Jay's Shows

Jay has been busy doing comic and Geek shows with his company, LarsenGeekery.
He also blogs much more regularly at www.LarsenGeekery.com.
And he is active on Facebook.

See you in Portland

Dr. Doom, watercolor 18x24', by Jay Larsen.
Jay and LarsenGeekery will be at Rose City Comic Con September 21 & 22nd.

Jay has been busy at LarsenGeekery.com

New watercolor series and other goodies at www.LarsenGeekery.com

Recent Art Commission for me Amigo

Ole, I say!

I recently created a poster for Matthew C. Weiss' Internet Opera Project,
The Adventures of Don Carlos.
He wanted cheesy old time western in Spanish California with a musical theme.
Well at least the art is the color of cheese! 8-)
Matt's project is just getting started, so go check it out as it grows.
I hear there will be music and everything.
Viva Don Carlos, the cheesiest music teacher in the West!
-- Jay Larsen

Heading to Montana

Yee Haw!  We're loading up the covered wagon and heading to Montana for a Science Fiction Convention.  MisCon - Montana's longest running Sci Fi Con.  We're even taking the dogs.

See you on the flip side!

Iron Man 3 is this Weekend...Power Up the Reactors!

Looking Forward to Iron Man 3 this weekend

I have not seen the new Iron Man 3 movie yet, but I have my tickets to see it on Friday.
I’m excited and hoping it is a good movie.  Iron Man 1 was great, 2 was okay.  I’m hoping this one is a at least good.

Iron Man has always been one of my favorites ever since I was a kid of 7 and 8.
When I first started trading empty bottles for nickels and dimes and dimes for comic books, my favorites were Batman, Captain America and Iron Man. 

Batman in those days was a silly detective and the books would give you clues and you would try to solve the crime before Batman and Robin did.  Batman was fun in those days, not the psychologically burdened Dark Knight that he became later.  I liked Batman, everybody did.  He had a TV show and was super famous.

Captain America was pretty well known as well.  But Iron Man seemed to be somebody only I was reading about.  None of my friends knew Iron Man.  He had no TV show.  In my circle of friends and family, I was the only one buying and reading stories about Tony Stark and his crazy technological inventions.  Tony wasn’t a drunk or a psychological mess in those days either—he was a respected business man with a suit and tie with a secret identity and secret skills the people around him did not know about.  As a young Mormon kid, that was how I felt.  I had to be proper and wear a tie, but secretly I wanted to do things and learn things I wasn’t supposed to be doing and learning.  I dreamed about building a secret lab with secret planes and rockets and robots and stuff.  But mostly my secret life was filled with comics and books from the library full of stories I wasn’t supposed to be reading.

I also learned how to draw by copying the pictures in those comics.  Then I would put my own dialog on the pictures.  I’m still kind of doing that these days.

Later, as I got older, I started realizing that Iron Man’s armor was kind of a metaphor for all our technology.  I learned that no matter how we wrap ourselves in metal cars and planes and extend our senses with TV and satellites, that we are still biological animals with limitations and issues that cannot be solved with technology, that we are still scared little monkeys no matter how cool our toys and how powerful our inventions.  Tony Stark showed me a lot of that, and it has remained true even as I have learned a lot more than what could be slipped into a comic book.

Iron Man comics have been all over the map from horribly bad, to corny, to incredible (I’m looking at you Matt Fraction).  But even at their worst, they are always enjoyable.  I’m hoping this movie will be an addition to the “Incredible Iron Man” list.  But even if it is corny, I will still enjoy it.

See you at the movies.  And then let’s go save the world!

-- Jay

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Don't forget, Next Week is LarsenGeekery's next show:

May 11 &12th 2013, Pacific NerdWest 13 - Bellingham WA

Games, Art, Vendors (including LarsenGeekery), and I hear Fargo from Eureka is going to be there!

Earth Day Greetings

Happy Earth Day, from Nebulus the Hungry and Baron Von Domino.

By Jay Larsen.

Consume Wisely.

Fossils Vs Rocks

LarsenGeekery will be appearing at Pacific Nerd West, May 10 &12th 2013, Pacific NerdWest 13 - Bellingham WA

Smokin in Bed

I hear it can be dangerous,

Smokin in Bed, by Jay Larsen

Do Robots Get the Flu?

Not many posts lately.  There has been an outbreak of Robot Warfare in the Pacific Northwest.  But several visits to the local mad scientist and a wizzo ray gun or two and things are starting to look up again.  I'm sure the Coast Guard or the Navy will be able to tow the hulking remains of the Japanese Super Robot out of Puget Sound without too much environmental degradation or negative impact to international shipping.  Oh, and before I forget, a big thank you to the Air Force for letting us modify that top-secret drone.  When it [REDACTED DUE TO NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS], wow!  That was something!
Well, back to the old work-a-day routine, sans killer robots.

Emerald City Comicon Mashup 13

Comic Mashup Theater is proud to present:

A documentary in comic book style.

