SASB: Death of the Superfan: Part 1

You haven't been back home in a while. You moved out to the city for work and have gotten used to the Thai food, the busyness, and a new local comic shop where you make regular visits for the latest "Saga" and "Resident Alien." But now because your little sister graduated, you're in your hometown, and decided to check out the comic store that's near your parents' house. You stand outside and you recall what your first time here was like...

You had the hawkish owner/ manager (you're still not clear) who greeted you at the door. He wore glasses, a tucked-in, checkered, collar shirt and seemed like he wouldn't want to answer you're stupid questions. Scattered throughout the store  are isolated men, with the exception of the two engaged in a conversation over Warren Ellis's Planetary and a young couple, perhaps just really close friends, pawing and laughing over the latest X-men.

 And then there was Paul.

You mustered up the courage, and asked the manager where you can find the Doom Patrol comics. You were right; the manager didn't feel like answering you question, especially since he doesn't know what you are talking about. You started to describe it explaining that they were a team like the X-Men with a guy in wheelchair, similar to Professor X. 

"Actually, the Doom Patrol came before the X-Men, So really Professor X is like Niles Caulder, your "wheelchair guy." says Paul glancing up at you intently. His angry eyes above his hair filled cheeks, daring you to challenge his knowledge,

"Doom Patrol started in My Greatest Adventure #80, in June 1963, and X-Men started in September 1963," he continued unsolicited. "You shouldn't be reading it if you don't know about it..."

...

You enter the old, disheveled shop from that memory and you trip over something. You turn around and to your horror, it's the body of Paul, the former resident expert, with blood and  self-significance pouring out of an open wound.

Who? Who could have done this, you think, your mind quickly races towards the list of suspects.

To be continued... 

POOR PAUL!

Dimitrios Fragiskatos is an irate Greek who enjoys prodding speculators. You can read his work on titles like Greasers in Greece or Greasers in Geese, and his new series he has a bunch of artists locked in a room working on called Frankenstein vs. Dracula.

Webcomic Review: Ava's Demon

When I review webcomics I try to see it from every sensory perspective, and I often relate experiences with consuming food. For example a good comic can linger in your mind, just as something flavorful might linger on your palate. I'm giving you a little bit of my insight because as a creator I believe in being open with my process, but I also have a challenging task ahead of me. 

Have you read Michelle Czajkowski's Ava's Demon yet? If you haven't I am now going to try to convince you that if you consider yourself a webcomic reader than you must. The challenge I was talking about previously was that I need to convince you that this work is a webcomic masterpiece, if not a masterpiece in itself! I know those are strong words to just throw around, however, I hope from my other reviews that you understand I don't use them lightly.

I was originally told about Michelle's work from a friend who works at blue sky and might be known for his work called Dollar Store Combines.

Being very busy in illustrating a variety of comics I was hesitant to start reading another since taking time for entertainment can be risky. Either you've wasted time starting something that was a bust, or (and this is the scarier possibility) you may lose time by becoming absorbed in binge reading because you can't get enough.

Ava's Demon ended up being the latter. You are welcomed to this webcomic by an eerie tomb that seems to glow hauntingly red. Opening it you see just one panel of a girl scribbling in a book. Its counter to what many comics or even webcomics do with their formatting. Pages that are landscape or portrait containing anywhere from 3-12 panels on average. Instead Ava's Demon's panel by panel format is more cinematic and is refreshing because it allows you to appreciate the beautifully painted image as a single piece before moving on. Many other comics paneling pushes a reader forward where Ava's asks you to linger. And linger you should, each panel is beautifully digitally painted and rendered, capturing the mood with its intense lighting, and whose cartoonishly styled characters powerfully emote to further draw you in. All this added to Ava being artistically beautiful but at the end of the first chapter is what captured me as an Ava fan! Each chapter concludes with an animation accompanied by music that truly leaves Ava as not just an amazing webcomic, but an excellent multimedia creation!

The first page of this  dynamic sci-fi introduces us to Ava, a girl we quickly find is highly disturbed, and her demon who seems to be a hidden personality that wants to snuff out the young girls life. It seems like a complex thing to convey but this aspect of the story isn't unfurled in the first five issues, or even the first five pages, but within the first five panels. This is typical of Ava's storytelling, as it conveys seamless storytelling that with its magnificent imagery, and as the story progresses we are found in a postwar universe whose conqueror is heralded as a god. Just the information I shared makes the story address issues of a person resolving their inner demons as well as bringing up the concept that our history and our gods tend to be those of our conquerors.

With two books already published and a third on the way, Ava's Demon seems to be on the crux of being the next legendary space opera! You can help her continue to create by donating to her Patreon!

Sir Thomas J. Griffin is a son of Lilith working for Gryphon Knights Comics and is currently exercising his demons by illustrating an anthology called Frankenstein vs. Dracula: Throughout the Ages with 11 other talented people!