Greece and someone's dad weighs in on Afrodisiac

The Hipster Dad digs Afrodisiac: "It's an excellent work that never overstays its welcome or reaches beyond its creators' considerable talents. Highly recommended for older readers."

Αριστείδης Κώτσης at Comicdom says: "Το συνολικό αποτέλεσμα είναι ένα ιδιαίτερα διασκεδαστικό και πολύ όμορφο comic, που προσφέρεται για μια δεύτερη ανάγνωση και αποτελεί μια εξαιρετική απόδειξη των ικανοτήτων ενός εξαιρετικού artist."

Here are a couple more parts of my interview with Brian Heeter at the Daily Cross Hatch.

Last by not least, Objet d'Afro continues:

Phantom of the Attic in Oakland SATURDAY + Reviews

PHANTOM OF THE ATTIC IN OAKLAND
Brian Maruca and I will be signing books and giving away stuff at Phantom of the Attic in Oakland this Saturday from 12 - 3. The top giveaway is a one-of-a-kind, 2 foot x 3 foot (yeah, huge, what else would you expect) Afrodisiac blacklight poster. There can be nothing cooler in your dorm room than this badboy. Come out and I'll scribble something in your copy of Afrodisiac.

JAMES STURM
James, founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies, what do you make of this Afrodisiac book? "I marveled at every panel: clever writer, amazing art and a thrilling attention to detail."

COPACETIC COMICS
Bill Boichel, the owner of another awesome Pittsburgh comic book store, Copacetic Comics, weighs in with his review of Afrodisiac. Be sure to browse around his store online, he carries a lot of great stuff (not just comics) and he often offers this stuff at discount prices. And unlike Amazon, Bill has Afrodisiac's in stock and ready to send to your needy, little hands. "Yet, all is rendered with a clear sense of humor, and where level, intellectually engaged heads prevail, there are sure to be some interesting and potentially valuable correlations made (cultural anthropologists, please take note). In other words, Afrodisiac is one of the densest texts one is likely to come across; and while many will doubtless find it a source of uncritical enjoyment, those who do so will be doing themselves a disservice and missing the work's essential character."

BEGUILING
Hey, Canadian super-comic-book retailer -- Thank you! You're too kind.

AMBER THE STYLIST

THE ONION
B-. "Like Street Angel, Afrodisiac is a straight-faced joke: Each issue starts with a blurb explaining the hep hero’s origin story, though it’s a different broadly iconic origin every time, and each takes on a different look and style, from manga to ’80s cartoon to Archie Comics to romance comics to noir."

OBJET D'AFRO

Communication Arts Illustration Annual 51

The cover illustration I did for OC Weekly featuring skinheads and swastikas and hatefulness will appear in Illustration Annual 51, the May/June 2010 issue of Communication Arts.

Afrodisiac Call for Entries

Sharpen those crayonz, boys and girls, and spread the word. Adhouse Books presents:

Objet d'Afro

You are invited to the online Player's Ball of art shows, "Objet d'Afro" on Flickr. Objet d'Afro highlights the obvious awesomeness of everyone's favorite superhero, the Afrodisiac.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/afro/

Here's what we want - post a picture on our Flickr group of an Afrodisiac art thing...you pick the medium...you pick the everything. All mediums of art; whether it be painting, graphic art, sculpting, drawing, sketching, fake ads, short strips, or gluing an afro on a Ken doll. All categories are welcome, as are entrants from all countries....whatever...go nuts. If you don't have a Flickr account, send us the picture...or the art thing...and we'll post it for you.

We'll have some awesome prizes for the king of the long shoe (art) game.

King Daddy: a piece of original art featuring Afrodisiac vs Dragonfly (see above)
Poppa-stoppa: a deluxe edition of the Afrodisiac and a signed copy of the Street Angel trade paperback
Cigarette Pimp: a signed copy of Afrodisiac

Honorable mention(s) will recieve a signed Afrodisiac print.

The contest will run from now (get going) through the end of March. Winners will be named by April 15, 2010.

[bottom line: this is an art contest based on the Afrodisiac character created by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca and published by AdHouse Books. Creative content will be displayed on Flickr - Objet d'Afro - An Afrodisiac Art Appreciation Group. Jim, Brian, and Chris (AdHouse) will moderate the forum and determine a winner. Anyone who bitches and complains can stop being a jerk right now...we're trying to have a neat little thing, don't ruin it for everyone else.]

pood?! what is pood?

Pood

The Daily Cross Hatch interview begins + Oakland Phantom update

Brian Heater and I discuss all things Afrodisiac over at the Daily Cross Hatch. Not sure how many parts this will run, but here is the beginning.

UPDATE! PHANTOM OF THE ATTIC IN OAKLAND! UPDATE!
Brian Maruca and I have rescheduled our signing at Phantom of the Attic in Oakland due to weather concerns. We will now be signing on February 20th, from 12 - 3 pm. Come out and see us. Come out and win a giant, one-of-a-kind, Afrodisiac black light poster!

REVIEW
Ray Tate reviews Afrodisiac at Comics Bulletin: "Afrodisiac looks the very model of a 70s poster icon. The carnal champion oozes testosterone and blackness."

Adhouse tour report and an Afroreview

Adhouse head honcho, Chris Pitzer, gives a bit of a tour recap on the House of Ad blog.