The true life adventures of Jay and Evelyn

at Emerald City Comicon 2013 in Seattle.

ECCC was a huge show this year.  But very well done.
We saw so many great people and discovered some excellent comics.
The costumes were fantastic.
The vendors were great (and we knew most of them).
A sold out show, all three days!
I dressed up as Doctor Strange (the new black costume) and Evelyn dressed up as the Scarlet Witch (the new Uncanny Avengers costume).
Fun, fun, fun.
 -- Jay

Emerald City Comicon...Blast Off....

Emerald City Comicon starts Friday, March 1st and goes through Sunday, March 3rd.
I am ready to go in my Doctor Strange outfit.
See you at the show!

Emerald City Comicon Mashup of Anticipation

Only a week until Emerald City Comicon 2013 here in Seattle WA.
It's going to be the biggest ECCC ever!
And I'm hoping that will be a good thing.
Because part of the joy of past ECCC's has been the intimate tone and accessibility of the artists and writers.
The Show has spread out to take on the whole Seattle Convention Center.
But tickets are selling out and crowds could be huge.
Let us all prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
In that spirit, Comic Mashup Theater presents:
The GARGANTUS Guide to Emerald City Comicon 2013!!!

Hey Ho, Let's Go!
Oh, and here's a link to last year's ECCC Mashup Madness.

Blue You

Emerging from a blue dream. 
Submerging into the wild blue that is you. 
One more breath and then we shall sea.
 -- Jay Larsen, 2013

Comics Anticipation....Making Me Wait...

Waiting for comics that have been announced, but that have not come out yet is a big part of being a comics fan.  The new book has a writer you really like, an artist that is good, and a character or two that you really enjoy.  So it has to be GREAT!  Right?

Well......not necessarily.
Comics are a hit and miss media.  It's easy to make bad comics.  It's hard to make mediocre comics.  And it is almost impossible to make really, really great comics.  That magic lightning of comic greatness only ends up on the page once in a while.  But as fans, we keep hoping.  And when that next project sounds like it has increased odds of maybe, just possibly manifesting into our reality as a genuinely great book, well... we get all excited with the possibility.

Luckily, for me, I am a fan of mediocre comics and I even secretly love the really bad comics.  So there is plenty there to keep my attention.  But I still keep hoping that this next book is going to be the one that redefines what is possible in this incredible media called comics.  I am 100% positive that there are untapped riches of comics that have not been discovered or imagined yet.

So learning to enjoy the anticipation phase of comics is important.  Anything is possible when Writer X meets Artists Y and Z while exploring Characters A, B and C!
Also, to be fair, a lot of what we love about comic characters takes place between the panels and between issues anyway.  There has never been a Doctor Strange comic as cool as the Doctor Strange in my imagination.  And every time a new Doc Strange project is announced I think, maybe this time the good doctor's true mystical potential will make it onto a page.
Don't get me wrong, there have been Good Dr. Strange comics.  But there has never been a truly GREAT Doctor Strange comic....Yet.  But he is Sorcerer Supreme again, so maybe someday soon...

So what books are in Anticipation Mode right now?
Thanks for asking.

Guardians of the Galaxy.  Can Bendis unlock the wacky weirdness that is Rocket Raccoon?  And not ruin it with too much Tony Stark?

Fearless Defenders.  Will Dani Moonstar get a chance to show how incredibly cool she is while standing back-to-back with Valkyrie?  Hel Yeah!


Books that have passed out of Anticipation Mode and into actual comic pages?
The Iron man reboot.  A good book, so far.  But not Great.
The Fantastic Four/FF Fraction takeover.  Hickman's FFs were literally "fantastic" 80% of the time.  So Matt Fraction has big shoes to fill.  But he is doing a good job of making things fun and he is really capturing the "family" vibe of the Fantastic Four and the FF.  So far so good.

Young Avengers #1  Wow!  What can I say.  This time the actual book is better than my level of anticipation!  A Great Kick Off to new series with some of the most interesting young Marvel characters.  If you can get your hands on this book, read it.  Billy is doing well intentioned, but really stupid things (just like his mom, the Scarlet Witch does).  I mean, even Kid Loki was trying to stop him.

Newly moved into Anticipation Mode...Young Avengers #2
Can Kieron Gillen and James McKelvie keep things at the high level set by #1?  Will this be more than just one Great Comic?  Will if be a great Story Arc?  Or dare I say it, a Great Comic Series?  We shall see...  Anything is possible.

Anticipation can be fun.
-- Jay Larsen
PS: You can read my new Comic, Giga-Geekery #1, with a minimum of Anticipation.  Just Click Here and go get one!

New Year, Marvel NOW!

I have already said that I have an affinity for Marvel comic books, so I may be biased.  When comparing DC's New 52 "reboot" with Marvel NOW!'s "non-reboot", Marvel wins hands down.

