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The Bum's Rush

by Paul Milligan

The Bum’s Rush #3 It’s Sharknife, Mang! If you read last week’s Bum’s Rush, you’ll remember that I was super pumped up at the thought of reading Corey “The Rey” Lewis’ Sharknife. Did it live up to the hype I had built up for it in my own mind? In a word (or two): Hell Yes! The Rey accomplished exactly what he set out to do, entertain the shit out of your eyes. Sharknife was a visual feast of hyper-kinetic explosive action, pop-culture wit and deliciously silly mayhem. I had a blast reading this book from beginning to end, which like most good manga books, was accomplished in one sitting. I mentioned before how the term “American Manga” seemed to finally make sense when applied to this book and I wasn’t wrong. All too often when an American publisher or artist says they are trying to capture the feel of Manga for their comics you end up with more of the same typical, bland layouts and storytelling, except all the characters have big eyes. As if that is what typifies Manga and sets it apart (and usually above) American sequential storytelling. Manga is personified (at least in my opinion) by sparse dialogue, trimmed back until only the essential remains, and edge of your seat, break-neck pacing. It’s like American comics without all the useless fat, which is what usually makes Manga such a fast and enjoyable read. But The Rey isn’t merely ripping off Asian story telling techniques. No, he’s adapting what he’s read and using it to form his own style, a blend of all his influences that join together to form an almost entirely unique vision. Right away you can see that he’s inspired by a million different movies, books and video games, taking the best parts of those influences. Obviously there’s a healthy dose of Scarface, Capcom and hip-hop dancing through the pages of this book and that just serves to increase the flavor of the book itself. What attracts me the most to Rey’s work is the raw energy with which he produces his work. I can almost see him tearing through the artwork at a blistering speed, giddily laughing to himself as he realizes “Shit, I’m being paid to do this.” His love for art shines through. But as much as it may seem like he’s rushing these mad lines down on to paper, there is a quality to his art that’s detailed, sharp and precise, so you just know that he must spend hours making this stuff look as good as he possibly can. One of my favorite aspects of Sharknife was seeing how Rey varied his styles from chapter to chapter, according to the mood he was trying to convey. If I had one complaint (and complaint seems harsh) about this book, it would be that it’s very easy to get lost in the artwork at times, as the action seems to blend together at certain points, making it difficult to distinguish exactly who’s doing what to which monster. I guess this would be partly to blame on the book’s digest-sized format, which is cool (a definitely a growing trend in the market), but I’d really love to see this artwork as large as possible, to pick out all the details and the action. But really, these distractions are few and far between and once you really get into the book, it’s less and less of a problem. The book ends with the promise of more Sharknife and I for one wait for it with bated breath. Though seriously, I don’t think it matters if it’s Sharknife or something else equally as imaginative, I am definitely on board for whatever Mr. Lewis has in store for us next. But what the hell are you listening to my pompous ass for? Go pick up this book right now! Any book that has a suggested soundtrack (along with where and when the songs should be played while reading) on the last page is probably always worth at least a glance. More info here: http://www.reyyy.com/sharknife/temp.html Check out Rey here: http://www.reyyy.com 24 Hour Comic Book Day (minus 3 hours and 10 pages) It ended as it began, bleary-eyed, searching for a cigarette and wondering exactly what the hell was going on. Amazingly Kevin and I made it Titan exactly when we were planning to, around 12 pm on Saturday. I helped Ethan set up the tables and then proceeded to waste time wandering about the store as I waited for Dave and Josh to show up. I gave Josh a call around 12:15 to see where they were at. The liquor store. Not a real surprise. The idea is bandied about that perhaps we’ll take a shot every time we finish a page. Thankfully no one actually goes through with this. It’s almost 12:30 when Josh and Dave finally show up and after we’ve all settled in (and peaked at Dave’s drawings, he started at 9:30, the bastard) and ready to draw Kevin suggests we go smoke. Desperate to delay this inevitable mess I’ve gotten myself into I jump at the chance to take a break (before I’ve even actually accomplished anything) and spend a few minutes getting cancer and cracking wise with Kev and Josh outside the comic shop. It almost feels like we’re the “bad kids” hanging outside of school smoking and snubbing our noses at authority. I say so and Josh takes the joke and runs with it. I finally get to work around a little after 12:30. I’ve officially started 24 Hour Comic Day. That means I have to draw 24 pages by 12:30 pm the following day. As soon as I start I know that I’m not going to be able to do it. Up until this point I still had no idea what I was going to do, but as I begin to muck about on the paper I realize that I used to have a comic strip idea called The Magic Bean. Of course I had none of the character designs with me and the only character I could really remember how to draw was the Bean, so that provided a bit of a challenge. Around 2:00 (I think it was 2?) I manage to finish up my first strip. Rebecca, Titan’s resident hottie, refuses to let me outside to smoke until I have finished a page. I must show her each page before