Over at Popshifter, Danny R. Phillips offers everyone a little advice: "put all the stupid ass PC crap aside, and read Afrodisiac. It is well written, expertly drawn, and fun as hell. And let’s be honest, everybody could use a laugh right now."

Southern tour recap

BlurryFro

Originally uploaded by AdHouse Books

Success! Complete Success!

Back from the southern tour to find 18 inches of snow and 6-10 in the forecast for tonight. Hmmm...any other sourthern stores interested in some Afrodisiac love?

I had a great trip and want to thank everyone who braved the elements to come out and see us at Velocity Comics, Chapel Hill Comics, and Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. This was the first time I've done anything with a comics store outside of my hometown, and was overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and support from the store employees to readers both new and old.

Velocity Comics hosted an Afrodisiac art contest on Friday night. The entries blew me away. Here is a post about illustrator Richie Pope's piece. And here is the Julia Scott's winning entry. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement later this week about an online Afrodisiac art show!

I managed to pick up a few cool comics along the way, including a couple of issues from Kirby's excellent 2001 series (thanks to Heroes).

Got to hang out at Dustin Harbin's a bit. Seeing his comics in various stages of completion was absolutely jaw-dropping - both inspiring and intimidating.

Finally, the good folks at 11 O'Clock Comics podcast discuss Afrodisiac in episode 94 (afrotalk begins around the 1:30:15 mark).

Afrodisiac reviews + southern tour reminder

First, a reminder for readers in Richmond, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte - come out and see us this weekend! I'm super excited to visit Velocity Comics (Friday evening 6 - ?), Chapel Hill Comics (Saturday evening 6 - 9), and Heroes Aren't Hard to Find (Sunday 2 - 5), and I hope you can make it to one of these stores. We had a small book release party this past weekend at Pittsburgh's Toonseum, and I think everyone there enjoyed themselves. Here's a report from that event. Early weather reports are...interesting. So keep your eyes peeled as we may move the events up a bit Friday and/or Saturday to try to accommodate a raging Mother Nature.

Enough of that. Onto some more Afrodisiac reviews!!!

Chris Sims from Chris's Invincible Super-Blog gives us a nice review. You'll have to scroll down the page past Batman and Robin, Captain America, and the Punisher to get to this tidbit: "If you’ve read Jim Rugg mand Brian Maruca’s Street Angel, then you’re already at least a little familiar with Afrodisiac, and you probably understand why this is so awesome. With Afrodisiac, Rugg and Maruca are doing a tribute to Blaxploitation movies (and their accompanying Bronze Age comics) that takes the offbeat formula of Street Angel and does it a hundred times more over the top. And it is beautiful." From reading the comments section, it seems like Chris tends to review a lot of Marvel and DC fare. I love a lot of different kinds of comics, so I like the idea of a Marvel or DC fan checking out our book!

Speaking of which, skip over to The Manga Curmudgeon to see how we stack up with reviewers who tend to focus their attention on manga! "Rugg and Maruca are smart enough to keep their creation in sketch contents, assembling an amusing “best of” volume of adventures that satirize both blaxploitation and, to a lesser extent, the ups and downs of a super-hero franchise."

Veteran online comics reviewer, Johnny Bacardi, weighs in at Confessions of a Comics Shop Junkie No. 2 (we're right below the Blackest Night: Starman #81 review): "...well, it’s not exactly a homage, or a tribute, or even a satire of 1970’s vintage Blaxploitation movies and comics…it kinda defies categorization, actually. And if this semi-surreal account of a smooth-lovin’, jive-talkin’, smackdown-bringin bad mother shut-your-mouth who faces weird menaces and always comes out on top (and is absolutely irresistible to the foxy mamas, too) comes across as a blend of Shaft, Superfly, Luke Cage, Herbie Popnecker, and the Flaming Carrot, well, let’s just say that there’s very little that’s new under the sun and enjoy this..."

Matt Seneca offers up one of the most in-depth reviews of our work that I've ever read on his blog, Death to the Universe (scroll past the Batman and Robin review to get to Afrodisiac). "Afrodisiac, too, is a comic about comics, striving not to create a self-contained little world for the reader to be sucked into, but rather to send you scrambling for your Master Of Kung-Fu back issues. This book's aim is to take all the little bits that were cool, sexy, weird about the Bronze Age's exploitation-style comics, and make a comic that contains nothing but them -- a comic where the main character and plotline is that very weirdness. A celebration. It's a raging success."

33 and some other junk

My eight year old niece frequently draws me pictures. Sometimes they feature my cats, occasionally they feature chickens (which I now claim are Afroduck), and lately they've been about dinosaurs. I like how she signed this one in a word balloon. I also like that she draws the dinosaurs in profile and includes a volcano/mountain in the background. It's exactly the sort of thing I used to do!

Couple of links:

I participated in Comic Book Resources latest What Are You Reading column? A bit long-winded on my part, but I didn't have time to edit it as thoroughly as I should have. If you're curious what I've been reading lately, this will give you some insight.

Elsewhere on Comic Book Resources, Brian Cronin reviews Afrodisiac, "Rugg and Maruca do a marvelous job of coming up with interesting stories set in each different time period, which is especially noteworthy considering the fact that "a superhero pimp" does not necessarily adapt itself well to all genres."