Head on over to The Pulse to check out an article they’re running there by me all about MODOK, in which I examine the character’s newound semi-ironic poplarity among mainstream readers and indie hipsters alike.  Also included are some excerpts from James Sturm’s super-rare tribute to “The Rhino,” a few tidbits from The Journal of Modok Studies, and interviews with both J.O.M.S. author Robert Newsome and Kirby scholar Dr. Craig Fischer.  Here’s a bit of the article–link at the bottom goes to the full thing posted at The Pulse:

There’s a whole lot of M.O.D.O.K. going on.

George Bush’s approval ratings may be in the pits, but M.O.D.O.K.’s cultural cache has never been better. Ten years ago, if you’d asked your average fanboy who M.O.D.O.K. was, you’d have been met with a blank stare, but these days you can’t swing a dead cat in your local comics shop without hitting some kind of M.O.D.O.K.ery. This once obscure Marvel villain, spawn of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee from a 1967 issue of Tales of Suspense, is now the cock of the walk in the Marvel universe, featured in the recent All-M.O.D.O.K. Ultimate Avengers issue, in which the entire Avengers team become “M.O.D.O.K.s”; starring in his own miniseries, M.O.D.O.K.’s Eleven; getting off one of the bawdiest gags in Marvel’s history in their recent holiday special; and even appearing as a Marvel Legends “build-a-figure,” available only as a piece-by-piece collectable, packed in, one appendage at a time, with other figures.

M.O.D.O.K.’s newfound stardom isn’t confined to the hallowed halls of your local “Android’s Dungeon” comics shop, though. Wandering the isles of indy comics festivals like SPX or MoCCA these days, it’s not unusual to overhear alt-comics hipsters expound upon the virtues of M.O.D.O.K. with the same studied reverence with which they discuss the latest offerings from Top Shelf, Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly. M.O.D.O.K.ery has even oozed out of the seedy world of comics nerddom into the (relatively) mainstream world of animation: The Toonami series Megas XLR features an obvious M.O.D.O.K. homage (albeit one with the face of Bruce Campbell) and Disney has even gotten in on the act with their own faux-DOC., Technor, from their series Teamo Supremo.

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For decades, comics enthusiasts and practitioners have been complaining, Rodney Dangerfield-style that the art form doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Among the many standard grouse formats is the “museum grouse,” which goes a little like this: “Museums will put some Roy Lichtenstein riff on a Kirby panel on the wall and everyone goes apeshit for it, but why won’t they put the actual Kirby stuff on display?!”

Well, guess what–“they” finally did, most notably in the recent high-profile Masters of American Comics exhibit. And what was the reaction of the comics community?

Bitching and complaining.

I was just checking out the contents of the new, and very cool, comics magazine, Comics Comics, and noted that in it, “Dan [Nadel] has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show.” I’m guessing this won’t be a glowing review.

Last week, I received the most recent issue of The International Journal of Comic Art, which contained what was apparently intended to be a point/counterpoint sort of thing, but since both reviewers didn’t like the exhibit it was really just “counterpoint/counterpoint.”

The Comics Journal‘s R.C. Harvey hasn’t quite weighed in fully as of issue 282’s introductory essay, but we’ll see what the second half brings when #283 arrives. (I get my issues along with my monthly comics, so I’m guessing everyone probably has gotten this issue but me.)

Folks more on the P.C. tip complained about the lack of women in the exhibit.

Even cartoonist Art Spiegelman, who helped put the exhibit together, and was himself included in it, eventually found fault with it and withdrew his work from it.

I remember discussing this exhibit with a prominent comics scholar at last year’s SPX who was, needless to say, kvetching about it, and asking him what he would have included to make for a better show. His advice for the Masters of American Comics exhibit, only half-jokingly: all European cartoonists. Quoth Charlie Brown: Good grief!

So, what’s the point of my grousing about all this grousing? I’m not exactly sure–certainly not that a major exhibit of comics art should be above reproach simply because it’s… well, a major exhibit of comics art. But I do wonder, though, if we of the comics community might heed a bit of old Southern wisdom regarding the longterm and sustained progress of our art form into the realm of “respectable” art: You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (Although, as the character Woody once remarked on Cheers, you can catch the most flies with a dead squirrel.)

