An urban fantasy about a mouse most unusual…
Hello everyone
I really have to start doing more of these 😀
I just wanted to drop by and tell everyone thank you for supporting The Oswald Chronicles and I wanted to share a little something.
Here’s a page from My First Day in color by David Montoya and of course awesome pen and ink by Jade Gonzalez.
Thank you all once again and please be sure to vote for Oswald on topwebcomics.com it really does help.
Best
JD Calderon
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
Miss the last TALL TAILS Kickstarter? Here’s your chance to pick up the newest issues!
Gabriel is in an all new solo adventure and you also have a chance to get the first two issues of TALL TAILS: Tears of the Mother!
Hello everyone
I have a new Kickstarter for The Oswald Chronicles which can be found here: https://kck.st/2mxSdwA
The new KS is to help in publish the new line of Oswald comics and features the first 3 issues of the series.
Please note that this is the first time that I’m doing a KS that features books that have never been published on the main Oswald page, so if you want to see something new this is your opportunity.
So please go check it out and even if you can’t buy a book please help by spreading the word.
Thank you all.
JD Calderon
The next Oswald Kickstarter is now LIVE!
Be a part of the new Oswald comic line with the first 3 issues in the series!: https://kck.st/2mxSdwA
After a little more than 8 months on the new series, the first two issues are ready for their official debut!
Check out our Kickstarter page here and support the series!: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17217803/tall-tails-tears-of-the-mother-issues-1-and-2
Hello everyone
it’s been too long since I’ve done one of these, but Jade Gonzalez tagged me on Facebook about a cover challenge and here’s my reply.
All of these books represent to me my early years as a comic book fan and the love they fostered in me for indy comics.
First on the list is Captain Victory, I love this book because it was the very first indy comic I ever saw and picked up. The other reason I love it is because it was by none other than Jack ‘King’ Kirby. The man knew 15 years before the Image guys that you had to get out and do your own thing.
Next up is Elementals by Bill Willingham one of my all time favorite writer / artists. This wasn’t the first appearance of the group that would have been in Justice Machine annual number 1, but this is the first with them in their own solo book. This is perhaps one of the best superhero comics ever produced that we’ll probably never see collected due to Bill selling off the rights to a gentlemen who practically fell off the face of the earth, who knows what happened.
Next up Dalgoda fun space adventure by Denis Fujitake on art and Jan Strnad was the writer. A great book I honestly don’t remember too much about other than I enjoyed it. I’m going to have to make an effort to go through my collection and dig them out and give them another read. It would be nice to see a collection of these stories.
Armor and Megolith both from Neal Adams Continuity comics. Growing up I would take the NYC subway to school and somewhere during that time I remember seeing these images in the subways as large ads. At the time I thought they were going to be movies because only movies advertised in the subway system this way not comicbooks. The movies never came but one day in one of my local comic shops, the Bat Cave I think, were these two books and I was hooked. The art was great and the stories were fun but mostly consisted of origins.
Elflord by Barry Blair during the early eighties there was a period called the black and white glut which was caused primarily by the rise of TMNT. Many books came out and many of them should be forgotten and this may be one of them but I love this cover and I do remember enjoying this series for as long as I collected it.
Faze One Fazers Americomics by Vic Bridges. He was a John Byrne clone, it was thing back in the day but I loved it and I loved this book. At the time it was new and shiny and full of hope of great adventures. It only lasted 4 issues. It seems Vic and the publisher Bill Black didn’t see eye to eye on certain things and Faze One was never seen again, shame.
Dragon Force by Dale Keown I picked it up for the art and again it was being done by a John Byrne clone, who eventually grew out of it and is now the ultra popular artist who brought us Pitt and many great Hulk images. Another book I enjoyed because it was fresh and new and not part of the big two. It was around for about 14 issues before Dale got his big break doing the Hulk. It was fun while it lasted.
The Realm by Guy Davis. I know there was a writer but I have to be honest with you I didn’t get it for the story, it was all Guy, I know this because once he was gone from the book so was I. It’s a shame because it was a great book with some fun fantasy elements that I remember with fondness, but once Guy left they couldn’t find an artist who could fill his shoes. Guy went on to work at DC and for Mike Mignola on BPRD for a long stretch. My only real problem with Guy is that he changed his style, his choice I know he did what he had to, but I liked the paperclip noses, 😀
Warlock 5 by writer Gordon Derry and artist Denis Beauvais. Honestly I don’t remember much about this book other than the art by Denis Beauvais being incredible and their being 5 avatars that represented 5 different worlds battling for supremacy or something like that. I do remember enjoying it and being very disappointed when Gordon Derry and artist Denis Beauvais abandoned the book over a dispute with the publisher.
