By Matt Feazell
(Blogger is screwing up and not posting my scheduled posts. They've also stripped the labels/tags off the posts that have gone live. Plus they recently sent out the most spammy/phishing seeming official email I've ever gotten. Great job guys.)
This is a zine printed on a single sheet of paper and shows how you too can make and put together your own minicomics!
While it generally seems well put together, and many aspects are informative, I really take issue with part of Step 2.
"Leave ninjas, superheroes, and giant robots to color comics which specialize in that sort of thing."I find this frustrating not because I love giant robots and might very well be happy if half of the things I reviewed on this site involved robots in some way, but because saying that you need colour to tell a science fiction or fantasy story is ridiculous.
The Preposterous Adventures of IronHide Tom is a fantastic black and white comic with simple artwork that was nominated for an Eisner Award. This is despite (or because of) the fact that it features pirates, mermaids (and mermen!), witches, and countless monsters. Another comic Priddy drew in the same style was called The Amazing Life of Onion Jack, and which was similarly award nominated, features superheroes and (if I'm remembering correctly) robots. These are both fantastic, entertaining, funny comics that are drawn in black and white with minimal detail (though a considerable amount of skill). Saying that you need colour to make comics featuring science fiction or fantasy elements is almost insulting to those that choose to make comics featuring those things.
But, uhm, back to the zine at hand. Holy shit! This was originally printed in 1988? I can't believe this has been going around for almost 25 years. I hope it has inspired someone to make and print their own comic, whether it contains robots or not.
