Jukebox heroes

A new band came through L.A. this weekend with a name that caught my eye: Comic Book Heroes played their very first West Coast gig at a showcase last night at the Knitting Factory. The band is four young Philly guys (all 14 or 15 years old, in fact — geez, I’m getting old; I have concert T-shirts with more years than that). They’ve built quite the following back home and they’ve caught the ear of Nickelodeon with a music video they did for “Jack’s Big Music Show.”

I dropped by their website and their MySpace page and they sound pretty good. And Fall Out Boy has already shown that using a cape-inspired name can lead to big things, right?

Anyway, I called up Dana Gordon, the publicist for Comic Book Heroes, and put the question to her: Are these guys true comic-book geeks? And if so, who are their favorites? The answer came back quick. And, if these guys become the Next Big Thing, please remember you read about them here first:
Ned (lead singer): “Batman because he's an ordinary guy that does amazing things.”
Collin (drums): “Ghost Rider is my new favorite, definitely! Skulls, flames, motorcycles … that rocks!”
Sam (lead guitar): “Captain America because he represented the spirit of America and good morals.”
Steve (bass): “I'd have to say Aquaman because I've always had a connection with sea creatures.”

I heard Led Zeppelin once had an unusual connection to a sea creature — a mud shark to be specific — but these guys are way too young to hear that story....
-- Geoff Boucher

 

Neat Stuff: Peter Bagge is coming to L.A.

Join us as we discuss flannel shirts, coffee and catching fish with newspaper…

That was a funny line from the invitation sent out the other day by the good folks at Secret Headquarters, the signature emporium for underground comics and graphic novels over on Sunset. What’s the event? It’s a visit next Friday, Aug. 10, by Peter Bagge, the idiosyncratic cartoonist (aren’t they all?) who may be best known for creating the slouching Seattleite named Buddy Bradley, who ranted and meandered through the rainy Emerald City and the pages of the series "Neat Stuff" and "Hate."

It was great watching those Buddy tales unfold from the mid-1980s up through the 1990s to see the scruffy side of the coffeehouse metropolis. If you want to hear the powerful sonic angst of grunge, buy a Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Mudhoney album; if you want to chuckle at the scene’s street-level ennui and overreaching self-importance, pick up a copy of "Hate" from Fantagrahics.

Bagge’s kinetic characters jump (and scream) right off the page. His work has appeared in Reason, Hustler, the Oxford American and the Weekly World News — now how’s that for a resume? He also did some parodies for Marvel Comics of the Hulk and Spider-Man and quite a few record covers for a number of indie-band stalwarts.

The reception is open to the public; I know I’m going to try to make it by. The free event starts at 8 p.m., and a good-size crowd is expected. Bagge doesn’t make it to L.A. often and there's curiosity about "Apocalypse Nerd," the six-part series due early next year from Dark Horse Comics.

-- Geoff Boucher

(Art by Peter Bagge, image courtesy of Fantagraphics.)

'Duck' and cover: Steve Gerber needs help

When I was a kid, Steve Gerber was the guy who wrote the weird comics.

I remember picking up "Howard the Duck" in the 1970s and, as a young reader accustomed to superheroes, it was downright unsettling to read its edgy satire and oddball stories. Unsettling but also fascinating. I didn't get all the jokes, but I sure wanted to. Compared with the rest of the Marvel universe, his books were like off-kilter David Letterman pranks intruding into a Johnny Carson world of mainstream capes.

Later I would learn the word for it: "subversive."

(All of this makes it especially disappointing that Howard is now known best as the title character of the excruciatingly bad 1986 film.)

Gerber also wrote a "Phantom Zone" miniseries I loved as a kid, and he did a definitive run on Man-Thing and many other quirky characters that always seemed more sly and strange than the superhero stiffs who battled monologue villains in other titles. Gerber also wrote the Marvel Comics adventure of KISS, cementing his persona in my mind as "the weird guy." He also created Korvac, the bad guy who single-handedly offed the Avengers. These days Gerber is writing "Dr. Fate" for DC.

Why this Gerber retrospective? I got a note this morning about Gerber from Hero Initiative, which endeavors to help comics creators past and present deal with major financial and health challenges.

Why? It turns out that Steve Gerber is in a bind and is turning to the public for help. He's a candidate for a lung transplant at UCLA, but to get on the formal waiting list he needs a place to recuperate here in Southern California. Keep reading to see a letter from Steve himself on the situation.

-- Geoff Boucher

There are comics here, too