Captain Paragon by Bill Black published by AC comics. Early on I was attracted to non Marvel\DC super hero comics, they just seemed more interesting because they worked outside of the normal frame work of those two companies and presented to me an early insight into the type of work I would eventually find myself doing indy comics.
Dynamo Joe by Doug Rice, Phil Foglio and others. Perhaps my favorite giant robot comic of all time, not that there’s that many on this side of the Pacific. This is the story of the human race pairing up with the 2 other species to fight a third alien species that is traveling through their space destroying their ships, people and worlds. This book is a lot of fun and it was a shame when it ended and especially since there was more story to be told by the creators but bad sales brought the book to an end after 15 issues, shame, but well looking into.
Justice Machine by Mike Gustovich. A great book with some of the greatest costume designs outside of Dave Cockrum. This is another one of those early super heroes outside of the big two that I was happy to see. It didn’t really run for too long, I believe the initial series ran 5-6 issues and then made a short come back at Comico for a cross over with the Elementals and then a miniseries soon after. The series was purchased by another creator but I haven’t kept up with the new series so I won’t comment, but those early issues are a lot of fun.
Zooniverse by Fil Barlow. This one was just weird and crazed looking book that I just loved. Fil’s art is incredible and the coloring was awesome and this book was being done long before computer coloring. The art is super detailed and the story revolves around a group of guards called plastiods and how they’re caught in the political intrigues of warring factions in their universe. This book needs to be reprinted in hardcover. The awesome thing is that this series has made a comeback at Image and with any luck that reprint will happen.
Sun Runners by Roger McKenzie. Art and cover by Pat Broderick. Another awesome series that traveled around several publishers. I don’t remember much about the series except that I really enjoyed it and I’m going to have to go back into my collection and reread it from start to finish, although I don’t think it ever really did finish.
I also want to show off a few pages from The Oswald Chronicles that David Montoya has been coloring for the series. One day that color book is going to come out 😀
And once again please vote for Oswald on topwebcomics.com it really does help.
Thank you all once again and please help spread the word about The Oswald Chronicles.
JD
So what book is the voice of this era?
Hello everyone
It’s been too long since I did one of these and I’ve been meaning on doing this one for a hot minute 🙂
First I would like to announce for those of you who don’t already know the Tall Tails Kickstarter is now live and it is very possible for you to get all 560 plus pages of the first story arc in one volume, so go check it out now and get yourself a copy 😀
Also here’s a little something to whet the appetites for all of those who enjoy Oswald and his chronicles. Here’s the cover for the final issue of the Clive cycle with Clive and his parents no less. The cover is illustrated by the always awesome Jade Gonzalez and colored by the man himself Derwin Roberson.
Now onto a few comments about some books I read last week.
The Divine (Illustrator), Tomer Hanuka (Illustrator by Boaz Lavie (Author), Asaf Hanuka)
I picked this book up on a lark hoping that it would be something I would enjoy and I did. The art is mangaish but doesn’t completely owe everything to that fine heritage, instead it comes off as a fusion of European and Manga styles to give it strange and appealing look and feel. The story is self contained and is one of those things that made me think of things that are just out of site and what’s happening to people in other places far away from home.
Divinity by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine
I didn’t know what to expect from this book since I hadn’t picked up any books from the new Valiant line and I’m glad to report that this was a good one. The story is of a Russian cosmonaut who gets sent into deep space and comes back to earth 30 years in the future totally changed from his experience. This story is just a primer for a greater story and I hope Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine keep going forward with this title.
Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland Paperback – July 2, 2015
by Eric Shanower (Author), Gabriel Rodriguez (Illustrator)
I’ve been interested in Little Nemo for several years now and more so since I picked up a copy of the Teschen reprint of the series. The series interests me for a number of reasons mostly because I touch upon similar themes in The Oswald Chronicles. My original inspiration for this was HP Lovecraft and his Randolph Carter character who travels through dream and lives entire life times and wakes only to wish to return to those long lost lands even though there’s always something dark and strange just beyond the horizon. The art by Gabriel Rodriguez is awesome and I think Winsor McKay himself would have been happy with it. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is the pages produced larger and for Gabriel Rodriguez to have been allowed to work on a grander scale, because when you see the original Nemo pages in such a large format it’s breath taking and it would have been nice to have seen Gabriel Rodriguez given that same opportunity. The story by Eric Shanower was okay but fell short for me, I think the trope of Nemo waking up as many times as he does slows the pace of the story and is destructive because of it. Many would argue that’s how the original was done and I would agree but the great Winsor Mckay wasn’t producing a serialized story where the reader would read page after page but rather a story that would be contained on page and I’m certain if he had been presented with a longer format he would have adjusted Nemo’s waking. It does look like this series has come to an end since Gabriel Rodriguez has moved on to another project, shame I would have liked to have seen more.