Sunday, the final day of Heroes Con in Charlotte, is known for its languid pace, both as far as visitors and sales go, and today was no exception. Most of the Indie Island folks, myself included, had been up way too late the previous evening, thinking foolishly that the comparatively late opening time of 11 am was justification enough for rabble-rousing until the wee hours. Sunday this year fell on Fathers day as well, which is a nice facet of Heroes since it dovetails with Heroes’ “family friendly” rep and gives fathers a good excuse to bring their kids to the convention. But, as you can imagine, these father/son pairs aren’t really the most likely folks to make mass purchases of silk screened, hand-assembled, etc. minicomics–or really, non-superhero and/or non-kid stuff in general.

That was OK with me, though, since it gave me a chance to hit the floor for a bit and buy stuff. Since last night’s bar tab had effectively eliminated any chance at all of my breaking even money-wise at this show, the gate for stuff-buying was officially considered open. The first thing I bought was this badass drawing by Adhouse cartoonist Jamie Tanner:

You’re probably thinking, “Wow you just went out and slapped down some serious bucks for original art right off the bat?” Price tag for this piece: $5.00. Jamie was at the Adhouse booth drawing most of the day, and whatever he came up with was yours for $5.00.

I made the mistake a while back of mentioning to my friend Adam Casey that I thought those stupid US1 Marvel comics from the 80s were really funny and now he makes a point to find issues of US1 in the 50 cent bins and give them to me. This year I received #1, which gives me the first three issue run now. FYI: This is a comic book about a truck driver with a metal skull implant that allows him to hear CB radio conversations in his head. I read this issue, text material included, cover to cover behind my booth today. Thanks, Adam.

My friend, and comics professor at App State up the road in Boone, Craig Fischer did a bit of legwork for me and tracked down the first six issues of Steve Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man for a buck a piece. Art-wise, this stuff is a mid-era Ditko tour de force. Story-wise, it’s a tour de foolishness, however. I looked at Ditko’s awesome artwork over and over again, did a sketch of the character “Sude” in my sketchbook, read the first few pages of the first issue and then became too bamboozled to continue.

One curious attribute of mainstream cons is that you occasionally stumble on some good indie finds at dealers booths that apparently have no idea what the heck the stuff is and just throw it in the “get rid of it cheap” bin. Last year I bought two issues of Lloyd Llewellyn #1 in a quarter bin. This year there was a dealer with a bunch of graphic novels in long boxes for $3.00 each. Inside were odd items like a bunch of Sam Henderson books, and tons of Joann Sfarr, and lots of SLG trades. I bought Renee French’s Micrographica and Lilli Carre’s Tales of Woodsman Pete for three bucks each.

Speaking of “graphic novels,” this year there seemed to be a marked increae in the number of dealers with tons and tons of trades for sale. The trade paperback seems now to be here officially as a staple item (ironically, I suppose since they’re not stapled?). Lots of booths had trades, mainly just collections of stuff from Marvel and DC, for sale at anywhere from 30% to 50% off cover. These I guess are the new dollar bins of the post-trade/graphic novel environment.

Minicomics-wise, I got a ton of stuff in trade or that folks just gave me–too much to mention here–but, the two items I sought out in particular and am looking forward to reading were Rashy Rabbit by Josh Latta and Wysteria #5 by Brad McGinty.

Adhouse books’ Chris Pitzer had a bunch of personal stuff for sale from his collection and I scored an big “phonebook” editon of Viz’s Sexy Voice and Robo from him. I’ve been on the lookout for this for a while, thinking that it was available as digest sized versions, and am really glad that I finally got a hold of it, especially all in one book and on the cheap.

J Chris Campbell started a jam comic involving funny animals and potato salad. It was last seen in the hands of Top Shelf’s Andy “Owly”Runton, and will likely be completed at this year’s SPX.

All in all, I get the general vibe that this year’s show was a bit slower than last, not just because of those weasels at Wizard scheduling their Philly show the same weekend, but also maybe because last year’s show was such insanity that this year things were maybe in a bit of a “hangover” mode. Heroes con, though is known for its relaxed and friendly atmosphere, and us small press folks are there as much to hang out and put down a few beers after the show as to sell stuff. I had a great time and am definitely looking forward to next year’s show. Many thanks to Shelton, Dustin, Andy, and the rest of the Heroes crew for a great, fun show.  Philly schmilly…

UPDATE:

If you head over to The Pulse, there’s some coverage of several Heroes events, including the mini-comics panel from Saturday. It’s currently near the top and has an “Owly” thumbnail next to it, but here’s a direct link as well.

Also, I had a number of people who attended that panel come up to me later at my booth and ask for the URL for the mini-comics Co-op site that I mentioned in the interview, so here it is:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dougmcnamara/