight?

I was planning on publishing Volume Eight this month, but because of a couple reasons (being broke, not having InDesign), I won't be able to publish it until next month. I assure you there will be a fourth issue of Candy or Medicine published in 2009, sticking to the quarterly schedule. I also promise four issues in 2010, including a new one in time for SPACE in Columbus, Ohio in April. Times are tough, y'know?

Finally an update

Things have been pretty hectic lately, so I haven't had time to update, but I wanted to post something on here for all six followers. Last Tuesday, and Shake It Records in Cincinnati, I saw John Porcellino, Noah Van Sciver and Carol Tyler. John and Noah were on their way to SPX and Carol was there as an observer (she's a professor at UC and asked her class to attend). It was cool to see some great comix creators in town. Plus, I never realized Shake It has such a great alternative/underground/mini-comic selection (which now includes Candy or Medicine, lunarcy and Apartment 307). When I have more money, I will spend it there.

Also, there is a collectable/toy show coming to Cincinnati in November and a small comic show the next weekend. I will be in attendance at both, hopefully trading/handing out comics and adding to my Super Powers and treasury comics collections.

From left to right: Noah, Me, my son Ian, John and Carol

Quick Hits

• Size Matters is taking a hiatus, but in the most recent post, Shawn mentions Candy or Medicine Vol. Six as one of the comics he planned to review, and he posted the cover and one of Pat Morgan's Blobby comics.
• In the latest two issues of FEDS, Steven Myers name drops Candy or Medicine. In issue #7, he publishes part of my FEDS review, and in issue #8, he posts an interview I did with him via e-mail.
• Jazma Online recently interviewed me.
• There's a nice review of Candy or Medicine in the latest issue of Narcolepsy Press, which does not exist online in any form. You can pick up a copy of this review zine by sending $2, some stamps or a trade to Randy Robbins, P.O. Box 17131, Anaheim CA 92817.
• Finally, I'm moving back home to the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio on Monday. So if for some reason you have my Syracuse mailing address, please e-mail me at joshblair83 (at) gmail (dot) com for my new address.
• P.S. I will be attending Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday, October 4, and I will have copies of my comics to trade.

Noah Van Sciver All Over the Place

If you're one of the 700+ people who have read the Candy or Medicine Free Comic Book Day Special or one of the 100 or so who have read Apartment 307, or if you've read the latest issue of MOME, The Comics Journal or Mineshaft, then you know who Noah Van Sciver is.

Well lately (and by lately I mean the past week or so), Noah has been all over the place. Acme Comics has a nice interview with him, there's a video he produced of a radio interview he did and today, his work appeared on the must-follow Covered blog.

Noah is a very talented artist and is getting a lot of much-deserved press lately. I'm a big fan of his work and look forward to reading his self-published comic Blammo! as well as the aforementioned issues of MOME and The Comics Journal. Whether I'll plop down twelve big ones for TCJ or just read it at the bookstore remains to be seen. Also, there is some other big NVS news forthcoming, but I'm currently not at liberty to discuss it. More to come.

In Review...

Today, in his mini-comics round up, Rob Clough reviewed Candy or Medicine Volumes 4-7 and lunarcy, as well as comics from Candy or Medicine Internet pals/contributors Tyler Stafford and Rob Jackson and IRL friend Phil McAndrew.

If you don't know who Rob Clough is, he runs the review blog High-Low and he is an exquisite reviewer. While he reviews many things, he often reviews mini-comics. One thing I really appreciate and admire about Rob is that he is honest in his reviews. Often times I find reviews of my work to fall in one of two camps -- the "This is great. Really funny. I love it." camp or "I'm not sure what this is" camp. To me, neither one of those are really of any value.

Reviews in the first camp seem a little hollow. What, specifically, did you like about it? What didn't you like about it? What could have made it better? What, if anything, made it different from other mini-comics you've read?

Reviews in the second camp seem aloof and lacking substance. You don't understand it? Fine. Tell me what you don't understand about it and, more importantely, tell me more than just that you don't understand it. To be fair, I've received reviews like this from people who are probably more likely to review zines than mini-comics.

So to have someone like Rob, who updates his site nearly every other day, is beneficial not only to me, but more importantly to his readers. If readers can gain an accurate sense of what a comic is about, then they can make a well-informed decision to purchase/not purchase a comic or at least visit/not visit a Web site.

I also admire Rob because I suck at writing reviews. I like to think of myself as a decent writer, considering I have two degrees in journalism, I've freelanced for a number of publications for the past 5 years and writing is part of my full-time job's description, but for some reason, when it comes to writing reviews, I'm just not any good at it. I try to do the best I can when I review mini-comics on this blog, but too often they turn out like those in the first camp, i.e. "I really like this." I sent a review to Dirk Deppey to post on Journalista, but he wrote back and said it was just a listing of the contents. He was absolutely correct. I find it difficult to write anything other than here is what is in the comic and I like it.

To have someone as talented and regular a writer as Rob is really a benefit to those of us in the comic community, especially those of us in the mini-comic community considering we have fewer outlets for reviews.

So thanks, Rob. Keep it up.

Anti-Mini-Comics

Normally I try to keep things mini-comic related on here, but I thought I'd give a shout out to Rob Kelly and his awesome site treasurycomics.com. I discovered treasury comics about a year and a half ago when I picked some up at the local flea market. I didn't really know what they were at the time, and grabbed one for $3, leaving about six or so on the table. I've been kicking myself ever since for not purchasing the rest, especially because I haven't been able to find an affordable copy of Superman vs Shazam (one of the ones I left on the table). As a side note, I picked up a Superman vs Muhammad Ali for less than $10, which is quite a steal, so I felt a little bit better then.