Thor: God of Thunder Volume 2 Hardcover – July 14, 2015
by Jason Aaron (Author), Nic Klein (Illustrator), Ron Garney (Illustrator), Emanuela Lupacchino (Illustrator), Das Pastoras (Illustrator), Esad Ribic (Illustrator), Agustin Alessio (Illustrator), RM Guera (Illustrator)
I have to admit that my enjoyment of Thor as a character started early on and he’s been my favorite superhero since I was a kid and it all started with Roy Thomas and his run that adopted the Ring of the Nibelung and pasted Thor and Odin in the various roles within the great story that then culminated in issue 300 where Thor takes on the Celestials and brings down Arishem, I’m going into full geek mode 😀 It’s one of my favorite runs on Thor and even though Roy didn’t write issue 300 it was still awesome.
The next great Thor run which followed a few years later when the title was rumored to be close to being cancelled was Walter Simonson’s run which is epic and to this day my all time favorite but after Walter I left the title and didn’t really look back for a long time and I had heard many sad things had happen to the title. I’m sure there were some good books in there somewhere but I wouldn’t take that challenge to find them, but I had heard some whispers a while ago that J. Michael Straczynski was doing some awesome things on the title and had brought it back from the dead literally, since they had destroyed Asgard and killed everyone off. I had picked up the complete run in a hard cover that JMS had done and I was very happy with it and I have to say that his version of Loki is perhaps the most conniving and disturbing version of the character I had ever seen. He returned as a beautiful woman and instead of changing himself to his normal form of a man he decided to stay as a woman and have a good time with it, the trickster god had never looked so good or scared me so much as that version and it saddened me to find out the JMS had departed the title on bad terms with Marvel because he didn’t want to do one of these massive cross over events that centered around Thor and Asgard and thus another great run ended, prematurely, sad.
Now here comes Jason Aaron the Vertigo Scalped guy, who what why, oh now I see why once I read the first volume of this series and I have to say that I’m enjoying JA’s run immensely and I love how he shows current Thor and future all father Thor and on occasion young immature Thor. The story line I found the most intriguing was the all father Thor story where he fights Galactus for Earth and has help from his very awesome granddaughters of thunder. Now those three young ladies should have their own title 🙂 I have yet to read any of the new Thor stories with Jane Foster as Goddess of thunder and the only thing I have to say is I’m looking forward to them even after all of the kvetching I’ve read about it on line about Jane Foster not really being Thor and the hair splitting about the whole thing, me I was always on the side that she has assumed the title of Goddess of Thunder the same way Betta Ray Bill had done back in the Walter Simonson run. Now the reason they want her to stay with the Thor moniker is because if they changed the title to Jane Foster Goddess of Thunder it would be just a little weird but I would have bought it if Jason Aaron was writing it. Now for all of those folks who hate that version rest assured the original Thor will be back sometime in the future when I don’t know and I don’t want to know I want to be surprised by it and I know he’ll be back because JA has given us a big clue, you know the whole thing with All Father Thor fighting Galactus , yea that was Thor not Jane Foster as Thor so at some point he’ll be back after he learns how to forgive himself for something he’s done, Nick Fury’s such a prick 😀 So yea go get this one if you like some good Thor action.
Now onto the original question, so what book is the voice of this era? I ask this because while I was at Boston Comicon (awesome show by the way ) I was asked by a fan from Spain who had been out of the loop when it comes to American comics and the last thing he had really read was Watchmen which he felt was the voice of comics for that era. Now for me it’s Watchmen and Dark Knight and the two go hand in hand and no matter what the 2 creators have gone on to do or say after this, these were great works by them all. I had to say I was stumped when he first asked I could point out great books by various creators like Fables, Sandman, Preacher, Planetary, Authority, Scalped, Marvels, Kingdome Come, American Vampire, Locke and key, East of West and various others and have to say I think it’s Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples along with the Oswald Chronicles, okay that last one is a little self serving of course 😀 So what do you think? What’s the comic that most speaks to you as the comic title of this era?
Thank you one and all for indulging me here and please vote for the Oswald Chronicles on topwebcomics.com it does help and please go support the Tall Tails Kickstarter and get yourself an awesome book 😀
Thank you all again
JD Calderon
We are having some technical issues with the latest Oswald story.
Please stand by… hopefully will be fixed by end of day today.
Thanks!
Hello everyone
Like usual it’s taken me forever to get another one of these up, but here it is. First I would like to thank everyone who’s been supporting the Oswald Chronicles and I would like to share that My First Day is available on Comixology for anyone who likes to read their comics on a wireless device go to https://cmxl.gy/1lR1w0y to get a copy for yourself. We’re looking to have more stories from the series go up soon and at some point they will be on Comixology first before being up on the site.
I also got my monthly horde from my comic’s supplier, a bit light for this month but I can use the break to catch up with the stack that is still waiting for me from months past.