Good things were already happening at Marvel in 2012: Fear Itself (the 2011 event) was finally over. Hickman's run on Fantastic Four and FF were amazing!  Bendis ran Avengers for longer than any other writer in Marvel history, and he did amazing things with them.  Fraction's Iron Man was solid.  Defenders got resurrected with a bang and retired with a whimper (sorry Marvel, it wasn't all good).

The big event of the Marvel year was AvX, Avengers vs X-men, which sounded like a gimmick, and ended up being pretty damned good.  I especially liked when Black Panther slaps the science out of Tony Stark just as he was going to go all Civil-War-Serious on us again.  (Tony only gets to tear the world apart once a decade!)  Cyclops started sliding into madness years ago (in my opinion) and the Phoenix Force just made it so everyone else could see it.  AvX managed to hit the other books without making them slaves to the "big event" (which shows that maybe Marvel is learning from it's past mistakes.)  Wolverine reopening the school turned out to be a really fun ride and showed what an ensemble cast book could be like, in Wolverine and the X-men.  New Mutants had a great year (thanks Abnett and Lanning) especially the "Date with the Devil" issue #37--possibly the best single issue I read all year!

Marvel did get bought by Disney last year.  This still kind of creeps me out and makes me worry, but so far so good.
Marvel movies did great: Avengers anyone?

So 2012 was a good year for Marvel.
And then they announced Marvel NOW! (which has to have CAPS and an Exclamation Mark!) the new "not a reboot" of the Marvel line.  Uh Oh!, I thought to myself.  Marvel is going to do a DC-style New 52 (which I did not think turned out well for DC).
But so far, so good in my opinion.

Marvel moved all their most popular writers and artists around, giving them fresh books to work on.  This resulted in some really good endings to some of the existing story arcs.  Fantastic Four, Avengers, New Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-man all got interesting stories that their old teams wanted to tell before they left.

And NOW! the new Marvel NOW! issues have been coming out (with more promised for later).
Bendis is on X-men now.  He did my least favorite thing and did a time travel story where the 1960's teenager X-men meet the new screwed up X-men.  I didn't want to like it.  But it is turning out to be really great.
Matt Fraction has taken the Fantastic Four on an intergalactic road trip.  And put a replacement FF team on Earth to hold down the fort.  I can't wait to see what happens next.
Fraction and Aja have are also 7 issues into a new Hawkeye series that is one of the coolest things being published right now.  It is hard to describe, but a joy to read.
The new Thor series is good.
Avengers is going cosmic, Hickman style.
Spider-man just killed Peter Parker (again) and replaced him with Doc Octopus!  (Don't worry kids, it is the 50th anniversary of Spider-man this year.  I'm sure Peter will come back to us somehow.)
And there are still more NOW! titles that have not come out yet.  Fearless Defenders, an all Girl X-Men Team, Nova, and Guardians of the Galaxy!  I am Groot!

This could end up being a great year for Marvel Comics!  I think they are doing a lot of things right with their "not a reboot".  It's a great time to jump on and Marvel didn't throw all their history and continuity into the garbage.  I like it so far.  But maybe it's just me?

-- Jay

New Year, Old 52

I always seem to end up reading Marvel Comics.  Even as a kid.  But I always liked Batman and found Wonder Woman interesting but poorly written.  But it was Iron Man and Captain America that I would read over and over again.  I like the idea of Superman, but the actual Superman in the comics usually bored me.

As I got older, my tastes stayed the same.  I would dip into DC territory once in a while.  Hey Green Arrow got interesting for a bit.  Green Lantern got good for a while.  But mostly it was Batman that was worth reading.

So when DC announced the New 52 "reboot" of the DC Universe, I gave it a try.

I read dozens of their number 1's, and as the year went by I was reading fewer and fewer DC books.  I wanted to like Birds of Prey, but it went nowhere.  Flash has had great page layouts, but not a good plot to be seen.  Superman had all sorts of potential and just left me yawning.  Green Lantern (which I had been enjoying before the reboot) enslaved Hal Jordan to Sinestro and put me into blackest boredom.  Green Arrow just sucked... The only surprise was Wonder Woman, whose book has stayed very good all year by basically remaining independent from the rest of the DC Universe.  I am convince the Wonder Woman kissing Superman in Justice League is a different Wonder Woman than the daughter of Zeus who has been kicking ass in Hades and Olympus.

There were a few sparks of interest on Earth 2, but I'm not sure that book will ever stick with any of those characters long enough to make it really interesting.

And there has been Batman.  Batman, especially the Synder/Capullo series, has been fantastic!  I can't say enough about how good Batman has been.  That maze of the Owls sequence will go down in comics history.

But that's it.  Batman and Wonder Woman.

DC said this was a great time to jump in.  DC said we didn't have to know all the back story to understand these characters.  But it didn't turn out to be true.  The "reboot" didn't reboot nearly enough for me.  And the end result was kind of a wash.  I back down to reading Batman and Wonder Woman again.  Sorry DC.  I tried.  Maybe it isn't you.  Maybe its me?

Thankfully, there is still Marvel and other comics companies.

-- Jay