Anyway, Rob runs a great, comprehensive site about treasury comics, which are one of the types of comics that I actually collect and hope to one day have a complete collection of (I'm about half way there in regard to the Marvel and DC books). I utilize it every time I am searching for, bidding on or have recently purchased a treasury comic. So I'm glad to have helped out a bit by scanning a couple of Marvel Bullpen Bulletins featuring news items about treasury comics.

Time Machine

For those of you with time machines, make sure to check out table 2306 at last weekend's Comic-Con, where my good friend Steve Orlando was selling copies of Candy or Medicine, lunarcy and Apartment 307.

Mini-Comic Review: The A-to-Z Guide to Dispatching Your Enemies

Every now and then, I peruse the “comic” tag under the “Books and Zines” section of Etsy to discover some new mini-comics. Generally, I’ll see some that I like and because I am broke all of the time, I’ll add it to a favorite list for when I get more money. When that time will come, I have no idea, but I like to keep track of mini-comics that pique my interest so I don’t forget about them.

It isn’t often I order a mini-comic off Etsy, but Jordan Mooney’s The A-to-Z Guide to Dispatching Your Enemies immediately grabbed my attention not only because of the title, but also because of its one dollar price tag (like I said, I’m broke). This is a significant achievement in and of itself considering the cover of the comic is simply a black page with plain white lettering. Already, I could tell this was a comic I had to have.

Subtitled A Study of Methods Both Common and Unusual in Alphabetical Order, isn’t a comic, per se, in that it is not a sequential story. Rather, it is a series of 26 illustrations showcasing exactly what the title implies. In many of them, these acts, ranging from accordion to zombies, are executed by a mysterious mustachioed man, who happens to grace the back of the envelope Jordan mailed me. My favorite method is a tie between endive and obelisk.

Not only are the methods funny, clever, well drawn and all that jazz, they also expand one’s vocabulary. There were four words I’d never heard (or read, rather) before reading this comic. I’d list them here, but then I don’t want to give away too many of the methods in this comic.

The A-to-Z Guide to Dispatching Your Enemies is 28 2.5” X 4.5” pages (not including the covers) and has a silkscreened cardstock cover. It is available on Jordan’s Etsy page even though it is not listed on there, probably because one just sold yesterday (Etsy charges a fee for each item you list, so to ensure that you only pay a fee on items that actually sell, because items can expire after a while, many people just list the quantity as one. The downside to this is if that item sells, it is no longer listed in your shop until you relist it).

Mini-Comic Review: Maria and Oscar's Adventures in Sibling Rivalry and Ennui

Full disclosure: This 54-page mini-comic comes from my friend Cayetano Valenzuela (who is expecting a baby girl any day now, so order a bunch of copies for you and your friends. Trust me-- diapers aren't cheap).

In the three-act mini-comic Maria and Oscar's Adventures in Sibling Rivalry and Ennui, the title characters are amazed when they come across a falling star. They both have different ideas in terms of what to do with the start, yet both Maria and Oscar's ideas involve punching one another. The results of punching one another are metaphysical and allow the characters to achieve their goals for the fallen star.

The rivalry between the two ultimately lands them in a rather uncomfortable situation for the brother and sister. The fact that the two apologize to one another only after they wind up in their potential fatal situation is reflective of real-life sibling rivalries in which the parties are only sorry once they are caught. Valenzuela also offers an alternative ending to the tale, which is certainly a serum for the siblings' ennui.

Valenzuela's illustrations are superb; his line work appears simple at first, but the more you look at it, the more intricate it becomes. The characters' facial expressions, postures and gestures add a depth of humor to this clever story. At one panel per page, the pacing of the story (and the size of the comic) allows it to be read like a slow flip book. The only thing that could have made this mini-comic better is if it was bound with something other than a rubber band (sewn-bound would have worked nicely).

Maria and Oscar's Adventures in Sibling Rivalry and Ennui is 54-pages, 1/3-sized (4.25" wide X 3.6 with a line over it" high) and costs $5 from the Hat Factory Books Etsy page.

Volume Seven Out Now. Andy Narwhal Returns

Candy or Medicine Volume Seven is out now. Sixteen pages for just $1 (plus shipping).

Featuring a wish fulfillment by JB Sapienza, "An Ice Cream Story" by Adam Wilson, a one-page gag by Morgan Kessler, a four-page space saga by Tyler Stafford, a random dream from the mind of Carl Alessi, two strips by Ed Keer, a five-person international jam comic, a wild back cover by west coast sensation Alex Chiu and the return of Andy Narwhal by ye olde ed.

Quarter-sized, printed on bright, 32-lb. paper. Trades welcome. E-mail info (at) candyormedicine (dot) com for trading or snail mail ordering information.

Square Dance #3

Square Dance #3 – The first comic of my own that I’ve printed in a while contains Spinning World strips for the months of June through October, “Vigil” (a short wordless “poem”), an Hourly Comic, “Mission to the Heathens” (wordless adventures of a man in a miter trying to convert his neighbors), and “Ask Jack” (Halloween hijinks). Back cover features a drawing of an ocean creature of your choice, as long as you choose crab.

5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pgs $2.00 at Colin Tedford dot com.