One last thing please vote for the Oswald Chronicles and Tall Tails on topwebcomics.com it does help 😀
Now onto Anderson Silva, Anderson is the fighter that I can truly say was the one who got me hooked onto MMA and buying PPV’s from the UFC. His first fight with Chris Leben was a revelation for me because I had no idea who this guy was but I knew Chris Leben from his run on The Ultimate Fighter and I knew he was tough and could take a punch like and he could give as good as he got, so here comes this thin (some would say skinny) unassuming guy Anderson Silva in his debut, I was like this guy is going to get killed. Little did I know Anderson was slated for great things and made short work of Leben by Tk’oing him in under a minute, I was hooked and I have followed him ever since. Recently he had a bad run by losing his title and breaking his leg in a rematch in an attempt to recover the belt. After 13 months out of the cage he made his return against Nick Diaz a great fighter in his own right, albeit a controversial one. The fight went as I thought it would, in a private conversion with another friend I commented if Anderson doesn’t knock him out in the second round he’s going to dance with him for all five, which is what happened. Many people are saying that Anderson wasn’t himself and I have to agree he looked tentative, some say he looked scared, I say he looks like a man who’s confidence has been shaken and who needs time to rebuild it, or maybe it’s something else. For the most part I thought he looked good, I think age has maybe slowed him a step but he was by far the faster fighter and he did leave Nick with some serious damage to his face when all was said and done. The fight was weird but not uncommon for Anderson, in three title fights with Thales Leites, Damien Mia, and Patrick cote Anderson fought in a similar way, standoffish and not committing and willing to just spar, while doing minimal damage to his opponents while making them look completely out of their depths. Many will say that, that is not the case in this fight, I say sit back and take a closer look at the fight, Nick Diaz is tough but I think Nick was let off the hook on several occasions by Anderson and AS does this in a very slick fashion by resetting his stance and then moving back in to allow Nick to move forward. What I mean is that there were several times AS had ND moving backwards while catching him with nice clean offense and then he would stop and reset, some would call this discipline I call this playing with your food, I’ve seen cats do plenty of times. Many will say I’m nuts, but think about it what does AS gain by taking out ND, not much to be honest with you, but by prolonging the fight he gets to show off some skills against an opponent who couldn’t hurt him and whom he could hurt at will, just like in those three fights I pointed out earlier and it’s well known that if AS doesn’t feel threatened by the fighter in front of him he will goof off, this being his come back there wasn’t much of that, but there was him easing off the gas. The question is why would he do that? I think the answer is to get the work in and show everyone an entertaining fight by a fighter who is no longer at his peak. Look at those last few words, no longer at his peak, or is he? Anderson is called the Spider and he’s known for spinning his web, luring in his prey and then killing them, it took a bunch of NY no nonsense tough guys to see through this and take his belt, I don’t think Weidman would have been able to do it without Rey Longo in his corner giving him the advice he gave him. Was Anderson playing us all? Was he being the Spider and luring us into his web so he can kill his next opponent? I don’t know, he says he doesn’t know if he going to fight again I say BS, the money is too good and so is he to stop now. In a year or two the story may be different but now I think he continues. Now back to the original point what do we do with AS do we put him in a title fight with Chris Weidman the guy who knocked him out and broke his leg in two separate fights, no I wouldn’t do that to the guy, it’s too soon I feel his confidence needs to be built up again so what do we do who does he fight next? One podcast I listen to asked the question are there 5 fights at 185 you can make for AS and I say yes. The first would be against Dan Henderson a man who is on the decline but still dangerous and who AS has faced and defeated before, but DH has always maintained he would like to fight AS again, now the last thing to leave a fighter they say is his power and that’s the one thing DH has in spades, it would be a high profile fight with two guys who have a lot of drawing power for the company. Now if AS can get past DH I would say the next logical opponent would be Michael Bisping, a fighter who has come close to getting a title shot but never got one. Bisping is another fighter that’s on his way out of the sport but I think he could give AS a good fight and with the amount of trash talking he can do it can be a fun couple of months leading up to it. The next two fights in no particular order would be CB Dolloway and Tim Botsch, both of these guys have seen better days but both of them are tough and will give AS a good fight because they will see him as a diminished ex champ that they can build their names on. The last on my list would be Thales Leites who AS fought and defeated years ago in a seriously one sided affair, Leites was eventually let go from the UFC and has recently returned and has looked incredible on his return and looks like he could be real close to making a title run and if AS can get by him then I would say let him start fighting the guys at the top of the division and if he can get by two them let him fight for the title again, no matter who has it. I could go on and on with fantasy match ups and such, those are my thoughts on it. Please share yours I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions.
Once again I thank you all for supporting The Oswald Chronicle and Tall Tails and please vote for us on topwebcomics.com
Until next time
Best
JD Calderon