she will allow me to pass. She’s like the friggin’ gatekeeper, but she keeps me honest so I supposed I should thank her. After a while, joking, razzing, eating, drinking and (oh yeah!) drawing the “Hair Band” music playing on the radio starts getting to us. We were doing okay musically, at least initially. A little Dick Dale, some Bowie. Then came the Clapton and out came the headphones. After the Clapton was the ancient method of Chinese torture, “Shitty 80’s Rock Bands.” We were a little mean about it, whining and complaining, insulting Ethan’s taste in music. And this guy had been gracious enough to help us set up and stay at Titan all day. What a bunch of jerks. Still, that music was whuppin’ my ass. Nevertheless, in the seven hours we spent at Titan I managed to finish six whole strips putting me only an hour behind schedule. We were booted out of Titan and Josh took off home (but what a friggin’ trooper man, he hung out all seven hours at the comic store, standing up most of the time) so Dave, Kev and I decided to go get some grub. We stopped at the Venice Italian Ristorante, my favorite Italian place in all the world and filled ourselves near to bursting with breadsticks, salad and pasta. Dave came up with a great idea for a Cultural Void strip while we were there. Once we finished eating we skedaddled back to my apartment and mixed a few drinks before getting back to the task at hand. By this point it’s something like 9pm and now I’m more than a few strips behind. I get cracking, the drawings not so tough, it’s the ideas that are coming slower now. I’m spending too long trying to figure out good punch lines. Dave’s wife Melissa shows up around 10 and hangs out for a while before dragging his tired butt back to Ft. Worth. I’m pretty sure he’s tapped by this point and I wonder if he’ll actually make it the full 24. Kevin and I press on. We’re distracted a little by Mad TV and then Shaolin Soccer and before I know it it’s 1:30 in the morning. Only 11 hours left. I can feel myself beginning to go insane. Kevin stops drawing and passes out on one of my chairs before heading into my room (because I’m not planning to stop and I usually sleep on my couch anyway) to crash. He didn’t make the 24 either and at this point I’m beginning to seriously doubt that I will either. I play darts for about half an hour, trying to find some inspiration for a few more strips. I come up with several new ideas but on page 12 my pen gives up. I take it as a sign and start winding down. Then guilt nags at me and I decide to do a couple more strips. I want to at least try to get over half the task done. So I sit down after finding a new pen and bang out two more pages, the last one wrapping up things on topic (“The artist is about to pass out”). My hand hurts pretty badly at this point and I don’t think I could draw any more if I wanted to. At 9:30 A.M. I pass out on my couch. Three hours and ten pages short of the goal. Which, in all honesty, is waaay better than I thought I’d do. To see my 24 Hour Comic, Der Magic Bean, go here: http://www.subweird.com/pauls24hourcomic/page001.htm Worst Fanboy Moment Ever . . . Simultaneously the worst fanboy moment in front of a girl and also the worst choice for clothing to be worn on a date. I had just picked up some comics from Titan and saw a shirt that I just had to have. A Captain America shirt. I don’t know why I wanted to have it. I just did. It wasn’t just any Captain America shirt either. There wasn’t just some little picture of Cap dashing forward, shield at the ready. Noooo. This was a t-shirt replica of Cap’s costume. The top half was blue, with a big white star on the chest, the bottom half, vertical red and white stripes. On reflection I probably should have picked a bigger size, but at the time I was still trying to convince myself that 2XL would do the trick. So I have a date that night with a girl I hadn’t seen in years. She was a friend of my sister’s back when we were in high school. I met her again at a convenience store near my parent’s house and she was looking hotter than I ever remembered. And apparently she was interested. Don’t ask me, I wouldn’t go out with me. Anyway, after talking on the phone and exchanging flirty emails we had our first date which, despite how it ended, seemed to me to be a disaster. My first, and biggest mistake, was deciding to wear the Captain America shirt. What the hell was I thinking? This is the first impression you want to make? A Captain America shirt that’s just a little bit too small for you? I may as well have shown up with “NERD” emblazoned across my chest in green glowing paint. I could tell she was wondering the same thing: “Why the hell did he wear that shirt? Of all possible shirts, why that one?” The truth is I don’t know. I got no end of crap about it from my friends when they found out that I wore the Cap shirt on my first date with this girl. But hey, at the end of the night we were muggin’ down in my car so what the hell, right. I mean I still scored. But I did not ever, EVER, wear the Cap shirt again. Quick Bits • Free Comic Book Day is this weekend and Kevin, Aaron and I will be at Titan giving away, you guessed it,  free comics. • Rob Liefeld’s got an official website up now. God must hate me. • Liefeld’s drawing 2 issues of Teen Titans. Whose bright idea was that? Ugh. • Kung-Fu Hustle kicks ass. • xXx: State of the Union, however, licks balls. • Finally, after avoiding it for so long, I have seen the Episode III trailer. All right fine, I’m excited. George Lucas, you are a bastard. • Read Seven Soldiers. • Read GLA • Read Sharknife • Read Comics! NEXT WEEK: Free Comic Book Day and reaction to the first Twilight dime novel! Send me hate mail at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com Read more stupid crap I write at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard End of Line