Artemis Eternal – The New Indie Filmmaking

Filmmaker Jessica Mae Stover started out doing celebrity genre interviews on AOL, but she has since moved from Big Media to Indie Groundbreaker. With Artemis Eternal, she is seeking to make a science fiction film outside of the studio system, and even outside of the traditional independent film system.

A challenge? That would be an understatement. Will SF fans help her crowdfunding project? Will film viewers appreciate the final story?

Check out my interview with Stover in the current issue of Galaxis. Click on the image below to read.

English and the English: James Lawton on Yesterday's German Defeat of Argentina

The scruffier UK press is usually stuck somewhere in ham-handed Nazi references when dealing with the Germans on just about anything, but the Sunday Independent's James Lawton had a nice article about how the well-trained and youthful German Mannschaft destroyed the starry-eyed Argentine team in yesterday's quarterfinals game at the World Cup.

The article's worth a read, if you share my enthusiasm for such things. But if you don't, you might still enjoy this excerpt, which I think is a nicely worded and intelligent bit of color – and a reminder that the English journalists are often much better at using our somewhat shared language than are American journalists (what few are left):

Here, as the sadness on the face of [Argentine coach] Maradona lacked only the make-up of the most tragic clown, the new German team showed that they belong not to the future but now. Whether they are mature enough, and their defence of sufficient resilience, to see them through to the final, is a matter of some intrigue but plainly a gleeful Chancellor Angela Merkel was ready to give them the benefit of any doubt. She was made so exuberant by the goals of Müller, Miroslav Klose, Arne Friedrich and then the old hand Klose again, she planted a kiss on the cheek of the South African president Jacob Zuma, a man of noted enthusiasm for such overtures.

Nice, that last bit.

Inspired by Cerebus Again (After Nearly 30 Years)

Waaaaay back in the January 1983 issue of the short-lived Comics Scene magazine, there is a letter by yours truly printed on page 6 in which I mention the independent comic book Cerebus. I had begun reading Cerebus because of an article in Comics Scene, and I would read the comic off-and-on for years. In fact, after I'd stopped following it, I began to read it again after another article about Cerebus (and its creator, Dave Sim) in an issue of the reborn Comics Scene in 1987.

Comics Scene was reborn yet again in the early part of this decade, but it only last three issues and I don't recall an article about Cerebus in it. But last week I picked up the first three copies of Cerebus Archive during a visit to a downtown San Francisco comics shop, and I've enjoyed seeing Sim dig up his material from the mid-1970s. (So far, it's all been pre-Cerebus stuff; the "archive" really refers to Sim's career, not -- yet, at least -- to the famed misanthropic sword-carrying aardvark.)

Granted, unless you have a high tolerance for reprinted rejection letters Sim received from Charleton Comics, Playgirl, Warren, and other publishers, you might not be too interested in this archive. But there are plenty of other treats in the publication, including lots of correspondence from Gene Day, Sim's friend, supporter and collaborator, who appears to have been a wonderful soul but a terrible typist. Through it all, you get a nice glimpse into the bootstrapping world of independent aspiring comics creators.

Now here comes this development. There's going to be an announcement about Cerebus TV -- details at CerebusTV, appropriately enough. What's Cerebus TV? Haven't a clue.

SF Zine Fest in Pictures

I spent part of my afternoon today at SF Zine Fest, an expo in San Francisco for independent publishers of comics and magazines (and a few arts and crafts). It's a smaller event than the Alternative Press Expo, but it also was cheaper to get in. The event was held at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park August 22-23.

It's always nice to see people publishing their works on their own, not being held back by lack of funding or a big publishing organization behind them. It's also interesting to chat with people who are learning the hard way how to sell, how to talk customers into buying three for the price of two, and how to get people to pick up a comic book and look inside.

I bought a small selection of six comics, including several from Indrind Press (aka Andy Warner and Steven Foundling). Anything I missed, I will most likely be able to find at Alternative Press Expo in October.

Andy Warner (below), one half of Indrind Press and all of Andysaurus.