MIGHTY Q&A: A G.I. JOE #200 EXTRAVAGANZA! - INTERVIEW WITH TIM FINN OF HUB COMICS AT 13TH DIMENSION

Tim Finn is a G.I. Joe expert. He’s also the owner of Hub Comics in Somerville, Mass. He’s also giving away 200 copies of G.I. Joe #200, starting Wednesday, the book’s release date. 

CLAY N. FERNO has the interrogation!

Clay: What was your first Joe comic?

Tim: Issue #90, which I got a few weeks before heading to summer camp. The cover shows two Joes about to get brainwashed, so I couldn’t not buy it, even though I wasn’t into comics. And the “Next Month” blurb shows a ninja fight, but that issue was off the stands by the time I got back home from camp, and it was two years before I tracked it down.  Those brainwashed Joes are fine, by the way. More or less.

What does Yo Joe Cola taste like? I think R.C. Cola, not The Big Two.

Yeah, RC or a supermarket generic. I always liked that the Joes had their own cola to counterbalance the Dreadnoks loving grape soda so much, even though it makes about as much sense as Delta Force having its own line of jeans.

[READ MORE at 13th DIMENSION]

UPDATE: Picked up by ROBOT 6 at CBR!

EARTH PRIME TIME: LIZ PRINCE ‘ALONE FOREVER’ SIGNING AT BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH

Somerville comic artist Liz Prince celebrates the release of her first feature length graphic novel Alone Forever (Top Shelf Productions) at Brookline Booksmith on Tuesday, February 11. She tells us about the book, OkCupid dates, Valentine heart captions, and fleeting and awkward MBTA romances.

DIGBOSTON: Hey Liz! Thanks for joining us today. Wow, Alone Forever is actually a thing now. Congrats! How excited were to to open your advance copies?
Liz Prince: It was really exciting. The books came while I was visiting my mom in New Mexico, but my boyfriend sent me a photo of a pile of boxes that arrived, so I made him open it and send me photos of the book. Kind of funny that I saw my book for the first time over the phone, but it was awesome to get off the plane and come home and have 3 boxes full of Alone Forever: The Singles Collection waiting for me.

Now I can’t wait to show the world my comics about sadness and cats.

DIGBOSTON: I love the idea of a Singles Collection for your webcomic. Is there any new heartbreak in the book or are these all on your site?
There are about 20 pages of new material, including a comic essay on all of the OkCupid dates I’d been on, that’s embarrassing enough to make you want to get pick up the book for sure.
There are also some comics from other anthologies and zines in the book that never made it online, but definitely fit into the Alone Forever oeuvre. Plus, it’s way easier to read my books on the toilet in paper form. If that isn’t the ultimate endorsement, I don’t know what is.

DIGBOSTON: From Boom to Top Shelf, to making art for one of the most popular break-in related pop punk bands, Masked Intruder, you’ve gotten some great attention lately! How are you coping with the fame?
Easy: I agreed to write and draw a 250+ page graphic novel in under a year, so I really don’t leave the house much. I’m almost done with that project, which is a graphic memoir (buzzword alert) about my childhood called Tomboy; it will be out in the fall (like how I slipped that in there?). There is also more Masked Intruder stuff going on, that band got huge and I couldn’t be happier for them. I’ve always wanted to be a band’s Chris Shary, so I’m trying to take the Masked Intruder thing in that direction.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

EARTH PRIME TIME: DASH SHAW SCREENING + SIGNING AT HUB COMICS

Dash Shaw is an uncanny force in the comic book art world, using multimedia for his process and expanding his definition of comics from webcomics and the page to animation. Fantagraphics will be releasing his latest work, New School, this month. Dash was able to talk to us in the middle of his book tour after returning from MoCCA (Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art) Arts Fest this weekend, where he was featured as a special guest. Dash signs books and screens animation at Hub Comics this weekend on Saturday at 7pm.

 
DIGBOSTON: Dash, thanks for taking the time. How was this weekend for you?

DASH SHAW: Great. We had 3 New Stories and New Jobs.

“Yes, very qualified” — New Jobs - Dash Shaw

Your comic book work is not easy to define to a reader who hasn’t read it, but your fingerprints are unique. Do you consider your work to be more fine art than illustration?

I make comics. I don’t have any interest in showing work in galleries. I didn’t grow up looking at art in galleries. I looked at drawings in books. There are super talented other cartoonists who are also interested in showing in galleries, but I’m not. I don’t even like the term “art comics” because it implies that the art is more important than the story.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]